Tuesday, October 29, 2013

review of 24 hours


24 HOURS --- that's how long it takes a madman to pull off the perfect crime. He's done it before, he'll do it again, and no one can stop him. 

But this time, he's just picked the wrong family to terrorize. Because Will and Karen Jennings aren't going to watch helplessly as he victimizes them. And they aren't going to let him get away with it. (Goodreads)


After reading Room and the latest Stephen King novel Dr Sleep, I was in the mood for something more pulpy. I thought this would be it, my mind needed the junkfood, but I was in for a surprise.
24 hours is actually a nice constructed story that gripped me by the throat several times. I'm not going to boast about the stylishness of the prose, because it's just a story being told and despite the language used isn't as refined as most novels I try to finish, this novel has a message that's surely being delivered.

Will, Karen and Abby form a family who are going to become terrorized by someone out to gain a quick buck and with a vengeance to match his money thirst.
Abby is taken, to be held in a location not known to her parents, while they are being harassed for money. Karen gets stuck with Joe Hickey, the male antagonist, the kidnapper asking for money and in the meantime wanting to rape her, while her husband Will, out at a convention for doctors, is stuck with Cheryl, the wife of Joe, and apparently there to soothe Will into being sane and not doing something that might jeopardise his daughters life.
Quickly things turn ugly when Karen isn't the meek wife to just allow Hickey to take advantage of her and when she finds out that he has an alterior motive for picking their family as money pigs, she goes every which way to save her daughter.
In the meantime Will tries to convince Cheryl of abandoning the cause and help him save his daughter.
I'm not going to give away too many spoilers, because I'd like you to read the novel for yourself without knowing how it ends.

Of course I'm well aware that this message hits home because I would give terrified a whole new meaning when someone took my child from me. But beside me being an emotional wreck when it comes to my family, as with most moms I presume, this was well crafted, even though the ending got a little 'deus ex machina' feel to it. I enjoyed it and not all books I read can accomplish that much. It's like watching a good action movie, you enjoyed it but you know you're never going to watch it again. This novel is like that. It's a one-time-thing.

Personal score: 3 stars (maybe 3,25)

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