And meeting the inmates in the eponymous “Tower” is creepy, shiver-inducing fun.Īlas, Marlow himself isn’t so much fun.
Hurwitz, who’s also a screenwriter and comic book author, knows how to create visually gripping and suspenseful scenes. That extended, elaborately planned escape comes at the beginning, and it’s one of the most effective and best-written sequences in the entire novel. It reads a bit like a Silence of the Lambs knockoff, but instead of a sympathetic young female FBI-trainee you’ve got a jaded, asshole ex-FBI dude-turned-tracker named, as if he’s some hard-boiled noir anti-hero, Jade Marlow.Īnd rather than being behind bars, Marlow’s antagonist, a psychopathic serial killer named Allander Atlasia (names are not the author’s strong suit) has escaped one of the most well-protected maximum-security prisons in the world and is now on a killing spree. I read the original book, really liked it, and hope to continue with the series soon.īut this was his debut novel, and you can feel him struggling to find his voice. These days, Gregg Hurwitz (he’s since dropped the middle name on his covers) is best known as the author of the Orphan X thriller series (coming soon to a movie theatre near you, produced by and starring Bradley Cooper).
In doing so, this highly abrasive character becomes much more sympathetic.Īlthough there were a couple of times the author’s lack of writing experience were evident, overall I found this a very assured, promising and thrilling debut. Also, we learn much more about Jade’s history and what motivates him. Former FBI Agent Jade Marlow, to put it mildly, is hardly the most diplomatic or gregarious of souls, although he does have an impeccable record of finding those who don’t wish to be found.Īs the action progresses, Jade attempts to get inside the mind of his prey in order to predict where he’s going and what his next move will be. In the second section we meet the man hired to track Allander down.
Almost predictably, by the end of the section, Allander has escaped. In the first section we’re given a guided tour of the Tower and introduced to its inmates, including a child-like psychopath called Allander Atlasia. The Tower is, supposedly, the most secure part of a high security prison half-submerged under the Pacific off the coast of central California. Gregg Hurwitz is now an acclaimed author – largely due to his excellent “Orphan X” series, so I was interested to see what his debut novel – written back in 1999 – was like.
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