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    Half-Past Dawn: A Thriller
    Half-Past Dawn: A Thriller
    Half-Past Dawn: A Thriller
    Ebook418 pages5 hours

    Half-Past Dawn: A Thriller

    By Richard Doetsch

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    From the international bestselling author of The 13th Hour comes a thrilling story of one man’s race against time to find his wife and catch a revenge-blinded assassin in this novel “full of nonstop action, mind-bending switchbacks, and psychological puzzles” (Bookreporter).

    Jack Keeler wakes up one bright June morning to the shock of his life: a half-healed gash over his right eye, a hastily stitched together bullet wound in his shoulder, an intricate tattoo in a foreign script covering the length of his forearm, and a front-page headline that reads “NEW YORK CITY DISTRICT ATTORNEY JACK KEELER IS DEAD.”

    He has until dawn to piece together what happened and to find his missing wife, Mia, an FBI agent.

    The ensuing race is a twisting, turning, adrenaline-charged hyper-speed adventure that uncovers an ancient people lost to legend, an assassin who will stop at nothing to avenge his death sentence, a diary whose contents foretell the future, and a curious mystery hidden deep inside the country’s most dangerous prison.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAtria Books
    Release dateSep 27, 2011
    ISBN9781439183991
    Half-Past Dawn: A Thriller
    Author

    Richard Doetsch

    Richard Doetsch is the internationally bestselling author of several novels, including The Thieves of Faith, The 13th Hour, and Half-Past Dawn. His latest novel is Chaos, a sequel to The 13th Hour.  Doetsch is a triathlete, adventure racer, and extreme sport enthusiast and lives in New York with his family. Visit RichardDoetsch.com to find out more.

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    • 3/5
      weird twist at the end, but overall an enjoyable read
    • 3/5
      This thriller reminded me of Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island, with a bit of Michael Koryta's Cypress House thrown in to add some paranormal flavor. It is hard to know who is telling the truth, which are the good guys and which are the bad, and even what is real and what is imagined. And for the most part it goes at breakneck speed.Jack Keeler is the 39-year-old New York City District Attorney. His wife Mia is an FBI agent, and they have two daughters, aged 5 and 6. Their happy existence is brought to an abrupt end after Jack awakens one morning to discover that he has a bullet wound, a mysterious tattoo on his arm, and his wife is missing. Furthermore, when he sees the morning paper, it carries the stunning headline “NEW YORK CITY DISTRICT ATTORNEY JACK KEELER DEAD.” He has absolutely no memory of what happened or what is going on. He just knows he has to figure it out somehow, and find Mia, no matter what it takes.Evaluation: I can’t tell you more about the plot than I did, but I would say this is a good choice for an airport or a treadmill when you want a fast-moving thriller that holds your interest. It is just full of mysteries and twists, and definitely keeps you guessing. I had some quibbles with the final twist, but I can’t deny it is thought-provoking (as in, what the heck actually happened?). The author has written four previous thrillers, two of which are being developed as movies.
    • 4/5
      The story opens as a man comes downstairs for his morning paper and sees the headlines that both he and his wife are dead.After attending an event in honor of former FBI director, Sam Norris, his step daughter, Mia Keeler, an FBI agent, and Mia's husband, Jack, a DA, head home. They are stopped on a bridge and ordered from their car. When Jack resists, he's shot in the shoulder, placed back in the car and pushed off the bridge into the water. Mia is kidnapped.Jack survives but since his car is found at the bottom of the water, he and his wife are assumed dead.With his old partner from homicide division, they are trying to figure what happened. Jack isn't sure he remembers what happened, he certainly doesn't remember getting a tattoo that his on his arm in a foreign languang, and he doesn't remember having his wound stitched up.A man tries to sneak into Jack's home and they apprehend him but before they can question him, the man escapes.What are the pieces to this puzzle? Who is responsible for kidnapping Mia and how could they ave staged her abduction so well?Jack has the tattoo on his arm translated and makes an admission that changes the course of the novel.The pacing is excellent, as if each thirlling moment was heartbeats in a drama of life.The book is entertaining and I enjoyed the fast paced story and well described and sympathetic characters.

    Book preview

    Half-Past Dawn - Richard Doetsch

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