BOOK REVIEW: 24 Hours

It has been several months since I have treated myself to a Greg Iles book, so when I saw 24 HOURS on the shelf, I prepared myself for a marathon of reading. I simply can not put one of his books down until I finish it.

Joe Hickey has developed the perfect crime. For five years he has gotten away with kidnapping for ransom and it is time for another child to go missing. The routine is simple: wait until the father has gone to the yearly medical conference, have cousin Huey take the child to a hidden spot nearby, have the mother transfer the funds to her husband who is waiting with Cheryl, the third member of the team.

This year things do not go according to Joey’s plan. He has selected the Jennings family and each of them is willing to fight back.

Will is eager to fly to the conference in his rebuilt, ten year old Baron aircraft to present his paper on a new drug that he has been instrumental in developing.

Karin Jennings is reluctantly staying at home to chair this year’s flower show for the Junior League and to take care of their daughter Abby.

Joey has done his homework on this family well. The one thing that he neglected to learn was that Abby was a Type 1 diabetic, which complicates the 24 hour schedule that is important for their scheme to work. Joey, Huey, and Cheryl also are not ready for the three members of the Jennings family to handle the plan in very original ways.

Once again Greg Iles has written a story that grips the reader from the first page. Each of his characters is well developed especially the “bad guys”. In fact, I found myself to be very much in sympathy with them, especially Huey.

The suspense builds throughout the book, but the final scene is worthy of the climax of the best of action movies. An Iles book never disappoints me and this was a “forget -doing -any -housework- or - meals” type of story. The fact that one of the characters was a very young child with Type 1 diabetes added a personal element for me.

If you have not discovered this “thriller writer’s thriller writer”, to quote one reviewer, 24 HOURS may be a good place to start.



P.S. My husband tells me that it is time to clean some books out of the house. Watch for my ‘Books, Books and Other Things You Probably Don’t Need Sale’ at the end of the month.