Vertical Run by Joseph R. Garber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was one of the best thrillers I have ever read! It was a real page turner. I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. I can’t say that about a lot of “thrillers” I read. And to think I got it for only a nickel at a used bookstore.
One morning, Dave Elliot is in his office and his boss, the company president, walks in. With a gun. To shoot Dave. Dave’s old (he’s 47) special forces training kicks in and he knocks out the man and takes his gun. What is happening? He leaves his office only to run into a couple of bulky men with obvious shoulder holsters under their jackets. A shootout ensues. Dave escapes. He goes up several floors from his 45th floor office in New York City to see his best friend and lawyer, who tries to kill him. He escapes. What the hell is going on? The next thing you know Dave is running for his life from all kinds of burly men with guns and a psychopath leader of the group who communicates to Dave via a radio of some sort that Dave has taken from one of the men he took out. He decides to call a TV station to call in a bomb threat so the cops will come and everyone will evacuate the building. He’ll escape in the chaos. He reaches the first floor and there are lots of men with guns down there. All of a sudden he hears someone scream that they see him, go get him. He turns and sees his wife standing with these men. It’s crazy! Dave does eventually get out, and goes to a lab he had gone to the day before for a tour where something odd had happened. When he gets there, the building is empty. He decides to return to the office tower — where the men with guns are — to look at this company’s file in his boss’s desk. He has to know what’s going on and why. He gets back in the building and finds dozens of men waiting for him. What he does next is genius. What he finds out is shocking. The twist at the end of the book is brilliant. The last couple of pages provide a good climax to the story. It’s a very satisfying book and I’ll probably reread it several times. Definitely recommended.
hankrules2011 