Product Description

The nightmare began a year ago in Pennsylvania with the shocking death of a delivery driver, blown to pieces during an outrageous crime. And now the terror has spread from East Coast to West . . .

As body parts pile up throughout the L.A. area—the result of a devastating series of bank robberies—federal agencies see nothing but the random hand of a bomb-tossing lunatic. Rogue journalist Frank Corso, however, sees the tracks of something far more sinister—something with a motive and a message. But the closer Corso and research assistant Chris Andriatta come to a fiendishly audacious maniac, the clearer a blood-chilling truth appears in the harsh and glaring light:

The fuse to this explosive horror may have inadvertently been lit by Frank Corso himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #550735 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-01
• Released on: 2007-06-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In the gritty sixth Frank Corso novel (after 2005's No Man's Land), Ford makes clever use of an actual 2003 unsolved case to create a pulse-pounding plot capped by a dramatic and chilling ending. Corso, an investigative journalist whose promising career was derailed by a scandal, is sent by his publisher to a small Pennsylvania town to solve an unusual cold case. In an attempted bank robbery, a seemingly innocuous local, who presented his demands for cash with a bomb strapped around his neck, died when the device exploded. Corso is uninterested in the assignment until his initial inquiries lead to attempts on his life. The case takes on a whole new dimension when similar crimes begin to occur on the West Coast, leading the federal authorities to take a keen interest in the reporter's discoveries. While the eventual revelation of the motive behind the crimes is a little disappointing, this doesn't detract from the overall impact of this well-written and paced thriller.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"'The best new novelist in his genre. The expression 'page turner' could have been invented for this book' New Books Magazine"

About the Author

G.M. Ford is the author of six widely praised Frank Corso novels, Fury, Black River, A Blind Eye, Red Tide, No Man's Land, and Blown Away, as well as six highly acclaimed mysteries featuring Seattle private investigator Leo Waterman. A former creative writing teacher in western Washington, Ford lives in Oregon and is currently working on his next novel.

Customer Reviews

"There are worse things than being dead."
G. M. Ford's "Blown Away" brings back Frank Corso, a former journalist who has branched out into a career as a successful author. In fact, his picture has just appeared on the cover of "People." Corso is relatively content; he enjoys relaxing on the yacht that he has moored in Seattle. However, Corso's aggressive new publisher has his own agenda, and he sends Corso to Edgewater, Pennsylvania to write about a bizarre and still unsolved crime that occurred a year earlier. It seems that a thirty-nine year old loner named Nathan Marino robbed a bank with a bomb strapped to his body. The bomb exploded and Marino was killed instantly.

Although no one in town wants to talk about this tragic event, many questions remain. Why would Marino, a quiet and law-abiding man, try such a stunt? Were there others involved, and if so, who? Why did it take so long for the bomb squad to arrive? Why was the investigation abruptly shut down? Corso could not care less about any of this, and he is not interested in pursuing this case. However, when unknown assailants subsequently attack and attempt to kidnap Corso, he decides to stick around. It seems that there is something big going on, and Corso's curiosity, as well as his anger, have been aroused. Journalist Carl Letzo, who witnessed the Marino incident, approaches Frank and expresses his opinion that there was a police cover-up and that "the town's kinda closed ranks around the incident."

One night, someone forces Corso's SVU off an ice-slicked road; both he and his car plunge into deep, freezing water and he nearly dies. There can be no doubt now that someone wants Corso out of the way, but he stubbornly refuses to back down. Assisting him with his inquiries is freelancer Chris Andriatta, who has just returned from an assignment in Afghanistan. Soon, the federal authorities shanghai both Corso and Andriatta and hold them as material witnesses. The reason? There have recently been a series of bank robberies on the West Coast, all eerily similar to the one that took Nathan Marino's life. Innocent civilians have been kidnapped, bombs have been strapped to their bodies, and they have been ordered by their captors to collect large amounts of cash from designated banks. If the masterminds' instructions are not followed to the letter, the bombs are detonated. The FBI joins forces with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to find the perpretrators and they hope that Corso can shed some light on who is behind these tragic events.

Frank Corso is a protagonist with guts, intelligence, and a no-nonsense way of communicating. He has compassion for others, but he doesn't let his feelings get in the way of his search for the truth. Another notable character is wheelchair-bound Paul Short, a explosives consultant for the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Short is a decorated veteran who was horribly maimed when a bomb went off in his face during the Gulf War. For the most part, "Blown Away" is a taut and suspenseful thriller about a violent and widespread conspiracy to exact revenge. By the time Corso figures out what is really going on, a number of lives have been lost and he, too, has been targeted for death. Unfortunately, the author makes several missteps, including his failure to plug a number of obvious plot holes, and his insertion of a gimmicky ending that, I suspect, will prove to be a bit too harrowing for the average reader. Although Ford's book did not blow me away, it did hold my interest throughout.

Great Beginning...Insulting Ending
G.M.Ford`s latest Frank Corso novel left me shocked and resentful. After discovering this series a couple years ago, I have read all the Corso books. This one began with great promise as I wondered where Frank was going with his investigation and who might be behind the cover up and the violence directed at Corso. It was headed in an intriguing direction.

But the middle third of the book slows down into a procedural mainly noteworthy for the way Corso loses control of the direction of the investigation and becomes a spectator in an interagency taskforce. During this whole section of the book, all the interest generated by the opening of the book is not only lost...but not even pursued or revisited until the last 40 pages.

And without going into detail, the real "ending" occurs or should have occurred earlier in the Sacramento scene. The last 30 pages or so represent an extension of the plot that ultimately leads to one of the poorest, lamest, and personally unfulfilling endings I have ever read. As another reviewer stated on this book, I feel so strongly, I may never read another Ford novel---at the very least, I will never "trust" his perspective of his readers again.

HORRIBLE Ending!!! Insult To Readers.
If I were to give the ending the full review rating, it would be one star, but I decided on 2 since up to that point the book was an interesting read. There were some flaws with the characterizations and plotting, such as the behavior of the hero's associate and that of the town's residents, particularly the sheriff, but generally the plot and dialogue were fast-moving and held your interest.

The ending: SIMPLY HORRIBLE! The last scene/word left the reader totally hanging in a jaw-dropping way, and eliminated this as a stand-alone book - the 'cliffhanger,' necessarily resolved in another book, made it impossible for closure for those who would not read a sequel, and screwed those who would by having to wait a year or more to find out what happens. That is insulting to the readers, and totally unworthy of a good author. Shame.