Beat the Reaper: A Novel - Softcover

Bazell, Josh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316032212 ISBN 13: 9780316032216

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2009

Synopsis

Making a hit-man-turned-medical-intern a sympathetic figure would be a tall order for most authors, but first-time novelist Bazell does just that in this breezy and darkly comic suspense novel.

About this title

Review:

Publishers are given to attempts to whip up excitement about debut novels (it’s their job, after all), and often such fireworks splutter out all too quickly. But that’s not going to happen with Josh Bazell’s debut thriller Beat the Reaper, which is (it has to be said) quite as impressive as his publishers are trumpeting – in fact, if this book doesn’t take the crime and thriller world by storm, there's no justice. What marks the book out from the rest of an increasingly overcrowded field is its vibrant, glittering prose – streaked through with a mordant wit (highlighted by a series of pithy – and highly entertaining – footnotes; an unusual element in the thriller genre)

The plot is highly original. Peter Brown is a young Manhattan intern who is not all he seems to be. He has a past – and as any reader of crime novels knows – the past never stays buried for long. Peter has had an edgy run-in with a mugger and a more congenial elevator one-to-one with a female pharmaceutics rep. But his most significant encounter is to be with a new hospital patient, Nicholas LoBrutto – a man who knows the truth behind Peter’s artificially contrived façade: the young intern is, in fact, in the Witness Protection program, and he remains in the gunsights of some unpleasant New Jersey heavies. And things are about to get very hot for both Peter and LoBrutto. Josh Bazell, as Beat the Reaper, demonstrates, is the real deal, and the auguries for this debut are very good. If he can just sustain this level of invention and energy thoughout that difficult second novel... --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"It's just what the doctor ordered....Think House meets The Sopranos."--Benjamin Svetkey, Entertainment Weekly

"Completely outrageous...genuinely entertaining."--New York Times Book Review

"Outrageously funny....BEAT THE REAPER may be the most imaginative debut of the year."--Carol Memmott, USA Today

"A fast, funny ride....Bazell keeps the story moving at warp speed."--Charlotte Observer

"A breakneck cross between a hospital drama, The Godfather, and a Quentin Tarantino film."--Bloombert News

"It's too much fun and too much gore to take your eyes off the page."--Washington Post Book World

"Savagely diverting....BEAT THE REAPER only gets better, turn by turn, page by page."--New York Daily News

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0316032212
• ISBN 13: 9780316032216
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336