Travis Thrasher Reviews

Page Two

Added October 27, 2006

Blinded

Author: Travis Thrasher
Publisher: Moody Press
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: August 2006
Genre: Fiction: Suspense/Christian
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 0-8024-8672-1
Author Email/Website: www.travishthrasher.com
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

It was only a few years ago that I first stumbled across novelist Travis Thrasher. His first thriller, Second Thief, blew me away, and is to this day one of my all-time favorite novels. I knew without doubt that Thrasher was going to be a literary force to reckon with. So when I realized Blinded, Thrasher's latest, was the next book on my to-be-read pile, I'll admit my heart beat a bit faster and harder, and breathing became a little quicker and shallower. This all happened for two reasons. One, I could not wait to see what thrills and suspense was jam-packed between the pages, but also, two, what if the book proved to be a let-down. It could happen. As soon as I began reading, I simply dismissed number two as neurotic worrying, (my form of OCD). I can assure you, Blinded was no let down!

Michael's in New York City for business, hoping to finalize a merger with his Illinois based firm. Despite months of negotiating, things don't look good. Plans have changed. The people with jobs back home are depending on his sales ability to pull this sale off, and it looks like he can do nothing to stop the New York company from killing the deal.

Away from his wife and kids, feeling like a failure, Michael stops for a glass of wine, sits at a table by the window and watches the city pass by, in a hurry, before his eyes. What he doesn't expect is Jasmine. The beautiful woman at a table across the room. She's been eyeing him, and admittedly, he had been eyeing her. Still, women, sexy and beautiful and high class like her don't make the first move with guys like him. And yet, she is the one to get up and come over to his table. She is the one who asks to join him. She is the one who gives him her telephone number.

But it is Michael, who later that night, calls Jasmine. Though his wife is a constant thought in his mind, the blahs that their marriage has settled into is not enough to invoke the loyalty, trust and love all marriages deserve. Jasmine has ignited a passion in Michael, a heat that he has not felt in some time.

What Michael refuses to recognize is the initial sharing of wine was one thing; the plans to meet at a club are another all together. One thing always leads to another. And though Michael may think he knows where things are headed, in actuality, he has no idea. Jasmine is not who she seems. And now her past is going to threaten to swallow him whole. Brawls. Kidnapping. Guns. Gangsters. New York City is a different city than Deerfield, Ill. Aside from putting his own life in immediate danger, Michael's impulsive behavior jeopardizes his family's safety-in more ways than one.

Tight, taut and crisp writing is what Thrasher uses to fill the pages of Blinded. The tale is unleashed in time incremented chapters, beginning at 4:47 PM, and ending the next morning at 10:20 AM. Michael's frustration begins on page one. The suspense builds from that point on. It is unrelenting. Though I read through the book like a maniac, the times when I wasn't reading, I was caught in their world, thinking about the characters, wondering what would happen next, compelled to get back to the book-even if I could only fit in a chapter, a page, a paragraph...and best of all, I see Thrasher has another novel (Isolation) due out soon! Awesome!

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Added February 9, 2006

Admission

Author: Travis Thrasher
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: January 2006
Genre: Fiction: Suspense/Christian
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 0-8024-8671-1
Author Email/Website: www.travishthrasher.com
Reviewer: Phillip Tomasso III

I became an immediate fan of Travis Thrasher after reading his first suspense novel, Second Thief. He continued to impress his second release Gun Lake. When I picked up Admission, my expectations might have been unfairly high. As I began to read I knew immediately, that I was wrong. For though I had set my expectations high, thankfully Admission quickly surpassed those expectations. What am I trying to say exactly? Just that Thrasher gets better and better with each book. His characters are better defined, his plots more complex (yet easy to follow), and his overall writing continually becomes more and more honed.

Since graduating from college ten years ago, Jake Rivers has become a success in the business world. He has appeared on the cover of national magazines for many of his personal and vocational achievements. Though not widely advertised, work has been slow. So when Jake is approached with an unusual job opportunity, the least he can do is listen to the offer.

Mr. Jelen's daughter has run off with one of Jake's old college buddies, Alec. Willing to pay a substantial amount of money, Mr. Jelen wants to hire Jake to track down Alec. Nothing else. To make the job offer more important to Jake, Jelen shares the fact that he knows a dark secret about Jake's past-one that if shared with the police could send Jake to prison for the rest of his life.

Jake takes the job assignment. Unfortunately, he has to. Though he knows something happened his senior year in college, he can't recall any of the specifics. A student disappeared, a friend committed suicide. There was too much fighting, too much drinking-drinking to the point of regular blackouts, and there was a time when he woke up covered in someone else's blood . . .

Getting in touch with his core cluster of college buddies, Jake begins the daunting task of tracking down Alec, reuniting with old friends and rekindling a once lost love interest. However, the ride down memory lane is anything but candy and roses. Painful memories long forgotten quickly resurface, and many new ones arise. Jake learns that someone does not want Alec found. It becomes increasingly clear that some force will stop at nothing to keep Alex lost and secrets from senior year buried.

Admission is the kind of book I enjoy reading most. The chapters are short, there is plenty of dialogue, action, suspense, and characters I quickly care about. It starts forcing the reader to ask questions like, What is going on? What just happened?, and continues to keep the reader at bay, and caught up in the mystery until the end. What more could you want from a novel? What's more is that the ending contains an unexpected twist (which I've come to expect from Thrasher), which is acceptable-and plausible. Thrasher has a new book due out soon, Blinded. I can hardly wait!

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