Reckless (Ty Hauck Series, 3)

Good book. Keeps you interested.

One of Andrew’s better book. It moves along with conspiracies and murders through the USA and Europe. I loved the relationship of Ty Hauck and the Treasury agent that worked with him. The intricate variables that caused an international collapse were nicely woven and clearly researched. My biggest problem was my lack of understanding of high finance. And at times I might lose track of who is who. But I’m an old guy and need some simplifying. The characters were rich and believable. Behind the scenes of government was made to be intense and action packed. Read it if you like Gross.

I like financial thrillers and this one by Andrew Gross is one of the best I have read based on the events of the recent Global Financial Crisis. Gross uses his knowledge of the background to the GFC to craft a conspiracy thriller suggesting that it may have been partly manipulated by outside forces.Ty Hauck is a former NYPD detective who is now a private security consultant to a big financial institution, but despite the greater income benefits he is not comfortable with his new role. In the midst of the GFC a key market operator, Marc Glasman, his wife April and most of his family are killed during in a midnight home invasion. Hauck gets drawn into the case because during a traumatic time in his past he had become very close to April and he makes a promise to himself that he will discover the truth behind the tragedy.The killings become financially important when it is discovered that Glasman has billions of dollars in outstanding trades that could bring down one of the biggest Wall Street businesses. Then another Wall Street trader who appears to have committed suicide is also found to have billions of bad outstanding trades.Hauck's soon realises that he is looking at murders arranged by powerful forces. He joins forces with Naomi Blum, a beautiful and ambitious US Treasury investigator as they track down the people behind this major financial conspiracy.Andrew Grosss is a top-notch thriller writer who has written a page-turning and mostly plausible financial thriller that goes behind the scenes of the worst financial disaster in recent times. I will certainly look out for other books in his Ty Hauck series.

First of all, I liked Reckless. No, not as much as the previous novels, but for what it is, it's fine. Characters are believable and there is some emotional resonance throughout, even with the "bad guys."There've already been a number of good reviews here, so I'm not going to deal with plot at all. Instead, I'll deal with those "amusing mistakes." I write a bit myself and one thing I've learned that I must do in my work is not to forget the name of a character that I first wrote about sixteen chapters ago and am just now reintroducing. Or to be either careless or forgetful and wind up having a highway taking characters in the opposite direction from where I'm sending them. Gross didn't catch a couple of things here, and apparently neither did his editors. They're not consequential in any way, but it is a bid disconcerting to find a character declaring he's from one state when we've learned earlier that he was from another. It also doesn't really matter when the colors of a university's sports team are wrong--even the most careful writer can't research everything and our memories sometimes deceive us--but when the reader who knows the real colors comes across the error, he will certainly lose the rhythm and stall at that place for a while.Still...I enjoyed the book. That doesn't mean that I believed it, but belief isn't really required for this kind of book.(I have to admit though that Hauck's love life becomes rather tedious--for a couple of reasons.)

I wish I could say I was impressed with Gross's Reckless or even that I liked it, but I wasn't impressed nor did I like the book. Stealing a phrase from the book, I found the entire book's plot to be derivative. The book was nothing more than a rehash of prior Wall Street misdeeds and a posturing about lack of governmental control and/or oversight of Wall Street.All of our cultural villains are found in the book: a group of Middle Eastern financial terrorists, a group of greedy Wall Street investment bankers and of course corrupt American politicians. The other characters are equally transparent and stereotypical; long lost loves, guilt for past deeds, neglected contemporary loves and a confused ex cop-turned private security consultant who will save the day and possibly find a new love.The characters and plot are predictable and formulated. The chapters are short and almost written as if they were ready for a screen play. The brevity of the chapters constantly broke the reading experience. The characters were taken from some stock book of formulated characters. You have the honest but demoralized ex cop trying to find meaning in his life. Then there is a current girl friend who doesn't quite fit into his world. The new potential girl friend who might be a better fit in his life. However, lets not forget the other numerous bad guys; some are Islamic, others greedy, others are materialistic and the list goes on and on.Nothing in this book is very original; it is simply a rehash of news stories, movies and other novels. This was a complete disappointment to me. I had thoroughly enjoyed The Blue Zone and was expecting something of the same caliber. Alas, I found the book to be formulated with shallow characters and plot and difficult to finish. I expected more from Mr. Gross.

I've given this a four star rating as I think it was fast paced and exciting. I have been reading this author since he teamed up with James Patterson and together they were a good combination. I like him better now he is writing for himself.

Another compelling read. Could be read as a stand alone but would suggest reading them in sequence. Love his writing

To read

ENJOYED THE SERIES. MORE PLEASE

This is Andrew Gross fourth novel as a solo author. He has co-written a number of books with James Patterson. I was excited when he started writing his own stuff and really enjoyed his first and second book. His third novel Don't Look Twice however, was a book that I was really disappointed with. I was looking forward to his new release `Reckless' as I thought we may see the return of his brilliant writing and the character Ty Hauck.This story does indeed bring back Ty Hauck and we find he has now moved on from his career in law enforcement and now works for a private security firm. He soon realises that working in this sector doesn't stop him thinking and behaving like he was still a cop. When a Wall Street Trader is murdered in his home along with his family everyone assumes that it's a burglary gone wrong. But when another trader dies in what looks like a suspicious suicide, things start to go very wrong. Ty finds himself pulled into the case along with Naomi Blum, a US Treasury agent. Naomi is investigating a financial paper trail that go back to the two dead traders. Between them they start to uncover a murky trail that could lead higher than either of them could ever imagine.Initially the story trundled along as I got to grips with the characters that were introduced and the detailed storyline. I can honestly say that although I enjoyed the book, there seemed to be a major key to the story missing, I just can't tell you what it is. The characters were as good as before and Ty in particular is a well written and really likeable character. Naomi is also written incredibly well. I just found myself checking who people were a second time which is unusual for me. The story becomes quite in-depth in some parts and I would say that this is not the sort of book you can 'go back to'. You have to concentrate on the story and people so that you don't lose pace with it. Overall I would give the book 3.5 out of 5 and say that it wasn't a bad read. I do on the other hand think that Andrew Gross can produce much better material than this.