15 Seconds: A Novel

What would you do if you arrived in town heading for your hotel

What would you do if you arrived in town heading for your hotel and you got lost? What if you wound up at a busy intersection facing a one way street and you would be going in the wrong direction if you went through it? What if you decided instead of taking the wrong way onto a dead end street and turned left instead on a red light and suddenly found yourself with flashing red and blue lights in your rear view mirror of your rental vehicle? What if the police officer pulled you over and instead of simply listening to your story, wrote you a ticket not only for running a red light, driving without insurance and driving the wrong way on a one way street? What would you do?

I think you'd probably wonder just where the hidden cameras were or if you were having a bad dream and kept wondering when you were going to wake up right?

What if it only got worse, that instead of merely accepting the ticket, you decided to argue with the cop because you didn't really do any of those things except maybe the red light issue. So now Officer Martinez asks you to get out of the car and tells you that you're under arrest for obstructing an officer from doing his job and now the entire police force shows up. After a few minutes, they decide that perhaps they have been a bit too harsh with you and offer to give you just the red light ticket after all and all the police buddies leave. Whew, right? You'd be glad to sign that one and get on your merry way, but then a car pulls up and shoots the police officer point blank and leaves him dead. Now what would you do? You know all those local police boys know that the only person Officer Martinez was with was you and you were a bit upset by all this. Would you call 911 or would you flee?

Well now you are in the shoes of Dr. Henry Steadman, a local plastic surgeon who decided to do both and is now on the run from the cops and his life will only grow more interesting in the latest novel by Andrew Gross, 15 Seconds!!! This is a heart-stopping, edge of your seat thrill ride from the very first page and one that you won't be able to put down until you finish your final page.

I received 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross compliments of TLC Book Tours and William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review. I have to say I inhaled this one. I was turning pages as fast as I could read to see what could possibly happen to Dr. Steadman and how was he going to deal with being framed after killing a local police officer. Now the man hunt is on and what you and Dr. Steadman will want to know is who it is and why is this all happening? A truly exciting suspense filled book at weighs in at a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. There is some profanity in the book in regards to a couple of the characters in the book that he encounters but overall a great novel!!!

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Great book!

This was another one of Andrew Gross's fast paced, thrilling books. I could not put it down and finished it in two days. I highly recommend this book.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Great Book - 5 stars for Andrew Gross I couldn't put it down. I

Great Book - 5 stars for Andrew Gross
I couldn't put it down. I loved this book and can't understand the low ratings. The story was creative and the suspense never let up.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Check it out!

This is a book by Andrew Gross who often writes with James Patterson! I did enjoy this book very much --- so did my husband! What a mystery! Kept me guessing until the end of the book! We both read the book within 3 days! Would read a book by Andrew Gross again!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Review: 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross blew me away! It was such a

Review:

15 Seconds by Andrew Gross blew me away! It was such a good, quick paced and thrilling book, so I read it with one day from the very first page until the last one. I have to admit that I have heard a lot of Andrew Gross as an author, but hadn't have a chance to read any of his books yet. What a mistake! I truly enjoy a good mystery and/or thriller in between other books what I am reading and I am sure, that I will pick up another book(s) of Andrew Gross very soon. 15 Seconds was THAT engaging!
Plot:

15 Seconds starts literally with what can happen to you when you are on a wrong place at a wrong time.
Henry Steadman stops for a red light and and suddenly the police is involved. The whole story gets much more complicated when a mysterious person kills police officer and before a blink of an eye Henry is in the middle of murder case where the main suspect is... him. Let the manhunt begin!

During the reading I understood, that Henry was not in a wrong place at the wrong time, but it was exactly on a right spot and the story get more personal.

There are plenty of twists and turns which I was surprised about, even though it did not take me very long time to start suspecting who is the person behind the murders. It did not ruin the reading experience though, because the writing style and the pace of the book were really enjoyable and thrilling.

Characters:

I felt sorry for Henry, because there is rarely a person, who has so much bad luck. Nobody believes him about his innocence and he he tries to start finding the murderer by his own. Henry is a nice guy, he is wealthy, has a successful business, he shares his wealth back to the society, but he just simply has no luck until he finds a partner who does believe him.

Police officers are extremely dumb in 15 Seconds and that did make the story little awkward for me. I really had difficulties of believing, that there is really no police officer in the book who seemed to have an IQ above the average. They act before they think and I had some problems with buying that. Maybe I give too much credit for the police, but in 15 Seconds they were simply a bunch of dumb non-brainers.

Vance was an interesting character for me. Calculating, bitter, smart and had an fascinating understanding of justice and what's more important how to exercise the justice.

Generally:

I would definitely recommend 15 Seconds by Andrew Gross for readers of suspense and thriller. It's a book which you cannot put down until you have turned the last page. It grabs you and does not let go - and that is what I think makes a thriller to a good thriller! Read it!

4 stars

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

When Andrew Gross writes for himself, and not James Patterson, I

When Andrew Gross writes for himself, and not James Patterson, I think he has done some stellar work. Don't Look Twice was a five star novel. So I am extremely disappointed that 15 Seconds looks more like a James Patterson novel, and by that I mean, a very light read with a rather silly premise. When you see multiple exclamation points, and then sentences in italics with exclamation points, you know that the author is trying to hype things up. 15 Seconds is such a ludicrous story, tugging at heart strings to make you think there is something there to care about. I can only hope that the author wakes up and gives his readers what they expect from him. Try harder next time, Andrew!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Save Your Money

Sadly Andrew Gross has fallen short in this book. He has moved away from his promising series for the past two books, and the last one was decent. The plot is thin and unbelieable (more like James Patterson and his book mill) in this day and age where police cars are equipted with audio and video most of the basic plot would not have happened. Too bad it took more than 15 Seconds to read I want my time back.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Disappointed

The premise is promising but the story and the characters fall extremely short. The main character is neither likable nor believable. The dialogue is weak and silly. I wanted to like this book but was sorely disappointed. I would like my money back on this one.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Somewhat predictable.

I was disappointed with this book. Not one of his better books

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I thought it was interesting that when I featured this book in m

I thought it was interesting that when I featured this book in my mailbox post, nobody knew who Andrea Gross was. Now, I understand that I'm primarily a young adult reviewer so my audience is likely not familiar with the genre that Andrew Gross writes. But, this use to be my everyday reading until I branched out. I'm very familiar with Andrew Gross although I've not read anything he's written on his own. I wanted to see how his work stands without the name James Patterson attached to it.


I was impressed with how fast this book opened up. Our lead character, Dr. Steadman, seems like a stand up guy. He's trying hard to stay active in his daughter's life. He does charity work (Doctors without Borders seems like an awesome program!). But, when things progress from bad to worse, I began to wonder if there was something hidden in his past that would make somebody want to completely dismantle his life. Nothing he did seemed to help the situation, yet I couldn't see how anything else he did would make it better in anyway.


The culprit behind the entire setup was an interesting twist to the story. I felt for the guy at first. He went straight up the line and managed to gather a lot more information than even the police can do it seems. I think the problem in the end was, he couldn't directly pin his problems on Dr. Steadman. He just happened to be the first person he latched on to. I think from this point on, he reached a new dimension of delusional. It no longer was about revenge and what he thought was justice. It was about destruction and righting the wrong he thought he had been dealt in life. I was pleased to see there really were no skeletons in Dr. Steadman's closet.


The book is not as fast paced as I would have thought. For a title of 15 seconds, I thought it would proceed forward at breakneck speed. I think the title was more in reference to the car accident at the beginning and how this in turn effected the rest of the story. Still, an impressive read for Mr. Gross. I'm pleased to see an author step up from underneath James Patterson.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Couldn't put it down!

Truly suspenseful......be prepared to read to stay up all night just to finish it! Andrew Gross has now become one of my favorite writers - his twists and turns will keep you wondering and en-"Gross"-ed!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

15 Seconds

It was interesting, I do like mystery books. Some parts were sort of unbelievable. I would try another book of his.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

A dynamite book. I couldn't put it down. Very fast-paced with good characters. I read it in 2 days, and I usually take more time with a book. I loved it!!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Highly recommend!!!

Wish I could have read in one sitting! It was riveting and it could be a situation that could easily happen every day in real life!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not recommended

I stopped reading when protaganist fled after cop shot b/c just too improbable to continue

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

must read

must read

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very bad, all I could do was laugh at the ridiculous way Henry a

Very bad, all I could do was laugh at the ridiculous way Henry acted, always ready to cry, which was written about 12 times in the book. Gross should pay more attention to the details he writes, when you are on the run in the end of the book, he tells us Henry has sixty dollars left, he goes into a men's haberdashery, and buys a sports jacket and dress shirt, off the rack. In the end of the book he still has forty dollars left, amazing.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Read

This book grabs you from beginning to end. Characters are well thought out and the ending will catch you off guard. I didn't see it coming and was truly surprised. A little gorey in parts but that adds to the storyline and the mindset of one of the characters. If you're into suspense this is the book for you.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

BAD - REAL BAD

I love all of his books and was looking foward to 15 SECONDS. It is one of the worst books I have read in years and I read about a book a week. The Hero is supposed to be smart and is so dumb and the Bad Guy is supposed to be dumb and pulls off things with 'Mission Impossible' skill and timeing! His daughter is kidnaped but we are never told how! She calls our Hero DADDY, DADDY about a 100 times and he calls her "Peanut" and she's 18 years old but acts and talks like shes 5. This book was a real waste of money!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Interestingly Written

Would recommend this book. Slightly predictable ending but still worth the read. Kept me turning pages!