Beat the Reaper: A Novel: Amazon.de: Josh Bazell: Englische Bücher

Amazon.co.uk

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 -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

Pressestimmen

"BEAT THE REAPER is way cool and ice-cold. A ferocious read." (Don Winslow, author of THE DAWN PATROL )

"Fast, fun, furious, fierce... or better yet, stop reading the accolades for BEAT THE REAPER, open up to page one, and start reading. See you at the cash register." (Harlan Coben, author of HOLD TIGHT )

"BEAT THE REAPER is a blast. Josh Bazell blew me away with this story that is as relentless as a bullet." (Michael Connelly, author of THE BRASS VERDICT )

"BEAT THE REAPER is terrific-fresh, original, funny, and a dynamite read. Dr. Peter Brown-aka Pietro Brnwa, aka 'the Bearclaw'-is my new favorite character." (Robert Crais, author of CHASING DARKNESS )

"I didn't want to like it. I mean, a doctor writing a novel is kind of obnoxious. What, you don't have enough to do already? But maybe that's me. Anyway, I didn't want to like BEAT THE REAPER, but I did; I loved it. It is completely original, an utter page-turner, bold, shocking, hilarious, complex and even educational. It's that book you wish you had with you when you were trapped in an airport for a three-hour flight delay. My only complaint is that I've already read it." (Lisa Lutz, author of THE SPELLMAN FILES )

"Josh Bazell is an unusually talented writer....[he] more than earned my indulgence as a reader. If there's a better recommendation for a story than that, I don't know what it is." (The New York Times Book Review Matt Ruff )

"It's an ingenious premise for a thriller, and Bazell pulls it off....BEAT THE REAPER only gets better, turn by turn, page by page. Savvy and savagely diverting, it's a Tarantino movie made with Scorsese looking over his shoulder." (New York Daily News )

"Unpredictable, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking." (Seattle Times Adam Woog )

"Beware the risk of dependency....a hypochondriac's nightmare but a reader's dream.... Bazell has sutured together Alan Alda's Capt. Hawkeye and James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano, and so long as he keeps everything operating fast enough, it's too much fun and too much gore to take your eyes off the page." (Washington Post Book World Ron Charles )

"Electrifyingly hilarious in that Elmore Leonard way." (Time )

"Fiction reviewers live for openers like this...[a] breakneck cross between a hospital drama, The Godfather and a Quentin Tarantino film....Moxie must be Bazell's middle name. Asking us to sympathize with a hardened doctor is tough enough. Getting us to identify with a contract killer who packed .45 automatics with silencers is a coup." (Bloomberg News James Pressley )

"Four stars...[a] fast, funny ride...Bazell keeps the story moving at warp speed." (Charlotte Observer Salem Macknee )

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Kaufen!Kaufen!Kaufen! 3. November 2010

Von Katharina von Platen

Format:Taschenbuch

Ich habe lange kein so gutes Buch mehr gelesen, das alles hat, was es braucht, um es nicht aus der Hand legen zu wollen / können, bis man fertig ist. Ich hoffe, es folgen noch viele weitere von Josh Bazell.

Schnell, witzig, schonungslos, ehrlich, schlau, ohne Schnick und Schnack, mit Sex und Chrime. Wie dein Lieblingseisbecher Gott sei Dank ohne Schirmchen, dafür mit Sahne und Kirsche und Schokostreuseln!

Für Tatortfans vielleicht nicht die Erfüllung ihrer Träume, für alle anderen Krimiliebhaber ein echte Kaufempfehlung und für mich ganz persönlich ein Anwärter für mein Muss-ich-nochmal-Lesen-Bücherregal!

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Vergeßt Joseph Heller oder Nick Hornby - Lest Josh Bazell 2. April 2010

Von W. �schelbrunn TOP 500 REZENSENT

Josh Bazell's "Beat the Reaper" ist ein Hochgeschwindigkeits-Hybrid aus Mafia-Thriller und Kommödie. Dr. Peter Brown, aka Pietro Brnwa, arbeitet als Intern in einem mehr als durchschnittlichen New Yorker Krankenhaus. Seine Vergangenheit ist allerdings nicht durchgehend dem hippokratischen Eid angemessen gewesen. Aufgewachsen bei seinem Großeltern, die dem Holocaust nur haarscharf entgangen waren, erlebt der 14jährige Pietro wie die beiden von Mafia-Killern ermordet werden. Pietro sucht die Nähe zum Mob und freundet sich mit dem Sohn eines Mafiosi an. Von da an ist der Weg zum Mafia Hitman nur noch ein kurzer. Nach diversen Auftragsmorden landet Pietro schließlich in einem Aquarium mit hungrigen Haien und wenig später im Zeugenschutzprogramm des Department of Justice. Sein neues Leben widmet "Peter" nun der Medizin und dem Retten von Leben. Allerdings holt ihn die Vergangenheit auch im Krankenhaus schneller ein als ihm lieb sein kann. Ihm bleiben wenige Stunden, um das Leben eines Patienten und sein eigenes zu retten ...

Was sich nach einem typischen Mafia-Thriller anhört, ist allerdings viel mehr: Josh Bazell schreibt mit geradezu umwerfender Komik, ohne zugleich den Spannungsbogen zu verwässern. Der studierte Mediziner Bazell tobt sich insbesondere bei der Beschreibung des Krankenhausalltags aus, so dass kein Auge trocken bleibt. Wer seine Freude an Nich Hornby's "A Long Way Down" oder Joseph Heller's "Catch22" hatte, wird von diesem Buch begeistert sein und es gar nicht mehr aus der Hand legen können.

People like Josh Bazell are born to be writers 10. Juni 2011

Von Jasmin

It was fortune that I found Josh Bazell's 'Beat the Reaper' last year and it was love at first sight. I finished it within a few hours and by now I've read it several times and still like it!
I am super-excited about reading 'Wild thing' the continuing of Dr. Brwna's story.