Review of "Trust No One"

TRUST NO "TWITTER"

Oh the power of a simple "tweet". I had no knowledge of this book and hadn't previously read anything by this author until I read a "tweet" by one of my favorite authors encouraging all of his followers to read this "great" book. Within hours, I had the book in my hands and prepared myself for a great reading experience. It had to be great, right? It's been recommended by someone who definitely knows a great thriller when he reads one as he, himself, is a master thriller author.

The book certainly starts off with a bang as Nick Horrigan, dressed in his pajamas, is pulled from his condo while the SWAT team who is taking him away is also thrashing his apartment at the same time. Wow, he must be some kind of terrorist, I thought. I was, however, wrong as Nick is a social worker, who works with homeless people. But the SWAT team is bringing him to talk to a terrorist who claims he will blow up a nuclear reactor, so he must be involved in some way. Wrong again. He doesn't even know this man but the man claims to have known his stepfather and passes on some information and a secret key to Nick.

That's how the story begins....as preposterous as it may sound. I'm not saying the beginning wasn't exciting and I really was on the edge of my seat but, as the story progressed, it just seemed so unbelievable that this could be happening. They say you have to know someone's backstory to understand them and Nick certainly has an involved one. Hurwitz brings us back to a time when Nick was a high school baseball star and his mother is married to a Secret Service agent. He has great respect for this man who will die long before his time. This is where Nick's real backstory will begin. He goes into hiding and doesn't surface for years. Just when he thinks he's in the clear, the SWAT team arrives out of nowhere and Trust No One really begins.

Nick is very adept at sifting out clues. As a matter of fact, Nick, the social worker, is better at this than the U.S. Government as Nick seems to be able to get to everyone who will clear up the mystery before the FBI,CIA, Secret Service and police detectives can. It almost doesn't seem plausible and that's because it isn't. This is my real beef with this book. While there was a good story there, it wasn't believable and I think I had it figured out by the time I had finished the first third of this book. Once that happened, I kept shaking my head as I was reading the rest because it was not to be believed.

I know I'm being unusually critical with this review and there are probably many readers who will think it is a great book as is evidenced by the many positive reviews here. If you read a few books a year and want to bring something with you on vacation, this might be the book. If you're an avid reader and can easily see through a book's faults, then this might not be the one for you. I had to smile when, in the Acknowledgment section, the author thanked his good friend Joe Finder for all his help. Yes, it's the power of this help that got me to read this book.

3 of 5 stars