The Survivor
Gregg Hurwitz, 2012
St.Martin's Press
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780312625511
Summary
One morning in Los Angeles, Nate Overbay—a divorced former solider suffering from PTSD and slowly dying from ALS — goes to an eleventh-floor bank, climbs out of the bathroom window onto the ledge, and gets ready to end it all.
But as he’s steeling himself, a crew of robbers bursts into the bank and begins to viciously shoot employees and customers. With nothing to lose, Nate confronts the robbers, taking them out one-by-one. The last man standing leaves Nate with a cryptic warning.
Nate soon learns what that message meant. He is kidnapped by Pavlo, a savage Russian mobster and mastermind of the failed heist. Unable to break back into the bank to get the critical item inside, Pavlo gives Nate an ultimatum—break in and get what he needs or watch Pavlo slowly kill the one thing Nate loves most—his ex-wife Janie and his teenaged daughter Cielle—both lost when he came back from Iraq broken and confused. Now he’s got one last chance to protect the people he loves, even if it’s the last thing he is able to do. (From the publisher.)
See the video (Lee Childs reads The Survivor).
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1973
• Where—near San Francisco, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Harvard University; M.F.A., Oxford
University
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Gregg Hurwitz is the author of a number of critically acclaimed thrillers, including They’re Watching, Trust No One, The Crime Writer and Troubleshooting. International bestsellers, his novels have been finalists for several awards, including the Crime Writers of America Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the ITW Best Novel of the Year awards.
In addition to his novels, he has also written comic books and screenplays, developed television series for Warner Brothers and Lakeshore, published scholarly articles on Shakespeare, and is currently a consulting producer on ABC’s “V.” He has taught fiction at the University of Southern California and guest lectured for UCLA and Harvard. Hurwitz grew up in the Bay Area and earned his B.A. from Harvard and a master’s from Trinity College at Oxford. He lives in Los Angeles, California. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Hurwitz takes you on a rollercoaster ride from masked gunmen to an escaped killer. Guaranteed to have you so enthralled miss your stop on the bus.
Rolling Stone
A very entertaining thriller writer in the mould of Harlan Coben...grabs the reader by the throat and does not relinquish its grip. The story hurtles along and the suspense does not let up until the final gunshot
Sunday Canberra Times (Australia)
Hurwitz’s hair-raising stand-alone stars an unlikely hero, 36-year-old Nate Overbay. Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease nine months earlier, Nate is about to leap off an 11th-floor ledge of a bank building in Santa Monica, Calif., when he notices a robbery in progress through the window next to where he’s standing. Nate climbs back in the window undetected, grabs a handgun a masked man has conveniently set down, and, thanks to his ROTC firearms training, succeeds in shooting dead five of the six robbers. In revenge, the thwarted theft’s mastermind, a notorious Ukrainian mobster, vows to brutally kill Nate and his teenage daughter unless Nate can retrieve the robbery’s objective: an envelope stored in one of the bank’s safe deposit boxes. In between tight, compelling action scenes, Hurwitz (You’re Next) sensitively depicts Nate’s struggles with ALS. While Nate’s exploits may be a little beyond his skill set at times, thriller fans won’t let this one gather any dust on the nightstand.
Publishers Weekly
Divorced and terminally ill, vet Nate Overbay stands 11 stories up on the ledge of a bank building, ready to end it all. When robbers break into the bank, he rushes down to save the day but is later kidnapped by the Russian mobster behind the break-in. He's got a job Nate had better do—or his ex-wife and daughter will suffer. Hurwitz's You're Next was an LJ Best Thriller of 2011.
Library Journal
Hurwitz demonstrates his mastery of the thriller genre. Nate Overbay...overcomes his suicide plan as he looks through the bank window and witnesses a robbery in progress. He climbs back inside, shoots five criminals dead and saves the day...become[ing] an unwilling hero. He suffers from ALS and simply wants to spare himself the agonizing end that is only months away. The trouble is, now he has angered Pavlo, the Ukrainian mobster who had directed the heist.... Hurwitz's writing is crisp and economical, and he steers clear of hackneyed phrases and one-dimensional characters.... A fine thriller that succeeds on every level. How often do you read about a hero who just wants to die in peace?
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
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