I have a weird feeling about this book. For the most part I liked it. I thought the story was interesting, the protagonist clever and someone I wouldn't mind meeting again, and it had a mostly satisfying conclusion. That said, when I didn't actively have the book in my hand, I didn't miss it. I wasn't dying to know what happened next and it took seemingly forever for me to finish it. I can't put my finger on why it wasn't particularly compelling.

Minor local nit-pick: one of the super bad guys in the book shares a name with a mild mannered Philly sportswriter. That was a bit of a disconnect for me but only a tiny thing. ( )

Impressive debut. Maybe a bit heavy on the technical, but that's a quibble. ( )

Nicely done but unexceptional heist thriller. Mystified by the excitement for it. Language is ordinary, protagonist is only mildly interesting. B ( )

"Ghostman", by Roger Hobbs, was a slightly different crime novel, told through the eyes of a high-end thief rather than through the eyes of the crime fighter. The heists described in the book were elaborately planned, reminiscent of the "Oceans 11" casino robbery movie from 1960 and its 2001 remake. The protagonist, the "ghostman", is something of a clever make-up specialist, who seems able to assume a variety of different identities. In order to pay a debt to a powerful criminal associate from the past, he's tasked with recovering money stolen from an Atlantic City casino, but only has two days to complete the task until the money is destroyed by its protective devices. In trying to accomplish this task, he has to keep the police, the FBI, and an opposing crime boss and his gang at bay. Being threatened by the two opposing criminal bosses, he has to choose to side with the lesser of the two evils and avoid getting killed or arrested. The book moves along quickly, and I enjoyed the twist of a "bad guy" being the main character, and also enjoyed the Atlantic City tie-in, since I'm personally familiar with the city and area. ( )

Bad guy (jugmarker) Marcus calls in a debt owed to him by ghostman, Jack White, when the theft of Federal Reserve money to a casino goes horribly wrong. Jack flies into Atlantic City on Marcus's jet, and immediately flagged by the FBI; however, he manages to stay out of their clutches, while trying to locate the money and avoid the maniacal Wolf, another baddie. There was plenty of action, but I did not care for the switching timeline to the Malaysian job that failed (creating Jack's debt to Marcus) or Jack's mysterious personality as a cypher, feeling the author skimped on most details, other than his mentor. ( )