(2018) Gave Meltzer another chance here as the opening premise of a woman in a plane crash is accidentally discovered not to be the correct person. Then the story degrades from there. Is OK but not riveting, plot loses its drive.KIRKUS REVIEWAn Army mortician teams up, sort of, with a military artist who just won't die to thwart an obscenely shape-shifting conspiracy.Everybody has some God-given talent. Jim Zigarowski's is to make the dead look presentable for the families who come to view their remains at the Dover Air Force Base. When the bombing of a military plane from Alaska kills all seven aboard, Zig's attention is drawn not to the headline victim�Librarian of Congress Nelson Rookstool, an old friend of President Orson Wallace¥but to Sgt. Nola Brown, an Army artist-in-residence who years ago saved the life of 12-year-old Maggie Zigarowski, though she couldn't prevent Zig's daughter from dying scarcely a year later. Illegally grabbing the job of preparing Nola's remains from the mortician assigned to the case, Zig quickly discovers that the remains aren't Nola's after all. His joy that Nola is still alive is tempered by the sobering realization that an awful lot of people have conspired to cover up this happy news by signing off on her death. Inevitably, the living Nola returns, determined to get to the bottom of the bombing. By that time, veteran suspenser Meltzer (co-author: The House of Secrets, 2016, etc.) has begun a series of harrowing flashbacks to Nola's childhood and adolescence that firmly establish her as the most damaged heroine in the genre since Lisbeth Salander. Uncovering traces of a sinister scheme called Operation Bluebook, Zig and Nola work¥often at cross-purposes, though not when they need to save each other's lives¥through a web of corrupt procurers, creatively armed killers, and board-certified magicians to trace and neutralize Bluebook before its resourceful conspirators can kill Zig and finish the job they bungled on Nola.The same mixture as before: a sweeping, overplotted, overscaled account of high crimes, misdemeanors, and violent coverups and reprisals. But those flashbacks into the heroine's traumatic early years, although they seriously disrupt the momentum of the blood-and-thunder present-day plot, sting long after the details of that plot have faded.Pub Date: March 6th, 2018ISBN: 978-1-4555-5952-7Page count: 432ppPublisher: Grand Central PublishingReview Posted Online: Dec. 7th, 2017Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1st, 2018

One of those books that keeps you guessing right up until the end, when you tell yourself "I should have seen that coming." But you won't.

Brad Meltzer loads up the story with distinct and interesting characters and keeps up a magician's patter of interesting facts to distract you as he spins a complex tale. It's a mystery wrapped in a thriller wrapped in tragedy. And it works.

Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. ( )

This was one of the best Brad Meltzer books I have read.
I did not put it down from the time I started.
It is riveting and exiting and I would highly recommend it. ( )

Jim “Zig” Zigarowski is a mortician who works at Dover Air Force Base preparing the bodies of fallen service men and women for viewing and interment. Sergeant 1st class Nola Brown, the Army’s Artist-in-Residence, works out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia. As a child, Nola saved Zig’s daughter from injury. So when Nola dies in the crash of a military airplane, Zig insists that he prepare her for burial. There’s only one problem. The body is not Nola’s.

The Escape Artist is an intricate mystery that raises numerous questions. We know almost immediately that the airplane was sabotaged. But who wanted Nola Brown dead, and why? What was going on in the remote Alaska military base that prompted such a drastic action to keep it secret? What was the Librarian of Congress doing at that remote base? Who were the three men accompanying him under false names?

Zig and Nola work to unravel the mystery but, despite the accumulating information, readers are most likely in the dark and chasing red herrings. The critical piece of information is provided two-thirds of the way through the book when the reason for the sabotage is revealed, providing a plausible explanation for all our questions in a satisfactory manner.

Nola’s backstory is told skillfully throughout the story in 2-3 page chapters that gradually expand our understanding of her background and set the stage for the surprising resolution. Unfortunately, several problems lessen the overall quality of this magnificent mystery. Zig is a rather depressing protagonist who becomes increasingly difficult to respect. He is repeatedly outsmarted by Nola and outsmarted and beat up by the villains. The space devoted to his character could have reduced without significant loss. Once the mystery is resolved, the remaining third of the book is an unimaginative and somewhat uninteresting account of how Nola and Zig work to bring the saboteur to justice. A critical element of that resolution is the unrealistic premise that Zig, a civilian, could convince a military crew to disobey their orders to fly to Alaska and return to Dover. Finally, the last 30 pages are an account of Zig’s and Nola’s recovery from the injuries they suffered in the final battle and the life-altering changes that occur in their lives. I wish Meltzer had omitted this part entirely. ( )

Zig is a mortician who prepares the dead soldiers at Dover Air Force Base for release to their families. When a woman identified as Nola Brown comes into the morgue, Zig is surprised, because he knows her. However, something doesn't seem right. He finds a hidden note on the body, and thus begins an investigation into why the military is hiding details of a plane crash and why is Nola running. Zig finds a connection of people on the plane to Harry Houdini.
This is the first in a series about Zig and Nola. I am not really a fan of political/spy thrillers, but I had to read book 2 for a book club, and thought I should read the first book to gain some background into the characters. ( )