Great audiobook!! ( )

Excellent with great twists and a definitely unexpected ending. ( )

This was a recommendation from a web site visitor. It's a real thriller and very good. ( )

I read Vertical Run twenty years ago or so when it first came out in paperback, and I just discovered that it still has a space on my bookshelves. It is entertaining, but for the most part it is an uninspired rehash of Die Hard with some Rambo mixed in for good measure, with lead character Dave Elliot arriving to work one morning to find everybody - up to and including his boss - trying to kill him. A cat-and-mouse game in a fifty-story high-rise ensues as Dave tries to stay alive while trying to find out why no one wants him to succeed at staying alive.

For a book written in the mid-nineties, parts of the novel have a distinct eighties feel to them, including Rambo reminiscent war flashbacks and a glimpse into what the author considers "looking gay" actually entails. There aren't many surprises in Vertical Run, and plenty of plot holes and dubious events, but like any B-list action movie, it delivers what it promises. Of course, the large Clive Cussler blurb on the front cover of the paperback should immediately curb the expectation for anything above average (Clive Cussler fans please ignore the previous statement). ( )

This was one of the best thrillers I have ever read! It was a real page turner. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. I can't say that about a lot of "thrillers" I read. And to think I got it for only a nickel at a used bookstore.

One morning, Dave Elliot is in his office and his boss, the company president, walks in. With a gun. To shoot Dave. Dave's old (he's 47) special forces training kicks in and he knocks out the man and takes his gun. What is happening? He leaves his office only to run into a couple of bulky men with obvious shoulder holsters under their jackets. A shootout ensues. Dave escapes. He goes up several floors from his 45th floor office in New York City to see his best friend and lawyer, who tries to kill him. He escapes. What the hell is going on? The next thing you know Dave is running for his life from all kinds of burly men with guns and a psychopath leader of the group who communicates to Dave via a radio of some sort that Dave has taken from one of the men he took out. He decides to call a TV station to call in a bomb threat so the cops will come and everyone will evacuate the building. He'll escape in the chaos. He reaches the first floor and there are lots of men with guns down there. All of a sudden he hears someone scream that they see him, go get him. He turns and sees his wife standing with these men. It's crazy! Dave does eventually get out, and goes to a lab he had gone to the day before for a tour where something odd had happened. When he gets there, the building is empty. He decides to return to the office tower -- where the men with guns are -- to look at this company's file in his boss's desk. He has to know what's going on and why. He gets back in the building and finds dozens of men waiting for him. What he does next is genius. What he finds out is shocking. The twist at the end of the book is brilliant. The last couple of pages provide a good climax to the story. It's a very satisfying book and I'll probably reread it several times. Definitely recommended. ( )