The Cornwalls are Gone (Amy Cornwall, #1) By James Patterson
This was a delightful military spy type thriller. Army Intelligence Officer Amy Cornwall comes home to discover her husband and child have been abducted from her home in Virginia. There’s a burner phone on the table with instructions. She is to go to a prison and free a terrorist. If she tells anyone what she has been ordered to do, they die. Now Amy has to figure out a way to find her husband and daughter before the terrorists’ clock ticks down, while her captive family fights to free themselves. I enjoy this particular Patterson/ghostwriter team for their fast-paced writing and clean style. Some surprising revelations about Amy and her husband Tom Cornwall, and lost of twists and turns. I think Special Investigator Rosario Vasquez was my favorite!
Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
Hardcover A mediocre effort, where suspension of disbelief is required. Amy Cornwall is a Army intelligence officer facing prosecution for the death of an Afghan prisoner in custody. She goes AWOL for the hearing when her husband Tom (a writer) and their 10 year old daughter Denise are kidnapped. Amy is told she must go to Texas to rescue a hostage to trade for the safe return of her family. Dodging obstacles along the way, including an Army CID sent to bring her in, she manages to rescue an old man from three Mexican cartel enforcers, and has to bring him to Florida for an exchange. Bit by bit Amy pieces together the reasons for her family's involvement, with the final piece of the puzzle mysteriously revealed by the hostage, who says nothing until the final showdown.
Co-author Brendan DuBois' Lewis Cole series is WAY BETTER than this. Hardcover 2.5⭐️ an absolutely average read...again I’m in the minority with this opinion but this collaboration is not one I’m going to prioritise reading again. I also can’t ‘go with the masses’ as there are some excellent novels out there at the moment and even my library copy felt like an injustice to the better writers I could’ve invested time on. I know names sell but...
The plot is highly generic, the characters are soap-opera bland and the action is standard fodder. Thriller...not even close.
Sorry folks, I just can’t recommend this one! Hardcover Now this is more like it- James Patterson that is. This book is definitely more like we’ve come to expect. I would not say it was one of his best works ever but it was definitely better than some of the more recent things I’ve read from Mr. Patterson. There were many times I felt I was reading one of his “Private” novels. Maybe that’s why the story felt more like his work. Overall I see 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. Hardcover I got this ARC of this one because the plot really intrigued me. It did not disappoint...what a ride, with so many twists. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, never wanting to put it down. Highly, highly recommended. Hardcover
I found the first half much better than the second. The longer this story went, the lower the rating dropped with a barely adequate end. 5 of 10 stars Hardcover In their latest collaborative effort, James Patterson and Brendan DuBois offer readers an interesting thriller with elements of suspense throughout. Amy Cornwall is part of Army Intelligence and has a keen sense of foreboding. When she arrives home to discover that her husband and daughter are missing, her panic boils over. Worried about the worst, Amy is contacted by the kidnappers, who offer up a plan to have her collect a man in a small Texas town before delivering him and getting her family back. Not caring about the consequences, Amy goes AWOL from the Army and leaves her Virginia home to trek across the country. While on rural roads, she encounters a few troopers and her paranoia almost turns her into a murderer, wanting to get her family back above all else. Meanwhile, the ragtag group of kidnappers seem clueless to the larger plan and bide their time, keeping Tom Cornwall and his daughter in relative discomfort, at least until they are told otherwise. Unsure if Amy is coming, Tom can only wonder what’s led him to be held captive and whether this could be in retaliation to something Amy did while deployed. Amy makes her way across the country and takes matters into her own hands, killing people to secure the target, but is then sent on another wild goose chase, with local police and the military tracking her down for their own reasons, as the Cornwalls remain separated in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. A page-turner if ever there was one, Patterson and DuBois offer up a wonderful story that is full of entertainment until the very end. Recommended for those who need a good novel to keep them company on a rainy day or while on vacation!
Patterson novels are always a gamble, particularly when one never knows what awaits them. I have come to discover that collaborators can make all the difference, but even then, names plastered across the cover of a book tend to sell more than the quality of the story. Working with Brendan DuBois, James Patterson has crafted a wonderful piece that pulls the reader in and does not let go. Amy Cornwall, an Army vet, has much going for her, though there is a cloud looming over her from time overseas. She tries to put that in the back of her mind when she is forced to find her family without tipping anyone off to what’s happened. Gritty and determined to find success, Amy heads out on a mission whose end game is more important than anything else she has done in her life. Unsure of the rationale, Amy is determined to get to the root of the issue, letting that fuel a fire within her as she treks out to save those who matter most. There are a few other characters whose presence greases the wheels of the story, propelling it forward and keeping the narrative moving. Patterson and DuBois offer up wonderful plots to keep the characters working in harmony, those sometimes out of sync with one another. While the theme of the story may not be unique, its delivery is one that the reader will enjoy through to the very end, as they wonder what has led to this cross-country chase and who is pulling the strings. A great addition to Patterson’s vast library of thrillers, with much thanks to Brendan DuBois for keeping things on track.
Kudos, Messrs. Patterson and DuBois, for this great novel. Whether we see Amy Cornwall again or this was a one-off, the book is sure to be talked about for a good while yet!
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A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... Hardcover Fast-paced thriller that even thrilled for a little bit. Wowser.
Frankly, if I had such nosy neighbors as that flowery-top wearing Shirley Gaetz gal, I would be tempted to strangle them. Imagine a neighbor who would inform anyone of anything you did: when you came, when you went, what kind of bag you were holding, how you looked like, etc… Maybe she should try to undertake some crocheting to get her mind away from neighbor-watching? It mush be an incredibly maddening experience.
Q:
Hard to explain, but the moment after I open the door, I know the place is empty and my loved ones are in trouble. (c)
Q:
“Let’s just say one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and leave it at that.” (c)
Q:
It’s times like these when the tiny discouraging voice inside of her says, Babe, this is the real Army. You’re nothing but a cop in a pretty uniform. (c)
Q:
This is what my supposed betters call flyover country, even though the people in that part of the country pump the oil, grow the food, and mine the ore.
My supposed betters should hope they never band together and go on strike. (с)
Q:
For some reason my overworked mind flashes back to the history of the Israeli-Arab war of 1967, the one called the Six-Day War. It was small Israel versus twelve Arab nations, and instead of waiting around to get slaughtered, the Israelis conducted a preemptive strike. Before the jets flew and the tanks rolled, an Israeli armored-division commander said, Each unit will push forward as fast as it can. Pay no attention to your flanks. Give no thought to resupply. If you lose nine tanks out of ten, keep advancing with the tenth. Stop for nothing.
Right now I’m my own unit, Task Force Cornwall, and I’m stopping for nothing. (c)
Q:
As an intelligence officer, I need to deal with facts and figures. Making assumptions is forbidden. So are most educated guesses. (c)
Q:
Antonio doesn’t like Pepe because a month ago, Pepe found Jesus Christ and is now studying the ways he can save his soul. Slim and well-groomed Pepe says based on what he’s done and what he will be doing, he hopes if he knows enough about Jesus, his soul might be saved after all when his time eventually comes. (с)
Q:
He sits there, slowly lowers his hands, and mutters a long, nasty string of expletives, and Rosaria says, “I never knew who my mom was, so that’s a waste of breath.” (c)
Q:
“Fantastic,” he says. “By the way, thank you for your service.” (c) Hardcover Fast paced and action packed! I’m hoping to hear more from the Cornwalls. Hardcover Amy Cornwall, newly home from Afghanistan and sights she’d rather leave behind, knew as soon as she set foot inside her Virginia home that there was something very wrong. Her husband Tom should be waiting for her, along with their ten-year-old daughter Denise. But the house was silent; no cooking smells, no playing sounds, just cloying silence. When Amy found the note, she knew she was about to do something that could end her career, but that didn’t bother her in the least.
With only forty-eight hours to do as she was ordered or her family would be killed, Amy was on the clock. Racing across the country, searching for answers and with the Army searching for her, Amy knew she would do what she had to – even if it meant killing. But would it be a futile exercise? Who would die in this game of cat and mouse?
Out of Sight is the 1st in the Amy Cornwall series by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois; it was brilliant! With Patterson’s usual short, choppy chapters, the pace was electric, the action full on. Amy Cornwall is a tough, determined and gritty character and I’m really looking forward to reading the 2nd in the series. A highly recommended thriller.
Hardcover
In her career as an Army intelligence officer, Amy Cornwall has seen haunting sights half a world away. None compare to the chilling scene at her Virginia home. A phone rings with a terrifying ultimatum: locate and liberate an unnamed captive in forty-eight hours, or her kidnapped husband and ten-year-old daughter are dead. Now, and in open defiance of Army Command, Amy must employ every lethal tactic she has to save them. To succeed, she must discover not only who dispatched her on this mission, but why. Without her family, she's dead either way. The Cornwalls are Gone (Amy Cornwall, #1)
