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Collision | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeff Abbott
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.00
You Save: $14.95 (60%)
New (33) Used (9) Collectible (3) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 56834
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0525950281
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780525950288
ASIN: 0525950281
Publication Date: July 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Fine (scrunch top/bottom of book and dj spine, else like new, first printing.
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Product Description
The international bestseller returns with his most ambitious, multidimensional, and tightly crafted thriller yet, a breakout achievement featuring his hallmark blend of ordinary people in extraordinary danger.
Already an international sensation, with his books translated into fifteen languagesin the UK alone, Panic has more than 400,000 copies in printJeff Abbott is a master of the action-packed thriller. Now, with Collision, he delivers a meaty, twisty, white-knuckle ride designed to propel him onto the bestseller lists in his home country.
Collision is the story of two men living very different livesone, a successful corporate consultant who is mourning the murder of his new bride; the other, a former CIA agent known only as Pilgrim, whose current assignment for a fringe espionage agency is so treacherous he doesnt trust even his own boss. When they are thrown together in a violent, unexpected event, the two men realize that theyve been framed in an elaborate setup. Unsure who to trust and who may just be trying to draw them into the open, the unlikely partners have no choice but to work together. But with everything at stake, Ben has no idea that Pilgrim is harboring some shocking secrets of his ownsecrets that will soon force Ben to confront just how blurred the line has become between best friends and bitter enemies.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Fast pace & great story August 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
While Collision might not be the heaviest and most profound book on the market...it is at the top of the game in the area of a dynamite mystery-thriller. From the beginning chapter, I found the book almost impossible to put down. With masterful prose, Abbott combines professional hitmen, competent & inept Homeland Security Officials, secret government agencies, and a bewildered protagonist in a roller-coaster tale of twists and turns.
4 1/2 Stars. Great Entertainment. August 7, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Thrown together as the fall guys for an elaborate setup, a corporate consultant widower and a fringe espionage agent become unlikely partners whose survival is threatened by untrustworthy associates and shocking secrets from the agent's past. BT.
Jeff Abbott is also becoming one of my favorite thriller writers. This story moved fast and furious. I liked the characters and I liked all the action. A great escape for a summer read.
 Loads of Action, but No Compelling Characters July 29, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I wanted to like COLLISION, but I felt it placed too much emphasis on action at the expense of character development.
Every twenty pages or so, it seems like there is a car chase, or a gun battle, or a fist fight in COLLISION. While Abbott knows how to write such scenes at the mechanical level, I felt I had no emotional stake in their outcome. This is because all the characters in this novel are underdeveloped and kept at arms-length from the reader.
The main character in COLLISION, for example, is a widower, but his grief over his dead wife is his only true personality characteristic. The supporting cast mostly consists of cliched stereotypes that I have seen many times before, such as the world-weary assassin and the oh-so-evil military contractor. Most of their dialogue is trite and designed to push the plot along.
COLLISION contains a rather convoluted plot with a lot of twists and turns. While this isn't always a bad thing, the lack of interesting characters made this book's complicated storyline a chore to wade through. While this novel does have a very dark twist near the end, I found most of this novel relatively predictable.
In short, my advice is to avoid this novel unless you're a big fan of action for the sake of action. If you read and liked Abbott's earlier novel PANIC, this one may be worth a try, because it has the same strengths and weaknesses.
Crime and suspense writing at its best July 29, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Collision is an energetic crime/suspense drama that left me wishing for several sequels. However, some of the captivating characters died and subsequent installments would leave the gritty survivors searching for new friends and collaborators. Each of Abbott's book is unique and "Collision" leaves survivors with a new self confidence and grasp of a political world. Take the current Oil/Environmental Crisis - What is it really hiding? Whose interests does this combined phenomenon serve? These are the types of questions answered in a novel reminiscent of "The Man from Uncle" with faster guns - and they are all ours. As Walt Kelly's Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and they is us."
"Collision" follows government contractors that will go to any lengths to ensure top dollar, guaranteed, long-term income from the Bush Administration in Iraq, just screaming the "Halliburton" accusations to any who wish to hear. The storyline screams "Halliburton"-type accusations for any who wish to listen, and, the possibility of scandal satisfies the politcal suspicions of some current pundits, while making for good drama. It will spur arguments through the 2008 Presidential Election, and much speculation afterward. The book is hard to put down. In it, a double frame-up among assassins creates short lived friendships as well as long-term intrigue in a fresh way and will likely become a fine film.
A major frame up includes the assassination of a business developer's wife on their honeymoon and the theft of his identity by a deep undercover ex-CIA man that believes the ID is fictitious. Crime rings in the US and Ireland are key to this frame and the developer Ben and undercover man Pilgrim finally join forces after a collision of identities makes it the only choice. A surprise ending and its threads are good enough for a film by itself, a bit reminiscent of the film web of "Crash."
The story is fast paced and uses clean language for the most part, showing that men and women can express themselves intelligently during any level of frustration or extreme stress.
Armchair Interviews says: Anyone from high school level through adult that loves stories of crime and suspense will enjoy Collision.
entertaining action thriller July 24, 2008
11 out of 18 found this review helpful
In Hawaii on his honeymoon with his beloved Emily, consultant Ben Forsberg goes to take a shower anticipating more sex before they catch the plane back to the mainland. When he finishes his shower, he finds Emily lying dead in a pool of blood. Two years later; Ben still grieves his loss and has not been on a date with another woman since the tragedy that has become a cold case to everyone but him.
In Austin, sniper Nicky Lynch and cleaner Jackie are to take out the big man and the computer geek Adam Reynolds. Nicky fires at both and watches them fall; he assumes they are dead. Instead not long afterward the big man kills the sniper. Former CIA agent "Pilgrim" wonders why he was set up to die by he assumes his handler or his superior as the objective to frame Forsberg for a murder seems to have included eliminating the consultant's only witness to his innocence. Instead Pilgrim decides to team up with a beleaguered Forsberg to uncover the truth and take down who wants them dead. Forsberg does not trust the operative, but has no choice as someone has set him up to take a homicide fall and that someone wants him dead so he has no trial. What the corporate suit also does not know is his historical connection to Pilgrim; what he believes is the agent plans to terminate the partnership once he cleans out those who want him dead.
The keys to this powerful thriller are Ben and Pilgrim seem real in a deadly cat and mouse game against unknown foes though Pilgrim has a good idea who the opposition are. The story line is fast-paced from the opening sequence two years ago in Hawaii and never decelerates until the final twist of several occurs; ironically even when the reader expects a certain spin because Jeff Abbott is known for that, we marvel at the deftly twist the plot takes. This is an entertaining action thriller that fans will enjoy.
Harriet Klausner
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