It’s good to have friends in high and low places

Trust No One
by Gregg Hurwitz

I love a thriller you can read in a day. It’s not about how many pages or how many hours spent reading; it’s about a book holding your attention for as long as it takes to finish it. It’s about a day you’d rather spend reading than doing anything else. That was my day on Sunday, when I read Gregg Hurwitz’s Trust No One.

As the novel opens, protagonist Nick Horrigan is awakened by sirens in the night. Stepping onto his balcony to investigate, he’s slammed in the chest by the feet of a black-clad man rappelling down from the roof. Moments later, Nick realizes that half the law enforcement in LA is there for him. He is utterly astounded as they put him into custody and start tearing apart his condo. He soon learns that a terrorist has taken control of part of a nuclear power plant and is threatening to irradiate half of Southern California unless he can talk to Nick face-to-face. Mystified, Nick tells the authorities he’s never seen or heard of the guy. Nonetheless, moments later he’s on a chopper to the power plant, and then inside with the fugitive.

Going into the book, I thought the scenario above would comprise the bulk of this novel, but on the contrary it’s merely the opening of a political thriller in which an average Joe gets embroiled in election year presidential politics. Nick’s a good guy, but he’s got a troubled past. And events he thought were behind him are intimately tied to the mess he finds himself in. Tired of running, Nick calls on all his resources and allies to finally get the answers behind a crime that has haunted him for seventeen years.

As you may have gathered, Trust No One is a page-turner. Along the way we meet several intriguing and well-drawn characters. The convoluted plot is intricately drawn, and while I was always guessing, I never came close to figuring out what was really going on. At the same time, I never felt like the author was cheating with coincidences or contrivances. The ending of the novel is complete, with no threads left hanging to indicate a sequel. Even so, I’m wondering if we’ll see Nick Horrigan again. His tale is told, but I feel like there’s so much more story left in his relationships with the other characters. I, for one, would definitely come back for more.
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