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JM Mystery-thriller #2
Ascension Day
Ascension Day Matthews, John
576 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
34 people are currently reading
408 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 15, 2018
I got this as a e book for my tablet from the net galley site. I enjoyed reading it. It had a good story to it. I hope to read more books by this author. It was so good that I read it in one day. It is my first book by this author.
August 2, 2019
Thank you to NetGalley, Sapere Books and John Matthews, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Ascension Day in exchange for an honest opinion.
I love criminal law books and this one didn't disappoint!
I found the storyline to be well written and the plot to be well thought out.
The characters were intriguing and realistic.
The story was a page turner and 4star worthy!
I love criminal law books and this one didn't disappoint!
I found the storyline to be well written and the plot to be well thought out.
The characters were intriguing and realistic.
The story was a page turner and 4star worthy!
July 24, 2017
Well developed thriller. Many characters and subplots to keep things interesting.
January 1, 2019
Excellent read!!
January 9, 2019
Brilliant!
This book is a real page turner and the ending gave me high blood pressure! I recommend it to anyone who enjoys John Grisham books.
This book is a real page turner and the ending gave me high blood pressure! I recommend it to anyone who enjoys John Grisham books.
December 13, 2019
It is what it is but a very good example
Not usually my genre, but a very good read, excellent if you like American legal thrillers. Well worth a try.
Not usually my genre, but a very good read, excellent if you like American legal thrillers. Well worth a try.
April 27, 2020
A good read, although a little far fetched in places but not so much that I stopped reading
April 15, 2013
Very well done!
But not to be a spoiler, every single clue to free the (probably) innocent Larry Durrant either ends in someone getting killed or the clue vanishing altogether.
His lawyer, Jac, has been framed for murder and is also running for his life as well as away from the authorities. It doesn’t seem like he will be able to help his client at all, until he comes up with an alias. He impersonates another lawyer who is out of the country and retired.
But that cover is also blown. As he chases down more clues both an assassin and the police are close behind him. The clues are destroyed, and the time for his client to be executed (his ascension day) is hours, then minutes away.
What else could go wrong? At this point I had given up hope that Larry Durrant would survive. But I realized that while that would be sad, it wouldn’t be too awfully terrible if the bad people were discovered and put away. But it doesn’t seem like justice will happen either.
This is an exciting read. The author does an excellent job in reeling you into his story, and holding you there with a clenched fist
It deserves a full four stars, and my blessings to the John Matthews.
But not to be a spoiler, every single clue to free the (probably) innocent Larry Durrant either ends in someone getting killed or the clue vanishing altogether.
His lawyer, Jac, has been framed for murder and is also running for his life as well as away from the authorities. It doesn’t seem like he will be able to help his client at all, until he comes up with an alias. He impersonates another lawyer who is out of the country and retired.
But that cover is also blown. As he chases down more clues both an assassin and the police are close behind him. The clues are destroyed, and the time for his client to be executed (his ascension day) is hours, then minutes away.
What else could go wrong? At this point I had given up hope that Larry Durrant would survive. But I realized that while that would be sad, it wouldn’t be too awfully terrible if the bad people were discovered and put away. But it doesn’t seem like justice will happen either.
This is an exciting read. The author does an excellent job in reeling you into his story, and holding you there with a clenched fist
It deserves a full four stars, and my blessings to the John Matthews.
February 7, 2013
This is a book about a young lawyer who makes a
career change in his type of law practice.
He is the new lawyer so is given the lesser cases.
A prisoner is on death row for a gruesome murder
with very little chance of his last appeal being heard.
The Senior partners do not want their name associated
with a doomed case so give Jac, the new lawyer, the case.
Only one of the newer partners (Whom Jac works under) has
any respect for him and his capabilities.
Jac encounters endless 'road blocks" and, even at the peril
of his own life, never ceases his efforts until the very end.
This has a huge amount of profanity, and sexual situations
portrayed in a crude manor. There are also graphic, violent
scenes. The situations could have been more tastefully written.
The amount of pages skipped because of the objectionable parts
caused loss of interest. Otherwise it was full of suspense and
action to the end.
career change in his type of law practice.
He is the new lawyer so is given the lesser cases.
A prisoner is on death row for a gruesome murder
with very little chance of his last appeal being heard.
The Senior partners do not want their name associated
with a doomed case so give Jac, the new lawyer, the case.
Only one of the newer partners (Whom Jac works under) has
any respect for him and his capabilities.
Jac encounters endless 'road blocks" and, even at the peril
of his own life, never ceases his efforts until the very end.
This has a huge amount of profanity, and sexual situations
portrayed in a crude manor. There are also graphic, violent
scenes. The situations could have been more tastefully written.
The amount of pages skipped because of the objectionable parts
caused loss of interest. Otherwise it was full of suspense and
action to the end.
March 11, 2013
At 57% the main character is in a perilous situation and the Kindle edition is finished. The last 43% is a preview of two other of this author's books. I'm not sure if this was made clear in the description or not, so I'm not taking it out on the author, publisher or Amazon. It could easily have been my own fault for not reading the description carefully enough. That said, I'm just not compelled to pay for the second half of this book. It was okay and I would have finished it had it been a complete novel. But there were a lot of characters and side stories that were pretty hard to keep straight while reading on the treadmill (again, no blame to anyone but myself). Perhaps I'll check out the second half during Spring Break or the summer, just not right now.
September 27, 2013
This book is about Jac McElroy an starting criminal lawyer and Larry Darrant who is a prisoner it Liberville. Larry wants to die after being in jail for so long but keeps finding himself saving Roddy from another inmate. Larry feels like he has nothing to live for with the fact that he cannot keep in contact with his son who is only eleven due to his wife's fiance. Larry is in prison for the murder of a female that he cannot recall if he really killed or not. Jac is trying hard to keep Larry from wanting to die and is in the process of finding away around all of this and is working on it. The bad thing is there are guys that don't want Larry out so they can get away with the murder of this young woman. Can Jac help Larry or will Jac find himself in more trouble then he ever though.
October 13, 2013
This is probably one of the most intense and dramatic death-row thrillers I've ever read, as good as The Green Mile if not better. Maybe what makes it work so well is that the action switches between Jac the lawyer battling to get death-row inmate Larry Durrant clemency at the eleventh hour and the prisoner himself watching the clock tick down.
Throw into the pot a violent prison fixer on meths, a ruthless mafia boss and a hit man, Nel-M, straight out of Tarantino central casting, and you have the ingredients of one hell of a read. It's split into two-parts, but that's clearly marked under the title of part one, which is free, and getting part-two was an absolute no-brainer. One of my best reads in years!
Throw into the pot a violent prison fixer on meths, a ruthless mafia boss and a hit man, Nel-M, straight out of Tarantino central casting, and you have the ingredients of one hell of a read. It's split into two-parts, but that's clearly marked under the title of part one, which is free, and getting part-two was an absolute no-brainer. One of my best reads in years!
April 2, 2012
Decent Deathrow thriller
This was a very decent deathrow thriller. It was quite slow moving at first but it picked up momentum as it went along.
I did think that it was maybe a bit unrealistic in that I would have thought that some of the areas being investigated would have been covered in the original trial and appeal. There were a few things that seemes a trifle implausibe. Though having said that some of the things that you do read read about capital cases do seem incredible and for the most part the storyline did seem fairly believable.
It got quite tense towards the end and was even quite moving at times.
This was a very decent deathrow thriller. It was quite slow moving at first but it picked up momentum as it went along.
I did think that it was maybe a bit unrealistic in that I would have thought that some of the areas being investigated would have been covered in the original trial and appeal. There were a few things that seemes a trifle implausibe. Though having said that some of the things that you do read read about capital cases do seem incredible and for the most part the storyline did seem fairly believable.
It got quite tense towards the end and was even quite moving at times.
January 28, 2013
I do not remember EVER being as glued to a book as I was to this one. The locale is New Orleans; the event is the execution of condemned killer Larry Durrant. The challenge is to prove him innocent ... or is he guilty ... or is he innocent ... or ...
Are the twists and turns overkill? Not once did I think so. I had to re-read the first 30 pages, thinking I'd missed points. Nada! The backstory was intricately interwoven throughout. John Matthews is a MASTER story teller. It is a complex story with many characters - if you're not in to that, this book is not for you.
For all of you who venture into the corridors of the Libreville Prison ... happy reading!
Are the twists and turns overkill? Not once did I think so. I had to re-read the first 30 pages, thinking I'd missed points. Nada! The backstory was intricately interwoven throughout. John Matthews is a MASTER story teller. It is a complex story with many characters - if you're not in to that, this book is not for you.
For all of you who venture into the corridors of the Libreville Prison ... happy reading!
April 1, 2012
Rookie lawyer Jac McElroy is determined to save his client from execution on death row; but with only 47 days to go, and all pointers suggest it's a lost cause, and then with his own life under threat as well, it's not looking good.
And there's a few nasty people out there determined to keep it that way, whatever it takes!
With a touch of the "Shawshank Redemption" feel about it, this is 570 pages of will he - won't he, and the ducking and diving keeps the reader on tenterhooks all the way through this fine book.
And there's a few nasty people out there determined to keep it that way, whatever it takes!
With a touch of the "Shawshank Redemption" feel about it, this is 570 pages of will he - won't he, and the ducking and diving keeps the reader on tenterhooks all the way through this fine book.
August 4, 2012
This book has it all, and has both class and style, for edge of the seat drama,it takes part of the human psyche and blows it apart.It's about wrongful conviction, corruption, sex, danger and the shadow of death.
Powerful in it's delivery and a brilliant story line.
while an innocent man waits for an unjust death, one man has the power to save him(Jac McElroy) but first he must unravel the dangerous intrigue and deception that has placed his client in prison, and in doing so he brings about a chain of events that will endanger his own life and sanity.
Powerful in it's delivery and a brilliant story line.
while an innocent man waits for an unjust death, one man has the power to save him(Jac McElroy) but first he must unravel the dangerous intrigue and deception that has placed his client in prison, and in doing so he brings about a chain of events that will endanger his own life and sanity.
May 11, 2016
Between me not caring what happens to any of the 101 characters in this book and the extremely long promotional parts in the book itself I am giving up. I hate not finishing a book but I can honestly not spend time to read something further if I cant even pretend to myself that I care if the guy in jail gets the death penalty or not. And since that is the main plot amongst a host of others I think I should at least feel something about his future.
June 2, 2012
At times the descriptive language used by Matthews is stellar. The reader is drawn into the story quickly and there are enough conflicts to make a good "guy movie" action flick. That action-filled plot structure was what slowed the story down for me. I was more interested in the psychological development of the characters. But it's a good, interesting, and sometimes entertaining read.
February 26, 2013
I'm starting to lose interest in this book. It's tedious keeping up with all the sub-plots and characters, as well as constantly flipping back and forth with scenes. Although descriptions and writing style are excellent, the constant creation of suspense based on giving the reader little or no information is frustrating. Maybe I'm a little too simple minded for this author.
October 31, 2016
Got this one free on Kindle. Good premise and main storyline was pretty good, but the sub-plots didn't really add anything. Spoiler: the late-in-the-story twist involving disguises-positively ludicrous.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2012
lots of characters with intermingling storylines creating a great mystery with a very suspenseful conclusion..
May 26, 2012
At first it seemed like the usual books about someone on death rap...and it was. But the way it's written made me keep reading it and enjoy it. Fast paced and exciting.
October 5, 2013
Too dry and read very slowly. Could never get captured by the plot.
March 22, 2013
'Nuff said, John Smith. Three stars only because I will assume the remainder of the book is as readable as the beginning. I'll never know.
March 18, 2013
For me this was a difficult book. Many times found myself lost, possibly because it was an ebook. Pretty interesting plot.
March 24, 2013
Very well written - rollercoaster ride through the ups and downs of the case.
March 26, 2013
Hard to read in e-format.
April 30, 2013
I downloaded this free on the Kindle. It was only part one and from just that I have no real interest in part two if that tells you anymore of what I thought of it...
June 9, 2016
pretty good legal thriller
November 1, 2016
Very different story,didn't like it as much as the previous one I read, but still gripping in parts.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews