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Four Days to Veracruz: A Novel
Darren Phillips is a presidential aide, a Harvard graduate, a decorated Desert Storm veteran, and now a husband. Kate North, his new wife, is a world-class adventure racer whom he met on an Eco-Challenge endurance team. When an out-of-bounds kayaking excursion on the couple's honeymoon in Mexico lands them on the private beach of a violent drug dealer, their exotic getaway suddenly turns deadly. And Darren and Kate are, staggeringly, fugitives.
They escape to the local police station - only to enter into a bullet-ridden confrontation with the dealer's federale brother. Broadcasting the carnage and devastation left in the couples' wake, the Mexican government declares them sex-crazed drug couriers and assassins, and the State Department, to avoid an international incident, tags them as murder suspects. But even as they flee, Darren manages to pass a message to his former roommate, teammate, and disgraced Marine corpsman, Gavin Kelly (hero of Sharkman Six, West's critically acclaimed first novel). The couple's only hope for survival hinges on Kelly's ability to interpret their message and to rendezvous with them in Veracruz.
The couple flees desperately on foot across the badlands of the Sierra Madre, unwittingly carrying a piece of the drug cartel's encrypted communication code with them. As they race toward Veracruz, they are pursued by corrupt Mexican police, federales, and bloodhounds. More terrifying, they are pursued by a man known as El Monstruo Carnicero - "The Monster Butcher" - a serial killer dispatched from the bloody desert of Juarez by the leader of the Mexican drug cartel. In all their military training, in all their endurance challenges. Darren and Kate have never before been tested as they are now, running for their lives across the wild belly of Mexico.
They escape to the local police station - only to enter into a bullet-ridden confrontation with the dealer's federale brother. Broadcasting the carnage and devastation left in the couples' wake, the Mexican government declares them sex-crazed drug couriers and assassins, and the State Department, to avoid an international incident, tags them as murder suspects. But even as they flee, Darren manages to pass a message to his former roommate, teammate, and disgraced Marine corpsman, Gavin Kelly (hero of Sharkman Six, West's critically acclaimed first novel). The couple's only hope for survival hinges on Kelly's ability to interpret their message and to rendezvous with them in Veracruz.
The couple flees desperately on foot across the badlands of the Sierra Madre, unwittingly carrying a piece of the drug cartel's encrypted communication code with them. As they race toward Veracruz, they are pursued by corrupt Mexican police, federales, and bloodhounds. More terrifying, they are pursued by a man known as El Monstruo Carnicero - "The Monster Butcher" - a serial killer dispatched from the bloody desert of Juarez by the leader of the Mexican drug cartel. In all their military training, in all their endurance challenges. Darren and Kate have never before been tested as they are now, running for their lives across the wild belly of Mexico.
- GenresAdventure
384 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Owen West
13 books17 followersSimon and Schuster author Owen attended Harvard University on an ROTC scholarship and rowed for the nationally ranked varsity heavyweight crew team. He served for six years in the Marine Corps infantry, departing as a captain to attend Stanford Business School. Upon graduation, he joined Goldman, Sachs as an energy trader, and is presently a Partner and founder of the firm’s veterans’ network.
Owen has taken three leaves-of-absence in his 19 years with Goldman. In 2001, he attempted the North Face of Mount Everest, turning back above 28,000 feet. In 2003 and 2006-2007, he joined the Marines in Iraq.
Owen is an endurance athlete who has completed Ironman Triathlons, week-long adventure races, and 100-mile ultra-marathons. He has represented the United States six times in the Eco Challenge, a 350-mile expedition labeled “the world’s toughest race,” and has finished as high as 2nd, most recently navigating three Playboy Playmates to the finish line in Borneo.
His writings have appeared in The New York Times, Playboy, The Marine Corps Gazette, Proceedings, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, Men’s Journal, Popular Mechanics, and Topic. His first novel, SHARKMAN SIX, won the Boyd literary award for best military novel of 2001. In 2005, he won the Marine Corps Leadership Essay contest.
Owen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as a director of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.
Owen has taken three leaves-of-absence in his 19 years with Goldman. In 2001, he attempted the North Face of Mount Everest, turning back above 28,000 feet. In 2003 and 2006-2007, he joined the Marines in Iraq.
Owen is an endurance athlete who has completed Ironman Triathlons, week-long adventure races, and 100-mile ultra-marathons. He has represented the United States six times in the Eco Challenge, a 350-mile expedition labeled “the world’s toughest race,” and has finished as high as 2nd, most recently navigating three Playboy Playmates to the finish line in Borneo.
His writings have appeared in The New York Times, Playboy, The Marine Corps Gazette, Proceedings, Slate, the Wall Street Journal, Men’s Journal, Popular Mechanics, and Topic. His first novel, SHARKMAN SIX, won the Boyd literary award for best military novel of 2001. In 2005, he won the Marine Corps Leadership Essay contest.
Owen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as a director of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 17, 2023
DNF pages read: 31/371
Oh boy, this was a rough one. I am not surprised that the top reviews are all one star. I'm more surprised that the reviewers actually seem to have read the whole story. I quit at chapter three for reasons I'm about to get into.
The stars of this tale are newlyweds Darren Phillips and Kate North and I cannot stand Kate North, which is a bit of a problem since it's clear that I'm supposed to think that she's a fun, quirky bad-ass. She's not. She's an egotistical, mean-spirited, selfish idiot who thinks that the rules don't apply to her. Everything I learned about her made me like her less.
Allow me to explain with some quotes from the first chapter.
"The [nickname snuggle bunny] did not seem a fitting for a major of Marines, though in secret he enjoyed the moniker. Problem was, Kate liked to joust in public, often to break up a sea of testosterone. She had even dropped the s-bomb in front of the president."
Oh yes, how fun, embarrassing your husband in front of his boss. I don't even care that it's the president. If my husband called me a nickname like that in front of my coworkers, we would be having words. Does anyone actually consider this kind of behavior cute instead of obnoxious? If I were Darren's friend, I'd have been warning him to call off the wedding, especially since he apparently wants to go into politics.
"I got you drunk and took advantage of you, that's what I did. The self-timer is a wonderful invention."
Okay, some context is needed here. It's the morning after the couple's wedding night and Darren wakes up to discover that his blushing bride took a bunch of pictures of them having sex while he was drunk. He seems mildly annoyed and tells her that he wants to expose the film to destroy the pictures. In response, she laughs and throws the camera away before coming back to bed.
Given the way this scene plays, I think that this is supposed to read as cute and playful and not sexual assault-y, but I would personally feel incredibly violated to wake up and find that this had happened to me. It's the stuff of nightmares. While some couples are doubtless fine with this sort of thing, Darren's response makes it clear that he and Kate are not one of those couples. To add to the creepy, nasty feeling of it all, we learn that he rarely drinks and this was only his second time getting drunk. Between the above example and this one, Kate is now firmly emotionally abusive in my mind. Once again: run Darren run!
"Kate sneaked food into movie theaters, took their dog running on the beach without a leash, rappelled off the side of the apartment building."
One of these things is not like the others. This is Darren's description of Kate and it's meant to show how "perfect" she is for him because she's a nice contrast to his rule-obsessed self. I don't know about you, but of that list, only one of them is something I'd call reasonable rule-breaking that could be seen as getting someone to lighten up. The other two are just obnoxious and are illegal for very good reasons. Like, rappelling equipment involves setting up anchors to hold your weight. Anchors that are normally pounded into the rock or similarly secured in a gym. I'm not an expert, but I don't think that there's a way for Kate to rappel from her apartment without pounding stuff into the roof of the building, which I'm sure their neighbors just loved.
"They turned north and skimmed toward the secret beach. Kate hoped that it was deserted because of the severe terrain the protected it. It lay in a long stretch of private property carefully delineated on her map. She didn't tell Darren about the redlines and the warnings, of course."
This is the act that starts the story off. Darren and Kate go to this beach and bad things happen. The nature of those things by no means suits the crime, but dear god I cannot feel sorry for these fictional idiots. Well, no, that's not true. I feel sorry for Darren and think that he needs some therapy to figure out why he's with a person who so clearly doesn't respect him and his boundaries. Kate? Kate should be impressed that she made it into her 30s without getting herself into a situation like this because she is a moron.
So, yeah, all of that was in the first 13 pages, but I pressed on because I was worried about Darren and wanted to make sure that his idiot wife didn't get him killed. Then we get this line, which I'm going to spoil for discussions of sexual assault and because it does spoil the events of the second chapter:
Take all of that and add in the extreme racism from the bad guys and I'm done. There is no plot on earth that's good enough to make up for this setup.
Oh boy, this was a rough one. I am not surprised that the top reviews are all one star. I'm more surprised that the reviewers actually seem to have read the whole story. I quit at chapter three for reasons I'm about to get into.
The stars of this tale are newlyweds Darren Phillips and Kate North and I cannot stand Kate North, which is a bit of a problem since it's clear that I'm supposed to think that she's a fun, quirky bad-ass. She's not. She's an egotistical, mean-spirited, selfish idiot who thinks that the rules don't apply to her. Everything I learned about her made me like her less.
Allow me to explain with some quotes from the first chapter.
"The [nickname snuggle bunny] did not seem a fitting for a major of Marines, though in secret he enjoyed the moniker. Problem was, Kate liked to joust in public, often to break up a sea of testosterone. She had even dropped the s-bomb in front of the president."
Oh yes, how fun, embarrassing your husband in front of his boss. I don't even care that it's the president. If my husband called me a nickname like that in front of my coworkers, we would be having words. Does anyone actually consider this kind of behavior cute instead of obnoxious? If I were Darren's friend, I'd have been warning him to call off the wedding, especially since he apparently wants to go into politics.
"I got you drunk and took advantage of you, that's what I did. The self-timer is a wonderful invention."
Okay, some context is needed here. It's the morning after the couple's wedding night and Darren wakes up to discover that his blushing bride took a bunch of pictures of them having sex while he was drunk. He seems mildly annoyed and tells her that he wants to expose the film to destroy the pictures. In response, she laughs and throws the camera away before coming back to bed.
Given the way this scene plays, I think that this is supposed to read as cute and playful and not sexual assault-y, but I would personally feel incredibly violated to wake up and find that this had happened to me. It's the stuff of nightmares. While some couples are doubtless fine with this sort of thing, Darren's response makes it clear that he and Kate are not one of those couples. To add to the creepy, nasty feeling of it all, we learn that he rarely drinks and this was only his second time getting drunk. Between the above example and this one, Kate is now firmly emotionally abusive in my mind. Once again: run Darren run!
"Kate sneaked food into movie theaters, took their dog running on the beach without a leash, rappelled off the side of the apartment building."
One of these things is not like the others. This is Darren's description of Kate and it's meant to show how "perfect" she is for him because she's a nice contrast to his rule-obsessed self. I don't know about you, but of that list, only one of them is something I'd call reasonable rule-breaking that could be seen as getting someone to lighten up. The other two are just obnoxious and are illegal for very good reasons. Like, rappelling equipment involves setting up anchors to hold your weight. Anchors that are normally pounded into the rock or similarly secured in a gym. I'm not an expert, but I don't think that there's a way for Kate to rappel from her apartment without pounding stuff into the roof of the building, which I'm sure their neighbors just loved.
"They turned north and skimmed toward the secret beach. Kate hoped that it was deserted because of the severe terrain the protected it. It lay in a long stretch of private property carefully delineated on her map. She didn't tell Darren about the redlines and the warnings, of course."
This is the act that starts the story off. Darren and Kate go to this beach and bad things happen. The nature of those things by no means suits the crime, but dear god I cannot feel sorry for these fictional idiots. Well, no, that's not true. I feel sorry for Darren and think that he needs some therapy to figure out why he's with a person who so clearly doesn't respect him and his boundaries. Kate? Kate should be impressed that she made it into her 30s without getting herself into a situation like this because she is a moron.
So, yeah, all of that was in the first 13 pages, but I pressed on because I was worried about Darren and wanted to make sure that his idiot wife didn't get him killed. Then we get this line, which I'm going to spoil for discussions of sexual assault and because it does spoil the events of the second chapter:
Take all of that and add in the extreme racism from the bad guys and I'm done. There is no plot on earth that's good enough to make up for this setup.
July 24, 2022
Talk about a dragged out story ...Concept was good ...interesting, but a myriad of characters and subplots made it laborious ...I finally skipped maybe 80 pages and just found out what happened to the folks that started the plot...if you enjoy exhausting run away from authorities and surviving in the wild ,this book is for you.
December 17, 2024
Ok read. Stretching their endurance and believability a bit too far.
October 31, 2020
Suppose a U.S. Marine Corps officer and his exceptionally athletic new wife were to run afoul of a drug dealer on their honeymoon in Acapulco because they unknowingly paddled their rented kayak to the wrong beach. Suppose further that in thwarting said drug dealer's attempt at kidnapping and rape, the suddenly beleagured honeymooners killed several politically connected people. What might happen next?
That's the launch point for Owen West's "Four Days to Veracruz." It's a thriller I wanted to like more than I did. The book's main strength is its plot (not everyone honeymoons with a hundred feet of climbing rope on hand, but Darren and Kate are veterans of adventure races). Owen West also paints vivid action scenes.
Where the story gave me trouble is between action scenes. Bureaucrats in two countries jockey with each other while doing damage control for their agencies or careers, but West does not say enough about what motivates them, and so they read like archetypes or chess pieces. On the American side (in addition to Darren, Kate, and a college football player nicknamed "Neck" with whom they cross paths), we get the resentful techie, the social climber, the would-be vigilante, and the woman with a reputation for shaking things up. Mexican portions of the narrative shift between a oorrupt bureaucrat and a sadistic little Aztec killer with a fetish for edged weaponry.
Some reviewers have accused West of treating Mexicans badly in his story, but I don't think he does. Aztec culture gets an unforgiving look, but then Aztec culture dserves at least that. I was more bothered by the fact that both of the women in this book stooped frequently to the same locker-room vocabulary used by the men around them. That would not have been an issue had West been more subtle, but finely-honed descriptions of things like the brass casings of spent rounds accumulating in the sand next to a machine gun are sabotaged by restatment of the obvious. And so, for example, we get syntax like "A seasick policeman with a green face walked up unsteadily behind his captain, an M-16 slung around his shoulder. He was clearly seasick."
I finished the book because I wanted to see if the psychopath collecting his jar of hearts would get a suitable comeuppance. If you're familiar with the thriller genre, you already know the answer to that, and you'll be pleased to know that West does not disappoint on that score. He did, however, shortchange his characters. Even the dogs in the story (they have bit parts -- ha ha) get more punishment than they deserve. In the end, I'd call "Four Days to Veracruz" an honorable failure. Its intersting plot could have used the deft handling of a more experienced thriller writer, and its character deveopment never rose above Dan Brown-level ineptitude.
That's the launch point for Owen West's "Four Days to Veracruz." It's a thriller I wanted to like more than I did. The book's main strength is its plot (not everyone honeymoons with a hundred feet of climbing rope on hand, but Darren and Kate are veterans of adventure races). Owen West also paints vivid action scenes.
Where the story gave me trouble is between action scenes. Bureaucrats in two countries jockey with each other while doing damage control for their agencies or careers, but West does not say enough about what motivates them, and so they read like archetypes or chess pieces. On the American side (in addition to Darren, Kate, and a college football player nicknamed "Neck" with whom they cross paths), we get the resentful techie, the social climber, the would-be vigilante, and the woman with a reputation for shaking things up. Mexican portions of the narrative shift between a oorrupt bureaucrat and a sadistic little Aztec killer with a fetish for edged weaponry.
Some reviewers have accused West of treating Mexicans badly in his story, but I don't think he does. Aztec culture gets an unforgiving look, but then Aztec culture dserves at least that. I was more bothered by the fact that both of the women in this book stooped frequently to the same locker-room vocabulary used by the men around them. That would not have been an issue had West been more subtle, but finely-honed descriptions of things like the brass casings of spent rounds accumulating in the sand next to a machine gun are sabotaged by restatment of the obvious. And so, for example, we get syntax like "A seasick policeman with a green face walked up unsteadily behind his captain, an M-16 slung around his shoulder. He was clearly seasick."
I finished the book because I wanted to see if the psychopath collecting his jar of hearts would get a suitable comeuppance. If you're familiar with the thriller genre, you already know the answer to that, and you'll be pleased to know that West does not disappoint on that score. He did, however, shortchange his characters. Even the dogs in the story (they have bit parts -- ha ha) get more punishment than they deserve. In the end, I'd call "Four Days to Veracruz" an honorable failure. Its intersting plot could have used the deft handling of a more experienced thriller writer, and its character deveopment never rose above Dan Brown-level ineptitude.
February 16, 2017
Anyone remember the old In Living Color skit called "Men on Films" with Blaine and Antoine? Well I'm going to steal their catch phrase..."hated it!" The characters were more like caricatures and I hated the brand dropping that was prevalent in the beginning, which luckily was dropped as the book went on, but still left a bad taste in my mouth. The basic plot was the only redeeming quality, but even that fell apart on further review, see our EcoChallengers on the fourth day of no food and no sleep with fungal diseases in their feet and so on and so on taking on a highly trained and capable serial killer, and winning? And what about Neck's parents and teammates, what were they told? They deserved better..and I could keep going.
This is definitely one I do not recommend.
This is definitely one I do not recommend.
July 19, 2009
Relentless Thriller
Owen West deserves praise for this thoroughly effective thriller.
Four Days to Veracruz follows the flight of a couple of endurance athletes who stumble onto the activities of a major drug cartel while honeymooning in Acapulco. They unwittingly pocket a spread-spectrum, GPS-equipped satellite phone which prompts a multilateral manhunt as the cartel, Federales, DEA, CIA, and FBI pursue the couple across Mexico to the Gulf. A background theme of the book is that intelligence agencies may have valid reasons for resisting cooperation.
Owen West's writing and dialog are transparent and carefully crafted. The plot is just complex enough, with multiple threads that provide dramatic relief as needed. The characterization does not reach the level of fine literature, but most of the characters are interesting and original. The overall effect is very cinematic, not unlike (but superior to) my previously favorite thriller, The Bourne Identity.
I was particularly pleased that Four Days to Veracruz is not encumbered by the PC constraints that make so many recent "thrillers" read like Five Year Plans.
My only criticism of the book is that it contains an uncomfortable level of physical suffering and violence described from the victims' perspective. But if you have a taste for high-octane adventure, you will swallow this book whole.
Owen West deserves praise for this thoroughly effective thriller.
Four Days to Veracruz follows the flight of a couple of endurance athletes who stumble onto the activities of a major drug cartel while honeymooning in Acapulco. They unwittingly pocket a spread-spectrum, GPS-equipped satellite phone which prompts a multilateral manhunt as the cartel, Federales, DEA, CIA, and FBI pursue the couple across Mexico to the Gulf. A background theme of the book is that intelligence agencies may have valid reasons for resisting cooperation.
Owen West's writing and dialog are transparent and carefully crafted. The plot is just complex enough, with multiple threads that provide dramatic relief as needed. The characterization does not reach the level of fine literature, but most of the characters are interesting and original. The overall effect is very cinematic, not unlike (but superior to) my previously favorite thriller, The Bourne Identity.
I was particularly pleased that Four Days to Veracruz is not encumbered by the PC constraints that make so many recent "thrillers" read like Five Year Plans.
My only criticism of the book is that it contains an uncomfortable level of physical suffering and violence described from the victims' perspective. But if you have a taste for high-octane adventure, you will swallow this book whole.
February 1, 2011
I'm of 2 very different minds with this book. One side of me is dismayed by the grotesque violence, massive military testosterone (even the women characters are hyper macho), & nary a positive characterization of nearly every Mexican in the story. This makes me want to give it one star if that. But then I face that West is a hell of an adventure thriller writer. His pacing, wordsmith, & delivery is like watching a great director & editor put together a knock out film action sequence. This sheer talent knocks it up to 3 or 4 stars. I settled on 2 or 2 & a 1/2. Take a thrilling ride at your own risk.
August 5, 2010
Horrible, but a wonderful gift that someone sent me while I was in Costa Rica. It is pretty awful in how it depicts Mexicans. Also very violent and dirty, which I don't mind in principle but this book just makes it all feel dumb.
The book's message: All Mexicans are dirty and murderous. And want to attack Americans. That would also be fine, I guess, if he was just trying to have fun or was poking fun (like in those Mariachi movies).
The book's message: All Mexicans are dirty and murderous. And want to attack Americans. That would also be fine, I guess, if he was just trying to have fun or was poking fun (like in those Mariachi movies).
May 23, 2008
enjoyed this one more than his first novel. A little bit of a stretch on the story line, but entertaining anyway.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews