Any Minute Now

by Eric Van Lustbader

From Eric Van Lustbader, the New York Times bestselling author of the Jason Bourne series come Any Minute Now.

Red Rover is broken, finished, dead. The blackest of black ops teams is betrayed on its top-priority mission to capture and interrogate a mysterious Saudi terrorist. One of their own is killed, the remaining two barely get home alive. Then without warning or explanation the mission is shut down.

Greg Whitman and Felix Orteño are left adrift in a world full of deathly shadows, blind alleys, and unanswerable questions. Into their midst comes Charlize Daou, a brilliant, wildly talented arms expert with a past entangled with Whit's. Though Charlie grapples with damage of her own, she becomes their new center, their moral compass, and their reason for resurrecting Red Rover.

Despite Whit's seemingly super-normal abilities it is Charlie, fully rooted in reality, who recognizes that both Whit and Felix have lost parts of themselves. And it is she who possesses the true power necessary for survival: the power to heal, to forgive, and to bring these two lost souls back from the demonic spiritual darkness into which they have fallen.

Ignoring their new orders, Red Rover secretly sets out to find the protected Saudi terrorist, the first step in a perilous journey into the heart of a vast conspiracy that involves the NSA, a cabal of immensely wealthy mystics known as the Alchemists, and an ageless visionary out to create an entirely new way of waging war. A war that will destabilize one of the great super-powers and forever rearrange the balance of power across the entire globe.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Espionage, Mystery Thriller

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2016

About the author

Eric Van Lustbader was born and raised in Greenwich Village. He is the author of more than twenty-five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fiction's most beloved and enduring heroes. The Ninja was sold to 20th CenturyFox, to be made into a major motion picture. His novels have been translated into over twenty languages.

Mr. Lustbader is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology. Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business, where he worked for Elektra Records and CBS Records, among other companies.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ericva...

Reviews

[Nick Brett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, this was as bad a book I have read in a long time. An utter mess from an author who has always written “okay” books, never real page-turners. But here he manages to throw everything into a book and, like a bad recipe, it ends up all wrong.
This looks like a Special Ops type thriller with a dash of conspiracy and revenge. But as you read it you feel there was a previous book that you missed out on that might make sense of the nonsense thrown at you (there is no previous book by the way), far too many characters, a bit of voodoo, a bit of bio-engineering and a plot that masks no sense at all.
An utter mess that you should avoid like the plague.

[Roger Scherping · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be an adventure book about "the blackest of black ops teams." Instead this book is preposterous and melodramatic. There really is very little plot in the entire book.

All of the characters are as emotional and moody as a teenage girl and as horny as teenage boys. Half of the book is told as backstories, all of which include incest or sexual abuse. The plot is way over-written. The villains were right out of a melodrama; you could practically see the curly black mustache on St. Vincent.

This book includes: a crow spirit, a secret society (think the Simpsons' Stonecutters), brain surgery done in the field by a mercenary, a BDSM scene out of 50 Shades of Gray, phony evangelists, Louisiana bayou voodoo, something called "mind rape," zombies, sadistic torture, a villain uttering the last words of Christ on the cross, and an Elf Lord.

I figure the author wrote this book on a bet, to see if could actually get such a mixed up mess published.

[Paul Burrows · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - Got 200 pages through and gave up. Badly written with ridiculous dialogue - a real drop off from other books I've read by the same author. Very Very Poor

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my type of book.

Not a page-turner. Plot was a bit messy. Waayyy too many characters!

2.5/5 stars

[Steve Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought there may have been more action than there was. It picked up at the end though. I hope his other books are a bit more fast-paced than this.

[Leslie · Rating 1 out of 5]

First book by this author, may be my last. Very disappointed, since he continued the Jason Bourne series.

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of subplots going on. Made it difficult to follow

[Alastair McDermott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Miltonh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to follow. Too many plots and some are not connected. Not a very good book for Eric.

[Matthew Hickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't love it. Having read the back of the book, and with the front proclaiming it as being from the author involved with the Bourne series, I assumed it would be a Black Ops Special Forces type story in that vein.
Some parts were, but there was also a weird supernatural element and a Da Vinci Code type secret socoety that felt like it had been transplanted in.
Adding in what felt like a cast of thousands all of whom were in some way connected with the intelligence agencies, and all of whom seemed to by spying on each other and actively working against them.
All in all, it was a bit of a mess, didn't really flow, and the less said about the ending, the better.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eric Van Lustbader is one of the most recent authors I've discovered,and "Any Minute Now" is a great way to start my discovery! In this standalone novel,a black ops team loses one of their own after failing to capture a terrorist. Not only is the team reeling from the grief, but they also want to capture the terrorist before someone else gets hurt. In addition to this,they have to keep a low profile and not reveal their identities. Will the team accomplish their mission or will they lose it all? Read it and find out!

[Bob Andrews · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sometimes I actually find Lustbader interesting, but not here. The plot of this action thriller has a little bit of everything - bisexuality, graphic and twisted sex, child abuse, PTSD, torture, supernatural elements and even a drug that makes good soldiers extra skilled which might be good but there’s a very nasty side effect. What a freakin’ unpleasant mess of a book.

I feel like I woke up one morning and saw all these hungry rodents scurrying around on the floor, willy nilly. Each one a character trying to escape this awful book.

[Michael Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel truly had all the hallmarks of a work of espionage. It was DC based with overseas activity in Pakistan and supposedly Beirut. The Alchemists were a ruthless, profit-drive Black Ops team that were experimenting on chimps and humans with devastating results. Flix almost bought the farm if it wasn't for Whit's familiarity with the dark arts. Charlie was a talented Armorer with James Bond like weapons. Luther Saint Vincent was a snake in the grass who lost his grip tremendously. I felt bad for Lucy Orteno. Physically abused and mentally tortured. Action from start to finish.

[Wienna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought people were too hard with their 1-star review but I can only understand now why this book got such low grades 😭😭 when I started reading it, it looked like the story was fast-paced but it actually felt like the storyline kept being put into place… the characters were written as if they had no soul… I didn’t feel any deepness or emotions in the writing… I just wanted to finish it to read a book that I could really enjoy… this story was quite messy and too complicated for nothing or apparently complicated… what a disappointment

[Woody Johns · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry guys, but I couldn't finish it. I told myself that if there was one more depiction of underage girls being sexy or being r*ped, I'd stop. What I came to, about 2/3 the way through, was an underage girl talking about being r*ped while acting sexy. There's intrigue, good intrigue, but no amount of intrigue is enough to get over the absolute mountain of sheer grossness.
Uh, also, too many characters acting as all-knowing puppetmasters, especially when you're only rooting for the puppets.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. I did enjoy some of it, but it was tedious and took a long time to pick up. Way too much talk about sexual assault for my taste. Most of the bad guys' deaths were anticlimactic, and there was a lot of "reasonable people are boring/secretly evil" crap thrown around.

I agree with the review that said this book seems to be a sequel to something, but it's apparently not. In the end, a lot of questions were left unanswered, and not even in a good, "leave it up to the reader" way.

[Ted Camer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

I am a big fan of Eric Van Lustbader. I have followed his writing through many of his series. This was another excellent example of his great writing. I hope 🙏 that this is a new series.

[Chris B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good points but generally much too slow, overwrought in all senses, overlong for the storyline - I was tempted to give up several times but plodded on. An unhappily failed attempt to meld a standard thriller with 'supernatural' elements.

[Dyann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a DNF for me. It started out really good and then lost me. It could be my fault for not having a lot of time to read lately. But between peoples names, and code names, and nicknames, I got lost and wasn't enjoying it.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this one (and I rarely give up on a book). I have enjoyed some of the author's previous books but this one was terrible. I struggled through 1/4 of the book & I have no idea what the story was about.

[Doug · Rating 1 out of 5]

Big mistake picking this up. Loved the Bourne series but Van Lustbader must have needed money quick to put out this book. A predictable, poor story. Bad character development.
Do not waste your time here.

[Ellen Solomon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read about a third but did not enjoy.

[Lawrence Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only book by this author that I have read so far - it was OK but not as good as many of the other authors on my must read list but free from the local public library

[Alison D · Rating 2 out of 5]

No struggling with this, not able to get the story to run smoothly so I'm leaving for a few days then come to it. Can't say why something missing

[Martial Trevett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark ops team runs into a group of people trying to take over the world with help of a magic man

[Mariaan Belinfante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Black ops, dark arts and deadly conspiracy never fails Excellent

[Dave Counselman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book seemed to take forever on character building and plot development and lead to a very short climax but it was certainly a satisfying if unusual read.

[Greynomad · Rating 3 out of 5]

why is it always the woman the most interesting of the dual in most books

[Clifford Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good thriller

Good story but the characters were not as well developed as in his other stories. It is hard not to enjoy a Eric Lustbader book.

[Ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley.

I am going to be straight up here and admit that I didn’t like this book at all. I really wanted to like it because Eric Van Lustbader is an author I have been meaning to read for a long time, but honestly I didn’t. It’s partly because the book is a lot more sci-fi-y than the blurb made it seem and I don’t particularly enjoy sci-fi books but it is also because even though I have finished the book I still have no clue what happened. It felt like there was a million things going on at once and I have no idea what any of it meant.

Any Minute Now is a supernatural spy thriller novel from Eric Van Lustbader, who is well-known for his continuation of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series. Greg Whitman and his private security team are in Pakistan searching for Seiran el-Habib when they are ambushed. Against his superiors’ orders, Whit decides to take another crack at el-Habib, only to find that he has stumbled onto a conspiracy far greater than he ever expected.

My biggest problem with the story is that I feel that it tries to do too much. There’s at least four major plot lines going on throughout the whole book and I found it really hard to keep up with them all the time. I felt that the book good have been easier to read and digest if the scale of the story was toned down because the amount of different stories going on made the book really jumpy and lacking flow but it also meant that Van Lustbader didn’t have the time to really explain some stuff going on. All I can really say about the plot is that having finished the book, the first thing I asked myself is “what just happened?” and I still can’t really answer that.

Outside of the plot, there are some good things about the book. There’s a decent amount of action and intrigue in the story and Van Lustbader has an interesting writing style, although it was a touch too wordy for my tastes. The characters were all quite unique and I found the characters of Whit and Charlie to be especially appealing. They were well-written and had an interesting dynamic that kept me going through the book when the story had me lost. I do have to say that the character of Preach was a bit of a letdown because he was built up to be the main villain but again I really don’t understand anything about him.

All in all, Any Minute Now is an ambitious supernatural thriller that had some redeeming elements but ultimately missed the mark for me because it tried to do way too much and ultimately nothing made sense for me. I’d be interested to see if Van Lustbader brings Whit and Charlie back because they have an interesting dynamic, but hopefully future stories may be dialled back just a touch.

Is it worth a read? If you are a fan of supernatural thrillers and can keep your head wrapped around super-complex storylines, than by all means Any Minute Now should be worth a read. There’s action and suspense and interesting characters, but it is difficult to keep track of everything that is going on in the book.

This review was originally published at Worth a Read.