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Eurostorm
Payne Harrison’s STORMING INTREPID was a New York Times Bestseller and a Cold War classic that helped define the techno-thriller genre.Now with EUROSTORM he weaves his narrative magic yet again – this time aboard the Eurostar bullet train as it races under the English Channel from London to Paris. Sealed within the vault of an “impregnable” security car is a substance so secret and so lethal that only a handful of “mandarins” within Her Majesty’s Government even know of its existence.Yet when the train exits the “Chunnel” and heads toward Paris, Scotland Yard learns too late that an evil force has literally risen from the grave to ensnare the train and hijack a cargo that could alter the world as we know it.As the cumbersome cross-Channel bureaucracies struggle to respond, the only hope that emerges to keep this horrific genie in the bottle is a small team of French commandos that takes to the air to board the Eurostar as it hurtles across the countryside at 186 m.p.h. -- with nothing less than the future of the planet in the balance.
- GenresThriller
326 pages, Hardcover
First published June 8, 2010
7 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Payne Harrison
15 books32 followersA native Texan, Payne Harrison admits to having a "jaded past" as a newspaper reporter. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Texas A&M and an M.B.A. from SMU, and served as an officer with the U.S. Army in Europe.
His journey to being a New York Times bestselling author started with his sending an excerpt of his book STORMING INTREPID to a New York publishing house, unsolicited and without an agent. That led to a multi-book publishing deal, an appearance on the TODAY show, hitting the Times list, and a paperback auction.
He has had a dual career as a novelist and a forensic litigation consultant, which has required him to use "both hemispheres of the brain."
He and his wife live in Dallas, Texas.
His journey to being a New York Times bestselling author started with his sending an excerpt of his book STORMING INTREPID to a New York publishing house, unsolicited and without an agent. That led to a multi-book publishing deal, an appearance on the TODAY show, hitting the Times list, and a paperback auction.
He has had a dual career as a novelist and a forensic litigation consultant, which has required him to use "both hemispheres of the brain."
He and his wife live in Dallas, Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 30, 2022
This is just an instant classic. Payne Harrison is awesome and I really hope for a sequel.
May 30, 2011
In Libya, a weapon is in terrorists hands and must be recovered.
In Chicago, a pedestrian is killed one beautiful April morning. It was an accident. According to his finger prints he died more than fifty years ago.
The noontime bombing in Wellington Square in London kills and maims without consideration of gender, race or economic portfolio.
From those storylines, Texas author Payne Harrison (author of the bestseller Storming Intrepid and others) returns to publishing after a thirteen year absence with EUROSTORM. At its heart, and as noted on the jacket copy, the book is about a lethal substance being sent by the British government to France on the Eurostar train. Unfortunately for all involved, the train is captured by terrorists and it is up to an elite group of French commandos to take back the train and its contents.
Thrillers are, by definition, supposed to thrill and they do that by relentlessly moving forward on a global scale. To do that, from a writing stand point, there are lots of people doing lots of things, in many locations all at the same time. Character development beyond the basic level necessary to identify the character in terms of strengths and weaknesses is often sacrificed to move the characters quickly in and out of various conflicts. This can result in clichéd stick figures and unfortunately that is the case here. The commandoes, as are all those on the side of right defending the planet, are amazingly strong, sexy and can perform at a super human level doing amazing feats of strength--or die. Nothing in between. The same is true of the evil doers.
The evil doers are doing evil for one of the most clichéd reasons known to mankind. A plot device that has been done to death by one thriller writer or another for decades. It also is not possible to explain what that is without destroying the main reason to read the book.
What readers are left with, if they can get by that, is a novel that starts off well before soon grinding to a near halt for a considerable stretch in the first half of the book. The second half moves much quicker and provides a lot of action before reaching a successful climax high in the Alps heavily reminiscent of Alistair McLean's "Guns of the Navarone. " (And if you have not read it, you absolutely should it and pretty much anything else Alistair Mclean ever wrote.)
As compared to the numerous books the author has done before, EUROSTORM is a serious disappointment. On its own, the novel is average at best and a disappointment in terms of overwriting, sense of pace, clichéd characters, clichéd plot and other issues. That is a crying shame as the novel could have been so much better.
Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2011
In Chicago, a pedestrian is killed one beautiful April morning. It was an accident. According to his finger prints he died more than fifty years ago.
The noontime bombing in Wellington Square in London kills and maims without consideration of gender, race or economic portfolio.
From those storylines, Texas author Payne Harrison (author of the bestseller Storming Intrepid and others) returns to publishing after a thirteen year absence with EUROSTORM. At its heart, and as noted on the jacket copy, the book is about a lethal substance being sent by the British government to France on the Eurostar train. Unfortunately for all involved, the train is captured by terrorists and it is up to an elite group of French commandos to take back the train and its contents.
Thrillers are, by definition, supposed to thrill and they do that by relentlessly moving forward on a global scale. To do that, from a writing stand point, there are lots of people doing lots of things, in many locations all at the same time. Character development beyond the basic level necessary to identify the character in terms of strengths and weaknesses is often sacrificed to move the characters quickly in and out of various conflicts. This can result in clichéd stick figures and unfortunately that is the case here. The commandoes, as are all those on the side of right defending the planet, are amazingly strong, sexy and can perform at a super human level doing amazing feats of strength--or die. Nothing in between. The same is true of the evil doers.
The evil doers are doing evil for one of the most clichéd reasons known to mankind. A plot device that has been done to death by one thriller writer or another for decades. It also is not possible to explain what that is without destroying the main reason to read the book.
What readers are left with, if they can get by that, is a novel that starts off well before soon grinding to a near halt for a considerable stretch in the first half of the book. The second half moves much quicker and provides a lot of action before reaching a successful climax high in the Alps heavily reminiscent of Alistair McLean's "Guns of the Navarone. " (And if you have not read it, you absolutely should it and pretty much anything else Alistair Mclean ever wrote.)
As compared to the numerous books the author has done before, EUROSTORM is a serious disappointment. On its own, the novel is average at best and a disappointment in terms of overwriting, sense of pace, clichéd characters, clichéd plot and other issues. That is a crying shame as the novel could have been so much better.
Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2011
April 15, 2011
This is a truly global international thriller with Brits, Yanks, Russkies and the French all cooperating to make sure that one of their cities doesn’t end up a smoking slagheap. When we find out that the big scare is genetic warfare, we’re disappointed because we’ve already seen that in many books and scripts. The book is written in a very cinematic style, cross-cutting among characters and incidents but in the end, it reads more like a James Bond movie with its lethal ladies and old Nazis than a thriller in the Bourne tradition.
June 15, 2010
Coming out soon, Eurostorm is another non-stop thrill-ride by one of the Godfathers of the techno-thriller, Payne Harrison, this time set aboard the Eurostar bullet train. What can go wrong at 185mph...? With strong female characters, special forces abundant, and one of the most evil forces ever to walk the Earth in the past 100 years, a lot can go wrong.
Also within the pages of this long-awaited publication is a sample of Steve Berry's newest Cotton Malone thriller, The Emperor's Tomb.
Also within the pages of this long-awaited publication is a sample of Steve Berry's newest Cotton Malone thriller, The Emperor's Tomb.
June 8, 2011
This book is overly detailed and takes way too long to get to the point.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews