Detour

by James Siegel

Book Overview

DESCRIPTION: From the bestselling author of Derailed comes the adrenaline-charged story of one man who must be-tray everything he believes in to save his family. Paul and Joanna desperately want to have children, but their failure to conceive almost ends their marriage. Instead, they decide to adopt and arrange a trip to Colombia to bring home a baby girl. Joelle is everything they've hoped for. To help them ease into parenthood, a nanny has been...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446531855
• ISBN13: 9780446531856
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 341 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Read! Fast Paced and Action Packed!

This is the second book I have read by Siegel. The first being "Derailed" (much better book than a movie by the way). I really enjoyed the author's style while reading that book. It had action, it was interesting, not full of boring details. And each chapter left you hanging and craving more. This book was no different. The story line may have been a little far fetched, or is it? Could this happen? Anything is possible. The story grabs you from the start and pulls you in. I stayed up way too late many nights wanting to find out what happened next. Finally, I just read the whole thing! A story about a couple from New York who desperately wants a child of their own. After many years of failed attempts at fertility and other means, they decide to adopt. They don't want to go through the long and drawn out adoption process of usual after having gone through years of failing on their own. So, they turn to an adoption attorney who handles adoptions in Columbia. The process is surprisingly quicker there and less hassle. What they don't know is that trouble awaits. Soon, they find themselves captives of one of Columbia's guerilla factions. The only way our hero can save his family? Smuggle 2 million dollars of cocaine into the U.S. in 18 hours! Let the action begin! Enjoyable characters, fast paced action, believable story, and great ending. I'll say this about Siegel, he ends a book well. Some authors either end too quick or don't end at all and leave you hanging. Siegel ends just right! The book has plenty of twists and turns to keep your attention. It plays like a movie in your head. Read this when you have no other distractions because if you have something else to do, this book will keep you from it!! Enjoy it, I did!

Starts slow; rapid acceleration. HANG ON

I like reading new authors or authors who are still starting. I picked up Siegel and "Detour" because it caught my eye. Interesting. Kind of tugs at you. Then all of a sudden, you're hooked. Reviewers say it wasn't as good as "Derailed." The movie was abysmal so I hope Mr. Siegel survives the connection between his skill as an author and a poor film result. Crais had that problem with the horrible "Hostage" but Crais, unlike Seigel, has a larger body of work to buoy him up from artistic blunders. You know the plot here so I won't repeat it. James Grippando did something like this in "A King's Ransom" where Nick Rey is trying to get his father out of similar harms way, but "Detour" is at a much higher level of magnetic tension. Siegel keeps turning up the tension up higher and higher. Even the silly, out-of-context line from Joanna to her husband Paul, "she amells different" about their newly adopted daughter Joelle is delivered so well that you know we've started on a roller coaster ride dwn and down and down. I found that Mr. Siegel ratcheted up the tension well, evenly and did have a nice grip on scenery, feelings and diverse peoples. I will read "Derailed" but you can keep the movie. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury

Forget It...

Forget your job. Your family. Plans for the weekend. Forget it all if you decide to pick up James Siegel's "Detour". Once you start, consider your life on hold till you finish. Like Siegel's "Derailed" of two years ago, "Detour" is a high adrenaline rush of terror for the ordinary guy who finds his life spinning violently out of control. This life is that of Paul Breidbart, an insurance actuary, and his wife Joanna. Wanting nothing more than to adopt a child, Paul and Joanna find themselves in a nightmare of South American drug cartels, crooked lawyers, and the ubiquitous Russian mobsters seemingly obligatory in pop thrillers. As an actuary, Breidbart views life in probability and risk - a skill that comes in handy as he finds himself facing so many successive steroid-class catastrophes that an alien invasion would not have occurred improbable. Unthinkable brutality and enough twists to qualify the title, this is one mean read. As with "Derailed", Siegel's lean prose wastes no time as it moves at the pace of the best thriller films, giving neither characters nor readers much chance to catch a breath along the way. If Paul Breidbart were to handicap "Detour", I suspect he'd calculate a 98% probability of unqualified entertainment. Bravo!

Excellent

This book is exactly what it is meant to be, entertaining. A mystery with many plot twists and turns. A great stand alone read. It does not have any returning characters, long courtroom dramas or police procedures to weigh it down. It moves at the speed of light and leaves you satisfied at the end.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO SAVE THOSE YOU LOVE?

The question resonating throughout the latest spine-tingler from James Siegel is "Just how far would you go, what would you risk to save the person you love?" Stage, film and television actor Holter Graham gives an accomplished reading to this story of a man caught in a life or death struggle. Paul and Joanna Breidbart are a devoted married couple. Their lives are happy and complete save for the absence of a child. The waiting list to adopt a child in America is lengthy, so they decide to fly to Colombia to adopt a baby there. Their happiness is all too brief as Joanna and the baby are kidnaped; they're in the hands of drug dealers who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. Paul is told that in order to secure the release of his wife and baby he must smuggle cocaine worth millions into the U.S. and turn it over to a mysterious person in New Jersey within one day. If he does not do this, Joanna and the baby will both die. But, when Paul arrives at the meeting site in New Jersey the house has been destroyed. What will he do and where will he turn in order to save his wife and child? Siegel, the author of Derailed which Miramax has optioned for a major motion picture, delivers his story a bit like gunfire, in staccato bursts. And, it's frightening. If a fast-paced thriller laced with memorable characters is your pleasure, Detour is for you. - Gail Cooke