TLC Book Tour & #Giveaway for Cost of Life by Joshua Corin

Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Book Tour, presented by TLC Book Tours, for Cost of Life by Joshua Corin.  Please leave a comment or question for Joshua or about my review to let Joshua and I know you stopped by.  You can enter the tour wide giveaway, for a $25 GC to the ebook retailer of the winner’s choice and an ebook copy of Cost of Life by Joshua Coriin, by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.  You can also follow all of the stops on Joshua’ tour by clicking on TLC Banner below.  

Cost of Life

By Joshua Corin

Publisher:  Alibi (An Imprint of Random House, LLC)

Release Date:  March 17, 2015

Genre: Thriller/Action Suspense

Length:  294 Pages

ISBN:  978-1-101882-61-0

ASIN:  B00N6PEWCS

Purchase Links  Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble | Kobo 

About the book: 

For readers of Preston & Child, James Rollins, and Brad Thor comes a gripping new thriller from Joshua Corin, in which an audacious hijacking is just the beginning of a twisted international nightmare.

Happy Independence Day. You’re all going to die.

Life can’t be better for veteran pilot Larry Walder. He has a great job, a terrific kid, a gorgeous wife—and no inkling that tonight will be the end of the world as he knows it. In the early hours before the Fourth of July, three men break into Larry’s home. And as the day lurches on to its terrifying course, a life is taken, and Flight 816 from Atlanta to Cozumel, Mexico, vanishes off the radar.

In the air, Larry must find a way to save his family, his crew, and his passengers. On the ground, disgraced FBI agent Xanadu Marx goes rogue, making it her mission to track down the missing flight before the hijackers reach their diabolical endgame. With the casualties racking up and the world’s busiest airport under lockdown, a message arrives: This is no ordinary hijacking, no typical hostage crisis. This ransom is a totally different beast—the first hint of a conspiracy that might bring America to its knees.

Advance praise for Cost of Life

“In Cost of Life, Joshua Corin turns a humdrum airline flight into a ride on an F-15 with a smoking engine—fast, terrifying, and oh so fun. I loved the writing. Corin’s whip-smart dialogue crashed me straight into a world of fascinating characters and complicated allegiances. I couldn’t stop reading until the wheels touched down on that final tarmac.”—Rebecca Cantrell, New York Times bestselling author of The World Beneath

“Fraught with danger and surprises, Cost of Life is a tale chock-full of action, adventure, and intrigue. Treachery comes from all directions, so consider yourself warned.”—Steve Berry, New York Timesbestselling author of The Lincoln Myth

“In Cost of Life, Joshua Corin brings us Xanadu Marx, a tough but vulnerable ex–FBI agent who literally pulls no punches. Corin’s sure-footed handling of plot, character, and voice is the kind of writing that inspires authors like me to up their game.”—Robert Gregory Browne, author of Whisper in the Dark

About Joshua Corin

Joshua Corin is the author of Nuclear Winter Wonderland, While Galileo Preys, andBefore Cain Strikes. He holds an M.A. in English and an M.A. in theater from Binghamton University, and currently teaches college in Atlanta, Georgia.

Connect with Joshua

Website:  http://joshuacorin.com/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/joshuacorin

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/joshua.corin.1

Gripping, addictive and heart racing suspense are just a few of the words that can be used to describe Joshua Corin’s latest thriller, Cost of Life.  Filled with flawed, colorful characters, psychological drama, alternating view points and non-stop action, this was a book I read from start to finish with no stops – I literally could not put it down.  If you like suspense filled books, crime dramas and edge of your seat action, look no further – this is the book for you!

While the story starts with a somewhat familiar crisis (airplane pilot’s family is kidnapped and used to blackmail the pilot into flying a plane full of passengers to an alternate location), Mr. Corin soon points out the real dilemma at hand;  the pilot’s willingness to place the value of his family above the lives of the passengers on his plane.  While I could sympathize with Larry Walder, the pilot, to a point, and admit that he’s a likeable character, I did find it difficult to consider him any kind of hero, at least throughout most of the book, because of how long it took his character to really develop. 

I did however, have no difficulty at all identifying with Xanadu “Xana” Marx, the recovering alcoholic, former FBI agent, who in my opinion is the real “hero” of the book.  While she clearly has issues, I found her character development superb.  Struggling to remain sober and trying to regain her job at the FBI, Xanadu is like a female version of Jack McLane from the Die Hard movies; smart, mouthy and willing to bend the rules to solve the crime.  She’s also got the advantage of speaking a dozen or more different languages and recognizing that there’s more to this hijacking than meets the eye.

Mr. Corin also did a good job developing the secondary characters and the criminals in his story; I especially liked FBI Special Agent in Charge James Christie, and Hayley, the FBI Intern, who is first put in charge of driving Xana around but then really comes into her own doing background research and helping Xana in the second half of the book.  The criminal mastermind behind the hijacking is an interesting character who is very easy to dislike – and even though Mr. Corin does a good job pointing out what drove him to do what he did – I found it easy to wish for his defeat and hope for his death.

Will Larry and Xana be able to save the passengers?  Will Xana gain redemption if the hostages are recovered?  You’ll have to read Cost of Life to find out.  I really enjoyed it and hope we get to see Xanadu Marx again – she’s definitely a character a series can be built around.

My Rating:  4.5 out of 5 Crowns

a Rafflecopter giveaway