Alex's Reviews > Iron House

IRON HOUSE (Pub. 2011) by John Hart is hands down the best book I've read this year. This is my first story by the author and I'm thrilled to have discovered it, although by accident, after pulling it off the library shelf at random simply because the title was interesting and the cover flap intrigued me.

I enjoyed this story so much it's hard to know where to start on what I liked best about it. It's a fantastic, fast-paced thriller coaster ride that is completely different than the typical thrillers on today's market. There is absolutely nothing cookie-cutter about this book, that's for sure. The myriad plots twists, surprises, intertwined and far-reaching events all have wide impact on multiple characters, and yet manage to come across very organically, never shoe-horned or head-shaking.

In addition to the fantastically woven plot, Hart gives us characters we begin to root for and care about from the get-go. Several characters are so well drawn I easily developed a picture of them in my mind's eye that will likely linger for days.

Two brothers, Michael and Julian, one strong and fierce because he has no choice, the other weak and damaged, are found as infants on the edge of a freezing creek in the Carolina mountains, rescued by hunters and taken to an orphanage. They grow up in a horrific situation, scrapping and surviving, barely holding on to their sanity, until one day, forced to fight for his life, the weak brother kills his tormentor in the lavatory, and the strong brother steps up to take the blame. This gruesome scene takes place while a rich and beautiful woman waits in the director's office, come to adopt them and take them away from the hell they've been living in. But only one boy goes home with the angel of mercy, the other is forced to run from the law and into a life of hard crime he never wanted. This fascinating and heart wrenching backstory scene plays out very briefly, in a 'real-time' flashback, then we get popped right back into present time where all hell is breaking loose for the now-grown brothers, one weak, one strong, both with their lives and hearts on the line once again, but the stakes are much, much higher this time around.

The writing itself is several notches above today's standard thriller fair. The author manages to pull off a riveting and hard-driving thriller of a story while constantly giving such beautifully phrased, yet quick and succinct descriptions, all with an easy flow that never once interrupts the story in progress. Hart gives us just enough description and scene setting blips to engage the mind's eye without bogging the pace for a moment. He manages to do that with such spot-on, and yet unexpected phrasing, I had to sit back and marvel for a brief second, to taste them on my mind's tongue a moment before greedily zipping on down the page. And the author manages to do that over and over, throughout the story.

In addition to the brilliantly breathless thriller that launches high and hot from the first chapter, the author keeps popping story questions along the way, which culminate in a big and ugly murder-mystery that doesn't kick off until the middle of the story. IRON HOUSE brings twists and turns and surprises right up to the last page, along with an extremely satisfying ending, all questions asked and answered, comeuppance and karma fully dealt, and our hero on the brink of what we want to believe will be happily ever after, although it's handled with such finesse and just the right amount of angst we can't be sure exactly how it will go.

The only thing wrong with this story is how high it sets the bar--it will be hard to find another great read that compares with this one. John Hart has easily vaulted to the very top of my favorite author list with this book, and I can't wait to get my hands on another one of his stories.