Born to Run: A Novel of Suspense

James Grippando knows how to write a novel. This one is a thriller from start to finish. The characters are believable and not too much larger than life. They manage to get caught up in all kinds of problems which are trying to be solved but do not get solved until the very end. You will not figure out the answer to this mystery before the author tells you about it. It is another good read about the lawyer Swyteck. J. Robert Ewbank, author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

"Run" is indeed the operative word in this intense page-turner by top flight thriller writer James Grippando. Although born in Cyprus a man is called the Greek, and he is running from enemies who would take pleasure in killing him, preferably slowly. The current president of the United States ran for his office, won it, and will do anything to keep it. How the two intersect is sizzling reading. A former trial lawyer himself Grippando has imbued his stalwart series lead, Jack Swyteck, with all the on-target attributes that make Swyteck one of the most believable protagonists in print. Add some very human characteristics and you have a likable, affecting character with whom readers identify. Those who wait for another Jack Swyteck adventure will be both pleased and surprised with what they find in Born To Run. Grippando opens with a grabber - the Greek has been married to Sofia for but 11 months when their apartment was broken into by Sicilian thugs. The Greek fled, running through alleys, and to a rooftop six stories up with nowhere else to turn. He was caught and thrown, "He didn't hear himself scream, or the Sicilians laughing, as his body collided with the cobblestone below." Skip to the Florida Everglades some 46 years later where Vice-President Phil Grayson is hunting alligators. But, he tumbled from his boat, "...headfirst into the marsh." As he sank into the muck, the pain became too much. "His body became stiff and unresponsive. His only choice it seemed, was to respect nature, to become one with black water, to be the third and weakest leg in a bizarre and deadly triangle. One angry gator. Untold pythons." Harry Swyteck, Jack's father and a two-time Florida governor, is asked to be the new Vice-President. Looking ahead to his confirmation hearings he asks Jack to be his lawyer. Not about to turn his Dad down, Jack accepts only to find that Washington, D.C. is not all like the Miami playing field with which he's so familiar. It's darker and deadlier than he could have ever imagined. Grippando has pulled out all the stops in Born To Run, and in an election year at that. It's a complex, complete thriller that races to a humdinger of a conclusion. - Gail Cooke

Beware of what you wish for... Dealing with a midlife crisis as he turns 40, Miami attorney Jack Swyteck buys a classic Mustang. Meanwhile, his once-estranged father, Harry, former governor of Florida, has an opportunity to revive his political ambitions. When the vice-president has a heard attack & falls off a boat while alligator-hunting, there's suddenly a job opening -- and the president asks Harry to fill it. That's where the best Swyteck thriller in years kicks off. Jack, accompanying his father to Washington, is approached by a number of different individuals, all suggesting that there was something awry with the veep's death -- and that a presidential secret could make Harry the new president. We meet the killer fairly early in the book -- he has his own problems to deal with, including the Mafia on his tail -- and the denouement ends up being a fairly predictable standoff at the OK Corral. Still, Grippando does a great job of character development, even with the minor players in the novel. The result is a solid thriller that will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens & how Jack, Harry, Theo, et. al. manage to battle their way through the fog to understand the plots in which they have become unwittingly enmeshed. The Washington and political background is an intriguing addition to Swyteck's more usual stomping ground of Miami. And the Mustang and vice-presidential ambitions? Well, as with all good thrillers, their fate isn't decided until the final pages.

In his fifties, Vice President Phil Grayson loved hunting so he went to a private land to shoot alligators while officially looking into the reported threat of pythons destroying the adjacent Everglades. Instead he dies when a humongous gator tips the boat and he falls into water filled with alligators and pythons. President Keys informs former Florida Governor Harry Swyteck that he is on the final list to replace Grayson if he is interested. Harry says yes and asks his son Jack to serve as his chief lawyer; Jack reluctantly agrees as he prefers to remain in Florida but will go to DC. However, Jack hears rumors that Grayson's death was not a freak accident, but a homicide. He investigates finding ties back to an incident in 1960 Cypress and a cover-up in 2008 Florida and Washington. This is an exciting action-packed legal thriller that grips the audience once the Veep dies and never slows down as Jack begins to unravel a murder conspiracy. The story line is action, action, and more action that has readers caught up with all that is happening. Fans will relish Jack's latest tale that also strains his improved relationship with his dad and his significant other. Harriet Klausner

Gripando has created a page turner that will grip you from the opening line to the final chapter in this legal thriller. Jack Swyteck, criminal defense attorney, is sucked into his most dangerous, convoluted case yet. A Greek is thrown off a roof in Cyprus, his wife is raped - and thirty years later it leads to the Vice President of the United States dying while hunting alligators in the Florida Everglades. Overnight Jack's dad, retired Florida Governor Harry Swyteck, is thrust into the limelight as the leading candidate for the VP vacancy. Jack is tapped to be his dad's lead attorney to shepherd him through the confirmation process - only to be fired six hours later. And people keep on dying. Gripando does a wonderful job of keeping the reader guessing about what's really going on - even as the reader is introduced to a series of legitimate red herrings that could provide reasonable explanations - but don't. And along the way Jack's investigator, Theo Knight, the convicted murderer who had been on death row that Jack proved was innocent, does his best to cover Jack's back. And FBI agent, Andie Henning, Jack's girlfriend, is constantly faced with challenges about Jack and his involvement in all of this. And all Jack wants to do is go back to his office and handle a simple little criminal case. But if he can't solve this riddle, he'll die from trying. There are forces at work that guarantee it. Well done, as usual--all and more that we expect from James Grippando. This is his sixteenth book and eighth in the popular series featuring Miami lawyer Jack Swyteck. The author writes legal thrillers learned while he was a trial lawyer. This is where he learned his storytelling gift. Armchair Interviews says: Grippando is an ingenious storyteller.