Nameless Night

I'm very, very disappointed. I was all set to dislike this book, and I couldn't do it. You see, I'm a certified Corso-holic. I loved G.M. Ford's Frank Corso novels. I couldn't believe it when I read on the flyleaf of this book that it wasn't another Corso book. How and why could Ford do it? How could this not be another Corso book? I was crushed, and then royally frosted. I was so ticked I looked up the author on the Internet to give him a few pieces of my mind - not that I could spare them. When I couldn't find an email address for him, I got even more ticked. I stewed for another minute or two, finally resigned myself, fixed myself a coffee, and sat down to glare at my reflection in the window. "Oh, well! (sigh) I guess I may as well read the damned thing, now that I have it," I decided, and a funny thing happened. I cracked the book and the next thing I knew my coffee was cold and the clock had jumped ahead by two hours. My two hours of reading started as if I had been walking down a street I'd walked a thousand times before when all of a sudden a store I'd never noticed appeared. I stopped and looked closely. I couldn't believe it, but I was right. I'd never seen it before. I walked on a little further and a second shop I'd never seen appeared. "Am I on the right street?" I asked myself, looking around. When a third, previously unseen shop loomed ahead, I knew I wasn't where I thought I was. That's the way the story of Nameless Night begins, and then continues. I knew where the plot was going, until suddenly I didn't. Suddenly I was in a plot I didn't see coming. Even when I was in the midst of it, I was still completely at sea. GM Ford broke the mold on what I'd read of him before, coming up with a new lead character (a stand-alone character, as the flyleaf said); several lead characters, to be sure. The person I thought was the lead character at the beginning of the book was not the same as the lead character who appeared next, and who was not the lead that finally evolved from the mist of the story, although the first lead did reappear later in the book, and again in the closing chapters, then becoming a co-lead. [Confused? Yeah, it'll do that to ya!] It was an ambitious, confusing, ultimately satisfying, and entertaining journey. Nameless Night is a story of intrigue, gruesome slaughter, comedy, more gruesome slaughter, suspense, action, drama, and still more gruesome slaughter, with the end leaving you pensive, but satisfied. It's a story of a man who sleepwalked for a number of years, marching to his own drummer, and living in a group home. One day he's hit by a car, and in an unlikely twist of fate, the driver of the car, a software millionaire, pays to completely repair the horrific damage done to our hero, who remains sort of nameless throughout most of the story. Just when you think his identity is finally to become known, Ford throws a slider across the plate. As you prepare to connect with the ball, it makes a little ver

I've been a fan of G. M. Ford for a few years now. I've especially enjoyed his books about crusading reporter Frank Corso, and my personal favorite of those books is A BLIND EYE. Ford writes larger than life heroes and about true evil, with a smattering of philosophy concerning the measure of an individual. Not enough to be preachy, but enough to make you stop and think every now and again. His newest release, NAMELESS NIGHT, is a good fit for him. A suspense story wrapped up with a mystery suspended by enigmas over certain death. It's a stand-alone novel, the first that he's written (unless there's a sequel in the works). The old hero-has-amnesia from a violent crime has been done near unto death. After THE BOURNE IDENTITY, I really thought we wouldn't see anything like that for a while. Or at least not see a writer pull it off quite so well. Ford seems to thumb his nose at conventional thinking, though, and heads right to the core of the story on page one. His story is about an amnesiac and the people who are out to kill him, and he's not going to back off from that. I liked the way Ford sets up the character of Paul Hardy. Hardy is likeable and you can't help feeling for him for all that he's lost. His face is horribly disfigured and his skull is misshapen, which is the obvious reason he's lost his memory. Not only has he lost his long-term memory, but his short-term memory is almost negligible as well. The characters at the house where he's been made a ward of the state are a welcome addition, and I was glad to see that they weren't just tossed away after the initial introduction. As always, Ford kicks the ball into play from the opening page. Before the first chapter wraps, even Hardy's dismal life as a mentally challenged person suddenly hangs by a thread. While trying to safe another ward of the foster home, he's hit by a car and receives even more extensive damage. I have to admit, I was ready to start playing the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN theme song as the doctors rebuilt him, starting with his face and the huge dent in his skull. As soon as he starts healing, he starts getting his memory back. The doctor that performed the surgery even stated that the brain started sliding back to occupy the space that was taken away. I knew something was going to change. The book quickly moves into familiar territory. Hardy recalls a name and one of the well-meaning people at the home searches for it on the computer. Immediately black cars filled with government agents descend upon the home and start asking questions. In short order, NAMELESS NIGHT becomes something of a road trip as Hardy, now called Randy, starts trying to pull his new life together while searching for his past. The pursuers are never far away, and the chapters often cut to shadowy bad guys and other people that get roped into the whole affair. As always, Ford delivers a deftly paced puzzler with some roundhouse gutbusters that remind the reader that not eve

G. M. Ford's first standalone novel, after his two wonderful series featuring Frank Corso and Leo Waterman, opens with a startling scenario: The man known as Paul Hardy had been found near death in a railroad car, patched up as well as possible, his injuries so severe that he is described in the first pages as follows: "...he smiled, or maybe grimaced. With all that scar tissue on his face, it was hard to tell. Looked like somebody had crushed the front of his skull with a crowbar or something, pushed everything back so far it was both a wonder he was alive and a mercy he wasn't tuned to the same channel as the rest of humanity." He had been put in a group home for the adult disabled, almost completely unresponsive. Even his name is unknown - "Paul Hardy" was picked for him at random. Now, seven years later and probably in his mid-thirties, he is the victim of a horrific car accident. The resulting surgeries [paid for by the anguished driver who had caused the incident] have completely altered his appearance and much more, to the extent that, as one of his doctors says, "this is a brand-new person, somebody who never existed before... six months from now, not even his own mother would recognize this guy." His already crushed face and skull have been radically changed well beyond plastic surgery. The person who had been called Paul Hardy is now a thinking, aware and questioning man with the tiniest fragment of a memory of his life before the past seven years, and determined to find out what that life was, and who he is. He embarks on a search for the answers to those questions, with unimagined and unimaginable consequences. That pursuit gives rise to a novel that is as well-written and suspenseful as anything that this author has previously written, and that is saying quite a lot. The scenario that plays out after the scene described above seemed to me at first to be like something straight out of George Orwell, only to find that prescient soul's name invoked soon after. But of course Orwell's day didn't have current technology available nor a post-911 era to justify its ubiquitous use. And in no time at all, as the author's storytelling skills quiet assert themselves, this riveting tale, all about "memory" and "reality," has the reader completely in its grip. I loved the book, and it is highly recommended.

Seven years ago Paul Hardy was fortunate to survive as he was found near dead in a railroad car behind Western Station; his body broken and his mind gone. Some might take exception to the word survive as Paul has not communicated with anyone since the incident while residing at Harmony House for the disabled in Washington State. Paul works for a local contractor doing menial physical tasks as his communication skills are almost nonexistent. He abruptly rushes towards the street and prevents a wheelchair spinning out of control from tipping saving Shirley from harm. However, in doing his heroic deed, a Lexus hits Paul instead of the woman. He is taken to the hospital where he wakes up, but insists he is not Paul Hardy; worse the face staring at him from a mirror is not the one he recognizes. Desperate, he follows vague clues floating inside his head in search of his true identity and what happened to him. While Frank Corso and the Leo Waterman take breathers, NAMELESS NIGHT is an exhilarating conspiracy thriller starring a fascinating protagonist who struggles to learn the truth with each frustrating clue leading to deeper complications and danger. However, although exciting, the story line turns into the typical war between the FURY of a loner with no chance and the most affluent powerful American cartel with killer pros on their payroll to eliminate pests like Paul. Harriet Klausner

I was sent an advance readers copy of the novel Nameless Night by G. M. Ford. This was my first exposure to Ford, so I wasn't predisposed to like or dislike his work based on prior novels. And since this was billed as a "stand-alone" novel not based on any of his prior characters, I wasn't being dipped into the middle of a story-line I was unprepared for. Overall, Nameless Night was an entertaining read, with plenty of suspense and mystery as the main character searched for his true identity. Paul Hardy had been living in an assisted-living facility for seven years. He was found near death back then, and he had no recollection or identification as to who he was or where he came from. It didn't help that he had facial injuries that distorted any true image of who he might have been. While out walking with one of his friends at the care center, he's hit by a car and again is near death. The driver, a software tycoon, pays for extensive reconstructive surgery on Paul's face, which also involves correcting some of the skull damage from the original accident. This surgery alters Paul's brain, restoring many of his mental faculties, but still doesn't answer the main question... who was Paul prior to the accident seven years ago? All he knows is that Paul Hardy isn't his real name, he has vague images of a past life in Florida, and all of a sudden federal agents are *very* interested in finding him. He's just as interested in avoiding them until he can get some answers, as being detained as a threat to "national security" means you many never surface again. Overall, Nameless Night was a page turner. I enjoyed the premise of someone with no identity becoming whoever he wanted to be, since there was no past he had to conform to. I did think the reason behind his initial accident and the subsequent government efforts to find him was a bit strained. While anything is possible in a conspiracy novel, I just didn't get the feeling that this particular event would have led to the level of effort to eliminate Hardy and all the related individuals. Still, that didn't detract from the general urgency in the plot-line to figure out who he was and why someone considered him better off dead. Nameless Night was a good escape from reality, and was worth the time spent reading it. Based on his work here, I'm likely to go back and check out some of Ford's earlier works.