Jack Wakes Up (Jack Palms Crime #1)
by
Seth Harwood (Goodreads Author)
Washed-up movie star Jack Palms is knee-deep in a Bay Area drug war and it’ll take the performance of a lifetime to get him through it alive.
In the three years since Jack Palms left Hollywood and kicked his drug habit, he’s added fourteen pounds of muscle, read eighty-three books, and played it as straight as anyone could reasonably ask. But the residual checks are drying...more
In the three years since Jack Palms left Hollywood and kicked his drug habit, he’s added fourteen pounds of muscle, read eighty-three books, and played it as straight as anyone could reasonably ask. But the residual checks are drying...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
May 5th 2009
by Three Rivers Press
(first published January 17th 2008)
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A crime noir thriller that keeps me on the edge of my seat, Jack Wakes Up's engaging protagonist is both likable and despicable. In mythic terms he represents the shapechanger, a mirror man who is what other people think he is. And yet his tale wraps you up, demands your attention, forces you to take his side. I care about Jack even though he really clearly hates himself. And that's why I give this book five stars.
The crime aspects are hard, the characters bold, the whole feel of the...more
The crime aspects are hard, the characters bold, the whole feel of the...more
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I love Jack! He was an actor who fell into the kind of negative behaviors that come with fame and money. Successful in cleaning up his life after a public fiasco that put his career on hold, the money began to run out and boredom was setting in. A meeting with an old friend and a decision to make a few quick bucks sends him off on a wild adventure. This fast paced thriller doesn't even give you time to breathe between one gut-wrenching, jaw-dropping moment to the next. We follow Jack through the...more
I first was exposed to Jack Palms in podiobook form with Seth reading them and I still couldn't wait to pre-order my signed copy when I had the chance. I then won a contest and ordered two more with my winnings.
JWU is a great, action packed read with a flawed 'hero' that you can't help but pull for throughout the whole series. And even though I've already listened to them all, I will probably listen to them again and buy them when they are released. Yes! They are that good. Seth d...more
JWU is a great, action packed read with a flawed 'hero' that you can't help but pull for throughout the whole series. And even though I've already listened to them all, I will probably listen to them again and buy them when they are released. Yes! They are that good. Seth d...more
Jack Palms is a one-hit wonder actor who's climbing his way back from drug addiction and a domestic abuse charge. The financing for the sequel to his hit movie dried up with his arrest, his marriage is long gone, the money is just about gone and Jack is nearly broke, out of work and on the verge of losing his house in Sausalito, California. Jack's working hard at living right and getting himself back on the right track, but we all know how far that goes when the bills are due, so when the phone ...more
Jack Wakes Up could easily have been called Jack Kicks Ass. Seth Harwood’s ex-movie star tough guy Jack Palms roars through this action novel, cool as… well as cool as a guy who drives a 66 Mustang Fastback.
Written in present tense, Jack Wakes Up hits the action quickly, giving us enough detail about Jack’s past life to make the reader curious but not getting too bogged down in details before the real action starts. Jack, somewhat down on his luck after kicking Heroin is running out of...more
Written in present tense, Jack Wakes Up hits the action quickly, giving us enough detail about Jack’s past life to make the reader curious but not getting too bogged down in details before the real action starts. Jack, somewhat down on his luck after kicking Heroin is running out of...more
"Jack Wakes Up" is a good noir / crime thriller!
L.A., drugs & betrayal....
The characters are good, the main character Jack Palms isn't quite the tough guy I thought he would be. The Czechs are great characters and have all the usual eastern European stereotypes built in. The bad guys really arent too bad at all unfortunately. Maxine, a stripper turned bartender is really the only female character in the book.
This is not a five star book, but its a...more
L.A., drugs & betrayal....
The characters are good, the main character Jack Palms isn't quite the tough guy I thought he would be. The Czechs are great characters and have all the usual eastern European stereotypes built in. The bad guys really arent too bad at all unfortunately. Maxine, a stripper turned bartender is really the only female character in the book.
This is not a five star book, but its a...more
Joshua
rated it
Recommended to Joshua by:
Only crime fiction completists
Shelves:
crime,
mystery-thrillers
The back cover of Jack Wakes Up has a quote from Megan Abbott, a writer I greatly admire that reads, "like a long lost Mickey Spillane tale as directed by Robert Rodriguez." I love Mickey Spillane's work and a Robert Rodriguez film always leaves me with a smile on my face. So when I saw this at the book store I was instantly sold. Sadly, the book nowhere lives up to Megan's billing.
It's not that Seth Harwood is a poor writer, in fact I quite enjoyed his crisp, in your fa...more
It's not that Seth Harwood is a poor writer, in fact I quite enjoyed his crisp, in your fa...more
"Jack Wakes Up" was an incredibly fun novel. Three authors I really enjoy: Megan Abbott, Duane Swierczynski and Michael Connelly offered up high praise for the book, so I expected to like it and I ended up enjoying it even more than I expected
The novel is about Jack Palms, a former actor who made one hit action movie that gave him everything and then lost it all because of drug addiction and scandal. When the novel begins, Jack is fresh out of rehab and offers to help...more
Jack Palms is down on his luck-- after some bad tabloid press, his acting career bottomed out after only one action film. During his time of fame, he developed a heroin addiction and an abusive relationship. These are the two major reasons that his one film remains just one film. Now he is trying to pick up the pieces of his life and pay his piling bills. When his friend Ralph offers him a couple thousand to help him show a few Czech visitors a good time and help them with their Colombian co...more
I don't read a lot of crime fiction, which when I think about it is kind of odd. I mean, I love a lot of this stuff when it's presented in movie form - stuff like Tarantino's early work, Guy Ritchie's stuff, and the like. Jack Wakes Up, Seth Harwood's debut novel, is exactly like one of those movies. It tells the story of Jack Palms, a washed-up actor who gets caught up in a drug war between various gangs in San Fransisco. This was a fun, slick read, that had a lot of energy to it and a grea...more
Coming out on May 5, 2009, THIS is THE book. This is THE year. JACK PALMS, baby!
Catch it!
Catch it!
Continuing my little hard-boiled project this week makes for a bit of a departure as I step away from the detective field into the straight up crime thriller. (I’ll return to detective fiction with my subsequent reads since I’ve decided I want to attempt a novel for each decade since I have the 40s/50s well covered.) Like his contemporaries Scott Sigler and J. C. Hutchins (both contribute reviews on the book’s Amazon page) Seth Hardwood comes from the growing numbers of “podcast writers” that ar...more
Jack Palms is a washed-up movie star with one big hit to his name three years ago, he's also managed to kick his drug habit and hasn't had a drink in 2 years. His healthy lifestyle can get pretty boring though and when his old friend Ralph calls on him to help some Czechs to have a good time "where that mug of yours can still get us past a few red ropes" (and get paid for it) and be the go-between for drug dealer and buyer, he's more than ready, especially when the banks are on his bac...more
Three years ago action movie star Jack Palms was arrested in front of several paparazzi and his movie career tanked leaving his chances for a sequel to Shake ‘Em Down at next to nothing. But that was the wake up call he needed. He divorced his troubled wife, left Hollywood and successfully kicked a serious drug habit. Now all he has to look forward to is his rationed one cigarette per day, a bowl of cereal and working out at the gym.
When one of his old friends, Ralph Anderino, calls ...more
When one of his old friends, Ralph Anderino, calls ...more
In Jack Wakes up, Harwood gives us a new twist on the old noir heist formula. Jack Palms, out of work actor, is tapped by a friend to play second fiddle on a giant drug dealer. He needs the money. He needs the distraction. He’s so amazingly bored that when bullets start flying and people start dying, he finds it exhilarating. In this, his first outing, Harwood combines the classic noir sensibilities of James M Cain with the quick-clipped plot movement that children of the nineties have come to e...more
Never has brutality been such a thing of beauty as in Harwood's depiction of the San Francisco drug realm in 'Jack Wakes Up'. Borrowing from the cult classic film Point Break and to a lesser extent Drive (by Sallis) this expose' of a washed up former actor and H addict turned hardened thug is A class noir. A willing victim of circumstance Jack Palms finds himself embroiled in a budding drug war, KGB beef, and murder. Accompanied by an ensemble cast comprising crazy Czechs, murderous Colombians, ...more
Jack Wakes Up is just the beginning, but it is an important beginning. How do hardboiled detectives get made? Do they spring, fully-formed from some dark closet, all of their quirks and mannerisms in place?
Or are they, like Jack Palms in the novel "Jack Wakes Up", created through circumstance?
Jack could have turned his back on the death of his friend, but he didn't. He could have told his friend's drug gangsters to take a hike, but he didn't. He could have left ...more
Or are they, like Jack Palms in the novel "Jack Wakes Up", created through circumstance?
Jack could have turned his back on the death of his friend, but he didn't. He could have told his friend's drug gangsters to take a hike, but he didn't. He could have left ...more
I'm gonna be brutally honest here. I know I read this (or rather, listened to the audiobook version), and I know I enjoyed it... but I don't remember that much about it. All I really remember was lots of action scenes and russian accents (again, listened to the audiobook). That being said, I know it must have been good cause I remember looking forward to the second one, but remembering as little as I do, it can't have been all that lasting an impression, which is why I'm docking a couple stars.
I love this series. It is fast-paced, entertaining and always moving forward. It is truly action-packed. I listened to all three of the Jack Palms novels and young Junius (a spin-off from the series) over a long commute as an audio book. I was always left wanting more, which was also a distinct down-side to the writing. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it as much as a book (as opposed to an audio book) because part of the value derived from the reading of it by Seth Harwood.
A noir action-thriller that probably would have made a better screenplay than novel. Set in San Francisco, a has-been movie star is tangled in high-stakes drug deals and rival dealers. The plot itself is paced as if it's on cocaine, and the mayhem strains credulity. The characters are tragic in noir tradition, but rather two-dimensional. Still, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this made into a movie someday.
Put this one down about halfway through, which is pretty rare. Normally I enjoy this sort of noir where bad things happen to a decent-enough fella who is down on his luck (can we have a sub-genre name for this please?), but Charlie Huston is currently dominating the court at this game and this one suffered by comparison. Well-written enough, but I just didn't care what happened to any of the characters.
I must say I was sooo excited when I got this book in the mail and Seth signed the copy for me. My husband ( who might I add isnt a reader at all) is very excited about this novel. He read the back and said that he would be interested in reading as well!!!!!!!
Good read. Nice twist to the pulp genre. The hero isn't a cop or a detective or a regular guy down on his luck. I loved the fact he was a washed up actor with just enough fame recognition to make him useful to those living on the seedy side of life.
A guy I met at a party wrote this book, and I enjoy the genre so I gave it a shake. It went down smooth and I still remember bits of it, and I've always thought staying-power is a novel's most redeemable asset.
If you like hard-boiled, no let up, action-packed mystery crime thrillers, this is the book for you. For me, this was less than a two-day read. Highly recommended.
The biggest surprise of this action-packed rollercoaster ride of a book is that it's not set in the 1980s. Influenced by the action films of the 1980s, it feels almost anachronistic to set it in the present. Or maybe it's just anachro-tastic.
If you're in the mood for big, fast, popcorn fun, this is the book for you. It's got the pace and the action. A fun, quick read.
If you're in the mood for big, fast, popcorn fun, this is the book for you. It's got the pace and the action. A fun, quick read.
fast paced--spot-on depictions of San Francisco. Still waiting for "Jack heads to Oakland!"
I really, really tried to like this book. I trudged through to the end, which mercifully it did.
"Jack Wakes Up would fall somewhere between Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and 2 Fast 2 Furious, were it to have been a film. There are drug deals, murders, gun fights, car chases, betrayals, and strip bars - everything you expect from a high-octane, fast-paced action story.
This was fun to listen to. In the world of action storytelling, JWU was an invigorating tale, a cracking good yarn with plenty of good laughs thrown in."
The rest of my review can be read ...more
This was fun to listen to. In the world of action storytelling, JWU was an invigorating tale, a cracking good yarn with plenty of good laughs thrown in."
The rest of my review can be read ...more
This book keeps you on the edge of your seat. You don't know what is going to happen next, and the main character is extremely unpredictable. You will find yourself yelling at Jack when he does something stupid.
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In 2005, Seth Harwood began writing his debut novel, Jack Wakes Up. No stranger to the literary scene, Harwood had graduated from the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop just a few years earlier and his short stories had been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies; getting attention from publishers for Jack Wakes Up, however, proved more difficult.
So in July of 2006, Seth r...more
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