Awards
An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year
A People Page-Turner of the Week
Synopses & Reviews
Power. Seduction. Greed. If you get too close, you might get burned.
A People Page-Turner of the Week
Charlie Ravitch is driven by power. As an international corporate tycoon he's well-skilled in the art of the deal. As a former Vietnam POW he still carries the scars of war. As a husband and father on the hard side of fifty he's on a quest for immortality-- and for a woman who can make every dream come true. No matter what it costs.
Christina Welles is driven by greed. As a prison parolee, she's a veteran of dangerous-- and seductive-- relationships, a cunning woman well-schooled in the art of manipulation. Her bid to stay alive on the streets means outrunning her past, and escaping a lie that threatens every life she touches. No matter what it takes.
In a moment of chance, two lives are about to intersect. In a nightmarish twist of fate, two obsessions are about to be indulged. And in a world where anything goes, one false move can destroy them both...
An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year
Review
"Afterburn [is] not just a tightly structured novel of suspense but a rich and textured tale of character-as-destiny....This is a serious, stylish, generously humane work of fiction. (Grade: A)" Tom DeHaven, Entertainment Weekly
Review
"The handy cliche alleging that a thriller is so good it transcends its genre has rarely been truer than in the case of this breathtakingly suspenseful meditation....A practically perfect literary thriller..." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A dark tale....A complicated, smart story." USA Today
Review
"[Harrison writes] like an angel....[A] daringly complex tale....As smartly orchestrated as the action is, it's Harrison's achingly real characters who empower the novel, as well as his prose: is there a noir novelist alive who can match his wattage?" Publishers Weekly
Review
"It's [Harrison's] ability to make what he's learned come alive through exact description and his stylish way of incorporating it into a sentence that creates the novel's sense of authenticity." Stephen Dobyns, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[A] powerful thriller....This is a compelling, thrilling, and intelligent novel with sharply drawn characters." Vanessa Bush, Booklist
Review
"Though the term rarely applies...Afterburn is a literary thriller in the best sense of both words, a deceptively intricate study of man's basest instincts told in ferocious, compulsively readable language." Scott Tobias, The Onion A.V. Club
Review
"Afterburn is a far more ambitious and disturbing novel than its thriller trappings might avow it is a harsh exegesis of the legacies of both torture and mendacity....Afterburn is less a conventional thriller than a passionately orchestrated death march." G. Gorychka, The Voice Literary Supplement
Review
"[A]bsorbing....While the sex scenes are tedious and graphic and the violence repulsive and overlong, this story is never boring. The three main characters are realistically drawn and compelling. Harrison has written another winner..." Library Journal
Review
"It's a measure of Harrison's skill as a writer that Afterburn doesn't break down, despite the popcorn philosophy and endless orgasms of its characters. Harrison is an old-fashioned novelist with a gift for sharp characterization and a sense of pace that keeps you reading even when you know it's all hokum. Just skip the ruminations and go for the thrills." Peter Kurth, Salon.com
Review
"Extraordinary....A masterpiece." The Washington Post
Review
"Fascinates while it horrifies....It's a sure thing....You won't soon forget it." Denver Post
Review
"Ingenious plot turns....A compelling story fueled by lots of surprises." BookPage
Synopsis
Power. Seduction. Greed. If you get too close, you might get burned.
Charlie Ravitch is driven by power. As an international corporate tycoon he's well-skilled in the art of the deal. As a former Vietnam POW he still carries the scars of war. As a husband and father on the hard side of fifty he's on a quest for immortality and for a woman who can make every dream come true. No matter what it costs.
Christina Welles is driven by greed. As a prison parolee, she's a veteran of dangerous and seductive relationships, a cunning woman well-schooled in the art of manipulation. Her bid to stay alive on the streets means outrunning her past, and escaping a lie that threatens every life she touches. No matter what it takes.
In a moment of chance, two lives are about to intersect. In a nightmarish twist of fate, two obsessions are about to be indulged. And in a world where anything goes, one false move can destroy them both...
Synopsis
A high-voltage international thriller about a millionaire businessman catapulted into a world of criminal intrigue, sexual obsession, extortion, and death.
Charlie Ravich is a survivor whose brutal experience as a POW in Vietnam has more than prepared him for the cutthroat world of global commerce. Now a wealthy Upper East Side executive in his late fifties, Charlie has only one problem: his family is dying out. His wife teeters on the edge of Alzheimer's; their son has succumbed to leukemia; and their daughter, Julia, is unable to bear a child. Charlie is being trumped by time.
Enter Christina, a beguiling Columbia University dropout-intelligent, selectively dishonest, filled with desire. Her affair with Rick Bocca, a member of a big-time truck-theft ring run by mobster Tony V., has landed her in prison. After four years in Bedford Hills, she is suddenly released by the Manhattan D.A.'s office perhaps because she is innocent, perhaps not.
Warned by a detective that Christina is being set up by Tony V., Rick begins a desperate, bungled search to warn Christina, who has lied her way into the high-flying world of Charlie Ravich. But her past catches up with her, and Rick's catches up with him, setting off a harrowing chain of betrayals that leaves only one person with any hope of a future.
At once smart, sexy, and graphically violent, Afterburn spans the mean streets of New York's underworld and Hong Kong's corridors of high finance, and stands as Colin Harrison's most commercial work yet.
About the Author
COLLIN HARRISON is the deputy editor of Harper's and the author of Bodies Electric, Break and Enter, and Manhattan Nocturne. He lives with his wife, novelist Kathryn Harrison, in Brooklyn.