Fever

by Sean Rowe

Book Overview

Set up by his unscrupulous stepbrother in a freighter sinking, cruise line security chief and former FBI agent Matt Shannon learns his stepbrother's plot to acquire an enormous sum of money in a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316011746
• ISBN13: 9780316011747
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Thriller

Fever is an astonishing debut novel. Author Sean Rowe has combined both solid research and his own journalistic background to create a tightly written thriller. Fever is an exciting seagoing heist novel. The main character is one Matt "Loose Cannon" Shannon who leaves the FBI so he can avoid getting fired for his bad behavior there. Shannon takes a job as head of security for a cruise liner company. Shannon's sleazy step-brother persuades Shannon to take part in criminal acts on one of the company's liners. Specifically, the goal is the $30 Million in Columbian drug lord cash that the liner is carrying. The crime will be committed in such a way as to make it look like an anti-Castro terrorist operation. As the above shows, Fever is not your standard thriller novel and there are plenty more interesting characters and neat plot twists that all add up to make Fever one of the best thriller novels of the year.

great new author

One of the best and well written books that i have read in a long time. This is an exciting new author. Hoping for more!

A thriller difficult to put down and impossible to forget

I just finished reading a most remarkable novel titled FEVER. It started perfectly, and kept getting better and better until I thought I was going to jump out of my skin if I read another word. I was wrong about that. My skin is still intact, but not by much. FEVER is written by Sean Rowe, who has quite a background. He's been hit by a train and lived to tell about it; he's won awards for journalistic achievement; and, most pertinent for our purposes here today, he includes working as a copy reader for Adam & Eve --- a mail order company dealing in, uh, adult recreational products --- on his job resume. Although his debut novel doesn't have any photos or drawings going for it, Rowe nonetheless demonstrates that he is a craftsman of the highest order. The story begins with what is probably the most ingenious frameups I've encountered in quite a while. It is Matt "Loose Cannon" Shannon who is on the receiving end of it; what hurts is that his stepbrother, Jack Fontana, sets up the whole thing. Fontana is freshly out of prison on an early release and has the ultimate rip-off planned --- the theft of a fortune in drug money that is secretly being transported in a cruise ship named the Norwegian Empress. The problem --- one of many in this thrill-a-page novel --- is that Shannon, a retired FBI agent, is the security chief for the world's largest cruise line, whose holdings include the Empress. The frame ensures Cannon's reluctant cooperation. Fontana recruits a mixed bag of talent to pull off the heist, some of whom are tied to Shannon's past in ways he is totally unaware. The operation fluctuates wildly between success and failure from moment to moment, with Shannon having to wing it more often than not simply to stay alive and free at any given time. And stealing the money is only half the battle. Shannon and Fontana first have to retrieve it and then hang on to it, all the while avoiding the law and lawless. Rowe is nothing less than marvelous here. Just when you think things aren't going to get any worse, they do. And when you think they can't possibly get better, they...well, you'll have to read the book to find out. FEVER just might be one of the best thriller reads of the year, a year that has been full of great ones already. It's difficult to put down, and impossible to forget. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

starts at hyperspeed and accelerates from there

In a Miami bar overlooking the Government Cut waterway, former FBI Agent turn cruise line security chief Matt "Loose Cannon" Shannon is having his usual run of bourbon when his stepbrother Jack Fontana arrives having been released from the pen three years early. Jack discusses a freighter passing by and his time as a defrocked drug agent used in blanket party sex by his peers. He hands Matt a small video game for him to try. Jack hits what he assumes is the on button, sees the word bang on the screen, and the freighter blows up. "Vanishing Jack" disappears with the box that contains Matt's prints all over it. The Feds assume it is terrorism although no one steps forth claiming the deed. Jack demands Matt arrange for him and his comrades to board the Festival Cruise Line ship Norwegian Empress when it next travels to Cuba. The plan is to rob those on board the luxury liner. Matt seeks out of Jack's cleverly arranged trap, but sees no escape except to cooperate, but other players have agendas that cause collateral damage leaving people dead and more probably about to die unless Matt risks his freedom and his life by playing hero. FEVER takes off with its opening bang and never slows down until the final confrontation with Matt's wife. The story line is action-packed as Matt gets in deeper and deeper while the Norwegian Empress is hijacked with several dead including members of Jack's team. Surprisingly the roguish Jack is the more fascinating character though Matt has his moments. Sean Rowe provides an adrenaline burner that starts at hyperspeed and accelerates from there. Harriet Klausner

Excellent read!

The book is extremely well plotted, fast-paced, with very well-drawn characters. Excellent use of language. I'm not usually a fan of crime-drama, but this thing had me up all night. Very gritty read. Highly reccomended!