Ghostman by Roger Hobbs

Published by Knopf on February 12, 2013 

A ghostman is an imposter, someone who can make himself (or other criminals) disappear by changing appearance or identity. The titular ghostman lives by a motto he found in The Aaeneid: "If you can't reach heaven, raise hell." That pretty much sums up what you need to know about Ghostman: the protagonist is an intellectual who raises a lot of hell.

Ghostman starts with the theft of more than a million dollars from an armored car. The robbery turns into a bloodbath that leaves one of the two thieves dead at the scene. This concerns Marcus Hayes, who planned the robbery, because he's in a fatal predicament if he doesn't recover the loot. Hayes turns to Jack Delton -- the ghostman -- for help because Delton (not his real name, but it's the alias we're given) owes Hayes a debt for reasons that are explained in a series of flashbacks. It's the kind of debt Delton may have to repay with his life. Delton has to beat a very short clock if he's to save Hayes' life -- and his own.

Delton is soon jetting from Seattle to Atlantic City in search of Jerome Ribbons, the robber who seems to have disappeared with the stolen money. His search brings him into contact with a dangerous man known as the Wolf -- even more dangerous than Marcus. To keep the tension high, Roger Hobbs ends most chapters set in the present with "X hours to go."

The flashback chapters describe an audacious bank robbery in Kuala Lumpur. It's the sort of Ocean's Eleven scheme that pushes the boundary between improbable and ridiculous, but without the fancy gadgetry.

The primary plot -- the battle of wits between Marcus Hayes and the Wolf, with Delton stuck in the middle -- is clever. Apart from an overdone Russian roulette scene (there must be a more original way to show us that the protagonist isn't afraid to die), the story is, for the most part, convincing. I'm a bit skeptical of Delton's ability to take on and defeat thug after thug, usually while armed only with his wits, but the invincible protagonist is commonplace in the world of modern thrillers.

Readers who need to admire the sterling character of a thriller hero should give Ghostman a pass. Delton has only a few redeeming qualities (he doesn't kill people unless he feels it's necessary and he tries to avoid harming women and children) but he is nevertheless an interesting, if not particularly likable, character. He's certainly more likable than Hayes, the Wolf, or the other robbers, making it easy to root for him as the least of many evils.

Hobbs writes lively prose and moves the story forward at a pace that is well suited to a thriller. He fills Ghostman with interesting crime trivia (the safeguards against stealing money that's en route from the U.S. Treasury, the origin of the term "wheelman") without bogging down the story. Other than Delton, however, there isn't much here in the way of character development. This is a plot-and-action novel; it isn't character driven. Fortunately, the plot and action are sufficient to hold a reader's interest. The climax is a bit anti-climactic but the novel as a whole is enjoyable.

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