Michael Robotham

Why would a man serving a long prison sentence escape the day before he's due to be released? Audie Palmer has spent ten years in a Texas prison after pleading guilty to a robbery in which four people died and seven million dollars went missing. During that time he has suffered repeated beatings, stabbings and threats by inmates and guards, all desperate to answer the same question: where's the money? On the day before Audie is due to be released, he suddenly vanishes. Now everybody is searching for him - the police, FBI, gangsters and other powerful figures - but Audie isn't running to save his own life. Instead, he's trying to save someone else's. Michael Robotham has created the ultimate underdog hero, an honorable criminal shrouded in mystery and ready to lead readers on a remarkable chase.

A Novel

Life or Death

Why would a man escape from prison the day before he's due to be released? Audie Palmer has spent a decade in prison for an armed robbery in which four people died, including two of the gang. Seven million dollars has never been recovered and everybody believes that Audie knows where the money is. For ten years he has been beaten, stabbed, throttled and threatened almost daily by prison guards, inmates and criminal gangs, who all want to answer this same question, but suddenly Audie vanishes, the day before he's due to be released. Everybody wants to find Audie, but he's not running. Instead he's trying to save a life . . . and not just his own.

Life Or Death

Cindy McKee

A very good story with a likable protagonist. Audie's conundrum seemed totally plausible and made his character realistic. I really liked this story. I was flipping pages with lightning speed toward the ending jut to see how or if it would all work out for him.

Lynn Braden

Audie has spent the last ten years in prison, accused of killing four people and stealing seven million dollars. His sentence would have been longer, but his attorney made a deal while he was in a coma. On the day before he is to be paroled, Audie escapes from prison. Nobody knows why he would do that, but the theory is that he is mentally unbalanced because on the day of the robbery, he was shot in the head and had to be put back together like "a jigsaw puzzle." Once he escapes, Audie doesn't behave as a typical escapee from prison. Instead of running to a faraway country, he stays in town and finds places to sleep where he won't be noticed or caught. He has a plan which includes visiting the home of his arresting officer and talking to his sister. Meanwhile, Moss, who was in the prison cell next to Audie is taken from prison and sent on a mission to find Audie and bring him back. He isn't sure why these unknown men want Audie, but the more time he spends looking for him, the less he wants to bring Audie back to men who will surely kill him.

Life or Death does contain some elements of mystery in the story of Audie, why he was imprisoned, and why he escaped with only one day left on his sentence, but the majority of the book is the story of a tragic life. There are some twists and turns in the story, but they are fairly predictable. Audie spends lots of time in the story contemplating choices he has made in the past and trying to determine if they have made any difference in his life or if his whole life has been based on fate. As a result, there is really only one way this story could have ended, but instead, it takes a safer route that defeats the theme that was presented throughout the rest of the story. A different ending would have made a much greater impact and have been much more logical. Overall, this is a decent book, that starts a little slow and leaves the reader feeling a bit defeated.

Life or Death A Novel

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