Life or Death

by Michael Robotham

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316252034
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	01/26/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	390,486
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Michael Robotham has been an investigative journalist in Britain, Australia and the US. One of world's most acclaimed authors of thriller fiction, he lives in Sydney with his wife and three daughters.

What People are Saying About This

Stephen King

Life or Death is a nerve-shredding thriller with the heart and soul so often missing from lesser crime and suspense novels.
I couldn't stop reading, yet I didn't want Audie's story to end. Robotham is an absolute master. --Stephen King

Steve Berry

A pitch perfect plot with a stunning twist that involves a sheep in wolf's clothing. Talk about topsy turvy --- but it works — big time. --Steve Berry, author of The Lincoln Myth and The Jefferson Key

Lee Child

I love this guy's books. Try Life or Death and you'll see why.

Editorial Reviews

"Life or Death is a nerve-shredding thriller with the heart and soul so often missing from lesser crime and suspense novels. I couldn't stop reading, yet I didn't want Audie's story to end. Robotham is an absolute master."—Stephen King

"A pitch perfect plot with a stunning twist that involves a sheep in wolf's clothing. Talk about topsy turvy — but it works — big time."—Steve Berry, author of The Lincoln Myth and The Jefferson Key

"Robotham has a talent for creating fascinating and complex characters, and Audie Palmer may be his best yet."—Booklist (starred review)

[A] prison-break tale with a twist . . . The writing is top-notch . . . Plenty of edge-of-the-seat excitement, forcing readers to frantically turn the pages to find out how all these different strands intersect. Robotham's skill as a writer remains undeniable: He offers memorable characters caught up in an irresistible story."—Kirkus Reviews

"Michael Robotham is the real deal."—David Baldacci

"Robotham is a first-class storyteller."—Associated Press

From the Publisher

Moss [Webster] is your real boon companion on this manhunt. A big bruiser, he may not be as subtle a thinker as Agent Furness or as complicated a character as Audie, but he's emotionally involved in Audie's fate and morally conflicted about his own role in determining it. Besides, his warm voice, thick with country honey, is the one you want to hear.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

01/12/2015
Early in this so-so standalone from Australian author Robotham, Audie Palmer escapes from a Texas prison with only a day remaining on his 10-year sentence. A decade earlier, authorities named Audie Palmer as an accomplice in a high-profile armored-car robbery that left four people dead, including a security guard, and $7 million unaccounted for. Readers follow Audie as he tries to stay under the radar, his present peppered with flashbacks from his troubled past and bittersweet memories of the only woman he ever loved. While it’s obvious that Audie isn’t wholly guilty, the depth of the conspiracy isn’t clear, and Robotham (Suspect) teases out some genuinely interesting twists. Unfortunately, American readers will have a problem with Audie’s implausibly short sentence for felony murder in Texas (despite the intricate plot machinations to justify it) and the ease with which he gets away from a Texas prison unscathed. British usage also jars (e.g., an old man tells Audie he’s had a “row” with his girlfriend). Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 12/01/2014
Why does Audie Palmer—sentenced to ten years in prison for a $7 million armored car robbery in which four people died—escape the day before his term ends? And why is Audie being on the loose so threatening to certain high-level officials? After continual unsuccessful attempts to have him killed behind bars, the men pulling the strings release Moss Webster, his closest prison buddy, with orders to find Audie. Meanwhile, answers are revealed gradually in flashbacks about the protagonist's earlier life, from his relationship with his no-good older brother, Carl, to his deep and abiding love for Belita, the sex slave mistress of his minor underworld boss, and, finally to what actually occurred on the day of the robbery. VERDICT Robotham's psychological suspense novels featuring Joseph O'Loughlin (Say You're Sorry; Watching You) have garnered high marks for a reason. This stand-alone is an absolutely compelling story, with suspense ratcheting up to a deadly confrontation, combined with a deeply moving love story, concluding with "Life is short. Love is vast. Live like there's no tomorrow." Don't miss this one. [See Prepub Alert, 9/22/14.] —Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Library Journal

John Chancer’s narration skills keep the bullets whizzing in this on-the-run audiobook thriller. Chancer's modulation and timing add vocal drama to the action—whether it's a prison break, hand-to-hand combat, a shoot-out, or someone being smacked with a shovel. (Ouch!). The story is built on three solid mysteries involving a prison break, missing money, and some serious killers. The weak links are Robotham's sometimes-too-broad characterizations, a weakness that Chancer can't seem to rise above as he gives them broad stock voicing. But don't let that deter you. The production is paced so that each cliff-hanger unravels just as the next one is revealed, guaranteeing that you won't hit the pause button until the full story is told. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

MAY 2015 - AudioFile

2014-12-08
Australian novelist Robotham travels to Texas for this prison-break tale with a twist.Audie Palmer, who admitted his involvement in the infamous Dreyfus County, Texas, armored security truck robbery, escaped from prison with only one day remaining on his sentence. Audie pleaded guilty to helping steal $7 million—money that's never been recovered. But why did he disappear the day before his parole was to begin? That's the question on the minds of everyone, from diminutive FBI Special Agent Desiree Furness to his best prison buddy, Moss. Soon after Audie runs, everyone involved in his case, from the former prosecutor to a deputy who is now the sheriff, is pulling out the stops to find him, and it's obvious they'd prefer him dead rather than alive. Robotham generously shares information about the villains with readers, so there's little suspense there. However, the back story, skillfully interwoven with the search for Audie, provides plenty of edge-of-the-seat excitement, forcing readers to frantically turn the pages to find out how all these different strands intersect. Robotham's skill as a writer remains undeniable: He offers memorable characters caught up in an irresistible story. But the Aussie writer's choice of Texas as his setting is bound to ruffle some feathers since he portrays the state as uniformly and relentlessly corrupt, its citizens as the dregs of society. "Texas only executes people on death row, not when they're brain-dead because it might mean culling most of their politicians," reads one passage. And while the writing is top-notch, albeit inflammatory in places, the finished product is also puzzling in that the novelist and his editorial team populated the book with many British expressions foreign to the setting, from calling a woman's bangs a "fringe" to terming a flophouse a "doss house" to having a very Southern character refer to lines in a bank as "queues." Terrific storytelling that won't win Robotham many friends in the Lone Star State.

Kirkus Reviews