Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Summary and Reviews of Change of Heart by Jack Allen

Change of Heart by Jack Allen

Change of Heart

by Jack Allen
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2001, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Book Summary

To stop the next Cold War, Josh must decide what is right and who must die before he kills the wrong person, or is killed himself.

It started as a plan to bring the Communist Party back to power in Moscow. It turned into an act of vengeance by a former Colonel of the KGB to rid himself of a long time thorn in his side: Joshua McGowan.

Josh must fly from Baltimore across the Pacific to a remote spot only miles off the Russian coast to rescue a young woman, once a Kremlin pawn of the Colonel's and the key to his newest plan. She, however, has her own plan and won't let anyone get in her way, not even Joshua McGowan.

To stop the next Cold War, Josh must decide what is right and who must die before he kills the wrong person, or is killed himself.

"Bring us up close," Josh said. He stepped over the equipment in the bottom of the Zodiac and moved to the bow. Jurgen maneuvered alongside the sailboat. Josh grabbed the wooden rail on the gunwale and lifted himself aboard. He stumbled over the cushions on the seat and fell to the deck. The guy in the Zodiac held a flashlight over the gunwale, shining it down into the sailboat.

Josh was looking at a pair of deck shoes. He looked up. In the flickering light he saw Ron Finn's prone form laying back in the seat. His left hand still held the rudder wheel, but his blank eyes stared up at the dark sky. In the center of his chest was a big, red hole. Josh shivered. That Russian warship might be more trouble than they thought.

Josh tore his eyes away and took the flashlight from the guy in the Zodiac. "I'm gonna see what I can find. Don't go too far," he said.

"We'll be right here," Jurgen said.

Josh opened the hatch to the cabin and shined the light in. The floor ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Replete with action and adventure, this book is ready and waiting to be translated into a film script. The Bloomsbury Review compares Allen to John le Carre - but Allen's style is closer to a James Bond movie than a cerebral le Carre novel. In short it is a thoroughly cathartic all-American read - the girls are beautiful, the hero looks like an 'everyman' but performs like superman, and the action never stops.

One tiny criticism - while one has to suspend disbelieve to a degree in order to enjoy any book of this type (e.g. the hero getting into half a dozen or more life threatening situations in 48 hours and keeping on fighting despite multiple injuries that would have flattened a mere mortal), there were a few somewhat glaring plot glitches. These are the sort of details that a good editor would pick up - and if there is any justice in this world it won't be long until this self published author has a line of editors and publishers queuing up to publish his books.

Media Reviews

Bookwatch Magazine - Shelley Glodowski
Josh McGowan is a hero everyone will love ... A great start for Mr. Allen!

The Bloomsbury Review - Betty Howard
Move over John LeCarré, budding author Jack Allen might give you a run for your money ...

The Blue Iris Journal - Elizabeth K. Burton
Jack Allen's talent for telling a hard-paced, first-class action tale is evident on every page ...

Wordweaving.com - Cindy Penn, Senior Editor
Change of Heart keeps the heart pounding rapidly and keeps the pages turning swiftly.

Author Blurb Kevin Green, Managing Director, Worthy Words Ltd.
The surprise for me was that my wife liked the book too, she doesn't normally go for the action books.

Author Blurb Steve Lewis, Bookseller, Newington, Connecticut
A quantum step above the ordinary.

Reader Reviews

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Change of Heart, try these:

  • Derailed jacket

    Derailed

    by James Siegel

    Published 2004

    About this book

    Derailed will leave readers breathless with every twist of its heart-pounding, suspenseful plot. Brace yourself for a roller-coaster thriller more shocking and riveting than anything you've ever read.

  • Code To Zero jacket

    Code To Zero

    by Ken Follett

    Published 2001

    About this book

    More by this author

    Declared "a master" by Time magazine, Ken Follett returns with Code to Zero - a page-turning novel of suspense in the bestselling tradition of Eye of the Needle, The Key to Rebecca, and The Man from St. Petersburg.

Read-Alikes are one of the many benefits of membership. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..