Afterlife by Marcus Sakey
From the author of the million-copy bestselling Brilliance Trilogy comes a mind-bending new thriller about life, death… and what happens after. A terrorist has paralyzed Chicago, targeting civilians with brutal swiftness and precision. FBI agent Will Brody would do anything to catch him—but this time he’s the hunted, not the hunter. Lured into a trap, Brody is caught in a furious explosion that claims his life.
But in AFTERLIFE (Thomas & Mercer; On-sale July 18, 2017), death is only the beginning. Brody finds himself wandering a different Chicago. A city real in every detail, but seemingly empty. Buildings are dark. Cars lay abandoned. No planes cross the sky. He’s relieved to spot other people—until he sees they’re carrying machetes.
It turns out the afterlife is a dangerous place. This echo of Chicago is populated only by those who died abruptly, violently, with an abundance of life force remaining.
For some, it’s a new life in death.
For others, it’s a war.
Now Brody must fight to survive the afterlife and protect other innocents—all while desperate to reunite with the woman he loves and left behind.
That woman is his boss, fellow FBI agent Claire McCoy. Their love affair was illicit, breathtaking, and brief, cut short by the bomb blast. For Claire, finding Brody’s killer is personal. And when she confronts him head-on, she does so knowing that her own life is on the line—but not what waits on the other side…
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Praise for Afterlife
“AFTERLIFE is simultaneously a beautiful love story, a grim tale of apocalyptic conflict, and an opportunity for an insightful writer to ruminate on the eternal verities. Great appeal across genres.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)
“Sakey follows up his incredible Brilliance Trilogy with an otherworldly stand-alone thriller about a subterranean war between gods and monsters… employ[ing] all his storytelling gifts to craft a noodle-bender of the first order. A love story enmeshed in a twisty thriller that peels back the universe to see what lies beneath.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Truly incredible. An epic, original vision. My brain is still bent.”
Blake Crouch
“Imagine the love story in the film Ghost dropped into The Matrix. Astonishing.”
Don Winslow
“Ridiculously good… Sakey is the master of the mindful page turner.”
Gillian Flynn
“It’s depth and intelligence and passion and emotion that set Sakey apart.”
Lee Child
“One of our best storytellers.”
Michael Connelly
“Marcus Sakey is exactly the electric jolt American crime fiction needs.”
Dennis Lehane
“This giant among crime novelists always holds one spare bullet in his arsenal.”
Chicago Sun-Times
“Stunning.”
Publisher’s Weekly
“Genius.”
The Chicago Tribune
“Brilliant.”
The Huffington Post
“Awesome.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Triumphant.”
Examiner
“Tour-de-force.”
Cleveland Plain-Dealer
Author’s Bio
Marcus Sakey is the award-winning author of 9 books, including the million-copy bestselling Brilliance Trilogy. His novel Good People was made into a movie starring James Franco, and AFTERLIFE is soon to be a major motion picture from Imagine Entertainment producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind).
Written with intelligence, insight, and breathless suspense, AFTERLIFE is a mind-bending tour de force from one of today’s best writers.
Marcus Sakey’s books have sold more than a million copies and been translated into dozens of languages. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.
My Review
4 stars
A man has been terrorizing Chicago. He has found himself draw to a rifle and the power to end lives. He has killed eighteen people and plans on so many more. Will Brody and Claire McCoy are working on stopping the killer until Brody dies from a bomb in a church. Although he is dead, there is a lot more to being dead than pearly gates. Will and Claire need to work together across life and death to stop this killer and get back to each other.
Will and Claire work for the FBI but have started a relationship outside of the hunt for the serial killer. It starts as a whirlwind but becomes so much more the longer they work together. Claire seems to be the logical one while Will would prefer to get out there and stop the bad guy. Both of them are a great team and really kept me enthralled with the echos.
I like how this book takes a different look at death and life. There is so much more to this story than ghosts and good and evil can affect those on the other side. There are so many possibilities and I just loved how Marcus Sakey handled this.
This is a great story and I really enjoyed it. I did see a lot of people praising the Brilliance Saga and I think that I will check it out next.
I received Afterlife from Little Bird Publicity for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.
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