PUBLICATION DATE: JULY 1, 2010

aramedic Jonathan Trestle had a promising future.  After serving the city of Reno for several years, he was accepted to medical school with a full paid scholarship.  However, his path took a sudden detour when his ambulance was summoned to help a man who awoke long enough to give Jonathan a note and a cryptic message.  Wanting to help deliver the man’s dying message, Jonathan quickly finds not only his future endangered, but his life and the lives of his friends.  In a remarkably suspenseful and magnificently written book, Tomorrow We Die is action packed with just enough down time for the reader to occasionally catch their breath.

My intent was to read Tomorrow We Die untilThe Bishop arrived, which I was expecting any day.  The Bishop arrived, a few hours after I began reading this book, and well it’s still waiting for me to start.  I anticipated this book to be pretty good, but not nearly as suspenseful and intriguing as it turned out to be.  It only took a few pages to be completely immersed in the story and whisked away to the world of racing ambulances and life threatening emergencies.

I love it when authors capitalize on their experiences.  More often than not, I have no experience in fictional character’s occupations and I find it fascinating to read about their jobs.  The emergency response scenes in this book were executed perfectly, with great insight, generating nice suspense that fit beautifully with the rest of the story.  Instead of using the paramedic scenes sparingly, there were several, each unique, which kept the story centered and focused.  Grady did a nice job of giving the reader a glimpse into a paramedic’s life and I enjoyed every second of it.  However, I do hope the pay rate given was pure fiction.  Paramedics are worth a lot more than that.

It’s hard to believe this is only Grady’s second book.  The pacing was spectacular, like a seasoned veteran.  Additionally there was no attempt to prolong suspense beyond what the reader had most likely figured out.  The small romantic story line was kept well in check and maintained just enough for those that want that softer side, but did not interfere with the main plot.  Grady did a thorough job of setting up and executing each subplot and building just the right amount of suspense to set up the fantastic finale.

Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with Tomorrow We Die. I was originally drawn by the title, which ended up fitting perfectly into the story, but quickly found a book that had an intriguing story line with good characters and an engaging mystery.  I would like for there to be more books featuring Jonathan, but the ending seems to be pretty conclusive with little room for a sequel.  Regardless, I’m very excited to have discovered this book and can’t wait to see what Grady has in store next.  He’s definitely an author to watch.