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Published Jul 2011
432 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
An old man is dying.
When the old man is dead they will come for him.
And they will come for her, to make him hurt.
At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn that life isn't won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is fearless and fiercely protective. When tensions boil over and a boy is brutally killed, there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.
For two decades, Michael has been an enforcer in New York's world of organized crime, a prince of the streets so widely feared he rarely has to kill anymore. But the life he's fought to build unravels when he meets Elena, a beautiful innocent who teaches him the meaning and power of love. He wants a fresh start with her, the chance to start a family like the one he and Julian never had. But someone else is holding the strings. And escape is not that easy...
The mob boss who gave Michael his blessing to begin anew is dying, and his son is intent on making Michael pay for his betrayal. Determined to protect the ones he loves, Michael spirits Elena - who knows nothing of his past crimes, or the peril he's laid at her door - back to North Carolina, to the place he was born and the brother he lost so long ago. There, he will encounter a whole new level of danger, a thicket of deceit and violence that leads inexorably to the one place he's been running from his whole life: Iron House.
"Starred Review. Though the book occasionally feels overplotted, its powerful themes and its beautiful prose will delight Hart's fans - and should earn him many new ones." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Hart continues to build his legacy as one of the brightest stars in crime fiction. He's at the top of his game with his darkest novel yet, and fans of Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, and Elmore Leonard will appreciate his style." - Library Journal
"Starred Review. An unforgettable novel from a master of popular fiction." - Booklist
"If you crave thrillers that are vividly beautiful, graphic, will make you bleed, try John Hart." - Patricia Cornwell, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Lean, hard and absolutely riveting, Iron House is a tour de force. With his best book yet, John Hart has clearly joined the top rank of thriller writers." - Vince Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Eddie Bauer
John Hart is the author of the Redemption Road (2016), and of four New York Times bestsellers, The King of Lies, Down River, The Last Child and Iron House. The only author in history to win the best novel Edgar Award for consecutive novels, John has also won the Barry Award, the Southern Independent Bookseller's Award for Fiction, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and the North Carolina Award for Literature. His novels have been translated into thirty languages and can be found in over seventy countries.
A former defense attorney and stockbroker, John spends his time in North Carolina and Virginia, where he writes full-time.
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