I have read Panic twice and it is a very exceptional read. :)

This book was sensational. I love it I've read it twice and both times it still amazes me that a filmaker could turn killer and quite a believing liar. It is such athriller, an amazing read really!

After a long time I really enjoyed the read. I finished it in one sitting on a flight and lives up to its credits as being unputdownable. No doubt like any fiction load it has an impregnable protagonist,it still makes compulsive reading. The early Ludlums and Baldicci were the same and one misses the true roller coaster thrillers,but abbot has stepped into the shoes quite comfortably. Would like to read fear but hope it doesn't turn out to be a let down.

It is hard to think of a more implausible plot than this!

The writing style is fine, shame about the content.. As usual, the plucky Americans face down the world... in the real world the CIA/MI5 kill everything that moves... get back into the real work of spies.. they have no compunction about anything, if they did, they wouldn't be any good as spies.. but as most readers like the 'good guy' to win... we get this..

The initial concept may be intriguing but the plotting, characterization and writing style are strictly comic book. Panic is riddled with howlers and the only area of which the author seems to have any real knowledge is his strictly nerdy obsession with computers, PDAs and uploading/downloading and encrypting files - something he has learnt at his desk as he obviously doesn't get out much.
The relationships are sickly gooey and unrealistic. The hero escapes death about 17 times - each time more ridiculous than the last - despite being hunted down, trapped and shot at at close range by the most efficient, ruthless hitmen in the world. The central idea - that the Soviet Union would turn children into sleeper agents by building a fake US town in the USSR then sending them to live in the USA has possibilities , but the proposition that having spent all this money and effort the KGB would then forget about them while they become illegal operatives for bent CIA departments is completely implausible. A very exciting first few pages lead to a very disappointing and laughably bad book.