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Nicholas Colt #4
Snuff Tag 9
Nicholas Colt’s career as a lead guitarist ended with a crushed hand, and his career as a licensed private investigator ended with a narcotics conviction. Since then, he’s had some luck making money under the table as a “security consultant.” But good luck has a habit of going bad for Colt. Like when he takes the case of an affluent young accountant who has received a threatening letter—a mandate to come and play an ultraviolent video game called Snuff Tag 9.
Colt figures the letter is a scam, but a psychotic four-hundred- pound billionaire known only as Freeze quickly proves him wrong. Freeze, it seems, is populating his version of the game with real people.
Kidnapped and outfitted with a device that will stop his heart if he refuses to join in, Colt finds himself deep in the Okefenokee Swamp hunting—and being hunted by—eight people he has never met, has nothing against…and must kill to survive.
Colt figures the letter is a scam, but a psychotic four-hundred- pound billionaire known only as Freeze quickly proves him wrong. Freeze, it seems, is populating his version of the game with real people.
Kidnapped and outfitted with a device that will stop his heart if he refuses to join in, Colt finds himself deep in the Okefenokee Swamp hunting—and being hunted by—eight people he has never met, has nothing against…and must kill to survive.
260 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2012
148 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 23, 2012
Nicholas “Nick” Colt is a private investigator. He has recently been contacted by Nathan Broadway. Nathan received a letter inviting him to participate in a real life video game version of Snuff Tag 9. The concept of the game is where 9 players are battling each other on a deserted island. The object of the game is to kill each other and be the last man standing.
Nick offers to check out the invitation for Nathan. The next thing Nick knows, he has just become the latest addition to Snuff Tag 9. Nick has no choice but to play the game when a surgical device is inserted into Nick that at any moment could kill him.
The concept of this book had me very intrigued. I picked it up to start reading and I had to make myself put it down. It was really that good. This book was not as gory as I was thinking it was going to be. It was more about the character and psychological aspect. This book did have the feel of the movie The Condemned combined with The Hunger Games.
I was cheering for Nick the whole time. He might have been considered the underdog but in this case, the good guy won. I thought about what I would do if I found myself in Nick’s situation and I would fight for my life. It is kill or be killed. To be honest the people that Nick did kill were annoying and needed to go anyways. The book ended on a high note. I now plan to go back and check out all of Mr. Hardin’s prior novels. Snuff Tag 9 should come with a warning….”This book is highly addictive”!
Nick offers to check out the invitation for Nathan. The next thing Nick knows, he has just become the latest addition to Snuff Tag 9. Nick has no choice but to play the game when a surgical device is inserted into Nick that at any moment could kill him.
The concept of this book had me very intrigued. I picked it up to start reading and I had to make myself put it down. It was really that good. This book was not as gory as I was thinking it was going to be. It was more about the character and psychological aspect. This book did have the feel of the movie The Condemned combined with The Hunger Games.
I was cheering for Nick the whole time. He might have been considered the underdog but in this case, the good guy won. I thought about what I would do if I found myself in Nick’s situation and I would fight for my life. It is kill or be killed. To be honest the people that Nick did kill were annoying and needed to go anyways. The book ended on a high note. I now plan to go back and check out all of Mr. Hardin’s prior novels. Snuff Tag 9 should come with a warning….”This book is highly addictive”!
December 1, 2017
I'll be the first to tell you that this book isn't for everyone. It's extremely violent, sometimes a little silly, not the most original, and I loved it! This was just plain fun.
The plot is familiar: Nicholas Colt is unwillingly pulled into a game. Man against man. You want to live? Kill your opponents. Last one standing is the winner. I've seen this in a dozen movies and books before, but rather than being bored, I loved this!
Honestly, there are a few bits of the plot that just didn't make sense, so I can't give this a five star. I didn't understand the whole Joe and Juliet scenarios - it seemed just too personal. And Freeze's stylistic choices toward the end (those of you who have read this know what I'm talking about) left me scratching my head.
But, if you're the kind of person who likes reading for pure entertainment and loves action movies, grab a soda and some popcorn, pull up a chair and dig in. I started reading this about five in the evening and ended up reading it until I finished it. If a book can make me read all evening and not want to put it down, that is entertainment!
The plot is familiar: Nicholas Colt is unwillingly pulled into a game. Man against man. You want to live? Kill your opponents. Last one standing is the winner. I've seen this in a dozen movies and books before, but rather than being bored, I loved this!
Honestly, there are a few bits of the plot that just didn't make sense, so I can't give this a five star. I didn't understand the whole Joe and Juliet scenarios - it seemed just too personal. And Freeze's stylistic choices toward the end (those of you who have read this know what I'm talking about) left me scratching my head.
But, if you're the kind of person who likes reading for pure entertainment and loves action movies, grab a soda and some popcorn, pull up a chair and dig in. I started reading this about five in the evening and ended up reading it until I finished it. If a book can make me read all evening and not want to put it down, that is entertainment!
February 20, 2018
Well, this one is different
Good book. Different for sure. Crazy billionaire forces people into a snuff video type game in the swamp. Rules he changes as he chooses, damned if you do or don't scenarios, that Colt will have to master if he and his family are to survive. It explores what even intelligent, normal people will do to survive or protect those they love. You will not be bored.
Good book. Different for sure. Crazy billionaire forces people into a snuff video type game in the swamp. Rules he changes as he chooses, damned if you do or don't scenarios, that Colt will have to master if he and his family are to survive. It explores what even intelligent, normal people will do to survive or protect those they love. You will not be bored.
October 13, 2017
The character makes this story. The plot itself is pretty much predictable and has been done in books and movies numerous times. The author has a habit of letting the readers know somewhere near the end of the story that there will be a tomorrow which amps things down a bit. Fun read.
October 3, 2023
Amazing story that was a real life ver of a kill or e killed game.authors amaze me, how they come up with this stuff. Once you get to the game portion of the story it becomes a page turner as to what happens next. Colt did alright figuring this thing out. Most definitely a worthy read.
May 5, 2018
This book had a bit of a Hunger Games feel to it in the beginning. This it might be redundant but was interesting enough to keep me interested. Thought the ending was a bit weak. Not bad.
April 29, 2020
Rubbish, far-fetched, implausible.
May 11, 2021
Preposterous but readable and good fun.
March 11, 2017
Amazing!
This book is SO good and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! Such a great story!
This book is SO good and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! Such a great story!
June 16, 2015
ARC/Thriller: The book seems pretty cut and dry at first. A private investigator, Nicholas Colt, is hired to look into a threat that was mailed to a man. This book is written in first person, so you know that Colt is not taking this too seriously. The problem is Colt has really bad luck and doesn’t always think things out. The letter is a threat that you have to play a real life game of “Snuff Tag 9”. You guessed it, Colt, age 50, reluctantly replaces the original player in this game to the death.
I will say that I read the first 100 pages over several days during my breaks at work. The rest of the book, I stayed up until 1 a.m. While it is a page turner and does not go the direction you think it will, it is campy.
I found Joe a likeable enough character. There is a lot of background story to his character that does not get overwhelming. The author does a good job in his writing style to keep the story flowing. I didn’t feel that anything was missing, nor that the book was too long. I also like the relationship he had with his wife. At the start of the book, they are separated, but looking at reconciliation in the near future. Their time together is brief, but in that little time, you get a sense of their relationship. He also gets along with his daughter. (I’m so tired of books with the dejected ex-husband and ostracized from his family and constant bickering).
SPOILERS: The bad guy is pure evil and while I foresaw the story going in the direction of the Hunger Games, it did not. One of the murders was completely uncalled for and cruel. I did think the defibulators were a little too high tech and questioned if the book was taken in present day. It is; while I thought part of the theory was doable, the other two parts to the defibulators was absurd. Colt is smart than me about the defibulators. BTW: I thought Colt’s stupidest move was not getting rid of the alligators by throwing the dead body in the swamp. I did guess right on the fate of the Snuff Tag 9 winners. One logical problem I found was the Fight Club mentality. In general, people aren’t silent and are more apt to talk or gossip. The fact that Snuff Tag 9 was able to last several years was unrealistic.
All-in-all, it was an enjoyable read. It is very violent.
I will say that I read the first 100 pages over several days during my breaks at work. The rest of the book, I stayed up until 1 a.m. While it is a page turner and does not go the direction you think it will, it is campy.
I found Joe a likeable enough character. There is a lot of background story to his character that does not get overwhelming. The author does a good job in his writing style to keep the story flowing. I didn’t feel that anything was missing, nor that the book was too long. I also like the relationship he had with his wife. At the start of the book, they are separated, but looking at reconciliation in the near future. Their time together is brief, but in that little time, you get a sense of their relationship. He also gets along with his daughter. (I’m so tired of books with the dejected ex-husband and ostracized from his family and constant bickering).
SPOILERS: The bad guy is pure evil and while I foresaw the story going in the direction of the Hunger Games, it did not. One of the murders was completely uncalled for and cruel. I did think the defibulators were a little too high tech and questioned if the book was taken in present day. It is; while I thought part of the theory was doable, the other two parts to the defibulators was absurd. Colt is smart than me about the defibulators. BTW: I thought Colt’s stupidest move was not getting rid of the alligators by throwing the dead body in the swamp. I did guess right on the fate of the Snuff Tag 9 winners. One logical problem I found was the Fight Club mentality. In general, people aren’t silent and are more apt to talk or gossip. The fact that Snuff Tag 9 was able to last several years was unrealistic.
All-in-all, it was an enjoyable read. It is very violent.
June 12, 2016
This was borderline Hunger Games. Borderline. Nicholas Colt receives contact from Nathan Broadway. Nathan has been sent a letter ordering him to be at a certain place at a certain time. The penalty for ignoring the letter is death. The penalty for alerting the authorities is death. The penalty for telling anyone about the letter is death. Colt decides to go check it out and is tossed into a wild adventure that makes you wonder why he decides to still be a private investigator/security consultant.
About the Hunger Games though. I thought it would be just like that since it's setup largely the same. A bunch of people in aplot of land pitted against one another. They received some training and weapons. They were generally left to their own devices, except when the gamemasters decided to change up the rules a bit.
I like Colt. I really do. His character is so dynamic and fluid. His internal struggles ebb and flow as the stories progress and I know I'll be sad when this series ends. I have a slight interest in his wife and kid, similar to a real life friend. He's not a genius who cracks every code with ease. He's not a super alpha CIA spy who can do two backflips while shooting 8 dozen people in the head. He's just a normal guy who uses his normal wit to help him try to live a semi-normal life.
The book and plot are good. It's not boring and it's a quick enough read that you can finish it in one sitting. The pacing is phenomenal and the suspense is done very well. This book could be seen as being an absurd premise but I can't fully get behind that. It's moderately believable, especially when you add in the wealth of Freeze. The defibrillator trick is a smart method of keeping people in line and it makes the compound seem more believable.
I really can't say anything bad about this at all. I love Jude Hardin's writing and I'm glad I came across this series.
About the Hunger Games though. I thought it would be just like that since it's setup largely the same. A bunch of people in aplot of land pitted against one another. They received some training and weapons. They were generally left to their own devices, except when the gamemasters decided to change up the rules a bit.
I like Colt. I really do. His character is so dynamic and fluid. His internal struggles ebb and flow as the stories progress and I know I'll be sad when this series ends. I have a slight interest in his wife and kid, similar to a real life friend. He's not a genius who cracks every code with ease. He's not a super alpha CIA spy who can do two backflips while shooting 8 dozen people in the head. He's just a normal guy who uses his normal wit to help him try to live a semi-normal life.
The book and plot are good. It's not boring and it's a quick enough read that you can finish it in one sitting. The pacing is phenomenal and the suspense is done very well. This book could be seen as being an absurd premise but I can't fully get behind that. It's moderately believable, especially when you add in the wealth of Freeze. The defibrillator trick is a smart method of keeping people in line and it makes the compound seem more believable.
I really can't say anything bad about this at all. I love Jude Hardin's writing and I'm glad I came across this series.
September 29, 2012
Former southern rocker, now P.I., Nicholas Colt finds himself drawn into a real life version of a video game.
Snuff Tag 9 allows one to pick a character and participate in a fight to the death on a remote island. One picks two weapons from a list of ten, entirely at random, and must defend themselves against seven other contestants. Along toward the end, a ninth enters the game. There are twenty levels to get through. No one has ever reached the twentieth and only four have made it to the nineteenth. Rumor has it that last level puts one in combat with the insane billionaire behind the whole thing, a man known only as Freeze.
Colt takes a job for a rich accountant who received a letter telling him to report to a certain area at a certain time to play the real Snuff Tag 9. Refuse and you die. Go to the police and you die. Colt shows up and is grabbed, but only after his client's severed head bounces off his windshield.
Rules are exactly the same, except this is no video game. There's even an insane billionaire calling himself Freeze. And Colt is about twenty years older than the other contestants and in worse shape. He's fifty years old. Compliance to the game is forced by a defibrillator implanted in each contestant's chest that will instantly shoot a large electrical charge into the heart if rules are violated or one stray outside defined boundaries.
The weapons Colt randomly picks are pepper spray and a combat knife. There are much better weapons in the ten.
Our hero is forced to kill or be killed, staying alive as he tries to figure a way out of this mess.
Not a bad thriller here.
Snuff Tag 9 allows one to pick a character and participate in a fight to the death on a remote island. One picks two weapons from a list of ten, entirely at random, and must defend themselves against seven other contestants. Along toward the end, a ninth enters the game. There are twenty levels to get through. No one has ever reached the twentieth and only four have made it to the nineteenth. Rumor has it that last level puts one in combat with the insane billionaire behind the whole thing, a man known only as Freeze.
Colt takes a job for a rich accountant who received a letter telling him to report to a certain area at a certain time to play the real Snuff Tag 9. Refuse and you die. Go to the police and you die. Colt shows up and is grabbed, but only after his client's severed head bounces off his windshield.
Rules are exactly the same, except this is no video game. There's even an insane billionaire calling himself Freeze. And Colt is about twenty years older than the other contestants and in worse shape. He's fifty years old. Compliance to the game is forced by a defibrillator implanted in each contestant's chest that will instantly shoot a large electrical charge into the heart if rules are violated or one stray outside defined boundaries.
The weapons Colt randomly picks are pepper spray and a combat knife. There are much better weapons in the ten.
Our hero is forced to kill or be killed, staying alive as he tries to figure a way out of this mess.
Not a bad thriller here.
January 6, 2014
Wow! And I had thought I made a mistake by reading Stay Close by Harlan Coben. I should have stuck with that, as predictable as it would have been. This, Snuff Tag 9, really is a piece of trash. What can I say that was good about it? Not much. Well, like the first, Hardin does have a pretty good sense for dialogue, and he does make his protagonist, Nicolas Colt, believable in many aspects. He would in many other settings be an interesting private eye. Coming out of the ne'er do well side of the track. Fallen. Some elements of redemption.
But then we are thrust into a 'game', which is so improbable and so unnecessarily gruesome, that none of the wit or humor that really did rescue much of the last book (Pocket 47) was sufficient to make this readable. I flew through it. And even the denouement didn't work for me. The game becomes a means of getting Nicolas back together with his woman; the game is used as a mechanism to talk about his 'poor childhood and being bullied in early teen years. Not much to say - other than now I'm twice warned.
August 19, 2013
SNUFF TAG 9 is outlandish, pulpy fun... kind of a modern pulp novel, replete with over the top action, characters and situations. The villain is straight out of a comic book, the concept and action is right out of a low-budget 80s sci-fi action flick that went direct to video. But it's fun!
September 2, 2015
A solid story
Hardin has written a very solid story, featuring great characters and awesome action. A very inventive story with lots of twists and turns. Nicholas Colt is a character worth getting to know.
Hardin has written a very solid story, featuring great characters and awesome action. A very inventive story with lots of twists and turns. Nicholas Colt is a character worth getting to know.
December 6, 2012
A little "out there" but quick, enjoyable gory read.
April 5, 2013
This isn't my usual book genre to read, but it was a great read. It reminded me of the movie The Running Man with some crazy twists.
October 10, 2013
Can't believe I wasted time on this book.
April 14, 2017
Good book, really have me on edge!!!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews