Jeffery Deaver has introduced a new character. Special Agent Kathryn Dance is the star of this thriller and, for me, it’s every bit as good as one of his Lincoln Rhyme books. There are massive parallels – Rhyme is an expert criminologist who can track the movements of a suspect by the merest grain of sand that falls from his trousers; Dance is an expert interrogator who can pry into the innermost thoughts of a suspect by spotting the tiniest signals from their body language. I was impressed at the technical depth the author shows in his knowledge of the Kinesics (he even includes a list of books for further reading). And I loved the passage when Dance phoned up Rhyme for advice in the middle of the book and talks to his assistant Amelia Sachs, the other star of those books – priceless. 
Category Archives: Book Review
Book Review: The Sleeping Doll, Jeffery Deaver
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Book Review: Foundation’s Fear, Gregory Benford
I picked up this book, the first of “The Second Foundation Trilogy, authorised by the Estate of Isaac Asimov” after enjoying Foundation and Earth. The author admits that he hasn’t tried to imitate the Asimov style – instead, his aim was to explore the character Hari Seldon and his early work on Psychohistory. I really enjoyed the passages concerning Seldon and his wife Dors – especially on the tourist planet when they were immersed into creatures called Pans. However, I couldn’t fathom the passages based on Joan of Arc and Voltaire and ended up skipping whole chapters, without noticeably losing the main thread. I wouldn’t rush to read another by Benford, but I’ll brave the next in this series at some point (it’s written by someone else!).
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Book Review: The Enemy, Lee Child
My Dad gave me a rather nice hard back edition of this book – I’d read it once before, but it’s one of the best Jack Reacher thrillers and I was happy to read it again. What makes it so good? Well, it’s a flash back to when Reacher was in the army, and it explains one of the mysteries of this series that’s often mentioned in other books – why did he suffer demotion back to Captain? It also touches on his family background and we see his strained relationship with his brother. It seems that everything and everyone is against him – his awful boss, the higher echelons of the army, his sick mother’s health. Being Reacher, he takes it on the chin, ignores the growing list of dangerous enemies, makes a valuable ally in fellow MP Summer, and stays true to his own code of justice.
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Book Review: A Wanted Man, Lee Child
I’d read a few negative reviews of this Jack Reacher thriller before I read the book. I agree that it’s different to the majority of the books in the series: for one thing, the author concentrates on the cerebral side of Reacher’s character and concentrates too much on his exceptional memory for phone numbers and mathematical abilities (these aren’t pertinent to the plot so why keep referring to them?); for another, there’s far less action in this book (usually, Reacher’s run into trouble at a bar within the first few pages, here we’re into the finale before he gets into a fight). It’s not really up to the usual standards, but it’s still a better read than a couple of other books I failed to get into recently.
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Book Review: Night Fall, Nelson DeMille
This is another John Corey novel by Nelson DeMille. What I admire about DeMille is that he’s written a couple of brilliant, one-off books set during the Cold War (The Charm School, The Talbot Odyssey) as well as this modern day series about a semi-retired NYPD detective with a sharp, though politically incorrect, sense of humour. This title has many of the signature John Corey features: struggle against the reach and might of the FBI/CIA; grapple with mortal enemy Ted Nash; call on NYPD contacts for off-the-books investigations; act like a jerk but still win the heart of the lovely Kate Mayfield. But it’s also based on a true story, the crash of flight TWA 800, and DeMille handles that with sensitivity whilst telling his own fictional story alongside the true horror of the crash.
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Book Review: The Big Short, Michael Lewis
Another great book by Michael Lewis. Although it might be a stretch for anyone who doesn’t already have a passing knowledge of the financial products involved, it’s a brilliant read. He manages to turn some pretty outrageous characters into unlikely heroes, and shines on a light on the murky dealings that led to the credit crunch of 2008.
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Book Review: The Stone Monkey, Jeffery Deaver
This is another in the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffery Deaver. Highlights of that series include The Bone Collector and The Coffin Dancer. This one falls short of that standard in my view, mainly because the whole plot falls down on a basic question – why is The Ghost (a sinister, violent figure from the Chinese underworld) going around trying to kill all the illegal immigrants that he was attempting to smuggle to America? Unusually, I was way ahead of the hero, Lincoln Rhyme, in questioning this motive – he only worked it out at the end of the book. Yet without knowing why this was going on, the book didn’t make sense to me.
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Book Review: The Governor’s Wife, Mark Gimenez
Initially, I was concerned that this book was going to be a bit dull – it starts with a lot of scene setting about American politics and there’s much coverage of the history/geography of the border with Mexico. Having read the book, I totally forgive the author for spending the time to introduce the reader to these matters – it brings realism to the motivations and main characters: the Governor, the Mexican doctor and the bandit (El Diablo). Interesting that the title is The Governor’s Wife – she’s the focal point of the plot, but not necessarily involved in much of the story line.
It’s a terrific book. The action sequence at the end that brings together the three male protaganists is on a par with Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, yet his handling of the journey taken by the Governor and his change of outlook is sensitively written. He gives great colour to even minor roles – if a film is made of this book, I bet many stars will covet the role of the political advisor to the Governor.
Definitely worth reading – I’m looking forward to another by Mark Gimenez.
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Book Review: Persuader, Lee Child
The first Jack Reacher thriller I read was One Shot. It came free with a copy of the London Evening Standard. That’s when the Standard cost 50p, before it became a free paper. On the back of that, I went on to read all the Jack Reacher stories – and One Shot wasn’t even the best. The best stories are those in which he gets members from his team of Special Investigators back together.
Persuader is one of the stories in which Reacher hooks up with a team – in this case, some government agents. Reacher gets a second chance to take revenge on an old adversary, whilst helping the agents to crack a gang of suspected smugglers.
Why is Reacher such a compelling character? He’s incredibly violent yet he’s smart too – like a cross between Jean Claude van Damme and Sherlock Holmes. He shuns convention – no fixed abode, he wanders wherever fate takes him, without any care for material goods (except the ever-present folding toothbrush). He stays true to his own code of Justice. Once committed to a cause, he never backs off. Men respect him, women flock to him. What’s not to like?!
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Book Review: Foundation and Earth, Isaac Asimov
I must have read the Foundation novels years ago and was intrigued to spot this sequel in the book shop. It’s a brilliant read, packed full of technology, philosophy, planetary adventures and even politics. Highly recommended.
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