2011

A standalone novel from the author best known for his Bob Skinner series, THE LONER was a real surprise package.

Styled as an autobiographical account of the author's friend, journalist Xavier (Xavi) Ailsado, THE LONER is partially the recollections of the central character, partially the observations of the narrator. It's an affectionate telling of Xavi's life, from his beginnings in Scotland, the son of a local mother and a Spanish refugee. His father and grandparents having settled in Edinburgh after they were forced to flee from Franco's regime. It's a story of family that stays together and family that fractures all at once.

Xavi is a gentle giant of a man, raised by his grandmother, until she and his father, a successful businessman return to Spain, leaving him with money, a place to live, a real connection with them and the chance to grow into his own person. Despite his potential as a professional footballer, Xavi is not that upset when injury ends that possible career, as exposure to newspapers via his father's latest business venture - the media in Spain - has convinced him that journalism is what he really wants to do. His life seems comfortably, and somewhat boringly predestined, with a childhood sweetheart fiancé, a good job, a place to live, and a secure self-image and almost abnormal control for a young man of his age.

Told with great restraint, there is, however, a sense that something is not quite right drawing the reader in. It was actually quite surprising how quickly the book engaged, and kept the reader's interest, particularly as there isn't a crime up front, there's no investigation, there's nothing of the normal stylings that you expect in some measure from crime fiction. Told mostly from Xavi's viewpoint, interspersed with snippets that give the reader just enough clues or hints to wonder, the book is a slow burner. The structure is also intriguing, opening with a "co-author" note from Jardine, taking off in an autobiographical style, heading into the ups and downs of what seems, on the face of it, to be a reasonably ordinary life, not only is it very hard to tell where it's heading, it rapidly became just about impossible to not be intrigued.

Obviously, THE LONER is something a little different. It's not about the investigation of a crime or the identification of a perpetrator. It's not about justice or explanation or retribution. It's the story of strongly-held beliefs, love, and how truth can be manipulated, even if sometimes with the best of intentions. It's a character study and Xavi is the sort of character that many readers will feel a direct, close, personal and real connection with. It's also not a particularly straight-forward or even an always easy book to read. But it is a very memorable one.
 

You know how the rule goes, you're not supposed to barrack for the "bad guy", but seriously there's no way I wasn't totally and absolutely on Osgood Sneddon's side from the start. I mean Osgood? No wonder he uses the jokingly dubbed alias of Furt Bent from Aldaheit. Which is just silly, even if you can pronounce Aldaheit and goodness knows I changed my mind a 1000 times about how to.

When I wasn't being thoroughly and completely entertained by FURT BENT FROM ALDAHEIT that is. It's a book that combines good pace and action with a dry and quite dark sense of humour, highlighting a central character, who despite being a delinquent thief and troublemaker, is somebody that you just kind of have to end up liking. A Lot.

Having a little peak around post reading the book I believe some of the action could have been inspired by some true life events in New Zealand, which is rather intriguing, as a lot of the action is quite out there. Sneddon is not your run of the mill kid as he manages to survive in the very dangerous world of crime and prison using a combination of wit, brains and sheer gall. A determined, resourceful and relentless survivor, he's a kid that packs a hell of lot into a very short life. There are other characters built into the story, the obvious one being DI Hubbard, and whilst that supporting cast are believable people, they are inevitably a supporting cast. This book is all about Osgood Sneddon and it does a very good job of that. FURT BENT FROM ALDAHEIT was an unexpected, and very engaging pleasure to read.

(Read as an ebook from Amazon)
 

It's an absolute given that one of the great strengths of crime / thriller fiction is the way that it gets into issues from the time and place in which it is set and WHITE GOLD is no exception. There's an increasing number of these sorts of books, looking at things from an environmental and/or activism role, and WHITE GOLD takes on the idea of terrorism to influence marketforces and fight off an increasing alternative viewpoint with rather frightening realism.

Given that the book has a number of very highly scientific principles at its core the language, and stylings are pure thriller. The technical information is delivered in a very accessible manner, although Amphlett also avoids the dreaded talking down to an audience. I think it's probably the rather matter of fact way in which the scientific elements are delivered, the technical aspects of the bomb and it's making and workings are described that make the details not just digestible, but considerably more chilling in the process.

There are good characterisations, with a bit of romantic attachment chucked in for those that like it, although it's not too overblown, and has some nice friendship / meeting of equals aspects to it which balance that out. There are a few plot points and elements of the action which might mean that readers have to suspend their disbelief a little more highly than they are normally comfortable with, and although there were points where I craved a little heaving lifting equipment, I did manage to hoick the disbelief high enough to get over the bumps. I should image that other readers, particularly fans of thrillers where the unexpected always happens, are not going to have too many problems following me in that.

Whilst it's particularly pleasing to see female writers in Australia taking on the thriller format, it's even more pleasing to see so many good ones coming along. There is, happily it seems, a sequel to WHITE GOLD in the making.
 

I'm starting to wonder if it's become mandatory for ex-SAS or other special forces members to leave active duty and write books. It seems that there are a lot of options for this sort of informed thriller style book, but you'll need to be partial to something that includes a military theme somewhere.

KILLING FOR THE COMPANY has, as it's first military connection, an ex-SAS member, Chet Freeman, invalided out, now working in anti-bugging and surveillance on contract for a major American corporation. Long story short, he catches Suze McArthur, a peace campaigner, eavesdropping on a meeting between corporation executives and the British Prime Minister, Alistair Stratton, that seems to be talking about a personal financial incentive for the Prime Minister to be take his country into the Gulf War.

The opening action takes the reader back 10 years, leaping forward to the current as the cover-up for that eavesdropping proves deadly, even after all these years. The Prime Minister (nobody's going to earn a gold star for working out who it's based on) is now a Middle East peace envoy and in the second military connection, Freeman's mate and special services, close protection agent Luke Mercer is in the action. Firstly he's contacted by McArthur asking for his help, secondly as he's assigned to get Stratton into Gaza.

The setup is absolutely rapidfire, and totally no holds barred. Once the baddies and the goodies are all sorted out though, you're going to need to fire up that suspension of disbelief and keep it operating at tip top condition. You're also going to need a little bit of a thick skin (actually you're probably going to need that from the outset). After all, there's "getting" the idea that sometimes you have to dehumanise the opposition to be an effective fighter, and then there's some very confrontational terminology and attitudes. Readers are also going to have to be comfortable with the idea that sometimes bad things happen - very very bad things.

I've never read anything else from this author, and I've never seen any of the television programs that he's been connected with, so I've no idea how this book sits in terms of his other work. Whilst this was a very action packed thriller, particularly in the early stages, and there's some good and some very surprising twists in the lives of the characters. There are some rather formulaic aspects, a bit of a dodgy plot, and for some reason, that dehumanising that really stuck out. There's also that idea that because you can work out who the high-profile figure is, you just can't shake the feeling that there could be a bit of political statement going on. Perhaps if the connection to the Prime Minister hadn't been quite so obvious, the plot might have been slightly more believable. If you don't care about that, and you don't mind your plots wobbling a bit under the pressure of the action, KILLING FOR THE COMPANY would definitely be one of those high-action summer reading type thrillers.

The morning that I went for my drivers licence, I'm not sure who was the most worried. My very patient, very kind driving instructor or me. Because we both knew that when it came to parking, I might as well be driving a block of flats. It didn't matter what that poor man did, there was no way in the world I could "get" parallel parking, and nothing much has changed in the intervening years. So I guess from the opening scenes of Jane Casey's THE BURNING I was feeling a little frisson of connection with DC Maeve Kerrigan.

That connection alone is never going to be enough to hold a reader's interest in any particular book however, particularly as I'm not convinced that the book should be described as a thriller. It's definitely more in the vein of a police procedural, albeit with a strong feeling of tension and pressure.

Whilst there is the search for a serial killer at the centre of the storyline this is another twist on that scenario in that Kerrigan's focus is actually on a killing, initially put down to the serial killer, but with sufficient differences to make her question that. This means that this victim's life needs to be examined closely, and along the way, that of her friend Louise North.

Somewhere in the characters of North, the victim Haworth, and her wealthy handsome ex-boyfriend who seems to have a rather sinister reason for transferring his attentions to North, there's obviously an unreliable narrator. The question is which one. Or is it any of these three. Could it perhaps be one of Haworth's other past lovers? As the viewpoint switches back and forth between Kerrigan and North, there are glimpses of the truth that kept this reader intrigued right to the end.

Personally I really liked the character of Kerrigan. I liked her imperfections and doubts, her reckless commitment to the task at hand. I liked the slightly tongue in cheek humour, the idea that she was a woman holding her own in a world of blokes with attitude problems. I thought there was much about her that was very appealing, although I'd imagine that some people could struggle with the very laid-back, dry sense of humour.

The best thing about getting to this party late as usual, is that there are more books out now in the Maeve Kerrigan series, which have gone onto the Must Acquire list.
 

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh, and THE INNER CIRCLE was also published as UNKNOWN just to add to the confusion.

So, anyway, I read UNSEEN, then THE INNER CIRCLE / UNKNOWN, then THE KILLER'S ART and finally UNSPOKEN which got me to the end of the books that were here, waiting to be read. Having spread this little exercise out over a couple of months, I was still struck by the similarities - sometimes in plot elements, always in the ongoing personal elements, and overwhelmingly in the way that the journalistic aspects take precedence over the police investigation, although the last part does seem to moderate a little in the final book - UNSPOKEN.

It comes as absolutely no surprise that the author of these books has worked as a journalist as that viewpoint is undoubtedly the strongest in all of these books. Whilst that aspect is obviously written with authority, it does rather skew the investigative aspects of the various cases. The personal complications of this particular journalist's personal life, absolutely did not help this reader as the whole thing lurched too much into melodrama for my liking. Add to that a rather journalistic, rather than storytelling author style and I will admit I was struggling.

A struggle obviously not helped by the idea of reading all of the books in rapid succession. I could really see the similarities after the second book, and the increasing predictability, and to be frank, tediousness of the personal life was increasingly boring and vaguely irritating. I definitely remember reading UNSEEN the first time round (of course I do, the similarities between it and UNKNOWN were what sent me off on this quest after all), and whilst I was not overly impressed at the time, I wasn't put off completely either. By the end of all four books though I have to confess I was increasingly underwhelmed with the series. Not one that I'd avoid, but not one that I'd shunt to the top of the pile by default.