REVIEW

Review - Cyanide Games, Richard Beasley

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

Styled as a thriller from the legal world, CYANIDE GAMES introduces Peter Tanner - criminal defence barrister, widower, father. Very much one of the good guys, one of those that takes on a hell of a lot and seems to pull results together despite the odds.

There's some complicated set up underway in CYANIDE GAMES, so a greater part of the book is devoted to what feels like considerable framework construction. Which, given that Tanner is a lawyer, appears to end up involving a large amount of personal investigation, involvement and prodding of various bears with a variety of sticks. Once the action actually moves to a court room, Tanner's involvement - and skills - are considerably more believable and the action seems, oddly given it's mostly court room tactics, to actually heat up quite a bit. 

Legal thrillers must be a tricky undertaking for an author - working what seems to be a mostly intellectual role into that of an all action hero. Believing the central character is capable of just about anything really helps with this reader's level of acceptance. Giving them a seriously good reason to be off on a lone wolf crusade is also vital, which meant that CYANIDE GAMES was a little on the hit and miss side for this reader. Perhaps the character of Tanner was too "out of the box" - he's ticking a lot of the good boxes, and doesn't seem to have much on the downside. Perhaps it's also that the sheer bulk of the set up meant that so much of the book read like a prelude to something really good - which ended up being too short lived to create balance. 

Not to say that the series, on the whole, doesn't have potential. The court-room scenes showed more than enough promise of some very good tactical thinking - and game playing, which hopefully would be more to the fore now that the background is filled out. Definitely worth a read if you're a fan of legal thrillers.

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
ISBN
9781925368130
Year of Publication
Series
BLURB

Peter Tanner left the flashy world of commercial law following the tragic death of his wife. Now, as a criminal defence barrister, he crosses paths with some of the less desirable but wealthy members of the nation’s underbelly.

One evening he receives a call from Melissa Cheung. Her husband, Joe, an old friend from law school and a partner at global law firm, has been arrested while on business in China on grounds of corruption. The call takes Peter away from drug dealers and crooked property developers into the highest end of corporate corruption – mining companies trying to cover up environmental disasters and families at the top of the rich list who think they’re above the law.

Peter knows Joe isn't corrupt, but has been set up to save the skin of his firm and one of its biggest clients. And Tanner is like a dog with a bone.

As he pursues those who had Joe incarcerated, he unearths cover-up after cover-up, putting his own and others’ lives in danger – and he will not let up until he finds the perpetrators and has them brought to justice.

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Karen Chisholm
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
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