Genre: Thriller
Description:
This is apparently the first of a projected
series of thrillers with John Moore as protagonist. I picked this book for
review (from the many Big Al is sent) because Karl Andrews chose a name close
to my heart for his protagonist: and I have long been fascinated by China,
especially Shanghai, especially Shanghai between the two world wars, when it
was up there with Berlin and Alexandria for glitter and excess, and a hotbed of
espionage both before and after World War I. It is still possibly (apart from
Hong Kong) the Chinese city with the most Western influences. Andrews is aware
of this (as you can see below he has lived in Shanghai, and in Beijing) and draws
his plot from one of these far flung connections. Like a good episode of ‘Law
and Order’ on the telly, his story enjoys a number of twists and turns before
the real reasons for the initial and subsequent crimes emerge. John Moore,
journalist, has been sent to investigate the death of a young woman who was
once his intern. The story opens like a flower from there on.
Author:
Andrews’
CV is succinct. It tells us he was born in London; has worked as a museum
curator, a journalist, a content creator and a ghostwriter of twenty Amazon
best-selling crime novels; and has lived in four countries and nine cities,
including Beijing and Shanghai.
Appraisal:
Once this gets going it is an interesting –
if occasionally brutal – read. Unfortunately, rather a lot of the early part of
the book is spent describing Moore, the usual burned out journo, living in the
backwoods, divorced and worrying about his daughter who has just started
college. As almost all protagonists in crime and/or thriller books are this
sort of person (only the gender varies), things could perhaps have moved on a
bit faster.
Once we arrive in Shanghai the pace begins to pick up. Information about
Shanghai is largely interesting. Then Moore’s investigation hits a dead end, after
which the pace really picks up as new clues are discovered and the novel
gallops satisfying towards its conclusion.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
Some seriously violent murders and beatings.
Moore (a middle-aged man) receives significant injuries which, IMHO should’ve
hospitalised him for at least a week. But he (of course) rips out his IV, pulls
on his Big Boy Pants and returns to the fray after a few hours.
Some of the events upon which the plot
depends rely heavily on coincidence.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Rather a lot. Unfortunately as well as
typos, the errors are often the sort that had this reviewer wondering what the
author was trying to say.
There are also lapses in continuity: eg
Moore is there at Chinese New Year, in winter. Sometimes he is suitably cold,
sometimes he seems completely oblivious to the subzero temperatures, then he
remembers to mention the very inclement weather again, sometimes at length.
Rating: ***
Three Stars
Reviewed
by: Judi Moore
Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words
