Maybe it's something to do with the fact that I am on hols and as a little surprise my wife decided to invite my mother in law to stay...you know the scene :( Your favourite seat in front of the telly is now occupied by the MIL, your beers have all disappeared from the fridge ( or cooler if you are reading this over the pond :) and you MIL has a smile on her face, all the cycling that you hope to watch (La Vuelta) has been replaced by English soap...eastenders...coronation street...and then there's the x factor etc...god help us!! Of couse lets not forget feeding time (at the zoo) all your favourite food and the money in your pocket is fast disapearing...so what's a guy to do but disappear to a quiet spot with a novel that he can just step into...disappear into...become part of and just enjoy the story and the ride for the hell of it.
If you read an average book of approx 350 pages then it's so easy to dip in and out off,and return to later, pick up the pieces and finish in a reasonable time whilst remembering all the outstanding descriptions and storylines. However with a 900 page book you need to seriously think about putting aside some quality reading time, not just 50 pages but at least 200 pages in a sitting. If you do this then you are richly rewarded often with and outstanding story that you cannot help become involved with. I am pilgrim is acturally about a secret service agent, Pilgrim, taken out of retirement to find on of the greatest mass terrorists that world has ever known "Saracen" It is Saracen's sole objective to destroy America by the development and release of a deadly virus with no cure. That esssentially is the storyline but due to the length of the novel the reader has time to get to know both terrorist and secret service agent thus producing one of the greatest intelligent reads/thriller in the last year. This book has movie written all over it...and if like me you find yourself with some downtime, or you find yourself with the MIL for company "At my signal unleash hell" then you could do worse than make the acquaintance of Pilgrim and watch as he journeys the world to stop the evil intentions of the evil Saracen...and perhaps then he could help me with the MIL :)
I find Chris Carter one of the greatest thriller/crime writers of the modern age. He has produced in Robert Hunter a first class anti-hero, a detective working on the side of good but with a tragic past, which is revealed as this story progresses.
An unexpected accident causes, a shocking find is made in the boot of a car, and a suspect is immediately detained. Lucien Folter will talk to no one but Hunter, they have a past, and when Detective Hunter arrives a grizzly tale of horrific proportions unfolds with Folter at the centre. This is absolutely spellbinding storytelling and a story that gave new meaning to the word depravity.....I could not put it down and finished in two days...it is that good. The players at the centre are Hunter and Folter, good v evil, but who is leading who? and will the body count ever stop. Hunter is helped in his odyssey by the charismatic and beautiful Detective Taylor and as we race towards a bloody conclusion, in the search for the one hostage who might still be alive, Carter does not cease to surprise and manipulate the reader as once again he proves how his training as a criminal psychologist has helped make him an outstanding author.
Don't get me wrong I quite like Linwood Barclay and what he does he does
well...ie he looks at an ordinary man's everyday life..yes the sort of
life you and I lead and everyday situations and from that shows how one
simple mistake or incident can make a life unfold and all the cards come
tumbling down....Take A Tap on the Window, Cal Weaver is on his way
home and stops to give a lift to a young bedraggled teenage girl...yes
you've got it an older man giving a lift to a young girl late at
night...what could possibly goes wrong! Well naturally as this is a best
seller the girl disappears and you don't have to look very far to find
the no 1 suspect...yes Cal your head was right you should not have
stopped to give that young girl a lift.
What follows is a story
of lies/suspicion/guilt/intrigue done in the very Linwood Barclay way
and guaranteed to keep the reader reading and the pages turning...and to
an extent it works. The problem with reading lots of Linwood Barclay is
that they all follow a similar storyline...ie a simple incident leads
to lives unravelling...and so dare I say the word "formulaic" springs to
mind.
In essence this is an ok read with some well written good
moments take this example...At the start we quickly learn that Cal's
son Scott died tragically and recent and Cal travels to the place of his
death where he contemplates and tries once again to come to terms with
his son's death..."As I always did, I surveyed the scene. Starting at
the handicapped spot, rising past the four rows of windows, stopping at
the roofline....How long would it have taken? Two seconds? Three? I saw
his body falling, plummeting, hitting the pavement. Three seconds seemed
about right. Certainly no more than that. What was he thinking on the
way down? Was he terrified? Did he realize, once he'd gone off the edge,
what he'd actually done? In those two or three seconds, had he wondered
whether there was anything he could do so save himself?
So not
the best Linwood Barclay (did however love Trust Your Eves) and it's
always best to return to an author rather than consume all his writings
in one long reading marathon session!
