29th June 2024

Having just finished a hefty non-fiction tome, I was recommended (by said tome) to pick up a thriller next, and so I grabbed this one which was early on my shelf and had remained unread for some years.

The narrative immediately grated. I was dropped into a scene of baddies plotting their plots, which is never something that I find that interesting - where’s the mystery? Where’s the joy in working things out? I don’t want a sense of empathy with the baddies.

Then I was introduced to “Shaw” - no first name - who for some reason in advance of reading I’d got the impression was going to be a professional female special agent character. But nope, turned out to be a man with an ego and no easy to discern profession. I don’t know why I’d got the impression I was expecting a woman, but it was disappointing to find another book about a man.

But still I kept going, until in about the fifth chapter there was a scene so unnecessarily reprehensible, that just felt like it was a throwaway scene to make the hero look less seedy, but could have been handled with much less shock value.

And so yeah, this was in no way what I was looking for to read. I wasn’t feeling entertained, I wasn’t feeling escapism, and I was being made to feel uncomfortable by the author’s choices of what to include. So away it went and I moved on to something more fun. I won’t return.

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