The Red Room - Ridley Pearson

My review of The Red Room by Ridley Pearson first appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers. I am posting it here today with their permission. You can also check out my interview with Ridley Pearson from Shelf Awareness where we talk further about The Red Room and other aspects of his writing career.

First line: "Two men await a delivery van."

The Red Room, Ridley Pearson’s third installment in the Risk Agent thriller series, embodies the consummate elements of both a thriller and a mystery. Contractors John Knox and Grace Chu travel to Turkey to broker the sale of a priceless art sculpture. The real goal, however, is to be in the same room with the buyer—an Iranian academic—for five minutes. Neither knows why they need to be in the room and this leads them to investigate on their own. The more the duo learns the less they understand and the greater liabilities they become. In a high-intensity race for their lives, John Knox and Grace Chu can trust only each other and hope they make the right choices.

Pearson tightly constructed the action and pacing of this novel to elicit an urgent energy. He offers the readers only the insight Knox and Chu uncover, so the disorientation and mystery surrounding the events are as real for the audience as the characters.

In addition, Pearson offers up a stunning backdrop with Istanbul. The setting is elegantly woven into the plot to accentuate and propel the story’s themes and issues, not simply paint a pretty picture.

As exceptional as these elements are in the novel, they pale in comparison to the book’s true treasure, the dynamic characters. From the protagonists down to the lowliest of supporting characters, each exhibits dimension and fulfills a vital role in the book.

The Red Room may be full of questions and ambiguities, but one thing’s for certain; it’s an outstanding reading experience.

The Red Room is available in hardcover (ISBN:9780399163746) from Putnam and as an unabridged audio (ISBN: 9781480533509) narrated by Todd Haberkorn from Brilliance. 

The Last Man - Vince Flynn

First line: "The four dead men were lined up on the living room floor of the safe house."

In Vince Flynn's latest Mitch Rapp thriller, an operative in Afghanistan is kidnapped. The knowledge he has of the CIA and its secrets could prove fatal if dropped into the wrong hands. Rapp is deployed to try and recover the operative, but some unforeseen obstacles start pushing him off course: his nemesis, Louie Gould, has been hired to kill Rapp; a botched attempt by the Afghani police to kill him results in a minor memory loss; and the FBI want to arrest him for embezzling. Add to that the discovery that his mentor, Stan Hurley, is in the late stages of cancer, and Rapp has his hands full and his life on the line.

The audio of The Last Man is narrated by George Guidall. I believe I could listen to this man read the phone book and be completely engrossed. He, of course, narrates one of my favorite series, Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire series, and at first I heard Walt in this reading. It took less than two minutes to leave Absaroka County behind and take on the world of Mitch Rapp and the CIA.

One of the qualities I admire most about Guidall's narration is that he doesn't over dramatize. That's too common a characteristic in thriller novels and can leave them sounding unrealistic and absurd. The action scenes of The Last Man are read in such a way as to increase listeners' heart rates and maybe even catch their breath, but not so that they start rolling their eyes or envisioning a bad Arnold Schwarzenegger film.
 
Guidall tapped into the character of Rapp and related his calm, serious demeanor. Rapp is an assassin; in order to be good at his profession, he has dulled some of the feelings and emotions that the ordinary person experiences. And yet, he is still able to have some semblance of a relationship with other people. Walking that wire is tricky and a misstep can leave the character unbelievable. Flynn does a good balancing act with Rapp, and Guidall delivers it well.

Guidall did an equally fine job bringing out Irene Kennedy's personality. Kennedy is, of course, the CIA director. She's strong and serious and holds her own in a world dominated by men. But she also cares about her people and isn't without emotion. She's not a field operative whose been desensitized in order to remain sane. Her internal conflicts are crystal clear in Guidall's voice.

While there were some subtle political issues that arose that I shared different view points on, they were handled well and in a manner appropriate to the novel's context. They didn't come off as a sermon and fit the characters expressing them.

**WARNING: Minor Spoiler--for animal advocates**

If you're a person who under no circumstances tolerates the killing of an animal in a plot, this is not a book for you. There is an animal death in the book. I felt it was handled exceptionally well and appropriate to the context. Personally, I'm not one to tolerate the unnecessary inclusion of animal deaths and have criticized some books for it in the past, but in this particular one, I think Flynn wrote the scene perfectly. But if you are adamantly opposed to it at any time, be forewarned that it is included.

**end spoiler**

This was my first experience with a Vince Flynn novel. I had no problems following his long-standing series character and I enjoyed the energy and action of the novel. George Guidall's reading was exquisite and I looked forward to my walks and drives in order to hear more of the book.

The Last Man is available on unabridged audio (ISBN: 9781442355453) from Simon & Schuster Audio. It is just shy of 12 hours. The Last Man is available in print hardcover (ISBN: 9781416595212) from Atria/Emily Bestler Books.

The Day is Dark - Yrsa Sigurdardóttir

My review of The Day is Dark first appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers. It is appearing here today with their permission. Also, you may want to note at the bottom of my blog, the Shelf Awareness widget has the most recent contest and it features Harlan Coben's new thriller, Six Years.

First line: "Oddný Hildur looked away from the computer screen, took the headphones from her ears and listened."

The fourth book in Sigurdardóttir’s series featuring Thóra Gudmundsdóttir takes the lawyer protagonist and her significant other, Matthew Reich, on an adventure in the east coast wilderness of Greenland, where Reich’s bank is investigating the disappearance of two Icelanders working on a mining project. The remainder of the project workers refuse to return to the job site claiming the area is cursed, leaving Reich’s bank on the line to pay out a contractual insurance claim.

When Thóra, Matthew and the team they are traveling with arrive in Greenland, they discover there may be more to the curse claim than meets the eye. The two workers aren’t the first people to go missing from this area, and they may not be the last.

The cold, dark environs of Greenland parallel the tone and title of Sigurdardóttir’s The Day is Dark. A small village of Greenlanders is the only settlement near the mining project, and the villagers suffer not only the meteorological effects of the area, but also the frozen economy and the ghosts of their forefathers. Many suffer from alcoholism. The chilling effect of the novel is almost as strong physically as it is psychologically.

The spiritual tones woven throughout add a layer of complexity to the plot. Sigurdardóttir’s treatment of this spirituality is both respectful and intriguing, with the contrast between the science and the myth beaconing readers to challenge their own beliefs. The prose is at times awkward and wordy, but this may be attributable in part to the translation. The beauty of the story is still clear and dark. Readers looking for a Norwegian thriller fix, look no further.

The Day is Dark is available in available in both hardcover (ISBN: 978125001899) from St. Martin's Griffin and paperback (ISBN: 9781250029409) from Minotaur Books.  

THE SILENT OLIGARCH - Chris Morgan Jones

First line: "High in the air Webster watches the unbroken desert flow past, a deep copper red in the dawn, the sand ridged like waves rolling down toward the south."

Richard Lock, an English lawyer, leads a seemingly plush life as the puppet running a Russian company. The company is nothing more than a front, allowing Konstantin Malin to hide the complex network that enables him to control the Russian oil industry. When a disgruntled and equally corrupt competitor tries to unveil their secrets by hiring a corporate intelligence spy, Lock's plush life quickly comes apart at its very loosely sewn seems.

THE SILENT OLIGARCH is an astonishing debut novel. The complexity of the network Morgan Jones has devised demands an equally complex plot and that's exactly what THE SILENT OLIGARCH is. Much like a labyrinth, the series of corporate hide-a-ways leads Benjamin Webster, the corporate intelligence spy, down many dead ends, literally. When Webster begins turning over rocks, he finds he's leaving a trail of corpses. Webster's fervor to take Malin down is linked to a horror from his past. But he must ask himself if his determination to avenge that nightmare is worth creating more.

Chris Morgan Jones writes with the confidence of an insider, thanks to his years at the world's largest business intelligence company, but he also writes with the confidence of someone who understands his characters inside and out. Malin's constant calm, composed veneer contrasts sharply against Richard Lock's genuine panic. And while Webster simply wants justice, his conflict over whether or not the price of that justice is too high grips the empathy of the reader. That in turn enables the average reader to connect with a world - and the people inhabiting it - that most will never know personally. Yet, they'll walk away feeling as if they do. There are no characters wearing magic capes in THE SILENT OLIGARCH, only real flesh and blood humans.

The pacing is swift, but not so much so that readers will have difficulty keeping up with all the players in the game. Dialogue is well written and natural. And the atmosphere creates a definite sense of place. The scenes in Moscow have a much darker tone than those set in London or Monte Carlo. Readers will be able to feel the deception in Moscow and the sheer desperation to escape in London.

Chris Morgan Jones is definitely on his way to claim a spot among the elite international thriller writers.

THE SILENT OLIGARCH releases Thursday in hardcover (ISBN: 978-1594203190) from The Penguin Press.

My post today is the first on TLC's blog tour. I hope you'll check out the other blogs and as they post  their reactions to THE SILENT OLIGARCH throughout January and February.

And if any of my former students happen to be reading this blog post, I told you "oligarchy" would be a valuable vocabulary word one day! ;-) Happy Reading!