jee-eun

These books are very formulaic -Payne and Jones are two former "MANIAC" US special forces soldiers who now run various businesses and are conveniently both very rich AND well-connected, with friends in Interpol, plus a useful friend who just happens to run... an academic research facility in Switzerland to help them hack into otherwise secure computer systems or decipher old puzzles or mysteries. I'm pretty sure that some of the explanatory paragraphs setting up the characters for new readers are cut/paste jobs from earlier novels - however, these minor details don't detract from w hat is essentially a very readable thriller posing as a conspiracy theory. Not as patronising as Dan Brown books and with sufficient detail to allow the reader to read more into the topic in question if they want to. Refreshingly, the author admits to drawing 'inspiration' from other people and writes about some of his thought processes, including where he just damn well made things up to suit. The interplay between Jones and Payne is amusing but he does overdo the black man jokes a wee bit. In this particular book, they get involved with trying to decipher an ancient prophecy of Nostradamus and the ramifications this would hold today, if true. The body count is as high as ever and minor characters are brutally discarded once they have played their part, dead or alive -they are never revisited. Onwards and upwards all the way to the end and intra-country diplomatic relations are never damaged with the assistance of Interpol. Fantastic.

2022-11-14 17:13