Thrillers

Dene Mackenzie reviews a selection of thrillers.

If ever there was a frustrating book, giving one the urge to throw it into a corner and refuse to read it through, then Lasting Damage (Hodder & Stoughton) by Sophie Hannah is that book. It needed to be read to the end, unfortunately. It could not be discarded easily despite the urge to reach through the pages and shake the main characters.

Hannah writes in an unusual style, very difficult to read easily. For at least half the book I had to keep rereading several pages to try to understand what was happening. At that stage it would have been prudent to stop reading altogether, but Lasting Damage just begged to be completed.

Hannah writes about an apparently successful couple who run their own business and live in a delightful house in a nice part of Britain. However, each has secrets, paranoia, family relationships - or lack of them - and dark urges that flow somewhere into the over-the-top category. Kit is living a parallel life. His wife, Connie, is convinced she is losing her mind, not helped by the indifference of her parents and the overbearing presence of her sister, brother-in-law and an obnoxious nephew. Connie, deeply suspicious of Kit, rises in the middle of the night and clicks on a virtual tour of a house in which she suspects her husband is conducting a secret life. She sees a bloodied body on the carpet, something not seen by anyone else - yet.

That is all on the first page of the real story and things go downhill from there. One of the few redeeming features is that, like many other books of recent times, New Zealand gets quite a few mentions as a place in which to enjoy a holiday.

Readers with an eye and mind for a complicated plot line, a disjointed writing style and an aptitude for dealing with awkward family members will enjoy this book.

• Peter Leonard gets a special mention for the silliest ending of the year so far in his All He Saw Was The Girl (Faber). Despite some favourable recommendations by other authors, this book defies belief. Two themes are woven into one and somehow readers are expected to suspend their common sense and believe that a mob enforcer in Detroit can end up chasing two American exchange students in Rome while the husband of the woman the mobster is dating chases them with one aim, to kill him.The story starts well enough but soon develops into another page-turner aimed at getting to the end in the shortest time possible.

One of the exchange students is kidnapped because he is mistakenly identified as his wealthy friend. The father of the wealthy friend pays the ransom to find that his son has been on a bit of a bender and is not answering his phone. The kidnapped student sets out on a mission to retrieve the ransom and deliver it to the authorities.

Gunfire features widely in the ending but misses a few characters who would have benefited from an early exit.

• In contrast, Noah Boyd writes a more easily read thriller with Last Chance to Die (HarperCollins). A Russian agent makes an offer the FBI cannot refuse. He can identify traitors leaking government intelligence. The introduction of new "hero" Steve Vail to help assistant director Kate Bannon decipher cryptic clues makes for a gripping read. Both Vail and Bannon have a tense sexual history and the "will-they-or-won't-they" atmosphere adds to the tension in the book.

Vail, drummed out of the FBI, is also teamed up with his former partner to solve another case.

Bannon makes an excellent foil to Vail in that he is all for breaking every rule and she is caught between keeping the faith of her FBI bosses and letting Vail run with his theories. Her betrayal of Vail is handled well, as is her rehabilitation.

The cryptic clues are well thought out and the characters, both good and bad, are well developed. Boyd manages to weave a web of intrigue about the FBI and the Russians - a favourite subject for espionage stories. Being a former FBI agent gives the author some insight into the thinking of the agency.

 - Dene Mackenzie is a Dunedin journalist.