THE LOST Simon Beckett (Trapeze £14.99, 368 pp)
THE LOST
by Simon Beckett
(Trapeze £14.99, 368 pp)
Beckett, author of David Hunter: Forensic anthropologist, brings us Jonah Colley (Meteral Police firearms officer), a character whose entire life was destroyed after his child disappeared.
Ten years later, an old friend asks him to visit Slaughterhouse Quay on the Thames. There he discovers four dead bodies. The attacker then attacks him and leaves him for dead. He survives to become a murder suspect.
Although this is far from the cerebral Hunter it’s not all bad, Beckett has given his new character a troubled soul as well as a conscience.
Rebus can be heard in Colley. However, he is more poignant. Beckett’s thriller is roaring and full-throated, but this is not a routine police investigation.
THE INHERITANCE Gabriel Bergmoser (Faber £8.99, 288 pp)
THE INHERITANCE
by Gabriel Bergmoser
(Faber £8.99, 288 pp)
THIS second appearance of formidable Maggie, part co-heroine of Bergmoser’s debut The Hunted, is an example of Australian outback noir at its finest. Maggie has no boundaries. She is determined to survive, and will do anything to get there.
Her first appearance is in North Queensland, where she hides from a drug cartel. She then finds herself in chaos with a group of vicious bikers.
Maggie escapes to Melbourne, accompanied by a questionable cop from the future, hoping that she will also learn about her abusive father (who was discredited) and her mother who vanished from her life unannounced. It is not for the weak-hearted. This stirring tale features a heroine who stays long in the memories.
NEVER
Ken Follett
(Macmillan £20, 832 pp)
Follett is an extraordinary storyteller, which can’t be denied by anyone. Eye Of The Needle, his first thriller that was set during World War II sold more than 10 million copies. This film became a classic.
Now he has entered a more contemporary world — imagining the possibility of an imminent threat of World War III — featuring a female American President, a string of radical jihadists, and a Chinese regime that is impossible to predict.
Follett’s premise is that war can begin with a single false step, and that it is not always easy to see when that false step is taken — because a global crisis can spring up at any moment.
The trouble is that this is an intensely crowded field, inhabited by — among others — former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary.
Follett’s talent is not enough to make his book of 832-pages feel artificial.