Promise You Won't Tell? by John Locke

I like John Locke's stuff, especially his Donovan Creed and Emmett Love work. He's gotten a bad rap recently about paying for some reviews early in his career, but buying reviews doesn't get you across the 1MM sales line, so other people must like his stuff, too.

His books aren't too long, quick paced, and fun. This title is the second in the Dani Ripper series, she's a household name from being held captive as a teen, and now her main business is acting as a decoy, or someone a wife may hire to test a husband's resolve. It helps to be gorgeous in this profession, which Dani apparently is.

This book didn't live up to his previous work. You can read the blurb here to get the premise. It felt as if the entire book was dialogue, and the twists and turns you'd expect never showed up. Or they did and they weren't that great. Or I expected to expect them. Whatever, I was a little disappointed.

Tres stars, Juan. We're still waiting for the next Creed (I recommend that series).

Stonewall's rating system here.

Gallows Thief: Too Much Cricket

I'm a big fan of Bernard Cornwell, which I will explain further in some not too near-term post. Being a fan, I came across a first edition of Gallows Thief and thought I would give it a drive.

Cornwell's fastball is historical fiction, with character depth and interesting plots. Gallows Thief is a stand alone novel, which is rare for Cornwell. He has produced over thirty books in his Sharpe series, six in his Saxon series, three (almost four) in his Grail Quest series, three more in his Arthur series, etc.

Gallows is set around 1820 during the Regency Period. As usual, he does a good job with description, but he switched to more of a mystery/suspense, which is not his fastball, rather than a mini-epic. And I love mystery/suspense, it's just that this one wasn't that great.

Our hero is a famed cricket player and several scenes revolve around this alien sport. Being in the background would have been fine, but I struggled with reading cricket jargon for pages at a time. Overall: too much cricket.

Skip this one and pick up The Last Kingdom, the first in the Saxon series. You'll be glad you did.

Lo siento, Bernie. Gallows Thief: Tres Stars.

Prometheus Reviewed

Loco!

I read my first Robert Ludlum book, The Icarus Agenda, when I was in college and looking for a way to avoid reading Medieval Yarn Making (which is a thriller in its own right). Icarus was my first suspense novel and it led me to several other Ludlum titles: The Matarese Circle, The Rhinemann Exchange, the Bourne trilogy, etc. In my suspense genre driven stupor, I devoured as much Ludlum that I could find, which led, inevitably, to burn out.

If you have read a couple of  Ludlum’s books, you’ve read ‘em all. The books are entertaining, but the plots are all the same, the characters all the same, everything’s the same, save the name given to the big multi-national cabal that is really pulling the strings to the universe.

The writing also started getting on my nerves. What I originally found outstanding now became grating. Ludlum heightens the intensity of a situation by projecting his characters’ thoughts and emotions as exclamations:

Madness!

Insanity!

Bodacious! (not really)

He does this a lot.

For a decade I shelved Roberto and his Madness! until I was looking for something that would divert me from reading Battle at Bull Run. I decided to pick up The Prometheus Deception off the shelf and give it a drive.

For the most part, it is (tada!) much of the same. But after ten years of Halcyon!, I found I was enjoying him. There are twists and turns and turns and twists. At some points he is didactic, rehashing the most recent apostasy or previous chapter’s double identity: doubtless he suspects people are morons. Craziness!

The book picked up in the second half and I did actually have a hard time putting it down. Then it became a little ridiculous and the ending was a let down. It had been set up for a sequel, but Robert Ludlum passed away in 2001.

If you are only going to read one Ludlum, don’t read this one. If you are looking for a pretty good thriller, go ahead and read this one. Tres stars! Madness!