Liquid Gold

Lachlan Fox #4

by James Phelan

'An absolute must-read for fans of Clancy, Ludlum et al' Bookseller & Publisher

Six names and one GPS location. A death list.

When ex-navy operative turned investigative journalist Lachlan Fox blows open the story of the decade, simmering tensions between India and Pakistan hit boiling point. A continent's water -- liquid gold -- is at stake and one man thinks nothing of a potential all-out war when there is big money to be made. Before helpless millions die, Fox is determined to expose the corrupt Umbra Corporation, and the man behind it, to the world.

With hefty prices on their heads, Fox and his trusted man-at-arms, Al Gammaldi, are pitted against time, terrorist cells and rogue secret agents funded by dirty money. Flanked by news agency GSR and the FBI, Fox and Gammaldi are going to give as good as they get, but nothing can prepare them for the ferocity of this fight.

Fox knows that truth alone triumphs . . . and this time it's going to hurt.

The Lachlan Fox Series
Fox Hunt
Patriot Act
Blood Oil
Liquid Gold
Red Ice

Praise for James Phelan:

'James Phelan has produced a big, juicy, rollicking tale in the spirit of Robert Ludlum. We haven't seen an international thriller like this for a long time' Jeffery Deaver

'A fast and furious ride through a complicated maze of timely political intrigue. James Phelan has earned a new avid fan' Steve Berry

'A corker ... Phelan writes in swift, gritty prose, never wasting a word' Sydney Morning Herald

Genres: Thriller, Action, Audiobook, Contemporary, Fiction

390 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

James Phelan is the award-winning author of twenty-four novels and one work of non-fiction. He first studied and worked in architecture before turning to English/Lit, working five years at The Age newspaper, obtaining an MA (Writing) and PhD (Young Adult Literature).

Hachette has published his five geo-political thrillers: FOX HUNT, PATRIOT ACT, BLOOD OIL, LIQUID GOLD and RED ICE.

From 2010-2011, Hachette published the widely acclaimed ALONE trilogy of Young Adult post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels.

In 2013/2014, Scholastic published James' thirteen-book adventure series about the dream work THE LAST THIRTEEN. The multi-award winning series (2014 YABBA, COOL, KOALA awards) has been highly successful around the world, selling over a million copies in 18 months.

THE SPY (Hachette, 2013), was the first instalment in a new series of suspense thrillers with the protagonist Jed Walker, and is followed by THE HUNTED (2015), and KILL SWITCH (2015).

James is currently working on a follow-up trilogy to THE LAST THIRTEEN, more thrillers, and an illustrated middle-grade series titled GRANDPA SPIES.

James has taught writing at post-graduate level and regularly talks at schools, libraries and universities around the world. Since 2006 he has sold over 4 million copies of his books.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Arundhati Roy's book about Kashmir so that provided a good context for this story. Really interesting to follow the story about water. Water will be the new oil. The things people will do for the money and power that comes out of controlling water. It frightens me witless.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first James Phelan and I found it a bit complicated with too many characters and destinations.

[Colin Whittaker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overly complicated. Too many characters. Lacking credibility. Impossible to suspend disbelief.
I'm very sorry Mr. Phelan but I think that's the last of your novels I'll be reading.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've enjoyed the Lachlan Fox series, but I will admit to having read them way out of order. That doesn't seem to have mattered until LIQUID GOLD, which had me more than a little befuddled, and I'm suspicious it might be because I've missed the book immediately before it in the series.

LIQUID GOLD has a fantastic, and pertinent premise - the idea that water is to the 21st century, what oil was to the 20th. As the book opens, central character, investigative journalist, ex Australian Navy Clearance diver, graduate of the Australian Defence Forces Academy, hero of the moment, Lachlan Fox reveals a story at the heart of simmering tensions between India and Pakistan - over access to water. Fascinating, and very realistic idea.

Something happened in the delivery though. I could not, for the life of me, work out who was who. As you'd expect in a thriller, the action is very fast paced, rapid-fire and there are quickly changing points of view. Normally I love that sort of style - but for some reason in LIQUID GOLD, there were so many names being introduced, and then flicked away from, that I was really struggling to work out who was who. Perhaps some of the characters have return parts from the earlier novels, but for some reason, they wouldn't quite gel as people - and I found I had to go back a lot to work out where this person was introduced, how they fitted into the tale, and even with that backtracking, I was still at a loss. I assume there's a lot from the back stories of Fox and, in particular, his romantic interest that informs Fox's behaviour in this book, and it seemed odd, that for the first time in the series, I felt I obviously needed to know a lot of that to get with the program.. so to speak.

There were very nice touches in the book. I particularly liked the way that Fox is starting to feel the effects of all this man of the moment stuff, his body is hurting, he's not quite as bullet-proof as you'd expect from a stereotypical action man. I wasn't quite so convinced by one of the major threads for one of the major female characters - but that's probably more a personal preference. The way that scenario is used is often less than convincing. But overall, the book isn't a bad story, and I'd not be surprised if fans of the Lachlan Fox books, who are up-to-date with the series, find this one just as fast-paced, action-packed and tension filled as the other books. Strangely, I've got so far out of whack with the series that I read the latest one, RED ICE, before I realised I also had this book. RED ICE worked. LIQUID GOLD didn't work as well for me. I was lost for a fair part of the book, and profoundly confused at points. Pity, because I really like this sort of thriller. Maybe I'll return to it when I've caught up with the book in the middle that I've obviously missed.

The series in order is:

Fox Hunt (2006)
Patriot Act (2007)
Blood Oil (2008)
Liquid Gold (2009)
Red Ice (2010)

[Balthazar Lawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as I would like to have. I thought the narrative was poorly constructed and lacked clarity and depth to make the story truly gripping. It was annoying to start new passages without know what the hell was going on or what people were referring to. The conversation between characters was benal, uninformative and at times seemed totally pointless to the story. The story seemed to lose it's way and I think this is one of the big problems with this book. Along with long drawn out events that added almost nothing to the story and seemed to be nothing more than padding.

[Lyn Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the fact that this action story continued the story line of Lachlan Fox and his trusty wing man Gammaldi and also brought attention to the world's diminishing stores of water. It is often thought that the country that controls the supply of oil is the most powerful but this story reminds us otherwise.

What a fantastic action packed holiday read from Phelan. I absolutely loved all the twists and turns in this story

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fast-paced thriller from this author!

Good character development with characters that are either liked or despised. I have been enjoying the entire series of Lachlan Fox and look forward to much more.

[Chrisc8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as James Phelan's first 3.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite frankly, this was disappointing but I found the pace hard going, and I felt that given what had happened to Fox already there just wasn't enough character development.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good easy listening book with a contemporary plot/story line. Although four days after reading I cannot remember how it ended!