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May 12, 2019
I was intrigued to read this book because it was written by an old colleague of mine from the Australian Trade Commissioner Service. And I was interested to see whether I recognised any of the events or people or scenarios. In fact, I was quite impressed. Bruce has written a fast- paced, captivating book that I read more or less in one sitting. I was also impressed by Bruce's grasp and recall of the detail of things like a visit by a senior government representative from abroad.
I found myself comparing with the "Day of the Jackal" ....maybe comparing a bit too closely with the scene in the State Forest where the terrorists are practicing shooting with watermelons! But the plot is tightly controlled and develops really well.
He has written a good story and I look forward to reading his next work which has recently been published. And, no, I did not recognise any characters ...though a lot of familiar places around Canberra were drawn into the story.
I must say, that initially, I thought that the naive young man who was drawn into the terrorist web would escape to Pakistan and we might have an international thriller on our hands but the twist in the story at the end was rather well pulled off.....though (I don't want to insert a spoiler here) I really cannot imagine any of the Australian Prime Ministers dressing down the Ambassador of that particular country (who was called in at the end) in such unequivocal terms.
Bruce has managed to put something of the other side of islamic terrorism into this work and I found that both refreshing and interesting. Also interesting to consider how a young guy could get caught up in terrorism and not have any way to extract themselves.
He has also captured, rather well, the convoluted relationships between the various arms of the Australian public service and the defence and clandestine services.
I hardly read any fiction these days but must say that this was a good read and a good story. Oh, marred a bit by some poor editing.......too many adjectives around the opening paragraph of Chapter 1, Usage of "warp speed" just once too often. I was expecting the Canadian Trade Commissioner, Claude, to morph into a villain but he just disappeared off the scene......seems a bit strange. He had the makings of a useful additional character in the story. Chapter 26 has the two fugitives considering taking off "leaving the corpses behind them"....but at this stage there are no corpses in the safe house. Chapter 27 has the typo "with lucky" instead of "with luck". I noticed one or two other similar errors that had been missed in proofreading. And Bob Murray seems to be sinking back into his swivel chair a few two many times .......but these are minor editing irritants....maybe only impacting me.
I found myself comparing with the "Day of the Jackal" ....maybe comparing a bit too closely with the scene in the State Forest where the terrorists are practicing shooting with watermelons! But the plot is tightly controlled and develops really well.
He has written a good story and I look forward to reading his next work which has recently been published. And, no, I did not recognise any characters ...though a lot of familiar places around Canberra were drawn into the story.
I must say, that initially, I thought that the naive young man who was drawn into the terrorist web would escape to Pakistan and we might have an international thriller on our hands but the twist in the story at the end was rather well pulled off.....though (I don't want to insert a spoiler here) I really cannot imagine any of the Australian Prime Ministers dressing down the Ambassador of that particular country (who was called in at the end) in such unequivocal terms.
Bruce has managed to put something of the other side of islamic terrorism into this work and I found that both refreshing and interesting. Also interesting to consider how a young guy could get caught up in terrorism and not have any way to extract themselves.
He has also captured, rather well, the convoluted relationships between the various arms of the Australian public service and the defence and clandestine services.
I hardly read any fiction these days but must say that this was a good read and a good story. Oh, marred a bit by some poor editing.......too many adjectives around the opening paragraph of Chapter 1, Usage of "warp speed" just once too often. I was expecting the Canadian Trade Commissioner, Claude, to morph into a villain but he just disappeared off the scene......seems a bit strange. He had the makings of a useful additional character in the story. Chapter 26 has the two fugitives considering taking off "leaving the corpses behind them"....but at this stage there are no corpses in the safe house. Chapter 27 has the typo "with lucky" instead of "with luck". I noticed one or two other similar errors that had been missed in proofreading. And Bob Murray seems to be sinking back into his swivel chair a few two many times .......but these are minor editing irritants....maybe only impacting me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review