Play Book Tag discussion

(And another one I swore I posted on Saturday April 30 ...)



Paper Money – Ken Follett
Audible audio read by Jonathan Keeble
2.5**

Before he rocketed to fame with Eye of the Needle , Ken Follett published a couple of crime novels under a pseudonym: Zachary Stone. In this one he explores how crime, high finance and journalism are connected through corruption, with the action taking place in a single day.

The relatively small volume is tightly packed, with a dozen (or more) characters and a complex plot. Follett structures the book by telling us the time of day, and then giving us several vignettes taking place simultaneously during that hour: a scene at the newspaper, contrasted with two or three scenes depicting the stories the newspaper is covering (or should be). It’s full of politics and scandal, and characters range from high-powered men to street criminals, and taking the reader on a tour of mid-1970s London from its tony neighborhoods to its slums.

Jonathan Keeble does a good job of reading the audiobook, but the many characters and some complicated financial elements taxed my ability to focus while listening. I might have rated it higher if I had read the text, but I’m not sure the story has really stood the test of time.


LINK to my review