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THE SAVAGE GORGE
by Colin Forbes
Simon & Schuster, November 2006
288 pages
17.99 GBP
ISBN: 0743295129


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

This is what my grandma would have called a rum 'um, the verdict delivered in a broad country accent for maximum effect.

THE SAVAGE GORGE is the last thriller from the pen (bound to be a fountain one, I'd wager) of British writer Colin Forbes, who died last year. And it's a good job I'm a reviewer who actually reads the books she reviews. If I was one of the other sort, I'd have fallen down a big hole here, as Forbes actually varies his stock plot.

If you've read any of his 30-odd (fill in the gag yourself) previous books, you'll know that the basic plot never wavers. This time, though, there's no gadding off to Europe by train or fisticuffs up a European mountain. Whether he was too ill to go off and do the research (his knowledge of European cities is obvious in the earlier books)I don't know, but in THE SAVAGE GORGE Forbes makes do with a British setting, coupled with a bizarre flying visit to an offshore island.

Tweed (no first names, no pack drill) and his awfully stiff upper-lipped bunch of British spooks are called in to investigate the murder of two women in London when the plodding plod Chief Inspector Reebeck fails to make any progress. The enquiry takes them to a remote (and mythical county) where they encounter the usual dysfunctional family and the usual megalomaniac.

It's business as normal elsewhere, mind – the dialogue has woodworm, the point of view is all over the shop and there are clumsy information dumps (usually in dialogue) for England. Oh, and there's constant repetition in case you weren't paying attention the first time!

The ending is totally barking. If you're a fan of Forbes this certainly isn't a book to remember him by. And clearly there must be fans out there for publishers to continue what's always been an, um, unusual series.

My guess is that the attraction of the books is probably that they are strangely comforting – a world where right always wins and where decent chaps defeat the bad guys without raising a sweat. And there's always a decent dinner for them as reward.

THE SAVAGE GORGE is the end of an era in more ways than one! Forbes was definitely one of a kind.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, January 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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