About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

KILL CHAIN
by Meg Gardiner
Hodder & Stoughton, October 2006
352 pages
19.99 GBP
ISBN: 034089962X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Meg Gardiner's THE KILL CHAIN is an object lesson in ignoring the first 50 pages of a book and for reading a series in order.

The opening is a real slog as, despite a dramatic chase and disappearance scenes, we get bogged down in a lot of family history. And there are lots of oblique references to earlier books in the series which left me bemused and befuddled. Suddenly, though, there's a rocket launcher under the book and it heads off into outer space with a blinding light.

Evan Delaney's father Phil is a whistleblower who is now immensely unpopular with the American military and spooks. So when his car is found wrecked at the bottom of a Californian ravine, police assume he has committed suicide to avoid possible legal action against him.

Evan's not so sure, though, and her worst fears are confirmed when a telephone call informs her that her father's been kidnapped and she has just 72 hours to save him.

KILL CHAIN has echoes of hit series 24, as Evan hurtles round the States, Thailand and the UK in an attempt to gather some dangerous evidence that will save her father's life. In the process she comes up against some of his former colleagues and some truly nasty villains in the shape of a brothel madam, her twisted son and some very creepy sidekicks (there's a 'read with the light on' scene as the latter pursue Evan through a Thai temple).

Once the book got going, I found myself unable it put it down. But not having read the four previous books in the series was a major problem, as there were plenty of oblique references to what had gone before. And I'm still not entirely sure I understood just what Evan did for a living – she appeared to be a writer with some legal background.

Gardiner is outstanding at portraying family links in all their uncomfortable and twisted glory. The scenes between Evan and her partner Jesse, who finds himself compromised by what is going on, are particuarly tense

And there's a nail-biting ending, although one part of the resolution gave me mixed feelings – it seemed to resolve one key plot strand too glibly, but set up an absolutely fascinating situation for the next book in the series.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, March 2007

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]