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The final sentence of the first paragraph of this book had me wondering: ". . . the sound of Caroline's labored breathing as she lay on the bed next to him." Huh? In a hospital? It sounds as though that institution is permitting unwonted chumminess between patients and visitors, but that misapprehension on my part was soon corrected. It was simply an unfortunate juxtaposition of words (rather than people) on the part of the author, but an example of the less than perfect standard of writing/editing to be found in this overlong work. Caroline Parsons, newly widowed and bereaved, too, of her young son, is dying of a staph infection which, she tells Nicholas Marten, cop on the run, was deliberately inflicted on her . Not only that, she claims her congressman husband and their son were also murdered. A specialist who attended her and whom she is convinced aided in her murder, had a strange tattoo on his left thumb, a tattoo to be found on many of the characters peopling the novel. The President of the United States, John Henry Harris, is just too late to see Caroline whilst she is alive. He does, however, meet Marten across the woman's corpse and it is fortunate for him that he does since, after a clashing of circumstances where he refuses to authorise the killing of the Chancellor of Germany and the President of France, Harris feels he must flee the dubious comforts of the White House and all his 'friends' and seek out Marten, whom he feels he can trust. Marten, meanwhile, is determined to solve the mystery of Caroline's death, to discover if there is any truth to her claim. He knows he is onto something when Caroline's doctor commits suicide rather than talk to him. Harris and Marten then go on the run, determined to get to an international conference of VIPs, at which Harris is supposed to deliver a surprise address. We all understand that for a book to work, there must be a degree of cooperation from the reader – in other words, a suspension of disbelief but this much suspension to bridge the gap? Folsom has the world virtually being run by a secret cabal inspired by an equally secret manuscript by Machiavelli. The people of the tattooed thumb are part of a coven of witches who take part in an annual ritual murder. They have their sights set on a French female journalist, the women of whose family have been sacrificed for 26 generations. It is not made clear just who are to be sacrificed when that family has no one further available to be barbecued. To pad out the action, there is also an exceedingly polite assassin named Victor, who is run by an equally polite person calling himself Richard. Their place in the general narrative is not made plain until the closing pages – and even then, they don't seem to be completely necessary to the tale. The characters are not terribly convincing. Nor, for that matter, are the characters' motives. Given that the top figures in the government are all members of the cabal, one can only wonder how an unsullied President could have made it to the top job. It's fortunate that Harris is fluent in Spanish, too, since he and Marten are forced to do part of their run in Spain. By a strange coincidence, they encounter an Australian-educated Spanish limousine driver who happily throws his lot in with them, together with the young men of his family. All terribly likely. The book is far too long and far too badly edited. One wonders how Folsom, an author with a fair reputation, could have allowed such nonsense to have appeared in his name. Had a competent editor set to work on the manuscript, slashed a goodly portion and tightened the action, the whole would have been improved, perhaps to an acceptable standard. As it stands, I would doubt that it will do the reputation of the author any good but, rather, considerable damage.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, March 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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