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PIRATE
by Duncan Falconer
Sphere, March 2012
432 pages
6.99 GBP
ISBN: 075154406X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It seems that no thriller writer's repertoire is complete at the moment unless they've pitted their hero against Somali pirates, so it's no surprise to see Duncan Falconer sending Special Boat Service operative John Stratton in the same direction as Andy McNab's Nick Stone and Stephen Leather's Spider Shepherd.

Stratton, the man the SBS turn to when they have a particularly difficult job that needs doing, is sent to Yemen to track down a suspected al-Qaeda cell. Stratton, who much prefers working alone, is accompanied on this mission by his friend and colleague, Hopper, a man who, unlike Stratton, has a wife and children and is happy to talk about them for hours on end.

Stratton and Hopper soon discover that they aren't the only ones after the same target as the planned snatch is almost derailed by another group of operatives. That rather sets the scene for the rest of this rapid romp through dangerous territory, in and out of the hands of a bunch of Somali pirates who seem to be involved in something more than just the standard hostage-taking scenario.

I've got no objection to a basic, standard, down to earth thriller with little in the way of complicated plot or deep characterisation and in that respect Falconer delivers pretty much what it says on the tin. Stratton is a competent creation, although he lacks the depth of Stephen Leather's main character, but his moral and practical dilemmas are enough to establish him as a man who does care and who tries to do the right thing, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Falconer's tale is unburdened by excessive detail and is clearly designed to keep the reader turning the pages, but he is to be congratulated on not falling into the same irritating trap as McNab. Falconer at least credits the reader with slightly more than the attention span of a goldfish, by which I mean that he writes chapters that are considerably longer than the two or three page efforts that seem to be the hallmark of McNab's latest offerings.

My main criticism of the book lies, again, in the multiple shifts in point of view that Falconer appears unable to resist, sometimes occurring several times in a chapter. He also has a very irritating habit of referring to Stratton as 'the operative' even when seemingly writing from within Stratton's own point of view. The books would be greatly improved by excising that particular descriptor and getting a more solid grip on the point of view through which the story unfolds. Pick one and stick with it until there is a clear scene break is advice that the author really needs to follow.

§ Linda Wilson is a writer and retired solicitor with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.

Reviewed by Linda Wilson, September 2012

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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