Review: A ride on the wild side
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2011
Roger Weston certainly knows how to sweep the reader along - in fact, so fast that the speed with which the action leaps from one location to another makes it difficult for this reader to keep up with what is happening.Meg Coles, professor of drama at a local university, witnesses her husband's murder one night. She soon realises that the box he is hiding just before he dies holds the clues to the man he really was - a man she didn't know. Within hours she is "America's Most Wanted" and is running for her life. So begins the chase...For me, her instantly acquired expertise in escaping pursuers time and time again is a little far-fetched, even for this female James Bond. One of the problems I had with the characters was that we never stop long enough to get to know them. The heroine remembers her bad childhood and a father who lies - and now her husband has proved to have lied to her all their married life. That is about all the author reveals about her - apart from her transformation from a gentle professor to an expert in evasion, hand to hand combat and an excellent shot.The crooks are traditional in that the reader has no idea who is trustworthy and who is not, who is an assassin and who is a cop, but since they're all trying to kill Meg, it doesn't really matter and most of them don't get to live long enough for the reader to find out anything about them anyway.Roger Weston has a breathless style, excellent for the type of "blokie" novel this is, but the early part of the script has a few repetitions. However, there is a lot of imagery in the novel where the author writes very well indeed.I don't like spoilers, so of course don't want to reveal too much of the plot. For readers who like hard and fast action with not too much attention to detail - apart from the guns used - this will be an enjoyable read.