Review: Gritty and gripping
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2013
"It's not personal, it's just business." You've heard that before, right? Well it's damn personal when the business is making money off kidnapping children.Kate's a wife and mother, who ends up relying heavily on an American business partner of her husband Jack, and it's strange how all roads seem to lead to Kate.At first she seems just like one more tree hugger, but there is something most women are beyond and before anything else. When you have a child, that child is priceless. There's no money you wouldn't part with and nothing you wouldn't do to protect your offspring.The book starts off with cultural differences on opposite ends of the planet, when a US company is setting up shop in Glasgow. Very quickly what seems to be *just business* becomes sinister, interspersed with Kate's immersion into the seedy underbelly of this historical city when she ploughs (plows) her Lexus into a man running across the street.Coco's character is so well portrayed in this book, you can almost smell the weasel as you turn pages. You want to smack his shoulder hard (with an axe or something equally damaging) so he has a chip on both of them.It's a novel of sharp contrasts - on opposite ends of a business spectrum.There is no limit to how far people will go to gain their objective, and this is fiercely matched by the extreme lengths a mother / friend / family go to save their loved one. (One is business, one is personal, and this is when business becomes personal).Oddly, it seems a paradox that this book is fast paced (because it doesn't read that way - yet it is an incredibly fast read) - it quickly turns from blasé to sinister and menacing, and with each page turned it gets darker and darker.This is a crime thriller which kaleidoscopes so fast the view is constantly changing. It's flavoured with both the saint and the sinner - and reads locally. You breathe Glasgow when you are reading it. Curtis' strong American accent and his determination to think with a z (zee) and not an s, is a visual reminder the entire way through that there is a foreigner lost in the shadowed murky depths of a Scotland drizzle, running the gauntlet, and given a purpose in life he never would have imagined when he left his family to head for the UK on a *business* trip.It helps to have read the first book in this series (Waging War To Shake The Cold), but not essential. Of all the characters I liked Jim best. And it's strange how Jim is one of the strongest ties to the first book (men of character and all that, right?)I can tell you this is tense, there are twists you will not see coming, and it will make you love and despise this city with equal measure.It was a riveting read, and I was so immersed I fought bed time, caught up in the crime, the humanity, and even better - the altruism behind it all. Definitely five out five stars. One thing I must say that I love about Chic McSherry novels, is they are more than just a dramatic sequence of events - they also raise controversial and debatable subjects - there is an underlying theme which sets this author apart from the others. (Let me know if you spot it).I like a good story, I like a story with a conscience even more - and then there's a story which has all this - and the anticonscience - and that makes this compelling and great at raising blood pressure. (Stay on the medication when you read this).The first book started with a misunderstanding, this book is so calculated and cold you will either respect the neds and their terrifying logic, or it will put the fear of messing with the wrong people into you. The way it ends - the final *deal* - you just know there will be more. It can only escalate - the screws will be turned - (you can almost see it turned to *turn tricks*) - there is nothing good about the Devil playing God's advocate - and after reading two of these novels now - I am dreading and anticipating the next book with equal measure. I hope there is a next book - because the scent of sinister promise blew the last pages closed.An excellent read!