Review: Great book, questionable reactions
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 24, 2013
If Vince Flynn and Scott Turow got together to write a book which confronted head on, all-guns blazing, the hot topic of gun-control, this is what you might expect. I say that because the action scenes are full-on and very visual, yet the topic is handled with depth and sympathy. It really gets you behind the lobbying and voting on gun control in a way which no other book I've so far read has managed.But what many readers appear to have missed is that the two main characters, Josette and her brother, Bernard, are what I'd call 'transatlantics'. While born in the USA, they've spent most of their lives embassy hopping with their diplomat father. They've therefore spent more time in Europe and the Middle East than they have in the USA. So this is in fact exactly how they'd speak. Also a heavy chunk of the book is set in England at Oxford University. For my money the dialogue and comments were spot-on for both.In the end this isn't a view that many on the far right would necessarily agree with, but it is nevertheless an accurate reflection of how the world outside view the more staunch US protective stances on guns - because both Josette and Bernard have spent so much time in that world. So while you might not like that view, don't attack it for being inaccurate.This is obviously a subject the author knows well and has researched extensively and the writing is strong. No surprise when you check the author's bio and see that he's been an editor for many years and has another book in a top-ten all time best list alongside Grisham. I in fact read another book by this same author first, Ascension Day, which was set totally in the USA, with no comments at all about grammar or idioms. So it does make me scratch my head and wonder whether some of the comments here are honest and accurate. I spotted only three very minor bloops in 180,000 words across books #1 and 2, compared to over a dozen in the last Clancy I read.