Review: A ticket to ride
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2013
This is a through and through hard-boiled British police procedural with a suitably horrible bad guy (if you've encountered any of my other reviews, you'll know my obsession with the creation of a 'hiss-worthy' villain). Not only that, it's such a pleasant change to know that the ending won't be resolved by a shoot-out or car chase nor will the dialogue be dogged with minimalist and profane 'gang-speak'.To the book itself. It's very well constructed, carries the minimum of dead wood and hooks you right from the outset. It's very much NOT for the fainthearted though so be warned, there are (of real necessity to the story) some fairly graphic scenes of torture. These are definitely not gratuitous but they are 'creative' in their nature.Another thing is that you do have to suspend belief a few times as some of the plot devices really don't bear scrutiny but the book moves along at such a lick that it's not difficult to achieve.There are a few errors in the book but they're minor and not worth going into.The reason why I'm giving The Scarlet Tessera five stars and not the four which it would have otherwise received is because of the sheer intricacy of the 'justification' for the mutilations and murders. If these are accurate (and I've no reason to assume otherwise), it's a real tour-de-force by the author and I take my hat off to him for the effort put into doing all the research. It's worth reading for this alone although there were times when I wondered at how you could write something like that and stay sane!One nit-picky thing. I'm not entirely sure about the name 'Tessera' as it's colloquially used in Italy to describe an ID card - the sort of thing you might get from the health service or taxation office. An 'invito' is an invitation. However, let's not split hairs - it's a cracking read and I hope the first of many from Julian. Well done.