No comments about Target: Logan.

2 comments about Beneath the Diamond Sky.

1. Genre, huh? What is it good for?
   
   Beneath the Diamond Sky has only been out a couple of months and the so far brief snippets on Amazon, Picador and Wakling's own site describe it as being 'in the vein of Alex Garland'.
   
   Dunk! I go: and dunk! again. Forehead firmly and with a satisfying slapping sound into one of those low beams that tend to delineate my routes through any bookshop of note. So, rather like his first - saddled with a 'corporate thriller' tag in some circles (though not according to me or Arena (who rightly big-upped its genuine literary merit)) - that initial piece of info did not light my candle. I mean, Alex Garland? I'd long ago decided - admittedly with no real evidence other than that everybody at some point seemed to be reading The Beach and/or The Tesseract - that he was firmly in the Not For Me category. Maybe I didn't like cover, I don't know, but I did feel rather smug when movie turned out to be so poor. Shallow? Heck, yeah.
   
   Still, sod it, time to stuff flimsy prejudice right up where it belongs. OCTP* turned out to be a rollicking good read and a stylish turn too, so away with assumption.
   
   In Beneath the Diamond Sky a group of Western backpackers (a mix of Brits, Americans, Israeli and Dutch) is kidnapped by Kashmiri militants while trekking through the Himalayan foothills. The political forces, the motives for their capture, are only ever really hinted at (stuff here for the bigger picture and a chillingly similar factual multi-national hostage story) because what we're interested in here is the fate of the hostages' minds and characters and how they deal with the situation they've had thrust upon them. Not just them, in fact. Cut into the kidnapping narrative we also bounce back to the UK for insights into their families and how they're doing.
   
   The main protagonists are a couple, Ethan and Kate, whose already troubled relationship is simply thrown over the edge as they're cast into a desperate nightmare they can barely comprehend. At home, Kate's sister Rachel struggles with her guilt over their dishonest relationship; Ethan's father battles with his own uncompromising political and personal dogma; and pointlessly, ponderously, government diplomacy fritters in the background.
   
   Wakling juggles the component parts of his story very well. Think about it: this could easily become a static stagy one-set piece, half a dozen prisoners in one room, slowly unravelling (and they do unravel). But what you get instead is a distinctly smart and unsettling novel about the effects of adversity on everyone, not just the unlucky - and boy do they get unlucky - few kept in tiny room. Rachel's and Kate's and Ethan's stories overlap cleverly, usually held together by neat little segues (Kate's pilot motif for instance, as she aims to keep sane by reliving her recent flying lessons), phrases or symbols.
   
   And then - like a sort of literary salmon, kinda - Wakling rises free from the 'thriller' mainstream - as he did with OCTP - by a) being able to throw in poetic gems at will:
   
   "Somebody flipped a switch and the sound of a string quartet threaded through the small talk"
   
   b) keeping so much of the terrorists' motivation a mystery, and c) daring to give us the ending he does.
   
   It's an intense and, yes I'm going to have to use it, claustrophobic journey through shifting alliances and crumbling mindsets where the only thing that really holds firm - although it makes no sense at all to us - is the unspoken ideology of the militants. In a way it reminded me of Iain Banks's Canal Dreams, that sense of a foreign experience, unknowable and cruel, accessible only via extreme sensations (survival, mostly) but always distinctly alien. As Kate tries to hang on to her mind I kept thinking about Onada Hisako and the things she has to do to keep going in similarly grim circumstances.
   
   Bright future ahead, I'd say.
   
   *Oh, and for those of us who've read On Cape Three Points there's a smart little easter egg tucked away in the text; very enjoyable.



2. Having travelled to India, I was excited to pick this book up. Unfortunately the book is barely readable. The character development is poor and the constant flashbacks seem unnecessary and annoying. Lacks any element of a good thriller. One of the few books fit for the trash.

No comments about Die Hafenkrokodile, Bd.7, Fall 7: Kidnapping an der Elbe.

No comments about Experiencias de los policías antisecuestros.(México)(TT: Experiences of the anti-kidnapping police.)(TA: Mexico): An article from: Proceso.

No comments about A Ritual , & Illustrations of Free-Masonry, & the Orange & Odd Fellows' Societies, accompanied by Numerous Engravings; & a Key to the Phi Beta Kappa, Also an Account of the Kidnapping & Murder of William Morgan, Who Divulged the Ridiculous & Profane Usage.

No comments about Salt and Pepper #5: The Prisoners and the Paintings (The Salt and Pepper Chronicles).

No comments about Stolen (Touchwood Mystery).

No comments about The Carnival Kidnap Caper.

No comments about Abduction leads to suspension of soccer tournament.(kidnapping of Colombian Soccer Federation vice president Hernan Mejia)(Brief Article): An article from: America's Insider.

5 comments about Only Son.

1. The book Only Son is a modern work of art expressing human needs and wants along with the confussion of real life. Charectors in this book are so realistic you feel as if they are people you know who have emotion no different than that of a friend. There is no good or bad just a gray area and Kevin O'Brian has captured the gray area that we all seem to fall into with a remarcable story.



2. It is extremely rare that I start and finish a book on the same day. I typically like to enjoy a book over a week or so. But I could not put this book down!

   I always respect an author that is capable of making you feel something you ordinarily would not. But not only does the author make you feel compassion for a criminal, but resenting those who try to bring him to "justice."

   I'm still thinking about this book, its characters, and all the possible reasons this book has me spellbound. But you're better off reading it yourself anyway. I have a feeling it will mean many different things to many different people.




3. This was one of the best books I have read. Kevin's book "The first to die" was also an excellent read. I had a difficult time putting the books down and could not wait to read on to see what the next page would bring.



4. Wow, never in my life have I encountered such an amazingly written piece of art. Told from three different points of view, there is no way the reader can take sides between the emotional struggle of the main characters. The mother of a kidnapped child, the love of a child, and the love of the kidnapping father of the son. It is an emotional struggle to get through this book, and at the same time, you can not put it down while reading it! Have a box of Kleenex by your side for this one!



5. This is probably one of the best fiction works I've ever read. It has all the elements needed to make this book a classic. Great plot, engaing characters, beautiful descriptions, and a sublime ending. I wasn't able to put this book down and after reading it, it stayed with me for a while. I strongly recommend this book to absolutely anyone.