This was published nearly 20 years ago, and while a lot of it holds up and it could still be set today (although the characters would save a lot of time if they had cellphones and Internet) I think it would not be so popular as there's now a lot more of this kind of fiction out there, both in books and on TV. This felt like a season of 24, rather than a single movie. It starts well, American orthopaedic surgeon in Paris recognises the man who killed his father 30 years earlier and determines to track him down to find out why. Meanwhile grizzled LA detective McVey is in London investigating the discovery of a severed head, linked to headless corpses scattered around Europe. I dislike plots which rely on coincidence to link the threads and this is a huge one. Osborne is an unrealistic and unlikeable hero, whose early loss is supposed to make us forgive him being an arsehole, and something of a psychopath. There's this global conspiracy where the bad guys have infiltrated every agency so no one can be trusted and characters are introduced all the time so they can be bumped off in a variety of violent ways, most commonly by being shot in the face. This got rather wearing and seemed designed only to fill the book out to it's nearly 700 pages which is just too long for a holiday book.A lot of reviews mentioned the twist at the end being a big shock - how it could be a surprise to anyone is beyond me, since it seemed so obvious. And there's a distressing scene of animal cruelty which bothered me way more than the gratuitous violence of the rest of the narrative but that probably says more about me than the book. I'm still giving it 3 stars as it certainly kept me reading to find out what happens and what the big mystery is about. If you suspend disbelief and accept action sequences straight out of the movies (for some reason this is easier than in books where one expects logic to prevail) and a preposterous plot then it's an enjoyable ride.
This novel kicks butt from the very first page. The main character, Paul Osborne, is a great combination of intuitively smart and naive about the way a lot of stuff works in life. The writing is a near-perfect blend of description, narration and dialogue that kept me glued to it for days [I do almost all my reading in bed before I drift off to sleep, which Folsom's novel made difficult to do.] It also kept me guessing and wondering how it was going to wind up - or down, if you will. That's due in part to the fact that it was, first and foremost, an espionage thriller, but with a large dose of science fiction tossed in, which only made the book more intriguing. Trust me, the sci-fi angle is no deus ex machina. I was a bit disappointed with the turn of events at the conclusion. Many won't mind, as it's a fairly conventional denouement, to some extent more popular when the book was written during the early- to mid-1990s. Even more popular a few decades before that. Anyway, I don't want to spoil it for other readers, so suffice to say the book was, from beginning to end, a very satisfying read. I liked it so much I'd read other work by Allan Folsom, like "The Exile."
Do You like book The Day After Tomorrow (2010)?
Waanzinnig. Waanzinnig goed. Waanzinnig goed in elkaar gezet. Een toppertje deze. Drie prachtige verhaallijnen waarvan je je afvraagt waar het elkaar gaat raken. Extra leuk als je (zoals ik in Frankrijk woont en) de sfeer van Parijs herkent. Lugubere details. Zieke gedachten. Net als Boys from Brasil, vond ik het eng en fascinerend als je bedenkt wat men kan doen met moderne wetenschap en dan was dit boek geschreven begin negentiger jaren. Afijn, het plot is mega, mega, megageweldig, ik voelde h
—Roos Boum
Any novel that keeps me entertained for 700+ pages has to have SOMETHING going for it. For a violent, plot-driven thriller, this is quite good. While in Paris, American doctor Paul Osborn spots the man who murdered his father 30 years ago. His decision to pursue the killer sparks a chain of events so ridiculously epic and over-the-top that you can't help but be sucked in. The action unravels in Paris, London, Berlin, and the Swiss Alps, and anyone who likes deliciously complicated mysteries will
—Elizabeth
-Pura evasión si se compra lo que ofrece al autor.-Género. Novela.Lo que nos cuenta. El cirujano ortopedista Paul Osborn se lanza con muy malas intenciones sobre un sujeto en una cervecería de París, aunque el individuo consigue evitar la agresión y la posterior persecución de Paul. Y es que ese hombre es el que, veintiocho años antes, había apuñalado al padre de Paul en su presencia en las calles de Boston y cuyo rostro nunca pudo olvidar. Este incidente le llevará a ser interrogado por la policía, a contratar a un detective privado que localice al hombre y, sin saberlo, a meterse de cabeza en una enorme conspiración internacional.¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
—Olethros
