Relentless

I bought this book after reading a great review on this site, and have now had chance to read it. So here is my review.

~The Book~

The main character in the book is Tom Meron, whilst happily going about his own business, looking after his children, the phone rings. On the other end of the phone is Jack Calley, his best friend although someone he hasn't heard from in 4 years. Its obvious immediately that Jack is in trouble and there are people after him. In the last few seconds before the call goes dead, Tom hears Jack give out his address.

This leads Tom down a dangerous path of violence, corruption, betrayal, and most serious of all his children might be in danger.

~The Characters~

Tom Meron - A down to earth office worker, who's general level of excitement appears to be deciding what to watch on the TV that night. The character of Tom just makes you ooze sympathy, everything about him is normal. Yet here he is drawn into a dangerous world, but he has no idea why he's been pulled into it. He goes from Joe Average to man on the run within minutes of picking up a phone, his life changes forever.

Kathy Meron - Tom's wife, now this character doesn't give the reader any cause to feel sorry for her, in fact her actions make Tom seem even more sympathetic. And whilst she's not a hateful character, she's certainly not likeable.

DI Mike Bolt - The senior police officer instructed to investigate the suicide of a senior judge, who's case overlaps with others leading him towards Tom. There are several mentions of pain and suffering which Bolt has been through, but these don't become apparent until very late in the book. The references don't give enough depth for the reader to connect with Bolt, and he just comes across as your average detective who's hell bent on solving the crime.

Mantani and Lench - The baddies of the book. Neither of which have any redeeming qualities. Lench is basically a mercenary for hire and Mantani is his side kick. I've read other novels where there's a hitman who's killed goodness knows how many people for the money, and occasionally, even though they're bad guys, you can't help but admire their skills. Lench on the other hand does not bring out any thoughts of admiration.

~My Thoughts~

I've never read a Simon Kernick book before and this one I really enjoyed, I will certainly be looking out for his books in the future.

At first I thought I wouldn't enjoy it, I can't remember if the review I read mentioned it or not, but if it did I'd forgotten that it was set in England. Now I do have a thing against watching or reading any crime dramas set in England. I don't know what it is, maybe I just like to believe that all horrible crime happens away from our shores.

So at first I was thinking 'oh no, I'm going to hate this', and I also didn't like the fact that the blurb on the back is basically the first two pages of the book. That seems a little lazy on the part of the publishers to me.

However, once I'd read the first few pages I was hooked. The book is written in the first person where Tom is the major character, and in the third person when Bolt takes over. I have to say when Bolt first appeared my thoughts were 'No, aghhh I need to know what Tom is doing' and I was very tempted to skim read the chapters where Bolt was investigating.

Luckily I resisted this urge because Bolt's investigations are a major part of why Tom's life has been turned upside down like it has.

I think the author invests well in the characters of Tom and Kathy, but could have done a little more to bring out some sympathies for Bolt. I liked the fact I didn't feel any admiration for Lench's skills, I really don't believe a hitman should be the cause of any admiration.

Normally I would read the likes of James Patterson, John Connolly, Karen Rose, Patricia Cornwell for my crime drama fixes, and whilst I thought this book was good. I think Simon Kernick has a little way to go to get to their standards. As I've said it was the first book of his that I've read, so I don't know how long he's been around, but I would imagine he's got plenty of time to grow and become very successful.