Have you ever finished a book and been saddened that it ended? That was my experience with this book.
Herron put a diverse cast of characters in an exciting place, doing exciting things, and, for good measure, threw in murder. Those of us who love the spies from Britain's MI5 (Slow Horses) series also love how they interact, not always in a good way.
Herron removed them from their comfort zone in London and dropped them into the Welch countryside during a winter blizzard. I love that, and it's precisely what I did in my book. You create tension and suspense by removing the central characters from their familiar surroundings to a strange, unfamiliar place.
In Slough House, the backwater for failed spies, memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process.
With winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but…
Dan Fesperman crafted this story using a writing technique I love. Using a duel timeline to tell a story gives it the depth I enjoy reading. The duel timeline element builds suspense and shows the character's backstory, which I also use as an author.
I want to know the character's background—loves, fears, and desires. By knowing these things, I can better understand their goals and motivations. As I read a story and fold back each layer, I'm pulled deeper inside the tale. And everyone loves a surprise ending.
A SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB STAR PICK.
West Berlin, October 1979. Helen Abell is a young American, employed by the CIA to oversee a number of safe houses. She arrives in Berlin, expecting excitement and intrigue, and is disappointed to find the city a Cold War backwater.
But one night, during a routine house inspection, she stumbles upon two dark but very different secrets. If made public, they could damage the careers of high-ranking people with powerful ambitions. But Helen decides that the price of silence might be costlier still, so she covertly works to reveal the truth even as…
I've always been a sucker for escape stories. This one ranks right up there with The Great Escape.
During World II, Colditz Castle in Germany housed the unruliest group of Allied officers in the country. If you were so bad or escaped too many times from other POW camps, you went to Colditz. This made for a prisoner population of the most interesting characters in the world.
I love interesting characters because wherever they are and whatever they're doing, it always makes for a good story. I also love books that show the depths of the human spirit and the will to survive. This book hits all the right notes at the right time.
'A master at setting the pulse racing' Daily Mail 'A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject' Telegraph _____________________________
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAS: ROGUE HEROES
Colditz Castle: a forbidding Gothic tower on a hill in Nazi Germany. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that's only part of the real story.
In Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes us inside the walls of the most infamous prison in history to meet…
My debut novel is about Dallas Police detectives Frank Pierce and Rob Soliz. They are assigned the task of discreetly locating the Mayor's missing nineteen-year-old daughter. Her family believes she's on an irresponsible lark, but Pierce and Soliz discover she has been kidnapped.
A mysterious Bible is found inside her car with the word "Wormwood" highlighted under Revelation. This leads the detectives to a man arrested years earlier with a disturbing back tattoo that included the word Wormwood.
Based on his information, Pierce and Soliz follow the lead into the deep woods of Eastern Texas. They discover other girls have been kidnapped over the years, all fitting the Mayor's daughter's description. They discover something else, too—Bible prophecy, doomsday cults, and murder.
