BOOK TITLE: A
Dead Man Strikes Back
ISBN: -
AUTHOR: James
Lingard
GENRE: Spy thriller
NUMBER OF PAGES: 49
FORMAT: e-book/PDF
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
REVIEW BY: Dhivya
Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: The
author contacted us for a review and sent us a copy of the book
REVIEW:
Spy thrillers are usually books that
will generate a thrill and a chill, no matter what the geographical setting.
Most people usually do not appreciate the fast paced page turners (if they are
fans of chick-lit books and going by popular opinion this set forms the
majority of the reader club). But even these people cannot complain about the
spy thrillers except for maybe “They are too fast and gory”. But fortunately,
this ‘spy thriller’ dispels that opinion.
When the author requested a review, it
was with much anticipation that I took up the book and was in for a
disappointment. Being an avid reader who could read a 300 page in book in under
a day, I took up this book as a challenge and its 49 pages gave me confidence.
I was hoping to read and review the same day. But unfortunately, little did I
realise that I had to read every page – line - thrice over to understand what
it really meant. This made the book effectively 150 pages.
What strikes the reader as odd is the
abundance of description. The book is filled with long dreary sentences, convoluted
description of scenes and abusive use of clichés with vague and extra words.
Not all words were easy to understand and grasp. So there is an overall feel of
jargon which is unnecessary to the main plot of the book. And what is supposed
to be a spy thriller slowly turns to a real Victorian prose. And the user is
more often running off in search of a dictionary. (Did I mention the need to
use minimum 50 various pages of dictionary to understand that not all the nouns
used were place names. Add that to the total page book count).
Till more than half of the book, we
can neither understand who the hero is nor what his mission is. Too much of
focus is laid on the detail and the book has a lot of half finished sentences. For
a seasoned reader this seems like a badly edited movie out there with a really
confusing plot line. And to use the correct word, the editing seems to be
'jerky' and jarring in the face.
There is too much of confusion between
first person narrative and third person descriptive. Not all spoken words are conversation
dialogs and not all passive words are descriptions. In attempting to give us an
insight into the real thrilling mountain landscapes, the author fails to deliver
a gripping storyline and instead he succeeds in eliciting a yawn or two per page.
Characters jump out at the reader and
the readers are expected to have a previous understanding of what they have
been doing or where they were and how they are related / connected. So much so
this book feels like a sequel of some sort and the reader gets a feeling of
missing something vital. It becomes necessary here, to quote authors who write
series or sequels and still insist on giving a basic character sketch of main
characters and a short synopsis of events that transpired in previous books.
And then there is this book. But on
the plus side, it gives the reader a motivation to get in touch with the author
directly and insist upon getting answers to the 49 page manuscript that when
written down will exceed the book itself by a page or two.
Indeed, it looks like the editor was
on a page crunch and decided to chop off the wrong areas. Character
descriptions (if the author provided any) were chopped off and unnecessary
scenery descriptions (the author has really good command over vocabulary- and
uses versatile words) were added in abundance. In trying to maintain the
nativity the author has used too many Russian words in the off chance that his
reader would be well versed in Russian names and geography. Yes, we do
understand that the originality has to be maintained. But then, sir, it takes
us two readings at a single phrase to see which noun indicates a person and
which noun indicates a place.
A sample of such a convolution from
this book –
“The rumble of gunfire echoed around
the hills, all the time growing steadily louder, steadily more menacing. No
doubt about it, Russian forces were advancing rapidly in their direction. Two
jets came screaming low overhead causing them to race towards a round hillock
crowned with granite boulders – the only cover within easy reach. A small cave
formed by two rocks leaning against one another provided some shelter, but
granite is not the most comfortable bedding on which to spend the night, and
the splinters are lethal.
Helicopters landed further along the
ridge and Georgian Special Forces rapidly deployed from the gunships. Robert
and Kris were trapped amongst the rocks, dependent on a merciful darkness which
had begun to blanket everything. Even the moon withdrew behind a bank of cloud.”
This is not the best sentence, neither
the worst. This is the average sentence one will come across in the book. There
are more such sentences filling every page of the book. And in the plus side,
this gives us more insights into exactly how an Alsatian’s teeth are placed in
its maw, which is really a good piece of necessary information.
And the part which left much to be
desired is of course the ending. I kept searching for some other hidden text
before I had to accept the inevitable fact that the book was, indeed over. What
I expected to be a Dan Brown style novel which left intrigue and a bit of
questions in the end quickly turned out to be a sore collection of scenes which
try to be story.
PLUS: Description
of scenes in detail, good language and vocabulary.
MINUS: Confusing
scenes and convoluted description of characters.
VERDICT: If
you are a fan of the author, and have read his previous works, understand them,
like them, go for this book. But if this is the first work you are reading from
this author, our advice is to reconsider.
RATING: 2.5/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
James
Lingard - educated at Dulwich College and University College London - became a
leading City of London solicitor. A former Council Member of the Association of
Business Recovery Professionals and of the European Association of Insolvency
Practitioners, he became a Judicial Chairman of the Insolvency Practitioners
Tribunal.
He was the founding President of the
Insolvency Lawyers Association and also became the Chairman of the Joint
Insolvency Examination Board and of the Banking Law and the Insolvency Law Sub
Committees of the City of London Law Society.
He is the original author of Lingard’s
Bank Security Documents (Butterworths) now in its 5th edition and of a number
of other legal books.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: e-book
PRICE: Rs.
55 for Kindle edition
BOOK LINKS: http://www.amazon.com/The-Dead-Strikes-Back-ebook/dp/B00D1W030G
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