Category Archives: Thriller

Birnam Wood – Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood – Eleanor Catton

I read and enjoyed The Luminaries, but I resisted reading this one for a while. And then I needed a new audio book and noticed it in my husband’s library.

Here’s the blurb …

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice: on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker–or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama, and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

I really enjoyed this until the last ten minutes and then I hated it. What’s with terrible endings that ruin everything that went before? (Game of Thrones for example). I suspect it has a very ‘literary’ ending and I am alone in disliking it.

A review.

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Spook Street – Mick Herron

Spook Street – Mick Herron

I listened to this one in preparation for the next TV series.

Here’s the blurb …

What happens when an old spook loses his mind? Does the Service have a retirement home for those who know too many secrets but don’t remember they’re secret? Or does someone take care of the senile spy for good? These are the questions River Cartwright must ask when his grandfather, a Cold War–era operative, starts to forget to wear pants and begins to suspect everyone in his life has been sent by the Service to watch him.

But River has other things to worry about. A bomb goes off in the middle of a busy shopping center and kills forty innocent civilians. The agents of Slough House have to figure out who is behind this act of terror before the situation escalates

Something happens very early in the novel, which made me think I might be done with the Slow Horses novels, but I pushed on, and it was fine. High body count, but would you expect anything else?

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Filed under 4, Audio, Crime, Fiction, Spy, Thriller

A Keeper – Graham Norton

A Keeper – Graham Norton

We listened to this while driving to our holiday destination (and while we were there). It’s read by Graham Norton.

Here’s the blurb …

When Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland after her mother’s death, she’s focused only on saying goodbye to that dark and dismal part of her life. Her childhood home is packed solid with useless junk, her mother’s presence already fading. But within this mess, she discovers a small stash of letters—and ultimately, the truth.

Forty years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet except for the constant wind that encircles her as she hurries deeper into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on.

I enjoyed it. I am not sure how to describe it? Mystery, thriller, family drama, maybe a bit of romance. It is well-written and the audio version is great.

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Filed under 4, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Geneva – Richard Armitage

Geneva – Richard Armitage

This was in Mr H’s audible library and I like both Richard Armitage and Nicola Walker, so I thought I would give it a go.

Here’s the blurb …

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has started to show the same tell-tale signs of the Alzheimer’s disease as her father: memory loss, even blackouts. So she is reluctant to accept the invitation to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference – until her husband Daniel, also a neuroscientist, persuades her that the publicity storm will be worth it. The technology being unveiled at this conference could revolutionise medicine forever. More than that, it could save Sarah’s life.

In Geneva, the couple are feted as stars – at least, Sarah is. But behind the five-star luxury, investors are circling, controversial blogger Terri Landau is all over the story, and Sarah’s symptoms are getting worse. As events begin to spiral out of control, Sarah can’t be sure who to trust – including herself.

I do read the odd thriller/crime, but it is not my favourite genre. I found this one fascinating; the chapters were from different perspectives, which meant, firstly, they could be unreliable narrators and secondly you could only learn what they knew. It was a good structure for the novel (I wonder if you write things in order and then move things around?). I am not going to spoil it for anyone, I will just say I did not think the story would end the way it did.

This was a fast-paced, modern novel and it was a real page turner (If I had been reading it – I get finding jobs to do, so I could listen).

A review

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Filed under 4, Fiction, Recommended, Thriller