Krishna
In the beginning, I was put off by the narration. That is because I found a lot to complain about the storytelling style. I have left my laments in and also admit that once you get past that issue, the book is pretty well plotted and is a satisfying read in the end.
This review veers around like the book itself does. The narration can be really shallow, the decisions by the characters make no sense, the descriptions are repetitive – so the review starts off by being very critical. The twist that comes later elevates the story and tells you why Andrew Gross is a successful thriller author, but for this book at least, it comes after too many flaws that you don’t really feel immersed in the story or connect deeply with the characters.
Dr Emil Varga goes to see the old man, his only patient – he is otherwise retired. He had finally died. The old man’s son Bobi and the daughter in law Marguerite lived in the same house. That’s it – no more mention of it until much later.
Kate is convinced that someone is stalking her on her way to the house. When she finally manages to reach her apartment safely and go to her floor, she sees two people – definitely assassins – waiting for her.
Benjamin Raab is a successful gold trader, raking it in and considering himself lucky to have a loving wife, adorable children and physical comforts which included a mansion and a Ferrari. But on the day when he was at the peak of his powers, planning a vacation with a wife and kids that he adored, the FBI came in and arrested him for tax evasion and criminal charges.
What have all of these got to do with each other? Read on.
Kate Raab, his daughter, who works as a genetic scientist, gets the news from her mother. When Benjamin comes home, he tells them that, if he is to beat the rap, he needs to rat on his closest buddy who may be equally blameless.
Meanwhile a killer, Luis Prado, is unleashed by an unknown organization to tie up loose ends.
OK, the book tries to tell a good story but it feels a bit hollow. Soap opera emotions and narration does not let you get close to what the characters are really feeling. This is not a book that begs you to stop reading. There is enough of a plot to avoid that. However, the depth or timbre of the story is missing – or at least that is the impression I got while reading this.
It gets worse. They keep asking Benjamin ‘What did you do?’ . Yes, it comes out that he has not been exactly forthcoming, but this being the only response from everyone feels flat and gives the impression that the author is not able to imagine the different characters separately.
And the daughter Kate’s confrontation with her erstwhile beloved dad is the worst. She talks like a philosophy student or an angry petulant adolescent. Yes, she is angry at the betrayal of trust by her father but the dialog is trite, artificial and feels manufactured. So do the scenes.
It just keeps moving with no point at all. One day, when her friend asks her to go home early and that she will lock up, Kate hears that the friend was shot in the head and knows that it is meant for her. Well, two things are irritating about it. She ‘knows’ that the drug gangs that were after her father are responsible to show what will happen if anyone betrays them like her father did. How? Paranoia? OK, even if we take that as a reasonable assumption, what did she expect? She chose not to ‘disappear’ and live her life with the same name, apartment and lab. Against the wishes of parents and also the witness protection program. And she is surprised that they are after the only one they can track and identify?
Totally childish and juvenile story, enhanced by juvenile storytelling.
She learns that her dad is missing while in Witness Protection program and detectives calmly show her all the photos of his secretary brutally tortured. Without preparing her in any way and without even telling her who that is or why they are showing it. All for your reading pleasure, unless you have the slightest bit of intelligence and realize that this ia amateur storytelling.
All they have for emotion is thoughts like Who are you really, Daddy? What did you do daddy? You are looking for variations? Why did he do t.his to us? I love you so much Kate; This is your family now.
The story is just made up so that you can have what the author imagines as a cliff hanger (and you characterize as a damp squib) at the end of each chapter but the storytelling is abysmal.
What story there is is this – It appears that Ben really was lying to everyone and the ‘loving father’ hid secrets. The mother ‘knew these but could not tell the kids’. You still are not even given an inkling of what, well into the story and so you feel that the author does not want to tell you anything of significance except repeated lab scenes, swimming scenes and everyone including the authorities, not just the family members, behaving like complete idiots.
The ‘bad men’ try to kill her by ramming her boat with a larger speedboat but she escapes. She decides time has come to take matters into her own hands. ‘If they can find her, they can find her family’, she thinks. Really? She is the one who refused to go and stayed on with her then boyfriend now husband, and working in the same lab. How did she come to this ingenious conclusion? Her family were being protected with a different identity were they not? Did the witness protection authorities say that they had never had an exposure, ever?
And then, just with the clues they had written in emails – vetted by the cops no doubt – she manages to find where they are! Wait, what?
Oh I see. This is a stupid story and in stupid stories, all arguments are valid, however irrational. The author has no responsibility to explain anything or else it would have been a totally different book.
Even then the book could have been saved. Just. If not for the abysmal writing and inane thinking and conversations between characters of the story. That drops the story right into the ditch from which it never gets up.
The rest of the story goes on in this vein. Even with a whole team protecting the family, Kate, of course, manages to meet her mother alone hoodwinking an entire team.
Then the book perks up. Not the unexpected attack on Kate and the mother and how Kate just managed to escape it – that is in the same shallow side. However, what she later learns about the ‘kindly old man’ she used to meet in the park makes a difference.
You feel that having invested so much time in this book is not a total loss.
There are twists and turns coming all along, even including characters that we did not think was central to the theme, which is nice.
It reaches a climax and ends in a satisfying way. Not bad. I am still not greatly thrilled with the shallow descriptions but understand the style of the author and once you get past it, this is indeed a satisfying yarn to while away the time.
6/10
== Krishna