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The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams

Sam Walker

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From the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal's sports section comes a bold new theory of...

business sports

The Girl He Used to Know

Tracey Garvis Graves

8.0 (3 Ratings) Rate It

Book

New York Times bestselling author of On the Island, Tracey Garvis Graves, presents the compelling,...

Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Cruise the Storm (John McBride #2) in Books

Nov 12, 2019

A group of terrorist hijackers on board a cruise ship. An ex SAS soldier on board teaching watercolour painting. A huge storm bearing down on the ship.

This might sound like the plot of some Hollywood blockbuster full of explosions and witty one liners from the hero but Chilcott delivers something a lot more cerebral than that. The story and characters have a sense of reality and this is more like a game of chess between the chief hijacker and the crew, a game where the ship is the board and the pawns the passengers which the terrorists are only too willing to dispose of to meet their aims.

Keith Bourne is the founder and leader of the White Christian League, an extreme right wing terrorist organisation who specialise in violent demonstration and the odd mosque burning. Bourne wants cash to further his rather nasty aims and decides that hijacking a cruise liner will fit the bill nicely. MI5 have been watching him and manage to get one of their agents onto the boat in an attempt to thwart Bourne and his cronies.

John McBride is a watercolour artist of some renown who is drafted onto the cruise to teach any interested passengers how to paint in watercolours, the scenes in the various Mediterranean ports they will be visitng being ideal subjects. McBride also happens to be a former member of the elite SAS and when he is made aware of the plot to hijack the ship is able to advise the captain and MI5.

The tension cranks up nicely through the first half of the book, seen mostly from the point of view of Bourne and McBride as each becomes aware of each other and both their plans have to be changed by circumstance. Everything comes to a head on the night the storm hits the ship.

At this point, with everything poised on a knife edge of success or failure for both sides, Chilcott pulls a deft narrative twist and goes back and tells the story again from the point of view of the chairman of the cruise line and one of the passengers, once again building up to the crisis point. This has the nice effect of filling in details that were previously only mentioned but also did lose the momentum which took a while to get going again. It may have been better to tell the story purely sequentially but seeing events from different perspectives again was interesting.

The characters and situations are written with a real authenticity. There are no miraculous escapes, no amazing feats of marksmanship and this is a very real strength of Chilcott's writing. Everthing happens in a way that seems very authentic - and in the case of the actions of the hijackers, worryingly so. Every action and reaction of the characters is plausible and there are frequent points where the story could go one way or another just on a chance encounter or random event.

This realism also felt a little like a weakness to me. Some things happen which provide some dramatic tension at the time but ultimately don't really have a bearing on the eventual outcome. Although this is very much like real life, perhaps it is not what is expected in a thriller of this type. In particlar (and these aren't really spoilers) the ship is damaged in the storm but this doesn't really affect anything, and also what happens when events are told from the point of view of one of the passengers looks to be building to something interesting but ultimately fizzles away. I would have liked to see more of these sub plots carried forward to the end of the story.

Despite this, the book was a good and interesting read and I am looking forward to reading more of Chilcott's McBride novels. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes their thrillers character driven and cerebral rather than all action. Plus you will pick up some excellent tips on painting in watercolours as a bonus.

Rated: Some violence, language and sexual references

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i Fishing Fly Fishing Edition

Games and Entertainment

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You've played iFishing, and iFishing Saltwater Edition, now try your luck at Fly Fishing! Fish...

Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Rescuing Norah (Corrupted #1) in Books

Jul 1, 2020

Rescuing Norah (Corrupted #1)

J. W. Ashley | 2020 | Contemporary, Romance

8.0

(1 Ratings)

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116 of 200
Kindle
Rescuing Norah ( Corrupted book 1)
By J.W. Ashley

Sometimes the people we think we know, turn out to be someone else entirely.For Norah, running into a handsome young benefactor had never been in the cards. After being raised in shelters, she never expected to meet her own prince charming. So when Clayton Matthews turned his attention on her, she never looked back.But as the years pass, Norah's seemingly perfect life begins to unravel, revealing a much more sinister side to the man she's promised to marry.After losing his job on a technicality, Harley is determined to redeem himself in the eyes of the Seattle PD.Taking down one of Seattle's biggest crime bosses would be a damn good way to start, but as a Mercenary working for an off-the-books firm he's got his work cut out for him.On the night he's set to present his evidence, everything changes, and he finds himself on the run with none other than his target's beautiful fiancee.And as the game of cat and mouse turns deadly, Harley finds himself torn between duty and the intense attraction he feels for a woman he should hate.Rescuing Norah is the first in a series of intertwined suspense novels where the threat gets bigger, the sparks burn hotter, and the only thing standing in the way of victory is the bulls-eye painted on their backs.

This was a bit of a surprise for as I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was! Full of action a little romance and a very solid storyline! It definitely had you rooting for the good guys and booing the baddies. Loved the little twist with Norah and Gerry very sweet!