As I have mentioned many times on this blog, one of the best things about train journeys is the opportunity it gives for a nice uninterrupted time of reading (as long as you get lucky and don’t get stuck next to some deaf idiot listening to Take That at full tinny volume) Trains really are a readers best friend, well second best behind a sunny beach and a nice cocktail!
This months trip to London therefore afforded a great opportunity to read a book I’ve had on my ‘to do’ list for a while, The Consultant by Claude Bouchard. This was an author I found via the twittersphere who I believe is based in Canada. The Consultant is the second in his ‘Vigilante’ series although the first of his I’d read and I wasn’t disappointed.
This story was about a bloke who spent a short time being a ‘vigilante’ (unsurprisingly the first novel) tracking down people who had harmed his wife and her family. He spent his time killing them in varying gruesome ways. He is then headhunted by a special ‘under the radar’ government type group. He joins them (they live outside of government protection!) and infiltrates a drug ring. This drug ring then kidnap the aforementioned wife and he must try and save her.
This was not my normal type of book really, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. It was an incredibly fast read, with lots of action and shoot outs, and unbelievable scenes of people being knocked down and just getting up again. There was very little back story to any of the characters. There was enough that they weren’t just two dimensional but not so much that it slowed anything down.
I must confess I didn’t really care about any of the characters and throughout the story I wasn’t that bothered whether they lived or died. This wasn’t a complaint though as I felt it was a ploy to add to the sense of having to power through the story at high speed. It was also a bit strange to read a book with essentially a serial killer who didn’t get his comeuppance, but this made quite a nice change. Plus he had only killed criminals so it wasn’t like they were completely innocent!
This story helped pass an enjoyable couple of hours, and I look forward to reading the next in the series. If Action Man could read (and wasn’t actually just a lump of plastic) this is the kind of story he would want to devour!
A crime readers blog 