Tangled Web UK Review August 2007
Power Play by
Joseph Finder
hbk out August 07
Published by Headline
at £19.99
It was the perfect retreat for a troubled company. No cell phones. No Black Berries. No
cars … just a remote lodge surrounded by thousands of miles of wilderness. All the top
officers of the Hammond Aerospace Corporation are there. And one last-minute substitute —
a junior executive named Jake Landry. He's a steady, modest, and taciturn guy with a gift for
keeping his head down and a turbulent past he's trying to put behind him.
When a band of backwoods hunters crash the opening-night dinner, the executives
suddenly find themselves held hostage by armed men who will do anything, to anyone, to get
their hands on the largest ransom in history. Now, terrified and desperate and cut off from the
rest of the world, the captives are at the mercy of hard men with guns who may not be what
they seem.
Sound familiar?
Initially there's some captivating writing going on – the scene is brilliantly set, with Jake
Landry coming across as a likeable guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sympathies,
built well with the peripheral characters it is hoped, will be sustained throughout. Sadly,
however, it all sort of turns into Die Hard.
Okay, so what's been done well has been done very well. Landry has a neat store of cool
one-liners, I really do want to sleep with Alison and there are some genuine moments of
sadness and laugh out loud joy – but they've been done a thousand before with similar
conclusions, all of which makes the last quarter a bit of a drag in comparison with the
beginning.
Joseph Finder has clearly dug deep from the research well and delivered some interesting
goods, but it all comes across as a little bit flat and Pizzazz-less when denouement time rolls
around which makes the novel something of a disappointment, after such a breathtaking and
promising start.
www.josephfinder.com
(
Chris High
Chris High - Author Multi-media Promotion Service www.chrishigh.com)
Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online
