Want You Gone (Jack Parlabane, #8)
by
I was over at my folk's place the other week, a mad house as always, but despite the goings and comings, my Dad was stuck deep in a book. When he turned the last page he passed it over to me and said, "You'll like that." It was Chris Brookmyre's 'Want You Gone'. I skimmed the blurb at the back and was amazed to see it was about a computer hacker and a journalist.
When we were kids my Dad famously banned TV from the house for a year, and until recently he never owned a mobile phone. "What would I want one of those for?" he'd say. Anyway, to see him so engrossed in a book about technology, I knew there had to be something to it.
I started reading and by the end of the first chapter I was all-in. There was a lovely tone to the writing; action all the way and flat characters were nowhere to be found. Jack and Buzzkill were so full of tribulations; angst, disappointment, hope and courage, they felt uber-real. Aren't we all made of such things?
I guess I inherited some of my Dad's techno phobia because a lot of the hacker stuff simply flew over my head, but that didn't diminished the story. The author inter-spaced just the right amount of action with the techno-speak, that I just accepted it all and moved on.
It is in the end of the book that this story really shines. I know people are always on about plot twists; nobody more so than authors. I have lost count of the amount of books I nearly dumped because the author rammed in a twist that made no sense. In this regard, Mr Brookmyre is different. His twists were well planned but he resisted the urge to rush them. He allowed the story to dictate when things should happen and the wisdom to let them be what they were destined to be and no more. For this reason, every twist was a delight and made me dive into the following page with gusto.
So, this book is not what you would expect and like my Dad I push it your way with the simple promise.
"You'll like this."
When we were kids my Dad famously banned TV from the house for a year, and until recently he never owned a mobile phone. "What would I want one of those for?" he'd say. Anyway, to see him so engrossed in a book about technology, I knew there had to be something to it.
I started reading and by the end of the first chapter I was all-in. There was a lovely tone to the writing; action all the way and flat characters were nowhere to be found. Jack and Buzzkill were so full of tribulations; angst, disappointment, hope and courage, they felt uber-real. Aren't we all made of such things?
I guess I inherited some of my Dad's techno phobia because a lot of the hacker stuff simply flew over my head, but that didn't diminished the story. The author inter-spaced just the right amount of action with the techno-speak, that I just accepted it all and moved on.
It is in the end of the book that this story really shines. I know people are always on about plot twists; nobody more so than authors. I have lost count of the amount of books I nearly dumped because the author rammed in a twist that made no sense. In this regard, Mr Brookmyre is different. His twists were well planned but he resisted the urge to rush them. He allowed the story to dictate when things should happen and the wisdom to let them be what they were destined to be and no more. For this reason, every twist was a delight and made me dive into the following page with gusto.
So, this book is not what you would expect and like my Dad I push it your way with the simple promise.
"You'll like this."
