When the terrorists speak to denounce American heathenism, it is in cartoonish terms. All women are sluts, all Americans are materialistic. The country must be punished for its affrontery of Islam.
In a way, one can believe that terrorists must think in these black-and white terms otherwise they could not continue through with their tasks; tasks they believe are blessed and directed by god.
Overall, the language that moves the plot along is sparse in a "Just the facts ma'am" way. The dialog is often the exception, at some times poetic and at most other times, brusque. Whatever is appropriate for the character speaking. Though its not a lyrically epic journey, in its 74 chapters and 377 pages* the reader travels the world from Yemen, Switzerland, Washington state, San Diego and their rural and urban limits.
The pace and the change of scenes and the storyline itself are all reminders of the Fox TV series "24," which is a good thing. The noose starts to tighten quickly around the terrorists - led by Malat Arkouht; the improbable fit of puzzle pieces comes together in record compressed time.
This way of telling a story walks a fine line.
It can leave a wide-eyed reader breathless with anticipation or groaning in total disbelief at the coincidences and happenings. One undiscovered helicopter-crash victim's survival made me groan but Clackson stays well within the bounds of wide-eyed anticipation. The dual narration of terrorists and law enforcement are enough to break down what would otherwise be hard-to-swallow connections and changes in the book. And that same narration makes us wince with missed opportunity; with the thought "If they'd only mentioned XYZ. If only they'd followed that instinct and pushed harder."
In between the bullets that rip the top off heads and the knife rammed home to the bone and other sudden, rapid killings, there's a nicely succinct few pages of introduction of detective Tommy Burke, his family and his life.
Pretty soon he’d have to either retire or take a senior desk job, as Frank had. Frank’s decision had been made for him; he had been cut off in traffic during a felony pursuit. His motorcycle slammed broadside into what back then was a relatively new kind of vehicle, an SUV. The woman driver came out uninjured, but the collision tore Frank up something serious.
This character description starts in chapter six, the first without bloodshed as Burke investigates the death-by-flare incident witnessed earlier. Still, there are also some considerable stereotype of characters, such as Lt. Biggs who "had grown up in the projects of Philadelphia, the son of a poor single mom. He wasn’t much different from all the other black kids in his neighborhood, except that from an early age he had a desire to help people and maybe someday become a doctor."
Article comments
1 - Steve Clackson
Temple I would like to thank you for undertaking a review of my unpublished manuscript. It is unique to say the least that an editor would spend their precious time to review a novel from an unknown writer. You have my deepest gratitude, Steve
2 - Temple Stark
It's an opportunity to see a book before publication. I tried not to give much of the plot away. ...
I'm also going to run this in my newspaper and it will likely get picked up by a couple others in the (small) chain.
Cheers. Temple
3 - Temple Stark
Hmm, I'm "some blogger" as described by "some TV writer" who's ripped off the main characters of the Monk series to make money writing Monk novels. (A series by the way which has fallen into a caricature of itself. Still good, but a lot more "well, that's just dumb" uttered by me. IOW, the writing is going downhill)
As the linked post above attests - or also likely the guy was just having a bad day? - but he appears to be quite the arrogant SOB.
If he wanted to give good advice publicly how about give good advice? You'd think he'd be too busy to trifle with all that is beneath him, non?