Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Fault Line by Barry Eisler

Fault Line by Barry Eisler the software designer of a new encryption software is murdered his lawyer, the lawyer's female assistant and the lawyer's brother a special forces assassin must tri to stay alive and figure out why there wanted dead. First the good the action sequences in this book are spectacular. They would be excellent examples for anyone who's interested in writing this sort of a book. Now the bad, I understand "the characters with conflicting motivations that have to work together toward a common goal dynamic", that's OK. However at least one of those characters has to be sympathetic. All three of our erstwhile heroes failed that standard. The lawyer is a spoiled brat. His brother is a jerk with no empathy. The female assistant is a maneater. There's also flashbacks to a family tragedy that destroyed the relationship between the two brothers. This could have easily taken up one or two chapters. We are beaten over the head with it for page after page.

My understanding is that Eisler has written a long running series involving an assassin for higher which if the Amazon reviews are any indication are considered to be very good. I will seek one out and give it a try.

Not recommended!

Note: this was provided by a PR outfit.

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