Brian's Book Log - Ongoing

[Brian.]

I've been terrible at keeping this updated this year. I still log into the forum pretty much everyday so I thought it would be a good idea to post what I've read so far this year.

 

Expected Goal by Rory Smith (3/5)

A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough (4/5)

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (3/5)

Courage Is Calling by Ryan Holiday (2/5)

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer (3/5)

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (3/5)

Dunkirk by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore (4/5)

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (4/5)

Thanks a lot Mr Kibblewhite by Roger Daltrey (3/5)

Cold War: East Anglia by Jim Wilson (3/5)

Post Office by Charles Bukowski (3/5)

I Don't Take Requests by Tony Marnach (2/5)

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken (3/5)

From Russia With Love by Llewella Chapman (4/5)

Crash Detectives by Christine Negroni (4/5)

The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor (2/5)

Break Point by Ollie Ollerton 2/5)

Ardennes by Antony Beevor (3/5)

Past Lying by Val McDermid (3/5)

No Spin by Shane Warne (3/5)

Hue 1968 by Mark Bowden (4/5)

Zodiac Station by Tom Harper (3/5)

How To Be An F1 Driver by Jenson Button (2/5)

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (3/5)

The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama (or not) (2/5)

Butcher's Crossing by John Williams (4/5)

The Russian Affair by David Walsh (2/5)

The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishmi (1/5)

 

I'm also finished with The Stand by Stephen King

 

 

 

[Brian.]

Another really overdue update from me.

 

The Stand by Stephen King (4/5)

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson (3/5)

Mosquito by Rowland White (4/5)

The Spy in Moscow Station by (4/5)

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (2/5)

Abroard in Japan by Chris Broad (3/5)

How to Watch Football by Tifo - The Atheltic (2/5)

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox (3/5)

Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill (3/5)

D-Day Through German Eyes by Jonathan Trigg (3/5)

Riotous Assembly by Tom Sharpe (3/5)

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey (2/5)

 

I managed to spend an hour this morning browsing the shelves of my local Waterstones picking out whatever look my fancy. I may have got slightly carried away but this lot should keep me going for a little while.

 

 

[Hayley]

Why only 3 stars for Abroad in Japan? I nearly bought that as a present for someone who wants to visit! 
 

The Stand is one of the Stephen King books I do want to try, so I’m glad that got a good rating.

 

Very happy to see The Colour of Magic on your new stack 😄. I hope you love it! 

[Brian.]

1 hour ago, Hayley said:

Why only 3 stars for Abroad in Japan? I nearly bought that as a present for someone who wants to visit! 
 

The Stand is one of the Stephen King books I do want to try, so I’m glad that got a good rating.

 

Very happy to see The Colour of Magic on your new stack 😄. I hope you love it! 

 

 

I felt Abroad in Japan was fine but nothing more than that for me. I'm glad I read it as I find Broad quite engaging and the early part of the book is pretty interesting. I know Chris Broad more through his podcast rather than his YouTube channel so his rise to Japan YouTube royalty didn't really interest me.

 

I've been meaning to start with Terry Pratchett for ages so I pulled up the famous flowchart to see where I should start and luckily they had The Colour of Magic on the shelf.

[Brian.]

Time for another overdue update.

 

What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (4/5)

Maybe it's just me, but there seems to have been a trend in the last few years for Japanese books about single women trying to find their way in the world and the solution coming from somewhere slightly mystical. This is another of those books, this time with the solutions being being by an enigmatic librarian. Nonetheless, this was entertaining and engaging, and I enjoyed my time with the book.

 

Cave in the Snow by Vicki Mackenzie (4/5)

A non-fiction book all about Tenzin Palmo, a British Woman who left everything behind to move to a monestry in India to become a Buddhist nun. At some point she decided to go into retreat and spent 12 years living in a remote cave on her own. What makes this book stand out are the accounts of her struggles along the way due to the fact that she is a woman. She was refused access to a lot of higher level teachings despite being more than qualified to have them. She didn't accept this and constantly pushed for nuns to be granted the same teaching as monks.

 

In the  Cannon's Mouth by P.J. Campbell (5/5)

A memoir of a soldier's experience running an artillery battery during World War 1. It covers the what was experienced by many young men who left ordinary lives to fight in a horrific war of attrition. I borrowed this from someone at work who recommended it and saying that it should be well known as it is so well written. I can wholeheartedly agree with this statement, it is a great book.

 

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (2/5)

On the whole I try to judge books by how well they are written and leave any philosophical views to one side. That is very hard with Ayn Rand as that is her whole shtick. I knew very little about this book before reading it and was pleasantly surprised with the introduction of a railroad company and how it was run. At it's heart there is a good story here but the constant monologues kill all momentum. The last monologue which runs for something like 300 pages nearly killed me and I only stuck it out as I had invested so much time in the book up to that point.

 

The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson (4/5)

I've seen this guy on YouTube a fair bit. A city trader from a poor background shines a light on how horrible it all is and how we all lose in the end when the economy is wrecked. My only reservation is that it is easy to cast aspersions on something when you are financially set for life. I believe his heart is in the right place but he doesn't seem to regret his part in the whole circus.

 

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett (3/5)

My first Terry Pratchett book and one I found quite entertaining. I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy novels but Terry is such a big part of the genre I had to see what his work was like. I read that his novels get better as he hones his craft in later work but I still enjoyed his characters.

 

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (1/5)

A book set in Berlin in the mid 80's, my favourite time and place to read about. A young student and an older man meet on a bus and that leads to attraction and a relationship of sorts. I hated this and abandoned it after about 100 pages. I hated the characters and it just felt really plodding. Slow books where nothing major happens can be amazing (Amor Towles I'm looking at you) but the writing needs to stand out and Erpenbeck's didn't. Shame, I had high hopes.

 

The Mixer by Michael Cox (3/5)

A history of football tactics in the Premier League since its inception. A good, well thought out book that covers some really interesting ground.

 

Hitler: A Biography by Ian Kershaw (4/5)

After reading the mammoth Churchill by Andrew Roberts 2 years ago I thought it was time to read the equally huge biography of Hilter by Ian Kershaw. While this didn't quite reach the heights of Churchill it was a great read and well worth the effort. Kershaw is great at indicating when things are known facts, accounts of others, dubious, or all together incorrect. For someone so infamous there isn't as much source material as I thought there would be. As a result, what is known about him, especially towards the end of the war, is based on accounts of those with a vested interested.

 

Lancaster & York: The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir (2/5)

I struggled with this one as there were just far too many hsitoric figures who were new to me. Perhaps I should have got something a bit more casual to start off with. I love history but this period of time is a weakness of mine and this didn't really help to flesh it out for me.

 

The Regiment by Rusty Firmin (3/5)

A leisurely read about Firmin's time in the SAS. It's not going to win any prizes but it kept me entertained and sometimes that is all you need in a book.

 

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (3/5)

I had never read this before but I knew all the characters, I guess I must have seen an cartoon on TV as a child. The story and characters have endured all these years and it's easy to see why.

 

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (3/5)

Another book about a romance between a younger woman and older man, this time set Ireland at the height of the troubles. Some of this book was no doubt lost on me because although I know the history, I didn't experience it directly. It feels like it comes from someone who has authentic memories of what life was like at the time. The characters are all well written and stand on their own. I didn't see the climax coming and when it did I was taken by surprise.

 

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (4/5)

My second Pratchett book set in Discworld and featuring Rincewind and Twoflower. This book is much better than the first in my opinion. It feels tighter, the plot is much better constructed, and it helps that we get some more distinct characters. In particular, I really liked Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan, such a good duo.

 

[France]

18 hours ago, Brian. said:

.

 

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (4/5)

My second Pratchett book set in Discworld and featuring Rincewind and Twoflower. This book is much better than the first in my opinion. It feels tighter, the plot is much better constructed, and it helps that we get some more distinct characters. In particular, I really liked Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan, such a good duo.

 

I'm particularly fond of the luggage.

 

I've always found Terry Pratchett a bit uneven, I started with The Colour of Magic when it came out and have read most of his books, some of them are very, very good indeed (like these two, the ones with the witches, the one with the vampires), others like Going Postal I thought dragged on a bit.

[Brian.]

Update time.

 

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (3/5)

A cosy story about a father and daughter who run a mysterious restaurant with no signage in Japan. People are directed to the restaurant via a vague advert and the owners help them to recreate a dish from their lives that they don't know how to make. Although it is nothing special, I did enjoy this book and in particular the two main characters.

 

Left of Bang by Patrick Van Horne & Jason A. Riley (2/5)

Primarily this book is about situational awareness and that feeling you get when you feel something isn't quite right. Although it is written by two Marines the blurb makes it sound like it applies to everyday life which is why I picked it up. Sadly this isn't the case and I found that unless you are military or law enforcement then most of it isn't very helpful. It also reeks of paranoia.

 

Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron (3/5)

A short 150 page book covering some of the basic concepts of Buddhism followed by a bit of a Q&A. A nice primer into the subject even if it does cover some of the more esoteric aspects of things like reincarnation.

 

People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry (4/5)

I started to read this during a recent trip to Japan which in hindsight was a good move. It is an account of the disappearance in 2000 of Lucie Blackman, a 21 year old British Woman living a working in Tokyo. I remember the case being in the news a lot but I couldn't remember the details. Having experienced Japan first hand recently it really helped me appreciate some of the cultural issues which dogged the case both before and after the court case that followed. Lloyd Parry was working as a journalist in Japan at the time and covering the story which really helps add extra sources to his book that otherwise may not have been available.

 

 

 

 

[Brian.]

The Retreat by Sarah Pearse (2/5)

This is the 2nd book in the Detective Elin Warner series and I read the 1st book back in April 2023. The 1st book, The Sanatorium, was an ok read by I distinctly remember not liking any of the characters, especially Elin Warner. I felt that in the 1st book she was overly naive for a detective and her weaknesses were far to prominent. Despite these reservations I bought the 2nd book as I can be quite shallow and I liked the cover. 

The Retreat follows a lot of similar lines to The Sanatorium. A building and local environment are prominent features of the story, so much so that they almost become characters themselves. They are also semi-trapped in the location while an unknown killer is on the loose. The tension builds well during the book and the bones of a good book is there. However, I do have a few big reservations about it.

Firstly, there are too many characters of similar types which makes following who is who tricky at times. The character of Elin Warner is move developed this time which is welcome but on the whole the rest of the main players are cardboard cut outs of people. The only character I found myself warming to is Elin's partner DC Steed. My second reservation is that the background plot is far too complex given the number of character and the length of the book. I think this could have been done better using flashback rather than conversation to backfill the history of the island. 

To me it feels like Pearse can write a good story but this book is too similar to the first and her characters are not strong enough. 

 

[Madeleine]

I've got this one as well, I also liked the cover! I've read the first one and agree with quite a lot of your points, I must admit this genre - ie people trapped with a killer somewhere isolated - is getting rather over-crowded and repetitive now, so I don't buy that many books with this theme.  Will be interested to read this one though.

[Brian.]

I've got a little bit of time off work so I've been spending a decent amount of time avoiding the cold weather with a book, these are my most recent reads.

 

The Rastafarians by Leonard E. Barrett Sr. (3/5)

This book is well respected as a classic work on the history and beliefs of Rastafarianism. I picked it up hoping that it would provide me with a bit of an idiots guide to the religion and in that respect it fell a little bit short. The first sections of the book are a history of Jamaica which although important could have been covered in less depth. It also covers the politics of Jamaica and only then does it cover Rastafarianism as a religion. I would say that 30% of the book is about the history of Jamaica, 30% about the politics, and only the final 40% about Rasafarianism.

The book is well written and the author has clearly been heavily involved in research for a very long time but the book didn't hit the parts I wanted deeply enough.

 

Standout quote - "Bonaventure said History has given preponderant evidence that humans will die more frequently for religious beliefs than will the scientisyt for so-called truth".

 

The Cold War by Odd Arne Westad (4/5)

I've read a lot of books about the Cold War but I hadn't read this one yet despite it always getting very good reviews. Typically for me, I don't read any reviews before starting a book so I was surprised to discover that this book covers how the Cold War affected the whole world. Most of the books that I have read about the Cold War concentrate on Europe and more specifically Germany. Westad covers the whole world and I learned a lot of stuff that I had no idea about. He also covered the period from the end of WWII right up to the fall of the Soviet Union. Again, few books go that far back so this was a welcome surprise.

 

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing by Bob Mortimer & Paul Whitehouse (5/5)

I listened to this on audiobook, narrated by both the authors. Had I read the book I think I still would have enjoyed it but possibly not as much as I did the audiobook. Much like the TV series of the same name the book is not really about fishing but about friendship. Fishing is the conduit through which they can share their stories and there are sections purely about the activity but if you want a book all about fishing you are better looking elsewhere (as they admit themselves). I love the TV series because the heartfelt warmth of their friendship really comes across. They talk about difficult times and struggles with an openness which is rarely seen and this carries across to the audiobook.

I could listen to these two talk about anything.

 

 

[Brian.]

I've been doing a bit of birthday book shopping, split 50/50 fiction and non-fiction.

 

Fiction

The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves

Yellowface - Rebecca F. Kuang

The Seventh Son - Sebastain Faulks

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Audition - Ryu Murakami

 

Non-Fiction

A Plot to Kill - David Wilson

Forgotten Voices of the Falklands - Hugh McManners

Four Thousand Weeks - Oliver Burkeman

Children of the Night - Paul Kenyon

Windswept & Interesting - Bill Connolly

Red Sauce Brown Sauce - Felicity Cloake

[Brian.]

Carrying on with my backlog of mini-reviews.

 

The Partisan by Patrick Worrall (4/5)

Another thriller set during the Cold War. Two young chess players from either side of the Iron Curtain meet in a tournament and end up falling in love. Intertwined is the story of Greta, a resistance fighter from Lithuania who is now hunting down Nazi's and dishing out her own form of justice upon them.

I thought this book might follow the typical Cold War spy thriller but in fact there is more to it than that. The spying aspect of the story is there but it is not the main focus which I found to be a welcome change. The plot moves along at a good pace and I found myself picking this up to read at every opportunity.

 

Driving to Survive by Guenther Steiner (2/5)

Anyone who has watched the recent series of the Netflix series Drive to Survive can't help but like Guenther Steiner, team boss of the Haas team. The book is written in diary form covering the 2022 F1 season. Whether this was from genuine diary entries or created after the fact is hard to say but there is plenty of drama to draw from. Despite all the juicy things that happened that season, in particular the whole Mazepin/Urakali fallout, the book falls short. It feels like an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Drive to Survive and while I can't fault someone for striking while the iron is hot I feel like there should be more to it.

 

Going Infinite by Michael Lewis (3/5)

Lewis has managed to carve a niche for himself covering financial and political stories in an informative and entertaining way. I initially found my way into his writing through the few books he wrote about sports but found his finiancial books to be better. In this book Lewis looks at Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of Crypto exchange FTX who is now in prison. I think its inevitable that Lewis would have covered this story anyway but he was lucky enough to be in the company of Bankman-Fried during the 6 months leading up to the eventual collapse of FTX. This proximity to Bankman-Fried was both a blessing and a curse. It gave Lewis unprecedented access to the story but has clouded his judgement of Bankman-Fried as a person in my opinion.

The whole book paints Bankman-Fried as an eccentric genius who didn't really know what was happening in his company. He gets way far too lightly with nobody really been portrayed as resonsible for what happened. Bankman-Fried ignored cries for help from employees who felt totally out of depth as the company grew and made out they were responisible for the fraud which occurred. I really like Lewis as a writer but feel that he lost his impartiality with this book.

 

[Brian.]

Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan (5/5)

This book is an example why brick and motar bookshops are so important. I bought this after reading the little 'readers thoughts' cards that Waterstones often put next to the books on display. I don't think I would ever have picked up this book otherwise and I would have missed a fantastic story.

The book is split into two halves, the first occuring in 1986 and the second in 2017. In the first half we meet James and Tully in Scotland in the summer of 1986. They share a love of music and left wing politics and take a trip to Manchester with some friends to music festival featuring their favourite bands. As often happens in life they remain in contact but their lives drift away to different parts of the country. Then in 2017 James gets a call from Tully with some news that will change their lives forever.

I absolutely loved this book and got into that strange state of mind where I had to keep reading but almost didn't want to because it meant finishing it too soon. The writing is great, I loved the characters, and the story flows really well. The second half of the book deals with a moral dilemma that has been rattling around in my head since I finished it.

When I finished the book I read some reviews and some people have said they didn't really click with the characters, especially early on in the book. I can understand this because the friendship and activities are very much of the time they are set in and I can see how some people will not be able to relate to them. The friendships are also very 'lads being lads' in their younger days and if you haven't experienced that I can see it being alien.

A great book and one I'm very glad to have come across.

[Brian.]

Time for my first blog update for 2025. I set myself a loose target of 50 books for the year. I'm not bothered if I miss it as my main intention of reading 10 specific books.

 

1. The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
2. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
3. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
4. Tai-Pan by James Clavell
5. Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
7. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
8. The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
9. SS-GB by Len Deighton
10. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

I've got off to a solid start to the year, these are my thoughts so far.

 

Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction by Aldren A. Watson (3/5)

I've recently taken an interest in bookbinding and restoration, so much so that I have started a weekly class aimed at beginners. I picked this book up a few years ago and although it is a bit dated it is still a great introduction and most of the processes still apply. It is also very well illustrated with diagrams which aid comprehension.

 

Red Sauce, Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake (3/5)

A non-fiction travelogue based around the exploration of 'traditional' breakfasts in the UK and Ireland. I found this to be an interesting book and I ended up going down a YouTube rabbit hole looking up how Kipper and Arborath Smokies are made.

 

The Mechanism by Vladimir Neto (3/5)

Another non-fiction book, this time about a massive money laundering scandal that hit Brazilian politics in 2014. I cannot fathom the amount of research that went into the book as it leaves no stone unturned. Every facet of the scandal and the people involved is looked into and laid out in an easy to understand way. I am quite surprised that I wasn't aware of this story given the scope of the crime.

 

7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life by Robin McKenzie (3/5)

Not much to say here. This is a series of exercises etc to assist in the treatment of back, shoulder, and neck pain. I think the content is good but the writing style isn't the best. Whether it works or not, I'll have to update later as I'm still under-going hospital treatment for a severe back injury.

 

Wolf Hall by Hiliary Mantell

No rating here as I DNF'd this after about 150 pages. I will probably go back and give it another go at some point in the future.

 

All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings (5/5)

A fantasic book which provides a thorough overview of WWII across all parts of the globe. Most of the books about WWII concentrate on specific areas only but in this book Hastings covers the war in every area of the globe. I learned a lot about what happened in Asia and even places like India.

 

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves (3/5)

The first book in the Vera Stanhope series. I picked this up because I love the Shetland TV series and I have heard good things about the TV Vera as well. I wanted to watch Vera but felt it would be a good idea to read at least the first book in the series before doing so. I really liked the way this book is laid out, we see the emerging story from 3 different characters points of view one after the other. That format really reveals that each person has their own opinion of things and it might not be accurate as they don't know everything particularly where other people are involved.

I was also surprised that we don't actually meet Vera until about halfway through the book. This is another decision that I wasn't expecting but actually works quite well. I did feel that the plot was overly complex at times and the ending felt a little forced but overall I enjoyed it.

 

[lunababymoonchild]

I’ve read Demons by Dostoevsky, it’s very good

[France]

I read Tai Pan when I lived in Hong Kong and enjoyed it hugely.

 

Anna Karenina was a book club read a few years ago and enjoyment had a lot to do with which translation our book was.  There were big differences in style, some very literal and following Russian sentence structure where feasible, others more loose - and those were just the English translations.  So it's worth reading a few pages before you buy or borrow.  Be warned there's a lot of description of haymaking and farming in general.

 

[Brian.]

3 hours ago, France said:

I read Tai Pan when I lived in Hong Kong and enjoyed it hugely.

 

Anna Karenina was a book club read a few years ago and enjoyment had a lot to do with which translation our book was.  There were big differences in style, some very literal and following Russian sentence structure where feasible, others more loose - and those were just the English translations.  So it's worth reading a few pages before you buy or borrow.  Be warned there's a lot of description of haymaking and farming in general.

 

 

The edition of Anna Karenina I've got at home is a used Penguin Classic that I picked up for £1. The translation is by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

[Brian.]

Update time. I feel like I have struggled to read much in the last 3 or so weeks but have still finished 4 books so perhaps I am wrong. Anyway, on to the books.

 

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (4/5)

Wow, that was a ride. I have a funny relationship with Sci-Fi, I watch quite a lot of it but for some reason I can find the books harder to get along with. I knew literally nothing about this book apart from the fact that it is (or at least was) an award winner. Not knowing anything of the plot is not uncommon for me as I tend to avoid reading anything to do with a book before picking up if I can. I had made certain assumptions about this book based on the title, assumptions that were very wide of the mark.

The story follows a terraforming ship in the future which has left earth with the intention of turning an uninhabital planet into one rich with life. To speed up this transformation they carry a virus which speeds up evolution in a group of monkeys they are carrying. Back on earth things are not great for the planet and there are terrorist factions very much against this kind of experiment. The plan doesn't go as they had hoped and the story jumps forward a few millon years where we pick up what has happened on the planet and what has become of earth. 

If I had known the plot beforehand I may not have read this but I am very glad I did.

 

Making Books by Simon Goode & Ira Yonemura (4/5)

This is a practical guide on the construction and techniques used in making books. The authors are the founders of the London Centre for Book Arts. The book is well written and covers all the basics (and some more advanced) techniques used in bookbinding. There are loads of really clear photographs detailing the stages which are very helpful in understanding what is going on.

 

The Coming Storm by Gabriel Gatehouse (3/5)

This is a non-fiction book based off of a podcast exploring of the roots of Q-Anon and the rise of the extreme right in the US. I had heard or Q-Anon and knew a little of the origins but hadn't paid any attention to the details. Having read this book I am still amazed that it managed to get traction in the USA but then critical thinking seems to be a thing of the past when it comes to modern politics across the world. One thing that really stands out is that any cover up by a political party or entity makes it a lot easier for the opposition to get fabricated stories about you believed. It also shows that social media is poison and is being used for political gain and greed but we all should know that by now anyway.

I liked this book and it feels fairly level-headed but I wanted more depth and more detail. I felt like a but of a cash grab based off the popularity of the podcast.

 

SS-GB by Len Deighton (3/5)

I've read a handful of Deighton books in both the Harry Palmer and Bernard Samson series but before SS-GB none of his standalone novels. I love spy novels, especially those set during the cold war so was interested to see how he would deal with something a little different.

In SS-GB the Nazis won the war in Europe and now occupy the UK. The king is in prison, Churchill has been executed, and post-war life carries on for the everyday people. The story follows Detective Inspector Archer who serves is a Scotland Yard murder detective. Although he is a police officer he is in a precarious position as all the bosses are Germans and want different things. He is sent to investigate when a body is found in a Mayfair flat and he is eventually caught up in a plot.

The first thing I should say about this book is that I really stuggled to get into it. All the elements appeal to me as a reader and I like Deighton as a writer but it just wouldn't click with me. Had I been trying out a writer for the first time I may have put this aside for another time. Being Deighton I decided to stick with it and eventually it started to come together for me. I read the second half of the book much quicker than the first once I got settled with it. I think this might have been down to the fact that I didn't really gel with any of the characters and the plot took a while to establish itself.

I'm glad I stuck with it though and I will probably watch the TV series now that I have finished the book.