Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Bedlam Press
Publication Date: 16th March 2014
Pages: 150
MY REVIEW:
A copy of The Spartak Trigger was sent to Confessions of
a Reviewer by the author Bryce Allen in exchange for an honest review. This is
said review. This book is published by Bedlam Press.
Anyone who visits the blog regularly will know I love to
discover new authors, to me, especially when it is their first book. I liked
the sound of this one when it was sent in and decided to give it some reading
time. I got a surprise with this book. A pleasant one.
Shane Bishop has had his day as a cop. The job was taken
away from him in disgrace. He now works for a firm as a professional set up
artist. Firms hire him to go undercover, set up and disgrace an employee of
theirs so they can fire them. There are many reasons for these requests. Bishop
doesn’t really care as long as he gets paid.
His most recent job has gone wrong. His mark was killed
but not by him. He is now caught up in an international web of industrial
espionage that threatens to destroy the World Wide Web and plunge today’s
society into technological darkness.
He is being blackmailed to help a tech firm get their
hands on a years old microfilm to assist them in their quest. His prize is
simple – be cleared of a murder he didn’t commit. Or is it as simple as he
thinks?
Okay, I had a few problems with this book. Problem number
one – how to classify it. Which genre to put it in to. I still have no idea. A
thriller? A techno thriller? A – I don’t know really. It’s so mixed up.
Problem number two – how to deal with the confusion I
felt while reading it. It sort of jumps about all over the place and was a bit
hard to follow at times.
Problem number three – the way it is written. Our “hero”
Bishop tells the story but has a “narrator” that adds or emits detail to the
story as he sees fit. I still have no idea who this person was/is. It reads
almost as if Bishop is schizophrenic or has an imaginary friend or is just plain
nuts. He mentions in the story he has a weird form of Tourette’s and I still
don’t know if this was just a cover or if that was really what was going on.
Problem four – I just could not put this book down. It is
fantastic in its own way.
The characters are brilliant. They are an eclectic mix of
rogues who are all out to fulfil their own agendas. It seems like everyone is
heading towards the same goal but at the same time no one trusts anyone else
and they all want to be the one to reach the prize first. I’m not going to tell
you what the prize is or anything else about the plot because it would
completely spoil it for you.
I loved the writing style in this. It is almost noir. You
could imagine this story being set in the 30’s or 40’s. It has that sort of
atmosphere and feel about it but deals with every aspect of our technologically
advanced world i.e. the internet and how we couldn’t live without it. It
totally draws you into the story. You will find yourself questioning what you
are reading over and over. It’s like it doesn’t make sense but at the same time
it is very compelling reading.
Writing this review immediately after finishing the book,
I realise it is probably confusing and doesn’t make much sense to you but that
is how this story makes you feel. You never know who is right, who is wrong,
who the good guys are and who isn’t. You never know who to trust and even if
they are real.
To summarise: a confusing tale of international
industrial espionage. It has murder and intrigue. Chases across the world. What
seems to be about five different groups all chasing the same thing and all
trying to use the same person to get it.
Confused? You will be, but you know what? This is a story
that will not let you go until you finish it. In many ways I’m still not sure
exactly what I read but I do know I loved it. This book will stay with me for a
long time and that is not easy to do when I read so much. I will read this book
again and again. Reason for this being I might understand it more when I read
it a second time but mostly because it was so good. If Bryce Allen keeps
writing like this I can see him creating a very successful niche all of his
own.
General rating:
★★★★ Super stuff. Recommended.
No idea what genre this is rating:
★★★★ Really good whatever it is.
You can buy The Spartak Trigger here:
Book Synopsis:
Disgraced cop and degenerate cad Shane Bishop now makes
his living as a professional set-up artist, using his unique skillset to frame
his clients’ enemies for various criminal offenses. When his latest job goes
wrong and his mark ends up in a body bag, the ex-lawman becomes the prime
suspect in a high-profile murder investigation – framed himself by a mysterious
government agent.
In order to obtain a key piece of evidence that will
clear his name, Bishop is blackmailed into performing various acts of
industrial espionage upon some of the world’s most powerful corporations. He
soon graduates to foreign intelligence work and finds himself in Russia charged
with infiltrating a radical neo-Bolshevik terrorist group known as ‘Black
October’ and retrieving a microfilm they’ve obtained which contains a
Soviet-era computer virus that has the power to destroy the world…wide web.
Bryce appears to be very elusive and apart from his
picture and a link for his website, I couldn’t find any more info on him.
So…..
You can see more of Bryce at his website.
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