Saturday, May 17, 2014

REVENGE by Bill Ward

REVENGE by Bill Ward
 


Downtrodden gambler Tom is strolling home from an evening out with his brother Colin, when he witnesses’ a murder and kidnapping attempt. Against better judgment he jumps in trying to help the hapless victim, which turns out to be world famous actress, Melanie Adams. After thwarting the kidnapping attempt, with one of the kidnappers being shot to death, Tom finds himself caught in the crosshairs of the IRA.
The Revenge in this storyline is on more than one front. We have revenge of a sister for her brother, revenge of a Special Branch Officer for a fallen comrade and the revenge of a father for his son and daughter. But the underlying Revenge is between the Brits and the Irish, or vice-a-versa.
The plot is good, with a few twists. The double-agent Jones did throw me off and I totally forgot the father until the end, which fits a book called REVENGE. The characters are very well-defined and you can’t help but root for Tom and Melanie Adams. The relationship between Sam and Eduardo Is dynamic, and it left me feeling nervous and queasy at how Eduardo ended their relationship. Where Ward hurt the story, is going back into Eduardo’s head, after the fact, and explaining why he did what he did. Ward should have just left us readers hanging with our uneasy feelings.
With the well-defined characters and strong plot, this book could have been so much more.  Unfortunately I found it very slow reading with 80% narration and only 20% action and interaction between the characters. It finally picked up within the last couple of chapters and then it became a page-turner. 

To me this was an average read, so I give a 3 feather rating. If you like spy stories and intrigue, you will enjoy this one.

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