Still in thriller land for me. This one features the planned death of all humanity, starting with a "Death List" of the most evil people currently living and various politicians (no cheap shots about them being one and the same, please). The list is released to the media, and though it is initially met with disbelief, quickly causes panic, in both those on it and not, as the people on it continue to die in a horrible manner, with no obvious cause.
Investigating this is our journalist protagonist, Olympia, who is struggling both with the case and a neuro-atypical son, Hannibal, who is of great interest to "the Salvation Sanctuary". The Sanctuary are lead by Madame Gupta, who is interested in the evolution of humanity via people who don't fit comfortably into the current paradigm and are possibly better positioned to control the future.
She's also interested (in a sexy way), in Terry, an ex-black ops soldier who is romantically linked to Olympia but is followed by a traumatic past in which he did terrible things to survive.
What's great about this book is that even though the central premise (a list of people who are prophesised to die) is a little out there, everyone in this behaves in a sensible manner. The plot unfolds naturally, and at no point did I find myself thinking "oh come on! You'd never do that." Which is quite important in a thriller. People took some stupid decisions, but it was always reasonable for them to do so.
The plot itself is a damned interesting one. There's a lot going on, in about three different threads and they all kept my interest. If you're a fan of thrillers, this is certainly one worth picking up. It kept me reading across a couple of days to bash through it, and had quite a nice "gotta" as Stephen King puts it.
Highly recommended.
Tagged: Book Thriller Horrible humans Novel Print