The art of storytelling in prose is not unlike a tightrope act. It takes a very keen balance between efficiently moving the plot along and, on the other hand, sketching character descriptions and bringing color to the tale, setting to enhance the read and bake the layer cake of alluring fiction. Dynamic and well-paced plotting is especially important for an espionage thriller – the genre that PERPETUAL CHECK has staked out as its playing field.
Alas, this novel’s biggest imperfection is how it too often drifts along in its details, milieu and scenery as opposed to getting on with the story line. It’s not a fatal much less even crippling flaw. Truth be told, some of the genre’s biggest-selling writers can at time plod and coast through their story line; not everyone can manage elegance and effectiveness with the masterful touch of, say, a John le Carré, even if they may be good writers. And author F. Nelson Smith is a capable wordsmith.
The book begins in Germany. And as such tales often do with a mysterious death, likely murder. And some suspicious shipments. Microfiche documents related to it all travel to London and get passed in a Hitchcock-ish twist to some uninvolved and unknowing innocents, an aunt and niece pair of Canadian tourists, respectively named Lucy and Dani, about to embark on bus tour of England. They are asked by a German woman they encounter who also is murdered in their London hotel to get in touch with a man when their tour reaches Oxford.
As the tour embarks, Lucy and Dani start to realize they have stumbled into intrigue and danger. In a plot device that reminds a bit of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” the two try to figure out who on the tour might be a threat or an ally. Needless to say the two women prove themselves to be somewhat able accidental operatives as the intrigue and danger increase.
PERPETUAL CHECK travels along through this situation with occasional small patches of clumsiness and wordiness. But not enough to distract a reader intrigued enough by the set-up to follow through. Author Smith may not have the skillful touch needed to really shine in the genre. But the book is a nice and solid college try that devoted thriller fans – especially any who crave traveling a bit through England in a book – might well find worthwhile.
An espionage thriller that follows the genre’s form while also adding some unique wrinkles and scenery all its own, PERPETUAL CHECK tells its twisting tale with more than adequate skill in an appealing compact length.
~Rob Patterson for IndieReader