Review: Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Riveting stuff, 'Fire and Fury' reads like a novel, a fast-moving, sometimes breathless account of the first nine months of the Trump administration. If only 10 percent of this were true, and a review of Trump's Twitter account or a quick glance at the news lends weight to it being vastly more than that, it would still be sensational and frightening. The fact that Trump tried to prevent publication should make this required reading and the events in few months since the period the author covers - from 'my nuclear button is bigger than his' to Steve Bannon being seemingly forced to step down from Breitbart News this morning - suggest that the scary story is far from over....

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Review: The Driver

The Driver by Mark Dawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another excellent episode in what is becoming a must-read series for me, 'The Driver', while not just as strong as the first two books, is a fast-moving thriller and excellent entertainment.

Following on 3 months after the events in Mexico, John Milton is lying low in San Francisco, working two jobs, as a taxi driver and delivery man, while trying to find time to attend AA meetings. It is in the order job that he takes a young woman, who turns out to be a call-girl, to a party from which she flees and disappears. Milton, still atoning for his past 'sins', feels responsible and begins to investigate. The investigation takes on increased urgency when the bodies of other call-girls are found.

The more leisurely pace of the plot means that Milton has time to develop some semblance of a personal life with a woman he meets at AA. Beau Baxter from 'Saint Death' also makes an appearance which serves to broaden Milton's world too.

I am really taken by the whole 'James Bond, Licence Revoked' nature of these book and, while tighter editing may have been needed in places (at times there were references to two 'He's' with some confusion to whom the 'he' referred), I am really looking forward to 'Ghosts' and the introduction of Beatrix Rose.

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Review: Saint Death

Saint Death by Mark Dawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this fast-moving thriller, the second in Mark Dawson's John Milton series. It is the literary equivalent of a Jason Statham movie, and that's not a bad thing - the Stathe is very good at what he does, John Milton is very good at what he does, and Mark Dawson is proving very, very good at what he does.

This time round, Milton, recovering from his 'quitting' the British Secret Service, and his less than successful attempt to help those in need in 'The Cleaner', turns up in Mexico just in time to face off against the Cartel and, all the while, his employers are trying to track him down and possibly 'retire' him for good. This is not the war on drugs epic of Don Winslow but it is not trying to be. It is a breathless thriller, easily the equal of Lee Child (although I admit I find Reacher hard to relate to).

Milton is Bond gone rogue and trying to do the right thing. I loved it and I'm going straight into the third novel, 'The Driver'.

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