Customer Reviews

Bottled Spider

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Shame on Amazon. I have not been able to find a book I had not read by John Gardner in over five years. I consider him the most outstanding author of thrillers and spy fiction on any continent and had lost track of him when he returned to England after living here in Virginia several years. While many think of John Gardner as a Bond writer, actually much better than Fleming or Benson, that made up only 1/4th of his work and he has created epic characters in epic works. I say shame on Amazon as if you look for Gardner they give you hundreds of listings and not his latest series. Not under his name that is. I had to trace Gardner down in England through friends and found that he had written five I have not read and is on a sixth on now. Fortunately he gave me the names of the books I sought. For the record, he is better than ever.

"Bottled Spider" starts a series that will run through World War Two in London. This first one is in 1940 during the blitz and involves the nastiest seriel killer I have ever read about in fiction. "Golly" makes Jack the Ripper look like a kindergarten student and his "control" is equally chilling. While there is a lot of gore, Gardner writes so concisely and so beautifully that you are not repelled by it, The descriptions of England at the time and his development of characters are superb. The lead is a young police officer, Susannah Mountford, and Gardner gets into her head so well that you feel like she is telling the story. You feel what she feels and you know this is someone you would like to know.

The plotting is superb in suspense and action.

My wife and I have been to England three times now and the places described, most of them, are familiar. The bombings form a sub plot and the history given takes the reader easily back to that time and the places described. Thank you John Gardner for proving what we have always known. You are the best and I will eagerly start the second book in the series as soon as I send this off.

Bottled Spider is an exciting tale of a serial killer, the likes of Jack-the-ripper, in 1940 war torn London. John Gardner tells the story in a highly descriptive fashion from the perspective of a young female rookie police officer who finds herself assuming investigative responsibilities normally handled by more senior male officers who are now involved with the war against Hitler. The killer is not pleased that a young women "leads" the investigation, and is all too happy to include her in his affirmative action plan. It is an interesting blend of murder, romance, and contemporary issues, in a setting few of us have experienced.