Customer Reviews

Light Out

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The plot and sub plots are extraordinary and the characterisation is astute and consistent thoughout. The opening few pages are extremely well written and deceptively gentle, and set a rural landscape where Rick's and Jon's farming family background are deftly drawn. By shocking contrast to their way of life, parents and siblings almost immediately find themselves and their lifestyle under extreme threat from outside forces. The secret services, the United Nations, Mafiosi gangsters and religious terrorists all become woven into a really complex saga of intrigue, bloody shootouts, steaming love affairs, international espionage and a chase across America. Much of the action takes place in Chicago and Colorado, which are themselves superbly portrayed. The principle characters are colourful and attractive. There are sexy liaisons, there's humour and thrills aplenty: in fact, everything the intelligent searcher for adventure could wish for. This is one of the best reads I've had for years. Full marks to the publishers for finding such a fine and original author.

I too bought this book on the recommendation of the 5-star readers' reviews, and I'm glad I did. After the first dozen or so paragraphs, I didn't want to put it down as new events kept tumbling in steady succession from the pages. Yes, the writing style was not slick or airy-fairy, but who really wants the sort of shallow soap-trash that is more about the writer trying to draw attention to him or her self than to the characters whose lives we wish to visit without such distractions? Some reviewers tend to write just as self-consciously, I find. No, I'd much rather have this man's sure depictions of his subjects and their changing surroundings. For example, I visited Chicago a few years ago, and Wood's atmospheric descriptions of the city streets at night and on a weekday morning, along with snapshots of some of its people, brought everything vividly back to my mind. The dialogue was particularly fluid. For just one example, the uncomfortable encounter of the male couple with a group of brash Geordie soccer fans visiting London was brilliantly penned. But then, handling large palettes of word-colour is what competent, mature British writers have always excelled at, even if it occasionally tends to perplex some US readers.

Light out is a superb novel about friendship and family ties, with a good dose of suspense. This book deserves to become a bestseller!