"Tell you what, Leader, do you want to double your money?" "Double or quits?" "Of course double or quits. I'm having lunch at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford tomorrow with my uncle. If you can join us by one o'clock sharp tomorrow, I'll tear up this cheque and write you another for six thousand pounds" It is a bet Richard Gaunt cannot resist - all he has to do is walk from London to Oxford in under twelve hours. As an ex-soldier he is up to the challenge. But what starts as a harmless bet turns into something altogether different when Richard is taken hostage by a mysterious stranger, Mr Khan, who makes him a highly unusual proposal. What he offers in return could transform Richard's life. Traumatised by a tour of duty in Iraq, Richard feels he has nothing to lose. The love of his life won't speak to him, he has lost every job he ever had and his friends have vanished. He therefore decides to accept Khan's strange request - never imagining the places it will take him.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A Buchan-like set-up that pitches Gaunt into thriller territory...It's a brave stylistic gamble." -- Eithne Farry DAILY MAIL "Torday has an extraordinary gift for making apparent "normality" look sinister and strange." THE TIMES "The certainties of the imperial world in which Buchan's heroes operated have long gone, but Torday shows that today's more ambivalent realities can also be pressed into service to produce intelligent and readable adventure stories." -- Nick Rennison SUNDAY TIMES "A dark thriller scenario, where unlikely events follow hot on the heels of each other to create a hectic narrative..." -- Tina Jackson METRO "Torday's prose whips along in this involving, enjoyable novel" -- Charlotte Sinclair VOGUE "A thrilling read" PRIMA "MORE THAN YOU CAN SAY is gripping. Torday's simple prose belies an elegantly woven story, full of concepts that you can't help but dwell upon" NEWS OF THE WORLD "On this showing, Torday has become an accomplished storyteller, able to develop a quirky plotline with aplomb" -- Max Davison MAIL ON SUNDAY "Torday keeps the story moving and tightly knit; he writes in detailed, engaging prose" -- Tom Adair THE SCOTSMAN "(an) entertaining book" -- Honor Clerk THE SPECTATOR "In MORE THAN YOU CAN SAY, Torday darkens things...dealing with subject matters such as terrorism, war and post-traumatic stress disorder." -- Doug Johnstone THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY "There are good reasons why Torday has found success, as this novel shows. There's real substance to the characterisation...a keenness to incorporate the dark and the serious...and to engage with contemporary politics and issues. Above all, there's his desire to entertain and to keep his readers turning those pages." -- Harry Ritchie THE GUARDIAN "Written with confidence and dry humour, it's engaging and funny" -- Doug Johnstone BIG ISSUE "Paul Torday adroitly builds tension in Gaunt's current caper and the unravelling of his life in the past." -- Justin Warshaw TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT "In part an intelligent homage to John Buchan, the book is propelled by a thrillerish plot while at the same time making room for an exploration of its unhappy progtaganist's life." -- Tom Fleming THE TABLET "Another thought-provoking and hugely entertaining novel." GOOD BOOK GUIDE
About the Author
Paul Torday burst on to the literary scene in 2006 with his first novel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an immediate international bestseller that has been sold in 25 countries. His subsequent novels, The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, The Girl on the Landing and The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers were also published to great critical acclaim. He is married with two sons by a previous marriage, has two stepsons and lives close to the River North Tyne.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The first part of this story is totally ridiculous and my thoughts were that none of this could possibly ever happen. However, as the stroy unfolds, it becomes more and more plausible, until, eventually, I began to think that these events could really, actually happen. That is what I would call very clever story telling.
Paul Torday is an incredibly imaginative author. I liked this book very much indeed and would recommend it to any of my friends.
All that stopped me from awarding five stars was that it tended to ramble in places. In an action packed thriller, that can be most frustrating! Don't let that put you off though. It is well worth reading.
Paul Torday is an incredibly imaginative author. I liked this book very much indeed and would recommend it to any of my friends.
All that stopped me from awarding five stars was that it tended to ramble in places. In an action packed thriller, that can be most frustrating! Don't let that put you off though. It is well worth reading.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read all the books Torday has published so far I couldn't wait to get the new one. But - espacially after GIRL ON THE LANDING - I was a bit disappointed at the end. Well, I have to say that Torday probably never will write anything worth less than 4 stars, but in this case I have the impression that he doesn't only tend to "remble in places" but also in characters. When he starts to unfold Adeena you have the impression you get to know a very thrilling person, but after a while you start thinking: Well, that was ist? I think it's a pity Torday didn't give her more space. Instead he describes Richard's - the main character - former love Emma, who some years ago has waitetd urgently to get married. But unfortunately Richard had to live his life as a soldier (for he didn't have any other ideas), came back from Iraq and Afghanistan as a psychological wreck and isn't able any more to find out what he really wants. Now we learn more about Emma - and this time it is coherent that we don't get to know her very deeply, because that's just what happens to Richard and her as well. They live together, she makes plans for their future but he struggles through those plans without being able to make them his own ones.
Torday again has done very good research and writes about the war and what it means to the soldiers. And even though I would call MORE THAN YOU CAN SAY his so far weakest book it is a highly recommendes and interesting title by a one of Britain's most impressive writers.
Torday again has done very good research and writes about the war and what it means to the soldiers. And even though I would call MORE THAN YOU CAN SAY his so far weakest book it is a highly recommendes and interesting title by a one of Britain's most impressive writers.
Format:Hardcover
This book is a bit of a departure from the last Torday novel I read (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen). There's more adventure and more violence. But, like that book, it's astonishingly different . The narrative retains the same strong, simple, elegiac prose and suspenseful storyline that make it difficult to put down. The plot, which seems highly implausible at first, gradually comes into focus and becomes inescapably logical. The reviews comparing it to a John Buchan novel (e.g. The 39 Steps) are dead on. There's a touch of Le Carre too. Still, it remains quite original.
The main character I think also has echoes of the Flashman character in George MacDonald Fraser's great novels. Richard Gaunt is an unlikely and at times deeply unlikable hero, a selfish cad, a rogue who reluctantly winds up doing the right things. His past is beautifully told in flashbacks -- from a summer dance in the countryside to military engagements in Iraq. Torday's compact yet detailed description of the deterioration of Gaunt's relationship to his ex- is painfully realistic, just one example of the kind of writing that sets this novel apart from most books in this genre. I do not think these flashbacks take away at all from the momentum of the story but rather make the characters more believable.
I would recommend this exciting and absorbing novel to anyone.
The main character I think also has echoes of the Flashman character in George MacDonald Fraser's great novels. Richard Gaunt is an unlikely and at times deeply unlikable hero, a selfish cad, a rogue who reluctantly winds up doing the right things. His past is beautifully told in flashbacks -- from a summer dance in the countryside to military engagements in Iraq. Torday's compact yet detailed description of the deterioration of Gaunt's relationship to his ex- is painfully realistic, just one example of the kind of writing that sets this novel apart from most books in this genre. I do not think these flashbacks take away at all from the momentum of the story but rather make the characters more believable.
I would recommend this exciting and absorbing novel to anyone.
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