Customer Reviews

The Peacock Angel

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

 

 

The Peacock Angel is a fast-moving book with a full cast of carefully drawn characters and a plot that drives the story hard. Jason Ender is a hero who can carry the load without noticeable effort and still stand on his own to deliver a good punch line (or a good punch). This book, and Ender's previous adventure (Less Than A Shadow) establish Chacko's series as the only viable espionage fiction in current literature. It's real and it's real-time. Highly recommended.

"David Chacko is truly multifaceted. Not every author can pen a contemporary suspense novel as good as he writes Historical. Or vice versa. I read THE PEACOCK ANGEL right after I finished THE SEVERAN PROPHECIES, and while it took me a few pages to switch gears, i.e. from the Roman Empire to a present-day web of intrigue racing across Europe and Turkey, the tempo of the story, its well-drawn characters and the mystery surrounding an ancient religious icon soon drew me in. I could not come up for air until its satisfying conclusion.
THE PEACOCK ANGEL is not only an entertaining read, but TIMELY. Recommended read!"

For a book that is about gems, ancient cult objects, and outlaw financiers, THE PEACOCK ANGEL delivers a tremendous amount of action along with the intrigue. More active than Chacko's last (LESS THAN A SHADOW) it's also faster moving and filled with great characters. The locations keep changing across Europe and into the Near East, but the hunt for the prize is always up front on every page. Jason Ender is a shape-shifting agent who is as sophisticated as he is foreceful. The result is a classic series that leaves you waiting breathlessly for the next installment.

Chacko is a superb writer and story teller. His characters are real, and his plots exciting. This is one of his best, which is saying alot!

I read with great interest some of the reviews and descriptions of this series of books and truly looked forward to an entertaining novel in The Peacock Angel. What I received instead was a Jack Bauer-esque version of what the author imagines the world of espionage and intrigue to be. The clipped, macho, and totally cliche dialouge is distracting at best, and totally annoying at its worst. The characters are similarly shallow, cliche, and are cut from a fastfood, Jack Bauer 24-type mold, one which is designed for readers who have no imagination or appreciation for the subtlety of intelligence work. When placed next to say John LeCarre, Alan Furst, or Eric Ambler, this book shrinks to dust and blows away with the first breeze. In short, if you like cliche, shallow stories, by all means read away......