Customer Reviews

Rules of Deception

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

When I started reading "Rules of Deception", I was immediately hooked. I wanted to know where the story was going to go and it felt like I was in for a great ride. Dr Johnathan Ransom is devastated when his wife is killed in a tragic skiing accident. However that evening he receives baggage checks in an envelope addressed to her, which leads him to a bag than contains another woman's clothing, the keys to a luxury Mercedes, an enormous wad of cash and a passport in an unfamiliar name but with his wife's photograph. Before he can even process this discovery, he finds himself a wanted man on the run - pursued by the police, but also by a mysterious assassin called The Ghost. There are multiple layers to the story and at least one major twist that completely took me by surprise. The story is very current and feels well researched.

The main problem with this book is that the plot tries too hard to be clever and thus becomes overly complicated and convoluted. There is more than one set of villains and keeping so many players juggled means that we don't spend enough time with Ransom, who is easily the most involving character. There's such a large cast of bland characters and I was always struggling to remember who they were and where they fitted in to the story. The plot also has some major plot holes that simply don't stand up to logic. Ultimately it all gets a bit silly. Instead of being gripped as the tension builds towards the climax, I found myself getting less and less interested.

This is a perfectly readable and mildly diverting thriller, but it's not as good as you think it's going to be when you start it.

This is the first book I've read by Christopher Reich, and it is very good. I was prompted to buy it by all the critics and famous authors who compare it to Ludlum, Follett, Forsyth, Trevanian, etc.--all my favorite writers of globe-trotting espionage. RULES OF DECEPTION closely follows the formula set down by those masters, with the idealistic doctor/mountain climber being drawn into a frightening, ever-growing conspiracy and racing the clock to find his enemies and beat them, with plenty of fights, chases, and surprise revelations along the way. I read the book in a matter of hours, and I think most thriller fans will, too.

My one reservation that keeps this from being a 5-star recommendation is the fact that RULES seems to resemble a lot of other big thrillers a bit too much--Reich never quite seems to make this material his own. He has clearly been "inspired" by EYE OF THE NEEDLE, DAY OF THE JACKAL, THE EIGER SANCTION, and the complete works of Robert Ludlum. But, hey, that's a small complaint from a reader who counts all those as faves. If you're looking for a fast, satisfying summer read along these lines, RULES follows the rules as well as any book I've read in a long time. Try it.

Christopher Reich's Rules of Deception is a stupendous read with one twist after another. Rules of Deception contains more suspense that the old movie serials of decades past and
delivers a great story to boot.

Without giving too much a way the protagonist Jonathan Ransom, one of those really nice guys who also happens to be a surgeon working with Doctors Without Borders is pursuing his passion of mountain climbing is the Alps with his wife, Emma. Mountain climbing has tons of risks and with this trip the odds are against Ransom; an avalanche sweeps Emma to her death. Badly shaken Ransom returns to his hotel only to find an envelope delivery awaiting his now dead wife with two claims tickets inside. Using these tickets he finds her secret luggage and the contents reveal that there was a lot more to Emma than he knew. What mayhem follows.

Don't judge this book until you've finished it. Reich provides us with a story that builds as it goes and in the end you'll be glad you stuck with the book. Jonathan eventually reveals himself to be quite the adventurer and engages in wild chases and the use of disguises as he eludes the international manhunt for him.

With characters like Emma's best friend Simone Noiret and Marcus von Daniken, head of the Swiss counterterrorism organization, the story is colorful and engaging. Reich, in the manner of Tom Clancy, is at ease with the incorporation of high tech gadgets into his story and this adds a lot to the suspense.

This is my first Christopher Reich's book but it won't be my last.

I highly recommend Rules of Deception.

RULES OF DECEPTION is the third novel I've read by Christopher Reich. I didn't care much for his prior efforts, THE PATRIOTS CLUB and THE FIRST BILLION, which I thought suffered from cardboard characterization and overly convoluted plotlines. Unfortunately, the same shortcomings are present in this follow up.

My major problem with RULES OF DECEPTION is the lack of a genuinely interesting protagonist. Characterization is not Reich's strong suit, and the hero of this novel, Jonathan Ransom, struck me as bland and colorless. This novel also contains far too many different characters, with Reich constantly shifting the point of view from one person to another. The end result is a novel with a large cast of two-dimensional characters, which is a recipe for a tedious read.

Reich's storyline contains some well written action scenes, but I found his political conspiracy plot too complicated for its own good. RULES OF DECEPTION has so many twists and turns and subplots that it was hard for me to keep track of what was going on. It doesn't help that this book becomes rather overblown and silly toward the end, once the nature of the conspiracy is revealed.

RULES OF DECEPTION has been heavily hyped, so your reaction to this novel may differ from mine. But if you place a high value on decent characterization and straightforward plotting, my guess is that you will find this novel to be a disappointment.

I loved the first 2/3rds of the book (it was my first Christopher Reich read). Granted, the idea that the main character's wife was living the secret life of a spy (like "True Lies") was a stretch, but I was OK with it. (One day I want to find the person who lives a life of a spy, while in real life is holding down a significant position at an active non-profit...and whose spouse had no idea of the double-life).
We can tell that there are two sides--one wants to arm Iran with Nukes and kill a plane full of people, the other has an assassin killing the first group. But when it is revealed that these two battling groups are the Dept of Defense and the CIA, it loses all believability. Not a soul in these organizations would blow the whistle on such terrorist acts? A don't buy it.
Then the frosting on the cake--the leader of one of the groups is doing this because he converted to Christianity? "Like Christ suffered for people, he would suffer for all the hundreds he killed in the plane." Right (??)

Sorry--it was a good tale that was laughable by the end.

Excuse me, ladies and gents - all 94 reviewers who went before me - have we been reading the same book? If you extracted all the unnecessary, superfluous, redundant, clichéd, unoriginal, worn-out, passé, overworked, stereotypical, timeworn, banal, commonplace, hackneyed, overused, stale, tired, unimaginative, ...sigh... I am running out of synonyms for awful writing - expressions and words, we would have a 200 page decent book, instead of a 576-page bloat. Somebody compared this writer to the likes of Ludlum, Forsyth and Trevanian, true masters of the thriller genre.... Are you kidding? If this is what passes for modern thriller-writing, I think I am changing the class of books I have been reading with such relish for 40 years. I will give this book two stars for the plot. But, it is pretty awful reading material. I, for one, was not entertained and I will probably have to see a dentist to see about the damage caused by hours of teeth-gnashing.

What a great premise and most of the book was up there in terms of thrillers and suspense way beyond the current drivel of unending and uninspired stories of templars, secret codes in archaeological digs, and ancient conspiracies that will serve to end the world today. There are multiple stories going on that are entwined and you can't read fast enough to see the resolution. But, and it's a big "but", the plot twist is ridiculous and the explanation behind it is almost an afterthought. The last 1/4 of the book is a speedy exercise in messy and convenient coincidences...I was disappointed enough to make me seriously consider if I would read the next book from Mr. Reich. It really could've been a great one but ended up flat.

I enjoyed reading this book and read it fairly quickly. However. I decided to give it four stars instead of three because it kept me going and entertained. Here are some of my observations:

1. The book reads like a Dan Brown or Ludlum novel. Very short chapters, moving from one key player to another and back again. We see things happening simultaneously from three or four different perspectives. However, there are some surprises thrown in and some long pauses between some of the characters that didn't quite work timing wise. The boogeyman is always there ready to jump out and kill him and yet sometimes, he keeps his distance and we forget about him.

2. Like in a Ludlum novel, the main character, Dr. Jonathan Ransom, is constantly confronted with shocking and crazy things that plunge him deeper and deeper into a maze that seems like he will never find his way out. Can you imagine being in love with a wife who is actually leading a totally provocative second life?

3. So the plot thickens, the world is about ready to experience world war three, while Jonathan is dodging bullets, gets lucky over and over again and escapes death and being arrested by the Swiss police, all while having just lost his wife in a skiing accident. A little too much Hollywood here. And yet, like Hollywood, it's fun. That said, I would enjoy it even more if he'd read a little LeCarre or Len Deighton and incorporate more plot plausibility, a little subtlety, a little more real spy stuff and a little less harrowing and exaggerated story lines. Not that the story lines themselves are bad. But they're too quickly put together and too immediate and I felt, too unbelievable, which makes the story not quite as gripping as it could have been.

All and all, it's worth the read, and like "Da Vinci Code," moves along quickly and in short readable chapters with characters you like and care about. It's a great airport novel but with a little work, could have been even better.

This book had a great, well-written start and a very interesting "hook." After a disaster, the protagonist realizes that his wife of 8 years is not really who he thought she was, and may not even really exist as he knew her. He sets off to find the truth and becomes involved in true James Bond stuff, complete with women with exotic accents, massively expensive cars, etc.

It becomes quite complex, with villains popping out on every side. But then it collapses into idiocy. Without revealing the plot, I'd say that it has the usual, by now hackneyed, set of villains: the US government and Christians. But what would a modern PC thriller be without these two forces of evil? Still, I resent having fattened Christopher Reich's bank account for this book.

I hadn't read a Christopher Reich novel in a while and this one quickly reminded me as to what an entertaining and accomplished writer he is. The story quickly drags you inside the covers of the book and keeps things churning as Jonathan Ransom is drawn deeper and deeper into a mystery that was not of his making.

Things are seldom what they seem in this story of intrigue and mystery and sorting out the threats and the realities is as challenging to the reader as it is to him.

You will have a difficult time putting this one down. The Rules of Deception is a keeper.