Customer Reviews

Target

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

 

 

This is my third Simon Kernick thriller. If you want non-stop adrenalin-filled action, he's your man. His books take off at 500 miles an hour and don't let up. Target is no exception.

Rob Fallon goes home from a nightclub with a friend's ex-girlfriend (Jenny). They are interrupted by two armed men who break in and abduct Jenny. Rob manages to escape but when he goes to the police, he finds that there is no evidence that a crime was committed: her apartment appears untouched and her father claims she's away on holiday. Rob is in danger and desperate to get the police to believe him.

The essential structure of this book is very similar to his last Deadline but it's a better book. Kernick's books usually fall away at the end, but this one stays strong throughout, incorporating a stunning twist towards the end that is most unusual for this genre.

The book is what it is: if you want a fast-paced, undemanding escapist read, it's perfect.

However I felt that the action was unnecessarily fast and improbable: to the point that on at least two occasions I wondered if I was reading a dream sequence. The story is also let down by silly inconsistencies and improbabilities, from the minor (Rob loses his mobile phone but the next morning receives a phone call when he's out for a walk) to the more significant: Why would the ruthless villain not have killed Rob when he got the chance, rather than threatening him and letting him go? Jenny told Rob that she had been on a work trip the week before, but later it seemed that she was unemployed. Did she lie and if so, why?

While the book features the police officers who have made appearances in previous Kernick novels (Mike Bolt, his offsider Mo and Tina Boyd), their character development from book to book has been negligible.

I read this book on holiday and I enjoyed it very much, but its flaws anchor it in the 3 star territory for me.

Simon Kernick is one of the few authors that can write in a number of different styles and still maintain a very high standard or storytelling no matter which style is being used. The novel starts off in Harlan Coben style (average everyday guy suddenly has life in danger by a sudden event, must flee and work out what is going on to survive type read) such as Kernick wrote with Relentless. In Target it's author Rob Fallon who runs into Jenny Brakspear, his former best friend's ex girlfriend in a bar, he goes back to her apartment to sleep with her but while using the toilet hears her being violently kidnapped.

Then we've got the David Morrell type style novel coming into the story(fast paced albeit a little unrealistic action thriller involving a well trained ex army guy), in Target this character isn't actually the hero, he's one of the villains, his name is Hook, he's ex IRA army, he enjoys killing and although Fallon escaped him during the abduction of the girl who was supposed to be alone, he plans on meeting up and killing him very soon.

Then we've got the ignore the rest of the department and stay on the case bend the rules to get the result police officer type character in Tina Boyd who thinks Fallon may well be telling the truth. Throw in from Kernick's Deadline, Mike Bolt an ex Flying Squad officer in charge of a unit of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) who Tina turns to off the record to help her find Jenny and we've got five great eyes to view the story unfolding and styles to jump back and forth and read. Throw in the fact the author is Simon Kernick, who isn't afraid to kill of main characters and we have seriously no idea what will happen next as we turn each page.

A great thriller, Kernick hits the target again!

I have read all of Kernick's books so far and they are just getting better and better