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| Matador 28 January 2019 My thanks to the author for sharing his book with me and for my review copy of A Friend in Deed |
Duncan Jones, freelance political journalist and blogger, loses his weekly column at a national newspaper and turns to investigative reporting. The chance remark of a friend leads him to suspect that the Russians are directing the new British government's policies and decisions. As he visits Moscow and Ukraine to discover more, scandal follows intrigue, dark forces attempt to silence him by whatever means possible and he turns to an unlikely ally for help. A Friend in Deed is the story of how one man confronts the traumas in his past and works out how to resolve them.
My thoughts about it..
A Friend in Deed is set sometime in our near future when the political arena is just as complicated as it is today. A new political party, aptly named, Act Now!, has emerged and is currently occupying the seat of power in Whitehall. Duncan Jones is a freelance reporter who is finding it increasingly difficult to eke out a living as an investigative journalist as newspapers, already in decline, are only interested in hard hitting stories.
When Duncan gets insider knowledge about the possible connection between the Russians and the British government, his journalistic interest is roused and before too long he is heading into a very dangerous situation which has dramatic consequences, not just for Duncan's future, but which also threatens to expose secrets from his past.
A Friend in Deed is a cleverly controlled psychological thriller which rattles along at a fast pace, and introduces some very nefarious characters, both in this country and abroad, who are more than rattled by Duncan's determination to discover the depth of corruption. There are some very detailed descriptions of mysterious and deadly political shenanigans which, in a supposed post Brexit, post Trump world, I found to be scarily credible.
The author writes well, and has created some memorable characters bringing them to life in a very credible way. The fast pace of the story helps to keep up the momentum, which was quite tense in places, especially when discovering more about some very dodgy Russian dealings. The consequences of discovering what was going on in some very dangerous places made the story all the more exciting.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up again with Duncan Jones who I met first in this author's previous novel, Love's Long Road. Throughout this continuation, there are some hints to what went on in that book but I don't think it's essential to have read it as this story works as a standalone and yet, as with all series, it is best to start at the beginning for greater enjoyment.
The final part of the trilogy Silent Money is currently a work in progress.
A Friend in Deed is set sometime in our near future when the political arena is just as complicated as it is today. A new political party, aptly named, Act Now!, has emerged and is currently occupying the seat of power in Whitehall. Duncan Jones is a freelance reporter who is finding it increasingly difficult to eke out a living as an investigative journalist as newspapers, already in decline, are only interested in hard hitting stories.
When Duncan gets insider knowledge about the possible connection between the Russians and the British government, his journalistic interest is roused and before too long he is heading into a very dangerous situation which has dramatic consequences, not just for Duncan's future, but which also threatens to expose secrets from his past.
A Friend in Deed is a cleverly controlled psychological thriller which rattles along at a fast pace, and introduces some very nefarious characters, both in this country and abroad, who are more than rattled by Duncan's determination to discover the depth of corruption. There are some very detailed descriptions of mysterious and deadly political shenanigans which, in a supposed post Brexit, post Trump world, I found to be scarily credible.
The author writes well, and has created some memorable characters bringing them to life in a very credible way. The fast pace of the story helps to keep up the momentum, which was quite tense in places, especially when discovering more about some very dodgy Russian dealings. The consequences of discovering what was going on in some very dangerous places made the story all the more exciting.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting up again with Duncan Jones who I met first in this author's previous novel, Love's Long Road. Throughout this continuation, there are some hints to what went on in that book but I don't think it's essential to have read it as this story works as a standalone and yet, as with all series, it is best to start at the beginning for greater enjoyment.
The final part of the trilogy Silent Money is currently a work in progress.
GD Harper has won a 2016 Wishing Shelf Award Red Ribbon, been shortlisted at the UK Festival of Writing for Best First Chapter, longlisted in the 2017 UK Novel Writing Competition and placed third in the Lightship Prize for first-time authors.
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