A first book for author Craig Hurren, but one that seems to have caught the
imagination of the reading public, with several insisting I review The
Killing Code (ISBN978-148-234-969-6, 2013, self-published).
It is a thriller in the classical manner, with the objective of dragging the
reader into the story, to face the horrors between the covers.
By page 5, the person
you imagined to be the lead female is dead, and not resuscitated, sorry.
That’s enough action for the first half dozen pages, I am sure you will
agree. However, the suicide site is not quite as it appears on first
reading. There are a few strangely disquieting items at the death scene.
The only person who sees that all is not as it seems on the surface, is a
rather intelligent police detective who starts piecing together two
apparently unconnected events. He has a tenacity that all police officers
should aspire to, and an ethical approach to life. Even to the extent of
reporting his police partner to higher ups who was stealing from the system.
And then having to put up with the derision of his colleagues in the force.
And in addition he was a long term grieving widower. His dependence on the
memory of his wife also affects his character, which has held him back in
many ways, requiring the assistance of a police psychiatrist to help him
continue in this position as a detective.
All the American acronyms are present, the FBI, CIA, C4 and more, and
special agents start crawling out of the woodwork, as the book continues
with its relentless action. Not only does the vigilant detective find the
association between two crimes, but then finds himself ‘adopted’ by an even
more sinister group working out of heavily fortified bunkers, using
technology well beyond that which is available through Windows 8.
Some of the work is so secretive that many of the agents do not know each
other by sight, but confer with coded and scrambled phone calls.
Author Hurren manages to keep the pace of the book going, with shorter
paragraphs when required and timely introduction of new characters, plus the
odd fight scene with SWAT teams and paid assassins and neutralizing IED’s.
And to place the action indelibly in the US, the American President is also
introduced to the fray. Let us not forget the oil cartel nations and a
fleeting glimpse of the UN. This plot has everything, and only a very wild
imagination could or would come up with it. For a first book, this is a
stunner. The truth of this writer’s excellence will depend upon his being
able to come up with another equally as baffling.
The Killing Code is available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as
paperback as well as an e-version. Price seems arbitrary (in other words
nobody could give me a fixed price), but around 500 baht seems to be about
the right money. You can do battle with Amazon yourself, as they seem to be
able to dream up any price they like for e-books, it has been my experience.
