Book Review - Ultimatum by Simon Kernick

 

I highlighted this novel in my December “Watch out for these” post.  I’ve read many of Kernick’s crime books and his last book Siege intrigued me by starting to move away from the previous straight criminal/police plots into something different.  I was pleased that he pulled it off and this new theme continues in Ultimatum.

The action starts from the off, with violent intimidation, a bomb blast and a fatality from a chase by our hero Tina Boyd, all in less than twenty pages.  The plot develops quickly with the appearance of William Garrett, also known as Fox, from the previous book Siege, plus a new character, Jones.  As a reader, you quickly realise that what Boyd and her new/temporary boss Bolt interpret as a multiple terrorist attack by Muslim extremists is not what it seems and that there’s a set up going on.  Who’s behind it and to what end is unclear at first, but the pieces start to come together as even more dangerous characters including nasty middlemen, arms dealers and a hired professional killer ease themselves into the action.  Boyd and Bolt race to keep up with each shocking event, trying to catch up with and get one step ahead of the terrorists.

Kernick’s writing style is a mix of snappy chapters, tense scenes and no holds barred action sequences.  He weaves together different strands of the plot well and ratchets up the overall tension higher and higher creating a series of intense action scenes in the final third of the book.  I read this novel in a very short time and it gave me a real “wow” feeling.  However, it doesn’t just finish there.  Kernick has cleverly seeded the final pages with some clues about more to come, and the more I think about it, I have a nagging feeling that what comes next for Tina Boyd and her colleagues won’t be nice.

Romancrimeblogger

PS – Simon Kernick also a Quick Read just out that looks interesting and only 90p on Kindle!!.  As usual – here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wrong-Place-Quick-Reads-ebook/dp/B00A0MGUCU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359887736&sr=8-2