Dirty Little Lies by John Macken
Thursday, 01 Mar 2007 17:54
Dirty Little Lies has all the makings of a blockbuster
Published by Bantam Press, out March 1st, hardback, 416 pages, £12.99.
In a nutshell…
Gruesome. Fast-paced. Vivid. Readable. Sequel?
What's it all about?
The action focuses on DNA head honcho Dr Reuben Maitland and while some sections give insight into the lives and views of others, the troubled forensics boffin is our flawed hero trying to solve the modern-day whodunit.
Dirty Little Lies launches straight into the action, depicting the torture and murder of a forensic scientist on page one while in the opening chapters Maitland is introduced and his family and personal problems are thrust upon the reader.
Forensics, police and fellow workmates also make an early appearance.
Detective Chief Inspectors Kemp and Hirst play good promotion-seeking cops while the more eccentric characters of Run Zhang and Moray Carnock play likeable sidekicks to Maitland, as does stolid accomplice Judith Meadows.
Peripheral characters include a selection of sadistic criminals, a few generic scientists and an aggrieved ex-wife.
Plot lines interweave and characters get bumped off as the mystery of the murderer who leaves coded clues on their victims is unravelled.
Who's it by?
John Macken, a research scientist who works in the fields of genetics and forensics, in a large windowless building, he claims.
He also lives in the Midlands with his wife and two children
As an example…
Moray stiffened and his walking became almost mechanical, aware that he was being observed from multiple angles. But it was too late to back out now. They had to do this tonight. There would never be a clear-cut opportunity again ... Moray made the agreed abort signal, but Reuben shook his head. This was do or die.
Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster
It certainly wants to be, the characters in particular are written for a screenplay and the fast-paced nature of the novel would translate well to a tense action thriller on the big screen.
It has the same made-for-Hollywood feeling as the Da Vinci Code did upon reading the opening chapters.
What the others say
"A terrific forensic thriller, with real flesh and blood characters and a plot that never lets up" - Peter Robinson
So is it any good?
The tag line for Dirty Little Lies reads "a thriller to speed the pulse and chill the blood" and while my blood positively remained at duvet temperature, it did grab and hold my attention.
For a debut novel, Macken has produced a book that covers most of the bases; the characters are both fallible and likeable and the science is never technical to the point of incomprehensibility.
Some characters are developed more than others and more than one plot line is left hanging at the end of the novel, which suggests that sequels could be in the offing; there is definite scope here for a televised series.
Multiple plot lines detract attention from the main focus of the novel - bumped off scientists - and limit the hard punch Dirty Little Lies could otherwise have packed, while the overblown ending is farcical to say the least.
Good aeroplane reading.
6/10
Sarah Blacow
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