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Risk Agent, The (2012)

by Ridley Pearson(Favorite Author)

3.31 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1455854611 (ISBN13: 9781455854615)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Brilliance Audio

series

Risk Agent

review 1: It gives me no pleasure to write this, because this is an author I have really liked in the past and obviously I was intrigued enough by the scenario to shell out money... but _The Risk Agent_ is an incoherent mess. It's a thriller that never thrills, with characters that fail to come to life and a setting that suffers from whatever is the opposite of "sense of place". Pearson's previous books made great work of a block-by-block knowledge of Seattle; but although he's clearly intrigued by contemporary China, he only once manages to convey any reason why the reader should be, in a scene set amidst the women of a desperately poor neighborhood of... I think Shanghai, but honestly I couldn't even be bothered to remember the city, the character's names and motivations, or even ... morethe crimes committed by whom.I have read many of this author's previous works in a day apiece, but this one... some sense of obligation forced me to pick it up a few times after putting it down just as many times, and finally I willed myself over the finish line on a long plane flight. But that is far from enjoying a reading experience, and I was sad at the sense of relief I felt when it was over. I'm astonished that this book is evidently the beginning of a series, and hope that Ridley leaves China and comes back to his many many strengths soon.
review 2: While I am familiar with Ridley Pearson's young adult novels, this was his first adult novel that I have read. I picked it because I really liked his young adult plots. While the plot line was engaging and the characters interesting, I did not find the overall story to be as good as his young adult novels. This is the first in a series, so I expect the plots to get better as the relationships mature. This novel is set in Shanghai. A Chinese National working for an American-owned construction company is grabbed off the streets of Shanghai in broad daylight and his one-man security detail goes missing. The American-owned company hires the security firm Rutherford Risk to locate the two hostages ahead of the deadline. The Chinese National possesses account records of bribes paid to complete a construction project that could be extremely damaging to the company. As the two operatives dig deeper into the kidnapping, they are confronted by rival Chinese companies, rogue policemen, and even strange answers from the CEO of the compoany that hired them. Who is really the culprits in this drama? The answers do not come until the very end and seem almost as an aside to the story. I'll reserve final judgement until I read the next episode. less

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