Rating: 4/5
Review:
Intelligent and engrossing
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was very well written with well-drawn and believable characters and a thorough and fascinating insight into the world of politics and the media when a "scandal" arises.
The first thing to say is that this isn't really a thriller, so don't expect a fast-paced espionage nail-biter. It is a study of the effects of a security leak (the now familiar "lost disc") and subsequent scandal on those involved. This includes the civil servant who was responsible for the loss, the newly appointed junior minister whose "responsibility" it is, how the press and Government (and some individuals within them) work in such times, and so on. There are a couple of unexpected developments but no Shocking Twists, Conspiracies Which Go Right To The Top or the like. It is just a very believable and - to me, anyway - gripping close-up account of the unfolding of the sort of thing we might read and hear about on the news from time to time.
Terry Stiastny is very well placed to know about all this, having been a distinguished political reporter for the BBC for many years. Ex-journalists don't always make good novelists by any means, but I think Stiasny has produced a very good novel here. She writes readable, unsensational prose and creates very plausible characters whom she views realistically but generally with a refreshingly unjaundiced eye. As a result, I found this as involving as a good many thrillers I have read.
A number of other reviewers have lamented the lack of plot, but for me that's not the point, and I recommend this warmly as an intelligent and engrossing read.
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