Severed (2007) by Simon Kernick

Tyler is an ex-soldier, who served during the tumultuous years of the IRA. He now sells cars for a living in London, and has a pretty ordinary life. However, at the beginning of the story, Tyler awakes with no recollection of his past 24 hours, his girlfriend Leah lies beheaded next to him, and there is a video in the room that shows him decapitating her. Now, a voice over the phone forces Tyler into completing a series of dangerous tasks in exchange for the evidence of the beheading.

Tyler must delve deep into the seedy, criminal underworld of London streets in order to keep his blackmailers at bay, whilst trying to understand what has happened to him, and who is behind it.

A pulsating, action thriller this book gives absolutely no chance for the reader to breathe. It is a hurricane of a story, one filled with plenty of tense stand-offs and explosive near-misses, and the revelations come thick and fast as Tyler pieces together this insane plot against him. He moves through each stage barely, and the death toll rises with the tension.

Not too much character exploration, this book tends to stay in the shallow waters. One criticism would be that very little attachment is made to any other character in the book, and Tyler’s journey seems laden with misery and defeat with very little light at the end of the tunnel.

However, it is a brilliant read for fans of a lot of action, those who want a book to entertain rather than muddle through. Kernick’s writing is clear and concise, with very little dribble, and his penchant for building each dramatic scene is masterful.

The Devil's Feather (2005) by Minette Walters

Racing psychological thriller about a war correspondent who tries to hide in the South West of England after she is released from a three day abduction in Iraq.

Connie Burns is a successful journalist who was born in South Africa, and has seen some of the world’s most devastating conflicts. Working for Reuters via London, she reports on modern wars, and at the beginning of the book is working is Bagdad during the recent War on Terror. After looking into a spate of vicious attacks and murders against women, Connie finds herself investigating a man whom she knew from her life in Sierra Leone, a man calling himself McKenzie, who is a brutal ex-SAS soldier who is known for his violent outbursts.

Living in Bagdad has its immediate dangers, and one of the most prevalent is hostage taking. Many professionals, politicians and indeed journalists have been abducted by terrorist groups in order to send a message to the Allies, and Connie finds herself within this unlucky group, when she is snatched outside her hotel. Luckily though, she is released only three days later with no apparent injuries. Her escape comes as a huge relief to the watching world, but also an intriguing mystery; viewers want to know why she was so fortunate.

To avoid the bombardment of personal invasions, Connie rents herself a house in Dorset under a different name while the heat dies down. Once there though, she soon finds herself mixed up in a complicated family squabble involving the owner of the house she now rents, the spoilt socialising daughter who wants her inheritance, and a local farmer, whose complete inability to conform to social norms makes her very interesting to Connie.

So while Connie tries to uncover the secrets behind this house and those who have lived in it, she must also stay undetected by the world’s media, as well as the evil-doers who abducted her who are now seem to be wanting her dead. Her paralysing fear which resulted from the three-day confinement will be her biggest challenge.

It is a mild book, a few good twists and turns, but nothing remarkable. The story is nothing more than something you would find on daytime television thillers, and the actual evolution of the plot is seems timid and slow. Her writing style is great, and the flow of her words seem to make it an enjoyable read, but by the end, some viewers may find themselves thinking: why did I keep reading?

The threatening aspects of the book seem impotent compared to some of those in modern thrillers, and Walters seems unwilling to get her hands dirty with the really gutsy stuff. It is a book for people who don’t like anything too tense or dramatic, nothing that will make you squirm as you read, which definitely has its appeal to some readers…but not this one.