http://pro-libertate.net/20140303/229-read-relentless ( )

Wow – a brilliant thriller with a pace as frantic as its title. From the first page, where Tom Meron receives a panicked phone call from an old friend, the pace never lets up until the climax.
The moment the call is finished, someone becomes determined to kill him, and Meron’s life is thrown into turmoil: as he desperately tries to discover why he has been targeted, it becomes evident the killers believe he has something they want. The problem is that Meron doesn’t have a clue what it can be.

Matters become worse when his wife disappears, and as he attempts to find her, finds himself facing a knife-wielding stranger. He escapes, only to be immediately arrested for a woman’s stabbing. But things get even worse when he is eventually released: he is immediately abducted by the true killer. Before he can be tortured, though, one of the killer’s associates helps him escape. He claims to be an undercover policeman, but is he genuine, or just another person after the same mysterious item? Meron begins to wonder if he can even trust the police.

DI Mike Bolt becomes involved after discovering that the apparent suicide of a High Court judge was actually murder, and that it’s somehow linked with what is happening to Meron. Bolt uncovers a paedophile ring and a series of murders that were intended to keep it hidden.

Meron is eventually reunited with his wife, and they work together to uncover what is happening. Just as they find what the murderer has been looking for, their children are kidnapped, and they are forced to hand it over. But DI Bolt helps them discover the truth, and it is he who brings the chase to its final conclusion.

The only bad thing to say about the novel is that its climax occurs about ninety pages from the end, and the story seems to fizzle out after that. This slightly spoils the “feel” of the book, but overall it is still a great novel which, until that point, has awesome pace and provides a brilliant read.

In summary, Relentless is a complex story with plenty of surprises and a frantic pace for all but the final chapters - a highly recommended thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. ( )

A real page turner ( )

Author: Simon Kernick
Published by: Atria Books
Age Recommended: Adult
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Book Blog For: GMTA
Rating: 4

Review:

"Relentless" by Simon Kernick was some suspenseful, thriller- mystery crime read that kept me reading until the end once starting this read. This is a fast paced read that starts after a phone call and this read starts you in on a roller coaster ride. You will find this plot is very interesting in this well written script. I did have a few question that were not answered for me...but may be they will be a sequel? OK, this is how this starts out..."John Meron is at home with his two kids when he receives a call from his old college friend Jack, whom he hasn't seen in years. Jack is screaming for help and as John listens on in horror,he hears him being murdered in the phone. And he also screamed out one more thing - John's name and address..... he runs...and this story takes off...questions?...Who is after him John and what has happen to Jack? Why did John not call the police? Now you will find that this story alternates narratives between John and the Detective Inspector Mike Bolt. This is where I will say you will need to pick up this good read to find out what all is going on in all the twist and turns that will be presented in this 'seemingly unending conspiracy.' Be prepared to see lots of "shifting of loyalties and many hidden secrets that come out as this story gets deeper and deeper into the conspiracy" keeping your interest high in the read. The characters were all OK...nothing special about any of them from Tom,Kathy,Vanessa Blake, Jack, Mike(maybe some her), Tina Boyd and a few others that were there however, this author was still able to put together a fast moving good read and when it was all said and done...I felt like this was a good suspenseful, thriller-mystery crime novel that I would recommend to you. ( )

The hum-drum suburban life of software salesman Tom Meron is thrown into chaos one afternoon when an old friend rings him moments before dying horribly at the hands of unknown assailants. Within the next couple of hours Tom is accused of murder, his wife seems to be missing, he goes on the run from Police and has an alarming altercation with some very (very) bad guys. And then things get really dangerous.

It's a fairly standard 'average guy's life goes to hell in a hand-basket' kind of thriller. The pace is speedy, swapping often between points of view to help create the impression there are lots of things happening at once and cramming lots of action into a short time span. Personally I find fight scenes and car chases a bit tedious in the written word and there quite a few of these but I skimmed over them without seeming to lose the gist of the story. The plot was pretty well constructed and logical although it did have some threads that seemed to be thrown in for shock value rather than adding much to the overall story.

For me to get truly swept along for the ride that thrillers want to take you on there has to be an interesting character or two. I don't mind if it's good guys or villains but I have to want to find out what happens to someone no matter how ludicrous it turns out to be. Without this element I tend to pick fault with what would otherwise be forgivable plot discrepancies and the incredible happenings that are de rigeur for the genre. The largely under developed characters in Relentless did not offer me anyone to care about. All of them, heroes and bad guys alike, said and did things I didn't find natural within the circumstances of the story and the narrative often seemed at odds with their actions. Tom and Kathy were said more than once to be devoted parents but both of them managed to curl of for a good night's kip without once mentioning their children or, more realistically, trying to check up on them. People had just tried to torture, stab, shoot and blow he and his wife up but Tom assumes that the same bad guys wouldn't be able to unearth his children in a matter of moments. The villains in the story were more stereotype than individual character to me and now, only a few hours after finishing the book, I can't remember the main bad guy's name.

Thrillers should be gripping yarns full of larger-than-life characters regardless of the subject matter (heck Michael Crichton managed to make the building of aeroplanes and edge-of-your-seat ride in Airframe) but this one missed the mark for me. The characters and setting were all a bit too generic for me to get caught up in it at all.

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