24 It's not - a middle of the road thriller. (Six Seconds - Rick Mofina)

Member Name: burtybookworm

Product:	Six Seconds - Rick Mofina
Date:	13/06/09 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great plot, good character development

Disadvantages: the story could've been developed better, not enough suspense

Plot...

Maggie Conlin is desperate to find her son who has been taken by her husband after he returned from working in Iraq.

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Samara, having lost her husband and child in the most brutal way, is now planning on avenging their deaths in the most horrific way - the assassination of the Pope organised by a network of terrorists across the globe.

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Daniel Graham is on the verge of ending his own life after causing an accident that killed his wife. Taking a break from his job as a Canadian Mountie, he goes to the rescue of a little girl who is trapped in the water. Her last words haunt him, and he decides it's his responsibility to find out what happened to the girl and her family who are also washed up in the water. Was it just an accident or is there something more sinister going on?

Thoughts...

I have started to read a lot more of this genre recently, although they aren't my favourite books to read, and I am never as excited starting one of these as I am other books, I always find myself hooked on the story really quickly and unable to put it down.


The author of this, Rick Mofina, is an unknown author to me but this book was billed as a story with as much tension as an episode of 24. Which, for any 24 fans reading this, is an extremely tall order!

Initially, I had high hopes that it would live up to it's hype; the action starts immediately, and the story changes between several view points, mainly those of Daniel Graham, the Canadian Mountie who has a hunch that the family washed up dead isn't just an unfortunate accident, and Maggie Conlin, who Is distraught at discovering her husband has taken their young son. Both of these characters were developed well and extremely likeable. Daniel is billed as the obvious hero of the book, trying to recover from his own personal tragedy and getting a new lease of life and a "second chance" when he tries but fails to rescue the young girl in the river. I found he had the right mix of emotions to be a believable lead character and it was easy to get behind, sympathise and like him throughout the book.


Maggie on the other hand is portrayed well as a frantic mother trying to find her son. I particularly liked the way the author kept Maggie in the dark about how far her husband had spiralled out of control in his depression after Iraq and how she didn't turn bitter at him for taking their son. I think that any mother would feel angry if their partner ran off with their son (and then found out that he had a girlfriend!) but her understanding and love towards both her son and her husband made her a truly outstanding character for me. I also thought it was a clever and well thought out touch that Maggie and her nemesis Samara had so much in common with regards to their families - the way in which the two women handled the loss of their families were polar opposites and show what outside influences (and strength of character) can do to people in tough situations.

My one criticism character-wise is that I didn't entirely understand the motives of Maggie's husband. By all accounts, right up until after he has met Samara for the first time, he is a man who cannot wait to return from Iraq with his wife and kids. I understand that post-traumatic stress is a very real and difficult problem but I felt that Jake Conlin's symptoms were not explained properly, which made it difficult to understand why he would kidnap his son and not contact them. Something about the whole storyline - even with Samara's involvement - didn't ring true and I wish that this motives were explained clearly so that I could understand. There is a section towards the conclusion of this book where he suddenly wakes up as it were, from this trance he's been in, but for me, it was another symptom of a character that just wasn't believable and didn't ring true.


The plots moved along nicely, it was fast-paced, not overly complex and I liked how they all eventually interlinked - I thought the author did a nice job of revealing their connections to each other.

However, I found that the story wasn't as full of suspense as I would have liked; this story had so much potential to be one of those edge of your seat thrillers but I felt that it fell at the last hurdle. Just as the action was getting interesting, the terrorist plots are revealed all to quickly without building up enough steam to evoke that sense of terror and suspense. Equally, I do like a thriller to have some kind of twist that makes me gasp - even if it is evident before it is revealed. For me there was just one tense moment at the end where I was frantically reading to find out what happened, but apart from that, it offered me nothing new. After I read this, I had no lingering thoughts about the book, as it just wasn't powerful enough for me, which is a shame given it's provocative and extremely current subject matter.

To say it is like 24 encapsulated into a book is a bit of an overblown statement and the only real similarities between the two is that they both deal with terrorist plots and certain stories and characters are eventually linked. Daniel Graham is definitely not Jack Bauer that is for certain, although his character is extremely likeable and heroic.

I would read a book by this author again as I think he did a sound job of creating an interesting story and likeable lead characters. There are lots of books out there today they deal with the issues of terrorism and his main premise was nothing unusual, but I felt that he could have done more to make it truly outstanding. It isn't a book that I would necessarily recommend but I also wouldn't put people off reading it if they had bought it and were about to read it. I just felt that there were many threads that the author had started during this book which could have been developed more to make it a really intense thriller. It just fell short of that which was a bit of a let down to me.

Summary: A decentish thriller.