Yom Kipp-er ! z z z z ! (The Righteous Men - Sam Bourne)

Member Name: tallpete33

Product:	The Righteous Men - Sam Bourne
Date:	23/07/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: erm....

Disadvantages: Poors man's da Vinci code, weak plot

Another wannabee Da Vinci Code which misses the target by a long way I'm afraid....

This book was lying on my desk at work, a colleague picked it up and said "Ah. Dan Brown's written another book at last". An easy mistake to make, with the identical title font and background religious symbols. Even the author's name, Sam Bourne, is short and monosyllabic, easily mistaken for Brown's as happened with my colleague. A cynical marketing ploy that grates with me and no doubt many others. I thought pseudonyms had gone out with Lewis Carroll. Why not put your own name to your own work, Mr Jonathan Freedland ? Name not "catchy" enough?

If you think I'm banging on about Dan Brown/DVC comparisons that is because the blurb invites it and insists it is "more menacing" and better. Comparisons are made on the front and back covers and several times on the inside page. See my point..?

Anyway, Dan Brown gripes aside, this is not a very good book. It has an ok plot that is dragged out across over 500 pages, with few twists and turns and little intrigue. Our "hero's" quest to find his kidnapped wife makes little sense and is convoluted in the extreme. The bad guy is easily guessed before half way and as for menace, well the Andrex puppy is more menacing than the "sinister" assassins in this. Afraid, to offend any religious groups, Freedland misses opportunity after opportunity to create fear and suspense; even the murderers are humane and pray for their victims. The "blue eyed" killer is no match for Brown's albino monk and the other characters all fall into neat stereotypes. When Will Monroe discovers who his kidnappers are very early on, rather than call the police or point a gun to their head he skulks off on his own following a trail led by ridiculous text messages from a "friend". His (stunningly attractive, naturally) sidekick is close to the kidnappers and suspects their motives all along also but keeps it from him for some reason.

Freedland insults our intelligence with junior school coded messages to crack which eventually lead the charisma-free Mr Monroe back to where he started from. With time running out, why "the friend" did not just send him there in the first place beats me. You feel like you've driven 200 miles to visit your neighbour by the time you arrive at the climax. The ending redeems the book somewhat but the journey there is unexciting, overblown and frankly dull in parts.

Dan Brown's publishers will not be losing too much sleep about Jonathan Freedland, oops sorry, Sam Bourne.

(also reviewed on amazon)

Summary: Religious non-thriller