The Tzadikim Nistarim (The Righteous Men - Sam Bourne)

Member Name: Fiver29

Product:	The Righteous Men - Sam Bourne
Date:	22/10/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

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This was the first of Sam Bourne's books, but the last one I read, I always seem to read them the wrong way round. Although with this book it was the right way round, because if I'd read this book before any of the other Sam Bourne books I wouldn't have bothered picking them up, and they were really good reads.

== Synopsis ==

Will Monroe has just begun his career at the New York Times and is hoping to make an impact. He does just that with his first report about a pimp who was murdered, his report focuses on the good deeds the pimp had done rather than his bad points.

Being flavour of the month at the Times, he's sent off on assignment, but this doesn't go exactly to plan and he looks for another story whilst he's out of New York. He finds the story of a man found dead in his log cabin fascinating, and when he digs deeper he finds out that this man also had a penchant for good deeds.

Will returns home, but finds his wife has gone, he receives a message from an anonymous source stating that they have his wife and she will be unharmed, and returned in a few days, but Will must not go to the authorities.

Will can't just leave it at that, and sets out to find out who has kidnapped his wife, he enrols the help of old college friends, and discovers that his wife's kidnapping is related to the two deaths he reported on, and that there is a lot at stake, much more than he could ever have imagined.

== My Thoughts ==

If I hadn't read the other Sam Bourne books I would probably have given up before I got to the end, but I know he can write better, and I was expecting the book to improve and then once I got so far though it I didn't want to be defeated by a book.

The main problem is that the story is so slow, and whilst not complicated it takes a lot of concentration to read. In some parts the book read almost like a text book on Judaism, and I spend most of my day reading text books, at night I want to read a book purely for entertainment not to learn.

As well as being a slow story, the main characters weren't particularly exciting or interesting. We didn't get to know Beth (Will's wife) for long enough before she was kidnapped, so quiet frankly I didn't care less about her, too be honest, what we did know about her made her seem a narky and argumentative brat, so Will was better off without her.

Not that Will was any great catch either, the things he did while Beth was missing weren't the actions of a loving husband, I can't really say more or it'd spoil it.

The main gist of the story is that Will and college buddy (and ex girlfriend) TC keep getting text messages with clues as to who has kidnapped Beth and the reasons why. Will must have borrowed his phone off Jack Bauer, because over several days he never has any problems with the battery dying, no matter how many texts he sends and receives, and how many calls he gets.

One thing about Dan Brown's books is that you have a small chance of being able to resolve the riddles, these ones are just ridiculously cryptic unless you are Jewish or know your bible inside out. So they don't hold any particular interest. There's also lots of explanations of Jewish ceremonies and the pronunciation of Jewish words, I've nothing against all things Jewish, but if I wanted to learn another language I'd go to college, not read a fiction novel. In this respect the book reminded me of Faye Kellerman's offerings, which I've stopped reading because she can't stop herself preaching in her novels.

I eventually got to the end, but I saw the ending coming a mile off, it was meant to be a big revelation at the end, but it fell flat because it was so obvious.

All in all, not really recommended unless desperate.

Summary: Not recommended