Timers control us all. (The Timer Game - Susan Arnout Smith)

Member Name: scuba_angel

Product:	The Timer Game - Susan Arnout Smith
Date:	03/11/08 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fast paced plot, lots of twists

Disadvantages: too complex at times

Its no real secret from looking at other book reviews that I'm quite partial to a nice crime/thriller story. So when needing a second book to add to my basket in the supermarket a few days ago it seemed that the only one I didnt already own was this 'The Timer Game' by an author whos name is familar yet I cannot place as being the writer of anything else I may have read recently.

Grace and her daughter play a game in the mornings before school, its like a treasure hunt for Katie to find her clothes before the timer runs out. A game Grace remembers playing in her childhood and allows her to feel connected to her daughter even when her work pulls her away.

Then Katie gets taken from her, Grace finds herself playing a larger scale timer game, with the ultimate prize at the end getting her girl back.

Along the way what are the links to Grace's former mentor and his attempts to sell his biotech business, the young girl who is being brought to the facility for a heart transplant and the journalist following her story who Grace knew when she worked in South America as a young surgeon.

The story begins at a decent pace but still seems to take a few chapters to get going. Through the early chapters I almost gave up on it, but it wasnt until I was half way through that I realised just how much I had been drawn in. Once the story got going the plot was full of twists and turns which although at times seemed slightly far fetched made sense within the context they were put.

The conclusion to the story I felt tied up all the loose ends but was still filled with twists which although in some cases you could see coming in others were a complete and utter surprise.

At 486 pages long it is not too long and with the pace of the plot it doesnt feel like a book almost 500 pages in length, undeniably though there are sections which could have been shortened or areas which were unecessary as they made parts of the plot overly complex, although a more simplified plot may not have held my attention so completely.

Arnout Smith is definately an author I'll be looking out for in future, though I still can't for the life of me work out why I recognise the name.

Summary: Grace has a race against the timer.