Rat Run

For awhile there, I thought I'd finally found a Gerald Seymour book I didn't care for.... but I was wrong. Rat Run is, like many of his novels, about terror, spy craft, crime, and so forth, but its real theme is redemption.

Malachy is a poor guy who'd been kicked out of the British army in disgrace for alleged desertion. He's challenged to get his act together by a local cop, and Malachy turns his attention to ridding the slum he lives in of drug dealers. Sounds very action-filled, but it's not. He seems to be living in a sort of fog as he moves up the drug supply chain. In the meantime, a terrorist is making his way to England via Germany and the British SIS is trying to locate him. There's an intersection of these efforts at some show more point, and it's a dynamite story.

As is typical, Seymour writes from the perspectives of multiple characters. If you haven't read him before, it can be a little challenging. You sometimes aren't aware that the perspective has changed until you're a couple sentences into a new paragraph. However, once you've mastered interpreting his approach, you recognize it's an unique way of telling the story. One risk, though, and it was apparent in this novel, is that he can sometimes 'telegraph' where the plot is heading by bringing in characters that seemingly have no relevance to the action- yet. Eventually, they do.

As usual, the writing is wonderful, the dialogue crisp and believable, and the action very realistic. Seymour writes about troubling modern issues and, like in real life, they can be messy and not wrapped up with a nice bow on at the end. Rat Run is indeed messy, it's not a clean ending, but it's yet another fine piece of work by Gerald Seymour. show less

Takes a while to get into the complex story, which has several parallel threads but then hooks you. A disgraced British soldier seeks redemption through fighting drug-fueled crime on a "sink estate" in London and finds himself unwittingly drawn into an anti-terrorist operation.

Typical Seymour. Which means a very engaging style, well-drawn characters, and a fast-paced plot with plenty of depth.

This is kind of Robert Ludlum meets author of Trainspotting. The author keeps the British-isms to a minimum so it's very readable and the fact that all the locales, personalities and slang don't really impinge on the reader's experience if the reader is American. A basic thriller with the twist that the hero/antagonist is a homeless man. Definitely lots of subplots so it keeps pace by moving from subplot to subplot rather than frenetic activity or quick paced writing style.