I can't say this book was particularly enthralling, at times it was a little bizarre including scenes which didn't really seem to advance the plot much nor illustrate a character any better than other methods perhaps could have done so. One particular scene as an example is the sex scene with a child prostitute, which turns into a murder followed by necrophilia, I found this to be a rather coarse inclusion to the story and rather unwarranted.

Other out there oddities included the use of acupuncture as anesthetic to perform an amputation of fingers - seemed far fetched and unrealistic. Another unrealistic inclusion was a pilot who earlier was mentioned as being an elite specialist some how managed to fly into a wall just as it seemed the protagonist was going to be foiled, this was explained away as the pilot being tired which seemed weak. Then there was building a mound of sand, by the hand of two exhausted people with no proper tools to reach a ceiling of a vault, to the use an "explosive" of gunpowder extracted from bullets by failing torch light packed into a condom, never mind this would simply burn quickly not explode and dislodge a thousand year old keystone out of a vaulted roof.

Overall, there was a decent story within those 708 pages, but it was buried within filler, illogical additions and strange plot advances. Even in the closing of the book there was the really odd occurrence of a trained operative who moments earlier out foxed a field agent only to be beaten in hand to hand combat by a half drugged amateur woman.

In closing, I'd give it a miss unless you're about to embark on a long haul passenger journey without entertainment and this is the only book available, I wasn't impressed. ( )