This summer, what with the lingering fears of all things Covid-19, our travel plans have been put on hold, or, at least, vastly reduced. The first thing I loved when I started reading Intruders was therefore its exotic locations. The descriptions of places in South America and dialogue in Spanish (don't worry - I don't speak Spanish but you still manage to understand it !) gave me a sense of discovery and had me imagining myself in exotic and far-flung destinations, without even moving from my own home.
Author E.C. Scullion - that's E for Emma which instantly threw me, as, for some strange reason, I assumed it was written by a male author ! - has experienced life in a number of foreign countries. After working in British Embassies in Beijing, Bangkok, Panama City and Montevideo in Uruguay, she now lives in Rome with her husband and two children. Intruders is her first published novel, but I can see many more on the way !
The novel focuses on Tom Holt, a disgraced security consultant who has baled out on his fiancée and his job. Initially, he comes across as a bit cold, but my impression of him soon warmed up as I realised that he's a good guy with a real sense of right and wrong. Following a mysterious job offer, he heads off to Buenos Aires to recover something from a safe. That's all he knows. The job came from a lawyer, who seems to know all about Tom's past, on behalf of a mysterious client named Capricorn, but who is hiding behind this strange moniker ?
Whoever he or she is, they appear to have a whole host of sinister characters looking out for them, but Tom has a few people helping him out too - Anil, a safe-cracker with a dodgy past, Ray, an ex-cop who works on logistics, and Becca, a sassy red-headed thief who is as impressive on account of her attitude as her skills ! They work together well and come up with a great plan for getting into the safe, but things don't always go to plan, adding extra excitement for the reader as they switch things around to make it all work. Their antics had me reading way past my bedtime on several occasions !
As Tom starts to question what is in the safe and who he is working for, he will discover how far he will go to expose the truth, even if it means risking everything, including his own life.
The characters are interesting and well described. They are mostly believable, although they tend to fall simply into "good" or "bad" guys. The obligatory romance is in there for good measure, but it is ultimately a fast-paced, tense and exciting read that could easily be transformed into a Hollywood film. E.C. Scullion is definitely one to watch and I'm looking forward to her next book.
star rating : 5/5
RRP : £8.99
- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: RedDoor Press (18 Jun. 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1913062295
- ISBN-13: 978-1913062293
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 3 x 12.8 cm
Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book.
Love discovering new authors - great revuew
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