Kathryn Guare

In this 4th of a series, Conor and Kate have settled in Vermont as innkeepers and farmers, keeping their international espionage backgrounds under wraps. Although they are engaged, all is not well in their relationship because Kate's wealthy family has maneuvered them into an unwanted destination wedding. In an attempt to ease the tension, they have gone on a date night, but on their way home they encounter a dead dear in the snowy road. Not only that, but there is an enormous diamond hidden in the deer's carcass. From this absurd beginning, Conor and Kate are happily distracted in their pursuit of the diamond's story, with adventures leading them separately across the border into Canada and dangers that they are fortunately capable of handling. I found this to be an entertaining and suspenseful page-turner, with the plus of a Vermont setting and an Irish lilt.… (lisätietoja)

This is the Authors debut novel, and the first in a series featuring the main lead.

I like political thrillers but, if there a few things that will turn me away from reading one it’s the words MI:6, MI:5 and IRA. Authors such as John Le Carre and Stella Rimington always seem to struggle to make these subjects engaging and accessible to the non-spy community, and their books are as dry as kindling. Not anymore, there is a new Author on the ups, and she’s out to take her place among the greats in this genre.

The characters in this novel are real, not in the manner in which they are living breathing real, but in the fact that they smoke, swear, get drunk, and grieve but not in a condescending manner. They do all these things with the vigour of a real human being. The way this Author develops the back stories of her characters is also dealt with in a kind of real time way; we are allowed to learn more about them as the novel progresses, and the circumstances suit a particular trait to be revealed, just as we would get to know someone new in our everyday lives. The main lead for this, and the upcoming books in the series, is a strong male. Not too strong that the reader can’t identify with him, and not strong in the physical way either, but his strength is more an inner state of mind for this character, and sometimes he takes stock of throughout the book. The character is allowed to show his emotions in such a way that I didn’t feel like the Author was trying to make him more effeminate, but was revealing that even the strongest of people have inner turmoil. His mentor was absolutely spot on, or as I envision these types to be. He was pompous, arrogant and sported a ‘stiff upper lip’ marvellously, while at the same time revealing snippets of his own history that made me want to know more about him, and why he had chosen to project this type of image over any other he could have chosen. If there is a stereotypical Englishman, this character would be the poster child.

Descriptively, this novel is right on the mark; whether the Author is describing the workings, sound and feel of a violin to the nuances of the way a Symphony Orchestra conducts (excuse the pun) itself, the reader is there. I mean right there listening to the music and watching the Orchestra. When we hit the road for the travelling portions, the way the airport, cities, sounds sights and smells are written made me want to pack my back, pick up my camera and head out with the main lead on his travels.

The novel moves along at a steady pace, and doesn’t become bogged down in any particular place, as is the tendency with a lot of novels in this genre; the transitions are smooth and seamless. It is well written and obviously very well researched. There were, however, a couple of places in the novel that made me think ‘now why did you have to go and write that, and just there too?’, but that’s just my personal take on the book.

This is an engaging, high octane, entertaining political thriller that I would recommend to anyone that is new to the genre and those who, like me, are tired of the same old thing being regurgitated by Authors who should know better. I am looking forward to reading more in this series.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/review-deceptive-cadence-the-vir...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.… (lisätietoja)

This is the Authors debut novel, and the first in a series featuring the main lead.

I like political thrillers but, if there a few things that will turn me away from reading one it’s the words MI:6, MI:5 and IRA. Authors such as John Le Carre and Stella Rimington always seem to struggle to make these subjects engaging and accessible to the non-spy community, and their books are as dry as kindling. Not anymore, there is a new Author on the ups, and she’s out to take her place among the greats in this genre.

The characters in this novel are real, not in the manner in which they are living breathing real, but in the fact that they smoke, swear, get drunk, and grieve but not in a condescending manner. They do all these things with the vigour of a real human being. The way this Author develops the back stories of her characters is also dealt with in a kind of real time way; we are allowed to learn more about them as the novel progresses, and the circumstances suit a particular trait to be revealed, just as we would get to know someone new in our everyday lives. The main lead for this, and the upcoming books in the series, is a strong male. Not too strong that the reader can’t identify with him, and not strong in the physical way either, but his strength is more an inner state of mind for this character, and sometimes he takes stock of throughout the book. The character is allowed to show his emotions in such a way that I didn’t feel like the Author was trying to make him more effeminate, but was revealing that even the strongest of people have inner turmoil. His mentor was absolutely spot on, or as I envision these types to be. He was pompous, arrogant and sported a ‘stiff upper lip’ marvellously, while at the same time revealing snippets of his own history that made me want to know more about him, and why he had chosen to project this type of image over any other he could have chosen. If there is a stereotypical Englishman, this character would be the poster child.

Descriptively, this novel is right on the mark; whether the Author is describing the workings, sound and feel of a violin to the nuances of the way a Symphony Orchestra conducts (excuse the pun) itself, the reader is there. I mean right there listening to the music and watching the Orchestra. When we hit the road for the travelling portions, the way the airport, cities, sounds sights and smells are written made me want to pack my back, pick up my camera and head out with the main lead on his travels.

The novel moves along at a steady pace, and doesn’t become bogged down in any particular place, as is the tendency with a lot of novels in this genre; the transitions are smooth and seamless. It is well written and obviously very well researched. There were, however, a couple of places in the novel that made me think ‘now why did you have to go and write that, and just there too?’, but that’s just my personal take on the book.

This is an engaging, high octane, entertaining political thriller that I would recommend to anyone that is new to the genre and those who, like me, are tired of the same old thing being regurgitated by Authors who should know better. I am looking forward to reading more in this series.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/review-deceptive-cadence-the-vir...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.… (lisätietoja)

I was really excited to dig into this book because Book 1 was so good. This story had it’s charms as well but I did enjoy the first book more. Our hero, Conor McBride, is in dire need of some serious rest and relaxation. He goes to great pains to walk away from the espionage business that entangled him and his brother in Book 1. A fancy but quiet Vermont Bed & Breakfast needs an experienced dairy farmer and that’s right up Conor’s alley.

At the B&B, he meets Kate (the owner) and Abigail (the motherly demanding chef). Kate is a painter who’s currently suffering from artist’s block. She sits in front of her canvas day in and day out not painting because she lacks that spark. She does have a good sense of humor and can be stubborn and decisive. Sometimes I liked her and sometimes I rolled my eyes at her. She’s initially a little prickly with Conor, assuming that Conor has assumed she’s incompetent at farm work. Kate says she’s good with the tractor but we never see her doing any farm work, so I have my doubts.

Kate is directly tied to my one complaint for this book. I don’t mind a little romance with my espionage thriller, but I do mind characters being idiots and Kate was often an idiot and it usually was because of the romance. She is idiotically jealous over something Conor mumbles in his sleep. In another incident, she feels that Conor needs to ask her forgiveness and I felt she was being high handed, needy, and immature. Finally, there’s this end stage of the spy operation and Kate insists on going along with no spy training. This was such a bad idea but she bullies her way into it, endangering everyone. I really dislike it when stories use this particular ploy to make room for drama later on. So, yeah, I wanted to like Kate but I felt that she was mostly useless and at times detrimental to the other characters.

I loved that Conor played his violin for Kate. They chat about art in general and her artist’s block. Conor makes a comment along the line that Kate is making it all about herself instead of the art – and that sums up Kate perfectly. She’s not a bad person but she is self-centered.

Along this same line, I have to say that the ladies in this book are all comforters or love interests. Kate and Abigail and Yvonne (I think I have her name right) are well written but I wanted more from the women in general. It’s the modern age and lady spies have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. It would nice to see that reflected here.

Setting that aside, it was great to have Frank Murdoch and Sedgewick back in the game. Conor thought he had been clever, had left his old life behind, but he’s also new to all this spy business. So he’s not too surprised when Murdoch reaches out and has an assignment for him. There’s some unfinished business with Vasily Draganov, the big baddie from Book 1. Conor is still mourning his brother Thomas and his mother Brigid and the loss of the family farm. I could easily see how torn Conor was – go after this man or put it all behind him and try to heal.

At the end of Book 1, I wasn’t sure how much to trust Sedgewick and Murdoch but now there is a true bond among the three men. They each go through this new crisis and come out knowing each other better. Sedgewick is still a bit paranoid and rougher around the edges and Murdoch is still all proper English (doing his best to hide his heritage).

There’s plenty of double crossing and double agents stuff going on. It’s clear by the end of Book 1 that one of the good guys was feeding intel to one of the bad guys. Now in this book, that gets dealt with and wrapped up. Also, there’s a lingering string back to Thomas and to Conor’s farm caretaker (no longer employed since he sold the place) Phillip. I was delightfully surprised with the big reveal on that and also on how it got handled.

All told, 4/5 stars. If the next book comes to audiobook land, I will give it a listen because I think Kate can grow and become useful.

The Narration: Wayne Farrell was great! He has a light Irish accent for Conor that is just perfect. He also does a good job with the female voices. I loved his voice for Sedgewick, especially when Sedgewick was being rude or was in the grip of malaria or alcohol. He also had a good kid voice for the young lad. There were no technical issues with this recording. 5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Kathryn Guare. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.… (lisätietoja)