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lucyp747d4's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
sorcha_18's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
It's a slow story but still keeps your attention and is definitely not predictable, very informative on the main type of crime it is about
usbsticky's review
5.0
The last of the Gillard books for now and it's a pretty good one. Nick Louth has been pretty good at coming up with out of the box plots and this is one of them. Spoilers ahead.
The book starts off with Sam (Gillard's wife) being attacked in a shopping mall while trying to record a pair of shoplifters. She almost gets killed but the shoplifters (a man and a woman) escape.
Meanwhile the cops are hearing from different sources that a big heist of up to £500M is being planned. They squeeze their CIs to try and get more info. Collating info from all sources seem to indicate that it's a heist in central London involving a priceless da Vinci painting (Salvator Mundi) owned by the Saudis and being loaned to the National Gallery. The cops plan their trap.
Part the info is taken from a cellphone from the male shoplifter who has been murdered and tossed into the river. The info here seems to indicate that an old hand named Moses might be part of it. But other sources seem to point their fingers at another old hand named Norris and the two hate each other.
Anyway the date of the heist comes and goes without anything happening and the cops look flat footed and foolish. However something else seems to be happening. Many travelers taking the train have had their credit and debit cards debited the amount of £100 while going through the stiles. This doesn't seem to be an innocent error. In fact, after looking into it, this is the "heist" that the criminals have been talking about. It's an electronic heist instead of an old fashioned smash and grab.
The gang that the cops have been watching all suddenly disappear. But not quick enough. Unfortunately Britain is an island and one by one, they are all caught, either at the border or while they're trying to flee.
While the plot is good I find a big plot hole. One is why the gang even has to lay a false trail. Ostensibly, it's to point the finger at Moses whom Norris hates. But the trail is fake anyway since they weren't going to rob the museum and all it did was to alert the cops that something was going on. And since the cops were alerted, they were on the trail of the gang immediately. And the main characters that needed to pull this off did not need the police to be sniffing at them. Killing the shoplifter to point the finger only served to bring more attention to the case when the cops linked the two events together.
Finally a couple of small things.
1) Marasova is the feminine form of the Slavic name. Marasov is the masculine form. The father's name would not have been Ionatan Marasova. That's an amateur and easily verifiable mistake.
2) I'm surprised at how they tried to go at Lamb, one of the junior members of the gang. They could have easily told him that with such a big crime and the police brass being skilled at the game of self preservation weren't going to let it go, why get everything pinned on him and be a scrape goat when he was only getting £30k while the rest were getting millions.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. This is certainly different from regular British murder mysteries and I hope Louth will continue to churn out more in the series.
The book starts off with Sam (Gillard's wife) being attacked in a shopping mall while trying to record a pair of shoplifters. She almost gets killed but the shoplifters (a man and a woman) escape.
Meanwhile the cops are hearing from different sources that a big heist of up to £500M is being planned. They squeeze their CIs to try and get more info. Collating info from all sources seem to indicate that it's a heist in central London involving a priceless da Vinci painting (Salvator Mundi) owned by the Saudis and being loaned to the National Gallery. The cops plan their trap.
Part the info is taken from a cellphone from the male shoplifter who has been murdered and tossed into the river. The info here seems to indicate that an old hand named Moses might be part of it. But other sources seem to point their fingers at another old hand named Norris and the two hate each other.
Anyway the date of the heist comes and goes without anything happening and the cops look flat footed and foolish. However something else seems to be happening. Many travelers taking the train have had their credit and debit cards debited the amount of £100 while going through the stiles. This doesn't seem to be an innocent error. In fact, after looking into it, this is the "heist" that the criminals have been talking about. It's an electronic heist instead of an old fashioned smash and grab.
The gang that the cops have been watching all suddenly disappear. But not quick enough. Unfortunately Britain is an island and one by one, they are all caught, either at the border or while they're trying to flee.
While the plot is good I find a big plot hole. One is why the gang even has to lay a false trail. Ostensibly, it's to point the finger at Moses whom Norris hates. But the trail is fake anyway since they weren't going to rob the museum and all it did was to alert the cops that something was going on. And since the cops were alerted, they were on the trail of the gang immediately. And the main characters that needed to pull this off did not need the police to be sniffing at them. Killing the shoplifter to point the finger only served to bring more attention to the case when the cops linked the two events together.
Finally a couple of small things.
1) Marasova is the feminine form of the Slavic name. Marasov is the masculine form. The father's name would not have been Ionatan Marasova. That's an amateur and easily verifiable mistake.
2) I'm surprised at how they tried to go at Lamb, one of the junior members of the gang. They could have easily told him that with such a big crime and the police brass being skilled at the game of self preservation weren't going to let it go, why get everything pinned on him and be a scrape goat when he was only getting £30k while the rest were getting millions.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. This is certainly different from regular British murder mysteries and I hope Louth will continue to churn out more in the series.
bookishdaydreaming's review
fast-paced
2.5
fast-paced and action packed, the plot definitely took twists you couldn't have seen coming.
There were so many criminals involved it was hard to keep track of who was who (although having not read the other 10 books in this series maybe you know them from previous books?)
Also, there was a lot of sexism here and the men were horrible but because they were so macho and masculine they were idolised??
There were so many criminals involved it was hard to keep track of who was who (although having not read the other 10 books in this series maybe you know them from previous books?)
Also, there was a lot of sexism here and the men were horrible but because they were so macho and masculine they were idolised??
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