Girls, Crimes, and the Ruling Body by Barry Ziman

 

Two women have gone missing. Their seemingly unrelated cases have one thing in common: Ryan McNeil. Having been the last person to see the first before she went missing, and having the second’s bloody clothes in his car makes him a person of interest indeed. However, in the political world he lives in, he can’t afford to be connected to either. One wrong move and his career could be over.

 

Now settled down and married, Ryan is initially content, but soon longs for the excitement he used to enjoy when he was single. As his connection to the cases comes under scrutiny, Ryan finds himself at odds with his marriage and his career. He’d better watch out as the web of lies within the political sphere he is in all comes down to “I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine…”

 

The story was good even though a little farfetched in places, but definitely showed the darker side of politics and the things that people who you think are morally sound do. It highlights how puppet strings are pulled and that even when trying to do the right thing, someone behind the scenes is controlling the narrative.

 

The characters were an interesting mixed bunch. Ryan pulled you in two ways – sometimes rooting for him and sometimes pursing lips at his actions. Caroline’s character was one I felt strongly about as her dubious choices must have come from somewhere and her decline was sad to see. Tantalus was just awful and the more that came out about those in powerful political seats, the more you realised how crooked they were. It takes skill to write a good story about a bunch of not-so-great characters!

 

I had a few issues with the book. The writing, while flowing well, came across in some places as using unnecessary words for effect. Some areas were written in plain English and the reading became faster as there were fewer adjectives, while in other places words like insouciant and specious were used. It became a bit jarring as they felt out of place. There was quite a bit of head hopping and a lack of section breaks. A few grammatical errors like your/you’re and they’re/their popped up and the maths didn’t always make sense. Some dates versus ages didn’t seem right and 770k plus 330k do not make a million. The biggest problem I had, though, was I felt the story was being told at me and didn’t involve me as such.

 

The ending came from nowhere and was indeed a surprise, which, while out of the blue, was the right way to end the story, considering the tangents it had been on. A good political thriller overall that I definitely enjoyed. Many thanks to the author for the opportunity to review the book.