Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Bookish - Nighthawk

Heya,

So the winter seems finally to be turning its head towards the spring. :-)

My hubby is a fan of Clive Cussler so when I had the chance to review one of his novels I thought I ought to check it out for myself.



Nighthawk is actually a collaboration between Cussler and another author Graham Brown. Co-authoring seems to be something Cussler does a bit which I find really interesting. It must be good for the other author if they are relatively unknown because Cussler obviously has a wide purchasing base. I wonder how it works though - how much writing does each person do? Is one person more about the planning and/or research and the other crafting the story???

Anyway, on to the book, it took me a little while to get really into the narrative. I think this was due to the number of different characters, from different geographical locations that had to be introduced. Once I was into the story and the narrative gathered pace I'm glad I stuck out the beginning.

The book centres around a top-secret (aka completely not a secret to all the enemies of NSA) American space vehicle that has gone missing on re-entry and must be found at all costs. Of course there is a leak somewhere and all the major players - Chinese and Russian are after it too.

Nighthawk was a nice change of pace for me but not too gory or edge-of-your-seat/ I can't sleep afterwards-ish.

It's no surprise that Cussler has such a large following if this is a typical offering for him. A bit of mystery, some twists and surprises and a race to the prize. Easy and enjoyable reading - although there was a distinct lack of cake and dress descriptions! ;-)

Details - Penguin Random House NZ, June 2017, RRP $37.00