Tag: adventure

Blog Tour/Book Review/Guest Post: Smart Moves by Adrian Magson

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Smart Moves Blog Tour

My grateful thanks to Emily at The Dome Press for my advance review copy and for inviting me to join the blog tour to celebrate the publication of Adrian Magson’s latest book, Smart Moves.  I have a two-for-one deal for you today – a guest post from Adrian all about why he decided to write a standalone book, and my review of Smart Moves.

If you want to make your own ‘smart move’ – and why wouldn’t you? – you can find purchase links below.

Smart MovesAbout the Book

International troubleshooter Jake Foreman loses his job, house and wife all in one day. And when an impulsive move lands him in even deeper water – the kind that could lose him his life – he decides it’s time to make some smart decisions.

The trouble is, knowing the right moves and making them is a whole different game. And Jake, who has been happily rubbing along things he always suspected were just a shade away from being dodgy, finds it all too easy to go with the flow.

Now he’s got to start learning new tricks. If he doesn’t, he could end up dead.

Format: Paperback, ebook (288 pp.)    Publisher: The Dome Press
Published: 16th August 2018         Genre: Thriller, adventure, crime

Purchase Links*
Publisher (buy direct for 30% off & free postage) | Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Smart Moves on Goodreads

Guest Post by Adrian Magson: Why A Standalone?

After 22 books and being asked, ‘Is this a series?’, I finally got the urge to say, ‘No – it’s a standalone. And it’s going to be light-hearted.’

At the time I had five series behind me, with lead characters like Riley Gavin, a tough female crime reporter; Harry Tate, a former MI5 officer; Marc Portman, a spy’s best friend in tight situations; Ruth Gonzales, a private security company investigator; and Inspector Lucas Rocco, a French detective in 1960s rural Picardie. Every one serious in tone, albeit with hints of humour here and there. But light-hearted? No.

Was I biting off more than I could chew?

Writing a series was what I liked doing; after each book I could switch to one of the other series or write the next in line. It was familiar writing territory. It didn’t necessarily make the physical task any easier, but I knew what I was dealing with. All I had to do was switch character hats.

But a standalone?  Write a story where there wasn’t going to be a sequel? Moreover, could I write one which was more humorous than my other books?

What the heck, of course I could. It’s what I do. And Smart Moves was what I had in mind.

Most of my main characters are in tough professions – fighting crime or in the spying game – where knowing what they’re doing is essential for survival. Cops and reporters have to tread a fine path between good and bad, while spies and their helpers can’t relax for a moment because there’s always someone watching, and danger is never far away.

But how about a character who wasn’t so controlled, whose job as an international corporate trouble-shooter, rather than the gun-carrying kind, had allowed things to slip out of his grasp, until he suddenly had nothing – no wife, no house, no job… and not much of a glimmer about how it had happened?

Jake Foreman isn’t inept or uncaring; he’s just become so focussed on work that essential things like life, love and smelling the coffee have eased into the background, leaving him adrift.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing Jake’s story. No need to think about a follow-on; tying up ends loosely or otherwise; and having a laugh along the way, instead of keeping it serious.

I hope readers like the change. If they do, who knows, I might try another one someday.
© Adrian Magson

My Review

The title of the book, Smart Moves, is ironic, intentionally so, as initially Jake seems to make nothing but unsmart moves that put him in the bad books of some pretty nasty characters.  His self-confessed ‘three wise monkeys’ approach of asking no questions has, up until now, seen him successfully through a career as a troubleshooter in some distinctly unsavoury situations.  But is it quite so wise in the position in which he finds himself now?

When he finds himself thrown out of his house by his wife, he turns to brother, Marcus, and old friend, Hugo.  Unfortunately, their best-intentioned advice and introductions only land Jake in more hot water.  And soon it’s getting hotter by the minute.    Luckily, he finally encounters someone made of ‘sterner stuff’, someone able – and willing – to help him out.  Together, it turns out they might make a great partnership.

Smart Moves is a lot of fun, largely because Jake is a thoroughly likeable and engaging character with a nice line in self-deprecating humour.  In fact, sardonic humour is a key feature of the book.  A couple of my favourites:

[Jake, encountering his nosy neighbour, Mrs Tree, outside his now empty house] ‘Seeing her reminded me of driving across a patch of the Namib desert and spotting vultures circling over the remains of a dead zebra.  I knew how the zebra must have felt.’

[Jake, on his wife, Susan] ‘One thing I’d learned very early in our relationship was that Susan didn’t do rough. Her idea of an adventure holiday was having to switch on the air con herself.’

The author is clearly a skilled writer because he keeps the story moving along nicely, increasing the pace in the final third of the book to keep the reader turning the pages. He also has a deft touch when it comes to great opening and closing lines of chapters.

Smart Moves has all the characteristics of a great crime caper movie: likeable hero, witty dialogue, well-paced story, a few narrow escapes from the bad guys, a bit of fisticuffs and the occasional romantic encounter for our leading man.   I thoroughly enjoyed it. Given the ending of the book and, despite the declarations to the contrary by Adrian in his guest post above, he has cleverly left things sufficiently open so there could be another outing for Jake Foreman if he so desired…  I think there may be many readers of Smart Moves who will positively demand it.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, The Dome Press, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Pacy, witty, adventure

Try something similar…Poor Boy Road by James L. Weaver (read my review here)

Adrian MagsonAbout the Author

Adrian Magson – ‘a classic crime star in the making’ (Daily Mail) – is the author of 22 crime and spy thrillers, a ghost novel and Write On! – a writers’ help book. His latest novels are Rocco and the Nightingale (Oct 2017), the fifth in the Inspector Lucas Rocco series set in 1960s France, and Smart Moves (Aug 2018), a standalone novel. Both are published by The Dome Press. When not writing books, he’s a reviewer for Shots Magazine and writes the ‘Beginners’ and ‘New Author’ pages for Writing Magazine (UK).

Adrian lives in the Forest of Dean and rumours that he is building a nuclear bunker are unfounded. It’s a bird’s table.

Connect with Adrian

Website ǀ  Blog | Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

 

 

 

 

Buchan of the Month: Mr. Standfast by John Buchan

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Buchan of the Month

JohnBuchanThrillersAbout the Book

“First we must go through the Valley of the Shadow…And there is the sacrifice to be made…the best of us.”

It is 1917 and Richard Hannay is brought out of the battlefield to perform the desperate task of tracking down and destroying a network of German spies.  Hannay’s opponent is Moxon Ivery, the bland master of disguise, who seeks to outwit Hannay and he and his agents are pursued through England, Scotland, France and Switzerland.

For its pace and suspense, its changes of scene, and thrilling descriptions of the last great battles against the Germans, Mr Standfast offers everything that has made its author so enduringly popular.

Format: Paperback (354 pp.)        Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1993 [1919]                  Genre: Thriller, Adventure

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

 Find Mr. Standfast on Goodreads

My Review

Mr. Standfast is the third book in my Buchan of the Month reading project.  For a spoiler-free introduction to Mr. Standfast, including details of its first publication and context, click here.  To find out more about the project and my reading list for 2018, click here.

Before I say any more, I’ll confess that Mr. Standfast is a book I’ve read many times before and it happens to be one of my favorite Buchan books (alongside Sick Heart River, which I shall be reading later this year).  For me, it has everything: a mystery, some thrilling set pieces, great characters, numerous locations, a touch of romance and some chilling scenes on the battlefields of World War One France.  I always get a bit tearful at the end.  As well as being a very entertaining book, Mr. Standfast explores some serious themes – courage, fortitude, sacrifice.

Since the title refers to one of the characters in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, it’s probably no surprise that Mr. Standfast has a number of allusions and references to Bunyan’s work.  The Pilgrim’s Progress was an important text for Buchan and it informs many of the themes in Mr. Standfast mentioned above.  Full disclosure: my dissertation for my MA in English from The Open University was on the subject of the influence of The Pilgrim’s Progress on John Buchan’s books.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to test your patience by quoting from it extensively.  However, just a few thoughts on the connections between the two texts…

In his autobiography Memory-Hold-The-Door, Buchan attributes his regard for The Pilgrim’s Progress to ‘its picture of life as a pilgrimage over hill and dale, where surprising adventures lurked by the wayside, a hard road with now and then long views to cheer the traveller and a great brightness at the end of it’.   The reference to the journey being ‘over hills and dales’ acknowledges that life brings moments of difficulty and challenge as well as ease, involving either physical or mental effort. The  journey features ‘surprising adventures’ – the use of the word ‘adventures’ rather than ‘experiences’ suggesting that these will be exciting episodes – but these ‘lurk’ by the wayside.  There is a sense of the unexpected, of danger in the choice of the word ‘lurk’.  All of these elements I feel are apparent in Mr. Standfast.

As well as having thematic influences, The Pilgrim’s Progress, as a physical object, plays a role in Mr. Standfast.  It acts variously as a prize, a code-book and a source of moral comfort.

For example, The Pilgrim’s Progress is one of Peter Pienaar’s few cherished possessions; with the Bible, it acts as a source of comfort during his captivity in a German prisoner-of-war camp.  Pienaar, one of the most endearing characters in Mr. Standfast, is described as ‘puzzling over it’, using it as one of his ‘chief aids in reflection’ and for ‘self-examination’.  Peter searches The Pilgrim’s Progress for examples that he can apply to his own predicament.  Charmingly, Peter takes everything in The Pilgrim’s Progress literally and talks about the character Mr. Standfast ‘as if he were a friend’.  Arguably, Peter’s identification with the characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress in part inspires his actions at the end of the book.

For Richard Hannay, The Pilgrim’s Progress has a more practical and utilitarian function; he describes it as one of his ‘working tools’.  For example, it alerts Hannay to the fact that someone has searched his belongings as he observes ‘a receipted bill which I had stuck in The Pilgrim’s Progress to mark my place had been moved’.  Later, it provides a method of authenticating the character Hannay has adopted (he likes his disguises!).  Producing his copy of The Pilgrim’s Progress to the old postmistress of a Highland village, it creates a shared cultural connection between them as she comments, ‘I got it for a prize in the Sabbath School when I was a lassie’.

One of the most notable roles for The Pilgrim’s Progress in Mr. Standfast is as a means of communication between Hannay and his comrades.  This discourse operates at two levels: as a common language to express feelings, anxieties and hopes and, at a practical level, as a code for secret communications between the characters.  In particular, The Pilgrim’s Progress becomes a key part of the burgeoning relationship between Mary Lamington and Hannay.   At one point, Hannay sends a message of reassurance for Mary: ‘If you see Miss Lamington you can tell her I’m past the Hill Difficulty.  I’m coming back as soon as God will let me’.

There is a lot more I could say on the links between the two texts but I’ll just close by saying that Mr. Standfast is a great story even if you have no knowledge of The Pilgrim’s Porogress.  If, however, you are familiar with Bunyan’s work, you’ll have fun spotting other references and allusions.  I think Mr. Standfast is the best of Buchan’s Richard Hannay adventures and one of the finest books he wrote.

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In three words: Thrilling, action-packed, moving

John BuchanAbout the Author

John Buchan (1875 – 1940) was an author, poet, lawyer, publisher, journalist, war correspondent, Member of Parliament, University Chancellor, keen angler and family man.  He was ennobled and, as Lord Tweedsmuir, became Governor-General of Canada.  In this role, he signed Canada’s entry into the Second World War.   Nowadays he is probably best known – maybe only known – as the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  However, in his lifetime he published over 100 books: fiction, poetry, short stories, biographies, memoirs and history.

You can find out more about John Buchan, his life and literary output by visiting The John Buchan Society website.