Ron Morgans recently sent me the above book, the first in a series of Fox and Farraday Mysteries. Ron lives on the Mediterranean and the plots of his books are inspired by his years as an award winning photojournalist (as Piers Morgan has given a byline on the front of this book, I am assuming that the Mirror was one of the papers he worked for). His female lead character, the feisty Henrietta Fox, is also a photographer and a member of the paparazzo and presumably her exploits as a member of the notorious photographers will certainly have a solid background.
Henrietta (or Henri as she is named throughout the book) is attending the Farnborough Air Show when the story opens. She is bored rigid and is ready to pack it all in and leave when she focuses her camera on an incoming plane and sees it crash in front of her. It is a Chinese plane built by the Sumxu Aviation Corporation and when her pictures make the front pages she is approached by Cass Farraday who has been commissioned by his editor to investigate five deaths of reporters across Europe, all of whom have visited China and have come home with an exotic lop eared Suxmu cat, considered extinct for 300 years. Each time a reporter is murdered, so is the cat whose mutilated body is found at the crime scene.
Henriette and Cass set off to China to meet the mysterious Mr Zhong, head of the Sumxu Corporation, who also gives Henrietta a cat as a present. And then, the fun begins....
This book has a punchy, fast moving style, rather Grisham like in places, particularly with the emphasis on what I call 'labels'. Henri shoots with a Nikon, wears Dolce and Gabbana while Cass drives a Morgan. As I said, a bit Grisham like in this respect, and that is not an insult in case you are wondering. The writing is in a tight, no time wasted journalistic speed with Cass and Henri arriving in China and becoming involved in a deadly chase by men who want to kill them, taking refuge on a Chinese barge, and getting away the the skin of their teeth. The final scenes in Britain's Air Traffic control centre with a deadly implanted virus wiping out all the technology and leaving hundreds of planes in the air, including one containing Her Maj, is very tight and exciting and very very filmic.
I really enjoyed this book. Great fun, great read and, as I have said above, pacy and speedy so that once you start reading you are carried along to the last page. There are two others in this series, Kill Chase and The Emerald Killers and I look forward to reading these as well.
