Peter May
SNAKE HEAD
A
China Thriller
I
only recently discovered Peter May and have read most of his books, so I feel I
am letting him down by not enjoying this one as much as his other books.
I
know it is described as a “Thriller” but it does include a detective so I would
have liked a bit more “detection”. Unfortunately for me this is veering towards,
fortunately not quite getting there, Dan Brown. Lots of the characters are clichés
bordering on being racist stereotypes, a real surprise given his previous novels
that demonstrated his distaste for racist views. As I am used to reading
fiction from the 40’s and 50’s I can usually discount that as of its time, but
don’t expect it from new works, especially from such a good author.
What
I really found difficulty with though were the coincidences. I won’t catalogue
them as despite what I have said, I would recommend the book and don’t want to
create a spoiler, so I will just evidence one improbability; what are the
chances (given the population of China) that a Chinese detective would come
across his sister in the USA as an illegal immigrant, when he doesn’t know she
is not still in China? That wasn’t the only improbability, and yes I know that
lots of fiction relies on improbable coincidences, but some of these did jar a
bit.
I
did enjoy the “China” thriller set in China, that was really something new and
different, but a Chinese Detective in the USA is not that different. Still
worth a read, and I did want to get to the end to see what happened, though
there were many loose ends not explained.
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