Offical Review: Cathedral of Lies by John Pye
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Offical Review: Cathedral of Lies by John Pye
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Cathedral of Lies" by John Pye.]
This story grabs the reader's attention from the very first sentence. It is a fast-paced, thrilling read that starts with the trial of a drug-dealing criminal in South West England and involves kidnap, murder and a real life unsolved mystery. The action is crammed into a few short weeks in 1986 although there are links with past events.
Detective teams from two police forces are brought together when connections emerge between the hunt for an escaped gun man in Devon and a murder victim found in a burnt out car in Staffordshire. The trail leads them across the Channel to mainland Europe and incidents that took place over 40 years before; the danger ever increasing as they get closer to identifying the mastermind behind the web of deception and lies.
The plot twists and turns as deviously as some of the characters, with double dealing, bluff and subterfuge of every description on both sides of the law. The story flashes from location to location as the action unfolds at a breath taking pace, keeping the reader informed often before all the characters know what is going on; although, at other times, the author keeps things to himself and then springs them on you to create the greatest impact at a particularly dramatic moment. There is more than just a trace of romance in the story but it doesn't overshadow the main plot or detract from the task of solving the crime.
I have to say that I'm not surprised to learn that Mr Pye is a retired detective: his wealth of knowledge and experience is very evident as well as his attention to detail. It all combines to make the story completely plausible, with characters I can believe in and sympathise with (apart from the bad guys, of course); and there are several occasions when I was so involved that I wanted to call out 'Don't do it!'.
He writes in a very visual style - I can imagine watching this as a film and I think it would work extremely well. His descriptions of places and people are vivid and the dialogue is natural. It's hard to find any faults: it took me a few pages to identify some of the characters and tie up their first names with their surnames, but that's probably due to my bad memory; I did spot one typo but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
And the story doesn't end with the last page: there is a companion website with fascinating insights into the background of the book and photos of various locations mentioned in it, together with a full account of the unsolved crime that inspired it.
This is the best book I have read in quite a while and thoroughly deserves the four out of four stars I have rated it. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys crime fiction and I shall certainly keep a look out for future titles by John Pye.
***
Buy "Cathedral of Lies" on Amazon
This story grabs the reader's attention from the very first sentence. It is a fast-paced, thrilling read that starts with the trial of a drug-dealing criminal in South West England and involves kidnap, murder and a real life unsolved mystery. The action is crammed into a few short weeks in 1986 although there are links with past events.
Detective teams from two police forces are brought together when connections emerge between the hunt for an escaped gun man in Devon and a murder victim found in a burnt out car in Staffordshire. The trail leads them across the Channel to mainland Europe and incidents that took place over 40 years before; the danger ever increasing as they get closer to identifying the mastermind behind the web of deception and lies.
The plot twists and turns as deviously as some of the characters, with double dealing, bluff and subterfuge of every description on both sides of the law. The story flashes from location to location as the action unfolds at a breath taking pace, keeping the reader informed often before all the characters know what is going on; although, at other times, the author keeps things to himself and then springs them on you to create the greatest impact at a particularly dramatic moment. There is more than just a trace of romance in the story but it doesn't overshadow the main plot or detract from the task of solving the crime.
I have to say that I'm not surprised to learn that Mr Pye is a retired detective: his wealth of knowledge and experience is very evident as well as his attention to detail. It all combines to make the story completely plausible, with characters I can believe in and sympathise with (apart from the bad guys, of course); and there are several occasions when I was so involved that I wanted to call out 'Don't do it!'.
He writes in a very visual style - I can imagine watching this as a film and I think it would work extremely well. His descriptions of places and people are vivid and the dialogue is natural. It's hard to find any faults: it took me a few pages to identify some of the characters and tie up their first names with their surnames, but that's probably due to my bad memory; I did spot one typo but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book.
And the story doesn't end with the last page: there is a companion website with fascinating insights into the background of the book and photos of various locations mentioned in it, together with a full account of the unsolved crime that inspired it.
This is the best book I have read in quite a while and thoroughly deserves the four out of four stars I have rated it. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys crime fiction and I shall certainly keep a look out for future titles by John Pye.
***
Buy "Cathedral of Lies" on Amazon
Latest Review: "The Sanctuary" by Cassandra R. Siddons
