Official Review: The Lost Identity Casualties by Kim Ekemar
Posted: 18 Jun 2018, 03:16
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Lost Identity Casualties" by Kim Ekemar.]
3 out of 4 stars
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The Lost Identity Casualties by Kim Ekemar is Book I of a series of seven called The Callaghan Septology. It begins with a male patient who awakens from a coma in an expensive-looking hospital room with no idea of his identity. Strapped down to the bed with his face bandaged, the nurses feed him intravenously. He believes the hospital is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, though he isn't sure how he knows this. His wife arrives, an attractive woman he can't remember. She tells him that they live in London, are rich and have a butler. The doctors and nursing staff tell Callaghan that somebody kidnapped him, but he is safe now. When a nurse removes bandages from his hands, he sees to his horror that someone has cut off all of his fingers and thumbs.
The man's memories begin to return. He is Matthias Callaghan, named after his father and grandfather. His father is a rich, morally reprehensible womaniser who has borrowed much money from his son without paying it back. Callaghan III and his friend Allan Gould once committed serious credit card fraud on over 900,000 VISA, MasterCard and American Express customers, skimming over ten million dollars in small transactions to fund their own business. But someone has also stolen fifteen million dollars from the Russian Mafia, and they blame Callaghan for it. In addition to removing his fingers, they take a razor blade to his face, and the doctors in Switzerland have to do a face transplant, after completing the first ever only three years earlier. Callaghan and his wife Julia attempt to return to their old lives while adapting to the stranger's face he now wears.
I enjoyed the strong opening to this book, with the anonymous patient waking in a hospital room with very little knowledge about himself and his situation. All he knows is what the doctors and nursing staff tell him... and are they telling the truth? This sort of uncertainty is particularly compelling at the beginning of a mystery thriller, as it makes me want to read further to solve the puzzle. Ekemar writes in a conversational style that is easy and enjoyable to read. The story moves forward at a decent pace, never stagnating. There is enough technical detail provided about the business world - and the criminal underworld of the Russian mafia - without slowing the plot. The author seems to have a sound understanding of both.
Disloyalty and revenge are major themes in The Lost Identity Casualties, with plenty of mistrust and betrayal throughout the story. The dark, all-consuming nature of revenge is also explored, as Callaghan finds a strange satisfaction in plotting against those who wronged him, and in alienating those who were a part of his former life.
There are a few minor issues with punctuation and formatting in this book. The main one is regular placement of a comma after the quotation marks at the end of a character's speech, instead of before. A number of new paragraphs are not indented, and a few sentences contain clumsy wording. For example: "I felt absolute conviction that he anyway never would muster the courage to call Berlosky to verify my information." I feel this would be easier to read as: "I felt absolute conviction that he would never muster the courage to call Berlosky to verify my information, anyway."
The book switches between Callaghan's viewpoint and an omniscient viewpoint reflecting different characters. While this is common in thrillers, I found one particular example, where two characters meet and the viewpoints switch mid-scene, a little disconcerting and distracting. Here, we jump from the first person of Callaghan to the third person of the other character, then back to Callaghan two paragraphs later. My personal preference is for viewpoint characters to swap only at chapter or section breaks.
I rate The Lost Identity Casualties 3 out of 4 stars. The plot is ingenious and well-executed, and the pieces of the puzzle fit together nicely. The only reason I am unable to rate it 4 stars is because I found more than ten errors throughout the manuscript, aside from the punctuation and indenting mentioned. Most of these were simply missing or incorrect words, easily fixed. This book would appeal to those who like intriguing mystery thrillers with intricate plots; however, some of the concepts are quite gruesome, so the squeamish need not apply!
******
The Lost Identity Casualties
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3 out of 4 stars
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The Lost Identity Casualties by Kim Ekemar is Book I of a series of seven called The Callaghan Septology. It begins with a male patient who awakens from a coma in an expensive-looking hospital room with no idea of his identity. Strapped down to the bed with his face bandaged, the nurses feed him intravenously. He believes the hospital is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, though he isn't sure how he knows this. His wife arrives, an attractive woman he can't remember. She tells him that they live in London, are rich and have a butler. The doctors and nursing staff tell Callaghan that somebody kidnapped him, but he is safe now. When a nurse removes bandages from his hands, he sees to his horror that someone has cut off all of his fingers and thumbs.
The man's memories begin to return. He is Matthias Callaghan, named after his father and grandfather. His father is a rich, morally reprehensible womaniser who has borrowed much money from his son without paying it back. Callaghan III and his friend Allan Gould once committed serious credit card fraud on over 900,000 VISA, MasterCard and American Express customers, skimming over ten million dollars in small transactions to fund their own business. But someone has also stolen fifteen million dollars from the Russian Mafia, and they blame Callaghan for it. In addition to removing his fingers, they take a razor blade to his face, and the doctors in Switzerland have to do a face transplant, after completing the first ever only three years earlier. Callaghan and his wife Julia attempt to return to their old lives while adapting to the stranger's face he now wears.
I enjoyed the strong opening to this book, with the anonymous patient waking in a hospital room with very little knowledge about himself and his situation. All he knows is what the doctors and nursing staff tell him... and are they telling the truth? This sort of uncertainty is particularly compelling at the beginning of a mystery thriller, as it makes me want to read further to solve the puzzle. Ekemar writes in a conversational style that is easy and enjoyable to read. The story moves forward at a decent pace, never stagnating. There is enough technical detail provided about the business world - and the criminal underworld of the Russian mafia - without slowing the plot. The author seems to have a sound understanding of both.
Disloyalty and revenge are major themes in The Lost Identity Casualties, with plenty of mistrust and betrayal throughout the story. The dark, all-consuming nature of revenge is also explored, as Callaghan finds a strange satisfaction in plotting against those who wronged him, and in alienating those who were a part of his former life.
There are a few minor issues with punctuation and formatting in this book. The main one is regular placement of a comma after the quotation marks at the end of a character's speech, instead of before. A number of new paragraphs are not indented, and a few sentences contain clumsy wording. For example: "I felt absolute conviction that he anyway never would muster the courage to call Berlosky to verify my information." I feel this would be easier to read as: "I felt absolute conviction that he would never muster the courage to call Berlosky to verify my information, anyway."
The book switches between Callaghan's viewpoint and an omniscient viewpoint reflecting different characters. While this is common in thrillers, I found one particular example, where two characters meet and the viewpoints switch mid-scene, a little disconcerting and distracting. Here, we jump from the first person of Callaghan to the third person of the other character, then back to Callaghan two paragraphs later. My personal preference is for viewpoint characters to swap only at chapter or section breaks.
I rate The Lost Identity Casualties 3 out of 4 stars. The plot is ingenious and well-executed, and the pieces of the puzzle fit together nicely. The only reason I am unable to rate it 4 stars is because I found more than ten errors throughout the manuscript, aside from the punctuation and indenting mentioned. Most of these were simply missing or incorrect words, easily fixed. This book would appeal to those who like intriguing mystery thrillers with intricate plots; however, some of the concepts are quite gruesome, so the squeamish need not apply!
******
The Lost Identity Casualties
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like joshfee77's review? Post a comment saying so!