Hot Pursuit by Julie Ann WalkerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.
I haven't read the last few books in this series but I really enjoyed the books I had read so when I saw this available for review I was eager to see how the series had progressed.
Our BKI boys are in England, holed up in a cottage in Cornwall, and tensions are running high between Christian Watson, former British SAS soldier, and Emily Scott the team's office manager. But Christian has some murky secrets in his past and when they come back to haunt him the team is in trouble as both the press and enemies pursue him.
This story takes place over a few days, it's tight and tense with the team being pursued across South-West England whilst trying to discover the identity of the mysterious Spider. As always Julie Ann Walker writes a gripping thriller with gritty characters from tortured backgrounds - what you want from these kind of thriller romances.
However, being British I have to take umbrage at Christian's language. Julie Ann Walker appears to have looked up some British words and liberally sprinkled them throughout Christian's speech without regard for the regional provenance, historical usage, meaning or Christian's upbringing. So, for example, at one point they put a "dustbin" besides someone in case they are sick, a dustbin is something you keep outside which contains all your household rubbish - unless the guy is projectile vomiting a wastebin is more usual. Christian often uses the word "feckin" - that is used almost exclusively by the Irish (and sometimes the Scots), not English people. Christian talks about his mother cashing her government support checks at the pub, it should be her dole cheques (note the English spelling). Christian talks about going off in his "drawers", unless he's in a regency romance he should be talking about his pants or his Calvin Kleins. He also says he didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea and give Emily "poppycock" about things, poppycock means rubbish, gibberish so the sentence doesn't make sense. None of this should make any difference for non-British readers but it was jarring to this reader when a former SAS soldier brought up in relativity poverty and in a rough area speaks like a little old lady from an historical romance!
Setting aside my linguistic issues, I enjoyed this book, it was fast-paced and the characters were engaging, although I didn't quite grasp how they discovered the identity of Spider - that seemed a little bit too convenient, although I may have to reread that bit to confirm.
As always the little hints as to the next character to star in their own book were intriguing.
I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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