Die Twice
As seen:
By Andrew Grant
avg rating
1 review
Cooler than Bond. Deadlier than Bourne. The second spy thriller in the David Trevellyan series.
Obliged to leave New York City in the aftermath of his previous mission, David Trevellyan is summoned to the British Consulate in Chicago. To the same office where, just a week before, his new handler was attacked and shot by a Royal Navy Intelligence operative gone bad. Assigned the task of finding the rogue agent, and putting an end to his treacherous scheme, Trevellyan soon finds that once again his only hope of saving countless innocence lives lies not within the system, but in his instinctive believe – you’re bound to do what’s right, whatever the personal cost may be. TweetReviews
For those who don’t know, Andrew Grant is the younger brother of Lee Child. An author in his own right, who’s been published since 2009, it was recently announced that he’ll take over writing the Jack Reacher series when Lee Child steps down after the next book.
Die Twice was Grant’s second novel (published in 2010) and it’s a great thriller — a first-person narrative that works perfectly. There’s lots of action, it’s fast-paced and well written, which all adds up to a quick page-turner. The writing style is slightly reminiscent of a classic detective story, but Grant gives this a very modern twist making it anything but old school.
The main protagonist, David Trevellyan is a Royal Navy Intelligence Operative, immediately likeable, charming and witty; and Grant has written him some great one-liners. Preferring to work alone he takes on dangerous undercover assignments, making him a no-nonsense, highly trained professional and a stickler for detail.
The main story is punctuated with insights about his past training, giving a nice back-and-forth between the main action and reminiscence. And of course, there’s all the usual action descriptive detail you’d expect.
His current assignment (to hunt down a rogue agent) has the odds firmly stacked against him, and it seems as though every day he comes up against some life-threatening situation. Continually finding himself in daily jeopardy works fine, for the most part. But for me at least, I began to question these constant life-threatening situations and why they were so frequent. Let’s just say that I managed to work out the problem behind these “situations” mid-way through. This didn’t detract too much from what is essentially a good story, but I much prefer a twist at the end that makes me say ‘I didn’t see that coming!’
If you love a good thriller with a highly likeable character and plenty of action, then this book will not disappoint. If, like me, it seems as though there are one too many questionable situations, you may feel a little short-changed.
I said there were some great one-liners, one memorable one is: “Sounds like it’s time to break out the asbestos underwear.”
The first book in the Trevellyan series is Even, and I’m curious enough to want to read it to gain a bit more background to this fascinating character.
Review by: Pink Alpaca
