I had not read anything by this author prior to this book. I am enjoying his take on spying in South East Asia (I am just over half way through this novel). This novel makes good use of contemporary events, and the various spin off ideas (and with a spy novel I am really reluctant to provide any spoilers) is fun. Abernethy writes about possibilities which could concern the paranoid or the easily depressed, but also which could happen. He uses names we have heard in a terrorist context.
I was concerned when I read Abernethy likened to Lee Child, as Child's protagonist (I can't call him a hero), Jack Reacher, has almost no emotional range and does not need other people around. Macca (Abernethy's creation) has some engaging character traits such as not liking killing people. Is this an allusion to the most recent Robin Hood from the BBC? Macca also has relationships with people, including other spies, and police, which give an authenticity to his character. Macca is also described in a way that you know you have met him at some time, and it makes you look twice at people you previously may not have noticed. It is great reading an Australian spy novel, and the use of Indonesia for so much of the setting is very effective.
I am enjoying the novel, and I look forward to how it continues to develop. Then I will go and read the Golden serpent.
