Political

Good News Bad News: novel starts brilliantly but fades

Even well after finishing David Wolstencroft’s Good News Bad News, I’m not really quite sure what to make of how good or enjoyable this espionage novel by the creator of the TV series Spooks is.

David Wolstencroft - Good News Bad NewsOn the up side, it is a genuine page turner and the opening phases of the book are brilliant. The book looks set to become a dark bureaucratic satire with touches of Monty Python, and you’re left quite unsure who is really who. Living in London, I also enjoyed the plausible details of the setting of much of the action, especially around Oxford Circus tube station.

But as the book goes on it morphs into a much more traditional action thriller, with plenty of twists to keep the pace high and tension going but also losing the original edge of the early part of the book. Instead of dark originality, we get served up a series of increasingly outlandish twists and turns, all rather reminiscent of the less good Spooks episodes.

But I shouldn’t be too harsh because I kept on reading. It may become traditional and outlandish, but it still keeps you wanting to know what happens next.

The audio version comes with an interview with the author and perhaps tellingly he describes his experience of writing what was then his first novel as, “I was very excited to be on a blank page writing prose. So there’s a bit of stuff fizzing around … I’m a puppy in this book. I’m perhaps a slightly more mature labrador retriever in the second book”.

I’m sure I’ll read his second novel at some point given how great David Wolstencroft is in the best parts of the book.

Read, or listen to, because the audio version of Good News Bad News is narrated brilliantly by Gordon Griffin and that adds significantly to the entertainment.

If you like this, you might also be interested in The Defection of AJ Lewinter.

Got a view on this review? Then please rate it on Amazon.

Buy Good News Bad News by David Wolstencroft here.

 

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