*****
Raficq Abdulla

The Devil's Truth is as taut and tight as a James Bond novel but with more style, and depth. The reader is swept up by the narrative, it's a great yarn yet there is an underlying dramatic conflict - the perennial battle between good and evil, between dark and light - which is unfolded with intelligence and sharpness. There is more going on in this novel than the fast-moving and glittering surface shows. Read The Devil's Truth and enjoy but beware it's more than a story or entertainment, it's a search for the meaning of life. 

*****
In the Devil's Truth, Paul Georgiou does it again. Adam, the hero, or anti-hero,is put through his paces once more and while he seeks the truth about the world and how it operates, we are left to work out the truth about him. There's a fair amount of political comment in this story, and an amusing but rather bleak picture of who has power and how they exercise it. By the end, where, incidentally, there's a twist in the narrative, you feel as deceived as Adam. 

*****
Brilliant! 

****
I wouldn't like to think that any novel isn't imbued with the soul of the author. When you pick the bones out of it, you can find Paul Georgiou nestling in these pages. Reading a novel shouldn't be a task that has to be completed. If I don't like a movie, I walk out. Switch the TV off.

But with a book, I am conditioned to finishing it, once started, even if it has become a task (and having read all titles on the Booker short list, a few did become a test of endurance).

Not the Devil's Truth, no question of ennui here, I gladly returned to a completely involving narrative. Two Far East flights passed very agreeably, admittedly accompanied by a spot of amber liquid. Come on, please, I have more flights to come, so I NEED the next in the series. Oh, and another glass.