The Kills by Richard House

The Kills

Richard House

A mammoth novel featuring four stories of crime, murder, conspiracy and fraud. Its size makes War & Peace look like a Janet & John reading book! The mixture of characters and complexities of the plot lines are a major achievement, reminiscent of John le Carré. The book may be very long - very explosive, very risqué and brave in its entirety, but it's also very good. It may have taken me two months to read but it definitely wasn’t time wasted.

Extract
Heida stood on the concourse, hid behind a pillar, and looked at her hand to find a chain and five military dog tags with no names but a line of numbers on each one. Surely an important find? She rolled the chain into a ball, then slipped it in a side pocket of her own bag. Ahead, the sky began to brighten. An orange horizon reflected rose-red in the tinted pavilion windows. The cold began to seep from the air. She waited for Sutler to come out of the restroom, watch him tuck his old shirt into the bag, then walk, the bag at his side, without any knowledge or suspicion, to join a queue waiting for the Istanbul coach.
Parallels
  • Bruiser by Richard House
  • Anything by John le Carré