Recommended by a friend, I recently read this author's debut thriller on holiday, and can report that I'm now officially in the O.C.Heaton fan club, and consequently more open minded about reading first time author's work. (Holidays previously being too precious to risk valuable time reading anything other than established, best-seller-writing stalwarts of the literary world.)
"The Human Race" has pretty much everything I expect from a thriller: a good story, told from the multiple points of view of interesting characters, at great pace. Each chapter and scene reveals something new to the plot. The strong narrative thrust, using active verbs rather than the passive voice, helps get the reader inside the heads of the three main protagonists, adds depth and builds dramatic tension. The "big secret" is convincingly revealed, and credibly explained, so that you fully believe (or want to believe) that the technology necessary is current, and not science fiction. The depth of research is impressive, not just behind the locations etc, but particularly behind the new technology and it's environmental and ethical consequences.
Congratulations, then, to O.C.Heaton on a fine debut, for opening my mind to first-timers, and for inventing the fantastic new word "Thrillogy" which is now firmly implanted in my vocabulary! I look forward to the next instalment.
