- Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Avon Books; Reprint edition (Dec 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061030015
- ISBN-13: 978-0061030017
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.9 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,929,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Mark Burnell has created a rounded literary character and a memorable heroine. But who is she really? A fine debut.’ The Economist
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Product Description
The debut of an extraordinary new author – a novel of how a woman, pushed over the edge by the violent deaths of her family, survives only by taking other identities.
Stephanie Patrick’s world was destroyed by the Atlantic aircrash. Falling into a downward spiral of prostitution, drugs and drink, she is picked up by a journalist who has discovered that it was a bomb that caused the crash. And it is his murder that pulls her out of herself.
The Rhythm Section is not a thriller about the hunt for a terrorist, although that is the path Stephanie takes, and it’s not a story about revenge, although justice for her family is her initial motivation. Rather, The Rhythm Section is the story of Stephanie’s attempt to reclaim herself. She has to rediscover who she is through a series of roles that she is forced to play; she is never herself. As a prostitute, she is Lisa, the chemical blonde. Later, she is Petra Reuter, German anarchist turned mercenary terrorist. Sometimes, she is Marina Gaudenzi, a Swiss businesswoman, or she’s Susan Branch, an American student, or Elizabeth Shepherd, an English management consultant.
But whoever she is, she’s never herself because her life depends on her being someone else. This is the way she is trained by the intelligence service that recruits her, but it’s also the way she’s taught herself to be; being someone else has always worked for her and so it does now, until she begins to fall in love for the first time with Frank White. This undermines her completely and poses new questions: which of the many people she has become is the one to have fallen in love? Stephanie? Petra? Or one of the others? With whom has Frank fallen in love? Marina? Or the real Stephanie? More than anything, The Rhythm Section is about a catastrophic crisis of identity.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this as it was listed as one of The Economist's novels of the year. I wasn't disappointed. It's gripping - I had to read it under my desk rather than put it down. Stephanie's parents and her sister are all killed in a plane accident which Stephanie should have been on. The plot follows Stephanie's disintegration and reinvention into the prostitute Lisa. Lisa is tracked down by a journalist who believes the plane was blown up by terrorist action, he's then murdered and we see the metamorphosis of Stephanie to Lisa to Petra as a she is recruited into the secret service and used to avenge the death of her family. A novel of identity and a thriller. Can't wait for Burnell's next one.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is complex but rewarding. The sensitivity that Mark Burnell generates in his lead character allows one to feel along with her the dramatic emotions she experiences. The whole read leads one to feel sympathy and love towards the heroine. It is an outstanding novel and I would thoroughly recommend it!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This thriller is astonishing. Published in 1999, the book describes (as background) a terrorist organisation and a sequence of events that are so so close to 9/11 that they could almost be described as Osama bin Laden's handbook. We're only just catching up with what this author foretold before the event. His analysis of terrorist training and motivation could have been written yesterday. It's a good thriller too, with characters much better drawn than usual in the genre, and a fine display of the differences between love and lust. I look forward to reading the rest of Mark Burnell's four books. If they're all researched like this one, I have a lot to learn.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting start
Judging from the reviews here this book appears to be Marmite, you either really enjoy it or it doesn't seem to do much for you. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Christian
The birth of Petra Reuter
I began to read Mark Burnell in the middle of the Petra series and was immediately gripped. But it took me some time to go back to the beginning and read THE RHYTHM SECTION. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Merrygill
A brilliant read from page one!
Fantastic read!!!! i came across this book some years ago whilst traveling, i couldn't put it down! highly recommend this book if you like action/ thriller type books!
Published 24 months ago by A. DAVIS
Pageeturner from economist
Chose this from at the recommendation of the Economist, and it was ok. Far better than other crime / thriller novels read lately. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2008 by Henrik
Run Of The Mill Terrorist Thriller
Stphanie loses her family on a flight blown up by terrorists - a flight she was supposed to be on. So she goes from being a university student to a depressed drug ridden... Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2006 by Scottish Dave
Good, but hardly "best of the year"
I bought this book on the strength of The Economist's verdict so the expectations were high.
It is a good and well-written novel, albeit that it tells an unlikely story. Read more
Published on 4 April 2001
La Femme Nikita re-written
The Rhythm Section is an occasionally clumsy, but often intriguing novel. However, original it is not. Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2000
Intricate but pacey
Although it is often dark it maintains its grip on the reader. I read it in two sittings. Stephanie to Petra was a frighteningly easy leap to believe.
Published on 13 July 2000
lumbering plot , ultimately boring and pointless.
I haven't read a book that has left me so angry for a long time. I kept ploughing thru it believing that it had to get better , but it never did. Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2000
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