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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second Best!, 23 Jun 2004
I bought Tango One just before i went on holiday two years ago now i'm hooked! Leather is a master story teller and his other books are just as good. Though I never have found a rival to Tango One. The Solitary Man comes about the closest. Great masterful stroy telling, with several plots entering and leaving the novel but always keeping things at a great speed. Leather writes to immediately grab the readers attention and he does masterfully with this. Hutch is a great character and you imediately sympathise with him as attempts to keep his life together as he is thrown into several dandgerous situations. The action is also relentless with always the threat of death. These characters are great and Leathers book is easily imaginable as a film if it werent so long. The final twist is a shocker seeing as the finale is brutal compared to the calm final pages and it generally comes as a shock when we realise that the story isnt over. My only fault with his writing is that it sometimes is too violent for certain readers to handle but my gran liked it and that isnt a bad thing. Keep up the good work Mr Leather!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some days, just getting out of bed is the first mistake, 21 Sep 2006
THE SOLITARY MAN incorporates two parallel plots, either of which could stand on its own, but which combined yield a sum greater than the parts.
The IRA has branched out into drug smuggling - so long as the goods don't come home to Ireland. One of the lads, Ray Harrigan, is arrested in Thailand and thrown into prison to rot. The IRA wants its boyo freed and impresses that fact on Billy Winter, the organizer of the drug deal gone sour. If Billy wants to live, he's got to conjure Ray's escape.
Tim Carver is the DEA's local rep in Bangkok. His boss, the number two man in the agency, Jake Gregory, is under pressure from the U.S. Vice-President to bring down one of the most successful and ruthless drug lords in the Golden Triangle, Zhou Yuanyi. It was Zhou that sent to the States the heroin that killed the Veep's son. Now, Jake orders Tim to locate the elusive Zhou and his jungle headquarters preparatory to a reprisal strike.
The problems facing both Winter and Carver ultimately put Warren Hastings between two rocks and a hard place.
Seven years previous, Chris Hutchinson made a daring escape out of Her Majesty's maximum security prison at Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, in the process of which it looked to the authorities as if Hutch had died. But Chris, with a new identity as Hastings, has built a new life and a successful dog training business in Hong Kong. One day, a fellow prisoner pal from Parkhurst, Winter, shows up seeking a favor; he wants escape artist Hutch to spring Harrigan from the Thai hell hole known as Klong Prem prison - a real place nicknamed the "Bangkok Hilton". (And Hutch, old mate, it's nothing personal, you understand, but, if you don't cooperate, your son back in the UK might come to some hurt.) Then, Carver shows up and offers Hutch a deal he dare not refuse. Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.
And then, just as his life couldn't get more complicated, Warren's head kennel maid in his doggie biz, Chau-ling, who secretly loves her boss and whose Dad is one of the richest and most powerful men in Hong Kong, decides to stick her nose in. Now make that Hastings between three rocks and a hard place.
THE SOLITARY MAN is one of Stephen Leather's best offerings because of his skillful intertwining of the various subplots. The author also provides one of the best descriptions of life inside a Thai prison that I've ever read. (Ok, ok, so it's the only one that I've ever come across, but it perhaps makes a Soviet-era Siberian gulag look like a holiday camp in comparison - at least the latter provided a lot of fresh air and outdoor exercise.) Via email, Leather told me that he based his description on the personal experience of an acquaintance.
The high caliber of Stephen's thrillers is largely due to the author's on site research. An old Southeast Asia hand, Leather is currently off to Cambodia. Whatever new novel results, I'm in.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good!, 18 Dec 2000
By A Customer
This is the second Leather book I've read and it won't be the last. It is full of action and pace and is seemingly well-researched, despite parts of the novel being unbelievable.It doesn't take you long to side with Hutch, the main character, and you yearn for everything to work out for him. I won't give anything away, but a late twist or complication would have produced just that little bit extra to make this book truly sensational.
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