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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Madness of July by James Naughtie (view source)
Revision as of 14:41, 27 February 2014
, 14:41, 27 February 2014no edit summary
|reviewer=Ani Johnson
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=BBC Radio 4's Jim Naughtie proves he's as good at writing novels as he is at journalism and broadcasting and that IS good! Twisted, Machiavellian and well-plotted, his debut thriller mixes a [[:Category:John Le le Carre|Le le Carre-type]] panache with a dash of ''House of Cards''.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
The novel takes place over a long weekend in a month when there isn't usually much going on in Parliament as it slowly winds down towards the summer recess. However, we fall right into the action on meeting Will as we're drawn into his life and increasing fears.
When I say 'action', I don't mean people running after each other shouting and shooting to a soundtrack of speeding sports cars. In ''The Madness'' Jim presents us with something that's a lot harder to pull off. Our compulsion to turn pages is fuelled by sheer intrigue as Will digs beneath the veneer of respectability on both sides of the Atlantic while he manipulates and is manipulated in a style reminiscent of [[:Category:John Le le Carre|John Le le Carre's]] best. The era helps a lot too.
We may not live in a transparent society now but the 1970s was a world in which Berlin is still divided, the Cold War is still pretty frigid and 'friends' is a euphemism for practitioners of espionage as well as a social designation. It's also the decade in which Mr N started work in political journalism so it probably sticks in his mind for those and many other reasons.
