Consequence: A Thriller by Eli Yance

Consequence: A Thriller by Eli Yance
Buy Consequence: A Thriller by Eli Yance at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Thrillers
Reviewer: Alex Merrick
Summary: Eli Yance weaves a dark tale of greed and ambition which he writes with a lot of enthusiasm and love for the thriller genre. It is an entertaining read; however, once finished, you are left yearning for a more satisfying novel.
Buy? No	Borrow? Maybe
Pages: 264	Date: November 2017
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1510704381
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Consequence: A Thriller by Eli Yance, is primarily about money, both the desire for and the lack of it. The main players are a pair of hitmen, a pair of con artists, and one millionaire family man. The story centres on a pivotal moment that throws these different characters together and then how their lives become catastrophically entangled. Yance weaves a compelling nihilistic tale of greed and ambition but it is never quite as enthralling as he believes it could be.

Yance attempts to illuminate the criminal underbelly of England. Most of the action takes place in an unnamed suburban town near London. Yance focuses mainly on the decrepit council estates, underpasses and pubs of a forgotten England, an England filled with alcoholic retirees and forgotten children consigned to oblivion. Starting with a gangland killing on a grey windy pier, the novel becomes more engrossed with the downtrodden and dire tone set at the beginning. Yance piles on the pain and heartache for these characters with such gusto you wonder what they did to hurt him in the first place.

The main characters in Consequence: A Thriller are run of the mill thriller clichés. His hitmen are amoral, his conmen want to be legitimate and the millionaire father is a workaholic who seldom sees his wife and daughter. Admittedly, all of these are tried and tested characters and they can work well with a good story or compelling dialogue. Yance's dialogue is at times fun and light-hearted, especially with the two conmen where their closeness does become apparent, and a short line about a particular conquest illustrates a good deal about their relationship. However, the dialogue does become amateurish. It appears Yance is trying to emulate Tarantino with witty irrelevant speech. One particular chapter is squandered with the conmen discussing which type of person should not be employed as a telemarketer. This hampered the pace just as the story began to engage.

Ask any reader and they'll tell you if a book's pace is off, it can disrupt the flow of a narrative and destroy what could have been a brilliant read; Consequence: A Thriller only really begins to become of note halfway through. Yance spends the first half of the novel setting the scene and building the characters. Once the main story begins, it flies by. It is tense and the conclusion is both fitting and fulfilling. The story eventually finds its rhythm and the beats hit their mark. It begins to feel like a brilliant thriller in the vein of Lee Child or Ian Rankin. It's just a shame it takes so long to gain its momentum.

Metaphors, when used precisely, can enrich a scene and make it more vibrant for the reader. Yance missed that memo, and uses metaphors to bulk out a scene. This leads to confusing images, such as describing a high rise as like a Picasso painting on Opium, or inappropriate use, such as the description of the blood and gore left on a wall as like paint on the canvas of a flamboyant artist. These metaphors remove the reader from the story and once the story picks up steam it destroys the pace.

Stephen King described his own works as the literary equivalent of a big mac and fries. I believe that quote is apt when describing Consequence: A Thriller by Eli Yance. It is an enjoyable novel that is over far too quickly and yet once finished you're left feeling both unsatisfied and hungry for something more substantial.

I'd like to thank Skyhorse Publishing for sending a review copy to The Bookbag.

If you enjoyed Consequence: A Thriller, you may also enjoy Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Exit Music by Ian Rankin.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Consequence: A Thriller by Eli Yance at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Consequence: A Thriller by Eli Yance at Amazon.com.

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