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THE RADICALS
By Alan M. Brooker
Pulsar Books 1-58697-0518
E-Book
$4.95I am a big fan of over-the-top adventure stories. The Radicals seems to have all the right things going for it: truly bad villains, a mysterious hero, and a global playground.
Al Brookes lives in New Zealand with his wife and adoptive daughter who he recently freed from slave trade in the Middle East. While on a fishing trip Al stumbles upon a series of murders. A gang of drug dealers have been kidnapping women and leaving headless corpse in their tail-trail. One thing leads to another, and Al Brookes is on a wide adventure pitted against his old enemy named Titoki who leads a primitive cult of savages whom rape woman and want to enslave the white man. Al Brookes plays one game after another, spanning out to the illegal drug drops on ocean liners and finally ending in Italy where he must save his wife and daughter who are sold off to brothels.
Sounds like a wild time, right?
I felt disappointed.
The major problem I have with this book is the action of the story. I expected moments of suspense or thrilling sequences of heroism, but all the major points of action were glossed over. Instead of dragging out the scene where Al Brookes rescues the girls from the chicken farm owned by the bad guys, Mr. Brooker chose to do it without conflict. Why? Just so he can move onto the next point of the story?
This style of writing also takes away the mystery of the novel. There is no journey of discovery to follow. Everything is fed to you, instead of giving you a little at a time. Reading Mr. Brooker's bio I discovered that he had a career in journalism. There is a major 'just the facts ma'am' happening here.
But the characters are good, right?
Sorry. They seemed somewhat mediocre to say the least. They spoke too much information and they revealed nothing likable to me. Well, that's not all together true. There was a great comradely between Al Brookes and the Inspector, but that only moves through the first three quarters of the book.
The only character with any potential is the Grace character in the beginning of the story. You see, she is a mousy deputy on the force who hides her sexuality behind her uniform, and then she has to go undercover with Al and wear skimpy outfits. It is a new experience for Grace. In fact, I think it is new for the author as well. He mentions Grace's breasts constantly. It might have something to do with the plot.
There are some great moments involving gore and violence. There is one part where they find an undercover agent who is missing. The bad guys used a smoldering iron on his penis and scrotum.
The ending tries to be disturbing, like, to make you really 'feel', but because the characters are so one dimensional, there is no feeling.
By the end of the book, I felt lost. Maybe it is too complex for me, but I kept wondering how the story reached the destinations it reached and why it got there.
Review by Mike Purfield
Critical Raves for Mike Purfield's "Dirty Boots."
"If you're looking for a good read, something you've never experienced before, then this is the book for you." Paul Kane of Terror Tales.
Rated 3 out of 4 by Unhinged Magazine.
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