Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The Loyal Servant: Eva Hudson


This book is a political thriller, not the type that I usually consider my first choice. I initially decided to read this book because it had a strong woman as protagonist. The setting is present day London, also a plus.

This book grabbed me and held my interest from the beginning. Unfortunately, I had to read it in too many chunks, and toward the end I stayed up too late to finish the book because I had to know how it ended. For a first novel, I thought it was very well done.

There are actually several strong women characters, but Caroline Barber and her family are definitely the focus of the book. Caroline has a job in the Ministry of Education and has access to sensitive data. She becomes a whistleblower for a government cover-up due to her strongly-held convictions. The story makes the reader ask questions about how much we owe to others, and how much we should risk to right wrongs.

My one quibble with the story, about midway through the book, was why the author was not providing more background on Carolyn's children and why Carolyn was not paying more attention to what is going on in her own household. Later, I decided that some answers are provided, and to a certain extent, the reader is left to decide this on their own.

I will admit that the very thrillerish ending seemed unrealistic. But to me, all thriller endings are unrealistic. I think it would make a great movie. Don’t want to say more than that. Regardless, I was enthralled to the end.

I discovered this book through Sarah at crimepieces, who recently reviewed the next in the series at her blog. Her review of this book is here.

This is the second e-book I have read this year. Still not loving the experience, but very glad we got the Kindle.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tracy - Thanks for the reminder to read this book. I was interested in it too after Sarah's review and you've made me want to read it even more. And about the Kindle? Honestly it didn't take long for me to get used to mind and now I wouldn't be without it.

TracyK said...

I enjoyed the read, Margot. Plan to read the 2nd by this author in the next month or so.

Sarah said...

Thanks Tracy for the link to the review. Glad you enjoyed the book. I know what you mean about the kindle. It doesn't really inspire me either but some books just aren't available in any other format.

TracyK said...

I am really glad your review pointed me to this author. I never would have discovered her on my own.