'...wry and witty, well observed, and fast paced.'

A big thank you to Rowena Hoseason of murdermayhemandmore.net for her review of Catalyst. It's interesting that both she and Jack Owen (see yesterday's blog) refer in their reviews to Emma Peel from The Avengers TV series. Maybe there was some subconscious tribute working there when I created the character, since I was in my formative years when I watched that highly original ground-breaking series in the 1960s!

Here is the Amazon review; a slightly longer review can be found at Rowena's site (above):

Catherine is a talented woman. Smart enough to be a biochemist. Beautiful enough to be a top-class catwalk model. Physically skilled and strong enough to free-climb a sleek city office block. Determined enough to avenge the financial ruin and deaths of her parents. Yup, she’s a thoroughly modern girl.

But Cat is also a wonderful throwback to Emma Peel of The Avengers TV series. Indeed, the whole atmosphere of Catalyst is resoundingly retro and it shares a lot of style with The Avengers and The Saint, and even the early Bond movies.  

Catalyst is not a pastiche nor a parody but feels instead like a loving tribute to the sensibilities and sly humour of those 1960s spy series. Yet it’s most definitely set in the 21st century and it doesn’t lampoon its influences so much as cherish them.

There’s a coherent plot to push the action along, one which touches on animal rights, science running amok, corporate abuses of the environment and human trafficking alongside good old-fashioned love, jealously, betrayal, intrigue and, of course, murder. The writing is straightforward and easy to follow, although occasionally it gets bogged down a little bit in everyday minutiae.

Author Nik Morton can deliver a gripping action set piece; the opening sequence involving Cat’s incredible climb is outright excellent and skilfully pulls the reader straight into the fray.

I particularly enjoyed: the role reversal which gleefully subverts gender stereotypes and sees the leading man tied helpless to railway track (yes, really), relying on the all-action heroine to come to his aid.

I was also intrigued by the police officers who follow Cat's path as it zigzags across the UK and onwards to Spain. One of them is known as ‘Inspector Mushroom’ because he only comes out after dark – can’t wait for that back-story to be explained in a future episode. In fact, he’s such an interesting character that he probably deserves a spin-off story all of his own.

Catalyst made for an enjoyable afternoon’s light-hearted entertainment. It’s wry and witty, well observed, and fast paced. The violence and intimate action all leans towards the delicate end of the scale so there’s nothing here to shock or horrify. Good, old fashioned fun, in fact. Steed would certainly approve.

Note: I was very pleased that Rowena picked up on the two NCA characters, Pointer and Basset, 'the dogs of law'. Yes, Pointer's strange origin is explained in the prologue of Catacomb!



Catalyst can be obtained from Amazon sites worldwide.

Writing – research - China

In much of my fiction set abroad, I tend to use places I’ve visited; not exclusively, simply because of course I haven’t earned enough royalties from my writing to afford it; besides, the world’s a big place.

The closest I’ve been to China is Hong Kong, visiting there while in the Royal Navy in 1968, long before it was handed over by the UK in 1997. It’s a fascinating country, with a rich history. Yes, there are human rights issues and a whole lot besides, but we in the West would be foolish to ignore this powerhouse.

Foolishly – or bravely – it depends on your point of view, I decided that in my third book in the ‘Avenging Cat’ series, Cataclysm, Catherine Vibrissae would go to Shanghai to face down her arch foe, Loup Malefice, since that’s where he was at the end of the second book, Catacomb.

Shanghai skyline - Wikipedia commons

Now, if you’re familiar with Cat, as opposed to having a familiar that is a cat, then you’ll know that she tends to bend the law in her obsessive vendetta against Malefice and his company Cerberus. However, her law ‘bending’ could land her in very hot water in China, I found. The list of capital offences (death penalty imposed) is quite lengthy, and probably has a serious deterrent effect on villainous goings-on.

In the extensive list of capital crimes, seven figure in Cataclysm – not all perpetrated by Cat, I might add!

For interest, here’s the list (thanks to Wikipedia), with the Cataclysm offences in bold:

Crimes against National Security

1. Treason
2. Separatism
3. Armed rebellion, rioting
4. Collaborating with the enemy
5. Spying or espionage
6. Selling state secrets
7. Providing material support to the enemy

Crimes against Public Security

8. Arson
9. Flooding (e.g., breaching dams, dikes or waterways)
10. Bombing
11. Spreading poisons
12. Spreading hazardous substances (e.g., radioactive, toxic, pathogenic)
13. Seriously endangering public safety, broadly construed
14. Sabotaging electricity
15. Sabotaging gas, fuel, petroleum, or other flammables or explosives
16. Hijacking aircraft
17. Illegal possession, transport, smuggling, or selling of explosives or firearms
18. Trafficking or smuggling nuclear materials
19. Illegally manufacturing, selling, transporting or storing hazardous materials
20. Theft of explosives or other dangerous material
21. Theft of firearms, ammunition or other dangerous material

Economic crimes

22. Production or sale of counterfeit medicine
23. Production or sale of hazardous food products
24. Smuggling weapons or ammunition
25. Smuggling nuclear material
26. Smuggling counterfeit money
27. Producing counterfeit money
28. Fraud

Crimes against the person

29. Intentional homicide
30. Intentional assault
31. Rape
32. Kidnapping
33. Human trafficking

Crimes against property

34. Robbery

Crimes against public order

35. Prison escape, jailbreaking
36. Raiding a prison
37. Smuggling, dealing, transporting or manufacturing drugs
38. Organized prostitution
39. Forced prostitution

Crimes against national defense

40. Sabotaging weapons, military installations, or military communications
41. Providing substandard weapons or military installations

Corruption and bribery

42. Embezzlement

Breach of duty by soldiers

44. Insubordination
45. Concealment or false reporting of military intelligence
46. Refusing to pass or falsely passing orders
47. Surrender
48. Hindering commanding officers or personnel on duty from performing their duty
49. Defection with aircraft or ships
50. Selling military secrets
51. Spreading false information reducing morale
52. Theft of military weaponry or supplies
53. Illegally selling or transferring military weaponry or supplies
54. Killing innocent inhabitants of war zones or plundering their property
55. Cowardice

Torn from the news – ‘human trafficking’

Slavery is still with us, over a hundred years after it was ‘abolished’. Human trafficking is one unpalatable aspect of this international crime. It provides one strand to the convoluted network run by el Jefe in my thriller Blood of the Dragon Trees published by Crooked Cat Publishing.

 The work to fight these gangs is never-ending, as this report from the Costa Blanca News dated 7 August, 2009 testifies.

 

Book excerpt:

Anton Belofsky was a Russian oligarch, who enjoyed life and shared his good fortune with the beautiful people. His lavish lifestyle meant that he always kept an eye out for more ways to make money. This was his eighth visit to Tenerife in a year and each time he’d been paid handsomely for his trouble. After the fourth time, Customs became suspicious and decided he must be a drug smuggler. They gave his luxury cruiser Mara a thorough going-over but found nothing, and in fact spent a great deal of time and money replacing damaged furniture and locks. Some of the male customs officers had been very apologetic, possibly because Anton surrounded himself with up to ten beautiful women. Anton suspected that they lingered over their searches so they could ogle the scantily-clad women longer. No matter, his merchandize was unharmed and vastly profitable.

            This journey was no exception. As the cruiser approached Santa Cruz, he lounged on the plush leather couch on the stern upper deck and spoke with a nasal twang into his handset. ‘Nicolai, I want to examine the merchandize one last time.’

            ‘Very good, sir.’

            Moments later, Sorina climbed up the steps and offered him a smile. Her small round face was angelic, while her diminutive figure was the complete opposite; the voluptuous curves hardly contained in the red bikini suggesting demonic passion. She sent his pulse racing. ‘Very good, my dear.’ She was Romanian and didn’t understand English, Spanish or Russian, but she nodded at his gentle tone. She walked a little unsteadily in her red high heels and sat in an ungainly manner on the couch next to him. ‘You probably require a little more decorum. But you’ll do.’

            Next stepped out Gayla, big boned yet slim, with angular hips and a thick moist mouth. She wore a green swimsuit that tantalized with its many cutaways, revealing pale flesh in unexpected places.

And so the parade went on – Elena, Ludmila, Annika, Dorotea, Sofia, Pia, Tena and Lia. Ten women – from Greece, Italy, Russia, Romania and Sweden – smuggled in on false papers to provide pleasure for men with money.

Ten expensive women.

            Surrounded by his merchandize, Anton chewed his thumbnail and his thin lower lip turned down. Well, nine expensive women, he allowed. He must save one for el Jefe, as usual.

            ‘Sir,’ said Nicolai on the intercom, ‘Customs have radioed – they want to come onboard when we get alongside.’

            Belofsky snickered. ‘I bet they do – just to get an eyeful of our pretty women!’

- Blood of the Dragon Trees, (pp25-26)

 

 

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