I really struggled with this book. I thought it was going to be brilliant but sadly I got bored.
Too cramped and a bit bland. I found my attention wandering. I didn't really get any feeling for the characters. It felt like a rather overlong newspaper article

I was pleasantly surprised by The Whistleblower, Robert Peston's first foray into fiction. The political thriller is a tough genre; too much detail and a book becomes dull, not enough and it fails to convince. Peston, however, manages to create a good yarn with a flawed hero, who is just horrid enough to believe as a big newspaper journalist and with enough morals intact to warm to.

The sleazy side of media is well covered, but there are enough reminders that not every reporter is without principles even if most of the occupants House of Commons are. The novel sits well in the current climate of politcal corruption and cash for favours, even though its historical setting is broadly speaking the Blair era.

It's not the most original book I've ever read - too many echoes of the BBC series State of Play and other films and books - but it's a decent read and a promising start.

The only real quibble I have is Peston's writing style, which needs a bit more finesse in terms of creativity. For example, describing a woman's outfit as "a blue silk blouse and brown leather trousers" is flat and dull, which is fine in a news report as a factual statement but doesn't sit well in a novel. Here we want a bit more to help us visualise her. What shade of blue - Tory or Manchester City? Thatcher pussycat bow or Duchess of Cambridge chic? Brown trousers like cowboy chaps or butter-soft sexy? I'm sure Peston will quickly up his game and I'll look forward to reading the next.

I have not read a political story before when the author is known to me via the media. I have not got a political bone in my body (I am afraid to admit) but I guessed it would be a good story again due to his profession and was not disappointed. Gil Peck in the story is a political journalist always looking for the next sensational story. He is in some ways a loner. His parents were very pushy and wanted him to succeed as his sister had who worked for the Treasury and she was the one who got him sorted enough to get to University. A driving force he could not ignore. On a night after work she was going home on her bicycle and was knocked off by a white van and it was a hit and run. She was in hospital in a coma with a brain injury and subsequently passed away leaving a husband and two young boys. Gil was unnerved by the accident as he knew his sister would not have gone through London without her helmet and he then decides to delve into this whatever and wherever it takes him. He is quite traumatised by the whole thing especially as they were estranged and he felt they never laid their issues at rest. He also felt very guilty about things he had written about his brother in law for a good story and did not spend enough time with his nephews. Guilt, guilt and more guilt. All this is happening in the middle of a General Election and he is trying to find out what happened to his sister and also keeping his presence felt at the paper with regard to the General Election. He finds out by a colleague of his sister things about the candidates who sets him on the right track to put the pieces together. I found the story interesting as far as the politics that are woven in. He eventually pieces all the dramas together and comes to terms with his loss which brings him closer to his father than he has been for years. I will read another novel by Robert Peston without hesitation.

A good storyline, however, a disappointing read.

Gil Peck’s sister, Clare, who works for Treasury, is killed when a lorry hits her bike. Her helmet had gone missing on the day and then suddenly reappeared shortly after the accident. Was she murdered?

We spend the next three hundred pages following Gil as he tries to uncover who would want her dead and for what reasons.

This book had the hallmarks of being a well-documented story by one of the UK’s best-known journalists however, there were so many points that annoyed me:

• The pages are littered with awful, unnecessary swear words. Maybe this is how journalists talk? Is this a true reflection on journalism? There are so many other words that could have replaced the profanities.

• The casual use of cocaine. Again, is this how journalists pass their time? I think there were only a few chapters that were not filled with expensive alcohol or cocaine intake.

• And now for my biggest beef……… Why choose an overfed White South African male as the chief villain? (Especially as the character seem to be based on a prominent Australian paper baron).

I persevered to the end of this novel, wondering why I bothered. Robert Peston should stick to presenting political reports on TV and books on facts rather than fiction.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

I am always a little cautious of novels written by non-novelists: although there are some highlights, many are distinctly disappointing!
I found this novel to be genuinely gripping, however... once I managed to get my head around the more technical aspects of pensions and taxation which was initially rather intimidating. Gil Peck was an intriguing protagonist: not immediately likeable and simultaneously very arrogant and very vulnerable as a Political Editor in the 1990s. I did like the neuroatypicality of his presentation - although it felt a little show-horned in, it was nice to see a successful and high functioning character with ADHD and OCD, and it did soften the drugs culture which I had originally been put off by.
The death of his somewhat estranged sister, and his slow reintegration with his splintered family was really rather tender and balanced out some of the more extreme and melodramatic moments of the thriller element. How and why did his sister die? Was it connected to the taxation chances she had proposed to the Chancellor? What nefarious elements are controlling the powerhouses of the country, Parliament and the media?
The finale of the novel was a little bit of a let down, and I'm not sure whether Peston has his eye on a series spinning off from this but it was a gripping and tender thriller, and I would be more than happy to read more from Gil Peck.

As expected, a cleverly observed and well written thriller,

The authors obvious knowledge on the subject has made this thriller believable and compulsive-I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

Read if you like thrillers.

Holy cats, Batman. The story's gripping, the characters are unlikable, but they feel real, and the writing is delicious.
More, more, more!

To be fair this is not my usual genre of reading but I chose to read it because the author is a respected journalist and political editor. It took me a few goes to get started at the first chapter is heavily bogged down with detailed description as he cycles in the West End of London. We then have several sentences describing putting the D lock on his bike. It’s about the worst start to a book I’ve seen. I did finally persevere and the level of descriptive prose reduces somewhat but the whole book is scattered with designer names as people’s clothes and accessories are described. It made me wonder if the author was getting some sort of sponsorship deal or free designer clothes for mention all these items.

The plot is based in 1997 and the rise of ‘Modern Labour’. A lot of the main characters are thinly disguised versions of Tony Blair and the main politicians of that era. Even a version of ‘The Priory’ addition rehab clinic appears called ‘The Minster’. Some of the language is shocking, although arguable of the era, and I wasn’t keen on the casual use of drugs by the main character, Gil Peck a journalist, which seemingly normalises drug use.

All in all this was not a book for me but thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Perhaps Robert Peston should stick to fact- based journalism rather than fiction. The plot of Whistleblower leans to heavily on major press stories of the past and, for those reasons, has too many predictable elements. Considering a lot of this book is based around dogged investigative journalism and talks of secret files, against the great and the good, held in vaults in Press Office Peston ending rings hollow. Clearly there is no way the villain's crime would go undetected and so the story falls somewhat flat.
As I stated at the outset it's best Peston stick to the day job.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I did enjoy this once I got into the book - It was a bit slow initially so do stick with it

It took me a little while to get into the story, told by Gil Peck, an ace reporter with a respected newspaper. His sister Clare, a high flying civil servant, has been killed in an accident. Gil thinks there are suspicious aspects to the accident. He takes us on a rollercoaster story of intrigue in the press and political world of the late nineties. The product placement was a bit annoying. There were lots of similarities to politicians of the era!

I nearly gave up on this book but I’m so glad I didn’t.

‘The Whistleblower’ is Robert Preston’s first novel and its set in 1997 just before a general election. The main character and narrator is Gil Peck, a political journalist whose sister, a senior civil servant, dies in a cycling incident.

The book starts with Gil ‘introducing’ himself via trying to get a scoop about the upcoming election and this is where I nearly got stuck. The main character seem unpleasantly immoral and as his background was also very close to what is known about Peston’s own background (and his sister survived a cycle accident), it all seemed seedy and pretty cynical.

But I did return to the novel, got into the meat of the narrative and then I couldn’t put it down.

Gil doesn’t think his sister’s accident was an accident and starts asking questions. His sister was pregnant but by whom? Gil didn’t see his sister’s last message to him ‘I need your help’ until she was dead and this guilt spurs him on to uncover the truth.

What Gil finds is dismissed as a desire of a bereaved brother who wants to blame someone for the death of his sister. But Gil persists . The final chapters are full of twists and turns as the real conspiracy is revealed via a series of heart stopping incidents. Who is friend and who is foe? The final decisive twist is shocking and thought provoking. But at the end, I liked and admired the character of Gil.

‘The Whistleblower’ reveals the power relationship between politicians, civil servants and media moguls which, as a former senior civil servant, I found thought provoking. Although set in the last century, it’s all very current. And Peston in his acknowledgements says he chose 1997 because he thinks that is the point when our political system began to change. But the book is more than just a political thriller. It also explores family dynamics and the relationship between a brother and a sister that had broken down.

I carried on thinking about this book for quite a while after I finished it. ‘The Whistleblower’ is a first novel, it’s not perfect but I enjoyed it. I hope there is more.

A big thank you to Net Galley UK and Bonnier Books UK for an ARC.

This is a difficult book to review. It has the bones of a really good thriller, with a decent plot, and an author who should be an excellent writer. But so much is submerged in a sea of unnecessary words, descriptions of every place and situation, and every minute action spelled out in great detail, it became very difficult to stay with it. Add to that the noms-de-plumes given to the very many real life characters, and trying to figure out who was who, and who was doing what to whom, my brain was whirling with the effort.
All of this means that the flow of the narrative is lost, and it becomes very stop/start, and difficult for this reader to follow. I feel that if it was pared down substantially it would become a much better novel, and be eminently more readable.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Full of twists and turns and political intrigue. Keeps you guessing from start to finish with some strong characters. Shows just how cut throat the world of politics can be and how big business will operate in attempts to control issues and protect their interests at all costs. Excellent political thriller and highly recommended.

Probably worth 4.5 stars. There’s much more to like about this book than I expected when it began with a host of rather clunky and obvious parallel characters to folk we were all familiar with in and around 1997. But I really enjoyed the story and never imagined a thriller involving Treasury officials and pension reform could be quite such a compelling read. I also loved the descriptions of parts of London I know well, regular references to designer label men’s clothes and a cluster of characters named after 1970s footballers: Deyna, Breitner, Rep, Muller ….

Well done Robert Peston for giving this a go. Already looking forward to the follow up. I’d vote for a story involving schools reform, plenty of good shirts and characters named after cricketers from the 1980s!

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for a fair review

Gil Peck is a respected political journalist working within Westminster. His sister, Claire, is a respected member of the Treasury team. However, Gil and Claire haven't spoken for 2 years after he wrote a news report using information provided by Claire's husband. Now Claire is dead. Knocked off her bicycle following a furious argument with the Chancellor. Gil smells a rat and wonders whether his sister had an accident or was silenced.

Gil sets about digging the dirt on what his sister had argued with the Chancellor about, but no one is saying anything and his editor and the newspaper owners have warned him off the case saying there is nothing to find...which just serves to make Gil more suspicious.

This had the makings of being thrilling and intriguing, but it falls short in my view. What twists there are are so well telegraphed that they don't come as a surprise at all. Gil finds himself in perilous situations and seems to get out of them in the most unlikely ways possible - bordering on the unbelievable.

I was hoping for a thrill ride that made me keen to keep reading but it just never gets going. Instead it snails along and things are revealed so slowly that I struggled not to skip ahead. I wanted more but just ended up being left wanting.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gil Peck a well renown political journalist for a respected national newspaper, gets embroiled in a tale of power and corruption .

Gil's sister Clare is a high flying member of the Treasury . Suddenly comes to grief whilst cycling in the City. Gil feels there is more than meets the eye in her demise. Gil ,who appears to be buddy buddy with all at the Palace of Westminster goes on the hunt as to his sisters last days and meetings that she attended. A general election is nearing and there is much in the wind of the usual nasty political fighting. Can Clare's "accident" have any ramifications in the election outcome?

This novel runs at a fast pace ,much surely be tongue in check stuff ,even with the wildest imagination our people in high places couldn't act like this , could they?
An enjoyable far fetched read ,good for a holiday read or long journey.

Robert Peston has made his name as an incisive journalist. A novelist, however, produces a vastly different craft, so I was intrigued whether this thriller, his first work of fiction, would deliver. I need not have worried, for The Whistleblower did. Set in London in 1997, Peston’s protagonist is political journalist Gil Peck who is the well-connected son of a former Labour Party advisor. When his sister, an equally well-connected civil servant, suddenly passes away, Peck sets out to discover what caused her death and is shocked to find that it may not have been an accident. Switching between portrayals of the Conservative government, the newspaper world and the Soho private members clubs, this is a fast-paced thriller that I devoured, despite the fact some chapters were overly crowded with information about the late 1990s. I will be interested to see what a second work of fiction by Peston will look like.
Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my posting of a review.

Excellent on the atmosphere and culture of 1990's London and Westminster. Good to get a view from an insider.

I do t normally read political thrillers however I was interested to read this especially because Robert Peston was the author.

I really enjoyed it, he obviously knows the political world and felt like I was reading a true story not a work of fiction.
Interesting