A Friend in Deed

A very timely political satire coming out as the type of action described in the novel are occurring in many countries. The treatment is on the order of "Gulliver's Travels" and later with "1984". The book is set in the present day U.K. as a new political party purporting to represent the will of the people rises to take a commanding position in Parliament. They quickly show their true colors which is the theme of the book.
Duncan Jones is a freelance political journalist also maintaining his own blog. We meet him as he loses his position as a weekly columnist for a major newspaper and has to turn himself into an investigative reporter. Popping up on his screen are the activities of the new political party which apparently bend the rules for themselves and their friends. Duncan traces various threads in both Moscow and the Ukraine traveling there several times to try and get to the bottom of various inconsistencies of the new party.
In the course of his investigations he meets a beautiful Ukrainian woman claiming to be working in England for MI5. He is arrested and serves jail time for disobeying a law which was recently passed basically doing away with free speech. Harper makes the point that the law was passed and people told that it is to keep the lid on crime in order to have it accepted. It obviously would lay the ground work for additional restrictions placed on the public and further solidify the power of the new party.
The novel is, and rightfully so, one to be pondered upon by citizens of many countries undergoing radical changes in their political structures. The point is made by the author that our time is possibly one that is conducive to major political change and the novel heralds the type of shifts that may come out of the uncertainties developed by these changes. Good read both from a literary point of view as well as as a political satire.

A man in a rut who needs one more good story, a beautiful Ukrainian girl, a political party sweeping a nation with radical new idea. One old friend, one he accidentally used and abused has recently allowed him back in her life. A strange, nerdy hacker... and... Phew! This one surely does earn the title of ripped from the headlines. A thriller indeed.

I have read a couple of books by this author now and I have really enjoyed reading them. I read the synopsis for 'A Friend In Deed' and it certainly did sound like my kind of read- a political and psychological thriller with a hint of conspiracy. It's a scary insight into an all too possible future. Anyway I grabbed a cup of tea and settled down to read. It was most certainly an interesting read, which I thoroughly enjoyed but more about that in a bit.
It didn't take me long at all to get into this book. In fact by the time I got to the end of the first few pages, I knew that I would find it extremely difficult to put the book down on one side for any length of time and so it proved to be. If I had to put the book down for any length of time then I would immediately look forward to being able to pick the book up again. I would pick the book up only intending to read a couple of chapters and fill in the odd half hour but I found that I would still be sat there reading over an hour and several chapters later. To say that this book was addictive reading seems like an understatement. I seemed to charge through this story but then I was so focused on the story that I lost all track of time.
'A Friend In Deed' is well written but then I find that to be the case with this author's books. He certainly knows how to draw you into the story. Once he has your attention, he will not let it go until the moment you close the back cover of the book. The author writes so realistically and uses such vivid descriptions that I really did feel as though I was part of the story myself. This book certainly put me off going into politics!!
Reading this book was like being on one heck of a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way. Whilst I was reading this book, there were times when I almost had to read through my fingers as I feared what was going to happen next. I had to give myself a little kick because I knew that if I wanted to learn how the story panned out then of course I had to keep reading.
In short, I did thoroughly enjoy reading 'A Friend In Deed' and I would definitely recommend it to other readers. I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future. This book certainly gave me an insight into the murky world of politics and it is certainly topical in that the story involves Russia. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

I enjoyed this book. Though it does start off slow, it pulls the reader in and you'll find you can't put it away. It is perhaps difficult to read in that it has similarity in actual events, so if you're looking for an escape from that, you won't find it here. But it's entertaining, and I loved the author's writing style.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy.

i liked Duncan as a character, I was glad to read this book as I really enjoyed reading it. I hope there is more in the series.