3 out of 4 stars
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Hitchcockian thriller Fortitude by Paul McParland is a quick, entertaining read, and not just because it’s fast-paced.
Jack Sheraton goes out for a night at the theater, only to have a man say the word “fortitude” to him before collapsing in his lap. Unfortunately for Jack, this man has a knife in his back and is identified as Karl Schmidt, a German diplomat in London on important business. Accused of murdering Schmidt, Jack is forced to run for it. He seeks help from Elsie, an old friend, and Thomas Whale, a reporter. With their aid, Jack must not only prove his innocence but also find out who murdered Schmidt to prevent an international incident.
This book hits the ground running, a bit literally, and keeps up the pace until the end. There’s definitely the feel of a classic mystery novel here. The humor and situations fondly reminded me a bit of Raymond Chandler. I couldn’t help but like the characters and their hijinks. At times, they felt a bit one-dimensional—Elsie, especially, as the beautiful and innocent friend of the hero—but even so, I still liked them.
Events unfold very quickly, sometimes almost a bit too quickly. More than once, I was left wondering how characters knew something or where they got their information. In some of these situations, it felt as if they were bestowed with divine knowledge from the author, who needed them to know something in order to move the story forward. For example, there is a key to a safety deposit at an unidentified bank that’s associated with Schmidt’s murder. Jack and his coconspirators go to several banks with no luck. They decide to try a private bank and hatch an elaborate plan to break in, without even knowing if it’s the place they’re looking for. This type of thing left me shaking my head, but the characters inevitably got me giggling and not caring about the confusion.
Aside from the main characters, we are treated to the thoughts of various other people throughout the story. There are little asides into the minds of characters who are unrelated to the larger plot and whom we never see again. This disrupted my reading experience the first time or two it happened. By the third, I realized this was part of the writing style and found it less jarring. If you are the type of reader who finds this type of thing disruptive in large amounts, you may wish to avoid this book, even if some of the asides are quite humorous.
There’s also a bit of hopping between perspectives without warning. This did jar me throughout, more because I wasn’t sure when it happened. I’d be reading along and then suddenly have no idea why a character was having such odd thoughts. I’d go back and discover we were with a different character. It took me a bit to regain my reading momentum after these incidents, but once I did, things flowed smoothly.
I rate Fortitude 3 out of 4 stars. Many of the things that bugged me while reading are subjective—the head hopping and asides, in particular. I am unable to give the book 4 stars due to a multitude of grammar and spelling errors, as well as missing or repeated words throughout. Despite the issues I’ve mentioned, the characters were too endearing to rate this 2 stars. Fair warning, the Hitchcockian ending is in full swing, so if that’s not something you like, I suggest skipping this one. Otherwise, I recommend this for Hitchcock fans, as well as those who enjoy a fast-paced and fun mystery-thriller.
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Fortitude
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