Risk | Reading between Pages..

Risk by Colin Harrison

Posted on July 25, 2012 by kavyen

The Book:

Source for ‘The Book’ section : From Goodreads

An honest lawyer, a Czech hand model, and a box of mysterious Christmas ornaments, each play their part in Harrison’s intricate mystery.

George Young never thought of himself as a detective, but that’s pretty much his vocation–an attorney for a top insurance firm, it’s his job to pin down suspicious claims. But Mrs. Corbett, the rich, eccentric wife of the firm’s founder, has it in mind to put George’s skills to a peculiar assignment. With only a few months to live, her one desire is to know the true circumstance of her son Roger’s violent death. George’s investigation leads him to Roger’s mistress, a cagy Czech hand model named Eliska, whose motives for latching on to Mrs. Corbett’s son may have gotten him killed. Set against a brilliantly drawn Manhattan, at once volatile and vivid, Risk is prime Colin Harrison.

The View:

It is amazing how I discover authors every day even after so many years of reading. What is even more amazing is with each new author; I also discover a new thing about myself and my reading passions. “Risk” as you must have guessed is the first book I read by Colin Harrison. I wanted to like this book so bad as it was recommended to me by my librarian and the biggest surprise of all was that I actually did land up liking the book.

George Young’s ex-boss’s wife wants him to help find out how her son died. It is almost obvious that his death was an accident but she is determined to find out more. George decides to take the case as he feels he owes her that but is soon sucked into a much bigger and dangerous case. The Czech hand model and the Christmas ornaments played a huge part in defining the plot. Obviously her Russian boyfriend was just an addition in the picture and I was left with an unanswered question – “Was he even real”. I liked the way the story ended but I felt it did not answer a lot of questions related to the other characters.

The character development was shabby but that could be easily forgiven as this is a short novel of only 170+ pages. George Young was average and his case solving techniques alternated from being average to super smart. I liked how he dealt with the Russians when he gave them the Christmas ornaments and managed to get what he wanted in return. The most interesting character in the book for me was George’s wife. She seemed to be a highly intelligent women and handled many scenarios in the most commendable way possible. I only wished that we got to see a lot more of her.

I enjoyed reading this book tremendously. There were not as many twists or diversions as I would have liked but it definitely kept me glued. Rated a 4 on 5 and there is no doubt that I would be reading more books by Colin Harrison.

kavyen