SOJALS rating:

Very good (3/5)

I first read this on the 25th September 2011 and most recently on the 17th June 2012

Hollis Henry, ex band member of The Curfew, is once again working for Hubertus Bigend. She in association with Milgrim, now in recovery, is on the search for denim, a particular, very specific design of denim clothesware.

As the back cover says this is a brilliant thriller about the hidden webs and patterns that underlie the new now. Notice it doesn't say it's a brilliant science fiction thriller. It's so well written and with lovely precision of observation, emotion and language but it's not Science Fiction. It leads to a carefully engineered and quite entertaining denouement including a well-planned caper and there's potential for some serious fighting with some cool weaponry but, no, it's not science fiction.

I suppose I could have predicted that since "Pattern Recognition" was similarly not of my favoured genre. Indeed it does follows on from "Pattern Recognition". Hold on a minute. Well, yes, it does follow on from "Pattern Recognition" but it follows on rather more directly from "Spook Country" about which I had completely forgotten. Indeed it features many of the same characters (and if I'd remembered "Spook Country" at all I'd have spotted that when I started reading the novel, rather as I was finishing).

All my minor carping aside, it is an absolutely lovely book. What an astoundingly skilful writer Mr Gibson has become!