Target by Simon Kernick – Review

New Paperback Thriller Pits Detectives Against Sadistic Kidnapper

Nov 11, 2009

One of Britain's hottest new crime writers delivers another blast of relentless action in his eighth novel.

Simon Kernick is the master of the punchy premise. Take the ‘cop turned hitman’ (in The Business of Dying), or ‘guy wakes up next to dead girl’ (Severed), or ‘woman returns home to find daughter’s been kidnapped’ (Deadline).

He must collar a lot of readers in bookshops with these snappy pitches. Or perhaps the opening lines sometimes do the trick:

Stegs kept his expression neutral. ‘The dope. The drugs. The stuff we’re buying.’

However he does it, once he’s nabbed a crime fan there really is little chance of escape. Kernick knows how to keep readers mainlining on his stories with a skillful torrent of tricky characters, gangster violence and quite furious action.

Bestselling Thriller

Its made him one of the UK’s rising stars of crime fiction, with his novel Relentless becoming the country’s bestselling thriller of 2007.

This year has been a big one for 43-year-old from Oxfordshire. He has had two paperbacks reissued and a new novel just released in paperback – Target.

The premise? Guy picks up woman in pub only to witness her being kidnapped when he’s in the bathroom.

Psychotic Hitman

Rob Fallon narrowly escapes the kidnappers, nearly having his throat slit during the chase. He then has to convince cynical detective (and recurring Kernick character) Tina Boyd that he’s telling the truth while evading a sadistic, psychotic hitman.

Tina, a lonely, boozy but tough officer, senses that Fallon may be credible, despite the missing woman’s father saying she is on holiday and her flat appearing untouched.

Kernick regulars including Detective Inspector Mike Bolt and his colleague Mo, along with the crime world guvnor Paul Wise, all reappear and the first half of the novel is as compulsively captivating as the author’s fans could hope.

Talking to Special Branch and SOCA

While Rob Fallon wants to risk his life to belatedly help the young woman he abandoned and Tina’s instincts are that he is in danger, Tina’s boss is unconvinced and doesn’t want to devote resources to a wild goose chase.

Mike Bolt gives advice to Tina, who he secretly fancies, on how to quietly check out Fallon’s story, but he eventually realises there is a conspiracy underway and that Fallon – and maybe Tina – have been pulled into it.

The author’s trademark is the use he makes of contacts he has in the police and security services, including Special Branch and SOCA (Serious and Organised Crime Agency). This imbues his bruising stories with convincing detail, such as the use mobile phones can be put to in bugging premises or tracking people.

Spectacular Ending

Target hurtles to a spectacular end, but does not have the rogue’s line-up of immoral, fascinating detectives, such as Dennis Milne or Stegs Jenner, that Kernick treated readers to in past novels. This is a straight race against time, goodies vs baddies story that lacks the rough and dirty manoeuvrings of The Business of Dying or The Crime Trade.

It also stretches credibility at times. The hitman is repellent, but it’s hard to believe a top international hired gun would indiscreetly shoot or stab just about every single character he encounters (though he lets Rob go free at one point with a warning!). And poor old Tina Boyd is submitted to near Tom and Jerry levels of abuse and violence (no wonder she hits the bottle).

Tender Note

Other niggles include the kidnapped woman, Jenny, telling Rob she has been on a business trip when she is in fact unemployed, and Rob deciding not to tell Tina his friend Ramon has been murdered in front of him because he doesn’t think she will believe him. At time it feels as though Kernick is so caught in the pulverising narrative that he can’t break off to resolve the occasional moments that jar.

The book does finish on a tender note, which shows that Kernick retains a feel for the emotional side of his hard-bitten characters when he takes his foot off the all-action pedal.

Devotees only have until January to get their breath back, however. That’s when his new thriller will hit the shelves.

Premise – undercover cop Sean Egan is found in a room full of stiffs and has a terrifying story to tell…

The copyright of the article Target by Simon Kernick – Review in Thriller Fiction is owned by Robin Jarossi. Permission to republish Target by Simon Kernick – Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.