Savage Lies - Peter Boland

Savage Lies is about an ex-SAS man who is dealing with his demons, when he stumbles upon a missing person case that leads him down a deep, deep rabbit hole.



John Savage has seen his fair share of trouble. He joined the SAS as a young man, aced all his training and served in the first Gulf War, where he was a hero and was honoured, but the things he saw there and the acts he carried out were the things that stayed with him. In Savage Lies, the sixty-odd year old is dealing with the grief of the loss of his daughter, the death of his wife and his own demons, which all add up to leave him in a dark place. Still a charismatic man of great expertise, he finds himself desperate for some inspiration after a flirtation with suicide. He meets Tracy by chance, who's daughter has been missing for about a year, and decides to take the case on himself, as a lone investigator - out of a sympathy for the mother and a need to give him a reason to keep going. However the case is not as straight forward as it first seems, and John finds himself in all sorts of danger and many sticky situations.

This is a stunning debut from Peter Boland. In a thriller like this, which is heavily plot orientated, there needs to be twists and turns and red herrings all over the place to give the reader what they want - and they are here in spades. The story ticks along at a racing pace, and to use a cliche, it becomes utterly un-put-downable. The 390 pages flew by, and I had a few nights where I planned to just read 10 pages or so and found myself gripped hours later trying to get to the next turn. Peter has come up with a really original idea here and to top it off it is topical. Politically, we are living in strained times, and this book has picked that up. The menace here is one that seems not too unlikely in the early 21st Century, and Peter has really channelled the fears of today into this book. I can't tell you more than that about the story without giving the game away, but I really felt like I was reading a current book, written by someone who has been keeping an eye on the zeitgeist of the time.

John Savage as a character is pretty good too. He's a likeable man who's military experience shows in his later life - not just in his demons but in his lifestyle too, and his ability to read almost every situation he's in. He quickly shows the reader just why he was a hero. But the best thing about him is his wit - he's always equipped with a sarcastic put down and conversationally he is also one step ahead of almost everyone he meets. 

The other thing I want to mention here is the humour. The narrative sneaks a lot of dark, and not so dark humour in throughout the book, but manages to keep things serious and the danger real. The humour is very British, with jokes about flat-pack furniture and how you should most certainly not park in a bus lane. It's dry humour at it's best, and it reminded me of Douglas Adams. It's a nice touch to see it in this sort of book, and the balance between seriousness and comedy is struck well - it never feels like the jokes are shoe-horned in.

The one and only criticism I would have about this book is that John Savage is so great in all the danger and menace he finds himself in, he seems almost super human. Even Jason Bourne gets stuck sometimes, but Savage seems to be able to get out of every situation - maybe it's his training. Nevertheless, this is only really a minor point, and it doesn't make the book boring or predictable. It gives the reader a chance to guess how he is going to find his way out this or that scrape.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I believe this is the first John Savage book and there is more to come - I will definitely be checking out the next one. It's criminal that it seems to be flying under everyone's radar when it really doesn't deserve to. I really think this is a contender to be included in the top 10 books I've read this year. It really is that good.

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