Undiscovered Scotland

 

"The Janus Run" by Douglas Skelton is a fast-paced high body count thriller set in New York. It's one of those books you sit down to read; and then realise that several hours have slipped by without you noticing. This is a book that sinks its teeth into its readers like a Rottweiler and simply never lets go: the main difference being that this is an extremely enjoyable experience. The result is a book we'd unreservedly recommend to anyone looking to lose themselves between the covers of something entertainingly and violently escapist for a while.

We've encountered Douglas Skelton in the past, as an extremely good author of fast-paced high body count Tartan Noir set in Scotland. With "The Janus Run" the action has shifted from Glasgow to New York, but the approach is recognisable. So, in some ways, is the background and set up. Elements of "The Janus Run" will be familiar to anyone who has read Robert Ludlum's "Jason Bourne" novels or seen the films. An ex-US marine with some very special training and a past he's trying to forget; a secret organisation (in this case Janus rather than Medusa); the sense of being hunted by powerful yet unseen forces; and did we mention the body count? For us there are other echoes too. Who can remember "Three Days of the Condor", a 1975 film starring Robert Redford as a CIA officer being hunted across New York by his own organisation? Add in a good helping of the Mafia background familiar to anyone who watched any of the "Godfather" films, and you get a sense of the framework within which "The Janus Run" is set.

Fair enough, "The Janus Run" isn't based on the most original set of foundations we've ever encountered. But it really doesn't matter. The sense of familiarity is no drawback at all. Perhaps it allows us to immerse ourselves in the story even more quickly than might otherwise be the case. Coleman Lang is the man with the past he doesn't talk about. On the night he celebrates his divorce in the company of his girlfriend Gina, he wakes up to find her dead in his bed. In his locked apartment. Worse still, the hard-boiled police lieutenant on the case works out that Gina's death was the result of murder and not natural causes, and there can only be one suspect, Lang himself. This is no "whodunit", which is part of the reason we describe it as a thriller rather than a crime novel. The reader finds out early on who killed Gina, though not why. The fun comes in following Coleman Lang as he tries to find out why his girlfriend was killed, and whether her death had links with his own dark past; or with the mad Mafia hitman pursuing him; or with his vindictive ex-wife; or....