Scarcrow

I thought I had read them all. After Dan Brown's Angels & Demons spoilt my tastes (in a good way) for good, real-time, suspense, thriller-mystery novels, Matthew Reilly comes along and decides to shatter that record and take it one notch higher.

Scarcrow is an action-paced adventure thriller novel which is a continuous roller coaster ride that won't stop. And believe me, I've been on most of the extreme roller coaster rides there are! The story starts with an aristocratic conglomerate who hire international bounty hunters and put a price to hunt down 15 people's heads (literally), most of them SAS, SEAL, Delta Force, MI6, and eliminate them by noon of a certain day. After eliminating them, they'll be able to carry out their plan for global war.

Enter Captain Shane "Scarcrow" Schofield, the new action commander, who is on the hit-list and has to keep his head on in and around Europe to track down who his bounty hunters are, who hired them, and why. There are several surprising turns in the story that tell you that nobody is safe and that anyone can die. That's what makes the story so believeable.

Matthew Reilly's 5th novel is written almost like an action movie, with nail-biting dog-fights, and car chases that leave you at the edge of your seat and guessing the outcome. Oh, and there's the interesting use of a mountain climbing piton I've never heard of. It has the distinctive writing style of this Australian writer who is only 31. I've yet to read his other novels, but I've just gotten Seven Ancient Wonders, his latest novel and will be starting on that soon!

9 out of 10