‘Last Days of the Condor’ by James Grady

Published by No Exit Press,
October 2015.
ISBN: 978-1-84344-586-9

Condor, real name Vin, is a retired Agent living in Washington D.C. not long released from a secure mental institution. He has regular visits from Home Security to make sure he is taking the medication prescribed for

him. Unknown to them he only takes half of each of the pills, just enough just enough to show up on the urine tests he has to have.

One day Vin comes home from working at the Library of Congress to find an Agent murdered and left crucified in his apartment. He just manages to escape before the body is discovered and so begins a frantic manhunt. He dons a disguise and together with another Agent, Faye, sets out to discover who is behind the killing. Plus, who is driving the white car seen outside his apartment? Even the Home Security people are puzzled.

Faye and Vin are attacked by five men and a woman at a railway station. They manage to disarm or kill them all and escape on bicycles. There follows a breathtaking chase and they narrowly escape with their lives before discovering who is responsible for the killing and who is so intent on preventing them from finding out.

It took me a while to get used to James Grady's way of staccato writing, but once I did I appreciated how it injected speed and fear into the narrative. A fast moving story with great insight into peoples' minds. I like the way he writes what is going through the various characters' minds, it makes them seem more real. The book ends in such a way that it leaves plenty of scope for a follow-up story involving a new branch of Security.

------

Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

James Grady was born 30 April 1949  in Shelby, Montana USA.  James went to  public schools and worked: as a grave digger, farm tractor jockey, rock picker, hay bucker, janitor, motion picture projectionist, and city road crew laborer – all before he graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in journalism. In 1971, he lucked into a job as a staff aide for the Constitutional Convention that rewrote Montana’s core document. Subsequently he worked as a juvenile delinquency analyst before leaving “the real world” to write fiction

http://www.jamesgrady.net

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf  (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.