“Trust” is a thick book with a complex story, but, like many a ‘who done it’, it is thin reading. Easy to be critical, I know, especially when I read the book by Chris Hammer so avidly.
I finished the book and was mulling the story over in my head. Why did I feel dissatisfied? Normally I finish a book feeling a warm glow of satisfaction. I forget the months perhaps years that the author has devoted to the story and somehow credit myself for simply reading it over the course of a week or so.
But despite the volume, the complexity and all the sudden twists and turns of “Trust”, I still felt unsatisfied.
There is a unworldliness about crime thrillers even though they are clearly anchored in a very real and violent world. Perhaps it’s the jigsaw nature that starts to cloy as the last few pieces of the story are neatly slotted into place. Artificial! That’s the word I’m scrabbling for.
But what’s my beef? Of course a crime fiction will be artificial. In the real life reporting of crime, the stories are oh so messy. Foolish things done. Risky ventures that were miraculously successful. Real life crime is so often unbelievable but feels real while fictional crime may appear overly neat, too structured and unbelievable in a quite different way.
At the End of the Day 