The Hypnotist

Is this the state of modern thrillers? Okay, not so modern; it was published in 2009. Even so, for me it’s a good example of where they seem to have ended up: the literary equivalent of a three-hour binge-watch serial that’s six hours long.

Reading this – slogging through it, actually – I kept wondering whether any editor anywhere had done anything more to the text than run it through a spell-checker. There’s so much redundant information. And repetition. Instead of racing along, dragging the reader with it, it stops again and again to describe what we already know, or what we don’t need to know. Every plot point is hammered home relentlessly.

One example: at the climax, a boy’s trapped in a bus sinking into a freezing lake. Someone goes after him, but not before tying a rope around their waist. They save the boy, but can’t get out of the now underwater bus. Then, at the last moment, the rope works and they're pulled free. It’s a truly tense moment, with just the right amount of detail.

But a few pages later we’re treated to a flashback in which it’s explained how other characters saw what was happening, grabbed the rope, hauled on it frantically… We don’t need this. We already know they were saved and we made the link with the rope when it was happening earlier all by ourselves. That’s what made it exciting. Going back to tell us how it happened does nothing but drain any excitement and momentum straight down the plug hole.

I don’t often write negative reviews here but I’m sorry, this one really pissed me off.