Customer Reviews
lacks substance - By: An avid reader, 06 Nov 2008 
In the hands of another author (Ian Rankin sprang to mind) this decent idea could, with a bit more development, been made into a good book. In the hands of Kernick however it's an opportunity wasted.
The problems are many, firstly the characters - the main protagonist (Tom) lost alll sympathy by his illogical, unbelievable & rather strange actions throughout the book (why not calll the police after the first phone calll? why run from the police station? why lie to anyone who tries to help?) personallly I couldnt help but feel he deserved what happened to him, he certainly could have done more to help himself.
It's virtuallly impossible to have sympathy with his wife (young kids, recently married yet lies to her husband, has affairs with her husbands best man & her own lesbian colleague, gets people killed with her irresponsible behaviour) - & Tom wants her back?!?
The main villain (Lench....wasn't he one of the Bash Street Kids?) is a real missed opportunity - hired killer, Bosnian war veteran wanted for war crimes - he has the potential to be a genuinely terrifying bad guy - but is left sadly under developed (any why is his background only revealed at the end of the book, when he's dead? it would have been better to develop Lench with this info throughout the book - it would have added some (much needed) extra tension.
There is also a hugely underdeveloped back plot (they super rich business man who has hired Lench) which could have added a lot to the book but this is only mentioned a few times & there is no effort to develop it or bring it into the main story.
As for the end of the book, it left me strangely flat & uninterested, it's almost like the author has lost interest. The final fight scene is amateurish & almost completely without tension or surprise & the 'surprise' ending just left me feeling 'so what?'
The story could have been good but I couldn't help feeling that Kernick approached it from the wrong angle & left it underdeveloped - maybe he wasnt confident enough to beef out the story?
I think it would have been far better if the Bosnian angle & the super rich business man story lines had been more to the fore & the 'one man wronged' angle had been pushed slightly back.
Kernicks writing style doesnt endear either, it's rather basic & uninvolving - having said that this is an easy read & It did pass the time on a couple of days bus journeys to work, hence the 2 stars.
I will not be digging out any more books by the author however.
Good book, apart from the poor ending - By: Al, 30 Oct 2008 
This book has its faults but is a gripping read throughout. The title "relentless" sums up the pace of the book - there are no lulls or pages of waffle to get the page-count up that spoil so many books these days. The pace means that the holes in the plot go largely unnoticed; it's only on reading some of the negative reviews on here that I have spotted them, so your enjoyment probably depends largely on whether you get caught up in the story early on.
The let-down for me was the ending. The whole premise of this book, & its big mystery, as described on the back cover, is that the central character receives a phone calll from an old friend who is apparently being tortured, which sets of the whole string of events that make up the story. We never find out why that calll was made & why his friend implicated the central character in his problems. Quite frustrating when a book doesn't solve its biggest mystery at the end.
I also notice that one of Simon Kernick's earlier books - The Crime Trade - centres on two characters who feature in Relentless. It just makes me wonder if Relentless is the sequel to that book, & if it is better to read Crime Trade first. This is not obvious from the publisher's notes on these books.
Lacks substance - By: , 29 Oct 2008 In the hands of another author (Ian Rankin sprang to mind) this decent idea could, with a bit more development, been made into a good book. In the hands of Kernick however it's an opportunity wasted.
The problems are many, firstly the characters - the main protagonist (Tom) lost alll sympathy by his illogical, unbelievable & rather strange actions throughout the book (why not calll the police after the first phone calll? why run from the police station? why lie to anyone who tries to help?) personallly I couldnt help but feel he deserved what happened to him, he certainly could have done more to help himself.
It's virtuallly impossible to have sympathy with his wife (young kids, recently married yet lies to her husband, has affairs with her husbands best man & her own lesbian colleague, gets people killed with her irresponsible behaviour) - & Tom wants her back?!?
The main villain (Lench....wasn't he one of the Bash Street Kids?) is a real missed opportunity - hired killer, Bosnian war veteran wanted for war crimes - he has the potential to be a genuinely terrifying bad guy - but is left sadly under developed (any why is his background only revealed at the end of the book, when he's dead? it would have been better to develop Lench with this info throughout the book - it would have added some (much needed) extra tension.
There is also a hugely underdeveloped back plot (they super rich business man who has hired Lench) which could have added a lot to the book but this is only mentioned a few times & there is no effort to develop it or bring it into the main story.
As for the end of the book, it left me strangely flat & uninterested, it's almost like the author has lost interest. The final fight scene is amateurish & almost completely without tension or surprise & the 'surprise' ending just left me feeling 'so what?'
The story could have been good but I couldn't help feeling that Kernick approached it from the wrong angle & left it underdeveloped - maybe he wasnt confident enough to beef out the story?
I think it would have been far better if the Bosnian angle & the super rich business man story lines had been more to the fore & the 'one man wronged' angle had been pushed slightly back.
Kernicks writing style doesnt endear either, it's rather basic & uninvolving - having said that this is an easy read & It did pass the time on a couple of days bus journeys to work, hence the 2 stars.
I will not be digging out any more books by the author however.
Excellent book - a tense thriller - By: Kls Kaminski, 14 Oct 2008 
I thought this book was superb - BUT I was looking for something which was easy to read & kept my attention.
If you are looking for something with character development, intellectual prose & depth, this is not the book for you ... but then it is obvious from the cover what you should expect.
I was completely drawn into the situation in the book, did not want to put it down & went on to read 4 other of Simon's books. This is the best of them so far - & the others are great too! There are plenty of surprises alll the way through the book - it keeps you hooked.
One of the best page-turners around!
relentless - By: J. Jefferies, 10 Aug 2008 Absolute page turner. I am at that age when I want to be entertained & although there are a few bits that maybe one could knock a hole in it is a fast thrilling read. I didn't have time to be critical - the book lifts you up & sprints to the end. There are very few books that can do that & I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone - especiallly those who don't like reading much. I defy anyone not to be caught up in the excitement. I read til I finished it at 5am & still couldn't sleep because my heart rate was through the roof!
