Chase: The Hunt for the Mute Poetess
Hamburg security consultant Enrique “Rique” Allmers bumps into a young woman in the local fish-market and quickly realises she’s in trouble. Pursued by two thugs, Rique manages to get the girl to safely, but there’s another problem – she is deaf. Enlisting the help of his team of experts, Rique sets out to discover what links the young woman to an infamous mafia boss, and exactly what it is the fugitive has in her possession that’s so important.
Translated from the original German by Richard Urmston, this is one of Thomas Dellenbusch’s theatre-of-the-mind novels that is intended to be read in the time it takes to watch a feature-length movie. It’s an interesting idea and works well as a relatively short read that has plenty of action and a bit of love-interest too.
The translation (and/or the editing) isn’t always perfect, but it’s a small criticism in what is an otherwise exciting caper with well-written action scenes. The hero’s security organisation is also intriguing and presumably sets things up for a series based on the same characters. I did get a little confused at one point when the team are working to crack a secret code in order to access the information everyone is after – it felt a little too complicated for the length of the book. But for the most part, this was an entertaining and pleasantly distracting read.
Colin Garrow 