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Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
The Coercion Game: Umbra Sumus, Book 1 is an international thriller written by Magnus Booth. Chris Lee hasn't seen his university friend, Anna Von de Pahl, for some years since they both were students at Cambridge. While he was freelancing as a fixer and problem solver, Anna had followed more traditional pursuits working for a family friend in the banking field. Chris was between jobs when she contacted him with a request for him to do a courier job for her, which involved picking up a rare book in London and delivering it to her in Macau. She arranged for them to meet in a cocktail bar there, but Chris was soon alerted to the dangers that seemed to be piling up around them. As they chatted and he became aware of her dissembling about the book, the other patrons of the restaurant appeared to be leaving on cue, and three men entered the premises. Anna ignored Chris' urgent request for caution and left the table, only to be confronted by one of the three men. Sensing danger, Chris was ready to take on the strangers, but as he did so Anna fled. After dispatching them, he followed her to her hotel, only to find her battered body. Now he's the prime suspect in her murder, and he's determined to find the real murderer and discover the secret of the book she died for.
Magnus Booth's international thriller, The Coercion Game: Umbra Sumus, Book 1, is deceptively smooth and quite easy to get thoroughly wrapped up in. Set in the late 1990s, amidst the turmoil surrounding the return of Hong Kong and Macau to mainland China, this story boasts an intricate and labyrinthine plot and the perfect noir hero to puzzle it out. Fans of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's literary thriller, The Dumas Club, and John Le Carre's Cold War novels will find their appetites teased and provoked by this work that captures the distinctly different genres of each and somehow blends them into something marvelous and magical. The setting in Macau is inspired, and I loved following Chris Lee as he chases the faintest of leads in his quest to avenge Anna's death and find the cache of gold that is at the heart of the mystery of the book. I read this book slowly and deliberately, not wanting to miss a thing as Chris works out codes, tests his mettle against a host of formidable opponents, and manages somehow to be world-weary and dynamic at the same time. The Coercion Game is a marvelous read filled with action, intrigue and mystery, and it's most highly recommended.
