Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite

It’s always a pleasure to discover an author whose writing style intrigues me, whose characters capture my imagination, and whose plot keeps me glued to the pages. My latest discovery is an Australian, Ged Gillmore, and his novel, The Lightning Rod - one unique and satisfying experience. The novel opens with a bang as a frightened blonde, Anna, nervously awaits an Uber. Once inside, the passenger sharing the back seat with her dies. His sudden inexplicable death rattles her badly. Conversely, what Bassam, the Uber driver, discovers inside the dead passenger’s bags could be his ticket to a better life. His decision to find out lands him in the dangerous hands of Mendoza, a vicious drug lord. Enter Charlie, one tough female undercover cop intent on nailing Mendoza. Through Gillmore’s cleverly intricate plotting, Anna, Bassam, and Charlie ultimately find themselves thrown together on Mendoza’s remote island getaway. Possible death lurks at every turn. Will they be able to get away with their lives? Oddly, why doesn’t Anna even want to escape? With plot twists happening at lightning speed, there is little time for anything but to keep turning the pages of The Lightning Rod.

What I found so intriguing about Gillmore’s writing is how he managed to hold my attention, made his characters come alive, and kept the pace swift when his writing is primarily narrative. A large amount of narrative usually slows the pace; creating realistic characters is hard without lots of dialogue, and holding a reader’s attention with pages and pages of narrative is very difficult for many writers. But none of that is the case with Ged Gillmore. Adding to his considerable skill is the fact that he has written this novel in the present tense…anything but easy. No wonder that in 2018, Ged Gillmore was in the running for the Best Crime Novel in Australia’s Ned Kelly Awards. Perhaps The Lightning Rod will win Gillmore that award in 2022. He deserves it.