I read the book at a difficult time. As an American who spends a lot of time in Scandinavia, I feel as though I have a different perspective from a lot of Americans who live in the USA full time. Outside the USA, the media coverage is very different, especially regarding political coverage and culture. It often feels quite surreal to see the things which are happening inside the USA and reading this book was often difficult and distressing for me personally. It is a very long book, which wouldn't normally be a problem (I like big books and I cannot lie), but this one did drag for me in places. I think my major problem was that, when I'm reading Lee Child, Barry Eisler, Brian Haig, and that crew, my suspension of disbelief allows me to read and process the fiction without being constantly yanked out of the narrative because it's too real. There also seemed to be somewhat more filler here than for a lot of political thrillers which tend to be more action and less cerebration.
There were some British idioms which made it into my eARC, but not many and I don't think they would present any problems in context for readers. They included 'sacked' for 'fired' and possibly one or two others, which I couldn't find again from my notes. There are several references to alt-right organizations (KKK, moral minority, hell's angels, and finally 'White-Headed Eagles', which I believe is fictive, but all too believable - I do -not- believe that it was a mistranslation). Otherwise, the translation (by Steve Schein) was, for me, seamless. I did read the original at release in Danish, and am shocked and dismayed by the current political landscape and the eerie prescient reflections ripped from the headlines today. I think it's brave (?) of Penguin and the author to release the book into the current climate. The language is R rated and I would say typical for the genre. There is murder, assassination, discussion of sexual assault and rape, miscarriage of justice, and the depressing inevitable tectonic grind of political extremism.
I was left with a feeling of inevitability and sadness and despair reading this book. Despite a solid denouement in the book, I just can't help feeling we aren't going to get anything remotely resembling a neat resolution in real life. Everything is changed and it certainly won't be much improved in my lifetime at least.
Three stars for depressing content, four stars for writing, rounded up for relevance.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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