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Ordinary Thunderstorms

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"William Boyd seems singularly blessed with both an innate love of storytelling and the talent to render those stories in swift, confident prose." —The New York Times

From William Boyd, award-winning author of Brazzaville Beach and Restless, comes a stunning literary mystery about crime and punishment: Ordinary Thunderstorms. One of the most accomplished writers of our time, Boyd has written a profound and gripping novel about the fragility of social identity, the corruption at the heart of big business, and the secrets that lie hidden in the filthy underbelly of every city.

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 21, 2009
      Whitbread-winner Boyd (A Good Man in Africa
      ) ventures into thriller territory with this fast-paced Hitchcockian wrong-man whodunit. While in London interviewing for an academic posting, climatologist Adam Kindred, by chance, meets immunologist Philip Wang at a restaurant. When Wang leaves a folder full of papers behind, Adam tries to return them to Wang's flat only to find the man's bloody corpse—and to leave evidence of his visit all over. Fearful of pursuing police and a persistent hired assassin, Adam flees with Wang's papers and goes underground. Meanwhile, at Wang's pharmaceutical company, the CEO uncovers a coup brewing to oust him and rush to market the anti-allergy drug Wang hadn't yet finished testing and for which the missing papers are crucial data. The disparate story lines eventually weave a competently plotted tale of corporate and criminal skullduggery that bows under the weight of improbable coincidences and stock characters.

    • Booklist

      December 1, 2009
      The old adage no good deed goes unpunished certainly comes true for thirtysomething Adam Kindred, a climatologist visiting London for a job interview. Randomly choosing a small Italian restaurant for a quiet dinner after his interview, he strikes up an idle conversation with a solitary stranger eating at a nearby table. After the stranger leaves, Adam notices that he has left one of his file folders (containing his business card) at the table. Deciding to be a Good Samaritan, he takes the file to the strangers residence where his nightmare begins: he finds the man dying from a brutal knife wound, the apartment ransacked (evidently for the folder now in Adams possession), and the murderer still there. After Adam flees from the murder scene, the odds quickly turn against him as the police have implicated him in the killing, there is a reward for his capture, and the real murderer is after him. Relying only on his wits and the anonymity afforded by a large city, Adam goes underground (literally) and reinvents himself in order to survive. Even though this has been billed as a literary mystery by the publisher, it is recommended for thriller-genre readers rather than devotees of Oprah.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

    • Kirkus

      November 15, 2009
      Whitbread Award winner Boyd (Bamboo, 2007, etc.) employs thriller conventions to propel an intelligent, polished novel distinguished by full-bodied characterizations and understated social commentary.

      In London for a job interview after years of living in America, climatologist Adam Kindred chats briefly with a stranger in an Italian restaurant, then notices the man has left behind a folder. Extracting a business card, he heads for a Sloane Avenue apartment house, where he finds Dr. Philip Wang with a knife in his side. Wang dies after asking Adam to remove the knife, and the noise of an opening window and someone stepping inside sets him fleeing. Adam's reasons for not calling the police are fairly specious, but everything that follows is so compelling that readers won't care. Now wanted for murder, Adam goes deep underground, first setting up camp near the river, then finding refuge with a prostitute in a public-housing estate. Tough but not all bad, Mhouse is one in a cast of sharply depicted characters that also includes Ingram Fryzer, ailing CEO of the pharmaceutical company where Wang worked, which is just about to launch a new drug for asthma; Jonjo, a former soldier turned contract killer; policewoman Rita Nashe and her father, a cantankerous aging hippie; and Alfredo Rilke, sinister head of an international firm with a stake in Fryzer's company, which he intends to take over to reap the vast profits he foresees from the asthma drug. Boyd expertly juggles the action among these players to forward the nicely crafted plot, but the real interest lies in the way he expertly develops each individual character's emotions and personal history. The wonderfully ambiguous ending shows justice served through savvy exploitation of Internet social networks, a shareholder meeting and the sensation-hungry modern media. But the real bad guys go unpunished, and Jonjo remains free to threaten Adam's tentative happy ending.

      Fine entertainment, and even finer as a thoughtful exploration of the intersections of different people in a modern metropolis.

      (COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

    • Library Journal

      January 15, 2010
      In his ninth novel, award-winning British author Boyd ("Restless") seamlessly fuses a picaresque tale with the threatening storms of a thriller. Climatologist Adam Kindred, in London for a job interview, strikes up a dinner conversation with Dr. Philip Wang, director of a medical trial seeking a cure for childhood asthma. When Wang leaves behind his briefcase, Adam tracks him down, only to find that the doctor has just been murdered. With the killer still in the flat, Adam flees for his life, thus beginning his descent into London's underworld, where he will lose his identity, possessions, job, and reputation. Drawn inadvertently into a complex conspiracy involving pharmaceutical giants, he will need guile, tenacity, and the privileged information found in Wang's dossier to survive. On Adam's heels, Thames River cop Rita Nashe has her own family problems, as does Ingram Fryzer, a pharma CEO struggling to handle his disintegrating health while facing a furtive takeover of his company. VERDICT Not just for thriller fans, this engaging blend of trickery, danger, and human eccentricity will appeal to readers who enjoy not only John Grisham but also John Irving. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 10/15/09.]Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

      Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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