This is the funniest book I've read in quite a while. It's a satire of the thriller genre so comically overblown I had to annoy Jo by reading bits out to her. Cleverly, Mariani employs the tropes while taking the piss out of them so it's also a very entertaining thriller in it's own right. Underlying the chain of preposterous coincidences that constitute the plot is an excellent structure. It opens with an old man ushering the hero with a thousand faces into the world of adventure, builds to Aristotle's mid-point reversal and then has Ibsen's gun go off in the third act. All so smoothly done that reading it is like swimming with the current. Mariani will probably never write a great novel. I don't think he'd bother trying. He's an entertainer and a consummate professional. Hope you enjoy it.

This book begins its journey on one of the pink benches.