Julie's Review: The Distance

Author: Helen Giltrow
Series: None
Publication Date: September 9, 2014
Publisher: Doubleday
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher via SheReads.org
Genre:  Thriller
Rating: 3.5/5
Bottom Line: Those who love roller coaster rides will surely enjoy
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Charlotte Alton is an elegant socialite. But behind the locked doors of her sleek, high-security apartment in London's Docklands, she becomes Karla. Karla's business is information. Specifically, making it disappear. She's the unseen figure who, for a commanding price, will cover a criminal's tracks. A perfectionist, she's only made one slip in her career—several years ago she revealed her face to a man named Simon Johanssen, an ex-special forces sniper turned killer-for-hire. After a mob hit went horrifically wrong, Johanssen needed to disappear, and Karla helped him. He became a regular client, and then, one day, she stepped out of the shadows for reasons unclear to even herself. Now, after a long absence, Johanssen has resurfaced with a job, and he needs Karla's help again. The job is to take out an inmate—a woman—inside an experimental prison colony. But there's no record the target ever existed. That's not the only problem: the criminal boss from whom Johanssen has been hiding is incarcerated there. That doesn't stop him. It's Karla's job to get him out alive, and to do that she must uncover the truth. Who is this woman? Who wants her dead? Is the job a trap for Johanssen or for her? But every door she opens is a false one, and she's getting desperate to protect a man—a killer—to whom she's inexplicably drawn. Written in stylish, sophisticated prose, The Distance is a tense and satisfying debut in which every character, both criminal and law-abiding, wears two faces, and everyone is playing a double game. ~amazon.com

Review: The Distance is an intriguing novel and totally up my alley but for the beginning of the novel, I was in a heavy London fog. There is a lot going on to establish the characters and the pace of the plot. This one pretty much shoots out of the gate and doesn't stop until you get to the finish line.

What I liked about this novel was that as a reader you were never truly sure who was good and who was bad. They are all pretty much different shades of grey. I think that makes the situations throughout this one that much more intriguing. The most mysterious of them all is Charlotte/Karla. We learn things about her but pretty much only that she wants to reveal. I have a feeling there is much more to her than we learn. Who is Johanssen? What is this connection that he has to and with Karla?

What is The Program? Why is the man running it, Quinlan, after Johanssen? Who is the mysterious client that has hired Johanssen to go after someone in the program? Will Johanssen be able to complete the task? Is Karla going to be able to manage him from the "outside"?

These are all things that make you keep turning the pages. How do the pieces of the puzzle all work together? How does Powell fit into all of this?

The Distance would make a great television series. It would be the kind that would hook you and then leave you with a cliffhanger wanting more. It's definitely the type of thing that I would definitely tune into.  I also think that there is definitely a series in here as well.

For those who like thrillers and those with a spy bent, then this one is for you.


Google+