HENRIETTA FOX is a paparazzo. A wild, flame-haired girl in biker’s boots and leathers, with an Irish temper. She rides a Yamaha on the streets of London stalking celebrities for the tabloid gossip pages. When a Chinese military plane explodes in a fireball before her camera, life for Henrietta Fox gets dangerous.Five reporters across Europe have been murdered, each with their exotic, lop-eared Sumxu cats. Animals considered extinct for 300 years. Only Henrietta Fox knows why - and that knowledge could kill her. To survive she must pursue a madman across China with partner CASS FARRADAY, an ex-Repton public schoolboy turned tabloid reporter with a devious line in interviews. Only they can prevent an Armageddon assault on Britain’s Air Traffic Control. Fail and half a million lives will be lost.

I’ve really got to stop doing this. “Doing what?” you ask. Well, I admit: I tend to judge books by their covers. And their weight. And publisher. And back cover copy. Arrrgh. But, but, but… who doesn’t? Is there anyone who literally doesn’t judge books on first glance/touch?

I received a copy of The Deadline Murders through LibraryThing’s Member Giveaway program. It came with a letter from the publisher, a couple of promo pages for additional books by the author, and a personalized autograph on the front page. This was good marketing, I thought, but what of the book itself? It didn’t have that ‘professional’ feel. It didn’t have that ‘professional’ look (though it looked much, much better than many small pub novels). I liked the image on the cover, but the title font stopped me. I also couldn’t believe the blurb on the front — an endorsement from Piers Morgan? Seriously? What the…?

I set the book aside. For months. Finally, I gave in and decided to fulfill my commitment to the author, and review his work. I didn’t expect to like it, and for the first 50 pages or so, I was rather bored.

But that was just for the first 50 pages. Surprisingly, around there, things started to pick up. I didn’t hate the main character quite so much (she seemed really pretentious, too pretentious to be likable at first), and the banter between the female and male leads became entertaining. The story itself picked up, and I spent the rest of an evening devouring the rest of the book.

To boil it down, The Deadline Murders is a mystery novel without the fancy technology, gore, or sex of many mystery novels out there today. This was a mystery for entertainment’s sake — not quite old fashioned, but more adventure-oriented than anything else. Of course the resolution was too simple in the end, but we sure have a lot of fun getting there, and it’s not so disappointing that you’re upset with the author. Let’s be honest — the book is meant to be a fun escape, and it is.

I finished this book with a smile, and have thus resolved to track down the rest of this author’s books. I’m happy to see that they’re available at Amazon.ca (1-3 weeks shipping, since I assume they’re brought in from the UK) and I’m thrilled to have found a new author from a non-traditional publisher.

Here’s the product description from Riverheron’s website listing for the novel:

HENRIETTA FOX is a paparazzo. A wild, flame-haired girl in biker’s boots and leathers, with an Irish temper. She rides the streets of London stalking celebrities for the tabloid gossip pages.
When a Chinese military plane explodes in a fireball before her camera, life for Henrietta Fox gets dangerous! Five reporters across Europe have been murdered, each with their exotic, lop-eared Sumxu cats. Animals considered extinct for 300 years. Only Henrietta Fox knows why - and that knowledge could kill her.
To survive she must pursue a madman across China with partner CASS FARRADAY, an ex-Repton public schoolboy turned tabloid reporter with a devious line in interviews.
Only they can prevent an Armageddon assault on Britain’s Air Traffic Control. Fail and half a million lives will be lost.

Sounds cheesy, yes? Good. Definitely recommended. :) ( )

The begining of the book gets off to a slow start but as it progresses you get the idea the Henri, the tough biker chick/photographer, and Cass, the newspaper editor, are on to something big. The deeper you get into the book, the harder it is to put it down. In fact, I found myself reading the book for 5 hours on a friday night. Thats how I know that it was a good book. I think that books is something that everybody would be interested in reading, its a mystery book with a action twist. ( )

When I was only about 50 pages into this book, I thought I was going to have to give it a poor review. I was bored, the prose was overly purple and I was just. not. interested.

But as things went along this book and I got into a groove. Henri and Cass started doing interesting things and getting into trouble (I love trouble...where it's safe, in books). Soon I was zipping along and enjoying myself.

I must say these remind me of James Bond without the suave, or the fancy gadgets, or, well, James Bond. I particularly think men would enjoy this book. It's action and adventure. Not "high" literature, but it's not meant to be.

I think, in the end, it was a pretty enjoyable read. ( )