Book Review: Pendulum by Adam Hamdy

Pendulum is the first book in the Pendulum trilogy by Adam Hamdy.

Quick Review (read on for full review)

Action-packed and fast-paced, this thriller had plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end.  4 / 5

Summary (from Goodreads)

You wake. Confused. Disorientated. A noose is round your neck. You are bound, standing on a chair. All you can focus on is the man in the mask tightening the rope. You are about to die.

John Wallace has no idea why he has been targeted. No idea who his attacker is. No idea how he will prevent the inevitable.

Then the pendulum of fate swings in his favour. He has one chance to escape, find the truth and halt his destruction. The momentum is in his favour for now. But with a killer on his tail, everything can change with one swing of this deadly pendulum…

You have one chance. Run.

Favourite Quote

The old adage that good things happen to good folk was a lie people told themselves to feel better about life.  Good things happen to folk who can rob or cheat their way to them.

(Pendulum by Adam Hamdy, page 153)

Review

This is one of those reads which, if you say too much, you could spoil what makes this book so bloody good.  So, I will review this sparingly…

I’m not sure what I expected when I started to read Pendulum, for the book summary doesn’t give too much away, but what I found was an action-packed, fast-paced thriller that kept me guessing as to what was going to happen at every turn, all the way to the end of the book.

John Wallace must be the unluckiest yet luckiest person in the world, but that doesn’t mean that this story was unconvincing.  It was.  Perhaps even a little too convincing in its believability.  The premise of the story is dark and menacing.  The bad guy is terrifying and seemingly unstoppable.  And as for the other characters, they are engaging and intriguing, with interesting back stories, who make a satisfying impact on the story.

The author’s writing style pulls you right into the story.  It is so well-written, and probably one of the best thrillers I’ve read in recent years.  It also reads like a movie; I could see the storyline playing out before me with very little effort at all.

It wasn’t until I was writing this review and about to post (my summarised version of) it on Goodreads, that I realised that this is the first book of a trilogy.  Of course, the ending suggested something else might follow but it wasn’t clear, and it wasn’t explicit, and many books have been given such an ending to encourage speculation in the reader rather than setting the ground work for future books.  I’m quite pleased about this, and am looking forward to reading the next instalment in the trilogy, Freefall, at some point. For now, it’s been added to my ‘Books To Buy’ list.

Rating