Catacombs of Terror

Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

This is a combination thriller and comedy although the comedy is strictly tongue-in-cheek so you won't find yourself laughing much. It is done in the classic detective genre - rather scruffy private investigator who gets himself entangled in a deep and sinister plot. I wouldn't say it's a page-turner but it kept me interested until the end so it's not bad and the pacing is excellent. The author relies on a few too many cliches for my taste but I suppose that's required in writing this sort of satire so I guess it's okay. The story comes with a nice twist at the end although I was left wondering if the author deliberately gave it that twist or if he simply ran out of time to finish the book. It's a fairly good story for a rainy Sunday afternoon but there are plenty of better books you can read.

There was one aspect of the story that seemed a bit sloppy. The bad guys have almost the entire city covered with CCTVs so they can watch everyone. Our hero locates himself in the one spot that doesn't have these camera from where he makes a cell-phone call. And it doesn't occur to him that cell phones are remarkably easy to hack and trace. Worse yet this doesn't occur to the bad guys either which means it probably didn't occur to the author - but it should have. There were a number of other loose ends in the story - like why - but from the point of view of simple unquestioning story telling it's okay.



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