The Last Thing to Burn - Will Dean

 

He is her husband. She is his captive.

Her husband calls her Jane. That is not her name.

She lives in a small farm cottage, surrounded by vast, open fields. Everywhere she looks, there is space. But she is trapped. No one knows how she got to the UK: no one knows she is there. Visitors rarely come to the farm; if they do, she is never seen.

Her husband records her every movement during the day. If he doesn't like what he sees, she is punished.

For a long time, escape seemed impossible. But now, something has changed. She has a reason to live and a reason to fight. Now, she is watching him, and waiting ...

What did I think?

I've heard nothing but good things about Will Dean books, namely the Tuva Moodyson series, so when I saw that his new book was a standalone thriller I decided that the time was right to see what all the fuss was about.  The Last Thing to Burn is a hard-hitting book dealing with human trafficking so it's not easy to read at times but oh my word, it's absolutely brilliant.

Will Dean really manages to portray Thanh Dao's every emotion as we read about her being held captive by farmer Lenn.  I refuse to call her Jane as that isn't her name, which Thanh Dao keeps reminding us.  Thanh Dao holds on tightly to her identity through her meagre possessions that Lenn burns one by one in the Rayburn stove every time he perceives that she has stepped out of line.  Lenn watches Thanh Dao's every move through video cameras set up in the house so she really can't do anything without Lenn seeing.

Thanh Dao and her sister Kim-Ly were brought to the UK from Vietnam in a shipping container but their dreams of a better life were shattered when Thanh Dao was sold to Lenn.  Kim-Ly is working in a nail bar in Manchester to pay back the cost of their passage and Thanh Dao is warned that if she tries to escape, Kim-Ly will be sent back to Vietnam with the full debt to repay.  What a predicament to be in; Thanh Dao is desperate to be free of Lenn but her love for her sister is the only thing that keeps her going.

Thanh Dao has to clean, cook and lie back and think of Vietnam so it felt like I had stepped back into a different century; back to a time when a woman's place was in the kitchen.  Lenn is an absolutely odious man, treating Thanh Dao like a slave which of course is what she is.  Some of the things he does and says had my mouth gaping in shock and horror, he really is very selfish and doesn't have a caring bone in his body.  No wonder he had to buy a 'wife'.  There's certainly no fear of Thanh Dao suffering from Stockholm Syndrome!

As Thanh Dao's hatred for Lenn intensifies, and circumstances change, she becomes braver and starts planning her escape.  The tension is ramped up to fever pitch and I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest; it felt like there was a string on a fret board being tightened and tightened until it reached breaking point.  Even my reading pace increased as if any extra seconds I could give Thanh Dao would help.  As I raced towards the conclusion, I was totally floored by another twist in the tale - to say I gasped out loud is an understatement.

The Last Thing to Burn is a heart-pounding thriller that is as taut as a bowstring.  Filled with tension and suspense, this is a dark and disturbing novel that is difficult to put down because Thanh Dao's story completely draws you in.  It's horrific and shocking but incredibly powerful, evoking so many emotions in me (especially negative emotions towards Lenn, admittedly).  Human trafficking is a difficult subject to read about but full marks to Will Dean for drawing attention to the plight of so many women who leave their home country in search of a better life, only to find themselves enslaved.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

Code Name: Papa - John Murray

Who’d have thought a bright, but fairly ordinary young man from middle class America who got just above average grades, dated the same girl throughout high school and went to church most Sundays, would grow up to eventually head a very secretive band of brave individuals--both men and women--who regularly put their lives on the line because they wanted to protect the rest of you. Yet that’s what we did, often sacrificing our personal lives (four marriages for me, all in the book) and our health (countless broken bones, major surgeries, even death) to do it.

Meanwhile you’re just going to have to call me “Papa” like everyone else around the globe has through most of those wildly unpredictable and dangerous years.

What did I think?

It always amazes me what events are taking place in so called peacetime to protect our various countries.  In the UK, MI5 and MI6 are of course real organisations and although films like James Bond and TV shows like Spooks are fictional, I always wondered how much truth is actually in them.  Code Name:Papa perhaps resembles the SAS in the UK, a team of special forces undertaking covert operations, so the author can't really go into a great deal of detail about his operations.  We do, however, get to know about the man they call "Papa" and the sacrifices he made for his country.

John joined the Marines in 1965 and was shipped off to Vietnam to serve his country, whilst there he made life-long friends with Bill and Jake.  Both men saved his life: directly in Bill's case as he tackled John to the ground in order to stop him triggering a trip wire, and indirectly in Jake's case after Jake's powerful father helped John get home and out of the Marines after being injured.  There was more to Jake's dad than met the eye; he ran a covert organisation of trained personnel who protected their country without drawing attention to themselves.  Jake's dad was known as "Papa" and he invited the 3 men to join his organisation, which all 3 of them did.  When "Papa" was diagnosed with a terminal illness, he chose John to take over the organisation and John then became known as "Papa".

This isn't a book filled with grisly details of the operations carried out, but more a glimpse into the life of the brave men and women who keep their country, and the world, safe without us knowing.  They put themselves in danger and remain anonymous to protect their loved ones but by doing this, they give up the chance of a happy normal life.  They can't tell their family what they do or when they'll be home and they end up becoming strangers to their children.  For me, Code Name: Papa wasn't just about John's life, but the life he lost.  He wasn't there when his wife needed him and he wasn't there to keep his children on the straight and narrow.  This is the same for the other recruits and there's a heartbreaking story about Jake and his son, Adam.  Their family is their country and they really will do anything to keep it safe.

Sometimes I forgot that this was non-fiction as some of the stories really are quite horrifying, but the writing is fairly clinical so it reads like a debriefing on occasions (she said, he said etc).  It must have been quite a journey to put all of this down on paper and I would have liked to have felt a bit more emotion coming through, especially in the more personal family stories.  It does, however, prove the authenticity of the book as "Papa" must be detached and unemotional at all times.  Certainly an eye-opening book, Code Name:Papa will give you a new dimension to stories you read in the news as sometimes we may only get half of the story.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon