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A review by bookshelfsos
The Fourth Courier by Timothy Jay Smith
2.0
I picked up this book in spite of it being outside my usual genre preferences (I don’t generally read spy thrillers). It caught my eye with the promise of an interesting historical setting, Poland in the aftermath of the Cold War, and the inclusion of a gay main character. That’s the way it was sold to me, but unfortunately neither of those elements were enough to hold my interest in the ticking time bomb mystery plot.
From a technical standpoint, I really enjoyed the writing. Timothy Jay Smith has a gift for adding idiosyncrasies to characters that really bring them to life and make certain moments and scenes extraordinarily memorable. Many of the characters, especially the bit parts like the office assistants and ticket sellers, jumped off the page with life and seemed very finely drawn. I truly believed that this was a real world populated by real people. I did, however, have an issue with how poorly women were represented in this book. Most descriptions of women throughout the book are sexualized, whether to point out how attractive a woman is or to denigrate her as the opposite. By contrast, none of the male characters are given this treatment. It felt very tone-deaf to me, considering how many prominent conversations have been going on lately on social media regarding how poorly some men tend to write female characters. I highlighted quite a few quotes from this book that would fit right in with other examples of how male authors tend to reduce women to sexualized objects or awful shrews.
As I wrote above, part of my motivation to read this was the inclusion of a gay main character. From the description, it sounds like the story will be equally about Jay and Kurt, the respective FBI and CIA agents. In reality, Jay is the sole main character and Kurt only appears in the second half of the book to help out by seducing one of the antagonists to get intel. The “main character” CIA agent is in only TWO scenes for the first 50% of the book. I was very close to giving up on the book, feeling completely mislead. It can probably be chalked up to the low word count, but Kurt’s personality didn’t feel as well-rounded as even some of the side characters. It was disappointing, since I thought he would be sharing the spotlight as one of the two leads.
While I liked the historical setting and vivid details of the side characters, I don’t think this book had much beyond the basic spy thriller format to appeal to readers outside of that genre. For those who do enjoy mysteries and spy thrillers, maybe they would find something here to appreciate. In the end, I was disappointed enough by the representation of women that I wouldn’t personally recommend the book to anyone, regardless of genre preferences.
Please note, I received this e-book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
From a technical standpoint, I really enjoyed the writing. Timothy Jay Smith has a gift for adding idiosyncrasies to characters that really bring them to life and make certain moments and scenes extraordinarily memorable. Many of the characters, especially the bit parts like the office assistants and ticket sellers, jumped off the page with life and seemed very finely drawn. I truly believed that this was a real world populated by real people. I did, however, have an issue with how poorly women were represented in this book. Most descriptions of women throughout the book are sexualized, whether to point out how attractive a woman is or to denigrate her as the opposite. By contrast, none of the male characters are given this treatment. It felt very tone-deaf to me, considering how many prominent conversations have been going on lately on social media regarding how poorly some men tend to write female characters. I highlighted quite a few quotes from this book that would fit right in with other examples of how male authors tend to reduce women to sexualized objects or awful shrews.
As I wrote above, part of my motivation to read this was the inclusion of a gay main character. From the description, it sounds like the story will be equally about Jay and Kurt, the respective FBI and CIA agents. In reality, Jay is the sole main character and Kurt only appears in the second half of the book to help out by seducing one of the antagonists to get intel. The “main character” CIA agent is in only TWO scenes for the first 50% of the book. I was very close to giving up on the book, feeling completely mislead. It can probably be chalked up to the low word count, but Kurt’s personality didn’t feel as well-rounded as even some of the side characters. It was disappointing, since I thought he would be sharing the spotlight as one of the two leads.
While I liked the historical setting and vivid details of the side characters, I don’t think this book had much beyond the basic spy thriller format to appeal to readers outside of that genre. For those who do enjoy mysteries and spy thrillers, maybe they would find something here to appreciate. In the end, I was disappointed enough by the representation of women that I wouldn’t personally recommend the book to anyone, regardless of genre preferences.
Please note, I received this e-book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.