Quintember
Quintember by Richard Major Endeavour Press General Fiction (Adult) , Mystery & Thrillers Pub Date 04 Jan 2018
Review
Quintember pompously sees itself as an intellectual reimagining of the classic spy/assassin novel, filled with in jokes and cravenly circular logic. Parts are clever and rather funny, but on the whole, Quintember is maddeningly self-absorbed drivel. There is not a coherent overarching plot, rather Richard Major meanders at will, moving from one disconnected situation to the next. Quintember is definitely unusual, but being unusual doesn’t equal good, particularly when there is no coherent plot. The more I read, the more bizarre it became. Ultimately I closed the book at the 80% mark, feeling that I escaped a fate worse than death - boredom.
2 / 5
I received a copy of Quintember from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
-- Crittermom
Description
When there are high crimes to be covered up, mysteries to be wrapped in enigmas, or a murderer to be liquidated - literally - there is only one man in England who can be trusted with the task: Felix Culpepper, tutor in Classics at St. Wygefortis' College, Cambridge, and assassin-at-large for the British Establishment. From the eerie deserts of New Mexico to the high-rolling hotels of the Adriatic, Culpepper moves with consummate ease and an unexpected penchant for guns, drugs and esoteric methods of murder - all to save himself from the drudgery of cramming Latin into the privileged yet empty skulls of the dregs of Britain's aristocracy. With an intellectual vanity that rivals Holmes, more self-esteem than Bond and a blood-steeped amorality that out-Ripleys Hannibal Lecter, Culpepper is the ideal hero for our debased days. And only in his student, sidekick (and pending Nemesis) Margot ffontaines-Laigh, does he meet his match.
