Random Things Tours: Ghosts of the West by Alec Marsh

 

If you are following my blog posts regularly, you may know that I believe in good thrillers. Particularly if set in the current era, with the thrills and roller coasting involved by the new technologies - yes, a bit of hacking makes everything tastier those days. Thrillers set in a different century, even a couple of decades ago, I may be a bit skeptical about. But recommendations those days are so important and can easily change anyone tastes in a clickbait. 

The good recommendations received by Ghosts of the West by Alec Marsh encouraged me to give a serious try to this book. Set in the end of 1930s Britain, it starts with the investigation of a grave-robbery (the most despicable kind of robberies and I would rather not share too many details about it, for pure decency reasons). In charge with finding the culprits, there are two curious investigators, Drabble and Harris. As for me it was the first encounter with the series and Alec Marsh in general, I was not privy to the two, as I was not familiar with the usual topics the author approaches in his previous thrillers - Rule Britannia and Enemy of the Raj. In fact, not having read the two was not a big issue in understanding and following the story. However, if I would have read more by Marsh before I would not have been so surprised by the global take took by the search for the cuprits. 

In fact, the West from the title stands for Western, ´wild West´, that world of imagination populated by the exoticised ´Indians´. This is where the story will lead in the end, from one Empire about to die to a different kind of Empire who is about to get born. Different challenges, almost the same abitrary and unempathic attitude towards the ´natives´ of the lands took into possesion for different reasons. Although there are many differences who are standing against a complete comparisons between the two empires, Ghosts of the West succeeds to display a world in collision, a struggle for the global political and economic survival. 

All this started with a despicable grave robbery.

The story is relatively short, written with precision for both the characters development and the narrative creation. 

I loved the book more than I expected and, at least for once, allowed me to appreciate a thriller with a very smart historical and even geopolitical twist. It made me think a lot about empires and how humans can survive them, and how influential they are in shaping long term mentalities and thinking habits. 

A special note to the cover which can be read in key, giving some gentle hints about the symbols and threads to expect in the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own