A.K. Goode's debut novel, The Harvest Killings (#428) isn't a bad spy caper. The action is concentrated mainly in Uganda, and involves murder (of course!), pesticides, an unfinished water treatment plant and a mysterious mountain. Multiple competing intelligence agencies also play a role in this twisted tale. There are enough plot turns to keep the reader guessing, and wondering if this book might not make a decent action film.
Since this book is self-published, it does suffer from a lack of effective editing. Some of it is merely annoying - apostrophes inserted where they don't belong, and missing from spots where they do; spelling mistakes of the kind that slip by a Spell Checker program, but not a human reader. Others add to the plot confusion - a good guy named Hank and a villain named Frank whose names are sometimes mistakenly substituted for each other, too much description of minor characters and settings, and the overuse of the phrase "Got it?" Believe me, I get it!
Those complaints aside, The Harvest Killings did do what it set out to do - it entertained me and at the same time introduced me to a new place, Kampala, Uganda. Mission accomplished, A.K. Goode.
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