Geneva – Richard Armitage

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has started to show the same telltale signs of Alzheimer's disease as her father: memory loss, even blackouts. So she is reluctant to accept the invitation to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference - until her husband Daniel, a neuroscientist, persuades her that the publicity storm will be worth it. Once in Geneva, is controversial blogger Terri Landau all over the story and are Sarah's symptoms getting worse. Things begin to spiral out of control. Who can Sarah trust? Including herself.

Fair is fair, I’m a little biased as I’m a huge fan of Richard Armitage’s acting, which started (for me) with BBC’s 2006 adaption of Robin Hood and I’ve seen most of his acting work.

On to the book. For a debut it’s a good book. Characters are likeable, storyline is thought out, and it got some major plot twists. I like plot twists. I do have a feeling there is not yet an own writing voice. I can distinguish other authors voices in this story.

The beginning is slow paced. All the twists happen in the last quarter of the book which makes the ending extremely fast paced. For an even pace in the book, I think it would have been better to spread the plot twist, instead of placing them one after another.

Chapters are short and change in seeing events through either Sarah’s eyes, or Daniel’s (first person), thrown in with blog posts made by Terri Landau and chapters in the third person. Personally I do not like reading first person stories all that much. The constant reading of I gets me. But because the points of view and perspective change often, I find it bearable.

Like I said, it’s a good debut and getting one’s own writing voice takes practice. I’m definitely curious to any future books he may write.