What Book to Read?

I was recently reading about what journalist and academic Jay Rosen calls ‘wicked’ problems. These are issues that are so complex and so difficult to define adequately that they are almost impossible to solve. Climate change was his major example, but a number of others, such as the plight of refugees, the dominance of the 1%, and the power of the media come to mind. So it’s interesting that one young writer has had a look at all of these wicked problems in her new book Conspire.

I have to declare an interest here. Victoria Rollison is my daughter and I had a fair bit of input into the book. Stop reading right now if you think that disqualifies me from writing about it. But how many other writers have you read recently that take serious world issues and present them in a way that is exciting and interesting for readers who might otherwise take no interest in such wicked problems?

Alex North is a rookie journalist looking for her first big story. She has been sent to Prague to cover a meeting of the secretive and exclusive Bilderberg Group – she’s a last minute replacement for a more senior colleague who has had a stroke. What did he know about the Bilderbergers that she doesn’t? Once in Prague, things happen fast. She meets an engaging young American who says he can give her the low-down on the Bilderberg meeting if only she will accompany him to a site in Estonia, a car bomb explodes in the city, and Alex is convinced that someone is after her with evil intent. Most of the story is told from Alex’s perspective, but the reader also hears from the Bilderbergers, members of a Pakistani terrorist group, Alex’s editor and assorted other interested parties. The narrative is driven by a classic hunt chase scenario, in which Alex gets involved in a race to locate a rogue nuclear weapon. But all is not as it seems. Who can she trust? Has she recklessly put not just herself, but world peace in danger?

Conspire is intended to be a page- turner, following Robert Harris’s advice ‘to get three things happening every two pages.’ Because the focus is on action, characterisation is merely sufficient for the role each character plays. There are a number of twists and turns in the plot, which means individual motivation can’t in any case be explored at length without spoiling what is meant to be unexpected. Intended for a mass market, it is written in fairly stark prose, without much elaboration. It is literate, without being literary. What I like most about it is that as well as being fast-moving, the plot is also very carefully crafted; there are surprises, but no deus ex machina. Readers may be initially misled, but as much by their own expectations of the genre as by what Rollison has written.

The issue at the heart of the story is conspiracy. Is conspiracy always a bad thing, as Julian Assange would argue? Or are there circumstances where secrecy about important decisions can be justified? This is where some of those wicked problems come in. What Rollison suggests by way of solutions may be unrealistic, but this is a thriller, and thrillers don’t by their nature stick to real world outcomes. I think it’s refreshing to find a thriller writer who has ideas about contemporary issues of great importance, and is prepared to use a popular genre to raise them. Maybe there’s a bit of preaching going on here, but it doesn’t spoil a good story. Most thrillers carry ideological freight of some kind – most often the ‘CIA saves the world’ variety – and it’s good to see one that’s a bit different.

This is Victoria’s second novel. The first, Times of Trouble, is a completely different sort of book, about a young woman’s attempt to save her sister from the deadly consequences of a secret she has stumbled on. After getting thirty thousand downloads for Times of Trouble, Victoria decided that self-publishing an e-book was the way to go with this one. You can access Conspire for $3 here for Kindle and here for iPad and on desktops or laptops.