Monday, April 2, 2012

Book #9: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie

Yep, that Hugh Laurie. House? Really funny, super sexy British accent, you know who. I had no idea he'd written a book, but hey, the internet teaches you things! So I read it.

The Gun Seller is a convoluted, often hilarious story about spies, arms sales, international conspiracies and a lot of crazy car chases. It's like someone blended The Bourne Conspiracy with a Douglas Adams story, added a little bit of John Le Carre and a protagonist who probably acts a lot like House. The result is very, very funny at times, but also just flat-out confusing in others.

The whole thing is kind of manic, really. It's not surprising to anyone who's familiar with Laurie that the guy is a hilarious writer, and he keeps up the frantic pace throughout. The one problem I had, though, was that sometimes the story would jump around so much and so quickly that I had a hard time keeping track of what exactly was going on in the story. The fact that the main character keeps flipping sides and that everything is centered around things implied and not said, and that everyone keeps lying to each other didn't help matters much.

But, overall, it was a damn entertaining read. Laurie is a great storyteller and is pretty amazing at writing characters and dialogue. In just a couple of sentences you could understand exactly what a character was like, and that's not a talent a lot of writers possess.

Truth be told, I'm not even that much into spy stories, but this one was greatly helped by the humor and nonstop pace. Highly recommended if you want something funny and exciting, and a must-read for any Hugh Laurie fans.

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