Review: 'Aurora' by Glover Wright

Having read and enjoyed Glover Wright's Hound of Heaven in paperback version I was pleased to spot some of his thrillers have recently been made available as e-books. Described by Jack Higgins as a 'remarkable and also quite terrifying thriller writer' Geoffrey Glover Wright has seven published novels to his name, with - I am told - more on the horizon.

I'm no expert on thrillers, and generally steer clear of the genre, having been moved to near-nausea by the nursery school prose of James Patterson, bored and bewildered by James Baldacci and only marginally more impressed with Lee Child (all international bestsellers, all extremely wealthy, more fool me). That said, I had no hesitation in downloading Glover-Wright's Aurora, guessing from previous experience of his work that I could expect something more intelligently textured - a 'literary thriller,' even.

And if I was wrong? Well, feel free to smash my jet into a swamp and feed me to the crocodiles - which is pretty much what Glover Wright does regardless some third of the way through the book. Before then we've had oil tanker explosions, desert shoot-outs and desperate scrambles from shallow graves, the very stuff that defines this genre, yet all delivered with such assuredly flourished prose that I found myself pausing to savour the ride rather than simply flying headlong through the pages.

At heart Aurora is about journalist Corrina Vincetti's quest to unravel a mystery that has seemingly brought her grandfather - and his secret - back from the grave. What is the Aurora Project? Who are the Keepers? Who was the flaming being that fell to the Nevada desert back in 1945? Allied with ex-military doctor Tom Mathison our heroine finds herself unravelling the mystery of her family's past whilst attempting to flee the clutches of murderous government officials.

The closing acts of the novel satisfy, and the expository pay-off - when it comes - is a chiller. As with Hound of Heaven I admire the delicate balancing of science and the paranormal; there's enough here to raise the hairs yet at no point does Glover Wright strain the bounds of plausibility.

All in all a highly entertaining work by a great author. Check him out if you haven't already.