Beach Reads IV: Archimedes Principle

Archimedes Principle by Jack English

Not many writers can create an engrossing thriller out of a story about an insurance company but Mr. English manages to do it well.  He throws in some science and law as well, just for fun, and a lot of auditing, which is much more suspenseful than you might think.  (Legal) pharmaceuticals also play a role.  The main action takes place in South Jersey and Philadelphia, and a further excursion out west to a mine.  There is also a cross-country road trip.  So, there is local interest and some semi-exotic locales for color.

The characters are realistic enough to be believable and fanciful enough to pull off the story.  The interactions among them keep the plot moving.  The villains are villain-y enough but not too villain-y, just the right amount of villainy.    Mr. English also strikes the right tone with his female characters – they are complex, realistic people without wearing an obvious “I’m a strong female character!” sign.  I would enjoy sitting down and talking with them and they are multi-dimensional enough to have a real conversation with.  The main character is saddled with the name Buckley Mills Forrester but still manages to keep the book on track.  While none of the characters is a detective by occupation it is something of a mystery story,

I like the action scenes too.  Unlike a lot of thrillers this one doesn’t have a lot of unnecessary violence.  If you read a story like this in the newspaper you would think it was fascinating, but still believable.  The book likewise keeps the reader’s attention and things like accounting and auditing rules, usually relegating to comic relief and parody, move the plot along.

I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this book but I did, and may read some of Mr. English’s other works as well.  This book, like most of his others, is only available as a Kindle title, not as a physical book, but reading it on my phone on the train was easy to do.