A Life Eternal

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This book truly shows the talents of Fullerton; a modern John le Carre mixed with a hint of Clive Cussler. All in all a fabulous, well-researched, gripping thriller. This book should be a movie; it has everything needed. Richard Ayre gives us Rob Deakin, a young man who has been blessed with eternal life. Or is it a curse? With descriptive, imaginative, spellbinding writing Richard takes us on Rob’s life journey to discover for ourselves if this “gift” Rob has received is a blessing or a curse. An emotional journey for sure as I cheered for Rob, felt sorrow, empathy, anger and love for him. I easily connected with and truly cared about him. Then we have the mysterious Medic, the true friend Jonathon Greene, the alluring Molly, the beautiful and wise Madeleine, the endearing Pearl, and many other wonderful characters that bring richness and depth to this story. Richard Ayre was born in Northumberland, too many years ago now to remember. He has had a variety of jobs including roofer, milkman, and factory worker. Tiring of this, Richard studied for a degree with the Open University and now teaches History for a living. And there it was again, another anti-Semitic slogan. Similar to the Ripper case’s enigmatic ‘The Juwes…’ graffito, a pamphlet was distributed around, stating, ‘The Jewish monster has returned...’ People suspect a police coverup, and the investigators have to flee from an angry vigilante mob, which resulted in three deaths and Callow sustaining an injury to the skull. While the riot was raging, the corpse of the third victim goes missing. And Ely turns up dead, murdered.

What if you knew you could never die? How different would your life be? How different would you be? The writing style is solid and again, very much like reading a first person interview. It reminded me of "Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice, in its style, but Rob’s unburdening of self is less story and more ‘police report”...”I did this, and then I did that, and then I went here...”. The positives for this story are in its secondary character development and in the direct foreshadowing offered as occasional bridges between scenes, characters, and time periods. I also found the historical period details and descriptive recounting of certain scenes and locations where the story takes place, very satisfying. The sense of place is consistently strong, and that always earns points. Sam once again is on the trail of X-Ray and nothing is going to stop him getting his man. There is also the shadowy 'Widower Maker' to contend with, a serial killer who is as gruesome and awful as any character can be. All in all, Sam has his hands full, but, being the man he is, he isn't going to stop until he's won the day. When Sergeant Rob Deakin is mortally wounded during the First World War, he is destined to become just another nameless casualty of a terrible conflict.

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Every now and again there is an aside in the voice of ‘the dark man’. Unlike many detective novels, where the murderer is just portrayed as a bad ‘un, the psychopathy of this murderer is believable, I thought. Gradually it dawns on us who it is. I rather thought the suspects were guessed too easily by the investigators. A little more than halfway through the book, it looks like the crime is solved. But Pence suspends Handy from duty. Jarman and Handy work out who the original Ripper was. Incredible. That's how I must describe this story. The characterisation of the two main protagonists, the so-called 'Emperor' himself, Qin, and the woman who finds herself trying to stop a war Qin is planning, is brilliant. The story takes us deep in Incredible. That's how I must describe this story. The characterisation of the two main protagonists, the so-called 'Emperor' himself, Qin, and the woman who finds herself trying to stop a war Qin is planning, is brilliant. The story takes us deep into the world of Chinese politics as well as the work of the CIA, MI6 and various other inteligence agencies. My only complaint was the point of view switched from one person to another, in consecutive paragraphs a number of times, rather than seeing it through just on set of eyes and feelings. What follows is a cursed journey through a century of incredible change, seen through the eyes of a man immune to death, while he searches endlessly for the answers to what makes him so unique. This Sam is a very different man from that first novel. His alcoholism in that story saw him lurching from reality and actually believing he was in the 1930's. In this story, he has quit drinking, quit smoking, and has started boxing again to get himself straight. However, he is still on the tail of the bad guys, helped this time by the local police chief who relies on his less than 'by the book' abilities to bring in the villains.

I absolutely adored this story. Everything about it. The good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, the heartbreaking, and the redemption. It's cliche to say 'this book had me gripped to the end', but it really did. Even after the killer had become known to us, I still felt I couldn't put it down as the aftermath was just as intriguing as the climax. The quest to find out how this eternal life came about ran along side chapters of his life, the sort we all have, the places we live ad the relationships we’re in, yet we know, with some certainty that it’s going to end at some point. This is a concept book along the lines of Ayn Rand and Lionel Shriver. It’s neither about characters nor story, and, to be honest, there aren’t actually any “characters” at all.

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However, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger will change the course of Rob’s life forever… Not only has he been healed, but he cannot die, and he will never age. What you have to remember, Bill, is that life is a currency. A currency of time that has no worth, and yet is priceless. Without it we do not learn, we do not grow. Without time, how does the new born baby learn how to hold, how to grasp, how to stand, how to walk? Without time how does the tree grow, the seasons change, the years pass?’ This was a great book about war, love, death, betrayal, pain, laughter, and life. All of which very importantly shower us the dualistic nature of the human condition. I laughed, I was angry, I loved, I despaired, and I cried true tears of joy and acceptance. Well done, sir! I'm looking forward too reading more of your work!

What kind of trouble would you get into if you were immortal? Rob is a soldier in WWI and suffers injuries fighting that should have killed anyone, but when he’s on the verge of death, a strange man touches him, and Rob recovers fully. Doctors are baffled. Sooner or later it becomes obvious that Rob isn’t aging. What’s going on? Overall, entertaining, as dark and atmospheric as such a tale ought to be and with an excellent plot twist. Recommended for thriller fans, especially historical thrillers. Thanks Netgalley. I always like to play along with mystery stories and try to beat the fictional detective to the reveal, and I confess that I was successful on this occasion, correctly spotting the ‘bad guys’ pretty early on. This didn’t detract in any way from my enjoyment of the story though, as I continued to follow the two detectives (and my personal favourite, Curmudgeon) in their cat and mouse chase. Actually, the first chapter is quite good, and there were several beautiful sentences I highlighted, which perhaps raised my expectations too high. Richard Ayre's A Life Eternal is a book that poses so many dilemmas. If you were able to live forever, how would you feel? Is it something to treasure or resent, the power of immortality.A Life Eternal. To discover you are immune to death, to understand you have been chosen to live forever, an eternal life, unable to die, to be killed, to live on in perpetuity...A gift or a curse? As you do not physically age, but those who you love do and journey through their lives towards their own mortal ending. For detective Jonas Handy, himself the son of a prostitute who died when he was 8, the cases strike close to home. A riveting and heart-breaking tale, simply and elegantly written in the first person, which puts a new spin on the classic themes of the immortality tale. The protagonist of the novel, Rob Deakin experiences life and love and death in equal measure. Each experience shaping and changing him, the indestructible life force within him changing and hardening his attitude towards humanity. And bringing him to a life long resolution that is poignant and well considered. All in all, a victory for the author. His characterisation of the two protagonists is sublime, and we see their weaknesses as well as their obvious strenghts (especially Boswell's love of booze which is used at times for a bit of comic relief from all the mystery and horror.