Title: Billionaire

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 322

Rating: 3*/5

This book is one of the oldest books in James’ bibliography, and it’s definitely a product of the times in which it was written - as the author himself admins in his introduction. It’s actually a reasonably well-written book, and certainly a sign of things to come - but at the same time, it feels old-fashioned.

There’s also the fact that it isn’t a crime novel, which is what James is most well-known for. Instead, it’s sort of a cross between an espionage novel and a thriller based on money and power, and the story line follows a man called Rocq who gets into an awkward situation involving gold and coffee stocks. It’s pretty confusing if you’re not into politics and the way that the world works - but with the added complexity of it being based on the way the world worked in the 1980s.

Overall, I wouldn’t say that this was a bad book - it just wasn’t as good as his others. It’s also not the kind of genre that I’d usually read - I find that a lot of spy thrillers are pretty much the same, and this one didn’t do much to make itself stand out. In fact, by the time that I reached the end of it, I’d already forgotten half of the things that happened along the way.

Really, you’re only going to love this book if you’re a big fan of the genre of writing, and I don’t think it has a huge amount of mainstream appeal. I read at least a hundred books per year, and this one’s the type that would be about bang in the middle if I were to list them in order of how much I enjoyed them. Because of that, I’d recommend reading one of Peter James’ Roy Grace books before giving this one a go.

Peter James

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