Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy in exchange for an honest review. I'm sorry to say that I did not finish this book. The synopsis sounded interesting, but the actual book didn't match up to it. I found it confusing and hard work, and therefore decided not to finish the book. Sorry!

Oh my, it has been quite a while since I've had the misfortune to read a book as badly written as this. The language is old faahioned, but not in a pleasant way, and leaves the reader wondering what century this book was meant to be written (it soon has a phone bill, so it must be pretty recent), but leaves the reader confused as to the point of the onerous writing, and being only able to draw the conclusion that it is poorly written and with a deepening sense of dread that the whole book is like that.

The author has a painful compulsion to attempt to prove their literary worth by their vexatious use of long words they don't understand and are detrimental. Within the first page are...
Incongruity
Limpid surface
Prolate sausage
Portmanteau
Doppelganger
Boudoir
Ponder the provenance
Vex x2
Recumbent

The author spends an entire page of prose on an ugly broach that has no bearing on the story, and further non-sensical sentences such as "As i mulled over the mysterious digits."

The person who wrote the précis has far more talent that the author.

Furthermore, the author has a shocking and totally inappropriate racist and sexism stereotypical views that are pointless and offensive...

The basis of the story appears to be the main character fleeing on the basis of a random note found in his partners drawer. Upon arrival at the airport, to flee to Hong Kong, his partners shocking skill at ironing his shirt leads him to open his carry-on luggage to change clothes, whereon he finds a bomb. Noting the impeccable smooth welding features of the bomb, he is able to immediately deduce that it is a radioactive dirty bomb from nothing more than his TV knowledge. His first instinct is to leave it and go to work (!), but remembers that his business card is in the side pocket, so he retrieves it from his luggage that he has just found contains a bomb. Wandering around the airport, trying to ditch the luggage, he gets a phone call telling him to go through security, so he goes through security and then on the plane. After stowing his carry-on luggage in an overhead bin, he relaxes into an inflight movie.

Utterly implausible story, shockingly poorly written.

Sexist. Racist. Appalling sexist and racial stereotyping.

Should not have been written, let alone got through the first draft.

Not for me, I'm afraid. I got bored early on and I couldn't wait for the final page...