"Ordinary Thunderstorms" by William Boyd

William Boyd is currently my favourite living novelist and I always try to read one of his books each year. This one is anything but one of his brilliant, signature 'whole life' novels, being a tense and densely-plotted thriller - another genre in which he excels.

The plot is convoluted but essentially focuses on a few weeks in the life of a central character called Adam Kindred, an academic in his thirties who entirely unwittingly gets himself caught up in a pretty gruesome series of events, kicking off with being accused of murdering someone.

He then goes on the run both from the police and the hitman who really did carry out the murder. He soon finds that his comfortable middle class existence rapidly unravels as he is forced to live rough, beg for a living, rely on charity, assume a new identity and generally keep moving about all the time for is own safety.

Once he re-establishes himself after a fashion he looks to solve the murder mystery himself. It is all very cleverly done, with a slow reveal of all the quite complex background information. A very skilful page turner with entertaining cast of mainly disreputable characters.

The novel was published in 2009 and was very much set in the world as it was then. We can now look back on that period with some distance and perspective and it is interesting to read about technological innovations of the time that have since become commonplace, but also to note how very little has really changed, beyond sadly the cost of living.

There is quite a lot of violence in the book, but it is not gratuitous or offensive.

This is very much a realist novel which has been thoroughly researched with a wholly believable set of characters, very effective dialogue and narrative.

The central character is a climatologist and the title of the novel both reflects this and also acts as a metaphor for the plot. An 'ordinary thunderstorm' is one of the type that we that we usually get, namely one which is quite common, relatively short-lived but which represents a violent interruption to our usual weather.

The other feature that I really liked was the setting. This is a novel set almost entirely in London with the vast majority of the action taking place at various locations along the south bank of the Thames, as well as on bridges and in and on the river itself. Things seem to look up for Adam every time he heads downstream.

It works well as a portrait of London society too; multi-ethnic, quirky and vastly unequal. The story features billionaires, prostitutes, hit men, police officers, research scientists, a pretty idle aristocrat and a mad self-styled bishop. We move with ease from the boardroom of a pharmaceutical giant to a hospital and into council estates in which casual violence is commonplace.

The ending was a bit syrupy perhaps, but in general this was no more or less than a rattling good read. It would make a great film or mini series.