I just slipped the last disc of the book Deadlock by Iris Johansen, back into its case and returned it to the library. I haven't read any of Johansen's other works and after this book, I'm not likely to. I listened to the audio version on my daily commute and was disappointed in the quality of the recording as well. Since it was abridged I think I missed some key transitions in the story.
The story centers around Emily Hudson, a UN worker whose job is to salvage museum artifacts from war torn countries like Afghanistan. In this case Emily's whole team was brutally murdered and she and a coworker savagely brutalized for an artifact that turned out to be connected to the Mad Monk of Russia-Rasputin. Not a lot of background is given on him, though it wasn't necessary, it would be helpful to understand who this character was and how he fit into Russian history. Our really evil character, an australian named Staunton, was trying to find this artifact for his 'employer' and he was trying to do so with any means possible-including rape, torture, kidnapping and murder. Emily is rescued by former CIA agen Garrett and he promises to help her find and extract revenge on this psychopath Staunton.
I struggled with the total predictability of the story, the continuous need for violence and a little sex (voluntary) thrown in. I finally had to skip to the end of the audio to find out how it ended, and call it good. I would have been able to guess at the ending anyway.
It is classified as a thriller, but that was a no-show for me.
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