Moorlock reviewed The exception by Christian Jungersen
Review of 'The exception' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It’s got a lot going for it. You know early on that it is going to be making brutal office politics a microcosm reflecting elements of large-scale genocidal outrages. The office in question being a center for genocide studies allows for parallels to be drawn pretty explicitly.
This could get heavy-handed, but [a:Christian Jungersen|163050|Christian Jungersen|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] does a pretty good job keeping it interesting and poignant without drumming it in too harshly.
And the office politics bullying is done with a keen eye. I got the same sort of knots in my stomach that I get when I watch the intimate psychological savagery in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
But Jungersen spends far too much effort trying to make his book into a sexy Hollywood-thriller-to-be. Dramatic murders, mysterious international hoodlums, near-death chase scenes, handwaving computer espionage, and a whodunit with lots of twists and turns. If I want that sort …
It’s got a lot going for it. You know early on that it is going to be making brutal office politics a microcosm reflecting elements of large-scale genocidal outrages. The office in question being a center for genocide studies allows for parallels to be drawn pretty explicitly.
This could get heavy-handed, but [a:Christian Jungersen|163050|Christian Jungersen|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] does a pretty good job keeping it interesting and poignant without drumming it in too harshly.
And the office politics bullying is done with a keen eye. I got the same sort of knots in my stomach that I get when I watch the intimate psychological savagery in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
But Jungersen spends far too much effort trying to make his book into a sexy Hollywood-thriller-to-be. Dramatic murders, mysterious international hoodlums, near-death chase scenes, handwaving computer espionage, and a whodunit with lots of twists and turns. If I want that sort of thing, I’ll watch a James Bond film.