This is the second in Nikki Owen's trilogy about an
autistic doctor, Maria Martinez, and her attempts to escape The Project, an
offshoot of MI5. In the first novel (originally titled The Spider in The Corner
of the Room and since re-titled Subject 375) we learnt that The Project's task
was to cultivate the unique skills, mathematical, logical computational, etc,
of gifted autistics in the fight against terror. Martinez had been cultivated
since childhood, The Project operating under the guise of a treatment centre.
It was a good premise and one which made the first book a compelling read.
The Killing Files picks up where the original ended. Dr
Martinez has escaped the clutches of The Project and is hiding out. She is
plagued by memories of her time under The Project's sanction however, in
particular someone she recalls being led to their death. Needless to say The
Project catches up with her and she needs to delve further into the
organisation's secrets in order to put a stop to them once and for all.
While I gave the first novel a five-star review, I did
express concerns as to whether Owen could stretch the premise to a series and
whether credibility might be stretched too far. Unfortunately, while The
Killing Files is certainly an entertaining read, I feel some of my concerns
have been borne out. As Owen fleshes out the details of the conspiracy various
credibility issues that were present, albeit nigglingly so in the original, are
brought to the forefront. The Project is an offshoot of MI5, the UK's domestic
Security Service, yet it operates globally. Where is MI6, the UK's foreign
intelligence service in all this? Where is GCHQ, the cyber/signals intelligence
agency? The project itself would be a hugely expensive undertaking, yet anyone
with a passing knowledge of the UK's intelligence agencies knows that while
their funding is generous by UK standards, their budgets are dwarfed by those
of the US and Russia and it is unlikely that they could afford anything so
ambitious.
Another issue linked to the above is that the project
operates globally and has bases all over the globe (certainly in Spain and
Switzerland according to the novel) yet nowhere are the intelligence agencies
of these nations hinted at. Are we to believe that they just haven't noticed
this activity on their soil? Does the author assume that British Intelligence
is so far ahead of these nations agencies that they don't have a clue?
I know this trilogy is not really meant to be from the spy
thriller genre as such, more that of the conspiracy thriller. Arguably it's
written in such a way as to encourage one to suspend their disbelief. I get
that it's not meant to reflect the real world of MI5/British Intelligence. But
while I was able to do that while reading the first one, Owen just stretches
the concepts too far in The Killing Files and I found suspension snap.
An unrelated but equally galling issue I had was with her
treatment of the main character. Apparently The Project have trained as an
assassin, with unarmed combat skills, yet throughout the text she's oddly inept
at defending herself. Then there's the allies she made in the first novel keep
treating her with kid gloves. I get the fact that Dr Martinez has extreme
Asperger's, but does she really have to have a panic attack every second page?
And do her colleagues really have to ask her whether she's OK every second
sentence?
This review may come across as over-harsh and I apologise
for that. For all its faults The Killing Files is an enjoyable read. It
certainly is worth reading if you enjoyed the first novel. But the author
really needs to pull back on some of the fantastical aspects in the final
novel, or else explain them or I fear that the promise of the first book might
be frittered away.
2 out of 5 stars.
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