Kindle Edition Amazon Amazon Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Simon Bever ISBN-10:  1782010009 Type: Fiction Copyright: October 10, 2010 ISBN-13: 9781782010005 Price: $1.19 (eBook) An apparently senseless damaging of a sports car on the Victoria Embankment marks the beginning of a series of escalating violence and murder on the streets of the West End. A young, quiet uniformed officer is slowly dragged into to the events and the chase is on to make the catch or be caught. An ancient conflagration is being resurrected. Set in post millenium London, a young Police Constable become involved in a series of apparently unrelated events. Some ancient evil is stirring in the heart of London and unlikely allies emerge from the shadows. Excerpt A small umbrellered crowd had gathered – an astonished crowd of London West End commuters who would normally have scurried on past anything untoward - a car crash, a collapsed tourist, even a policeman trying to arrest a drunk and disorderly tramp would not have persuaded them away from their hurrying home. But this was the sort of disturbance that appealed to all; the sound of the heavy metal d-lock thundering into the beautifully sculpted bodywork, the screams of the driver being showered with shards of tinted glass, the crazed man in black dancing round the low-slung Lotus with the lights of the passing traffic casting ghoulish shadows on its crimson flanks. London was had become dark and the late winter sunshine of earlier in the day was long gone.

Eye of the Needle
A fun read filled with a cast of characters you will want more of when the book ends. The setting for the story provides a delightful backdrop to the intrigue and grit of the material, along with a likable policeman and his associates. Police officer Romeo Atum, who is described as an English Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christian and a descendant of the Pharaohs leads us through this story and introduces us to the people he meets and investigates in the line of duty. Along with his Mum, his coworker Jon, his new love Estephe, Satis the prostitute, a reporter and the mysterious homeless man Horace, Romeo has his hands full trying to make sense of recent murders which at first do not seem connected. The streets of London, along with the references to Egyptian history add exciting flavor to an otherwise great mystery. The ending leaves you with a little suspense and hoping for a next installment. Hopefully, we won't have to wait long! An all around great read.

Eye of the Needle
The policemen most of us get to know are pretty uninspiring. Personally, I've come across a few. I've been pick-pocketed in Prague, car-burgled in Barcelona, house-vandalised in Hounslow and petty-thieved from in Paris. The police experience is everywhere the same; a bored guardian of the law asks you some questions, fills in a form, wearily pushes it to you to sign, and then assures you that nothing will ever be done about it. To make an interesting and engrossing novel out of the mundane life of such a lowly law officer would seem a gargantuan task, but Simon Bever has managed it in Eye of the Needle.

It helps that the hero, Romeo, is a pretty unusual London bobby. There aren't too many very tall, Coptic Christian Egyptians in the Met. Also, while he suffers from the frustration of taking on tasks which come to nothing, it seems to get to him riled enough from time to time to undertake a little violent retribution on his own. And, finally, he seems to generate an interesting rapport with the victims and witnesses he runs into: they fall over themselves to impart confidences to him. As he points out, he's not an investigative policeman, but as a result of what he sees and what's he's told, he stumbles towards the solution of a pretty serious and sickening crime wave.

This is a novel that belts along at a fair pace, dropping some nice tasty morsels as it goes. There are some beautifully drawn characters among the victims and witnesses, some wry and mouth-curling asides at the state of the police-public interface, snips of erudition on the ancient history of Egypt, a useful guide to tourist London, and hints of the supernatural hovering around in the background. Something for everyone, really!


Eye of the Needle
If you like novels with an interesting mix of characters that moves at a swift place with a conclusion that keeps you guessing all the way until the end then this is a must read. I like the sttle and flow of the book and will definately be looking to read more in the series. I have already noted another novel by the author which is on my reading list. Keep up the good work just more of it please.