The Anomaly by Michael Rutger

          We meet the crew of the Anomaly Files as they meet up at a desert motel prior to filming at the Grand Canyon.  The whole story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Nolan, who presents the show and researches the coinspiracy theories that he prefers to think of as anomalies - hence the titel of the show, and the novel.  He has his usual crew with him - the irascible Ken (producer and director), Pierre (cameraman), Molly (Girl Friday, production assistant and voice of reason much of the time) but now they are making the move from webcast to Cable TV they also have Feather (there on behalf of the sponsors) and Gemma (web journalist with a huge dose of scepticism) on board.

As they set off for the Grand Canyon we already have a good fix on the characters and even though they are sketchily drawn on the page you do get a really good sense of who these people are.  I found this rather unusual as somehow Nolan's viewpoint doesn't cloud the personalities of the people around him, he lets their interactions speak for themselves and the reader gets to make their own judgements despite Nolan's prejudices.  The relationships are beautifully drawn - particularly between Nolan and Ken.

It all starts off quite well with the scene set for the reader about the nature of the expedition (finding the Kincaid Canyon) and Nolan's belief that science doesn't always tell us the truth - just the truth scientists want us to know.  You do want to feel really cynical about the whole thing but such is the verve of the writing you find yourself being sucked down Nolan's particular rabbit hole quite willingly.  Couple this with tantalising details about Newspaper Rock and known details about Ancient Civilisations being used to bolster the story and you rapidly become immersed.

The story soon becomes particularly preposterous and a huge suspension of belief is required by the reader.  But I found that I really didn't care that the science had become muddy and the scenarios ever more far-fetched I just wanted to know what happened next.  I had to turn that next page, start that new chapter and keep bowling on through until I got to the end.  An end which doesn't disappoint but keeps on in the "Boys Own Adventure" vein right up until the very last.

This book is a guilty pleasure.  It shouldn't entertain, it should make you put it down in disgust at the sheer ridiculousness of events.  Such is the joy of the writer in outdoing himself in each chapter and yet never losing the sense of character amongst the increasing absurdity you willingly take his hand and follow with a huge grin on your face. 

This is what a book should be - complete, pure escapism that makes you happy just to be along for the ride.  You trust the author implicitly and he never lets you down.  So, put your common sense and sceptism aside, grab a BIG glass of wine (and a cheeseburger), ring in sick to work and get reading - you are in for a bumpy, thrill filled ride that you will not want to put down.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW