Bob Jones: OGG

By MARGIE THOMSON

This latest from Bob Jones rocketed straight into the top 10 bestseller list, but I beg to differ from popular opinion. It starts promisingly and as if it's going to be a thriller in the John Grisham genre, set in the world of business rather than of the law. But no.

Disillusioned James Campbell wants out of the City; his father dies and leaves him a desolate Scottish Hebridean island; a mysterious company, Alceides, wants to base its secret venture there and will pay an enormous sum for a long-term lease.

They tell him some cock-and-bull story about the nature of their business and the scene seems well set for a mildly gripping unmasking of some shady dealings (well, gripping if you overlook the pages of ideological diatribe dished up by character after character, each one seeming more and more like a thinly masked Bob Jones).

But the novel descends quickly into a 400-page, one-joke wonder in which many prejudices are aired against commitment-hungry girlfriends, neglectful mothers, modern art, gullible Japanese, academics, taxi-drivers, journalists, politicians, clergymen. And so on. There are some nice little, albeit not very original, bon mots and some funny slapstick scenes involving black, gay, kilt-wearing San Franciscans. But if you value your time, I'd give this a big miss.

Reed

$29.95