Catherine Raynes: 'The Gambler' by J P Pomare and 'Spies and Other Gods' by John Wolff

The Gambler by J P Pomare 

PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a political rally, killing a promising young university graduate? It's easy money, he's told. A sure thing. 

 

Spies and Other Gods by John Wolff 

This spy thriller is set apart from others by being narrated by a kind of collective voice of MI5 - it's the spies watching the spies. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be Not only is our book reviewer Katherine Rain's
a big fan of reading, she's a big fan of motorsports.
So Catherine and You'll be looking forward to that interview.
The host cares with Liam Lawson this Tuesday.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I certainly am, and my daughter and I are actually
in Melbourne next weekend for the Grond.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I just love this. I just like you know, there
will be people who've listened to you on Saturday Mornings
and said, oh, Catherine, you know she's obviously a prolific reader.
There's no way on earth she'd have any interest in motorsport,
but there you go.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
It's Oh you can thank my dad for that.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, it's great. Melbourne will be incredible. Have you been
to that Grand Prix before?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
No?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I haven't. Oh my gosh, yeah, no, I'd love to go.
It'll I mean the atmosphere in this so you will
be just unbelievable in it. Yeah, and we'll get a
good steer on where the where the Red Bull cars
are actually in positioned this year or the Racing Bull
cars are positioned this year, which is always nice.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, we'll go Liam Lawson looking forward to seeing her.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah. Yeah, So Tuesday morning he's going to be speaking
with Mike asking, which would be superb. Now to this
weekend's book picks. Let's start off with the last from
JP Porulmarty tell us about the Gambler.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
So this features private investigator Vince Reid, and he's a
PI for hire and he's kind of that classic detective.
He's always after answers, even if he's sort of putting
himself in the middle of what's going on. He questions
everybody and you know everything, even though you know, even
when it's people he knows. And he's catching up with
an old friend of hers, a guy called Nash, and
Nash offers him a job after this young woman, a

(01:37):
girl called Katie, has been shot dead at a political
rally and Jason, who was a friend of Who's shot
the attacker who killed her in this heroic act, but
then he disappears, and Kate's parents are really desperate to
find out why their daughter was targeted or was it
an accident. Was she just in the wrong place at
the wrong time. But of course, the only way that
reader is going to get answers is if he tracks

(01:59):
down Jason, who has disappeared, and the shoot is also
kind of this really interesting woman, a woman called Barb,
and she has no obvious connection to Katie, and she
was very respected in the community. And so Read of
course realizes that he's stepping into something, you know, much
more dangerous than he thought it was, and he digs
deeper and there's all of these agendas and influences and

(02:20):
kind of pushing shadow influences, pushing them in different directions,
and you know there's a real personal cost to him
as well. And a story you hear it through several
different points of view, which adds to that mystery and
that air of it, and about Jason and Bub's widower
and the Marshals who are Katie's parents just not sharing
everything that they know. And so he gets this really
engrossing read with these storylines and point of views and

(02:43):
time jumps around and great characters and some good intrigue
along the way.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Very good. That sounds awesome. Okay, So it's by JP Paulmartia.
The book is The Gambler that now you've also read
Spies and Other Gods by John Wolfe, So this is.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
A really good espionage story. It's Sir William Reynold. He's
six months away from retirement, but he's making a lot
of mistakes, his memory not quite what it was, and
he doesn't really seem to be following the situations very
well and potentially in the early stages of dementia. And
the book opens with the British Parliament's Intelligent and Security

(03:19):
Committee having received this complaint about a particular case that
is run by Sir William's department. What happens to be
six and it's highly classified and there's this hunt for
an Iranian assassin who's been killing Iranian dissidents in Europe,
and much to his annoyance, a parliamentary researcher has been
sent in to review the file and Afra McQueen is

(03:40):
that investigator, and she's smart, she doesn't back down, and
when she's sent into review, she's on the lookout for
any wrongdoing by the department as well. And this sensitive
case and it's not concluded. And also as the story
moves through, you yet unforeseen things and the story turns
in different directions and events move from London to Birmingham

(04:01):
to Paris, and as Afro and Sir William end up
in the same cities at the same time, and there's
lots of chaos, and it's a serial killer and you
enter this world of spies and secrets and lies and
undercover operations and it's really well done. It's written by
a former spy, and it's got a really unique style
to it.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
That is definitely definitely a bit of me, thank you.
So that's Spies and Other Gods by John Wolfe. Catherine's
first book is The Gambler by JP Pormarty, and we'll
make sure both of those books and details about them
are up on the news Talks he'd be website. Catherine
will be speaking to you next weekend, but travel safely.
Can't wait to hear about your IF one experience. For

(04:41):
more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
news Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
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