My Review of Control by Hugh Montgomery

My Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed Control it has a dark and relentless plot that has lots of twists and turns and an ending that was most surprising and satisfying too.

Hugh Montgomery tells the story predominately from Kash Devan's perspective whom the reader meets on his first day as a junior doctor at a busy London hospital. The reader is firmly positioned on Kash's side as Montgomery allows us glimpses into his back story as a perpetually hard working young man who becomes a dedicated and over-worked junior doctor, reminiscent of of so many in our beloved NHS.

It's no spoiler to reveal that Kash's mentor, the consultant Michael Trenchard is left in a coma as a result of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Trenchard's reputation is ruined and his predicament is fodder for the gutter press for weeks afterwards. This is a cleverly crafted novel as Montgomery intersperses Kash's first person narrative with that of the incapacitated Trenchard, this is both fascinating and unsettling as being in the mind of a coma victim is an ingenious and intriguing plot device but you can't help but think that his thoughts are not ones that you wish to be privy too. You find out more than you're comfortable with about Trenchard from his own thoughts as Kash discovers more than he bargained for about him too. Montgomery achieves the impossible as try as the reader might it's hard not to feel some sympathy for Michael Trenchard.

Montgomery makes a fictional crime both realistic and plausible with his use of technical jargon which adds a layer of authenticity, I didn't always understand the terminology but I didn't need to to understand what was happening. The narrative is driven by Kash's strong moral compass and his attempt to get to the truth as to what happened to Trenchard, through Trenchard's narrative we also know that the danger is not necessarily over.

Like a lot of successful and arrogant men Trenchard treats women as disposable and does so without repercussions. It makes for conflicting emotions in the reader as you can't help but feel that he had it coming whilst at the same time feel no one deserves his fate.

A dark and thoughtful thriller that I'd highly recommend.

Thank you to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to take part.