Bodyguard 1: Recruit. By
Chris Bradford. Philomel. $8.99.
Bodyguard 2: Hostage. By
Chris Bradford. Philomel. $8.99.
Bodyguard 3: Hijack. By Chris
Bradford. Philomel. $8.99.
Bodyguard 4: Ransom. By Chris
Bradford. Philomel. $8.99.
The most complex thing involving
Chris Bradford’s Bodyguard series is
figuring out which books are which. The first two are really a single book
called Hostage, published in England
– where Bradford lives – in 2013, now split in half in such a way that Recruit ends pretty much in the middle
of a paragraph (as well as at a high point of the action) and readers must,
absolutely must, have Hostage (U.S. edition) to figure out
where things are going. Likewise, the second two Bodyguard books in the U.S. are actually a single book called Ransom, published across the pond in
2014 and now unceremoniously (but presumably profitably) split in the same way
as the first U.S. pair.
Once you get past the rather
odd packaging, what you get in the Bodyguard
series is a very skillful transfer of standard-issue martial-arts
adventure/fantasy books in which a highly skilled central character is charged
with protecting various important (and never very well-fleshed-out) characters
from various evil (and never very well-fleshed-out) bad guys. The target
audience here is not, however, adults: the books are aimed at readers ages 10 and
up, and as such are full of fight, fire and fisticuffs but no major heavy
weaponry, no massive amounts of gore, and no significant sex or other
inconveniences to the plot pacing.
The idea here is that a
14-year-old kickboxing champion named Connor Reeves is recruited into the usual
top-secret organization that needs someone just like him. This is a
private-duty rather than government group, and it is charged with protecting
teenagers such as celebrities and the kids of politicians and business bigwigs.
That means the organization needs top-tier kids to protect the other kids, and
that leads to Connor’s recruitment, which will seem inevitable to readers when
they find out, as they quickly do, that Connor’s father was himself a
super-skilled bodyguard who laid down his life on the job and whom Connor very
much wants to emulate (except for the part about dying).
Nothing in the books
proceeds in any unexpected way, and this is both a strength (readers will enjoy
the novels because they will know exactly what to expect, even without knowing
from just which direction just what type of danger will come) and a weakness
(the books never make the slightest attempt to break outside the formulas and
expectations of their genre). The first two books in their U.S. versions start with
Connor’s recruitment and the expected rigors of his training in unarmed combat,
hostage survival, surveillance, and blending in so seamlessly that the bad guys
will not realize Connor’s abilities until it is too late for them (a recurring
theme). Once the basics are out of the way, Connor must protect the teenage
daughter of the U.S. president from a terrorist cell. Here are some cell
members: “His coal-black eyes bored into Hazim’s as he searched for the
slightest evidence of doubt, any flicker of cowardice. Hazim held Malik’s
stare. ‘I’m well aware of the dangers, Uncle. And I’m resolved to my calling.’
Malik grinned in satisfaction, licking the stew from his yellow-stained teeth.
‘Excellent.’” That’s about it for characterization – which is scarcely the
point here, since Connor himself is a type rather than a believable human being.
There are occasional nods here to 21st-century reality and/or
political correctness: the president’s daughter is named Alicia Rosa Mendez,
and the president is Antonio Mendez. But by and large, names and ethnic origins
and backgrounds are there only to fill a small amount of space between the
action scenes, which are nicely spaced out and written to keep readers moving
right along. It is also important for Connor to encounter people with doubts
about him, so he can overcome those doubts. Thus, in his initial outing, he
gets a lecture from Dirk Moran, the director of the Secret Service, to the
effect that “no young upstart – whose only qualifications are a few weeks’
training and a bodyguard for a father – will jeopardize our mission!” Like many
adults in these books, both good guys and bad, Moran talks in pronouncements
rather than speech. But, again, character development here takes a seat so far
back that it is not even in the same vehicle as the fast-paced, superficial
plotting.
So Connor goes about his job
of befriending and unobtrusively protecting Alicia as well as possible, even
though she is somewhat flighty and inclined to do things that put her in danger
(there would be no book, or rather no two-book grouping, if she didn’t). Things
get increasingly complicated, of course, with a series of bombings, Alicia’s
and Connor’s kidnaping, and the usual inability of supposedly expert adults to
take care of things that only Connor can handle. “He was as scared as she was,
but he couldn’t allow his own fears to spiral out of control. He had to remain
strong – for both their sakes.” Matters eventually get so bad that the
President and First Lady can do nothing but pray – yes, Bradford actually says
they “sank to their knees and began praying for a miracle.” Connor eventually
produces the miracle, and he and Alicia are saved, and he gets some suitable
“war wounds” to carry into the future, and a mysterious character who has
financed the whole evil operation shows up to prevent the surviving terrorist leader
from telling anything to anyone (look for that evil mastermind, or his boss or
boss’ boss, to return in a later book!). And eventually Connor gets a nice kiss
from Alicia and is headed for his next assignment.
This one involves protecting
the twin daughters of someone who is definitely not named Murdoch but just
happens to be an Australian media baron (actual name in this adventure: Maddox
Sterling). Having faced off against evil on land, Connor in Hijack and Ransom (the third and fourth U.S. books) gets to do so at sea, aboard
a yacht, where the bad guys – Somali pirates – are motivated not by ideology
but simply by money. Instead of a Secret Service leader condemning Connor’s
inexperience and objecting to his presence, this time there is Captain Locke:
“‘As captain I have ultimate
authority over all matters of safety and security. If you see something
suspicious or there is a security breach of any sort, you’re to report it
immediately. …I do not want you
operating on your own. Do you understand?’” Yes, of course – message sent,
message received. Also, message irrelevant, as readers will instantly realize
that it will soon prove to be. Connor initially works this case with another
guardian, Ling, while the shadowy evil called Equilibrium continues to insert
itself – and its poison-delivering pen nib – into minor characters. Then Ling
is sent away by one of the media mogul’s twin daughters, for behaving too much
like a guardian: Connor “recognized that Ling’s manner might have been abrasive
and heavy-handed, but there were genuine threats to the girls’ lives.” But of
course the girls will have none of this – especially Chloe, who (like Alicia in
the first adventure) feels put-upon and deprived: “My father allows me no freedom
at home, and puts me under so much pressure to succeed at school that I need to let off some steam. Otherwise
I’ll go stir-crazy.” Chloe thinks the big problem is Emily, who was kidnaped in
the past, alerting their father to all the dire possibilities of life even
though, gosh, Chloe herself never got kidnaped or anything like that. Then the
pirates strike, all the adults are captured and put out of action, and once
again it is left to Connor, whom the pirates make the mistake of
underestimating, to save the day. This involves betrayals and shootings, with
Connor making split-second decisions about good and bad guys, getting shot (but
of course not killed!), and at one point being saved from certain death by a
mysterious man who “struck [Connor] as a shark who could slip any net” and of
course has done exactly that, since there are more books to come. In fact, Bradford
is producing the books at the rate of one a year: Ambush came out in 2015 and Target
in 2016 in U.K. editions, and both are to be split in two for U.S. consumption.
Assassin is due out in the U.K. later
this year and Fugitive next year, by
which time readers will presumably have learned all about Equilibrium and
gotten all sorts of additional insight into the adventures, if not the nearly
nonexistent character, of the heroic Connor Reeves.
No comments:
Post a Comment