Europe in Autumn

I didn't make a lot of notes while reading Europe In Autumn, the first book of the Fractured Europe sequence. That's a good sign, in this case. Dave Hutchinson doesn't try to do anything else than write a good book: there's no philosophical pretension, no glaringly obvious attempts at social commentary, no need to teach us readers some moral lesson. It's just 317 pages of solid storytelling -- there's not a single secondary thing that throws this book off balance.

No message doesn't mean this book is without politics. Set in a not so distant future Europe, political disintegration -- Brexit, Grexit, Scottish nationalism -- has continued, as have cutbacks in the public sector. The Global War On Terrorism rages on. Schengen is dead. What exactly constitutes a nation has become increasingly murky -- yet clearer too: money & violence.

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Whereas the first part of the novel doubles as a tutorial on spy stuff & the new political map of Europe, the second part ups the ante, and the pacing. Hutchinson doesn't hold back, and forces the reader to make a few jumps -- great stuff, as a lesser author would have added 200 extra pages to explain and explain and explain. Hutchinson's choices work much better, and leave us wanting for more -- much more: Europe At Midnight and Europe In Winter will hopefully quench that thirst.

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