The Sator Square

Geoff Cook

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

A terrorist is on the loose in the UK - his target - a member of the Royal Family.

In France, a killer stalks the ranks of the paparazzi as he prepares to commit a series of ritual murders.

When compromising pictures of the Prince are published in a French tabloid, Chas Broadhurst, the Palace's head of security is drawn into the dangerous world of blackmail, fundamentalist fervour, brutal revenge and a sinister international conspiracy to realise a heinous act with catastrophic consequences.

Across the Channel, René Marchal, a widowed detective on the verge of retirement, is trying to investigate a series of suspicious deaths, but being thwarted at every turn.

Tying the two men together on a dangerous collision course with the Establishments in both the UK and France is the enigmatic Sator Square - an ancient code with a deadly resonancey.

Review by Chrissi (300917) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
Book Source: Author
Rating 8/10
The Sator Square is one of those weird puzzle things like Suduko where whatever line you read, it reads a word, back and forth, up and down, but not diagonally. It is one of those strangely clever devices that can mean whatever you assign a meaning for, and in this book, it is used as a signal for parts of a plan completed.

This is a book with a very complicated plot, told from multiple characters points of view, but it was worth persevering. I was intrigued and a little unsure as the storyline developed rather slowly, but it is not that nothing happened, it was just that there were events that took place of which I was unsure what relevance to which character they were, but I would stress that it is it is very nicely written and flows very well, the individual story lines develop apace and I particularly liked the policeman and the Palace security man. I liked that there were plenty of grey characters, as in neither black nor white, the differentiation is explained well by the wife of a paparazzi photographer. When describing the man she loved but separating his personal and professional personae as his professional life was one of fewer scruples and she found the professional man less loveable.

Central to the plot is the relationship between the media, celebrity and the establishment. Are all aspects of the lives of all public figures open to prurient dissection and discussion, or should there be limits? It is a very appropriate in this time of immediate accessibility that people feel closer to celebrities and demand for intimate details for salacious purposes must be met somehow. So to meet the demand, the paparazzi are encouraged to become more intrusive and more ingenious to get by the security that people then surround themselves with.

This book is thought-provoking; it made me think about the cases of public interest and the relationship of the fourth estate to everyone else. The idea that a person in the public eye has no right to a private life, as all aspects are of public interest is only fuelled by the access into private lives sold by the cult of low grade (z-list) celebrity which makes it more difficult to then achieve separation by other people in whom the public are interested. I might be biased as I have no time for reality TV and Hello! Magazine sharing the jaded and cynical Private Life pictures of whatever famous for fifteen minutes person of the week, (sorry, rant over).

On a slightly separate theme, the book itself is beautiful, it is a joy to handle, heavy and with dense print, it is a longer read than you might expect at first impression. I am not going to do any form of spoiler, you should read it and follow the loops and tangles to the conclusion which is well worth your time.
Chrissi (30th September 2017)