Jade Dragon

Andy Phillips

She hunts her enemies one by one.
Looks into their eyes.
Shows them her face.
To let them know they’ve been beaten by an eighteen year old girl.

A new breed of psychopath terrorises San Francisco: a woman who is seductive, manipulative, and lethally proficient in martial arts.

First to die is Toshigi Tasoto - a prominent videogame developer whose company created Jade Dragon, the female ninja character imitated by the real life murderess.

Investigations lead to Tasoto’s daughter Nicole, a games designer as brilliant as she is beautiful. Her past is the key to the mystery. But is she a potential victim… or a killer playing a murderous game?

Review by Nigel (301106) Rating (7/10)

Review by Nigel
Kindly sent to BookLore by the publisher, Utopia City Books, Jade Dragon is Andy Phillips’ debut novel.

The title character is a rather ruthless woman who feels ill done to by her peers and sets out on a revenge rampage most people dream of but refrain from actually carrying out… how many times have you wanted to ‘murder’ your boss? Well, Jade takes this to the next level and systematically wipes out everyone she feels has in any way slighted her, real or imaginary. I suspect if you served her the wrong coffee you would end up on her hit list.

I did find that the book at times tended to read like a computer game, stepping from scene to scene with no real substance to the background. For example, the relationship between the two cops is there, but never quite convincing. I think this is because no single character is the main focus of the book, with almost all the characters getting equal treatment. However, what it lacks in style it more than makes up for in action packed gruesomeness as characters are dispatched with page turning regularity and no one is safe.

This is a very good debut novel and with time and experience this author has a bright future.
Nigel (30th November 2006)