‘Chaos’ – Escober (Underland Press)

Underland Press hasn’t been around all that long but it has already developed a reputation, for me, as a publisher that I can rely on to give me something a little different when I get stuck in one of my infrequent ‘everything I’m reading all feels the same’ ruts. As much as I’ve enjoyed my recent reads, and I have enjoyed them, have a scroll down and see for yourselves, I’ve been feeling the need to break out and read something completely different. An email about the ‘Agent of Chaos’ competition reminded me that Escober’s ‘Chaos’ had been sat in the pile for far too long and that it was about time I gave it a go. I did just that; ‘Chaos’ didn’t quite work for me but (on the other hand) it was a book that I couldn’t put down until I’d finished it...

A tour of duty in Bosnia has left Alex Fisher with mental scars that have left his life in pieces; the only thing left for him to do is to go travelling and try to exorcise the demons in his head.
A chance encounter with a mysterious woman, in Mexico, turns out to be just what Fisher needed. What he doesn’t need though is a brutal beating (at the hands of the Mexican police) the following day. And then things get even stranger...
Fisher must sort through a flood of suppressed memories if he is to maintain his grip on reality enough to be able to come through a nest of schemes and betrayals in one piece...

Without giving too much away, I loved the concept that underpinned everything ‘Chaos’ did. It’s a story of one of those million to one chance occurrences actually taking place and what happens as a result. It’s far out enough to make for a plot that had me interested (even more so when I realised what was actually going on) and plausible enough that I didn’t have any trouble accepting that this could happen in real life. I’m no big expert on Chaos Theory but it strikes me that this kind of one in a million occurrence is just what they’re talking about. Also, like that butterfly flapping its wings, the smallest thing that Fisher does can have far reaching consequences...

Where it fell down for me though was the number of hoops that various characters had to jump through in order for Fisher to arrive at a certain location so that he could fulfil a certain role. I sometimes find that the more intricate a scheme is the more contrived it feels on the page and this was the case with ‘Chaos’. With hindsight, it felt like certain events were included to move Fisher along rather than add anything to the plot itself...

What this approach does do however is to give proceedings a real sense of uncertainty. Whether you think that the plot is needlessly convoluted or not, the bottom line is that anything can happen and this makes turning each page a bit of a treat. If you add the fact that Fisher has no idea what’s going on, even when he thinks that he does, then reading ‘Chaos’ becomes even more fun (especially when the stakes become clear). Alliances can change literally from one page to the next and it’s this constant fluctuation (chaos!) that keeps things fresh and interesting.

Fisher’s character proved really difficult for me to get my head round. While his circumstances led to me to feel a degree of sympathy for him, there is also a lot that he has brought on himself. Here is a loving family man with a dark side that has been thrust on him but was also there to begin with. He achieves some form of redemption but only through the fact that he has given himself nowhere else to turn to. Is that redemption? I’m still thinking about that one...

I found that while ‘Chaos’ did have it’s problems it was still a book that really made me think about what I was reading as well as being a thriller that did everything it set out to. I wouldn’t mind reading more of Escober’s work on the strength of the fun I had with this one.

Eight out of Ten