Book series are quite an interesting phenomenon in that if the author manages to make you care about the characters in the first book, you will want to continue to the next one to see how the characters and their relationships develop.
In January 2018 my wife bought me a book called “The Bach Manuscript”, knowing I’d find the historical connection interesting. When I was a few pages in, I realized that this was part of a series (as The Bach Manuscript was clearly referencing something from the character’s past) and decided that it was interesting enough that I should first check out the rest of the series. I found out that The Bach Manuscript was actually book number 16 in this series but still decided to go back to the beginning to see if I would find it interesting enough. I started with this pack that I am linking to here, which conveniently contains the first six books in the series.
It’s now June and I’ve made it through books 1-15 in the series so the next one to read is finally The Bach Manuscript – at least now I’ll know the back story!
Ben Hope is an ex SAS specialist and as such basically knows how to kill a man with only a toothpick and some tabasco sauce. He’s a specialist in finding missing people and throughout the series ends up in battles with some pretty serious characters, often at the cost of his personal relationships with family, friends and the ladies.
The underlying mysteries in each book are quite well researched, whether it’s ancient Babylonian treasures or mysterious letters from Mozart. Sometimes the books veer a little too much into shootouts and car chases but at least Mariani writes those very well. The characters, Ben and his friends, are interesting enough to keep you coming back to follow along in their lives.
It also helps that each book is quite inexpensive, so you can read an entire series for what a high-profile book or two would have cost you.
Read: Jan-June 2018
Recommended: Yes, if you like manly action stuff with a historical twist
Buy The Ben Hope Collection (first six books) here