“William Boyd seems singularly blessed with both an innate love of storytelling and the talent to render those stories in swift, confident prose.” — The New York Times From William Boyd, award-winning author of Brazzaville Beach and Restless , comes a stunning literary mystery about crime and punishment: Ordinary Thunderstorms . One of the most accomplished writers of our time, Boyd has written a profound and gripping novel about the fragility of social identity, the corruption at the heart of big business, and the secrets that lie hidden in the filthy underbelly of every city. Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010 : In his surprising new novel (think The Fugitive meets Nobody's Fool ), William Boyd explores how one chance occurrence can evolve rapidly into a life-leveling storm. Climatologist Adam Kindred is trying to establish a new life in London (far from his failed marriage and ruined career in the US) when he inadvertently stumbles upon a botched murder and becomes the chief suspect. Boyd manages to breathe new life into the wrong-man tale, weaving together vivid back-stories of intriguing characters, from the hired killer desperate to clean up his mess, to the ruthless executives out for profit, to the hardscrabble individuals Kindred meets while on the run. Ordinary Thunderstorms is anything but ordinary--an ambitious, engaging thriller that also raises questions about identity, religion, and social responsibility. -- Daphne Durham In his tenth novel, Boyd takes a stab at the "wronged-man-on-the-run" plot, with mixed results. While some critics thought it a "snappy page-turner, a true thriller" (Philadelphia Inquirer), others felt the story falters under the weight of clunky writing and tiresome clichés. This came as a surprise to reviewers, who were accustomed to the elegant, precise prose in Boyd's earlier works. Ordinary Thunderstorms may not appeal to the conventional thriller fan. It perhaps works best as a novel that explores identity, anonymity in modern urban life, reinvention, and the tumultuous domino effect that can result from one fateful decision. The old adage “no good deed goes unpunished” certainly comes true for thirtysomething Adam Kindred, a climatologist visiting London for a job interview. Randomly choosing a small Italian restaurant for a quiet dinner after his interview, he strikes up an idle conversation with a solitary stranger eating at a nearby table. After the stranger leaves, Adam notices that he has left one of his file folders (containing his business card) at the table. Deciding to be a Good Samaritan, he takes the file to the stranger’s residence where his nightmare begins: he finds the man dying from a brutal knife wound, the apartment ransacked (evidently for the folder now in Adam’s possession), and the murderer still there. After Adam flees from the murder scene, the odds quickly turn against him as the police have implicated him in the killing, there is a reward for his capture, and the real murderer is after him. Relying only on his wits and the anonymity afforded by a large city, Adam goes underground (literally) and reinvents himself in order to survive. Even though this has been billed as a “literary mystery” by the publisher, it is recommended for thriller-genre readers rather than devotees of Oprah. --Michael Gannon “Boyd has written a crackling spy thriller.” - The New York Times Book Review “A gripping and smartly crafted spy thriller set against a fascinating and largely hidden episode in U.S.-British relations.” - The Washington Post “Superbly written. . . . One of the most smoothly readable novels of the year.” - The Chicago Tribune “An espionage thriller and domestic drama by one of the very best prose stylists and storytellers in the English language.” - Atlantic Monthly “Impressive. . . . Rich and engaging. . . . Boyd creates the rich spectrum of London with arresting cinematic detail. . . . Boyd gives a harrowing sense of how close and yet how distant the nether life of a large city is.” - Ron Charles, The Washington Post “Boyd has constructed a narrative machine of hilarious, near-impossible intricacy for the purpose of demonstrating that identity is fragile and that instinct, for better or worse, is not. . . . He is a debonair, versatile, casually philosophical literary entertainer―clever and thoughtful.” - The New York Times Book Review “A thrilling story.” - The Daily Beast “Boyd is highly adept at doing what novelists do best: exploring the multifarious possibilities implicit in human life.” - The Los Angeles Times “Charles Dickens lurks in the shadows of William Boyd’s gripping new novel, Ordinary Thunderstorms , which . . . has a Dickensian cast of characters―predators and prey, tycoons and paupers, charlatans and stooges―orbiting one another in the mean streets of London.” - The Wall Street Journal “William Boyd delivers a multiplot thriller full of twists and turns in Ordinary Thunderstorms .” - Har