Celebrity-written works have long been criticized by those looking for reasons to place shame and blame on the publishing community. As recently as last week there was condemnation of works that some view as straying outside of the artist’s primary lane, but frankly this is just ridiculous. Storytelling as an art has been part of our culture since the beginning and no one has the right to claim ownership. Judge the work for what it is, not because of who wrote it. For example, Richard Armitage’s debut novel Geneva stands strong next to not just other debut crime novels, but frankly many of the most successful thrillers published in recent years. This is a man whose talent contains multitudes and trying to deny that would only make the literary landscape poorer.

Geneva is a high-octane thriller hiding within a high concept idea. Mauritz Schiller has invented a neural implant that has unimaginable medical applications, along with its fair share of naysayers worried about unintended use of the technology. Having Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier endorse the medical marvel would go a long way to helping to secure further funding.

With that goal in mind Sarah and her husband, Daniel, travel to the Schiller Institute in Geneva, Switzerland on the weekend of the important press conference. Mauritz and his colleague, Helen Alder will invest time into showing Sarah the benefits of this controversial technology, with the hope of her full endorsement in front of a Global audience.

Sarah Collier has been dealing with the declining health of her father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s and she and her husband are starting to see some early signs in Sarah herself. The combination of stress and impending disease has Sarah worried about the future.

Meanwhile, a whistleblower blog called The Landau Report is also hoping to post from inside the press conference, determined to expose the new technology as a risk to humanity and privacy—nothing more than a money grab that ignores all the warning signs.

Richard Armitage wastes no time in thrusting the reader into the midst of these dilemmas. Geneva is written to capture the reader from page one with steadily increasing action until the final 100 pages, which are so addictive that few readers will be able to set the book aside until the thrilling final set piece.

A skilled storyteller knows how to let a story unfold. Richard Armitage uses two first-person points of view—Sarah and her husband, Daniel—along with multiple third-person perspectives from Schiller, Alder, and the Institute’s bodyguard Pavel Osinov. And then readers are also privy to the blog posts by The Landau Report. Structured like a web, these narratives twist and interconnect in exciting—and often, unexpected—ways.

Clocking in at just 280 pages, Geneva does not suffer from any padding or over-writing. It’s a streamlined narrative that is very cinematic, which makes sense given Richard Armitage’s background. As Sarah’s condition continues to deteriorate, readers are left wondering who they can trust and whether anyone will survive this long weekend at the Schiller Institute.

Richard Armitage proves his ability to entertain with Geneva, leaving readers hoping to have further books from him soon.

BUY LINKS: Geneva by Richard Armitage