Selesai membaca Numbered Account setelah hampir tiga bulan

Tanggal 28 Februari 2010, sekitar jam 2.20 pagi, saya selesai membaca fiksyen bertajuk Numbered Account oleh Christopher Reich. Ia buku keempat penulis thriller ini yang saya baca. Buku ini selesai dibaca setelah hampir tiga bulan! Tentu saudara bertanya, mengapa lama sangat?

Di sini penjelasan saya. Pembacaan Numbered Account terhenti beberapa kali justeru kerana saya mulakan pembacaan buku lain. Bila buku lain dibaca ketika fiksyen ini masih belum selesai, pastinya saya akan tinggalkan sementara waktu. Buku baru dibaca tadi pula saya berhenti membacanya, dan mengambil buku baru seterusnya. Jadi Numbered Account terus terbelakang, cuma saya tidak tinggalkan terus.

Numbered Account bermula secara perlahan. (Itu mungkin antara sebab saya terhenti-henti membacanya, lantas menyambar buku lain.) Buku setebal 753 halaman ini menjadi semakin menarik dari bab ke bab. Pada suku terakhir, saya sukar untuk melepaskannya. Aksi dan plot menjadi semakin padat dan mendebarkan.

Itu mungkin antara kelebihan fiksyen thriller yang ditulis oleh penulis yang baik seumpama Christopher Reich ini. Jika boleh dibandingkan dengan novel thriller penulis-penulis tempatan dalam bahasa Melayu, maka saya nampak jelas perbezaannya. Sebahagian besar novel thriller bahasa Melayu menjadi semakin hambar dan mendatar di hujung cerita. Ini juga benar bagi beberapa hasil karya penulis kegemaran saya, saudara Ramlee Awang Murshid.

Ya, mungkin juga minda saya sudah terbiasa dengan hasil novel thriller bahasa Inggeris penulis Barat. Justeru itu, mungkin benak saya agak sukar menerima plot penceritaan thriller penulis Melayu kita. Atau penulis Melayu harus belajar gaya penceritaan dari mereka? Walaupun begitu, saya akan terus menyokong novel-novel thriller berbahasa Melayu.

Amazon.com Review
Through the eyes of Christopher Reich, dive into the corrupt world of international high finance. In his debut novel, Reich offers a realistic and gritty "day-in-the-life" perspective on working in the world's financial mecca. For Nick Neumann, an ex-marine turned Harvard MBA with a gorgeous fiancée and an elite position at Morgan Stanley, life is good--until his mother's untimely death opens old wounds and rehashes questions regarding his father's unsolved murder.

Nick wants the truth and is willing to sacrifice his career, love, and future for a crack at untangling the mystery surrounding his father's death. To do this, he takes a job at the prestigious United Swiss Bank, the venerable financial cornerstone of Geneva and his father's former employer.

Before he can begin his investigation, however, disturbing events come into play: One portfolio manager is dead, another had a "nervous breakdown," and his training manager is jumping ship to cast accounts with their staunch enemy. All of the managers have one thing in common: they each oversaw a multimillion-dollar numbered account owned by the mysterious Pasha.

If that isn't enough, the DEA steps in and orders Nick to serve up Pasha on a silver platter. Being the embodiment of American ideals, Nick takes matters into his own hands and is caught in a ruthless conspiracy that stretches around the world and into his personal life. Peppered with murder, revenge, and first-rate espionage, Numbered Account is a thinking person's thriller, a refreshing break from the old standbys.