The Bridge of Silver Wings & This Other Country by John Wiltshire

Narrated by Gary Furlong

The Bridge of Silver Wings and This Other Country are books three and four in John Wiltshire’s More Heat Than the Sun series of thriller/romantic suspense novels following the exploits of Ben Rider, a former SAS operative, and enigmatic (ex) diplomat Sir Nikolas Mikkelsen, two of the most stubborn Alpha Males who ever stubborned. The books are characterised by fast-paced, dramatic plots – there’s no such thing as ‘low-drama’ in Ben and Nik’s world – lots of humour, terrific dialogue and the continually evolving relationship between the two leads, a pair of complex, damaged and compelling individuals who aren’t always likeable but who always manage to be fascinating.

 The Bridge of Silver Wings

Like the two books that precede it, this is a ‘two-in-one’, comprising two different storylines that follow on from each other. The first part of the novel finds Ben accompanying Nikolas on a journey to a remote part of Russia on a very personal mission when their plane crashes in a remote area of Siberia. The plot is your classic “stranded” trope, wherein a mismatched bunch of strangers with different agendas fight each other as well as for survival. Nik and Ben take charge (of course!), assigning tasks to the others – three hunters, including a bigoted ex-cop, with a massive chip on his shoulder (who uses a lot of racist, homophobic and sexist language), a bible-bashing father and his two sons and a grandmother and granddaughter – and formulating a plan to keep them all alive long enough to get to safety. That’s going to be hard enough – but when one of their number turns up dead, killed in a truly horrific manner, it seems that they’re up against more than the terrain and the climate.

It’s no spoiler to say Nik and Ben make it out in one piece – this is book three of nine, after all! – and the second half of the novel is quieter and focused more on relationship and character development, although that’s not to say it’s without drama. Ben – whose mother died when he was a child, and who has long believed he has no family – has inherited a large manor house on the edge of Dartmoor, left him by the father he never knew. While sorting out all the legalities, Nik has discovered that Ben does, in fact, have family – his aunt Camilla Redvers and his cousins John and Natasha – and that the Redvers family is landed gentry with a pedigree going back to the time of the Norman Conquest. Ben is stunned and excited to meet them.

It’s clear right away that something is off, and the author very effectively establishes a sense of disquiet as Ben becomes drawn into his family’s world of partying and fast-living. Nik is obviously hurt, but takes no steps to interfere; not only does he know that’s a sure fire way of pushing Ben further away, he’s also continually weighed down by feelings that he’s not good enough, (despite Ben’s protestations to the contrary), that he can’t bear the thought of Ben being tainted and dragged down by the darkness inside him, so he just observes quietly from the sidelines, knowing Ben needs to work things out for himself and watching as the man he loves becomes… someone else.

Gah, these two are so screwed up there are times you just want to scream and yell at them to get their heads out of their arses!! But their fucked-up-edness is also part of the appeal. Three years have passed since we met them in Love is a Stranger, and Nik, especially, has come a looooong way from the completely closed-off man we met then. He’s still infuriating (I can’t help enjoying the way he uses his cool logicality to wind Ben up!), still full of secrets – and still scarily head-over-heels for Ben (and almost wishing he wasn’t). He still has a tough time speaking about his feelings or showing them, even to Ben – which only makes the raw vulnerability he displays during this part of the story all the more powerful.

This Other Country

There’s a bit less action in this book, although our heroes still face plenty of danger when, to help a friend, Ben and Nik pose as an antagonistic couple and go undercover at a therapy course for gay men. (Nik is impersonating is a gay florist – yes, really – and these scenes are every bit as funny as you’d expect given that description, full of deadpan dry humour and snarky banter.) It turns out – of course – that the ‘therapy’ isn’t at all what they expected and that there’s something sinister going on, and while they’re trying to get to the bottom of it all, they also have the opportunity for some serious self-examination and exploration of their relationship. One of the things that’s always struck me as odd in these books is that despite the fact that Ben and Nik have been in a relationship of some kind for years (eight at this point) – they’re in love, they shag like bunnies at every opportunity – neither of them thinks of himself as gay. This is more of a problem for Nik than for Ben it seems, as part of the tension in this part of the story comes from the fact that Nik is adamant he’s not gay and is, at first, completely resistant to the idea of going undercover as a gay man. I can’t help noticing that the word “bisexual” (or “pansexual” for that matter) never, ever appears in any of the four books in the series I’ve listened to so far, and it’s difficult to believe it never occurs to either of them to suspect they might be another shade of queer – it appears “gay” is the only alternative to “straight” in their vocabulary.

Anyway. The second half of the book takes a sombre turn when Ben sustains a head injury which results in his losing all his memories of the past ten years. Nik’s despair at ‘losing’ Ben like this is palpable and you can almost feel his heart breaking – which really brings home the fact that while he comes across as aloof and completely self-possessed (if you’ve got this far in the series, you’ll have a good idea why he’s the way he is) it doesn’t mean he doesn’t get hurt or doesn’t feel things deeply.

Amnesia plots can be difficult to pull off, but I like them when they’re done well, and this one is. One of the things I like about them in romance is the opportunity afforded for the characters to get to know each other and fall for each other again, often in a way that helps change their relationship for the better. It’s a tough ride for both Ben and Nik (and there’s some very unwanted interference when one of the recurring characters does something utterly despicable), but their intense connection and soul-deep love for one another is so strong that even though Ben can’t actively remember it, he can still feel it.

Gary Furlong delivers yet another pair of outstanding performances here – I honestly think I’ve emptied the dictionary of superlatives several times over when reviewing his work! In addition to the excellent voice acting, pacing, differentiation and vocal characterisations, he absolutely nails the emotional content of the story, which ranges from farcical humour to deep despair as Nik experiences gut-wrenching grief (I had tears in my eyes at those parts L). I adore his version of Nik and Ben; from Ben’s upbeat good humour to Nik’s dry cynicism and everything in between, he captures their multi-faceted personalities perfectly and expertly conveys their deep emotional connection. His comic timing in the lighter moments is spot on, and the recurring characters are portrayed consistently (Squeezy always cracks me up!). Apart from one or two mispronunciations, I have absolutely no criticisms to make of the narration. It’s fantastic on all fronts.

The relationship between Ben and Nik is put sorely to the test in these books, and the trials they face reveal more about their characters and the way they each see their relationship. They reach something of a turning point, with Ben at last realising that Nik really does need him every bit as much as he needs Nik, that Nik is with him because he wants to be and that he’s in it for the long haul; and that he – Ben – doesn’t have to let Nik have his own way all the time to keep him close. Nik experiences his fair share of revelations, too; we’ve watched him slowly unwind over the course of four books, and by the end of this one, he’s become more relaxed and open – with Ben and those close to him at least – and the power dynamics in the relationship have subtly shifted – for the better – as a result.

The More Heat Than the Sun series is crazily addictive, full of danger, drama and high emotion, with a well-drawn secondary cast and two principals you can’t help but root for. The character and relationship development is superb and is what really draws me to these books; Ben and Nik (mostly Nik!) might be seriously screwed-up, but their love for each other is powerful and growing stronger, and I love the way that they complement each other, how they’ve adapted around each other while retaining the essence of what makes them ‘them’. On to book five!

Caz

---

Buy The Bridge of Silver Wings by John Wiltshire on Amazon Buy This Other Country by John Wiltshire on Amazon