Ever since the Skandi-noir books of Stieg Larsson¹ there have been *seriously clever female heroines*. Antonia Scott is a Spanish super genius. The scene is set on the first page,

“…in three minutes – Antonia is capable of calculating:

The speed at which her body would hit the ground if she jumped from the window in front of her;

The number milligrams of Propofol required for eternal rest;

How long and at what temperature she would need to be submerged in an icy lake for hyperthermia to stifle her heartbeats.”

Intrigued? I was and £9.99 later I had it in my hands.² Amazon Prime were also intrigued and have serialised it. Considering NetFlix’s mega-success with The Queen’s Gambit and universal acclaim Prime might on a winner.

Red Queen is fiendishly clever with a nice mix of ‘Goodies and Baddies’ who are suitably good and bad. Heroic deeds and daring-do and a sublime plot. What more could you possibly want? Actually, the question is answered by the fact that it’s a trilogy and so I have two more in the unread pipeline

Notes

1 The first one in his trilogy is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  If you haven’t read this book it is a must read

2 I bought this in a bookshop on holiday and it wasn’t a destination purchase.