#21 Hearts and Minds, by Amanda Craig (Little, Brown)

Hearts and Minds is about immigration. Indeed, the intelligent book is such a compelling study into the moral maze that the subject represents that it’s hard to come away with any other first impression.

Where the book scores is in the way it delves into the lives of the immigrants, the indifference, the incompetence and the racism (both casual and deliberate), the oppression (in England and abroad), and the poverty that they have to endure on a daily basis.

Behind a thrilling tale well told is an underlying outrage at how such a way of life has become a way of life. And while the book is full of the complex hypocrisies that affect real people, it doesn’t forget the easy stereotypes that are as much a part of the questions that the issue of immigration poses.

There are two flaws, of which the first is a litany of coincidences which defy belief. I’ve nothing against theories such as the Six Degrees of Separation, where everyone is linked to everyone else via six easy steps, and I don’t mind a bit of dramatic licence, but some of the connections and quirks of fate are just incredible.

A few years ago, there was a spate of films, such as Traffic and Babel, which explored how a series of characters located in different countries across the world were interconnected, and Hearts and Minds takes that a step further in London. Quick spoiler alert, but is it really possible that the murdered au-pair of human rights lawyer Polly has a prostitute sister whose fellow sex slave is saved by a taxi driver who later stops a terrorist from detonating a bomb at a party attended by Polly (who frequently uses said taxi driver) at the place of work of a women who lives above the sex slaves? And that’s only the half of it.

Without giving too much away, the second problem also involves the bomb. Given the country’s increasingly tabloid sensibilities, where politicians are led by public outcry, I really couldn’t envisage anyone, even an illegal immigrant, being deported after they had just saved some of the country’s great and good from death. The media coverage would have been immense, and although there is a believable resolution of sorts, the fact this is glossed over when such a forensic analysis has been applied elsewhere really lets the book down.

Hearts and Minds is a difficult one to score, and in some ways this is where all ratings systems fall down, because it becomes difficult to compare wildly different books. The Friend of the Wench took issue with my last mark of 6/10 for Eclipse, arguing it was too high, and his point has merit when it comes to judging this novel.

The two books – much like how society treats immigrants - occupy different worlds. Hearts and Minds is a massive step up in quality from Eclipse; it tackles a far more complicated subject, is brilliantly researched, and tells a meaningful tale, while after you’ve finished Eclipse, you just turn off and get on with something else. Such as reading Hearts and Minds.

But while Hearts and Minds is a much better novel, it only scores one point more (having had one point deducted for all the all too convenient coincidences).

So, rating time:

#21 Hearts and Minds, by Amanda Craig (Little, Brown) - 7/10

Next up: Fatherland, by Robert Harris (Arrow Books)

Click here for the full list of books so far, and their rating