Review by Ian Keogh
2,331 Yards begins with a shock and finishes with a cliffhanger. The opening moves eighteen months forward from the ending of Jason McClane’s Inheritance, when McClane was seemingly accepted as a board member of the Mayflower Group as holding copies of centuries old documents ensured his safety. Carrington and Jones are also safe, but in order for that to continue, in the short term people have to believe they’re dead. In 2,331 Yards Sente establishes the Mayflower Group remain very dangerous people with aims of consolidating power, and that the word of one member isn’t necessarily considered sacred by others. The title refers to the distance over which McClane, already known to be an exceptional sniper, is expected to make a kill to prove his loyalty.
As well as being a tightly-plotted page-turner, XIII remains compelling because it’s so exceptionally well drawn. Only minor stylistic touches distinguish Iouri Jigounov from his predecessor William Vance, but supreme technical competence unites them. The cartoon realism is detail-packed, the people transmit as real, the necessary lengthy conversations propelling the plot are disciplined and varied, and the action is choreographed for maximum thrills.
So is Sente’s twisting plot. He’s a master of the thriller writer’s art of inducing complacency, making readers believe everything is going to plan no matter the extreme danger. That’s the case through much of 2,331 Yards, and a fantastic cliffhanger ending surely made it unbearable for readers having to wait a year for the publication of Reloaded Memory.
The original XIII series, now considered First Season occupied eighteen volumes published over 24 years. A sort of supplemental volume with journalistic investigations has yet to be translated into English, and in France another separated Jason McClane’s Inheritance from 2,331 Yards, presenting the history of the Mayflower pilgrims as revised by Yves Sente, and his revelations about McClane’s ancestry. As that’s just collating information revealed in earlier books and doesn’t greatly feature McClane it also remains untranslated.
