The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell
In spy lingo, the rhythm section is the body’s heart rate and breath. Learn how to control these, and you control panic, a useful skill for would-be cloak-and-dagger candidates.
The Rhythm Section is also the title of a 1999 thriller by Mark Burnell, now the basis of a new motion picture starring Blake Lively and Jude Law. The producer is Barbara Broccoli, whose late father, Albert Broccoli, began the James Bond film franchise with Dr. No in 1962. Barbara Broccoli grew up on Bond sets and continued the Bond movies; her newest, No Time to Die, opens in April.
The Rhythm Section opens with Stephanie Patrick (Lively) losing it in London, dulling overwhelming grief with alcohol, drugs and prostitution. Two years ago, her family — parents, brother and sister — were among 388 people to die when their plane crashed into the North Atlantic.
Stephanie’s downward spiral is interrupted by an investigative reporter who tells her the plane crash that killed her family was no accident. It was a bomb, he says, and he wants her to help him prove it and find the man responsible. After the reporter is murdered, she flees with his secret files.
As Stephanie begins to break through her survivor’s guilt, she realizes revenge is the only answer. Soon she’s being trained by a former British secret service agent (Jude Law). Surprising him (and herself), she survives the ordeal, and soon, in true James Bond style, the plot takes Stephanie to cinematic locations around the world, with car chases, fistfights and assassination assignments along the way. Will she find those responsible for the loss of her family? Will The Rhythm Section become the first of more Stephanie Patrick films?
If any company and actors could launch a female spy series, it should be Broccoli’s Eon Productions and the acting of Blake Lively and Jude Law, but The Rhythm Section opened in late January with the worst weekend box office ever ($2.8 million) for a movie opening on 3,000 screens.
The movie may eventually find its audience, but in the meantime, readers have the Stephanie Patrick books to entertain them. Burnell followed The Rhythm Section with three more: Chameleon, Gemini, and The Third Woman.
Unlike James Bond’s suave and macho confidence, Stephanie Patrick has a sense that there may be no right or wrong. She’s a woman with spunk and a professional trained to kill, taking on the world’s worst villains.
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