I’ve just finished “Missing Pieces” by Tim Weaver. A woman is stranded on an island over winter after someone tries to kill her, she has to learn how to survive through that time, while figuring out why they want her dead. A good read, I’m never happy with stories that jump forwards and backwards but this works quite well. I’m a big fan of this author, his stories usually feature missing-persons investigator David Raker, so it’s interesting to read a standalone novel.
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I’ve just finished “Taken for dead” by Graham Masterton. Local small business owners are being kidnapped and held for ransom by a mysterious historical group, and it’s up to the local police force to stop them, but things get difficult when it looks as if there’s someone feeding information to the group from inside the station. A good read, I have an idea I’ve read one from this author before and I’ll look out for more.
One or two annoying bits in the way it was written, the author’s habit of using each officer’s full rank and name all the time makes me wonder if they’re not on a minimum word-count deal, and some confusion over ransom amounts in various sections, but overall it was a decent book.
I have just finished “Perfect Remains” by Helen Fields, her first novel, I think. It’s a libro giallo or crime novel, and it’s been a while since I read a book. I found it gripping, and, although we know the perpetrator from the beginning, the story wasn’t without its twists and turns, and the book didn’t abruptly with the solving of the crimes but gave a bit of insight as to how the characters got on afterwards.
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I’ve just read “Edge” by Jeffery Deaver. We follow a protection officer whose job is to protect a family from someone who is trying to extract information from them by any means possible. It’s an interesting tale, as well as protecting the family there is a need to try to find out who has employed the hunter, and why, and to try to capture both of them. Good book, I’ve read a few of his “Lincoln Rhyme” books and enjoyed them too.
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I’ve just finished “The Razor Gate” by Sean Cregan. We’re in a dystopian America which may or may not be in the future, where unlucky people are given “the curse”, a notification that they’re going to die exactly one year from now. We’re with a policeman whose girlfriend has the curse and he’s desperately trying to find a cure for it, and with a journalist who’s trying to prove that it exists despite being covered up, and both are trying to get there before a third party who wants to take over production of the curse for his own ends. A decent enough read, I’m not usually into this kind of story but I enjoyed it.
I’ve just read “The Outsiders” by Gerald Seymour. A decent enough story, an organised crime boss murders an MI6 agent and, years later, his old team finally have the chance to even out the score.
What lets it down, and I’ve said this before about this author, is the way that it’s written. The dialogue and the narrative both suffer from being quite difficult to read - I can imagine that the only way some of the dialogue could be performed would be in 50s BBC received pronunciation. He also has a habit of leaving details out - I often read a bit when I’ve come back from the pub, so sometimes forget little details, but I’ve found myself going back several pages to find that it’s not that I’ve forgotten a detail, he just didn’t mention it and left the author to presume.
I’ve read a very good one by this author in the past, but I can’t remember the title. Unfortunately the last couple have suffered from these issues and that would probably put me off him in the future.
I’ve just finished “Slam” by Nick Hornby. A teenage skateboarding fan who asks advice from his Tony Hawk poster somehow gets a girlfriend and then has to grow up quickly. A decent read, I’ve enjoyed a few others by the same author.
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What do you think of it?
My first book other than my course books was “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F@#K” by Mark Mansion. Learned a lot from it highly recommended.
I’ve just finished “Sea of Greed” by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown. Someone discovers a way to contaminate the oil fields and uses it to drive up prices and force uptake of a new fuel cell, and it’s up to the team at NUMA to stop them and reverse the damage. A good read, a bit similar as all his books are but I enjoyed it, as I usually do.
“The Portrait of a Lady” by Henry James
Heartwarming, captivating, enthralling, and supremely written with deep character studies.
I haven’t yet read “The Turn of the Screw”, but I don’t expect this pioneer of modern English literature to disappoint me
I’ve just finished “The Dark Hours” by Michael Connelly. An excellent read, I’ve got through it really quickly because this, like many of his books, encourage me to read just one more chapter. Detective Renee Ballard works the night shift, and tries to balance catching a pair of attackers while trying to solve a murder that looks like an accident, in post-Covid USA where the police have lost a lot of funding and a lot of respect. Great.
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I’ve just finished “Grief Encounters” by Stuart Pawson. Detective Charlie Priest has to solve a murder case, but also gets sidetracked when it seems that someone is trapping local people with a view to blackmail or more. A good book, gentle rather than hard-hitting cop drama, another author I always enjoy.
I’ve just finished “The cabinet of Dr. Leng” by Preston and Child, part 21 in the Pendergast series.
It’s a typical Pendergast book, with loads of things that might happen in real life but are really unlikely to actually happen. This is part of four-book series, so I won’t go in to detail as to what happens as that would give too much away, but I liked the book. I’m sure I’ll read the next one too (as I have all 20 that came before).
I’ve also just read “Everything I never told you”, by Celeste Ng.
A girl has drowned in the lake and the rest of the book is about how it all came to be. It goes back into the history of the parents as well the family dynamic of the girl, her parents and her two siblings.
I enjoyed the book a lot. It was sad in places but there was also joy in others. It’s interesting that you get a peek in most of the characters psyches so you know they tick and how others react to that.
Well worth the read.
I’ve just finished “Skinner’s Ordeal” by Quintin Jardine. Policeman Bob Skinner thinks he’s got an incident on his hands when a passenger aircraft crashes nearby, then he finds out who was on the plane and things get a lot worse. Another good read, and a while since I’ve read one from this author, again this kept dragging me back.
I’ve just read “The last 10 seconds” by Simon Kernick. Undercover cop Sean Egan has finally found a way to infiltrate the gang whose leader murdered his brother many years before, isn’t allowed to do it officially so goes rogue. Separately cop Tina Boyd is trying to find a serial killer who has been broken out of custody, and runs into Sean along the way. A good read, his stuff is always pretty fast-paced and I enjoyed this as I’ve done all his others.
I’ve just finished “The Pandemic Plot” by Scott Mariani. Former SAS Major Ben Hope has to rush back to the UK when his son is arrested for murder, then has to get involved in finding out who really did it and why when the local police stop looking. A good read, I’m sure I’ve read one of his before.