ian

I should qualify my statement - even his (in my opinion) "poorer" books still stand head and shoulders above a lot of books I read. He set the bar very high with his early work!

This is a very useful word in my neck of the woods! It's generally used (as well as all of the above) as a very mild expletive that seems to be acceptable in most situations. It would be similar in British english to sod

That HotelsforU advert is seriously annoying!

Who tests the mice and sloths for illegal performance enhancing drug taking?

I think mayby that term might have been more commonly used in Britain until recently. Certainly the term "Animal Husbandry" to mean looking after livestock is a familiar term to me.

Tame Telford Mr T! Tale of Two Cities

Don't Too Many Acronyms (T.M.A) make mice and sloths want to pack up their supplements into their packs (Nylon or Canvas) and run relay races instead?

I wonder if that's where Arch-enemy derives from?

Oh one more thing in the book's favour - I wasn't aware of Avebury stone circle - apparently one of the largest stone circles in the world. You can walk all the way up to the stones (you can't get anywhere near Stonehenge) and it's free. I'll be planning a day out there as soon as the weather gets better.

Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard It is a hot summer's day in the tourist village of Avebury.A man sits outside the Red Lion pub, waiting. He sees a woman with three young children, two of them running ahead while their sister dawdles behind. A child's voice catches on the breeze. For want of anything more interesting to do, the man watches. He sees nothing sinister or threatening. Even when another figure enters his field of vision, he does not react. The figure is ordinary - male, short-haired, stockily built.But he is moving fast, at a loping run. And then it happens. In one swift movement, the running man grabs the youngest child and carries her away. Still the man outside the pub does not react. Suddenly, awhite transit van bursts into view, its engine racing, its rear door slamming shut.The child and her abductor are inside. The child's sister rushes forward. The man outside the pub jumps up... The tragedy begins at Avebury.But it does not end there My thoughts. I've read a few Robert Goddard's now, and while they all follow the same basis format, my reaction to each one differs. Some I zip through and are very good; others are a bit ordinary. This one swings between the two for me. It starts promisingly, but seems to get a bit bogged down in the middle, before picking up again towards the end. The good points: The tension is kept up throughout the book, the historical aspects are well described, relevant and interesting, there are many twists. The bad points: The protagonist is bland (a common fault with Goddard, I find), there are a couple of chapters set in Kew that stretched my belief to breaking point. The good and the bad tend to cancel each other out, so in the end, I'm left to give this book 3/5.

Would the supplements be in the form of a drink or pills?

Granted, but due to an unscrupulous publisher, you see none of the money! I wish I had a full head of hair!

Would the packs be canvas or Nylon?

Great reviews of the three Divergent books, Athena! These books had just been flying at the edge of my radar, but having seen this, I think I will have to get hold of then

The Sentry - Robert Crais After the nightmare of Hurricane Katrina, Dru Rayne and her uncle relocated to Los Angeles. Five years later, their struggling restaurant faces a different danger. When Joe Pike witnesses Dru's uncle beaten by a neighbourhood gang, he offers his own brand of protection, but neither Dru nor her uncle want his help. And neither do the federal agents mysteriously watching their store . . . But Pike is falling for Dru, and won't back away whether she wants his help or not. As the violence escalates, Joe discovers Dru and her uncle are not who they seem - and now a vengeful, murderous force from their past is catching up with them... My thoughts It took me a while to get into this, probably about halfway. A couple of reasons for this: I've just finished an epic Stephen King, where everything is detail and character driven. Then I drop onto a fast-paced action driven story and it seems a bit thin in comparison. The second reason - I've read a few Crais books now; most have been centered on Elvis Cole, but this one is mostly about Joe Pike, Cole's professional partner. As such, a lot of the humour that Cole's narration brings to the mix is missing here: Pike could out do Jack Reacher in being monosyllabic. Still, Crais knows how to tell a good story, and eventually I was lapping it up. So, over all, I will only deduct a point for the start - 4/5

I have to agree with Michelle - King went a bit downhill over the last few years. For me that started with "The Dark Half" and lasted till "Cell" (which I thought was OK, but had a really poor ending) . For me he has regained his form, and the stuff he is writing now is compelling. I think a lot of King fans were worried that a sequel to The Shining would be a bad idea, if it didn't work. However, it does work - this book is well worth reading.

For some reason, I've never been able to get along with any James Patterson books. Given the amount of Lee Child and Robert Crais I've beenb reading over the last couple of years, that's puzzling, but there you go - just can't do it.

Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'brien

I'd heard he had written something, but I haven't checked it out (yet). I will do - thanks. Sorry - I appear to have steered this thread off-topic a little! So a question of my own. I occasionally write short stories of my own, just for my own enjoyment - I wouldn't consider trying to get published. I find that my own writing style changes depending on the writing style that I've been reading lately. Do you find it difficult not to be influenced by the books that you are reading? Also, when a sub-genre suddenly becomes popular, do publishers put pressure on writers to turn out something similar? I'm thinking of all the "Davinci Code" type thrillers that suddenly hit the shelves after that became so popular, or even the "fifty shades" type books.

Me too - I'm currently reading George's Marvellous Medicine to my daughter, which I hadn't read before. It's quite dark (and very funny) but I'm not sure there is much being written now that is similar. Definite gap in the market.

I had the same reaction about his avoiding the midlands - and it did seem like he deliberately avoided going there.

I think there have been some good film adaptations of books - The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Virtually all of the James Bond films are better than the books. Have to agree with Vimes though - HHGTTG was a poor film version! Welcome to the site, BTW!!

That is insane! One of the few adverts I enjoyed, because it was so obviously tongue-in-cheek.

Great review of Jamaica Inn, Alexi. I have to agree with you on the ending, it is a bit cheesy. I also think that it's a very abrupt ending - a problem that seems to seems to be in a lot of Du Maurier's books.

Saw the Coen Brother's remake of True Grit over the weekend. I thought it was excellent. I can't compare it with the original, as I don't believe I've ever seen that. my dad was a big Western fan, but wasn't keen on John Wayne.