Ian's reading 2013

[ian]

The Lazarus Vault by Tom Harper

Deep in the heart of London, the Monsalvat Bank is small, secretive and fabulously wealthy. When Ellie Stanton, an impoverished graduate student, is unexpectedly invited to join the firm, the privileged world they offer looks too good to turn down.

But the bank is more than it seems. Soon Ellie realises that her life belongs to her employers - and they're watching her every move. For buried in their medieval vaults lies a closely-guarded treasure of immeasurable power - one inextricably bound up with Ellie's own history.

Now Ellie is in a race against time, hunted by the bank and pursued by her past. Her only hope of escape is to unearth the secret hidden in the vault. But getting in is only the beginning...

 

My thoughts.

 

I should have known better. This looked like a Dan Brown type cash in, and it sort of is. I've not read any Tom Harper before, but he clearly knows about medieval times. The book swaps between modern day and the 12th century. Sadly, the 12th century parts are far better than the modern parts, which come across as a bit boring. The book doesn't really get going until well after halfway through. To it's credit, when it does, it's actually quite a page-turner, but I suspect that a lot of readers would have given up by then. The main, modern day character is not very believable. Then, at the end, the story kind of peters out, leaving the reader without any real explanation of what the item in the vault does.

 

If Tom Harper wanted to write a Dan Brown type thriller, he suceeded: A book with unbelievable characters and a rubbish ending!!  2/5

[ian]

The Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

 

When the full moon shines, a paralysing fear descends on the isolated Maine town of Tarker Mills. No one knows who will be attacked next, but snarls that sound like human words can be heard and all around are the footprints of a monster whose hunger cannot be sated

 

My thoughts

 

In my misspent youth, I was a massive Stephen King fan. I can probably credit King with singlehandedly taking my from childrens books to adult reads as a young teenager. I read and re-read everything of his I could get my hands on. And while I'm not so keen on some of his later stuff (Bag of Bones, Desperation) he is still one of my favourite writers. There are, however, glaring gaps in my knowledge, and Cycle of the Werewolf was one of those. Very short and to the point, this gets right down to the action. I probably don't need to describe the plot at all, you've either read this, are going to (like me) or you won't. Suffice it to say - I loved it! Classic King 5/5

[Athena]

Nice review , it's going on the wishlist!

[Ooshie]

I love Stephen King, although like you thought a few books around the time of Bag of Bones weren't up to his usual standard, but somehow I have completely missed Cycle of the Werewolf!  5/5?  Off to Amazon I go...

 

Edit:  over £10 for 128 pages?  not today then, will have to wait until I'm feeling richer

Edited September 12, 2013 by Ooshie

[ian]

That is expensive - it's not much more than an extended short story. Library job perhaps?

[Ooshie]

That is expensive - it's not much more than an extended short story. Library job perhaps?

 

Good idea - it's ages since I have used the library, and I really have no excuse, since it is in the same building as the gym and I have to pass it every time I go

[ian]

The Accident by Linwood Barclay

Glen Garber's life has just spiralled out of control. His wife's car is found at the scene of a drunk-driving accident that took three lives. Not only is she dead, but it appears she was the cause of the accident.

Suddenly Glen has to deal with a potent mixture of emotions: grief at the loss of his wife, along with anger at her reckless behaviour that leaves their young daughter motherless. If only he could convince himself that Sheila wasn't responsible for the tragedy.

But as more and more secrets begin to surface, Glen may have to face something much, much worse...

 

My thoughts.

 

I had a bit of a false start with this book. I read the first chapter some months ago, then put it aside for something else. Finally picked it up again and managed to get into it. I've read a couple of LInwood Barclay's books now, and I find that this is always the case with me. The first couple of chapters don't really grab me. I couldn't pinpoint exactly why. It's not for lack of action! Anyway, after the first couple, the story picks up. While this is fairly standard thriller farye, the author manages to resist the short chapters with a cliff-hanger at the end, in favour of longer chapters with more narrative. Plus, I got a real claustraphobic feel as the protaganist's life, Glenn, really started to fall apart. There is a good twist at the end, which I won't spoil. You could certainly argue that it's completely unbelievable, but the basic plot is so rooted in a situation that I could easily see anyone becoming involved in, that I was able to forgive that.  4/5

[ian]

Cujo by Stephen King.

 

Cujo, a huge St Bernard, is bitten by a rabid bat and changes from a lovable pet into a ferocious man-eating monster. He slaughters his garage-owning master and, as madness eats at his brain, focuses his deranged attention on Donna Trenton and her five-year-old son, who are trapped in their car.

 

My thoughts.

 

Another early Stephen King that somehow, I never got around to reading at the time. Some people don't like KIng's book, as they feel that he waffles. For me, I've always loved the ammount of back story that he always gives his characters. It makes you care about them more, and so it hits home all the more when they are savaged to death by a giant, rabid dog. This is great stuff, with an absolutely devastating ending. 5/5

[Athena]

This is on my wishlist, nice review !

[Karsa Orlong]

Cujo is one of my favourites of his books.

 

 

Considering almost the whole of the second half of the book is focused on Donna and her kid trapped in the car (might be my memory playing tricks, admittedly - it's 30+ years since I read it), I thought it was phenomenal writing, back when - for me - he was at the top of his game

 

 

[ian]

Cujo is one of my favourites of his books.

 

 

Considering almost the whole of the second half of the book is focused on Donna and her kid trapped in the car (might be my memory playing tricks, admittedly - it's 30+ years since I read it), I thought it was phenomenal writing, back when - for me - he was at the top of his game

 

 

 

I agree - King is a master at taking situations with very little scope for action, on the face of it. He did the same in Gerald's Game.

 

At the other end of the King spectrum, I just read "Blockade Billy", a 2010 novella that I admit I'd never heard of before. Maybe it was because there was a lot of "baseball speak" in it, most of which went over my head, but it didn't have much impact. I was waiting for an horrific finish, but it seemed like a bit of a damp squib. 3/5 

[frankie]

I've somehow missed a few earlier posts that I would like to address:

 

When will there be good news? by Kate Atkinson

 

My thoughts.

 

I've only read one Kate Atkinson before (Case Histories), and I knew beforehand this was out of sequence, but 99p in a charity shop is not to be ignored!

 

That made me laugh out loud! Yes, 99p in a charity shop for a good book will NOT be ignored

 

I'm really happy you enjoyd this book, I've only read The Case Histories as well, but I enjoyed it very much (5/5) and your review has only confirmed that I really do want to and need to read the rest of the books in the series

 

 

Thanks for your answer, I'll put Case Histories on my wishlist then .

 

Excellent choice The Case Histories was a great read, I hope you shall enjoy it!

 

A reread is always beneficial with any of Nabokov's books.

Might I suggest Pnin?  Entirely different subject matter, a bit easier to read I believe, and the prose is gorgeous.

 

I know Kylie's read the book (and I think she enjoyed it) and because I loved Nabokov, I've been really wanting to read Pnin. I'm now more determined to find a copy now that you've recommended it, pontalbs! (For some reason I feel like calling you pontalbs, or even pontalbsies, even though they are not 'normal nicknames', in that they aren't any shorter than pontalba But whenever I see your post, I nowadays call you pontalbs or pontalbsies in my head for some very odd reason )

 

 

Cujo by Stephen King.

 

 

My thoughts.

 

Another early Stephen King that somehow, I never got around to reading at the time. Some people don't like KIng's book, as they feel that he waffles. For me, I've always loved the ammount of back story that he always gives his characters. It makes you care about them more, and so it hits home all the more when they are savaged to death by a giant, rabid dog. This is great stuff, with an absolutely devastating ending. 5/5

 

I'm happy you finally got around to reading this book. This is one of his masterpieces, in my opinion. It was scary, and so, so sad!

 

And I agree with you: I love the way King takes his time to build up the characters and their background. It's so much more relatable when you get to know the characters well. It's far from waffle.

Edited October 5, 2013 by frankie

[ian]

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

 

Under the streets of London there's a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, and pale girls in black velvet. Richard Mayhew is a young businessman who is about to find out more than he bargained for about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his safe and predictable life and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and yet utterly bizarre. There's a girl named Door, an Angel called Islington, an Earl who holds Court on the carriage of a Tube train, a Beast in a labyrinth, and dangers and delights beyond imagining... And Richard, who only wants to go home, is to find a strange destiny waiting for him below the streets of his native city.

My thoughts.

 

This is a very strange book.  Very well told, very well written....but strange. This should be everything that I want in a fantasy book, but while I really liked it, I can't quite bring myself to give it 5 out of 5. Something in it didn't quite click with me. It may have been the main character, Richard, who didn't seem quite right to me. Again, I can't put my finger on why. It seems ridiculous that in a book with all of the fantastical figures that populate this book, I find the "normal" man the most unbelievable!! Still, I enjoyed it enough to give it 4 out of 5.

[ian]

The Price of Love by Peter Robinson.

 

When DCI Alan Banks arrived in Eastvale his life was every bit as much of a mess as it is now. But he is holding an envelope that could change everything he understood about the events that sent him north twenty years ago. Walking again the narrow alleys and backstreets of his mind, he remembers the seedy Soho nights of his last case - dubious businessmen in dodgy clubs, young girls on the game. And a killer on the loose.

In addition to the brand new novella that fills in the gaps in Banks's life before Yorkshire, Peter Robinson gives us ten more brilliant and eclectic stories that have never before been published in the UK.

The Eastvale Ladies' Poker Circle finds that murder may be just another game of risk. Is a suitcase of cash worth a man's head on a plate? And tragedy leads a young boy to learn the price of love . . .

 

My thoughts.

 

I've read a few of Peter Robinson's full novels, and found them to be quite good. Sadly, quite a few of the short stories in here don't hit the mark. It has to be said though that they do get better as you get further in, and the final stories, which is a novella rather than a short story is very good. I'm glad that I read this, but I'm not sure that I would bother to pick up any other collection by him.   3/5
 

[poppyshake]

I loved Neverwhere .. it hit all the right spots with me .. glad you enjoyed it Ian .. even though you didn't love it

[ian]

Dying of the light by Gillian Galbraith

 

Midwinter, a freezing night in Leith, near Edinburgh's red light district. A policewoman's flashlight stabs the darkness in a snow-covered cemetery. The circle of light stops on a colourless, dead face. So begins the hunt for a serial murderer of prostitutes in Gillian Galbraith's third Alice Rice mystery, 'The Dying of the Light'. Partly inspired by the real-life killings of prostitutes in Ipswich, this novel explores a hidden world where sex is bartered for money and drugs. Off-duty, Alice's home life continues its uneven course. Her romance with the artist Ian Melville offers the prospect of happiness, but is plagued by insecurity. Her demented but determined neighbour, Miss Spinnell, offers a new challenge to Alice's patience at every meeting. This atmospheric thriller builds on the success of the first two Alice Rice mysteries, 'Blood in the Water' and 'Where the Shadow Falls', and it is Gillian Galbraith's most accomplished novel yet.

 

My thoughts.

 

Well, if this is the most accomplished book, I'm glad I haven't read the first two. This book annoyed me because there were flashes of really good writing here, but, sadly, not enough to make this book great. I will say in its defence that I didn't need to have read the first two in the series to understand the characters. But the plot is driven mostly by short scenes of a half to a page and a half of text, before jumping to the next scene, where we get an exposition of what happened in between. That just seemed like lazy writing to me. Plus, the ultimate crime of crime writing: it was obvious who the murderer was from about a third of the way in.

 

Hopefully, later books will be better. For the brief glimpses of really good writing - 2 out of 5

[ian]

Voodoo River by Robert Crais

 

L.A. private eye Elvis Cole is hired by popular television star Jodie Taylor to delve into her past and identify the biological parents who gave her up for adoption thirty-six years before. Cole's assignment is to find out their biological history and report back.

It seems all too clear cut. But when he gets to Louisiana and begins his search, he finds that there's something much darker going on. Other people are also looking for Taylor's parents, and some are ending up dead.

And when Cole realizes that his employer knew more than she was telling, Voodoo River becomes a twisting tale of identity, secrets, and murder.

 

My thoughts

 

I love it when you discover a writer that is new to you and you really enjoy. That's what has happened here. A couple of his books had sat on the bookcase at work for ages, but I had skirted round them for months. Then this appeared next to tehm, and something about the synopsis on the back just grabbed my attention. I wouldn't decribe this as a hard-boiled crime story, but there are certainly elements of that style of writing, but with more humour. The closest analogy I can get: imagine Dean Koontz writing a Lee Child thriller. The characters are sympathetic and beleivable, and the tension builds slowly allowing time for proper descriptions  and narrative. I've grabbed the other two books of his off the shelf here at work, so I'll be reading those next. 5/5

[ian]

Free Fall by Robert Crais

 

Elvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especially to a girl in a terrible fix. And Jennifer Sheridan qualifies. Her fiance, Mark Thurman, is a decorated LA cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer is sure he's in trouble - the kind of serious trouble that only Cole can get him out of. Five minutes after his new client leaves the office, Cole and his partner, the enigmatic Joe Pike, are hip-deep in a deadly situation as they plummet into a world of South Central gangs, corrupt cops and conspiracies of silence. And before long, every cop in the LAPD is gunning for a pair of armed and dangerous killers - Cole and Pike.

 

My thoughts.

 

Another enjoyable read, and while I probably didn't enjoy this quite as much as Voodoo River, there is plenty here to recommend. There are some obvious influences from the Rodney King riots here, so that this isn't just a dumb shoot 'em up thriller. This book came as a two in one novel, so I'll be onto the next book straight away  4/5

Edited November 5, 2013 by ian

[ian]

Indigo Slam by Robert Crais.

 

Fifteen-year-old Teri Hewitt has been left holding the babies since her dad disappeared without trace. She wants LA private eye Elvis Cole to find him, and although he knows he should refuse and hand it over to social services, he finds himself taking on the case. The search reveals a chronically unemployed drug addict caught up in counterfeiting scams and mixed up with the Russian mafia and Vietnamese gunmen. As the action heads towards a gunfight in Disneyland and Cole dodges his almost-girlfriend's ex-husband, he realises Teri is one whole lot of trouble he should have left to the professionals.

 

My thoughts.

 

Another excellent read, a mixture of hardboiled (ish) detective with a healthy dose of humour. OK, so some of the twists you could see coming a mile off, but with a likeable protaganist and a plot that moves along at a pace fast enough to keep the tension up, but not so fast that the characters become two-dimensional, I'm prepared to forgive those type of short-comings.   5/5

[ian]

The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom

 

When Conrad Harrison impulse-buys a big old house in Wisconsin, his wife Jo doesn't share his enthusiasm, reluctant at the idea of leaving their LA life - so Conrad is left to set up their new home as she ties up loose ends at work. But Conrad's new purchase is not all that it seems. Soon Conrad is hearing the ghostly wailing of a baby in the night, seeing blood on the floor and being haunted by a woman who looks exactly like Jo. With his wife away, Conrad becomes obsessed by the pregnant girl next door, Nadia, who claims to be a victim of the evil in the house. The crying leads him to a bricked-up body, and the mystery of the Birthing House unravels, pulling in Jo, Nadia and leading Conrad to a nightmarish conclusion...

 

My thoughts.

 

In the end, I couldn't finish this book, although I made it three-quarters of the way, before I gave up.  I really disliked the main protaganist, Conrad, who seemed more like an annoying teenager than a man in his thirties. Plus, if you are going to write a book about a house that is haunted by the spirit of a woman that wants babies to be born into the house, then you need to get realistic, sympathetic female characters, don't you? Not according to this author you don't. Conrad's wife, Jo, is effectively not present for the part if the book I read, and the pregnant next-door neighbour, Nadia, acts like a famle version of Conrad. The supporting characters remain unfleshed out, serving only to fill in plot devices where necessary.  In fact, the only time when the writing felt warm and from the heart, was when he was writing about the dogs.

 

A shame, because there are indications that somewhere, hidden in this book, there is a half-decent writer trying to get out. Sadly, this book is mired in unconvincing, non-scary horror and non-erotic, pointless sex scenes.

 

A final note must go to the publisher's: Don't put a comment on the back comparing this trash to Stephen King . It's an insult to SK, and unfair to put that level of expectation on a writer that isn't up to the job.

 

I won't score this, as I didn't finish.

[Athena]

Shame you didn't enjoy your book . I hope your next read will be better!

[ian]

Shame you didn't enjoy your book . I hope your next read will be better!

 

 

Me too. But on the plus side, it's much easier to write a review on a book you didn't like!

[Athena]

Me too. But on the plus side, it's much easier to write a review on a book you didn't like!

x

That's true!

[ian]

A Florentine Death by Michele Giuttari

 

Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara knows that the beautiful surface of his adopted city, Florence, hides dark undercurrents. When called in to investigate a series of brutal and apparently random murders, his intuition is confirmed.

Distrusted by his superiors and pilloried by the media, Ferrara finds time running out as the questions pile up. Is there a connection between the murders and the threatening letters he has received? Are his old enemies, the Calabrian Mafia, involved? And what part is played by a beautiful young woman facing a heart-rending decision, a priest troubled by a secret from his past, and an American journalist fascinated by the darker side of life?

Ferrara confronts the murky underbelly of Florence in an investigation that will put not only his career but also his life on the line.

 

 

My Thoughts

 

A crime novel written by a former police chief? I thought this would be excellent. As it was, my high expectations were disappointed, but only slightly. It seemed to take a while for the story to really get going. There is obviously a lot of authentic detail here, which does make up for it.  You know who the murderer is from the start, so there is no need for cliff-hanger chapter ends, instead the plot advances and slowly we begin to guess at the murderer's motivation.

 

A good book - I will be looking out for more by this writer

[ian]

My reading mojo has sort of disappeared over the last few weeks. Books I would normally whizz through I find I am needing to make an effort on. So, that's probably why I've had to give up on "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. I got about a third of the way through before I had to admit to myself that I just wasn't enjoying it at all.

 

I decided that I needed to turn to something much more simple and easy to read - so I've plumbed for "The Invisible man" by H.G Wells.