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Book 30: The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle

 

This is a life told back to front. This is a man who has lied all his life.
Roy is a conman living in a small English town, about to pull off his final con. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman and slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con? What has he had to do to survive a life of lies? And who has had to pay the price?
When Roy meets a wealthy widow online, he can hardly believe his luck. Just like Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, Roy is a man who lives to deceive—and everything about Betty suggests she’s an easy mark. He’s confident that his scheme to swindle her will be a success. After all, he’s done this before.
Sure enough, Betty soon lets Roy move into her beautiful home, seemingly blind to the web of lies he’s woven around her. But who is Roy, really? Spanning almost a century, this stunning and suspenseful feat of storytelling interweaves the present with the past. As the clock turns back and the years fall away, long-hidden secrets are forced into the light. Some things can never be forgotten. Or forgiven. (taken from Goodreads)

 

My Thoughts

It took me quite a while to get into this. I very nearly gave it up after only 20 pages or so. Partly, this was because the main character, Roy, was such an unappealing character. Partly, it was the purple prose that the author uses. I could almost see the author flicking through a thesaurus for every sentence, trying to make it more and more ornate. It got on my nerves. What kept me going was knowing that this is the author's first book, and the good reviews that I had read online. 

And, to be fair it did get better. Yes, it is obvious from almost the first chapter that there is more going on than just a con. Betty, Roy's mark, is too knowing. And that keeps happening. Rather than springing the surprises on us, they sort of filter into us. It happens too often to be anything other than deliberate, but I would have preferred at least some surprises. There was plenty of scope for these, so that was a shame.

Where the book really comes alive is in the flashbacks to Roys life, which are told in reverse. It's like going from black and white to technicolour; I did wish that the whole book was as good. Still, overall it was an enjoyable read with some very good ideas. As a first novel, there is enough here to make me want to read another. 3/5

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Cursing my luck - I decided to go to the library for my next book. I really wanted to get something different and out of my comfort zone. Well, I failed in that respect, as I only picked up another crime thriller. But the worst was, I picked up initially an Ann Cleeves "Shetland" book. I've read the first three and I wanted to know if it was the fourth. It wasn't, but reading the synopsis on the inside front cover gave away a major plot spoiler for one of the books to come. Gutted!

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13 hours ago, ian said:

Cursing my luck - I decided to go to the library for my next book. I really wanted to get something different and out of my comfort zone. Well, I failed in that respect, as I only picked up another crime thriller. But the worst was, I picked up initially an Ann Cleeves "Shetland" book. I've read the first three and I wanted to know if it was the fourth. It wasn't, but reading the synopsis on the inside front cover gave away a major plot spoiler for one of the books to come. Gutted!

 

Awww :(. That's such a shame.

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If a book is part of a series I usually try not to read the synopsis on the back of books if I haven't read the previous installment, because when the books are closely related and must be read in order I find the synopsis on the back often spoils the previous installment :(.

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12 hours ago, Athena said:

If a book is part of a series I usually try not to read the synopsis on the back of books if I haven't read the previous installment, because when the books are closely related and must be read in order I find the synopsis on the back often spoils the previous installment :(.

 

Yes, Exactly! I thought I had been very careful, but I really didn't expect such a major spoiler like this. My own fault I suppose for not looking up the order of the series before I went down the library. Not a mistake I will be making again!

 

9 hours ago, Madeleine said:

Yes that's very true Athena, Amazon reviews can also be dangerous as people aren't always careful to indicate a spoiler in their review.

 

This also - I don't read the reviews on Goodreads any more until after I posted the book (and in fact till I've written my own review on here). I remember reading a review of The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith  that said " Don't bother reading this - [character name] was the murderer" . Fortunately, I had already read the book by that point, but that really made me quite angry. Fine, you don't like the book; we all have different tastes. But don't spoil it for everyone else!

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12 hours ago, ian said:

This also - I don't read the reviews on Goodreads any more until after I posted the book (and in fact till I've written my own review on here). I remember reading a review of The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith  that said " Don't bother reading this - [character name] was the murderer" . Fortunately, I had already read the book by that point, but that really made me quite angry. Fine, you don't like the book; we all have different tastes. But don't spoil it for everyone else!

 

This is ridiculous :o! I'm glad you had read the book already, what a stupid person :banghead:.

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On 10.9.2017 at 9:15 PM, ian said:

Cursing my luck - I decided to go to the library for my next book. I really wanted to get something different and out of my comfort zone. Well, I failed in that respect, as I only picked up another crime thriller. But the worst was, I picked up initially an Ann Cleeves "Shetland" book. I've read the first three and I wanted to know if it was the fourth. It wasn't, but reading the synopsis on the inside front cover gave away a major plot spoiler for one of the books to come. Gutted!

 

That's so annoying! The people who write the back cover texts work in the business, they should know better! :Tantrum:

 

Sometimes it's tricky to find out which book is which in a series. The people who design the book covers should really adhere to some sort of format where it's easy to figure out in which order the books are supposed to be read. It shouldn't be too much to ask! 

 

Madeleine, that's horrible about the HP spoilers! :hissyfit:    Those types of people should be banned from the internet. 

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Yes they should be banned!

 

there's a website called Fantastic Fiction which generally lists book series in order, I find them quite helpful.  Or you could look at the author's own website, as they usually list their books too.

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18 hours ago, Madeleine said:

there's a website called Fantastic Fiction which generally lists book series in order, I find them quite helpful.  Or you could look at the author's own website, as they usually list their books too.

 

Of course one can check these things on the internet, but I would prefer it if I didn't have to. I'd much prefer to have the series info on the actual book :)  I spend too much time on the internet as it is :D

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On 9/13/2017 at 10:51 AM, Madeleine said:

I once read a review of the last Harry Potter book, posted about 2 days after it was published, which listed all the characters who got killed off.

 

That is terrible :banghead:!!

 

21 hours ago, frankie said:

Sometimes it's tricky to find out which book is which in a series. The people who design the book covers should really adhere to some sort of format where it's easy to figure out in which order the books are supposed to be read. It shouldn't be too much to ask! 

 

I agree, I prefer it the most when there is an indication on the cover of the book, ie. a number on the spine, or something on the front. If must be then the inside of the book on the title page, but some books have no indication at all! Then I have to go on GoodReads (or WikiPedia) to figure it out.

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5 hours ago, Madeleine said:

And what makes it harder is when the titles get changed!

 

It does! I don't like it when a book has two different titles, ie. one for US and one for UK / AUS. It gets so confusing, and I have actually bought a book twice because of that.

 

I can understand it in translations, though I sometimes do struggle as I have both Dutch-translated and original English books, so when I come across a Dutch-translation in a shop I have to check the original title if it's hugely different, to make sure I don't already own the English version or vice versa.

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And it would be so easy for the publisher to put "Joe Bloggs series: book 3" or whatever on the spine or the back. Some writers write more than one series at a time, so it's hard to keep track sometimes. I should check - or make a list of my favourite series to carry with me.

 

Of course, I could do all that - and then I'd probably forget where in the series I'd read to....:(

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Book 31: The dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell. (Kurt Wallander)

 

Second in the Kurt Wallander series.

Sweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead. The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect. Wallander travels across the Baltic Sea, to Riga in Latvia, where he is plunged into a frozen, alien world of police surveillance, scarcely veiled threats, and lies. Doomed always to be one step behind the shadowy figures he pursues, only Wallander's obstinate desire to see that justice is done brings the truth to light. (taken from Goodreads)

 

My Thoughts

Good, but a bit of a slow-burner this. It totters on the edge of being so slow as to be irritating, but manages to keep the right side of the line (for me anyway). What I like about Wallander is how realistic he seems. He spends most of his time being confused by other people or worried about himself (his life, his health,etc). In other words, just the majority of us real people. The book is set mostly in Latvia around 1991 - and as the author says in the afterword of my copy, it was written before the modern history of Latvia was decided. It could have gone either way - freedom, or a new cold war. This book captures that uncertainty pretty well.  3/5

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15 hours ago, ian said:

And it would be so easy for the publisher to put "Joe Bloggs series: book 3" or whatever on the spine or the back. Some writers write more than one series at a time, so it's hard to keep track sometimes. I should check - or make a list of my favourite series to carry with me.

 

Of course, I could do all that - and then I'd probably forget where in the series I'd read to....:(

 

I have thought about making such a list for myself - but I realised I was reading so many series, it'd be a lot of work to make it! So to this day, I haven't done so. I do have a list of the Geronimo Stilton books I've read, that's the only bit I did do. But I wanted to make a big spreadsheet with %-bars and everything, for all the series I read, but it seemed like so much work. Maybe one day though.

 

15 hours ago, ian said:

Book 31: The dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell. (Kurt Wallander)

 

Shame this book was a bit slow, I'm glad you still liked it though.

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3 minutes ago, Athena said:

 

I have thought about making such a list for myself - but I realised I was reading so many series, it'd be a lot of work to make it! So to this day, I haven't done so. I do have a list of the Geronimo Stilton books I've read, that's the only bit I did do. But I wanted to make a big spreadsheet with %-bars and everything, for all the series I read, but it seemed like so much work. Maybe one day though.

 

 

Shame this book was a bit slow, I'm glad you still liked it though.

 

And, as per Facebook, this is the book from the library that I accidently left outside in the rain! Fortunately, I noticed before it got too wet, plus it has a plastic cover (it's a paperback, so it could have been a disaster). I've managed to dry it out and it doesn't look damaged, but I'll have to face the guilt when I take it back!

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Awww :(, good luck! I would feel really guilty too. I have several times taken a book back to the customer service, when it turned out someone else had damaged the book before I borrowed it (I always feel guilty even if it wasn't quite my fault). Once a book had the last 10 pages missing, so I reported that too. Gladly it was a children's book and the story was already sort of wrapped up, so it wasn't too bad. I didn't find out about it until I was at the end of reading the book and realised the book didn't totally end :doh:.


Good luck!

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I decided to take the advice from above and make a proper list of book series so I don't accidently read a spoiler.

Just picking the books of Ann Cleeves (The "Shetland" series I'm halfway through and the "Vera" series I haven't started) and Jeffrey Deaver (the "Rhyme" series and the "Dance" series) gives me a list of 22 books to read.

 

Some might see that as a challenge - it's just 6 months of pleasure to me!

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Book 32: The Last Mile by David Baldacci (Amos Decker #2)

 

Convicted murderer Melvin Mars is counting down the last hours before his execution--for the violent killing of his parents twenty years earlier--when he's granted an unexpected reprieve. Another man has confessed to the crime.

Amos Decker, newly hired on an FBI special task force, takes an interest in Mars's case after discovering the striking similarities to his own life: Both men were talented football players with promising careers cut short by tragedy. Both men's families were brutally murdered. And in both cases, another suspect came forward, years after the killing, to confess to the crime. A suspect who may or may not have been telling the truth.

The confession has the potential to make Melvin Mars--guilty or not--a free man. Who wants Mars out of prison? And why now?

 

My Thoughts

Maybe I've read too many of these kind of book. It was pretty easy to spot where this was going to go. But I have to admit, I looked forward to each time I could pick it up again and read a few more pages, whereas the last two books didn't do that for me. So, all is forgiven. And while the ending is a little bit too pat, it was an enjoyable, easy read. The main character, Amos Decker is likeable, as are the rest of his "team" - I would have liked to get more of them, as they felt a little under-drawn. I'll still look to pick up more by this author so, I will still give it 4/5.

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