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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell. Literary mystery 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/30/2006 1:59 PM
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Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox [CN 147586] is a pretty watery story about Esme, released to her niece from an “insane asylum” after 60 years because it is closing down. Her niece, Iris, has been unaware of her existence as she had been airbrushed from her family’s history
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Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon. Crime fiction 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/28/2006 9:53 AM
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Donna Leon’s Death at La Fenice [ISBN 0 09 946936 7] is one of the novels in the series featuring Commisario Guido Brunetti, and based in Venice. Like all these novels this has an amazing, authentic and sympathetic sense of place; the plot though overtly simple allows for the psychological relationships of the characters to be explored – Leon’s forte
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Gone by Lisa Gardner. Crime thriller 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/27/2006 2:19 PM
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Lisa Gardner’s novel Gone [ISBN 0 7528 7808 5] is agonisingly suspenseful – in fact the time it takes to move action along is equally agonising and I found, quite irritating. The plot is well conceived, though there is some cheating in the narrative, where the whodidit is deliberately and misleadingly hidden and down played in the first half of the book and then pulled out like a rabbit in a hat near the end
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The Winner by David Baldacci Crime thriller 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/23/2006 3:00 PM
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David Baldacci’s novel The Winner [ISBN 0 330 41966] is the best book I’ve read for a while. The plot is so very clever – its set up for surprises and they arrive unexpectedly and shockingly at times. It’s a well-designed narrative that pulls the reader along through what is quite a dense book, and though the ending is entirely appropriate I had to knock one mark off my ten for a slightly pedestrian denouement.
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Act of Violence by Margaret Yorke. Crime thriller 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/20/2006 4:13 PM
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Margaret Yorke’s novel Act of Violence [ISBN 0 7515 2024 1] is overall not a bad read. Two stories are followed in the plot, one past murder and one current that are quite strategically spot welded together in odd places. The narrative sets up a kind of low-level brooding menace that continues through the book and the characterisations are pretty good, though they are polarised between goodies and baddies
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The Tin Man by Dale Brown . Military adventure.crime thriller 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/18/2006 8:08 PM
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Dale Brown’s The Tin Man [ISBN 0 00 651180 5] is a Tom Clancy type novel. This boys own all adventure exploding action stiff upper lip military movie script for actors with solid bone between their ears and lots of brawn and few words is not my scene at all. The military science is authentic and the science seems at the very least, plausible, but it wouldn’t make good science fiction either because of the lack of sophistication of the political background
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A party in San Niccolo by Christobel Kent. Literary Murder mystery 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/16/2006 8:26 PM
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Christobel Kent’s A Party in San Niccolo [ISBN 0 141 01271 4] is the first book of a new author – and it is exceptionally good. It has a vibrant, authentic Florentine background together with a terrific plot, and very well drawn characters that engage the reader in their stories. The story covers the week of a visit of Gina (married with 3 young children) who is visiting Florence to give her a break, staying at her friend Jane’s cookery school (ex schoolfriend of Jane) where she lives with her husband Niccolo a famous architect.
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Never Go Back by Robert Goddard. Murder mystery 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/14/2006 2:24 PM
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Robert Goddard’s novel Never Go Back [ISBN 0 552 15211 0] is an excellent read. I must confess I have come to really appreciate Goddard’s superb plots and sneaky narratives and therefore am prepared to overlook any minor faults – though they were few in this book. The plot is clever, the narrative set up with an initial mystery that takes the whole book to unravel – characters are a little two dimensional but then some of them aren’t around long enough to need a full resume.
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Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen. Comedy crime thriller 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/13/2006 8:25 PM
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Carl Hiaason’s Skinny Dip [ISBN 0 593 05373 7] is deceptively effortlessly amusing throughout but yet having an intriguing enough plot and cracking narrative to grip the reader as for any more seriously-focused novel. Its good reading, and though I have read it before, it was a pleasure to read again – the funniest bits are still as amusing the second time round.
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Death Dance by Linda Fairstein. Crime thriller 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/12/2006 7:29 PM
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Linda Fairstein’s Death Dance [ISBN 0 7515 3571 0] is a good read even though some bits you have to grit and plough through. The plot is up and down, but not particularly guessable because the who did it is pretty low-key in the narrative. The narrative starts really well, but then wanders a little from story to story – and the on-going saga of
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