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At Risk by Patricia Cornwell. Crime thriller 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/30/2007 12:00 PM
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At Risk by Patricia Cornwell [ISBN 978 0 7515 3871 7] does not (thank goodness) feature Kay Scarpetta (these Scarpetta novels petered off into the merely bizarre) but even though this is slightly better, its only a fair read up to her best. The plot is Okish but the characters are strangely wooden and unlikeable without having any of the benefits that unlikeable people can give to the narrative in energy and motive
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Blacklist by Sara Paretsky. Crime thriller 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/29/2007 9:08 AM
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I don’t know what sequence Blacklist [ISBN 0 141 01023 1] comes with Sara Paretsky’s series of crime novels featuring her wonderful investigator VI Warshawski, but this is a classic. The plot is tight and the background, as usual impeccable and interesting, the narrative gives up jewels page by page and yet the answers elude the reader for some time, but the chances for speculation are pleasurable.
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Piece of My Heart by Peter Robinson. Crime fiction 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/27/2007 8:37 AM
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Peter Robinson’s crime fiction novel Piece of my Heart [ISBN 978 0 340 83688 0] is the latest of his books, featuring Inspector Bank (a cop I’m not thrilled with ,but an excellent characterisation). The plot is clever and sneaky: the story unfolds in an alternating past-and-present narrative 1969 and present day, and though the reader knows they will eventually come together, there is great satisfaction in the way a master writer
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Tides of Light by Gregory Benford. Science Fiction 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/25/2007 9:33 AM
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Given the jacket blurbs “The best SF writer now writing” you could expect Gregory Benford’s Tides of Light [ISBN 0 575 04759 3] to be a good science fiction read – even a great read. I have not read science fiction in large quantities for over 20 years, but this does not touch the great SF writers. It is reminiscent of the quite awful HG Wells “The Men in the moon” (or something like that) with the strange beings lurking about underground apropos to very little at all. This book is a sequel to an earlier book I cannot comment on
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Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier. Literary Fiction 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/20/2007 1:26 PM
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Charles Frazier – the author of Cold Mountain – has written a historical fiction book Thirteen Moons [CN 148395] with a background of the 19th century American landgrabs and the impact on the American Cherokee Indians as they are forced away from their lands. The story is a first person narrative and is touching and thought provoking revealing all kinds of insights into the plight of the poor – Indian, white or black – and their different kinds of slavery.
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Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane (writing as MJ Farrell) Literary Fiction 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/18/2007 4:07 PM
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Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane [ISBN 0 8608 466 0] does not particularly deserve such a high score for literary fiction per se, but for the historical interest and amusement it gave me. Written in 1934, Molly Keane wrote about the Anglo-Irish huntin’ shootin’ set – an upper class with little to recommend it – but this novel, with its two central characters as lesbians (with a gay manservant) must have been extraordinarily risqué for its time
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The American Boy by Andrew Taylor . Historical Fiction 8/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/16/2007 7:48 PM
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Andrew Taylor’s historical fiction novel The American Boy [ISBN0 00 710960 1] has an absorbing and evocative historical context, with a fair plot and steady narrative. The characters don’t have such a good feel – my background in history is not up to Andrew Taylor’s but I don’t feel the dialogue is particularly authentic, and the characters are rather Dickensian take-offs. The women are particularly wimpy.
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Missing Persons by Stephen White. Psychological thriller 8/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/15/2007 4:42 PM
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Stephen White’s thriller fiction novel Missing Persons [ISBN 0 7515 3628 8] has a good, authentic feel, is plotted well, and the narrative has enough twisting to keep up suspense, and not too clever to become confusing and boring (as they do sometimes). The central character, the psychologist, carries on from previous novels being agonising about client confidentiality, but nonetheless makes an intelligent and interesting first person narrative.
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The Office of the Dead by Andrew Taylor. Third of Literary Trilogy 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/14/2007 9:01 AM
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For me, this last in Andrew Taylor’s trilogy, The Office of the Dead [ISBN 0 00 649655 5] is the best of the three. It is set before the last book and gives insight into why the events in the last book actually happened. Its still probably better to read them in the order the author probably intended, though he says it doesn’t matter. The plot is sharp and unexpected, the narrative builds suspense
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The Judgement of Strangers by Andrew Taylor. Literary thriller trilogy 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/11/2007 6:51 PM
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The Judgement of Strangers by Andrew Taylor [ISBN 0 00 710510-x], is the second book of his psychological thriller trilogy. But, like the jacket explanation says, is only vaguely linked to the first one and chronologically is an earlier time (1970s). The plot is tighter in this one, and altogether is a much better read, for me, than the first.
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