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The Sleeper by Holly Roth. Vintage American Greenback fiction 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/31/2007 10:22 AM
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Holly Roth’s The Sleeper (Penguin first pub 1955) is surprisingly modern in feel, without the stilted dialogue and wooden characters that typify British crime fiction of this age. The plot is good – and the narrative hold good suspense all the way through – only the ending is a little weak after all that build up. Interesting characters set up by the plot.
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The Dead Hour by Denise Mina. Scottish Noir crime fiction 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/30/2007 11:27 AM
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Denise Mina’s crime fiction novel The Dead Hour [ISBN 978 0 553 81560 3] is the first of her books that I’ve read, but she has written another six books featuring Paddy Meehan, the journalist before this one. It’s a pity I will have to read them out of order as this can be very confusing, but read them I will. Mina is just brilliant: the plot is, of itself, nothing extraordinary, but the way that Mina weaves the rich context of the background (the seamy side of Glasgow) with the reality and thickness of her characters makes them come alive to the reader and engaging their sympathy or dislike. The double narrative is not intrusive as this is not a story chopped up like many literary butcher, but simultaneous happenings that the reader can quickly weave into the plot. Go out and buythis now !
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The Murmur of Stones by Thomas H Cook. Mystery thriller 8/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/29/2007 11:20 AM
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Thomas H Cook’s mystery thriller The Murmur of Stones [ISBN 10 1 84724 071 2] is well-written with an unusual structure that intrigues the reader and keeps one guessing. The central issue is given in glimpses, in snippets and not really revealed until the end – a method that often annoys me – but this is very well written. The narrative consist of two strands, both first person by the story narrator: the first strand a reflection on the meaning of issues as discussed with a sympathetic policeman and the second a flashback of particular incidents illustrating the first. You feel you can anticipate the ending –but this changes as the novel proceeds. Clever book.
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Glass Tiger by Joe Gores. American spy thriller 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/28/2007 2:43 PM
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Joe Gores novel Glass Tiger [ISBN 10 1 84724 072 0] is quite a good read (in spite of being one of those American novels involving that strange almost mythical organisation the CIA). The plot appears straightforward but has some nice quirks, and despite the subject matter the narrative quite zips along, and the characterisations have moments of interest, though they are a little formulaic.
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Depths by Henning Mankell. Rather strange fiction 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/19/2007 8:03 PM
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The two other Mankell fans I know also found this book seriously weird (after getting used to Kurt Wallender this came as a surprise). Henning Mankell’s Depths [ISBN 978 0 099 48865 1] reads as an author’s obsession – nothing less would drive the research this book must have taken. It has little plot as such, but a convoluted story. The atmosphere is heavy and full of angst of the mentally out of sync person, and as I read the book it had almost a hypnotic effect –
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The Dead Place by Stephen Booth. Crime fiction 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/16/2007 10:34 AM
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Stephen Booth’s crime fiction novel The Dead Place [ISBN 0 00 717208 7] is another book that is only good in parts. The plot appears, at the outset, much better than it is, and not a little derivative. The narrative (apart from the extensive convoluted quotes from the murderer’s tapes) does move along quite well, and the two main characters are sympathetically drawn. I was tempted to skip wodges of it, but did read it to the end.
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All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. American classic fiction 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/15/2007 10:24 AM
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This 1946 book has been recently republished as it has been made into a film starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. Robert Penn Warren’s book, All the King’s Men [0 141 02696 0] is a significant novel about American politics, by a three times Pulitzer prize winner and America’s first poet laureate. It is a free-flowing, heavy-duty book with quite amazingly crafted characters which could only be part of the fluid American political process. Of its age, it is not politically correct, but has more honestly for that. I didn’t find the book easy to read – its density meant I had to read it over several days, and each time I picked it up again I needed to re-read the last chapter to pick up the nuances of the story.
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Last Known Victim by Erica Spindler. American Crime fiction 6/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/13/2007 9:51 AM
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Erica Spindler’s crime fiction novel Last Known Victim [ISBN 978 0 7783 0162 2] I found very patchy. The plot appears to be interesting, though the first half is much tighter than the second; the narrative intersperses pacy action with long interminable sections where there is plenty of action but no movement in the plot. The characters are spotty – for some there is more spurious detail than the plot needs and others seem to be not quite there yet.
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Snow Blind by P J Tracy. American crime fiction 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/9/2007 3:59 PM
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P J Tracy’s crime fiction novel Snow Blind [ISBN 978 0 141 01922 2] was a really good read. The plot grips from the outset and the pacy narrative gets hold and keeps you interested – and it has a particularly skilled denouement and resolution with unguessable twists. What I most like was the atmospheric context – I’m always a sucker for winter tales and this one, Minnesota in the snow transports the reader right into that world and you can feel yourself freezing along with the characters.
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Temporary Sanity by Rose Connors. American courtroom fiction 8/10 |
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By bookworm on
12/8/2007 7:04 PM
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Rose Connors legal crime fiction novel Temporary Sanity [ISBN 0 7499 3498 0] is much better than you are led to believe by the initial premise of the story. The plot is very good indeed – and as the courtroom drama appears to be open-and-shut with no wriggle room it is amazing how Connors develops the story in a believable way. The writing is tight and authentic, and the characterisations, whilst not particularly well developed, do not hijack the plot or irritate the reader.
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