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Robert Goddard – Sight Unseen. Crime fiction 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/30/2006 2:55 PM
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Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard [ISBN 0 552 15210 2] is a immensely satisfying crime fiction novel that shows his usual mastery of plot, of suspense and tension sustaining and of action. The narrative is nice and pacy with good use of flashback (not my favourite literary device) and is full of drama and tragedy that is well captured in the characterisations and descriptions
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The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan. Children’s/adults imaginative fiction 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/29/2006 2:11 PM
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Ian McEwan’s The Daydreamer [ISBN 0 009 959061 1] is a strange little book of stories, ostensibly for children, though I do feel that it would be a precocious child who you would read the stories to, and by the time they would read books of this complexity they may feel the content a little patronising
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Trail of the Dead by Jon Evans. Crime chiller 8/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/27/2006 12:57 PM
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Jon Evans crime thriller Trail of the Dead [ISBN 0 340 83145 6] is a first novel – and really very good indeed. The plot is nicely logical but quite twisty, too. The narrative grips from the very beginning – the original premise opened up at the outset drives the need to know exactly what is happening
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Blinded by Stephen White. Psychological thriller 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/24/2006 4:59 PM
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Stephen White’s crime fiction novel Blinded [ISBN 0 316 72501 3] has a plot that creaks a little at times with action almost entirely blocked by client confidentiality (which may well be true in real life, but why bore a story with it?) and , though the narrative is quite engaging and sticky –some of the action may seem
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Death in Springtime by Magdalen Nabb. Crime fiction 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/23/2006 11:32 AM
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Magdalen Nabb’s book Death in Springtime [ISBN 1 56947 415 X] is an early member of the series of Marshal Guarnaccia crime fiction stories set in Florence. I am afraid that I so enjoy the wonderful writing creating the sights, smells and tastes of Florence that it’s almost as good as a visit (well, perhaps not).
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Frances Fyfield – Looking Down. Crime Fiction 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/16/2006 1:16 PM
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Looking Down, this psychological whodunit/crime thriller [ISBN 0 7515 3340 8] by Frances Fyfield, is a twisty and sometimes annoying kind of book. The plot is obfuscated by the dream-like ramblings of one of the main characters
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Denial by Peter James. Psychological thriller 7/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/14/2006 3:18 PM
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Peter James’ book Denial [ISBN 0 75286 223 5] has a fairly straightforward plot – it is pretty clear from the outset what the central psychopath is going to try to do – and this is the type of narrative where the reader knows more
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The Safe House by Nicci French. Psychological thriller 8/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/11/2006 1:52 PM
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Nicci French’s book The Safe House [ISBN 0 14 027036 1] has a very intricate plot – with so many layers the reader is cleverly misled several times – and the narrative very cleverly creates intense suspense with glimpses of the underlying actions of psychopath .....
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Last Rights by Barbara Nadel. Crime thriller 5/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/9/2006 1:49 PM
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Barbara Nadel’s book Last Rights is (disappointingly for me) not part of her Inspector Ikmen series set in turkey, but is set in wartime London during the blitz. Deservedly winner of a CWA Silver Dagger, Nadel is excellent on clever plots,
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Peter Robinson – Playing with Fire. Crime Fiction 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/8/2006 1:44 PM
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Playing with Fire by Peter Robinson [ISBN 0 330 44678 9] is a well written, well constructed book, where the narrative clearly, and page by page, gives jigsaw pieces that challenge the reader to assemble – that is, before another more likely piece presents itself.
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The Hundredth Man by Jack Kerley. Serial murder/crime fiction 8/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/7/2006 1:28 PM
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Jack Kerley’s The Hundredth Man {ISBN 0 00 718059 4] is a quite gruesome, scary crime fiction book.. I don’t like gratuitously macabre descriptions but this book is very well put together, and all descriptions and crime details are woven intricately into the plot and only a little cheating.
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Beyond Recall by Robert Goddard. Crime fiction 6/10 |
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By bookworm on
5/5/2006 12:18 PM
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Robert Goddard’s book Beyond Recall {ISBN 0 552 14225 5] has a complicated plot and a narrative-with-flashbacks which is not my favourite novel structure – because the various dribbles of information given in a variety of different contexts take so much remembering if ploughing through the detail gets tedious – which it does sometimes in Beyond Recall
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Henry Porter’s Empire State. Spy thriller 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/27/2006 8:50 AM
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Empire State by Henry Porter [ISBN 0 75285 892 0] is a compulsive read. I’m not a fan of spy stories (or at least I haven’t been in the past) but a friend recommended this, so I found out how very readable it was.
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Fury by G.M. Ford – PI/court procedural 6/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/17/2006 12:52 PM
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G.M. Ford’s Fury [ISBN 13: 978-00330-44685-3] is the first of his series of crime fiction books in his Frank Corso series. The main character, Frank Corso, is a truculent loner, an idiosyncratic journalist who gets involved with some serial murders
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Kathy Reichs’ Cross Bones – Forensic crime thriller 6/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/15/2006 10:23 AM
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Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs [ISBN 0 09 944149 7] grips you from the start – from the intriguing introduction the reader expects this to cover some kinds of excavations in the Holy Land and some kind of link to major historical Christian figures. Oh dear! Another biblical mystery. The plot, though
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Firewall by Henning Mankell – Police procedural/Crime fiction 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/12/2006 11:52 AM
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Translated from the Swedish and again featuring his superbly-drawn policeman Kurt Wallender, Henning Mankell’s book Firewall, [ISBN 0 09 945905 1] is a brilliant thriller: so atmospheric you can imagine being in Skane at the crime scenes; so well written you want to hoover up the text to pick up every clue.
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The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari – Serial killer/crime fiction 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/11/2006 11:29 AM
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Richard Montanari’s thriller “The Rosary Girls” [ISBN 0099486881] is an exceptional book of its genre. Some of the scenes are quite terrifying, even for a hardened thriller reader, and the way the author has engineered the suspense is masterful. It is very, very scary in parts, particularly the last few scenes.
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The Night Watch by Sarah Waters – Literary Fiction 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/10/2006 5:38 PM
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Sarah Waters “Night Watch” has the most engaging story of any literary fiction I have read this year. The plot as such is slight. It covers a fairly small canvas – stories about five people (four women and a young man) over a period of 6 years – following them through the wartime period in London.
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Lee Child – One Shot - Crime Fiction/thriller 9/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/8/2006 8:46 AM
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One Shot by Lee Child is his latest crime fiction book featuring Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher is an unusual crime fictional hero by today’s standards, he is a loner, self-contained and arrogant, is intelligent and always right; he has little or no psychological damage or hang ups, is not an introspective and addictive personality.
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The Reckoning by Sue Walker – Crime Fiction 6/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/7/2006 8:53 AM
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This is quite a morose, though quite well-written book. There is a basically good plot and interesting setting, but the narrative is slow with flashbacks and a lot of information given in italics. There may well be lots of clues obvious from the outset, but given the density of the material at times the reader can lose the will to live, and just has to skip ahead. The main action is set in Scotland, on a small island in the Firth of Forth, Fidra, owned by the McAllisters.
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Ash and Bone by John Harvey – police procedural/crime fiction 10/10 |
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By bookworm on
4/6/2006 11:37 AM
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Just when you think that all the crime fiction books you read are blurring into an undistinguished memory blob, one comes along to prove you wrong. John Harvey’s Ash and Bone [ISBN 0 09 946623 6] is an excellent read you’ll want to finish at one sitting. Its not just a clever plot where you’re sure you can anticipate the answers and you’re wrong again and again, but the characters are insightful and well drawn and believable without pages of psychological yawn.
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