All the Reviews

Killing for the Company, Chris Ryan

I'm starting to wonder if it's become mandatory for ex-SAS or other special forces members to leave active duty and write books. It seems that there are a lot of options for this sort of informed thriller style book, but you'll need to be partial to something that includes a military theme somewhere.

KILLING FOR THE COMPANY has, as it's first military connection, an ex-SAS member, Chet Freeman, invalided out, now working in anti-bugging and surveillance on contract for a major American corporation. Long story short, he catches Suze McArthur, a peace campaigner, ... Read Review

Making Money, Terry Pratchett

Less of a review - more of a note to self. If Terry Pratchett published the doodles from the notepad on his telephone table I'd probably read that, so MAKING MONEY was no trial at all, even though it's probably not one of the better of the Discworld novels.

Maybe that's because there was a decided lack of wizards, maybe it's because Moist Von Lipwig isn't quite as flamboyant or, well let's say it, lunatic as some of the central characters in other books. Maybe it's also because the plot isn't quite as convoluted, layered, twisty, and, well lunatic, as others. ... Read Review

Cold Light, John Harvey

I do really like the fictional Charlie Resnick. Sure he's another loner cop with a fractured personal life and a work ethic that sometimes seems to veer dangerously close to avoidance of the mess of the personal life, but he's also a man who loves his cats, is good to his friends, seems quite attractive to the ladies, and makes a very mean sandwhich.

There is a pool of these good, solid police procedural series coming from a similar time, and I am working my way back through them on occasions. Some of the books are re-reads, some of them are new, all of them are ... Read Review

Unspoken, Mari Jungstedt

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh ... Read Review

The Inner Circle, aka Unknown, Mari Jungstedt

I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read, ending up very struck by the similarities between the two plots. Which got me wondering if there were similarities in all of them, and as I had a number of the books to hand, I thought I'd read them in order and see what was going on.

Still managed to screw up the order completely. Sigh. Oh ... Read Review

Death on a Galacian Shore, Domingo Villar

The discovery of the crime in any crime fiction, regardless of the culture it is based in, obviously becomes the major focus of a police procedural styled book. Increasingly this is balanced by the life, personality and colleagues of the central investigator. How those major elements blend together is becoming one of the strongest indicators of the cultural background of the story for this reader. Whilst there are some aspects that are universal, there are also aspects that really draw on local flavour. The food, the climate, the weather, the place, and how the characters interact ... Read Review

The Trumpeting Angel, Marshall Browne

Read for our f2f bookclub meeting last month, this book triggered a fantastic, full-table, sleeves rolled up discussion. Which is always a very very good thing.

Whilst overall personally I thought this was a pretty good book, and a particularly interesting one to be reading in the week when our Prime Minister decided to take on the Leader of the Opposition in a long-overdue calling out of his behaviour, there were themes in the book that really really resonated.

There were also aspects that were less successful, as pointed out by members of the bookclub, why ... Read Review

Chasing the Sun, Robin Baker

When I was a little girl my grandmother always used to say to me ... you'll understand the generation gap when you get to my age. Frankly I thought she was barking, so if she was alive now I would be apologising furiously for the scepticism. And it's not just that modern music has no lyrics and all sounds the same these days ;), it's increasingly becoming the occasional book that makes me realise that I may not necessarily "get" what's going on with the younger generations.

Of course that feeling's not helped by the premise of CHASING THE SUN. "A twisted tale about Feng ... Read Review

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch, Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen

Not so long ago a past Prime Minister of ours declared that History teaching in schools should be more about learning dates and less about interpretation and analysis. Or something like that. I wasn't listening after the first bit about dates - I was curled up in a foetal position, fingers in ears, chanting "Make it Stop" "Make it Stop".

Much like most of my, thankfully short, school years.

THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD, might be fictional wrapped up with some science commentary, but to be frank - there were some explanations of scientific theory in this book - ... Read Review