Ian Rankin - A Song For The Dark Times

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Another very good Rebus instalment 

Ian Rankin has definitely still got it. After reading a couple of rather disappointing new books from long-established authors I approached this with a little trepidation, but I enjoyed it very much.

Rebus is ageing with the rest of us and is now suffering from COPD. He is, therefore having to make changes to his way of life, including giving up smoking and cutting down on the booze. He is retired, of course, but he is still his old, dogged, determined, contrary and sometimes bloody-minded self. When his daughter Samantha’s partner goes missing in the far north of Scotland, Rebus goes there immediately, pursuing enquiries in spite of repeated warnings from local police to stay out of it and leave it to them. Meanwhile, DIs Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox are investigating a murder in Edinburgh, which may have some connection to Rebus’s case.

It’s very well done. Rankin remains a brilliant storyteller and I was hooked throughout. It’s not as dark as some Rankin classics, but Big Ger Cafferty is still a malign presence and the Clarke/Fox stories are developing very well in their own right. There is some interesting stuff about POW camps in Scotland during the war as the history of that time becomes very relevant to Rebus’s enquiries, but Rankin never overdoes it. He has clearly done a lot of research, but doesn’t overburden us with it, so it forms a very believable background without bogging down the story. (Some other authors may wish to take note of the skill of a light touch here.) Rankin’s characterisation and dialogue are, as always, excellent, the sense of place is very well done and I found this a really good read.

There are perhaps one or two coincidences too many and it may not be absolute classic Rankin, but I enjoyed it so much that I’ve rounded 4.5-stars up to 5. Warmly recommended.

(My thanks to Orion for an ARC via NetGalley.)

 

 

Nick Hornby - Just Like You

 

Rating: 3/5

 

Review:

Readable but disposable

I’m afraid I didn’t think all that much of Just Like You. It’s perfectly readable but it all felt like very familiar terrain and didn’t add up to much in the end.

The story, set in 2016, is of Lucy, the white, 42-year-old Head of English at a tough North London comprehensive school and Joseph, a young black man, 20 years her junior who works in her local butcher at the weekend. They form a relationship and Nick Hornby explores the issues which arise. The trouble is, he doesn’t explore them very deeply or convincingly. It all meanders along amiably enough, but the background of Lucy’s privileged, wealthy North London acquaintances, awkwardness around race (and some out-and-out racism) and the Brexit referendum all seemed very stale. This is particularly true of the Brexit stuff, which has been extensively explored by a lot of writers and for me Hornby adds nothing new. Even the age-gap, class and interracial issues in Lucy and Joseph’s relationship seemed somehow rather trivially dealt with, so it felt more like a Richard Curtis romcom than much of an emotional or political exploration.

I also have to add a personal hobby horse. A head of department in a large tough school who has no work to do at home and limitless energy and time both in the evenings and at weekends? I’m prepared to suspend disbelief to a pretty large extent when reading, but there really are limits. Every such teacher is almost always either working, trying to cope with domestic demands or asleep. I will restrain myself from ranting further.

For me, Just Like You is readable but disposable and a long way from the insightful brilliance of classics like Fever Pitch or High Fidelity. I van only give it a very qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Carl Hiaasen - Squeeze Me

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Terrific Stuff

I thought Squeeze Me was great fun.

Set in Florida, the plot involves the lives of the very rich and of the President being disrupted by the appearance of some huge Burmese pythons, a species which has established itself in Florida largely through abandoned pets as they became to big to handle. Angie Armstrong is a wildlife removal specialist who becomes involved and then enraged by the cover-up and attempt to frame an innocent man for political gain. A convoluted, amusing and rather gripping story ensues.

I thought it was terrific. Angie is an extremely engaging protagonist and Hiaasen writes very well about both his characters and the Florida setting. It has genuine wit and some laugh-out-loud moments and the scathing satire both of Donald Trump (whom he is careful never to name) and of the rich, privileged world in which he moves is extremely well done.

This is the first Carl Hiaasen book I have read but I’ll certainly be reading more. It’s a very entertaining read and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Sphere for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Tana French - The Searcher

 

Rating: 5/5

Review: very good indeed

I enjoyed The Searcher very much. It perhaps doesn’t have quite the depth of some of Tana French’s finest books, but it’s still very good indeed.

It is the story of Cal, a retired, divorced, disillusioned Chicago cop who buys a derelict house near a small village in the West of Ireland to have some peace of mind. He begins to form a relationship with Trey, a local 13-year-old whose brother has disappeared; Cal reluctantly agrees to look into it and complexities and dark undercurrents begin to emerge.

Like all of Tana French’s books, this is a novel of place and character, driven by a suspenseful crime story. The story itself here is slow and measured in pace – which I liked very much. It fits in well with the pace of life of the community and the careful, steady work which Cal outs in on his house and which he begins to teach to Trey. I see some reviewers found this tedious, but I liked it very much, along with the excellent depiction of the life and characters of a small rural community. The characterisation and dialogue are, as always, brilliant. French also has important things to say about masculinity, fatherhood, moral behaviour and other things. There was enough tension to keep me hooked and the whole thing was a pleasure for me.

This may not be one of Tana French’s very best but it’s still extremely good and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

 

Louise Penny - All The Devils Are Here

 

Rating: 2/5

 

Review:

A disappointment 

I’m surprised and very sorry to say that I didn’t like All The Devils Are Here. I am still in the fairly early stages of making my way gradually (and with great enjoyment) through this series but was very happy to read this latest one out of order. I was very disappointed.

Part of the problem is that Gamache is not in Quebec and Three Pines but in Paris, and taking him and Reine-Marie out of where they really belong doesn’t work well for me. I understand Louise Penny’s profound personal reasons for doing this, but I’m afraid it doesn’t make for a good read for me. I also found that the persistent, almost hagiographic admiration of Armand by almost everyone he has ever known became very cloying.

What I found hardest to take, though, was the style. Penny makes incessant use of not writing in full sentences with clauses, but making those clauses sentences themselves.

Or sometimes even a paragraph.

It became almost unreadable for me. In the first chapter, for example, we get dozens of examples like:

“But this time was different. This time Stephen had added something. Something Armand had never heard from him before.

A specificity.”

And this, just a few pages later:

“Son. Stephen had never called him that. Not once in fifty years. Garçon, yes. Boy. It was said with great affection. But it wasn’t the same. As son.”

Seriously? “But it wasn’t the same. As son.”? Come on – Louise Penny is much, much better than that; she’s a really fine writer and cheap, irritating tricks like that demean her. I found myself wincing regularly and skimming from quite early on.

So, a serious disappointment for me. I can’t bring myself to give a Louise Penny book one star, but I really didn’t like it and I hope she returns to form with her next.

(My thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Kristen Lepionka - The Stories You Tell

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Another very good instalment

 

 I really like the Roxane Weary series and this, the third, is as good as the first two.

Here, Roxane’s brother Andrew becomes embroiled in the disappearance of a young woman and it falls to her to find the truth. A complex, story emerges as Roxane’s love life also develops in (perhaps) unexpected ways.

Kristen Lepionka writes very well, with a beautifully paced narrative in which threads emerge slowly and credibly and Roxane’s tenacity and desire to get to the truth drive it very credibly. It is the characterisation – especially of Roxane herself – which really makes these books a pleasure for me, though. She’s a wonderful, flawed, believable creation and the other characters along with the sense of place in Ohio make these books several cuts above the standard run-of-the-mill thrillers with which the world is awash.

This can be read as a stand alone book, but I would strongly recommend reading this series in order to fully appreciate the background. It won’t be any hardship; I can recommend all of them very warmly.

 

 

 

Lee Farnsworth - Odd Bird

 

Rating: 3/5

Review: OK but not great 

I thought Odd Bird was OK but nothing more. It is narrated by Simon (“Bird”) who is an expert on the mating behaviour of birds. However, his knowledge of human mating behaviour is catastrophically hopeless, and this is a pretty standard RomCom in which the hapless Simon is guided and helped in his quest for a mate by his slightly louche, devious friend Phil.

It’s decently written and Simon’s voice is quite amusing for a while as he talks about humans and their love lives as if they were the subject of his academic study. Men and women are invariably “males” and “females”, for example, a relationship is a “pair-bond” etc. and he analyses his own and others’ behaviour as if it were the subject of one of his bird studies. Simon is besotted with one woman, completely unable to understand that another is very keen on him or the behaviour of her jealous suitor...you get the picture. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it does pall after a while; there were quite strong echoes of The Rosie Project (which I loved) but for me Odd Bird just didn’t have enough freshness or real humour to carry a whole book.

This might make a reasonable beach read, but I can only give it a qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to Farrago for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Elaine Feeney - As You Were

 

Rating: 1/5

Review:  

Unreadable 

I heartily disliked As You Were. I read as much as I could bear and gave up, I’m afraid.

It is the story of Sinead Hynes who is A Woman With A Secret who develops cancer. On the ward to which she is admitted her past and those of other patients gradually emerge...and I found it next to unreadable. My chief (but not my only) problem was the style; Elaine Feeney is a poet and the book is written in a sort of half-prose-half-poetry style which didn’t work at all for me. It is the sort of writing whose purpose seems largely to draw attention to itself rather than to conveying meaning or feeling or narrative in a convincing way. Thus, for example, when the narrator went into hospital previously, it wasn’t to have her appendix removed, it was to have “a thickened, viscid appendix plucked off my bowel.” I can just about live with the overblown adjectives, but “plucked off” is just too much for me here, and there is sentence after sentence after sentence of this stuff.

I did wade through quite a lot of the prose to try to get to what was beneath, but Feeney introduces so many issues that the book loses what focus it may have had. (And it’s all wrapped up in prose which is recondite and of an immanent gelatinous viscosity which...etc.) I expected to be deeply involved with Sinead’s experience as I have been very close to two dearly loved women as they died of cancer, but I wasn’t drawn in at all. The book seemed to be saying nothing new, but going over very well-worn ground in an off-puttingly self-conscious way.

I was persuaded to try this by rave reviews from writers whom I admire like Lisa McInerney, but it really wasn’t for me and I can’t recommend it.

(My thanks to Harvill Secker for an ARC via NetGalley.)

 

Christopher Fowler - Full Dark House

Rating: 4/5

Review: Very enjoyable

I enjoyed Full Dark House. I’ve read a couple of the later Bryant and May books and am now going back to the start; this first book in the series sets the scene and the tone very well.

We begin with the present day destruction of the Peculiar Crimes Unit in an explosion and the discovery of some of Arthur Bryant’s remains in the debris. John May, his aged and long-term police partner looks back into their first case together during the blitz to find out why he died and we get a narrative intercut between the present and the case itself. In 1940 Arthur and John are embroiled in a controversial theatre production where cast members keep being killed, and we get the combination of Arthur’s eccentric erudition and John’s steady investigation and logic which finally reveal the truth – which is pretty implausible, but that’s rather the point of the PCU.

It’s a very enjoyable read. Fowler’s intricate knowledge of all sorts of arcane areas and mastery of Greek myth, wartime conditions and much else gives the book real solidity in addition to a good, well constructed mystery and some genuine humour. His characterisation and dialogue are excellent. I did find the cutting between present and past slightly awkward at times, but it’s generally very well done and didn’t spoil my enjoyment at all. I am looking forward to reading the whole of the series and I can recommend this warmly.

Kristen Lepionka - What You Want To See

Rating: 4/5

Review:

Another very good instalment

What You Want To See is the second very enjoyable instalment featuring Roxane Weary the human, flawed but very likeable Ohio private detective.

This time, Roxane is still rather under-employed but is hired by a man to discover whether his wife is having an affair. A few days later the wife is killed and a complex plot develops involving organised crime, sophisticated fraudsters and Roxane refusing to believe the orthodox police explanation. It’s exciting, involving and very well written, with an engaging believable protagonist, very well portrayed characters and excellent dialogue. Kristen Lepionka also gives some real depth to the book in places so it’s far more than just another disposable thriller.

This is shaping up to be a really good series and I’m looking forward to reading the next. Warmly recommended.