Tag Archives: reading

Jan 15 2012

Magnificently Mesmerising MacBride

I’ve always loved the books of Stuart MacBride, I have every single Logan MacRae book, most of which have been delightfully defaced in someway by old Beardy Boy himself, along with Halfhead, Sawbones, and the Twelve days of Christmas collection. Yes, it would be fair to call me a fan, and so yes, as such I grabbed my copy of his latest standalone novel Birthdays for the Dead, as soon as it came out.

This is what I have to say.

With its immediate hook catching you, this is one book you won’t want to put down until you’re done. I didn’t think MacBride could get any better. I was wrong.

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Detective Constable Ash Henderson has a dark secret…

Five years ago his daughter, Rebecca, went missing on the eve of her thirteenth birthday. A year later the first card arrived: homemade, with a Polaroid picture stuck to the front – Rebecca, strapped to a chair, gagged and terrified. Every year another card: each one worse than the last.

The tabloids call him The Birthday Boy. He’s been snatching girls for twelve years, always in the run-up to their thirteenth birthday, sending the families his homemade cards showing their daughters being slowly tortured to death.

But Ash hasn’t told anyone about Rebecca’s birthday cards – they all think she’s just run away from home – because if anyone finds out, he’ll be taken off the investigation. And he’s sacrificed too much to give up before his daughter’s killer gets what he deserves…

Result? :- WHOLE HEARTEDLY RECOMMENDED

Jan 10 2012

Blood – K J Wignall

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Finally the delightful Lord Kevin of Wignallshire, as he will always be to me, is getting some of the recognition he has deserved for some time.

This was my second “young adult” read for me recently and another in a series of books, although this was the first in a trilogy, as opposed to an open ended series of my previous read.

The Mercian Trilogy tells the tale of William, Earl of Mercia, and 800 year old teenage vampire.

But don’t let the fact that it’s a new vampire novel put you off, forget all your thoughts of those ‘other’ emphatically inferior vampire novels of which you may have heard (and which will *never* be spoken of here).

Blood re-writes the traditional rules of vampirism. Be prepared to turn everything you’ve thought on your head. Capturing the essential essences of adventure, love, history and destiny it’s a book everyone should read.

Go buy it now, you really should.

Jan 6 2012

The Power of Six – Pittacus Lore

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After reading the first book in the legacies series I Am Number Four, and it’s between the books companion, I Am Number Four, The Lost Files – Sixes Legacy, I have to say I was a bit confused when I began to read this book.

I sat down fully expecting exactly what I got, in that it was the further adventures of Four and Six as they search for more of the Loriens, hidden on Earth. The thing was most of the initial part of the book, and interspersed along the way it was the story of number seven. It wasn’t until halfway through that the title of the book was explained. Rather than being The Power of Six, talking about Six who was leading the ‘fight’, it was actually The Power of Six, as in the power of the remaining six Loriens on earth, No’s four through nine.

It may seem like a simple and unimportant error to make, judging the book by it’s cover, and it’s title, but you’d be surprised the difference it makes to your priding experience when you approach this story from such a subtly different angle.

One thing though, it may have been a novel written for the “young adult” market, but I think anyone of any age will find something enjoyable in it, even if it as simple as the fact that deep down, we all really wish we had super powers of our own.

Dec 14 2011

11 The Hard Way

“Never ASSUME, it makes an ASS out of U and ME”

It is also the one thing you cannot do with this book.

Featuring snipers, home invasions, race crime and more, 11 The Hard Way, repeatedly gives you that same pit of the stomach feeling of dread, that comes from being alone in a strange, noisy house late at night.

Each story guides you carefully towards an inevitable conclusion, before sneakily pulling the rug out from under your feet.

Whether you like to enjoy your books as an all in one read or in delightful bite sized chunks, 11 The Hard Way ensures one size fits all. It’s a fantastic debut from Graham, and I’m looking forward to more.

11 The Hard Way is available for you Kindle right now.

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11 Hard boiled stories of murder, misconception and mayhem. Nothing ends as expected. Everything can change in an instant. Tense, thrilling and funny. You’ll be cheering on, laughing at and crying for the characters.

Take a walk in the woods with Annie as a camping trip goes horribly wrong, slug some bourbon in Bobby’s Bar with gumshoe Leonard Peters or join Nicholas and Christine as their honeymoon trip takes a frightening turn.

Attend a night class with the girl who fears a stalker, escape killers with Jason and his sons, join Cook & Barnes as they hunt a twisted killer, look through a telescopic sight with an assassin and recoil in horror as terrorists attack.

Why has Garry been stood up at the altar? What happens to Susie?

All the answers you need are in 11 The Hard Way.

Oct 13 2011

The White Tiger

Painting a stark picture of modern day India, this is a great story of one boys efforts to rise out of the darkness of where he was born.

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Balram Halwai, the eponymous ‘white tiger’, is a diminutive, overweight ex-teashop worker who now earns his living as a chauffeur. But this is only one side of his protean personality; he deals in confidence scams, over-ambitious business promotions (built on the shakiest of foundations) and enjoys approaching life with a philosophical turn of mind. But is Balram also a murderer? We learn the answer as we devour these 500 odd pages. Born into an impoverished family, Balram is removed from school by his parents in order to earn money in a thankless job: shop employee. He is forced into banal, mind-numbing work. But Balram dreams of escaping — and a chance arises when a well-heeled village landlord takes him on as a chauffeur for his son (although the duties involve transporting the latter’s wife and two Pomeranian dogs). From the rich new perspective offered to him in this more interesting job, Balram discovers New Delhi, and a vision of the city changes his life forever. His learning curve is very steep, and he quickly comes to believe that the way to the top is by the most expedient means. And if that involves committing the odd crime of violence, he persuades himself that this is what successful people must do.

Oct 9 2011

Dark Matter

Journey with Jack, as he finds himself becoming increasingly isolated during his meteorological Arctic expedition. Sit beside him as the short summer days move quickly towards the unending night of winter. Walk with him as he struggles to ensure his expedition remains a success. Feel the loneliness take hold as he battles the demons of the dark.

You won’t want to read this one alone at night.

Result: – Go get it now.

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Out of nowhere, for no reason, I was afraid. My skin prickled. My heart thudded in my throat. My body knew before I did that I was not alone…

London, 1937. Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life, so when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway, and at last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year.

But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. Soon Jack will see the last of the sun, the sea will freeze and escape will be impossible.

And Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark…

Oct 5 2011

One Moment, One Morning

I have to admit to making a bit of a mistake when I bought this book. What I thought I was buying, was another book by the author of Spider Light, Sarah Rayne. I’d missed the extra ‘r’ in the name, so instead I got this, One Moment, One Morning by Sarah Rayner, an almost polar opposite of what I was actually looking for in the book store that day.

Still, never being one to let any such things put me off, I chose to read this book, as a change of pace to my usual reading, and it was fantastic to break away from the crime genre I tend to prefer.

This book is so well written I defy any one to find an aspect of the characters that they cannot identify with. For me they were staggeringly huge parts, for some I’ve discussed the book with they were far more subtle, but everyone found something. That said this story despite it’s subject doesn’t scream or shout at you, but takes you carefully, sensitively and thought provokingly along the journey’s of Karen, Lou and Anna as they deal with the aftermath of the train trip to London.

Result:- Buy it now.

The Brighton to London line. The 07:44 train. Carriages packed with commuters. A woman applies her make-up. Another occupies her time observing the people around her. A husband and wife share an affectionate gesture. Further along, a woman flicks through a glossy magazine.  Then, abruptly, everything changes: a man has a heart attack, and can’t be resuscitated; the train is stopped, an ambulance called.

For at least three passengers on the 07:44 on that particular morning, life will never be the same again. Lou witnesses the man’s final moments.

Anna and Lou share a cab when they realise the train is going nowhere fast. Anna is Karen’s best friend. And Karen? Karen’s husband is the man who dies.

Telling the story of the week following that fateful train journey, One Moment, One Morning is a stunning novel about love and loss, about family and – above all – friendship. A stark reminder that, sometimes, one moment is all it takes, it also reminds us that somehow, and despite everything, life can and does go on.

Sep 21 2011

The Donor

The story of a lone parents search for help, hope and the answer to the question ‘Who do you save?’

Result:- It’s got a sting ;)

Will Marion has two perfect kidneys.  His daughters aren’t so lucky.  Question is: which one should he save?

Will’s 47.  His wife bailed out when the twins were in nappies and hasn’t been seen since. He coped OK by himself at first, giving Georgie and Kay all the love he could, working in a boring admin job to support them.

Just after the twins turn sixteen, Georgie suffers kidney failure and is placed on dialysis. Her type is rare, and Will immediately offers to donate an organ. Without a transplant, she would probably never see adulthood. So far so good. But then Kay gets sick. She’s also sixteen. Just as precious. Her kidney type just as rare.

Time is critical, and he has to make a decision. Should be buy a kidney – be an organ tourist? Should be save one child? If so, which one? Should be sacrifice himself?

Or is there a fourth solution – one so terrible it has never even crossed his mind?

Sep 18 2011

Mercy

I grabbed this book as part of one of those 3 for £5 deals in one of my local supermarkets, because I’m always on the lookout for new authors to try and find these deals are a fabulous way of discovering someone new. I’d never read any of David Kesslers books before, and after satisfying myself before I bought it that the one I wanted was the first tale of a serial character, and I wasn’t about to dive into the middle of a series (thanks ff) I’m really glad I picked it up.

Lawyer Alex Sedaka has just 11 hours to save the life of a man on death row, so given the small and specific time frame you know, before you even start, that this is going to be one of those stories that grabs you by the shirt and drags you along with it. It doesn’t fail either. It’s well paced, to keep you turning the pages, and with a neatly wound plot that keeps you changing your mind about it’s direction all the way through.

I enjoyed it so much, when I found the next of the Alex Sedaka stories in the same offer a week later I added that one to my ever growing TBR pile too.

Result:- A recommended read.

As he makes an 11th hour plea for mercy, lawyer Alex Sedaka is resigned to the fact that his client will be executed. Charged with the rape and murder of 18-year-old Dorothy Haufaman the case seems cut and dry – until the victim’s mother makes an astonishing offer…

Dorothy Haufaman’s mother offers clemency in return for the whereabouts of her daughter’s body, before she herself dies of the terminal disease ravaging her body.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a nurse watching Fox News recognises Dorothy’s name. Does she hold the key to this case?  Alex must now convince Clayton to come clean – but he still protests his innocence. Is this another one of Clayton’s games or is he an innocent man about to be condemned to death?