It is that time of year when time is in short supply and I am falling behind with reviews so am doing a Reading Round Up today so that my conscience feels a little clearer.
A Death in Siberia - Alex Dryden. Fourth book in the series featuring former KGB agent Anna Resnikov and this is the bleakest yet. Sent to Russia to confirm or deny the truth about a ground breaking nuclear discovery by Professor Kryuchkov who is being held prisoner at a nuclear facility above the Arctic Circle, this is also bleak in the sense that the novel is set in the coldest most unforgiving landscape. All is grey and white, stormy and chilling. The physicist has taken action and smuggled his formula out and passed to an intermediary who is found murdered and his clothes slit and searched. Alexei Petrov, one of a rare breed in that he is an honest policeman, finds the papers and is desperate to decipher their meaning.
There then follows a chase across the unforgiving icy wastes with Anna one step ahead of her pursuers and on a collision course with Alexei who may, or may not, be a friend.
Gripping read. I have enjoyed the previous books in this series and this is the best yet. My thanks to Headline once more for sending me yet another pin me to the sofa thriller.
Explosive Eighteen - Janet Evanovich. The latest Stephanie Plum and nothing to say about this save that within five minutes of opening this book I was weeping tears of laughter. As I was in bed reading and it was midnight, heaven knows what my neighbours must have thought of the cackling going on. The story is totally immaterial, but it appears that after getting off a plane from Hawaii to Newark, following a disastrous holiday when the Ranger and Morelli came to blows over her (oh how I wish...) Stephanie finds that somebody has hidden a photo in her bag by the passenger sitting next to her. He is later found dead and then it seems everyone is after her to track this down even though she has chucked it in a bin. She goes into police headquarters to do a photo fit:
"He pulled the sketch out of afolder and handed it to me 'Is this the guy in the photograph?'
'Yes it looks familiar'. Lulu swung out of the office and looked over my shoulder. 'I know this guy - it's Tom Cruise'.
I looked back at the photograph. Lulu was right. It was Tom Cruise. No wonder it looked familiar......"
Great stuff.
Happily ever After - Harriet Evans. On first sight this book looks like your normal run-of-the-mill chicklit and pretty sure I have said this already about this author but will say again, they are better than the cover might make you think. Eleonor Bee sets off to London. She is 22 and wants to be a literary superstar. She doesn't believe in Happy Ever After having seen what her parent's divorce did to the family and is determined to avoid falling in love and/or getting married. Of course, we know that in the end she will do both those things, but along the way she steadily rises in her profession until she becomes a respected editor working in New York. Along the way she has been involved with various men, some good, some bad and one a total rotter (the most charming naturally), and feels she is pretty male proof. Well, we the reader know better but this is a really well written, funny, witty and amusing book and, as with all the others by the author, I loved it.
Gamble - Felix Francis. The front of this book has A Dick Francis Novel by Felix Francis. Yes well, it raises the question once again Just Who Wrote all the Dick Francis books? After his wife died, who was largely thought to be the writer behind the throne, there was a hiatus and no books appeared at all which may have given credence to this theory. Then Dick Francis came back with a stand alone book and then with Felix under the title. Now Dick Francis is dead and Felix has taken over the writing baton. I enjoyed this book but it is EXACTLY like a Dick Francis. Hero, a sea green incorruptible, noble and gallant, full of derring do, in touch with his feelings and yet brave and clever. I mean, John Buchan and Richard Hannay come to mind. Don't get me wrong, I loved every word of it, huge fun but am I alone in finding this kind of marketing a bit distasteful?
Believing the Lie - Elizabeth George. The latest Inspector Lynley and I fully admit to having a love/hate relationship with these books. I found the last one pretty obnoxious with its usage of the James Bulger murder and decided I wouldn't bother with any more of them. Trouble is there is an onging story line running throughout these books and the reader wants to know how these are carried forward. I love Barbara Havers and the relationship with her neighbour and his little girl, her relationship with Lynley and this book ends with another open end to make sure you get the next one. And so it goes on.
Very grateful to Hodder for sending me a copy as it is a hefty tome and a hardback priced at £18.99 is a bit hairy, but in time for the Christmas market. So I sat and read it and, once again, found myself becoming increasingly irritated by Lynley who seems to rely on Havers to do most of the detecting for him, which she does and his relationship with his boss Isabelle Ardery (a divorcee with drink issues 'sigh'). We all know that he is still grieving for his murdered wife Helen (I personally was glad to see the back of this tiresome moany creature) and it therefore beggers belief that in setting off to the Lake district to investigate a suspicious death where he needs cover, he takes along with him his friend Simon st James and his wife Deborah. Now Deb is even more needy, moany and whiny than Helen was and, true to form, she interferes, gets everything wrong, won't do as she is told by either her husband or Lynley, causes havoc throughout the investigation and brings about a tragic ending.
' Deborah thought....'this is not who I want to be my love'
'Then be someone else'
'Where on earth do I begin with that project?'
How about Getting a Grip dear?
I know I will continue reading these but oh how I wish I could stop!
Death Comes to Pemberly - P D James. So looking forward to this and then so disappointed. Not going to say much about it as I love PDJ but feel this was a mistake. Falls between two stools and is successful only in the court room scene where Wickham is on trial for the murder of his friend, Denny. Convoluted and fairly unbelievable ending. Just wish that the Baroness had not bothered with this and given us another Dalgliesh instead.
OK one pile down - two more to go.
