24.01.26
This couldn't be more different to the previous book I read - it's all action and gentle British humour. What it does have in common is the lack of character development and emotional engagement, making it instantly forgettable.
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Nightshade - Autumn Woods
23.11.25
You know the phrase 'So bad it's good?' Yeah, well, that doesn't apply here. This is so bad in so many ways that it's like a first-time author's first draft that nobody's bothered to read or revise or comment on or edit or proofread before it was published.
They Own the Night - Amy McCaw
06.11.25
This inexplicably has an almost-perfect Amazon score but I found it dull, confusing and poorly structured. With updates like this, no longer Dracula won't die.
We Begin at the End - Chris Whitaker
26.09.25
I wish this really did begin at the end, so I wouldn't have had to force my way through this overlong, overblown, overwritten and under-edited melodrama.
Crooked Kingdom - Leigh Bardugo
31.07.25
Bardugo is a fine writer. Her worldbuilding is vivid and her characters are complex. I enjoyed the first book in this series. So why was this one so boring? I had to force my way through it, in search of a real plot, anything that wasn't adolescent heartache and confusing economics. And then, of course, at the end, nothing was as it seemed. Except for the things that were.
Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
11.06.25
This was structured like the card tricks that appear throughout the story - carefully planned, carefully dealt, only revealing the full hand at the right time. The worldbuilding was impeccable and the characters mostly three-dimensional. All that makes it a little easier to overlook the fact that those characters (as usual for Bardugo) are unrealistically precocious teens and the apparently independent women don't pass the Bechdel test.
Life of Zanna - Emily Jane Hodgkin
10.05.25
I don't mind an unsympathetic narrator if they're charismatic or intelligent or are at least interesting in some way but every single character in this story was horrible, boring and stupid so I didn't care what happened to them. Maybe that was the point, but when you hope the main character dies at the end for all her wrong choices, that's not a good sign.
Sun Damage - Sabine Durrant
06.09.24
Looks like a beach read, reads like literary fiction that happens to be both layered and fun. Not psychologically complex but vividly written, the claustrophobic south of France in August the strongest character of all.
The Unseen Sister - Andy Maslen
Disappointingly, after a strong opening to the series, this was confusing, impossible to work out the murderer and, surprisingly, not particularly well written. And it's lucky that nobody ever finds out the main character's coincidental links with the cases.
(I often wonder, with police procedurals, how people know what to call the investigator: "Oh, Acting Detective Superintendent Officer, do have a cup of tea.")
The Seventh Girl - Andy Maslen
14.07.24
I met Andy a couple of times when he was a highly paid and highly visible copywriter teaching others how to be as rich and famous as him. Then he decided to be even richer and famouser as an author and, of course, his boundless confidence paid off. And, perhaps not surprisingly given his background, it was really rather good - well written, well paced and with reasonably strong characters. It still plodded (ha!) at times as police procedurals do, but it was skilfully executed.
Nowhere to Hide - Keri Beevis
10.07.24
From the Shari Lapena school of telling, not showing, this was a long, often grammatically dodgy synopsis with too many expositional flashbacks and not enough emotional development or psychological realism. I only read it because it was (partly) set in my local area, but it could have been anywhere.
Midnight is the Darkest Hour - Ashley Winstead
07.07.24
The fact that the author had to write a really quite long essay at the end to 'explain' things is not a good sign. She insists, for example, that it wasn't that easy for the narrator to just leave town - but it was - it just wouldn't have helped the plot. It really all came down to none of the characters behaving convincingly for their time or place or doing anything an actual person might do. On the plus side, it's not quite as bad as that Crawdads nonsense, even if it was going for its tone - and audience.
The House on Rye Lane - Susan Allott
18.04.24
This was one of those books where the setting was really the main character - the author clearly loves Peckham Rye and Victorian houses and was keen to show us all her research. The main twist (spoiler!) was that there was nothing supernatural going on - even the theme of history repeating itself ended up being more of a coincidence. A quick and easy read.
The Naturals - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
I thought this was going to be another 'magic school' book but in fact this isn't fantasy - or only in the 'unrealistic wish fulfilment' sense. It's basically a rehearsal for Barnes' later Inheritance Games series - not-so-ordinary girl is put in extraordinary situation, rather tedious boys fight over her, poor pacing and plot development ensues - it's still as fun to read.
A Murder of Crows - Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
If The Daily Telegraph wrote a novel, this would be it. It was fairly well written but the ideology was cringeworthy and the characters, police procedural and little England setting were all unconvincing. Of the many other elements that annoyed me, I'll pick out the assumption that the reader will sympathise with the 'plight' of modern aristocrats, and the patronising treatment of all women characters under 30. At least it was free.
The Last Dance - Mark Billingham
53%
File under 'quirky police procedural' with another of the traumatised, probably neurodiverse (ADHD?) protagonists that seem popular these days. It was diverting as far as it went, but all extremely unlikely - OK, so it was a work of fiction, but the world- and character-building wasn't strong enough for me to completely suspend my disbelief.
My Murder - Katie Williams
70%
The idea of a clone trying to solve their own murder isn't new but I really enjoyed this take on the theme. It's strikingly well written on both a sentence and chapter level, the characters are interesting, the worldbuilding is clever and the issues of identity, parenthood, death and the ethical use of technology are well explored. What spoilt it was the annoying ending that exposed various plot holes and didn't address its own implications. But the first 90% - fantastic!
The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly
61%
What makes this interesting - other than the details of how the urban American legal system works - is the character development arc. It could have been a standard procedural but the narrator goes from shrugging off the ethical issues of defending guilty people to confronting and eventually embracing the complexity of different cases. There was a lot of unnecessary visual detail, though - who cares what side of the sofa people are sitting on?
Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister
Points for cleverness and attention to detail. Time travel mysteries need careful planning and plotting, and this clearly had plenty of that - even if some other aspects were slightly off (who picks up their 18-year-old kids from school?). Also points for only mentioning the pandemic in passing.
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