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The high window by Raymond Chandler
I’ve decided to binge read (and possibly watch) some Philip Marlow tales. I started with The High Window mainly because I couldn’t remember much about it (although a lot came back to me as I read). These books are dated but still ‘cool’. The snappy dialogue holds its own; the plots are pretty solid too. Rather like when you read Agatha Christie books, you have to willingly suspend your knowledge of modern tech, especially mobile phones. But if you can do that, you’ll enjoy this (and probably all the Raymond Chandler books). Recommended. Well, I knew that before I even started reading it again.
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
Those of you who read grimdark fantasy will know what to expect from Joe Abercrombie. Baddies who aren’t entirely bad; goodies who aren’t entirely good; intrusive but not always effective magic; lots of fighting, limbs hacked off, blood spraying, and then much rumination on the pointlessness of it all. Much dark humour throughout. David Gemmell on steroids, in fact.
Well, The Devils is David Gemmell on steroids in spades. It’s brilliantly devised, right from the beginning when four ‘devils’ are locked up but the fifth cell is empty because the four of them are afraid of whatever should have been in it. We find out what the fifth devil is, of course, during a particularly intense and bloody melee not too far into the story. There’s lots of humour. Lots of… well, lots of all the things I listed in the first paragraph. But all done so well that I can’t think of a book of this type that I’ve enjoyed more. Sorry, David.
It probably helps if you don’t mind reading about blood and gore splattering its way across the pages. But if you don’t mind, trust me, this is the book that should be your next read.
Exit Strategy by Lee and Andrew Child
I never thought I’d have to say this, but I didn’t much like this latest Reacher novel. I only have myself to blame, I suppose: if I hadn’t won a book token at the Ayr Writing Club I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Half price £11.
Why didn’t I like it? There are three reasons, which are probably linked. First, I’ve noticed that the books co-written with Andrew Child are very much up and down with the quality of their writing. Never used to be a problem. But the writing in Exit Strategy, especially towards the end, is positively poor. Plus the whole thing doesn’t click and fit together like earlier Reacher novels: there’s a lot of running around in small circles with a bit of violence, some unlikely deductions and a lot of info-dumping thrown in. Not nearly as good as wot they used to be. Second, the aforementioned violence is not very convincing, particularly one effort right at the end where Reacher kicks a man while he’s down: while Reacher is down, that is. Some of this violence seems rather gratuitous, too. Reacher never used to go overboard about hurting people. He just hurt them enough. And that leads me into the third point. In Exit Strategy Reacher pretty much sets himself up to be judge, jury and executioner of a couple of baddies. That doesn’t sit right with how I view Reacher.
You might think that last sentence is a bit of a spoiler. But it isn’t really, as I recommend that you don’t bother with this particular Reacher story.
The impossible fortune by Richard Osman
When I got the original Thursday Murder Club I thought, here we go again, another celebrity who thinks they can write. Well blow me down, I enjoyed it, and he can. Now a new Thursday Murder Club book automatically goes on my list for birthday or Christmas, along with any new Reacher books (although see previous post).
Actually The Impossible Fortune didn’t go on my Christmas list, because I bought it using what was left of a book token won at Ayr Writers Club. All the usual characters appear along, of course, with some new baddies. The plot is satisfyingly opaque and you only have to suspend your disbelief a little in a couple of places. The humour shines though, as usual. I suppose these books have become a little formulaic, but who cares? It’s a very readable formula, and I can recommend this Thursday Murder Club book along with its predecessors.
Small things like these by Claire Keegan
Son #3 is having a reading blitz, complaining that I don’t have enough ‘classics’ on my shelves. What cheek. But I’m glad he’s having the blitz instead of just doom-scrolling on his phone. He read Small things like these, although I missed the reason why he got hold of it in the first place. Read this, he told me. You’ll like it and it will only take a couple of hours.
He was right on both counts (it’s a very short book). But short or not, it packs a lot in and, as many reviewers have pointed out, it packs quite a punch. You probably need to know a little about the recent-ish history of Ireland to understand what is happening in the story, although I guess it’s still pretty good even if you don’t.
So yes, son #3 was right. It’s a good read. and I recommend it.
The heroes by Joe Abercrombie
Well, after reading The Devils a little while ago I thought it should try The heroes, which was another present at Christmas. It was… okay. It was typical Joe Abercrombie, in which blood oozed off the pages, named men fought and killed each other and were promptly forgotten to history, some goodies weren’t as good as we thought, and some baddies… you get the picture.
I thought, overall, that it went on for too long. Too many battles. Too much blood. Too many little subplots. I wouldn’t say I was longing to get to the end, but I wasn’t reading it as enthusiastically as I did The Devils (when I dreaded reaching the end).
My impression is that The heroes is meant to be rather like a David Gemmell book (and if you don’t know anything about them, find another book review blog to read). But it doesn’t quite succeed. It’s not as good as The Devils, and it’s not as good as a Gemmell book. It’s somewhere in between. But don’t let me damning it with faint praise put you off. It’s still a good read.
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz has become one of the writers on my must buy list, so when this came out, I bought it. I’m glad I did (although it didn’t actually cost me anything as I had a spare book token left over from something or other.
As usual, the book is a story within a story. The editor in ‘real life’ is drawn into editing a book by an author she really doesn’t want to be involved with, as he is closely connected to the murderous happenings of her last edit (written in AH’s previous book). But get involved she does, and sure enough things start to go haywire right from the start, with a couple of murders, one of which was the author.
Meanwhile, in the book the author had almost but not quite finished, Atticus Pund, Horowitz’s answer to Poirot, isn’t well. In fact he has a terminal illness and doesn’t want to take on any more cases. But one of his previous clients who he thinks well of writes a desperate note for his help… except, of course, she is killed before he can even find out what was bothering her.
Naturally we discover that the murdered author had put clues in his book to help solve the real life murders.
I’m getting a headache writing about all this. You won’t get a headache reading the book. It’s well structured, satisfyingly transparent and opaque at the same time, as all murder mysteries should be. You will recognise when you get to the end that AH has poached quite a bit from Agatha Christie. But that doesn’t matter.
It’s a good read and I recommend it.
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