The Killer Inside Me ~ Jim Thompson

** RECOMMEND **

Dark dark dark
Did I say this was DARK


Just as the blurb says “... most chilling and believable first person story of a criminally warped mind ...”

Whoa ... talk about dark ... too dark for “noir”.

SO glad that I read it before seeing the movie. The movie was a faithful to the book but I would have turned it off because of the horrible nature of it. The book had pre-conditioned me.

Set in a small town and told through the voice of the deputy sheriff. There is mindless violence and killing ... though, as we are seeing it through his eyes, it is not mindless to him.

A savage look at a psychopath.

Cold Comfort Farm ~ Stella Gibbons

** RECOMMEND **

Reviewed on First Tuesday Book Club.
A scathingly funny portrait of society in rural England in the 1930’s.

Flora is such a delicious caricature ... because she is all so real ... yes, she is exaggerated and easy to lampoon but her heart is in the right place.

All the characters are exaggerated and easy to lampoon because that is what the book is all about ... poking fun at the Great Rural Novel (Hardy, Lawrence, the Brontes). And it does so with great relish. It is all about good manners, repressed urges, religion and oddballs.

It is also chock-a-block with repeatable sayings ... like “something nasty in the woodshed”

First Tuesday Book Club

The Fifth Witness ~ Michael Connolly

< OK >

#4 in the Mickey Haller series.
Wearing thin ... next one will be #Who Cares

Another beach read ... a bit of a yawn though ... I found it a “page-turner” because I wanted to get it finished.

Didn’t really care if he got his client off or not.
Don’t care if he gets back with his wife or not.
Don’t care if I read another or not.

There seemed to be a lot of courtroom blah blah blah and maybe I watch too much CSI stuff but the courtroom “drama” wasn’t that dramatic.

Started Early Took My Dog ~ Kate Atkinson

< OK > 

Odd plot, jumpy narrative, unsatisfactory ending
... and there wasn’t much about the dog.

I never mind when a narrative jumps from one character to another - I enjoy seeing the plot develop through other points of view ... but this one didn’t do it well for me ... maybe because there were jumps in the time frame as well.

There was an excess of characters who were not necessary to the main plot. And after allllll this being about stolen children/ missing children, all is left up in the air about the child that was “sold” at the start.

The Lock Artist ~ Steve Hamilton

Edgar Award 2011
Average not award winning for me

I actually found this a little juvenile ... the language, characters and plot. And not just because the narrative jumps between the man character in his youth and now.

The hero’s interesting characteristics are that he can’t talk, he loves drawing graphic comics and he is an expert safe cracker. There. That’s it. Throw in heart’s desire and manipulative baddies and there isn’t much more going on. The end.

Winner of 2011 Steel Dagger Award

JULY 2011

The Last Aloha ~ Gaellen Quinn

< OK >

Girly twaddle.
Ok ... there is an Historical Novel between the covers as well

As always, I am drawn to read about Hawaii and this has it’s historical background in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the US annexation of Hawaii.

This rich and turbulent history was sugar wrapped in girly romance. And so unoriginal and predictable (“Ohhh! No!! No wonder I was drawn to him .... sighhhh ... he is my half brother ... ahhhhh). Good Grief. Characters are cardboard stereotypes with the baddies being bad and the goodies being good relentlessly.

The Art Of Racing In the Rain ~ Garth Stein

X NO X

New York Times Bestseller
Ohmygod! Not for me! Yerk!

I gave up. Worried about my sugar levels.

Much as I love my dog and can have long conversations with him, I just can’t get into “Dog” books (this one, and “Marley & Me”).

To each his own ... and obviously as a NYT Bestseller, I am the minority.



But just so this review isn’t completely wasted :

Here is a picture of my dog, Mac.
Awww! Isn’t he cute!!!

The Grand Hotel ~ Gregory Day

-UNFINISHED-

Bellingen Writers Festival
Unfinished ... put aside till another day.

A rare thing that I put a book aside but after reading a quarter of this book I still hadn’t engaged in any way.

This read like a yarn (a bit of an Aussie Keillor Garrison ... but without the witty sharp observations). So it yarned away without any depth to the characters. I know that there is a “series” of his books set in Mangowak so maybe I needed to start at the first (though I thought that this was) because there was an inference about things that had already happened and characters who had a past. But in the long run ... who cares? Maybe I will go back to it again.

The Reversal ~ Michael Connelly

** OK **

#3 in the Mickey Haller series.
Combines Bosch + Haller

Even though this featured long established Bosch and relative newbie Haller, the characterisation tended to be shallow with them just popping in and out of scenes with a chorus of other characters - wives, children, co-workers, protagonists.

It ended up being rather shallow, not all that suspenseful and with a conclusion that raised your eyebrows in disbelief.