Lost

I was very wary of this book, and I've had it on my shelf for ages. The reason why! Because it came as a freebie from Mills and Boon, so I immediately thought it would be a lovey dovey, soppy romance, and those books just aren't my thing. Then one day I was sorting out and I noticed on the front it said 'More Gripping Than Grisham', so I thought I'd give it a try.

~Synopsis~

The book begins with a short prologue, which describes Ricky Lang being somewhat vile toward his girlfriend, whilst at the same time having visions of his children, whom he can no longer see.

From there we skip to part one, which begins the story of Jane Hartley, who's a single mum, and a wedding dress designer. Jane has 16 year old daughter called Kelly, who as a child was in an out of hospital receiving treatment for cancer. Now on her way home from work Jane spies someone who looks distinctly like Kelly, riding on the back of a motorbike with no helmet on. Pulling alongside she realises it is Kelly and is horrified. when Kelly returns home that night, they discuss the risks Kelly was taking, and Kelly goes off to her room to think about what she did.

That is the last time Jane sees Kelly. The next day Kelly has gone out already, or so Jane thinks. Then she receives a call from Kelly, frightened and whispering that she needs help because she's made a big mistake. The line goes dead and Jane's nightmare begins.

The police put it down to Kelly being a runaway, and make all the right noises about how it'll turn out okay. But Jane is not convinced and hires ex FBI agent Randall Shane to help her find her daughter.

The search leads them to cross paths with Ricky Lang, and various other unsavoury characters.

~My Thoughts~

I have totally mixed feelings about this book. Some parts are very good, but some parts are clichéd and predictable. As with many books it is written from two perspectives. When Jane is at the forefront it is written in the first person, when Ricky is the main character it is written in the third person. That actually works well, until Jane occasionally starts 'talking' to the reader, rather than just tell her story. When she is talking to the reader, it makes it seem like the book is written by a 5 year old.

The characters are varied, and you can get a feel for them, enough to feel sorry for Jane, after all the heartache of having a child so ill, for them to disappear and the police not to care, you feel she deserves a bit of happiness.

Randall Shane is probably the least interesting character, he has some secrets he's keeping close to his chest (don't they all!), but I was never really that bothered, that I was rushing onward to find out what they were.

Ricky Lang, is the type of bad guy you don't even love to hate, you just hate. There are no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

As I said earlier the cover states that the book is 'More Gripping Than Grisham', now I would say it's more gripping than a entomology book by Gil Grissom (CSI-Vegas), but it's absolutely nowhere close to being in the same league as John Grisham. It's a bit like saying a local boys football club compares to Liverpool FC!

I have to say I'm a bit short on opinion here, but mainly because the book was just okay, nothing especially good, and nothing particularly bad.

Overall I would say it's a reasonable read, the type of thing you might take on holiday when you don't want anything that's going to tax your brain. But if you like depth, twist and turns, thought provoking novels, then give it a miss.

Gene

This book was outside of my normal crime fiction genre, but it was recommended to me so I thought I'd give it a try.

~Brief Synopsis~

The book starts on the day Cyclades dies, killed in battle on the day the Trojan horse brought destruction to Troy. After being injured during the fight Cyclades was tended to by a wild haired women. Cyclades dies at the moment he witnesses his own conception!

Fast forward a few hundred years, and the book begins proper in New York City. Detective James North has been called to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a young man has grabbed one of the ancient Trojan swords and already killed one man and injured others. North cannot understand why he has been assigned, until he is told that the man has asked for him by name.

Not sure if the man is high on drugs or just mentally unstable, North attempts to strike up a conversation with him. The man only identifies himself as Gene, or Satan's Oath. North asks Gene how he knew to ask for him by name, but he doesn't answer, just shouts at North that he is the only one who can make it go away. A struggle ensues and Gene escapes, injuring a mounted officer in the process, he takes the officers horse and escapes through the park.

North manages to keep up with Gene until he is close enough to tackle him. But during the scuffle Gene stabs North in the thigh, Gene has injected North with something. This is where North's nightmares begin and he begins to find out precisely who and what he is.

The book not only follows Gene and North, but also flashes back to Cyclades and his arch nemesis Athanatos. And also a man called Porter who has lived many years in the Lebanon and surrounding areas seeking out the meaning of life, and reincarnation.

~My Thoughts~

As I said earlier this is an unusual genre for me, and although I read many, many fantasy novels in my early 20's, its been some time since I've read one. So it took me a long time to get into the book.

I wasn't keen on the way the book jumped around so much. First we were in Trojan times, then modern day, then modern day but the other side of the world. Some of it was written in the first person, but most of it was written in the third person, and whilst I've read other books written from two view points before, it didn't make this book gel together very well. At some points I found the book totally confusing and quite baffling.

However, I don't like to be defeated and trudged on with the book, and from around about one third of the way through I really started to enjoy the read.

I really wanted to find out exactly how Gene and North were linked, and what on earth they had to do with Cyclades and Athanatos, but I didn't find it a great page turner. I was quite happy to read a bit and then put it to one side and read more another night, whereas other books I've said to myself 'just another chapter' until its either morning or I finished the book!

I found it difficult to relate to any of the characters because the book jumped around so much. North is the main character but even he didn't elicit any feelings of sympathy or admiration.

I found the ending a tad disappointing as well, however I won't say any more about it as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

So overall I'd say its a reasonable book, not great, and I wouldn't rush out to buy another by this author.

Relentless

I bought this book after reading a great review on this site, and have now had chance to read it. So here is my review.

~The Book~

The main character in the book is Tom Meron, whilst happily going about his own business, looking after his children, the phone rings. On the other end of the phone is Jack Calley, his best friend although someone he hasn't heard from in 4 years. Its obvious immediately that Jack is in trouble and there are people after him. In the last few seconds before the call goes dead, Tom hears Jack give out his address.

This leads Tom down a dangerous path of violence, corruption, betrayal, and most serious of all his children might be in danger.

~The Characters~

Tom Meron - A down to earth office worker, who's general level of excitement appears to be deciding what to watch on the TV that night. The character of Tom just makes you ooze sympathy, everything about him is normal. Yet here he is drawn into a dangerous world, but he has no idea why he's been pulled into it. He goes from Joe Average to man on the run within minutes of picking up a phone, his life changes forever.

Kathy Meron - Tom's wife, now this character doesn't give the reader any cause to feel sorry for her, in fact her actions make Tom seem even more sympathetic. And whilst she's not a hateful character, she's certainly not likeable.

DI Mike Bolt - The senior police officer instructed to investigate the suicide of a senior judge, who's case overlaps with others leading him towards Tom. There are several mentions of pain and suffering which Bolt has been through, but these don't become apparent until very late in the book. The references don't give enough depth for the reader to connect with Bolt, and he just comes across as your average detective who's hell bent on solving the crime.

Mantani and Lench - The baddies of the book. Neither of which have any redeeming qualities. Lench is basically a mercenary for hire and Mantani is his side kick. I've read other novels where there's a hitman who's killed goodness knows how many people for the money, and occasionally, even though they're bad guys, you can't help but admire their skills. Lench on the other hand does not bring out any thoughts of admiration.

~My Thoughts~

I've never read a Simon Kernick book before and this one I really enjoyed, I will certainly be looking out for his books in the future.

At first I thought I wouldn't enjoy it, I can't remember if the review I read mentioned it or not, but if it did I'd forgotten that it was set in England. Now I do have a thing against watching or reading any crime dramas set in England. I don't know what it is, maybe I just like to believe that all horrible crime happens away from our shores.

So at first I was thinking 'oh no, I'm going to hate this', and I also didn't like the fact that the blurb on the back is basically the first two pages of the book. That seems a little lazy on the part of the publishers to me.

However, once I'd read the first few pages I was hooked. The book is written in the first person where Tom is the major character, and in the third person when Bolt takes over. I have to say when Bolt first appeared my thoughts were 'No, aghhh I need to know what Tom is doing' and I was very tempted to skim read the chapters where Bolt was investigating.

Luckily I resisted this urge because Bolt's investigations are a major part of why Tom's life has been turned upside down like it has.

I think the author invests well in the characters of Tom and Kathy, but could have done a little more to bring out some sympathies for Bolt. I liked the fact I didn't feel any admiration for Lench's skills, I really don't believe a hitman should be the cause of any admiration.

Normally I would read the likes of James Patterson, John Connolly, Karen Rose, Patricia Cornwell for my crime drama fixes, and whilst I thought this book was good. I think Simon Kernick has a little way to go to get to their standards. As I've said it was the first book of his that I've read, so I don't know how long he's been around, but I would imagine he's got plenty of time to grow and become very successful.

Perverting the Course of Justice

I read this book last year after first reading Wasting Police Time by David Copperfield. At first you'd think it was a work of fiction, but sadly it's not.

~The Book~

Written anonymously by Inspector Gadget, the book highlights the day to day trial and tribulations of an inspector of the 'Ruralshire' police force.

Although not actually named Gadget, he is an actual Inspector in the police service.

During the book he talks about not only the stupidity of police procedures, but also the idiocy of things like health and safety; that won't allow stations to have kettles any more in case someone burns themselves, nor allows anyone not qualified to change the time on a wall clock, yet is quite happy for those same people to tackle great hulking thugs, who are high as a kite and ready to kill.

Police reports also come in for huge criticism, the massive amounts of paperwork, most of which is duplicated, takes up so much time, its no wonder we never see officers out on the beat.

However, the main trend that runs throughout the book is the lack of common sense in dealing with incidents.

Within the first few chapters Gadget tells us what happens when someone rings the police. Firstly you don't get through to an officer, you get through to a civilian call centre. His first example is of a man who received a nasty text from his girlfriend. Instead of using common sense and talking to the guy about ignoring the texts, turning his phone off, changing his number etc. The call is logged as harassment, officers will be sent to interview him, the girlfriend will be arrested, her phone seized for a few months. Eventully she'll either get a caution, or the case will most likely be dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service. All this takes up between 10-20 hours of police time, taking officers of the beat. All because someone was upset about a text.

Throughout the book, there are many, many examples where a bit of common sense, and allowing the officers to use their own initiative would have meant a five minute chat and on your way. Instead absolutely rigid procedures are in place and that five minutes turns into hours upon hour of paper work and interviews, and results in large districts being un-policed or policed by a lone officer.

~My Thoughts~

As I said earlier this often reads as a work of fiction, 'You couldn't make it up' would have been a perfect tagline for this book.

Unfortunately I know that some of it is most certainly correct. My volunteer work takes me into the courts on many occasions, and one time I was chatting to two officers who mentioned that because they were stuck in the courts, and the horse fair was also on, their was only one police officer out in the town. This one officer had to patrol a town of 60,000 people and its surrounding area!

So I do believe a lot of what Gadget tells us is true. I'm not naive enough to think there is no bias in the book, I'm sure there is. But even if only half of what he says were actually true then it's an absolute disgrace.

I would say that anyone who have ever moaned about the time it takes for the police to turn up, or that the police should be out catching 'real' criminals, should read this book. It is certainly an eye opener into the world of the police, that is not shown on The Bill or A Touch of Frost.

~Extra Details~

The book is available from Amazon, or direct from mondaybooks.com. Gadget can also be found at his very informative blog http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/.

The Innocent Man

As a fan of John Grisham I bought this book without reading the blurb on the back, I hadn't realised it was actually a true story and not a work of fiction.

~The Story~

The book for the most part follows the lives of Ron Williamson and his family, although through association with Ron it also encompasses the life of Dennis Fritz. There are also substantial mentions for Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot.

The book is basically about the inadequacies and the injustices in the US justice system. The malicious prosecution of a man and his friend because he is different, because he doesn't fit in with societies ideals, because his physical appearance scares people and because his mental illnesses make his an ideal scapegoat.

~The Men and Women Involved~

Ron Williamson

Ron was a high school college star, destined for the big leagues, his temper and injuries combined to stop Ron making the most of the natural talent he had for sports. Ron is also blessed with a talent for the guitar, which leads him to spend hours and hours alone playing and drinking. Eventually he succumbs to alcoholism, and begins crawling the bars of his home town of Ada, Oklahoma. His temper continues to get him into trouble, eventually he has some psychological testing (over many years) and is found to suffer from bi-polar and schizophrenia. During his time drifting from bar to bar and drinking, he runs into Dennis Fritz.

Dennis Fritz

Dennis was a father and a teacher, separated from his wife he moved not far from the Williamson's. Eventually he met Ron, and through their love of the guitar and music they became friends and started to go out drinking together. Eventually Dennis found he couldn't cope with Ron's mood swings and stopped drinking with him. But the damage was done.

Debbie Carter

A young waitress at a local cocktail bar, who was brutally raped and murdered in December 1982.

Denice Haraway

A young woman who was abducted in April 1984.

Gary Gore

The last man to be seen talking to Debbie Carter, he had also asked her to dance earlier in the evening. But the dance was cut short as Debbie angrily stormed off to the bathroom.

Tommy Ward

A local boy who had the misfortune of having a few misdemeanours to his name, and bore a slight resemblance to a photofit of the suspected kidnappers of Denice Haraway.

Karl Fontenot

Another local boy, who had been fishing with Tommy when Denice disappeared, and was Tommy's alibi witness.

Terri Holland

A petty criminal and jailhouse snitch.

~Their Stories~

As I said before the book is about the mistakes in the criminal justice system which almost cost these men their lives. I don't want to go into a great deal of detail because that would defeat the object of reading the book. So the basic outline is; Ron and Dennis were arrested for the rape and murder of Debbie, many years after the crime had actually been committed, and after the death of Ron's mother who was able to say that Ron was home on the night of the murder.

Tommy and Karl were arrested for the kidnapping of Denice. Both sets of men were convicted on the flimsiest of evidence, mainly consisting of testimony from jail house snitches, particularly the evidence of Terri Holland. Even though it was shown that she could not have heard what she testified to.

The only other major pieces of evidence were so called confessions. After hours of police grilling and threats Tommy and Karl were coerced into giving confessions. The police gave them hypothetical scenarios telling them to imagine what might have happened if it was all a dream. After getting them to tell a reasonable sounding story they were told to repeat it into a video camera, but they were told not to mention dreams or anything similar.

The confessions were full of holes and contradicted each other. When the body of Denice was eventually found, it was shown that there was no resemblance to the crime and the confession. Despite this the prosecution went ahead and their fate was sealed when the jury saw the men on video confessing to killing Denice.

The police used the same tactics again years later with Ron, they also coerced a 'dream' confession, and again this was coupled with the testimony of Terri Holland, who again received a pass on her crimes once the testimony had been delivered.

Dennis was tried separately to Ron and found guilty, he was sentenced to life in prison. Ron was portrayed as the major protagonist and he too was convicted, his case wasn't helped by the incompetence of his attorney, and that the prison guards deliberately messed with the doses of his medication and whispered messages 'from beyond the grave' pretending to be Debbie. This meant Ron was in a terrible state in court and unable to control himself. Ron was sentenced to the death penalty.

Tommy and Karl were both convicted and received the death penalty. When further evidence came to light that proved their confessions to be false, they were retried and received life imprisonment.

The story then continues to tell the readers about the appeals process and how only one judge had the foresight to realise a terrible injustice had been done. It also tells of the horrendous treatment Ron received whilst on death row, and the blatant disregard by the prison service for his mental state.

~My Thoughts~

The description above really doesn't give justice to the complete and utter travesty that occurred in Ada and the criminal justice system. Its hard to believe that this could have happened in recent times, it reads like a tale from the 1800's.

I have never agreed with the death penalty, although sometimes when I hear vile acts against children, my immediate response is hang the b*stards. This is usually only fleeting and my true feelings about the death penalty come back to the fore.

This book strengthens those feelings, if it hadn't been for a few good men and women working tirelessly on appeals, three men would have been put to death. One of whom was so mentally disturbed at some points he could barely function.

I found myself sickened by the actions of the police, who completely disregarded any evidence and despite Miranda being introduced a couple of years early, they also disregarded the rights of their suspects.

But even more sickening was the attitude of the prosecutor, who even after the release of Ron and Dennis would not admit he had made a mistake. He relied on jail house snitches who he must have known would say anything to reduce their own sentence. If he didn't realise this then he is even more dangerous as he must have no sense at all.

At first I found the book a little hard reading, perhaps that was because I was expecting a fiction book, and factual books are written in a different manner. But by around the third chapter I was hooked, I kept having to turn the page, because I was convinced that the prosecutor couldn't be that stupid and the next chapter would show him admitting his mistake.

My heart absolutely went out to Ron's sisters, Annette and Renee. The heart break they went through watching their brother being convicted for a crime he didn't commit was bad enough. But then they had to watch his mental deterioration from afar, and had to fight every step of the way to get him medical help.

I also felt sorry for Debbie's mother, who actually gets only slight mentions in the book. But I can imagine how hard it was for her, not only to lose her daughter in such a vile way, but to think that her murder was solved, only for all the wounds to be reopened.

I would recommend this book to anyone, but I would especially recommend it to anyone who believes in the death penalty. These three men were almost killed by the state for just having the wrong look. Two men are still in jail 22 years later fighting for their freedom.

I now want to read The Dreams of Ada by Robert Mayer, which was published a few years after the convictions, and details the ludicrous confessions of these men.

York Dungeon

I can't say I was particularly impressed with the York Dungeon, I had heard really good things about the London Dungeon, and I thought it'd be very similar, but this turned out not to be the case.

==Finding the Dungeon==

Firstly it took us a while to find the place. The directions we had and the signposting around York weren't the best, and we almost gave up. It was only because we'd bought the tickets in advance that we persevered.

The dungeon address is York Dungeon, 12 Clifford Street, York, YO1 9RD, which is a little back street well away from the centre of York.

==Opening Times ==

The dungeon opens at 10.30 each day, and closes between 4 and 5.30 depending on the time of year, it closes earlier in low season, and later during the school holidays.

== Prices ==

Adult: £14.00/ Child: £10.00/ Student: £13.00 / OAP (60+ yrs): £13.00

Booking online makes it cheaper, for example booking one adult and 2 children online means you can save up to £10.20. It is 'up to' that amount because the prices vary during the day, and early morning and late afternoon prices are cheaper. The only problem booking this way is that you are limited to a 2 hour slot, I'm not sure what would happens if you miss this slot.

The price is for the tour, and it lasts about 1 hour.

== My Thoughts ==

As I said earlier we struggled to find it, because it was on the corner of a little back street, in fact we only really noticed it because we saw a bunch of people loitering on the pavement. When we got closer we realised that this was the queue for the dungeon. There was a member of staff dressed as some sort of ghoul trying to entertain the queue, but he wasn't being very successful.

The major drawback to this attraction is the party size, they allow far too many people in at one time, and whilst this helps to keep the queues down it also means that the rooms are packed, with people shoulder to shoulder. It also means that children can't really see what's going on, because there are too many adults in front of them and unfortunately in today's society adults won't move aside and let children to the front so they can see.

On the tour you move from room to room, and the staff are dressed in different costumes, and they tell the tales of Dick Turpin, Guy Fawkes, the Black Death amongst others. There's also a mirror room that is supposed to represent the Labyrinth of the Lost Roman Legion, where you wander around a mirror maze.

During the Dick Turpin talk you sit on benches whilst the story is being told, then when Dick is hanged the benches drop a whole inch or two, which I presume is meant to be the thrilling part of the tour, but it fell completely flat.

There's also a mock 17th Century court room, where one staff member dresses up as a judge, and randomly picks people out of the audience to humiliate in the dock. Whilst this was slightly amusing, you could see that the people who were selected were extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed by the situation.

Unlike the London Dungeon there's no ride at the end, so basically you're paying a lot of money for an hours walk whilst being squashed in with a lot of sweaty strangers.

I can't really recommend it, I found it mildly interesting, but the kids didn't really enjoy it, mainly because they couldn't see half of what was going on. And a lot of the time they couldn't understand what the staff were saying, because they were putting on strange cackling voices to try and create a more horrifying atmosphere. Because I knew the stories they were telling I could just about work out what they were talking about, but because the kids had never learned of the Black Plague or Dick Turpin at school they struggled to understand what they were saying.

Unusually for legal thrillers this book starts with the trial verdict, and as the name suggests the verdict is appealed.

~Short Synopsis~

The books begins at the end of a piece of civil litigation with the giant chemical company Krane defending their dumping of carcinogenic chemicals in a town's water supply and rejecting the claims of the townsfolk and particularly the plaintiff Jeanette Baker, who's son and husband died of cancer.
Krane Chemicals is part of the Trudeau Group owned by billionaire Carl Trudeau.

When the verdict finally comes in the jury have awarded a total of $41 million dollars in damages and punitive damages.

Trudeau insists his company will not be paying out anything, and so begins the appeal.

The story follows the lives of the lawyers who took Jeanette Baker's case and their struggle to overcome the costs of both the case and the appeal. It also follows the lives of Carl Trudeau and his companies, and his love of money over people.

But the majority of the story is about the corruption in the US Supreme Court system and the way in which good men can be manipulated by big business, and how money can buy anything including seats on the Supreme Court Judges panel. It shows that lawyer Ron Fisk, despite believing himself to be in charge, is just a pawn in the game.

As usual I would love to say more, particularly about the ending, but obviously that would be giving far too much away and would spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book.

~Writing Style~

John Grisham has been a firm favourite of mine for many years, I have read just about every book he has written. Were some have disappointed me, The Appeal most certainly did not. The writing flows beautifully, Grisham doesn't waste valuable pages talking about the technicalities of the justice system, but he does subtly introduce the information you need to know, without it being preachy or seeming like you're reading a textbook.

On the front of the book there is a quote from the Daily Express, which states 'Nobody Does Legal Fiction Better', and its absolutely true. I've read a lot of legal fiction and Grisham is far and away the best in his field.

~My Thoughts~

If you haven't guessed, I thought this book was great. In parts I found it some what worrying however. Because I can truly imagine that in real life these big companies are just as ruthless and manipulative as they are in this book. And for them profits and the shareholders come before the rights of the 'little people', whether they be people living around the company or workers of the company.

It also made me think about the water we drink, how safe is it really? How do we know we aren't all being poisoned slowly but surely? Although I think that's just my over active imagination running away with me.

The book wasn't without its faults. I found the husband and wife team of Wes and Mary Grace Payton who took on the case to be a little too sickly sweet. Other people probably find it sweet and cute that a pair of lawyers would put their livelihoods, their home etc on the line for a client, but I found that just a little unrealistic.

The book certainly brought home how easy it is to manipulate individuals and society when there is enough money involved, and it made me glad that we don't have the same system of electing judges in this country.

After about a third of the book I thought to myself, 'I know how this is going to turn out'. But I was wrong, and I was even wrong about the second scenario I had after the first turned out to be wrong.

The latest in the Alphabet books by Sue Grafton.

~Background~

A bit of background for anyone who hasn't heard of them. The Alphabet books are of the crime/drama genre and A is for Alibi was first published in 1983. The main character is Kinsey Millhone, a ex police officer now turned private investigator. She lives in a flat attached to the house of her landlord and now good friend Henry. Other recurring characters include, Rosie the owner of the local tavern, who serves some of the vilest sounding Eastern European food! William, who is Henry's brother and now Rosie's partner and Lonnie Kingman, Kinsey's friend and legal advisor. Although these characters occur in all the books, and there are some other minor characters who pop up now and then, the books are all stand alone books. While knowing and investing in the characters adds to the enjoyment, it is quite possible to enjoy each book without reading the entire series.

~Short Synopsis~

Kinsey's neighbour Mr Gus Vronsky has a tumble at his home, leaving him requiring the services of a home help/nurse to assist his day to day living. His only relative (his great grand niece) lives too far away to help, so flies in to hire someone.

A shortage of applicants means she hurriedly hires Solana Rojas, and asks Kinsey to do a background check on her.

The background check shows Solana to be a efficient if rather strict and staid nurse. There's nothing to suggest that Solana will be any trouble at all. However, Solana is not all she seems and soon Kinsey has to re-evaluate her impresses of the nurse. And Gus steadily gets worse rather than better.

Kinsey is also hired to investigate the claims of a young woman accused of causing a road traffic accident. The young woman claims the couple suing her deliberately hit her, whilst the couple insist than she pulled out on them, causing a lot of pain and suffering.

~My Thoughts~

As usual Sue Grafton comes up trumps. The book is very easy reading, although i can lead to late nights and tiredness in the morning as you think 'I'll just read one more chapter', and that chapter turns into another and another, lol.
The characters all work really well together, and despite some of them appearing in every book they never get boring. In fact its good to know what it happening in their lives.

I like the way Sue has continued on from S is for Silence (where she first introduced 3rd party points of view) and writes from both Kinsey's and Solana's points of view. It means you can really get into Solana's mind and get an understanding of what makes her tick.

I also like the fact Sue has covered the little written about subject of elderly abuse, child abuse books are a dime a dozen, but elderly abuse is barely mentioned.

The only problem was the ending was a little weak, but not enough to take away from the fact it was a great book.

~Availability~

From all book sellers, currently priced at Amazon for £8.36 in paperback or £8.44 in hardback.

Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell

It has just taken me over 3 weeks to read this book, which is so unusual. The majority of the Scarpetta series I have read in a day or two, the one previous to this took a little longer at about a week. But this book was so awful I struggled to even get to the end.

It is such a shame because Patricia Cornwell has the ability to be such an excellent writer, but she has really let herself down badly with Book of the Dead, I haven't read a synopsis of the latest book Scarpetta, but I hope Patricia puts the series to rest in it, because judging by this one she's taken it a step too far.

Its hard to say why this book was so bad without giving too much away about the storyline (or lack thereof!), so beware if you are an absolute spoiler hater you'll probably want to stop reading here.

According to the synposis the book should be about Scarpetta and her newly opened private forensics lab, and the death of a tennis star, and the death of a young boy. All the things you'd except from a Scarpetta book. However the synopsis doesn't match the actual book itself.
What we actually get is two thirds of a book about Scarpetta's personal life and Benton's treatment of Dr Self in his clinic. Then we have a huge chunk of the book dedicated to Marino, his love life and his problems.
And as an after thought there are odd mentions of the deaths, a teeny bit of forensics thrown in, and finally in the last chapter or so the deaths are all wrapped up in a nice neat package.

But the package isnt that neat, because it leaves you wondering what on earth was all that about? There is nothing to really tell you why the bad guy or gal did what he or she did.

Its not that the Scarpetta series has avoided the personal lives of the characters, its just that they were always secondary to the main plots of the book.

I am so glad that I didnt pay for this book, that I actually just borrowed it from someone else, because if I'd bought it I think I'd be taking it back under the Sale of Goods Act - Not fit for the purpose. Because this book is certainly not a good read, or entertaining by any stretch of the imagination.

Scream for Me, Karen Rose

This was the first Karen Rose book I read, and I actually read them out of order because I should have read Die for Me first. However, even though the there were some references to Die For Me it didnt actually make any difference to reading this book, and it certainly didnt affect the enjoyment of it.

I didnt think I'd be able to find an author that could equal John Connolly but Karen Rose certainly does that. The book is perfectly paced and well written, it is one of those books were you think to yourself 'I'll just read one more chapter' and suddenly you find its 3am and you have work in four hours. The characters are believable and this allows the reader to invest in the character and sympathise/believe in them.

As succinctly as possible the plot revolves around Daniel Vartanian, a detective who tries to solve a murder from 13 yrs previous, which is somehow connected to his brother Simon.

Without giving too much away, his search leads him to connect up with Alex Fallon (female) who is also connected to the murder, but is also in danger.

To get the most out of this book I would suggest reading the books in order, because whilst it didnt spoil the enjoyment, when I eventually read the first book it did lead to a couple of 'now it makes sense' moments. But for anyone who likes crime/thiller novels then this is a great book, and Karen Rose is an excellent author.