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.

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/.

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.