Review: Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie

Title: Dead Man’s Folly

Author: Agatha Christie

Narrator: David Suchet

Publisher: Harper Collins [This edition 2007, originally 1956]

ISBN: N/A [downloaded from audible.com]

Length: 6hrs 1min

Genre: Private Detective

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 4/5

One-liner: A book that simultaneously manages to offer exactly what you expect at the same time as a surprise ending

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Hercule Poirot receives a frantic phone call from his friend Ariadne Oliver, a writer of murder mysteries. She has created a live murder game for a fête to be held in the grounds of Nasse House which is the home of Lord and Lady Stubbs but she believes there is real danger lurking at the House and she begs Poirot to come immediately. Oliver gives Poirot little to go on but her feelings and, perhaps because of this, he fails to prevent the murder of the young girl who was only supposed to be playing the role of victim in the murder game. He subsequently participates in a stop-start investigation before finally solving the crime.

I was prompted to read this book by one of Margot Kinberg’s excellent contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme. Margot highlighted the humour of the book and as that is an element of crime fiction I enjoy and hadn’t really associated with Christie before I thought it would be an interesting choice for me. I wasn’t disappointed. The Ariadne Oliver character really does make a nice contrast to the somewhat prissy and proper Poirot with her ability to laugh at herself and it does seem like Christie was having a bit of fun with her genre by using the ‘mystery within a mystery’ twist.

This twist is also a perfect device for Christie’s favourite ploy: misdirection of her readers. Even though I know that her plots are always complex and that the obvious clues are red herrings to be ignored I still didn’t come close to picking up on the key hints that led to the solution. As almost always with Christie’s books, the uncovering of the murderer follows a wonderfully convoluted and unexpected journey. One of the things I liked about this book is that Poirot didn’t seem quite so cocky as he is in earlier stories. He doesn’t inveigle himself into every single interrogation and for some time it seems as if he might not even solve the mystery at all. I found this slightly more humble Poirot more likable than I have in the past.

I notice that some people mention struggling to keep track of all the people who appear in this book and I think this is where listening to the audio book had me at an advantage. David Suchet is a superb narrator and manages to provide all the characters a distinctive voice which is very helpful in such a dialogue-rich story. I must admit I am becoming quite addicted to Suchet’s narrations of Christie’s works.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

If you’ve read the print book and listened to the audio book of Dead Man’s Folly clearly the next step is to play the hidden object game based on the book. This screen shot has me tempted.

Another blog to have reviewed Dead Man’s Folly is Books Please as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge that Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise is hosting.

 

Review: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

Title: Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life

Author: Steve Martin

Narrator: Steve Martin

Publisher: Clipper Audio [2007]

ISBN: 9781407412740

Length: 4hrs 3 mins

Genre: Autobiography

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 3/5

One-liner: A sombre look at a funny man’s life

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Steve Martin concentrates on only a certain portion of his life with this offering which, while incorporating elements of his childhood, focuses on his dozen or so years as a stand-up comic during the late 60’s and into the 70’s. I’ve always thought being a comedian would be one of the toughest jobs on earth and so was interested to hear him tell of the years of hard work and rejection that led to his success as a headliner of arena shows being a regular on such shows as Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show. He talks at some length about how he developed and honed his act from the mish-mash it started as to the more polished work it became where all the sweat and effort were hidden from the audience. It made me wish I’d been able to see him at one of his early live shows when he regularly took his audience members on a tour of the venue’s car park. There are also a smattering of anecdotes about his meetings and relationships with other celebrities though not a lot of these and, happily from my point of view, no dirt is dished on anyone.

While there are occasional interesting insights in the book it is for the most part simply a recitation of facts about Martin’s working life. There’s little reflection about the impact various events had on him, even when he talks about serious issues such as his depression or his strained relationship with his father. He says at one point that he’s a very private person and that becomes so clear by the end of the book that I wondered why on earth he bothered to include those more serious personal things at all if he only ever intended to boil them down to an unemotional sentence or two.

I thought it would be interesting to hear Martin read his own words but his delivery was, presumably deliberately, very flat. It didn’t matter whether he was re-telling a funny anecdote or recounting his emotional final meeting with his dying father: his tone of voice was exactly the same monotone. I think this is one of the few instances where I think I’d have enjoyed the print book more than the audio version as I’d have given a bit more emotion to some sections of the book than Martin did.

I enjoyed the parts of this book that dealt with the profession of stand-up comedy as I like peeking into worlds I know little about. I’d have preferred him to include more of these details than the snippets of his personal life that I assume he included reluctantly (or under pressure from publishers) based on the lack of substance those portions of the book had.

 

Review: Tilt A Whirl by Chris Grabenstein

Title: Tilt A Whirl

Author: Chris Grabenstein

Publisher: Audible Inc [2007]

ISBN: n/a [downloaded from audible.com]

Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

Setting: New Jersey, USA, present day

Genre: Police Procedural

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 4/5

One-liner: Brilliantly narrated and entertaining feel-good book.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Sea Haven, on the New Jersey shore, is overrun by summer tourists and the most serious crime is a stole bike. One Saturday morning two local police officers, John Ceepak, a former MP, and Danny Boyle, a rookie part-timer, see a hysterical young girl covered in blood. She tells them her father was shot in the local amusement park. Ceepak is asked by his old army buddy who is now the Police Chief to head up the investigation into Reginald Hart’s murder and he also gives his word to Ashley, the young girl, that he’ll protect her from the danger which still surrounds her.

If you had told me that every time I pressed stop I’d be itching to get back to a single-body whodunit narrated by a 20-something party animal and featuring a goody-two-shoes ex-soldier who lives by a corny moral code I’d have given you the look. The “I don’t think you have a clue and thanks for nothing” look. But, based on the infinitesimally small chance I might be wrong, I accepted a passionate audio book recommendation from Belle (of Ms Bookish) and was thoroughly entertained from start to finish.

First I must mention that Jeff Woodman is a superb narrator: managing to give a completely different yet realistic sounding voice (complete with regional accent) to more than a dozen characters of different ages and genders. I have no doubt that his skill is part of the reason I so thoroughly enjoyed the book and had such vivid images of the setting and characters in my head.

I thought the choice of narrative voice in the story was a particularly good one. Using someone who is an observer and a participant in the action worked well, especially when combined with the fact that Danny Boyle is a rookie working with a more experienced policeman. This provided plausible opportunities for the kind of explanatory scenes and missed bits of action that can become clunky in first-person narratives. Danny also turned out to be a likable, engaging young man with a good sense of humour and the story unfolded quite naturally through his eyes.

The use of a ‘Duddley Do-Right’ style character in the form of John Ceepak (whose life motto is ‘neither lie nor cheat not steal nor tolerate those who do) is a risk because I cannot possibly be the only potential reader who is wary of such fantasies. However, even though he is too good to be truly credible, I found myself interested in his back story and smiling at his all around good-guy-ness and rooting for him to triumph over the bad guys. Maybe even natural born cynics like me need to take a day off from being jaded every once in a while.

Although there were some corny, predictable lines the broader story kept me guessing right to the end, the New Jersey Shore setting felt realistic, the characters were charming and overall it was the literary equivalent of a feel good movie. I’ll definitely be listening to the rest of this series (though unlike Belle who gobbled them all up at once I’m going to space them out).

Other stuff

Here is a review by Belle (from Ms Bookish) (thanks again for the recommendation) and a review of the whole series by Beth (from Beth Fish Reads) who introduced Belle to the series. Don’t you love the way the book blogging world works?

 

Review: White Nights by Ann Cleeves

Title: White Nights [Unabridged Audiobook]

Author: Ann Cleeves

Narrator: Gordon Griffin

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books [2008]

ISBN: N/A [downloaded from audible.com]

Length: 11hrs 35mins

Setting: Shetland Islands, Scotland, Present day

Genre: Police Procedural

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 3.5/5

One-liner: A story where setting takes center stage, ably supported by compelling characters.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

It’s summer in Shetland and well-known artist Bella Sinclair is hosting an exhibition of her work alongside that of new artist Fran Hunter. Although there are not as many guests at the opening as Bella expected, one unknown Englishman does make an impression when he breaks down in tears at the sight of one of the paintings. Local Detective Jimmy Perez, attending the exhibition on a date with Fran Hunter, takes the man aside and discovers he has amnesia. When the man disappears from the gallery Jimmy doesn’t make much effort to find him but wishes he had done when the man is discovered dead the next morning. This presumed suicide and subsequent events all seem to be affected by the endless daylight of the far northern summer and the isolation of the islands.

I’m a sucker for books set in remote locations. They are as different from my inner-city life as it gets (and not somewhere I’d willingly spend more than about 5 days) but I love reading about them. Cleeves does a superb job of immersing readers in the isolated world populated by familiar faces  who, although they share much, all seem to work incredibly hard at keeping a little piece of themselves private. I quickly developed an image of Biddista, the village of half a dozen houses where most of the action takes place, and its inhabitants thanks to Cleeves’ imagery and her depictions of how the locals interact with the various ‘incomers’ in the story.

Cleeves takes time too to develop a range of characters. Jimmy Perez is engaging as he pursues both personal and professional interests despite the fact he is unsure of himself in both spheres. I thought his mixture of introspection and decisiveness quite realistic although I was a bit bored by his somewhat laboured relationship with Fran. Several of the island ‘old-timers’ were utterly absorbing including Kenny who has the misfortune to discover more than one body and who seemed to represent the Islands’ struggle to have its traditions coexist with modern ways. The Inverness Inspector in charge of the case, Roy Taylor, was a different type of character all together but equally well depicted and a good source of conflict for the novel.

For me the book fell down a bit in its story. The establishment portion was quite good but after that I found the plot fairly predictable and I actually thought the ending a bit too melodramatic (and not terribly credible) which was out of keeping with the earlier events. As all the suspects were highlighted then rejected during the final scenes I got the sense that the culprit had been chosen for shock value more than continuity.

I haven’t read the first book in this quartet but I didn’t feel that I was at any disadvantage. There were mentions of earlier events but I wasn’t troubled by not knowing the details which scores bonus points from me as books which can be read independently seem to be a rare commodity in crime fiction these days. Although the story wasn’t the most gripping I’ve read there is much else to recommend this book, especially when narrated by the delightful Gordon Griffin who managed to portray an entire range of people without really changing his voice at all.

Other Stuff

I reviewed another book set in Shetland last year, SJ Bolton’s Sacrifice, and this is the second book in Ann Cleeves’ Shetland Quartet: for islands with a population of around 23,000 people they seem to be inspiring a disproportionate number of murders!

White Nights is also reviewed at It’s Criminal, Mysteries in Paradise, Euro Crime, Euro Crime again and, for a review with a difference, try WhereDunnit

 

Review: Bones by Jonathan Kellerman

Title: Bones (the 23rd Alex Delaware novel)

Author: Jonathan Kellerman

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books (this edition 2009)

ISBN: 9780753140802

Length: 11 hours

Narrator: Jeff Harding

Setting: Los Angeles, USA, present day

Genre: Police Procedural

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 2/5

One-liner: A dull, predictable yarn that isn’t about bones at all. Or much else.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in a protected marsh area in Los Angeles. Veteran LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis is called in to assist a rookie Detective by the name of Moses Reed. Naturally Milo brings his friend, psychologist Alex Delaware, along for the ride. A few more bodies are uncovered and there are hints that a prominent local family might be involved in the grizzly deaths.I stopped reading this series somewhere around book 9 or 10 due to their repetitive nature. And I chose this one from my local library’s meagre selection of audio books on the grounds that …well…it’s a meagre selection of audio books. So I’m admitting up front that I was undoubtedly going to struggle to love this book, although I am ever the optimist. Sadly I found the story dull and lacking credibility and it’s another that I’d like to assign the one-word review: meh.

People killing other people for garden variety motives like jealousy or the prospect of a large inheritance isn’t enough for Kellerman. If the world was as populated by knife-wielding psychopaths as he’d have us believe I’d never leave the house. Of course this is fiction and it doesn’t have to be realistic but I think Kellerman constantly ascribing his murders to the most twisted of people (who of course aren’t like ‘us’) allows him to avoid exploring an actual human emotion within the context of his stories.

The plot is equally uninspiring. It’s convoluted (I’m convinced that he added one of the evil doers at the end and then inserted them randomly in the story already written) and has all the suspense of a tax return. This time there isn’t even a fabrication of a reason why child psychologist Alex Delaware is involved in the case. In the earlier books there was at least be a pretence of a reason: a client of Alex’s or the relative of one would be involved or the case would somehow relate to the mistreatment of children for example, but here it just seemed to be universally accepted that a private sector psychologist would be involved in every facet of an investigation.

In short the book was formulaic, the characters stereotypical and the brand-name laden writing was plodding. Kellerman can do much better, in a standalone novel called The Butcher’s Theatre he tells a gripping tale and tackles some weighty political and social issues in the Jerusalem setting even though it too features a serial killer, but perhaps he lacks the incentive now that he’s a brand name all of his own.

 

Review: A Cure For All Diseases by Reginald Hill

Title: A Cure For All Diseases (the 23rd of 24 Dalziel and Pascoe novels and published as The Price of Butcher’s Meat in the US)

Author: Reginald Hill

Publisher: Whole Story Audio Books [2009]

ISBN: N/A (acquired via digital download from audible.com)

Length: 15hours 49minutes

Narrator: Jonathan Keeble

After barely surviving a terrorist blast Superintendent Andy Dalziel is convalescing at a swanky private clinic in the seaside resort of Sandytown in Yorkshire. He befriends another young visitor to the town, Charlotte (Charley) Heywood, who is the daughter of an old Rugby mate of Dalziel’s and a psychologist reviewing the benefits of alternative therapies. They are both keen observers of the people and happenings in the town and record their observations: Andy using a digital audio recorder provided by his doctor and Charley via a series of emails to her sister. As with all fairly closed communities there are a couple of prominent families whose lives seem to impact everyone in the town directly or indirectly and the same is true of Sandytown which is the setting for a soon to be opened alternative healing centre. When one of the town’s most prominent citizens is killed in a gruesome way a full police investigation, headed by Dalziel’s old partner Peter Pascoe, gears up but Andy and Charley’s continuing observations play a key role in the solving of the murder.

This is, more than usually, a review specifically of the audio version of A Cure For All Diseases narrated by Jonathan Keeble. Because, regardless of how good the original content is, Keeble added a truly wonderful element that I don’t think could exist in the print version. His portrayal of the two main narrators of the story, ageing male Dalziel and young, somewhat excitable female Charley is truly magnificent and he rounds out the reading with an entire cast of minor players that are equally beautifully depicted. Coming back to my iPod each day became a real treat over the past week or so and I now have a sense of the anticipation people used to get as they ‘gathered round the wireless’ to hear the latest radio play in the days before television.

The format and, to some extent, the content of this story is actually Hill’s homage to Jane Austen but I don’t think it matters all that much if you’re an Austen fan and can recognise what he’s done or not. Far more important is that it provides an interesting, different approach to the standard police procedural. As someone who has lamented the formulaic writing by other well-known authors of late I applaud both the decision to do try something new and the successful execution of that decision. About half of the story is told via the recorded observations of Charley and Dalziel and I thoroughly enjoyed their dual points of view, especially the brave inclusion of a significant narrative voice that wasn’t Dalziel or Pascoe. The rest of the story is told via a more traditional narrative but the two forms are pretty seamlessly integrated.

There’s a strong undertone of humour through this book that I haven’t noticed in the series before (although I’ve not read a large number of them so maybe it has been present). Both Dalziel and Charley’s epistles are full of humour that suits their respective characters: Dalziel’s is coarse and reminiscent of a 1970’s comedian dripping with barely concealed sexual innuendo while Charley’s is full of the biting observations that a modern young woman might share with her friends in an online chat room. I found this added a very natural component to the characterisations and, particularly in the case of Dalziel, provided a layer of credibility to a character that I’ve struggled to believe in previously. He’s still all-seeing, all-knowing Fat Andy that nearly everyone is instantly afraid of, but the humorous monologue provides an insight into what makes him tick and because of it I cringed less and saw him as a more well-rounded character.

The book isn’t the fastest paced story you’ll find, especially where the two narrative voices overlap and recount the same events from their different perspectives, but the relatively slow revelation of events allowed the myriad of characters to be more fully developed than would otherwise have been the case. Rather than being ‘filler’ content of the ‘a book must have 500 pages’ variety this was a highly nuanced building up of a picture of the town and its inhabitants and I was completely captivated. I have to admit the final conclusion bordered on contrived but I forgave this minor lapse in what was otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Hill is to be congratulated for maintaining interest in his long-running series by trying something innovative with this book. I also admire the fact you don’t need to be a die hard fan of Dalziel and Pascoe to enjoy the book (although I doubt it hurts if you are). If you’re at all keen on audio books I’d highly recommend you relax and let Keeble’s narration spirit you away to Yorkshire for a few hours.

My rating 5/5

Other stuff

As Hill as a huge legion of fans his book has been reviewed by lots of fellow book bloggers including those at Mysteries in Paradise, Reviewing the Evidence, Euro Crime, Aust Crime Fiction and Ms Bookish

 

Review: Panic by Jeff Abbott

Title: Panic

Author: Jeff Abbott

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books [2006]

ISBN: 978-0-7531-2626-4

Length: 11hrs 20mins

Evan Casher is a young documentary film maker whose life is thrown into turmoil when his mother urges him to return to his home town of Austin Texas immediately. When he does, he discovers her body on the kitchen floor of their family home and the killers are still there. Believing Evan has some information they want, the killers torture him then leave him for dead but he is rescued by someone claiming to be one of the good guys. What follows is a wild ride with spies, double agents and lots of unnecessary killing.

This is a perfectly serviceable thriller in which a normal person is thrown into extraordinary circumstances. There’s action a-plenty and a main character who is charming enough that I wanted him to beat the bad guys (however unlikely it should have been). However, I found the plot overly complex but not as engaging as it might have been. There seemed to be a few too many unnecessary twists on top of what was basically a story about a list of names. At no point during the entire book did I care a jot whose name was on the list or what happened to it and when the list was all anyone was talking about it made for some dull spots.

As with all thrillers of this type you have to suspend your disbelief about whether or not an average bloke could suddenly develop the skills to take on a gang of well-trained mercenaries and the CIA in MacGyver-like fashion but I found it more difficult than it should have been to do that here. However I’ll acknowledge that if I’d enjoyed the story more I’d have been less picky about the absurdities of Evan’s success against all the well-trained killers he faced.

To be fair to the author, part of my problem with this particular reading experience had nothing to do with the author. The narrator of the audio version I listened to struggled quite a bit to maintain the separate voices for each character (perhaps due to their large number) and some of the voices were just plain jarring to the ear. In particular the voice of one of the two main bad guys annoyed me intensely and, although there weren’t many of them, the bits of action that involved British characters were plain awful.

To me there was nothing unique about this thriller but it’s the kind of thing lots of people, including the types who commission Hollywood movies these days, really enjoy. There’s loads of action sequences, a decent amount of interesting deaths, a particularly nasty villain, an explosion or two and minimal character development. I’d have preferred a touch more credibility and a few less fight sequences but that’s just me. If you’re going to tackle Panic though I really wouldn’t recommend this audio version.

My rating 3/5

 

Review: The Saladin Murders by Matt Beynon Rees

Title: The Saladan Murders (a.k.a. A Grave in Gaza in the US) (the 2nd Omar Yuseff mystery)

Author: Matt Beynon Rees (or apparently plain old Matt Rees in the US)

Publisher: Whole Story Audio Books [2008]

ISBN: N/A (digital download via audible.com)

Length: 10 hours, 4 minutes

Omar Yussef, history teacher at a UN school in Bethlehem and somewhat reluctant amateur detective, travels to the Gaza strip to help with a routine school inspection.  As soon as he arrives he learns that one of the teachers at the school has been arrested because he accused the university of selling degrees to army officers so they can gain promotion. Despite being warned off Yussef starts to investigate the teacher’s arrest but soon becomes embroiled in a violent power struggle between competing groups in Gaza who all treat each other and any innocent bystanders unlucky enough to be in the way as little more than pawns.

If bravery is defined as taking action in spite of the fear you feel then Omar Yussef must be the bravest hero of them all. He faces constant danger and death threats and in this book he doesn’t have the benefit of his extensive family connections to offer any protection (Gaza may as well be a million miles from his native Bethlehem). It’s clear that Yussef is afraid of the danger but he feels such a moral obligation to do the right thing that he acts despite his fear. But I don’t want the description of him as extraordinarily brave to make him sound as if he’s somehow unreal because he’s a terrifically believable character: an ageing, slightly vain, former drunk who loves his family, his homeland (whatever that means) and history and who refuses to wallow in all the inertia-inducing rhetoric and mythology about the occupation of Palestine.

As with Rees’ first book the other significant character here is the place. This is a story that could not have been set anywhere other than Palestine which is, once again, depicted in all its stark despair. Vengeances both personal and political, corruption. violence and a seemingly endless obsession with the past abound. Yussef’s moral strength and respect for all life is all the more admirable because he’s surrounded by people who have little of either quality. The casual way in which people are killed throughout the book is breathtaking, especially when you know that Rees has based scenes in the book on the many real events he covered during his years as a journalist in the region.

Often when fiction has a ‘message’ or gets political I feel like I’m being preached at and disengage angrily. That didn’t happen with this book. Rather than feeling like I’ve been lectured to I feel as if I’ve been given the gift of a glimpse of reality in the Middle East that no amount of news- watching could ever provide. A couple of days before I finished the book I read Rees’ explanation for writing the series and his notion, that he can be more truthful in writing fiction than he ever could while writing news, makes perfect, twisted sense.  It also helps explains why reading The Saladin Murders is an emotionally intense but satisfying and, dare I say, rewarding experience.

Audiobook specific comments: Daniel Philpott does a superb job differentiating the myriad of characters in the book and he really brought them all to life for me.

My rating 5/5

Other stuff

The book has also been reviewed at Euro Crime

The first book in this series, The Collaborator of Bethlehem, is also a wonderful book. I read it prior to starting this blog so I don’t have my full review here but you can see some of what I thought about it in my 2008: A year in reading post where I nominated the book as my favourite read of the year.

A third book in the series, The Samaritan’s Secret, was released this year and I will definitely be reading it.

 

Review: Alone by Lisa Gardner

Title: Alone

Author: Lisa Gardner

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books [2005]

ISBN: 978-0-7531-2446-8

Length: 10.6 hours (9CDs)

The book opens with Massachusetts State Police Sniper Bobby Dodge responding to a call out at a domestic disturbance where shots have been fired. When he observes a man pointing a gun at a woman with a small child in her arms he shoots to kill. Although at first Bobby is considered a hero for saving Catherine Gagnon and her son Nathan things soon turn sour. Police soon start to suspect that Catherine engineered her husband’s murder-by-cop and that Bobby may have been involved long before the night of the shooting. At the same time Catherine’s father-in-law tries every trick in the book to gain custody of Nathan, including accusing Catherine of abuse, and the people Catherine is close to start dying gruesome deaths.

Honestly a one word review of this one would suffice: meh.

If you want more I’ll say that it was one of those run of the mill crime fiction books that passes the time but is barely memorable. For a start I found the characters quite clichéd. Catherine was the victim of a paedophile as a child and is now an emotionally wounded but stunningly beautiful woman (so stunningly beautiful that even while being shot at and facing almost certain death a man will think first of how great she looks). Of course she is married to an abusive man. And of course all the men she meets fall at her stunningly beautiful feet. She is also the unluckiest human on the planet and because she’s such a two-dimensional character I found the endless trail of tragedy in her life to be ridiculous. Bobby is not much better as the stoic Trooper who can’t seem to make up his mind who to believe. None of the other players left much of an impression, although the villain seemed wholly incredible to me (would someone who had been in prison for 25 years be familiar with the mod cons of 2005?).

The plot, revolving largely on the aforementioned tragedies in Catherine’s life and her ability to manipulate the men in her life, left me fairly cold. I was mildly interested in what tortured mechanism the author would use to tie it all together but I found it so contrived that I didn’t much care about what was happening from moment to moment (although my concern for the puppy did keep me attentive for a while). There were just too many unbelievable elements for me to find the book genuinely suspenseful because I always knew that certain things would turn out a certain way, regardless of how silly or fantastic such an outcome might appear.

If this had been a print book I probably wouldn’t have finished it but I am always short of audio books and it was distraction enough on my morning walk to work this week.

My rating 2/5

Other Stuff

I note from my reading journal that I’ve read one other Lisa Gardner book, The Next Accident. As it was in my pre-blog days I don’t have a full review but I did say that the characters weren’t terribly good or memorable and I rated it a 2.5. Perhaps this author is just not for me

 

Review: Search the Dark by Charles Todd

Title: A search in the dark

Author: Charles Todd

Publisher: Recorded Books [2008]

ISBN: n/a (digital download from audible.com)

Length: 11hrs 40 minutes

Narrator: Samuel Gillies

Following the end of the first World War Ian Rutledge has returned to his work as an Inspector with Scotland Yard after nearly dying on the battlefield. He is called to a case in Dorset where a man has been arrested for killing the woman he believed to be his wife, despite the fact his wife and two children had supposedly died during a bombing raid two years earlier. Rutledge is assigned as a trouble-shooter to coordinate with the jurisdictions involved to locate the children who were assumed to have been with the murdered woman when she was killed. His presence is not universally welcomed by the local coppers.

The slant to this book is that Rutledge has a partner of sorts: a voice in his head. The voice belongs to Hamish McLeod, a soldier that Rutledge was required to shoot during the war when McLeod refused to lead his men into a particular battle. Rutledge seems resigned to Hamish’s presence which is at times angry and taunting and at other times almost supportive of Rutledge’s ways. He copes remarkably well with the interruptions at any rate. This is the third book in a series of what is now 11 books and frankly I’m not sure where else this particular element can go as, after only a short while, the novelty value had worn off for me and I simply accepted Hamish as a normal, fairly minor character. In a way I suppose this is good as it means it’s less of a gimmicky element than it might otherwise be, but the downside is that there’s less to differentiate this book from similar books in the crowded police procedural genre.

As historical fiction goes the book is first rate. It captures the immediate aftermath of the war and its effect on both the people who fought in it and those who stayed behind. Although the book explores the psychological impact of the war in a way that a contemporary whodunnit might not have done, I don’t think that makes the exploration less legitimate and, for me, it was the most interesting aspect of the book. The depiction of the torment many people went through without the medical knowledge and social support systems that are available today is powerful and quite sobering to ponder. Of course this makes the book quite a sad one with an ending that should not have had to happen (but realistic nonetheless).

A combination of slower pacing than I like and Rutledge’s way of working things out in his mind (with Hamish’s help) led to each twist and turn of the plot being telegraphed to me slightly before it actually happened so that in the end there were few genuine surprises in the story. However the plot, though somewhat convoluted, is logical and does hang together well. The characters more than make up for the duller moments.

I’d definitely recommend this to fans of historical fiction (I have a friend who adores Foyles War and I think she’ll love this series) and those who like a solidly written police procedural with a touch of melancholy.

Audio book specific comments: A great narrator who manages the balance between performance and reading too perfection. I did find myself looking forward to getting back to this one and was quickly lost in the story each time I came back to it.

My rating 4/5

Other stuff

Reviewed by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise (in fact I have Kerrie to thank for the recommendation and I did enjoy the book although perhaps for different reasons than Kerrie as I wasn’t terribly taken with the whole notion of Hamish).

This is yet another book written by a pair of writers, this time mother and son (Caroline and Charles Todd). Who knew so many relatives could work productively together without killing each other? It wouldn’t happen in my crazy (but much loved) family.

There are 11 books so far in this series with another scheduled for release next year and, according to this Publishers Weekly article, the authors are starting a new seires of historical whodunnits also set around the time of WWI but this time featuring an army nurse as the investigator. The first book in this series is due for publication in September.