Review: Chill Factor by Sandra Brown

Title: Chill Factor

Author: Sandra Brown (I would normally link to the author’s website but it’s one of those ones which plays music as soon as you land on the page which is my number 1 internet annoyance)

Narrator: Stephen Lang

Publisher: Clipper Audio [2007]

ISBN: 978 1 40740 863 7

Length: 13 hours 30 minutes

Setting: North Carolina, USA, present-day

Genre: Romantic thriller?

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 1/5

One-liner: You’d have to go a long way to meet a nastier collection of characters.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Lilly Martin and Dutch Burton argue while cleaning out the mountain cabin they shared when they were married. Dutch leaves Lilly to make her way down the treacherous mountain road on her own just as a severe snow storm is starting and when she finally does leave she hits a hiker and crashes her car. She and the hiker, Ben Tierney, make their way back to the cabin to wait out the storm. What Lilly doesn’t know is that Ben hadn’t been on a normal hike but was coming from the graves of some women who had gone missing in and around the town of Cleary, North Carolina over the previous two years. The question is has Lilly just become trapped in a cabin with a serial killer?

The answer is I didn’t much care.

This was mainly due to the fact I couldn’t find a single likeable character in the whole, long book. Dutch, the town’s newly appointed Police Chief, and his best friend Wes Hamer, the high school football coach and a town councillor, are crude, misogynist, bullies without one redeeming quality between them. Dutch is such a charming fellow that he is more concerned about the possibility of his ex-wife having sex with another man than he is about the idea she could soon be the victim of a serial killer. Wes’ parenting skills include forcing his son to take steroids and breaking up his relationship with his girlfriend in the most despicable way a father could choose. His wife embraces her status as a victim of his verbal abuse and womanising. There’s also a creepy town pharmacist who dispenses cruel gossip and blackmail along with his prescriptions and his insipid sister who has a covert lover sneaking into her bedroom at night. The external law enforcement duo that arrive about half way through the book undertake a few bits of random guesswork as their contribution to unfolding events and then sit around being enigmatic. Our heroes, Lilly Martin and Ben Tierney, spend far too much time thinking about sex for two people who are supposedly moments away from imminent death most of the time and their competition to see who can endure the most pain and injury to gather fire wood is excruciatingly dull.

I also found the plot dragging like a wet weekend with no books to read. The numerous sex scenes (including the “are-we/they-going-to-have-sex?” scenes and the “ooh-we-just-had-sex” scenes) didn’t help move things along for me either. The police procedural elements of the book were few and far between (I was far more worried about the presumably murdered women than anyone in the book seemed to be) and there simply wasn’t a heck of a lot else happening (snow fell, people had sex). What little action occurred was all fairly predictable and long before the ending I had given up caring which of the repugnant individuals I’d met would turn out to be the killer.

To top it all off there were too many things I just didn’t buy in the story. Revealing most of them would qualify as spoilers but I can ponder publicly whether a policeman who’d pulled a gun on a 9-year old child while drunk on duty would ever be given another job in law enforcement. Surely even in America this could never happen. And I can also suggest that from the moment Lilly first told him she suspected he was the killer, Ben Tierney’s behaviour was utterly and ridiculously incomprehensible. I know this is fiction and there must be plot devices but there has to be more art to them than the kind of eye-roll inducing nonsense that peppered this tale.

If it were just the endless sex scenes and impossibly rugged heroes I would recommend the book to the many readers who like that kind of thing that just isn’t to my taste. But I can’t think of anyone who’d want to spend any time at all with the parade of truly repulsive characters in this book.

 

Review: Mad Mouse by Chris Grabenstein

Title: Mad Mouse

Author: Chris Grabenstein

Narrator: Jeff Woodman

Publisher: Audible Inc [2007]

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

Length: 8 hours 10 minutes

Setting: New Jersey, USA, present day

Genre: Police Procedural

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 4/5

One-liner: Great narration of a light-hearted book that does make you think a little too.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

It’s nearly the end of summer in Sea Haven, New Jersey, but one last beach party is planned before the tourists leave for the winter. The party is threatened however when someone starts shooting the good people of Sea Haven, first with paint ball guns but then with real bullets. It appears that the targets of the sniper might be part-time, rookie policeman Danny Boyle and his friends so Danny’s partner John Ceepak has even more than the usual imperative to quickly find the culprit.

I read and reviewed Tilt-A-Whirl, the first book in this series, in October and it’s rare for me to read series books in such quick succession. However, I needed a book with broad appeal for a long car trip with a couple of friends and, frankly, I did wonder if my enjoyment of the first one was a bit of an aberration (it being such a ‘feel-good’ book and me being such a bitter old cynic). Happily I loved Mad Mouse just as much as the first book (as did my two friends, neither of whom read much crime fiction).

Whereas other ‘feel-good’ books drive me to drink and/or mutter under my breath I am quite entranced by this series. I think in part it’s the sense of humour displayed by the narrator, Danny Boyle, which nicely offsets the perfectness of John Ceepak. It’s also partly due to the fact that even though the books are somewhat light they do tackle some tough subjects. Mad Mouse, with its double-meaning title, explores the impact that people’s actions have on those around them, even relatively minor actions that are quickly forgotten by all but one person, and also takes a look at the damage parental expectations can have on their children. The three of us who were listening together talked for quite some time about these issues after we’d finished listening to the book.

The series also has a nicely developing partnership between Danny Boyle and John Ceepak and in Mad Mouse we learn a little more about their personalities . In the weeks since the events of Tilt-A-Whirl Danny has matured a little and is now certain he wants to be a full-time police officer. Ceepak hasn’t changed too much although he does start to poke a little gentle fun at himself and is also sweetly tongue-tied when the teenage son of a woman he’s met tries to convince him to ask his mother out on a date. There’s a nice mentoring role between Ceepak and Danny and I am already wondering what will happen to these two in the next book.

I’m quite chuffed to discover that my enjoyment of the first book in this series was no aberration as there are several more for me still to read. The story was engaging, the characters delightful and the narration superb.

 

Review: A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

Title: A Morbid Taste for Bones (the first Brother Cadfael mystery)

Author: Ellis Peters

Narrator: Stephen Thorne

Publisher: BBC [this edition 2005, originally 1977]

Length: 7hrs 38 minutes

Setting: 12th Century, England & Wales

Genre: Historical crime fiction

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 3.5/5

One-liner: A thoroughly immersive historical drama

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

In 12th Century England at the Benedictine Monestary of Saints Peter and Paul in Shrewsbury Prior Robert is on a mission to obtain some saintly relics for the Abbey. One of the monks at the Abbey, Brother Columbanus, has a vision that prompts Prior Robert to lead a delegation to Gwytherin in Wales where the bones of Saint Winifred lay, apparently uncared for by the locals. The delegation, including Brothers Columbanus, John and Cadfael (who being Welsh is acting as a translator), arrives in Gwytherin with the approval of the Bishop and the local Prince to remove the bones. However they meet resistance from Lord Rhysart, the town’s leader, but before a full debate can be held Rhysart is murdered and it’s up to Brother Cadfael to determine if the culprit was one of the suitors for his daughter’s affections or, as many of the villagers believe, Prior Robert or another member of the delegation.

Having only ever encountered Brother Cadfael via the wonderful TV series featuring Derek Jacobi in the title role I was wary of embarking on a book whose main characters I already had strong images of in my head. But although I couldn’t help but picture Jacobi throughout the book I don’t think it detracted from my reading in the end. As the first book in the series A Morbid Taste for Bones takes some time to establish the character of Cadfael, revealing some of his personal history before becoming a monk and allowing him to display a range of his talents (as herbalist, detective and matchmaker for starters). Accepting that Cadfael is an extraordinary (bordering on implausible?) person, being wise, well-rounded and pragmatically diplomatic, he and all the other male characters are quite believably depicted in their setting. I’m not quite so convinced by the main female characters, Rhysart’s daughters Sioned and Annest, who appear a little too confident and well-educated to be really believable for their time. I liked them but, like Cadfael himself, they’re a bit more mythological than others such as the ruthless Prior Robert.

It’s the setting of course that really shines here. The details of medieval life are well researched and well displayed. For example the language used is just different enough from today’s English to give a sense of the time difference without actually being contemporary (there would be few people alive who could actually understand 12th Century ‘English’). The themes of this book, religious fervor and familial duty, are entirely fitting for the period and both are treated sensitively and with a surprising amount of depth for what is, at least by today’s standards, a short book (around 200 pages in the print version).

For me the plot was quite predictable but there were enough threads and interesting historical details to keep me engaged and I will certainly seek out some of the books, especially those that weren’t used as the basis for episodes in the TV series (where I won’t be so tempted to make comparisons).

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

A Morbid Taste for Bones has been reviewed at Rhapsody in Books, Mysteries in Paradise and A Striped Armchair

A Morbid Taste for Bones is the first of 20 books in the Cadfael series written by Ellis Peters (a pseudonym used by Edith Pargeter). Thirteen of the books were used as the basis for episodes of the TV Series.

 

Review: The Copper Bracelet by Various Authors

Title: The Copper Bracelet

Authors: (In order of chapter written) Jeffery Deaver, Gayle Lynds, David Hewson, Jim Fusilli, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Corbett, Linda Barnes, Jenny Siler, David Liss, P.J. Parrish, Brett Battles, Lee Child, Jon Land, James Phelan

Narrator: Alfred Molina

Publisher: Audible Inc and International Thriller Writers Inc [2009]

Length: 8hrs 38 minutes

Genre: Thriller

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 3.5/5

One-liner: A true edge of your seat thriller

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This book features the same band of war-criminal hunting ‘Volunteers’ who first appeared in The Chopin Manuscript, which, like this one, featured chapters written by different thriller writers. In the opening sequence Harold Middleton, leader of the Volunteers, and key members of his crew are nearly the victims of a hired assassin but, of course, they turn the tables and instead begin to learn that the copper bracelet which the assassin was wearing is far more than a piece of jewellery. The team must track down someone known as The Scorpion and prevent the world exploding into a new world war when a conflict between India and Pakistan is orchestrated by some nefarious types.

If Frederick Forsythe had written a season of 24 it would, I imagine, have turned out a bit like this book. It’s full of global politics, double-crossing assassins and the implausible high-tech gadgetry that a decent thriller must have. But, probably because each one is written by a different author all trying to leave their mark, the chapters each have their own story arc and cliff-hanger endings so it’s even more action packed than an average thriller. There are undoubtedly more twists and turns in the overall plot than would be the case if the story was written by a single author but it holds together well and there are surprisingly few loose ends left over. It’s not a particularly thought-provoking story but it didn’t lose my attention once.

As tends to be the way with thrillers the characters aren’t particularly well-developed, partly because they’re busy leaping out of the way of thermobaric bombs and partly because there are so darned many of them (that’s probably another side-effect of the multiple authorship). However the notion of a group of people tracking down the world’s war criminals is more clearly defined in this book and some of them were quite engaging in their brief appearances.

As he did with the first book Alfred Molina narrates brilliantly, taking the numerous characters of multiple nationalities in his stride. As someone who is a real fan of audio books I am pleased to see this audio only experiment continue. It’s quite clear the authors have fun collaborating as a change from their solo pursuits and I can’t imagine too many listeners wouldn’t experience a similar sense of fun with this classic roller-coaster of a thriller.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

As far as I can tell there are no plans for the book to be available in print but a version for the kindle is due in January 2010.

I reviewed The Chopin Manuscript, the first book in this audio-only series, earlier this year

 

Review: Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

Title: Sworn to Silence

Author: Linda Castillo

Narrator: Kathleen McInerney

Publisher: MacMillan Audio [2009]

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

Length: 11hrs 43mins

Genre: Police Procedural (small town)

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating: 3.5/5

One-liner: Engaging characters in an interesting setting but I could do without the violence .

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

One night in the middle of winter a body is discovered in the snow in a small town of Painters Mill, Ohio. The woman appears to have been brutally murdered in a way that reminds everyone of a series of murders which took place in the area 16 years previously. The one person who doesn’t believe the same killer, named the Slaughterhouse Killer at the time, is active again is the town’s Police Chief Kate Burkholder. She shares a secret with two other people about that previous string of murders which makes her almost positive it’s a different killer. Accordingly she points the current investigation in other directions but the town’s other officials bring in outside help to ensure that the investigation focuses on any links to the Slaughterhouse Killer case.

The most engaging aspect of this book for me is the character of Kate Burkholder and the aspects of town life that are depicted through her. The area is home to an Amish community, of which Kate was a member until she was 18, and there is some unrest between the other townspeople and the Amish. Although Kate is no longer Amish her brother and sister are still in the community and overall she respects the Amish community even though she chose not to join it. She is a focal point for relationships between the town’s two divergent cultures and I am a sucker for stories which feature religions different to the one I was brought up with. Kate also struggles for much of the book with the knowledge that her secret may be forcing her to take actions which are not in the best interests of solving the case and I thought this complex issue was portrayed very realistically.

Overall the story was well paced: not screaming along at thriller pace but nor did it plod. There were several minor climax points before the ending and I didn’t lose my attention once. As well as being intrigued by Kate, my interest was held by an array of minor characters, mainly working in the police station. The seeds of a series were most obvious with this introduction of an engaging cast although I can’t envisage endless storylines in this setting.

I did struggle with other parts of the book. I found the burgeoning relationship between Kate and one of the external investigators brought in to help, John Tomasetti, too predictable and a bit soppy. However this probably won’t bother most readers who can’t be as unromantic as me. There were also a few plot points I found stretching my credibility metre. At one point for example someone is framed as the perpetrator of the murders and I just could not buy that everyone but Kate was so gullible as to accept the most unlikely killer. However my real issue was with the overly graphic depictions of the violence visited upon the victims of the killer (because of course one body is never enough). It really didn’t add anything to the story to have several paragraphs of bodily mutilations described for each victim and, rarely for me, I wished I was reading rather than listening so I could skip those bits.

Sworn to Silence offers a really solid story, some engaging characters and an interesting setting (although perhaps I got extra enjoyment because each mention of the wintry snow made me forget, momentarily, our unseasonal heatwave). However I’d like to see the next book avoid the overly gruesome violence.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The book is very well narrated by Katherine McInerney and the audible version that I bought has a nice bonus in the form of an interview with the author. It’s an interview by the publisher so it’s not exactly hard-hitting but does provide an opportunity for Castillo to talk about her research methodologies (she has completed two lots of civilian police training among many other activities) and she gives some good background to the book. Unfortunately she wasn’t asked about the value of the detailed and gruesome depictions of the violent mutilations of the victims and whether or not she thought the book could have been just as good without them.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

This book has also been reviewed at Petrona (where Maxine shared my concerns about the violence but not about the romance), Lesa’s Book Critiques, Book Addiction and Whimpulsive

 

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.