Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Ross (3284 KP) rated Gone in Seconds in Books

Jun 23, 2020  
Gone in Seconds
Gone in Seconds
Ed James | 2020 | Crime
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Superb gripping page-turner
What starts out as a snatched baby case gradually evolves into so much more. The pasts of the abductor and the parents and their families are exposed and motives start to explain themselves.
It isn't often I will say this, and especially not during lockdown because I have really struggled with reading, but this is truly a page-turner. Many is the evening I ended up reading just one more chapter etc etc etc.
The pacing is superb, letting the story and character interactions and conflicts unfold organically. The reader is kept guessing almost throughout the whole book - some suspicions will be true, but so many will be surprises.
Excellently written crime fiction which develops well beyond the abduction of a baby.
  
40x40

Ross (3284 KP) Jun 23, 2020

And currently only £0.99 on Kindle in the UK!

The Cabin
The Cabin
Natasha Preston | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I buddy read this book with a friend, blindly picking it up on a shopping trip with no prior knowledge of the author, or wattpad honestly. The story was fun, and a great fast paced thriller for spooky season. The writing style was easy to follow, and everything moved pretty quickly, sometimes too quickly, but I'd rather have that than constant slow pauses. I will say the most heart pounding action for me was in the last chapter or two. Things got really good, really fast, just to end as quickly as it started. The ending feels open to a potential sequel, so maybe we'll see more in the future. Overall, great pace, fun story, and an ending that left me shocked and confused. 🤣
  
BF
Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses
A.L. Rowse | 1998
2
2.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
For starters, the book is entitled Bosworth Field & the Wars of the Roses. Discussion of Bosworth is pretty much restricted to one short chapter and about the first third of the book is taken up with an over-detailed account of the events leading up to the Wars of the Roses; if Rowse is concerned about 'Wars of the Roses' being a misnomer, perhaps he should look to his own title! Yes, the events from the disposition of Richard II in 1399 and the usurpation of his throne by Bolingbroke do have an impact on later events, but a third of the book? Do we really need to know the ins and outs of Sir John Oldcastle's Lollard leanings - I fail to see how this is relevant.

Rowse's chapter on Shakespeare must be at least as long, if not longer, than his chapter on Bosworth. The fact that he obviously sincerely believes that one can gain a credible understanding of history from Shakespeare cycle of plays was almost enough to make me drop the book in astonishment! How can one take him seriously?!

He is also ready to give every credit to the supposed work of More. Even here he falls down by claiming that the bodies of the 'princes in the tower' were discovered in the exact place More said! If you read this work you'll find that the opposite is true - they are in the exact place More said they were NOT! The fact that there isn't a shred of evidence that anyone killed the two princes is evidently a small matter to Rowse. He mentions the great turncoat, Sir William Stanley (at this point step-uncle to Henry Tudor) being executed s a result of the Perkin Warbeck debacle, but fails to mention that Sir William is imputed to have said that if Warbeck really was Richard of York, he would not fight against him. Of course he doesn't mention this - he has to keep reminding us that EVERYONE believed Richard III guilty! Really, a credible historian should not pick and choose their facts - something Alison Weir is also very fond of doing.

Another point is that he is quite happy to accept that Katherine of Valois really did marry Owen Tudor, but cannot countenance the much more credible suggestion that Edward IV was married to Eleanor Butler (nee Talbot), who is not even mentioned. He harps on about the morality and piety of the Lancastrians (despite the Beauforts being conceived in double adultery - further hypocrisy) but when Richard III founds a chantry or offers some concession to a religious house that Rowse concludes it much be down to his uneasy concience.

So, overall, not a book I can recommend in the least. He may try to convince us that his unbending traditionalist view is 'sensible' and 'common sense' but anyone with a little knowledge of the subject will see it as laughably absurd and highly prejudiced.