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Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated Primary Victim in Books

Apr 27, 2018  
PV
Primary Victim
Christopher Cihlar
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Primary Victim by Christopher Cihlar
Genre: Crime Fiction, Crime thriller
Rating: 4.5/5

Summary (from back of book): A serial killer whose victims don’t die. An innocent man who believes he is guilty. A police officer who may solve the crime but in doing so gives the killer exactly what he wants. A legal defense that challenges the very core ideals of justice.

Primary Victim is a thriller that tests both the psychological breaking point of an individual and the strength of the legal system governing society.

Review:
I’ll admit up front that I have a weakness for crime fiction—but this book was amazing. Words escape my mind as I try to explain how blown away I am by this book. I gasped and grinned and nearly cried and laughed at the surprises thrown at me through this stunning debut novel.

The psychological aspect of PRIMARY VICTIM was mainly found in the “Victim,” Brice. I won’t say what happens to him, but it amazed me as his mind began to twist and change through the course of the story.

The plot: PRIMARY VICTIM was full of twists and turns that I never expected, and it had me sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. I couldn’t put it down! The viewpoint alternates between the criminal, the police officer, and the (living) victim, and switches back and forth at the most inconvenient places, forcing you to read on.

Characters: All the characters in PRIMARY VICTIM were strongly developed with real personalities. I hate books where people are just to perfect to be real (what I call “happyland syndrome”)—this book had the good guys and the bad guys, the the ones you hoped it all worked out for them, and the ones that you wished would be the next to die because they were such jerks (cough Nick cough).

 By the end of the book I wasn’t sure what Michael (the criminal) was going to pull out of his hat, and was, from the very first page to the very last, impressed with Michael’s genius and creativity. At times I actually found myself almost cheering for him, but had to remind myself that he was the bad guy. It was almost hard to see him as the bad guy at times, because of his “work—” Michael considered himself a God in a world that needed one and didn’t have one, victimizing the people that he thought needed to be victimized.

Brice and Sarah were such a perfect yet sad couple, and for the sake of keeping the review spoiler-free, I won’t say anything… but I thought I was going to cry at one point.
Writing: The writing was the weakest point of this book. The prose itself seemed written in an unfamiliar style, minimizing comas in the sentences, and it made for a harder read. I caught myself occasionally re-reading sentences and paragraphs to understand what had happened. Aside from the prose, the vocabulary was broad enough and the pacing was good.

As of now, PRIMARY VICTIM is unedited, but there is only an occasional grammatical error, formatting error, or typo scattered through the book. However, all in all, it didn’t take away from the story.

Content: There was brief mention of sex between husband and wife (example: “they made love,” no other details, and the fact that they’re married made it that much better), and an occasional foul word from an angry officer, but other than that this book was refreshingly clean. I applaud Christopher for writing a crime thriller with low content—especially compared to some of the other crime thrillers out there. Maybe he can start a revolution. It’s true, people—you can have a good book without excessive sex and language!

Recommendation: Ages 14+ to lovers of Crime fiction, thrillers, and psychological thrillers.
  
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Ross (3284 KP) rated Perfect Remains: A Gripping Thriller That Will Leave You Breathless in Books

Aug 30, 2018 (Updated Aug 30, 2018)  
Perfect Remains: A Gripping Thriller That Will Leave You Breathless
Perfect Remains: A Gripping Thriller That Will Leave You Breathless
Helen Fields | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
8
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Very good, gripping crime novel based in Edinburgh. Recently arrived French detective Luc Callanach finds himself at the wheel of the force's biggest crime, while still trying to find his feet in his new city.
As the reader is made aware of the "murderer"'s identity from very early on, this feels more like an early Mark Billingham book than an Ian Rankin or Ed James. Not a true whodunit, more of a case of watching the story unfold, which is thrilling and you get to see the criminal and the detective's view of the events, but may put others off.
While the story is very well crafted, the pacing is top notch and the action exciting, a few aspects irritated me at times. Luc Callanach seems to have coped very well with his change in circumstances, and at times it is almost like he (or the author) has forgotten he is French completely! And also the attitude and conclusions of what was supposed to be a very experienced psychological profiler just didn't feel plausible. And finally, as so often happens with "detective x crime series" books - if the main character didn't see it, it didn't happen. This means that Callanach has to abandon his massive case and oddly decide to go off with another detective in order to discuss something, purely as a plot device - i.e. he has to be involved in it for it to be an important part of the story. In places this worked, and got to the point, but at other times his actions just seemed so unusual as to be ludicrous, just to meet a plot point. Why the lesser characters can't have a PoV chapter is beyond me. It works perfectly well in fantasy fiction, why not in crime?!
 However these were minor quibbles, an otherwise great book.
  
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David McK (3425 KP) rated Guard Against Dishonour (Hawk & Fisher, #5) in Books

Jan 30, 2019  
GA
Guard Against Dishonour (Hawk & Fisher, #5)
Simon R. Green | 1992
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Pretty much the very definition of pulp fiction, this is the kind of story that you tend to forget as soon as you've read it! While also never confirmed within this (or, to the best of my knowledge, in any of the Hawk and Fisher books prior to 'Beyond the Blue Moon'), there are also some very broad hints dropped that these two characters are the same protaganists as in Simon Green's 'Blue Moon Rising' novel.

Essentially, these novels are crime novels with a magical twist - personally, I find done so much better by Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of books featuring the City Watch. That's not to say these should be avoided: just don't go in with too high an expectation and you won't be disappointed!