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Adam Colclough (3 KP) rated Slow Horses in Books
Mar 12, 2018
The awkward squad to the rescue
Slough House is the place where the secret service dumps those operatives who don’t’ make the grade. A bureaucratic limbo as far away from the glamourous world inhabited by James Bond as Biarritz is from the outer moons of Saturn.
The crew of misfits incarcerated there under the command of the objectionable Jackson Lamb are called back to active service when a terrorist gang kidnap a teenager and threaten to behead him live online. Suddenly the awkward squad are players in a deadly game with only one possible winner.
In this book, first published in 2010 and part of an award-winning quartet, Mick Herron delivers all the thrills you would expect as he pits his cast of oddballs against a chillingly plausible enemy.
Spy novels often describe hidden worlds as a way of talking about the one with which we are all familiar. In the Sixties Le Carre wrote about a secret service that resembled nothing so much as minor Oxbridge college down on its luck but clinging tightly to past glories. Any similarity to a Britain that for all the promises of wonders delivered by the ‘white heat of technology’ was starting to look decidedly seedy was entirely intentional.
Mick Herron writes about a service that has been capture by bean counters and career obsessed middle managers. Drowning in paperwork, stymied by procedure and inclined to try and be a little too clever for its own good.
He also creates delightfully complex characters, the ‘slow horses’ of the title may all be difficult individuals, but that gives them fears and failings that make them infinitely more interesting than monochrome supermen like Bond or Bourne. By the book’s end he even manages to provide them with if not redemption than the unexpected feeling they may have a purpose after all.
The best spy novels are always about more than just chasing after a McGuffin. This book is unafraid to look at troubling ideas and to present characters who don’t tick the boxes of traditional heroism. That puts it in the running to become a classic of the genre.
The crew of misfits incarcerated there under the command of the objectionable Jackson Lamb are called back to active service when a terrorist gang kidnap a teenager and threaten to behead him live online. Suddenly the awkward squad are players in a deadly game with only one possible winner.
In this book, first published in 2010 and part of an award-winning quartet, Mick Herron delivers all the thrills you would expect as he pits his cast of oddballs against a chillingly plausible enemy.
Spy novels often describe hidden worlds as a way of talking about the one with which we are all familiar. In the Sixties Le Carre wrote about a secret service that resembled nothing so much as minor Oxbridge college down on its luck but clinging tightly to past glories. Any similarity to a Britain that for all the promises of wonders delivered by the ‘white heat of technology’ was starting to look decidedly seedy was entirely intentional.
Mick Herron writes about a service that has been capture by bean counters and career obsessed middle managers. Drowning in paperwork, stymied by procedure and inclined to try and be a little too clever for its own good.
He also creates delightfully complex characters, the ‘slow horses’ of the title may all be difficult individuals, but that gives them fears and failings that make them infinitely more interesting than monochrome supermen like Bond or Bourne. By the book’s end he even manages to provide them with if not redemption than the unexpected feeling they may have a purpose after all.
The best spy novels are always about more than just chasing after a McGuffin. This book is unafraid to look at troubling ideas and to present characters who don’t tick the boxes of traditional heroism. That puts it in the running to become a classic of the genre.
Merissa (13765 KP) rated The Du Lac Prophecy (The Du Lac Chronicles #4) in Books
Oct 19, 2018
The Du Lac Prophecy (The Du Lac Chronicles #4) by Mary Anne Yarde
The Du Lac Prophecy is the fourth book in The Du Lac Chronicles, and we return to Merton, now known as Galahad, and Amandine - following her daring rescue from under the nose of Mordred and the Archbishop of Rome.
The first few pages of this book are brutal and heartbreaking. There is so much sorrow and horror, I was immediately emotional and completely immersed within the story, and the characters' lives. The thing is, the thing that makes Mary Anne Yarde an outstanding storyteller is the fact that some of the emotion comes from a pair of horses!
This IS book four, and it would certainly help if you have read the previous books, just so you get the full appreciation of the other characters strengths and foibles. This is also quite involved, so it would help to have the background on what is going on.
I am happy to report Tegan once again plays a part in this story, with her becoming a more important character than previously recognised. I can't wait to see where this particular thread is going, and how it will be woven within the main story tapestry.
Arthur and his knights have held a fascination for me from a very young age, and I have always wanted to write their story. Alas and Alack! I am unable to do that, but instead I have the greatest pleasure to lose myself in their story as told by this amazing author.
As a final, technical note, I am happy to say there were no editing or grammatical errors to disrupt my reading flow. The pacing is smooth, and the story, even with so many different threads, still manages to keep the reader involved, and not confused. I would definitely recommend reading this series in order. I can guarantee you won't be disappointed. Absolutely and utterly recommended.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
The first few pages of this book are brutal and heartbreaking. There is so much sorrow and horror, I was immediately emotional and completely immersed within the story, and the characters' lives. The thing is, the thing that makes Mary Anne Yarde an outstanding storyteller is the fact that some of the emotion comes from a pair of horses!
This IS book four, and it would certainly help if you have read the previous books, just so you get the full appreciation of the other characters strengths and foibles. This is also quite involved, so it would help to have the background on what is going on.
I am happy to report Tegan once again plays a part in this story, with her becoming a more important character than previously recognised. I can't wait to see where this particular thread is going, and how it will be woven within the main story tapestry.
Arthur and his knights have held a fascination for me from a very young age, and I have always wanted to write their story. Alas and Alack! I am unable to do that, but instead I have the greatest pleasure to lose myself in their story as told by this amazing author.
As a final, technical note, I am happy to say there were no editing or grammatical errors to disrupt my reading flow. The pacing is smooth, and the story, even with so many different threads, still manages to keep the reader involved, and not confused. I would definitely recommend reading this series in order. I can guarantee you won't be disappointed. Absolutely and utterly recommended.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Carma (21 KP) rated Saving Samantha: A Single Dad Romance (The Redwood Billionaires Series Book 1) in Books
Jun 17, 2019
Samantha is looking forward to her wedding day, the day all her dreams will come true. The morning of dawns with a missing groom and a Dear Jane letter explaining how the groom fell in love
with the best man. Samantha decides to go on her honeymoon to the mountains of Colorado by herself to get away and regroup. A hike in the woods one day to clear her head, quickly turns into a nightmare.
Weston hasnt yet come to terms with the loss of his wife 4 years ago. He was a horrible husband and father, fueled by the need for making more money and growing his family business into something bigger and bigger. He realized too late just how much he was giving up each and every day. After his loss, he moved with his son to the mountains of Colorado. Cheryl had always talked about moving there to just get away and back to their family roots. He felt as if he owed that too her for the very least. One day while exercising his horses in a rainstorm he comes across and unconscious woman in the woods. He brings her home and they nurse her back to health.
Samantha wakes up in a house in the woods after getting lost in the woods. A man, his son and housekeeper wait on her hand and foot and she is starting to feel a little more normal. They invite her to spend the night and she happily accepts hoping to come out on the other side of this nightmare.
Weston and Samantha find themselves interested in each other but not really knowing where the other one stands. Weston knows she was just left on her wedding day and she sees he is still wearing his wedding ring. Can they have and honest talk with one another and lay all their cards on the table?
I enjoyed this novel, as I have from the other novels Ive read by the author. There are some parts I felt are a little lacking of content but words to just have words to count. Aside from that the story moves well and the flow is satisfying, 4 stars.
Weston hasnt yet come to terms with the loss of his wife 4 years ago. He was a horrible husband and father, fueled by the need for making more money and growing his family business into something bigger and bigger. He realized too late just how much he was giving up each and every day. After his loss, he moved with his son to the mountains of Colorado. Cheryl had always talked about moving there to just get away and back to their family roots. He felt as if he owed that too her for the very least. One day while exercising his horses in a rainstorm he comes across and unconscious woman in the woods. He brings her home and they nurse her back to health.
Samantha wakes up in a house in the woods after getting lost in the woods. A man, his son and housekeeper wait on her hand and foot and she is starting to feel a little more normal. They invite her to spend the night and she happily accepts hoping to come out on the other side of this nightmare.
Weston and Samantha find themselves interested in each other but not really knowing where the other one stands. Weston knows she was just left on her wedding day and she sees he is still wearing his wedding ring. Can they have and honest talk with one another and lay all their cards on the table?
I enjoyed this novel, as I have from the other novels Ive read by the author. There are some parts I felt are a little lacking of content but words to just have words to count. Aside from that the story moves well and the flow is satisfying, 4 stars.
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Big Over Easy (Nursery Crime, #1) in Books
Nov 8, 2019
After the success of his Thursday Next books, in which the heroine can enter works of fiction and interact with the characters, Fforde dusted off a previous idea for a novel: a town where nursery rhyme characters are real. Humpty Dumpty is found in pieces at the bottom of his wall, but did he fall or was he pushed?
Investigated by detective Jack Spratt (usefully the name Jack is quite common in nursery rhymes) and his new partner Mary Mary we meet a number of characters from nursery rhymes, songs and myth and legend. As the body count rises Jack and Mary must do what all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't, and assemble the pieces of Humpty's demise to find the culprit.
The world Fforde creates - a fictional version of the town of Reading (and strongly implied to be the same world that Thursday Next lives in, in the book-within-a-book Caversham Heights) works suprisingly well, perhaps because other than the traits inherited from their nursery rhymes the characters are otherwise conventional. So Jack can't eat any fat and is destined to sell something for beans, but at the core is a straightforward detective.
This contrasts with, say, The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin which again is a detective story populated with nursery rhyme characters (and poor Humpty is again a victim, but in a very different murder) where the setting is in Toyland so doesn't have the grounding of reality that The Big Over Easy does.
The plot itself is very complex - there are red herrings, theories and suspects galore - and Fforde enjoys playing with the reader as much as with Jack. And there is of course humour aplenty, both simple gags from the story and characters and also some good knowing winks to the reader when events mirror the characters' nursery rhymes. Above all Fforde never forgets that this is after all a detective novel.
Probably not quite as good as the Thursday Next books but definitely a good read and will entertain from the first to the last page.
Investigated by detective Jack Spratt (usefully the name Jack is quite common in nursery rhymes) and his new partner Mary Mary we meet a number of characters from nursery rhymes, songs and myth and legend. As the body count rises Jack and Mary must do what all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't, and assemble the pieces of Humpty's demise to find the culprit.
The world Fforde creates - a fictional version of the town of Reading (and strongly implied to be the same world that Thursday Next lives in, in the book-within-a-book Caversham Heights) works suprisingly well, perhaps because other than the traits inherited from their nursery rhymes the characters are otherwise conventional. So Jack can't eat any fat and is destined to sell something for beans, but at the core is a straightforward detective.
This contrasts with, say, The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin which again is a detective story populated with nursery rhyme characters (and poor Humpty is again a victim, but in a very different murder) where the setting is in Toyland so doesn't have the grounding of reality that The Big Over Easy does.
The plot itself is very complex - there are red herrings, theories and suspects galore - and Fforde enjoys playing with the reader as much as with Jack. And there is of course humour aplenty, both simple gags from the story and characters and also some good knowing winks to the reader when events mirror the characters' nursery rhymes. Above all Fforde never forgets that this is after all a detective novel.
Probably not quite as good as the Thursday Next books but definitely a good read and will entertain from the first to the last page.
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