What I’ve Been Reading – March 2017

Forgive me readers, for it has been over three months since my last blog post. I know the last one was supposed to be the first in a monthly series, but… well, you know, the best laid plans and all that. I will be resuming the ‘What I learned from’ series soon, but in the meantime I wanted to write some quick reviews of the books I’ve been reading lately.

First up…

Alex by Pierre Lemaitre

“Literary thriller” is a label used to describe a wide variety of books. I’ll discuss it in more depth in a future post, but I prefer to define Alex as a “quality” thriller. For me, books are judged on story, character and writing. Alex was certainly a page turner, and a dark, violent one that blended elements of hostage thriller, serial killer story and police procedural. But a number of aspects elevated it above the average book in any of these genres. It was written with a distinctive voice; the characters were well drawn and explored in depth; and the story evolved into something utterly unexpected. As with many thrillers, it’s best to go into this story cold. Just be aware that there will be philosophical musings, a sub plot involving the auction of a picture painted by the detective’s mother, and plenty of violence. It’s French. And dark. And French.

Hollow Man by Oliver Harris

Pretty much all crime fiction – apart from perhaps cozy mysteries – seems to be called ‘noir’ these days. But for me, a noir story has to have an element of moral ambiguity. This is certainly something that features in Hollow Man. Detective Nick Belsey reminded me of an American PI rather than a typical British Detective – he breaks the law as much as he enforces it. The book starts off with a great scene in which Belsey wakes up hungover and bloody on Hampstead Heath, trying to piece together the events of the previous night. And he soon gets caught up in a complex case involving the disappearance of a secretive Russian billionaire. A densely plotted, well-written thriller full of intrigue and atmosphere.

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

This is a very contemporary thriller about MI5 and the kidnapping of a young Pakistani man by a far-right group. But it’s no humble page turner populated by stereotypical secret agents running around at a frantic pace. There is something wonderfully rich about the world that Mick Herron builds and the complex people that he populates it with. Slough House is a home for MI5 rejects, agents who have been put out to pasture after making fatal errors. And at the top of Slough House sits Jackson Lamb, an overweight, cynical genius with an appetite for sausage sandwiches and a lack of respect for authority. There are a lot of characters, and the plot is very dense at times, but then this is a spy thriller. I’ll be returning to Mick Herron’s books.

Rattle by Fiona Cummins

I went in to this with high expectations. A serial killer thriller with a villain to rival Hannibal Lecter? Yes please. But this is really more of a missing child story with a heavy focus on the parents of those children. And while it might draw attention to a book to make the Hannibal comparison, matching one of the great literary creations from one of the great crime writers is a pretty bold claim. Not a bad book, just not what I expected. There are people who enjoy crime stories that focus on ordinary folk in a domestic setting, but I’m not one of them.

The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald

This was an elegantly written piece of American noir from the fifties. PI Lew Archer is asked to locate the missing heir to a huge fortune. What follows is a mystery that twists and turns right to the very end as secrets are uncovered and identities are revealed.  Another writer I’ll be returning to.

Dead Girl Walking by Chris Brookmyre

This started off well, with an entertaining police interview that introduces new readers to journalist Jack Parlabane. And the story was an interesting one, alternating between Parlabane’s search for a missing rock star and the blog written by another band member before the disappearance. I should have loved this book, with its blend of humour and thrills. But it didn’t all fit together for me, partly because I can be very fussy when it comes to the way things are written. I would still urge people to check this out if they’re not familiar with the author. Objectively, I could see it was a good story but subjectively, it just wasn’t to my taste.

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

What? Literary fiction. Why would I want to read that? Well, this does have a plot featuring the theft of some very valuable celebrity memorabilia. But it’s also a description heavy book about a writer struggling to finish a mammoth novel. And like some literary fiction, it has parts that seem a little self indulgent – for me the section where Grady spends Passover at his wife’s house is unneccessary (and was cut from the film version). But Michael Chabon is a great writer who makes you love a philandering stoner by writing with so much humour and warmth. And he is the World heavyweight champion of figurative language. “As I came up the front walk I heard the racy laughter of a saxophone, and the glass in the windows hummed a walking bass line.” Racy laughter – what a perfect description of the sound a saxophone makes. A different kind of read for me, but an enjoyable one nontheless.

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