Duller than a Dull Thing

This is my opinion - others have very different ones!<br /><br />I read all 3 Girl novels this Spring and I think I deserve a medal for it.<br /><br />It is obvious that the death of the author has been allowed to interfere with the editing of all 3 novels - all are too long, overly descriptive of mundane matters, too long, childishly written, too long, predictable and, did I mention it? Too Long. Underneath all the hype are 2 ok thrillers and this dreadful finale which bores beyond belief and was a toil to read. What was needed was a very good editor to get involved and to cut out at least half of each novel to at least inject a little pace and structure and to take out the ridiculous and irritating. The books' hero (the man Mr Larsson would have wanted to be?) is a dreadful bore and extremely irritating - you just know he is going to end up in bed with every woman who is described as attractive. The female lead is, at first, intriguing but, by this book, completely dull and the poor wretch spends most of her time in a hospital bed.<br /><br />There is a good book or two screaming to get out of these bore-fests and it is a shame that the opportunity was missed for the sake of honouring a dead man's memory.

Brilliant

Would highly recommend, even better than the first book (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Cannot wait to read the next installment.

Excellent, compelling read!

A compelling crime thriller...quite slow to start but well worth the read! Has led me to purchase the following two to discover what happens to the amazing lead character! Brilliant!

What an over rated book !

I've read a few Dan Brown books, including Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. This is the third book with Robert Langdon. Let's hope it's the last.<br /><br />I read the da Vinci Code first and indeed 'couldn't put it down' - A & D wasn't bad either although similar story line and characters. The lost Symbol is yet again very similar storyline. Very disappointing. <br /><br />The cover review from the NY times says 'impossible to put down, another mind-blowing story'. Er..sorry, this is totally decieving, it should read 'Impossible not to fall asleep to..another mind-numbing story',<br /><br />Sorry Dan Brown, this is an unneccessarily long drawn out plot, which is supposed to take place over a 10 hour period ? - The logistics of the action make that time scale impossible. When it reaches it's predictable climax, it then continues into a mind numbing attempt to reveal, by narrative between the 2 main characters, the ancient mysteries, which quite frankly I'd long since stopped caring about.<br /><br />Deception Point is a much better read, and thankfully doesn't involve the exceedingly dull Robert Langdon, as played exceptionally boringly by Tom Hanks in the film of the Da Vinci Code.<br /><br />Sorry, but it didn't do it for me.<br /><br />

Hugely disappointing

It started off extremely boring but I thought it might improve - it didn't, despite me trudging through to the end. So much of it required an editor. As a result it was repetitive, for example constant technical reviews of ibooks, sizes of apartments, rooms, any building - I'm not interested! The book could have been condensed by at least 200 pages making it a faster, if not better, read. Please don't believe the hype. I've read Dan Brown and enjoyed it - at least it was fast moving and a page turner, if not a literary gem. This book is forgettable, boring and way too long.

A lovely surprise!

I have a confession - I could have sworn Frederick Forysth was dead. I would have put money on it. It was a great surprise to hear not only that he was alive, but that he had a new book out!<br /><br />More in the vein of Fist of God than the older stuff, The Cobra shows Forsyth is still on cracking form. As usual, one man faces overwhelming odds, this time taking on the power of the cocaine cartels. Without giving too much away, expect the usual global conflict across several locations focused with needlelike precision on one man's struggle. All good stuff!<br /><br />There are two versions of the audiobook: the abridged one with Robert Powell narrating and this one, read admirably by John Chancer and clocking in at over eleven hours. Horses for courses, I suppose, but to my mind an abridged audiobook always leaves me feeling shortchanged!<br /><br />Highly recommended.

THE SNOWMAN

THIS IS MY FIRST HARRY HOLE/JOE NESBO. CAPTIVATING FROM START TO FINISH, WITH MULTI TWISTS<br />AND TURNS. A 5 STAR ALL THE WAY. NOW I'LL HAVE HAVE THE JOY OF STARTING AT HIS FIRST, AND CATCHING UP.

Lee Childs 61 Hours

Lee Childs continues with his high standard Jack Reacher novels. Another excellent book with a different twist to the end??

Back up to his previous high standards

I was devastated when Ian Rankin retired Rebus. And more devastated when I didn't enjoy his follow up novel, Doors Open, about art fraud very much. I was worried that Rankin would never reach Rebus like heights again, but in this new novel, he has returned to form, much to my utter relief.<br /><br />Malcolm Fox works for The Complaints, the Edinburgh police force's own internal crime investigators. He is just celebrating his watertight case against a popular old school copper being accepted by the procurator fiscal when disaster strikes. His sister's boyfriend is found on a patch of waste ground with his head caved in. Disaster follows disaster when Fox ends up being suspended along with the latest cop he is supposed to be investigating for involvement in child porn. Complex plotting and lots of red herrings and double bluffs make this an appealing, well wrought story that is fast paced, intriguing and clever.<br /><br />I loved it.

Crown for Thorne

This is a welcome addition to a consistently excellent series: the others I've listened to in the car on audio cd, this one I was persuaded to buy for the summer holidays, and the longer version is just as fast-paced and engrossing as the abridged audio versions. Perhaps the plot is a little cliched, a gangster believed dead who isn't really, but there is some development of the regular characters, and engaging newcomers in Anna Carpenter and stereotypical Yorkshireman, Andy Boyle, one of whom I hope we hear from again. What is nice about Thorne as a central character is that he is fallible - he admits to being wrong with a couple of first impressions of people, and the resolutions of the two crimes this book is concerned with, while final and relatively satisfying to the reader, are less than conventional and in no way suggest that Thorne's deductive powers are magical and his powers supernatural, as with many fictional detectives: he is just a morally grounded character, trying to do his best, to do what is right, but at the mercy of circumstance and the manipulative cleverness of those he hopes to bring to justice.

Huge Disappointment

I was looking forward to the new Insp Banks novel, but sad to say, this is turning out to be a hugely disappointing read. So much so, I doubt I shall continue with it and I very rarely leave a book unread once half way through. It is simply one cliche after another, so much so that at times it was painful to read. It's a shame that the author seems to be playing for the"popular" vote with little attempt to develop his characters any further. And the depiction of the current gun scene in Britain was farcical. Quite sad really.

This book should inspire"wannabe authors" to stick with it

I have read all of Harlan Coben's books and wasn't sure whether I would buy this because Harlan made it clear to fans this is not his best material, then my husband bought it for me so the choice was taken out of my hands.<br /><br />I really struggled with the book to begin with, there was so much going on and so many threads of the story to keep up with, but I stuck with it and am really glad I did. Anyone who gave up halfway through, go back and read it again, I did not guess the ending and I really thought it was going to be obvious.<br /><br />The negative points about this book: - <br />The characterisation is poor, you don't bond with the characters in the same way as Coben's later books.<br />The plot isn't very well laid out, it's almost overkill with some of the clues being dropped in. For example, the detail about David's headaches could have been left out, it wasn't really needed. There were almost caricature elements to David's character which are handled so much more subtly in Coben's characters in later novels. As I read the book I found myself thinking.. this section should have been thinned out, this bit is irrelevant, etc.<br /><br />The positive points about this book: -<br />The actual story seems predictable to begin with and it is a shame that some readers won't get to the end of the book due to the clumsy style of writing. However, the story is definitely not predictable and steam rollers along in the last few pages to a surprising ending. Yes it is a little"Dallas" but I still very much enjoyed it, and more so than some of Coben's other more recent books if I am being honest.<br />What I really love about this book is that it shows how authors can go from something quite rough around the edges to first class writing style. I think Harlan Coben has been brave putting this book out there for his readers to critique and I am pleased he didn't try to tidy it up, it should give hope to all budding authors out there that everyone has to start somewhere.<br /><br />What I would like to see from future Harlan Coben books: -<br />I would like to see more fantastic plots with twists and turns like the ones in"Play Dead" but written in the more polished style we know Harlan Coben for today.<br />

A solid 3rd book: Keep it up

I was interested to see where Harry was going to take the next book in this series, unlike some of the Roman series out there at the moment I feel that this one has more of a shelf life with Ballista, but between now and the end I really want to see how well Harry writes the character, his friends and all of their lives.<br /><br />Lion of the Sun lived up to its predecessors and delivered with plenty of punch, there is action aplenty and the characters as usual leap off the page. For me an example of a good book is how quickly it ends, ie how soon I get to the end. I tend to find reasons to delay bad books and find other things to do, and awful books I never ever finish. This took me 2 days cover to cover which for its size is a good sign.<br /><br />Without giving any plot away I feel we learn a lot more about the Sassanid empire and Shapur in this book, but by the end of the book you can see the end of the series even more so than before...which is fine because I would ask Harry...what's next...all authors have another series just over the horizon. (do you??)<br /><br />A solid 4 out of 5 from me.<br />

Excellent read

Not as gripping as The Snowman, but still a worthy crime thriller by an author who thinks out his plots rather than simply filling pages to make the book look big and impressive.

Ordinary

I have to admit being a little disappointed with Sherlock Holmes. I was expecting a cracking good classic but got not much more than very ordinary writing and stories. In fact some of the stories were quite weak. The characters (Sherlock and Watson)remain distant and far away through out, you never get to really know them. They remain cardboard cutouts through out. Some of Sherlock's conclusions are preposterous. In reality there could be a number of possibilities for a piece of evidence whereas Sherlock 'knows' the implications of each piece of evidence almost immediately. He graciously shares with us mere mortals his conclusions at the end of each case. His reading of foot prints, carriage wheel markings and so on seem to be just way out there.<br />Perhaps I was expecting too much, the book has five stars after sixty six reviews after all. The book is really for a younger audience (Mid teens perhaps)in my opinion. I am giving the book three stars because a young audience might enjoy the stories. They are quick paced, harmless entertainment and easy to read. But don't expect to be thrilled, it is ordinary and mostly very shallow stuff.

I Feel duped...

Bought this after seeing such a high feedback figure without reading between the lines.<br />This book is a thinly disguised gospel. It seeks to draw out deep emotions in the reader in the first part of the book followed by the feel good factor which is heavily attributed to God.<br />I think the positive reviews are from 'believers' and the negative ones by people like me who were hoping for something other than the nonsense we were fed as children - shame!

U is for Undertow

This is another good book by Sue Grafton, which I couldn't put down - would recommend it to anyone who like this writer.

Liked it - very typical Deaver

This was absolutely typical Deaver fare - I like it alot and learned quite a bit about electricity that I didn't know !! The only quibble I have is that the end got just to convoluted but again it is what we expect from Mr Deaver. <br /><br />It will keep you page turning and the relationships in the previous books all move forward and develop at a gentle pace that is reassuring for future novels. <br /><br />Well worth the price ticket