Despair and hopelessness on every page

Set in small town America with a style and feel similar to John Grisham. Vincent King is released after 30 years incarceration for the killing of the sister of his then girlfriend Star. He could have served less but in a self sacrificial bid to punish himelf (Sissy was the victim of a road accident, with Vincent the driver) he elects to remain inside for the term. Meanwhile Star leads a unenviable life, singing in the local bar and selling personal services to cash ready punters. Her two children Duchess and Robin must show early responsibility and Duchess is always looking after her younger sibling. The local arm of the law the depressive Chief Walker (known as Walt to his friends, and himself suffering an unknown illness) feels it is duty to watch over Star. He believes deep down that Vincent is a good man (perhaps someone could tell Vince!) An unexpected event occurs that gives rise to suspicion and hate, and the world of Duchess and Robin is altered dramatically. I found little to enjoy in this book, with sadness and hopelessness on every page apart fom an isolated happy moment at the end.....I almost gave up in dispair......I think i'll stick to Mr Grisham in future!

An old book for the modern era :)

I cannot believe that I have not read this amazing book before and equally that it was published in 1859! The Woman in White reads like a modern day psychological thriller with the story being told first person by the cast of characters. It is more a mystery than a crime thriller (but crime is committed in abundance!) with a strong storyline. Walter Hardwright had been sent to tutor Laura and Marian at the Fairlie home in Cumberland. On the day before he departs he meets a strange lady out walking, who gives him a warning and promptly disappears. Arriving in Cumberland he notices a strange resemblance between Laura and the ghostly woman in white. Walter is attracted to Laura but she is betrothed to Sir Percival Glyde, a rogish individual with a secret agenda. Although the book is some 750+ pages in length the writing is taut, filled with tension that truly keeps the reader at the end of his seat...along the way some wonderful personalities appear in the form of Count Fosco (what is his hold over Percival?) his strange compliant wife, and the weak despicable Freddie Fairlie, Laura's uncle and guardian who seems determined to consent to the wedding of Laura and Percival even though Laura has many doubts. So will true love find a way to bloom? only Marian holds the key and together with Walter they seek to find the truth behind the scheming of Percival and Rosco...Wonderful book and highly recommended.

Family love as humanity is threatened - 3 star

Vesps, part reptile, part bird from the dawn of time are released when an ancient cave system is penetrated. They fly, they are blind but have heightened senses and can detect motion from the slightest noise. When they attack they are a killing machine and spawn new creatures in the bloodied bodies of the dead and butchered. The silence is about survival, about family,about the love that binds us together when all hope is lost. The first novel I have read by Tim Lebbon, an enjoyable read and I look forward to the movie tie-in

A true classic :) 5 - stars

A true classic and still as good as when I read some 25 years ago. Jack Brigance, rookie lawyer, must face the biggest and probably the most impossible/important case of his young career. Carl Hailey kills in cold blood the  two white men who raped his daughter and left her for dead. Can a young enthusiastic and bright lawyer use his oratory skills to save Bailey from the death chamber! The story will have you gripped from page one and you will race towards a tense conclusion in this 700 page extravaganza 

A very difficult read - 2 star

You will either love or loathe Reservoir 13 from Costa Book Award winner Jon McGregor. It is to me an odd book and tells the story of the disappearance of Rebecca Shaw, a young girl on holiday at a village in the peak district in the early years of this century. If you are expecting a crime novel than think again, the reader is instead assailed with images of village life the day to day mundane existence, the finite detail of the residents as they stumble from one event to the next, from one year to the next, from one decade to the next, and written in a prose devoid of any punctuation. The actual murder (or disappearance) is rarely mentioned and I failed miserably to understand its poignancy if the author's intention was merely to highlight the drabness of village life…..and drab it is. The writing style is very compact, very hard to assimilate, each sentence seeming to introduce a new event or happening, and over a period of years this becomes somewhat laborious. I have read some brilliant books by the author namely; So many ways to begin, and his astounding new novel; Lean, Fall Stand, but unfortunately Reservoir 13 is not amongst them.

A thing of beauty - 4 star

A novel of intrigue, mystery, and style set from the end of the 1st WW to the 1930’s. Filled with images of struggle examining the meaning of love and survival in Europe at the start of the rise of facism and the world wide destruction that would inevitably follow. My first Sebastian Faulks read was Birdsong and have been an admirer of his writing style ever since. Recommended.

Death in the Peak District - 5 star

A beautifully crafted police procedural within a highly entertaining cast of characters. Val McDermid can not only hold the reader's attention with an edge of the seat thriller but expertly disguises the real human story behind the killing of Alison Carter until the closing chapters. Her writing style is nothing short of brilliant showing once again why she has few equal to her as a crime writer.