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.The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery)
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: P.D. James

August 28, 2008
I have been finding PD James's books more and more disappointing. They have never been simply detective novels, always more novels with a detective theme. James takes up pages and pages with description - a lot of it marvellous and atmospheric, but much of it going nowhere. A whole paragraph devoted to someone coming into a room and sitting down. I am beginning to tire of Dalgliesh and his team and their way of doing things that seems to be stuck in the 1930's with talk over glasses of wine. James re-hashes the same personalities in every book - the vulnerable damaged working class woman, the bullying intellectual woman, the over-riding professional man who uses his employee to have an affair that means nothing to him but much to her. I ... Read More:
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.A Most Wanted Man
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: John le Carré

September 23, 2008
I've long been among the first in line for the new John le Carre, so was pleased to find this book on sale for half price at Waterstones last week. Throughout a long writing career (this novel is his 21st), le Carre has continued to return to the themes of deception and betrayal and, although he's used an interesting variety of geographical locations for his settings, those of us who've spent a long time immersed in his world have started to identify common characteristics in his dramatis personae. Thus, in this story, the befuddled Englishman who tries to do the right thing has echoes of, amongst others, Harry Pendel in The Tailor Of Panama, Ted Mundy in Absolute Friends and Tim Cranmer in Our Game. And the attractive idealistic female lawyer is strongly ... Read More:
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.The Shack
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: William P. Young

July 17, 2008
Browsing through my local book store, I almost tripped over the display stand promoting this book. Looking closer I read that it was a New York Times best-seller, so I decided to give it a go. A Big mistake. I really should have known better than to pick anything our American cousins think is good. This book is RUBBISH! The author must surely have seen the movie 'The Matrix' and the scene where Neo goes to see The Oracle. There he meets a charming black woman in a kitchen making cookies: The Oracle. The author then went home with this scene still in his head and decided to write a book around it. Ergo, God is a black woman who happens to spend a lot of time in a kitchen. It doesn't matter that the main character in the book refers to God as 'Papa', God is ... Read More:
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.Silks
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: Dick Francis, Felix Francis

September 04, 2008
Silks did not disapoint, well up to the standard of thriller we have come to expect from firstly Dick and now with his son Felix, lets hope there is another in the pipeline.
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.No Time For Goodbye
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: Linwood Barclay

June 12, 2008
This book grabbed me from the word go. The easy and quick pace throws you straight into the story and takes you on a roller coaster ride to the end. Nearly every chapter leaves you wanting to know what happens next. A good thriller from start to finish.
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.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: Stieg Larsson

July 24, 2008
This book has sold 5 million copies. What makes a book sell 5 million copies? Judging by this, the formula is: a fairly mainstream plot, some mild sex, a so-so conspiracy, and a style of writing that neither jars nor excites.

Let me first say that there is nothing actually wrong with this book. Aside from being much too long - common and acceptable in a first novel - there is nothing that will make you throw this book across a room. Nor, in my view, will you be riveted. It is like a three-part thriller on television, where you'll watch the final part if you happen to be in the room, but you wouldn't break a hot date to see it.

Larsson does a fair job of dissecting and explaining the `corporate fraud' part of the storyline, but the main problem is that ... Read More:
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.Devil Bones
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: Kathy Reichs

August 28, 2008
I've read and enjoyed all of Kathy Reichs' other novels, and I have to say that I was shocked by how poor an effort "Devil Bones" was. The characterization was spare at best, the plot was unimaginative and could have been lifted straight from any of her other books (it probably was, come to think of it). Tedious little forensic science lectures do little to lift this unimaginative book. I shan't be buying one of these again in a hurry ....
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.The Brass Verdict
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: Michael Connelly

October 16, 2008
I've read and enjoyed all of Kathy Reichs' other novels, and I have to say that I was shocked by how poor an effort "Devil Bones" was. The characterization was spare at best, the plot was unimaginative and could have been lifted straight from any of her other books (it probably was, come to think of it). Tedious little forensic science lectures do little to lift this unimaginative book. I shan't be buying one of these again in a hurry ....
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.A Snowball in Hell
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: Christopher Brookmyre

August 14, 2008
It's always worth buying the latest Brookmyre to see what bit of inventive nastiness he's come up with this time. Where some other authors would make all this mayhem stomach turning and unpleasant, Brookmyre somehow manages to get away with it because it comes across as cartoon violence; sort of "Reservoir Dogs" where the dogs in question are Huckleberry Hound and Deputy Dawg.

There were some excellent plot twists and it's definitely a page-turner, but I didn't like this as much as his previous book (Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks), perhaps because the underlying theme there (the inability of people to discount bogus ideas) was stronger than the theme here (the celebrity of non-celebrities; yes, we'd all probably like to dream up some unpleasant fates to visit on participants ... Read More:
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.Dissolution (Shardlake)
City Travel Guides > Books > Thrillers
by: C.J. Sansom

May 18, 2007
An unlikely superhero, admittedly, but Matthew Shardlake is a brilliant construction, and this book is not to be missed. Neither is the second. In fact I can't bring myself to read the (probably) final one, because I'm saving it for a week when I can concentrate solely on it! Yes, it's a bit predictable, and the sidekick can be a tad irritating, but it's just a story...not an historical treatise. Enjoy it, that's all. Please let someone make the movie...it'll be a brave man who takes the lead role, but a sure-fire Oscar!
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