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.Wedding Season
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Katie Fforde

June 05, 2008
This will have been the last time I bought a Katie Fforde novel as hardback edition. Its predictable plot was not worth the extra expenditure and the sugary, dove-eyed cover illustration made we want to hide it. It really is a shame, but maybe I'm growing out of books like these.
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.Dead Man's Footsteps
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Peter James

June 12, 2008
The fourth and newest book in the Roy Grace series by Peter James introduces the reader first to Ronnie Wilson, a Brit visiting the US and New York City to try to enlist financial assistance for his latest money-making venture, one hopefully not doomed to failure as were his past endeavors. His business meeting, after which he plans to fly back to the UK, is scheduled for 9 AM in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001.

We next, in October of 2007, meet Abby Dawson, a 27-year-old woman who has just returned from Australia to her native England, and whose background is somewhat shadowy, as we are told she has done everything she can think of to disguise her identity, describing herself as a `fugitive.'

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.The Island
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Victoria Hislop

April 10, 2006
Well what can I say, it is a holiday read that lacks depth and anything else really. For what it is, it is a mildly diverting read with a few interesting bits thrown in. Hmmm...Richard and Judy have alot to answer for.


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.The Pillars of the Earth
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Ken Follett

April 06, 2007
At over 1000 pages this is a long book. There's no doubt the plot is gripping and the characters larger than life but the same can be said about Eastenders. When the book hits top form it is very good- particularly if you are interested in the social history of the period. Some of the set-pieces and plot twists are also good value but the book is let down by characters. They are too broadly painted. Everyone is either a goody or a Pantomime villain and the predictability of their actions does start to grate. Also the whole book seems to be a never ending succession of dramas, problems or stitch-ups facing the good guys each with their triumph duly coming a few pages later. Like a dodgy actor faking an accent in a film, the tone and authenticity of ... Read More:
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.Child 44
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Tom Rob Smith

March 03, 2008
The crime plot itself may be perfuctory and less than compelling, but it is Tom Rob Smith's sense of time and place that marks this out as a thrilling debut. Stalinist Russia has never been as terrifyingly evoked in popular fiction - the constant dread and debilitating double-think cosumes the characters's souls, and the author paints this horrific society as the landscape of some surrealist horror story.

Long-listed for this year's Booker Prize, this far outshines the usual pretencious, onanistic dross that makes up the contenders for literary awards. Dark, evocative and ultimately deeply moving this is writing of the highest order, and I for one can't wait for Smith's next novel.
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.Horus Heresy: Battle for the Abyss (Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy)
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Ben Counter

August 04, 2008
We all want to read the latest Horus Heresy novels, god we do, however we really must make sure Black Library don't rush the authors otherwise books to this standard are released.

I'm a fan of Ben Counters work-really I am, I own the current Grey Knights series, Daemon World and the Soul Drinkers omnibus. I feel with that basis of knowledge of his writings I know when a story is rushed out, boy is this one of them.

Rushed being the emphasis, little plot preparation, little weight behind the characters and story and unfortunately another blip in the so far excellent Horus Heresy saga.

The story is a typical `Space Marines enduring hardships to save their brothers' clone, similar only in formula as was the much stronger ... Read More:
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.The Boleyn Inheritance
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Philippa Gregory

May 01, 2007
This novel is written from the viewpoint of three very different women - the naive yet quick-witted Anne of Cleves, the calculating Jane Boleyn and the greedy and childish Catherine Howard. They take turns by each chapter telling their view of events as they occur over a fairly brief period of time. Anne is set aside by the King in favor of Catherine, and it's the best thing that could have happened to her. She's the only one of the King's wives to survive a parting in a fairly benign (compared to the others) way.

Catherine ignores her revulsion in order to be the new Queen, all so that she can get pretty new dresses and jewels. She is completely and idiotically heedless of the dangers that await her in this vicious court and, even more stupidly, seeks comfort ... Read More:
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.Sovereign (Matthew Shardlake 3)
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: C.J. Sansom

March 16, 2007
Having read the previous Matthew Shardlake novels I was eager to read this one. I wasn't disappointed - it is easily the best one yet.

What I liked most was the brilliant evocation of the cruelty of Tudor England. The religious fanaticism has been done before, as has the treachery and power politics along with the corruption, but the way these were all melded together and the thorny subject of judicial torture thrown in it made the story basically become a lot darker.

The idea of the events taking place within the enclosed world of the Royal Progress was a nice way of taking a murder mystery staple plot device and making it relevant to the period, a kind of Tudor "Murder on the Orient Express" if you like.

CL Sansom is a very good writer, ... Read More:
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.Birdsong
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Sebastian Faulks

July 18, 1994
I don't like leaving books unfinished. I'm aware that many novels are slow-starters, and it's almost always worth persevering to the end. BUT, I think it's safe to say that I gave this total dud a fair crack of the whip. If you can give up on a book after 330 pages, it must be pretty dull indeed.

As far as the romance element was concerned, I couldn't care less. None of the characters were very sympathetic or even three dimensional. And for a writer to be able to spend so many pages describing the horrors of the trenches without moving me to a single moment of emotion - well, he must have a true talent for draining the feeling out of anything.

I honestly don't get what all the fuss is about. A truly appalling novel.
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.In the Dark
City Travel Guides > Books > General
by: Mark Billingham

August 07, 2008
So how does Mark Billingham cope in his first (almost) standalone novel outside of his D.I. Thorne series? Pretty good, actually. On the surface the subject matter might not appear all that different - London mobs and gangsters and police procedural (or lack of it since his police officers often tend to work in an "unofficial" capacity) - but freed from the restrictions of the lead D.I.'s troubled private life and the increasing banality of the supporting characters over the last few Thorne novels, In The Dark is able to take Billingham's dark exploration of the criminal underbelly of London much further.

It may not always make for pleasant reading, but Billingham's representation of the dangers on the streets of the UK today seems to be pretty accurate. Drive-by shootings, ... Read More:
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