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Books read in July / August
Sep. 1st, 2013 09:06 amSo, as I did last year, for the foreseeable future (i.e. until I get bored with them) I'll be tackling novels longlisted for this year's Crime Writers Association Dagger Awards. There are three categories I'll be concentrating on - the CWA Gold Dagger for the Best Crime Novel of the Year, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the Best Thriller of the Year, and the CWA John Creasey Dagger for the Best New Crime Writer of the Year. (The four finalists in each category have been announced since I started my read-a-thon.) But first...
12) She Died A Lady by 'Carter Dickson'
13) High Heat by Lee Child
12) Another visit to the wonderful second hand bookshop in Alton, so another John Dickson Carr potboiling puzzler, that springs its solutions to the impossible crimes committed out of left-field. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite convinced that the characters JDC portrays could be quite as ingenious or clever as JDC himself in contriving his impossible crime scenario. Still, I did enjoy the setting (the Home Front in 1940, as the tide of war is turning against Britain) and there are some wonderful chapter endings that beg the reader to turn the page, such as:
"Look here, " he said, "Who cut the telephone wires?"
But it wasn't until the post-mortem that we learned how they had really died.
"I see miss, " he agreed, grimly. "Quicksand."
13) Is the latest Jack Reacher novella – and it turns out to be the best one to date. Solid entertainment, that ticks all the boxes (action, suspense, romance) but is also (unlike a few of Child's recent efforts) pretty funny too.
14) Ghostman by Roger Hobbs (Steel, shortlisted / John Creasey ,longlisted)
This is an assured debut that has some fun with the mechanics of pulling off a heist, an anti- hero who prefers to think his way out of tight corners, and an enjoyable resemblance to thrillers by John Grisham and Lee Child. I suspect the author likes Michael Mann’s “Heat” as much as I do, because the influences are fairly obvious.
12) She Died A Lady by 'Carter Dickson'
13) High Heat by Lee Child
12) Another visit to the wonderful second hand bookshop in Alton, so another John Dickson Carr potboiling puzzler, that springs its solutions to the impossible crimes committed out of left-field. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite convinced that the characters JDC portrays could be quite as ingenious or clever as JDC himself in contriving his impossible crime scenario. Still, I did enjoy the setting (the Home Front in 1940, as the tide of war is turning against Britain) and there are some wonderful chapter endings that beg the reader to turn the page, such as:
"Look here, " he said, "Who cut the telephone wires?"
But it wasn't until the post-mortem that we learned how they had really died.
"I see miss, " he agreed, grimly. "Quicksand."
13) Is the latest Jack Reacher novella – and it turns out to be the best one to date. Solid entertainment, that ticks all the boxes (action, suspense, romance) but is also (unlike a few of Child's recent efforts) pretty funny too.
14) Ghostman by Roger Hobbs (Steel, shortlisted / John Creasey ,longlisted)
This is an assured debut that has some fun with the mechanics of pulling off a heist, an anti- hero who prefers to think his way out of tight corners, and an enjoyable resemblance to thrillers by John Grisham and Lee Child. I suspect the author likes Michael Mann’s “Heat” as much as I do, because the influences are fairly obvious.
