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Jan 28, 2010

The Bricklayer, Noah Boyd

Steve Vail aka Bricklayer. That’s his trade not his codename. After an abortive career in the FBI in which he proved his efficiency at catching bad guys and his complete disregard for the red tape that makes the bureau run, the FBI were happy to see the back of him.

Now they need him.

A ruthless group of extortionists are targeting the FBI. The bureau keeps trying to hand over the money but their agents keep dying and the price for preventing the next murder keeps rising. With the body count at three civilians, and one agent and another awol with $2 million in ransom money they call Vail in to track down their missing agent. Vail knows it’ll all end in tears but for now the suits at the bureau are having to play by his rules and Vail always gets results. Clear some time on your schedule once you start reading this you’ll find it hard to stop.

Jan 27, 2010

212 - Alafair Burke

Never read her before but she writes the kind of twisty NYPD mysteries I can really sink my teeth into. She doesn't overstate the violence. To paraphrase Shakespeare the case's the thing. Comes out in April - full review then.

Jan 25, 2010

Freedom tm

When I read 'Daemon' last year - it cried out for a sequel. Freedom tm (as in trademarked) is it. All the characters from the previous book are back but instead of fighting the Daemon they've joined it. Corporate America is trying to hack into the Daemon to gain control of the people and even the government. Dead computer genius Sobol (yes dead, you'll have to read the first book as it's too much to explain here) gives former Detective Pete Seebeck a quest, to find the 'cloud gate'. If he succeeds then humanity has won it's freedom from the Daemon. Failure means humanity is doomed. If you are a fan of massively multiplayer online gaming or know someone who is they will love this book. The tech, the concepts Suarez uses are all top notch.

On a side note, yesterday I finished my first full draft of the second book, it's going out for comment this week.

Jan 22, 2010

Bryant and May on the Loose

At the close of 'The Victoria Vanishes' the Peculiar Crimes Unit were thrust into limbo by the scheming Home Secretary despite solving the case. Now the band is back together again, stumbling over a murder close to London's gateway to Europe a vast development project that doesn't need any adverse publicity with the 2012 Olympics fast approaching. The Home Office require PCU's unique talents but there's a catch.

No computer access or official recognition, rented premises that leak -and may have been used for devil worship - and worse no working toilets. PCU are hunting a killer who has steeped himself in the myths and legends surrounding the King's Cross area and the Old St Pancras Church. The re-formed PCU must have the case solved by the end of the week. It's a question of what will get them first, the killer, the home office or pneumonia.

Bryant and May will return in 'Off the Rails' next year.

Jan 21, 2010

My most surreal moment of the year so far

As mentioned in the previous post, our first big event of the year was last night and after all the books had been signed we - the staff - went up one at a time and introduced ourselves. Audrey was saying to our manager that she should start with Christopher Eccleston. Me being a huge Dr Who fan I jumped in and we had an very interesting chat about David Tennant, Steven Moffat and whether Matt Smith is going to be any good as the new Doctor.

Earlier in the afternoon I defended Heat Wave by putting one of my name bookmarks in our remaining copy. We all think that Castle or rather his stunt double Nathan should come and do a booksigning.

I have the two arcs I was after, 212 and Freedom tm - the follow-up to Daemon, plus one I requested from the publishers called Vienna Secret by Frank Tallis and I'm closing in on the end of my second manuscript.

Jan 20, 2010

Audrey Niffengger comes to town

Big night tonight - we've got Audrey Niffenegger coming I'm hoping I get the chance to hear her read...

Started reading 'Bryant and May On the Loose' yesterday just as good as the others in the series and several times I laughed out loud. Fowler's mysteries are deliciously complex and unlike many I read I don't try and solve the case in my head as I'm reading. I know that at the end things will make sense and it gives you an insight into the darker side of London.

Jan 18, 2010

Follow me

I already have google analytics set up on this page but blogger have added this cool 'follow' tool. So if you want to have your smiling face on my blog - now you can.

Monday Roundup

Netherland done and dusted - will save my comments for book club as the title has been out in paper for ages. Read the Nikki Heat book in one sitting, good story, nice pacing, I think 'Richard Castle' should write another one. Also reading Birdman - the first of Mo Hayder's Jack Caffrey books - gritty would be an understatement. I read an interview with Hayder the other day and the following excerpt made me laugh out loud

"While staying with my brother at our father's farmhouse in the south of France, we had a competition to see who could read the most of Ulysses before he/she lost the will to live. I won at 96 pages. Victorious, I threw the book out of the window and nearly killed the neighbor, who'd been in dispute with my father for years over a boundary. Sorry, I'm a heathen, but I believe nearly killing that irritating git was the greatest contribution Ulysses ever made to the human race."

There are a couple of arcs I want to get my hands on but they haven't been assigned yet. 212 by Alafair Burke and the follow up to Suarez's Damon. Oh and I picked up a copy of the new Bryant and May - Bryant and May on the Loose by Christopher Fowler.

Jan 13, 2010

Random musings

Finished Heresy - out next month. I'm no historian - as some of you know! but this felt like a pretty accurate portrayal of the period. I am so glad I wasn't around back then when reading the wrong books was a crime and religious persecution was brutal and guaranteed to reunite you with your chosen deity - and that was the men. Women were treated more like end-tables than human beings. Grrr.

Now I have to read Netherland for book club.

Jan 9, 2010

In between arcs

I used my bonus this week to buy the following, 2010 Guide to Literary Agents, Drive by Daniel Pink, Birdman by Mo Hayder and - guilty pleasure Heat Wave by 'Rick Castle'

Drive, Daniel Pink's new book is a study of what motivates us and it is a fascinating read. Anyone who enjoyed his Whole New Mind will lap this up. Nearly finished the last Spellman arc, I will be sorry to see the back of Izzy and I hope that Lisa Lutz can come up with another set of unique characters for her next series whatever that may be.

Jan 3, 2010

Thoughts on The Bellringers

The Bellringers by Henry Porter (goes by the title The Dying Light in UK see previous post for the review) is one of those books that stays with you long after you've finished it. It goes around in your head, what if, what if. Suppose the government was beholden to a business magnate and allowed him to plant software in all government systems that mined the data about every person in the country and deduced their actions and fined or punished them accordingly using the police as their visible arm. You may be reading this shaking your head thinking oh she's really gone off the deep end this time but I haven't I'm being realistic.

Did you know that in the UK alone we have enough CCTV cameras to plot the route of your night out from your front door into the pub or club or house and back home again. Not all speed cameras have license plate recognition but on the major arteries and especially in the capital they do. Most of our transactions are computerized. That dullard Brown - the parachuted in UK prime minister - is about to bring in an ID card system and he's pushing for those intrusive body scanners at UK airports. All in the name of 'safety'. Porter points out in his afterword that he's just theorizing but all the measures and the tech he talks about in Bellringers already exists. While we were in UK the Daily Mail reported on a heavy handed group of police who confiscated the cameras of members of the public at the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham in Norfolk. Click on the title link above for the story, makes you think doesn't it....

Bellringers - Henry Porter

Church bells are rung as a warning of invasion but it isn't the Germans that concern these Bellringers. It's the 21st century and Britain is one election away from becoming a police state. The public have fallen into complacency and it's up to a small band of decent hard working folk, a spook, some lawyers and a couple of honest members of government to rouse them from their slumber before its too late. But Eden White's people will stop at nothing not even murder to achieve their aims and with the prime minister calling a snap general election which will bring parliament to a close and their leader gravely ill the Bellringers are running out of time.

Ooops my bad I was so keen to review this book that I didn't check the publication date - it doesn't come out until Feb!

Jan 1, 2010

Thereby Hangs a Tail, Spencer Quinn

The doggy detective is back! The world must be a strange place from a dog’s eye view. Chet hears what humans say but can’t always take it literally. He wishes he knew what tin futures were and why he and Bernie have to visit Mr Singh at the pawn shop again. And Chet’s hungry to get his teeth into more perps pant legs. The Little Detective Agency has a new case, protecting Princess the showdog from death threats. But the case is no joke when Princess and her owner are dog-knapped and shortly afterwards Bernie’s reporter squeeze Suzie vanishes after calling Bernie for help. Soon Chet’s up to his muzzle in Italian Counts, missing partners, gun wielding motorcyclists and crazy hippies with the odd tasty tennis ball thrown in. Can Chet and Bernie solve the case and more importantly will Chet ever nail that javelina?

Paris Under Water, Jeffrey H Jackson

The true story of the devastating floods of 1910, when the lifeblood of Paris, the Seine, inundated the city of light and the surrounding region, cutting it off from the world. Jackson charts the course of this natural disaster and how the French handled it. Of course there are stories of looters and price gouging but Parliament, the military, the emergency services and the French people themselves came together as never before to save their city from drowning. Jackson points out that the floods served as a dress rehearsal for the first world war.

NB I’ve changed this review slightly because I mistakenly wrote that the floods didn’t last more than a week, they lasted a lot longer. Jackson has only documented this period.

Skin, Mo Hayder

Skin takes place the week after the conclusion of Operation Norway and DI Jack Caffrey can’t seem to let the case go. He’s convinced there’s someone – something - they missed. Jack thinks Sergeant Flea Marley knows it too but she’s got her own problems and so has the force. Footballer’s wife Misty Kitson has gone missing. She was in rehab and now she’s dropped off the map completely. Jack’s boss wants him focused on the high profile case but Jack has zeroed in on a rash of apparent suicides that he suspects are something else entirely.
In the meantime Flea is acting strangely, spending time in her garage, running up a massive electricity bill, turning up at crime scenes when she’s supposed to be sick, fighting with her weasel of a brother and his scary girlfriend.

Jack’s got himself into a hole, literally and Flea is about to put her talents to a use they were never designed for. Hayder’s given us a police procedural with plenty of twists, turns, cover-ups and a callous betrayal that could reduce Flea’s family obligations to nil. Can’t wait for the next in the series.

Bloodroot, Amy Greene

Myra Jean Lamb is an much a part of Bloodroot Mountain as the trees and the mountain itself. She has ‘the touch’ with animals but maybe not so much with people. She’s a beauty but also a little wild and wildness when confined can turn to madness.

Myra’s life told through the voices of her grandmother, her grown up twins, her beautiful but evil husband John and by Myra herself, is tough and compelling and when other people are deciding what is best for you and how they can make you more like them it is never going to end well. Starting during the great depression and leading all the way up to the present day this is a tale of magic, madness, deep family ties and even deeper family secrets.

The First Rule, Robert Crais

Frank ‘the tank’ Meyer died trying to defend his family during a home invasion robbery. The police and ATF agents go straight to Joe Pike. Frank and Joe worked together during Pike’s mercenary days and in the spirit of no man left behind Pike tasks himself to find and deal with the killers. His investigation points him at the eastern bloc mob culture of fraud and prostitution invading the bright lights of LA.

Agent Walsh of the ATF thinks Meyer’s clothing import business was a front for gun running. Pike, with help from PI partner Elvis Cole uncovers another reason the Meyers and their nanny were targeted and while Pike goes on a one-man wrecking spree to get the Serbian’s mob attention Cole covers his back.

Pike is zeroing in on the men who killed Frank Meyer and he promised Agent Walsh he’d stay his trigger finger but there’s an innocent life at stake and Pike’s going to have blood on his hands either way.

Gutshot Straight, Lou Berney

Charles Bouchon aka Shake fresh out of prison with nothing but $500 and the clothes the cops arrested him in 15 months ago. Ready to go straight – after one last job.

On his way to Vegas with a package in the trunk Shake pulls over to fix a flat and finds his special delivery is cute little mormon housewife Gina. Soon Shake is chasing Gina’s tail, she blew out of town with his heart and a briefcase full of bizarre religious relics.

Hard on their heels are a vengeful, rather jealous Armenian mob boss and her bodyguard plus ‘The Whale’ a mean Las Vegas mobster and his muscle. Shake and Gina flee to Panama ready to deal for a cool $5 million, but this game is rigged and somebody is about to lose big.

Happy New Decade

Back in the US after what can only be described as a really good run of luck. Apart from having trouble staying awake I'm ready for 2010. I'll post a bunch of reviews in just a moment but just a quick mention of the Andy McDermott series featuring Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase - perfect on-plane reading! I didn't actually start Tomb of Hercules until the jet bridge froze at Manchester leaving us stuck on the plane (hey it could've been worse the flights behind us got diverted to Amsterdam!) Having finished that one I went in search of the next three - only managed to buy two - and I found them on our return trip at Manchester airport. The Hunt for Excalibur was dispatched on the flight back to Atlanta. I had to take a couple of breaks - not because the book was running out of steam - I was! These are action adventures with a bit of ancient history thrown in and a great back story and unlike a lot of this type of novel they are set in the present and use technology that exists. If you're a fan of Matt Reilly's Jack West series or know someone who is then these are for you.