TNR #4 - Sophie Hannah - Point of Rescue
I was pleased on my trip to see Sophie Hannah's 'Little Face' available in almost all the bookshops I visited, but having read it, I was really looking for 'Point of Rescue'. I finally found that book, delightfully, at Heathrow, so I could buy it and read it while in Germany.
She is a very pleasant writer to read, with great sentences, and an overdose of delicate humour (no doubt the poet showing through). As in 'Little Face' the plot centres on identity confusions and child-rearing, in very interesting ways.
A mother appears to kill her daughter and herself, and this winds up connecting with the disappearance of another family, and a bit of an odd fling by one frustrated woman who rewards herself a little too much with some time off.
It was a delight to have Charlie and Simon back. I am curious to read the next book to see what becomes of their wedding 'plans'.
The plot I found a little too complicated for my reading style when travelling - a snippet here, a snippet there, etc. More trivial writers satisfy that need better. But I never really minded rolling back a few pages to remind me where we were, as each sentence is a lot of fun to read.
She left entertaining clues all over the place though in the end I did feel the identification of the villain was perhaps a bit of a deus ex machina.
But I will be back for the next one.
Labels: Point of Rescue, Sophie Hannah, TNR
TNR #3 - Janet Evanovich - Motor Mouth
What great timing to find this on sale at a Motorway service stop in the UK. The same smartass as in her Stephanie Plum novels, though this one centres around NASCAR and Alexandra Barnaby. The timing was perfect - I started reading it as all the Sarah Palin stuff hit the media, and Evanovich hits perfectly the spirit of the Palin world, which I think is at least a bit the NASCAR world.
The plot is ridiculous, and funny, but it really is hard to call her books crime novels. They are plays on American culture, and its staggering diversity, not the diversity they talk about in Universities and the HR departments of large organizations, but that on the ground.
She is ribald, skeptical, entertaining. Here a body is found in the back of a NASCAR trailer, and the consequences take us through south Miami, parts of North Carolina, but never Harvard or Yale.
I am posting these to help me in the future not buy this book again. For luggage weight reasons, I left it in the Meininger Ho(s)tel in Koeln.
If you move really fast they might let you take it!
Labels: Janet Evanovich, Motor Mouth, TNR
TNR #2
Sam Bourne - The Final Reckoning
A man is shot by mistake at the UN and the hero explores his background. Naturally, the dead man's daughter is a major babe, and the dead man has a past, and there is sex and stuff.
I never did finish this one. Just left it in my hotel room.
Labels: Sam Bourne, The Final Reckoning, TNR
Trash Novel Review #1 - A New Series (Hereafter TNR)
Tess Gerritsen's "The Bone Garden".
Pros:
Excellent portrayal of the poor options for women in the nineteenth century and a fascinating portrayal of the horrendous conditions in hospitals, especially for women giving birth.
Cons:
Not really much of a mystery and not much of a love story.
I am glad I read it - I finished it and left it with a friend, and I do not torture friends.
(The main purpose of this series is to help me avoid buying a trash novel twice, though I doubt I will have a live WiFi connection as I am making such decisions.)
Labels: Garden of Bones, Tess Gerritsen, TNR
