Reading Challenge 2024
- Thread starter RobMCFC
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jimmy blue shoes
Well-Known Member
Just ordered it on your recommendation. I'll read it next.
Just started The Secret History by Donna Tartt, my 15 year old daughter insisted I read it. Don't really know what to expect but I promised I'd give it a go.
JRockBlues
Well-Known Member
Maine Man: The Tony Book Story by Tony Book and David Clayton
Autobiography of the former Manchester City player, manager, coach and pretty much everything in between. Details his life from a short time in India as a child (father was an army man) through his initial beginnings of a football career playing for his local miners team before moving on to non-league Batch City, eventually getting his break at Plymouth before cracking the big time at the age of 32 with Manchester City. This is a pretty straight forward account with no juicy tidbits scattered within. Skip, as he is affectionately known, isn’t that sort of guy. 3½★'s
Anything For You by Saul Black*
Third book in the Valerie Hart series sees the homicide detective is on the trail of what seems an easy open and shut case. A prominent DA, Adam Grant, has been murdered and his wife left with wounds that require surgery. There’s plenty of evidence at the scene pointing to a former felon who Grant prosecuted and who has now been released. The problem is that he’s disappeared completely. The investigation gets a little more complicated when it appears that victim and suspect have a woman in common and she doesn’t really fit in with either of their lives.
The opening of the book is quite sexually explicit but is nothing out of the ordinary for this author. While it probably could have been written around it’s not out of place for a book like this. There are two timelines to the story with one following the investigation from Valerie’s end and the other from an unnamed woman leading up to the event itself. Chapter headings give dates to help keep track. While this is a self-contained story and you don’t need to have read the previous books in the series I think they would help to understand Valerie’s character and relationships a lot more if you have done. 4★'s
*A pseudonym of [[Glen Duncan]]
Autobiography of the former Manchester City player, manager, coach and pretty much everything in between. Details his life from a short time in India as a child (father was an army man) through his initial beginnings of a football career playing for his local miners team before moving on to non-league Batch City, eventually getting his break at Plymouth before cracking the big time at the age of 32 with Manchester City. This is a pretty straight forward account with no juicy tidbits scattered within. Skip, as he is affectionately known, isn’t that sort of guy. 3½★'s
Anything For You by Saul Black*
Third book in the Valerie Hart series sees the homicide detective is on the trail of what seems an easy open and shut case. A prominent DA, Adam Grant, has been murdered and his wife left with wounds that require surgery. There’s plenty of evidence at the scene pointing to a former felon who Grant prosecuted and who has now been released. The problem is that he’s disappeared completely. The investigation gets a little more complicated when it appears that victim and suspect have a woman in common and she doesn’t really fit in with either of their lives.
The opening of the book is quite sexually explicit but is nothing out of the ordinary for this author. While it probably could have been written around it’s not out of place for a book like this. There are two timelines to the story with one following the investigation from Valerie’s end and the other from an unnamed woman leading up to the event itself. Chapter headings give dates to help keep track. While this is a self-contained story and you don’t need to have read the previous books in the series I think they would help to understand Valerie’s character and relationships a lot more if you have done. 4★'s
*A pseudonym of [[Glen Duncan]]
Just finished Spark City by Robert J Power a fantastic read couldn’t put my ebook down! Now on book two..
Erroh has a plan. A simple plan. It’ll never work.
He’s a warrior destined for a life of duty and tradition. By birth-right, the mysterious trials of The Cull await him; a chance to win the greatest prize Spark City can offer. However, he’d rather spend his days drinking, gambling and travelling the roads as a solitary wanderer.
But war is on the horizon and although he doesn’t know it yet, Erroh is standing in the way of the first wave.
Across great distances and facing brutal obstacles, he will call upon the warrior within to hunt down those who endanger the world he once rejected.
And he won’t be alone.
Spark City is the first book in Robert J Power’s #1 bestselling coming of age fantasy series. With its character driven story, epic battles, and dark humour, Spark City has won a devoted readership and earned comparisons to fantasy masters Joe Abercrombie, David Gemmell and Brandon Sanderson.
Robert J Power
Author Robert J Power's complete list of books and series in order, with the latest releases, covers, descriptions and availability.
www.fantasticfiction.com
Erroh has a plan. A simple plan. It’ll never work.
He’s a warrior destined for a life of duty and tradition. By birth-right, the mysterious trials of The Cull await him; a chance to win the greatest prize Spark City can offer. However, he’d rather spend his days drinking, gambling and travelling the roads as a solitary wanderer.
But war is on the horizon and although he doesn’t know it yet, Erroh is standing in the way of the first wave.
Across great distances and facing brutal obstacles, he will call upon the warrior within to hunt down those who endanger the world he once rejected.
And he won’t be alone.
Spark City is the first book in Robert J Power’s #1 bestselling coming of age fantasy series. With its character driven story, epic battles, and dark humour, Spark City has won a devoted readership and earned comparisons to fantasy masters Joe Abercrombie, David Gemmell and Brandon Sanderson.
JRockBlues
Well-Known Member
Those are some weighty names to live up to.
stoneblue
Well-Known Member
7/23 In at the Kill - Gerald Seymour
Gerald Seymour is a writer of political / spy thrillers. Older Bluemooners may remember him, he was a news reporter for ITN for 15 years, then became a full time writer. His first, and probably most famous book, was Harry’s Game, set during the troubles in Northern Ireland, which was made into a tv series, the theme tune for which introduced Clannad to a wider audience.
However, I digress. The central character in this book is Jonas Merrick and this is the third one in the series. I haven’t read either of the first two but l don’t think that it’s necessary to have done so. There are references to his back story in this book which presumably is recounted in the earlier books.
I nearly gave up on this book at first. There are several threads to the plot and at the start the author is dropping bits of each thread and introducing characters and I found it difficult to get a handle on what was going on. I decided to persevere and as the book progresses the characters and plot strands become more defined and an intriguing plot develops. Jonas Merrick works on crime for the secret service, specifically OCGs (Organised Crime Gangs). The story involves a consignment of cocaine heading to Galicia (from S America) where a family awaits, and an ambitious crime family from Liverpool (where else!). Jonas has a man on the inside in Spain but manages to annoy various strands of the service and police by keeping details of an impending bust to himself.
I’m glad that I decided to stick with the book, like most of Seymour’s books it’s very readable and I can recommend it. Will try and get hold of the first two books.
Gerald Seymour is a writer of political / spy thrillers. Older Bluemooners may remember him, he was a news reporter for ITN for 15 years, then became a full time writer. His first, and probably most famous book, was Harry’s Game, set during the troubles in Northern Ireland, which was made into a tv series, the theme tune for which introduced Clannad to a wider audience.
However, I digress. The central character in this book is Jonas Merrick and this is the third one in the series. I haven’t read either of the first two but l don’t think that it’s necessary to have done so. There are references to his back story in this book which presumably is recounted in the earlier books.
I nearly gave up on this book at first. There are several threads to the plot and at the start the author is dropping bits of each thread and introducing characters and I found it difficult to get a handle on what was going on. I decided to persevere and as the book progresses the characters and plot strands become more defined and an intriguing plot develops. Jonas Merrick works on crime for the secret service, specifically OCGs (Organised Crime Gangs). The story involves a consignment of cocaine heading to Galicia (from S America) where a family awaits, and an ambitious crime family from Liverpool (where else!). Jonas has a man on the inside in Spain but manages to annoy various strands of the service and police by keeping details of an impending bust to himself.
I’m glad that I decided to stick with the book, like most of Seymour’s books it’s very readable and I can recommend it. Will try and get hold of the first two books.
JRockBlues
Well-Known Member
Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
The ninth book in the urban fantasy/police procedural series finds DC Peter Grant getting ready to become a dad but a new case arrives for the Folly to deal with before he goes on paternity leave. A murder has been committed at the London Silver Vaults and there are enough oddities about it to call in the Special Assessment Unit. Despite being a highly surveilled area the murderer has vanished without a trace and nobody around the scene seems to know what happened. Investigations lead Peter and the team to Manchester and Derbyshire before returning back to London but can they solve the crime before the twins arrive?
Always nice to spend time in the company of familiar characters and that’s what Peter and the gang have become. The re-appearance of Leslie May doesn’t hinder either and helps lift a fairly average mystery that little bit higher. This feels very much like a transitional book for what is to follow in the series, especially with Nightingale’s pronouncement at the end. Will be interesting to see where it heads and also offers opportunities for more spin-off novella’s. Not the best book in the series but it keeps me invested. 3½★'s
The ninth book in the urban fantasy/police procedural series finds DC Peter Grant getting ready to become a dad but a new case arrives for the Folly to deal with before he goes on paternity leave. A murder has been committed at the London Silver Vaults and there are enough oddities about it to call in the Special Assessment Unit. Despite being a highly surveilled area the murderer has vanished without a trace and nobody around the scene seems to know what happened. Investigations lead Peter and the team to Manchester and Derbyshire before returning back to London but can they solve the crime before the twins arrive?
Always nice to spend time in the company of familiar characters and that’s what Peter and the gang have become. The re-appearance of Leslie May doesn’t hinder either and helps lift a fairly average mystery that little bit higher. This feels very much like a transitional book for what is to follow in the series, especially with Nightingale’s pronouncement at the end. Will be interesting to see where it heads and also offers opportunities for more spin-off novella’s. Not the best book in the series but it keeps me invested. 3½★'s