Reading Challenge 2024

Como Cat said:
  1. Fire and Fury – Michael Wolff - 8/10
  2. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John le Carre – 8/10
  3. Act of Oblivion – Robert Harris – 2/10
  4. East West Street – Phillipe Sands – 9/10 - Clever, fascinating and desperately sad - as Rob mentions war crimes..
  5. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak - currently reading
I've bought Notes on an Execution to read next.
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2/10 for Act of Obluvion - wow, that’s harsh!
 
stoneblue said:
11/23 Outback - Patricia Wolf

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This is the debut novel by this author and as you may gather from the title it’s a thriller set in Australia. The author grew up in outback Australia and the description of the desolation and vastness of the landscape as well as the searing heat brings the setting of the book to life.

It’s a fairly routine story. 2 young German backpackers go missing and a detective, DS Lucas Walker from the city fortunately happens to be in the area on compassionate leave visiting his terminally ill grandmother. He is asked by his superiors to assist and support local police in the investigation. One of the missing backpackers has a sister in the police in Germany and she comes to the area to look for her missing sister. The local view is that the backpackers have changed their plans and are out of range and will reappear shortly, but the DS and the German policewoman are not convinced and work together on the various strands of the investigation.

If you’re a fan of Aussie noir you’ll probably enjoy this book, it’s a decent read and promising first novel, although for me not at the level of Jane Harper or Chris Hammer.
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Like crime from other countries but never read any Aussie noir. The Lost Man looks looks interesting. Going to add to my list.
 
threespires said:
Like crime from other countries but never read any Aussie noir. The Lost Man looks looks interesting. Going to add to my list.
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Como Cat said:
I thought The Dry was an excellent book, really captured small-town Australia (not that I have first hand experience!).
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I have read both of these and they are both excellent.

The film version of The Dry starring Eric Bana is also worth a watch - very faithful to the book and captures the atmosphere perfectly.
 
RobMCFC said:
2/10 for Act of Obluvion - wow, that’s harsh!
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I thought it really poor to be honest. The story itself could have been interesting but I thought the writing and plot development incredibly dull. I developed no affinity for the characters and stopped reading with about 50 pages to go. The parts where the older bloke was writing a book were almost unreadable they were so dreary. Being positive, I did learn some historical aspects to the period.
 
Como Cat said:
I thought it really poor to be honest. The story itself could have been interesting but I thought the writing and plot development incredibly dull. I developed no affinity for the characters and stopped reading with about 50 pages to go. The parts where the older bloke was writing a book were almost unreadable they were so dreary. Being positive, I did learn some historical aspects to the period.
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Yes, I agree about learning some of the historical aspects. The civil war and Cromwell era is not something I knew a great deal about before reading this.
 
I'm about a hundred pages into Notes on an Execution, definitely going to need Bob M's book afterwards for a bit of lighter relief!
 
I know one or two of us have discussed Japanese fiction before and one of this author's books was nominated for the Q2 read. I have just discovered that this is available for Kindle (and other e readers) for 99p

 
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