Laidlaw … a Review.

Enters Jack Laidlaw .. the depressive boozy detective. the Scotish answer to any hard boiled American detective. Gloomy, dark and authentic.

it is a raw book. Laidlaw the man who when asked a question the size of a snow ball answers back with an avalanche. The philosophical and knower of human nature. The one who gets crime and criminals.

A body of a girl is found in a park. Laidlaw and his side kick Harkness venture to solve the crime with an untraditional linear solution. They take the reader to the front room of the deceased house. the nightclubs of Glasgow. the bars… the whiskey.. the wooden panels.. the dark lighting and the underbelly of the city to find who killed the lassie.

Enjoying and amazing.

Mislaid by Nell Zink .. A Review

This is a 3.5 rating for this novel.

I feel the author is ambitious and I would give her credits for trying and she’s got some effort into this novel.

The main characters Lee Fleming the flamboyant poet in residence at an all girl college at Stillwater and Peggy ‘ Megan’ villiancourt a lesbian student who became his wife and then a mother and then a runaway.

Ten chapters from the 1960s till 1980s. Their children are separated and two narratives appear. The male and the female.  yet both are confused in their own ways and each one is built on lie , love , deception and devotion.

It starts as a campus novel which I wished it stayed a campus novel with booze, affair, drugs etc but it breaks into a separate narrative that didn’t allow the female to.grow she was still stuck in her sexuality. . she couldn’t express herself for fear of being exposed.

The last two chapters felt sort of boiled and not done properly. Maybe sugar coated .. too many coincidence

Though the language is beautiful and brilliant, I feel the author would a winner as a poet if she decides to go that way.

The killing of the Tinkers – Review

Jack Taylor is back. Back from London with a leather jacket. A new man on coke. one line after another. The burden of the past in The Guards the 1st book gives the background to this sequel.

A new case. tinkers are being killed. Tinkers or gypsies. Clans that move between grounds. Someone is targeting them.

The narrative mixes flashbacks from London with the present of Galway. Bruen uses the same techniques as he did in the Guards. A lot of references to books and authors. I do enjoy a fictional character that reads.

Jack Taylor is far from a perfect detective. He lives in Dante’s Hell. The past chases him. His only refuge are in books , booze and boobs. intellectual alcoholic. An Irish noir. one does sympathize with him no matter what. his humanity does shine in some instants.

Off to book 3 of the series.

Gone Girl : A Review

Gone Girl. Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Boy and Girl in love. Girl vanish… did the Boy cause the Girl to vanish?

 

Amy and Nick; two modern couple celebrating their fifth anniversary. Amy decides to play one lovely treasure hunt with her husband: not the usual treasure hunt they play every anniversary. Not the usual treasure hunt that brings back good memories; a bottle of wine, a candle lit dinner, but a treasure hunt that may make the husband the most loathed person in the area if not the country.

 

Amy and Nick; two different backgrounds. She; the daughter of affluent psychologists turned authors of Amazing Amy. Amazing Amy the alter ego of their own daughter who is righteous, and goody two shoes. Yet she is filled with hate. Deceit. Master Puppeteer.

 

Nick; the son of a family from North Carthage. A journalist. a byproduct of recession and the downfall of newspapers.

 

Both: master psychopaths. Charming and dangerous. Addicts to each others and parasites on each others. A complete yin and yang. Both are dark characters from the cesspool of humanity.

 

The novel is good. Amazing page turner and a thriller. Yet, the characterisation and development was retarded… No development in plot that makes it the IT book of 2013/ 2014.

 

A modern love story of twists, lies, deceit and attention. A tale of crocodile tears, back stabs. A tale of delusive narratives

She.. The Mistress of the NIght

She was sitting there, in the far corner of the bar basking in the ultra blue light of the bar. Legs crossed. Sheer black dress. Ruby red lipstick.

A slim cigarette in an ivory holder held firmly between her lips. Puffs of little clouds escaping with every breath.

Slightly chipped nails playing with the curls. an inwardly pressure building. an eruption of feelings. Feelings across the spectrum. The need to be held then released. Kissed and left alone under a lamp in the street. Wined and dined with no promises beyond 9pm.