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The Summer That Never Was - Peter Robinson
by darren55
The summer that never was is a crime novel in the DCI Banks series written by Peter Robinson, the books are set in North Yorkshire/West Yorkshire; however, this book is also set in Peterborough.
The summer that never was
The summer that never was tells the story of a friend of Banks' going missing when they were 14 ... years old when Banks was growing up in Peterborough. Graham Marshall a friend of Banks goes missing whilst delivering newspapers early one Sunday morning in 1965, the disappearance is never solved and Banks has had guilt over an assault he suffered a few weeks earlier by a tramp. Was the assault the first attempt by the man who would eventually kill his friend?
Fast forward to modern day, Banks is on a month's holiday on a small Greek island when he hears of the discovery of bones in Peterborough. He dashes back and offers his services to the Peterborough force to help find out what happened to his friend all those years ago, meanwhile, in Yorkshire a son of a famous model and her ex-footballer husband who's the boy's stepfather has also gone missing. Soon the missing in Yorkshire turns into a murder mystery and Banks is now involved in a murder mystery set mostly in his own memory and one set very firmly in the here and now.
Peter Robinson has a skill at constructing well balanced and believable murder mysteries in which all the loose ends come together in a satisfying way for the reader. In this novel, he attempts to write about two different Banks, one a man in his late forties a senior policeman investigating a possible abduction gone wrong and the other a 14 year old Banks obsessed with girls, sex, music and more girls.
The book doesn't exactly shift between 1965 and present day as both investigations are set in the present but the use of Banks memories and reminiscences make the Marshall investigation an investigation into growing up in the 1960's and boyhood fantasies. I'll suggest the author is a boy who grew up in the Sixties as his reminiscences are far too accurate for a younger author, in that we live through drainpipe trousers, LP's, menthol cigarettes and the first stirrings of sexual frustration. The placing of Banks in his parent's house and boyhood bedroom only adds to the sense of a time long past and that the 60's was indeed a decade of change.
The present day investigation of the disappearance and subsequent death of Luke Armitage is the main focus of the book, after all how much of a trip into the memories of a 50 year old man can you write about? Luke is the son of a pop singer who committed suicide and has artistic leanings much to his football playing step-fathers annoyance. He was last seen in the presence of a strange Goth girl, who no-one appears to recognise. This part of the book is more straightforward and set out in a classic murder mystery setting, disappearance, death, lots of questions, a few red herrings before the truth is out.
The real star of the book is the 60's disappearance, in it we are exposed to 60's sex, 60's hypocrisy and do we find out how Graham died? Read the novel and find out!
The Banks novels have become my favourites since my mum suggested the author a month or so ago, I'd say this one didn't touch the heights of a piece of my heart which I'd like to review but DooYoo won't allow book suggestions at the moment (come on DooYoo we've had 3 months now) but was better than Bad Boy. This is the third novel I've read of his and the books aren't in any kind of linear timeline but the books are written in a manner in which prior knowledge of what's happened to Banks isn't essential and you can enjoy the twists and turns in the plot.
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The Shakespeare Curse - J L Carrell
by AmyAmy
As an admirer of Shakespeare's work,I practically dived on The Shakespeare Curse when I saw it in The Works some six months ago. However, despite my initial attraction to the book, I've only just got round to reading it. Well, trying to read it! I must admit, I was hugely disappointed...
It was the paperback book's cover that ... attracted me to it initially: it has a main dark blue-grey colour, with an eerie image of a gateway and an arch. A female figure stands, small, in the centre. Nothing is immediately given away, and you're instantly asking yourself "what is the Shakespeare curse?'. Credit where it is due, the cover is good. It's a sad fact that the pleasures stop here.
In theory, the plot sounds quite interesting. Kate is asked to help direct Lady Nairn's latest play, which she is using to showcase her late husbands Macbeth collection. However, Lady Nairn is also trying to piece together the mysterious circumstances which resulted in her husband's death, and this is something Kate, who also holds vast knowledge of Shakespeare and his work, can help with. Then, when Kate sees, or thinks she sees, a dead body on the hilltop, mysterious events begin to church themselves out...
'Churn' being the key word there. It felt as if something out of the ordinary was happening every second page. Yes, the plot needs to keep us hooked, but the events just seem silly and undeveloped. They're over in a matter of a page or two - and that's a big thing since the writing is quite large in the book - and then a few moments later, something else pops up. Perhaps this calms down nearer the end, but there was no way I was able to read past a third of the book. I do not feel like I should have to persevere for such a sizeable amount; the whole book should be riveting.
I did not connect with any of the characters. I felt some were rather weak, not even 'stock', just weak, and didn't particularly like any of them. The writer, J. L. Carrell, certainly knows Shakespeare's work, but when every second or third sentence (and I'm only barely being hyperbolic here) is throwing some fact or myth at you, it's a lot to handle. It's almost as if the high amount history and facts is trying to make up for the poor plot development, but it just doesn't work.
Thankfully, I bought this book in a '3 for £5' in The Works, - which would have been £1.99 on its own - so it's not a massive loss of money. The 498-page book really is not worth the money at all. I'm very disappointed as it sounded like something I would really love; it caters to my love of literary history, my love of witchcraft and darkness, and also my love of murder mystery and crime. However, the weak characters, poor development, and excess of facts means that it is simply not something that I can engage with in any which way. Next time I need a Macbeth fix, I think I will just read the play itself. Needless to say, it's so much more exciting than The Shakespeare Curse.
Amy 2012
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Hide - Lisa Gardner
by cazkins
I came across this in the library and knew that Gardner was a highly rated crime author, and having read some of her stuff before too made me look forward to reading it. I'm glad I did because it was enjoyable from the beginning and one I'd recommend.
On the front cover is the tagline 'You really don't want him to find you', ... and flipping the book to the back cover provides some praise for other Gardner books. This fits in to the crime thriller genre and this is where the author has some expertise having written many previously that have been given positive reviews. We're introduced to detective Bobby Dodge and his partner in the current investigation, D.D. She's not the easiest of detectives to warm to, but we're given a little insight in to Dodge's life from the beginning, learning of how one of his first solved crimes from 25 years ago involving a woman named Catherine still haunts him.
In the present, an underground hidey hole chamber has been discovered at a disued mental hospital. Inside, it houses 6 mummified corpses that have turned in to such a condition because they've been left inside plastic bags on a shelf for who knows how long. This crime, the chamber and what was inside, echos an earlier crime. With a link to Catherine, from something she was victim to many years ago, the first thought is a possible copycat killer as the original perpetrator has been behind bars. The other question is who the unnamed women are in the chamber; being unrecognisable, the only clue is a necklace found around the neck of one victim, belonging to an 'Annabelle Granger'. Upon hearing about her apparent death, Annabelle Granger turns up at the police station; it seems she gave that necklace to a friend many years ago, and that it's definitely not her in the pit when she's still very much alive.
So now we have a link to an old crime and a possible link to Granger, who in herself is a protagonist. We learn of her life, a strange life on the run with her parents who feared a bogeyman was out to get their precious daughter. The ramblings of worried parents gone too far, or some truth in their worries? With both parents now dead and Annabelle still running, Detective Dodge and D.D. have a lot of mystery to unravel, victims to give a name to, and a killer to hunt down.
I won't say any more on the premise except that it iss original and quite intelligently done, requiring some thought to put the pieces together as they start to fall in to place. Everything that seems to make plausible sense is questioned but eventually the premise become clearer, with Gardner keeping us up to speed with what's going on and who's who. The web of characters increases but I didn't find myself getting too confused or lost because of the way the author was able to make things clear as she went along.
As for the atmosphere, it was, for the most part, relatively dark but because there didn't seem to be a ticking clock for another murder, it had a slower pace perhaps than some crime thrillers. It was still able to create vivid scenes and characters, and draw you in with a gripping premise that made you want to know how it would all eventually end.
The novel was easy to read as it flowed well, being an 'easy' read in the sense that it was enjoyable and fluid to move from page to page whilst being absorbed in the characters and premise. I liked the characters, even the ones we were supposed to feel a bit colder towards like D.D., because Gardner helped to give us some background to their motivations and perspectives. There were times, however, where I felt their depth could have been a little greater and the relationships between them a bit more developed. For instance, something happens between two characters that I had half expected, but didn't think it was explained or made to feel real enough to have a realistic feel to it. This may have been because there was quite a lot of focus on Annabelle at the expense of other areas. However, I still liked the development of her as a character because it made her easier to relate to, to imagine to scenes and what she was going through, which was further developed by having some chapters from Annabelle's first person perspective.
My other little niggle with this was that there seemed to be one loose end that wasn't tied up at the end. Although it was left reasonably well at the end, having an explanation and ending for at least the main characters (Ie Dodge and Annabelle), there was a piece of the storyline that didn't seem to be completed, which was a bit disappointing when considering the overall 'well roundedness' of the novel.
Overall, however, I found this an enjoyable read that was easy to get in to and gripping enough that it made me want to keep reading to find out what would happen next without having guessed it early on (which is always a bonus!).
38 chapters over 372 pages (Hardback)
Paperback selling on Amazon for £5.24
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