I read this for two reasons. firstly i like both FAye and Jonathan Kellerman and he is their son and secondly it was recommended on Richard and Judy and some of the other recommendations of theirs have been good. This wasn't!
It was a real struggle to feel anything for any of the characters at all as the book was all over the place. I don't usually bother these days past chapter one unless i have been grabbed. I made an exception in this case - I shouldn't have.
Once I got further in, and it took me weeks to finish it, an unheard of time I can tell you, usually I am through them at a rate of knots, I was determined to finish it. The ending was really disappointing though.
If you want a good book to read, don't pick this one!

Artic Chill. Arnaldur Indridason. Harvill Secker. ISBN: 9781846550652

Icelandic police procedural. Well written and translated. No high drama but plenty of life.

There is a strong sense of realism, no magnificent feats of detection, no heroics, plenty of human frailty and weakness.

I was amused that the Icelandic people have exactly the same complaints about the police and immigration as you will hear in this country.

Though the books featuring Erlendur and Sigurdur Óli are sequential they can be read out of order with no ill effect.

Without giving too much away the plot involves a murder (of course) racism and child abuse with a back plot involving Erlendur’s childhood.

All is not as it appears to be, watch for red-herrings.

This was A Richard and Judy Boook Club Summer Read. It did not seem like holiday reading to me.

I will tell you what it says on the back of the jacket.

Sometimes the worst prisons we build are not of stone ...

Leaving behind his father's tragic failures, Gabriel Swift arrives in London in 1826 to study with Edwin Poll, the great anatomist. But finds himself drawn to his master's nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city's resurrectionists and govenor of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by Poll, Gabriel is pulled into the sinister and mysterious underworld of Georgian London - and must make a journey that will change his life for ever.

"An earthy, brooding Gothic horror... Gory at times, philosophical at others, this is atmospheric stuff"

I did read the book all the way through, at times not quite believing what I was reading!
Burke and Hares story has been told many times on T.V., so I knew it "went on", but the book was a bit too close for comfort. Read it and see what you think.

City of Tiny Lights. Patrick Neate. Penguin 2006 ISBN: 0141009071

I have not come across Patrick Neate before and had I not been pressed to grab something to read as the library was closing probably never would have.

The main character is a private detective of Pakistan-Uganda origin, called Tommy Akhtar, with a love of cricket, Bourbon and cigarettes but not always in that order.

The plot revolves around two hookers, one of them missing, a murdered M.P. and the P.I.s family.

Set in London against the background of the threat of terrorism.

The story took off slowly and took me some time to get involved in the plot and back story. Once I got involved though I finished it off in one sitting.

The writer uses some unusual but effective strategies. Though there is a fair amount of bad language this is used with the aid of asterisks, a method though dated, which sets the tone and illustrates the cultural objection that the character (and perhaps the author) has to swearing.

There are a couple of occasions when characters get out of seemingly impossible situations but the writer does not fall into the trap of offering desperate explanations for their escape, no large cheques from unknown aunts in Australia or the like, instead you are left to wonder how with no detriment.

Under the lightish main plot is a heavy political message that deserves more thought. 

A book closer to light and entertaining rather than profound and thought provoking. Just the job after a busy day unless you consider the political undertones in which case expect to have your preconceptions rattled.

Been having a quiet day today, on the sette with feet up. Started ready this book after lunch and had finished it before tea time!

It is a short book internet, it appears there are those who liked it and those who didn't.
It is not historically accurate, but why let that get in the way of a good story. It provoked a lot of thought.

The book was written by John Boyne.

I have just finished reading the Impressionist by Hari Kunzru.

A facinating book, which starts off in India, at the time that the British Raj was coming to an end. The "hero" keeps changing into different personna. The story is told from the perspective of Indians, which is quite different from the usual stories from the English point of view.

Without giving away the plot, the story moves on to Bombay, then London and Oxford, but the final chapters centre on Africa.

When I have read a book, I like to look it up on the Internet, to find out about the author.
Then to read reviews or study guides of the book. This proved to be extremely interesting.

This is the third according to the publisher of Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin Russian detective stories, however I think they must have them out of sequence as he departs on the trip covered in the second novel at the end of this story.

Akunin is quite interesting in that he looks at the narrative in each of these books in a different way, in this case we follow Varvara Suvorova as she journeys to the front line in the Russo-Turkish war of the 1870s to be with her cryptographer boyfriend.  On the way she is rescued from the Bashi Bazouks by Fandorin. On arrival it isn't long before she is drawn into investigating a plot to sabotage the Russian War effort when her boyfriend is arrested for sending the message for the Russian forces to occupy the wrong town handing the Turks a victory. So its up to Fandorin and Suvorova to find the spy at the Russian HQ to avert a disaster.

I liked a lot of things about this book, the setting was very interesting and made me want to learn more about what to most of us is a little known footnote in the history of Europe, but one that almost precipitated a World War. The story was intriguing and well structured, but I think the translation has let it down as the language lacks vigour. Its still fun though

I am beginning to think that The Book Thief by Markus Zusak could possibly be the greatest book I have ever read (and I have read a LOT of books.) Yes, even better than The Great Gatsby and The Wasp Factory. Or any other book beginning with 'The' And I haven't even finished it yet.

It's narrated by death who, and I never thought I would ever utter these words, I am quite liking - there you have it 'I like death' - he seems like a nice fella. I'd go to the pub with him, take him to the theatre....It is set in Nazi Germany and focuses on a little girl who steals books.

Don't tell me how it ends....although I have an idea....

"The Other Woman's Shoes", by Adele Parks. This book was the story of two sisters, one the husband walks out on her, the other leaves her partner - on the same night - each not knowing about the other. It is what happens to these two thirty somethings.

This is the second of Adele Parks books I have read, I think this one may have been written before. (the first one was "Tell me Something".)

I think these may come under the heading of "Chick Lit", she has a different style of writing to my "normal" type of reading, and is more raunchy.

Had a week in Spain - been reading!

I usually take a couple of books with me: Eden Falling by Nichola Lasing.
The Expected one by Kathleen McGowan.

I exchanged them at the Resorts Library for Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark.
A Song for the Disco by Colin Poynton.
Tell me Something by Adele Sparks.

In the couple of days since we have been home I have read my Readers Group Choice: No time for Goodbye by Lynwood Barclay.

The one that made the biggest impression was the Expected One, it was in the Dan Brown style but it's central character was Mary Magdelene, it tells a very different story to what is in the Bible and our general acceptence of who she was and what she did. Well worth reading - makes you think. I even got my husband to read it, he couldn't put it down!

Girls of Slender Means, was a period piece about some girls living in a Hostel at the end of the WW2. Very interesting as a type of "life gone by".

No Time for Goodbye, is a thriller type, which again is a real page turner!