The Thursday Murder Club | Richard Osman | Review

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

The Thursday Murder Club | Richard Osman | Review

 

“In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings.

But when a local property developer shows up dead, 'The Thursday Murder Club' find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

The four friends, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?” - Goodreads


Released just last week, The Thursday Murder Club is the first novel from TV personality Richard Osman, best known for co-hosting the popular gameshow Pointless, as well as (one of my favourites) Richard Osman’s House of Games.

Set in a small retirement village in Kent, The Thursday Murder Club is a cosy crime mystery focussed on a group of residents who have formed a club to review unsolved crime cases. Whilst previously they haven’t been able to do much with the findings of their investigations, a local murder leads them to become involved with trying to help catch a killer.

The book switches between the general story featuring all of the characters and diary entries from new Thursday Murder Club member Joyce. Whilst it did take me a few chapters to get used to the writing style, the addition of the diary entries was interesting and added an extra layer to the story, helping the reader to keep on track with the investigation.

One of the things I enjoyed most was the small village setting of Coopers Chase, and the little details, such as the fact that the room for the club was booked under a code name in order to stay secret, were a fun addition. The main characters were generally likeable, although there were quite a few other different characters to keep track of as the story progressed.

The Thursday Murder Club isn’t an action-packed crime thriller, but it could be the perfect Autumn read for fans of a cosier mystery to pick up this season. It’s also set to be the first in a series, so it looks like we’ll being seeing more from Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Ron and Joyce in future.

*Review copy c/o Netgalley and Penguin Books (UK)

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The Hunting Party | Lucy Foley | Review

Friday, 17 January 2020

The Hunting Party | Lucy Foley | Review

All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

Seven friends head to a secluded estate in the Scottish highlands for their annual New Year's Eve trip. Within days, someone goes missing, and when a body is found, everyone becomes a suspect. Among the group of friends are Miranda, the beautiful one who loves to be at the centre of everything; her husband Julien; her best friend since school, Katie; Nick and his boyfriend, Bo; Samira, her husband, Giles, and their newborn baby, Priya; and Mark and his girlfriend, the newest to group, Emma. It's Emma's turn to organise the group's New Year's Eve trip and, being the newest member of a group who have all known each other since their days at Oxford, she's keen to impress, and sure that the beautiful, modern lodge she has rented for the trip will be just the thing.

There are a few hiccups in Emma's plan, not least the unexpected Icelandic couple who are also staying at the lodge, despite the fact that Emma was promised their group would have the place to themselves, but the bigger issue by far is the glut of secrets being kept and tensions held, barely hidden beneath the surface of the groups' decade old friendships. Told via multiple points of view, the story unfolds both on the day the body is found and through flashbacks to the days leading up to the disappearance, slowly revealing first the suspects, and then the victim, until the threads that have held these friends together over the years are finally pulled taught enough to snap.

The Hunting Party is equal parts a murder mystery and an exploration of the kinds of harm we can do to those we love, aside from the obvious murder. This group of friends, bound together by marriage and more than a decade of shared memories, appears, from the very beginning, to be falling apart at the seams, grasping at an ease they no longer really feel with one other. Emma is desperate to fit in, Miranda is clinging onto her old role as the life of the party, Katie feels excluded as the only singleton, and those are only the three friends whose versions of events we see through their points of view. The other point of view characters are Heather, the manager at the lodge who has run away from an unspoken tragedy, and Doug, the gamekeeper who harbours a dark secret.

Unlike most traditional murder mysteries, the question at the centre of this novel is not only who committed the crime but also who the victim was, and as the mystery slowly unfolds itself, other mysteries begin to appear. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader on their toes and the isolated setting of the Scottish Highlands in winter is almost enough to set the tone for an unsettling story all by itself. And that's before the tension between the friends is kicked up a notch by a hunting trip and the unfurling of secrets that can't quite stay contained now that the group are all together again after a year of sporadic contact. Every part of this novel is steeped in tension, and, thanks perhaps to the unlikeable nature of many of the characters, the draw of watching that tension unravel the tenuous bonds between the group of old friends is difficult to resist.

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The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss | Max Wirestone | Review

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss | Max Wirestone | Review

*image via Goodreads, advanced readers copy c/o Netgalley

Dahlia Moss is a hot mess. 

Broke.

Jobless.

And nothing great on the horizon.

So when she's offered a chance to play detective and recover a spear from an online MMORPG called Zoth for a huge wad of money she shrugs her shoulders and thinks 'why not'.ure, whatever, she's not a detective and the guy is a little nuts but it's not like she has anything better to do, other than mooch around her friend Charice's apartment and eat ramen until her next disastrous job interview.

It's all fun and games - literally in this case - until her 'client' shows up dead. The stakes are higher for Dahlia and time is running out.

So what’s my verdict?
If there's one thing I love more than a geeky novel, it's a geeky novel with a sarcastic and cynical protagonist. Sitting on the right side of 'quirky' and opinionated, without the lack of self confidence and self awareness attributed to the manic pixie dream girl trope. Dahlia is no damsel in distress nor is she a warrior woman, she's confident, intelligent but other than that she's pretty normal. Her YOLO - slightly Millennial - attitude is what drives the book where she literally has nothing better to do than investigate a Cyber crime/murder in an MMORPG. Despite this, she's a realist. There's plenty of moments where you can almost feel her side-eyeing a hidden camera with an 'are you actually kidding me' look.

And Dahlia isn’t the only person in the story who feels fresh, there’s also a colourful mix of characters - my favourite is Dahlia's ridiculous roommate Charise, who has a thing for over the top hijinks most of which Dahlia turns a blind eye to because she’s so used to it. The great thing about many of the nerdier side characters is that they don’t just fall into the ‘geek’ character trope. They all feel like fleshed out people - weird as it sounds I’ve definitely come into contact with personality like some of the Zoth gamers she meets during the story.

Plot-wise it's refreshingly fun, and the right amount of geeky and full of pop culture references without being condescending or inaccessible to a non-nerd audience. Yes, there are parts of the story where Dahlia is knee deep into playing Zoth, but that comes secondary to solving the murder mystery and delving a little more into her character development. And for those craving that satisfying ‘detective story end’, this one comes with an amusing twist on the usual cop/criminal showdown.

For lovers of…Scott Pilgrim, Ready Player One and Veronica Mars

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The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow | Katherine Woodfine | Review

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow | Katherine Woodfine | Review

image via Goodreads

Sinclair's Department Store would like to welcome you through it's gilt doors and into a world of extravagance and commercial wonder. And it's within these pristine, prestigious and polished walls, our four unlikely heroes cross paths.

There’s Sophie, a quiet orphan girl working in the millinery department who always trying her best to do the right thing; Billy, a slightly hapless but well meaning apprentice Porter who fancies himself to be the next super sleuthing detective; Lilian Rose, a wonderfully glamorous chorus girl and model at Sinclair's with a heart of gold and no nonsense attitude; and Joe, a grubby street urchin who’s just trying to keep his head down and out of trouble from the more violent East End gangs.

When the one of a kind Clockwork Sparrow is stolen from Sinclair's famed exhibition - alongside a number of other priceless jewels - their world is turned upside down as the four race to chase down infamous London gang members, crack the code and save the day before time runs out!

So what's my verdict?

If you’re a fan of super fun whodunit novels this book is definitely for you. ‘Clockwork sparrow’ throws you pretty much headfirst into the lavishly extravagant world of Sinclair's department store in the days before, during and after it's grand opening, in a Victorian-era London . The basic plot is a classic crime case of a high profile burglary mixed with the looming threat of an ‘East End’ baddie and serious lashing of the underdogs saving the day.

The underdogs in question are our four protagonists and between them with their insider intelligence of the store, personal experiences and street smarts, when working together Sophie, Billy, Lil and Joe, make quite a team - like the 1800s equivalent of the Scooby Gang. I personally found myself getting quite attached to Sophie and Lil’s characters and loved their sisterly friendship throughout the book. The boys are also wonderful characters, the two of them quite young and a little naive but their bravery towards the end of the book is really endearing.

Aside from our main four leads, there’s a whole host of supporting characters from the both ‘upstairs and downstairs’ at Sinclair's, from ‘Captain’ Sinclair himself down to the stable hands, shop girls and even the prestigious visitors to the department store.

There’s also one very important character involved in the plot…Sinclair's itself. Woodfine's writing is fantastically descriptive creating a rich world of Victorian London, without it feeling like a heavy historical novel. It’s especially great to see Sinclair's describe through Sophie’s eyes. She clearly adores Sinclair's and her descriptions of the store filled me with the same feeling of wonder I have when browsing Selfridges or Harrods in London.

If I were to have one complaint about ‘Clockwork Sparrow’ it would be that I was craving a little more back story about Lil and Billy (as Sophie is our main heroine we learn a lot about her throughout the novel) - though I have noticed this may be the first in a series which should give us the opportunity to get to know the characters a bit more! The plot - though a classic one - is pretty predictable, I the guessed ‘whodunit’ about halfway through the book (or maybe I’m just a FANTASTIC detective myself). I can’t really moan though, the book, like I said is super fun and definitely a great weekend or holiday read.

Reading soundtrack

High Society: Betty Who; I'm Shakin': Jack White; The Lucky One: Taylor Swift; New Born: Muse; Sing Sing Sing: Benny Goodman; She's A Genius: Jet;  A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got): Fergie + Q-Tip + Goonrock; 

For lovers of...Mr Selfridge, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie

*review copy c/o NetGalley

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Noise | Brett Garcia Rose | Reviewed by Ria

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

Noise | Brett Garcia Rose | Reviewed by Ria

*image via GoodReads

Where is Lily?

After the disappearance and apparent suicide of his adopted sister Lily, Leon has been searching for answers. Guided by a handwritten postcard, his quest for answers takes him to New York City and cold-hard truths that send him into a spiral of hatred and on the trail of a sadistic Russian crime lord.

Noise is a dark and dirty look at the grimy criminal underbelly of New York city and one man's quest for justice and asks dark questions into how far we'd go for the ones we love.

So what's my verdict?

I'm not gonna lie this book was a pretty tough read. Not because it was particularly difficult, but the themes presented are particularly sensitive topics and the Garcia really delves into some horrible criminal situations too.

Our protagonist (or antagonist depending on your stance), Leon, is such a compelling character. A total anti-hero, deeply affected by his upbringing in Nigeria, he was taught from a very early on to fend for himself. He's violent, angry and vengeful, but he's also passionate, with strong sense of justice despite his questionable ways of going about it. He also cares deeply about what happened to Lily to the point where he feels personally responsible - she is very much part of his heart and soul.

This is less of a plot driven novel (the plot itself is one I've seen in crime novels and TV shows all the time) and much more of a character piece for Leon. Very few other characters actually make an impact on the reader as Leon is our eyes into this world. His world view is dark but, as I said, he's an anti-hero so we see the world just as cynically too.
What is actually interesting is presence (or lack thereof) of Leon's disability. As the book's blurb hints, his deafness is hardly a hindrance in the story but does at times fuels his rage in a really interesting way.

The end of the novel is a fittingly tragic conclusion to Leon's story and there's almost a sad, resignation as he accepts his fate. All in all, Noise is certainly worth reading, if anything, for Leon's journey as a character and the great character building Garcia has laid out in the book.

Reading soundtrack:

Take Me To Church: Hozier; Elastic Heart: Sia; Street Spirit: Radiohead; Glory & Gore: Lorde; Unfinished Symphony: Massive Attack; You Learn To Live Without: Idina Menzel; Beside You: Marianas Trench

For lovers of...Luther, Law & Order: SVU, and CSI: New York.

*review copy c/o Book Publicity Services in exchange for an honest review.

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The Cuckoo’s Calling | Robert Galbraith | Review

Monday, 16 September 2013

The Cuckoo’s Calling | Robert Galbraith | Review

Lula Landry seems to have everything in life. Supermodel stardom. A handsome rockstar boyfriend. Freebies and fans. So why did she plunge to her death over the balcony of her lavish London apartment on a snowy winter night? A suicide driven by the trappings of fame? Or something a little more cold-blooded?

Cormoran Strike is a man who’s life is far from the glitz and glamour of Landry’s life. An ex-military man who served in Afghanistan, he lost his leg to a landmine and is scraping by as a private detective, just broken with his long-term girlfriend Charlotte and is now living out of his own office. But Strike’s life changes when John Bristow walks through his door. Unconvinced by the police’s ruling that his famous sister, Lula’s, death was simply a suicide, he seeks Strike’s help to delve back into the case.

By his side is an unlikely temp called Robin – oh the irony! Quick witted, consistently organised and resourceful, her arrival in Strike’s office as a secretary is timed perfectly as he wades into Lula’s world of excess, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll galore. The two meet every seedy millionaire, vapid model, pretentious designer and the unsavoury underground that comes with the territory to find out the truth.

So what’s my verdict?

Let’s address the giant Cuckoo in the room. Yes this is J.K.Rowling writing under pseudonym of Robert Galbraith but for the sake of an unbiased review let’s put that to one side.

The Cuckoo’s Calling starts out with necessary exposition on the night of the Lula’s death and an introduction to the kind of media circus that surrounded the character her whole working life. We then actually meet Robin first, fresh faced, newly engaged and heading to temp job that will hopefully fill her time until she moves onto something better. She’s a bright character and we can already gather that she’s no fool from the outset. Our introduction to Strike is less than favourable. Battered from his recent break up, balding, with the air of a broken Gene Hunt, he literally knocks Robin off her feet. The two’s unlikely friendship however provides a solid foundation for the story, with Robin providing to the Ying to Strike’s Yang.

The story itself plays out like a classic ‘whodunnit’, I could guess the ending and you will too if you pay close attention. The predictability of the culprit, however, doesn’t detract from the story itself. It’s a bumpy ride, filled with twists and turns that will keep you turning the pages right until the very end.

What I loved most about this though is the huge variety of characters weaved throughout the plot, whether primary or secondary, their voices rang out individually and colour the story immensely. Though Strike is, by default, the main character – and a fantastic one at that, with his initially grisly exterior masking a pained back story of a man who’s had to bounce back more than once in his life – but it’s actually Lula’s voice that rings the loudest for me. The quote below sums up her presence perfectly:

“The dead could only speak through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left scattered behind them.”

We never get to know the actual Lula, but the picture built of her from those left behind is so rich that we feel like we do. This is the stand out thing about The Cuckoo’s Calling, the richly woven language, both favourable and grotesque, gives life to this novel.

Now addressing authorship of the book, which I funnily enough downloaded a free Kindle sample before it was announced Rowling was the true writer. Would I have gone on to read it if it wasn’t subtitled with her name? Probably not. Would I have missed out on a surprisingly good novel and be looking forward to reading what will hopefully be a great sequel next year? Definitely. It felt fresh, was much easier to read than The Casual Vacancy, and her subtle commentary on fame is rather telling.

Rowling’s nature to make an audience root for the unlikely hero is demonstrated perfectly with Strike, I felt sorry for him at many points in the book but the ending left me realising that he’s much smarter and much more capable than he looks. Definitely can’t wait to see how his character will develop as the series goes on!

Reading Soundtrack:

Beautiful Dirty Rich: Lady Gaga; Dreaming With A Broken Heart: John Mayer; The Fear: Lily Allen; Sweet Talk: The Killers; Skyscraper: Demi Lovato; Prodigal: OneRepublic; Everybody's Fool: Evanescence

For lovers of:

Ashes To Ashes, or Life On Mars, Dan Brown, Kathy Reichs and JK Rowling (of course!).

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