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carolyn0613's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. I am a big Brookmyer fan anyway so I had high expectations and after reading the whole book in a very short space of time, I was not disappointed. I will say that I thought it started quite slowly and I did not like the switching between the first person narrators. This all made sense in the end and I loved all the twists and turns that the plot took, thanks to this technique.
cheekylaydee's review against another edition
4.0
Dr. Diana Jager is a skilled, professional woman. A surgeon who has given everything to her career. However, whilst all her focus has been concentrated on her professional life, her home life has suffered as a result. In fact, in her anonymous blog, a platform for highlighting sexism in the medical world, this fact has been lamented upon, and when she is exposed as the notorious "Bladebitch", her career also takes a nosedive.
Just when she thinks she'll be alone and childless for the rest of her days she meets Peter. An I.T guy, which is ironic as their department has come under fire from her alter ego on numerous occasions. A whirlwind romance ensues, Peter chipping away at Diana's frosty exterior with his boyish charm, and within a short six months, they are married.
To the outside world, the couple seems perfect for each other, but behind closed doors, there's a vastly different story.
As the story unfolds we are taken on an unexpected journey leading from the bliss of the newly wed to a murder trial. Diana Jager's in trouble but did she do it? Journalist Jack Parlabane is tasked to find out and what he uncovers will leave you reeling. Just when you think you've got it all figured out you're whisked off in the opposite direction, making this a rollercoaster of a thriller and well deserving of the 4.5 star rating.
Just when she thinks she'll be alone and childless for the rest of her days she meets Peter. An I.T guy, which is ironic as their department has come under fire from her alter ego on numerous occasions. A whirlwind romance ensues, Peter chipping away at Diana's frosty exterior with his boyish charm, and within a short six months, they are married.
To the outside world, the couple seems perfect for each other, but behind closed doors, there's a vastly different story.
As the story unfolds we are taken on an unexpected journey leading from the bliss of the newly wed to a murder trial. Diana Jager's in trouble but did she do it? Journalist Jack Parlabane is tasked to find out and what he uncovers will leave you reeling. Just when you think you've got it all figured out you're whisked off in the opposite direction, making this a rollercoaster of a thriller and well deserving of the 4.5 star rating.
wenjoy's review against another edition
3.0
If I could give half stars, this would get 3.5. Better than average.
sony08's review against another edition
5.0
Full review at: http://noemptyshelveshere.blogspot.co.uk/
Well this was a storm of a book for me and a fantastic read.
Although this book is the seventh in Jack Parlabane series, it read well on its own and was a brilliant introduction into the author’s works. I will most certainly look out for more.
This drama/thriller/crime novel is an intelligent piece of work and has twists and turns throughout. Just as you start really disliking one character, you find out more about them and like them again.
Well this was a storm of a book for me and a fantastic read.
Although this book is the seventh in Jack Parlabane series, it read well on its own and was a brilliant introduction into the author’s works. I will most certainly look out for more.
This drama/thriller/crime novel is an intelligent piece of work and has twists and turns throughout. Just as you start really disliking one character, you find out more about them and like them again.
casimoore's review against another edition
2.0
Reading others reviews it is obvious I am in the minority. I did not love the book. I thought it was hard to get into, the beginning was confusing and just not interesting to me.
philippa14's review against another edition
3.0
Would have given it 4 stars up until the ending. It was just one twist too many, and went a bit silly I thought.
nannyf's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first book by the author I have read. I didn't feel I had missed anything by not reading the previous books featuring the main character of Jack Parlabane.
I really enjoyed the dual points of view featured throughout the story. We see two different sides of the same story and are left to make our own minds up as to who to believe. I know whose side I believed. I liked the twist at the end, thought it was well thought out and not easily guessed as you read.
I do feel there was a lot which wasn't really needed throughout the story, found myself skipping a bit as I read. But the story as a whole was good, the writing also, and I did enjoy it.
Copy received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed the dual points of view featured throughout the story. We see two different sides of the same story and are left to make our own minds up as to who to believe. I know whose side I believed. I liked the twist at the end, thought it was well thought out and not easily guessed as you read.
I do feel there was a lot which wasn't really needed throughout the story, found myself skipping a bit as I read. But the story as a whole was good, the writing also, and I did enjoy it.
Copy received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
the_coycaterpillar_reads's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second book I’ve read by Christopher Brookmyre, the first being a sci-fi number. This was a different read but no less awesome. Brookmyre yet again delivers the addictive, dark fictional worlds we have come to expect from him, and he nails it home each time. This is a mystery/thriller series that I’m going to go back and read more of because it literally ticks all of my boxes. Thrills (tick), murder (tick), unreliable narrator (tick) and twists (tick). Although this was the first in series I happened to pick up, this definitely works as a standalone novel. The writing style of Brookmyre is shrewd, evocative and quite frankly spine-tingling. It was the perfect read for October and it put you right in the frame of mind for Halloween. Ideal for those grey nights with the rain battering on your window, it matches perfectly with the dark and grey nature of the story. If you love a crime/thriller you will not be disappointed. All is not what it seems.
We meet Diana Jager, a force to be reckoned with, an expert surgeon. She gets to cut people open for a living and she is shockingly good at it. She is known as “bladebitch” in the online community. She is a dominant female in a male dominated environment. She fights for women’s rights in her career. A nickname worthy of her prowess in her career or a jealous nickname? The career has been the easy part for her – she was so focussed on not becoming her mother that love completely eluded her. Just why was she so unlucky in love? Did she just not have the capacity for commitment and everything that was associated with it or like everything else in her life, it become an obsession and hence scare any potential partner away?
Diana has a terrible track record with hospital IT. They blew the cover of her online persona and inevitably put her career at risk in London. She takes up a position in Inverness at the Royal Infirmary and clashes once again with a member of IT. Computer glitches and problems galore leads her to constantly having to be at IT’s mercy and she has the pleasure of the new guy, Peter. Diana realises immediately that he is different in all ways. He doesn’t know her past, she feels at ease in his presence and can admit how her life has become nothing but a sad existence of working and a lonely life, once where she doesn’t socialise, and she breaks down. He’s younger but that doesn’t seem to faze him. He seems to be amazed at Diana’s ambition and drive to be the best in her profession. Little does he realise that there is a fragile past, a dysfunctional childhood that has fuelled her unhealthy drive to be the best. He ticks all of her boxes and she begins to see a way forward for them, together. They marry, plan to have children but then disaster strikes, Peter careens off the road in his car into local crash site, Widows Falls. Peter is presumed dead.
We have POV’s from Jack Parlabane, a “been around the block a bit” ex journalist. He is separated from his wife, Sarah and life has been giving him a hard deal of late. He develops an interest in the case when Lucy, Peter’s sister hires him to investigate in the ins and outs of the case and work out just what happened to her brother. Lucy is a strange character for sure. Quite clearly, she has the view that Diana’s and Peter’s marriage wasn’t the fairy-tale that everyone else has painted it to be. From Diana’s POV it is obvious that Diana and Lucy didn’t get on, honestly, she hated Lucy. Lucy made veiled threats towards Diana but made herself the innocent party. There was clearly some deep-seated issues between Peter and his sister, what were they and just how deep did it go? Jack ends up revealing some pretty messed up revelations of the dark and twisted variety during his investigations.
This book was so cleverly written, taught with tension and suspense that I wouldn’t be surprised if this book leads onto a drawn-out book hangover. The characters are multi-faceted, a hauntingly devastating look at human vulnerability. My head actually felt like it resembled something closer to scrambled egg than a brain towards the end due to the complexity of back and forth arguments steered every which way. I genuinely couldn’t figure out the end game of this novel – I thought I had it figured out at one point but was categorically proven wrong. Brookmyre could write himself out of a straightjacket, seriously, has up there with the best. Ian Ranking and Christopher Brookmyre is the Scottish dream team. Brookmyres prose flows like running water, its sublime. I could totally see this series being a mini-series on Netflix.
We meet Diana Jager, a force to be reckoned with, an expert surgeon. She gets to cut people open for a living and she is shockingly good at it. She is known as “bladebitch” in the online community. She is a dominant female in a male dominated environment. She fights for women’s rights in her career. A nickname worthy of her prowess in her career or a jealous nickname? The career has been the easy part for her – she was so focussed on not becoming her mother that love completely eluded her. Just why was she so unlucky in love? Did she just not have the capacity for commitment and everything that was associated with it or like everything else in her life, it become an obsession and hence scare any potential partner away?
Diana has a terrible track record with hospital IT. They blew the cover of her online persona and inevitably put her career at risk in London. She takes up a position in Inverness at the Royal Infirmary and clashes once again with a member of IT. Computer glitches and problems galore leads her to constantly having to be at IT’s mercy and she has the pleasure of the new guy, Peter. Diana realises immediately that he is different in all ways. He doesn’t know her past, she feels at ease in his presence and can admit how her life has become nothing but a sad existence of working and a lonely life, once where she doesn’t socialise, and she breaks down. He’s younger but that doesn’t seem to faze him. He seems to be amazed at Diana’s ambition and drive to be the best in her profession. Little does he realise that there is a fragile past, a dysfunctional childhood that has fuelled her unhealthy drive to be the best. He ticks all of her boxes and she begins to see a way forward for them, together. They marry, plan to have children but then disaster strikes, Peter careens off the road in his car into local crash site, Widows Falls. Peter is presumed dead.
We have POV’s from Jack Parlabane, a “been around the block a bit” ex journalist. He is separated from his wife, Sarah and life has been giving him a hard deal of late. He develops an interest in the case when Lucy, Peter’s sister hires him to investigate in the ins and outs of the case and work out just what happened to her brother. Lucy is a strange character for sure. Quite clearly, she has the view that Diana’s and Peter’s marriage wasn’t the fairy-tale that everyone else has painted it to be. From Diana’s POV it is obvious that Diana and Lucy didn’t get on, honestly, she hated Lucy. Lucy made veiled threats towards Diana but made herself the innocent party. There was clearly some deep-seated issues between Peter and his sister, what were they and just how deep did it go? Jack ends up revealing some pretty messed up revelations of the dark and twisted variety during his investigations.
This book was so cleverly written, taught with tension and suspense that I wouldn’t be surprised if this book leads onto a drawn-out book hangover. The characters are multi-faceted, a hauntingly devastating look at human vulnerability. My head actually felt like it resembled something closer to scrambled egg than a brain towards the end due to the complexity of back and forth arguments steered every which way. I genuinely couldn’t figure out the end game of this novel – I thought I had it figured out at one point but was categorically proven wrong. Brookmyre could write himself out of a straightjacket, seriously, has up there with the best. Ian Ranking and Christopher Brookmyre is the Scottish dream team. Brookmyres prose flows like running water, its sublime. I could totally see this series being a mini-series on Netflix.