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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
tense
medium-paced
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Teacher Brian Boyle is teaching class, English (literature),when he sees a former pupil in the playground with what appeared to be a vest filled with explosives. Thanks to his quick thinking the teacher averts a major tradgedy and is hailed as a hero.
The young man, who had throughout had the detonator pressed down with his thumb. He tripped on a long lace hanging from his trainers, fell forward instinctively pushing both hands forward to soften his fall. Mr.Boyle immediately understood the ramifications of this and has only a split second to run. BOOM - the bomb exploded and a man died.
Another former pupil slightly older read about the teahers heroism and given that both young men had been sexually assaulted by a teacher, the older young man decidied to blackmail Mr. Boyle by suggesting that Mr, Boyle was the abuser.
The bulk of the story surrounds the blackmail and Mr. Boyle's attempts to clear his name and save his career and that of his wife, the Head Teacher in another local school.
Lots of twists and false trails. I enjoyed this book
Richard is an English teacher, getting on with life and doing his job to the best of his abilities when he averts a serious incident. Once his face is splashed all over the news as a hero, he finds himself getting blackmail letters that could jeopardise his job and his life. Everything is escalating and he finds himself at the centre of something bigger than he imagined. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC/audiobook and the charming narrative.
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Barclay’s thanks to the educators what they do both seen and unseen, and the ways they shape the world.
“Don’t you think I would be doing your children a disservice if I made every effort to protect them from things that might challenge or upset them? I could cocoon them, avoid anything that might spark debate, that would raise questions of right and wrong. Of course, that would be not reading any works of fiction at all, because that’s what we hope good fiction will do. Get the kids talking, thinking. Good fiction promotes and bridges gaps, can bring people together by exposing them to all sides of an issue.”
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun beach read.
This wasy first from Barclay and I suspect I'll have to try another. A friend who is a huge fan of his said this wasn't his strongest work.
I liked the writing style, but the story was a little flat for me. The red herrings were a just too obvious. There are multiple crimes in this story and the one that is drawn out the longest was the one with a culprit I guessed very early.
Like I said, I'll check out more of his work. This one wasn't bad, just not quit what I expected of this legendary author.
I liked the writing style, but the story was a little flat for me. The red herrings were a just too obvious. There are multiple crimes in this story and the one that is drawn out the longest was the one with a culprit I guessed very early.
Like I said, I'll check out more of his work. This one wasn't bad, just not quit what I expected of this legendary author.
This book had promise and an interesting blurb, some of the sections definitely caught my interest but overall it was a bit like sleepwalking and my interest faded in and out quite a lot. I’ve read books by the author before and I wouldn’t say this is my favourite to date and I limped a bit towards the end. I perhaps could put my slight lack of interest down to the fact I didn’t really connect that well with the characters. The main married characters seemed to have a strange lack of trust with one another and I felt a lot of the time people were making odd decisions. I also mostly guessed the ending quite quickly which was a bit too obvious for me so a little disappointing. I would still potentially recommend giving this a go, it just didn’t quite resonate with me.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes