balthazarlawson's reviews
1198 reviews

Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I didn't like this. I'm not saying it's a badly written book, I'm just saying I didn't enjoy this at all. I disliked the characters, the setting and the constant knowing that everything I'm reading is not necessarily reality for the characters. That's life in a mental health unit where this all takes place. Told in the first person by Alice, who was section following a bad case of PTSD.

But, then, you just can't believe anything you read.

The Hunter by Tony Park

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

It's hard to place Tony Park books into series as they have many interconnecting characters. This book features Hudson Brand, safari guide and private investigator. He is suspended from his guiding duties due to an incident with poachers in South Africa, so takes on an insurance fraud case in Zimbabwe. In the background is South African detective,  Sannie van Rensburg, who is obsesses with an old murder case and her prime suspect is Hudson Brand, but doesn't have enough evidence.

Both of these characters have appeared in other Tony Park books.

So we have two story lines that interconnect.

Together, we have an interesting and adventurous read that travels through South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Kenya with Hudson seeking the truth about girl who died in a car accident to give relieve to her sister and avoiding being arrested for something he didn't do.

I enjoyed this though just when you think it's all sorted, there's another twist and there are a lot of them.

The White Knight by Scott Mariani

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Ben Hope is always willing to help those in trouble. Being offered a billion euros to do a job is not why he does it. He does it out of loyalty and friendship. When an old client, turned friend, is attacked in his home and almost killed, Ben quickly steps up to help find the perpetrators. This sends him up against the most fearsome and skilled killers he has yet encountered and knows he unable to do it all on his own. Normally he doesn't accept the offers of help from his friends, but this time he his unable to reject the help they offer.

This is another excellent read and shows Ben Hope's true character. It's action from the beginning to end as Ben, and his friends, do battle with a shadowy group of billionaires who have their own ideas about how the world should be run and operated. They are not going to get their way if Ben has any say in the matter.

Although there are some farfetched logical steps in this, I still found it very enjoyable and easy to read.

Pascal Passion by Andrea Frazer

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

So reminiscent of the previous books in the series. There is a formula to these books and it makes for rather a repetitive read. You meet the gossiping locals, the police talk to the gossiping locals, so you hear it all again. Then the police discuss what he gossiping locals had to say so get the same story for the third time.

All the time you are wondering about the main character but you just don't get to know a huge amount about them as if it is a state secret. The structure of these books is one of the problems with them. You need to get to know more about the main characters.

I still have another ten books to read of this series.

The One from the Other by Philip Kerr

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Bernie Gunther is now living in Dachau, outside Munich, running his father-in-law's, now deceased, hotel. But business is very slow to non-existent. His wife is in a hospital following a nervous breakdown after her father's death. So, he decides to go back to what he knows best, being a private detective and sets up an office in central Munich.

Being 1949 there are a lot of missing people in occupied Germany and this is why his first clients hire him. Trying to find the missing is not easy, especially when they don't want to be found, like former SS officers who have avoided being captured by the victors. And then sometimes, you ask the wrong person the wrong question.

An enjoyable and informative read about live at the time of the forming the German Federal Republic, West Germany, and the hardships faced by the defeated. It doesn't avoid covering the horrors of war and death of millions, but these are facts of history.

The ending is a set up for the next book in the series and I look forward to reading.

Inkier than the Sword by Andrea Frazer

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

This is the third book in the series and the main characters, Falconer and Carmichael, are still a strange and odd pair. But not in a good and interesting way. Their characters are not consistent, especially Falconer, and they are still bad police detectives. If not for someone else writing the book I don't they would ever solve a murder.

Could be much better but it's just a very lighthearted murder mystery, with a bit of poison pen letter thrown in. 

You Can't See Me by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

It didn't take long for this book turned into a soppy, overly dramatic episode of Days of our Lives. I didn't like it. We all knew that someone had been killed, but it wasn't until 90% of the way into the book before the person was identified.

Everything happens at a family reunion at a luxury hotel in the west of Iceland and thus there is a lot of reminiscing going on. An awful lot of reminiscing! We learn about the main players and all their faults. Everyone seems to have some huge secret they are trying to hide, but at the same time agonizing over weather or not they should reveal their secret. It just dragged for me and then in the end the guilty got away.

This book is set before the first book in the Forbidden Iceland series and Detective Elma is only mentions at the end as being a replacement detective joining the team.

The Clerkenwell Affair by Susanna Gregory

dark informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The is the 14th book in the Thomas Chaloner series and the first I've read. So it's always interesting to find out if one needs to have read any previous books in the series. The answer is no as I felt no need to have known anything that happened in any previous book. However, I will go back to read more in the series as I enjoyed this.

At it's heart this is a murder mystery set in 1666 London, before the Great Fire of London, which happens later in the year. The previous year the city had been ravaged by plague. Easter is approaching and as Good Friday is on Friday the 13th, and there is a '666' in the year, people are fearful of impending doom, predicted by a soothsayer from Clerkenwell.

Thomas Chaloner is a Gentleman Usher for the Earl of Clarendon and is tasked to find out who is responsible for the murder of Thomas Chiffinch, a courtier and King's Favourite. Many suspect that the earl may have had a hand in the death and it is up to Chaloner to prove otherwise.

An interesting setting, though a bit slow in places, but worth reading.

The Lost Relic by Scott Mariani

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Ben Hope is contemplating his future and travel to Italy to contact an old friend to discuss his situation. While there he avoids an accident which ultimately turns events around, putting him on the run from the police and agents from Britain.

There is lots of action in this book and Ben's good intentions only get him into trouble as he tries to avoid it. It's a fast pace book with fast pace action all leading to face down with the ultimate enemy. I enjoyed this for most of the book, but towards the end it felt as if it was drifting a bit from the original path. The ending was a bit anti climatic with a cliche "return from the dead event", which should not have happened. Overall it was enjoyable, if you don't mind death and destruction.

Headcase by Jack Heath

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is the fourth book in the series and I feel that to fully understand things you need to have read the previous books of the series. Timothy Blake is an unusual character, certainly damaged, but highly intelligent, in the Sherlock Holmes way. He is also a cannibal and has taken bodies as payment for his deductive talents.

He is now working with a CIA agent on a highly illegal case as it's within the USA and they are not suppose to work their, that's the job of the FBI. However, they are looking into the discovery of a body at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston and nothing makes much sense for them.

And it doesn't make much sense for the reader at times. The main story line is confusing and convoluted with lots of false leads, made more confusing by all the other story lines in the book.

It all works out in the end and you even get a hint of the next book in the series, if there is one.

Could have had a tighter and more focused story line to make it better.