They're all crime, so feel free to skip if crime novels aren't your thing.
First up is Sanctum by Denise Mina. Denise Mina is one of the darlings of the Scot Lit world despite being mainly a genre writer. Her recent novella Rizzio was praised to the skies by many of the people I know. I read it and while I wouldn't say it was bad, because it wasn't, I don't really know what all the fuss is about. My reaction was mainly 'Meh!' It was short and didn't take long to read so that was a plus really, but it wouldn't make my short list of the top ten Scottish books of 2021.
I have read some of Mina's crime novels and again my reaction was generally, yeah, but. Sanctum I enjoyed despite it being one of those twisty turny thriller type things where the writer feels obliged to spring a major surprise every 50 pages and fasten off with an ending no-one saw coming. I'm not a huge fan of that sort of book, but this one held my interest, mainly because of the unreliable first person narrator, and the skill with which Mina had him reveal himself, warts and all (although there wasn't much other than warts really) through his own words. And the ending did surprise me, so again, that's a plus.
The next two are the previous and current choices for Saturday Slaughters, the crime reading group at the library. Last month was Tony Parsons' Girl on Fire. Given that we had an excellent turn out last Saturday and everyone present, young and old, male and female absolutely loathed this book I think I'm safe to say it's not worth the effort of reading. It was a page turner, but it was illogical, badly constructed, glorified guns, was full of acronyms, and had long sections which made us all suspect that the author was getting payback for a bitter divorce. It did explain the difference between an AK 47 and an AK 74, but honestly if you really want to know, Google is your friend here.
The current one which I read vey quickly as I took it to Glasgow and back last weekend is Claire Mackintosh's Let Me Lie. This is also a twisty turny thriller type thing where the writer feels obliged to spring a major surprise every 50 pages and fasten off with an ending no-one saw coming. I quite enjoyed this one too, although I did foresee several of the surprises - although not, to be fair, the one on the final page. And that one was a cracker. I did find the book a tad long in places and my interest levels did drop for a while about 75% of the way through but if this is your type of book I think you'll enjoy it. Although if this is your type of book you have probably read it already.
(images from e-bay)
I might give the Mina a go - I do love an unreliable narrator. I gave upon Tony Parsons two chapters into his first novel, and that’s only because I was feeling generous.
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