Two Books I Enjoyed - and One I Didn't.

Let's get the miss out of the way before we discuss the two hits shall we?. This was Dead Man's Grave by Neil Lancaster, and I got it on Audible, having seen that he was appearing at Bloody Scotland this weekend, and reading that he writes police procedurals set in the Highlands. I'm going to say right away that a good part of my non-enjoyment came from the narrator, who many Audible reviewers praised to the skies. I found him awful actually. I think I'd have enjoyed the book a lot more if I had read it on the page rather than listening to it. That's not the first time I've thought that. Don't get me wrong, I love Audible because I can iron, or do my knee exercises or knit or whatever and consume a good book at the same time, but  some books just work better off the page. Especially if the narrator doesn't do good voices. Which this one didn't. 

I mean, it's worth a try if you're looking for something new and set in Scotland. I can't fault the basic premise and the geography is spot on - apart from a character who appears to be doing the North Coast 500 anti-clockwise, and after all there's no reason why they shouldn't. I don't know what it is about men setting off down the police procedural road, but an awful lot of them have main police protagonists who are ex-Army. This naturally comes with rather more information about guns than I want, or the reader needs, to know. There's also quite a lot of 'gung-ho' talk; as in 'We're going to get the bastards who did this' or 'we know who he is and we're going to take him down'. Do policemen really talk like this - like real tough guys but tough guys on a moral crusade? Maybe they do.  It's also worth mentioning, with specific reference to this title, that I tend not to like books which deal with police corruption. Most writers turn to this in what seems to me to be desperation because a long way through a series they are running out of ideas, Mr Lancaster starts with it. I suspect it may carry on into following books. I'm not saying I wouldn't read another one of his - but I am saying I wouldn't listen to another one narrated by Angus King - or anything else read by Mr King either. 

The two I enjoyed were both from my recent library haul. Hope to Die by Cara Hunter was complex, twisty and well written; the final pages had me on the edge of my seat. In the past I have found her earlier books to have quite obviously upcoming twists and guessable endings, which slightly put me off, but I didn't see any of the ones in this book coming , and certainly not the final one - although it had actually been staring me in the face since the opening pages, had I but had the wit to see it. Not that I'm beating myself up, I defy almost anyone to see that one coming. This was Book 6, I may have to revisit 4 and catch 5 for the first time. 

Mari Hannah was, like Neil Lancaster, an author new to me, and also like Neil Lancaster appearing at Bloody Scotland, although I didn't know that until after I had checked out her book at the library. When I fond out I thought I wouldn't have minded going to her panel, but it clashes with one I have already booked for; another time perhaps. I really enjoyed The Insider, good plot, again with an adrenaline producing final few pages and the police characters were well done and credible. The two main detectives are both slightly overwrought; I thought Hannah didn't quite manage to make some of their emotional responses to crime scenes, other officers and one another quite ring true. A bit tell not show and not a 100% convincing tell, although I suspect a lot of that was down to dodgy editing. It's a minor quibble. And there was the added pleasure of having the book set in a place - the North East of England - with which I'm familiar. Again, I'll be looking for more. 

So despite my recent  moans it seems there are still good new authors to discover. Which is excellent news. 

You'll have gathered from the above that we're about to go away, for a few days. I will be attending several events at Bloody Scotland with a friend, the OH and I are doing some location scouting/house hunting, going to the big Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection and catching up with our friend K, who has left her position as head of fundraising for Scottish Opera and gone to work at the University of Stirling instead. 

We will be back in just under a week at which point we will have to work very hard to get two rooms ready for the decorator to come and do his stuff the following week, and then we'll have to work equally hard around him and for a couple of days after he's gone to get the house ready for the agent to come and do measurements and photos ready to put the house on the market. Exciting but exhausting times. 

As usual I won't be blogging while I'm away, but hopefully lots to tell you when we get back, if I can drag my exhausted carcass to the laptop to write it all up.