Alex the Book Reviewer

  Every time I read the title I find myself humming the words along to the theme of the Little Shop of Horrors. Which is both entirely inappropriate given the film topic vs book topic and also really annoying because the words don't fit properly and I have to rush them through to fit. Anyway, back to the actual book. I don't really enjoy reading books set in Afghanistan. I find myself stressed and on edge, waiting for the next awful thing to happen. But that doesn't necessarily mean I don't think they're good. A Thousand Splendid Suns, for example, was amazing. This one is ..... ok. It's kind of "Chick lit" set in a war zone, I guess. I was thinking it's a bit like if JoJo Moyes wrote a book set in the Middle East, but I've never read a JoJo Moyes book so I wasn't 100% sure. Then I noticed that on the cover it says, "As if Maeve Binchy had written The Kite Runner". I've never read a Maeve Binchy either but I'm guessi...

  I learnt something when I googled to find out when this book was written; "The Key to Midnight is a suspense-horror novel by American writer Dean Koontz, released in 1979 under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols. It is considered Koontz's first success." I never even knew he wrote under a pseudonym! I'm also not sure how it was such a success. We were a different lot back in the 70s. I listened to this as an audiobook - this will become more relevant later. The 1979 date on this explains a lot in the book. In particular, the lack of mobile phones, which I didn't register until embarrassingly late in. I was at least a third of the way into the book before I realised everyone was calling landlines and using paper files to research things and it occurred to me that we probably weren't in the current century. Dean Koontz used to be one of my favourite authors. Like I said above, we were a different lot in the 70s (though I doubt I read any until the 80s, as I was on...

  Absolutely love Jonas Jonasson books. They're so good. SO funny. The characters are always a little bit bonkers, and the situations are always utterly bizarre. Any this one is no different, no different at all. Victor, dodgy racist, plans to become a rich political influencer in order to keep Sweden appropriately Swedish. Gets in with a rich art dealer, marries his daughter, tricks her into signing over all the inheritance, accidently has a black son with one of his "foot masseurs", tries to get him (the son) killed, but accidentally causes him to become a Maasai warrior instead. Everyone plots revenge. By rights, the plot of his books should be totally unbelievable but, somehow, they're not. I can't even begin to work out how the plots unfold in his brain, but he must have the most manic mind in the world. The characters in Sweet, Sweet Revenge are all appropriately odd. The brilliant advertiser who decides to set up a revenge company, the Maasai medi...

    This is my first Jackson Brodie experience, book or tv. And, to be honest, I'm left a tiny bit confused. Ok, so I enjoyed it. As a stand alone novel, it was fine. So, am I right in thinking that Jackson Brodie is a detective who does detecting? Only, because, he doesn't in this book. At all. He's sort of involved by accident and coincidence. And that's it. He's like a sideline character in a series of events. I thought it would be darker too. Which is weird given it's about a sex trafficking gang. I can't 100% pinpoint this feeling, when I think back on it. It's not like they characters were all rolling in the aisles with joviality but somehow they just didn't feel dark or threatening either. Quick summary - Vince, Stephen, Andy and Tommy are friends. Stephen, Andy and Tommy traffic girls from around the world and sell them to sex gangs. They have ties to an old sex-gang of the rich and powerful, the ringleaders of which are now in jail but dying...

  The story follows the life of Barbara Parker who dreams of leaving 1960s Blackpool behind becoming Lucille Ball. Which, of course, she does. I mean, she becomes Sophie Straw but you know what I mean. She moves to London and very quickly gets a part in a new sitcom, one written especially for her no less. The sitcom becomes a huge success. I swear, I had to check dozen's of times whether the sitcom was real or not and whether Barbara Parker /Sophie Straw was a real person. It's written so convincingly and refers to so many real life people/ programmes/ events that I was absolutely discombobulated! I loved the whole 60ness of it. I do love the 60s in popular culture generally. It always seems like such a positive hopeful time.  And Sophie is such a great flawless character. You can't help but really like her and want her to succeed. I must read the most miserable books because I kept expecting the worst the whole way through! It'd be an excellent play, it sort of feels ...

  Genuinely one of the best thrillers I've ever read. Done so cleverly and no stupid behaviour from any of the characters which is actually quite unusual in thrillers. Elissa gets kidnapped and locked in a basement. A boy starts to visit her and seems like he wants to help her but not free her. And it's obvious she's not the first one in this situation. Gradually more and more about the boy is revealed and nothing at all is as it seems. Everything from beginning to end in the book is excellent. All reveals are done perfectly bit by bit. And even better, they all make sense! Nothing feels forced. Elissa is a great character. She's clever, a chess player and therefore great at strategising which helps her in dealing with Elijah. There are twists and turns I didn't see coming at all. I mean, I didn't even see that there were going to be twists and turns until they suddenly happened! The detective wasn't the main character, I mean it didn't feel like a detec...

  I normally enjoy books by Michael Connelly but this one is bollocks. 1/2 dimensional melodramatic characters for whom it is utterly impossible to find the slightest jot of sympathy or empathy and a ridiculous plot that feels like he heard the concept of void moon and decided to shoehorn a (really very stupid) plot round it. Main female charachet (I can't even remember her name or be bothered to look it up) is ex-trickster who is now out of prison. She worked with her boyfriend. Their love for each other was, of course, the most anyone has ever loved anyone before ever). But he died in their last heist. She then had a baby, adopted out but she's stalking her and they're moving to Paris. So, of course, the ennui of a normal life is setting in and therefore she must do one last heist so she can continue her stalking a la francaise. But of course it all goes wrong and blood and mayhem follows. I mean, normally I'd love this plot but somehow none of this added up to anythi...