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Showing posts with label detective story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label detective story. Show all posts
3 February 2016
Title
| Black House (The Talisman 2) |
Author
| Stephen King and Peter Straub |
Publisher
| Ballantine Books |
Publication Date
|
September 2003
|
Pages
| |
Genre
| horror, detective |
Description from Amazon
Black House is the second collaboration by Stephen King and Peter Straub, two of the most important writers in genre fiction, and the expectations of their first team-up were considerable. But despite its impressive sales, many were disappointed by The Talisman. Rather than a truly chilling epic, what we got was a rather derivative and by-the-numbers fantasy saga. So fans were reluctant to be too hopeful about their second collaboration... but we needn't have worried. Black House is much more like it, although even here King and Straub have not quite delivered the ultimate horror marathon--this is a psycho-thriller in the vein of Thomas Harris, but none the worse for that. And there are supernatural elements. This is the tale of a small American town held in the grip of evil. Three children have vanished, abducted by a monster called The Fisherman (after a legendary murderer) with a craving for children's flesh. Ex-detective Jack Sawyer, dealing with his own personal problems (in which he is tormented by visions of another world), is keen to stay away from the horrors of this case, recognising how bad involvement will be for him. But--guess what?--Sawyer is soon supping full on the horrors, and the reader is in for an exhilarating (and highly disturbing) experience. Jack is a powerfully realised protagonist, and his journey into the dark world of The Fisherman is genuinely unsettling. Although more of King's fingerprints are on this one than Straub's (notably the conflicted hero, struggling with his own demons), the co-authors' individual styles merge indivisibly in this highly impressive chiller. --Barry Forshaw
My thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As I previously mentioned in my review on The Talisman Book 1 , I had trouble getting into and even getting through Book 1, as I just did not seem to understand this other world, The Territories and the story was too removed for my liking from 'our world'. However, in Book 2, the story mostly plays out in our world, with links to the other world, The Territories. And the link is not immediately obvious. Jack, our hero, obviously has blocked out his memories of the Territories, but will have to go back to not only save the missing children, but also to save the world from wider evil.
The characters are again, beautifully drawn and unlike in the first book, there are quite a few characters whom Jack encounters this time and who are envolved, and all of them are from our world. In typical King fashion, the story is based around small-town America and its citizens. My favourite character has to be the Biker (who's name escapes me at the moment).
The book is again co-written King and Straub. I have not read any of Straub's other work, but the reading flows without problem and I did not notice two different styles of writers - if there are, they are certainly nicely merged here.
In resume, if you are a King fan and maybe didn't get on with Book 1, give this a try. I have to say though that while you can read Book 2 without reading Book 1, I think it helps you to understand and get the 'little hints' early on in the book, and without reading Book 1 first you may struggle to understand the links.
5 December 2014
Title
| Fallen on Good Times |
Author
| Rewan Tremethick |
Publisher
| Paddy's Daddy Publishing LTD |
Publication Date
|
May 2014
|
Pages
| 188 |
Genre
| Paranormal, Detective |
Blurb:
America, 1920. The city of Pilgrim's Wane. The people on the street can be dangerous, the ones in the shadows even more so. Private Detective Laslo Kane is giving up. But then a brutal murder drives a terrified investor to offer Laslo a life-changing sum of money to solve the case.
The fee could set Laslo up for the rest of his life, assuming he still has one when he's finished going up against the most dangerous crime family in the city.
My review:
I enjoyed this quick and quirky read. And with only 188 pages, it's quick and ideal for a commuter read.
Laslo Kane is your arch-typical private detective and I could picture him perfectly from old detective movies. Broke, girlfriend left him and he is still longing for her. He is not a very successful detective and has to take on almost any job. And there is a special twist with Laslo, as he finds he is more successful when investigating crimes with a supernatural twist in his home town. Werewolves, vampires and other strange creates are at work.
But Laslo's luck is about to change. He seemingly rich client Darius asks him to investigate a bank robbery. But the bank robbers don't steal money - they put money into his account. Who are they, and, of course, why would they do this? The fee Darius offers him is a lot of money which would sort out most of Laslo's problems. Laslo get's to work with the help of his journalist friend. He quickly finds out that the local crime lord and mob is involved. And than the mob makes him the proverbial 'offer he can't refuse". Can Laslo take on the mob or does he even want to? And than his ex girlfriend Kitty get's involved.
The story certainly moves quickly, and as it is not a very long book, it certainly has to. There is no time for boring passages, and I like that in a book. I like both the characters of Laslo and Kitty. Laslo has a very dry sense of humour and as the narrator of the story, this is very nicely executed. Even more interesting where some of Laslo's contacts in the spirit world which were like good friends to him and I had the feeling that I would like to have friends like these! But with Darius I kept thinking there must be more to him than just Laslo's client, and was waiting for a follow up story on him. I understand that there may be more books based in the town of Pilgrim's Wane, so there may be more to come. The story certainly leaves room for more.
For a quick read, you can't go wrong with this quirky story. I had to look up a few of the old 1920's gangster slang words but as someone with an interest in language I found this particularly entertaining and interesting and with a Kindle, researching words is quite easy. As most of the paranormal stories on the market now are pure romance, I thought a detective story with a paranormal angle adds a nice new twist to both genres.
About the author:
8 March 2014
Title
| The Bone Collector |
Author
| Jeffery Deaver |
Publisher
| Hodder |
Publication Date
|
1997
|
Pages
| 436 |
Genre
| Crime, Psychological, detective story, forensic science |
Mini Review
A good old detective and 'whodunnit' story with a twist.
Lincoln Rhyme is a Forensic Criminalist. He also happens to be a quadriplegic. Rhyme doesn't see much purpose in life. Once the head of NYPD Forensics, he is now bed bound and can only lift as much as finger.
Enter Amelia Sachs, a young NYDP Patrol Officer who is called to attend a potential crime scene by some train tracks. Amelia is observant and intuitive and thus finds bones sticking out of the ground - a finger belonging to businessman who had taken a cab with a co-worker a few days earlier. And the co-worker is still missing.
The two homicide detectives who are investigating the murder and desperately looking for the missing person call upon Rhyme. Hearing about how the finger was found, Rhyme wants to speak to Amelia.
As the murders starts to get more odd, a great working relationship and deep friendship starts to develop between Rhyme and Amelia. And the hunt for the killer - whose setup of the killings seem to get more and more bizarre and gruesome - starts to get personal. This is not for the faint-hearted and the descriptions of the murders and the crime scenes are graphic.
Rhyme and Amelia proved so popular that Deaver started a series with those two as the main investigators.
This book has been turned into a successful movie starring Denzel Washington as Rhyme and Angelia Jolie as Amelia Sachs. What a great pair and I enjoyed the movie just as much, even though I knew the story by then.
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