Category Archives: Book Reviews

My daily routine, or lack thereof

This month I’ve only worked weekends, there being no overtime available, and when I haven’t been at work I’ve had things on. Now I’ve got nothing planned until October, and no overtime coming up. The result? Sleeping too much, eating too much and boredom.
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Review: ‘Broken Homes’ by Ben Aaronovitch

2013
Gollancz

Book 4 of the ‘Peter Grant Series’

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Peter, Lesley and their boss Thomas Nightingale (and Toby the dog) are back, continuing their search for the Faceless Man, while still dealing with all the weird stuff the rest of the Met would rather not admit existed. After several murders and the Spring Court, they track the Faceless Man and his organisation to a housing estate at Elephant and Castle.

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Review: ‘Tethers Book One of the Tethers Trilogy’ by Jack Croxall

5th February 2013

Karl and Esther live in a small village in Lincolnshire in the nineteenth century. Karl is the son of a German architect, dead for many years, and is brought up by his mother and aunt. Esther’s family runs the village pub. They are best friends. By sheer accident (and Karl’s inability to listen to his mother’s warning) they get drawn into the machinations of a secret organisation trying to find an artefact which will allow them to see the future. Travelling by yacht and narrow boat they make it to Nottingham and help interrupt the conspirator’s plans, gaining, and losing, several new friends along the way.

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Review: ’17 Equations that changed the world by Ian Stewart

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2012
Profile Books

Covering everything from Pythagoras’s theorem to Schrodinger’s Equation and chaos theory, Professor Ian Stewart takes the reader through seventeen important equations that have helped to advance human understanding of the universe (and how to measure it) over the last 2500+ years.

I wish I’d had this book while I was studying A level maths and later while studying for my degree. Ian Stewart explains the concepts involved clearly and comprehensively, including their history.

A great book for students and general readers.

Review: ‘Just one damned thing after another; Volume 1: The Chronicles of St. Mary’s’ By Jodi Taylor

 

2013

 

Madeleine Maxwell, an historian, is suggested for a position at St. Mary’s Priory, Institute of Historical Research, by her former school headmistress. She goes for the interview and finds that not all is as it seems at St. Mary’s Priory.  Having taken the position she joins St Mary’s rigorous training programme at the end of which she gets the job, and a whole new life.  And it is certainly eventful.

There are dinosaurs and explosions. And the great library at Alexandria burning down. With time-travel, adventure, gun fights, and a great dollop of humour the story starts slowly and picks up the pace until the aforesaid dinosaurs, explosions and burning libraries pull the story to its end at a great speed. I really liked this e-book. There were minor editing errors – misspellings mainly – but nothing to detract greatly from the plot.

Review: ‘Reading The Dead: The Sarah Milton Chronicles’ by J.B. Cameron

 

Sarah Milton is a criminal profiler with the LAPD’s Violent Crime Unit; she’s helped solve several serial killings, and when she was a child she had an imaginary friend called Anna Nigma. Anna disappeared when Sarah’s mother was murdered.

During a trip to get some dog food Sarah is shot; a trip to the afterlife provides a clue to her mother’s murder, and then, when miraculously Sarah survives, Anna has returned. Sarah believes she’s going mad, until an old friend, in the course of investigating another serial killer ‘Raithe’, sends her to an old Chinese mystic, who collects ancient books. There’s a surprise in store for Sarah, and Anna.

Sarah, with Anna’s assistance, tracks down Raithe and his incorporeal accomplices. She goes to investigate, alone. Which is a big mistake.  Her colleagues arrive a little too late.

I quite enjoyed this novel; the characters are engaging and the plot kept my interest.  I especially enjoyed the development of the relationship between Sarah and Anna. Anna is a great character; she pulls pranks, is gobby and obnoxious, prone to temper tantrums, loves Sarah unconditionally and likes to play Scrabble.  There’s a lot of potential in this series of books, especially for the development of the damaged Sarah, and her relationship with Ryan (a colleague), and the solving of her mother’s murder.  Hopefully, Anna will eventually find out who she is as well.

I try not to judge harshly, but I do have a couple of criticisms.  I found some of the characters too convenient and predictable – Meghan the trust fund baby, who just so happens to be the owner of a rare and ancient book collection, just when Sarah needs such a friend. I hope she’s developed as more than just helpful scenery in the rest of the books. Sarah needs a friend. Sarah’s dad is also a bit of a caricature of the distant father/politician.  Unfortunately I found myself guessing the plot about half way through.  It was obvious that Anna’s a ghost and that Raithe is murdering people as revenge for the already dead.  I was only mildly surprised when I discovered that the same already dead were pulling his strings – it’s in his name, after all.

It’s possible I’ve read far too many supernatural and crime novels and I’m being picky; it doesn’t matter that this means I can predict a plot with a decent amount of accuracy because I can still enjoy a new story.  I look forward to reading the next in the Sarah Milton Chronicles ‘Fidelis In Æternum’.