Hodder & Stoughton

WINK MURDER is the debut book from ex-journalist and sub-editor Ali Knight.  Given that the book is set within the cut-throat and odd world of tabloid television, perhaps her background has informed the way that the world of the media (albeit she worked in print) works.  

There was so much about the run down and the early part of this book that didn't appeal, I wasn't at all sure I'd be able to get to the end of it.  The high-flying husband returning late at night, drunk, covered in blood, muttering.  The stay at home mother with the part-time, lesser job in her husband's world, waiting at home for him to return - unsure of her marriage, convinced that her husband is having an affair - but unable to do anything about that.  Questioning her mothering ability, worried about the state of the house, guilty for working part-time; a stereotype of the little less-attractive woman married to the gorgeous high-flying husband.  Mostly I think it was the whinging, self-absorbed, kind of useless first person voice that was getting to me.

But really... "do not assume" should be displayed on a poster in front of my nose, right below the one that says "stop reading blurbs and media releases....".  From the absolute start of this book Kate, who is the main voice of the novel, is tricky.  Caught in a spiral of wishing problems under the carpet, trusting and mistrusting her husband, believing he could be capable of everything from infidelity to business corruption to murder, she fights her own paranoia with an increasing sense of desperation and lack of self-belief.  I don't think she ever quite loses that slightly whingy, disbelieving tone, but there is a point in the book where she decides, somehow to take matters into her own hands.  Not by confronting the husband mind you, she opts for a considerably more complicated path to finding out the truth.  Which unexpectedly works.  Which, given the personality that has revealed itself in her own voice, actually makes a lot more sense.  I think I would have been profoundly disappointed if Kate actually grew balls and stepped up to the mark, but somehow her panicked, suspicious, vaguely lunatic behaviour made a lot of sense - had bucket loads of credibility if you like.

I'm not really sure what it was that made me pluck WINK MURDER from the teetering stacks of unread books around here, as when it first arrived, unsolicited, I will confess to being underwhelmed with the blurb and the media release.  Which is exactly why I think I'll stick up those two posters, and maybe spotlight them.  This is actually a very good book, involving, car crash fascinating and not at all as simple as it seems.  Right down to the last page.

"An investigation consists of a mass of voices, the sort you can hear, and the sort you can't.  You have to listen to the soundless voices, Malin.  That's where the truth is hidden."

The quote at the start of the blurb of MIDWINTER SACRIFICE intrigued.  The opening of the book with the naked, mutilated body of a man hanging from a tree in a frozen, snow covered location was startling.  A new detective character, Malin Fors, single mother of a teenage daughter engaging.  But ultimately it was the concept of the "voices" of an investigation that weave their way through this book, that delivered an unusual, compelling perspective.

Slow moving, immersion reading in the very best tradition of Scandinavian styled mysteries, this book has an additional aspect in that it's narrated by voices, including the victim himself, whose voice pleads, cajoles and guides Malin (not that she can hear him!).  But the point is well made.  The victim in a case has a voice.  Obviously, an investigator rarely hears the victim of a murder, but their life, as well as their death, can "speak" to the investigating team if they are prepared to listen.

Alongside the use of the voices, there's a solid police procedural moving through this book - from the difficulties of identifying the victim, to the explanation of why they would become a victim of such a violent crime.  To the past that informs the present.  But we are talking dark, intricate, reserved, thoughtful and sinister.  We're talking cold and atmospheric - partially because of the weather, partially because of the characters who inhabit the story.  

We're also talking a good central character - investigator Malin Fors has a complicated personal life, a strange history with her ex-husband, and a realistic relationship with her teenage daughter.  There's enough of the personal elements (good and bad) of her life built into the story to give a sense of the balancing act that a major investigation has to become.  Perhaps some of her work colleagues are less strongly drawn - although to be honest I didn't think that was an obvious problem or even inexplicable.

Undoubtedly MIDWINTER SACRIFICE is one of those books that you have to sink into, allow it to spin out the story, go with the voices and deal with the reserve.  Fans of that particularly thoughtful, considered, reserved, Scandinavian style will definitely find something in this book.  Personally I found the idea of the voices within an investigation fascinating and the book particularly difficult to put down.  There's real balance and believability about Fors, her family, her private and professional struggle, but at the same time, there's a sense of the victim here that gives the book a different dimension - a connection with the normally voiceless.

It's very pleasing to read that his "first book" in the Malin Fors series went straight into the bestseller charts.  Sounds like there are more around to look forward to.

Perhaps I should start by saying I didn't have any problem at all with IN THE WOODS - not how it ended, not that there were unresolved issues.  To my mind it made everything much more realistic.  I know that in real life there are things which are never explainable, not everything is "fixed", not everyone's believable or reliable. 

Having enjoyed that book, I was particularly interested in THE LIKENESS.  For those who aren't aware, this isn't part of a series - each book is standalone, so don't pick it up expecting the open threads at the end of the first book to be resolved for you.  Instead, this is the story of an undercover operation that starts out with a very big surprise for Detective Cassie Maddox.  The body of a young woman is found in a remote cottage - she'd been stabbed, body had been moved after she died.  What's so very startling for Cassie and fellow detective (and lover) Sam O'Neill is that the dead woman is Cassie's double.  And she's using an old undercover alias of Cassie's - Lexie Madison.  With absolutely no leads and no clues as to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old undercover boss decides that the only way in is to lie about Lexie's death and send Cassie in to impersonate the dead girl.

With her only leads to Lexie's personality and behaviour being a short mobile phone video and the stories of her friends, Cassie's undercover assignment means that she must infiltrate both Lexie's university and home life.  It's the home life that's the most unlikely as Lexie lives with 4 other very close friends in a big, shambling house in the country - not far from where her body was found.  These five people (3 boys and 1 other girl) have a very close, almost family like relationship - living, studying and working on the house together, excluding just about everybody else from their circle.  Now it goes without saying that readers of THE LIKENESS are going to have to sit very firmly on a fairly hefty pile of disbelief to get past some of the obvious What The... moments in accepting this sort of infiltration.  

On the plus side, Cassie is a fantastic central character.  Brave, but not stupid, quick thinking and adaptable, she's also very realistic and very human.  She struggles at every step of the assignment to keep from liking Lexie's life and friends way too much, to stay in touch with real life.  She also has the simmering romance with Sam, as well as the fallout from a previous case that she has to deal with, and you can really start to see how the life of a student cosseted by these friends and their slightly odd life would be attractive and easy to slip into.

The pace of the book (albeit it a bit of a doorstopper) is good, and there's a lot happening as Cassie tries her hardest to get the truth about Lexie's death from her closest friends, whilst the rest of the team try to find Lexie's real identity and how it is that she came to use Cassie's undercover alias.  There are undoubtedly some flaws in this book - the unlikely plot and some dreaded (for some readers) loose ends that aren't resolved or even explained in some cases.  But for me, this was compensated for in spades by the great characters, good dialogue, engaging personal relationships and the ever increasing tension of when Cassie would finally be discovered.  There's definitely something about this author's writing and her characters that kept me with this story, and made the pile of disbelief a surprisingly comfortable reading chair.  Hopefully in the next book this author will sort out how to combine the great characterisations and good storytelling with a little more feasibility in plotting - but in the meantime, as pure entertainment, I really enjoyed THE LIKENESS.

Having only ever read the very first Lincoln Rhyme book, I was wondering if THE BURNING WIRE, the 9th in this series would work.  

Obviously there's been a lot happen in Lincoln Rhyme's life, not the least of which is the medical issues he deals with due to his quadriplegia.  But he has a great supporting staff, including his personal carer, and a loving relationship with a member of his investigating team - Amelia Sachs.  As somebody absolutely not immersed in this series, the backstory, his current situation, everything about Lincoln fell into place nicely and there was no feeling whatsoever of this reader being left out of the loop.

The central plot of this book is an interesting one.  Somebody is using the Manhattan electricity grid to kill people, holding the power company and the City to ransom.  The instant conclusion is terrorism, and some authorities seem to head off down a series of rabbit holes, while Rhyme's group quietly, methodically and urgently build a picture of their quarry from the facts at each crime scene.  As this picture builds, facts start to fit the profile - leading not too far down the path to an identity for the man at the centre of this threat.  Finding him, however, is not so easy.  

There are a number of interesting aspects to this book, which moves along at a very rapid pace.  Firstly there is the nature of the threat, and the way in which the electricity grid is being used as a weapon, rather than simply having the grid itself threatened.  Then there is the way that the perpetrator is identified, but still not able to be located, despite his identity rapidly leading to motivation.  As the profile of this man builds, the chase becomes more intense, and his team on the ground face many personal threats and problems, and still the killer can't be found.  Along the way Rhyme is following the story of his arch-enemy, The Watchmaker, who is far away and proving a problem for authorities in Mexico.

The best part of THE BURNING WIRE is the way that the plot builds.  As each element is revealed - the how / the who and the why, there is still that desperate feeling of how they are possibly going to find one man in a city like Manhattan.  As each part of the puzzle contributes more to their understanding of what is driving this killer, how he works, what he's thinking, there's also the impact of that silent, invisible, deadly weapon.  Even with an idea of what the killer is going to do next, the problem remains - how do they find him / how do they stop him / how do they avoid being one of his victims.  What was less successful were the frequent forays into the whys and wherefores of electricity which will probably be exactly what appeals to others - but for this reader, it was too detailed and too intrusive.  Add to that a rather convoluted final twist in the central plot which was disappointing.  Until that point, there had been a sense of something particularly chilling and believable about a lone random threat.  Whilst that did result in THE BURNING WIRE being a book where the journey was considerably more satisfying than the destination, it was a very good wild ride.