my reading has slowed down some, then. this is not due to a lack of books, look you see. far from it, as i have a formidable number here all sat ready to read. it's just that of late, to be sure, time has not permitted me to indulge.
the reasons for this are of course the most recent extended school holidays, in which i needed (with pleasure) to look after the boys. also, numerous road trips as documented here. but, it's not where this is from rather where it is at, and so let's have a gander at what i have eventually read of late.
indeed i have once again used this new "app" that i have on my phone, yaycam or similar, to take the above picture. apparently this is vintage 50s style or something. it's not a bad app, but i suspect yes i will get around to removing it.
oh, brief, spoiler-free run down of the relative merits of what i read? sure. i had greatly been looking forward to the latest John Grisham to appear in paperback and The Whistler is not bad at all. there is a tendency for me to swear off reading any further Ben Hope adventures but i seem to return to them and the most recent, The Babylon Idol, is not bad at all. with respect to the latter, a little painting by numbers.
right, on to some more details of both, then. do be warned, however, that from here onwards - try as i might to limit such - there is an inevitable *** GLORIOUS SPOILER WARNING *** in place. also, any links to the global grocer are for mere convenience. they are not to be taken as an endorsement, recommendation or affiliation with moi.
one of the most interesting aspects, i know, for you when it comes to me and these books is the provenance of them. in this instance, it could be said in some corners that the provenance is controversial.
for quite some time it was true that "cigarette counter at Morrisons" was the preferred point of purchase. alas, these days Morrisons tend to have very few books on display and for sale at this section of their store. interestingly, they did have this particular text, or if you like volume, for sale at such. they had it on offer for £4, which is a fair and reasonable price. Tesco, however, counter offered, and were prepared to sell me the novel for a mere £3. in this instance, then, Tesco won my business on pricing. this was despite the fact that the book was not on display at their cigarette counter, but rather within their demarcated book section.
enough, the book. what's interesting about this one is that it is a "legal thriller" (as you would expect from Grisham), but only broadly. yes, true, characters are lawyers, but they're not really doing "lawyer things" like billable hours and court appearances. instead, then, Grisham casts light on what seems to be an underfunded and underappreciated band of lawyers who investigate complaints against judges.
the plot follows this team investigating a very high profile, never before questioned judge on the basis of a somewhat shady and reclusive approach by an ex-lawyer. he, the ex-lawyer, is feeding information from a whistle blower as such, hence the title. and i would really care not to spoil any of the novel.
as it turned out, The Whistler was a punchy, well paced crime thriller more than it was a legal one. this is no bad thing. after some 30 years one would suspect Grisham has grown tired of the more standard legal stuff he does. i believe the next one from him departs even further than this away from his otherwise safe territory.
in truth i possibly enjoyed the one before this, Rogue Lawyer, more. only slightly, for both were really good. and indeed both were better than Gray Mountain, which was a well intentioned but ultimately very confusing slog. with confidence, then, i say give it a try.
provenance of my copy? since you are interested, yes indeed this was another of the most kind and generous gifts i got for Father's Day this year. nice one.
plot? this, the 15th novel to feature Ben Hope (and possibly the 12th i have read), starts off with the protagonist returning from his adventures, of sorts, in Africa (the double bill of Star Of Africa and Devil's Kingdom, reviewed somewhere on this blog). back at his smart training academy in France, no sooner has Ben had the chance to put his feet up than, wouldn't you know, someone lands a seemingly fatal blow on a good friend of his. in the aftermath of this Ben discovers a letter from someone he never expected to hear from again, warning him that a person he had crossed paths with in the past may be out for revenge. which is odd, as it was reported that the path crossing person was, as of recent times in the novel, dead......
this wasn't half bad. i mean, whereas i don't expect a whole lot of creative ingenious stuff in novels like this, at times it did feel a little bit like autopilot, do the same kind of story in a colour by numbers way. and yet it kept me thoroughly entertained. yes, some of the contrived plot development is borderline ludicrous, but not so much that i ever felt like saying "no, no more". as i have done with these novels in the past.
as the end of the novel approached, and i shall try to avoid spoilers, i had a horrible sense of "here we go again". i was concerned that i was going to find "to be continued" written on the last page, as a lot of story seemed to be needed to get wrapped up in some 40 or so pages. no, it is indeed all self contained, if somewhat rushed at the end. but then again, now that i think, one really does suppose that action films get all their business concluded in ten or so minutes at the end.
well then, there you go. two books that i most decidedly did not regret reading. although they were enjoyable as they went, however, neither struck me as being the best that either of the writers has produced. yet both sit in the "better half" of the list of things they have done.
as ever i can but hope, trust and wish that all of this has been of some use or interest to someone out there somewhere!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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