something of a controversial book review thing, look you see. yes, the title is correct - back to doing three books rather than the two. no, to be sure, i am not back on the buses; something which allowed me to read a great deal more. i have, however, been doing some traveling, or been on my travels. so yes, then, that has given me more time for reading.
a look at the covers of the books, as is usual, before we start? well, kind of, but this is a bit tricky in this instance. here, see......
quite, indeed, one "proper" book and two what i read on the good, old, reliable e-reader thing. the latter, i know will see many of you seething, as that is not proper reading. indeed, at least here in the UK, paperbacks are often cheaper than the ebook version. my requirements, however, were for light travel, and so the ebook came along with me.
some quick, spoiler free comments? surely. The Back Manuscript is yet another Ben Hope adventure by Scott Mariani. enjoyable, but predictable and contrived. Origin by Dan Brown is a Dan Brown novel; for many i need not say more. finally of the three, Camino Island is that most unusual of John Grisham works as in the protagonist or no major antagonist is a lawyer as such. a trifle lightweight, breezy even and brief, but enjoyable all the same.
right, then. as much as i shall try to avoid doing so (no i won't but still) please consider a *** SPOILER WARNING *** well totes in place for the remainder of this post. also, as ever, links to the worldwide grocer for the books are for your convenience - no endorsement or affiliation from me with them, thank you.
quite an interesting provenance to my copy, if you are interested in such things. rather than being Tesco's cheap book of the week, or it being on display near the cigarette counter at Morrisons, i saw this in Asda. no, yes, quite rare for me to be at Asda, but it was around Christmas shopping time. £4, i think it cost, which is probably more than what i could have got it for from them other two, but there you go.
plot? Ben Hope decides to go to a school reunion, 20th or similar anniversary. his motivation is to see an old friend, one he has not seen for 20 (or so) years. them two are the last of a gang of friends. anyway, with this being a Ben Hope novel, but of course the chum has something of unique value. so of course the chum gets killed for it, and of course Ben Hope goes off on one, vowing revenge, justice, etc and in doing so inadvertently or if you like quite by chance manages to bring down a powerful Eastern Europe crime lord.
any good? yes, i suppose. i keep reading them, even though i know the formula backwards and can pretty much guess all steps and twists. it's enjoyable, but with no mixing it up from the standard it does tend to be pedestrian.
some nice touches, mind. the introduction of a British copper, or if you will member of the constabulary, who isn't against the Ben Hope way was a really good character and i hope becomes a recurring one. also, of the millions of things what the Nazis stole or plundered, it was refreshing to see something being used as a plot device other than gold bars or the "Amber Room".
it is almost or all but pointless to review. there are two types of reader in this world - those who would rather stab their own eyes with a broken pencil than read Dan Brown, and those who will seek out his latest work and read it as soon as possible after it has been published. credit, in fairness, to Mr Brown for that reputation - it certainly does not seem to harm his bank account. i, too, would have no objection at all to people deriding and slating me for being a sh!t writer if i sold just so much as 1% of the books he does.
anyway, plot? yeah, sure. Robert Langdon is invited by an old student now friend, a multi-billionare type dude who is in many ways very much based on Steven Jobs, or whatever him what did Apple was called. this is a presentation which will answer two of the biggest questions humanity has ever asked, and will have shocking, possibly catastrophic consequences for the organized, formal religions of the world. but no, yes, of course something happens which prevents the presentation at the last minute. and so of course yes, it is down to Robert Langdon to work out what the presentation was and release it to the world, all whilst being chased off of people who want to twat him one until he is dead.
in short, this is better than the last two offerings. which is not saying much, as the only reason Inferno seems to exist was as to show that yes, he could do a book what was worse than The Lost Symbol. whilst not really recreating the excitement of Da Vinci Code or being as good as Angels & Demons (easily his finest, by whatever standard), it all the same keeps you reading. which is interesting, as the "twist" is something you can work out as far into the book as, say, page 25 or so. also, it gets a bit much when he spends six chapters telling you exactly what is going to happen in the seventh, then repeats the cycle.
here i was going to write about how Mr Brown really, really likes using italics for no reason, and have a guess at what things he may have read or watched before coming up with the totally, 100% original idea for Origin. like how James Cameron might have watched Ferngully, or Dances With Wolves, and The Smurfs, before having the 100% original idea for Avatar. but, no. Mr Brown has a good, solid and constructive relationship with laywers, and i have no need to test how good that is.
indeed, a display of sorts in a branch of WH Smiths, some 100 or so miles away from me. this is indeed offering Camino Island by John Grisham, in paperback, for £3.49, so long as you purchase the Daily Express at the same time (no idea how much that costs). a tempting offer, in particular as they had provided a recycle bin to deposit the Express directly into after purchase, but by the time i saw this deal i had already commenced reading it on the ereader thingie.
plot? in a daring and exciting sequence, priceless manuscripts of significant historical value are stolen from a University. with the FBI hunt going cold and lacking resources, it falls to the insurer to try and recover them. a potential lead on where they might be leads to them making an offer to a struggling writer and teacher to return to their childhood holiday home on Camino Island to see if she can't find some information which will see the manuscripts recovered, preventing the insurers from paying out many millions.....
first of, this is a fun, entertaining read. yes, it's lightweight, but then again not every John Grisham novel was or is supposed to be as serious as, say, The Chamber. for a start, this would make a cracking film (if he lets further films be made out of his books), somewhat partially along the lines of The Thomas Crown Affair meets parts or aspects of The Firm. at times, though, you get the feeling he is just slumming it; writing a book for the sake of it and perhaps using it as a conduit to do a (no doubt well intentioned) little parody of some of the writers he knows.
a non-lawyer "legal thriller" of sorts, then, as whilst there is barely a lawyer in it (of course one or two sneak in) there's a question of law, and the law being broken, at the heart of it. in as far as it stands against the more recent Grisham novels, i possibly enjoyed this equal to or more than The Whistler, which in many respects this feels of the same genre as, but no, wasn't as good as Rogue Lawyer.
that's a fairly brief review of a fairly brief book, but of the three this is the one i would wholeheartedly suggest to all as worth a go. so, then, to be sure, i have tried to limit the number of potential spoilers.
well, then, that would be that for this. as ever, i hope these comments have all or in part been of some use to someone, but i suspect that any potential readers of these three would have read anyway. happy days if not and somehow i have alerted you.
as for the next time, well, no promises or assurances, but in all likelihood it shall be back to paperbacks of a conventional nature and back to just the two.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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