and so i have read another couple of books, look you see. yes, two. not just one, and not as many as three, or five. well, not since the last time since what i gone done wrote something of this nature about books i happened to read. as if reading a novel in some way makes me special; no it does not, but it does kind of make me (to a degree) normal.
right, so yes, then, back on to it. with my part in the invisible war against the new plague now over, as in i have since been recalled to verk after valiantly doing my fighting best to stay home, reading time has now once more become limited. but, and still yet i read, for i love to do so.
tradition is a fine thing if it is a good, reasonably unassuming and not in any way displeasing one. in accordance with such, let me stick with it and present a look at the two (not just one and not three or north of that figure) novels which i read, with a spoiler free overview.
one natural concern with any (new) John Grisham novel is of whether it is going to be a good one, or will it be one of those, where he does things like talk about church picnics or Italian menus rather than develop a story. gladly i can tell you up front it is not one of those, rather The Guardians finds him on well above average form. slightly idyllic and simplified, of course, but this was a brilliant read. on a somewhat similar note, the usual frustrations and groan inducing "oh no not again" moments are all present in the latest Peter Robinson novel, yet despite, or because, of them it was so that Many Rivers To Cross was a thoroughly enjoyable read. one that in some ways very much relies on you reading (i think) the one just before it, the name of which escapes me but i have every confidence i reviewed (or whatever) it somewhere on this blog.
well, that's an overview of both novels, should you have any interest in what i might have thought of them. proceed with reading either, or the two of them, at will, should my endorsement count. following on from this point, then, is a bit more detail on each. details that might well require some to be alerted to a possible *** SPOILER WARNING *** being in place, no matter how much i loathe them capital letter things.
provenance of my copy? well, on the week of release, it was that quasi, unofficial "book of the week" thing down at Tesco, so it was £3.50 i think, maybe even as low as £3. not for me to alert them to this, but had they asked (or requested) more, i would have paid without asking. this is not afforded to all writers. the most recent Tony Parsons, for instance, never appeared on the shelf (that i saw) for south of £4.50, so it never got bought. especially as the last two (or maybe it was just one) 'Max Wolfe' book(s) were somewhat "meh".
anyway, yes, the plot. the (ostensible) protagonist of the novel is Cullen Post, who is somewhat more rounded, or if you will fleshed out, than a traditional Grisham narrator, or indeed protagonist. he is both church minster and lawyer. after being scarred to the point of breakdown by the brutality of public defending, where the most sickening of guilty seem to walk free or with scant punishment for the sake of easing a legal system which creaks at the mention of thinking of functioning as it should, he eventually turned to being an innocence lawyer. his concentration is purely at the other end of the spectrum of all which is wrong with the system - defending those callously thrown into jail for years (decades) despite being patently innocent.
whilst a number of such cases are referenced,the story arc is of Quincy Miller. he is a man who has so far served 22 years for the murder of a small town lawyer. a murder which all available (actual) evidence suggested that Miller should not have even been questioned about, let alone charged and subsequently convicted. proving his innocence should be relatively straightforward, but those responsible for placing him in prison seem set to stop nowhere in their determination to see him very much remain convicted of that which he did not do......
i would have a hard time selecting my favourite favourite ever Grisham novel, although memory always says that reading Runaway Jury was particularly good. this one, The Guardians, felt just as absorbing, engaging and "readable" as any of his other, better than average works i could list. whether you have read none, all or somewhere between of his novels, this is one any of us could pick up, read and i hope enjoy. or appreciate.
should one wish to find flaws in the novel then they are there, and not really hidden. the reach, for instance, of the sinister forces who are the villains of the piece is fairly extensive. mindful of me giving you a spoiler warning, you would have thought they would know that the dead can appeal nothing, yet only seem to hit upon this as a (possible) solution to their wish to maintain the status quo on a conviction after a couple of decades. it's a contrived and implausible element, but what they hey, it creates something for the "thriller" aspect of it all.
for a novel to entertain, inform and protest in equal successful measures is quite a thing. that's exactly what The Guardians managed to do for me. regrettably, as is all too often the case, the shocking and appalling, "surely this cannot be so" miscarriages of justice depicted in the novel are very much based on real life instances. genuinely disturbing instances of 'fiction' are often so. when quizzed on the, to be frank, obscenities presented in American Psycho and asked of how twisted his mind was, Bret Easton Ellis said he didn't think of a single action taken by the protagonist of the novel, all of them were pulled (or culled) from real life crime reports.
what's the provenance of my copy of this novel? as it happens, a much appreciated Father's Day gift, for that particular day came along here in the UK in June, as it is so prone to do. but still, i am reliably aware of it being initially sold for a fee, once more, of £3.50 down at Tesco.
plot? let me try this. in theory the main plot seems to be that of a young lad, of Middle East or similar region, found dead and stuffed in the bin of a presumably innocent pensioner. a junkie is found dead of an overdose in a house not too far away from this scene, apparently an open and shut case of overdose. they don't seem to be connected in any way, but could they be? in the mean time (let me try and get this the right way around) the novel Mr Robinson seems more bothered (or interested) in writing is that of the girlfriend of one of protagonist copper Banks' colleagues father (think that is right) who has special "super spotter" powers and was a victim of people trafficking, is pursuing a vengeance vendetta against an unsavory type who did her immense harm and was probably involved in a recent murder of someone she worked for. which is a continuation, as mentioned, of the last novel. and yes, it seems one needs to make sure they read the next one to get the conclusion, or a movement to that.
if, or should, the above sound particularly busy, and apparently a great deal to cram into a novel south of 400 pages, well, it is and it isn't. there is a magic formula for these DCI (or whatever current rank) Banks novels which Robinson has, and uses. this would be the following sequence - crime (or multiple) committed, couple of people questioned, Banks a bit puzzled, Banks sits in the pub to have a think, Banks considers the music he likes, Banks sits in the pub a bit more, towards the end someone (normally one of the first to be question) either makes a clanger which makes them clearly guilty, or simply hands themselves in for no apparent reason, since the police were not close to catching them. all contrived and convenient. Many Rivers To Cross kind of plays around with that order, but the result is very much the same.
there are some variations here. Robinson uses the novel, for instance, to project that very tiresome, downcast and boring stereotype that all of the UK people are evil and doomed to die "because of Brexit", with particular time taken to describe near enough everyone who happens to be British as being racist, whether they know it or act that way or not. also, briefly, a finger points at a construction company owner, who turns out to be very shady, sinister and a sexual deviant. oh no, here we go again, i thought, more of the same from one of the last novels i read. no idea why authors have now seemed to have decided that construction business owners are the personification of evil baddies, but here we are.
a (very) good friend recently quizzed me on the subject of reading Peter Robinson novels. not took me to task, you understand, but did wish to know why i did so, since for the most part i appeared to just moan and groan about the pedestrian predictability of them. well, yes, there is that, but there's great comfort in familiarity, and as always this novel like others by him turn out to be so well written there is genuine pleasure in reading. that and wishing to know the conclusion of the long(ish) running secondary story should see me pick up his next one, then.
much delight there is in the fact that i can thoroughly (and indeed wholeheartedly) recommend a novel with zero conditions on reading any other in a series, or sequence. that is what i can do with The Guardians. should you have never read a Grisham novel before, then this is a fine one to start off with, and enjoy the rest. there is no real issue or quarrel with the Peter Robinson one, bar the contextual moments mentioned, but again getting any enjoyment (or satisfaction) from it kind of depends on you having read at least some of the earlier ones, and the one immediately preceding this one. if that describes you, well then it might be that you read Many Rivers To Cross already.
anyway, that's that. on i go with further (rather than previous) reading. many thanks indeed for taking the time to read this, if you did, and if it was of any use, well that's quite class, that is.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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