varied reading

hello reader

so, i have read a further two (2) books, look you see. and i chose the word books carefully there, for only one, or fifty percent, of them would be defined as a novel. no, i have not delved into the world of non-fiction which i rarely do, although there is a significant temptation to read the Ronnie Wood understanding of an autobiography, what i got off of HMV for 99p. 

after the slight experimentation with the last lot of books what i read, yes all two of them, i feel compelled to make the presentation here more conventional, or as i would normally do this sort of thing. no, not that sort of thing, just this sort of thing. which means a look at the books, a brief spoiler free overview and then some more (by my standards) detailed comments. and it may well be that the detailed comments contain elements which people may feel as being 'spoilers'.

in the order i read them, then, and indeed as they line up in the picture above, Cruel Acts was an above average, often superb British copper novel. after that Trigger Warning is a collection of "short fictions", or so it says on the cover, and so is the one which was not a novel that i read yet remains (at least as far as i am aware) in the realm of fiction. quite a mixed fortune, with the tales presented ranging from brilliant to "meh" and in some instances feeling a waste of paper. 

just a quick note, the Jane Casey one (Cruel Acts) was indeed a novel which features recurring characters. giving some of my review comments away, whereas this did not affect my reading or enjoyment at all, obviously i am disappointed as there are a number of novels set prior to this which i probably would have enjoyed. maybe seek out the first ones, up to you. 

one further note would concern Trigger Warning. to try and catch the google search thing, should you read the introduction for Trigger Warning before you read the stories, as it seems to go story by story and potentially risk spoiling that which you read? after some uuum and aaah deliberation i elected to read after, and that was wise. no overt spoilers as such, but often a bit too much was (in hindsight) intimated at in the introductory parts. 

right, then, more detail on each. although i have said the main things what you would probably need to know of the first already. but, for those that wish to read on, well, as you knew (or were advised) would be coming, a *** SPOILER WARNING *** sort of thing is now in place. 

once more to start where i did in terms of the order of reading, first up is this now frequently mentioned Cruel Acts by Jane Casey. 

quite a standard, or recurring, thing for me to do is purchase books, mostly novels, which i see that take my fancy as and when i see them at a reasonable price. a consequence of this is having a pile of books, say ten or even twelve, unread, and some of them remaining so for some time. to this effect, with regards to provenance of my copy, it was clearly from Tesco, based on the price sticker. however, i am still annoyed that they changed the 2 for £7 offer to 2 for £8 a few years ago, so no, i won't have paid that. more likely is that this was their £3 or £3.50 book of the week, or came at a cost of £2.50 if you bought it in conjunction with a newspaper. the latter shall have gone straight to recycling, no doubt. whereas i cannot recall exactly how long ago i bought this one, the copyright date gives every indication that it was published in 2019. so, i may well have been sat on this for some eighteen months, or maybe less. 

plot? due to 'something' of a technicality (and i am trying to avoid spoilers so no details) a particularly heinous criminal is released from prison. his guilt appeared quite clear cut and, upon his release, sickening crimes similar to the ones which he was convicted for happen again. a stretched, sometimes bickering and frequently questionable yet always dedicated team of police officers with somewhat conflicting levels of motivation must work to establish new evidence for a retrial and stop the crimes happening now from happening again......

the only real weakness with this novel was the title. it feels either as being the 'brilliant' idea of the work experience kid in the marketing department of the publisher, or otherwise was settled on as a "this will do" sort of thing. leaving that aside, and it does feels to be somewhat nitpicking, this was a superb read. 

what made it so good? on top of being very well written, it has a precise degree of realism. the challenges to the police doing their job, be it the public, the press, the courts or even themselves, gives every sense of how dedicated one needs to be to persevere and do this sadly all too often thankless yet important job. sure, there are a few contrived, for dramatic effect moments which break the sense of realism, but this is fiction, and is intended to be for entertainment purposes for the most part. 

i am a little loathe to draw comparisons, but also i am not. my other frequent reading of the British constabulary is, as regular readers of this blog shall know, Peter Robinson. he presents the police force of our nation operating in a frankly absurd way - a copper sits around in a pub thinking on things, ponders some musical favourites, and then lo behold the criminal or villain of the piece either hands themselves in or needlessly gives themselves away at the end. this novel feels a great deal closer to presenting, or representing, how it all really goes. 

again a significant regret is that i found, midway through the novel, that i had parachuted into a series which had several novels involving the same characters. for me it is perhaps too late to go back and explore or discover the other novels, but you could well do so if you wished. or just get straight into this one, really. very much recommended reading. 

to the next book, then, which takes the form of Trigger Warning by the somewhat celebrated and rather well known (in certain circles) Neil Gaiman. indeed, i was aware of him prior to reading, but had mostly avoided. sat here is a copy of American Gods which i have yet to read. i do wish to, purely because hearing the sentence "Gillian Anderson plays David Bowie" about some tv or "streaming" adaptation of it grabbed my attention, as it felt inspired. 

saying that i have deliberately avoided reading anything by Neil Gaiman would be incorrect; rather i just have never sought him out. truthfully it is that some of the things i have heard of him suggested "sixth form w@nkery" laid ahead with his works, or other such geeky, dorky, misfit like stuff. were it that i had an interest in such then, you would think, i could just as easily read the rubbish i write here and beyond. 

but yet here we are, with me having now read one of his works. how did this happen? a very good and very specific friend insisted that i very specifically read this work. with no offence to others over the years who have tried to steer me towards his work, in this instance it just seemed, through universal alignment or whatever, that i should act on the instruction. and so, i did. 

provenance of my copy? i could not find it in a bookshop that i visited, although they did have a hefty number of other books (mostly novels) by this bloke. he would seem to be prolific. so, off i went to the car boot sale of the internet, securing a very good condition second hand copy for a price beyond what i would normally pay for any book, with the price being south of £10 yet north of £5. done. 

the intention of the stories, as the title of the collection gives every indication, is to "trigger" something or other in the reader. quite often this worked for me. i found a couple in particular resonated in my mind long after i finished reading them, and after reading further stories they kind of came back into my thoughts and tapped me on the shoulder. 

no, i would not particularly wish or care to identify which overall i was taken by, but am happy to give some comments on ones which may or may not be on that list. in respect of easily identifiable ones, the Sherlock Holmes story is first class - imagine Hammer Horror going to town on a story with him, and there you are. the Doctor Who one was all right, but perhaps understandably as pedestrian and as predictable as stories concerning that character by default must be. for a third and final one, the story to feature the protagonist out of American Gods was brilliant, and if that is a hint at how the novel is then best i read it soon. 

let me not comment on ones which i was not that keen on. it wasn't like any of them were all that bad, and besides, some of you may well favour ones i would discard. so i shall decline to run the risk of upsetting anyone. 

well, anyhow, that's that. i am steadfast in being unsure as to whether i have said too much or too little on either volume, in truth. but, the phrase of this era is that it is what it is, and with good fortune some aspect or another of this has been of use, or interest, to someone. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!