well, what can i say. once more i have finished reading two (2) novels, and so the time has come in which i feel compelled to offer some thoughts on them, look you see.
so as to dispense with any needless, unnecessary theatricals, as usual there's an image of the books what i gone done read, followed by some spoiler free overview type notes which, in turn, are followed by more comments what might be a bit spoilerish in nature. fear not, a safety warning will be visible.
it was with some (great) interest that i saw a novel off of Rev Richard Coles on the shelf, for i had not a single clue that he had elected to pen such. this did indeed turn out to be his debut novel, and sadly, or alas, i must confess i was left somewhat (in an overall sense) disappointed by Murder Before Evensong. since the subject of disappointment is here, indeed yes, the next one read after that was another one from Scott Mariani, which means another (ludicrous) Ben Hope adventure, this one called Graveyard Of Empires. whereas not bad, it's just, well, what it is.
for those of you who(m) were particularly looking forward to this part, well, here you go. please note that a kind of *** SPOILER WARNING *** should be considered as a very real thing for anything which i write from this point onwards. but yes, mostly it shall simply be waffle.
right, now then. before i proceed, i would feel better making it perfectly clear that Rev Richard Coles is someone i hold in rather high regard and i shall always be interested in anything he does. for those of you not so familiar with him, in (very) short he went from being the ace keyboard musician in The Communards to following his calling, or vocation (is that right) to the church. he is a truly gifted speaker, and his expressions of matters around compassion, understanding and humanity are of faith in nature, meaning that surely they resonate with all regardless of personal belief or religion. when he went through the grief of losing his partner the way he spoke, and indeed wrote, of it, the process, the feelings, was done so in a way which i suspect reached out and touched so many, many people. undoubtedly it helped the great majority too. none of us are perfect; oh if only each of us could harness just some of the goodness and the quality of life possible that Rev Richard Coles speaks of we could make our existence, or world, just that bit better.
and so it is that, with a heavy heart, i have to say (as per my earlier confession) that i simply couldn't get into this novel, and didn't particularly enjoy it. perhaps i was just misled by the back, and certain assumptions, that it might well be all rather Thursday Murder Club. similar setting and the very clear indication of a similar (but different) premise, but no. still, i cannot determine if it happened to be quite a laborious read, or if it was just me labouring over it. quite a crucial difference.
let me bring in the plot here. the back of the book speaks of it being murders in a somewhat sleepy and clearly upper class, well to do village. it also states that the protagonist - yes, a vicar - is key or crucial to the investigation into solving who gone done said murders. this isn't quite so accurate account of how the narrative unfolds, but let me not give too much away. so, yeah, i was kind of like "oh" when it became evident that the novel was not to be of the nature, or as paced, as the back suggested. indeed i am aware of a saying concerning never judge a book by its cover.
the novel pretty much (as in more or less) lost me quite early on. as i recall it's the second or third chapter where, in an Austen if not quite Dickens way, one is introduced to a frankly ludicrous amount of characters with scant reference to details of them. it just proved beyond me to recall who was who as i read on, really. further, or also, the resolution of the matter(s) in hand (murders) was done in an ever so Peter Robinson way. disappointing, and at this stage no, i am not entirely sure that i shall pursue the next novel when it appears in paperback. except i am vaguely intrigued by the dynamics of the debate of installing a lavatory in the rectory..........
provenance is pretty straightforward to those in the know, for that £5 yellow price sticker tells you Morrisons. indeed i could have held out and purchased it for less ("fewer") off of Tesco, be it as book of the week or in conjunction with a newspaper, but no. a purchase made very much on sight. also, i seem to have gotten into a habit of only reading these when the next one to come out is bought, if that makes any sense. likely not, but still.
on to plot, then. here goes. after finishing off his brief but scintillating and enjoyable tryst with an Australian lady, Ben Hope listens as his one mate at his smart (but still in France) camp going on about the messy, clumsy and chaotic exit of 'the west' from Afghanistan. Ben shrugs. then Ben gets a call, saying one of his dear friends and contemporaries, who happens to be a lady, is "missing" in Afghanistan, in all the chaos. he considers if it is even possible to rescue her, when he then finds himself hustled into a quasi return to British military service, under orders to go and retrieve an important, mysterious figure lost there, known only as Spartan. how very convenient for him.
i assume, or take it as a given, that there are many, many thousands of us who buy and read these novels, hence it being so that 2 (two) are churned out every year. they are entertainingly, if not well, written (see last one for an absolute clanger of a no-no error in proof reading) and provide a usually thoroughly enjoyable adventure. yes, a scale of how preposterous they are exists, with the zenith, or pinnacle, being that one where he (Ben Hope) had to stop someone from cutting the earth in half with a massive laser. the plausibility of survival in what he faces here is as silly and ludicrous as that one, but then again i doubt anyone is here with these novels for the realism.
being honest, actually this one is quite good (if not very good) in one aspect. every now and then it is so that Scott Mariani throws in some decent historical stuff. from what i recall the initial success of these novels leveraged nicely off of being a bit Da Vinci Code like at a time when such sold really well on the strength of that comparison. quite a bit of history is chucked at the reader, be it of Alexander the Great or the perpetual futility of anyone trying to "conquer" Afghanistan. no, in this respect, not really to the level of the one novel i would consider his masterpiece (or magnum opus), The Forgotten Holocaust, but still, welcome and enjoyable reading.
we, the world (at large) now have somewhere well north of twenty (20) Ben Hope adventures. i would assume that many have been reading as long as i have, whilst some may have picked up later (or latter if that's right) ones without knowing they are part of a series. anyway, as i think would be the standard comment in such reviews, yes, overall, this entire series is worth it for those looking for rip-roaring wild adventure type things with plenty of violent and action. yet oddly a surprising lack of foul language, and that sort of thing only vaguely referenced. mostly, well, i wish i somehow had the capacity to always carry as many cigarettes as what Ben Hope seems to do.
sadly it is indeed so that i just don't get as much time to read as i may like. for some inexplicable reason i have gotten a good deal more sociable on my (predominantly verk) travels, so am not sat with time to do little else but read. hey ho, or oh.
right, anyway, that's that for this post. mostly. indeed i have started, or if you will commenced, reading another novel. as it happens, the one to read after that is also lined up. something of an interesting idea came to mind for reading order based on the pile of books i have sat waiting to be read, and so it shall be a bit of a theme is in the next post on the subject of books.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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