books what i read

heya

for regular readers (thank you), you know what the next sentence is here. once more i have read two novels, look you see, and so as has become the standard i offer up to anyone remotely interested my thoughts on them. really have no idea if these posts make any difference to any reading decision anyone makes, but here we go once more.

as is indeed relatively usual, an image of the two (2) novels) follows, which itself gets followed by a brief kind of overview thing. beyond that, well, whilst every effort is made to avoid such, it may be that one or two of those "spoiler" type of comments may be contained. you have, as the saying goes, been warned. 

going left to right (if i have that the right way around) i am delighted to say that The Boys From Biloxi is if not classic Grade A then certainly quality Grade B+ off of John Grisham, which is splendid as i have an immediate and irrational dislike for any work of art which fails to feature the letter "e" in its title. and Fifty Fifty off of Steve Cavanagh was really, really good, despite the plot premise sounding all rather too familiar and in the area of being tired. 

before getting into each of these i am rather delighted to say that both have helped (if not enabled) me rediscover a love of reading. i had, probably in the last post on this sort of thing, expressed concerns that my interest in such was dwindling. perhaps i just had a change of view (or what have you) which just happened to happen when i picked these to read. right, moving on, and yeah, go on then, just in case here's one of them *** SPOILER WARNING *** things for you for the rest. except the bit at the end of all of this. 

to start, or indeed commence (several paragraphs later) where i did will be to start with The Boys From Biloxi off of John Grisham. indeed it is so that at the time of writing this is a good couple of years old. as it happens i have a few Grisham sat here to read, which is odd as normally they would get priority. provenance, for those really fussed by such, is probably Tesco, likely a "book of the week" affair. will have bought it on sight. you know what now that i think it might have been a a book which was (and i assume as a complete one off) bewilderingly cheaper at WH Smith. no matter, got it and read it. 

plot? it's a vast, sprawling epic (north of 500 pages) set in, as the title gives every indication, an area of Biloxi. quite a few years are covered, with the premise effectively showing two families on opposing sides of the law who, from time to time, clash. obviously this being a Grisham novel means that one of the families features lawyers, for clarification.

i am not at all sure how much, exactly, i would wish to say about that in respect of the specifics of the book. mindful of me being somewhat "meh" about reading when i elected to give this one a go, it proved to be thoroughly absorbing. perhaps such terms are a cliche, but i did find myself struggling to put it down. i was very much "oh go on, one more chapter", no matter how late the hour or whether the laundry i was sat waiting for was done. it's a fascinating, interesting narrative one can easily delve and dive into, with the length of it never, ever being padding or a case of dragging stuff out for the sake of it. my instinct is to refer to this as "classic" Grisham, rather akin to the books he wrote in the 90s which were of similar size and compelling reading. over the course of this century thus far he has, from time to time, delivered novels which are fine but just lacking that sense of depth or detail which made him such a phenomenal success. 

my thinking is that this is very much a novel i would suggest to someone who had heard of John Grisham, perhaps even have seen some of the films, but had not read any of his books. from here on out it would be a voyage of discovery, with most of it good. indeed this paragraph exists so that i can feel that i have written a fair bit of a most impressive novel. actually that's probably why most reviews always look for negatives. once something is established as good (or great, excellent or what have you) then there's not much else one can say. far easier to give something a kicking, there's always plenty of words the determined mind can find for such. 

usually i would deliberately not read two thematically similar novels in a row. so after reading one legal thriller next would likely be a horror or at least a thriller not really legal related. yet on i went to give a go to a novel i likely picked up 3 or so years ago, being Fifty Fifty off of Steve Cavanagh. as the stickers make abundantly clear this one was purchased from The Works for what looks like a very good price. 

what's the story, or if you will plot, here? a quite prominent member of the New York society gets brutally murdered. his two daughters were apparently there, and each accuses the other of committing the crime. evidence of a science nature indicates "either or both" did it. in comes Eddie Flynn once more, opting to defend the sister (or daughter) which he believes is entirely innocent of it all........

to be honest i purchased this because of how excellent one of his previous novels, Thirteen, was, and how very good two more books by Steve Cavanagh (Twisted and The Liar) were. in terms of the basic premise of the plot i (very much) had a sense of it maybe being done before again and again, with it feeling worn out. from memory there was a reasonably decent episode of that CSI thing which use the "one of these sisters did it" plot. just how (bloody) good Thirteen was is something which means Mr Cavanagh has an awful lot of credit in stock with me, so i figured why not and gave it a go. 

very glad indeed that i did. the fluent, fluid paced writing is exceptional. how jealous am i of never being able to write quite so well as this. there's one or two outstanding sub plots of value, but mostly yes, the writer pulls off the "twist" here, although that doesn't feel right. by which i do indeed mean that once you are absolutely (totes) certain you have worked out which sister is guilty the very next chapter makes you change your mind. all of which makes it such a great read. 

so, there you go. two novels which were fantastic reads, and ones that i would not hesitate to suggest or recommend to anyone. well, some of the murder details in Fifty Fifty might not be for the squeamish, for at heart this novel is purely inspired by the "pulp" fiction genre, but still. 

if for some reason you are interested in moi and my enthusiasm for reading, well, i have gone right ahead and tested such. as a sort of preview (or sneak peek) at the next post like this (should i of course make it far enough to do it) i have elected to read a Scott Mariani novel. no, really. up to now i am rather enjoying it, so either it's one he could be bothered to do a decent job with, or i am just all full tilt in favour of reading once more. we shall see what ridiculous plot twist comes in. 

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