well, would you look at that. after dragging my feet with reading of late i have, somehow, managed to finish off reading a further two (2) novels in a short space of time, look you see. one would reasonably suspect (if not expect) that they must have been fairly engrossing stuff, but maybe not so much. risking giving away the crux of it before i waffle on, then, i would say they were both really good stories, but not flawlessly so.
since there is no compelling reason to change from the standard way what i gone done this sort of thing, then, up comes a picture of the 2 (two) novels read, followed by a (mostly) spoiler free overview. you need to take note more than usual here, for after that there is every chance significant spoilers shall crop up. unavoidable sometimes.
going from left to right, then, which handily is the order in what i read them, Murder On Line One by Jeremy Vine (yes that one) is a really excellent novel hiding within an average one. after that comes The Gathering off of CJ Tudor, which wasn't bad, yet not quite as good as i had hoped for. oddly again one could suggest (if not argue) a much (more) better novel lurks within the pages of this one.
just to be clear, then, which is likely wise knowing the dwindling attention span of us humans, one should consider the rest of this to have spoilers within. so, if you are in a rush, or wish to remain absolutely spoiler free, then yes, for what my "view" is worth, both are worth reading.
plot? a provincial radio presenter (well, the golden rule for novelists at first is "write what you know") with a trouble past inadvertently ends up being part of a non-constabulary investigation into a possible murder.
my use of italics there was quite deliberate (sometimes i do use them for fun alone) and is, mostly the crux of how this could be better. quite a lot of the enjoyment (if that is the right word) of reading the first 100 or so pages is anyone and everyone trying to work out if there has been a murder. i mean we, the readers, know there has, it's right there in the title. which is unfortunate, as it would be more better if it had a bit of a vaguer title.
another thing holding this back is the writing. no, Mr Vine is not a "bad writer" (let me not throw stones from my glass house on that score, after all) as such. he has, however, embraced a style which at first feels somewhat clunky, a bit chunky and hovers over ham fisted. essentially, and this isn't necessarily a criticism for such is widely purchased and read, quite a "tabloid" style. one that, say, Tony Parsons does exceptionally well, and Mr Vine not quite as well. the problem with this comes at the start (you remember the spoiler warning) when a deep personal tragedy experienced by the (ostensible) protagonist is presented in a very "in your face", tabloid way. as in one isn't allowed the margin to become emotionally connected to the character and come to care naturally.
overall the story, and structure of it, are really good. very much one that you want to keep reading. even if it is all "flawed". when it becomes clear that the "suspect pool" is extremely limited, well, one absolutely absurd red herring (although if it was them this novel would have been on the borderline of genius) exposes how obvious the other red herring is. meaning your "surely it is them what done it" thoughts are quite correct but it's another couple of hundred pages before the characters in the book work it out.
for the most part (or mostly) there's more to enjoy in this novel than there is to pick apart. after the abrupt introductions you do grow interested (and indeed fond) of the characters. there's also some genuinely funny moments, and some rather touching ones too. yes, granted one or two "motivations" expressed by some of the character sound like they are off of one of Mr Vine's radio or tv phone in shows, but they, the content of them is all we, the people, phoning in, so it reflects the reality of someone somewhere, i guess.
what's the plot? it is a world where vampires (vampyrs in the novel) are kind of normalised, yet segregated. a detective is sent to a remote Alaskan town to investigate the possible murder of a human by a member of the nearby vampyr colony. should it be that a vampyr committed the crime then authorisation will, to the delight of the (human) inhabitants of the town, be given for a "cull" of all vampyrs in the colony.
hmn. yes, mostly, i think (or believe) that hmn is my main review. i do find myself struggling a bit with my wish to champion CJ Tudor. as excellent and as brilliant as The Chalk Man and The Burning Girls were - really, really great novels - the others have more or less felt hmn. which, overall, this one does.
bear with me here. the idea of, at this point in our history, setting out to write a "vampire" novel is rather like that the thing they do when they hire Coldplay to play Glastonbury. which is to say yeah, been there, done that, seen (or if you will heard) it all before, nothing new is going to be there. yet it is popular and successful, though, because it is the kind of thing a significant number of people happen to like, a lot. i did go into it fairly sure nothing "new" would be on the go, since the idea of a "normalisation" of vampires has been done in things like True Blood, and even the setting idea was used, if i remember right, for the superb film 30 Days Of Night.
much like the Jeremy Vine novel it really does feel a much, much better novel lurks in the pages here. incidental things and vague sub-plots featuring (you had the spoiler warnings) selling human blood on the black market, the trade in vampyr relics and the "Helsing" anti-vampyr gangs all feel rather more interesting that the essentially pedestrian (and sometimes confusing despite that) murder investigation. being fair, though, the "twist" on who did it was rather good.
presumably the review of The Gathering is, then, you very much "get what you pay for". there would be little point in one reading a new vampire novel and being disappointed that there's not all that much new or inventive in it. yet, as i said above, there pretty much was potential for that. not too sure how bothered i am by the suggestion of a follow up novel, which with a quite heavy hand is implied with the payoff line in the "epilogue" bit. i don't think i would be all that bothered about any further tales of some of the characters here.
righty-ho, that's just about that. for those interested in such (a small percentage, likely) mostly these were indeed read when i had to put all that stuff on my feet (mostly) each morning. that said i think some of the Jeremy Vine one was read on (or during) a laundry visit.
yes, i have indeed (already) selected the next one to read. a recent purchase too, off of one of my favourite writers, so any new paperback off of them always jumps the queue on whatever books i have sat here waiting to be read.
thanks as ever for reading!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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