Tuesday 11 January 2011

Julie Corbin - Where the truth lies.

4th - 5th January and then 10th - 11th December
Started this and gave up in despair.  Then finished everything else I had and had no choice.  Have you ever read a book and wanted to shake the main character?  The bloody stupid woman in this is doing my head in.  Basically she is blissfully happily married to the most wonderful man in the world (oh yea cos he exists) with 2 grown up'ish sons and the most velly velly adorable - the baby speak is hers, I kid you not - 4 year old daughter.  Her sister Lisa has cancer, her friend Jem is a lesbian painter and decorator and her cook who specialises in macrobiotic and vegan cookery is Turkish.  Or is she Bulgarian.  Its makes a difference.  Sick of her yet?  You will be.  Husband is a lawyer who is about to prosecute a Bulgarian drug baron (see I told you it mattered) but is being threatened by email that unless he reveals the identity and location of the key witness his 4 yr old will be kidnapped and sliced up.  The emailer reveals that they have inside knowledge of the family so it is assumed that the emailer is a "she" and so everyone from the lady that runs the nursery to the macrobiotic cook comes under suspicion - although conveniently her with the foreign accent and shifty glance is overlooked as being Turkish, therefore beyond corruption?, for a good 3/4's of the book.  I can't believe that she is the one.  No one could write a book that bleeding obvious and get it published so she must be some kind of red herring.  In last nights installment lead character - can  you belive I am reading this and can't remember her name - slips into the red silk lingerie that hubby bought her on their last romantic weekend in Paris and then drapes herself over his lap whilst he is working in an attempt to weaken his resistance with her bountious delights so that she can coax the name and location of the witness out of him, email it to the blackmailer and thus solve all her problems.  Frankly if any normal woman draped herself in her skimpies on hubbys lap when he was working she'd get dumped on the floor on her little silk clad arse.  I hope.  Not this twit he's all over he like a rash and then she is freaked out when he tells her that he has insisted that the witness is moved and that he has not been told the new location.  Well, what did she expect there's still about 50 pages of this crap to go.  So tonight I will slog through some more and at some point it will end.  Believe me I will be totally amazed if there is anything in this heap of drivel between now and there that raises even a tiny flicker of interest.  But once you've started you have to finish don't you?  Amazon link here btw - just in case you are tempted!! (Ok its official, whatever I feel the people who review books at Amazon feel the polar opposite - this one was loved.  Go figure!)  Oh for the love of god.  I finished it and let me tell you there was the most stunning twist right at the very end.  It was in my wrist, travelled down from my shoulder and assisted me in hurling this heap of tosh at the wall.  To be fair at one point I did actually find myself thinking that this had gotten interesting, the pace had picked up and I was in page turning mode.  It lasted 3 pages.  I wont spoil the ending, Julie Corbin has already done that.

Catherine Ryan Hyde - Second Hand heart

5th Jan - 10th Jan 
I have read a fair few of what CRH has written - full Amazon lis here - and this was no exception, eventually.  The story is written by Vida the heart recipient and Richard the husband of the donor, his wife Lorrie who was killed in a car crash.  On receiving the heart and meeting Richard Vida feels she is in love with him and starts having memories that can't be hers, but are in fact Lorries.  If you haven't just tutted and clicked to another blog then you will probably enjoy this.  It's not designed to be challenging or deep but it is thought provoking. Would you accept a donor organ if you thought doing so might give you some of the traits of the donor, or if not doing so in spite of this would mean you would die?  The Amazon reviewers and I agree on this one, nothing earth shattering but a nice read. Would recommend Love in the Present Tense as my all time absolute must read of hers btw.

Alex Barclay - Blood Runs Cold

17th - 20th December.
I read Dark House and The Caller and really enjoyed them so when I spotted this in the library I nabbed it.  I read it back in December and as its now January and a lot of alcohol has been consummed since reading my memories are sketchy about plot etc so I'll just check the Amazon page for it.  Ok, well flying in the face of everyone that has reviewed this on Amazon I enjoyed it.  Clearly I do tend to disengage my brain when I am reading and just let the words wash over me as I didn't find any of the plot annoying, thin, badly drawn or any of the plethora of insults thrown at it by the reviewers over there. Maybe I am just easily pleased!  Basically FBI investigator is called in to investigate the murder of a fellow FBI investigator, in the mountains, in the snow.  She has some sex, some laughs and drinks coffee - doesn't seem to go a bundle on food but perhaps the need to look good for the sex prevents her from eating?  Whatever, I enjoyed it for what thats worth!