Buffy's Mom

A major diversion from the first 2 in the series

Revisado: 10-06-24

I agree with many of the lower-star reviewers as I had similar reactions to this story, namely:
- Whatever happened to Gillard's amazing, gutsy wife? The minute they got married her brain seemed to turn to mush. I had expected (having read and loved the first two novels) that she would offer invaluable and insightful perspectives on his cases - albeit unofficially - rather than become a pitiful sidekick. That was an expectation dashed in this tale, which has more to do with family ties and dysfunctional Somerst relatives than an objective crime.
- The plot seemed rather far-fetched. The characterisation was wonderful but (and not wishing to spoil the story for those who haven't read it yet) there was a little too much serious wrongdoing in that family for it all to be believable.
- By starting the book with a different detective I was rather befuddled at first. Indeed, there is a huge amount of this story that doesn't directly involve Gillard at all. Yet he was the character I wanted to read more about -- just not his crazy family.
- Finally, I may have missed the "mist" (excuse the pun) but it seems to me that the title should have been: The Body in the Road.

I'm a huge fan of Nick Louth's smart, sharp writing - and Marston York's narration is superb. Aunt Trish was certainly beautifully drawn, and there were enough little clues along the way for me to guess how things would turn out (although I was way off when it came to the identification of the run-over body!), but like many other reviewers I do hope we see the back of her soon...I prefer DCI Craig Gillard when he's on a proper job, not dealing with crazy relatives like her.

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Bodies left, right and centre - great book!

Revisado: 09-28-24

Not only is this a well-written, nicely paced novel that introduces an international angle different from what one would expect from a British police procedural (i.e., not about drugs, porn, or domestic terrorism), but the research that must have gone into it is astounding. I never knew that blood feuds existed in Albania, where much of the story takes place. Apparently it's a custom that began in the 15th century and was halted for a time during communist rule but started up again after the 1990 regime collapse. According to statistics I found on a Global Initiative website from 2018 - the year this novel was published - some 591 families were affected, mainly in places like Shkodra in the north of that country! These are not just 'eye for an eye' killings, but are perpetuated across generations, thereby affecting many aspects of that society, sadly including the police and judiciary.

While some might find parts of the plot "far fetched" or "unrealistic" I think the author did a fine job of setting out the background to that country's culture so that I was more than willing to suspend disbelief.

It's a personal thing, but I especially love reading novels that not only entertain me and present plot twists that can't be spotted a mile off (I read a lot of murder mysteries/crime thrillers/police procedurals) but include information I wasn't aware of before. Not sure this novel will do much for the Albanian tourist industry, however...it certainly put me off going there.

This is the second book in the DCI Craig Gillard series and I enjoyed this story even more than the first (The Body in the Marsh). OK, I'm hooked...off to listen to The Body in the Mist. (And quick shout-out to Marston York - great narration!!)

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At last! A smart police procedural

Revisado: 09-22-24

Fiction is one thing, but I always admire authors who go a step further and incorporate real-life, relevant research into their novels. Something Nick Louth has done in spades.

I LOVED this novel. As someone who listens to a lot of true crime, murder mysteries and crime thrillers, it is rare for me not to spot whodunnit, or the whydunnit, early on. Mr Louth had me befuddled right until the corpse in the car, whose identity I guessed right away. But by then the story is almost over.

Well written, wonderfully narrated, featuring some of my old stomping grounds when I lived in Croydon back in the 1980s...what more could I ask for? Well, The Body on the Shore, actually...because I'm off to listen to Book 2 in the series. DCI Craig Gillard is now my go-to fictional detective for a while.

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NOT The Lovely Bones (sadly)

Revisado: 09-16-24

It seems I am in the minority here, but this novel was certainly not "compelling". Nor was there much suspense...or psychology, to be honest.

Quinn Roberts has been murdered and wants to know by whom. A fair enough premise but derivative, if you've read the wonderful The Lovely Bones. Indeed, there are any novels where the protagonist is dead that tackle this plot device much more masterfully and creatively: The Book Thief (narrated by Death itself); The Last Days of Jack Sparks (via a final hours manuscript); Warm Bodies (protagonist is a zombie); and The Lying Game (a dead twin attaching herself to her twin who's still alive).

I managed to get to chapter 25 and then chapter after chapter (short, thankfully) was just "filler" in my view, none of which advanced the plot in any way. It was so excrutiating listening to all this day-to-day tedium -- Hannah learning to cook from her mother; the book club where none of the members actually read the book - nor were they expected to; family barbecues where people just gossip about one another. The husband acts like a total jerk. The wife (and victim) becomes pathetic.

It seemed as if the two main characters had swapped personalities after their marriage: the husband becoming so narcissistic and unhinged that I was skeptical that even academia--populated by plenty of underwhelming egotists--would have put up with him for any length of time, let alone promote him. And Quinn, beautiful, popular, feisty in college...suddenly turns into a down-trodden housewife "forced" to dress trashily to show what a great catch hubbie made. Huh?

By the time I got to chapter 29, I decided to just skip to the end and continued with chapter 98. Frankly, I'd worked out who the perpetrator was, and the ending was just meh...

Thankfully, this was a freebie on Audible. Had it not been, I'd have asked for my credit back. Poorly written, derivative, uninteresting...and the narrator's cadence didn't do anything to help. If I didn't know this novel was read by a human being, I'd have thought the voice was provided by AI.

If you're going to promote a novel as "a compelling psychological suspense mystery" than I do expect it be compelling, suspenseful, and have at least some believable twists and turns.

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Too far-fetched for me

Revisado: 09-15-24

I must admit to being less than enthralled by plots involving "briliant" criminal masterminds like Alistair Ashcroft, who has appeared as a character in several of Joy Ellis' novels so far. This story seemed particularly far-fetched, saved only by my weakness for the wonderful Jackman and Evans characters (along with their team), and the sterling Audible narration by Richard Armitage. That man could read a McDonald's menu and I'd be enthraled (and i NEVER eat McDonald's!)

Having worked briefly in television, I found it a stretch to imagine that key crew members involved in shooting a new police series in Saltern-le-Fen would have the time to moonlight in highly explicit blue movies simultaneously and--worse--that long-standing urban myth, the snuff film. Or that the producers and director who are there to do legitimate work have no suspicion of anything untoward happening around them.

Although one man does. A former colleague of Marie Evans, while acting as police consultant on that series, believes something nefarious is going on--although he doesn't know by whom or what what the exact crime might be. Yet he seems scared to death. So much so that he plans to go into hiding. Huh? And Evans just takes this sketchy "gut feeling" to Jackson, convincing him there is something to investigate, even with so little to go on.

But then two gorgeous young men, their bodies smeared with oil, turn up dead and everything starts to fall into place. (As a side note, why are the deaths of good-looking people deemed more tragic or important than anyone else? Did Joy Ellis really intend to perpetuate that kind of nonsense by making the forensic pathologist out to be so devastated by their murders?)

For me, this plot highlights the challenge of maintaining a long series of police procedural/murder mysteries in a narrowly confined geographical area. Who knew such dastardly criminals would focus their evil doings on the South Lincolnshire Fens? How many permutations of crimes and criminals can there be before such a series begins to feel as if it has very little fresh ground to till?

Nevertheless, I shall be looking out for Ms Ellis' next novel, hoping that if it does involve Jackman, Evans and the team, that the author comes up with something a little more believable. Thankfully without charismatic psychopath (whom I never liked as a character), Alistair Ashcroft.

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Great as a stand-alone book, too

Revisado: 09-04-24

I always hugely admire authors who can elicit strong emotions from me. In the case of this book, that might seem only to be expected, given the subject matter. But the scenes I found especially discomfiting directly involved the once love-struck Gretel, having escaped to Sydney Australia, and her father's former driver. Kurt Kotler. Their conversation in the cafe fairly reeked of sexual tension.

A different kind of tension sprang from the many unpleasant conversations 91-year old Gretel found herself having with down-stairs neighbour and wife-beater, Alex Darcy-Witt. Once again - maybe due largely to the magnificent narration by both Kristin Atherton and Helen Lloyd in the roles of the younger and older Gretel -- the air around me seemed to crackle with malevolence.

My only misgivings on the plot involved the reaction of David (a Jew) to discovering Gretel's family secret. Given that this was a woman he had been intimate with for a while and professed to love (and eventually marry - although he came across as a bit of a player for that!) -- I found that scene between them to be too over-the-top. Certainly, I'm no expert on WW2 or what was expected of family members of SS officers, but it did seem to me that a child of 12 (not even a teenager) could hardly be held responsible for what her father did during the War.

I had a similar reaction to the later scene when Alex D-W (a thoroughly unpleasant character, not wholly believable) blackmails Gretel into keeping quiet about his abuse of his wife and small child. Loving the older Gretel character, I wanted her to tell him to get lost (actually worse than that), but I guess there would not have been a satisfactory conclusion to the story if that had been the case.

John Boyne neatly wrapped up many threads that I didn't even realise were loose. I really enjoyed (if that's the right word) this book. Given that it's been years since I read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I felt it could stand alone as a novel outside of that.

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Less Hamish...tearjerker...great historical

Revisado: 07-20-24

I adore this series, although I have tended to jump about a bit, rather than read them from start to current novel.

It's rare--at least I found it to be so--to read a murder mystery or police procedural novel that's also a tearjerker. What I liked particularly about this book in the Ian Rutledge series is that it really brings home the horror of the First World War. For those of us who only had very distant and personally unknown relatives take part in these atrocities, it can often seem like just another stupid clash of Brits against the Germans. What Todd did incredibly well, imo, was to highlight the psychological as well as physical damage that these terrible years did to Britain's young men.

Rutledge is able to empathise and understand what other soldiers are telling him because he experienced many of the same horrors, including at the Battle of the Somme.

I thought the plot was wonderful. Different in that the story starts some years before in France and follows the promise (dream!) seven officers have to meet in Paris and race down to Nice, should they survive the war. In most cases they didn't really believe they would. Two of them didn't, leaving five men to pick up the baton.

I'm on something of a bender when it comes to this series and am about to find another one to listen to on Audible. I love the Rutledge character and the setting just after WW1 makes a pleasant change from culturally less interesting contemporary plots.

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In love with Ian Rutledge

Revisado: 07-15-24

This is the 4th book I've read in the Ian Rutledge series and I have to admit, I am somewhat in love with him. Or maybe it's the post WW1 era I'm enamoured with. Better manners, a simpler time...although I'm sure it helped to be well-born or rich!

The Black Ascot is a particularly complex plot but reflecting on it afterwards, I liked how Charles Todd sets up the main story by showing how, the "villain" of the piece is often not who you think it is.

I also like Simon Prebble's narration (although I'm now listening to another in the series in which the narrator is Simon Vance...I think there have been several different people over the years, including the author himself).

My one beef with Mr Prebble is the Scottish accent of Hamish. Not only was I glad the dead Scotsman didn't pop up quite as often as some of the earlier books, but the way Prebble seems to have trouble getting his tongue around that accent, it was often difficult to understand precisely what Hamish was saying (and I say this as a Scot myself).

Anyway, I'm a fan...this series gives a wonderful insight into life in England between the 2 World Wars.

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Potentially triggering for some

Revisado: 07-11-24

If you have an ounce of empathy for women caught up in abusive relationships, and the unnecessary death of a small child, this could prove to be a very challenging read. Not only because of the domestic violence (near sadism, I would say) and psychological cruelty but because it's almost as if the victim of the initial hit-and-run event--a 5 year old boy--has no part to play in the unfolding plot. Yet the surly 12-year son of the lead detective does!! What was the point of that sub-plot between Ray, his wife and son? Or even Ray and his rookie DC? I just didn't get it.

I did finish, although I found both narrators' voices somewhat irritating. It didn't help that the male narrator took on the roles of both the lead detective, Ray, and Ian the psychopathic abusive husband of Jenna/Jennifer and they sounded almost identical. And although the text was nasty enough, I just didn't get sufficient "evil" vibes from the way the male narrator read Ian. This part comes over in first person which surprised me, because when Ian "emerged" I wondered who the heck he was talking to!

Once the confusion (rather than "twist") set out by the Prologue was revealed, everything else just seemed too obvious. I guess there had to be a romantic interest for Jenna but I do find it extremely cliched when a woman goes to the back of beyond (in this case a small Welsh village) and almost immediately finds a handsome single male who's available!

Not awful, but not that great either and potentially triggering for some.

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A psychological thriller par excellence

Revisado: 07-03-24

There are so few novels nowadays that, when they end, cause me to feel a sense of abandonment and loss. But that's what I feel now after twenty and a half hours of this amazing classic novel. I'm just astounded that I haven't read it before now.

I couldn't help but wonder if the inventors of the US crime series, Colombo, didn't have Porfiry in mind when they created that character.

This sweeping novel has everything I love: murder, psychology, differences of opinion on ethics and morality, historical context and understanding of Russian life in the mid-19th century, romance etc. And what brought it so much to life was the excellent rendition by narrator, Anthony Heald. A remarkable job on his part, keeping so many main characters distinct for the listener.

I'm now on a Dostoevsky roll and intend to listen (if available here) to The Brothers Karazamov. With any luck that will stem my current sense of loss.

Highly recommended.

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