After a fifty/fifty reading success rate in April, this month started slowly with a book based in the US - which as regular readers of my blog will know, I tend to struggle with. True to form, Lisa Scottoline's book The Truth About the Devlins was a bit of a battle for me but I didn't hate it. I just find the American police hierarchy more complex than the British one (probably only because I am unfamiliar with it) and some of the terminology surrounding the law firm owned and run by the Devlins was out of my knowledge base too. Otherwise an averagely good read which kept me engaged and trying to work out who was responsible for what in the storyline.
Overall, I gave it a 3.5 star rating compared to the Amazon reviewers rating of 4.3 stars.
Since then though, my reading choices have picked up considerably and I've enjoyed the next two books I've opted to read. You can't go wrong with Jack Jordan now can you? So I finally dived in to a book I've been nudging down the order for a few months: Redemption. Wow. What a tension-filled, action packed ride this was.
The premise of the story is that eleven years previously, a young boy was the victim of a hit and run road traffic accident out in the desert in America (yes, I know I said I don't like books set in America but allow me a bit of reader's wriggle room on this one!). The perpetrator was arrested, charged and has served his sentence and kept his nose clean ever since. But this isn't justice enough for the young lad's mum, who is hell-bent on making him pay the ultimate price: a life for a life. I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book and even managed to dream up my own idea of where the story was going to go (I was totally wrong!). All the emotions played out throughout the pages of this one, and I gave it a shiny 5 stars at the end (despite having misled myself regarding a plot twist which never came, but I felt could have really worked!).
On a high from this one, I needed a book which was going to match the quality of Jack Jordan's writing and lo and behold, my library reservation of Jo Callaghan's latest novel Human Remains arrived in perfect time. Book 3 of the AI detective series starring Kat and Lock, this is probably one of my most anticipated reads of the year so far. I was just hoping it's as strong as the first two, In the Blink of an Eye and Leave No Trace which I loved.
Suffice to say that author Jo Callaghan has knocked it out of the park once again, with a nice little hint of perhaps a darker side to book 4 right at the end. (No spoilers here, but it's such a tantalising taster of things to come, I think). The only problem now is that I will have to wait such a long time for the next instalment as this one isn't even out in paperback yet! Another 5 star read for May.
So, how to follow two amazing books in a row? Well, my favourite buddy reader and I both found ourselves at the end of our reads at the same time, which so very rarely happens these days. Off to the buddy read list of potential books we went, and found Alice Feeney's Beautiful Ugly to be our favoured choice.
Now, this has proved to be quite a difficult one for me to read as I am tackling my very first loan from my local library's digital e-reader service. There were zero copies available for me to borrow in the physical book service so digital it must be - but I can't download these to my kindle. Reading on my tablet has proven to be uncomfortable for my eyes and my wrists, and it's distracting from my enjoyment of the book. The story itself is intriguingly mysterious and just my cup of tea but I'm struggling to stay engaged due the format in which I'm reading, which is really disappointing. I have spent this morning (Saturday) trying to locate a physical copy of the book but have failed miserably so onward we battle for now. I'm hoping to access the library copy via my laptop this evening to see if that makes the reading experience any easier. Wish me luck as I'm a bit of a dummy when it comes to using technology! I'll give you more feedback regarding the content of the book itself once I'm further on through - but so far it's reeled me in and is looking promising for a high star rating.
Right, enough waffling from me for now.
I hope you're enjoying some excellent books to go with the beautiful weather we've had lately and maybe one of the titles I've touched on today might tempt you into your next reading choice.
