Thursday, March 31, 2016

Review: Ten Days

Ten Days Ten Days by Gillian Slovo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ten days that surround a riot in a housing estate that is about to be pulled down.
How did it all start? With an anonymous call to the police saying there was a problem with one of the residents. So the police arrive and handle the situation so badly that the kill him. And ten days of riots begin.

I could say we have the usual cast of characters, but they are not usual in the sense that they are extremely well constructed: the police (good and bad), the politicians (almost all bad), the wives and mistresses (ditto), and the residents. All amid the biggest heat wave the UK has had in years, which contributes to the oppressing sensation we feel throughout the book.

My only "but" is that the riots are described over and over, and it can be too much of the same thing, but overall it's a very good book, well plotted and written.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review


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Review: The Widow

The Widow The Widow by Fiona Barton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Love, love, love discovering new authors!
This is one of my favorite books of the year, so far.

Jean has been married to Glen for more than 20 years. She was very young, and shy and naïve when she met and married him, and so far he's been the perfect husband. Until he's accused of kidnapping and killing a little girl.

Should she believe him when he says he's innocent? When she finds out about his secret life and vices? So she keeps quiet and pretends her life can go on. Until he suddenly dies, and she starts thinking. And talking.

This is the I-can't-put-down kind of book that gets me in trouble, as I forget that I have a life, so deep I am into it. It's very well written, the characters and places are great and the plot twists and turns until you no longer know what will come next.

And I just read that this is Fiona Barton's first book? Wow!!!


I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review


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Review: The Dead Student

The Dead Student The Dead Student by John Katzenbach
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's been a long time since I read a John Katzenbach book, and I'm sorry to say I wasn't impressed by this one.

When Timothy -Moth- Warner's uncle dies, it is ruled a suicide. But Moth knows better. His uncle is also his AA sponsor, and he would never leave his nephew alone. He then asks his ex girlfriend Andrea (also known as Andy Candy... and sorry, I just couldn't get over this ridiculous name) to help him discover his uncle's killer.

With help from a prosecutor who is also an addict, Andrea and Timothy discover a psychopathic serial killer that is now trying to kill them too.

It is a light, fast read, but to me it seemed as if there was a formula: deeply messed up main characters, an investigation that is more easy than it would seem, and an ending that seems a bit contrived.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review


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Sunday, March 13, 2016

Review: The Moon in the Palace

The Moon in the Palace The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mei, an orphan, is taken to live in the Emperor's Palace in the hope she will become, one day, one of his concubines.
Set between the years AD 631 and AD 648, we follow Mei from her family home to the Emperor's palace and her life among the many concubines and wives that live there.

Though the book seems to be very well researched, I felt the characters lacked some depth. There is endless gossip and wrong doing between the Emperor's favorites, and Mei goes back and forth between being disgraced and back in his favor. Historical books are fascinating, and China provides even more fascinating characters and plot lines. As there is a second book, I suppose we will see Mai's character develop and deepen, but from this book, there isn't much to see where it will lead.

Some of the language/expressions seem too modern, but as a whole the writing is easy and the 400 pages go fast. All in all, a good, interesting book.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: All Things Cease to Appear

All Things Cease to Appear All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A man arrives home to discover his wife murdered and his 3 year old daughter alone with the body. He shows almost no emotion (which makes him an immediate suspect) and flees the town as soon as he can. George Clare then tries to rebuild his life without Catherine, his wife.

The farm house where this happens has already a gruesome story: the farmer and his wife died there too (suicide? accident?) and the house has the "presence" of the woman who lived there before. Their 3 children can't get away from the house, either, and they find their way back as handymen and child minders.

The story goes back and forth between George and Catherine, whose marriage is one big mistake, and the Hale family, the original owners of the farm house.

Although the book is slow paced, it's exactly how the book should be narrated. Also, you always suspect (or even know who the killer is), but I didn't find it was detrimental to the story in any way. On the contrary, it's just another good twist to the plot.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: What She Never Told Me

What She Never Told Me What She Never Told Me by Kate McQuaile
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Louise Redmond has always wondered who her father was. She's asked her mother, who has given her a name and very little information. So when her mother dies she hopes more information will be revealed. This isn't the case, so she decides to finally find out about him.

Traveling between Ireland and the UK she tries to decode her past, trying at the same time to fix her broken marriage.

This was a light, fast and pleasant read (in a good sense), but a few parts of the story didn't feel right to me, for example, Louise's relationship with her husband and the uncle that knew (or didn't know) the whole story. I felt these were very good and complex parts of the plot that somehow were resolved too easily.

The end, in contrast, was mind bending and completely unexpected!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Nowhere Girl: A Novel

Nowhere Girl: A Novel Nowhere Girl: A Novel by Susan Strecker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cady's twin, Savannah, was murdered when they were 16 years old. Now, many years later, Cady is a successful writer but she hasn't managed to put her sister's death behind. Nor has her family...

Being a twin, she had a connection with her sister that few people have, and she feels Savannah is still trying to reach out to her in order to find her killer. So when the police reopen the case, she jumps at the opportunity and does some investigating of her own.

This book is part family drama and part murder mystery. The main characters are lovely, but I didn't feel much empathy-sympathy towards Cady. Maybe it's me, but I don't like successful women who put themselves down ("I'm fat" is all she says of herself) and are complete pushovers.

On the other part, the plot is well developed and the ending is not what I expected, which for me, is very good!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Six Four

Six Four Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the last days of the Showa period a little girl is abducted and killed even after her parents pay the ransom. The case has been open for 14 years, but they have no new leads. Six four was the code name for the case, as it took place in the 64th year of the Showa period (the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926, through January 7, 1989),

Mikami, Press and Media Relations Director for the Police Prefecture, takes an interest in the case when he is asked to visit the girl's father, in order for a high police officer to pay his respects. Mikami's teen age daughter has run away, so a missing girl is a matter close to him.

When another teenage girl disappears, and the kidnapper mimics the actions of the first kidnapping, must Mikami and the prefecture's police solve this case in order to solve the first one?

This is quite a long book, more than 600 pages, and personally I think many of the situations between the police and the press are repetitive. We also have Mikami running from one high officer to another, day after day.

What is so complicated is not only the relationship between the different police departments or divisions, but the relationship between the press and the police.

That said, it is none the less an amazing read, an educational one regarding Japanese culture and it has an ending that I couldn't have imagined.


I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: Night

Night Night by Elie Wiesel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I´m still feeling depressed after reading this book. To think what people suffered!
How much despair (and hope) in a little book barely 100 pages long. Anything we can say or think about the Holocaust is nothing compared to what happened.

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Review: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been wanting to read this book for a long time, but non-fiction is not one of my favorite genres... and it's so wrong!
This is an amazing book, extremely well written, full of interesting cases. I loved the way Oliver Sacks communicated with his patients and his humanity towards them.
But I do think that this is not an easy book for "amateurs" like me. Even if it's one of the most popular science books, it has very precise scientific information that in many cases requires a background I don't have.

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