Book Review: The Witness by Simon Kernick

Book Review: The Witness by Simon Kernick

  Those of you who know this blog or follow me on twitter will know that I’m a huge Lee Child fan and when I told a family member this he went into his shed and came back with a stack of thrillers. Amongst these were books by the likes of Peter Robinson, Chris brookmyre, David Baldacci, Jonathan Kellerman, Patricia Cornwell and Simon Kernick.( I may have missed some out , it was quite a large pile)

 That particular Simon Kernick book was Target (which I reviewed on here a while ago http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/book-review-target-by-simon-kernick.html) I blew through that in about a week and decided to check out some more of Kernick’s work and have since read A Good Day To Die ,The Debt ,One By One and the subject of this review The Witness.

The Witness focuses on Jane Kinnear who witnesses her lover being murdered, and suddenly finds herself with information about a terrorist attack and  maverick DI Ray Mason (who seems to be cut from the same cloth as Dennis Milne) from the Met Counter Terrorism Command is on the case. While Jane and Ray tell their tales in the first person, both flick back to moments that shaped their lives, which gives an insight into what makes them tick.
Kernick expertly builds layers upon layers of intrigue and tension, just as everything starts to fall into place, even more action barges in and delivers a good kicking.  

The Witness is written in a similar style to the Jack Reacher novels. There is also a lot of action  but not so  much that it becomes over-the-top or unbelievable. I thought the plot was very clever and well thought out, with quite a few unexpected twists especially at the end ,but I won't give that away.

The Witness is one of Kernick’s best books to date, if not the best. Regular fans won’t be disappointed and newbies are in for a treat.

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witness-Simon-Kernick-ebook/dp/B014XJGURU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475427690&sr=1-1&keywords=the+witness

Book Review : Make Me By Lee Child

 Jack Reacher books are a bit like the Bond movies. If they're the same as the one that went before you feel a little let down but then, if they are totally new and different you aren't sure if you like them anymore. Either way you're guaranteed someone will be a whiny little bitch about it.

Lee Child clearly believes in the adage of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' and he continues to plow the same furrow as always. Thing is, the people who deride him seem to yearn for something new or different, not sure what they are expecting here, Child writes the way he writes, end of story. If it ain't your thing then don't read it.

I certainly haven't tired of reading about Reacher wander into a corrupt little town, unpick a problem, become a thorn in the side for the resident bad guys and go around kicking ass, bedding the attendant beautiful woman then breezing out once he has cracked the problem right open.

It’s set in the current day, with Reacher travelling aimlessly (as ever) and just happening to run into a whole load of trouble. This time he’s on a train passing through a tiny town – called Mother’s Rest  and out of pure curiosity he decides to get off the train, have a look around and move on in a day or two . But as ever with Reacher things are never that simple.

One thing leads to another and he’s soon hopping around to  LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and   the hidden parts of the internet, accompanied by Chang – a female, ex-FBI private detective – who is “long-limbed and solid, but not where she shouldn’t be”.

I won’t spoil the plot because the book’s neatly constructed so that we (and Reacher) know almost nothing at the start and the plot slowly but surely unfolds. Unlike many Reacher books, where the stories could almost have been set any time in the last 70 years, the plot of this one is bang up to date.

I've noticed some people thought the end was violent - I thought it was in keeping with the type of people that would be involved in the Deep Web .

Despite a suggestion I read in one review you can't suddenly have this eternal loner setting down with a mortgage and an honest job . That would be shit, LC would be pilloried for it and would probably  loose a lot of fans.  Besides he's done that before with Tripwire and The visitor where Reacher found himself with a girlfriend and a house. Child can't have been too keen on that idea because by book 5 the girlfriend had gone to work in London and Reacher was back on the road . Which is where he should be and long may it continue.

If you're a Reacher fan, you'll know what to expect. If not, welcome to the world of Jack Reacher

Book Review - Strange Affair By Peter Robinson

STRANGE AFFAIR BY PETER ROBINSON


Strange Affair is my second Inspector Banks novel and the 15th overall, I finished it about a month ago so my memory of it is a bit sketchy.
 It’s hard to review a book that you finished over a month ago but I’ll give it a go.
After the fire that destroyed Banks' cottage and almost cost him his life in the previous book (playing with fire), this one begins with Banks still away from work and dealing with some major issues like PTSD and depression. He receives a message from his estranged younger brother Roy, asking for his help. Banks tries to reach Roy, who lives in London and can't get in touch with him. Banks decides to go to London and see for himself what happened to his rather questionable younger brother.
He finds that the door to Roy's flat is unlocked and Roy's mobile is on the kitchen table, but it's been twelve hours since the frantic voice mail and Banks has no idea where Roy could be. He begins to investigate on his own. Back home in Yorkshire, the body of a young woman is found on an abandoned country road. She had been forced off the road and shot to death. DI Annie Cabot is assigned the case.
A note with Alan Banks' old address is found in the back pocket of her jeans, so Annie is tasked with trying to find Banks. They meet up in London, and they find out that their two cases are somehow linked. Both of them are doing their own investigation and they find themselves in the dangerous underworld of prostitution, smuggling and human trafficking.
Things get very dicey for both of them, and Banks suffers another unimaginable loss when his brother Roy winds up floating in the river Thames, this causes  Annie to worry about his well-being and Banks is pulled off the case ,but Annie does keep him informed.

This is a very interesting novel which shows us more about the relationship of Alan Banks and his brother Roy. I feel that this book really excels in all areas, character development, plot, suspense, dialogue, and atmosphere. The story was well-paced and Robinson throws enough curveballs  to keep you guessing  until the very end.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes police procedurals.

 Now I’ve finished the Jack Reacher books I need something to fill the void and from the 2 books I’ve read so far the Inspector Banks novels may well the series for the job.