Book Review: The Holiday by T.M Logan

 Book Review : The Holiday By T.M Logan

The holiday is one of those books I’ve heard almost nothing but universal praise for and despite a few negative reviews here and there it seemed like something that was worth a go.

As ever I’ve copied the plot below to save you googling it , 

Seven days. Three families. One killer. It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Provence. But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair, and that the other woman is one of her best friends. One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined. Because someone in the villa is prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden. 

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know where this review is going because I’m afraid The Holiday is a little bit of a disappointment, none of the characters are particularly likeable and I found that I didn’t really give a shit about any of them after 100 pages or so. 

So you’re probably wondering why I carried on with it. It's simple really, despite not caring much about the main characters I couldn’t help wondering what happens to them , or when the book would finally cut to the bloody chase and bump someone off. 

The chapters are short and snappy and end on cliffhangers which means you have to keep reading, I found myself carrying on to see if anything interesting happens, but like the first season of the sopranos there’s several chapters where bugger all happens . 

I like a slow burn thriller, but the holiday takes that concept to the extreme, the paperback version I read came in at 430 pages or so. In my opinion it’s a 370ish page story. 

 The thing that bugged me the most however is the fact that all the action comes in at once about 70 pages from the end making it the only book I’ve ever read to suffer from turbo lag.

Overall the holiday is one of the most frustrating books I’ve read in a long time, it’s well written for sure but it feels like it could be 50 pages shorter and it wouldn’t suffer. The characters are nearly all wankers apart from the kids , who get themselves into enough trouble to stop the whole thing getting bogged down over who shagged who, my guess on that one was completely wrong by the way. It’s not immediately obvious. 

Don’t let me put you off the holiday though, it’s a decent beach read , who knows? Maybe it’d be better if I was actually on holiday when I read it . 

 The holiday hasn’t put me of T.M Logan either . I’ve got his other books in paperback already so his stuff will be making an appearance in here at some point.

Verdict : Good 

Book Review : Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."

On the 13th of April 1953 the world changed forever. One of the most important characters in fiction arrived in the world's bookshops, that secret agent? Bond. James Bond.

Doubtless you all know what the plot of Casino Royale is but if by some miracle you don't know here's a synopsis that amazon wrote earlier 

Le Chiffre is a businessman with expensive tastes, and SMERSH's chief operative in France. But as his dissolute lifestyle threatens to ruin him, his only hope is to risk his paymasters' money at the card table.

James Bond, the finest gambler in the service, has a deadly new mission: to outplay Le Chiffre and shatter his Soviet cell.

Amidst the opulence of Casino Royale, the two men face each other for a game with the highest stakes of all.

Ian Fleming had long harboured an a desire to write a spy thriller, his experiences during World War 2 and his amazing imagination gave him ample material to work with. The card game which forms the main event of the book is based on something that happened to Fleming during the war. 

Fleming wrote Casino Royale with two aims in mind, firstly to take his mind off his forthcoming marriage and secondly to create what he called " the spy thriller to end all spy thrillers". 

It goes without saying that he managed it. In its near 70 years of existence Bond has not only spawned the greatest film franchise of all time but also comic books, continuation novels and radio dramas and just about anything you can fit a 007 logo onto. 

Did Fleming know Bond would thrive for so long when he sat down and wrote that icoic first line? I think he did, for a first time author he exuded confidence and that's what makes readers even after nearly 70 years want to come along for the ride. 

 Apart from some slightly dodgy language by today's standard's (don't write in saying I didn't warn you) there isn't much wrong with Casino  Royale, at 250 or so pages it's not very long but it also feels like it's exactly the right length.  You can easily blow through it in a day or two like I did.

Casino Royale is an absolute riot, I still have little idea of how any card game that isn't 21 works but Fleming explains everything so well even an idiot can't help but plough through the casino sequences. 

Like the film though the most memorable, and if you're a bloke, nightmare inducing part of the book is the torture sequence. I'm actually breaking into a cold sweat thinking about it. If anything the film toned it down but it still ends the same way, Bond's life being saved by the organisation that would go on to be his long term enemy. SMERSH. 

Not so memorable however is the love story between Bond and  double agent  Vesper Lynd, its OK but its nothing like as absorbing or heartbreaking as what Bond later goes through in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. That's one aspect where the film gets one over on the book. Maybe it's something to do with that amazing Venice stunt, by comparison Vesper swallowing a bottle of pills and leaving Bond a note is a bit anticlimactic. 

In the same way that Harry Potter defines my generation Bond defines the 50's and 60's, after Casino Royale the bookshops were awash with authors trying to capture the magic of Ian Fleming. A few managed it  Of course  but nearly all of them are lost to history and yet Bond is still with us. If you've yet to read the bond books I can't recommend it highly enough, why not do something useful in lockdown and scratch the itch? 

 

Casino Royale really does transcend my ratings system. I don't have a ranking higher than "Cracker" so that'll have to do.

Verdict : Cracker 

Book review : The Sentinel by Lee and Andrew Child

 

Book Review : The Sentinel By Lee And Andrew Child

Taking the mantle of one of the biggest brands in fiction can’t be easy, a bit like a contemporary author taking over the bond books. Some times it's a disaster, sometimes it works brilliantly. 

Happily however Andrew Grant (now Child) is a successful author in his own right with some fab detective series under his belt , and you no doubt already know , he’s Lee Child’s younger brother . They’ve co-written the 25^th Reacher adventure together and will team up for a few more before Andrew flies solo.  

The Sentinel is the 25^th Reacher adventure  and for those of you who cant be bothered to go on amazon the plot’s below

Jack Reacher gets off the bus in a sleepy no-name town outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plans to grab a cup of coffee and move right along.
Not going to happen.
The town has been shut down by a cyber attack. At the center of it all, whether
he likes it or not, is Rusty Rutherford. He's an average IT guy, but he knows more than he thinks.
As the bad guys move in on Rusty, Reacher moves in on them . . .
And now Rusty knows he's protected, he's never going to leave the big man's side.

That little synopsis really is the most I can tell you about the sentinel without spoiling it but if you were worried about the changing of the Reacher guard, don’t be.  This is classic Jack Reacher from start to finish. Reacher doesn’t take any shit in the sentinel, he’s calmed down a bit since Blue Moon , there’s only a handful of brutal murders . But he does hang a guy from a bar ceiling , a contender for the funniest Reacher moment ever.

The sentinel is everything a Jack Reacher adventure should be , it’s violent, it’s funny ,the villains are complete bastards and everything gets wrapped up nicely and leaves you eager to tear into the next one. Or in my case dig out the Killing Floor paperback and start from the beginning .  if you’re new to the world of Reacher then, welcome and enjoy catching up.

Verdict : Cracker

Also a big thank you to Transworld for the proof copy