· Rapid Fire Book Tag

·      Rapid Fire Book Tag

Last year I did the reader confessions tag and because it went down so well I’ve been looking out for another tag to get stuck into. This one was created byGirlReading on YouTube so I’ll link in her video somewhere https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-46EzDWdSY&feature=youtu.be

E-Book or Physical Book?

Both. But I have started reading a lot more e-books lately and the physical books have been getting a bit left behind. So I need to try and balance that out a bit.

Paperback Or Hardback?

Purely for convenience reasons it has to be paperbacks but I do buy the odd hardback, usually Jack Reacher books.

Online Or Instore shopping?

Mainly online but I do go to bookshops whenever I can

Trilogies or Series ?

Both

Heroes Or Villains?

Depends on the book but usually heroes, having said that

I’m rereading The A series of unfortunate events books at the minute and I’m finding myself liking Count Olaf over the Orphans

A Book You Want Everyone to read ?

I bet everyone will say this but it has to be Harry Potter

An Underrated Book?

This may come as a surprise but I’m going to say The Jack Reacher books .Purely because they get written off as “Beach Reads “ or Guilty pleasures by literary snobs . I hate that.

Last book you finished?

As I was saying by Jeremy Clarkson, for the third time. What can I say?  His books are just so easy to read and make great last minute presents .

Last book you bought?

Standing In Another Man’s grave by Ian Rankin.

Weirdest thing you’ve used as a bookmark?

Pokémon cards

Used books. Yes or No?

Absolutely yes

Top 3 genre’s?

Crime, comedy, Autobiography

Borrow or buy?

Buy. That way I don’t have to worry about giving them back

Characters or plot?

both

Long or short books?

Depends on the mood but I try and choose books that fall between the two , so 450- 500 pages or so is enough for me .

Long or short chapters?

Preferably short .

Books that make you laugh or cry?

Laugh.   only one book has ever made me cry.

Our world or fictional worlds?

Hello! Have you seen what’s going on in the world at the moment? Definitely fictional worlds

Audiobooks. yes or no ?

Yes. Audiobooks are the dog’s bollocks. (For those of you who aren’t from Britain that means awesome)

Ever judge a book  by its cover?

Ooh yes. And I buy books because of the cover as well

Movie or TV adaptations?

Either, as long as its bears some resemblance to the  book that’s being adapted

Movie that you preferred to the book

Casino Royale

Series or Standalone's?

Series. I like to feel as if I’m getting to know a character over multiple books.

I tag

Everyone who’s reading this.

2016 roundup: kindle

Time for the Kindle part of my 2016 roundup

I won't list absolutely everything i read on kindle in 2016 as we'd be here all bloody day so I’ve picked a few.

1: Strip Jack by Ian Rankin

The fourth book in the Rebus series and my first, I’ve already reviewed it so I won't go into any detail about the plot. Rebus turns 30 this year so congratulations to Ian for that.

 http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/book-review-strip-jack-by-ian-rankin.html

Verdict : Good

2: The Defence By Steve Cavanagh

Thriller that follows burnt out lawyer and ex con man Eddie Flynn as he tries to save his daughter form crazed kidnappers.

http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/book-review-defence-by-steve-cavanagh.html

 Verdict; Good

The Killing Season by Mason Cross

The first in the Carter Blake series by Mason Cross features Blake and FBI agent Elaine Banner on a cross country man hunt to find a deranged serial killer .

You can find my review of the book here http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/book-review-killing-season-by-mason.html

Verdict: Cracker

3. Small Wars by Lee Child

A   Jack Reacher short story about a young lieutenant colonel shot in cold blood in the woods in Georgia. Small wars takes place back when Reacher was still in the army and features old favourites like Frances Neagley and Reacher's brother Joe .Who *spoiler alert* is the one who shot the young woman in the woods (she was selling secrets) . It's decent enough as a short story, it would have been too much of a stretch to turn this into a full length novel, even for a genius like Lee Child. But it's wrapped up nice and neatly and doesn’t leave anything overhanging.

Verdict: Good

4. Clarkson's Troubles: From Biplane to Spaceship

By Martin T Hart

Some of you may know that I'm a Clarkson defender and i know that he's not everyone's cup of tea. This is a very interesting chronological account of the ups and downs of Clarkson’s career. Well researched and very funny – and it’s filled with stuff I didn’t already know about him. It also includes the stunts he actually got away with - but probably shouldn’t and also the truth about his mood before punch-gate , which when you read about it , it makes the whole thing more understandable.

 Verdict : good

5. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

This one might be controversial but I absolutely HATED this. I have never enjoyed Shakespeare but I must admit that I enjoyed reading the whole thing slightly more than just extracts and I think it helped me understand the story a bit more. So basically I’ve gone from loathing Billy Bard to just hating him. Well, it's a start.

Verdict : Average

 6. Dance with the Enemy by Rob Sinclair

The first in the Carl Logan series (bonus points for the choice of first name).  Dance with the Enemy follows Logan as he goes on the hunt for one of the world's most wanted terrorists Youssef Selim the man that kidnapped, tortured and left him for dead.

Verdict: Cracker

7.

My Interesting Emails to People

By Daniel Drummond Harvey

Yep. Someone managed to get their email inbox published as a book. I've seen it all now. To be fair though some of these emails are quite interesting and funny, the one he sent to President Flatulence is particularly worth reading. He didn’t get a reply though.

8.

Strange Affair by Peter Robinson

   The 15th novel in the rather addictive DCI Banks series, I've already reviewed it so I’ll stick a link in below. The TV adaptation is also worth watching.

http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/book-review-strange-affair-by-peter.html

Book Review : The Recruit by Robert Muchamore

Just before christmas a mate lent me the entire series of cherub books , they're the same sort of thing as the Young Bond and  Alex Rider books but that's no bad thing because those series are both brilliant.

Plot :
A terrorist doesn't let strangers in her flat because they might be undercover police or intelligence agents, but her children bring their mates home and they run all over the place. The terrorist doesn't know that one of these kids has bugged every room in her house, made copies of all her computer files and stolen her address book. The kid works for CHERUB.
CHERUB agents are aged between ten and seventeen. They live in the real world, slipping under adult radar and getting information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail.
For official purposes, these children do not exist.


The recruit starts with James Choke , who following beating up a girl in his class and being thrown out of school also ahs to cope with the death of his mother . He ends up in a sort of care home where he is befreinded by Kyle who unkown to James is working as a sort of talent scout for CHERUB - an organisation that hires and trains young kids to act as spies and gather information in places where adult agents would stick out like Jack Reacher in a room full of midgets .

We follow James through basic training at chereb as well as a trip to Malaysia and then it's on to the first mission where James paired up with older agent Amy must pretend to be traveller kids in order to stop a chemical attack on an oil industry conference .

Will they manage it ? Well you'll have to read the book to find out .

The Recruit is a bit slow to start with but then that does give you time to get to know James and the other characters  before turning up the wick on the action before the end . 

Verdict : Good.

2016 Roundup : Audiobooks

First of all : Happy New Year .

I promised a round up of what i read in 2016, starting with Audiobooks.
I'm not doing this in any  particular order and i'll split the books into four catagouries: Poor,Average,Good , Cracker .

First up:

A Necessary End by Peter Robinson 

The third DCI Banks novel and I honestly think it's my least favourite , the storyline itself was okay but I felt it was slightly let down by average narration.

Verdict : Average . 

As You Do By Richard Hammond 

Richard Hammond narrates the second part of his autobiography As You Do , the sequel to the brilliant On The Edge , which remains the best autobiography i've ever read . This one isn't quite as good but it's still a good listen ,with wry, honest , interesting and sometimes VERY funny stories about his life and what goes on behind the scenes on Top Gear . 

Verdict: Good

The Man In The White Suit by Ben Collins

Yep. The Stig wrote a book. But Stiggy is only a small part of Ben's story and the book details his career from karting all the way to the 24 hour Le mans race via Top Gear and training for the SAS. Like Hammond's book it's honest , interesting and extremely funny .

Verdict : Good

In A Dry Season By Peter Robinson 

The book that Peter Robinson regards as his best work and i'm inclined to agree , the plot , the writing the narration are all just about perfect. 

Verdict: Cracker.

Goldfinger By Ian Fleming
If you don't know the plot of Goldfinger either the book or the movie (they're remarkably close) then where the bloody hell have you been?

Confession time: I've never read Goldfinger, i've seen the movie christ knows how many times but the book had eluded me , so when the audiobook came up on audible I decided to give it a whirl . It's narrated by Hugh Bonneville who does a brilliant job of bringiing all the characters to life and it made gym sessions much less tedious.

Verdict : Cracker


The House Of Silk By Anthony Horrowitz

My first Sherlock Holmes novel , narrated by the brilliant Sir Derek Jackobi  , like Hugh Bonneville with goldfinger he really brought the charcters and the storyline to life.

Verdict :Cracker

Octopussy And The Living Daylights And Other Stories by Ian Fleming

Tom Hiddleston and Lucy Fleming narrate this collection of Fleming's short stories . The stories themselves i would rate as good but the narration by Hiddleston and Fleming is second to none .

Verdict : Cracker

What I've been up to lately

Some of you may have been wondering why I've been a bit quiet on here and on Twitter lately.  Well , I've been working nights in a supermarket doing replenishment (Tesco speak for shelf stacking) After that it's straight to the gym  (where I'm writing this) and then  home to sleep.
So I haven't found a great deal of time to read or do much of anything apart from sleep  I did manage to finish a Young Bond book though  (spoiler it was bloody good) and I'm halfway through the new Reacher book, also very good. Reviews of those in the new year. As well as a roundup of what I've read in 2016 , which will be split into three parts Kindle,audio and good old physical books.

So if you were wondering where I've been you know now, I finish work on Friday so I'll have some time to read and live my life again . I promise I'll be more active after Christmas and in the new year.

Book Review : The Black Echo By Michael Connelly

The Black Echo is the first in Michael Connelly's Harry bosch series. Its also the second one I've read after the mild disappointment that was The Burning Room. But as I said when I reviewed that book , one disappointment is not enough to put me off an author or a series altogether. So i bought a few more Bosch novels and picked The Black Echo out of the pile at random.

PLOT (  Copied and pasted form Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49343.The_Black_Echo) 

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch -- hero, maverick, nighthawk -- the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal.

The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell. Now, Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city to the tortuous link that must be uncovered, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.

Joining with an enigmatic and seductive female FBI agent, pitted against enemies inside his own department, Bosch must make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, as he tracks down a killer whose true face will shock him. 

Now I'm going to be honest here. I enjoyed the black echo very much , more so than the burning room . It's an enjoyable police procedural with plenty of tension and a great twist . You can think of Bosch as an American equivalent of Peter Robinson's DCI Alan Banks (crossover anyone?)

The Good bits: 

1: Harry Bosch 

2.Detailed and knowledgeable descriptions of the Vietnam war and the "Tunnel Rats" , neither of which i knew much about.

3. A  complicated if slighlty unbelievable crime 

4. Getting to read about technology that would now be considered hilariously outdated

5.The scene where Bosch handcuffs two fellow cops to a tree

6. Bosch knew the Murder victim Billy Meadows and immediatley felt a sense of duty to find his killer (or killers)

The not so good bits :

1. The book seemed about 50 pages longer than it needed to be

2. some bits seem a bit oudated , mind you i guess that's part of reading old books 

Verdict : 

I enjoyed the Black Echo Very much and would definatley recommend it .

Book Review : Strip Jack By Ian Rankin

Strip Jack is the fourth book in the John Rebus series by Ian Rankin . It's also my first Rebus novel but i have more on the kindle as i succumed to "99p syndrome" and bought about 6 in one go.

Gregor Jack is an Member of the Scottish parliment and unusually for a politician he's well liked by his constituents, even Rebus likes him.  so when he's caught with his trousers down in a raid on a brothel it's a bit of a shock to say the least and then his wife goes missing ..... I think you can see where  this is going.

Obviously  I won't spoil the rest of the book for you as it's my number 1 rule to not give out spoilers if i can help it .  What i will say though  is that Strip Jack is a very enjoyable novel it's quite dark in places but there's also alot of very funny one liners  and if you're thinking of trying Rebus then this is as good a place as any to start.

I like Rebus as a character and will definatley be checking out his other adventures and maybe the TV series aswell , even though i'm told it was really bad.

To be honest i've been wanting to check out Ian Rankin's work for some time but i've been busy, now i'm kicking myself a bit for not doing it sooner.

Top 5 : Movie Car Chases

Well since I dont have any book reviews to share with you at present i thought i'd list my top 5 Movie car chases.

1.Bullit
You can't make a list of movie car chases without mentioning Bullitt can you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31JgMAHVeg0
2.The Naked Gun
The funniest car chase of all time ? I think so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz6A6t55qXk
3.RUSH - Japanese Gran Prix
technically not a car  chase but it is an epic piece of film making.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnnPGeOKzu0
4.Jack Reacher -  A delightfully old school car chase from a delightfully old school action movie .
Tom Cruise did all this without a stunt driver, since he pretty much is one .

5. Spectre
Don't know what i need to say about this one really ,Its Bond drifting an Aston Martin around Rome. What more could you want ?

Honourable mentions

Mission Impossible 2
Ok, this is a bike chase but it's still chock full of Tom Cruise badasserry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ugUBBycFY
Driven
I chose this as an honourable mention because it's so fantasitcally unrealistic and also because like the movie it appears in  it's absoloutley shocking .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKpsLkd2qxo
The Sweeney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNlkeHXUTjE
Top Gear did this one and despite the twatting around in the episode the filming was shown in , the finished chase turned out to be pretty good. Shame about the rest of the movie

Book Review : When The music's over By Peter Robinson

When the music's over is the 23rd Inspector Banks novel and it deals with a subject so timely and  controversial most authors wouldnt touch it with a bargepoll .sexual assult carried put by celebrities .
Newly promoted  Superintendent Alan Banks is given the unenviable task of investigating a historical rape. The accused is a  ficitonal but eerily true to life entertainer Danny Caxton, seemingly untouchable thanks to his charity work and friends in the police force . Banks however beleives and likes Caxton's accuser a poet named Linda Palmer. 

DS Annie Cabbott meanwhile has a case that is more recent but just as tricky when the body of a young girl Mimosa 'Mimsy' Moffatt has been bruised beaten and naked having apparently been thrown from a van. A group of local Pakistani's are immeadietly suspected and Annie and Geraldine Masterson  must tread carefully to avoid triggering a full on race war .

The book has a couple of nice surpises in store as it features Banks' mate and occasional colluege Dirty Dick Burgess brought in from what he terms "The British CIA" and he's as delightfully uncouth as ever , sadly though they only share about 3 scenes over the entire book . Ken Blackstone also reappears but like Burgess it's only for a few scenes which seems like a missed opportunity to me but the scenes they do appear in are a joy to read.

And that pretty much sums up When the Music's Over , there are a few little niggles here and there but it has  two very intriging storylines ,even if they are a tad uncomfortable to read at times .

But if you're a Banks fan then  i don't doubt you'll enjoy When The Music's over,It's not the best in the series but it's still a worthy addition .

Book Review : The Defence By Steve Cavanagh

 The Defence by Steve Cavanagh is a fast paced and tense legal thriller which follows burnt out lawyer and former con man Eddie Flynn as he tries to save his daughter's life. This may sound like a pretty standard action thriller storyline, or every Liam Neeson movie since the original Taken but there’s nothing wrong with those ‘one last job’ storylines if it’s done right . I’m pleased to report that The Defence is a ‘one last job’ storyline done right.

The Defence follows Eddie Flynn as he is forced back into the courtroom after vowing never to return after a disastrous case, and has spent the last 2 years drinking.

Flynn’s daughter has been held hostage by the Russian mafia, to ensure her safe return he, must defend Mafia boss, Volchek , who is guilty in every sense of the word . Throughout the book Flynn is reminded that his daughter’s death is only a phone call away. Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that Flynn must do all is in the space of 48 hours whilst having a bomb strapped to his back.
This is probably as much as I can tell you about The Defence plot wise without spoiling it for you, But it should be enough to atleast get you on amazon to check it out. 

Flynn for me (along with Carter Blake) is the surprise of the year and I’m looking forward to seeing what he gets into next.

The defence is one of those books that you will have you staying up until Bastard’o clock reading to find out what happens next, if that doesn’t mark it out as a great thriller then I don’t know what else I can say to convince you that it is. Believe the rumours about this one folks, I'm glad i did .

Book Review : The Killing Season By Mason Cross

“The first thing you should know about me is that my name is not Carter Blake.

That name no more belongs to me than the hotel room I was occupying when the call came in.”

When Caleb Wardell, , escapes from death row two weeks before his execution, the FBI calls on the services of Carter Blake, a Jack Reacher/Bryan Mills type  whose particular set of skills lie in finding those who don’t want to be found.

Blake is also a bit of a drifter which will spark the inevitable Jack Reacher comparisons (we’ll get to that later).

Blake is in his hotel room when he receives a phone call informing him that Wardell has escaped from a prison van and is on the loose again .

Blake is paired with CIA agent Elaine Banner but they quickly find themselves side-lined from the case and they have to try to second guess a man who kills seemingly for fun. They also find themselves entangled in a web of lies and corruption and soon enough Blake finds himself up against not just a prolific serial killer but the FBI as well , no pressure there then…

I don’t want to say too much more about the plot as I’ll end up spoiling it

The killing Season is one of those books that you will have you staying up until stupid o clock reading to find out what happens next , in fact I found myself coming down with what I call ‘one more chapter’ syndrome.

Some books get hyped up so much that when you actually read them they fall flat on their arses, it’s not even the books fault when that happens it’s just that they’ve been subjected to too much fanfare and end up suffering as a result. Does that happen with The Killing Season? No. Not even a little bit.

So will carter Blake be compared to Jack Reacher?

It’s an inevitable comparison and also one that I think is completely justified. In fact I reckon Blake is the next big thing in this type of thriller and will become one of those characters you refer to by their last name alone like Bosch, Reacher , Bond etc

If you love the Reacher books as much as I do then I can’t recommend the killing season highly enough.

Also a big thank you to Mason Cross for the signed copy.