The Reader Confessions Tag.

OK, so i haven't actually been tagged in this but it seemed like a fun idea and i'm doing it anyway.

1. Have you ever damaged a book?
Unfortunately yes , I once dropped a harry potter book (it may have been my sisters actually) in a bucket of wallpaper paste. Other than that no,but i do break the odd spine (on books not people) , i know that to a book lover breaking a book's spine is the 8th deadly sin but sometimes it's unavoidable. I also buy a lot of second hand books which have already been broken but that doesn't bother me . 
I  also damaged a Thomas The Tank engine book , well it got a bit wet when i was camping in the back garden (Don't ask) but it's still readable.

2.Have you ever damaged a borrowed book?

I haven't borrowed a book for about 14 years so no, and i don't remember damaging them when i did. although there was a book about trains  and a Dick King Smith book that i borrowed from the library at primary school and "forgot" to take back . I still have them.

3. How long does it take you to read a book? 

Tricky one this, but the simple answer is that it depends on the book and what mood i'm in and how much time i've got. another factor is whether I'm enjoying the book or not but i try to read 2 or 3 books a month (i know, i'm a shockingly slow reader.)

4 .Books you haven’t finished? 

The most recent book i didn't finish was Our Kind Of Traitor By John le Carre . it was my first Le Carre novel and i was hugely disappointed in it . I got 115 pages in , which according to my rule means i have to go back and finish it at some point . 

Other books i didn't finish include 

Dead Spy Running by Jon Stock

Dambuster by Robert Radcliffe 

Any Human Heart by William Boyd

Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver

I can't remember any more but i'm sure there are more. i'll add them if i think of any

5. Hyped/Popular books you didn’t like?

50 Shades Of Grey. I can't believe i've just admitted to reading that shite.

I'd also include the aforementioned Our Kind Of Traitor.

6. Is there a book you wouldn’t tell anyone you were reading?

50 shades of grey. I just don't understand why people would want to read about people having sex  .

7.How many books do you own?

God knows , i'm too scared to count them all up.

8.Are you a fast/slow reader?

depends on the book and if i'm enjoying it or not. If it's a james bond or jack reacher novel then i'll probably get through it in a couple of weeks. For   something like a Harry Potter book then i'll take my time , some things are best read slowly.

9.Do you like to buddy read?

I've never done it but i'd like to.

10.Do you read better in your head/out loud?

In my head , i'd look like a bit of a nutter if i sat on the train or in a cafe reading aloud to myself.

11. If you were only allowed to own one book, what would it be and why?

A Game Of Thrones because it would take me the rest of my life to read the bloody thing.

Well , that's it and now I have to tag some people so here goes. 

I tag. 

Allie Morgan 

Rose Mannering 

Mason Cross 

Andy Martin.

and 

Crimethrillergirl

Q&A: Andy Martin

Something a little different, my first Authour Q&A with Andy Martin author of 

Reacher Said Nothing :Lee Child And The Making Of Make Me. 

I haven't actually read this yet but Andy was kind enough to not only answer my questions but to send a signed copy of the book. Cheers Andy.

1. What is your favourite Jack Reacher book and why?

My first reaction to this question is: the one that is right in front of me! I suppose I am always going to have a particularly soft spot for Make Me, since I watched it being written. But it just so happens that right now I am going back to the first one, Killing Floor, to refresh my memory about the prison scenes.

2. Where did the idea for Reacher Said Nothing come from?

I had done some work on Sartre and Camus, each of whom comments on the work of the other. But from afar. And I thought, wouldn’t it have been so much better if they had actually checked it out at close quarters while they were writing, rather than afterwards. Then I thought, yeah, but they’re dead now. But, on the other hand, what if… That was the start of it. Could have been almost any writer (not Donna Tartt!), but Lee said yes.

3. When did you first become aware of Jack Reacher?

About 10 years ago. As it happens, in a small bookstore in Pasadena, down the road from CalTech. Don’t think I’d ever heard of him before.

4.  Which Reacher book did you read first?

In the same bookstore, I picked up a copy of The Enemy. For some reason that simple but elemental title spoke to me. One of those where Reacher is still in the army. In, but already in some way, out.

5. For potential readers which Reacher book would you recommend and why?

Tough one. Lots of people like to start with book one and read through to the most recent. I’ve known one guy who did it the other way round and worked his way back to Killing Floor. Lee’s personal favourite is Gone Tomorrow (which starts on the subway). I’m going to vote for the one in which Reacher is reunited with some of his old crew: Bad Luck and Trouble. Why? The blissful absurdity of tracking down Neagley in Los Angeles without ever fixing a time and place. It’s classic Reacher.

6. What was it like watching Lee Child at work?

Fascinating. Real learning experience. Plus there was always the possibility that he would head butt me if I really annoyed him.

7. Was it fun hanging out with Lee Child?

On a par with hanging out with Jean-Paul Sartre or Albert Camus (if they were alive). Except you always have to drink your coffee black or he cracks up. It’s a sort of religion with him. And you have to be relaxed about substance abuse. And then there is the Jekyll and Hyde factor…

8. For those who enjoyed Reacher Said Nothing is there a sequel planned?

WITH CHILD, coming soon. In which I focus more on the readers than the writer. But also THE FOREIGNER, thriller-in-progress, putting theory into practice. For those who did not enjoy, no worries: I will plot some terrible revenge.

9. Have you read Night School yet?

Only the fragments that Lee wanted to show me as he went along.

10. Did you get to go to the set of Never Go Back, if so what was it like?

See my article for the Independent:
https://t.co/ABjgll2FtN

Otherwise my lips are sealed (well, unless someone wants to pay me some unspecified but definitely large sum of money).

11. What do you think of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher?

Apparently he is huge in China. I’m not going to go against a billion Chinese citizens. I am optimistic about Never Go Back and will definitely go and see it.

12. Who do you think could play Reacher in the future?

Idris Elba. I once asked Lee who would play Lee in the movie. If not Lee. He wants Jeremy Irons - but it has to be a young Jeremy Irons (tricky).

13. If you could pick a book to adapt for the next movie which one would you pick and why?

61 Hours. I love movies with a lot of snow. It’s almost like Reacher meets Nordic noir. But in America. Or maybe Echo Burning for the opposite reason. The deep south and Reacher gets to crack some racist redneck over the head with a pool cue. Good move, Reacher.

Book Review : The Burning Room By Michael Connelly

 In an attempt to fill the void left by Jack Reacher I’ve been on the lookout for a new series to read and after watching the TV show I decided to read the The Burning Room by Michael Connelly.

 The Burning Room is my first Harry Bosch novel and the 19th overall which means I can continue my tradition of starting new series in the wrong place.

I'll be honest I was a bit disappointed by this book at first and found it to be really slow for the first 100 pages or so. In fact those first 100 pages were so slow in fact I almost gave up on the book altogether (which I haven’t done for ages). 

There are detailed sections about police procedures and processes. Whilst being insightful, it defeats the point of what is supposed to be  a high octane thriller. The story metaphorically speaking is like a stagnant river. There's virtually nothing happening. In this context, it is stale with elements of action and excitement missing to grip readers. I admire Bosch's qualities as a police officer. He always thinks about the victims and sometimes breaks the rules to get results. As a consequence, Bosch often gets himself into trouble with his bosses, In that respect he puts me in mind of DCI Banks.

If truth be told, this isn't a riveting story. Interesting, of course, but not one to set the pulse racing. Bosch has a new partner in the form of rookie detective Lucy Soto and at the beginning she is - in her spare time - trying to find out who caused a fire in an L.A. day-care centre   21 years earlier, a fire that she survived as a seven-year-old but which took the lives of several people including young children.

Meanwhile the case that she and Bosch are officially working on is the murder of a Mexican musician who had been in a coma for ten years. So while the shooting of Orlando Merced may have taken place long enough ago to be classified as a cold case - which is the type of crime that Bosch specialises in - the actual death happened only a few hours before this story begins.

It's therefore something of a stretch to the imagination to learn that the two crimes have a connection, although that's what does tend to happen in crime fiction sometimes. The only thing Bosch and Soto have to go on is the bullet from the late Merced's spine, and somehow that's enough for an investigation that traverses several regions of California and beyond. 

There isn't anything else to the story however; no sub-strands or multi-layers apart from some stuff about Bosch’s daughter Maddie who's following in her dad's footsteps , this is the sum total of what it's about, which is a shame as the main storyline is a bit weak.

I think the reason this book is a bit disappointing is that at the time it was being written Connelly was busy with the new Bosch TV show on Amazon, which might explain why it’s not as good as his previous books.

However, The Burning Room being a disappointment hasn’t put me off Bosch and will be trying some of the earlier books namely The Drop, A Darkness More Than night, Trunk Music and The Last Coyote. I’ll let you know how I get on with those when I read them. 

Top 10 Crime Thrillers

I’ve been meaning to put this list together for some time and the truth is there are so many other crime novels that I wanted to include but we’d be here all day so I’ve been strict with myself and narrowed it down to ten . if you think I’ve missed a book out or if you have a top ten of your own that you want me to look at then please let me know in a comment .

10.  Ghost Man By Roger Hobbs

Given the success of Lee Child it was inevitable that other writers would Have a go at creating their own Jack Reacher . Roger Hobbs has done a better job than most with his character Jack Delton a ‘Ghostman’ someone whose job it is to be forgettable, to disappear or to help other criminals disappear. This is a great read and has won praise from pretty much everyone. Including Lee Child.

Review here.

http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/book-review-ghostman-by-roger-hobbs.html

9. There Are No Spies  By Bill Granger

The 7th book in a series that is something of a forgotten gem.  Think of the November man series as a cross between James Bond and George Smiley. It also made for a great film , which thanks to a piss poor release is also a bit of a forgotten gem . You can read my review of the movie here:

http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/film-review-november-man.html

8. Gone Girl By Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl is a ridiculously clever and  very well plotted psychological thriller, that is also as a mate of mine put it “a Grade A mindfuck”. Be warned though, the ending is enough to make you punch a wall. It’s also enough to make you want to stay single. Forever.

Gone Girl also made for a great movie starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

7. The Witness by Simon Kernick

One of Simon  Kernick’s best books to date, if not the best. http://bookebloke.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/book-review-witness-by-simon-kernick.html

6. Strange Affair By Peter Robinson

The 15^th Inspector banks novel that explores Bank’s relationship with his family following the disappearance of his estranged brother Roy.

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

5. The Cuckoo’s Calling By Robert Galbraith (J.K Rowling)

J.k Rowling’s crime debut is good enough to remind you why you fell in love with crime novels . it also prove that for J.K Rowling there is life beyond Harry Potter . There are 3 books in the series that follows 1 legged detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin. They are a bit of an odd couple, but that’s what makes these books so entertaining.

4. Normal by Graeme Cameron

An extremely disturbing and at times hilarious novel about a man seems normal but who has an elaborate cage built into a secret basement under his garage, where he keeps young girls against their will .

3. The Living Daylights By Ian Fleming

The only short story to make this list but it is not the only Bond book ….

The living daylights is a cracker of a short story and formed the basis of one of the most underrated Bond films ever.

2. One Shot By Lee Child

I could have put any Jack Reacher book on this list as I love them all  but One Shot was one of the first I read . It also made for a good film , which seems to have become a bit of a theme in this list. 

1.  1 .Casino Royale By Ian Fleming

For my money this is the best of the classic bond novels , it also formed the basis of my all-time favourite film .

Book Review : Double Or Die by Charlie Higson

Even when I was just a lad, I was a big fan of James Bond. I think it is probably due to the high level of action and the sense of danger that is evident in the films, and  around the time Skyfall came out, I read some of the books. Most of the books, though, I quickly learned the pacing was quite a bit slower and the plots were a bit thinner. Although On Her Majesty's Secret Service remains the only book ever to make me cry.

A few years ago, Charlie Higson started coming out with a new series called Young Bond. The first book, SilverFin starts off with James first arriving at Eton as a new student. Unlike the other boys at the well-known prep school, James was not rich. But That didnt  prevent him from forming a small but loyal group of friends. It was also the start of his high adventures on an international scale.

This is the third volume in the series, which follows after  Blood Fever ( The best of the Young Bond bunch if you ask  me) . James has returned home to Eton after his summer adventures on the Italian isles. The holidays are quickly approaching when his good friend Pritpal receives a letter from Mr. Fairborn, the teacher/advisor of the Crossword Club. It offers his apologies for having to leave and seems to be filled with errors, which Pritpal, James, Perry, and their other friends quickly realize are clues to a cryptic puzzle. It quickly becomes clear that Fairborn did not leave by choice, and he is likely to be in danger.

After a mysterious visit from one of Fairborn's colleague for a planned visit with the Crossword Club. The visit does not go as planned as the visitor is not only rude, but he seems to have no interest in crosswords or any other form  of puzzles. It does  however, provide James and his friends with the first clue, outside of the letter, that they can use to find Fairborn.

James is confronted with an interesting cadre of villains. Sir John Charnage quickly comes to the fore along with the eerie looking brothers, Ludwig and Wolfgang Smith (who are hilarious). They are joined  by  Russian henchwoman, Babushka  in the fight to get a handle on the precursor of computers.

Today's younger readers will get an opportunity to learn about the early attempts by the British secret service to create a machine that will help them with their espionage. Familiar names and terms (to those with knowledge about computer history) such as Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, and binary code are weaved nicely into the storyline , Charlie Higson manages to make the latter interesting without it being overwhelming or boring.

Fans of the series will be thrilled to see the return of siblings Red and Kelly Kelly as they play a crucial role in James' plan. Kelly's feelings toward James are definitely shifting from friendship to something more, perhaps as a precursor to Bond's luck with the ladies.

The series has done a wonderful job in capturing everything that made the film series popular with its nice mix of humor, edge-of-your-seat danger, and an elusive solution the audience must join James in second. Double Or Die isn't just good by the standards of the Young Bond series , it's a book that Ian Fleming would have been proud to call his own if he'd written a book about the Young Bond. Does praise get any higher than that? Probably not.

Book Review: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

Plot:
They told him his uncle died in an accident. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt, they said. But when fourteen-year-old Alex finds his uncle's windshield riddled with bullet holes, he knows it was no accident. What he doesn't know yet is that his uncle was killed while on a top-secret mission. But he is about to, and once he does, there is no turning back. Finding himself in the middle of terrorists, Alex must outsmart the people who want him dead. The government has given him the technology, but only he can provide the courage. Should he fail, every child in England will be murdered in cold blood.

Who didn't want to be a spy when they were younger? For most kids it's a fantasy they never grow out of ( i know i haven't ).
 Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz is about a young boy named Alex Rider who happens to be at the right(or wrong) place at the right time. He becomes a spy for MI6 and is given his first mission, which he reluctantly accepts. This book immediately throws you into action packed and suspenseful scenes that never seem to stop.

Stormbreaker is a very well-written novel. Anthony Horowitz clearly has a passion for espionage and has put a great deal of effort into creating a believable and impressive story. It is a very descriptive book, putting a lot of detail into the scenes and people, like telling the reader that Alex is wearing Nike or other Labels at different points in the book. This really makes it easier to visualize the text, especially the action scenes, when so much is happening at once. 

This book is an excellent read for any age. As long as you have a weakness for spies, fighting and saving the world, you will enjoy Stormbreaker.

Anthony Horowitz has written one of the most clever spy books in recent memory, and Alex Rider is  charismatic and easy to relate to. If you haven't read this gem yet, be sure to pick it up. 

Alex Rider is no doubt the inspiration for the equally brilliant Young bond series ,i also have no doubt that the Rider books were good practice for Anthony Horowitz as last year he released an absolute jewel of a James Bond Novel , Trigger Mortis (review here) .

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.

Book review : Shaken Not Stirred By Aaron Cooley

I first heard about Aaron Cooley's shaken not stirred whilst he was being interviewed on the excellent James Bond Radio podcast. Aaron is also kind enough to follow me on twitter and I promised that I would write a review of Shaken Not Stirred as soon as I found some time.

I’ve never been much of a fan of historical fiction but the idea of a fictionalised version of Ian Fleming's WW2 exploits and the story of how that would lead him to create James Bond was an intriguing one.

Before i get into the review properly i should explain that this book took me quite a while to finish, not because it was bad or anything but because I was stressed out with college work and was reading other stuff. I should probably explain that I’m writing this review about a month after I finally finished the book (for the reason I’ve just outlined) which means I’m writing from memory (which is pants) so  some details may have escaped me .

Synopsis: Haven’t you ever wondered what inspired the creation of fiction’s greatest secret agent? Author Aaron Cooley takes the reader on a World War II thrill ride across two continents and six nations in pursuit of the answer to this question. A first-time British spy is on the trail of the Allies’ most important Double Agent, on a mission to determine his loyalty before he can hand over the means of creating history’s most devastating weapon to the Nazis. Before his mission is over, this young Briton will be inspired to create a fictional super-agent who will one day become one of literature’s most famous characters. An engaging, fantastical what-could-have-been, SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED is not to be missed by World War II buffs, literary devotees, and especially, fans of Her Majesty’s most famous spy.

 Shaken, Not Stirred is a fictionalized account of Ian Fleming’s wartime work, but it’s easy to imagine it really happening.

In Shaken, Not Stirred, a young Ioan is working for   Naval Intelligence and he’s sent to the Congo to find and report back to MI6 about   the whereabouts of double agent Dusan Petrović. His inexperience is apparent and he stands out like a sore thumb. While Petrović could have easily looked the other way, he takes Ioan under his wing, nick names him Phlegm and teaches him how to be a spy.

At first Ioan isn’t sure what to make of Petrović (neither was I) Does Petrović have a master plan or does he feel sorry for Ioan? Perhaps this is the nature of a double agent. Together Ioan and Petrović navigate the perils of being agents and Ioan gets a little more than he anticipated. Throughout the novel, we get glimpses of what would eventually inspire Ioan to create James Bond.

Ioan gets a code name and is introduced to gadgets Bond would be happy to use. We’re also introduced to would be Bond Girl, Christine who has a preference for martinis. It’s through Christine, Ioan quickly learns how women play a role in espionage. Petrović tells him,  "If you take one lesson from me, Phlegm, never forget the number one rule of espionage: Women are a business expense. You allow yourself to expect anything more out of them, you lower your defences. To a knife in the back." It’s at this exact moment, a reader can understand Fleming and why women are the “business expense,” in a Bond novel.

I must confess that i don't read much historical fiction (nothing against it , it just isn't my thing) and that I weren't a  mahoosive bond fan i might not have picked this up BUT. I really enjoyed Shaken, Not Stirred. It’s thoroughly researched and well written. It’s a different take on the life of Ian Fleming.

 Cooley  mixes Fiction  with reality and as I've said, he does a superb job with the research. Several events included are based on true events such as the Heisenberg and Dibner rivalry and it goes hand in hand with Hitler’s pursuit of the bomb. Petrović and several other characters bring up the ‘what if’ Hitler gets the bomb, which is a question a lot of people asked themselves at the time. Cooley kept me on the edge of my seat and afterwards all I could think of was, “thank god Hitler didn’t get there first.”  It’s something you’ll be thinking as you read.

Readers will easily recognize aspects of the Bond novels and films. In fact, if you’ve read Casino Royale or seen the film version, the scene where Bond watches Le Chiffre at the card table is familiar in Shaken, Not Stirred. This time it’s with Ioan and Petrović and a set of cards with Skorzeny and a game of Baccarat. Prior to Ioan joining Petrović and Skorzeny, Petrović sends him a suit and Ioan asks why. Petrović says it’s to seduce Christine and here we can see the birth of the immaculate Bond in his tux. It works well enough for Ioan since Christine waits for him in his room and says, ‘Why Ioan. I thought spies were meant to be suave. Debonair.’ Ioan replies ‘I was ill that day at spy school.’ That is a line that wouldn't be out of place in a Bond film.

 After I finished reading shaken not stirred I went back to that James Bond Radio podcast and I found out something that astonished me ,  shaken not stirred is Aaron's first novel but it's so well written you'd never guess it .  Shaken, Not Stirred is without a doubt a must read for any James Bond fan.    Cooley has done the near-impossible: crafted a spy thriller that   Ian Fleming himself would have been proud to call his own. It’s one of The best books I've read this year , in fact it’s almost as good as this year’s official Bond book : Trigger Mortis. 

Book Review : Cold Is The Grave By Peter Robinson.

Jack Reacher, November Man, Bond and Bourne are all thriller series I’d thoroughly recommend and after reading Cold Is the Grave by Peter Robinson I would add the Inspector Banks novels to that list. 

Cold Is the Grave is the eleventh outing for Inspector Banks.  

Description from the back cover:

Detective Inspector Banks’s relationship with Chief Constable Riddle has always been strained. So Banks is more than a little surprised when Riddle summons him late one night and begs for his help.

For Riddle, Banks’s new case is terrifyingly close to home. Six months ago his sixteen-year old daughter ran away to London, where she has fallen into a turbulent world of drugs and pornography. With his reputation threatened, Riddle wants Banks to use his unorthodox methods to find her without fuss. But before he knows it, Banks is investigating murder …

Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks had never had a good relationship with Chief Constable 'Jimmy' Riddle, so he was more than surprised when the Chief Constable summoned him late one night and begged for his help. Six months previously Riddle's daughter, sixteen year old Emily, ran away to London and became involved with drugs and pornography. Riddle wants Banks to go to London and find his daughter – and try to persuade her to return home. He also wants Banks to go as a private individual rather than as a policeman. Banks agrees to go; he knows how he would have felt if the same thing had happened to his daughter Tracy.

 Emily Riddle, sixteen going on thirty, ran away from home after leaving her parents in disarray. She made demands of them and then when they gave her what she wanted she loathed them all the more for it. Banks finds her living with a thug named Barry Clough, but he has had other names. Clough is a gangster with a rock star image of himself and a penchant for underage girls. After posing as her father Banks extracts the girl, dodges a potentially career ending temptation to sleep with her, and returns the girl to her parents. 

One month later she is found dead in a nightclub toilet , murdered by a mixture of cocaine and strychnine. Banks finds it difficult to stand back and be objective. It becomes personal to him and Detective Superintendent Gristhorpe has to warn Banks,

‘Don’t let anger and a desire for revenge cloud your judgement? Look clearly at the evidence, the facts before you make any moves. Don’t go off half-cocked the way you’ve done in the past’. (page 192)

He and his team, including Detective Sergeant Annie Cabot, are also investigating the death of Charlie Courage, a small-time crook. Their investigations take them from their base in Eastvale, Yorkshire down to London, Stony Stratford, and Leicestershire, with links to crime in Northumbria. At first this seems to be unrelated to Emily’s death but Banks begins to suspect that the two cases may be linked.

More complications follow with blackmail, another death and suicide, but eventually Banks and Annie work their way through the maze of events. Banks, though, has more victims of crime to add to those that bother his sleep with feelings of guilt, thinking that he should have dug deeper, and that he could have prevented the murders. He knew there was ‘something desperately out of kilter with the Riddle family’, and realises that Emily’s death was ‘murder from a distance, perhaps even death by proxy, which made it all the more bloody to solve.’ (page 271)

Weaving together threads of plot from characters pasts, presents and futures, Robinson builds a case that involves more than just one crime and more than just one character. This was a great 'who-dunnit' from beginning to end, with   plot twist’s that always ensure your best guesses will be wrong.

This is the 11th book in the Inspector Banks series and refers back to incidents in previous books. It’s not too difficult to follow if you haven’t read all the others (as I haven’t) but I think it would help and I wish that I had. It’s also a bit too long for my liking .However, this is still a good read and I’ve already moved on to my next Inspector Banks novel ‘A strange Affair’