Saturday Snippets

British Crime Fiction:  coincidentally ended up reading both ARCs based in UK. Here is my review.

Cut To The Bone by Alex Caan
Publisher:Bonnier Zaffre 
Published On: July 14th, 2016 
My rating: 3.5 0f 5 starts 
Source: Kindle ARC, NetGalley

I wanted to read this book because of the modern setting of the Internet age. YouTube star, crime, yes please! What’s amazing is just how real this could have been, the book is a huge answer to the ‘what ifs’. It shows us the horrible side of internet that we choose to ignore on daily basis. The results here are chilly.

The well-executed character arcs and sub plots in the novel intrigued me. The mood of the novel was characteristically dark and gritty; something you would want in a crime novel.

I loved getting to know each character especially the two leads.  The flashback device was used in the best way to hint at the mind-set of the investigators, showing that they were not just fillers to a story, but had a human side that was separate from legalities.  The hint of history makes me suspect a sequel is in order. That would be great!

Overall, I enjoyed this journey. Definitely a more satisfying read. Highly recommended.

 

 

Don't Tell Anyone by Eleanor Gray
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Published On: December 8th, 2016
My rating: 2.5 0f 5 starts
Source: Kindle ARC, NetGalley

This book starts well. The pace is great, easy to get into. Tara is dead and the assumed killer Jordan Dukes is in jail. Case closed, right? Nope.

Unlike the whodunit procedural crime thriller, this novel does things differently – the victim’s mother, Grace, narrates it. The intention is good, misdirection’s are well placed and you almost buy it. However, here is the glitch – the narrator is weak.

She is too gullible and insipid; maybe it was a plot device for misdirecting readers, but it ends up making the narrator look not too bright. Until the end, I could not sympathise with her. The grief of losing a child was briefed upon; it was not gut wrenching, as one would expect to feel when reading it.

A stronger narrative could have made this book great. While the plot is well executed, the characters were too bland to root for anyone. The writing however is able to compensate for the weak character. It managed to keep the plot ending under wraps which deserves some praise. Frankly, this was a passive read for me.

It wasn’t bad but neither was it great.

 

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“Books fall open, you fall in. When you climb out again, you’re a bit larger than you used to be.” – Gregory Maguire