PC Peter Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch

Rating 3 out of 5

Overall: A fun interesting start to a new series.

Rivers of London (Book 1)

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1345 KB
Publisher: Gollancz (20 January 2011)
Sold by: Hachette Book Group (AU)
Language: English
ASIN: B004K1EC1S

ISBN: 0575097566

Summary

My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.

Well the book didn't blow me away. I didn't have a "can't put this book down even though it's 2am and I have to be up at 6am for work" kind of moment or upon finishing a "let's do that again!" moment. Having said that I did enjoy the book. It was fun reading about PC Grant becoming a trainee wizard in an x-files-esq section of the police department in London.

The story was interesting and the was a good balance of action, story development and witty banter. I loved the pop culture references and the subtle nods (and jokes) to modern fantasy/supernatural books, shows and movies.

The main character Peter Grant was interesting character and even though I shouldn't have to comment on it, he is an ethnic character. The only reason I raise it is because it does get raised in the book several times when characters try to stereotype PC Grant. For instance there is a scene where his boss makes a comment about rap music and Grant replies "I don't like rap music". I also like that the author also knocks over a lot of other stereotypes and brings in lots of different ethnic characters.

My main quibble was what seemed like an unnecessary part of the story at the end. It sort of seemed there as a shock but the point to the story arc just wasn't really obvious to me. The information could have been revealed differently and certainly not needed at the end of this story.

Overall this was a good start to the series but a little clunky for me. Keen to read the second book.

Moon over Soho (Book 2)
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1554 KB
Publisher: Gollancz (21 April 2011)
Sold by: Hachette Book Group (AU)
Language: English
ASIN: B004VF624S
ISBN: 0575097604

Summary

I was my dad's vinyl-wallah: I changed his records while he lounged around drinking tea, and that's how I know my Argo from my Tempo. And it's why, when Dr Walid called me to the morgue to listen to a corpse, I recognised the tune it was playing. Something violently supernatural had happened to the victim, strong enough to leave its imprint like a wax cylinder recording. Cyrus Wilkinson, part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, had apparently dropped dead of a heart attack just after finishing a gig in a Soho jazz club. He wasn't the first. No one was going to let me exhume corpses to see if they were playing my tune, so it was back to old-fashioned legwork, starting in Soho, the heart of the scene. I didn't trust the lovely Simone, Cyrus' ex-lover, professional jazz kitten and as inviting as a Rubens' portrait, but I needed her help: there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off that special gift that separates the great musician from someone who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they leave behind is sickness, failure and broken lives. And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant - my father - who managed to destroy his own career, twice. That's the thing about policing: most of the time you're doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice.And maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge.

This book continues on from the events of 'Rivers of London'. We see PC Grant return and on the case of a supernatural being killing Jazz musicians. We also get to see PC Grant grow in his knowledge and role as a supernatural police officer.

The author continues his trend of introducing interesting ethnic characters who are not stereotypical. I enjoyed the ninja muslim girl. I so hope she comes back in other books.

I preferred this book to the first book actually. The first book seemed a smidgeon clunky at times but mostly the odd story tacked on the end irked me. The odd story was continued into this story so in my mind didn't need to be introduced in the first book at all. Anyway what is done is done. This book had a better flow to it even with the sex scenes which sometimes didn't seem necessary.

Overall I enjoyed this much more then the first book and I will be reading the next book for sure.

Final Recommendation: If you like urban fantasy and detective novels then this might be worth a try.

Dixie Divas by Virginia Brown

Rating 2 out of 5
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 483 KB
Print Length: 316 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0982175655
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books (December 31, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004HO5M44

"You found my philandering ex-husband?" Bitty asked. "Where? Mexico? Paris? In Tupelo with a cocktail waitress?" "In your closet," I answered. "Dead." 

Break out the hoop skirts and the zinfandel. The Divas are on the case. Wine. Chocolate. Transvestite strippers. Just another good-time get-together for the Dixie Divas of historic Holly Springs, Mississippi, where moonlight and magnolias mingle with delicious small town scandal. But Eureka "Trinket" Truevine, the newest Diva, gets more than she bargained for when she finds her best Diva girlfriend Bitty Hollandale's ex-husband in Bitty's hall closet. He's dead. Very dead. Now Trinket and the Divas have to help Bitty finger the murderer and clear her name.

Sounds good right? It certainly got my attention and I thought this could be fun. However I really struggled with this book. As you know I don't really like giving bad reviews, so I decided to use the good old lol cats style of reviewing to help make it easier.

One plus was the book was short. Thank goodness. Otherwise I would have given up. I nearly did, I seriously considered putting it down just-after-the-next-page. Why did I still persist? I have no idea. I gave this book so much leeway when normally wouldn't. The second half of the book was better, and I think that is why I stayed (in the end, well I tell myself that) but seriously it took half of the book for me to even get into it. I skipped most of the first half, and skimmed a big chunk of the bits I didn't skip.

I didn't get the characters. The ladies were supposed to be in the fifties but honestly I thought they were written to be in their eighties. Now I have knowledge of the "South" of America and how ladies were raised in the 1950's, but I know plenty of fifty year olds and they act nothing like these ladies. To be honest it irked me....a lot.

The only characters I liked were Bitty and Trinket's parents.  The main character Trinket bored me, and I didn't care what happened to her really. I would have preferred the book have been told from Bitty's point of view, as she was hilarious (and I don't think it was just because Trinket was so boring that anyone would look freaking awesome).

So this review is short and sweet. I just couldn't get into it or really enjoy it. However it has gotten plenty of good reviews elsewhere so maybe it was just me.

On a weird side note while searching for lol cat pictures to put in this post, my google image searches were turning up the most bizarre things. The kind of things eyes (innocent or otherwise) should not be seeing. Google must have been on the good stuff when I was doing my searches that's all I can say.

Clarity by Kim Harrington

Rating 4 out of 5
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 239 KB
Print Length: 256 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0545230500
Publisher: Point; 1 edition (March 1, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004P5NVIO

Hi guys, for this review I am going to try a letter style review again. I hope you enjoy it!

Dear Irishyz

You are lucky I know how much you did try to book bully me into getting this book, otherwise you would be in BIG trouble. I can not believe I waited so long to read this book! I was setting it aside as a holiday read. But I wanted a bit of a change from the last few books I have read, (you know I get the jitters if I don’t get a good dose of paranormal stories) so thought I would give it a go. I blitzed this book in 24 hours, which I have not done since March when I was stuck on a plane for 5 hours.

I liked the basics of the story which focuses around Clarity (Clare) Fern who is Psychic. As you know she lives in a small American town with her mother and brother who also have gifts. I liked that her whole family had abilities, but different forms; her mother is a telepath and her brother is a medium. After a tourist is murdered Clare is brought in by the Mayor to help the new police detective solve the mystery. As the death toll rises, the pressure is on for Clare to solve the crime, and prove her brothers innocence. Phew did I miss something? I think that sums up the plot which while simple was still engaging.

Clare is a wonderful character. I instantly took to her as she is likable with a wicked sense of humour. She has snappy retorts, is quick thinking and intelligent. She is not perfect, and not “mature beyond her years”. Plus the girl likes pizza, and orders pancakes for lunch! She is a girl after my own heart. The supporting characters were all enjoyable as well, especially Clare’s family who I just wanted to adopt.

The love triangle with Clare, Justin and Gabriel felt believable and not to "teen agsty". I will be interested to see how Clare’s relationship with each guy develops over future books. Clare could easily be with either of them. Which team am I? Team Justin or Team Gabriel? As yet, I cant call which team I am on but so far I like Justin (despite his boo boo which lead to his ex status, which I personally think was a frame up!) however to be honest, I preferred Nate to Justin and Gabriel!

I really enjoyed the mystery side of it, as it was well written. It felt more like cosy style but as I like that style of writing I am not fussed. Clare, Justin and Gabriel never magically knew more then they could realistically find out, and there were limited to what her gift could show her. I guess the only quibble would be that in the real world I doubt the police would hire a 16 year old psychic, I’m sure there would be all sorts of problems with that ethically, legally and stuff BUT that would have made the story incredibly boring really, and to be honest I didn’t care enough to get upset about. I can normally guess pretty early on who the murderer is but this time I couldn’t make my mind up. The murderer was a surprise and the author, Harrington, did a good job of throwing the reader of the scent.

I really, really liked this book and I am so glad you talked me into buying it. I can not wait till the next book in the series comes out. This looks like a really promising series that is fun and light, and well written. Thanks again for letting me know about this book, I will definitely be spreading the word, and letting others know about it.

Cheers
Caspette

PS How was the Doctor Who finale?

Dog On It: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn

Rating 4 out of 5

Opening sentence: "I could smell him - or rather the booze on his breath - before he even opened the door, but my sense of smell is pretty good, probably better than yours."

Dog on it is a delightful and humourous animal detective story. This is the story of Chet the mix breed mutt whose human is Bernie the down and out PI. In their first adventure, Chet and Bernie are hired to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl.

The story is revealed from the point of view of Chet. Anything that happened to Chet the reader knew about it for instance if Chet fell asleep, you don’t get to know what is happening, if Chet finds a particularly tasty looking chip under a piece of furniture the reader gets to know about the chip. While this may seem a random way of telling the story it works well and the author did a great job of not losing the reader. The gaps are filled in from Bernie who like most pet owners talks freely with his canine buddy about what is going on.

There is great humour in this book. I definitely had some “laugh out loud and dislodge the sleeping cat from tummy” moments (would that be LOLDSCFT?). I’m convinced that Chet has Labrador or some sort of scent dog in him as he acted exactly like every Labrador or Beagle I’ve ever known.

" 'Let’s begin by asking one simple question. Of everyone we’ve met on this whole case, from the moment Cynthia Chambliss came driving up the street, who’s the least trust worthy?'

Hey Anylizing turned out to be a snap. The answer to the least trustworthy question was obviously Cap’n Crunch; one glimpse of his tiny wicked little eyes and you knew that.”

Needles to say I loved Chet he was a great character and extremely dog like. He was random and funny; his dog perspective absolutely hilarious at times. Bernie was a fun character if a little sad. His horrible wife has left him taking their child and nearly every penny Bernie owns. He isn’t very good finances wise and has a big soft heart. Not all bad things but not great for running a business.

The best part is that Chet does not seem to have supernatural abilities, human intelligence, or a weird psychic connection with his owner who can understand dog bark. He is no Lassi or Benji. Chet is a dog, and acts like a dog. He doesn’t always understand what his owner is saying and likewise Bernie does not understand always when Chet tries to tell him something. I liked this as it is a fresh way of telling the animal PI story.

This is a delightful light read that will easily win you over. If you like cozies, PI detective stories and animal detective stories you will probably like this.

Extra Stuff
If you would like to read an extract Ullen & Unwin have a copy here.
Chet also has his own blog you can find here.

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