As usual, I've amassed a pile of books for Christmas (chuckles gleefully), so I expect I'll be happily snuggled on the sofa for a time to come.
#1 The Neighbour - Lisa Gardner
LG is on my list of thriller-lite authors. Not terribly complex or taxing, but an enjoyable read all the same.
I did enjoy this one, although I thought it pretty much fell apart at the end. In fact, at one point I was looking at the small amount of pages left to go and thinking, "How on earth is this all going to be wrapped up in so little time?" The answer was in an extremely rushed and implausible fashion. I just wasn't buying much of it.
But for all that, I did like the fact that it centred on a character previously seen in another book, so I found his journey fascinating. The kid was cute. And it had enough little twists and turns to satisfy me, in the main.
#2 The Dead Room - Chris Mooney
I read my first CM novel last year, when I picked it up at a charity store. I enjoyed it enough that I put a couple on my wish list. This one took me a few chapters to get into but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it. Having spent years reading thrillers it's very hard for an author to genuinely surprise me, but Mooney managed it with an absolutely stunning and horrific twist at the end. Excellently pulled off - did NOT see that coming and brilliantly worked, so that it led to a real moment of confusion slowly blossoming into dawning realisation and shock as in "Huh? What the...? But, hang on... But that means, they...! Holy...! OMG!" And then, I remembered back to previous incidents in the book which had seemed to be one thing but in light of this new revelation suddenly became something else, something much darker, much more pitiful. Brilliant.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his novels now. If they're up to the standard of this one, I've got some good reading to do.
LabRat
Athos: If you'd told us what you were doing, we might have been able to plan this properly. Aramis: Yes, sorry. Athos: No, no, by all means, let's keep things suicidal.
And then, I remembered back to previous incidents in the book which had seemed to be one thing but in light of this new revelation suddenly became something else, something much darker, much more pitiful. Brilliant.
