The Word Is Murder - Crackingly Good!

So, for the letter "H", my choice was The Word Is Murder, by Anthony Horowitz. This is a murder mystery like no other. A woman walks into a funeral home and makes arrangements for her own funeral. Later that day, she is murdered. Coincidence ... I don't think so! And neither does ex-policeman Hawthorne, who now works as a consultant for the force, as well as consulting on TV crime dramas such as Foyle's War, which is how he knows Anthony Horowitz, as he is the scriptwriter for it. Hawthorne approaches Horowitz (yes, the author has placed himself into this fictional novel) with a proposition - to write a book about his investigation into the murder of this woman, a Mrs Cooper. Horowitz doesn't really like the man or his idea, but is finally persuaded to give it a try, and so begins a twisty-turny story with trawler loads of red herrings. Hawthorne is brusque, sweary and not much fun to be around, and Horowitz thinks he's made a big mistake in becoming this man's "Watson". But as time progresses, the investigation takes hold and he puts up with all the irritations of this modern day "Sherlock", as he really wants to solve it - becoming almost gleeful when he thinks he's found a clue that Hawthorne has missed. When Damian, the famous actor son of the murder victim is also found dead within a couple of hours of her funeral, things really begin to heat up. Everything points to these violent crimes being an act of revenge for something that happened 10 years ago, but that would be too easy ... wouldn't it, or would it, or wouldn't it???? The investigation is interwoven with what purports to be real events from Anthony Horowitz's real life - like a meeting with Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson regarding a film script for another Tintin movie. The reader doesn't really know whether none, some, or all of these things are made up - but they all help to make the lives of the two protagonists, and how they interact, totally believable. Excellent characterisation and a crime thriller that keeps you guessing right to the very end. I can highly recommend this book, especially the audio edition which is brilliantly narrated by the fabulous Rory Kinnear.  

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 400 print pages.

Price I paid: £5.84.

Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; audio CD; ebook.

Single & Single - What just happened?

When the letter L was pulled out for my next read, I was happy to find that John Le Carre was listed under that letter. I have read a few of his books in the past (The Constant Gardener definitely being a highlight) and so was more than happy to pick up one of his titles from my husband's bookshelf. Single & Single opens with a corporate lawyer being shot somewhere in Turkey, then cuts to a children's entertainer in Devon, who is called in to his bank to explain a sudden influx of cash. The latter, Oliver Single, isn't all that he seems - he is the son of a celebrated London financier who has just disappeared, and Oliver is sucked into the world he had previously turned his back on, in an effort to find out what is going on. But he is not the only one and things take a more ominous tone when he comes up against dangerous businessmen and shadowy "official" figures. This is certainly a thriller, which is usually a winner for me, but I found this book incredibly hard to get into. I had to reread the first 50 pages as I realised at that point that I wasn't entirely sure who anyone was or what they were doing. But I'm not sure even that helped. I spent most of the book wondering what was going on, and even though at times I felt I was starting to get a grip on things, the story slipped from my grasp once again. There were a lot of characters, as well as multiple locations and the scenes chopped and changed very quickly. I didn't find any of the characters sympathetic, which didn't help. I have to say that I ploughed through this book, page by page, waiting for some clarity, but it never came. It left me confused and slightly annoyed, particularly as even the ending left matters kind of hanging. Disappointed.

My STAR rating: ONE.

Length: 416 print pages.

Price I paid: free, borrowed from my husband.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.

Shangai Tango - an unusual memoir

So, hot on the heels of the letter Z came the letter X! This might have presented a bit of a challenge until I came across Shanghai Tango by Jin Xing in the e-library collection. This is an autobiographical account of Jin Xing, who was born a boy, but became a prima ballerina and one of the brightest stars of the Shanghai Ballet. This boy loved to dance from an early age, but never quite felt comfortable in his own body. At age 9, he joined the People's Liberation Army, to receive both dance and military training. He excelled at dance and, aged 19, received a scholarship to study dance in New York. It was here that Jin Xing experienced different forms of dance as well as having his eyes opened up to the possibilities of a different way of living. Always attracted to men, Jin engaged upon numerous relationships - feeling that he was relating to them as a female, rather than as a gay man. Then, when he discovered that it was feasible for someone to change sex, he took the decision to return to China to make his dreams come true and physically undergo surgery to become the woman he'd always felt he was. The surgery was almost a disaster, and almost wrecked her career, but she was determined to continue dancing and finally achieved her goal, being lauded throughout her country and becoming an ambassador for China through her artistic work. Whilst this story is amazing, I found this book quite bitty and unsatisfying. I think it was because it felt quite superficial and more like a list of dates/events - some of which were monumental in her life - but which weren't explored in depth. For instance, I never quite understood her inner feelings or what she was really thinking at key moments in her life. I wanted to feel the emotions that she must have been experiencing, but they didn't come across. I would rather have had more time on this than the descriptions of her numerous sexual exploits, which left me quite cold. Still, this book does give an insight into some elements of communist China which will surprise the reader, so for that, I am thankful. 

My STAR rating: TWO.

Length: 288 print pages.

Price I paid: free, borrowed from the library.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio book, ebook.

How Much of These Hills Is Gold - It lost me!

And so onto the letter "Z" - I was a bit worried about finding a suitable author, but after a quick search, I came up with C Pam Zhang, which is why I found myself reading How Much of These Hills Is Gold. This is the story of Lucy and Sam, who, at age twelve and eleven respectively, find themselves on their own towards the end of the gold rush in the American West. When their Ba dies (Ma already having left them some time earlier), they leave their ramshackle home in search of a new life. Lucy tries to take charge, but it is Sam who dominates and, Lucy discovers, has hidden Ba's body in the trunk their horse is carrying. Sam is determined to find the proper place to bury Ba, deep in the country where buffalo still roam and veins of gold run deep. But the two siblings have different ideas of how they want their lives to go, and while Lucy heads for the security of a town, Sam disappears into the country. Lucy tries to fit in, but is always aware that, as a child of Chinese immigrants, she may never quite fit in, and it isn't until many years later, when Sam reappears, that she realises how much she has missed her sibling and the relationship and shared history that they had. Sam allows her to be truly herself again. Much of the story is told in a series of flashbacks, not necessarily in a linear timeframe. We see how the dreams of, and promises made to, Chinese immigrants who were tempted by the stories of gold, never came to fruition and that the odds were always stacked against them. We also see how the land was stolen from the native American population and how the rich get richer and the poor, poorer. The two main characters are very engaging and there is a real sense of sibling friction, interwoven with an immense amount of love, that felt very real. This is certainly a perspective on history that is new to me. The book is well crafted and the description of the beautiful scenery, juxtaposed with the grim living conditions of those people living on the outskirts of what "civilised" society purported to be, are well told - beauty and ugliness in equal measure. I was totally engaged until the last section of the book, which, for me, suddenly seemed to lose its way and kind of petered out. Maybe it was because what I thought was going to happen didn't, and I didn't get the end I actually wanted. Still worth reading, and for anyone interested in the American West and the Gold Rush, there's a bucketload of things to enjoy!

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 288 print pages.

Price I paid: £3.00.

Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.