Perfect People ... with a few flaws!

Having just finished Perfect People, by Peter James as an ebook, I have mixed feelings. It is a thriller with a chilling premise, but it just didn't quite hit the high notes that it had the potential to. The action starts with Naomi and John arriving aboard a ship in order to met Dr Leo Detorre - who is offering them the chance to tweak the genetic make up of their child to avoid a repeat of the devastating loss of their son from a rare genetic disorder. All they want is a healthy baby to help rebuild their lives as a family. They decide to go ahead with the procedure and are overjoyed when Naomi is confirmed as pregnant. However, when they discover she is expecting twins, they fear that the pushy and confident Dr Dettore may have got things a little wrong. Into the frame comes a sinister threat from a previously unheard of religious cult who are hunting down any couple who have been to see the infamous doctor. Soon the twins are born, and they are not like any children Naomi and John have come across before. The action builds up until a climax with an ending that you will not see coming. The lesson is, DON'T MESS WITH GENETICS! I may try other Peter James - he is more famous for his crime novels featuring DI Roy Grace - but I just didn't feel that this particular novel gripped me enough and that the characters were not quite 3-dimensional.

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 460 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.20.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Oliver Twist - not nearly as jolly as the musical!

Continuing my foray into Dickens this year, I have been reading Oliver Twist on my Kindle. I thought I knew this story pretty well - after all, I've seen Oliver! the musical a few times (Consider yourself, at home!) and I even studied it in English literature for one year at school. But how wrong I was. The main events and characters are all there - the orphan (Oliver), his life at the workhouse, then the undertaker's, followed by his escape to London and falling into the company of the Artful Dodger and Fagin - petty thieves and pickpockets. However, we also have a range of other characters and events that I had absolutely no recollection of at all. I was not displeased by this turn of events as it meant that I was surprised by a book I thought I knew pretty well! You can't help but root for Oliver who is definitely not suited to a life of crime. The looming threat of one of London's most notorious criminals - Bill Sikes - who decides to find a use for Oliver - is balanced by the tenderness of his girlfriend Nancy, who knows Oliver could have a better life and wants to help him get it. I have to say that Mr Dickens has redeemed himself with this book. The characterisations are excellent and the story bowls along. Not completely bereft of the descriptive passages of the previous stories I've read, the balance between action and atmosphere is almost perfect. Particular highlights are the relationship between Bill Sikes and Nancy, which is spiky to say the least, and violence never seems far away. I was a bit shocked at how dark a character Fagin is, with apparently no redeeming features (maybe this was a sign of the attitudes of the times - hard for me to say - but there were repeated references to his ethnicity). When he gets it right, Dickens does transport you to a different time and place where the sights and smells really come alive. Highly recommended.

My START rating: FOUR

Length: 400 print pages.
Price I paid: free.
Format available: print; audio CD; audio download; ebook.

David Attenborough - a life worth listening to!

I have just spent over 20 hours in the company of one of the best broadcasters I know - Sir David Attenborough, who is probably best known for his natural history series - Life on Earth, Life of Mammals, Life in Cold Blood and the list goes on. His autobiography, A Life on Air, is packed with anecdotes about the trials and tribulations he has undergone during the five decades he has worked to bring the wonders of the natural world to our TV screens. Narrated by the great man himself (I read this on audio format), this book is a wonderful way to relive his memories and some of your own - unless, of course, you've never watched any of his programmes! You get behind the scenes of the very early days of television, when David got his first break as a trainee producer after realising that a life in a publishing house was not for him. But his great love and knowledge about the world we live in and the life which inhabits it could not be ignored, and when he pitched an idea about filming the capture of animals for London Zoo, it set him on the road to the types of stunning films we know today. Always instructive without being patronising, it's a joy to follow David through his life - who I can only imagine must be one hell of a dinner guest. I can highly recommend this book - who would have thought that the technicalities of filming in a jungle would be so interesting.

My STAR rating: FIVE

Length: 416 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99
Formats available: print; audio CD; audio download.

On a bit of a go slow!

Just in case you thought I had gone away ... I haven't! However, I seem to be stuck in the slow lane of the bookworld. Am in the middle of two books - Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (ebook), and A Life on Air, the autobiography of Sir David Attenborough (audio). I'm enjoying them both, but have been a busy, busy beaver over the last few weeks and haven't had as much time as I usually have for reading. Hopefully I'll be back on track with a review of one of these two books before too long!

A French idyll - I don't think so!

In Trespass, by Rose Tremain which I read in print, Anthony Verey, a disillusioned antiques dealer from London, goes to visit his beloved sister Veronica in southern France. After a few days, the old Anthony seems to be returning, and he realises he hasn't felt this positive about anything in a long time, so decides that he should try to capture this feeling for longer and starts looking for a house of his own. An isolated farmhouse really takes his eye - the Mas Lunel - but it is owned by the disturbingly shabby Aramon Lunel, who has a violent past. Within view is a poor looking bungalow owned by Aramon's sister, Audrun - who cannot tear herself away from this place despite being haunted by the events of the past. Little does Anthony realise that he is about to become centre stage in the familial battle between brother and sister. This is a really good book, and whilst the subject matter can be a little on the disturbing side at times, it feels anchored in reality and is believable. Love and hate - close companions in many families - is portrayed to stunning effect in this novel. It's definitely a page turner and I feel able to recommend it to you.

My STAR rating: FOUR

Length: 372 print pages.
Price I paid: 50p (from a charity shop)
Formats available: print; audio CD; audio download; Ebook.

Ken Follett - why have I not found you before now?

Let me tell you about The Key to Rebecca, by Ken Follett which I read as an ebook. It was gripping from the get go. With an incredibly evocative first line of "The last camel collapsed at noon" ... I was taken straight to the heat, dust and thirst of the desert and I just knew I was in for something special. It's 1942, and this is the story of the "Sphinx" (real name Alex Wolff), a German spy who arrives in Cairo with his radio transmitter and a copy of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. As his activities start to affect the course of the war in North Africa, one man is determined to catch him - Major William Vandam, an English intelligence officer. Egypt is a complex country, occupied by the British, but whose presence is resented by many of the local population. Rommel is out in the desert, bringing his panzers and troops nearer and nearer to Cairo, using the information provided by Wolff. Can Vandam save the country from being overrun? We have action, adventure, history, geography and a bit of romance thrown in for good measure. This is a great read - it zips along with vim and vigour and I found it hard to put down. If you like war time thrills and spills, this is definitely for you.

I had been getting a little dispirited with recent ebooks - but now I realise that this is not due to the format per se, but with the overwhelming temptation to download stacks of free books and give them a go. This is all very well, but there seems to be a fair amount of chaff before you get to any wheat! There are affordable gems in this format - and The Key to Rebecca is absolutely one of those (although I have noticed that the price has gone up since I purchased my copy). I have aleady downloaded another two Ken Follett books which were on offer this past weekend and I'm really looking forward to reading them.

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 381 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.00 (was on offer the day I bought it).
Formats available: print; unabridged adio CD; unabridged audio download;

Mugby Junction - a book with a split personality

Mugby Junction, by Charles Dickens is, I discovered after reading it, a collection of short stories. I read it as an Ebook and felt that it was a bit up and down to say the least. I really enjoyed the first two sections which were based around a man who gets off the train at Mugby Junction one night and can't quite decide where to go from there. He reflects on his past, which includes a lost love and betrayal by his business partner. He befriends the signalman and his daughter. There is some good writing here and I enjoyed the exchanges particularly between the daughter and the main protagonist. However, this was followed by an exceptionally dull story of  the railway cafe at Mugby Junction. When reading it I couldn't work out why this odd tale was tagged onto the previous, but now I come to realise they were short stories which were linked (by the railway), but not dependent upon each other. I didn't really warm to this one at all. I'm really trying to get into your writing Mr Dickens, but you do make it hard at times. Other people seem to rate this title and maybe my edition didn't have all the stories of the print edition, but couldn't recommend it.

My STAR rating: TWO.

Length: 61 print pages.
Price: Free.
Formats available: print; ebook.