Mortal Causes - Rebus is back in the groove

Mortal Causes is the seventh outing for Inspector John Rebus, and I am pleased to report that it is a successful one. It is August in Edinburgh, and that means we are slap bang in the middle of the world famous annual "Festival" of comedy, drama and literature. Rammed with tourists, this is boom time for the local economy. So, when a body is found that has some of the hallmarks of sectarian violence, alarm bells start to ring - especially when there have been bomb threats targeting the Festival. With insight into such matters gained during his time as a soldier in Northern Ireland, Rebus is seconded to the elite Scottish Crime Squad to aid the investigation ... and needless to say, neither he, nor the members of the squad, are particularly pleased about that. Nevertheless, he starts to make headway when it turns out that the victim is the son of a notorious local gangster who is well known to Rebus. Our hero digs ever deeper and starts to suspect that not everyone who should be on the side of good can be trusted. He plays his cards very close to his chest and gets beaten up a few times for good measure. Throw into this mix a difficult relationship at home, and you have the makings of an unhappy and grumpy Rebus ... hence, the odd glass of comforting beer and whiskey chasers are never far away! As more bodies turn up, Rebus homes in on the perpetrators and tries to get ahead of the game to protect the city of Edinburgh from disaster. Ian Rankin has produced a well crafted tale, with lots and lots of threads which are slowly and skillfully untangled to reveal the final denouement. It's a good sign when I just wanted to keep on reading, despite really needing sleep, particularly towards the end! After a bit of a wobble in the previous book, I'm happy to report that Rebus is definitely back in the groove!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 320 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from husband!
Formats available: print; abridged audio download; MP3 CD; ebook.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - back on form!

After a bit of a dip in the previous book, JK Rowling is back on form with Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. This is the sixth book in the series and we find Harry and his chums entering his sixth year at Hogwarts School. Everyone is on edge, now that Lord Voldemort is back on the scene, but this doesn't stop the lessons at school. Professor Snape takes on the teaching of Defence against the Dark Arts and seems to delight in giving Harry a hard time (no change there!). Meanwhile, in his Potions class, Harry finds himself using an old textbook and discovers lots of extra notes that have been scrawled into it by someone calling themselves the Half-Blood Prince. Harry suddenly becomes the best student in the class, and even learns new spells that no-one else knows. Harry is convinced that Draco Malfoy - a particularly nasty bully from day one - is up to no good and is in the employ of the Dark Lord himself, with the help of Professor Snape ... but no-one seems to believe him. Professor Dumbledore really comes into his own in this book and starts to prepare Harry with one to one sessions where they dip into the memories of various people who have known Lord Voldemort at key stages in his life. We discover why the destiny of both Harry and Voldemort are so intertwined, and that ultimately, one must destroy the other to survive. Harry is also discovering his sexuality and finds himself drawn to Ginny, the sister of his best friend, Ron. Not wanting to ruin his friendship, he tells himself that she is off limits, but then goes through that familiar teenage angst as he sees her with other boys! Thrown into this mix is the relationship between Ron and Hermione. They both like each other, but can't seem to get it together and spend much of the year either shouting at each other, or not talking at all. This book really takes the reader by the hand down the twisty turny path that will lead towards the inevitable stand off that will be the final book of the series, and it does have a shocking twist, which I won't spoil. And who, exactly, was, or is, the Half Blood Prince? Unlike the last outing, there is very little wasted text in the Half Blood Prince. So much is revealed in an exciting way, and by weaving in the regular coming of age stuff for young men and women, it still feels familiar and touching, despite the epic magic going on! I am really looking forward to next and final instalment.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 608 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from library as an ebook.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - the plot darkens

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth outing for the boy wizard with the scar on his forehead, things are getting tougher and more dangerous. The book opens as usual, with our hero struggling through the summer vacation from Hogwarts school at the home of his aunt and uncle. He is feeling isolated, with no one to talk to about the battle which took place at the end of the last book, in which his arch enemy, Lord Voldemort, came back in bodily form and killed one of Hogwarts' pupils. Then, one evening, Harry and his cousin are attacked by Dementors. Harry uses magic to save them - but it is forbidden to use magic outside school and Harry lands himself with the threat of expulsion. He is rescued by his friends and taken to the house owned by his godfather, Sirius Black, which turns out to be the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix - a secret society of wizards and witches determined to rid the world of Lord Voldemort. Harry escapes expulsion with the help of Professor Dumbledore and heads back to Hogwarts, but all is not well - as there are attempts by the Ministry of Magic to interfere, for they do not believe that Voldemort has returned at all! And so we see the appointment of Dolores Umbridge - a ministry stooge - as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Her teaching method is to get them to read the textbook and just learn the theory, without any practical lessons at all. In desperation, Harry is persuaded to teach fellow pupils jinxes and hexes to protect themselves against the dark forces. In the meantime, Dolores becomes headmistress and Hogwarts becomes a place of restriction and regulation. Harry is dogged by nightmares and his scar is hurting all the time. It becomes apparent that he is emotionally linked to what Voldemort is feeling. Afraid that when Voldemort realises this, he will try to influence Harry's actions, Professor Snape is commissioned to teach Harry the skill of "Occlumency" - which would build a barrier against this possibility. During the lessons, Harry learns why Snape hates him so much, and the lessons end somewhat abruptly - leaving Harry dangerously exposed, with devastating consequences. Once again, JK Rowling has produced a book full of action and interesting characters, whose back stories are continuing to develop, helping to explain why people are the way they are. I did think that a bit of judicious editing would not have gone amiss - some elements felt a bit repetitive at times and I wanted things to get moving more quickly. However, there is peril, and humour and you are left eagerly awaiting the next instalment. High literature this is not, but a good, solid page-turner it definitely is.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 768 print pages.
Price I paid: free - borrowed from the library.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Storm Front - a new wizard in town

As a member of Audible, I get frequent emails promoting a massive range of books. A particular series periodically popped up from time to time under a "recommended for you" kind of heading due my previous purchases of fantasy and crime novels. That series was The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and Storm Front is the first of these books which feature the life and times of a crime-fighting wizard called Harry Dresden. Now, I know that sounds similar to the Rivers of London series, which readers of this blog will now be familiar with - but these are very, VERY different books. Much, much darker (if this first outing is anything to go by), the main character is a wizard for hire - specialising in locating missing objects. However, he also does a bit of consultancy work for the Chicago PD - well, one local officer really (Lieutenant Karrin Murphy) - everyone else thinks he's a complete fraud! When a timid lady calls him to ask for his help, he arranges an appointment with her - which he then almost misses as he is asked to consult on the gruesome deaths of a couple, who, in the act of love-making, have had their hearts ripped out of their chests ... but from the inside. Dark magic is the cause, and Dresden is tasked to come up with a solution by the police ... but then on the way back to his office, he is bundled into a car by a local mobster who offers to double his money if he DOES NOT investigate the deaths. Intrigued and disturbed, Dresden gets back to his office just in time for his appointment with the fearful Monica who asks him to find her spouse. Harry needs the money, so takes on both cases - the one for the police and the missing husband. Little did he realise that there would be a link between the two, with deadly consequences ... I enjoyed this book, which was brought to life by James Marsters (who played Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer many moons ago), who has a laid back sarcastic style of narration that really suits the style of writing. The action is messy and magical, and as Harry's back story begins to unfold, we find out that among the magical community, he is a bit of an outcast. Well, no surprise there. Our hero has to have the odds stacked against him - and his own strict ethical code never seems to really help him either. No punches are pulled and if you are happy to get deep down and dirty along with the characters, you will not be disappointed.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; MP3 audio CD; ebook.

Sharpe's Enemy - blood and gore aplenty!

If you don't know by now, I am a HUGE fan of Bernard Cornwell. I have read many of his books and have had no regrets thus far. In this, the 15th book in the Richard Sharpe series, our hero finds himself newly promoted to Major and is given the task of rescuing two high-born ladies from the clutches of a band of French and British deserters - one of whom is Sharpe's mortal enemy, the toothless, twitching Obadiah Hakeswill. Sharpe secures the ladies, but when, with the help of his wife Teresa, one of the most feared partisan fighters, he realises that the truce that had been holding during the rescue is about to come to an end and the French are planning a massive movement of troops which would jeopardise Wellington's campaign, he sets out to thwart them. It's Christmas 1812, but that matters not one jot. Against overwhelming odds, he plans to outsmart the enemy using the only soldiers he has at his disposal - the dodgy and untested new Rocket Troop and a small band of riflemen and various scrappers that are now under his command. By sheer force of will, he brings them together into a cohesive fighting machine ready to defend the small scrap of land required by the French to pass through to the one place that would give them an advantage over Wellington's forces. Will Sharpe manage to pull off the impossible and hold out until reinforcements arrive? Well, as this isn't the last in the series I think we all know the answer to that. Once again, Mr Cornwell pulls off an exciting adventure full of blood, gore and downright nastiness smattered with enough historical facts that it feels very real. Great action, great characters and a great read. I just wish Sharpe would have as much luck in his personal life as he does his battles ... maybe next time! Oh, and it never pays to turn your back on Obadiah - you have been warned. A book that is well worth a punt.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 350 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.80.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Lewis Man - secrets buried in the peat

I have just raced through the second in the Lewis Trilogy, by Peter May. This was in part due to being away on a short break where the weather was a bit miserable to say the least, but still wouldn't have happened if the story wasn't one that I was interested in. The action starts with the finding of a body in the peat bog on the island of Lewis. Due to the preservative qualities of a peat bog, it is hard to say, initially, how long the body of the young man had been there ... until clues start emerging such as a tattoo of Elvis Presley. It soon becomes obvious that this person had been brutally murdered sometime in the late 1950's. DNA results then show that he is related to someone still living on the island - the father of Marsaili, the first love of Fin McLeod, the central character in the first book. With his divorce finalised, and having quit the police force in Edinburgh, Fin is now living on Lewis once again, determined to renovate his childhood home and live a simpler life. However, with Marsaili's father becoming a suspect, Fin steps in with the help of the local constabulary to try and disprove this theory in order to protect the family who have meant so much to him. This is not going to be easy, with Marsaili's father now suffering from dementia. The Lewis Man brings the harsh life of the Outer Hebrides both in the past and today into focus, and is a great page turner. The subject matter is dealt with sensitively, with the inward workings of the damaged mind of Marsaili's father especially handled with care. The story of what happened all those years ago slowly unravels and collides with the present. It just goes to show that we never really know anyone. We get to spend more time with characters we met in the first book and relationships develop at a pace in line with the action. Not all scenes quite ring true, but maybe they are there to help set things up for the finale in book three, which I will definitely be seeking out.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 384 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.20.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; unabridged audio CD; ebook.

Broken Homes - Could these books get any better?

I fear I might be becoming obsessed with this Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch ... but there are many, many worse things I can think of that could take up a person's time. Broken Homes is the fourth outing for PC Peter Grant, apprentice wizard and one of three members of the specialist squad who investigate crimes involving unexplained and magical phenomenon within London. Things are hotting up in the search for the "Faceless Man" - who is leaving a trail of bodies behind him, without any apparent rhyme or reason, but which eventually lead to a London high rise estate which the council want to demolish despite it being a listed building. Peter and his colleague Lesley (who lost her face at the end of book one), are getting stronger in the craft, ably taught by their boss, Nightingale. However, he is still quite protective of them, and when a Russian night witch appears on the scene, it is Nightingale who takes centre stage after his two protegees almost come a cropper. The action pulls no punches and the dialogue is as sparkling and witty as ever - I snorted in laughter many times. This is in no small measure due to the continuing excellence of the narration in the audio editions of the books, which I've been reading - hats off once again to Kobna Holdbrook-Smith on that score. Characters who appeared in earlier books reappear here - both friend and foe. I found myself cheering for Lesley as she finds a bit of intimacy with one of them ... an experience she thought she would never have again. Peter can't help be a bit jealous, but is happy for her nonetheless, despite his love life being on a bit of a sabbatical! When our hero finally works out what is going on, it leads to an almighty confrontation. There is a cracking twist at the end, and we are now set up nicely for episode five ... I can't wait ... it's supposed to be out this month and I am waiting impatiently on my tenterhooks!

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 368 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; unabridged audio CD; ebook.