Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin

Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin
Mystery

Inspector Rebus isn't too badly injured during a car chase and is well enough to get out of the car and watch the two suspects in the car lean backwards so their car flips over a bridge and on to a boat below. Rebus knows he saw them do that on purpose and can't imagine what two kidnapping suspects would want to do that for. Shortly after this incident, an ex-con walks in to a government official's office and shoots himself with a shotgun. The two cases seem open and close but there are loose ends nagging at Rebus and he doesn't know when to let go. With his boss telling him to give it up, Rebus is eventually put on mandatory vacation and he decides to continue investigating on his own time. There are threads that connect these two events and implications go fairly high up the chain of command.

The last Rebus book I read I didn't like much because he was too focused on his romance and there were too many acronyms being used that I couldn't follow along with. This book was the opposite. Rebus focused on the case, although there was still some interaction with his daughter and talk of his possibly alcohol problem. The mystery itself was intriguing. There was almost nothing for Rebus to go on, yet he still found those key pieces of evidence and figured out what was going on. A pretty impressive feat. This book was much better than its predecessor.

First Line: "A winter night, screaming out of Edinburgh."

Rating:
(4/5)

Startled by his Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison

Startled by his Furry Shorts by Luoise Rennison
Teen

Georgia Nicolson and the Ace gang are back for the 7th book in the series. Not much has changed, the girls are still boy-obsessed, Georgia still can't decide between Masimo and Dave the Laugh, and school is still as horrible as ever.

This time we have Georgia deciding that if Masimo can't be in a serious relationship with her, she doesn't want to be with him. In addition to this, she still doesn't realize that Dave the Laugh likes her and she starts thinking about ex-flame Robbie, who doesn't even live in the country anymore.

I'm not sure why I read these anymore. They were funny for the first couple but now Georgia just grates on my nerves. She's quite mean to her friends and obnoxious otherwise. The only thing this book has going for it is Angus the cat and Libby the younger sister.

First Line: "I can't believe I am once more on the rack of romance."

Rating:
(2.5/5)

The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez

The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez
Mystery

A grad student from Argentina goes to Oxford to carry on his mathematics education. He stays with an elderly lady and her granddaughter in their basement. Shortly after arriving, he finds his landlady dead and famous mathematician Arthur Seldom arriving with a note that tells of her death. This note has a mathematical symbol on it and states the time and place of the death. More murders are expected, with more notes to follow, and the series to be continued.

Given that the premise of this book is mathematical, there is a lot of explaining that needs to be done on series and the theorems behind them. I have a Math degree, and even with that I found that at times I was getting bored with all the math information being thrown out. I did like the discussion about how even with three numbers in a series there are many different solutions, which was causing the standard test creator problems. They gave a sample series with a few sample answers and I had thought that the answer was something that wasn't even presented, but was completely plausible.

This book is rather short and there wasn't really anything in the book that didn't need to be there. There weren't any major plot twists but I enjoyed this book, the mystery, and the math.

First Line: "Now that the years have passed and everything's been forgotten, and now that I've received a terse e-mail from Scotland with the sad news of Seldom's death, I feel I can break my silence (which he never asked for anyway) and tell the truth about events that reached the British papers in the summer of '93 with macabre and sensationalist headlines, but to which Seldom and I always referred - perhaps due to the mathematical connotation - simply as the series, or the Oxford Series."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

The Devil's Teardrop by Jeffery Deaver

The Devil's Teardrop by Jeffery Deaver
Mystery

Parker Kinkaid is an expert document analyst that's retired from the FBI to have a safer home environment for his two children. On New Years Eve in Washington, DC, a shooter kills many people at a subway station and a note is left for the mayor. Pay $20M or face three more shootings before the end of the night. The FBI brings in Kinkaid to take a look at the note and see what he can learn about the killer. Kinkaid finds one notable trait, what he calls the devil's teardrop, the dot on the i lifting up to make it look like a tear. Using this and other information, the team try to determine who is behind this and how to stop him.

This is the first Deaver book I've read and I was underwhelmed. The characters were rather one-dimensional. I couldn't connect with them so I didn't care what happened to them. Deaver tried at the beginning to get us to connect with Kinkaid through his children but by the time he was working he had lost much of his draw for me. It also felt to me like Deaver was creating characteristics for the characters just so they could be used to drive the mystery.

All of the suspense in this book was kept for the last 50-75 pages and by that time I was rather complacent about it. I'm not even sure if I'm interested in picking up another Deaver book after this one.

First Line: "The Digger's in town."

Rating:
(2.5/5)

One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore

One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Fiction/Literature

In Stalin-era Moscow, 1945, the war is just coming to an end. The 801 school is where Stalin's own children were educated and where many of the current country's elite have sent their own children. The poetry class is one of the teenager's favourite classes, where they learn the poems of Pushkin. The teens form the Fatal Romantics Club and decide that life is nothing without love. Playing the "Game", during the day the country celebrates victory over Hitler, two of the teens are shot and killed. Stalin directs the investigation, the Children's Case, to find out what really happen. Secrets start to come out of Moscow's most elite as the children are brought to the prison and interrogated like criminals.

This book gives a detailed look in to what life would have been like Stalin's inner circle and their families. Surprisingly, it's not that good. Stalin wanted his staff available to him at all times of the day with dinners commonly going until 6am in the morning. These men and women also always had to be on their toes to make sure that there were no slip ups. It seems that anything was possible to set off Stalin. Finally, emotion did not seem like a welcome emotion. Anything that makes us human could be seen as weakness in Stalin's eyes. I've read a few books set in Russia over the past year but this is the first during the time frame and was a nice change of pace.

The story of the Children's Case was rather shocking. Arresting 6 and 10 year olds and bringing them in for questioning seems unimaginable. We learned as much about the parents as we did the children, though at times there were some rather disjoint sections that seemed out of place when the author switched suddenly from one point of view to another. At the core of it, this is a story about love and how it can get you in trouble but fill your heart.

First Line: "Just moments after the shots, as Serafima looks at the bodies of her schoolfriends, a feathery whiteness is already frosting their blasted flesh."

Rating:
(4/5)

The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore

The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore
Humour/Fiction

Written as a spoof of Othello and The Merchant of Venice (with some Edgar Allen Poe thrown in), The Serpent of Venice follows Pocket, the fool, after his fair Queen Cordelia has died. Originally thought to have died of natural causes, Pocket soon learns that his Queen was murdered by merchant Antonio, senator Brabantio, and naval office Iago. Yes, you should recognize those names! As the three leave Pocket for dead, the fool is rescued by a dragon of the water. Washing up near the Jewish lender Shylock, Pocket wants his revenge and finds it through twists in the stories of Othello and The Merchant of Venice.

Spoofs are not easy to pull off. They require a lot of planning and thought so they don't fall flat. Moore did a brilliant job with this one. Some liberties were taken to bring the characters of the two plays together but in the end it strengthened the story. Even better, all of the characters got their just desserts, unlike what you get from Shakespeare! I read Othello in university and would often wonder what would happen if a few things had happened differently. The Serpent gives you a satisfying alternative.

Pocket, the fool or court jester, is a character that Moore uses to help bring the two plays together. He's crude, raunchy, and freakin' hilarious! Pocket makes his first appearance in Moore's Fool, which I have not yet read, but I found that this didn't make any difference to me. You can pick this book up as a stand alone. That being said, I will definitely be going back to read Fool and hope that there's another in the series to follow after this.

This book is exactly what I've come to expect from Moore though: humour, whit, and satire. I definitely recommend it!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for letting me be a part of this tour.

First Line: "They waited at the dock, the three Venetians, for the fool to arrive."

Rating:
(4.5/5)

Remote Control by Andy McNab

Remote Control by Andy McNab
Mystery

Nick Stone is part of deniable ops for the British government. This means that if caught, the government will deny any knowledge of Stone and he's on his own. The risk is high but the individuals run very important missions. This story starts in Gibraltar where they are trying to stop the Irish Army from setting off a bomb. The mission is accomplished but despite that, Stone feels like something wasn't right.

Years later, Stone is asked to fly to the USA and follow some PIRA members around to see what they're doing. Stone sets off but once he's in Washington, he's called off and told to return right away. The earliest plane he can get back to the UK is later that night so he decides to visit a friend for dinner. As he arrives, he finds the whole family murdered with the exception of one of the young girls, Kelly. Nick takes Kelly and tries to figure out who did this, knowing that he is probably now a suspect himself.

I started the Nick Stone series a few books in and really liked the character. This is the first book in the series so it was good to know how Kelly came to be with him. These series are so realistic because Stone takes a lot of caution with what he does. Clothes are bought and changed frequently, characters are followed before they meet. In other books this would be monotonous but with this book it adds to the build up and makes it feel real.

In addition to this, Stone is a great character. He gets frustrated with Kelly and isn't always the proper adult he should be, which you know probably would happen in a situation like this.

First Line: "I pinged him straight away."

Rating:
(4/5)