Sunday, October 30, 2005

"Cue The Easter Bunny", by Liz Evans


This is the sixth Grace Smith adventure, and one of the best so far. Grace is a (not overly successful) PI in a seaside resort, and the books read rather like an English Stephanie Plum, only with a darker edge to most of the storylines. This time round, while trying to find out who's sending poison pen letters to the husband of a local soap star and trying to locate a girl who was abducted 14 years ago, Grace has to contend with an overly amorous rabbit, a stalker with a fur fetish, the fact that someone's selling t-shirts round town with a picture of her dressed as the Easter Bunny - oh, and being buried alive...

posted by Izzy @ 11:48 am 0 comments

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

"Paths Not Taken" by Simon R. Green

Yet another Nightside book (and there's another about to be published, he can't half churn them out). Having discovered who and what his mother is, to prevent her destroying the Nightside and bringing about the version of the future that he's seen, John (and Shotgun Suzie) must travel back in time, through various periods in the Nightside's history, right back to its creation. And being who they are, chaos and mayhem will, of course, happily ensue.

This is a great series, and it feels like the story-arc may be wrapped up in the next book - I hope he continues writing them after that. Although, being Simon Green, there's always the worrying possibility that he'll kill everyone off instead. I may have to read the next one through my fingers...

posted by Izzy @ 10:45 am 0 comments

Monday, October 10, 2005

"Thud", by Terry Pratchett

The latest in the Discworld series, this installment sees tensions rising in Ankh Morpork between dwarfs and trolls as the anniversary of an ancient battle looms. Vimes has to keep the peace - but he also has to contend with a murder, a missing painting (which is reputed to contain a hidden secret about the battle), a vampire recruit to the Watch, the fact that Sybil is trying to get him to sit for a portrait, and that he needs to be home for 6pm every night without fail to read 'Where's My Cow' to his baby son.

As ever, this book is a great read, although possibly not the funniest of the series - feels at times a little too much like he's trying to crowbar in a Message about war and immigrants and so forth. However, still miles better and cleverer and funnier than any potential rivals.

posted by Izzy @ 4:09 pm 1 comments