Book 47 of 2012: Thud!

I originally intended to read Thud! quite some time ago. I got my hands on a copy not long after reading Going Postal and being on a bit of a Pratchett-kick, thought I’d give it ago. Then something else came up… considering the time when it was published I’m fairly certain that something was the Kathy Reichs books which devoured as quickly as I could get my hands on. Thud! sat on my bedside table for a while, then was moved to a different pile of books, which was in turn moved until it surfaced when I was tidying my room and I handed it off to another family member to read.

Until now!

I honestly knew nothing about this book before starting it. I love looking at the covers of Terry Pratchett books and trying to work out what’s going to happen inside. I knew that the game Thud had been mentioned by Vetinari in Going Postal so I guessed from the title and the picture of a giant Thud board on the front that this was going to place a significant part (I’m so good at deducing things, I could probably be in the Watch!) but aside from that, I had little to go on. The blurb told me that it involved Sam Vimes, the on going feud between the dwarfs and the trolls, and a book called Where’s My Cow? all sounded good to me.

I realise I say this every time the subject of Discworld novels comes up, but I’m a) getting low on new Discworld material, and b) now reading Discworld books I’ve never read before. All of the books I have left to read (all, what? six of them) are brand new to me. I might have heard odd things about them, but I will never have read them myself before. It’s kind of thrilling. I feel as though I should be savouring them but I couldn’t help but tear through this one in three days and I suspect that this is going to be the case for the others as well (though the fact that I was using Thud! to avoid actually finishing off my EMA may also have been part of the reason).

“*Vimes had never got on with any game much more complex than darts. Chess in particular had always annoyed him. It was the dumb way the pawns went off an slaughtered their fellow pawns while the kings lounged about doing nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns united, maybe talked the rooks round, the whole board couldn’t been a republic in a dozen moves.”
Page 86

The Watch books are among my favourite of the series (there are quite a few of them now as well). I love how the character of Sam Vimes has developed. In the course of the books we’ve seen him go from a beaten down alcoholic, to a married man (and Duke to boot) who turns the Watch around and says pretty much what he likes to Vetinari with relatively painless results, and now who has a young son; Young Sam. I love the contrast between Vimes at work and Vimes with his son.

“‘I suspect I shall feel the same when when I go out there with a megaphone and should, “Hello boys, welcome to the replay of Koom Valley! Hey, let’s hold it right here in the city!”’
‘I don’t think your should actually put it like that, sir,’ said Carrot.”
Page 170

Of course, a large part of Vimes’ relationship with his son revolves around the reading of a particular picture book every evening at six o’clock. The book in question is called Where’s My Cow? and features a farmer looking for his cow but finding virtually every animal but. I do remember being in Greenock and almost buying myself a copy of Where’s My Cow? but deciding against it, now I’m regretting that decision and I think I’ll have to look up a copy from somewhere, just to complete the collection you understand.

I’ve also reworked the story of Where’s My Cow? into a version for Tara regarding our van. Tara loves travelling by car (even if she has decided that she likes eating bits of the car interior just recently) but she likes the van more, and will happily try and get into any vehicle she’s given half a chance. Whereas Where’s My Cow? goes ‘Where’s my cow? Is that my cow? It goes ‘baa’. That’s not my cow. It’s a sheep!’ my version goes along the lines of ‘Where’s my van? Is that my van? It has no roof. That’s not my van. It’s a pickup truck!’ Tara doesn’t seem to appreciate it very much, but it keeps me amused.

And back to Thud!

“‘By the way, how did it go in Turn Again Lane?’ he said, stretching and breathing deeply.
‘Oh wonnerful, sir,’ said Detritus happily. ‘Six alchemists an’ fifty pound o’ fresh Slide. In an’ out, quick an’ sweet, all banged up in the Tanty.’
‘Didn’t know what’d hit ’em, eh?’ said Vimes.
Detritus looked mildly offended at this. ‘Oh no, sir,’ he said, ‘I made sure they knew I hit ’em.’”
Page 198

During my review of Cross Bones, I pointed out the connection to The Da Vinci Code (in terms of the whole did Jesus have kids? What happened to his family? thing) which I suspected what trying to cash in on the succession that Dan Brown’s book had generated. Well not even Terry Pratchett can resist joining in the fun, Discworld has it’s own mystery involving The Koom Valley Codex with a painting of the battle of Koom Valley which the painter supposedly hit a clue to the mystery in. Koom Valley, I should note, occurred hundreds of years before, involved the trolls and the dwarfs one of which ambushed the others and which is the cause of a great deal of racial tension in modern day Ankh-Morpork. The painting is by Methodia Rascal who believed that he was either turning into a chicken or being followed by one and who did in fact make a discovery which Vimes finds himself trying to unravel.

That’s what I love about Pratchett’s Discworld books, they’re so clever and convoluted and they parallel the real world so well. I love the little jokes; both the ones which are tied in to the series and the ones which link to our world, especially the latter because I like it when I get them, hehe. Despite being smelly and dangerous, I would love to visit the Disc, although then I wouldn’t get to see the footnotes.

“‘Oh, shoes,’ said Cheery. ‘I can talk about shoes. Has anyone seen the new Yan Rockhammer solid copper slingbacks?’
‘Er, we don’t go to a metalworker for our footwear, dear,’ said Sally.”
Page 331

What’s a little bit unusual about this copy of Thud! is that it has a preview of the first chapter of Wintersmith, the next Discworld book in the series at the end. Wintersmith is one of the young adult Discworld novels featuring Tiffany Aching (who I’ve not seen since A Hat Full of Sky) and it’s enough of a teaser to make me want to pick it up right now… I’m resisting temptation though, between Thud! and Wintersmith I’ve got Bones To Ashes, Mockingjay and three ebooks to read (and review). Better get started there quickly then…

“… YOU SEE, YOU ARE HAVING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, WHICH INESCAPABLY MEANS THAT I MUST UNDERGO A NEAR VIMES EXPERIENCE. DON’T MIND ME. CARRY ON WITH WHATEVER YOU WERE DOING. I HAVE A BOOK.”
Page 388

A Brief Musical Interlude

I like listening to music. I have thousands of songs on my mp3 player and since the beginning of the year I've been working my way through them all in alphabetical order (thus far I've made it as far as songs beginning can- so I'm anticipating this keeping me going until next year).
That said, I probably don't really have very good taste in music. I don't really follow what's in the charts, I find most of my music through listening to the background of shows or films I like. Quite often I'll pick up a film soundtrack, find an artist I like on there and go on to order their complete back catalogue.

And occasionally I'll find something on YouTube which I fall in love with, and that's what I'm wanting to share with you today.

I happened upon this song almost by chance, looking for music to inspire me to write a chick-lit story set in space for NaNoWriMo, when it was suggested on the forums there. Perhaps because I was also listening to music from Disney's WALL-E at the time, it always reminds me of it, particularly the scene with WALL-E and EVE playing/dancing together in space.

So, without further ado, this is Gregory and the Hawk, Boats and Birds:

Book 46 of 2012: Wired

Wired by Douglas E. Richards was the second of my review copies that I received, this review copy having been released to coincide with the publication of the sequel, Amped. In Wired, David Desh, military agent turned private investigator, is hired by his former employer to track down a woman believed to be working with terrorists to develop a biological weapon. Desh gets right down to it, only to discover that he might in fact be working for someone else, the bad guy might actually be the good guy, and she’s found a way to not only increase human intelligence, but also lifespan as well.

I’m not sure if this is the sort of book that I would normally choose to read myself. Had it been recommended by a friend or colleague, perhaps, if I’d seen it sitting on a shelf, probably not. I’m certainly glad that I’m being a bit more adventurous in my reading, because I did really enjoy it. It took me a little while to get into, perhaps because I wasn’t entirely sure what it was that I was getting in to. Unfortunately I was slowed down somewhat because of writing my End of Module Assessment which I think caused me some problems, this is the sort of book you want to read quickly because who the good guys and who the bad guys are can change with the turn of a page!

I was a little bit confused at the beginning and I have to admit that the philosophy at the end was a bit lost on me – I did not enjoy the nine months of philosophy I was forced to endure at university and remember very little of it today. There were some bits that I thought were very convenient for the characters, like how Alan was never suspected of anything even prior to his death. If enhancement caused you to remember everything as well as stripping away emotions, such as love of a sibling, surely Kira would have noticed something.

I enjoyed all the little literary nods throughout the book. Lord of the Rings got a mention, paralleled with Kira’s terrible weight of knowing how to change humanity but also knowing what damage it could do to us; as did Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which I thought of myself before the characters brought it up. In a way, this is a sort of modern take on the latter story, considering the effects that the drug Kira invented can have on people.

My favourite bits of the book were the descriptions of people who have been enhanced; especially Desh. Richards did a really good job of capturing the way it changes Desh’s emotions, causing him to scorn at the lesser mortals with their lower intelligence meanwhile noticing every little thing going on around him, from the twitch of an eyebrow to the beat of his own heart. It’s very clever.

“Desh’s mind leaped! A massive acceleration of his thoughts occurred in an instant. Like one hundred billion dominoes falling into place at once; like a chain reaction leading to a massive explosion, his neurons had reordered themselves into a more efficient architecture. Thoughts arrived at a furious pace.”
Location 3413

How to get an iPhone in 10 easy steps

Mr. Click and I have been weighing up the pros and cons of getting iPhones for a while now. I had one for a couple of years a while back and as much as I dislike Apple and iTunes, I have to admit, they’re pretty useful. Not having internet access at home, or a landline, we’ve come to rely heavily on our mobile phones but they’re basic (my current phone is of the text, make calls, calculate stuff and ooh look! a flashlight variety). After months of debating and talking about it, we finally decided to take the plunge.
Step 1: Choose your provider
My last iPhone was with O2, they’d also been my network of choice for the past… well, a while. I’d had my first contract phone with them when I was 18 and off to university and I knew they did the sort of package we wanted. So I went into a store to speak to them.

The guy in the shop was very helpful. I explained that ideally we would have two phones on the one contract, this is a business deal, he explained. Produced all the leaflets about it but couldn’t tell me any more because the computer system was down. I went away and investigated the leaflets he had given me. It sounded great, the one flaw in the plan was that you had to be a business to qualify for it.

But I liked O2, and I’m the sort of person who goes in for brand loyalty; my last three camera, Canon; my laptops, Acer; underwear, Marks and Spencer; you get the idea. So we continued to look into phones with them. Found an excellent package, unlimited calls, unlimited texts (Mr. Click and I send a lot of texts), 1Gb per month data allowance and they throw in the phone for free. Sounded great.

Step 2: Speak to your provider
Wanting to confirm everything before I committed to actually buying it, I decided to speak to O2 beforehand. Now they have a nifty system called Live Chat, which basically means you can talk to an agent, without actually having to speak to them. I’m not such a fan of actually talking to people on the phone (text, email, Facebook, Twitter, sure, but actually using my phone to call someone? Don’t be ridiculous!) so this suited me fine.

The woman was very helpful. Talked me through everything I needed to know, so I went ahead with my order. Now it would only let us do one phone at a time. Fair enough, they’ll be two separate contracts, both in separate names, that’s cool. We’ll order mine first.

Step 3: Order your phone
It asked for the usual; name, date of birth, address, card details, colour of your first car, all was going well until suddenly a screen popped up asking me for a £300 deposit. I stopped, obviously we’d done something wrong. We went through it all again, but nope, it wanted £300 for my phone.

Step 4: Repeat Step 2
Back to the Live Chat. This time it was a very helpful man. It’s due to credit reasons, he told me, you get the deposit back after three months. Will that be for both phones? I asked. Yes, he replied, each phone will have a deposit. But it works out better for you in the long term, it’ll actually improve your credit score. Yeah, I thought, though shelling out £600 for a couple of phones isn’t going to do much for my bank balance in the short term.

Ah yes, my credit score. It seems that because I’ve avoided having credit cards and never touched my overdraft in almost ten years I’ve got zero credit rating. I was helpfully told that getting a credit card and living at my address for three years would help improve this, so while I’m applying for my credit card and waiting for the next two years to pass, I decide to look elsewhere.

Step 5: Repeat Step 1
Who else could we apply for a contract with? Ah ha! Who am I with right now? Tesco Mobile (which is kind of on the same network as O2 so actually works for us here). They’ve always been helpful in the past, letting me had my free credit which for some reason didn’t go onto my phone and then became never ending credit when I was able to carry on sending texts for free long after it should have expired. We like Tesco, let’s go with them.

Step 6: Repeat Step 3
Maybe it’s just me, but Tesco’s site was looking a lot easier to understand than O2’s. We picked our tariff and we went through the checkout process. It all went swimmingly, until almost the end when it told us that there had been an error and we were advised to call the Customer Care Team.

Step 7: Repeat Step 2
Knowing that we needed to speak to someone and anticipating that it was probably to do with the credit check, I went onto that handy dandy Live Chat function to find out what information we might need to have to hand before calling. The woman I spoke to was very helpful; apparently the problem was actually because our bank details didn’t match our home address, a little strange because that’s where they send my bank statements, but whatever.

She helpfully offered to walk me through the checkout process to get the problem resolved. I said sure. She told me to add the phones to my basket again. I did. She told me to go to the checkout. I did. She told me to delete the original order. The computer told me that there had been an error and to call the Customer Care Team. It said the same thing when I tried to process the second order attempt. And by this time it was time to go to work.

Mr. Click then called the aforementioned Customer Care Team. It’s a problem with the identity check, they said. We need some information from you, they said. Let us have some details from your passport and driver’s license, they said. So, not being at home at the time, Mr. Click headed home and procured the required documents, only to call them back and be told, no, we don’t need those, we just need to ask you some security questions. This did not go well; when he was able to answer the three ‘random’ questions correctly he was told that as two checks had already been done that day, they could not progress with the order and he would have to call back the next day.

Step 8: Repeat Step 1
Mr. Click’s current PAYG phone is with Vodafone. Despite not being my first choice, it is one of the few providers which works at our house though I’d dismissed it because coverage isn’t always good at work. But our options were becoming limited. I was prepared to write off the idea of getting iPhones on contract by this point, but my husband decided to give it one last go.

Step 9: Repeat Step 3
So Mr. Click investigated the options available, found a similar package to those offered by O2 and Tesco and went ahead and ordered it. Incredibly the free phones remained free and no deposit was required when it came to actually paying for the order, and no call to the Customer Care Team was required. Finally, four days after we tried to place our initial iPhone contract order, we were able to check out.

Step 10: Repeat Step 2
And Vodafone have been very helpful. They called him that day to let him know that the first phone would be despatched shortly, a call that was followed on Saturday and again on Wednesday to let us know the actual delivery date (there was a slight hiccough in that we were told it would be with us on Bank Holiday Monday, despite our pointing out that it was a Bank Holiday and deliveries would be unlikely, but when we called to double check the woman Mr. Click spoke to was very apologetic and after everything else we’ve gone through trying to order these phones it’s really the least of my complaints).

It finally arrived a week and a day after it was ordered and it works a treat, nice and easy to set up and whenever we've needed any help Vodafone have been really happy to help. Plus I now get a good signal in the living room (and I was able to buy a lottery ticket at home, always a bonus). All in all, it's been mostly worth the wait. ;-)

Book 45 of 2012: Catching Fire

Having picked up the Hunger Games trilogy pretty cheap, there was never any question that I was going to not read the others in the series, though when I finished The Hunger Games I wasn’t entirely sure what the next two books could possibly be about. In the past it’s probably the sort of book series that I would’ve gotten sucked into 110% but not having access to internet at home, and not watching TV, means that I’ve probably missed out on a lot of the movie hype so it’s not quite filtered through to me yet. I was a little bit spoiled for the first book, but I managed to largely avoid spoilers for the second and I’m desperately hoping that I won’t accidentally hear anything about the third; if you’re avoiding spoilers yourself, watch out, this review does contain them!

I knew I might be making a mistake when I started reading Catching Fire on a Tuesday, considering the fact that before work on the day that I started reading The Hunger Games I was sixty pages in (and was very grateful for the fact that I had a day off for my birthday the following day, mainly so I could finish it). Whereas The Hunger Games took me a little while to get into (though when I did, I was hooked), Catching Fire picks up shortly after the first book finished with Peeta and Katniss living in the Victor’s Village and trying to move on with their lives post-Games. Unfortunately for Katniss, her little stunt with the poison berries at the end of their Games has sparked a revolution which is putting her and her entire family in danger.

I had a funny feeling that Katniss was going to end up back in the Games; I was fairly certain that she wouldn’t be able to volunteer again as she had done before, but I suspected that there would be some sort of Grand Tournament… and I was right. I think that’s one of the good things about Collins’ writing; on the one hand, things can be a little predictable at times, but then at others it’s totally unpredictable. It means that even when you think you’ve got an idea of what’s to come, you never know if you’ll be right, because something could happen which is unexpected.

At the start of the Games I was fairly certain that Peeta was a goner. The funny thing is, no one is safe, you never know when something is going to happen to someone you’ve gotten to know. If a twelve-year-old girl can be murdered in the first book, then anything can happen in the second and third. Now there’s three males in the frame; Gale, Peeta and Finnick and I’m fairly certain that at least one of them will die before the end of the series. I’m just not sure who it’s going to be.

I did feel like the ending to this book was a little rushed. It all happened very quickly and it took me a moment to understand what was going on. I realise that part of that was probably intentional and part of it was my own fault; Katniss is suddenly in a very confusing situation and doesn’t know what’s going on herself, plus I was reading quickly to find out what was happening which leads to a bit of fuzziness on the exact details.

Whereas The Hunger Games felt more like a complete book, Catching Fire jumps straight into the action and although it ends at an interesting enough point, I felt like there was a bit of build up to the next book. It’s a bit of a bridge between the action of the first book and whatever is to come in the next one. That said, I’m really looking forward to reading that. Just have to time it right so I can sit and devour it in as short a space of time as possible!

“What do I mean when I say I love Gale? I don’t know. I did kiss him last night, in a moment when my emotions were running so high. But I’m sure he doesn’t remember it. Does he? I hope not. If he does, everything will just get more complicated and I really can;t think about kissing when I’ve got a rebellion to incite.”
Page 152

Project 365+1: Days 155 - 161

I had big plans for my photos this week, but that kind of went out the window. Having a long weekend and not actually having any work to work on did not really help. You'd think that having an assignment to work on would hinder the taking of photographs but it actually really helps. When you've got something else much more important to be working on, suddenly everything else looks incredibly attractive, from doing housework to running around with your camera!

Day 155: Another Day, Another Book

So some of that time was spent reading. You've probably noticed, I take a lot of book photos, mainly because I like to use the photos in my book reviews rather than having to hunt online for pictures of covers that look the same as mine. I'll have a review up for this one in a little while, but in the meantime, I really enjoyed Bones to Ashes. It's the first Kathy Reichs book in a while that I've not read before, so I really fired through it. Not quite a book a day, but pretty close!

Day 156: Wilderness

When we moved in last year, the garden was getting in need of weeding, so we spent several hours pulling up errant clumps of grass and other green, leafy things. Our garden is gravel but that doesn't stop the plants and the recent weather only seems to have encouraged them. It suddenly hit me at the weekend when I realised just how bad it was getting, so while Mr Click was cleaning out the rattie!girls, Tara and I weeded the garden.

Tara didn't really understand the concept of weeding. First she ran off with one glove, when I coaxed her back she stole the other one, then as fast as I was putting bits of plant into the bin bag she was pinching them and running off with them. I was also kneeling on a plastic bag and when I left her alone with that, she took off with it and shredded the thing. Thankfully chasing her round the garden tired her out and she flopped down and just relaxed for the rest of the time we were out there.

Day 157: This Is What Revision Looks Like

This is what our coffee table has looked like for the last week. Mr Click has an exam this week so he's been reading up on his course and revising with past papers and things. It's a music course so it's all a bit beyond me; my role has largely been nodding and making encouraging sounds whenever he starts talking about it, and keeping Tara out of his way whenever I can so he can revise without a big black lab trying to steal his pencil.

Day 158: Time For Bed

I'm getting quite the collection of these pictures. What I'm actually trying to get is a photo of her chewing on her dentastix, but as I have to crouch down in the corner between the wardrobe and wall to take a photo of her on the bed, they never come out. So instead I end up calling and clicking at her to try and get a picture of her looking cute, which let's face it, isn't exactly difficult.

Day 159: A Little Literature

Last year I started getting copies of the books I would need for my next OU course, in studying literature. I wanted to get a head start on reading as much of the material as possible before I actually started the course, and since then I've been slowly working through the list of required reading (on and off). The latest I've gotten round to is Dubliners by James Joyce, which I sailed through and really enjoyed, which quite surprised me. I can't say why exactly, but I've been putting off because I wasn't expecting it to be my kind of thing. Dare I say it, but I'm quite looking forward to studying it a bit closer now.

Day 160: Old Phone, New Phone

My iPhone finally arrived. The trouble we had getting it is another blog post entirely! But suffice to say it's here, it doesn't fit in the pockets of any of my jeans, but it connects to the internet at home and even gets a phone signal when I'm sat in my chair, a definite improvement. So I'm happy.

Plus it has a camera in it... not a brilliant camera, but it means I can take photos like this:

Day 161: Dream A Little Dream

That's Tara, asleep yesterday afternoon, with her tongue poking out. I've never seen her sleep like that before, but you have to admit, it's cute. I'd love to know what she was dreaming about.

Book 44 of 2012: Hope Road

Having treated myself to a Kindle, I knew that I was going to want to read more than just the free classics that are available to download, the problem is, I’ve got a massive stack of book-books hanging around that I needed to work through as well. So it became a question of working out how to balance what I’ve already got to read, with the overwhelming desire to get hold of as many electronic books as possible.

Firstly, I imposed a rule of one book-book for each ebook that I read. I’m still working down my shelves, but in between each book from the bookcase, I read an ebook. Secondly, I’ve got to finish the sets books that I’ve already got on my To-Read pile/bookcase/box before I go buying anything new. Now, anyone who’s seen my book collection will probably think this a strange target, but what I actually mean is as soon as I’ve read the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, then I’m treating myself to Lord of the Rings in Kindle format. I realise I’ve already got half a dozen copies of it already, but they’re not so practical for carrying around, it’s a book that’s just crying out for my Kindle.

In the meantime, not wanting to let my Kindle sit and gather dust, and wanting to broaden my literary horizons, I’ve signed up to receive some Review Copies of ebooks. Some are self-published and others are distributed by the publishers and in return for a free read, all I have to do is read and review it (which, let’s face it, I’d be doing anyway). I hoped that this would be a good way to introduce myself to some new genres that I wouldn’t otherwise have read as well as perhaps finding some new book series and authors that I’d like to read more of.

The first book that I received was Hope Road by John Barlow. It follows John Ray, who was raised in a criminal family but has done his best to escape from his past and, having taken over the family business, establish a legitimate career as a used car salesman. Then one of his employees is arrested for murder after a dead body turns up in the boot of one of John’s cars, which puts a bit of a strain on John’s relationship with his girlfriend, Denise, who is a police woman. As the investigation reveals links with the criminal underworld of Leeds, John takes it upon himself to investigate and find out what really happened to the dead girl, and so to clear Freddy’s name.

When I went through requesting books, I went for anything which appealed to me. It’s a bit like during NaNoWriMo when you read people’s synopsises and think ‘I’d read that’, I went through requesting anything that jumped out at me. As this was the first of my selections to arrive in my inbox, it was the first I read. Having just finished Kathy Reich’s Break No Bones earlier in the day, I wouldn’t normally go for a crime-based book so soon. My highly organised bookcase is carefully arranged to give me a good spread of genres; I can suffer from genre-burnout very easily at times. But Hope Road was there, so I read it.

Something I’m learning with ebooks is one of the most immediate judgements I make is how like a proper book it is. I realise this may defeat the point of actually reading an ebook in the first place. But if I’m reading a book, I want it to be bookish; if I can’t feel the covers or smell the pages, then I want it to look close enough that I’m fooled into thinking I can. Hope Road didn’t disappoint there. The cover looks great. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see in the crime section of any bookshop, I can practically picture it there in WH Smiths, tempting travellers to pick it up so they’ve got something to read on the train home (which is how I came by about half of my Kathy Reichs books).

The formatting felt like a proper book too. My ebook copy of Dracula had chapters starting any old place (which my hardback edition does not). I like my chapters to be on a new page, or at least clearly separated from the text that’s preceding it. No complaints for Hope Road there. The pages were formatted the way I would have expected them to be in a book-book. My one minor complaint were a few little typos/errors which pulled me out of the story as I read, along with ‘uh huh’ being written as ‘u hu’ which I couldn’t help but read as ‘yoo hoo’. As I said, nothing particularly major there, and that last one could just be a colloquialism that I’m not familiar with, so I overlooked it.

I really liked the idea of having the main character, John, come from a lifestyle which he has turned his back upon. Having his girlfriend, Denise, being a member of the police force gave him an interesting link between the police and the underworld he’d tried to escape. There’s a bit of a twist in the tale though, and I’m not wanting to give too much away here, but I preferred the way things were at the beginning, rather than what is revealed towards the end. Though I realise this is setting it up for potential sequels, which I would be interested in reading to see exactly what would come next for John.

All in all, it was a pretty gripping story. There was a good pace to it and the way that just as you thought things were getting wrapped up in one area another little strand would come up that would need to be resolved. The description of the city was great too, never having been to Leeds, it helped to paint a picture of the scene there for me. I came to quite like the characters too, I would’ve liked to have seen more of Denise because I really felt sorry for her in the end. I’ll probably keep my eyes open for the next in the series because I’m curious about the direction that this could take now.

““Yeah, well you’ve never seen a murder…” She stops mid-sentence. Because that’s exactly what he has seen. He’s looked straight into the eyes of the man who killed his brother in cold blood.”
Location 1390