Geneva, Richard Armitage
I was attracted to this book by the prospect of listening to the two main narrators, Nicola Walker and Richard Armitage himself and I wasn’t disappointed in their delivery. The plot sounded a bit James Bond-ish, well out of my wheelhouse, but I’m always open to a new experience, so I paid my £7.99 and dived in. It’s a fairly turgid tale with loosely drawn, stereotypical characters. It’s not difficult to pin down the goodies and the baddies early on and the ending is predictable. Much as I admire Armitage as an actor, his prose is overly dramatic, excitable in places and the dialogue sedentary. I stuck with it to the end, though. As noted, the narration was excellent and the voices were a not-unpleasant accompaniment as I dashed away with the smoothing iron or wielded a duster. A bit like the old days, sitting through a B movie while waiting for the main event.
Birds, Strangers and Psychos, Maxim Jakubowski (editor)
An anthology of short stories in the style of and paying homage to Alfred Hitchcock, each one written by a well-known name in the mystery/thriller genre – Lee Childs, M W Craven, Denise Mina, Sophie Hannah and S A Cosby to name but a few. It’s an interesting and entertaining book, featuring inventive variations on Rope, Strangers on a Train, Vertigo and The Birds etc. Some stories work better than others, a couple tried too hard and fizzled and burned, and there were a few outstanding ones that really hit the mark. It’s the kind of book where you need to read a couple of stories, walk away from it for a while and then go back with a cleansed palate, otherwise the high incidence of blondes with bright red lipstick will begin to grate as will the wise-cracking asides. M W Craven’s story will please constant readers as it fits in chronologically with the Poe and Tilly books.
Shadow at the Door (David Raker 12), Tim Weaver
This one’s a bit odd. I’m a fan of Tim Weaver’s character, David Raker, who ‘finds people’ for a living. Here, we’re presented with four shorter stories dealing with cases that are linked. And they are, but only vaguely. The first case is typical Raker, as he steadily plods along, piecing together the information that will lead (normally) to a satisfactory conclusion. The second case is much shorter, Raker doesn’t appear in it at all and there’s no conclusion. It gets mentioned a few times after that and I can only assume Weaver is setting up a future book. Case three is messy and, again, Raker only appears briefly as a voice on the end of a telephone line. Finally case four is set in America where Raker has gone to visit a friend and, yet again – you’ve guessed it – he is peripheral to the action. Weaver’s writing is excellent, as usual, but I missed the complicated, intricate teasing out of a full-length novel.
JJ Grafton 