This week has been a very satisfying one book-wise. The three books I finished were all extremely enjoyable, representing just the kind of popular, genre fiction that I love. Writing to improve or educate is all very well, but for me writing to entertain is equally important. The joy of a good read is it’s ability to lift you out of yourself and transport you. All three of the books below did that for me.
Cheerio!
Books I’ve Read This Week
The Gathering by CJ Tudor
The concept of ‘The Gathering’ is an interesting one. Vampires are real, but a protected minority who live in settlements separate from humans, surviving on animal blood and often subject to discrimination.
Set a mystery novel against this backdrop and you have a fun ride. The lore is well handled and the mystery unfolds at just the right pace. The Alaskan setting works perfectly and the cast of characters (especially heroine Barbara) are convincing and engaging.
May the Wolf Die by Elizabeth Heider
‘May the Wolf Die’ is an extremely accomplished debut thriller, which combines a great setting, a kickass heroine and a breakneck pace.
Set in Naples, it follows Nikki Serafino, who acts as a liaison between the Neopolitan police and the US Navy. It’s a neat setup, which allows the plot to cover both local crime/law enforcement and more geopolitical tensions.
Nikki is an engaging central character, easy to root for an as physical and driven as a good detective should be. The book has a great sense of place too, rich descriptions mean the city and its communities really pop on the page, but they ever get in the way of the story.
It’s the plot and pacing that are the real star though, There is a relentlessness to events that make the book almost unberably tense and gripping. I don’t think a chapter goes by without something dramatic or momentous happening. There is just so much going on in the book, the main investigation, secondary ones and multiple sub-plots involving the cental characters and their families. There’s enough content here for a 600 page book, so the fact it clocks in at a relatively svelte 350 pages is impressive. What’s also laudable is that it never feels overwhelming. Despite the multiple characters and narratives, I never felt like I didn’t have a clear grasp of what was going on.
This might be the crime debut of the year, I can’t wait to see what Heider does next.
The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
I remember my local library having a copy of ‘The Long Walk’ under the Richard Bachman pseudonym back before it came out that he was King. I was always intrigued by the premise, but didn’t ever check it out. I wish I had because this feels like a book written to be read by young men.
King wrote it in high school I believe, and that shows in the fact that he lays things on as thickly as he does. Despite (or maybe because of that) the book mostly works. It’s certainly gripping and engagingly told and the central premise (every year in a near future America 100 young men walk until only one of them is still going) is immediately gripping. It’s basically ‘The Lottery’ meets ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t They?’ and it has more raw power than something like ‘The Hunger Games’ which dilutes its political message with an actual plot. The plotlessness of ‘The Long Walk’ should be a problem, but in King’s hands it isn’t. You basically know what is going to happen from the first page, but he still mananges to keep it gripping. I think that’s largely down to decent character work. The boys on the walk might not be likeable, but they do feel quite realistic and you grow to care about them.
CriminOlly 
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