REVIEW: The Magpies by Mark Edwards

The Magpies by Mark Edwards

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Read: 31st August 2015

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★★★★★ 5 stars!

I started this book around 11pm and finished it at 5am. I really hadn't intended to read through the night in one sitting - and I'll pay dearly for it tomorrow (or rather, later today) - but I really couldn't put it down. It was easy to read and didn't drivel on about useless shite but stuck with the story. It was psychological without being cerebral. It was brilliant! I loved it. Though I was saddened by the outcome of the major players, after all they'd been through together. But I still shake my head at a man's need to be a man and get bitten on the arse for his troubles. He should've gotten out while he could instead of trying to "fix things". Still I enjoyed the book and couldn't put it down. Maybe now that I have finished it, I can put my head down and sleep before I need to get up...lol

REVIEW: The Cleansing by Bill Rogers

The Cleansing by Bill Rogers

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Read: 23rd August 2015
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★★★ 3 stars

** spoiler alert **

It's hard to rate a book you've enjoyed but still found difficult to get through. The original synopsis for the book was a little misleading in saying someone dressed as a clown was killing in Manchester, or words to that effect. Yes, he was dressed as a clown - but for the first murder only. When the second one came around you would expect him to don the clown costume again and leave his mark once again. But he did not. Especially disappointing since a whole rigmarole was spent in investigations that lead to a delivery of a clown costume, making it seem a significant part of the story. But it didn't amount to anything more than that. That aside, however, my biggest problem with the book was the fact that it was far too wordy. The author went into too much description about things where I felt fewer words were needed. When they visited Soaper's apartment I had to wonder if Caton was in the market for an investment property, the way every room and its furnishings were described. It was redundant. Dialogue and character thoughts trump furnishings. I'm reading a murder mystery, not a prospectus for inner city living.

But in all having said that, I did enjoy the book. I merely skimmed over the "too wordy" areas and concentrated on what I felt was more in line with the story. I did enjoy the relationship between Caton and Kate, and was pleased that there no descriptive focus on the bedroom. Again, this is a murder mystery not a Mills and Boon, so I was pleased on that score. They had good chemistry and flirting, but it wasn't overdone. 

Three stars I think is fair, though I would lean towards three and a half, but not enough for four. There are many more books I've read and enjoyed a whole lot more worthy of a four, so three is fair.

REVIEW: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Genre: Historical Fiction

Read: 31st March 2015

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★★★★★ 5 stars

One word - WOW! 

I cannot begin to describe this book and it is not one that I would have normally chosen myself. But it was recommended to me, despite it not being my usual genre and style...but I loved it! I would stay up late into the night, sometimes 3am - one morning 6am - devouring each and every line. And although it is an epic tale, it's almost like a Catherine Cookson novel some 600 years earlier.

I did find a few faults. Some of the language and use of the F word I just don't see being used in the Middle Ages, and to me didn't seem right. 

Then there were the unfinished characters. We got the general gist of where Jonathan ended up and Richard got a mention of having died in Syria, but what happened to other characters that seemed to have fallen off the pages and into oblivion? Martha? Francis? Peter of Wareham? Walter, William's lifelong squire and partner in crime? Elizabeth, William's wife? And Ellen, Jack's mother? I know she lived in the forest, but she was there from time to time but no mention of what became of her. I felt as if some characters just weren't finished. Even King Stephen. It wasn't written into the story that or how or when he died, though we assumed he did because Henry was suddenly king.

But my biggest flaw I felt was the book should have ended with Jack's story. He's not even mentioned in the final scenes. Aliena and Tommy are there for the hanging and then it's over to Philip and the Canterbury monks for King Henry's penance. I don't think an epic tale such as this should have ended with Philip doling out lashings on the King...but with Jack. Because the story began with the hanging of Jack's father. So therefore I felt it should have ended with that story and Jack finding out WHY.

But flaws aside, this was a brilliant epic tale, not just about a cathedral or the building of the cathedral, but all the lives that are intertwined and all that surrounds it.

Definitely FIVE STARS!

REVIEW: Ted and Ann by Rebecca Morris

Ted and Ann: the Mystery of a Missing Child and her Neighbor Ted Bundy by Rebecca Morris

Genre: True Crime

Read: 26th November 2014

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★★★★★ 5 stars

DID HE OR DIDN'T HE?

I've read a number of books on Ted Bundy, and this one is definitely an eye opener and interesting look into the younger Ted.

But let is not forget about why this book was written. 53 years ago, a trusting and somewhat flirty 8 year old girl disappeared from her home and vanished without a trace - never to be seen again. Her parents went to their graves never knowing what became of their eldest daughter, and that in itself has to be heartbreaking, if not devastating.

So did Ted Bundy kill Ann Marie Burr in 1961 at the tender age of 14? I know what I believe, but I'll let you be the judge.

REVIEW: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

"Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

Genre: Thriller

Read: 5th November 2014

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★★★ 3 stars

Firstly, I would not call this the "thriller of the year". I'm not even sure it's a thriller!

So I ummed and ahhed about giving this 2 or 3 stars because I've certainly read better more deserving of the 3 stars, yet I enjoyed the second half of the ride enough to give it more than 2. I think maybe I'm caught in the "do I or don't I?"/"am I or aren't I?" world of Nick and Amy for this review...lol

I started this book a couple if months ago, recommended to me by a friend who thought I might enjoy it after hearing rave reports about it. Though she herself is not a reader, she knows how much I am and the kind of books I enjoy. I admit I struggled at first between the different perspectives, though I've read plenty in that style before. (So I stopped and read a few other books then came back to give it another go in the last week or so). This one just was so different and out of character with each chapter - neither felt in step with the other, that it just felt too fake. Nick and his sister just bitched all the time, mostly about Amy, while her perspective were her diary entries (in every other chapter) from the time she met Nick to the present day just oozed fakeness and bullshit. I didn't like Amy from the beginning...and that didn't change. The only thing that did in that respect was the depth of my dislike for her. And sadly, I found Nick - who, deep down, had so much potential - to be spineless. I guess Amy was right on that score - he was a coward.

I ended up enjoying the perspective writing. To see the story progress from both perspectives yet in different mind sets with different outcomes. That is why I gave it 3 stars. But that would have to be the only reason....because the start was boringly uneventful and the ending? Certainly nothing beyond 3 star material, though still cleverly done - with the last word bit. However, it leaves readers feeling somewhat cheated. Death? Suicide? Murder? Something other than what it became!

In the end, the whole tale is somewhat sad. Sad that this is what someone's life had become. That they would actually think and feel this way. Or even feel at all. Sociopaths feel no remorse. In fact they don't even see that what they are doing or have done is even wrong! That the whole world really does revolve around them. They are the all-time narcissist - one without feeling. And this book has them both - two narcissists, one of whom is a sociopath.

REVIEW: The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

Genre: Horror, ParanormalRead: 16th September 2014
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★★ 2 stars

** I gave this book two stars. Actually, two stars is pretty generous, but I give it that on account of the smarts of Harry the dog, who had the right idea about sleeping through the entire thing, for the most part.

I can't believe this was classified horror. I'm not a horror fan and was apprehensive myself about reading it but I soon realised I'd needn't have worried. It is soooo badly written I just hope Jay Anson received enough royalties to go back to college and relearn HOW to write properly! The constant change from the Lutzes to Father Mancuso and back again within a few paragraphs were both annoying and frustrating. Not to mention sometimes confusing. I mean, there was no proper break between the changes in scenes that it felt like one minute George and Kathy are having breakfast to suddenly Father Mancuso waking with a fever and blisters on his hands. I mean, really. It was written as if the priest had been asleep in their kitchen, the changes were so sudden. And the copy I read, the editing was atrocious. He was Be or Lie; head was bead. It was awful. And horror? I don't think so. I found it all rather predictable, and that is saying something coming from someone who doesn't read horror. The whole book just had a "slapped together" feel about it. It is merely fiction masquerading as fact. I don't dispute the existence of a darker world and that unexplained hauntingly do occur, but the frequency with which these events took place was just ludicrous. How anyone can believe this to be true after reading this book is beyond me.

If you want to read a good ghost haunting, try "The Secret of Crickley Hall" by James Herbert. A fantastic read that far outweighs this poor excuse for both literature and non-fiction, in the poor attempt at true story.

REVIEW: The Baby Farmers by Annie Cossins

The Baby Farmers by Annie Cossins

Genre: Non Fiction, True Crime, Historical

Read: 9th August 2014

1743314019 (ISBN13: 9781743314012)

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★★★★★ 5 stars

Well researched into the history of each person who played a part in this moment in history; this case which set a precedent in law today; the ancestry and humble beginnings of all involved. Annie Cossins has left nothing out. The Baby Farmers is a brilliantly written account of one of the most horrific cases in time, detailing the events as they had unfolded as well as the lapse in judgement of our judicial system at the time.

John and Sarah Makin are no saints, but they did what they did to survive. That doesn't justify their actions to the extent in which they found themselves, by no means, but hard times call for hard measures...and the Makins were hard. I don't doubt that Sarah played a far bigger part in both the farming and the disposing of babies than the justice prevailed upon her. But as a woman in a time when women were the responsibility of their husbands and no more, she was seen to be under the upper hand of her husband. I, however, believe that while they were both as guilty as the other, Sarah was by no means under any man's thumb. She was tough. She was hard. And she was vicious. Her histrionics dramatised and played out in court, I believe, we're just that - dramatics. If her cries, flailing arms and fainting fits could see the court granting her mercy, then that's what she'd do. But Annie Cossins did bring up a fair and valid point of Sarah suffering tertiary syphillis (as outlined in greater detail in the book), causing erratic behaviour etc. which would also her explain her behaviour during the inquests and trial. However, the question posed in the book is this - were the Makins given a fair trial and had indeed been guilty of the crime for which they were sentenced? Maybe, maybe not. But I believe the point is moot, because in a world that has lost its true sense of justice now, they were in fact guilty regardless. And whether Baby D was really Horace Amber Murray (for which they were found guilty of the death of and punished) and was buried in their house in George St or was in fact one of babies buried at Burren St - it doesn't matter. Horace Amber Murray was either Baby D or one of the other bodies - either murdered or starved to death. Either way, he died as many of the others did - at the hands of or under the hands/care of the Makins, making them responsible. They may not have received a fair trial, as many didn't then, but they were guilty. Those babies didn't bury themselves. And it wasn't one or two, but 13 at least! Who knows how many more nameless forgotten babies died under the neglectful care of the Makins? The evidence may have been circumstantial but 13 babies buried in the backyard of 4 of their "fly by night" residences was way too much of a coincidence.

At any rate, the book is a fantastic look into early Australian history and the justice system in its infancy whilst one policeman doggedly investigated the case to bring justice for the mothers whose babies were never seen or heard from again. And there is also a piece of interesting and slightly amusing bit of information regarding that policeman which made me chuckle a little at the slight hypocrisy of it all.

Overall - brilliant! Definitely recommend.