Written by: one-eyed Jack

Mickey Haller is a 42-year-old Los Angeles defence attorney on his way back to the bar after a year or more of physical recovery and rehabilitation. He is aided in no small way by the violent and brutal death of Jerry Vincent, another lawyer who had expressed a written wish that all of his active clients be passed on to Haller in the event of his death.

Written by: one-eyed Jack

The Sacred Monster and its heart of darkness

Written by:  one-eyed Jack

That Rizzoli ‘edge’ is missing

 When The Keepsake is released in the UK it will be titled Keeping the Dead, “A Maura Isles Thriller”. Well, Boston medical examiner Dr Isles really plays a rather by-the-numbers part in this story, and in any case this series hasn’t always featured her at all. She first appeared in THE SINNER, which was the third of the seven to date, and in doing so added a bit of softer-hearted romance to what had been until then a really excellent hard-edged crime thriller series.

Released September 2008

They say form is temporary, class is permanent. So it proves to be with Val McDermid’s new mystery-suspense tale which, after a couple of slightly disappointing efforts in recent years, shows that when the lady is on her home turf and writing in the way she feels most comfortable with, she’s pretty much untouchable. And with the sixth TV series of WIRE IN THE BLOOD screening for the first time this month, she’s also right at the peak of her 21-year career as a crime-fiction writer.

Most books have a beginning, a middle and an end. The high point of this best-selling novel turned out to be the beginning, which of course expanded on the intriguing premise of the story: a teenage girl wakes up to find her parents and brother missing, and like most readers (I assume) I wondered what on earth was going on. Then there was ‘the middle’, which in a nutshell was much too long because after perhaps 300 pages I was none the wiser as to the reasons behind the family’s disappearance and apart from the mildly mysterious goings-on the only real point of interest remained the basic plot. Then there was ‘the end’, which I won’t describe here but I will vent my opinion that it was pretty awfully written and in dire need of professional editing.

 (5 stars)