Review: Deadly Heat

Deadly Heat by Richard Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is where the series starts to go down, in my opinion. The book is still interesting and entertaining, with two cases to solve - a serial killer who chose Nikki as his final victim, and a terror plot that led to the death of her mother ten-something years before.

Spoiler warning, don't read on if you still haven't read that book.

While I can't say that the plot was very predictable, like others did, I have to say that it felt a bit forced to me. Suddenly, almost all of the people Nikki's mother spied on are involved in the terror plot? And nobody ever wondered why Mrs. Heat was tutoring at all of their homes? Really?
And that serial killer, because he didn't get enough attention from Nikki, had to go and get involved himself? And the people behind the terror plot weren't clever enough to get rid of that one guy? How convenient for Nikki and the plot...
No, this was simply a bit too fantastic/unrealistic for me.

View all my reviews

Review: The Shepherd's Crown

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm very undecided about the rating - 3 or 4 stars? As the last book Sir Terry has ever written - for that heartbreak alone - it would probably deserve 4, right? On the other hand, it is very clear while reading the book that he never got to finish polishing it. It is not, quality-wise, a VERY GOOD book. In the end, I went with quality as guide.
Reading The Shepherd's Crown made me very sad, because it was so clear that it wasn't done yet, because of all that is missing (is Tiffany always wearing black now?), because of the deaths, and because there will never be another Discworld book. There were some small sections that made me laugh, too, though. The book is like a minimal, shortened version of a good Discworld novel, and I am glad that Sir Terry got far enough into it that it could be published.
The world is changing...

View all my reviews

Review: Foxglove Summer

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Foxglove Summer, DC Peter Grant travels to the country to look into the disappearance of two eleven year old girls, just to make sure that there is no magic involved. Peter is a pure-bred Londoner, though, and has some trouble adjusting - especially when his stay lasts a lot longer than planned. Luckily, he's got local police man (DC) Dominic Croft and river goddess Beverly Brook to help him along. Oh, and it turns out I love Beverly. She's awesome, clever and fun, and one can but hope that she will be as involved in the next book as well. Dominic also turned out to be a great partner to Peter, but I guess he was a one-time character, seeing as he has his life out in the country.

The editorial stuff wasn't very well done, sadly. There was one time when Ben Aaronovitch confused the name of the mother with that of her (vanished) daughter and let her contribute something to a conversation. There was one time when someone wrapped the end of a string around his wrist, only to give it to someone else in the next paragraph, and some minor mistakes as well. Nevertheless, I gave this book five stars, because...

THIS IS THE BOOK! This is the book in which we learn more about Ettersberg. This is the book in which we learn more about Molly. This is not a book with the Faceless Man in it, though, only with the promise that it will take a few more books to close that story arc.
The story itself was very interesting, with lots of twists and some unicorns (and who doesn't like unicorns in a story about magic?). Some twists I could see coming, some were pleasantly shocking. In the end, many loose strings were still dangling around, so the book could have been longer. I'm relying on the author to tie them up in The Hanging Tree, though, because he's done a good job of picking up loose ends before.

Foxglove Summer is dedicated to Terry Pratchett - a dedication which, if I can read dates correctly, happened before he died. That, of all Peter Grant books, this one was dedicated to Sir Terry could merely be a coincidence, or due to some inspiration Ben Aaronovitch took from discworld books. I've seen some parallels to my favourite mini series around Tiffany Aching (Tiffany Aching Complete Collection: 5 Books) here, which I enjoyed immensely. This also gave me a pretty good idea what to read next, while I'm waiting for the release of the next Peter Grant novel (I still haven't read The Shepherd's Crown, because I'm waiting for the paperback). ;-)

View all my reviews