The Last Thing I Remember - Andrew Klavan

During the first half of this book I was very frustrated as it went so slowly and nothing really seemed to happen. Well it was that or the main line of the story didn't have enough to hook me into it. This did change a little as the story went on but it was more for the discovery of new information rather than what was going on, kind of like the TV show Arrow where you just want to know what happened on the island for those four years that Oliver was missing. I just want to know what happened during that year and leaving it open for sequels to get those answers left me quite upset. Now I have to read two more of these books to find that out. At least this one was a quick read and didn't require much thought and concentration to get through it, which I'm guessing the subsequent ones won't either.  

I must admit I'm not sure how, but I did know almost straight away that Charlie was older than he thought he was (although I thought it was a number of years older not just one). 

I found that I had to re read some lines as the writing was not amazing. It wasn't terrible and definitely didn't put me off the book, as I have experienced before with other authors, it just didn't seem overly polished. Or perhaps that is the way it was meant to be as it could be that is the way the character thinks, but it really annoyed me. However either I got used to it or it didn't occur much towards the second half of the book.

It seems to me that from the pace of this story, all three books could be the arc over one decent length book. It feels like the author presented a book to the publishers and they in turn said they wanted a trilogy instead, so the book was split in three. I'll see if it still feel like that after I finish all three books.

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

Very underwhelmed by this book. I'm not sure if it was because of all the hype around it, but then I think that I add this book to my 'to be read' pile years ago before there was even talk of a movie being made, from recommendations and reviews on the podcast 'Books on the Nightstand'.

While it was interesting and I did want to find out what was going on, I thought it was a huge let down. Already knowing that there was a huge twist in the book, I found it totally underwhelming when I realised that I had read that part and completely missed that it was the twist. To me that part was just what would logically follow from where the book had gone.

Amy's little adventure (I'll call it that for lack of a better word) was boring and had me thinking of better ways the story could have gone. There were characters and storylines that seemed to be in there to pad the book up. And things were not tied up all nicely like the character seems to think there were. I can think of half a dozen questions that arise without even going in to detail.

Then ending was completely bland. Just like every other marriage, with compromise and both people not getting to do what they want to do. True that the compromises are on a huge scale and not what you would expect from even a million marriages but that is how it read to me. The book finished and I was trying to find the next chapter to see what actually happened to these two sickening people.

Oh and the writing in the book is so mundane that I thought it should have been a YA novel with graphic context. Sure there were a few (maybe half a dozen) words that I had to look up in the dictionary, but a good sophisticated adult book it does not make.

I just hope the movie I'm about to watch is better and has made this whole adventure worth my time.

3 stars, a thorough let down.

Double Black - Wendy Clinch

I really enjoyed this book. The subject matter (the ski life, not the murder) really appealed to me being an ex ski bum myself. The snow town lifestyle was very accurately described down to the nicknames for equipment, and groups of people. 

The characters seemed very real with faults and all. Even the form of speach in the book was as it is between people in real life, not long monologues that are never interrupted by others. Some people may have found that frustrating but I found it refreshing as I have not seen it in a book before. It made the whole experience more true to life for me and left me day dreaming of my own time on the hill.

The story itself was good and moved at a nice pace with just enough description of everyday life that happened to have a mystery going on around it, rather than a mystery story with only a little peripheral storyline. But that was exactly what I was looking for after all the books I have been reading lately. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. I'm just a little bummed that I can't get it from Amazon on Kindle as I'm travelling and that is all I have access to at the moment. At least there is something to look forward to when I get home instead of falling into the post travel depressive state.