For book reviews, ratings and
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Making Love |
Miranda is not the kind of woman that men chase. Until she steals a book about the greatest government conspiracy of all time. Within hours three men are chasing her – Flirt, who wants to help, Peersnide, who wants the book at all costs and Ferdinand, who wants to make love to her... or is there more to him than that? But the real hero here is the book itself. Self-deprecating, honest and straightforward – “i don’t like the corners of my pages turned down; if you’re too innumerate to remember a page number, get a bookmark” – the book narrates the ensuing adventure and gradually reveals the grand conspiracy: “They call it things like effective human resource management. We call it love.” Yes, love was invented to keep down the masses. Absurd, hilarious,
spy-cum-action-cum-post-modern-thriller, Making Love is incredibly
clever without showing off, self-referential without being self-congratulatory,
and a damn good read. Fantastic. Review date: May 2003 |
To buy this witty and exciting book, click here Making Love
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Bunker 13 |
“The major’s testimony was a lot of horseshit but it sank well.” Bunker 13 is Chandleresque. Our hero MM is Philip Marlowe, but instead of swilling bourbon and solving crimes, he’s snorting benzedrine and working out how to mainline heroin on a parachute jump. And that’s just chapter one. MM is apparently a journalist, but his life is slightly more exotic than mine. In pursuit of a story about elite Indian army units working on the Kashmir border he engages in a spot of arms dealing and within pages is up to his neck in quadruple-crossing. I’ll be honest:
I didn’t want to like this. It’s hyped as Trainspotting
for this generation and it gratuitously uses the word “fuck”
in the first line. But it’s brilliant. Although a touch over-heavy
on technical detail, it is gripping, stylish and so mystifying you don’t
even see the twists coming. Believe the hype. Review
date: June 2003 |
To purchase this book, click here Bunker 13
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The Vendetta
Defence
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Judy Carrier, from Scottoline's all-woman law firm (this touch has earned Scottoline the billing 'the female John Grisham', a slight she seems proud of) takes on an ostensibly unwinable case. 79-year-old Anthony Lucia has killed a fellow OAP, in retaliation for his wife’s murder 60 years ago in Italy. The plot is insubstantial, and I’m giving nothing away when I reveal that she wins against all odds. Most of the book is taken up with painstaking scene-setting, remarkably coupled with a total absence of character development. The writing is laughably bad, including gems such as “his Italian accent was as thick as tomato sauce". Scottoline is Italian-American herself, which she apparently feels licenses her blue-eyed, blonde heroine to make comments about Italians which border on the racist. An implausibly clueless lawyer, predictable plot twists and pseudo-intellectual drivel contrive to produce an irritating book, lightweight to the point of utter banality. Review date: August 2001 |
To
buy this anyway for a laugh, click here The
Vendetta Defence |
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The Millionaires |
It’s huge. The cover is embossed. The author’s name is Brad, for Chrissakes – what are you expecting?! A gripping cat-and-mouse thriller? Poor character development? An absurdly convoluted plot? Yep: The Millionaires does exactly what it says on the tin. Brothers Charlie and
Oliver, wronged by society, decide to nick a coupla million dollars but
it blows up in their face. Cue cross-country chase to Disneyland with
one eye on the film rights. Our boys have such a rapport that in a glance
they can convey comments like, “Y’know, she saved our asses
back at the house”. Still, who cares about good writing when the
suspense seldom slips?
Review date: March 2002 |
To buy this blockbuster, click here The Millionaires
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reviews © Anna's Book Corner |
