The Walking Man by Wright Forbucks - 4.9 / 5.0
I loved this book. Within a few pages I felt like I already really knew the characters, thanks to brilliant characterisation, and just the right balance of dialogue and narration. There are a lot of ingredients in the mix; humour, inspiration, dark moments and also a few twists along the way. At times I found myself laughing and then thinking, 'I shouldn't really be laughing at this,' because the humour can be a bit dark, but the strength of the writing and the way it is handled means that the humour never really crosses the line into feeling uncomfortable.
The author has created characters who you can at times dislike and at other times sympathise with and even admire, and The Walking Man is an excellent example of how brilliant indie books can be. Strongly recommended.
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| "I told myself before the game, 'he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else'. But I was wrong.” ...Tarcisio Burgnich |
Pele: The Autobiography by Pele - 4.5 / 5.0
I'm too young to remember Pele as a player, but I'm old enough to remember the way older football fans talked about him as an absolute legend, so I was looking forward to reading this book and I wasn't disappointed. It covers Pele's life and career from his humble beginnings as a young boy playing for his cash-strapped local football team, through to him becoming the greatest footballer of his era and arguably of all time.
There are some great moments in the book, such as the time when an opposition defender cleared one of Pele's shots off the line only to be booed by his own fans for denying them the opportunity to witness what would have been Pele's thousandth goal! All in all most older fans will probably love this book, but many younger fans who never got to watch Pele in action will also appreciate this account of what an inspirational player Pele was.
The Hint by James Quirk - 4.0 / 5.0
The Hint is a short story based on the obsessive rage that one office worker experiences at having to stare every day at the bald head of his colleague, Pete Milland, who sits at the desk in front of him at his place of work. In fact his anger finally gets so bad that it eventually leads him to take very drastic steps to rectify the problem.
It's quite a ridiculous scenario but that's where the humour comes from and what makes this such a bizarrely unique short story. The Hint is an unusual and unconventional tale which is probably best suited to readers looking for something a bit different.
The Confession by John Grisham - 4.8 / 5.0
The Confession is the story of two men; Donte Drumm, an innocent man wrongly found guilty of murder and only a few days away from being executed, and Travis Boyette, the guilty man who commited the crime Donte is accused of. Thanks to a brain tumour which means he only has months to live, Travis finally decides to come clean and tell the truth. The book describes the race against time to convince the authorities that they're about to kill the wrong man, and the drama of the story had me gripped.
It's very apparent from the way the story is told that John Grisham has strong views on the death penalty, and if you disagree with his opinion then you may not enjoy this book, but if this book is judged purely on the story then I'd have to rate it right up there as one of my top five favourite John Grisham books.
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The above book reviews are the opinion of Charles Fudgemuffin. Charles is the author of the light-hearted crime novel 'Fly-Tipping' which is available for kindle from Amazon.
You can find more book reviews below:
Book reviews (part 9)
Book reviews (part 10)
Please note, all promotional images used on this blog remain the copyright of the respective authors and publishers and are used in accordance with 'Fair Use' legislation for review purposes.
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