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| Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams |
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams – 4.5 / 5.0
I’m a big fan of Douglas Adams so I was pleased to discover within a few pages that Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency has that unmistakable unique Douglas Adams sense of brilliant weirdness about it. Although primarily a comedy book, it also features the sort of imaginatively creative off-the-wall science fiction ideas which Douglas Adams crams into all of his novels.
Although Dirk Gently is maybe not quite in the very same league as The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books, this is nevertheless still a very enjoyable book so if you’re a fan of ‘Hitchhikers’ then it’s a pretty much safe bet that you will also love this book.
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| The Girl Who Played With Fire |
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - 4.7 / 5.0
If you're the sort of reader who likes to get straight into the action then you may find The Girl Who Played With Fire a little frustrating, but if you enjoyed the first book and are alredy a big fan of the great characters that Stieg Larsson created in 'Dragon Tattoo' then it's a pretty safe bet that you will also love this follow up.
It takes until almost halfway into the book before you really discover what the story is about, but having said that even the first few hundred pages are fascinating reading, and it's the type of book that had me constantly thinking, 'I'll just read one more chapter.' The story is self-contained and you could read this book as a standalone novel, but it's worth starting with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo first to get to know the background to the characters.
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| One Day by David Nicholls |
One Day by David Nicholls - 4.9 / 5.0
After the first chapter I pre-judged this book and suspected that the target audience for One Day was probably a female readership, but within a few chapters it had won me over, and by the end of the book it was probably one of my top three favourite books I’ve read all year. The story describes the lives of Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, with the twist that it catches up with the two stars on the same day every year over a period of twenty years.
It’s a clever idea which means the plot speeds along a decent pace, and with every new chapter you’re intrigued to discover how their lives have changed in the last twelve months. One Day is a very funny book, and an emotional book, and it’s so well written that towards the end it even had an un-romantic soul like me rooting for Emma and Dexter to get together. Highly recommended.
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| The Inspector And Silence by Håkan Nesser |
The Inspector And Silence by Håkan Nesser - 4.0 / 5.0
Like several crime novels I’ve read recently, The Inspector And Silence took a while to get going, but this was probably the slowest of all, and when I was two thirds of the way through I realised that the police had still made very little progress at all with the case.
Despite the lack of plot development, however, Håkan Nesser still manages to keep you interested, and for a book where very little happens, it was actually surprisingly gripping. This is definitely a book where it’s all about tension rather than energy and adrenaline, but even if you prefer your reading to be a little more action-orientated, it’s still worth a read.
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The above reviews are the opinions of Charles Fudgemuffin. Charles is the author of the lighthearted crime novel, 'Fly-Tipping', which is available for kindle from Amazon.
More book reviews by Charles Fudgemuffin:
Book reviews (part 14)
Book reviews (part 15)
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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