Books: Stuart Woods “Son of Stone”

I read so many Stuart Woods books in the same series (the Stone Barrington character) that it is always difficult to write a review that isn’t just more of the same.  There really is a lot to not like about these books and this author but they are very readable, keep you interested and above all have really very good pace – making them good page turners.  Whenever I pick up one of these I know where I am – there is no turning back a few pages to remember what is going on, and the characters are easy to like.

On the down side the dialogue is forced and unnatural (especially between the teenage characters in this book), the side characters are one dimensional  and don’t seem to do much and if one of the main characters can do ‘X’ they are the best in the world at ‘X’…  but I still read these novels and enjoy them.

[spoilers below - and reminders for me]

This book takes over about a year on from the previous book Bel-Air Dead, which reintroduced Stone’s old lover Arrington.  Arrington is an old lover of Stone (then again who isn’t) by whom he has a son, Peter – who for complex reasons doesn’t know that Stone is his father.  In this book he is 16 (although acting 18) and moves in with Stone as Arrington and Stone get married.  Obviously, Peter is a genius, handsome, gets along with everyone, gets into the best schools, meets one girl who happens to be the ideal match for him and they get together…etc.  it’s all too perfect and too easy – and yet I still read these novels and will read the next one in the series as soon as I get hold of it.

Books: Stuart Woods “Bel-Air Dead”

Stuart Woods writes in a style that makes it difficult to put down the book, but when you do have to give in the next time you pick it up there is no effort in knowing exactly where you left the plot.  Each chapter flows so quickly from one another that he manages to keep the plot moving in chapters that are only five or six pages long.

This time the plot sees Stone Barrington helping out old flame Arrington with a stock problem as someone tries to take over Centurion Studios.  Thus the story is set in Bel-Air rather than New York.  All of the usual trappings of a Stone Barrington novel are there with women, money, parties, the odd bit of law practiced, killings and explosions.  Also, some old story lines are revisited such as the relationship between Arrington and Stone, their son, her late-husband’s film career, etc.

Again, a very enjoyable if not particularly memorable, page turner from Stuart Woods.

Books: Stuart Woods “Lucid Intervals”

You can always rely on Stuart Woods for a quick easy read.  I started Lucid Intervals thinking that it wouldn’t be too great since I had recently read the next book in series which refers to this plot a fair amount, but it really didn’t matter.

In this plot British intelligence officer Felicity Devonshire returns as does Herbie Fisher, both pushing Stone to his limits but in very different ways.  At its core the plot has Stone trying to identify an ex MI6 agent who may or may not now be the owner of a Secuirty firm.  On his way, Stone’s life is under threat several times.  Meanwhile the bumbling Herbie Fisher has won the lottery but isn’t very good at handling such money…  against his better judgment and because of a heavy retainer Stone helps Herbie out.

Along the way in this story Stone learns how to fly a jet…

Another great little book from Stuart Woods.

books: Stuart MacBride “Dark Blood”

I discovered Stuart MacBride back in 2010, read his first five novels and haven’t gone back to him since then.  This is his sixth book in the series involving the character Logan McRae.  DS McRae is still in Aberdeen and under the constant abuse of DI Steel and incompetence of DI Beattie.  The foul language takes some getting used to or you just have to overlook it, and I did find this novel a lot more difficult to get into.  For more or less the first half of the book McRae is in a bad mood and seems just to be going through the motions.  I would have expected to get some insight into McRae’s thinking but the author doesn’t give us anything like that.  However, as the plot progresses things start to fit into place, sometimes by design but often things just seem to happen.

In this book more than the previous ones, the actual plot hardly matters in comparison to McRae’s battle to simply get through each day moving the various investigations on little by little while trying to avoid the wrath of ID Steel and the Powerpoint of DI Beattie.   A good book provided you don’t mind the language, the grim details of crime and a view of police procedure that is more keystone cops than a highly professional organisation.

books: Denis Avey “The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz”

I heard a radio interview with Denis Avey some time ago and stuck the book on my Amazon wishlist as a reminder to get it at some point.  On the spur of the moment I added it to an order and have now just finished reading it.

This is an incredible, unique and yet fairly straight forward story.  The young Denis Avey who joined the army to fight in the second world war was nothing special.  He was a good marksman and engineer but not an officer or hero who won many meddles in any single great action.  He is just a simple soldier doing his best and fighting his war.

What makes this man and his story unique is a simple drive to see what is happening, to observe and record every detail.  In North Africa his vehicle was blown up and he was captured, transported to Italy – torpedoed, escaped and re-captured – he was then a PoW in various camps until eventually being placed in the allied labour camp, E715, near Auschwitz III where both allied prisoners and jewish were put to work in the nearby IG Farben factory.

Here, while Denis and the other PoWs suffered greatly they saw that their treatment was little compared to what was happening the the ‘strippies’ who were being worked to death every day.  In small ways the PoWs would try to help the jews – leaving food or cigarets for them – but there was little they could do.

In the book it appears to be common knowledge about what is happening to the jewish prisoners.  If they aren’t fit to work they are taken off and ‘go up the chimney’ by this stage in the war, at least to those who are there, it is clear how the concentration camps operate.

Denis is particularly struck by the different treatment of the Jews and manages to persuade one person to swap places with him so that he can see what conditions are really like across the wire in Auschwitz III.  This experience, the final forced march out of E715 as the Russian army closes in, Avey’s escape and wild journey across Europe to liberty, is a fascinating read.

Now that I have finished the story, as I tend to do, a quick search shows that there is some controversy over the accuracy of the story.   To my mind it matters very little.  That such things happened is important to remember exactly who and how they happened isn’t as important.  I am from a generation never affected by the war – how will we keep alive and relevant the facts of such conflicts for generations to come.  This is a good read.

Books: David Baldacci “Hour Game”

First book of the year was a bit disappointing.

I’ve read a few books by Baldacci books before and enjoyed them, and while I find it difficult to put my finger on anything wrong with this book I simply didn’t find it very engaging.  The characters were a bit cliched and flat which meant I really never cared about what happened to any of them.  The detectives were the best ever detectives, ex-secret service, blah blah… the local rich family are very rich, a spoiled brat just out of college daughter, the servants appear loyal but everyone has secrets… cliche cliche cliche….

 

movie: Jack Reacher

Without doubt the best movie I’ve seen this year!  Obvious joke, but I couldn’t resist it.

Finally this character has made it onto film, and it really is an excellent movie!  The basic plot is that there is a shooting in an unidentified city, there is overwhelming evidence leading to an ex-military sniper who is arrested within hours.  The suspect simply says “Get Jack Reacher” however the DA and detective in charge have no way of getting in touch with Reacher.  We soon find out that as soon as Jack saw the suspect on news reports he made his way to the scene – not to help but to make sure he was found guilty.

So why would the suspect ask for an investigator who wants to find him guilty?  Why did these random killings take place?  Who carried out the shootings?  Why are people trying to throw Jack Reacher off the trail?

I have been a fan of this character since I read Lee Child‘s first novel Killing Floor back in 2006, since then I have read all of the published Child novels and eagerly awaited each new release (and written about each one here).  Jack Reacher is a great character because he is the quintessential drifter, breezing into a situation (usually in a small town somewhere) helps out those in need then wanders off.  Reacher is an investigator, ex-military police, no ties, no baggage, with the sole aim of staying off grid.

There is some controversy about the casting of this movie because the physical description of Jack Reacher across all the novels is summed up as 6′ 5″ tall with a 50-inch chest, and weighing between 210 and 250 pounds. He is exceptionally strong, has a high stamina, and looks imposing and intimidating.  So Tom Cruise (5′ 7″, 150 pounds) isn’t the first person that comes to mind to play the part.  But this is a movie – a different thing from the book – in the movie he isn’t described as 6′ 5″ etc…  he is shown as Tom Cruise.  It’s as simple as that for me.  This is a different thing from the book and the important thing is the skills of the man – and Tom Cruise really pulls this off.

I thought the movie was excellent, that Tom Cruise plays Reacher very well.  It is very close to the book, the investigation keeps you guessing, the action scenes are fantastic, just a really good action film.

Review of 2012

Following reviews of 2011, 2010, and 2009… here is the summary of my blog posts this year… please note this is only to help me remember things I really don’t know why anyone else would be interested:

GIGS, EVENTS & THEATER…

• Feb: All New People
• May: Bill Bailey at Dunoon’s Queens Hall
• Nov: The Idiot Bastard Band

MOVIES (cinema)

• Jan: The Artist
• Feb: Casablanca
• June: The Angels’ Share
• June: A Royal Affair
• August: Brave
• November: Skyfall
• December: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Movies (home, but for some reason significant)

• Jan: The Adjustment Bureau
• May: Hugo
• July: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

RESTAURANTS, blogged about (I don’t blog about every restaurant anymore)…

• March: The Ivy Bar
• May: Browns
• Nov: The Ivy Bar (now known as Distill)

BOOKS read this year….

• Jan: Mark Kermode “The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex”
• Feb: Jack Higgins “The Valhalla Exchange”
• Feb: Simon Kernick “The Murder Exchange”
• March: Rachel Abbott “Only the Innocent”
• April: Suzanne Collins “The Hunger Games”
• June: Tom Rob Smith “Child 44″
• July: Suzanne Collins “Catching Fire”
• July: Dan Brown “The Lost Symbol”
• August: Richard Foss “Rum A Global History”
• September: David Baldacci “Zero Day”
• September: Terry Pratchett “Snuff”
• October: David Baldacci “The Innocent”
• October: Suzanne Collins “Mockingjay”
• November: Lee Child “A Wanted Man”
• December: Stuart Woods “Loitering with Intent”
• December: Stuart Woods “Strategic Movies”

Holidays…

• April: Blair Atholl
• July: CLANkidz
• September: Lagos, Portugal
• October: Rochester trip for Mark’s wedding, (it was a short trip but still a bit of a holiday)

Other Highlights:

• July: we discovered we were going to have a baby – announced after the first scan in September.

Running Totals:

• 2009 – 23 books – 6 Movies – 4 gigs
• 2010 – 33 books – 13 Movies – 10 gigs – 6 restaurants – 4 holidays
• 2011 – 18 books – 2 Movies – 3 gigs – 1 restaurants – 3 holidays
• 2012 – 16 books – 7 Movies – 3 gigs – 3 restaurants – 4 holidays

Books: Stuart Woods “Strategic Movies”

Another nice, page turner from Stuart Woods.  However, I seem to have missed one since the start of this one ran on from something I haven’t read about but it didn’t seem to matter too much.

Stone starts this adventure by inheriting a new jet airplane and a million dollar bonus, and a new position with a security firm.  The story then takes him on a trip to Iraq a forced rendition for Lance Cabot (a long standing extra character) and a very short relationship with a client’s aunt – who now come to think of it was murdered in this book and I don’t think it was ever resolved.

As I’ve mentioned so many times – mainly because it is very hard to pick anything out of these books worthy of review – the Stone Barrington books are very simple page turners that you can not really guess or work out where it is going or what will happen next but you still want to keep reading.  I enjoyed this…!

Books: Stuart Woods “Loitering with Intent”

I really haven’t been getting as much reading done as I used to for lots of reasons, so it was nice to return to an author and character I am familiar with but haven’t read for a while.  Stuart Woods is a funny author in my view because I find his writing engaging, page turning and easy to get into and move through quickly, but I never really find them thrilling – odd for a thriller.  Stuff just seems to happen to the characters without a great deal of effort on their parts.  I’m not sure why I like these books but they are easy and interesting enough to keep me coming back.

In this plot Stone Barrington (an ex-cop turned lawyer) is asked to go to Key West looking for a rich man’s estranged son.  He takes his ex-partner and sidekick Dino Bacchetti (who is still a cop) comes along for the ride, and as it turns out to do very little but be the person who listens to Stone’s theories as they come along.  Basically after that stuff happens and the plot rolls on.

It’s a nice little book and would certainly work as a stand alone or if you are working through the Barrington books.