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Posts Tagged ‘short story’

‘The Victims Club’ by Jefferey Deaver

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , on March 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »

thevictimsclub

This was another short story which I listened to as an audiobook – keeps me entertained for 90 minutes while I’m out running. Detective John Avery investigates a case of assault, where a teacher at an exclusive college was drugged at a party and intimate photographs taken without her consent were circulated.

As Avery digs deeper into the case and comes up against a wall of silence at the college, he eventually pieces it all together.

The story, narrated by Scott Merriman, definitely kept me interested. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Ninth and Nowhere, another of Deaver’s short stories, but that one was so brilliant that it was always going to be a lot for this one to live up to.

The story was more or less a straightforward detective story, although there was a twist at the end. The reader/listener goes through the investigation alongside Avery and receives information at the same time as he does.

Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and definitely want to listen to more by Jefferey Deaver.

 

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‘Blood Bath’ by Stephen Leather

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , on February 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

blood-bath

This short book (I listened to the audiobook which came in at around an hour and a half) is part of a series of stories featuring Stephen Leather’s creation Jack Nightingale, paranormal detective. I wasn’t aware of that when I bought this one, but certainly didn’t feel that I missed out on anything but not having read/listened to any of the others in the series. Before I talk about this specific story, it’s worth mentioning that the print version of the story also features six other stories of the same name written by other authors. Having read reviews, it appears that the Stephen Leather one was by the far the best of them all, and so I am not particularly bothered by missing out on the others, but some readers may want to have the whole lot.

In this story, Jack and his assistant Jenny take on new clients Mr and Mrs Stokes, who have bought a hotel. However, due to the high number of suicides in the hotel over the preceding years, nobody wants to stay there and the business is losing money. Jack investigates and discovers that the suicides may in fact be murder by a malevolent supernatural force, so it is up to himself and Jenny to find out the truth.

As far as short stories go, this was…okay. Not really a horror, more of a fantasy novel, which admittedly is not necessarily a favourite genre of mine although the occasional fantasy novel will grab me. It was basically just a straight up chronological account of their investigation. I did like Jack and Jenny – both had a good sense of humour and a nice working relationship, and the story itself was serviceable even if it held no major surprises.

There were a few editing mistakes which annoyed me – one character went from being called Timothy to Thomas and back to Timothy again. Also, at the beginning of a conversation with Mr Stokes, the hotel owner says that he has no guests stopping there at that time and a minute later, during the same conversation, Jack asked him if he still had no guests stopping there. Little things like this do tend to niggle me somewhat.

I’m not sure I would be that bothered about listening to any more Jack Nightingale stories, but I also wouldn’t be against the idea of popping one on to pass the time during a long run or car journey.

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‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , on February 28, 2010| 1 Comment »

In Baltimore in the 1860s, Roger Button welcome their son Benjamin into the world…but there is something very strange about him. Benjamin is born with the body and mind of a 70 year old man, which is naturally very disturbing to his parents. They eventually realise that he is aging backwards, and as he gets older, he actually becomes younger! In his prime of life when he appears to be a handsome man of 50 (but in truth is in his 20s), he meets a woman named Hildegarde and falls in love with her. But how can a man who becomes more like a child while his wife becomes more like an old lady ever really be happy?

I read this book in about an hour, and thought it was a lovely story. As it was a short story, there was less characterisation than there would be in a full length novel, but nonetheless, Benjamin evoked sympathy and the story held my attention from the first word, as I found myself wanting to know how his tale would end.

The writing is wonderful – evocative and descriptive, and the problems which a man with Benjamin’s condition would face were well portrayed. This book definitely made me want to read more by the author. My only complaint is that it ended too quickly! Highly recommended.

(For more information on the author, please click here.)

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