#5 Best New Crime Suspense Thrillers - Book Review ASIN B07462X1JX This is my second Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster book. (yes, you’re right, I haven’t read them in order at all!)
This one is fast, chilling and excellently written. The hub of the story involves two killers. We learn how they meet and how their relationship goes downhill. We learn about their obsessions, the pact they make together and the dynamics between them. It’s all complicated and gruesome/noir. Max is a deranged killer. Nina is hopelessly in love with him and will do all she can to keep him, even to the point of… (well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!) Then we have the police procedural side. Erika Foster spends large amounts of time battling her police bosses and fighting cut-backs in budgets. She is let-down by colleagues and feels lonely and middle-aged. I felt genuinely sorry for her. There didn’t seem to be much light on the horizon for Erika except her sister and her nephew and niece whom she visits in Slovakia during her recuperation. The passages around Erika and her boss, Marsh, were particularly sad because he is trying to get back with his wife and Erika has no one. There is also a heart-breaking passage where Erika is recovering in hospital and she has a memory of the child she decided not to have. For me, that passage showed the author’s real strength as a writer. The plot is addictive. I have to say, when I finished it, I wasn’t sure that I actually enjoyed the story. This doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, it really is. I think it’s simply that the killing duo were so ruthless and somehow depressing, and that, combined with Erika’s struggles made it a gritty read. As I said, it’s fast, chilling and excellently written. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a copy. This is my honest review.
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#6 Discover Authors of Colour #BookReview ISBN 0812993543 I’d heard varying views on this book and wanted to find out for myself.
Coates writes three long letters to his son. They come across as an out-spilling of the author’s own journey as a black man in America and his quest for understanding of the emotions, violence and policies that have come his way. The book gives us Coates’ honest thoughts on many important issues – on race, racism, poverty, deprivation, privilege and its abuse, police brutality. He documents his own personal experiences. He tells us of the experience of his friends and family. Above all, Coates is a student of life (he was taught to find his own truths by his mother). He is an observer and someone who wishes to plunge the depths. He wishes that more progress had been made so that the advice he could give to his son would be more positive - that the issues he struggled with growing up would be less present today. That is not the case. There is little light on the horizon, not none at all, just very little. There has been very little progress. Coates explains the pervasive fear he has always experienced for his own body – that at any moment his life could be taken on the streets. When his son was born he felt the same terror for his own child. He discovered the beauty of black heritage, so absent in the media and schools. This was a discovery he made at Howard University, where the diverse black fraternity was alive with debate and dynamism and talent. He became a reporter and said, “…the softness that once made me a target now compelled people to trust me with their stories…”. I liked that line a lot. He tells us “…for 250 years black people were born into chains…” “…transfigured our very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold” – the founding wealth of America “…the truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear….” I resonated with much of what Coates had to say. It’s a timely piece, sobering and brutally honest. Coates himself says that he has struggled with expressing love and softness to his son (my words) because he has been too terrorized by his own inability to secure the safety of his son on the streets, such that, every moment of life, he is fearful of loss and tragedy. This was the powerful lesson I took away from this book. The flip side, in terms of the writing, is that I had expected more warmth and a more personal nature to the letters. As I was reading, I felt the author was speaking directly to the reader. This was not negative, in fact it was powerful, but it was not the expectation raised by the book blurb. Footnote In terms of presentation, I have to say that I think the publisher would have been better to split the three letters into smaller sections, to give the reader time to breathe. Do not let this put you off! As I said, a timely piece, sobering and brutally honest. #5 Discover Iconic Authors of Colour ISBN 0020209851 This was my first Langston Hughes but it won't be my last.
This is the story of Sandy and the people he loves. Sandy grows up in a poverty-stricken, African-America community in the post-slavery era. Sandy's grandmother works dawn to dusk washing clothes for rich white folks. She ministers to the sick in the poor, black community. She looks after Sandy. Then there is Sandy's mother who is a domestic for a white woman, his two Aunts, both rebels in their own way and Sandy's father, Jimboy who is absent working on the railroads. His aunts and his grandmother want Sandy to 'make something of himself'. Sandy does well at school and he has dreams of his own... We get to know the characters. We see the detail of their daily lives and their toil, sacrifices and struggles. Sandy (based, apparently, on the young Hughes) is insightful and kind. He understands a lot. He knows his aunts' secrets and his grandmother's worries and he does his best to navigate them. Especially poignant was his desire for a sledge at Christmas when the family are barely able to put bread on the table. Then something surprising happens... We learn what each person thinks of white folks (without bitterness). We learn too, of the faith and strong spirit of the African-American community - who support and buoy each other up. This is particularly clear with Sandy - whom everyone wants to succeed. A lovely book. Hughes gives us a gentle eye on the realities of that era. |
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