The SMB Book thread



The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. It was thriller of the year or some shit last year and it gets ringing endorsements from people like Stephen Fry, but by God, utter shit. Barely fleshed out, things happening in an unbelievable fashion, chapters about a page or two long. It can't understand the furore over it. And Goodreads must be the worst site in the world for sensible, reasoned reviews. All it is is batty bloggers falling over each other to wax lyrical about the current trend or next big thing. I doubt there's an honest review on there, as much as I like to store my collection through it. As for the book, avoid it. f***ing shit.
 
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Transcription by Kate Atkinson.

Based on real life MI5 operations during the Second World War to entrap, and ultimately arrest, Nazi sympathisers living in Britain.

It's very pedestrian in parts with not enough flourishes of great writing to make it a page turner. It smacks of an established writer being able to get published simply by trading off her previous works.

It's certainly not bad, but it's not memorable either. 6.5/10
 
About halfway through The Secret Barrister, highlighting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the British legal system. Very eye opening and informative. Would be intrigued to hear if @janiep has read it and what you thought, even though you aren't in criminal law as I recall?
 
About halfway through The Secret Barrister, highlighting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the British legal system. Very eye opening and informative. Would be intrigued to hear if @janiep has read it and what you thought, even though you aren't in criminal law as I recall?
Not read it, but on the list
 
About halfway through The Secret Barrister, highlighting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the British legal system. Very eye opening and informative. Would be intrigued to hear if @janiep has read it and what you thought, even though you aren't in criminal law as I recall?
i found it dry and too slow for my liking, too much a whinge (justified im sure) about the problems with the cuts to the justice system. as a book it didnt work for me, but the content of what he was driving at is very much important if only it was quite as dry (to me in layman's terms).
 
For Sunderland folk: there's a new book stall open in Jackie White's. There's quite a bit of classic sci-fi there at present.
What did the person running it look like? Tall bloke, greying hair? Lad I used to know always mentioned doing this, wonder if he actually got it off the ground? Was the rest of the selection any good?
 
What did the person running it look like? Tall bloke, greying hair? Lad I used to know always mentioned doing this, wonder if he actually got it off the ground? Was the rest of the selection any good?

It's ran by the people who have the clothes stall next to it. Ok selection for its size. I got VS Naipaul, Arthur C Clarke and Conan Doyle this afternoon.
 
It's ran by the people who have the clothes stall next to it. Ok selection for its size. I got VS Naipaul, Arthur C Clarke and Conan Doyle this afternoon.
I'm looking for The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. Don't suppose you saw it? Even second hand on Amazon it seems to be as expensive as a new copy for some reason.
 
Lies of Silence by Brian Moore 7/10
Set in Belfast during the Troubles. A hotel manager is about to leave his wife. He puts the conversation off until morning. During the night the IRA take his wife hostage and he's ordered to drive a car bomb to his hotel. If he diverts from the route or alerts the authorities, the IRA will shoot his wife. Great setup. Could perhaps have ramped up the tension more, but a decent read nonetheless. (It's not Brian Moore the football commentator, or the rugby player. This one pronounced his name Bree-an.)

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The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Wasn't planned to be topical, but was. An easy read, as in book writing style, obviously a horrific subject. The book title says it all, bit of a love story too. Not that in depth. 6.5/10.
 
The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Wasn't planned to be topical, but was. An easy read, as in book writing style, obviously a horrific subject. The book title says it all, bit of a love story too. Not that in depth. 6.5/10.
Loads of similar spin offs came out afterwards

About to finish the Whisper Man. 7.5/10

any good crime thrillers recommended ?
 
A double header from me today:

Double Cross by Ben MacIntyre

The third MacIntyre true weird and wonderful story of second world war spy shenanigans I've read and comfortably up to the standard he's always set. This one focuses on the half dozen agents involved in double crossing the Germans into beleving the D-Day landings would be elsewhere and/or were a diversion. As usual, with MacIntyre, it's in turns thrilling, hilarious and tragic and you come to really identify with the central people. Also,contains details of pigeon based espionage during the war. A sold 9.5/10

Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen


The first I've read from Tuomainen. This is a thriller set in a small town in northern FInland. The central character, Joel, is the town vicar, with a military background and a doubt of his faith. A meteor has landed and is being stored in the town museum until it can be picked up and taken to Helsinki. It's rumoured to be worth 1 million Euro and everyone, bar Joel, seems to want to nick it. It's kind of Nordic Brookmyre (maybe not quite as good as Brookmyre) in that it's tense and darkly comedic. Doing some digging on Tuomainen, it's his 8th novel. The first five were Nordic noir but the latest three have all entered black comedy territory. I may well work through his back catalogue. 8/10
 
Double Cross by Ben MacIntyre
that's going on my wishlist... i got the spy & the traitor because of this thread & dusted it in record time (for me), his style was excellent. ordered his book on philby straight away which is on my pile of "to do's"...
 
that's going on my wishlist... i got the spy & the traitor because of this thread & dusted it in record time (for me), his style was excellent. ordered his book on philby straight away which is on my pile of "to do's"...

I think I'll move on to his cold war books next. Think I've read all of his WW2 stuff now.
 

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