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Title: The Gun Seller

Author: Hugh Laurie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 342

Rating: 4*/5

Hugh Laurie – The Gun Seller

Hugh Laurie is a man of many talents. He was fantastic as one half of Fry and Laurie, and I learned how to play a bunch of his comedy songs on guitar. He was great as Dr. House, although I was a little late to the game on that one. And it turns out that he’s also a decent author, as this book attests to.

It’s basically a cross between a comedy novel and a tale of espionage, reminiscent of Graham Greene at times. Laurie is a pretty good writer, although some parts of it were duller than others, and it’s mainly the dialogue and the interplay between characters that makes it stand out. He’s also paid a lot of attention to the plot, and it often feels as though every detail has been accounted for.

The main problem that I had with it was that I thought it should have ended about two thirds of the way into it. The ending was needed for the rest of the book to work, but it wasn’t particularly well executed and I thought it could have done with a little more work. I found my attention drifting as I neared the end, and I spent the last thirty pages thinking vaguely about what I was planning on reading next.

Overall, though, it was still an impressive little novel, and it’s a shame that it’s the only one that Laurie has released – to my knowledge, at least. It’s the kind of book that you could take on holiday and read on the beach or simply dip in and out of on the commute, especially because the story line remains fairly consistent throughout so it doesn’t matter too much if you forget what was happening and then come back to it. And if you took the covers off and tested it against contemporary thrillers from famous authors, I’m pretty sure it could hold its own.

Hugh Laurie

Click here to buy The Gun Seller.

Annabel Kantaria – The One That Got Away | Review

Title: The One That Got Away

Author: Annabel Kantaria

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 462

Rating: 4*/5

Annabel Kantaria – The One That Got Away

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

This one left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s well-written, well-edited and well-presented, and it does feature a story line that basically forces the reader to keep on turning page after page to see what happens next. But on the other hand, it’s nothing new. In fact, it’s basically Gone Girl, repackaged to fit a British audience. So it’ll probably sell a lot of copies and become a critical success, and my own feelings as a reader are effectively moot. Still, I’ll have a go.

Basically, this book follows the story of what happens when a successful businesswoman goes to her high school reunion and bumps into her old flame, who now happens to be a wealthy businessman and successful philanthropist. He still likes her and he makes a move, even though he’s married, and you’ll have to read the book to find out the rest because I don’t want to spoil it for you.

The reason it’s like Gone Girl is that the male and female leads are both manipulative, and that brings me on to the same problem with this book that I also had with Gone Girl – neither of the main characters are likeable, which makes it hard for me to care what happens to them. I mean, they do some awful things to each other – which people have a habit of doing – but I found it difficult to feel sorry for anyone. They all deserved what they got.

Annabel Kantaria

I also thought that the ending was a little rushed, and while it does wrap the story up, it comes almost out of nowhere. It felt a bit like I’d powered through the book only to get to the end and find out that the whole thing was a dream. It was just too quick, too neat and too unbelievable, although I can also understand why the author did it in the way that she did.

But despite all this, I can’t award it anything less than a 4/5, and the reason for that is simple. Whether it’s derivative or not, it’s still well-written, well-paced and plenty easy to read. I got through it in a day, and it’s simply that kind of book – the kind that you might read once and then forget about. If you asked me about it in a week’s time, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what the characters were called. But if you’re looking for a book to read on the beach or while on holiday, it’ll do nicely.