Tag: Released

Peter James – Twilight | Review

April 25, 2020
Authors F-J (By Surname)Fiction

Title: Twilight

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 322

Rating: 2/5

By this point I think you can safely call me a Peter James fan, even if that’s mainly for his Roy Grace series of detective novels. This here is one of his earlier books, and in a weird way it gives me a lot of hope. I just didn’t think it was very good at all, and seeing how much he’s grown as an author makes me think that hurray, perhaps there’s hope for me too.

I think my problem here was mostly with the dialogue, because the descriptive stuff wasn’t too bad. I just couldn’t get on board with the characters and the way that they talked. Pretty much all of the dialogue throughout ended up just pulling me out of the story, and if it was any other author, I wouldn’t have bothered to stick with it. But because it is Peter James, and because I plan to eventually read everything that he’s released, I ended up going with it anyway as a bedtime book, just to tick it off.

So as you can probably tell, I wouldn’t really recommend this one, but I would say that Peter James is worth reading, especially if you like crime stuff. Even if you don’t, The House On Cold Hill makes for a pretty decent horror story, and so he does have plenty there in his back catalogue for you to check out. Just maybe pick up something a little bit more recent than this one.

Really, that’s all there is to say here. The characters weren’t great, the plot was forgettable even as I was reading it, and it was a struggle for me to just make my way through it to the end. I’m glad that I’ve finally finished it now, but I’m not going to revisit it any time soon. So yeah, there’s that.

Learn more about Twilight.

Peter James – Sweet Heart | Review

September 15, 2019
Authors F-J (By Surname)Fiction

Title: Sweet Heart

Author: Peter James

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 340

Rating: 3.5/5

This book was a bit of a strange experience, because James has definitely evolved as a writer since he came up with this one. At the same time, it wasn’t bad, although a few of the references dated it back to the early nineties when it was released. But that doesn’t really matter because the story itself is what makes it worth reading.

Sure, it has its fair share of clichés, but it’s also a haunted house story. In fact, it basically read like an early draft of The House on Cold Hill, and I enjoyed that one and so I enjoyed this one too. The writing was never clunky, but there were a few points at which it was perhaps overly simple. That said, it did exactly what it needed to do to tell the story, and I can’t really complain about it.

I’m not sure if I’d say this is a particularly good place to start with Peter James, but if you’ve read a few of his other books and perhaps you feel like a break from Roy Grace, this could well be the book for you. That’s especially true if you’re more of a fan of horror and the supernatural than police procedural novels, although I’m a fan of both and personally think that he’s better at the latter.

I also liked the way that everything all came together here, although it was perhaps a little predictable. But that made it a lot easier for me to keep track of what was going on and who was who, and so I never once felt lost. The result was just a pretty easy read that did still leave me feeling a little bit unsettled, to the point at which I was checking over my shoulder in my house to make sure that I was still alone. If that doesn’t sell this book, I don’t know what will.

Click here to buy Sweet Heart.