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Lucy Cruickshanks – The Road to Rangoon | Review

Title: The Road to Rangoon

Author: Lucy Cruickshanks

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 440

Rating: 3.5/5

Lucy Cruickshanks – The Road to Rangoon

This is the second of two books that Lucy has written and which are set in Burma, and I was kind of expecting this one to be a sequel. It wasn’t, at least as far as I could tell, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it. Perhaps it’s not the kind of book that I’d usually read, but I’m still glad that I picked it up.

Cruickshanks has a knack for establishing a sense of place, and when you’re reading this book it really feels as though you’re there. The plot was great as well, although I wasn’t too attached to the characters. I think the characters were better in the first book but that the plot was better in this one, so perhaps it just depends on what kind of reader you are.

Another good thing about this book was how quick and easy it was to read. I whizzed through it in two or three days and when I finished, it felt like I’d just got back from a holiday. It wasn’t much of a holiday though, because the book is set during the 1980s before armed conflict in the country led to it changing its name from Burma to Myanmar. Rangoon was also changed to Yangon, which means that even the title of this book helps to establish a sense of time and place.

Lucy Cruikshanks

Because of that, this novel is a sort of weird mixture between literary fiction, historical fiction and a sort of military thriller. I can’t think of anything that I’ve read that’s quite like it, and I read a lot of different stuff. I’d be interested to know what some of Cruickshanks’ inspirations were when she wrote this, although I also watch her talk about books on BookTube and so I already know what she’s into.

So would I recommend this one? Yes and no, because I don’t think it’s quite right for everyone. That said, I think if the synopsis sounds good and you have some sort of interest in Burma then it’s pretty much a no-brainer, because it’s well-written, well-edited and an all-round professional release. The only reason I can think of that someone might not like it would be if they’re just not that interested in the subject matter.

All in all, then, Lucy did a great job with this one and I think it was a worthy follow-up to her first book. She didn’t just try to imitate herself and that’s to be commended. Good stuff.

Lucy Cruikshanks – The Trader of Saigon

Click here to buy The Road to Rangoon.

Thomas Harris – Hannibal Rising | Review

Title: Hannibal Rising

Author: Thomas Harris

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 416

Rating: 9/10

Thomas Harris – Hannibal Rising

I really enjoyed Hannibal Rising, more so than any other book in the series. Thomas Harris was always a master storyteller, but here I feel he’s at his finest, and you can tell that he’s done his research, too. The novel acts as a prequel, and it tells the story of the young Hannibal Lecter and his struggles during the Second World War in Eastern Europe, when he was little more than a boy.

And many ways, that’s what makes this work stand out from Harris’ other work – in many ways, it’s almost a different genre to the other books in the series, touching on historical and military thrillers, as well as its traditional blood and gore. Add that to the fact that it’s also his most recent, at least at the time of writing, and that he hasn’t written another book for the last eight years, and you can see why this is a little bit special.

Not all of the critics agreed, but what do I care? I rate my books on how much I enjoy them, and I loved this – I’d go so far as to say that if you haven’t read any of the Hannibal books, you should start here. After all, you’ll get to see his character develop, and it’s arguably the best Thomas Harris novel in my opinion, and so what have you got to lose?

Thomas Harris

The supporting characters are also fantastic, and Lady Murasaki and Mischa Lecter in particular stand out, in part because of the similar, enigmatic quality they share, and partly because they play a huge role in the development of the cannibalistic killer. That said, just because he isn’t fully developed, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t capable of violence – in fact, there’s plenty of death throughout the novel, as well as the hideous, twisted genius that Lecter shows in the ways in which he kills people.

In fact, when I first read this novel, I worried about Harris’ mental health – you know the feeling you get when you’re reading a book and it’s so vivid and thought out that it seems like no-one other than a homicidal maniac would come up with it? I always used to think that if there was any writer who turned out to actually be a murderer, to be basing his novels on his own terrible crimes, it would be Harris.