Tag: Mysteries

Louise Candlish – The Other Passenger | Review

Title: The Other Passenger

Author: Louise Candlish

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 411

Rating: 4/5

I was sent a signed copy of this book for free as part of a bookish subscription box that reached out to me, but I don’t think that will influence my review. Still, I guess that’s a disclaimer for you.

The theme of the box that I received was all about the commute and this was pretty much the perfect book for it because it was mostly set on the commuter boats that people take to get into the city. As for the genre, it’s basically as close to generic contemporary thriller as you can get, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

We have a lot of the classics tropes here, from an unreliable narrator to tons of twists and turns, complex interpersonal relationships and of course that little technique of jumping backwards and forwards through time to advance what’s happening in the present by bringing up something that happened in the past and which changes the way we look at things.

Other than that, I don’t really want to say too much about the plot, purely because as with most of these, half of the point is being taken by surprise. And I will say that while there were one or two things that I called pretty early on, there were also a couple of twists here and there that I didn’t spot.

It probably also helped that I received quite a nice edition of this, a hardback with the author’s signature in it, and so it was quite an aesthetically pleasing read, too. I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of thrillers in general, as I tend to prefer either cosy mysteries, private detectives or gritty police procedural novels, but it certainly did the job and was a pleasant enough read, keeping me going until the end to find out the truth about what happened.

And that brings us on to the question of whether I’d recommend it or not, and that really depends upon the type of reader that you are. If you’re really into modern thrillers and you loved Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, you’re probably going to like this one. There are a ton of twists, more than I’ve seen in a novel of this size in quite a long time, and the characters are just warped enough to keep them interesting.

Learn more about The Other Passenger.


Dashiell Hammett – The Dain Curse | Review

Title: The Dain Curse
Author: Dashiel Hammett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 192

Rating: 1.5/5

 

 

I was looking forward to picking this book up because I’ve read and enjoyed Hammett before and because the title of this one basically has my name in it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as the other Hammett that I’ve read and my overarching feeling while reading this was just boredom. I didn’t care for the characters or the case.

There were a few redeeming moments here and there when it came to the writing, and I also liked the fact that opium was mentioned, which seems to happen a lot in old school murder mysteries. But while this one did have elements of the private eye style that Hammett is known for, it also had a lot of superstition and mystery thrown in which I didn’t really care for.

All in all, this was a struggle for me to complete, and I ended up tackling it as a bedtime book by reading 25 pages at a time. Even then it was a struggle, so I can’t recommend it.

 

Stephen King

Stephen King

 

Click here to buy The Dain Curse.