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Peter May – Cast Iron | Review

Title: Cast Iron

Author: Peter May

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 408

Rating: 7/10

Peter May – Cast Iron

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

There’s a pretty interesting concept behind Cast Iron, and I liked the way that the book’s title refers to a type of alibi. This book is part of a series following Scottish forensic expert Enzo Macleod as he researches a number of cold cases as the result of a bet that he made. It’s a bit like what would happen if Dave Gorman was on CSI, and I thought that it was an interesting quirk. It’s also worth noting that despite being the sixth (I think!) book in the series, it works just as well as a standalone – this is actually the first Peter May book that I’ve read, although I’ve heard of him before.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think that there was much more than that to make this book stand out in a competitive market. It was a strongly written whodunnit and it was a pleasant enough read, but while I would say that it’s worth reading, there isn’t anything in particular that makes me want to suggest you should go out of your way for it.

That’s not to say that I wouldn’t consider reading the rest of the series. After all, it’s a professional quality release from a man who’s sold over a million copies of his books, and so you know that it’s going to be competent. If you’re happy with competent then it could be the book for you, especially if you’re a Francophile and want to be immersed in the country’s culture in a murder mystery that will keep you turning through the pages.

Peter May

I suppose it’s just that there are so many crime novels out there on the market that I think I’d rather spend my time reading through Agatha Christie’s work or introducing myself to as many different crime writers as possible. Now that I’ve read this one, I’m curious about the rest of the series, but I don’t find myself compelled to read it, as I sometimes do with other authors.

So overall, it’s a book with a few things going for it, but it’s not going to blow your mind. It might hook your attention and keep you rolling until the end, but it won’t necessarily make you think. It’s your call!

Peter May

Click here to buy Cast Iron.

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs | Review

Title: Five Little Pigs

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 240

Rating: 8/10

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs

This book is one of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels, and so as such, you should already know what to expect. It’s also interesting because the plot is loosely centred on the “this little piggy” nursery rhyme in which one went to market, one stayed at home, one had roast beef, one had none, and one cried “wee wee wee” all the way home. She uses nursery rhymes a couple of times in her work, and she always takes it and twists it and makes it work well in the context of a cracking whodunnit.

It’s also worth mentioning that a big chunk of this book is dedicated to the written testimonies of some of the people who were present at the time of the murder, because it all happened sixteen years ago. This angle on things has been used before throughout literature – a novel written in this style is called an epistolary novel – but it’s interesting to see how Christie took it and applied it to the detective genre.

Overall, I’d say that this is one of the better Agatha Christie books and a nice little Hercule Poirot read, but – almost inevitably considering the amount of her work that’s out there – there are better ones on the market. This has a lot of reasons to recommend it, though!