Book reviews

I've gone through a strange selection of books recently, most of which have been undemanding thrillers because the first of the batch, C.J. Snasom's WInter in Madrid which had some pretensions to seriousness, turned out to be a bit of a bore and I needed some light relief afterwards.

1. Peter James: Not Dead Enough. It was only when I finished it that I realised I'd already read another book by this author, also in his Roy Grace detective series. This one was a fun read, a real page-turned. It's set against a backdrop of he seamier side of Brighton. The characters were good, the dialogue was fine, and the plot was clever until the denouement turned out too rely on an unconvincing and rather cheap plot device. Still a good read, though.

2. David Baldacci: Simple Genius I was actually looking for Looking Good Dead, another one in Peter James's Roy Grace series, but the local shop I went in to didn't have it. When I picked up this one I thought the author's name rang bad bells, but I took it all the same. What a mess! What total rubbish!! What dreadful writing!!! What a stupid plot. Never again, Mr Baldaccii.

3. Nelson DeMille: Wild Fire Good fun. A lightweight thriller with an up-to-date plot about right-wing knuckleheads in the US with a sinister plot to 'solve' the Arab terrorism problem. A good holiday read, with a wise-cracking detective as the main protagonist.

4. J.L. Carrell: The Shakespeare Secret I should have known from that part of the blurb which described it as having 'Plot twists worthy of The Da Vinci Code' that this wouldn't be for me. It was all far too clever for its own good, with a plot line which was ridiculously unbelievable and far too convoluted. Not to be recommended.

Now what's next? The perennial problem. After this lot I need something with a bit more substance. I've no idea what it'll turn out to be, but it won''t be hard to find something better than david Baldacci anyway.