Roo I. MacLeod's Blog, page 2

See them run

See Them Run
Stacy Green

Lucy Kendall is a PI with a fondness for killing bad people. I don't know who pays her bills, but she is on a crusade to rid the streets of pimp types selling children to pedo's.
This is an even paced book and a pleasure to read. I like the characters, feel a warmth to Linda and Chris, her partner in crime, even though the two of them have a bloody ruthless streak that should make them hard to like.
All boxes are ticked re the crime, but the book finishes with a rather large hook to encourage us to read the sequel. And the fact that I'm not buying the next book suggests I didn't care enough. Or I'm dead broke, hole in the sock poor.
I do recommend the book, but.

Talking to my Country

Stan Grant

I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and didn't meet an indigenous person until my mid twenties.
So this book was a shock to me. Of course I've read about our treatment of the indigenous folk, the destruction of their culture, but it never touched me as this book has.

Just before the Sydney Olympics in 2000, I had moved to England to run pubs. A customer mentioned a girl called Cathy Freeman. 'Runs fast for a coon,' he said.
No one spoke up about his derogatory term. I didn't. I was appalled, but chose to shrug rather than react.

I hope the man I know as Roo, would say something now and in the future.
I am sorry for what I haven't done for the Indigenous people of Australia.
Read this book. It talks to all people about how we treat others, but it especially slaps us about the face with a passionate tale of one indigenous man's attempt to understand the destruction of his land and culture.

The Hangman's Daughter

The Hangman's Daughter
Oliver Pötzsch

Title: The Hangman’s Daughter
Author: Oliver Pötzsch, Translated by Lee Chadeayne
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Publisher: Amazon Crossing/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date: December 2010 (Amazon)/August 2011 (HMH)
Hardcover: 448 pages (HMH)

Do not skip the prologue. If you can read it without covering your eyes, dropping your book and squirming, then you might struggle to enjoy what follows.

A boy is found killed with a curious, witch like marking to his shoulder. Previous witch trials are brought to mind so the Hangman is summoned to investigate. By investigate I mean torture the midwife for a confession to the murder she did not commit. With a confession, a burning can take place and whispers and rumors can be set to rest.

Alas another child is found murdered while the midwife is imprisoned and peoples unknown have vandalized the building of the new Leprosaria

Jacob, the Hangman, his daughter Magdelena, and Simon the physician and love interest, must find who killed the children before the midwife is forced to confess and burned at the stake.

This story, based on Oliver Potzsch’s family history, is brutal in parts, but has a charming romance attached. The characters are big, drawn with color and the plot is intricate with a couple of swerves rather than twists and keeps you reading to the last pages.

I loved this book, but if I could find one issue is its length. It could've been tighter which would've added to the tension.

Roo

Stone Cold

Stone Cold
By C.J. Box

Joe is back in his job in the Game and fish Department after a wee break and is under cover in Medicine wheel county investigating a big old money bags who is running an assasintation business to get rid of the ‘bad’ eggs in the world.
His old mate Nate just happens to be in the same county and the last time we saw Nate he wasn’t coping to well with the death of a girl dear to him.
Joe’s and Nate’s paths cross, and are conflicting but that’s what leads to the tension, the intrigue and the violent but cracking climax.
Another great Box.

Gone

By Christine Kersey
This is a charming read. The lead, narrator, Morgan is her name, is a sweet child who runs away from home and gets lost in the woods. And I liked the beginning because that can lead you anywhere. Bad things happen in the woods, but for Morgan she takes shelter in a hut which is flattened in a storm and her only exit is the underground cellar. A big long tunnel takes her into a parallel universe, where society has outlawed being fat.
And guess what? Morgan is just a tad overweight.
Now this is book one and had I realized i'd have to read books two and three to find out what happens and how, or if, Morgan gets back to reality, I'd probably not have bought the book(actually I'm not sure I did buy it-gift, freebie, can't remember). So bare that in mind. Nothing is resolved in book one, well except Morgan gets in trouble with a girl called Lori and her dad is head of the Fat Police.
So the book is Ok, but I won't be buying book 2 & 3, because I don't care enough about Morgan's fate. I'm pretty sure I know how it will turn out, eh

Catch & Neutralize

Catch & Neutralize - 9/15/2016 by Chris Grams
Angie is a foot soldier in CAN (Catch & Neutralize) a secret organization set up to protect women and children from evil men the Law don’t, or can’t investigate. Her particular quarry is an evil drug dealer called Tristan, but in her pursuit is thwarted by a fellow foot soldier named Tiffany. That girl Tiffany has serious issues, not to be divulged here, but she abuses her ‘friendship’ with Angie for her own profit. There’s a few twists and a lot of turns but good triumphs.
There is a love interest. Because CAN is seriously secret, Angie cannot reveal to her husband Mark, that her day job as a secretary is a cover, and that her real job is catching and neutralizing bad men. Therefore he jumps to the conclusion that his beautiful wife is having an affair and sets up his own devious investigation of her curious habits.
This is an easy read and the character of Angie is well developed. You do get to cheer for the good gal, and one of the bad guys is a surprise. The ending is no revelation, but the point of the story isn’t to be clever but to offer you a good read. Whether Catch & Neutralize is a good read I’ll leave to you.
Roo

The Chalk Circle Man by

The Chalk Circle Man
Blue chalk circles are being drawn around random objects. A pigeon’s foot, a cigarette lighter etc and the media is rife with theories as to what they mean. Are the circles drawn around the objects or are the objects placed in the circles. Serious stuff, eh?
Only Adamsberg believes the circles to be sinister and fears the worst. Adamsberg solves crimes by intuition and when the first body appears in the circle his worst fears are realized.
The Chalk Circle Man is filled with large characters. His Inspector Danglard, a single parent who enjoys his afternoon drink of wine, likes to collect information and looks for logic to solve the crime. Adamsberg’s method of crime solving drives him crazy.
Mathilde the oceanographer who fills her apartment with sad lodgers. Charles Reyer the blind man, and Clemence, the lonely hearts spinster add color to this wonderful crime novel.
Each of the eccentricities of the characters help Adamsberg solve the crime. It is a charming book, the first in the series and I am eager to read more.
The Chalk Circle Man

The Girl in the Spiders Web

This book was given to me, like as a birthday present not by the author, and I was dubious. The author is well dead, and his girlfriend didn't want the trilogy touched, but the father and someone else inherited the legacy and they said yes. I don't get why people want to live off the dead. Apart from money. There's always that cheeky money monkey suggesting we take, steal and borrow. But as I had it in my house I figured i should read it.
And it's okay. He does no harm to Lisbeth, and it's a nice touch introducing the twin sister. The beautiful but naughty twin sister. This story is all about hacking, but the relationship between the autistic child and Lisbeth is sweet.
I don't recommend the book because I feel like someone has robbed Larsson's grave, but I do love the Lisbeth character and if you want more, then Mr Lagercrantz gives us more.The Girl in the Spider's Web

Men who hate Women

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson

I love this book. I of course didn't wise up to the trilogy aspect until I'd read book 3 and 2, but I don't think it affected my enjoyment. I loved them all.
The trilogy centers around Michel, a reporter, being prosecuted for libel and Lisbeth, a computer hacker (I love the hacking: I wish i could hack, but my parents didn't care), employed to investigate Michel.
Lisbeth has serious history. Abused, her and her mother, set her dad on fire, spent years in institutions and has a serious vendetta issue going on. The girl is ruthless.
Interesting fact/urban myth, but Larsson based Lisbeth on a real life girl he witnessed being raped while he watched. Guilt builds good characters and stories, eh?
Lisbeth and her social worker is a critical part of the tale, as we witness the rape, Larsson himself failed to act on, but we revel in the revenge.
But I digress. Some serious bloke offers Michel evidence to assist him in his libel case, so long as he'll assist him in the search for his granddaughter who went missing like a millenium ago. Lisbeth is asked to join his investigation and the two form a partnership of lustful cooperation in pursuing a serious Swedish Nazi history and a serial killer not sympathetic to the jewish cause.
I think that's it.
Did I say the book was good? Too bloody right it is. As are books two and three. And the swedish films are cracking.
There is talk that the english translation dumbed the story down. I don't know about that because my swedish is crap. Smorgasborg is the limit. But it is all good.
The original title was Men who hate women, but there you go.

United States Of Japan

The United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas
Imagine if the USA had lost to Japan, and Europe had lost to Hitler. No, it’s not Philip K Dick’s The Man in the High Castle but Peter Tieryas novel The United States of Japan.
Now also imagine an amime comic book put to words and you have the gist of what this novel is about.
It is gory and violent, but not over the top. It has two protagonists, the male Beniko, being your anti-hero and the female Akiko, being your strong silent type heroine.
Beniko is a sensor and Akiko is secret police. Together they are trying find out who or what is going on with the new game called United States of America where the Americans are portrayed as the victors of the second world war.
This story is complicated, with a couple of twists and a good ending. People die, for sure, but … Oh who am I kidding I struggled with this story. I did like the two protagonists but I didn’t understand or care about their cause.
And the end didn’t leave me with a good feeling. I like to feel good. I like to feel I have fought and won with my protagonist and this was a hollow victory, leaving me feeling betrayed.
Serious. I ask a lot of my protagonist and there was a false ending, that didn’t ring true to me. I didn’t get the moment when he went from anti hero to gung ho hero.
But hey ho, it’s a good read. Can see the film in my head.