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GRIMM UP NORTH
I don’t often write reviews, that’s what I I figure Kindle notes & Goodreads are perfect for, feel something right in the moment and post it, otherwise you’ll forget it come the end.
I call my rather unique mental scaffolding ‘the spidey web’, it, along with a Olympic sized swimming pool full of ‘little red fishies’ (red herrings) & of course myself, The Ego, spend the entirety of any book being read battling over a plethora of plot twists, guesstimating, maybes & hopefully semi hilarious puns & diatribe, although, be warned before you read, that sometimes I even scare myself.
So without further ado…
Her mum had even gone so far as to lock the phone away in her little safe. A shame for her then that Sophie had known the combination for the lock for years.
Parents can be so, naive, I remember finding where my Xmas presents were ‘hidden’ every year & working out what they were, then played dumb
CHAPTER TWO
Chapter one, GREAT, new author, new characters & I now have great hope!
Hipsters had a lot to answer for.
I know right?
What’s sadly silly is the worldwide idea that low seating pants on males is some Uber gangster cool thing. It didn’t start from that, it started from poor families unable to buy new clothes, so the younger kids wore hand me downs that were too big. As I said, it’s sadly silly :|
and he was also getting a little peckish. But food would have to wait.
Silly line
old quarry which contained a small and very deep pool,
There’s a quarry about 15mins from my place, it’s got a lake too, people have died in it over the years mistaking the depths of it, it sits by another lake, from memory they’re joined, but this other lake is huge, it’s a volcanic lake & is said to be essentially bottomless & runs 1/2 the way down our north island in NZ meeting up with Rotorua, a very famous & active volcanic area here.
but that world was a long time ago now, a very long time indeed. And yet, deep down, the Para was still alive, and the soldier he had been came to life
I think that can go for a lot of people for a million different reasons. Some stuff just never goes away, some you wish it would, and others you cling to life a life jacket in a storm
The screech of agony he released set a few pigeons into flight
I’d rather he was hitting the bloody pigeons, I never thought I was capable of hating another living creature, but pigeons have frayed my limits of anger to dust!
Harry found a phone. He then used the thumb he was holding to open it. Fingerprint recognition wasn’t something he had on his own phone, for just this reason: it was way easier to break than a code.
Plus it’s just damn annoying, I don’t have anything on my iPad, I figure if someone gets it, I’m not getting it back & there’s nothing too private on it so why bother. The phone though wanted a bloody passcode, so I’ll have to look into getting rid of it when I get time, there’s bound to be a fix
from always using someone else’s milk in the fridge and never buying their own,
Don’t the police stations supply them with milk? Coffee? etc?
Damn, I worked in a hospital (early retirement) & our hospitals, well most, are government run & yup they are STINGY bloody barstards, but they supplied coffee etc including milk….
ok sure sometimes it’d been left on tables in the cafe, & it was all that was left, sometimes it’d been left on tables in the cafe then put back in the fridge for the next poor person who got lumpy coffee or tea, sure there were 8 or so packs in the fridge left, but all with just a dribble so you had to muck around hoping there’d be just enough, oh yeah & sometimes they ran out entirely.
Oh the joy of working for the government!
And years ago it may well have been, which is what everyone kept telling him, but Harry knew, not least because he felt it too, that for Ben, it was so raw in his mind that it may as well have been yesterday.
I have a couple of things like that, it’s like they’ve surrounded you with cling wrap, round it over & over & no matter how much you don’t want it to, it’s still there, it takes little to bring it right back as though it’d never left.
Which was why he’d checked the oil and water before setting off almost as though he was taking part in some kind of driver’s Holy Communion.
This IS sarcastic humor I love, too many authors get it wrong, not this one!
He kept busy for a reason because if he wasn’t busy then he was alone to think, to remember, and that was a very dark path to tread.
I know that road
to The Blues Brothers
Nothing else to say but this …. 🙌🎶🙌🎶🙌🎶
if they were 4x4s then they actually looked like they were used for their intended purpose rather than just to pick up the kids from prep school, or to drive to Babington House for a gin and tonic.
Same thing here, it’s ludicrous
‘Nowt to worry about, just that your tail light’s out, like,’ he said at last, the accent as northern as anything Harry had ever heard, half-suspecting that it was something the officer practised at night as part of some government directive. ‘Where are you headin’? Oh, and I’m Sergeant Dinsdale, by the way. Matt. Actually, that’s Detective Sergeant, isn’t it? Completed one of those training courses last month. I’m like the Rebus of Wensleydale, me! Ha!’
Oh yes, he’s gonna be a GREAT character, don’t make me a liar!
‘He’s not the Mike the mechanic,’ said the DS. ‘You know, from the band? Mike and the Mechanics? He’s a Genesis fan though. Loves them, he does. Early stuff mainly. None of that Phil Collins solo bollocks.’
Oh, I’m in love!
‘Bollocks,’ muttered Harry, and pulled out his phone to call Mike.
Oh god, the one liners that transcend sentences, chapters, are just too good!
It sounded as though the animals were all calling to each other, complaining about the accommodation, or moaning about the food.
Or screaming in terror that they were going to be killed :|
Harry sniffed his hands again. Yep, they stank to high heaven. And all thanks to PCSO Jim Metcalfe, his dad, and a sheep Harry was fairly sure had been the size of a Shire horse. ‘You’ll get used to it, the smell, like,’ Jim said, as Harry walked with him down from the auction mart and back into Hawes itself. ‘It doesn’t so much come off as blend in if you know what I mean. Nowt like it!’ Jim then hooked his hands around his nose and mouth and sucked in a deep breath.
He’s right, we only notice a smell initially & then it goes away. We have a volcanic region here called Rotorua in NZ, driving in all you smell is sulphur, rotten eggs, but before long, it’s just part of the landscape. I know it sounds odd, but most really true stuff does.
lobbing eggs and removing garden gates on something called Mischief Night. Which, to Harry, sounded a little like The Purge, just with less death and more children.
Ok I am in love with this authors sense of humor, sarcastic, dark & very interesting to boot.
It had to be the only explanation for everything that was happening because it was all so different, so alien to his normal life that he half wondered if he should punch himself in the face to wake himself up.
Country folk are just different, can be very hard, but very giving at the same time, just goes with the territory, they have to grow up fast but also know that their neighbor may be the one you need when you need help, swings & roundabouts.
My Dad came from a rural family, massive farm and I do mean big, they did everything, tobacco, sheep, cattle, kiwi fruit and that’s off the top of my head. His stepparents were very old school & as a kid when I did see them, I didn’t relate with them well, which is a shame, for them and me.
They’ll be your best friend or your worst nightmare, it’s a good way to sum up country folk.
‘His older brother was killed on the farm years
Nice twist, synonymous with Grimms past
Every now and again, though, like right now, for example, he would meet someone he just didn’t like. It would usually take a while to put his finger on as to why he didn’t like them, but there were rare examples where his dislike was immediate.
I think we’ve all got that, our inner voice saying “warning! warning! retreat! retreat!”
grey Fergie
I’m guessing a tractor, or similar
Obviously, such a technique could be used for all kinds of reasons, and Harry had used it himself to get on the right side of the wrong people more times than he cared to remember, but to see it used here and so deftly, impressed him.
And I’m impressed with how thoughtfully the author is humanizing the characters, very nicely understated so you barely notice the how, but imbibe the result down like my favorite tipple, raspberry cider.
the statistics had shocked him: approximately 100,000 teenagers run away each year in the UK. That figure had seemed so large that he had thought it must be wrong. But it wasn’t.
I ran away from home when I was, 14 I think, only problem is I went to my best friend’s house & when her mum sussed out what was going on, she called my mum, so it ended up as a sleepover & right back home after school the next day, to less than impressed parents, especially my mother…
‘Who was it from?’ Harry asked. ‘The message I mean, the one she received on Sunday?’ ‘Her boyfriend, clearly,’ Martha said, wiping her nose. ‘Who else would it be? Teenagers and their relationships! Honestly, it’s as though it’s the end of the world for them, isn’t it, if they have an argument or break up?’
Oh I don’t think that stops when your an adult, you just move on from you & your bffs skipping school & seeing if you can get served alcohol, anywhere, to skipping work with the same buddies, head to the nearest grocery store & ransacking the chip, icecream & chocolate aisles before moving to the alcohol aisle where you plan a four pronged attack on anything that will still fit in your trolley.
See? We never grow up, we just hide it better, or not, depending on the hangover
‘I’m sure Sophie’s fine,’ he said. ‘God’s got his eye on her, I’m sure of it.’
Yeah, that’s all fine & dandy, but I’d be more concerned about who else has his eyes & possibly hands on her
He was pulling at the cuffs to the jumper as well, so that they covered not just his wrists but the base of his hands, too.
Tattoos? Gang? Woo here come my little red fishies out of the gate early, we’ll see how that guess goes…
‘What, you’re not? No, you can’t have thought that
My thoughts exactly!
pigeons
Shoot THEM & not Pheasants!
Harry said nothing and instead walked to the stairs
Bit rude
‘Aconite’.
Could you use that to try to abort a baby? You can see where I’m heading here, well I say ‘I’ but this is from my spidey web who thinks she needs to flex all of her legs, not to mention eyes…
Her curly brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her eyes fairly sparkled, Harry noticed.
Boom!
So far, they’d come up with nothing, but what they were doing was all they could do until either
What about talking to bus drivers? Taxis, anyone driving along who saw her, etc etc ?
It’s a complete bloody joke! And you’re making me look like one sending me here!’
I hope they don’t hear him, but I have a bad feeling
but turned back to stare up at Harry.
Yup, knew it, but sometimes you can make lemonade with lemons
then that’s on you.’
Exactly what he deserved
smirk,
I was just reading a Scottish series before starting on this, and they had ‘smirk’ used what was wrong phrasing for me, here in Aussie & NZ to smirk means a nasty shifty eyes look which you make sure the person on the receiving end knows all about it. Here it seems more my way than the other books, but still a bit not quite
Funny, sir. Yes, very clever.’
Not so good on the receiving end huh
As for the mashed potato topped with chips, now that was a work of genius.
I know this isn’t the way they’re talking about mashed & fried, but besides that, mashed potatoes on top of pies is very common and actually thinking of it, every time, or close enough, that I’ve gone to KFC I’ve ordered mash & gravy, as well as fries, only little ones mind! Girls gotta watch her waist line, but I always dipped the chips into the mash, so really, it’s not all that uncommon, now I’ve written a term paper on the bloody idea!
The team he was used to back in Bristol was run by a woman with all the charm and warmth of a walk-in freezer stuffed full with meat hung from the kind of hooks made famous by the film A Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She was cold, brutally so at times, and seemed to regard everyone, even God, Harry suspected, as beneath her. He wondered what he would be getting this time
I once read something about surgeons, who thought they are Gods, would you rather have someone operating on you who believed they were absolutely going to do it, that they are a God, or someone who maybe thought they’d manage to do it, hopefully…?……….
Which was why he did the job in the first place, wasn’t it, to prove to death that it wouldn’t have the last laugh, that someone would be held to account?
Nicely done
On seeing the body, Harry’s emotions had been a mix of shock and relief.
There’s a very nice tie between his past & just now, very understated, but most good character & storyline points are just that.
It was the kind of violence born of control lost,
Nice wording of last 2 words, could of been written vice versa, but this is better
The only thing out of the ordinary you’ll find around here is someone making their tea the wrong way.’ ‘There’s a wrong way?’ Harry asked. Cathy shook her head and rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, a word of advice; don’t get her started.’
I guessing it’s the old “tea, sugar & water, THEN milk, ongoing saga that is, just the same with coffee
Ruth voiced her agreement, though it was somewhat lacking in enthusiasm, Harry noted.
They’re not endearing themselves to me, the women, if it was me I’d be a total mess, but also asking if there was anything at all I could do to help
‘Wild swimming will change your life.’
This is just another of life’s little, or should I say HUGE slap me upside the head coincidences.
I just finished a series about a Scottish detective, he discovered wild swimming in the last book or 2, I had no clue what it was, it seems to just be swimming, which having lived in Aussie for a 1/4 of my life & now back in NZ, swimmings not exactly a rarity, living on an island like, even I can walk 30 mins or do & hit the beach.
But anyways, the chances of me randomly buying this book, then it having the swimming thing? The good old fates are just making sure I’m still alive, after hitting me with a 2 by 4. That’s s piece of wood incase anyone didn’t know.
most likely murdered,
Uhh, well I don’t think she did it to herself?…
