December 2014 Group Read - Evil for Evil, by Aline Templeton

[Bill]

Looking forward to comments'

[Bill]

Having just finished Alex Marwood's The Killer Next Door - read it! - I shall get cracking on Evil for Evil.

[Bill]

Finished character. 3 & I like DI Fleming - comfortable homely type unlike the frenetic 20 somethings who are my usual faves.

[Bill]

That marvellous quote from Nietzsche seems to be popping up a lot in my reading lately: When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back. And in the case of some of my favourite characters, when it does the abyss doesn't intimidate them; they intimidate the abyss. That's true here of the principal mayhem maker - I don't say villain because most tho' not all the victims got what they deserved - a revenger straight out of a Greek tragedy who really let's it rip (view spoiler)[& as befits a Greek tragedy, amongst the victims are her own father & brother (hide spoiler)]. With better editing & more of the perpetrator's back-story earlier so we'd feel the pathos we should, this book would be a five-star. It's an author I like & DI Fleming is a very likeable character & the setting is 1st rate. Even the cows are good looking.

Unfortunately the book is much too long & full of characters & incidents that do nothing to advance the plot & simply take up space. So you can enjoy it if you read it, without revealing anything about who did it or why, I'll tell you what you can skip without missing anything: (view spoiler)[Christie Jack's attraction to Lovatt, Macdonald's attraction to Christie, the newspaperman Drummond, Marjory's daughter Cat & her experiences, MacNee's alcoholic father - nothing that happens to any of these characters has any relevance to the main plot. (hide spoiler)] With these excised, the BMI of this book would be 25 rather than 35 & you'd have an exciting read rather than the hard slog that I did.

[AngryGreyCat]

This looks interesting but I didn't want to start the series on book 7 so I got the first one and have it on my TBR list.

[Bill]

I'd read only Dead in the Water (#5) before & liked it rather better, They stand fine alone.

[AngryGreyCat]

Bill wrote: "I'd read only Dead in the Water (#5) before & liked it rather better, They stand fine alone."

I just finished Cold in the Earth (Book 1) and I really enjoyed it, so I probably will be reading more in the series. The only thing is I was wondering if these were ever made in to a tv series or tv movie. I know that I saw something with a female DI who is the wife of a sheep or cattle farmer and it is driving me crazy that I can't remember.

[Bill]

Good for you. Despite my problems with Evil for Evil, I think Aline Templeton is a 1st rate author. Also love the distinctive features of Scottish law, titles sound so classy.