Mike Finn > Recent Status Updates

So now the whole injured, traumatised family is lost in the woods in winter. It's frying pan to the fire, except they've swapped burning to death for freezing to death.

Ok, Adam's been brave in his dogged, zero-planning way but his romantic, hope hard enough and it will all work out appoach annoys me. After all that's happened, all he's learned is he can't sell, "It will be fine" to his kids any more.

DECEMBER 20th

Chloe saves the day. But not without a couple of manufactured Jump Scare shots produced by Chloe's imagination.

Sadly, this is starting to feel like wading through tropes.

Intriguing genre mashup - historical hard-boiled PI story in post-capone Chicago with a newly turned vampire with a blank in his memory about the two days leading up to his death.

Slightly flat because the vampire narrator is a bit of a cipher but the people he's allied with are interesting.

Oh dear, I shouldn't find myself checking to see how much longer a book has to run as it approaches the end. This sagged in the middle and then got worse. Lots of padding. Too much of Meg going through every possible scenario before discounting them. And endless, tedious explanations of technicalities.

Not so much Ho! Ho! Ho! as Ho hum.

ZOMBIE RUN by Jason Krumbine

Wow. that packed a lot into a short story. Vivid, tense, action-packed. It's Zombie Apocalypse meets Groundhog day. The ending was strange and unexpected but I liked it. Just because it's a short story doesn't mean everything has to be neatly explained.

DECEMBER 19th

Maybe I'm just not cut out for horror. This was... unpleasant.

AND it's beginning to feel pointless.

With six chapters left, I'm no longer expecting any rational explanation for who the Big Bad is or why he's doing what he's doing.

At this point, I'd be happy to see him die painfully at the hands of one or all of Beth, Abby or Chloe (maybe I am cut out for horror after all).

I like that there's no attempt to write as if this was a book published in 1850. The writing feels contemporary and so does most of the dialogue. It makes the book more entertaining and avoids it becoming a pastiche.

It'a been a couple of years since I read the first three books in this series. It nice to return and find that the books still feel fresh. The writing style is direct and vivid. The culture is alien but accessible. The story is simple in terms of action but it's also complicated in the thoughts that it prompts.

Normally, shamanism would put me off but, in this context, it feels as authentic as the weather.

This is dragging a bit. Lots of overlong explanations. Very little action. The occaisional smile but mostliy it's Meg telling me what's occured to her rather than showing me what's going on and letting me work out what it might mean. The stuff on wrongful convictinos drops into lecture mode too often. More time on theories than on people. It's not tedious but it's not entertaining. Even the narrator is struggling.

This is like doing a jigsaw puzzle where pieces from different parts of the puzzled are being rationed out. Each time I add new pieces, the end picture that I imagine myself trying to assemble changes. That makes my curiosity the main driver for reading the book.

DECEMBER 18th

And THAT`S how it's done. Build hope. Let it light the world. Let everyone breathe. Then extinguish it.

I no longer have any idea what the Big Bad wants. What Jacobsen seems to want is to stress test this family and see who survives.

DECEMBER 17th

Adam makes an unlikely hero. All emotion and little thought. But his dogged trek through the snow is nicely drawn. It seems to be there mostly to offer hope. But Adam thinks more about sacrifice than victory, giving up his life rather than taking the Big Bad's. Beth's message to the Big Bad was more focused: "I will kill you.". I doubt Adam has it in him to be more than coming a distraction.

This is more serious than the other Neg Langslow Christmas mysteries that I've read, mostly because of its focus on overturning wrongful convictions.

This is a gentle entertainment. Too low-key to be a thriller. Too cosy to be horror. Too simple to be a mystery. AND YET it's fun to listen to. I'm enjoying the emerging relationship between Ruby and Cordelia. Both of them are well-drawn. They make a convincing odd couple. Also, it's fun to see Cordelia trying to figure out what she can and can't do and to come up with a way to have a proper conversation with Ruby.

That's a hell of a twist from the first book, but it works. So now Raisa has a cold case to work that, if she messes it up, could put her colleague in prison, or at least have him suspected of murder.

This is a welcome departure from the normal chaotic Christmas with the Langslows. The big family gathering has been replaced by a conference on overturning unjust convictions. The mystery is a solid. The first body has just been discovered. The suspect pool includes almost everyone at the conference - mostly True Crime fans and convicted murderers who verdicts have been quashed. Should be a fun mystery to solve.

DECEMBER 16

Not THAT much violence but what there was was still difficult to take. I'm impressed by how clearly Jacobsen differentiates the various points of view - Chloe and Abby sound quite different - and how well he describes the bond between the sisters.

I guess it all depends on Chloe now.

Oddly, I'm glad that I'm expecting the next chapter to be from Adam's point of view. It should ease some of the tension.

DECEMBER 15

Now we're into blood and gore - adding torture to imprisonment. This time Abbey is the witness. Neither of the girls are on the receiving end of the violence - yet. If the story goes there, I won't be reading it to the end.

I think I'm beginning to guess at the Big Bad's motivation but his response seems disproportionate and his violent silence suggest permanent damage.

Abbey is scared but strong.

This is a gentle story that gradually reveals both of the women as they follow up on the murder of their neighbour. I like how it works through what the experience of being a ghost would feel like and what a ghost can and can't do.

DECEMBER 14th

The whole tone of the story has changed. We've moved from undefined menace to immediate danger. There's nothing lighthearted anymore. Just the darkness of abuction, isolation imprisonment, po3erlessness, cruelty and fear.

The big bad has struck and he's scarier than expected.

Beth's reaction£? Rage. Pure homicidal rage. I love her focus. Her rage may keep all of them alive