Mike Finn > Recent Status Updates

This is a character-driven spy thriller that's original and different because the central character is complex, has difficulty with her memory, is the mother of two children and has a reputation for being uncannily calm and often lethal in high stress situations.

I love how I keep being suorised by twists in the plot that, in retrospect, are all driven by who Sentro is, what she has done and what hase done to her.

Sento's memories of what was done to her in Berlin are brutal but believable, which makes them harder to read. They're not lingered over or sensationalised. They don't need to be. Yet they do explain a lot about how she became who she is.

DECEMBER 4TH
I'm impressed by how well the two sisters are drawn.

Their reaction to the slide projector makes me feel very old.

Loved the bomb shelter description. Even creepier than the normal cellar-with-an-old-boiler-that-may-be-a-gate-to-Hell trope.

This is a little mannered but promises to be fun.

It's been ages since I've heard anyone mention Sloane Rangers.

There's a sort of pantomime aspect to the story that makes the forshadowing amusing rather than alarming For example, I'm sure Miss Beeton will regret not paying attention when her normally friendly dog growls at someone.

I love the side-effects of the beer, especially what happened to the DJ. I should feel sorry for him but, hey, he's a local radio DJ so I think it was kinda apt.

DECEMBER 3RD
A sliver of a chapter but well done. Told from Abby's POV it does a good job of showing the dynamic between her and her younger sister in a way that makes me like them and also shows me how vulnerable they are. The level of menace is sustained at low simmer by strange tracks in the snow and things not quite seen in the woods.

I find these books very relaxing. They keep me engaged and curious and make me smile. That's a lot for a book to do, especially first thing in the morning.

DECEMBER 2ND
A happy family chapter. I like the change in POV from Adam to Beth. She seems more interesting than him and more observant. Some cute happy scenes but tinged with a hint of threat and a residue of depression.
And how scary can a christmas stocking hung on a barn door be? I can almost hear the manic laughter as I ask that question.

My reading is slowing down because there is only so much pain that I can take witnessing at a single session. The storm is an emotional one. Grief, fear, guilt, loss and anger have destablised Enya, making her anxious, destroying her judgment and her ability to trust. It's captured beautifully but it's hard to watch.

The narrator, Angeline Ball, is giving a superb performance.

Well, that his every note in the horror Dan-de-dan-DAAAN! chord. It's a bit over the top but there's no doubt that Adam and his family have placed themselves in a place of danger.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

The scenes with Enya's husband are tough to read. Very intense. Very easy to believe.

The contrast between the lyrical imagery used to descrobe Enya's emotional reaction to the storm and the down to earth language of the dialogue seems to signal the gap between who Enya has to be when dealing with the world and who she is in her head.

I loved the description of how Enya feels she lost her home and broke her marriage by moving into an inherited house that is almost a shrine to her mother-in-law.

This is fun. I loved nana -very cool. I'm being carried forward mostly by the novelty of the set-up and the flashes of humour. There are a couple of storytelling problems with slightly clunky workarounds - letting Sophie that ghost ask questions without having a lot of repetition - fitting in a flashback without an authorial voice - but they're handling with an authorial shrug and wry smile that works for me.

This is confidently ploughing it's own furrow. The 'medium in a country house' setting automatically gets me thinking Golden Age Mystery or cake-centric cosy mystery, so making the setting contemporary and having the medium and her teenage-when-she-died spirit guide make snarky comments at the expense of their upper-class-but-dull hosts has a discordant edge to it that I'm enjoying.