Book Review: Never Go Back (Jack Reacher 18) by Lee Child

No 18 in the Jack Reacher series and there isn't much to say that hasn't been said before. I read a review recently that tore into Mr Childs and his character of Reacher commenting that it is all repetitive with Reacher just stumbling along finding the same old same with different names and graphically detailing how he takes apart the same old villains in a blow by blow account making it unreal and unnatural......

Yeah, well hard to argue too much with some of that as Reacher does wander about finding those in need of help who are being ground down by the little bad guys supported by the brainless hulks BUT, and especially if you are British, it is a bit like marmite you either love it or hate it, me I love it. The thing is though that Childs has mastered his skill as a writer over the years and while it may seem to be a tad repetitive he writes a flowing dialogue that is pretty seamless and you find yourself just turning page after page until you get to the end.  The previous book I read (not a Childs one), really engaged me,even allowing for the errors in it, but it took me nearly three weeks to finish it, a Reacher book, if you aren't careful you could start in the morning and probably finish it be the evening, easily, and  supposing you set aside your other life commitments like work and family and life and that I suppose is the mark of a good writer. Someone who gives you a narrative that flows along and compels you to keep reading his or her words!

On this occasion though it isn't your typical small town nice folk who are in need of help but Reachers contemporary a female Major now running his old unit, the 110th MP.  Reacher, we don't know why, has phoned the old unit and spoken with Major Susan Turner.  Liking the sound of her he decides to head to Virginia from South Dakota and turn up unannounced and ask her out to dinner.  On arrival he finds that Major Turner is no longer in charge and some stuck up Colonel is running the unit.

Reacher finds that,  a) Major Turner has been arrested and placed in a cell off base, b) he is accused of a 16 year old murder and c)  that he has fathered a child and being sued for maintenance and of course the 'icing on the cake' well as far is the efficient Colonel is concerned, is that he has just drafted Reacher back into the Army as a Major, making him subject to all military regulations.  He should have read Reachers file in a bit more detail and he would have known, like us, that Reacher was never one to really pay much heed to those regulations the first time round and so we knew he wasn't going to pay much attention to them on this little merry go round.

We then spend the next 417 pages finding out why these old cases have reappeared and what is the connection to Maj Turner who has been arrested and jailed.  I have to say here, even allowing for the comments above about my love for this character and Childs flowing writing, that I did find the story of two Deputy Chiefs of Staff  being involved in a nefarious enterprise and the poor 'help' they employed to take out Reacher and Turner more than a bit weak overall.  The introduction of a daughter who on first introduction was, well never mind, no spoilers, but it was an intriguing side bar to the story and it is entirely believable that Reacher may well have killed someone in the past as he beats down on them,  leaving them on the sidewalk and walking off into the sunset. Who's to say that one of his victims hasn't then died and he never knew ............

As a side issue, not really, but for the first time in 18 books I did find a little error; the e was missing from like in one sentence, oh my, but.........


Editing for Kindle: 5 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Plot: 4 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Chapters: 69
Page length: 417 and evident on my devices, see it can be done!

Book Rev: The Desolate Garden by Danny Kemp

Liked and loathed this book!

When reading on my Kindle it is easy to make notes and highlight passages and excerpts in a book and I have even started doing this as I now write these reviews when reading a 'paper' book.  It's easy then to go back in and review what I thought at the time

Up until now, the number of notes and highlights have numbered no more than 15 and they have been more in marking interesting phrases or passages than errors,  on this particular book though, if you have an absolute abhorrence of poor grammar and spelling you just might wish to avoid it as I have 63 highlighted spelling and or grammatical errors with a couple of formatting issues thrown in for good measure......  You have been warned.

Having said that the author, on his first attempt did write an intriguing novel. It revolves around the Paterson Family who have been the British Governments Secret Bankers for generations, funding everything that the governments of the day would rather the public did not ever find out about.  The management of the bank is passed on from generation to generation and only the highest echelons of government and ministers are aware of its existence.

Harry Paterson an ex Army officer is informed about his fathers murder and then his brother, the latter who is running the bank today, is also found murdered. Is this an attack on the Paterson s, a titled family, an attack on the bank or an attack on the Government? Who knows, Harry certainly doesn't  and he has little or no knowledge of the bank or its affairs and has been estranged from his father for years and on first hearing the news of his death shows little concern at the news, caring little for the fact that he is now elevated to 'His Lordship' at his fathers passing.

There begins an investigation by the Secret Service with Harry being assigned a 'minder' whose job it is, is to get Harry to tell her everything about his Father, Maudlin Paterson s past and what he knows of it.  Nothing is to be excluded.  Every detail of their lives is to be scrutinised in the hope that the identity of the murderer can be discovered before another Paterson is killed.

It does get a bit convoluted in places and the 'action' switches from Harry's interrogations to Russia as we find out that Maudlin fathered a child to a Spanish woman during the civil war and they fled to Russia at Maudlin's insistence, the mother dying, and Harry's half brother growing up and becoming one of Russia;s top officials and a spy, funded by Maudlin and the Paterson Bank......

This is, I understand Kemp's first book and not withstanding my opening comments, he has done well in stringing  a long and convoluted story together.  It does become a little tedious in places but if you can stick with it, it is a good story and has a surprising revelation as the killer in the final few pages, really never saw it coming which is always a good indication and promising for future books.  If you can be kept guessing right to the end then the author has done what he or she probably set out to do when penning a thriller.

Editing for Kindle: 2 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 4 out of 5
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5
Chapters: 45
Page length: 334 apparently but not evident on my kindle or iPad app - just % read

Don't Mess with an Old Lady!

Don't know where this came from, but it's a keeper.......

Two businessmen were sitting down for a break in their soon-to-be new shop...

As yet, the shop wasn't ready, with only a few shelves set up.

One said to the other, "I bet any minute now some pensioner is going to walk by, put their face to the window, and ask what we're selling."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when, sure enough,

a curious old woman walked to the window, had a peek, and in a soft voice asked :

"What are you selling here?"

One of the men replied sarcastically, "We're selling arseholes."

Without skipping a beat, the old dear said, "Must be doing well . . . only two left."

Lesson: Don’t mess with the wisdom of the old .   .  .  .  .  .  .  we are not yet brain dead!!

Mr Fat: An Update and an End Game !

So, I started to write this post yesterday morning and was well into it before heading off to see Mr Jayanthi our consultant surgeon and the nursing staff.  Before I go on, and just to lighten the mood I thought I would sprinkle a few cartoons throughout, because while life can sometimes seem hard, there is always something waiting round the next blind corner that is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and even make you bust a gut laughing about the sheer absurdity of life!

Angel of Death, take me now, well I thought it was funny and I imagined Ishbel and me in this situation in many years to come but, unfortunately that does not seem to be the case......

So, the meeting Friday.  We arrived at Broomfield in plenty of time for our 2.20 PM appointment only to find Mr J was held up in the wards, me feeling irritated as usual, although not his fault and there are more people than me he has to deal with, it's just that I always have never been able to sit around for anything and there is something about that bloody hospital that apart from the main atrium there appears to be nowhere else inside that frigging building where you can get wifi, aaaarrrrggggghhhhh.  Anyway, I digress.  Mr J welcomed us in, pleasantries were exchanged and then we got into it.  It seems that the Doctor who increased my chances of surviving the surgery, on giving me the results after the recent Cpex test had more than a little over reached himself in the information available and according to MR J and agreed with the Thoracic surgeon who would also be working on me at the same time; my chances of surviving surgery and tumour removal are pretty slim at the most!  Life can sometimes be a bugger, can't it.

Mr J went on to explain that it had nothing to do with my weight, he doesn't care how fat the patient is, he likes to dice and slice into anyone, loves his job, bless, but really it was down to the rest of my major organs not being up to the task.  You'll recall, my first visit to Broomfield showed I had a heart problem, it seems also that smoking since I was 11 has taken its toll on my lungs, who knew,  and during the op they would have to collapse one of them while they were having a good old dig around inside my chest and oesophageal cavities.  It may not have been as bad if I had only allowed myself to get fat but continued to at least keep fit at the same time, apparently my fitness regime like that on the right just wasn't cutting it, Oh dear!

He then went into, in great detail, the problems that I would have if I elected to still have surgery, the main one being that he and the other surgeons really thought my chances of being revived are pretty slim and even if they did manage to keep me alive then the prospects weren't good as it was likely my remaining time could be spent on a ventilator, if I was lucky! "So, I wont, as planned and as I had told everyone, be going back to work within three weeks then, says I........." "Not an option. Says he.  "I wouldn't like to say when or even if, you would be returning to work."

Not good I suspect and many of you are probably beginning to feel sorry for me now, but don't! Enjoy your lives, TAKE MORE CARE OF YOUR OWN BODIES AND LET THIS BE A SALUTATORY  LESSON TO ANYONE READING THIS - TAKE BETTER CAR OF YOUR BODIES WHILE ENJOYING LIFE.

I feel sorry not for myself, well maybe just a little bit, as I really did want, and expected to be around for many years to come. Ishbel and I have only been married for a short 37 years and she keeps telling me that women in her family live well into their 90's even knocking into the century, so while I always expected to expire before her I had hoped for at least another 20 to 30 years of making her life miserable........

Then of course there is Marie, Jennifer and Brian my wonderful kids, even although Brian seems to have fallen out with me for some reason I love them dearly and they make me laugh, often it is gut busting laughter and I in turn, do what all good dads do, I make them groan in despair at another stupid antic of mine.

Mollie, Shannon, Charlie, Holly and Lacey Mae my five adorable gorgeous smart intelligent grand kids who I so desperately wanted to be around to see them grow and develop and get into their teens and go to college and maybe university and then getting great jobs as astronauts, engineers, doctors or computer programming geniuses.  Well I hope they do go on to do some of those things, but whatever they end up doing they should know their Grand dad, him with the big belly and the bald head and the funny face will always be so proud of them and love them for eternity, even when I am not around to see and hug them.

And of course there is family and friends, especially those two bright sassy nieces who terrorise the populace of Inverness on their nights on the town and who can reduce people to speechless dumbassidy (new word) by their witty, cutting and cerebral retorts to the more idiotic of the human species who have the misfortune to be dumb-asses when the girls are around.

Brothers and sister.  We have never been a particularly close family, splitting to the compass points as soon as we were old enough to leave and make our own way with only Jim, the one above me keeping in occasional contact, that's the way it is with some families but there should be no regrets on anyone's part, it's just the way of the world.

And then of course there are the many wonderful friends, truly wonderful friends I have made on twitter and can I just say, if you are an author and you have been writing a series of books that I am reading and you aint finished that series, if you want your computer to crash at inopportune moments or the lead in your pencil to be continually breaking by incorporeal means - then don't finish the series before I pop off. On the other hand ......... just saying ........

Anyway I'm going to wrap up this with the final thought of by not going for the surgery as I have chosen as I really do not want to go in for an operation in the next week or so in the knowledge that I may not wake up again or even if I do I will be dribbling and comatose and wheezing and being a pain in the arse to everyone who come into contact with me, so I am going to enjoy the next few months or year and get a laugh out of every day and so to should you Get on with your lives, enjoy them, love your family and friends and SMILE, I am

oh and now that we have an end game of sorts I am going to try and be more interactive again on twitter and blogs, be warned .....

Love to you all