What I've Been Reading:'Sharp Objects' by Gillian Flynn

I've wanted to read Gillian Flynn's debut novel pretty much since it was released in 2009 but as so often happens, I just never got round to it. Until I stumbled across it in the Amazon Kindle Summer Sale for £1.99 and decided that was too good an offer to pass up. I devoured the book in a matter of days and while it's been a couple of weeks since I finished it, I still can't quite get the characters out of my head.

Chicago newspaper journalist Camille Preaker has just been assigned the most difficult job of her career. There's been a nasty child murder in her home town of Wind Gap, Missouri and Camille's boss wants her to head back into her past and get the full story. But Camille's hometown is full of ghosts, memories of pain, sadness and loss. Going back there may not be the best idea.

Triggered by the death of her young sister Marian when she was thirteen, Camille began carving her grief into her skin. Now, aged 32, she's finally put the self harm behind her but the visible memories remain. Camille's skin is covered in words, cut into her skin as an addictive form of self expression. Only one spot on her body remains free from words - a tiny circle of skin on her lower back that she had been unable to reach. But once she's back in Wind Gap, there's more than the words on her skin to remind Camille of her troubled past. There's her mother Adora to do that. Not to mention being surrounded by the High School cliques she grew up with and who seem stuck in the past, re-enacting their School days in an adult setting. As Camille comes to realise, nothing ever really changes after High School. We just get older.

But Camille has more to battle than her new proximity to her mother and thirteen year old half-sister Amma. She has her job to contend with. Two gruesome murders have plagued Wind Gap. Two pre-teen girls have been killed and their teeth pulled out. Who would do this kind of thing? Surely it must be someone from out of town, some drifter with a penchant for cruelty? I mean, no Wind Gap resident would ever kill one of their own, would they?

As Camille delves deeper into the mystery of the murdered girls, she finds herself sucked into her old life. Her troubled relationship with her mother is slowly re-emerging and the strangely Lolita-esque Amma is sending out confusing signals. What exactly does she want from Camille?

This is more than your simple Crime novel. This is a psychologically taut and emotionally deep novel. It's not afraid to touch on the more traumatic elements of family life and that's what I liked most about it. Camille is a complex character (one of my favourite kinds of character) with an even more complex history. And the relationship that she and her sister Amma have with their mother is incredibly disturbing and psychologically intriguing. 

This is one of the best crime novels I've ever read and Camille is definitely one of the best narrators I've read so far this year. I'd love to read a sequel that shows where Camille is now and how she's doing with her life. I'd recommend this novel to anyone who likes psychologically taut drama. And as you've probably guessed, I'm giving this a 5/5.

What I've Been Reading:'Heart-Shaped Bruise' by Tanya Byrne

Firstly - Oh. My. God! 

I read this novel in what was literally one sitting - several hours curled up on the sofa unable to release the book from my death-grip. When my partner came home from work, I carried on reading, practically ignoring her until I'd turned the last page.

Emily is... well actually there are two Emily's. There is the Emily that the tabloids have declared Evil and there's the Emily who pours out her heart in a diary night after night as she attempts to come to terms with what she has done.

Emily is a resident of the Psychiatric wing of Archway Young Offender's Institute. She is awaiting trial but everybody knows who she is and for Emily there's no doubt that she is guilty. The daughter of infamous London Gangster, Harry Koll, everybody is scared of Emily. And with reason. She was the one who ruined a girl. She is the one who did something 'Evil' and unforgiving purely to destroy 16 year old Juliet, the girl who stabbed her father.

Through a notebook found in one of the rooms after the Institute was closed, we get the chance to see into the crumbling mind of Emily as she pieces together her story, the fragmented reality of how she ended up behind bars.

The tabloids have labelled Emily Evil, the product of a Mobster family. But until the night Juliet stabbed Emily's father in self-defense after he'd murdered her own father, Emily had no idea that her dad was more than a mechanic. The tabloids however, would never print the story of how her whole world tumbled down around her ears that night, how her innocent eyes were opened to her father's murderous ways. The tabloids and the public only want to see what Emily did to hurt Juliet.

Tanya Byrne opens up the world of a Young Offenders Institute and candidly shows us the inside of a mind struggling to grasp the pain she has caused and the pain she is feeling.

We're not supposed to like Emily so much as come to understand her. But as I was reading I grew fond of this tortured teenager and wanted her to find some kind of personal resolution. I wanted her to find hope.

It probably helped that I saw a lot of myself in Emily. I don't mean that I'm capable of the things Emily did. It's just that so much of what she thinks and feels resonated with me. I wish I'd had this book as a teen. It's up there with 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' in terms of gripping, heart-wrenching, compulsive reading. I adored it.

5/5

What I've Been Reading: 'Mr Suit' by Nigel Bird

I was sent a copy of 'Mr Suit' by Nigel Bird as part of a Goodreads.com giveaway. The novella was described as a "noir farce...that delights in the dark humour of the situation as much as it explores the deeper issues relating to painless release".

I can't seem to decide exactly what it is I thought of this novella. I'll admit that the idea was a good one - Archie, an ex mobster with locked-in syndrome wants to die and unable to help him herself, his wife asks head mobster Mr Suit to arrange his death for her. Things don't go to plan and she finds herself making the slowest get-away possible with her wheelchair-bound husband in tow. The story leaps from one chaotic mis-adventure to the next and it did keep me entertained throughout but I did feel as though it was lacking something. I don't think I connected with the characters enough for me to care what happened to Archie and when Mr Suit kidnaps his daughter, Miriam, I felt as though I didn't really know enough about her to worry about her safety. I feel as though she could have been more of a presence earlier on in the novella and that way I might have been more incensed by her situation. As it was, there were times when I struggled to see Archie as 'real', as more than a body stuffed in the corner.

The ending was a surprise that admittedly I didn't see coming. There were some good twists along the way that kept me guessing and all in all, this was an entertaining read that did manage to keep me interested. I think it could of benefited from being longer - perhaps extended into a novel. We need more time as a reader to identify and grow to care about the characters.

The one major downfall for me was the very obvious mistake on page 19 - the attempt to resuscitate somebody while in the recovery position. You can't pound on somebody's chest while they're on their side. Sometimes a little research goes a long way...

All in all, it was an entertaining but slightly flat read.

Rating: 3/5 

What I've Been Reading: 'The Bone Collector' by Jeffery Deaver

'The Bone Collector' by Jeffery Deaver

On my girlfriend's suggestion, I watched the film version of 'The Bone Collector' a couple of years ago and loved it. Since then I've wanted to read the book but knew I needed to wait a suitable length of time in order to forget the plot and the identity of the culprit. A couple of weeks ago I found a copy of the novel for £1 in a charity shop and realised that I really couldn't remember much of what happens in the film and decided to snap it up.

I started this book on Sunday evening and finished it this afternoon (Tuesday), which is surprisingly quick considering the novel is over 300 pages long. But I simply couldn't put it down. I loved the film, but the original novel is just so, so much better.

Lincoln Rhyme is one of those flawed hero's that I just can't help but relate to. Bed-bound and paralysed from the neck down, except for one ring-finger that by some fluke retained feeling and mobility, Rhyme is on the brink of suicide. Or would be, if he could just find a doctor to help him complete the act. Finally, after years of searching, he has come across Dr Berger, a member of an assisted suicide group who is willing to help him follow through. The only problem is, Lincoln Rhyme's life has just become incredibly busy.

An ex-detective, Rhyme is New York's foremost expert in criminology and the perfect man to uncover the answers to a murder that has just taken place. Well, he would be if he could leave his bed and walk the scene. Instead he must make use of the officer who was first on the scene, Amelia Sachs, a police officer with as much history as Rhyme and a temperament to match his own.

Unexpectedly, they make the perfect team, and working as his legs and eyes, Amelia aids Rhyme in working the case that is causing uproar in New York city. Without giving anything away to those who haven't seen the film, I'll say that the novel is full of twists and turns and unexpected clues and insights. As you read, you find yourself racking your brains to figure things out but it's all so complex and curious that you just can't. And, like all the best murder mysteries, just when you think you've figured out who the murderer is, the rug is whipped out from under you and you realise you were wrong and the answer was there all along, staring you in the face.

This is a brilliant book, and it's got me wanting to read the rest of the Lincoln Rhyme series. I'd definitely recommend it to anybody who like me doesn't read crime fiction that much but likes to dip into the genre every now and then.

'The Bone Collector' gets a big (bony) thumbs up from me.