Mort (Discworld #4) by Terry Pratchett.

Mort is a young lad who gets a job as an apprentice for Death on Discworld. This is the story of how he gets on as he learns his craft.

I have NEVER read a Terry Pratchett novel before and was curious to find out why he had become a top selling author. Fantasy novels are NOT my regular reading genre but like Real Ales, I like to try different ones to see if I like them.

There are 40 novels in the Discworld series, they do NOT have to be read in sequence and are all stand-alones. Why did I chose Discworld #4 as my first book? Unashamedly, it was on special offer for just 99p and the price was right!

Mort was written in 1987, so I wondered what a book written over 30 years ago has to offer. Well, Discworld is a fantasy planet, so very different from Earth. Discworld is flat and rides on the back of four giant elephants who stand on the shell of the enormous star turtle Great A’Tuin, and which is bounded by a waterfall that cascades endlessly into space.

Mort is a fantasy tale involving wizards, magic and spells. There are 5 central characters in this tale, the main being Mort, a young lad moving into the world of work. Death is his boss and the tone of his speech is one of authority and appears “IN CAPITALS”. His daughter also has a role to play, so has a princess and a wizard. There is one animal taking a vital role, it is a horse. This is not any old horse but a special horse that belongs to Death which can fly into the air to travel extensive distances across Discland at great speed. This horse has great power and is very strong because later in the story Mort, Death’s daughter, the princess and the wizard climb onto its back and fly away! Oh yeah, whatever, this is a fantasy.

No time period is mentioned but the feel is of the dark middle ages. There is no mention of technology or modern infrastructures, far far away from our modern obsession with social media, smartphones, cars and CCTV. Yet the dialogue and attitudes between characters is relatively contemporary. For example…

The piercing blue eyes glittered at him. He looked back like a nocturnal rabbit trying to outstare the headlights of a sixteen-wheeled artic whose driver is a twelve-hour caffeine freak outrunning the tachometers of hell.

… Terry Pratchett uses an extensive vocabulary in this novel, it is NOT a children’s book and he uses some obscure and very old words. For a fantasy novel, this range of vocabulary makes for an intelligent and articulate adult read.

Terry creates his scenes with great skill and has a talent for great storytelling. For example…

Ankh- Morpork is as full of life as an old cheese on a hot day, as loud as a curse in a cathedral, as bright as an oil slick, as colourful as a bruise and as full of activity, industry, bustle and sheer exuberant busyness as a dead dog on a termite mound.

….There are odds bits of dry humour scattered through this book, for example…

‘It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever,’ he said. ‘Have you thought of going into teaching?’

…So Terry wrote this novel and how did I rate it as a reading experience?

Ah, I thought a change from my usual genres of reading would be a refreshing and delightful change. I found Terry’s writing talent was GOOD but this story LACKED DEPTH. I think Mort is a lightweight tale, which if it was on TV, people would have one eye on the screen and talk over the whole programme. I did not get much out of reading this book. I found the entertainment value was POOR and just continued reading to the very end because that is the type of guy I am. For such a top selling and popular author I was disappointed. I think that Mort is a POOR read and only gets 2 stars from me. I am glad I only paid 99p for this book and that I now know what pleases some people.

Mort was written in 1987 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Darkest Lies (The DI Hogarth Darkest Series Book 1) by Solomon Carter.

Follow Detective Inspector Joe Hogarth and his team as they investigate a murder at a Southend nightclub.

Right from the start, I felt at home with this book. It has an easy to get into British feel, like watching the hit drama Line of Duty on television. Solomon’s writing is sharp and includes ALL the extra details that give so much added value to his story.

I liked that some of the chapters were from the killer’s point-of-view. No clues to the killer’s identity were given, just what they observed and thought.

I liked the range of characters in this book, the police officers, support workers and members of the public who could all be the killer.

It was good that the killer avoided their actions appearing on CCTV, making the police work very hard to catch the bad guy. There were lots of suspects who ALL had valid motives to kill the victim.

I thought the plot was quite good and the pace was fair. However, later on my initial enthusiasm dwindled because the killer struck again when they could have walked away, leaving the police with an unsolved crime. From then onwards the book took on a familiar police chase against the clock and proved quite routine to the end. But I still think that The Darkest Lies is a GOOD read, so gets 4 stars from me.

The Darkest Lies was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Malevolent (Cases of Lieutenant Kane #1) by E. H. Reinhard.

Follow Lieutenant Carl Kane of the Tampa homicide squad as he investigates an unusual killing.

Malevolent is a regular police procedural crime thriller and it breaks no new ground. Usual range of characters making up the ranks of the police force. Regular use of the killer’s actions and motives are told through alternate chapters.

So Malevolent is quite ordinary except the method of murder employed. I found Reinhard’s writing style quite tabloid. There was nothing sharp that made me think “this is good”. Yes, there is action but I thought “so what”. I did not engage with the detectives or the killer. I found it frustrating to read that the killer could have stopped their crimes and remained a free person. The story lacked realism and became a drag to read.

There was one creepy observation, that of a victim who survived but that in essence, was more like the plot of a B-movie.

There are odd bits of humour scattered through this novel, the best being from the killer when he asks “How is my wife? Was she still watching the television? That’s all that bitch ever did.”

I was disappointed with Malevolent, I thought it was a POOR read and only gets 2 stars from me.

Malevolent was written in 2014 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French.

This book can be read as a stand-alone but follows very nicely on from In the Woods, the first novel of the Dublin Murder Squad series. The author’s voice remains the same and this is another tale told in the first person, only this time it is from the point of view of Detective Cassie Maddox.

A man walking his dog finds a body and calls the police. The victim looks very much like Detective Cassie Maddox and she is persuaded to work undercover to find the killer.

I liked the tension of this novel and what psychological effects working undercover had on Cassie. I liked the dynamics of Cassie living alongside the suspects and how she grew to like them, making you wonder about the Stockholm syndrome.

As the story progressed I wondered who the killer was and if Cassie had been sent on a wild goose chase. I liked how the other detectives interviewed people and the games they played to wear suspects down. There were some nice rivalries explored between urban and rural people. The importance of having close friends and a secure home was given centre stage with a lot of philosophy to back this up.

I liked the writing style of this novel, it was exactly the same as with In the Woods. Reading The Likeness straight after the first novel was very cosy for me. The change of central detective made no difference to me and I still felt part of the team. I found this novel very engaging and the story was great to run along with. For a crime novel, this was at the character driven end of the scale. Solving the case was not by specialist technical police work but by building strong relationships between people to understand what makes them tick.

I got a lot of pleasure from reading The Likeness and it gets the top score of 5 stars from me. I think it would make a great television drama.

What She Gave Away by Catharine Riggs.

Follow Crystal, a plus size woman, as she takes revenge on Kathi, the skinny wife of a bank’s president. This thriller is set in California and is about not only about Crystal’s revenge but size issues, lifestyle choices, workplace politics, corruption, misuse of power and banking.

I liked how this story is told in alternating chapters, so you get the story from both Crystal’s and Kathi’s sides. The main timeframe is just 2 years but frustratingly Kathi includes backstory from her old notebooks along the way.

I liked how Catharine created her character Crystal to be fat. So many novels dwell on thin women and fail to represent the demographics of contemporary society with its increased levels of obesity. Readers like to relate to the characters and having a fat lead character is a bonus.

The characterization of Crystal and Kathi was good but the timeframe switched about a little too much for my liking. Although Crystal was supposed to be the bad guy, I liked her more than Kathi, probably because of her attitude. For example, in Crystal’s chapter she writes…

He glances at my belly with a question in his eyes. I know what he’s thinking, I carry a lot of weight in my gut. But he’s taken his HR classes. He knows the rules. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. I do my best to sound earnest.

...Or it could just be me, as I find fat women more fun to be with?

I think this novel should appeal to both genders and I was not put off by it having two female lead characters.

I found the plot average and the pace plodding. By the end of the story, I got to know Crystal and Kathi really well. I liked how the book explored lifestyles and how people relate to one another.

What She Gave Away was an okay read, it was like meeting someone in passing and enjoying the conversation you shared. As a novel it was NOT outstanding but it was pleasant to read. This is Catharine’s debut novel and it shows that she has a talent that should grow. I found this book a WARM read, so it gets 3 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Thomas & Mercer for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

Truth and Lies (DI Amy Winter #1) by Caroline Mitchell.

Follow DI Amy Winter in this psychological thriller set around London and neighbouring Essex. This novel is a mixture of Police procedures, cold case reviews, the quest for justice, kidnapping, murder, identity and psychopaths ALL within the murky borders of Truth and Lies.

I really enjoyed reading Truth and Lies. It is very different from your usual crime thriller because of it’s very strong psychological aspect. Having said that, it is also very different from most psychological thrillers too. Generally with psychological thrillers, the characters are having their minds disturbed as they try to cope with their situations. In Truth and Lies, the reader is having their mind disturbed as warning flags spring up ALL the time, forcing you to second guess what is going on. Caroline really engages the reader as her plot unfolds. I thought the plot was great and when I got to the end my head was buzzing - but in a good way, as I thought “if only”.

I liked the way Truth and Lies was told, with short chapters and from different points of view. Characterization was spot on with everyone involved. Many issues were explored to make Truth and Lies a FULL story, not just a plot driven thriller. I liked how recovered memories were used and how our brains can distort reality. I liked how the psychopath gave their insight to normalize their behaviour.

What was really OUTSTANDING was the exploration of the concept of Truth and Lies. We now live in a world of fake news and this novel highlights how murky the gap between Truth and Lies can become. People can accept things as fact and the psychological workings of our beliefs are complex.

Truth and Lies was a pleasure to read because of it’s complexity. I really engaged with the story and think it would make an ideal TV drama. Caroline is clearly at the top of her game and I can find nothing wrong with this book. Truth and Lies is yet another 5 star read from Caroline Mitchell.

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and Amazon Publishing UK for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.