THE LAST KINGDOM
I have just re-read Warriors in the Storm, just to jog my memory before reading The Flame Bearer. Like the Sharpe series the descriptions of life and particularly fighting are very believable, with Sharpe there are sources to describe what it was like as a starting point, but Uhtred has had to be imagined without the same sources. However he has constructed the world that is very believable , much more so that the rather silly TV Viking series, his description of fighting in a shield wall conveys how frightening it must have been.
The notes at the end where he tells us what he has made up puts the "History" into perspective, but I feel however he has conjured up the descriptions, they bring what is already a great story even more interest. I particularly like the arguments between the Pagan and Christian ways, and the ghosts of Rome that permeate the landscape.
A series just as enjoyable as Sharpe, and if my memory serves me well, Hornblower. I do like these sagas that use History as a backdrop to a "cracking yarn".
Peter Robinson
Abattoir Blues
The fact that I realised I had already read it in the first five pages and it must have been in the last two years, and the fact that I read it again and enjoyed it, tells how much I like this author.
This is despite the fact that I hate the TV rendition of DCI Banks. This is a case when I had already formed my own image of Banks before the TV series, I liked the book version of Banks, but hate the TV version, which may have something to do with the fact that I think the actor always looks like he's about to start crying, whatever role he is in.
The book though has believable characters, a captivating plot along with the added interest of trying to decide which part of the countryside is real and which is invented, especially as it is a part of the world we ride in regularly. I can't judge accuracy of Police Procedures but I do question the transportation of a £100,000 tractor in the back of a furniture van, along with a motorbike, and if he drove the van to the murder site, how did his motorbike get there?
As I said though a good read, ignore the TV.
STEPHEN BOOTH
SECRETS OF DEATH
I had to ponder over this one, I read it quickly because it was drawing me on, I didn't have to ponder because I didn't know if I enjoyed it, I did. What sent me into a pensive mood was; how much enjoyment I got through the development of the characters through the whole series (which I have read and enjoyed), how much I got through familiarity with Derbyshire (as a visitor), or from the development of the plot.
All I can say is I advise the reading of the series in order, I think this is the sixteenth. All have been enjoyable. As I said earlier the series breeds familiarity with the central characters, I always do wonder though, not just with Stephen Booth but with many other crime novels, are all superior Police Officers as bad as portrayed?
