The GF book thread

[bossy]

The Osman books are madly popular because they are easy going, amusing, satisfying whodunnits. Defo for when the world is doing your head in and you just want to escape.

New to me author, spy fiction genre, is Mathew Richardson. Author of just 3 books i think and very good are the two I’ve read so far. Kind of old school ‘moscow rules’ in approach. Recommended. 

[Elite]

All The Sinners Bleed by S. A Cosby - 7/10 (Audible)

 

Good listen and started really well but dipped towards the end. I struggled to keep up with the different characters as most of them weren't developed very well apart from the main ones so I when different names kept appearing it was difficult to understand who they were and how they were linked. Solid entry but Razorblade Tears remains his magnum opus.

[Red74]

Mate of mine recommended the Don Winslow Power of the dog trilogy before Xmas and I’ve got to admit, it’s far better than what he said it was. 
 

One of those books that have you making attention seeking yawns on the couch so she tells you to go to bed early so you can get back into it.

 

Onto part 3 now and it’s still keeping up the pace. Been checking a few of the areas mentioned and realised it’s based on real incidents but the names have been changed to protect the author.

 

10/10 brilliantly brutal  

[SasaS]

I am guessing this is very different to the Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage and its fast moving recent film adaptation?

[Red74]

11 minutes ago, SasaS said:

I am guessing this is very different to the Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage and its fast moving recent film adaptation?

Very different, although it always defaulted to that when I was trying to find out if there’s been a movie / tv series made on it. 

[Captain Willard]

I’m reading “only a game ?” Written by Eamon Dumphy in the 1960s, it’s a real life diary about playing for Millwall. It’s absolutely brilliant. 

[NoelM]

Cover the Bones by Chris Hammer on Audible, good solid Aussie crime novel like his other books 7/10.

[SasaS]

36 minutes ago, NoelM said:

Cover the Bones by Chris Hammer on Audible, good solid Aussie crime novel like his other books 7/10.

 

Thanks. Will check him out.

[NoelM]

6 hours ago, SasaS said:

 

Thanks. Will check him out.

Scrublands is a good place to start, it's the first one and it spawns two different series of books.

[El Rojo]

Just starting White Riot by Joe Thomas, which is set in London between 1978 and 1983 and features real and fictional characters. James Ellroy and David Peace have been mentioned in a lot of descriptions, which sealed the deal for me. First part of a trilogy.

[El Rojo]

On 28/12/2023 at 12:01, Em City said:

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy - 9.5 out of 10.

 

A brilliant masterpiece and the most utterly terrifying book I have ever read. The story largely revolves around an unnamed, youthful, largely mute protagonist who falls in with a gang of bounty hunters called the Glanton gang, whom are contracted out to hunt Apaches and return their scalps for payment. When none are to be found, they claim those of Mexican and Native American villagers they find along the way their way, including woman and children. Here, might is right, nothing is sacred, violence is unrelenting in its brutality to the point of banality, and murder, greed and depravity largely goes unpunished. It is exceptionally dark and nihilistic, to the point of being unreadable, although it is interspersed with detailed and near poetic expositions on the austere beauty of the landscapes of the region in which it is set. It is a complete subversion of both the traditional Western and its revisionist equivalent whereby whites are the sole perpetrators of violence against peaceful natives. This book never shies away from the fact all men are capable of cruel violence, whether that be in the name of greed, racial supremacy or simply sadistic pleasure.

 

The themes of nihilism and the ultimate supremacy of power over morality are expressed through the antagonist - Judge Holden. He is quite possibly the most frightening and bone-chilling character in fiction. He is near seven feet tall, exceptionally strong, a polymath, as well being a sadistic, megalomaniac killer and paedophile. The events of the book are loosely based on real events taken from a book written by Samuel Chamberlain, a contemporary of the gang who travelled with them for s time. In the McCarthy's book, Judge Holden is strongly suggested to be a supernatural being, something akin to a demon, not unlike McCarthys' other bone chilling antagonist, Anton Chigurgh. The description of him in Chamberlain's contemporary account makes McCarthy's depiction feel all the more real and horrifying.

 

"The second in command, now left in charge of the camp, was a man of gigantic size who rejoiced in the name of Holden, called Judge Holden of Texas. Who or what he was no one knew, but a cooler-more blooded villain never went unhung. He stood six foot six in his moccasins, had a large, fleshy frame, a dull, tallow-colored face destitute of hair and all expression, always cool and collected. But when a quarrel took place and blood shed, his hog-like eyes would gleam with a sullen ferocity worthy of the countenance of a fiend ... Terrible stories were circulated in camp of horrid crimes committed by him when bearing another name in the Cherokee nation in Texas. And before we left Fronteras, a little girl of ten years was found in the chaparral foully violated and murdered. The mark of a huge hand on her little throat pointed out him as the ravisher as no other man had such a hand. But though all suspected, no one charged him with the crime. He was by far the best educated man in northern Mexico."

 

 

 

 

Pretty obvious where ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ ripped off their idea from. 

[Edward.]

Anyone read any Peter James Roy Grace books, just seen a load of them in the local second hand bookshop? I tend to like reading series of books.

[Paul]

On 28/12/2023 at 07:02, Paul said:

Finished the Miriam Margolyes book which was entertaining and funny. Then read Karma by Boy George which was OK. He’s not very self-critical and that irks a bit. Then I read Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros which is a fantasy novel about a school for dragon riders. It’s good although there’s a whole teenage girl sexual tension/love thing that appears from time to time which is very irritating. I’m on the second one now. 

Second one was good. Then read the latest First Contact novel which was ok. Now trying the first Richard Osman. 

[bossy]

On 16/01/2024 at 12:51, Edward. said:

Anyone read any Peter James Roy Grace books, just seen a load of them in the local second hand bookshop? I tend to like reading series of books.

They aren’t bad and very popular. If you like the first one you’ll like the others as they do have a pattern to them, kind of typically solid police procedurals and the main guy (Grace) is haunted (not literally) by a dead wife. Quite gruesome crimes.

[The wanderer]

On 10/07/2023 at 22:29, Elite said:

City of Dreams by Don Winslow is absolutely fantastic. I listened the audiobook and the narrator has that Ray Liotta Goodfellas vibe. One of my favourite ever books this one.

 

@NoelM knocking it out of the park with his last few suggestions.

I read this  straight after City on Fire . Really enjoyable cant wait for part 3 to arrive.

[SasaS]

Finished Swan Song (by Robert Rick McCammon) which was pretty pretty good, so thanks to all people who mentioned / recommended it.

A bit dated in parts (well, 1987) and the religious parable attempts came across as a bit ham-fisted, but I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic setting and this would have made a smashing TV series.

Now onto Lehane's Small Mercies.

[Edward.]

On 17/01/2024 at 22:35, bossy said:

They aren’t bad and very popular. If you like the first one you’ll like the others as they do have a pattern to them, kind of typically solid police procedurals and the main guy (Grace) is haunted (not literally) by a dead wife. Quite gruesome crimes.

All right cheers halfway through first one, not bad not great. Annoying in parts. A drunk man speaksh like thish.

[Elite]

1 hour ago, SasaS said:

Finished Swan Song (by Robert Rick McCammon) which was pretty pretty good, so thanks to all people who mentioned / recommended it.

A bit dated in parts (well, 1987) and the religious parable attempts came across as a bit ham-fisted, but I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic setting and this would have made a smashing TV series.

Now onto Lehane's Small Mercies.

I loved Swan Song. I have recently read half of The Passage by Justin Cronin but gave up as it began to bore the arse off me.

 

 

[NoelM]

6 hours ago, SasaS said:

Finished Swan Song (by Robert Rick McCammon) which was pretty pretty good, so thanks to all people who mentioned / recommended it.

A bit dated in parts (well, 1987) and the religious parable attempts came across as a bit ham-fisted, but I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic setting and this would have made a smashing TV series.

Now onto Lehane's Small Mercies.

 

I loved Small Mercies, it's a tough read with all the racism but Lehane is nearly always great.

[SasaS]

19 minutes ago, NoelM said:

 

I loved Small Mercies, it's a tough read with all the racism but Lehane is nearly always great.

 

You need a bit of racism every now and then.

[The wanderer]

Just picked up my first Jo Nesbo book , The Thirst,with Harry Hol as the star man. So far it’s pretty good

[Edward.]

2 hours ago, The wanderer said:

Just picked up my first Jo Nesbo book , The Thirst,with Harry Hol as the star man. So far it’s pretty good

The early ones are so much better.

[The wanderer]

15 hours ago, Edward. said:

The early ones are so much better.

Will check them out . Thanks 

[Elite]

On 22/01/2024 at 15:24, NoelM said:

 

I loved Small Mercies, it's a tough read with all the racism but Lehane is nearly always great.

I'm halfway through Darktown by Thomas Mullin, think you recommended it. It's very good but given the subject matter, grim at times. Definitely going to complete the trilogy.

[NoelM]

Just now, Elite said:

I'm halfway through Darktown by Thomas Mullin, think you recommended it. It's very good but given the subject matter, grim at times. Definitely going to complete the trilogy.

I did recommend it, I read it a few years ago and it is grim. I haven't read the other two yet though, I must go back.

Jamie Foxx has bought the rights to it I think.