Looking forward to…

Episode 5

Another selection in my occasional looks back at old reviews which I finished by saying something along the lines of “I’ll be looking forward to reading more of her work/this series/his books in the future” to see if I actually did read more and, if I did, did I like the ones I looked forward to as much as the ones that made me look forward to them?

Let’s see then…

Now You See Me by Sharon (SJ) Bolton

First reviewed 25^th March 2013. This is the first in Sharon Bolton’s excellent Lacey Flint police procedural series. Although I only gave it four stars, I felt the series showed a lot of potential. I said “I’m glad I stuck with the series because in the next one, Dead Scared, Lacey came into her own in a big way.” So Bolton went on my list to remind me to read her next one. But did I?

I certainly did! I’ve read all the Lacey Flints and most of the standalone thrillers Bolton has published since then. While the Laceys were consistently good – in fact, the series continued to improve as it went along – I’ve had a more mixed response to her thrillers, finding some of them great but actually abandoning one or two. When she’s on form there’s no one to touch her, though. Her most recent one, a standalone, was typically great – The Pact. Currently my TBR has three of her books on it: a recent one that I just haven’t found time to read yet, The Craftsman; one from her back catalogue from before I discovered her, ditto, Blood Harvest; and excitingly, her new one, out this month, The Dark – the first new Lacey book in years! Even with the occasional disappointment along the way, Bolton is a firm favourite, right up at the top of the current heap of contemporary crime writers.

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And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

First reviewed 3^rd April, 2013. The story of one Afghan family and their descendants as they become part of the diaspora caused by the never-ending wars in Afghanistan. I loved Hosseini’s writing, and said “Within the first few pages of this book, the reader knows s/he’s in the hands of a master storyteller.” I immediately wanted to read everything he’d written. But did I?

Well, not entirely. I quite quickly read the book he’s best known for, The Kite Runner, and though I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it to the same degree. This isn’t really Hosseini’s fault – over the last decade I have gradually developed a reluctance to read the zillions of books written by emigrants or descendants of emigrants who haven’t lived as an adult in the country about which they choose to write as if with some insider knowledge. Hosseini left Afghanistan as a young child and didn’t visit it again until around the time The Kite Runner was published, and therefore his books are clearly based on research or vicarious information rather than first hand knowledge and experience. Not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with that, but I have come to prefer books written by people who live or have lived in the country they’re writing about, or who write clearly from the perspective of an outsider. The “immigrant experience” has surely also been done to death in recent years, and unfortunately The Kite Runner has that theme too. The result is that I’ve never got around to acquiring the only other book he has published to date, A Thousand Splendid Suns, also about Afghanistan, and I’m not sure I ever will. It’s not you, Mr Hosseini, it’s me.

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You Have to Tell by J Sanclemente

First reviewed 7^th April 2013. To be honest, this one has faded completely from my memory. My review tells me the plot is a cross between an international conspiracy and a murder mystery. I gave it four stars and said “this is a good first novel, enjoyable and even thought-provoking, and I look forward to seeing more from this author in the future.” But did I?

I did not! I have never consciously thought of the book or the author since the day I posted my review. So I had a look to see what else he had published in the interim, and discovered that I had been wrong about this being a first novel. Apparently he’s written loads in his native Spanish, and this was merely the first to be translated. And, as far as I can see, the last! If any of his books ever happen my way again, I’d happily read another, but he’s no longer on my list to look out for.

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A Dark and Broken Heart by RJ Ellory

First reviewed 9^th April 2013. This is a thrilling noir novel told from the perspective of an anti-hero of epic proportions – the man with the dark and broken heart of the title. I said “This is a superbly told and completely compelling roller coaster of a story – bleak, often violent, but never without the possibility of redemption.” I loved it so much it won the FF Award for Best Noir Thriller of 2012, the prize as always being that I guaranteed to read the author’s next novel. But did I?

I did! Ah, RJ Ellory – one of the more problematic authors on my list. He has a history of using pseudonyms to praise himself online, which might be forgivable, though posting five star reviews of your own books seems a bit… well, let’s be kind and call it quirky. What’s rather less forgivable is that he has also been caught out using pseudonyms to leave unfairly negative reviews on the books of rival authors. And yet he does write wonderful thrillers! Not all the time – a bit like Sharon Bolton, I swing from loving some of his books to being rather disappointed with others. And there’s no doubt his reputation now means he has to work harder to get my somewhat reluctantly-given approval – one reason I prefer to know as little as possible about the authors of the books I read! I’ve read maybe half a dozen of his books, some of them pre-blogging, and have City of Lies, reputed to be one of his best, sitting on my TBR. It’s been there for a long time though… must try to get over my reluctance…

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A much more mixed batch this time – one forgotten, a couple I’ve grown reluctant about, though for very different reasons, and the wonderful Sharon Bolton! Three more men, and one woman. Thank goodness the woman is the one that is most firmly still on my list! (If you know anything bad about her, please, please, don’t tell me! 😉 )

Have you read any of these authors?
Are they on your “looking forward to” list?