Recently Read August/September

I didn't read a huge amount over the last couple of months because I discovered Pretty Little Liars and got sucked in completely. When I did manage to pick up a book I read some good'uns however:

The Age Of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

I loved this book, it gripped me from the start. Julia is a young teenager who wakes up on a regular Saturday morning to the startling news that the rotation of the Earth has altered- there is no longer a set 24 hour clock, the days and nights are longer, what used to be night time is now day time and vice versa. Each day has extra minutes and there's no way of knowing how long or how short each new day will be. So far, so weird. What I found really interesting about this was that the author really thought about the effect this would have on everything- gravity, the tides, the weather, birds, animals, human behaviour etc and because of this it made it all the more creepy- I found myself constantly going "that could happen like that!". Also because the story is told from the perspective of an adolescent girl, it feels more realistic somehow- because her experiences of growing up and being a normal teenager in a now very abnormal world are explored it feels like a global story told on a more personal level- that of a coming-of-age tale, and I liked that juxtaposition. 

The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

I'm a big fan of Marian Keyes and had been meaning to read this for a while but I'd come across some slightly negative reviews of this, so I held off on picking it up. I'm so glad I did though because I really liked it. Helen Walsh is a private investigator, badly affected by the economic downturn and because of this, agrees to work for her ex-boyfriend (a music manager), in order to locate a missing boyband member. Helen herself suffers from depression, which she battles throughout the book as she also works at solving the mystery. Like all of the author's books, this is very witty and rather quirky. At first glance, Helen Walsh isn't a particlarly likeable character and this certainly is not what I would describe as "chick lit" (a title Marian Keyes has been erroneously given in my opinion) as it can be a bit dark in places but she really grew on me and the fact that she is a bit eccentric made her all the more intriguing. I was really rooting for her and also found the exploration of the character's depression very interesting. Aside from that, the actual mystery itself was well thought out- I hadn't figured out the solution at all and was kicking myself that I hadn't! Overall, a very enjoyable read. 

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robbert Galbraith (technically J.K Rowling though)

I listened to this one on an audio book and got a really good feel for the characters because of that. They were all very well developed and I really enjoyed Rowling's style of writing, having never read any of her books before (I know, for shame). Cormoran Strike is an overweight, unlucky-in-love, war damaged private detective who is hired to investigate the apparent suicide of a supermodel. With the help of his newly appointed secretary Robyn, they endeavour to sift through the many unusual aspects of this case to find out what really happened. This book is very well written, there's a real web of intrigue that you get sucked into quite easily with many different and interesting characters. A very engaging "who dunnit".

A Study in Scarlet and The Sign Of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I also hadn't read any of Sir Conan Doyle's books before but love the tv series Sherlock so I was interested to see what the books are like. This is one of only four full Holmes novels, the rest are short stories and this is the first introduction to Holmes and Watson- where and how they first meet, move in to Baker St and tackle their first case together. This turns out to be a dead body found in an abandond rural manor. There's blood in the room but not belonging to the victim, in fact there's no mark on the victim whatsoever. The only clue is the word "rache" (revenge) scrawled on the wall. From there, another body is found in unusal circumstances and Holmes and Watson are called in to aid the rather bumbling detectives in finding the killer. Then, out of nowhere the book goes off on a massive flashback tangent- basically telling you the back story of the murderer who up unil now we haven't even been introduced to. This part baffled me a little bit to be honest and it also has come in for a lot of criticism over the years apparently, mostly because there is no way the reader could have solved the case for themselves, which takes the fun out of it a litte bit. At the end, Holmes gives a lengthy speech on his brilliance and how he pieced all the parts of the puzzle together but to be honest, it's hard to be in awe of him when he's privy to information that us mere readers aren't. Having said that, I actually really enjoyed the style of writing, finding it unexpectedly modern and I will definitely be reading more from Sherlock soon.

Have you read any of these? Read anything good lately I should be looking at?
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