October in Books

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

For a second month in a row, I’m tempted to give up on the monthly reading summaries. I had full weeks with no reading whatsoever. No excuses for me – shelves are stocked with highly respected books. Nothing felt right. I couldn’t find time for it or when I found time, couldn’t keep my attention on the books long enough to gobble them like I’d normally do. I wouldn’t say I did anything particularly interesting in the time slots I’d normally use for reading.

Best book

  • What Happened That Night by Nicci French – 4/5 but nice 4, rather than bad 4. I chose to not use the new half-star ratings on Goodreads for consistency with my previous decades of using the service. It was one of the books that you identify as not great but it is so interesting that you want to keep reading. So overall, I think it was the best and I should keep reading the series.

Not the best book

  • Survivor’s Quest by Timothy Zahn – 3/5, a space opera with Jedi. Found it boring but objectively, the story wasn’t bad. Perhaps if it wasn’t with Jedi, it could’ve been an easy 4/5. Jedi masters are too powerful and don’t face real resistance by non-Sith opponents. There were no real reasons for Luke Skywalker to be in this book.
  • Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames – 5/5, a very well made story but difficult to read. I think the target audience is folks who are into epic fantasy. This book got me deep into the reader’s block, so I think it was the worst for the month, despite the clear 5* review. A book can be generally good, but at the same time bad for me. I think Bloody Nose would’ve been a better name 🙂

What Happened That Night by Nicci French

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

29 years ago, someone killed Leo. The murderer Taylor got convicted and stayed in jail for most of his life. He’s now out of jail under supervision. Out of the million things he could’ve done when out, he decided to gather a group of 10-ish friends in an Agatha Christie type event and tell them it was one of them who killed Leo. That wasn’t very smart of him and lead to another murder, for which he got immediately arrested.

I got strong Agatha Christie vibes, with clues dropped left and right, pointing in different directions. As it turns out, everyone’s business is dirty but not everyone is responsible for a murder. Will Maud O’Conner figure it out? Will you guess the murderer(s) before she does?

Nicci French writes the Maud O’Conner books in distinct parts. First part shows a terribly unfair event. Second part shows Maud O’Conner bringing justice. The first part in this book is clearly separated and about 100-150 pages long. This is actually better than the previous two books, where we had to suffer a lot longer to get to the point. I think the first part shouldn’t have been longer than 30-40 pages.

I gave the book 4/5 on Goodreads. It was quite good, after the first 100-150 pages, may even be my top pick for the month.