Crime & Thrillers

This is one of the best audio books that I have listened to for some time - out of about 250 in all! William Boyd's books transfer to audio really well, and 'Restless' is no exception. He always has a thoughtful and believable plot, characters are interesting and well drawn, the story both grips and provokes, the pace of the book never lets up, and it is never for a moment dull. He gets inside of the mind of what it might have been like to be a spy, trusting no-one.

The background detail is very convincing too (though I heard him on the radio saying that he had made much of it up!).

Narration is excellent too.

Get this book - you will not be disappointed.

I am a great fan of Ian Rankin's Rebus books, and this - alas the final one it seems - is well up to the high standard of its predecessors. As ever, Ian Rankin builds up the complexity of the plot layer by layer before peeling them away to unlock the puzzle, and the pace gathers nicely as the story unfolds. Rebus is a great character and the supporting cast are as well drawn as ever.

This is my first audio version of a Rebus tale, and I was a little apprehensive as I had a picture in my mind of the characters from reading the earlier books, and I had not previously been a great fan of Tom Cotcher as a narrator, so could see the potential for a clash.

But to be fair he does a very fine job, and greatly adds to the enjoyment of the book, painting as he does a vivid picture of the various characters, and the essence of the Scots background. Indeed, I think I might well be tempted to listen to earlier stories in the series, having greatly enjoyed this one.

Strongly recommended.

James Ellroy is something of an acquired taste and wont be to your liking if you are, say, an Agatha Christie fan. His characters are invariably amoral, foul-mouthed and very violent, and his storylines are gory and sexually explicit. The movie, 'LA Confidential' though a great film is a highly sanitised version of the real James Ellroy. But if you can past all this you are in for a great read. The Black Dahlia is, to my mind one of his very best books. A complex and tangled tale, with a superbly detailed plot with a wide cast of deftly drawn characters, it grips from beginning to end with an unstoppable drive. The narration is not all that it might be - a bit one paced and the characters could be better distinguished - but it is the story that counts and this is definitely five star.