Dead Sleep (2006)

By Greg Iles
Another thriller – in this, our heroine, Jordan Glass, is a burnt-out photojournalist whose twin sister vanished over a year ago from her home in New Orleans and is thought to have been the victim of serial killer. While in Hong Kong, Jordan stumbles across an exhibition of paintings, all of nude women, who may be sleeping but look more like they may be dead. And – one is an exact portrait of Jordan’s sister! (And therefore also of Jordan). Jordan immediately contact the FBI agents investigating the disappearances in New Orleans with this new information, and the story goes from there.

This was quite a nifty book, plot wise – nicely written too, and the author has certainly done some research regarding painting and art authentication. However…the character of Jordan bugged me from the start. She’s a pretty hard-nosed character – she’s tough, she gets what she wants, has had to survive in a man’s world etc etc – and I wondered if I was suffering from some culturally inflicted misogynism that disapproves of a somewhat mannish woman. Or did I succumb to my prejudices regarding men who write from the female perspective? (I.e. It never quite works). Whichever, I felt Jordan didn’t ring true. It felt like Iles was trying a bit too hard to make her a post-feminism modern woman – and yet a woman of which men would approve. Tough, but non-threatening all round. I don’t know, I’m babbling now. But not a bad read – I’ll give Iles another go.

So, is it possible for a man to write convincingly from a woman’s perspective, and vice versa? People seem to get in trouble, for example, for writing from the perspective of a black underprivileged drag queen if they are in fact a straight, upper-class white chick, but nobody blinks twice at men writing as women and so on. Not that I think you should blink, I think anyone should be free to write in the character of whoever they like – just that your resulting book might not be terribly convincing to anyone who really is a black underprivileged drag queen. The trouble with my theory is that I can’t judge its validity from anyone else’s perspective – I can only really judge books portraying white middle-class women of a certain age, after all.

Rating: 7 out of 10

The Hard Way (2006)

By Lee Child
If you were in a tight spot and you could call anyone in the world, living or dead, real or unreal, anyone at all to help you out, who would you call? Miss Marple? Ha! MacGyver? Ha! Ha! Batman? Don’t make me laugh. Let me tell you who I’D call – Jack Reacher, that’s who. You wanna know why? Well for starters, he’s a six foot something ex-military policeman who knows his guns, ammo and the most effective places to punch people, AND quite attractive and incredibly buff, but mainly because he’s a GODDAMN GENIUS. Sherlock Holmes has got nothing on Reacher’s powers of deduction, let me tell you. Jack Reacher is the ultimate blend of brains and brawn.

OK, I confess, I’ve read all the Jack Reacher novels, and this is the latest. So I’m a fan. Reacher left the army many years ago and kind of drifts around the US, solving all the problems which invariably and incredibly coincidentally drop in his lap. (He’s not unlike Miss Marple in that way). Also, he sleeps with a different woman in every book – strange how women seem to find Reacher completely irresistible. Were these books written by a man? Let me check…

In this adventure he becomes involved with a group of ex-US-military mercenaries – the wife of the boss mercenary has been kidnapped, and Reacher just happened to witness a critical piece of evidence in the whole deal. It was a bit slow to get going, but by golly pretty soon I was hooked. Every so often when reading one of Reacher’s adventures it crosses my mind that this is all a bit far-fetched (the start of this novel, for example), but usually I’m enjoying the book too much to care. Maybe don’t read several in a row though; the plot devices and even Reacher's own infallible geniusness start to wear a bit thin.

Also I had a moment of unease near the end of the book where Lee Child writes that “…the remorse gene was missing from his DNA. Entirely. It just wasn’t there.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this may make Jack Reacher a registered and card-carrying sociopath – let’s just be glad he’s on our side.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Deal Breaker (2006)

By Harlan Coben
Well, I have to say I really quite liked this book. A classic it ain’t, but the hero, Myron Bolitar (ex star basketballer and FBI agent turned sports agent) is really quite good – he’s always got a smart line with which to annoy the bad guys. Myron’s newest star is footballer Christian Steele, who, on the cusp of a very profitable NFL contract, receives evidence that suggests his dead ex-girlfriend might not be dead at all – and so of course Myron has to investigate. It helps that Christian’s ex-girlfriend was the sister of Myron’s ex-girlfriend, with whom Myron is keen to reconcile.

Myron is assisted in all of this by his best friend and business partner Win (short for Windsor Horne Lockwood III) who is a sort of cross between Richie Rich and a sociopath with a black belt. Apart from some amusing banter with Myron, I wasn’t sure I approved of Win; he kills too many people and seems to enjoy it.

Another author to remember for a good holiday read though.

Rating: 6 out of 10

The Prisoner of Zenda (2003)

By Anthony Hope
Okay this one’s not being counted in my Readathon tally either – again, I only got up to about page 50 before giving up. This is one of those “oh-my-god-you-look-just-like-the-King-who-has-just-mysteriously-disappeared-can-you-fill-in-for-him-and-get-it-on-with-his-chick?” books, written in “Boys Own Adventure” style. The Swashbuckling Hero is Rudolph Rassendyll, on holiday from England in the green forests of Zenda. The Bad Guy is “That damned hound, Black Michael”, the King’s brother. People say “Courage, lad!” to each other, look “paler than was his wont” and seem to bite their moustaches a lot when they’re nervous (??). There’s lots of drinking and smiting. It even features the odd buxom wench and rosy damsel!

I often like this kind of book (I’m eagerly waiting for the word “cad” to come back in style) but this was very tedious – too tedious to laugh at even. Don’t bother – I’m pretty sure a film was made of this one and for once I feel that the movie must be superior.

Rating: 0 out of 10

Fahrenheit 451 (2004)

By Ray Bradbury
It was such a relief to read this book after trudging through Ulysses and other books requiring intense concentration. Here’s an author who calls a flame thrower a flame thrower. Guy Montag is a “fireman” who’s job it is to burn books (with flame throwers!!), but who comes to the realisation that maybe there’s something to them after all. It feels a bit lightweight somehow, and even though Bradbury is trying to be all meaningful and so on it reads more like a potboiler - sort of a science fiction Mills and Boon, if that makes sense. (OK it doesn't really). Still, I kind of enjoyed it – I might give Bradbury another go sometime, maybe after I’ve actually finished Ulysses, in order to realign my brain to normalcy.

Rating 6 out of 10

The DaVinci Code (2004)

By Dan Brown
I bought this book at Melbourne airport, as the Virginia Woolf I was reading at the time really wasn’t working out. Woolf requires solitude and silence, which is not what you find in the average departure lounge.

The DaVinci Code proved to be an excellent departure lounge novel, although I suspect if I read it in silence and solitude it might not hold up so well – it did cross my mind once or twice that the whole thing was a bit far-fetched. However, whether it was gory murders, albino monks, high-tech surveillance gear, secret societies or pagan sex rites, the DaVinci Code had it all. You could even pretend you were educating yourself about the history of Christianity at the same time. I would have liked a few more Matthew-Reilly-style italics to let me know when things were really amazing, though.

Perhaps I should try re-reading The Flanders Panel in a departure lounge, to see if I like it better? Incidentally, the DaVinci Code was fairly free of VTA (Violence Towards Art), except for a few Caravaggios that were handled rather roughly.

Rating: 8 out of 10