In Which We Discuss Sleep Tight

I listened to this as an audiobook, so one issue became apparent immediately.  Two main characters are sisters, performing similar jobs.  The author does not often refer to them by their first names during scenes, or at least, not throughout.  The reader does not differentiate between them vocally.  So I end up listening to a few scenes with only the faintest idea of who was talking.  I actually listened to the first three hours, got hopelessly confused, and then started it again from the beginning so I could understand what was happening.

Once I got over that issue I quite enjoyed the book, as you can tell from my rating.  It focuses on a murder investigation, with some callbacks to an earlier event in the character's lives.  I did wonder if this book was a sequel to one which described the events of that book, but it doesn't appear to be - they really are just internal callbacks.

The murderer is an unusual one.  He reminded me a little of The Collector, although we spend much less time in this killer's head.  Nor is the book as memorable as The Collector; I finished it two weeks ago and I would now struggle to summarise the denouement.   This does mean I'll get to read it and enjoy the mystery again - possibly following it slightly better - so that's not altogether a downside.

I do quite enjoy mystery and crime stories, as you might be able to tell from my shelves.  This one didn't disappoint me; the mystery was quite intriguing and overall it was enjoyable journey of discovery.

I received an Audible code for this book from the author, hence why I stuck with it and made a point of writing a review of it.  I was not disappointed to have read it, and nor did I feel like I had to force myself to complete it.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 27th Year, Week 34/52

Six books last week; that's 31st March to the 6th of April.  Four I'd read before; only two were new to me.

Caradoc's Quest was one of those.  It's part of the Six World's Saga, one of which I read and enjoyed in my early teens.  It's set in a future where humanity has gone to stars, populating six planets which circle two twinned stars.  All religion has been lost - no religion but Christianity appears to have ever existed - and the heros are general trying to bring Christanity back.  I'm an atheist, but I attended a Catholic school, and I'll tell you this for nothing; the Bible is pretty epic.  If you ignore any real life implications and just read it as a story it's a long, winding saga about one family and the shenanigans they get up to.  If the book was the one ring, this thing would be fun than Tolkien.  The Qu'ran and the Torah are the same; they're very broadly the same story, literally the same family.  The Torah disagrees on the point of Jesus, and the Qu'ran splits off on the point of whether it was Isaac or Ishmael that Abraham/Ibrahim tried to sacrifice before god called 'psych!'.  If you've read The Handmaid's Tale then allow me to point out that this is the story used to justify the handmaid's; Sarah, Abraham's wife believed she was too older to bear children, so she encouraged Abraham to have a child with a concubine.  Later, she was actually able to have a son.  The latter was Isaac, the former Ishmael.  So it does seem odd that the society of The Handmaid's Tale is based on Christianity, when this particular story would better suit their needs in the Islamic interpretation.  Though, on second thought, it's not that odd; they were using whatever they could to justify what they wanted to do, rather than letting conclusions come from information.  Reminds me of an argument I had with an ex-housemate; he insisted that being gay was wrong because "it's in the Bible"; when I asked him about adultery and shellfish he claimed those examples were irrelevant because "people don't care about those".  Totally incapable of recognising his own circular logic there.

American Gods is a book I first read a few years ago; it's set in a world where Gods work based on belief and many travellers brought their gods to America with them.  The old Gods are going to war with the new Gods, and there's a whole boatload of symbolism, as well as some lampshade-hanging on how similar many of the stories are.

Clare in the Community - season 6 and 7 this week - is a radio show, with the titular Clare voiced by Sally Phillips.  She's lovely.  I particularly like her work in Smack the Pony.

Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography is another book I've read before.  It have the audiobook, which loses something in the translation; I'm tempted to borrow the physical book from the library, especially after reading this lovely review by Emily Short.

Finally, Sleep Tight is the other book which was new to me; it's an audiobook I was given by the author, so I do need to write a specific post for it!