investigation Archives

Yzabel / June 1, 2019

Review: Seeking the Truth

Through Lya’s Eyes – Volume 1 – Seeking the Truth by Carbone
My rating: [usr 3]

Blurb:

The day before her seventeenth birthday, Lya’s life changed forever. Hit by a speeding car and left for dead, she lost the use of her legs as well as some of her faith in the world… Lya learned to live again with the support of her parents. But having discovered that someone bought their silence, Lya is determined to unmask the perpetrator and obtain justice. Her search for the truth takes her to a famous law firm… and down a dangerous path. With the help of her friend Antoine, she’ll stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it all…

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

A fairly good story about Lya, a young woman who’s been left a paraplegic after a hit-and-run when she was 17. Four years have passed, and she’s as decided as ever to find out what really happened: the person who hit her left her for dead and never alerted anyone, which meant she was discovered only hours later… a few hours that made all the difference between her getting her ability to walk back and remaining in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. So, her investigation and her motives are definitely understandable, and something that made me root for her.

I found the drawing style really beautiful, all in softness and subtlety (the black/dark line-art that’s very typical of comics is absent here), while also deftly making use of different colour palettes depending on the atmosphere it depicts, especially reds and blues.

The characters, in general, are engaging, even though they’re not necessarily very deep: Lya is brave and determined (not only to discover the truth, but also simply to live her life without letting her disability get in the way). Her best friend, Antoine, supports her all the way in both these endeavours, and helps her as best as he can. Adèle, the receptionist, is a bubbly young woman who immediately helps Lya get her marks at the practice. De Villegan, the lawyer, is antipathic and yells at his own intern, and looks like the perfect villain. There is room for more surprises in that regard, but their roles are quickly and easily defined, with the clichés this implies.

The investigation itself is not complex, as mostly what Lya needs it to read a file kept at the practice, but the story doesn’t shy away from limitations that an able-bodied person wouldn’t mean: the archives are only accessible by stairs, and so Lya has to be creative as to how she’s going to access them—getting discouraged and giving up is never an option for her. The downside for me was that while she encountered setbacks, I thought they were (too) easily circumvented, so there wasn’t so much tension to speak of here.

This first volume ends on a strong cliffhanger, and I guess this will be a make-it-or-break-it-deal for more than one person. This said, I did find it quite appropriate: if you’re going to have a cliffhanger, might as well have this one (and not one based on something else in the story).

Conclusion: 3 stars because all in all, I liked the story and the art, and want to read volume 2, but the pacing and tension could’ve been handled better.

Yzabel / February 25, 2016

Review: Try Not To Breathe

Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon

My rating: [rating=2]

Blurb:

Some secrets never die. They’re just locked away.

Alex Dale is lost. Destructive habits have cost her a marriage and a journalism career. All she has left is her routine: a morning run until her body aches, then a few hours of forgettable work before the past grabs hold and drags her down. Every day is treading water, every night is drowning. Until Alex discovers Amy Stevenson. Amy Stevenson, who was just another girl from a nearby town until the day she was found unconscious after a merciless assault. Amy Stevenson, who has been in a coma for fifteen years, forgotten by the world. Amy Stevenson, who, unbeknownst to her doctors, remains locked inside her body, conscious but paralyzed, reliving the past.

Soon Alex’s routine includes visiting hours at the hospital, then interviews with the original suspects in the attack. But what starts as a reporter’s story becomes a personal obsession. How do you solve a crime when the only witness lived but cannot tell the tale? Unable to tear herself away from her attempt to uncover the unspeakable truth, Alex realizes she’s not just chasing a story—she’s seeking salvation.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

An OK read, though I wouldn’t go further than that. I could guess easily enough who the culprit was (there are plenty of hints if you pay attention), and while chasing those was fun, in retrospect, there weren’t many really “suspenseful” moments—everything was well-packed by the end.

Told through the point of view of three characters mostly, the story deals with the mystery surrounding the coma in which Amy Stevenson has spent the past 15 years of her life, after having been assaulted and left for dead. She’s still here, in her head, her mind still active, but very sluggishly, as if one year was perhaps only one day for her, and she’s first convinced she’s just sick, or hungover. Her only visitors are Jacob, who cannot let go, and Alex, a journalist struggling with alcoholism and the health problems that will follow (ironically enough, Alex used to be a successful health columnist). As Alex gets intrigued by Amy’s fate, feeling close to her both geographically and in age, she starts digging into past events, trying to figure out if there’s still a way to bring justice to the victim here, or if all trails have now gone forever cold.

I’d say the premises are definitely interesting, but the way the story unfolded was a bit… boring. Partly because of the style, that regularly was more about telling than showing (especially in the beginning), partly because, as previously mentioned, I thought there wasn’t enough tension, not enough at stake—I didn’t feel the sense of urgency and danger I like to find in mystery and triller novels, that foreboding, impending certainty that “something” is going to happen to the main character before the end. I also think I expected something different when it came to Amy’s involvment: different ways of communicating, maybe, instead of Alex sitting next to her bed and talking? Or something closer to Amy slowly waking up, or desperately trying to let the world know what she knew, and failing due to her body not responding?

The characters in general weren’t as fleshed out nor as interesting as I had hoped; in fact, they were more often annoying than anything else. Alex’s drinking problem, how she screwed up her career and marriage, weren’t such a “dark” background as a somewhat idiotic one (that is, her reactions, her way of going about a lot of things didn’t make me think she was a clever person). Jacob’s wobbly relationship with Fiona felt mainly like something that could’ve been dealt with in five minutes if the characters had been remotely willing to communicate—that was a no-brainer for me, I don’t even see why Jacob had to lie at first. (And let’s be honest, while Fiona’s reactions can be viewed as understandable, considering that she had had a bad experience in the past, the way she immediately jumped to conclusions and put on the drama queen act weren’t exactly encouraging for Jacob to start spilling the beans, making her appear like a harpy, and making me wonder if such a partner would be worth the trouble. But then, I guess I’m just not one to deal with high-maintenance people anyway.)

Conclusion: Interesting theme, but that would have worked better with more tension, and perhaps a different involvment of the comatose character. 2.5 stars.

Yzabel / May 23, 2015

Review: The Devil’s Detective

The Devil’s Detective: A Novel by Simon Kurt Unsworth

My rating: [rating=3]

Blurb:

Welcome to hell…

…where skinless demons patrol the lakes and the waves of Limbo wash against the outer walls, while the souls of the Damned float on their surface, waiting to be collected.

When an unidentified, brutalised body is discovered, the case is assigned to Thomas Fool, one of Hell’s detectives, known as ‘Information Men’. But how do you investigate a murder where death is commonplace and everyone is guilty of something?

Review:

(I received a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

First thing first: if you’re looking for nice things, Happy Ever Afters and something else than bleak prospects, this is not the book for you. But the fact it’s set in Hell, only in Hell and nowhere else, makes this fact kind of obvious anyway.

Thomas Fool is one of Hell’s few “Information Men”, meant to investigate crimes yet knowing that whatever the outcome, it won’t matter. Whether murderers get punished or not doesn’t matter, whether people die or not doesn’t matter—it’s Hell, and it’s nonsense, and the whole nonsense of it bears down upon every inhabitant, even the demons themselves. There are rules to follow, and all of Hell’s prisoners do, in the flimsy hope of being Elevated someday, freed and sent to Heaven, following a process of selection whose rules themselves are all but logical. Joy and hope? Of course there is: so that they can be better quashed.

It was sometimes a little difficult to make up my mind about this novel, as some of its defects also contribute to making its strengths. The characters in general are sort of bleak, unremarkable, lost within an investigation that doesn’t really seem important, like puppets stringed around while being totally aware of what they are. It was somewhat tedious at times, yet it fit pretty well into the Hell setting, into its “why bother” atmosphere. I would not necessarily care for what happened to whom, yet at the same time, I did, because it reinforced the feeling of a twisted structure here. (I was peeved however at the women’s roles: they were either absent/in the background or clearly too stupid to live anyway.)

Hell’s descriptions were vivid and made it easy to picture what Fool and his partners had to go through, as gruesome and malevolent as both places and inhabitants were. In the beginning, I expected more; later, it didn’t feel so important, as what was described became enough for me to form my own vision of Hell, and adding more would’ve actually been too much.

Dialogues were definitely of the weak sort, especially because of the various repetitions and name-dropping. For instance, one character kept calling Fool “Thomas” several times in the span of a few sentences only, and this happened more than just once of twice. Fool’s and some others’ lines were also often reduced to “Yes” or “No”, and those became quickly annoying.

Another issue: guessing who the perp was. Way, way too easy. It made sense fairly early in the novel, and it was equally annoying to see Fool & Co not doing the math. Granted, their investigations often fell into the “Did Not Investigate” category (Hell made it so that it was pointless for them to investigate most crimes in general), and I guess one could say they weren’t “used” to doing it, but… It was still annoying when Fool openly admitted to himself not understanding something that should’ve been obvious.

2.5 stars for the depiction of Hell, and how the story made clear that pointlessness, twisted logices and bleak surroundings can be turned into something as terrible as fiery pits and physical pain. The reader doesn’t get hammered with God and Satan, and has to make their own idea of whether this would truly be a kind of Hell for them. As an investigation/mystery type of story, though, or in terms of interesting characters, it didn’t work well.

Yzabel / April 7, 2014

Review: The Astounding Adventure of the Ancient Dragon

The Astounding Adventure of the Ancient Dragon by Jose Prendes

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

When 12-year-old John Watson is sent to Candlewood boarding school, he makes quick friends with a boy named Sherlock Holmes, a universally disliked know-it-all and amateur sleuth. Before long, Sherlock embroils his new friend in a covert investigation of the mysterious disappearances blamed on a vengeful ghost. Dodging the meaty fists of the bully Moriarty, and aided by bumbling patrolman Lestrade, they uncover a deadly secret hidden deep underneath Candlewood. But does the duo have the brains–and the brawn–to crack this dangerous case?

Review:

[I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.]

Strong points:

The Astounding Adventure of the Ancient Dragon caught my eyes because of its premise: an alternate retelling of Holmes’s and Watson’s adventures, in a “what if those two had been children at a boarding school, instead of adults in London?” As a long-time avid reader of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, I couldn’t pass up on that, although any potential reader has to be aware that these new adventures are, of course, not canon. (The original Holmes and Watson didn’t meet before they were adults.)

This novel will likely provide an amusing and refreshing read to middle-grade children: boys going on exploring an old school, hidden corridors, mysterious kidnappings, peppered with a dose of humour and “old chap” banter. Some quips made me chuckle more than once:

“I ask you to come up with a distraction and you decide to set the boat on fire? Is that best you could come up with?”

And were even reminiscent of a Princess Bride kind of humour:

“I must warn you, I am a fencing champion,” Holmes replied, taking a defensive posture.
“And I must warn you,” Royston said, yanking out another sword. “I have two swords.”

Honestly, I laughed out loud at those ones.

I like boarding schools for a setting, and the latter had the makings for an interesting place, complete with a gang of local bullies and a head mistress who expresses her dislike for the heroes. Those are typical tropes, but I thought they worked well enough here, because they, too, were presented in a humorous way. The investigation and action are nicely balanced, the latter taking the main characters into fights that were easy to picture in my mind (though the former was a bit simple… but then, they’re twelve). Sherlock was true enough to his original self to my liking: oblivious to girls, possessed of a lot of knowledge, able to notice small details (and with a bonus way of talking his way out of the teachers’ wrath in an elegant and funny manner).

Last but not least, I found it easy enough to get into the concept of Holmes and Watson as children—which I wasn’t sure would happen at first. As with every retelling or alternate setting, this is, in my opinion, a matter of either love or hate. A reader who wants to see Holmes act exactly as he does in Doyle’s novels may not be completely satisfied; what worked for me here won’t work for everyone.

Problematic aspects:

I thought at times that the characters were able to do too many things (taking on opponents with a spear, firing a gun…): I can imagine how it fits an adventure-focused story, but the fact is, they’re only twelve. Sometimes I also found them a little callous, dismissing the death of a goon as if it was nothing, or Watson not seeming to care that much about the sick mother her had left behind him. Again, adventure is a distraction for the mind… but they’re still twelve.

I’m torn about the writing style. As an adult reader, I enjoyed it; the novel is well-written, and I could sense the same kind of vibes I’d get from the original stories, with the narrator (Watson) seeming to hit close enough a mark. It has a “gentlemen’s banter” quality that is exquisite to me. However, I’m not sure a 12-year-old narrator, even a precocious one, would master language to such an extent. In other words: I liked it, but I’m torn about how to judge it in an unbiased way. One thing’s for sure, though: the language wasn’t dumbed down “just because it’s for kids”, and this in itself has to be commended.

You may also want to enact suspension of disbelief regarding the school itself: the action is set in 1865, and I highly doubt there were any mixed-sex schools in Great Britain at the time, lest boarding schools. If you’re willing to overlook that in favour of focusing on the adventure, it’ll probably be all right, otherwise it might keep nagging you.

(NB. I wasn’t too keen on the illustrations, which weren’t necessary in my opinion, and seemed to hesitate between looking like a child’s drawing and “real” illustrations. This is a very minor quibble, though, that has nothing to do with the writing itself.)

I realise this review seems to contain a lot of criticism, and more flaws than merits. I’ve tried to write what I enjoyed, and what I found as being or not problems, in terms of intended audience especially. All in all, I enjoyed this novel, and think younger readers would also like it; but it definitely retains some aspects that could make it or break it for others.

Yzabel / March 6, 2014

Review: The Necromancer’s Gambit

The Necromancer’s Gambit by Nicolas Wilson

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Knight, the sheriff of a local magical government known as “the Gambit,” is called to recover a mutilated body, tainted with magic and dumped at a popular haunt. When the corpse is identified as a close associate of the Gambit, it threatens the safety of the community he protects, and those he cares about most. As the fragile peace amongst the city’s magic-wielding factions disintegrates, Knight must track down a cadre of murderers before his friends are picked off, one by one- with each death used to strengthen the spells cast against the Gambit.

Review:

(I got a free copy of this book through ARR #1665 in the Making Connections group, in exchange for an honest review.)

The Necromancer’s Gambit is one of those conundrum books I don’t exactly know how to rate, because it had strong good sides, but also strong points that disagreed with me. Part of me liked it, while another part didn’t really want to go through with it.

Mostly I was really interested in the background it developed, with mages organised in groups (“gambits”) aiming at settling disputes, protecting their cities, and so on. Each gambit has a defined set of members, named after chess pieces, with defined roles: Kings and Queens on the political scene, Rooks as guardians, Knights acting as sheriffs, and so on. These members are also well-versed in different kinds of magic, from tracking spells to necromancy to devising bombs and traps. There are definitely lots of possibilities and combinations here, especially considering the presence of other supernaturals such as vampires in town, and I don’t doubt the series—since this is book #1—aims at exploiting them more later.

There’s also mystery, a noir flavour, murder attempts, murders performed through the use of gruesome magic, necromancy (I’m such a weakling for necromancy)… It’s certainly not a kind world. And the novel plays on enough different aspects, between action and investigation, that a reader will likely find something to his/her taste in it.

However, I found it hard to focus on the story, and it came down to two problems for me. The first was editing. Some sentences had a weird structure, making them hard to follow (punctuation included). Sometimes, it was also difficult to follow who was talking, and who was the POV character for a given chapter (mostly Knight, with forays into Rook’s and Pawn’s sides of the adventure). Also, I think some bits of dialogue should’ve been omitted, as they made scenes a little too long. This ties into the second problem: a serious overload of sexual jokes and innuendos? Now, this is coming from someone whose degree of well-being is measured by her friends by the amount of dirty jokes she makes (I’m worse in that regard than most men I know). Such jokes normally don’t bother me… but there were just too many of them, in situations where they fell flat and disrupted the narrative flow. Almost every character would sooner or later talk about his junk—or someone else’s; more than once I found myself thinking “why aren’t they getting to the point instead of mentioning X’s dick or Y’s boobs or whatever? It’s been going on for ten chapters.” As a consequence of those two issues, I tended to lose track too often, and I bet it prevented me from seeing some of the more subtle sides of the story. (A shame, since betrayal’s involved.)

I’m definitely liking the world those characters evolve in, and I wouldn’t mind discovering more about it. As it was, though, I’d have appreciated it much more without all the asides.

Yzabel / August 29, 2013

Review: Earth Power

Earth Power by Adam J. Black

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

EARTH POWER introduces an extraordinary team of paranormal investigators. Led by Raphael Drake and Sam Watkins, partners in the London-based Aquarius Agency, the team includes Tarot reader Gemini Quinn, young newspaper reporter Denny Finch, and a three-hundred pound English Mastiff named Doctor Dee.

When insurance salesman Harry Gill dies in a freak accident on a route the newspapers call ‘The Road to Hell’, no one can explain the cause. But Harry’s death is only the latest in a string of unexplained events in the North of England. Crops have been destroyed, cattle are stampeded, and a family is terrorised by a violent poltergeist.

The situation calls for the unique sensory powers of Raphael Drake, and the investigative abilities of his partner, ex-Metropolitan Police detective Sam Watkins.

With bizarre incidents becoming more frequent and increasingly dangerous, the Aquarius team travel north to investigate. Who, or what, is causing escalating levels of death and mayhem in one small part of rural Derbyshire? What is the purpose of the massive concentration of destructive energy focussed on the market town of Castlebridge? And how real is the threat to their own lives suggested by a series of ominous warnings?

Raphael, Sam and their team race to find the answers in time to avert an impending disaster. But mysterious forces are already gathering, determined to stop them.

Review:

(Book provided by the author through ReadIt & Reap 177 in the Shut Up & Read group, in exchange for an honest review.)

This book is based on interesting premises, using the theme of natural energies being gathered for a purpose, as well as people (and/or their deaths) playing a role in it. I liked the diversity of characters, each of them having their own significant traits, including strengths and witnesses and even, for some, potential for complications later on, especially in trems of relationships. I also liked how the author depicted the small town and the countryside where the investigation takes place; it had all the charm of what I imagine to be a typical English town, and even though some might say those things are cliché, they still allowed me to picture the setting very easily. The same kind of detailed description was given to death scenes, making them pretty vivid (as paradoxical as this choice of words may seem!) and pulling me in.

The story itself, alas, proved hard to read in the long run, probably because its pacing felt rather uneven, with disjointed scenes and point-of-view jumping. While Sam and Raphael found their right place as far as roles were concerned, they also seemed to overshadow the other characters in terms of development, which in turn made me feel like said other characters weren’t really needed. I think what bothered me the most, in fact, was how in the end, lots of things were left unexplained, and not only the ones that were clearly kept in store for a next novel (Sam’s family, for instance): I would’ve wanted to read more about the paranormal aspects. Another weird thing was how everything unfolded, leaving the main characters confused as to what happened, and I as a reader wondering what was actually the point of having them investigate at all if it was to have the whole mess solved by a third party.

It’s the kind of book I usually tend to enjoy, and I wished I had liked this story more. I really do. But I prefer to be honest here, even though there were interesting elements in “Earth Power”, and I think those can be appreciated no matter what.