Saturday 16 June 2012

Review c/o @eileenclayton1

Hello again
I was contacted on twitter (find me as @Formby_Elf) by a nice lady who wanted to offer help to my trying to raise the profile of www.formbybooks.co.uk and we agreed that she could review books.
Weirdly she lives about three roads from me, so it was easy to drop a couple of books off for her to read and review.
As we have our CWA Night of Crime on Thu 5th July with Martin Edwards and Stephen Booth and also Frances Brody has just been confirmed too, it seemed best she did books by them.
Within just a few days she has devoured 'Waterloo Sunset' by Martin Edwards, I chose it because, well we both live in/around Waterloo, the setting partly for the book.


Martin wrote the book for the 'Capital of Culture', bringing back his likeable gumshoe Harry Devlin.


Here is the very first review by Eileen and I hope she gains confidence in expressing her likes/dislikes and making us all want to read any books she rates highly!





Waterloo Sunset is a crime thriller, written by Martin Edwards. This is another in the series that features Liverpool solicitor Harry Devlin.
The book opens with Harry Devlin, trying to settle into his firms new dockside offices. He is opening a letter on his desk, which he soon learns is an announcement of his own death, to take place in just six days time on Midsummer's Eve. Harry is not sure if this is some sort of a joke, or if he should take it seriously. Things soon change from bad to worse when his partner is viciously attacked and then a friend falls victim to a serial killer who is preying on young women.
As if this wasn’t enough to contend with, Harry’s personal life soon becomes more complicated, when a former lover, who is also a gangster’s ex-wife reappears back in his life, along with her  very unscrupulous and jealous ex. Harry is also starting to take a special interest in his relationship with the female coroner and not just his professional one. As Midsummer’s Eve approaches the tension Harry faces grows, as he is trying to investigate the thing threatening  his life and also his friend’s murder, all while trying to keep himself safe.
Waterloo Sunset is well written and had a very good plot. The main character Harry Devlin is both humane and engaging and draws the other characters to his likeable persona. The story is written with a fast pace and is witty, which shows the authors keen sense of humour yet showing a satirical look at Liverpool and its people
The story is based in and around Liverpool showing off both the humour, and sights of the city yet also showing a depiction of the superficial changes to the physical and financial landscape that was brought about due to the city being the capital of culture. But at the heart of human nature the desires for sex, money and self preservation ensure that hardly anything changes in the moral landscape.
 I thoroughly enjoyed this and would definitely recommend it. 7/10
  find me as @eileenclayton1 on Twitter

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