Monday 2 February 2009

Time to Depart by Lindsey Davis

This is another in the series featuring the Ancient Roman detective, Marcus Didius Falco. As usual it mixes crime with the wisecracks of our hero, as well as humour involving his extended family and romance with his aristocratic girlfriend Helena Justina. We also learn about Roman history along the way, which is nice and painless!

Day 117; Book 115

The Bodies left Behind by Jeffery Deaver

I'd read all of Jeffery Deaver's books except this one, so I was very pleased to come across it at a discount (I paid £8 for it and it's still in hardback). If you haven't read this author yet I really recommend him. Some of his books are stand-alones, like this one, so they can be read in any order. Some are part of a series, like the Lincoln Rhyme books. Lincoln is a quadriplegic forensic investigator who solves murders by deduction; if you want to read this series the first book is The Bone Collector. (The Bone Collector is also a film, but the book is better). Deaver is the master of misdirection, known for the unexpected twists and turns of his plots. Most of his books are real page-turners.

The Bodies left Behind is another exciting book, well worth reading and with well-drawn characters. Having read all of Deaver's books, I picked up this time on a couple of the twists. However despite expecting these twists I was still completely misled on most occasions! The only thing that annoyed me was that this edition had quite a few typos, which forced me to read some sentences several times to get the meaning. Grrr!