Outta My Head

Since Jay and I are having a blitz on these books at the moment, I thought I'd carry on with the next review. I was also a bit miffed at the fact that her reviews (Book Musing: When Characters Seem Too Old) are better than mine, but I'm not sure that I can do anything about that...

The third book in Jonathan Gash's Bonn/Burtonall series is Die Dancing. 

I've read many, many books in my life. Most have them have faded in my memory, and I have to admit, rather ashamedly, that I probably couldn't tell you the plot of a great many of them, even ones that I've read within the last ten years. I enjoy them at the time, but I often read very quickly, and so they don't stick. 

However, there are certain scenes, phrases and vignettes from books I've read that stick vividly in my memory. Maybe I'll write about some of them later, to explore it a bit more. The reason I bring it up now, though, is that Die Dancing contains one of them. 

I suppose it's a fairly nasty scene, all told. A politician is killed by being thrown from a moving train; but it's not particularly graphic or gruesome. Or is it? The killer doesn't actually just throw out the victim, he holds him out of the door and swings him under the train to make sure. So there's no doubt that that's the end of the chap. It is the details like this that mean I remember it long after the first reading. The killer chuckling to himself before the deed, and turning the laugh into an emphysemic cough to gain the sympathy of an old lady sitting near. The ineffectual watching of the police, checking the train at each station. 

Gash's punchy, rich prose really carries scenes like this, avoiding the wordiness that can simply get in the way of telling the story. So again, this is a great book, and you can safely add it to your list for summer reading. 

Amazon: Die Dancing

There are still the inconsistencies in the editing to frustrate the nitpickers. Jay has gone to town on the characters' apparent ages. There's also an odd thing going on about just how often the male goers take on clients: it seems to be several daily, but then we're told it's only one. Then it's clearly several again. And do they use, ummm, protection, or not? Lets leave that one for now...

I'm going to move on to the final one as soon as I can find it on the bookshelf.