thereadingmum's reviews
830 reviews

I have loved this whole series. However, a few of the books have leaned a bit too heavily on the architectural/music speak and the plots were a little hard to follow. 

Amongst Our Weapons is possibly my 2nd favourite of the series with the first book still standing as the only 5-star. 

There's more development of the team with a new "recruit", another female, and Lesley returns to stir things up. The plot is much more cosy mystery type with a serial killing "angel" from the Spanish inquisition on the loose. Meanwhile the looming birth of Peter and Beverley's twins add to the mayhem. 

Short stories are much harder to get right because you have so much less time to develop characters and plot and set up the scene. This is why I usually avoid them because I invariably end up cringing or shrugging with indifference. There are a few writers, however, that I know will not disappoint. Atwood is certainly one of them. 

The stories in this collection are longer in format and I would classify them as literary. I especially liked "True Trash" and "Hairball". These are not "easy" stories to read and most of them have a dark or tragic bent. However, the quality of the writing is such that it makes reading them a pleasure even if you're left feeling sad.

If you need a masterclass in the short form, I highly recommend any of Atwood's short story collections. 

All the reviews that said it was too "talky" for a mystery are accurate. The first "story" about the missing child is much too detailed. After all, half the characters die or disappear after that. Do we really need to know so much about them? The one character we should have had a bit more insight into was the father, but perhaps that was on purpose to obfuscate for a later plot point.

It took me awhile to warm to Jackson as well. He seems a bit inept for the first half of the book. However, I enjoyed it enough that I was willing to brave the second instalment. Helps that I could speed the reading up. 

I liked this Jackson Brodie a lot more than the first one. It follows a more traditional mystery format and thus is much faster paced and a lot less unnecessary detail. 

Jackson's side story with Julia compliments rather than distracts from the main storyline. Although the plot is a tad convoluted, it's still manageable. I like Jackson a lot more here, but feel like his relationship issues are a bit feminine. 

Too much fighting at the start. No set up. Too confusing/boring to follow.

Years ago I forced myself to finish William Faulkner's Absalom Absalom and felt like I'd been yelled at for 384 pages. 

This was not as bad but similarly bleak and devoid of hope. I'm at a time of life where I don't want to waste my time not enjoying something just to say I've read it.