What you reading/read?

[Steelrain]

I saw this posted on Mack's profile

then after watching this it reminded me of a book I read on holiday once called 'Sniper one' by Sgt Dan Mills, which I thought was f***ing brilliant..

 

Has anyone read this, reading it, or anything along the lines of?

[straffham]

Yeah read that one a while back, was indeed a cracking read, lots of action to keep you reading and thoroughly recommend it.

[DX115FALCON]

I've just finished reading a BRILLIANT crime novel called 'The Long Halloween' by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale. Here's my thoughts on it.

Really compelling book about a police detective in a huge city, whose department is massively corrupt.

The book, which is set over a year in the detective's life at some point in the early/mid 90s, struggles to come to terms with the idea that some of his most trustworthy allies are in fact working on their own to try and make the most money by accepting bribes from the largest crime families in the city. All the while, the detective and the local district attorney have to deal with a killer who is known as "Holiday", because he only kills on public holidays (such as Christmas, Halloween, Valentines' Day). Oddly enough though, "Holiday's" victims are all members or family of "The Mob". This aspect of the book is really creatively told, with many sharp plot twists, frequently about "Holiday's" TRUE identity. None of these theories are correct however. Even after the crime is "solved", the novel goes on to throw the reader with a really shocking reveal at the very end of the book which I for one was not expecting. A few guys that I know to have also read it said that they saw the twist a mile off, but I honestly cannot see how. The writers managed to hide everything too damn well.

 

There is one element which I didn't really care much for. There was a really bland romance side-story between some rich guy and an escort that he loved. This side-story wasn't inherently bad, but it seriously detracted from the main crime story being told. That said, the romance becomes pretty crucial towards the middle of the story- when the rich guy is suspected of being the killer. One of the best chapters, in my opinion, concerns the rich guy trying to defend himself in court against the team of detectives and the DA. It makes for a VERY tense read, because you really have no idea what the outcome is going to be. I actually found myself giving a sh.it about what happened to the rich guy- even if he was a relatively boring, one dimensional character up until that point. What would have made him a bit more interesting earlier in the novel would have been to give him a wife or something that he could have been cheating on with the escort. It would have really changed the reader's views on the character of the rich guy.

 

The writing team manage to add more twists into this than M. Night Shyamalan's entire filmography. And most, if not all of them, make sense in the given situation. Then again, it is technically a crime "drama" so I do expect twists. Just not quite as many as there were here.

And I loved every second of it.

 

In the end, I have to rate this a solid 9/10! Definitely Loeb & Sale's best work in the crime genre to date. Would recommend this to pretty much anyone

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and there's something about someone called the "Bat-man" in there somewhere, but he really isn't important enough to be worth mentioning in the body of the review.

 

 

[Finius]

Eight lives down was the best 'real story of army superhero tough guy' I've ever read.

 

Nowadays I'm mostly re-reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld stuff

[Lozart]

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and there's something about someone called the "Bat-man" in there somewhere, but he really isn't important enough to be worth mentioning in the body of the review.

 

Figured he might come up in there somewhere seeing as that's what jeph loeb is more known for writing!

[Monty]

This thread

[Finius]

This thread

 

You funny man you!

[Monty]

I'm awful aren't I?

[BBrotherwood]

Just finished the song of ice and fire series, well the ones he has written anyway. Now I need to watch the series

[Minimatt]

Currently reading Guy Martins autobiography