Swot Scot Shot Stott

One of the few perks of enforced rest [sometimes] is the opportunity to catch up on reading. I’ve got through three books in 4 days – so here are some reviews for you…

Swot

Grisham’s recent offering “Theodore Boone” [pub 2010] was on the best-sellers/one-week-only-loan shelf in the library. So I grabbed it. I really enjoyed this one. It is about a 13 year old boy, son of two lawyers whose dream is to be a lawyer himself. He’s a swot, who studies hard, and gives ‘legal advice’ to his friends – very competently. He gets involved in a murder trial, where the killer is about to go free, but Theo discovers the truth.

I liked the way Grisham handled the moral dilemmas, and I found the characters believable. A little ‘lighter’ than some others he has written – but a good read nonetheless. I’d recommend this one.

Scot

A non-Rebus by Rankin [pub 2008] about Mike, a bored self made millionaire Scot with a love of fine art. An acquaintance suggests the ‘perfect crime’, involving a theft from Scotland's National Gallery – but so clever that nobody will know that it had taken place. It takes place on the annual “Doors Open Day” when various buildings are made open to the public. The book has a clever plot – but I struggled a little with it.

We are meant to like Mike – but he is no way a ‘good’ person. I enjoyed the description of the art though, and of life in Edinburgh. Rankin writes well – but I found the ending rather unsatisfactory. I was also confused by the blurb on the back, which referred to another Rankin entirely! But give it a go – you might like it.

Shot

Finally this one – Vows Of Silence – ‘the new Simon Serrailler novel’[pub 2008]. I picked this one up at half term in a charity shop. I’ve read a few of Hill’s books [Mrs de Winter and Woman in Black being my favourites] I hadn’t heard of the DCS Serrailler series before – but this is book #4. People in his town keep getting shot, and he has to solve the case and find the serial killer against the backdrop of a personal family tragedy.This one didn’t quite click with me.

I was a little irritated by the introduction of a teenage lad who had become a Christian, and was unable to cope with the fact of his widowed mother’s new boyfriend, an atheist. This boy’s character was not at all convincing – and I wasn’t sure why Hill made him speak and act as she did. Not to mention the boyfriend [a middle aged teacher who should have known better] saying to Mum “We can get married next week” Not in England you can’t! And as both partners had been previously widowed, one would have expected them to remember that it isn’t an overnight procedure.

Perhaps I should find SS #1 and read the series from the beginning.

So - Grisham gets top score here. On 10th and 17th July I am out preaching again – maybe I should put down the fiction and read some

Stott

The GP has said that I am to rest my throat, and not attempt any running training before Thursday at the earliest, and generally take things easy for the next couple of days.

I promise I will try hard at this, but it won’t be easy!

And he says I am not to be surprised if I find my fitness level has dropped a little when I start again. That will only leave me a week to get fully ready for The Event. But I am so determined – I will do it!