An Officer and a Spy, book review. Robert Harris.

  

If I wanted to sum up this book in one word it would be, riveting.

Paris in the late 1800's, spying, espionage, a huge miscarriage of justice and Robert Harris. What more could one ask for?

To think that it's all true too, makes it even harder to believe, but it happened and Harris has woven it into a most excellent book. I knew nothing about this historic event until a friend told me he had pre-order a copy, so within days of its release I had mine, and what a story.

I'm sure it's all out there on the internet if you want to know what went on, but don't bother browsing the web, just read Robert Harris' excellent, masterful epic.

Harris has taken an extreme miscarriage of justice and woven a tense, action thriller, that forces you to just keep on reading. Never, have six hundred pages turned so quickly. 

I have recommended this to several members of my family and I recommend it to anyone who reads this review. If you like historical novels, from any era, I'm convinced you will like this.

Five big fat well deserved stars.

Ian McEwan redeems himself with Sweet Tooth.

Ian McEwan has been on my radar for a while now. Friends have recommended him, and films have been made from his books, so I took the plunge late last year when I found an immaculate unread copy of Solar in the charity shop. 

It was short, but then most of his books are, and his characters where intriguing, but I found the story slow and to be honest a bit boring. 

I like a bit of escapism when I read, whether that means trolls and wizards or fast moving action, I don't really mind, but there needs to be something that grabs me. I love good realistic characters but I like it when they have more to aim for than just normality, and that isn't to say I don't like gritty realism, I do, I just need something with a little more umph.

When a copy of Sweet Tooth came my way, I was sceptical, but the blurb pulled me in and what a breath of fresh air. 

I raced through the book in a week and it was full of great characters, intrigue and a nice little twist to top it all off. 

Thoroughly recommended this one. A solid four stars and Ian McEwan is back on the radar again. (I have 'Saturday' waiting in the pile).

Inspiration for the day goes to all the short novels out there. It doesn't need to be a brick to be good.