I turned on today with a mission in mind. I have just read Charlie Robinson’s latest novel and thought I’d do a review. I don’t do many book reviews because I find it hard to strike the right note. I don’t read that many novels, and lack points of reference, for one thing. For another, if a book’s rubbish, I hesitate to say so because the worst book in the world is still a better book than any of the books I have thought of but never written.
The first book, The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop took a while for me to read and review as Covid intervened and gave me an excuse for procrastinating. It then took me a while to buy and start the next one – Who’s Got The Biscuits. I can’t help thinking there’s a question mark missing there, and speaking as a poet, it would scan better as Who’s Got All the Biscuits?
Anyway, I finished it. Then I reviewed it on Goodreads, then I turned WP on. There I found that in 2023 I had written News of an Old Blogger, which turned out to be quite appropriate.
I suppose I’d better write the review now.
The first book, as I may have noted at the time, was a bit rough around the edges and showed signs of being a first novel. The plot, whilst it was well-constructed, felt a bit too tidy as it ended.
However, it did have a good cast and a good old-fashioned story where bad things happen to bad people.
The new novel opens four years after the events of the first one. Good intentions go awry, proving that favours often go wrong. The past returns. New problems arise and a lot of sorting out has to be done. It’s well plotted, moves along nicely and features an engaging group of characters.
It’s a bit difficult to place it in a genre. It’s not crime, my normal reading habitat. It’s placed in historical, action/adventure and romance by Amazon, but the 1970s are well within living memory and the romance is there, but not as a major driving force. It is, I would say, action/adventure in the tradition of Bulldog Drummond, Richard Hannay and the Saint (the TV one – the few Saint books I have read were not pleasant things).
f you like your books to feature serial killers with cellars and power tools this is not to book for you. And if you prefer books where willowy heroines find love in New England whilst running their Grandmother’s old bakery, you will be equally disappointed.
All in all, a good read and highly recommended. Don’t be put off by the quality of the review – I’m struggling to sound academic and not give any of the best bits away. It genuinely is a good read.