Tag Archives: Charlie Robinson

Who’s Got the Biscuits – Book Review

1 Reply

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.

 

Book Review – The Siege of Mr Khan’s Curry Shop

7 Replies

I did mention this book briefly about a year ago. It’s by Charlie Robinson, blogger, runner and Yorkshireman. To quote Meatloaf, “two out of three ain’t bad”

I’ll be honest, it didn’t start well. I opened it, the binding cracked and a page fell out. The opening didn’t feel good and the proofreading wasn’t great. Then, still suffering from the after effects of Covid, I put it down and didn’t pick it up again, though I kept meaning to. I bought the paperback last year. started it but became ill and never finished it.

It was the first book I bought for my new Kindle after Christmas and the first thing I noticed as I started it again, was that the proofreading seems to have been tightened up. Unfortunately the first section doesn’t really give an accurate impression of the rest of the book.

The other criticism I’d make is that the plotting is a bit complex for my tastes in certain respects (I’m trying to avoid giving anything away here) and it’s a bit too tidy at the end, though I’d still like to see what happens to the characters in a later book..

However, once it gets going it’s brilliant. Characterisation, storytelling, dialogue – all spot on. Great sense of time and place. He says his next book is going to be a romance, which is a shame as his writing style would be perfectly suited to crime. I really feel this paragraph should be longer to balance the length of the criticism I made earlier, because it’s quite clearly a great book. Buy it. Read it. You won’t regret it.