Ordinary Thunderstorms, deaf sentence and Too Close to Home

I very rarely read murder thrillers, but here are two with the latest by David Lodge in the middle. I heard William Boyd being interviewed on 5 live about his book Ordinary Thunderstorms, and it seemed quite interesting, apparently there are few modern murder stories set in Central London. It is a rattling good yarn , the action tears along with twists along the way. However, the whole essence of the plot means our hero has never watched a crime thriller on TV, or he definitely would not have done what he did at the beginning. The characters are interesting, and the locations vivid and familiar, the river never being far away. Not the best writing, but enjoyable nonetheless.

But if you want good writing, David Lodge is your man. This is the eighth novel of his that I have read, and deaf sentence is up there with the best. The words are music to the ear. Retired professor of linguistics Desmond Bates is going deaf, and the story revolves around his coping, or not, with his affliction. It is funny, poignant and life affirming. Brilliant.

I picked up Too Close to Home in out local Waterstones when out shopping with my dear wife. The previous book by the author Linwood Barclay, No Time for Goodbye, was a terrific thriller. His latest is a similar mystery, this time when next door neighbours of our narrator are murdered. Unfortunately, he is a pretty unpleasant character ( as are basically all the other characters), so our feelings about his harrowing experiences are somewhat diluted. The writing is pretty poor, and Barclay concentrates on the plot so much, he forgets about his reader. There is plenty of intrigue and you keep reading to see what happens next, but some of the twists are just not credible. A bit of a disappointment.