Wulf's Book Reviews

But For The Grace by Peter Grainger My rating: 3 of 5 stars I still like Detective Sergeant DC Smith, and I will keep reading the series. That makes this a disappointing instalment rather than a farewell: “But for the Grace” has not changed my affection for Smith, but it has tested my patience. “ An Accidental Death ” ( review ) took time to get going, too, but eventually the investigation acquired force as Smith followed details others had missed. Here, the whole novel feels slow. The plot stays close to one care home and a sustained argument about assisted suicide, but it rarely turns that material into forward motion. We spend a great deal of time in and around a home whose residents receive unusually expensive care. The phrase » not the cheapest place by a long way « is almost a miniature of the book’s enclosed world: comfortable, quiet, and short on urgency. Assisted suicide is not an abstract subject to me, and I do not consider its basic moral status unresolved: it must be a ri...

An Accidental Death: A Novel by Peter Grainger My rating: 4 of 5 stars Peter Grainger and Detective Sergeant Smith first came to my attention through the New York Times article “The Best Literary Detective You’ve Never Heard Of, and the Man Who Made Him” ( Gift link ). It made an excellent introduction to both author and character. In “An Accidental Death”, a young man drowns after a party, apparently leaving Kings Lake police with a routine investigation. Smith, newly back at work, is paired with trainee Christopher Waters, and the case gradually becomes more complicated than the initial explanation allows. I will keep the details there, because the pleasure lies in watching Smith work rather than in having the investigation pre-explained. Smith is an immediate winner for me. He is experienced, observant, stubborn, and quietly funny, but Grainger never turns him into a grandstanding super-detective. His appeal is much more understated. He notices what other people overlook, follows h...

The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell My rating: 5 of 5 stars “ The Burning Land ” is exactly what I wanted from the fifth book in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon series : another fierce, fast-moving Uhtred adventure that keeps all the strengths of its predecessors while avoiding the weaknesses that occasionally slowed them down. I liked it very much indeed. More importantly, I enjoyed the entire journey. Every page gave me something: a battle, a sharp exchange, a political manoeuvre, a religious hypocrisy, or one of Uhtred’s wonderfully blunt observations. The setup is familiar but still effective. Alfred is ageing and ill, his heir remains untested, and the Danes see an opportunity to press their advantage. Uhtred’s position between Saxon and Dane, loyalty and independence, remains the engine of the story. Cornwell understands that Uhtred is most interesting when nobody can quite claim him, least of all Uhtred himself. His decisions feel personal, practical, and gloriously dangerous wi...

My rating: 1 of 5 stars “The Way We Play” is a miserable reading experience, not because its tropes are inherently objectionable, but because they replace characterisation, logic, and genuine chemistry. The premise has workable ingredients: a cautious thirty-year-old caring for her younger brother, and an injured former kicker with a repairman’s trade. Yet the novel turns every element into a contrivance designed to prove that Rachel and Zane are destined for each other. The book practically announces this problem itself: » Zane Bradford appeared at the perfect time. « That is not foreshadowing. It is the author waving a large sign labelled “plot convenience”. Nothing feels credible. Rachel’s responsibilities exist mainly to make Zane indispensable, while Zane alternates between wounded alpha hero, miraculous rescuer, and muscular plot device. Their supposed conflict never develops into convincing friction. They announce attraction, trauma, and eternal devotion at one another, and the ...

Meine Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen Ein Krimifestival in Roscoff, eine ermordete Zwiebelbäuerin, Konflikte bei Celtic Ferries, Drohparolen an Hauswänden und eine obskure Zwiebel-Bruderschaft: „Bretonischer Glanz“ bringt zunächst alles mit, was einen Dupin-Krimi ausmacht. Roscoff ist stimmungsvoll, die bretonische Küste leuchtet, Kaffee und regionale Spezialitäten werden mit der gewohnten Hingabe serviert. Dupin bleibt als grantiger, eigenwilliger, zugleich menschlicher Ermittler erfreulich stabil; auch Riwal und Kadeg sorgen für vertraute Komik. Dann aber beginnt der Roman, sich auf eine Weise mit Autor_innen und Autorentum zu beschäftigen, die nicht ironisch, sondern vor allem selbstgefällig wirkt. Bannalec lässt eine Autorin sagen: » Was viel heißt, die große Mehrheit der Autoren leidet an schwerem Narzissmus, nicht selten in pathologischem Ausmaß. « Der Satz wäre ein hübscher Seitenhieb, wenn der Roman nicht umgehend selbst den Beweis antreten würde. Robert Rouxel schreibt über einen K...

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren My rating: 2 of 5 stars “Something Wilder” wants to be a second-chance romance, a treasure-hunt caper, and a desert survival thriller. Lily Wilder stages fake treasure hunts through Utah using the hand-drawn map she has from her father. Leo, her first love, returns with friends, and Lily’s map pulls them towards a real treasure hunt. The route back to the ranch and to each other soon becomes a violent scramble involving guns, knives, death, greed, and a suspiciously reusable set of villains. Attractive premise, poor execution. » An explosion detonated in his blood. « That sentence appears twice, in Chapters Thirteen and Fifteen; Chapter Twenty-One repeats the same blood-and-fire image twice more. The pattern feels less like a developing motif than a shortcut: whenever desire peaks, the prose reaches for combustion instead of letting the characters carry the scene. Romantic-adventure capers need momentum, danger, and protagonists whose choices becom...