Review: BYE BYE BABY by Lauren Crow

Publisher:Harper Collins

Copyright:2007

ISBN:0732284457

Pages:506

Price:$32.95

Rating:6

Thirty years ago there was a victim. A victim of unbearably cruel actions who never saw justice. Now there's a serial killer on the loose.

DCI Jack Hawksworth doesn't know any of this when he is assigned the case. Jack is young for his rank and good-looking which makes him interesting to the media. He's also the subject of considerable interest and speculation amongst his female colleagues which doesn't help.

As if that's not enough, there's an officer in the "Ghost Squad" who seems intent on re-opening an old complaint against him.

Review:

BYE BYE BABY is a very thick book. At just over 500 pages, perhaps too thick.

The basic plot is pretty good, but there seems to be just a little too much window dressing. Jack is attractive to women, his past problems demonstrate that. His deputy, DI Kate Carter has a crush on him and is extremely jealous of attention he pays to any other female, despite the fact she is engaged to be married. I didn't like this particular plot thread, I felt it detracted from the story and made a character central to the book unlikeable when she didn't need to be. And perhaps its a sign of the author's inexperience with the crime fiction genre that many plot developments are telegraphed to the reader long before the police discover the clues. At times I felt like shouting at them not to be so dopey.

That aside, BYE BYE BABY differs from many books dealing with serial killers. There are shades of grey in this book which are missing from most other books with a similar theme.

Lauren Crow is a nom de plume for Fantasy author Fiona Macintosh who is making her first foray into crime fiction.

Musings on Doorstops.

What is is with authors these days that they seem to feel the need to write mighty tomes that you need a system of pulleys to read in bed without causing yourself injury?

Remember when a book that was more than 350 pages was considered thick? When the average was around 250 pages?

I've just finished reading a doorstop. It's was over 500 pages long. It could have been less than 400 pages and not really suffered. Sometimes it feels as if the author has thrown a bit of everything (including the kitchen sink) in effort to be worthy of the price the reader has to pay for the book. Sometimes more isn't more.

Even established writers who have developed a loyal following seem to be producing thicker and thicker books these days. Admittedly sometimes I don't mind: Reginald Hill recently wrote a 500 page plus book and I devoured every word, but he's rather exceptional.

Fortunately for me my next choice is just over 200 pages. Peter Corris' OPEN FILE. Not a spare word in sight. Every one of them used to tell the story and advance the plot.
What bliss.

So why authors writing longer books these days? Any and all theories welcome.

Another day another lunch.

Well, 2 lunches actually. Trip into town yesterday to have lunch with my fellow TAFE students (semester break at the moment). Local food hall. Won't go there again in a hurry. Walked bravely past the burger and steak sandwich place and went to the place that has heathly looking food. Chose a piece of pumpkin, spinach and feta quiche. It looked ok, but the pumpkin had almost no taste and the outside of it was overcooked. One of the others had a spinach and feta muffin and said it tasted as though it had been through the dishwasher.

Oh the point of all this is I ended up calling into my favourite book shop and buying THE BLOOD DETECTIVE by Dan Waddell, who is one of thre minds behind the tv series "Who Do You Think You Are?". That wasn't what swayed me in this impluse by, it was the positive comments on the cover by Mark Billingham and Reginald Hill.

Went walking with my walking group today. The Wobbly Women Walkers. Ended up having nice lunch at the local Museum coffee shop. No books acquired. A small victory there, not that there was anything to buy but still... I stayed away from all things books.

Not much else has been going on around here. The photo with the dogs is proving an attaction as they look so unbearably cute. Looks are deceiving though and right now Jirrah is outside with her battered frisby with lots of mud on her legs. At least it's stopped raining.

Still sloggon on with Bye Bye Baby and enjoying it more and more. I did promise myself a long session of reading it this afternoon, but the time is just slipping away......

Hawaii, here I come!!

I nearly forgot. After several months of prevarication and faffing about, I finally bit the bullet on my guilt and booked a flight to Hawaii!!

I'm going to Left Coast Crime in Hawaii in March next year!! The guilt comes from the fact that for health and stress reasons I gave up my job and enrolled in a full time course at TAFE. At the end of 2 years I'll be a qualified library technician. But because I've stopped working we're now down to one fairly meagre income. At least I had the airfare saved before I stopped working.

On the upside and the reason I finally booked my flights was that I found a site that offered student discounts on the flights I wanted - and with QANTAS. I save about $200 all up. Which aint bad. No more procrastinating. I'm probably not going to get a better deal and fuel prices are only going to continue to rise.

Quiet, cold Sunday.

The weather here continues to be mostly awful. We're getting our fair share of frosty mornings, the trouble is that the one thing that makes those frosty starts bearable is missing. Most days when it starts out this cold, the sun is out and we end up with a beautiful sunny but cold winter day. Lately though, soon after the frost, cloud has descended and the rest of the day is spend under dreary, grey skies which means the place doesn't warm up at all. Even the wood heater going doesn't seem to take much of the edge off the cold at the moment.

Reading-wise, not much to report. Making progress with Bye, Bye Baby by Lauren Crow. It's a doorstop of a book at just over 500 pages and perhaps could have done with a little paring down.

My aim to read all the Ned Kelly nominee long-list before the awards in late August is starting to look a bit shaky. I do hope not too many of the nominated books are as fat as this one.

Mind you, after a rocky start - I really did think I was going to struggle with holding my interest, it's starting to pick up, although I could live without the romance elements. If I wanted to read romance I'd read romance books. But that's my quirk.

Will anyone read my ramblings apart from me I wonder?