Review: MURDER ON FRIDAY STREET, Russell Cooper

• This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CJBCR7K4
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Red Balloon Press (September 19, 2023)
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 394 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1919602178
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1919602172
• #1 Friday Street Murder Mysteries
  

Synopsis (publisher) 

If you love Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, you’ll love this.

Eccentric twin brothers, Cedric and Ambrose, retire from MI6 to make honey and tackle crosswords at Tanglefoot Farm in England’s Surrey Hills.

The unsolved brutal murder of their long-lost friend drags them back into the secret life they left behind.

Can Cedric and Ambrose, along with Charlie, their dead friend’s daughter, and the seventy-five year old mystery woman who lives in a campervan, unravel the clues and crack the cold case before the killer strikes again?

The chase is on to solve the mystery and catch the murderer.

Murder on Friday Street is the highly entertaining first book in the Friday Street Murder Mystery series. If you like witty, feisty women, a tangle of clever clues, and hilarious adventures, then you’ll love Russell Cooper’s gripping murder mystery.

My Take

While I enjoyed reading this latest outing in the geezer lit genre, I am just a little uncomfortable with its close proximity to that other very successful series by Richard Osman. It feels a little to0 close to a spoof on a spoof, an author saying "I can do a little better.  ... instead of one retired spy lets put a few of them together and see what happens." (although I am sure this sort of thing happens more than I indicate in my reviews)

In the middle of it there is some serious plotting, a serious cold case, some delightfully drawn characters, some humorous and not-so humorous situations.

However, if you read it then come back here and tell me if you think I've been unduly harsh with my coattails analogy.

My rating: 4.0

About the author

Russell Cooper...grew up on a rich diet of spy novels and Sunday afternoon television dramas. Following a hectic career in the restaurant business I did a couple of undisclosed stints (nothing dangerous) with NATO & GCHQ. Today I live in Surrey UK and when I’m not writing, editing or reading, I support the demands of Winnie, my toy poodle.

Review: THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB, David Lagercrantz

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 2206 KB
• Print Length: 432 pages
• Publisher: MacLehose Press (August 27, 2015)
• Publication Date: August 27, 2015
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00SJPZCWE
• #4 in the Millenium Series (Stieg Larsson)

Synopsis  (Amazon)

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO IS BACK.

Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist have not been in touch for some time.

Then Blomkvist is contacted by renowned Swedish scientist Professor Balder. Warned that his life is in danger, but more concerned for his son's well-being, Balder wants Millennium to publish his story - and it is a terrifying one.

More interesting to Blomkvist than Balder's world-leading advances in Artificial Intelligence, is his connection with a certain female superhacker.

It seems that Salander, like Balder, is a target of ruthless cyber gangsters - and a violent criminal conspiracy that will very soon bring terror to the snowbound streets of Stockholm, to the Millennium team, and to Blomkvist and Salander themselves.

My Take

I'm not sure now what I felt about this novel. I've had it on my TBR on my Kindle for at least a couple of years and have only just managed to read. I was a fan of the first 3 novels in Millenium series, but I had trouble remembering them through this novel.

The novel felt very heavy, too detailed, with the author determined both to uphold the Stieg Larssen style, and to make sure that the reader has all the information. It felt as if there was a lot of new plot data which had not been part of the original novels. There seemed to be too many details about the main characters that I was not aware of. But maybe that was just my forgettery at work.

However, I don't think I will read another.

Was this Steig Larsson's unfinished manuscript?

From Wikipedia:
The late author's [ Stieg Larsonn] literary estate is fully controlled by his brother and father, who hired Lagercrantz and have supported the latest book in the series. However Larsson's long-term partner Eva Gabrielsson, has voiced criticism against this project. She possesses an unfinished fourth manuscript of the Millennium series, which is not included in the upcoming fourth novel. She referred to Lagercrantz as a "completely idiotic choice" to continue the Millennium series.

Here is what I say elsewhere about "coattails" novels.



My rating: 4.0

About the Author

DAVID LAGERCRANTZ is an acclaimed Swedish journalist and author. He has worked as a crime reporter for Expressen, and has written several novels, including the forthcoming Fall of Man in Wilmslow. He worked with international soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimović on his memoir, I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović, which was short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and was nominated for the August Prize in Sweden.

My reviews of the Steig Larsson novels
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST