Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! This time around the Spanish translation of a French classic I really enjoyed and a crime thriller I had such high expectations for, but sadly it ended up being a bit of a dud.

Title: Arsène Lupin: Caballero Ladrón
Author: Maurice Leblanc
Genre: Classics, Mystery, Suspense
First published: June 10th 1907
Publisher: Salvat
Finished reading: June 15th 2023 
Pages: 211
(Originally written in French: ‘Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur’)

“Allí donde la fuerza fracasa – se dijo-, la astucia triunfa.”


REVIEW

I’m still not sure why this classic has slipped my notice until recently… I mean, I did watch part of the Netflix adaptation, but somehow I never actually looked up the book it was based on. I guess it was fate that one of the first books of the Salvat crime and mystery special edition hardback (Spanish) series ended up being Arsène Lupin: Cabellero Ladrón. Now that I owned such a beautiful copy of the translation of this classic, I simply HAD to pick it up ASAP. And I’m glad I did, because I ended up having a great time with this short story collection! Sure, I did like the first stories better than the last ones, but as a whole I really enjoyed my time with this classic. Arsène Lupin makes for such an interesting character, and it was very entertaining to read about how he manages to fool everyone and get away with things. I’m not sure why this collection has the order it has though, because I starts at a later point in his life and his earlier ‘work’ is at the end. Either way, there were stories that were stronger than others; I particularly liked the one set on the ship and his escape from prison. I’m also definitely adding the second book to my TBR as I’m intrigued by the idea of pitting Arsène Lupin against Sherlock Holmes.

Title: The Chase
Author: Candice Fox
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
First published: March 30th 2021
Publisher: Forge Books
Finished reading: June 16th 2023
Pages: 352

“Kradle wanted to tell the boy that the easiest lies people told themselves were about the dead.”


REVIEW

I’m still not sure what happened to be honest. I mean, I LOVED my first experience with Candice Fox‘s writing when I read Fire With Fire in April, and I’ve been looking forward to read more of her work. As soon as I read the blurb of The Chase, I thought this was going to be the perfect match for me. I love a good high speed and high octane crime thriller, and the blurb seems to be promising one hell of a rollercoaster ride… I went in expecting to have found my next 5 star read, but sadly it wasn’t ment to be in the end. Don’t get me wrong, the premise most definitely delivered, and things get dark, twisted and simply exhilarating along the way. Things can be said about the credibility of it all, but that wasn’t what bothered me personally. No, my main issue had a lot to do with the fact that there are a kazillion different POVs included into the plot, and the POV switches are so often in points that it is really a struggle to keep up with them all. Especially since some POVs are only mentioned once or twice, or don’t add anything important to the plot… I also struggled considerably with the main characters. Not only did I find all of them unlikeable, but the lack of character development ment they lacked dept and mostly felt like stereotypes. The behavior of Trinity was extremely offensive, not having the motivation behind Celine’s actions explained straight away made it hard to look past her unhinged behavior and John Kradle’s character had so much untapped potential it made me want to cry. The constant POV switches also slowed down the pace considerably, and it took me a lot longer than expected to reach that final page. The Chase did redeem itself a little in the last part, but not enough to forget about everything I struggled with. All in all sadly The Chase turned out to be a bit of a dud for me, but I won’t be giving up on this author yet.

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