Time for another round of Yvo’s Shorties! This time a sequel I have been meaning to read ever since enjoying the first book last year and a 2018 hyped release I’ve been putting off but was also really curious about. Moon Over Soho turned out to be an excellent read, while The Woman In The Window failed to convince me completely.
Title: Moon Over Soho
(Peter Grant #2)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
First published: April 21st 2011
Publisher: Gollancz
Finished reading: February 22nd 2019
Pages: 375
“For a terrifying moment I thought he was going to hug me, but fortunately we both remembered we were English just in time. Still, it was a close call.”
I’ve been meaning to continue the Peter Grant series ever since I read the first book last year… With book number three ordered and currently on its way to my home, I thought it was about time I did. Not only do I love the covers of this series, but I really like the mix of different genres the stories represent. Moon Over Soho can be read as a stand-alone, although you do miss background information about the characters and magic… I suggest reading them in order anyway, since the stories are without doubt entertaining. Book two has a musical twist and includes the London jazz scene as one of the elements of the story. The focus of this story is on Grant and Nightingale again, and we have new supernatural beings to hunt. The writing style makes it easy to read the story and the sarcastic and dry humor was right up my alley. I liked the plot and the way the story follows two different cases at the same time. Part of the plot is solved by the time you reach the final page, but we have a new dangerous character still on the loose we will probably see more of in book three. I’m really enjoying my time with this series so far and I will be looking forward to the next book.
Title: The Woman In The Window
Author: A.J. Finn
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: January 2nd 2018
Publisher: William Morrow
Finished reading: February 24th 2019
Pages: 449
“My mind is a swamp, deep and brackish, the true and the false mingling and mixing.”
Surprised I hadn’t read this one yet? With all the hype around The Woman In The Window last year and the mixed reviews out there I had decided to stay away… But curiosity took over and with the news of a movie on its way I decided to give in and give it a go. I ended up having mixed feelings about this story. In a way this is quite an entertaining psychological thriller with the typical unreliable narrator you understand right away can’t be trusted to tell you the truth. I appreciate the focus on agoraphobia, as this story might help people understand better what it is like to have to live with it. The writing flows and makes it easy to keep turning those pages, although I do admit the pace was slower than I would have expected and especially in the first half of the book. The Woman In The Window is mostly focused on the main character Anna and nothing much happens until you reach the final part. Another thing that was a huge turn off for me: I was able to guess almost every plot twist from a mile away. Especially the first big one was so easy to see through that I was really disappointed. Anna is not an easy character to like, and while I feel for her having to deal with her agoraphobia and nobody believing her, I was never able to warm up to her or the other characters for that matter. The plot itself was a bit weak and, as I said before, nothing much was happening during most of the story, which made the pace feel a tad slow and the story dragged in parts. It wasn’t all bad and there were certain aspects of this story I liked, but I wasn’t blown away by it either.
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