crime thriller

I read this book back before the turn of the century... and loved it. I realised a few weeks back that there were two more books with Javier Falcon (with an accent) as the main character and have bought and read both. This first Javier book is based in Seville but has strong links to Tangier and Morocco. The story is intense and personal and much bigger than its setting. At the same time, I really would like to visit Seville, and especially for the Semana Santa celebrations. Wouldn't mind a trip to Morocco either. Excellent book!

'This book is dedicated to Route 66, the Mother Road.' Carol O'Connell's book begins in New York but is always centred on what is left of Route 66. To someone who's never been to America, it certainly inspired curiousity.

My immediate response to this book was based on my own liberal western views - I was really uncomfortable with Omar Yussef's criticism of Palestinians. I soon discovered that Matt Rees has created a character who finds it harder to come to terms with the dishonest politics and the climate of hate and hopelessness of fellow Palestinians than he does with the arrogance of Israeli power which crushes ordinary people in an attempt to destroy the fanatic. Don't we all find more to criticise in those closest to us? The book doesn't pull its punches - horrible things happen. I had a sense of place and of lives being lived in incredibly difficult circumstances. It's a very good book set in a place we see all the time on the news.

I've read most of G.M. Ford's books and enjoyed them all. Seattle appears to be sometimes cold, but always very wet. The Frank Corso stories have a harder edge than his Leo Waterman books: both series have great plots and characters. As someone who has never visited the United States I have no idea how authentic the settings in books like this are. I can only say that I believe in Ford's Seattle and that his writing gives me a sense of a city worth visiting.

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