A Short story that has a predictable end ( )

This book, little more than a novella, is set in Brighton and centres around Victor and Joan Smiley, a married couple in their forties. Victor and Joan have been married nearly twenty years but their marriage has reached breaking point.

Victor is bored with Joan and is a regular visitor at a sex parlour where he has fallen in love with one of the 'staff' and decides that the only way to be free of Joan is to murder her. Little does he know Joan has is also being unfaithful and is having an affair with a married man, Don, and she too is considering murder.

Due to the brevity characterisation is sketchily but generally effectively done, similarly there is little in the way of a back story but what there is are a number twists and turns, some I them I expected some of them of I didn't.

This book is part of the Quick Reads series, which puts a real onus on the writer's use of vocabulary and ability. Some of these books seem to work whilst others don't. This I fear falls into the latter group. That's not to say that it is a not totally without its merits. I read this in one sitting so if you are looking for an introductory book for the author or want something not too demanding for your commute to and fro work, then this would be fine but if you are looking for something a little more demanding then I would suggest that look elsewhere. ( )

9780330507851 ( )

Th Quick Reads series - or what I have read of it so far - features good writers at the top of their game and while 130 pages might generally engage one for a good two hours, the pacing and sheer readability of these little books is such that I finished it in a flash.

A domestic murder in a childless Middle England terrace house in Brighton where a husband has tired of his plump middle-aged nagging wife, and the wife is sick of her husband's snoring and indifference. She has an affair while he falls in love with a prostitute at the 'gentleman's club' he frequents on the sly.

Naturally, they both decide [unbenown to the other] that the solution to their problems lies in murder. Although their are some twists and turns, the ending is comfortably predictable - far more so in fact than fans of Peter James have come to expect. ( )

Verhaal met weinig diepgang en spanning. Maar een aardig boekje voor bij de kapper. ( )