Regular readers will have noticed a lack of book reviews in the past couple of months. This is because I'm going through one of my periodic reading droughts.The last book I read was Ian Rankin's Doors Open, which I fear I never reviewed here. I finished it at the tail end of April., just before I moved house. Unfortunately, moving house and the establishment of a new routine has squeezed my reading. Although I made a start to Vince Cable's The Storm, I never made much progress and fell out of the habit of making time each day to read it.
I'm writing this on Sunday night and hope that by the time of publication on Tuesday I shall have made some movement towards re-establishing a reading regime. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a brief review of Doors Open.
Unfortunately the way my mind works, specific details of books and films are quickly lost and I'm left with over-riding impressions, so please forgive the lack of detail:
I like Ian Rankin and to a point I like his books. The Rebus novels are ripping yarns and being set in Edinburgh, my former residence, makes them all the more appealing. I was intrigued to read Doors Open, his first "post-Rebus" novel, told largely from the point of view of the perpetrator of the crime rather than the investigator.
Mike Mackenzie, a multi-millionaire with time on his hands and an appreciation for art - and the value of art - finds himself involved in a plot to stage a heist of several works from the warehouse of the National Galleries of Scotland. His fellow plotters include a Professor from the College of Art, his private banker and a local criminal big wig but can they all be trusted?
The story was quite thin and a bit contrived and the characters were under-developed. That said, it was well enough told and had a bit of a twist at the end. Ultimately, the best thing about it was the setting and being able to picture the various locations really well - it brought it alive in away which an anonymous setting wouldn't have. That said, I still want to read more of Rankin, particularly The Complaints... and his Twitter feed!
Andrew
