So Close - Dina Carroll

Not So Close!

Advantages: Wide range of stories, superb writing
Disadvantages: The ranching theme can get overbearing if you read it through in one go

are also several shocks among these stories. Describing all the stories will give away too much, especially when it comes to the shorter ones, but I'll tell you this: The Blood Bay had be laughing for ages and People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water is heart-rending. Besides, you've got to love stories with characters called things like Bliss, Inez, Train, Diamond and Rollo. It's interesting that a woman has chosen to write so extensively on a traditionally 'male' subject and manages to portray it beautifully - easily writing as different characters and sympathising with various people. Despite its unfamiliar setting, I was able to identify with the stories a lot - although not even rural Devon gets as isolated as Wyoming! - which I put down to Proulx's ability to depict the harshness and loneliness of the world she writes about in ...

DoubleFantasy11 10.07.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories - Annie Proulx

Martina Cole - Close

Advantages: another cole classic
Disadvantages: not as good as some of her previous work

Martina Cole - Close I couldn't wait to buy the new book from Martina Cole, Close and even though I cant stand to read hardback books, when I saw it in Tesco's for a discounted price I snapped it up and rushed home with a big bar of chocolate to begin the read. Unlike most Cole books this particular one seemed to take me a little while to get into the plot. For those who have yet the pleasure of read a Cole classic I will tell you that all her books are about the crime and gangster world of the London streets. The books are often filled with plenty of violence and skulduggery. The main two characters of this book are Lilly and Pat Brodie. You begin the book with them as a young couple just starting out in life and as the book progresses we follow their complicated lives through the tough world that is the London crime ...

newby2 15.04.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Close - Martina Cole

Close to the knuckle (duster)

Advantages: A detailed story with good, strong characterisation written in true Martina Cole fashion
Disadvantages: Same old, slightly tired, plot and definitely not as gripping as previous Martina Cole offerings

I am a very recent convert to the draw of Martina Cole novels. I think I read my first of her novels sometime last year, and since then I've worked my way through all her books from the earliest to the latest. "Close" is her thirteenth novel and most recent blockbuster, hitting the shelves sometime in mid October. The sort of genre she writes under could be loosely described as crime/thriller fiction, with a hard, gruesome edge. She tends to mainly write about East End villains, their wives and families. There is no exception to this pattern with "Close". Again, it's set in the East end of London and tells the tale of the rise and fall of a gangland family. It's graphic and it's violent - everything you expect a Martina Cole novel to be. Lily Diamond is our "heroine", a 16 year old factory worker, who meets and falls in love ...

Bollinger28 15.12.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Close - Martina Cole