Twenty Books For Summer – Book Three (The Guards) and Book Four (Doctor Sleep)
It is mid-July. My attempt to read 20 summer books (as detailed here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=7360 ) could certainly be going a little bit better. as I have only finished four of the planned twenty. But I have just returned from my summer holiday where I managed to read and review book 2 of 20 – The New Kingdom by Wilbur Smith , The Guards by Ken Bruen and Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep.
I reviewed The New Kingdom here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=7444 and as it was part of my #TeamWilbur read for Zaffre Books I totally forgot to also tag it as one of my 20 Books for Summer reads. So that was the second of the twenty which took me to the 10% completion mark. Time to move straight up to 20% as I am reviewing two more right now.
The Guards – Ken Bruen
The first title in the acclaimed and bestselling crime series featuring Jack Taylor, a disgraced former police detective from Galway. Mourning the death of his father, Jack is slowly drinking himself into oblivion when he is asked to investigate a teenage suicide.
Plunged into a dangerous confrontation with a powerful businessman and with the Irish police – The Guards – who have an unhealthy interest in Jack’s past, he finds that all is not as simple as it at first seemed and a dark conspiracy unfolds.
I hadn’t heard of Ken Bruen or his Jack Taylor series. Too many books and too little time. Then I started a wee feature I call #Decades and I began to discover many new authors. I have Paul Gadsby to thank for bringing Bruen to my attention (https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6488). Although Paul didn’t select The Guards when making his Decades selections there was a lot of chat on Twitter about the quality of Bruen’s writing and, in particular, the Jack Taylor books. I did a spot of shopping and picked up the first Taylor book The Guards. I then stuck it on a shelf for months with the well meaning intention of reading it “soon”. This is why I included The Guards in my 20 Books for summer selection, I really wanted to read it and this got it off the shelf into the line of sight.
BEST DECISION EVER.
Wow. Just Wow. What a book and what a dark piece of noirish storytelling. I am home from my holiday and immediately plan to order more books in this series, if they are only half as good as The Guards they will be brilliant.
Jack Taylor has a problem with alcohol. The few friends Jack has also have a problem with Jack’s problem with alcohol. He was a policeman who had to leave service after he overstepped the mark when pulling over a car for speeding (hilariously). He then became a private investigator as he was good at doggedly pursuing an answer to questions. But Jack has to fit his questions around his drinking time and that can slow the pace of progress.
Jack is approached by the distraught mother of a dead teenager. Her daughter died when she drowned in a treacherous spot, notorious for suicides, but she can’t accept her daughter ended her own life. Jack is asked to investigate and to find out what really happened. He agrees and begins asking questions. Not much progress is being made and Jack is still found in the pub more often than he will be found out asking questions. However, someone has decided they don’t like Jack asking questions and he is jumped and given a severe beating. Maybe there is something to be discovered after-all?
With achingly sharp writing Bruen invites us into Jack Taylor’s life and we get a front row seat at the show of a clever man losing a fight against a terrible addiction. The dialogue is witty, dark, cynical and brutally honest. The writing style is beautifully effective and I totally lost myself to this story.
Read this: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-guards/ken-bruen/9780863224102
Doctor Sleep – Stephen King
King says he wanted to know what happened to Danny Torrance, the boy at the heart of The Shining, after his terrible experience in the Overlook Hotel. The instantly riveting Doctor Sleep picks up the story of the now middle-aged Dan, working at a hospice in rural New Hampshire, and the very special twelve-year old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless – mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the ‘steam’ that children with the ‘shining’ produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him and a job at a nursing home where his remnant ‘shining’ power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes ‘Doctor Sleep.’
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival…
The fourth book of my planned summer reading is another Stephen King novel. Over the years I missed a few of Mr King’s books as they released and I am trying to go back and plug the gaps in my reading. I’ve had a copy of Doctor Sleep for a few years but never quite got around to reading it. Now I have…the anticipation I’d built up was totally justified as I had fun with this one.
Doctor Sleep is the follow up to The Shining and there’s a lot of references to the original story which made me wish I’d read the original book a bit more recently. That said the key elements of Doctor Sleep don’t rely upon knowing what happened to Danny Torrance at The Overlook Hotel, King does a nice job of recapping past events, explaining Dan’s “gift” and bringing us back into his world.
While King is bringing us back up to speed he is also introducing Abra. Abra is born with “the shine” and through the first half of the book we follow her growing up, see the early evidence of her talent and how her parents cope with their unusual daughter. Abra is aware of Dan and she finds a way to make him aware she is out there. Also “out there” is a danger to both Dan and Abra – the sinister group known as “True Knot”. These dangerous individuals seek out people with the gift of the shine and steal their power (King calls it their “steam”). With the steam the members of True Knot can retain a degree of youthful vitality and use their own powers to track more victims and keep themselves safe.
The book becomes a tale of Dan battling various demons, Abra learning she is special and that her special skills are making her a target and True Knot doing what they need to do to keep themselves alive but letting an unknown danger get through their barriers. The three elements of the story are clearly on a collision course and the build up to their meeting was great fun to read. King is the master at building a world and filling it with fascinating people who you just want to read about.
It’s fascinating catching up with Dan again. Not many characters get revisited over 30 years later and when you know his background it’s upsetting to see all did not turn out smoothly for him or his mother after the events of our first encounter with them. This was another book where a battle against alcohol was lost and it was fascinating seeing how two lead characters in two consecutive books tacked their addictions differently.
It is rare I don’t enjoy one of Stephen King’s books so I knew Doctor Sleep would likely hold my attention. And it certainly did. I found myself rushing towards that inevitable confrontation too quickly and I wanted more time with Dan and Abra. As it was a Stephen King story I was worried they may not safely reach the end of the book – maybe they did, maybe they didn’t you’ll need to read for your self to find out.
The title of the book did make me curious. Why Doctor Sleep? And why is there always a cat on the cover? The Doctor Sleep reference and the cat image are actually linked elements of the story. One of the more emotive parts of the tale is Dan’s job in a care home and his ability to help the residents at the end of their lives to peacefully see out their last hours. He’s there as a comfort and friendly voice and all the residents know he will be there for them. The cat plays a role in this time too but again it is worth reading to appreciate why.
Pleased to finally catch up on a book I’d been keeping back as a treat for myself when I had time to enjoy it. What better time than on my summer hols?
You can order a copy of Doctor Sleep here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/doctor-sleep/stephen-king/9781444761184