"No animals were injured in the writing of this book." #BookReview
Next Time We Steal The Carillon
by Louie Flann
Book Synopsis
You'll be pleased to know that in the end, they sort all the signs out. Yes, there is a little innocent flirtation going on, and yes, there are some college hijinx going on, and yes, there is some serious detecting going on. These are kids you'd be proud to have as your sons or daughters or mothers or fathers or pastors.
Please note: No animals were injured in the writing of this book.
Bec's Rating
Bec's Review
Next Time we Steal the Carillion is a crime book in which a team of college students is organised by one of their professors to investigate a crime at their school. Supernatural themes are hinted at vaguely and there are some twists. There are some interesting parts to this book, but there are also some confusing parts and a fair few questions left unanswered.
Let’s start with the confusing parts. Firstly this book is told in first person perspective. That in itself isn’t confusing, but this book switches between 3 different people’s perspectives, and never once informing you which you are reading. You have to work it out in the chapter and while some chapters this is easier than others at least one chapter I read in entirety not knowing whose perspective I was reading. I feel there needs to be a way to differentiate between these perspectives or the reader will get confused and then frustrated with how long it takes them to work out just whose point of view they are reading, especially in the case of Ralph and Jason whose personal voices are near identical.
Another confusing factor is that there are elements in the story that are not answered and do not relate to the ending. While they do make for interesting reading I found myself at the end wondering why these elements were there and why these things were happening, since by the ending it was clear they had no relation to the crime the students were investigating. There are clearly some plot lines that need to be tied up in order to make the reader feel much more satisfied. The fact that not one of the characters questioned these events when the ending was resolved seems to hint that maybe they were forgotten by the author.
However despite this confusion there are some good elements to the book. While some parts were slow reading and some characters a bit two dimensional, there were some interesting scenes. And the criminal in question was not suspected by me, something I always enjoy when reading a crime book. There are no obvious giveaways to who committed the crime, though there are some clues. Using college students as the main characters may make this a crime story that appeals to a younger generation. So overall this is an okay read but one I doubt I’ll read again.
Disclaimer: May not be appropriate for children due to violence.
