In short, it was alright.
(Probably unnecessary) elongated version of review below:
I have never heard of Gilly MacMillan before, neither does Odd Child Out strike me as my type of book. The initial thing that drew my attention to this book (while I was shelving it in Winterbourne Library) was the fact that the front cover had been slightly misprinted. You know when a book cover feels slightly bumpy over the letters on the front cover? Not entirely sure why publishers do it, I suppose it's meant to add something to the design. I guess it worked in this case, because seeing the fact that the bumps and the letters didn't quite mark the same places on the front cover was just enough to pique my interest.
Upon reading the first line of the book, I realised that the story is set in Bristol. "My Bristol?" I wondered. So I simply had to read more. Yes, this was the Bristol I knew. That was enough for me to bring the book home with me.
But then time passed. I almost took it back to the library before I'd even read it. But one day, I had enough time to just make a small beginning into the story. That was when I realised that almost half the characters are Somalian.
Now that really is the Bristol I know.
Now I was definitely intrigued. Normally, when I hear of books being set in Bristol, the story deals with some aspect of history, like the slave trade, or pirates. Yet this book was talking about something modern, the Bristol I know and love.
So I dove into the story, simultaneously expecting nothing and everything.
I don't normally read crime, because I am not a fan of gore. Just doesn't do it for me. So I was happy to read a detective story with very little gore. But the thing that bothered me was the lack of action.
As I read on, it started to feel less and less like a crime novel and more like a contemporary drama. But the author was making a real attempt to turn it into a detective style mystery. More than one part felt incredibly forced for the sake of fitting into the genre the author had chosen and dragging the story out to be more dramatic.
The view of Bristol is interesting. I was happy to be able to fully imagine the places mentioned (extremely pleased when St Werburgs came up, felt like seeing an old friend in the story). It would be interesting to see what somebody who'd never been to Bristol thinks of the descriptions.
Jim was a nice average main character, but his actual part in the story is so small it's weird. He doesn't really do all that much.
I liked the interesting friendship between Noah and Abdi, I'd say that that part of the story was the best written part.
Obviously, this is the second book in a series, which I did not realise upon beginning to read it. The author references the last book a lot (is that really necessary in crime novels?) so I don't feel the need to read it now. Even though she never explicitly says the outcome of Jim's last case, it's fairly clear to see.
I'm not terribly eager to jump into another Gilly MacMillan book. I'm glad I've read one though. Maybe I'll keep her in mind if I want a tame, practically calming, crime novel set in my local area again.