zak_martell's Reviews (277)

This is a unique feeling entry into the crime genre. It felt grounded and down to earth.
The characters felt real and as though they had lives of their own even when we couldn’t see them.

When we start the story, the main character — Max — is just getting out of prison and is convinced that this time, he won’t be going back.
Finally wanting to go straight gives Max fresh eyes to look at the world through and he slowly sees how hard it is for a man with a criminal past to get a second chance.

I’d definitely recommend this book.

This was an interesting listen.
I loved the variety in the cases and investigations Carrados found himself in.
If you’re a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories (especially the Stephen Fry narrated audio collection), you’ll like this.

I bought this book on the recommendation of Slowly Red on YouTube. He had it in his Grimdark Reading Guide video.
I have to say, it didn’t feel like true Grimdark to me.

It is a dark fantasy with a focus on characters over magic. Back alley business over royal politics. And gang warfare over epic battles.
Slowly Red likened it to Peaky Blinders, but with magic and I think if a dark, low fantasy version of Peaky Blinders sounds appealing to you, you won’t be disappointed by this book.

I found this collection quite hit and miss. The names for people and places were quite strange and hard to follow.
I took notes and read very consciously and still didn’t find it easy to follow all the connections of characters and timelines, though it did help.

Some of the stories were interesting. It was humorous to see all the ways women could end up naked for extended periods of time.
All in all, the writing style felt like it could have been from a century before it was and that made it hard to get through. It will be great for some, but not for me.
Hard to recommend.

This is interesting, but I found it slow at the start.

I’ve moved on from my non-fiction projects for a while.
I’ll probably comeback to it.

This is an excellent read. The short chapters meant I could read one or two a day and get through the frighteningly long book in no time.
I appreciated the detail, and how the author was able to summarise what were often quite complex events.

Very interesting.

I found the beginning of this volume quite slow, but the latter third and particularly the final two chapters were really good.
I'll continue the series, but I hope we get into this arc quicker now. I know it's the longest one, but I hope that doesn't mean the pace will be taking a hit.

It's fascinating to see where it began, but I don't think starting here is the best option.
It also repeats itself a little in the middle.

The format of short chapters on a variety of subjects is one that I really enjoy.
I felt that there was a good amount of details in each. I’ve researched this subject before and still there were things on topics I’d looked into that I hadn’t come across before.

I really enjoyed it and will probably read it again.