Blue Genes by Val McDermid, 0006498310, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Easy to guess who killer her

This book was poor compared so say Killing the Shadows. The Kate Brannigan character was much to over the top in this novel as some kind of superheroine !.

Good story, poorly written

I don't think the reader from Leicester is on a different wavelength to me. I found the story interesting but the style of writing was very poor. Every other paragraph seemed to end with a crashingly cliched simile (Saying I was shocked is like saying Tom Hanks is an actor), whilst the first person narrative is littered with the Private Investigators irrelevant and rather juvenile predjudices. I wanted an easy read that wouldn't tax my thinking too much and that's precisely what I got. The big problem for me was that the momentum halted every half page when I was suddenly left wondering how a professional writer could have got away with all this.

Entertaining read.

This is the second of the Kate Brannigan books that I have read and although I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the other one (Clean Break) it still made for a good enjoyable read.

I still can't quite get over the similarities between Val McDermid's Brannigan and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, all you need to do is transpose California on to the Manchester heartland and the two are interchangeable.

My one criticism of the book (which goes for many of Sue Grafton's as well) is that they can tend to go rather too far in the feminism stakes. All the women and strong, sensible, intelligent and in the main successful (and 9 times out of 10 good looking as well) whilst the men tend to be weak, unattractive and pretty thick and therefore no match for the quick witted Brannigan, who is of course one step ahead

Still I will certainly return to Ms Brannigan in the future.

A good book, but start with "Dead Beat"

The five Brannigan mysteries are really five episodes in the developing life of the Warshawski-like Manchester private eye and her semi-detached boyfriend. While much lighter than her more mature works, the combination of humour, English locations and mystery is excellent. I would recommend buying all five Brannigan stories and reading them chronologically, starting with "Dead Beat". You'll wish that Ms McDermid had written just a few more episodes before graduating to her mature novels.

Makes you want to track down the rest of her books

This was the first novel I read by Val McDermid and made me want to track down the other Kate Brannigan novels. Crime fans have got to read this book, the character Kate Brannigan is so strong and an inspiration to all women. McDermids writing is strong and passionate with an amazing sense of humour slipping out in the characters. The book has a few twists and several stories within the main story. The plot is an interesting one which I am sure many writers have been too scared about polital correctness to touch - well done Val McDermid.

View more reviews or product details from Amazon.co.uk