Wednesday 1 August 2012

Next Of Kin - David Hosp

This months book is actually part of a larger series, and it isn't the first book in that series. One member of the bookclub has read the previous books and she felt that this may have given her a little more insight into the characters. Everyone else felt that the book mostly stood as a book in its own right so could be read without investing the time needed to read all the books in the series.

With regard to the fact that this part of a series, many of the bookclub members felt that they could have done with a bit more of a back story for most of the characters. However, maybe this was a writing device to make us want to read the other books to find out more about each of the characters. As with a lot of thriller novels the writer usually aims most of their writing skill at the plot, Hosp did this but he also seems to be aiming to have great characters as well. Maybe he should focus on one thing or the other to get a better novel.

We thought that the main theme of this book was very obviously that of family. Whether blood relatives are more like family to us or those we choose to surround ourselves with in the form of friends. As with a lot of books that choose this as a theme we felt that friends turned out to be better family than actual relations. The only real divergence from this would be Koz and Lissa and their relationship with their child. However, in this book Koz and Lissa were very peripheral characters, they seemed to have taken a more central role in previous books.

Throughout this thriller there were clues at the ending, but they were buried quite deeply and hidden very well with plenty of red herrings. Most of the bookclub tried to guess the ending but we were all completely off course at the very end. Overall we felt that it was a very interesting twist in the end of this tale.

Overall we gave this book 7 out of 10. It wasn't a massively deep book, but it was entertaining and a good read for the summer holidays.

During this months meeting we welcomed two new members. If you work for Hwel Dda Health Board you are welcome to join the bookclub. If you do not work for Hywel Dda Health Board you are welcome to write any comments you have in the comments section at the end of each blog post.

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