Neil Cross

Hard-boiled. That's what they used to call this sort of thing. I guess they still do. In any event, this is hard-boiled, even brutal, detective fiction. Sparse, hard-hitting prose. Gritty, realistic characters and settings. Bad, bad, bad guys. Basically decent, but driven cops that sometimes cross the line in order to get the bad guys and protect the innocent. Classic hard-boiled.

DCI (that's Detective Chief Inspector - this is a British novel, through and through) John Luther first came to show more life as a television character for the BBC. This novel, written by the show's creator and writer, is a prequel to the series, showing that the detective was just as driven, just as brilliant, before those episodes. It also shows a man tormented to the point that he cannot sleep and he can no longer connect with his wife. He is a driven man. Driven to use his powers of deduction and insight to find a serial killer. A killer that is stealing children for purposes that are beyond the imaginings of even DCI Luther. From page one you know he will not let up until he tracks down the fiend. Until the last page you do not know if he will succeed or destroy himself trying. Or perhaps both.

This is top-flight writing. As I said above, the prose is sparse and hard hitting and will keep you turning pages. Not a book for the squeamish. It's written in the present tense, which adds to the immediacy and probably reflects its origins in television. Highly recommended for those that can take it.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review. show less

I don't know how many of you watch (*sniff* ...watched) Luther, but if you haven't watched it yet, you are really missing out.

Let me be honest, one of the best things about Luther, for me, is Alice.




She's so unrepentantly insane! She's done horrible things, things I wouldn't forgive any other character, things I do NOT forgive her! ...And yet I can't help but... like her? Yes, let's go with "like" and not explore how sexy murderous ladies leave me confused.


I killed my parents for the show more lols.

But there is no Alice in Luther: The Calling. It's a prequel. I thought I'd hate it, I thought I'd just plod through it with a jewellers loupe, searching for a hint of Alice. Alas, there was no Alice

BUT IT WAS AMAZING

I can't give much away when it comes to the plot because it would all be spoilers for the tv series, but let us just say Luther is trying his best to save a newborn baby from the hands of a pedophile. And things... get steadily worse. By worse I mean the situation, not the writing, plot, or general amazingness of the book.

One thing I have to point out about Neil Cross: he writes women well (well, up until the last season with the Tinkerbell thing). Oh, there are a few haters on the internet, loathing Zoe and even Jenny(!) for being less than 20 feet away from Luther and in possession of a vagina. Admittedly, I don't get the hate, but Neil Cross made it even more impossible to dislike Zoe, impossible to dislike Mark! All of this while still rooting for Luther - let's be real, it helps that Luther is describe throughout as Idris Elba.


pictured above, triggering ovulation on unsuspecting females

But back to the book! It's like Neil Cross sat down and decided to ponder: "what makes human beings, collectively, as a species, act insanely protective?" And he came up with:

- Babies
- Children
- Abused dogs
- Kind grandpas

And then he spent the entire book, (and the series, let's be honest), using them to crush the readers' souls.
There were points in this book where I just threw it away from me because I couldn't stand it any longer. And then, when I stopped sobbing, I'd pick it up and voraciously kept reading it.

Now it's been over a year since I've read it and sometimes, I'll remember something from it and I'm just like, "Someone bash my head in with a shovel, I can't go on living after this book."

So, what I'm saying is: Go on. Read it.


DO IT show less

"One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered." Michael J.Fox

As the book opens Sam’s wife Justine has just cruelly died from a degenerative brain disorder and he decides to move back to his home-town with his thirteen year old son, Jamie. Assisted by Sam’s sister, Mel, Sam and Jamie move into their new home, Sam gets a job as a psychiatric nurse at the local mental hospital, and Jamie begins school at Churchill show more Comprehensive. Initially the move goes well but when Sam realises that Jamie is the object of bullying things begin to go downhill. Faced with an indifferent school administration Sam takes matters into his own hands.

Always the Sun is not what you would call an uplifting or inspiring read by any means. What's more I certainly wouldn't recommend this to some one who who was already struggling with depression or had themselves suffered at the hand of bullies. My copy of this book had the tagline on the front cover of "All he wanted to do is keep his son safe" but as I have seen on other copies the question should be “How far would you go to protect your child?” This isn't because of the actual bullying which despite being undoubtedly cruel is subtle rather than vicious but rather the emotions that it instils in the reader and certainly the book left me with an uncomfortable after-taste when I finished it.

As a parent I thought that Always the Sun was certainly depressing, unsettling and disturbing, but it is also an impressive piece of writing. Author Neil Cross might take things to extremes but at the centre of this story asks his readers to question what we would do if we were in Sam’s shoes and that in my books can be no bad thing.

"Knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right." Theodore Roosevelt show less

Great cast and acting, but the scripts are beyond sick. The bad guy may get his or her desserts in the end, but not until they have shot, stabbed, cut out tongues, blown up people, etc. etc. etc. Only the fascinating, but also rather sick, relationship between Idris Elba's and Ruth Walker's characters keeps me watching.