Tuesday 22 December 2015

FALL FROM GRACE | Book Review (NO SPOILERS)

Title: Fall From Grace (David Raker #5)
Author: Tim Weaver

Originally Published: 2014
Page Count: 578 pages
Genre: Crime  
Published by: Penguin Books


Date Read: December 3rd - 19th 2015

After reading Never Coming Back in the summer of 2014 I became instantly hooked to Tim Weaver's missing persons investigator, David Raker. I proceeded to read the previous three books (Never Coming Back being the fourth in the series) and have since reviewed some of Raker's ventures (see here). However, for some reason it has taken me eight months to pick up this book after finishing Vanished (the third in the series, and potentially my favourite). But after coming to my senses, trying desperately to remember what happened in Never Coming Back, I fell back into place with Weaver's writing.

If you haven't read any Raker before, this review may not be for you. However, I would say the novel completely works on its own! As with many crime novels in a series, you can dip in and out as you so wish, but you won't get the full sense of character that has been slowly developing since book one. I started at book 4 and was hooked, so it's up to you. 

This novel sees Raker reacquainted with DCI Melanie Craw, as this time she requests Raker to help her find someone a lot closer to home than the usual people she's involved with. 

In terms of character development and story, this is definitely Weaver's weakest. We see Raker building a new relationship, but there's hardly any emotion or interest. It kind of dips into all the usual tropes of family getting in the way and there being a price that may be paid for their work. One of the things I liked about Raker was that he didn't subscribe to this stereotype; the death of his wife before book one made him interesting and detached from people. It meant he didn't care how he got information or what situation he was barging in on. With the introduction of this new connection from Never Coming Back, Raker finally has something to lose. It's a cliché and it just doesn't really work so well. I think Weaver just wanted to have something going on in Raker's personal life as other than some fleeting 'romance', there's been nothing. 

What I've come to love about Weaver's writing is how tense it can make me. There's often scenes in which Raker is a stone's throw away from some terrifying sketchy character. However, in this book when such a thing occurs, I wasn't as tense. Maybe I'm growing up and finally not getting scared by books? Or maybe there just wasn't anything sinister about the villains in this outing? I think it's the latter, personally. 

Overall, I think it was always going to be hard to come back after Never Coming Back. The success of that novel meant that the return to the series was always going to be difficult. In Fall From Grace, I think Weaver forgets himself. His plot is a little incredulous and the final reveal at the book's close just doesn't sit right with me. Despite the negatives, Weaver writes with finesse and makes his settings come alive. I frequent London a lot, and yet he still makes the city sound intriguing and ominous each time. Further, I am also very intrigued by what the ending of this book means for the next book, What Remains. 

A little disappointed, but will continue on because I know he's better than this one: ☆ 

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