Tag: omer

Mystery review: ‘Web Of Fear’ by Mike Omer

Mystery review: ‘Web Of Fear’ by Mike Omer

The third outing with Omer’s gloriously quirky cops in the Glenmore Park Police Department. This time the spotlight is firmly on Hannah, who’s a bit of a mess in lots of ways, but grimly determined to prove her worth to the department. Naturally, almost everything that can go wrong does. Poor Hannah! This story was a bit different, since it focused on a child kidnapping case. That’s always going to be harrowing, and occasionally the author’s sense of humour jarred with the grimness of a child in captivity. I’d find myself laughing at one of those wildly funny scenes the author does so well, and then the switch to Abigail in her cellar would have me feeling guilty for finding anything funny. And therein lies the skill of the writer, to invoke that very visceral response in a reader. If I have a complaint at all about this series, it’s […]

Posted November 25, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Mystery review: ‘Deadly Web’ by Mike Omer

Mystery review: ‘Deadly Web’ by Mike Omer

“If there was one single reason to be a man, it was the ability to pee in a bottle.” With this opening line, you know at once that this isn’t just another police procedural mystery — this is a Mike Omer mystery, and that means large dollops of humour mixed in with the serial killers and blood. I’m not normally a fan of police procedurals (give me a cozy any day), but I’ll read anything this man puts out. I love his books. I enjoyed the first in the Glenmore Park series, Spider’s Web, but this one is even better. The characters are becoming even more finely drawn than before, and this time the crimes to be solved seemed more realistic and the police handling a tad more sensible. I also liked that the two cases to be solved didn’t turn out to be somehow related at the end. Or […]

Posted August 5, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

Mystery review: ‘Spider’s Web’ by Mike Omer

Mystery review: ‘Spider’s Web’ by Mike Omer

I don’t read many police procedurals, being more of an amateur sleuth type of gal, but I’ve loved the author’s previous books so this new series was a must-read for me. The plot is the usual – there’s a seemingly random killing of a jogger in a park, and it gradually becomes clear that this is just one of a sequence of similar cases. The murderer’s MO is intriguing – the victim receives a text with a picture of something (a gun, a car…) and shortly thereafter is killed with that item as the murder weapon. And there’s a messed-up cop, and an interfering journalist, and a perky forensic psychologist (a profiler) and all the familiar elements. What makes this book different from a thousand others? Firstly, the characters. You’ve never lived until you’ve encountered Rabbi Friedman. I swear he’s not like any Rabbi you’ve ever heard of before. Frankly, […]

Posted May 26, 2016 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

YA Horror Review: ‘Moth to a Flame’ by Michael Omer

YA Horror Review: ‘Moth to a Flame’ by Michael Omer

This is the second book in the Narrowdale YA series. I’m not sure exactly which genre it falls under; I’d put it somewhere between suspense and horror, with paranormal elements. And as YA goes, it’s at the younger end, and wouldn’t be unsuitable for middle-graders, since the horror is muted, and the humour is cranked all the way up to eleven. In fact, the opening few chapters are as funny as anything I’ve ever read anywhere, and yes, that covers Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Bill Bryson. Main character Amy is an absolute delight, completely swept up in her own affairs, and since the book is written in the first person, we get to share all her dippy thoughts. The collision of Amy with algebra had me crying from laughing so hard. I know humour is a personal thing, but I defy anyone not to laugh out loud reading this. […]

Posted July 16, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments

YA horror review: ‘Sleepless’ by Michael Omer

YA horror review: ‘Sleepless’ by Michael Omer

This is one of those books that I would never, ever have read if I hadn’t bumped into the author online in an author’s forum and got to know him. YA? Horror? Eek! No way… and blow me down, if it wasn’t a whole heap of fun. Who’d a thunk it? Here’s the premise: Amy is fourteen when her parents uproot her from LA and move to dull, small-town Narrowdale. She thinks her worst problem is going to be boredom. Ha! Not a chance. Because first there are the strange dreams, where she’s being followed and there’s this odd whistling. And then… well, let’s just say that it gets a whole lot weirder after that. Amy herself is a big part of the fun, because she’s your actual spunky heroine. Strange noises at night? Should I sneak out of the house and wander around deserted streets on my own to […]

Posted April 16, 2015 by PaulineMRoss in Review / 0 Comments