Guitars and Life

When I saw that the BBC had taken the decision to dramatise J.K. Rowling's A Casual Vacancy I was looking forward to it.  I read this book about a year ago and was impressed by it.  The number of characters weaved into the story line and also that the storyline was hard hitting.  Almost really a modern day take on Dickens exposing injustice in society and dealing with greed, lust, power etc.  Sadly the BBC's adaptation was a let down.  Not because the setting failed - they nailed Pagford well.  Or that the cast and acting wasn't top notch - a quality cast saw to that.  However for some reason someone somewhere decided it should be just three one hour episodes only.  This then led to a massive re-write by Sarah Phelps.  I think she presented a good coherent story... it's just that it wasn't really A Casual Vacancy as in the book.  (I'll return to this below.)   Here's an observation.  It is replaced by an updated versio...

... or JK Rowling ... I read the first of these and was impressed with Ms Rowling's move into the crime fiction genre. The story picks up a few weeks/months after our hero, the ex soldier invalided out of the forces after losing his leg to an IED in Afghanistan, has hit notoriety by solving a murder that the police had insisted was suicide.  This high profile case has filled his books with many new clients, most of them partners trying to prove the infidelity of the other to either take them for loads of money or to prevent them from having it. Having been persuaded to allow his assistant Robin to stay on the same two pivitoal characters continue and there is a constant theme of their professional and personal relationship throughout that will continue throughout the next book no doubt. The plot of this one is the disappearance of a minor author who has been working on his magnum opus.  He disappears and the novel is inadvertently leaked by his agent to his publisher....

I recently read and reviewed the first of the Robert Galbraith novels which is now JK Rowling's pseudonym for her thriller novel series. A Casual Vacancy was her first modern novel and it appeared in my "Kindle offers for you" list, clever old Amazon target marketing.  It was cheap so I decided to give it a go, and I'm glad I did.  It's a good read.  Not a pleasant laugh a minute read this is actually a novel that deals with a variety of hard hitting modern life issues. Set in a fictitious West Country village the title and plot is centred around "a casual vacancy" which is a vacancy created on a parish council when an incumbent councillor dies.  The vacancy caused by the sudden shocking death of an active councillor.  This brings to the fore long standing concerns over some boundary issues with the nearest large town.  There are factions that want the "problem area" an estate with considerable social deprivation, drug addiction and associ...

... or should I say JK Rowling.  I believe Ms Rowling was most unhappy about her cover being blown.  In the end I only bought this as it was the Kindle deal of the day when I looked at a time of needing some new reading material so it sat on the Kindle until I decided to read it. It is a good detective thriller.  At times early on the author seems to be over trying to sound clever I feel a bit - and it is funny that for me that came and went over the first few chapters but once settled down so I'm not having to look up too many words (that heavens for the built in Kindle dictionary) it is a good British book. One thing of interest to me straight away is that the main hero of the book is a private dectective, ex soldier who was badly injured in Afganistan.  But my interest peaked because... his office is supposedly in Denmark Street.  Anyone who knows London and knows about music knows Denmark Street for ages associated with song writing, recording and now th...