I need to get back on track with this - not really the reading, it’s not too far behind, but with the writing about the reading!

Christopher Brookmyre is a frustrating author - by that I mean that several of his books are really good, and yet others fail to live up to these high expectations.

This book lies somewhere in between - I want to say I love it, yet I also want to say I hate it!  The problem, for me, lies in that in some books (and in some parts of this book) his narrative style heads off on a bit of a rant about something or other.  Normally it’s about the state the world is in currently and while that’s fair enough it does tend to drag on a bit.

This is book 13 of a supposed 30 I am going to read this year, and the next 17 are going to have a heck of a job if they are to be better than this.

By far, my favourite book of the year so far - and that’s saying something as I’ve enjoyed a lot of the books along the way.

It’s hard to pinpoint just what it is about Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry that made it so brilliant. Perhaps it was that I read it in just two sittings, mainly outside in the sunshine which helped but then again the nature of the story and relentless pace of the story surely made it anything but a chore to do so.

I tend to read quite a few books in the summer as it helps pass the time on a nice sunny day lazing about outside, so that’s when I tend to end up being lured into taking up special offers in bookshops!

Last summer I bought a book called Ratcatcher by James McGee. I’d never heard of the author to be honest, but the blurb on the back coupled with the intriguing cover art made it look interesting enough to take a chance on.

I’m glad I did as it was a cracking read, and was quickly followed by the second in the series, Resurrectionist.

How a book presents itself in the shop means a lot to me as far as books go, which is perhaps wrong but there you go.

Something could be the best written story in the world but if I don’t like how it looks then it’s going to be left on the shelf.

I have a few different criteria on how to choose a book when in a shop - this changes slightly if I’m buying from Amazon or somewhere else online - but in a shop, the size of the book matters, the price, the font and also the cover.

Okay, just four more needed before the end of June to keep me on track for the thirty books this year - it may be possible after all.

I think was by far my favourite Spook’s Apprentice book yet. The story takes him out of his usual setting in the County which makes things a bit more interesting as it also means he has to contend with new friends and also new enemies.

His new friend is a different Spook, Bill Arkwright, and his new enemies are mainly water-based as opposed to the land-dwellers he has had to deal with in the past.