The Lincoln Lawyer

Some weeks I just don’t know what I want to read and I’m not happy with anything. I pick at this and that, but can’t settle. Reviewers never come out and say ‘I wasn’t in a very good mood when I read this, so maybe the problem is with me, not the book’ but I bet that sometimes happens. IIn truth it’s hard to know. Last week I needed to sink down and forget myself in a good story and I picked up Michael Connolly’s THE LINCOLN LAWYER. I’d had one or two false starts with this, but I like his books and this one was recommended to me. The first that I read was THE CONCRETE BLONDE, which I picked up because someone had left it behind in a hotel in Greece and I needed something to read. I couldn’t put it down and I went on to read the others. I still think that novel and THE LAST COYOTE are the best. But with THE LINCOLN LAWYER, I was never really caught. I found myself skipping and – with one big exception – wasn’t really surprised by the plot twists. Is it me or him? A bit of both maybe. After that I read HOLE IN ONE by Catherine Aird. I usually enjoy these short, slyly witty crime novels, but this time I couldn’t be bother to get some rather similar characters straight and I didn’t go for the golfing background. Is a coincidence that I’m struggling with my own novel at the moment (won’t dignify this with the term writer’s block)? I think there is such a thing as reader’s block which is similar to writer’s block, when nothing seems interesting and the words just lie there on the page – but at least the reader can blame the writer!