guerra_sio's review against another edition
3.0
Garvie Smith is back on (yet, another) crime scene. The (lazy) child prodigy investigates the murder of the Gimp and he'll stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if it means letting everyone down.
stephee's review against another edition
4.0
Garvie strikes again. #3wordbookreview
Love the cover blurb: Like Sherlock - but lazier!
I also liked how we could get straight into the story since we already know the characters. And how Garvie is developing as a human being. He could turn out all right yet.
Love the cover blurb: Like Sherlock - but lazier!
I also liked how we could get straight into the story since we already know the characters. And how Garvie is developing as a human being. He could turn out all right yet.
ticktockcrocky's review against another edition
5.0
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I do love a good mystery.
This one is fascinating, just like the last and it kept me guessing right up to the last second. There were three main suspects and I genuinely couldn’t make my mind up which one it was, until it was revealed. I actually discounted the murderer because I thought it was too obvious!
The main character, Garvie Smith, is one of my favourite characters in literature. The tagline for the book sums him up pretty well:
If you want an idea of his character, think Kaz Brekker, but in our world and bored out of his mind with school.
His friends Felix and Smudge never fail to make me laugh. They’re like the three musketeers, just more modern, younger and with slightly more questionable methods. Felix is essentially a cat burglar (which I found hilarious, because Felix the cat) and his specialty is picking locks. Smudge is the stereotypical ‘dumb friend’ and his dubious specialty is reading people.
Our other main character is DI Singh, a Sikh police officer (and I will say it: this book has a lot of diversity and it is BRILLIANT) who was disgraced after the last case because Garvie interferes with everything. He’s uptight and follows the law to the letter. Turns out, he is also trained in (I think) martial arts and is brilliant in a fight. Like, he’s a total badass at the end of the book, but shh spoilers!
Garvie and Singh’s relationship developed in this book to almost friendly? Singh actually treated him like a partner in places (they did argue, we do still have that aspect) and they worked together to solve the mystery.
Another character that I always feel infinitely sorry for is Garvie’s mother. That poor woman. In this book, we had the obligatory scene where they have a heart-to-heart (and although expected, it still made me tear up a little bit). Afterwards, I thought that Garvie might actually go to his exams – spoiler alert, he did not, and I wanted to punch him multiple times.
This book also saw the introduction of more characters. Zuzana, for one. She’s Garvie’s mate’s girlfriend and she’s from Poland (again, diversity!). Also, she’s pretty smart. On a level with Garvie almost. I do have a bit of a problem in that she’s reduced to a love-interest-come-villain, but she’s fascinating enough.
Our victim is a school boy called Pyotor, who is also Polish. He falls on the autistic spectrum too, and most of what he faced from people is true in real life. I feel like this murder is more likely to have happened in real life than in the last book, but the circumstances are less realistic.
Khalid and Sajid are Asian, I believe, and it is kind of stereotypical that they run a corner shop, but I mean, it’s realistic that it gets broken into. Racism is tackled in this book, specifically the type of racism that happens in England. I’m not so sure about other countries, but people from elsewhere in Europe (Poland, mostly but there are plenty of others) face a lot of racism. This book calls people out on it and on the effects of it – it’s worth the read, seeing how people are attacked.
Again, I did love this book and it was well worth the read. I look forward to any more in this series!
This one is fascinating, just like the last and it kept me guessing right up to the last second. There were three main suspects and I genuinely couldn’t make my mind up which one it was, until it was revealed. I actually discounted the murderer because I thought it was too obvious!
The main character, Garvie Smith, is one of my favourite characters in literature. The tagline for the book sums him up pretty well:
"Garvie Smith
Like Sherlock – but lazier"
If you want an idea of his character, think Kaz Brekker, but in our world and bored out of his mind with school.
His friends Felix and Smudge never fail to make me laugh. They’re like the three musketeers, just more modern, younger and with slightly more questionable methods. Felix is essentially a cat burglar (which I found hilarious, because Felix the cat) and his specialty is picking locks. Smudge is the stereotypical ‘dumb friend’ and his dubious specialty is reading people.
Our other main character is DI Singh, a Sikh police officer (and I will say it: this book has a lot of diversity and it is BRILLIANT) who was disgraced after the last case because Garvie interferes with everything. He’s uptight and follows the law to the letter. Turns out, he is also trained in (I think) martial arts and is brilliant in a fight. Like, he’s a total badass at the end of the book, but shh spoilers!
Garvie and Singh’s relationship developed in this book to almost friendly? Singh actually treated him like a partner in places (they did argue, we do still have that aspect) and they worked together to solve the mystery.
Another character that I always feel infinitely sorry for is Garvie’s mother. That poor woman. In this book, we had the obligatory scene where they have a heart-to-heart (and although expected, it still made me tear up a little bit). Afterwards, I thought that Garvie might actually go to his exams – spoiler alert, he did not, and I wanted to punch him multiple times.
This book also saw the introduction of more characters. Zuzana, for one. She’s Garvie’s mate’s girlfriend and she’s from Poland (again, diversity!). Also, she’s pretty smart. On a level with Garvie almost. I do have a bit of a problem in that she’s reduced to a love-interest-come-villain, but she’s fascinating enough.
Our victim is a school boy called Pyotor, who is also Polish. He falls on the autistic spectrum too, and most of what he faced from people is true in real life. I feel like this murder is more likely to have happened in real life than in the last book, but the circumstances are less realistic.
Khalid and Sajid are Asian, I believe, and it is kind of stereotypical that they run a corner shop, but I mean, it’s realistic that it gets broken into. Racism is tackled in this book, specifically the type of racism that happens in England. I’m not so sure about other countries, but people from elsewhere in Europe (Poland, mostly but there are plenty of others) face a lot of racism. This book calls people out on it and on the effects of it – it’s worth the read, seeing how people are attacked.
Again, I did love this book and it was well worth the read. I look forward to any more in this series!
lugalante's review against another edition
2.0
A little disappointing, just didn't really like it honestly. Chore to get through.
acobbs's review against another edition
5.0
Ugh that was delicious. We have a mixed race protagonist, a murder victim with autism and of Polish decent, and a cop who wears a turban. And the great thing was that these aren't really plot points, but rather just details. Honestly, I think the only white people were Polish so there was still racism in their plot lines. This is what diversity looks like. Delightful.
That doesn't even include how good the story is. It's a very similar concept to the first book, but as the first was amazing, im happy with this continuation. If it aint broke.....
That doesn't even include how good the story is. It's a very similar concept to the first book, but as the first was amazing, im happy with this continuation. If it aint broke.....
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