alobear | Privileged Information and Lord John reviews

Privileged Information is a thriller by Stephen White, the first in a series starring his psychologist character, Alan Gregory. Surprisingly for a thriller, nothing actually happened for the first 300 pages - the first two deaths were ruled a suicide and an accident respectively, and the first obvious murder resulted in a very half-hearted police investigation that didn't really involve the narrator and so mostly happened off-page. The blurb on the back of the book was completely wrong, as the psychologist was never a suspect in the case, and the rather abrupt and ridiculously over-the-top climax seemed entirely out of keeping with the rest of the novel.

Still, it wasn't badly written, there was some interesting relationship stuff, and the way the case all came together in the end was quite clever (though I worked out who the perpetrator was quite early on). It was diverting enough for a couple of days, but I don't think I'll be reading any more.

More success on the audiobook front, though! A random browsing of itunes led me to Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon. It's a military mystery set in the mid-1700s, about Lord John Grey, a soldier investigating the death of a possible spy in London. I'm not sure how well it would read on the page, but the audio version is infinitely improved by the delicious tones of Jeff Woodman. I could listen to him all day, and certainly plan to get the other audiobooks in the series.