Friday, March 11, 2011

Falling Glass, (the audio book version), by Adrian McKinty

Adrian McKinty has an incredible way with words, and it certainly shows in his new offering Falling Glass. His prose gives you a sure sense of where the characters are, what they feel, the atmosphere, along with what they see. And, if you get the novel in the form of an audio book, Gerald Doyle does an equally incredible job of enhancing that sense of feeling. These two make a great pair.

Rachel is on her last leg. She has taken her two children and mysteriously disappeared, and after being on the run from her ex-husband, and the kids father, Richard Coulter, she is ready to pull the trigger. When her ex's goons show up with guns drawn, however, she grabs the children and heads to the next hiding spot she can find.

Richard is a man that has it all, a new wife who is pregnant, a successful business, and a nice house. He has always made sure Rachel and the kids were taken care of, so why did they abscond? He hires Killian, a Pavee and ex IRA enforcer with a propensity to use a way with words, to get the job done. As Killian is on her trail, he discovers he's not the only one looking for her, and the other guy isn't near as nice. Killian must now use all of his wit, instinct and knowledge to find Rachael and figure out what is really going on before her ex gets what he wants...all of them dead.

At this point, I would normally throw in a few lines from the story to give those of you that might be interested an idea of how the author writes. As much as I love this particular authors lyrical prose, since I had this one on audio that would be a bit hard to get right. I suppose you will just have to take my word for it that it's like reading crime fiction poetry. It's quite interesting and even captivating at times

I have also found, as a somewhat regular reader of the author's blog, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, that McKinty himself is a fount of bits and pieces of knowledge I believe most people, especially on my side of the Atlantic, never think to think about, and he weaves some of that knowledge throughout his tale. Along with many scientific morsels, the use of the Aboriginal belief in The Dreaming to set mood, state of mind and feeling made that part of Australian history come alive as it added a completely new level to the story. I also found the use of Irish history, and the Pavee, to be fascinating and a bit engrossing. It's not often that history captures my attention, but presented in the way McKinty has presented it, I admit, the interest is there and I get a bit curious. A quick Wiki search gave me this and this if you're interested.

All of this said, I think Falling Glass is probably Adrian McKinty's best novel yet, and I hope to read more of Killian in the future. In all honesty, I didn't think he could possibly do better than his Michael Forsythe character, but, against all odds, I think he's done it and I'm left wondering what the author will come up with next.

Falling Glass is unfortunately not currently available in The U.S, but can be bought from The Book Depository or downloaded as an audio book from Audible.

10 comments:

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

Glenna- Great review. I cannot wait to read this!

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

Oh yeah, can you get it for kindle or nook?

Glenna said...

Sean, not yet that I could find. I think Adrian said at one point it would be next year sometime before it was available in ebook form unfortunately.

adrian mckinty said...

Glenna

Thanks for the review, I really appreciate it!


Sean

I have no idea about Kindle but probably not before the US publication in 2012! Otherwise it'll have to be Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com (from their recommended sellers). Sorry about that.

Glenna said...

Thanks for stopping by Adrian. You'll notice I left Michael Forsythe out of it, it seems Killian is The Man now.

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

No way I can wait that long. Just checked Amazon and looks like I'll go through the Amazon reseller

seana graham said...

Just finally getting over here after my own reading of it. Nice post. I think we both were especially drawn to the Pavee aspect.

I also like the new look around these parts. Way to change it up!

Glenna said...

Seana, yes, I loved the Pavee parts in the story and Killians thoughts and views of it. I also like how he work in the Aboriginal belief in The Dreaming. I've always admired Adrians way of putting things like that in his story lines.

seana graham said...

I do feel that I have to listen to one of his books in audio now.

Glenna said...

Oh definitely listen to one, Doyle does an amazing job of the voices and accents. He really does compliment Adrian's style of writing well.