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Nick Brownlee

Auteur de Bait

20 oeuvres 212 utilisateurs 8 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Comprend les noms: Nick Brownlee

Séries

Œuvres de Nick Brownlee

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Date de naissance
1967-12-16
Sexe
male
Nationalité
UK
Lieu de naissance
Blyth, Northumberland
Études
Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
University of Leeds
Professions
Reporter
Courte biographie
Nick Brownlee worked for national newspapers in the UK for many years and now runs his own freelance news agency covering the north of England and Scotland. He has written non-fiction books on subjects as wide-ranging as cannabis and Coronation Street, but Bait is his first novel. Born and bred on Tyneside, Nick now lives close to the beautiful Lake District in Cumbria with his wife, daughter and dog. Nick is now working on his fourth novel SNAKEPIT.

http://www.gregoryandcompany.co.uk/as...

Membres

Critiques

Just didn't grab me, but I think its more my mood than the book. On my list to try again later because (1) good writer, (2) good characters, and (3) good plot so far (pg. 82) and perhaps after the Holidays and all that stuff.
 
Signalé
SmithfieldJones | 5 autres critiques | Dec 23, 2016 |
Bait is the first novel in the Jake and Jouma series by author Nick Brownlee. Jake Moore is a retired British policeman trying to make a living as a tourist fisherman in Mombassa, Kenya. Jake becomes reluctant involved in an investigation with Inspector Jouma of Mombassa police when one of his friend's boat is found blown up and a dead body washes up on shore. As they investigate they uncover a world of corruption that threatens their lives.

At first glance this book seemed like an interesting novel. It actually turns out to be more of a straightforward action yarn Read the full review here
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Signalé
thecrimescene | 5 autres critiques | Sep 30, 2013 |
Bait is a story of violence. It opens with a young boy gutting a white man on the bow of a fishing boat off the coast of Kenya. The boat is then blown up with the body of the white man and the live young boy on board. Subsequently there are more violent deaths (several shootings, a harpooning, an attempted murder by crocodile and probably a couple more I’ve forgotten), several near-deaths and other violent outbursts. Amongst all of that is the story of Jake Moore, an ex-cop from Britain, and his partner Harry who run an ailing business offering big game fishing trips to rich tourists. They get caught up in the violence via several threads, not least of which is Jake’s encounter with Mombassa’s only honest cop, Detective Inspector Daniel Jouma. Initially investigating a disappearance Jouma (with help from Jake) eventually ends up on the trail of the nastiest kind of crime you can imagine.

The setting is the most distinctive thing about the book but for me. Brownlee has depicted Kenya following the post-election riots of 2007; tourism has significantly reduced and crime and corruption has flourished. The wealth and luxury enjoyed by the owner and visitors to the Marlin Bay Hotel where much of the action in the novel is set is juxtaposed well with the extreme poverty endured by those outside the five-star compound.

Ultimately though this felt like a film script more than a book to me. It’s full of action and imagery (most of it bloody) but not a great deal of substance and the characters were a bit too stereotypical and shallow to really engage me (the rich man is evil, the South African is a racist etc). To be fair I think perhaps if I was an occasional reader of the genre I would have liked it more, but as it stands the book fell into my ‘meh’ category which I broadly describe as a ‘book that’s OK to read but barely distinguishable from a hundred similar tomes and will be quickly forgotten’.

Given that I really did enjoy the narration from Ben Onwukwe the book probably would have scored 3 stars despite its flaws but for the very end. There’s a wrap-up where one of the characters explains the message of the book, in essence explaining in words of one syllable why it’s called Bait, that I found particularly patronising. When you add that to the colossal amount of violence and other elements I’ve described it’s just not a book I would recommend ahead of other African crime fiction such as [a:Deon Meyer|283304|Deon Meyer|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1225442760p2/283304.jpg]’s excellent South African books.

My rating 2.5/5 stars
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Signalé
bsquaredinoz | 5 autres critiques | Mar 31, 2013 |
Spotty, as it must be when it's covering a hundred and odd years of a complex event in 250 pages, but some stories crop up several times (the tale of Eugène Christophe's broken front forks seems to be repeated at every mention of the Col du Tourmalet; it's a good story, but the nice thing about books is you can read them more than once), and others which might've been worth a mention don't appear at all. For example, Brownlee mentions that Pierre Brambilla, having lost the 1947 Tour on the very last day, buried his bike in his back garden out of digust, which is one of those "how curious" one-sentence bits of nonsense that you immediately forget. But in Something to Declare, Julian Barnes expands on the story: during a later race Brambilla is asked by André Brulé why he did it. "The bike had wooden rims, and I wanted to grow poplars in my garden," jokes Brambilla. "Just as well you didn't plant your water bottle as well," says Brulé, "or you would have grown a pharmacy." This you remember.

And so yes, drugs. He doesn't shy away from the issue, but in some ways they've become a bigger story than the racing over recent decades, and... well, a book like this isn't going to reflect that exactly, I suppose, it's a light-hearted romp, and he does tell us about cyclists having to exercise through the night so their EPO-stuffed blood doesn't clog their arteries, and he doesn't pretend that the pre-modern era was a wonderland of muesli-eating Corinthians, but he might've given a bit more space to Marco Pantani and... I don't know, I just want a different book, I guess, one that can address questions about what ought to constitute illegal performance enhancement anyway, one that tackles matters of morality and motivation, rather than this one, which is more wasn't Tom Simpson a lovely guy and hahaha Chris Boardman crashed into a wall and did I tell you about the time Eugène Christophe had to repair his own front forks in a smithy?

So, you know, it's a trashy stocking-filler sort of thing for dipping into (I, as a rebel, read through it in two sittings), and it's entertaining enough, so, okay, I'm being ridiculous, and, I dunno, two and a half stars or something, yeah?
… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
stilton | Dec 18, 2010 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
20
Membres
212
Popularité
#104,834
Évaluation
½ 3.4
Critiques
8
ISBN
49
Langues
2

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