Sophie Hannah, The Carrier

[Cantdothisagain]

I really enjoyed her early books, like Little Face and Hurting Distance. But since then they have varied in readability/quality IMO, and the Carrier has really annoyed me, as all of the characters were just unremittingly annoying and the plot pointless. What does everyone else think?

Ooh is this a new one

New. And (IMO) annoying. Even worse as I preordered it excitedly....

I've been waiting for a new Sophie Hannah to come out.

I loved Little Face, Hurting Distance and A Room Swept White but now think I may wait before ordering The Carrier after reading this topic.

Sometimes it's all too easy to grab a new book as soon as it's released, only to find out that it doesn't live up to expectations.

Thanks for the heads up on this one.

I agree, haven't read latest but the earlier ones were much better.

I agree - I always loved her books but this one just didn't work and left me cold. Maybe she's writing them too quickly now or out of ideas? That's what I wonder anyway

Am a bit skeptical, have only read Lasting Damage which was so contrived it became funny! Which I don't' think was the point....

I really thought I would like her, but I read The Other Half Lives and just really disliked it. It just didn't draw me in at all and I wished I have given up on it earlier.

But I'm currently enjoying Stewart MacBride novels after recommendations from you lot and they are FAB.

If you read them for Charlie and Simon's ongoing multidysfunctional romance (as I do) then it's a great read. Plot, not so much

I think her fiction is quite ropey generally. Much prefer her poetry. However was massively put off by her at a reading - she turned up very late and then sort of sneered at all the women in the audience. Can't read her now.

I LOVE Stuart McBride! I want DI Steel to be a real person.

I loved SH's earlier work, but yeah it's all ropey and formulaic now.

I think there is a lot of emperor's new clothes surrounding SH; she seems to be pretty rated as a crime writer but I don't get why. I still persist with them but each one is worse than the last. The characterisation is dreadful, the plotting in some is so complex as to be utterly baffling and in others just not very good and they are very very formulaic. Also, she seems to churn them out far too quickly. I wish she would publish less often but actually try to up her quality a bit and write them like she cared about more than coining in the £££.

I have ishoos with her too. Have read all her books and tbh I almost gave up after the dreadful 'The Other Half Lives' - but then I spotted a copy of 'Kind of Cruel' in a charity shop and decided to give her one more go.

Quite enjoyed it - in that it was far less annoying and insanely complicated than TOHL - but I too am that she has yet another book out. She's really not pausing for breath, is she?

I haven't read this one but I find her books to be very odd.

Some are good, I enjoyed Little Face and I did quite like Kind of Cruel even though I found the conclusion very odd.

But I find her plots unbelievable and sometimes I wonder if she had trouble bringing them to a conclusion. Lasting Damage seemed to have three different endings. It was very much this is the end...except actually, this is the end...haha no it's not, one more time, this is the end.

And not one of those endings was really any good.

The idea of her books always sounds very good and intriguing, but she doesn't quite pull off the promise of them.

I agree; I like her style of writing, in general, but she needs plot guidance as some are just so contrived that they are counter-intuitive or worse, utterly pointless.