Acid Row

Rating:
Summary: Average Walters
Review: A young girl, Amy, goes missing, around the same time it is revealed that a paedophile is living in the housing estate from which she disappeared. The people come out in force to protest at his presence. Slowly, the protests bud into riots, stretching the police force, breeding greater and greater acts of violence. The streets of "Bassindale Row" (dubbed "Acid Row" by its inhabitants) are thronged with angry citizens, some well-meaning, and some there just to further incite destruction. Events build to a crescendo, as the troubled housing estate is swept under the tide of a crowd whose slogan is "Saving Amy"...But, the rioters are unaware of the presence of Sophie Morrison, a young doctor called to the house of the "pervert" just before events erupted. Now she is trapped inside with a man she increasingly comes to believe is capable of great violence...

Minette Walters continues in the vein of her last book, bringing forth a novel once again full of deep social perception. This time, she writes about the events which recently swept Great Britain, with all the furore of exposing paedophiles, and the doubled-edged sword that doing so would unsheathe.

The first thirty pages or so are just typical Walters. Accurate psychology, deep prose, great characters, realism in the writing, etc. However, once the riots begin, the book gets swept away with the pace. It moves too quickly. Character development, which was building so brilliantly at first, is sacrificed, and several of the characters introduced later on in the story come across as cardboard and cliched. The excitement of the events just takes the book too quickly. It does make it a great pageturner, yes. And i am sure that fact will win it praise, but at the expense of plot and character development, I'm not certain it's worth it. Because her books are always pageturners ANYWAY.

So, the middle section of this book is underdeveloped. I think Walters probably got carried away. When a writer is penning an exciting plot, they are apt to get carried away. they rush it, eager to experience the action of the plot themselves. As such, the action and riots feel underdeveloped and shallow, and the book doesn't always "feel" like a Minette Walters novel.

While the deep accurate psychology of character is lost after the first thirty pages, something does redeem that. Instead of individual character psychology, we are treated this time to an accurate representation of mob psychology. This does make up, mostly, for the fact that the plot is mostly underdeveloped.

The ending is very good. A great climax, with a nice twist, but considering what we know of how events like these conspired in England, some may find it predictable from quite a way off. however, that certainly doesn't spoil the enjoyment.

The final chapter has been criticised for being too "happy ever after-ey". Yes, it does contain that quality, but i don't mind. I prefer to look at it as a display of hope, and the fact that sometimes, good does win out over evil, and the sometimes bad events spawn good things. It is rather uplifting, and a lovely way to finish off the book. Leaves you with good, happy feelings about what has happened.

This book is still incredibly enjoyable. I finished it in two days. It's a pageturner, and contains some likeable, if at times 2d, characters. The central section is underdeveloped after a brilliant initial 30 pages, and the writing gets swept away in the excitement. However, the explorations of mob psychology at times make up for that, and the ending shines through with hope. As ever, the prose is very good.

This is a recommended book, but perhaps not quite what we have come to expect from Walters.

Rating:
Summary: How Disappointing!
Review: Although the plot of this book was adequate for a mystery, the filthy language scattered aimlessly throughout the dialog was disgusting and distracting. Without the extra words serving any purpose, one must assume the author didn't have enough story to fill the pages of a book and augmented it with random distasteful verbalizations. Although one might be impressed with the author's obviously extensive knowledge of degrading human anatomical terms, it is beyond belief that the ignorant characters she portrays would have such knowledge.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing worth reading
Review: Bassindale Estate, known as Acid Row by the people that live there, is a bleak, rundown council estate. Nobody living there works and most of the residents are single mothers or layabouts. Youth gangs control the streets, roaming at will wherever they please, doing whatever they want, often terrorizing the residents. And if all that isn't bad enough, Acid Row is a place the cops prefer to stay clear of.

Sophie Morrison is a young doctor who refuses to give up on the people in Acid Row. They are her patients, her friends and she goes out of her way to lend them a helping hand whenever she gets the chance. Unfortunately for Sophie, trouble is brewing.

When Melanie Patterson, who is a young mother, hears that the authorities have moved a convicted pedophile onto the estate, word spreads and the residents are furious and determined to find out where this man is living. Then a young child goes missing and suspicion immediately falls on two men who have recently moved next door to Melanie. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, the residents hold a protest march around the estate to demand these men be moved out.

Sophie is finishing a house call, when she gets called to see a man in the throws of an asthma attack. She helps the man, then is prevented from leaving. One of these men is the suspected pedophile and they decide to hold her as insurance against the protesters, who are now outside their door.

Sophie suffers horribly as she fights for her life inside the house, while the crowd outside is drinking and getting violent. Firebombs are thrown and the crowd starts crying for blood.

This book has a great ending with a nice twist and it's a good suspenseful read, though it's a thriller, not the mystery I expected. However, that made no difference, because it's such a powerful story.

Rating:
Summary: A Dark Look at Life on a Council Estate
Review: Bassindale Estate, known as Acid Row by the people that live there, is a bleak, rundown council estate. Nobody living there works and most of the residents are single mothers or layabouts. Youth gangs control the streets, roaming at will wherever they please, doing whatever they want, often terrorizing the residents. And if all that isn't bad enough, Acid Row is a place the cops prefer to stay clear of.

Sophie Morrison is a young doctor who refuses to give up on the people in Acid Row. They are her patients, her friends and she goes out of her way to lend them a helping hand whenever she gets the chance. Unfortunately for Sophie, trouble is brewing.

When Melanie Patterson, who is a young mother, hears that the authorities have moved a convicted pedophile onto the estate, word spreads and the residents are furious and determined to find out where this man is living. Then a young child goes missing and suspicion immediately falls on two men who have recently moved next door to Melanie. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, the residents hold a protest march around the estate to demand these men be moved out.

Sophie is finishing a house call, when she gets called to see a man in the throws of an asthma attack. She helps the man, then is prevented from leaving. One of these men is the suspected pedophile and they decide to hold her as insurance against the protesters, who are now outside their door.

Sophie suffers horribly as she fights for her life inside the house, while the crowd outside is drinking and getting violent. Firebombs are thrown and the crowd starts crying for blood.

This book has a great ending with a nice twist and it's a good suspenseful read, though it's a thriller, not the mystery I expected. However, that made no difference, because it's such a powerful story.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time and money
Review: I found this book boring and repetitive. Not to mention several grammar mistakes. I really don't know how this book was even published and that the cover states "the new international bestseller". This is false advertising and I really wish I could get my money back. It is one of the most stupid books I ever read. This is the first and definitely the last time I will ever pick up a book by this author.

Rating:
Summary: intense
Review: I thought this was the best Minette Walters book out of the three I have read. It was really suspenseful and kept you guessing as to what could happen next. It wasn't too gory and was just long enough. This is one of the best books I have read.

Rating:
Summary: Typical
Review: In typical middle-class fashion, Minette Walters depicts the lower classes as vulgar dolts.

Rating:
Summary: Meltdown in the Projects
Review: Society breaks down in a housing project and a peaceful demonstration gets completely out of hand, as we follow the fate of a young woman doctor trapped inside a house with its inhabitants and a little girl who is missing.

While this was not exactly what I was expecting, once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. Walters is a master of character and suspense, which is a powerful combination that keeps the pages turning as if they had a mind of their own. There are multiple story lines, each as spellbinding as the last.

I do love Minette Walters other books, specifically Ice House, The Sculptress and Shape of Snakes. While this is not my favorite of the Walters book, I give it four out of five stars. If you haven't read any other of Walters' books, you may want to start with one of the other three, I just mentioned.

Rating:
Summary: Mob rule in the slums
Review: The story is gripping and the writing, excellent as usual but I'm getting very sick of reading about this almost sub-human strata of society. Two events occur which start a cycle of unstoppable violence.A young girl goes missing and a blabbermouth social worker lets it be known that a convicted paedophile is housed on the same working class estate, which is so badly designed that it forms a bottle neck, limiting entrance and entrance.An attractive young female doctor is called to the house of the paedophile to treat his ailing father and is held captive by them.When a group of women on the estate hold a march to protest about the presence of the paedophile, yobs take over and start to fire bomb the house where he is living. In the ensueing violence, several people are killed and a number of them injured in the panic to escape the streets. It's gripping reading but certainly not pretty and I find it difficult to work up much sympathy for these misfits of society who exist on public hand-outs.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing worth reading
Review: This was my first book by Minette Walters, and one of the most annoying books Ive ever read. Maybe the basic plot is decent, but beyond that it amazes me that Walters has ever been published. This book stands as nothing more than a symbol of the ease at which most people are entertained, picking this book up thinking its doing them more good than watching tv, when its actually got worse writing than a bad tv movie. The picture of Walters on the back cover provided a few laughs though.Oh, and my apologies for my own poor writing in this review, but I've only done this in the hopes that would be buyers spend their money elsewhere, spending much time and effort on this would have been a complete waste, and I've already wasted enough time on this garbage.