Beneath the Whispers

Im once again out of my blog hibernation to discuss Jim Ody’s Beneath the whispers. Another fab read from mr Ody.

The novella: Beneath The Whispers A Jim Ody novella Genevieve Deboise is too good for Scott Dean. He’s always known that. It isn’t a shock to learn she is cheating on him. What is a surprise is bumping into his childhood sweetheart in the woods where he’d planned to take solace in his heartbreak and bruised ego. But running into Mary-Ann Jennings isn’t exactly the fairy tale it might seem. Instead, his first love needs his help finding a USB stick that has fallen into the wrong hands. Now in the cellar of Genevieve’s new lover, Scotty must confront his feelings for both women in order to retrieve the missing USB stick. On a quest to confront his past and locate Mary-Ann’s property, he journeys through the whispers that have always surrounded him. Love will make you do crazy things. But is it enough to get beneath the whispers?

My thoughts: Again there is a lot in a short story in this, I liked the complex interplay between characters, there is a young teenage lad in this who was my favourite character by far. I enjoyed Jim’s subtle humour throughout, it is one of the best facets of his writing as it makes the story more engaging. This is a fascinating concept and one that Jim explores in an interesting fashion. I’ve been a Jim ody fan since his first novel, but I truly believe that his writing is going from strength to strength, This is a fascinating novella that I read in one sitting and I’m wholeheartedly looking forward to reading whatever Jim write next. A solid 5* from me.

A cold retreat by Jim Ody

Today i have the great good fortune to be on Jim Ody’s blog tour, I have enjoyed watching Jims author career move from strength to strength.

A cold retreat follows – Penny, As a child, Penny dreams of being a princess. She knows life isn’t exactly like fairytales, but she hopes it can be similar.
The future isn’t so kind to Penny. The princes in her reality turn out to be evil. Battered and bruised she hits rock bottom

My thoughts: whilst i’ve always enjoyed Jim’s writing, I felt that he needed to ground himself more on one genre and with A cold retreat he does just that. You have all the classic parts of Jim’s writing – interesting characters that stray away from the norm, plenty of humour and the odd clever music reference. But this time they are paired with a really smart fairly straight crime novel plot. There is a wonderful twist you don’t see coming and some interesting point of view chapters from different characters. This is a truly intelligent enjoyable read, and long may this New era of Jim’s writing continue