Reviews: Different Class, and The 4th Man

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

Title: Different Class
Author: Joanne Harris
Publication Date: January 3, 2017
Genre: Psychological Suspense/Thriller/Mystery
Recommended If You Like: Gentlemen and Players, psychological thrillers, twisty mysteries, absolutely unreliable narrators

The Book:

Roy Straitley, the Latin Master at St. Oswald's, loves his school. It has his loyalty in a way no one and nothing else ever has. But bad things have happened at St. Oswald's. And bad things seem to be happening again--and they may just be tied to events from the past that no one wants to talk about.

What I Liked:

Harris is quite literally a genius when it comes to the trope of the unreliable narrator. Her narrators are so amazingly unreliable that you're not even sure who they are sometimes. She had me completely fooled with one of the narrators here, and when I realized how seamlessly I had been tricked, I actually gasped out loud. This is something she did to great effect in her previous book, Gentlemen and Players, also set at St. Oswald's. In the hands of a lesser writer, things could very easily have fallen apart, but Harris is a true master at this.

The twists and turns of this book will absolutely keep you guessing. The mystery is multi-layered and intriguing, and the use of flashbacks builds the suspense and tension to the breaking point.

Anything I Didn't Like?

Really, there was nothing I didn't like about this book. It wasn't quite as good as Gentlemen and Players, but it is hard for any book to live up to just how brilliant that book was.

So...?

Read this book! But read Gentlemen and Players first, so you understand all the character and plot references in Different Class. 

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself. 

Title: The 4th Man
Author: Lisa Gardner
Publication Date: January 3, 2017
Genre: Mystery
Recommended If You Like: short story mysteries that pack a punch

The Book:

Five years after a college student was found strangled in the library stairwell, a cold case squad has narrowed the list of suspects down to three--and a possible fourth unknown man.

What I Liked:

Gardner is really good at writing short stories that are great mysteries in their own right. The concept for this one was really interesting, especially that the detectives had figured out a lie each suspect had told all those years ago, and were about to confront them with it.

Anything I Didn't Like?

The ending to the mystery was merely good, not great. It was based off a true story, but it felt like within the short story context, the ending was rushed. The story might have benefited from being fleshed out more.

So...

At forty-seven pages, this is a quick read, and an interesting mystery. Pick it up if you have an hour or so.