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Thursday 4 April 2013

*** Review*** Lie Detectives (The Deadly Dare Mysteries) by Malorie Blackman





Theo, Ricky and Angela have to become Lie Detectives to uncover the truth about top inventor, Darius Marriott, after he comes to give a talk at school and collapses. Who is out to get him, and why does their friend Bullet seem so involved? They're determined to get to the bottom of it all - but that could prove to be much more dangerous than they think . . .



I’m choosing this because:

As you’ve seen from my previous reviews, I’ve read the other two books in this three book omnibus edition of the ‘Deadly Dare Mysteries’ So I think it definitely makes sense for me to review the final story in the book. As I start this it’s still March so will still be going towards my Malorie Blackman month features (yay!). I’m also finding this a great way to read books off Spencer so I can conquer him and be like “HA!!! I READ ALL MY BOOKS!”. As you can see, I really want to be the boss of my TBR pile. But at least there’s no Malorie Blackman books there now!

Judging a book by its cover:

Well it’s purple with the poison pen style writing that was on my copy of ‘Pig-Heart Boy’ (OMG!! I have matching covers!!!) and I have to say it’s really eye-catching!! I do love bright covers, they really brighten up bookshops everywhere!! I think it played a major part of me buying it. I love a good cover me!! So shallow, sometimes it can only lead to disappointment though...

Pricing the (possible) awesomeness:

Well.. You want a price... of course you do. I paid £2.50 and purchased it from my local British Heart Foundation charity shop (YAY!!! Helping those with heart issues!!). However You want to know about it new don’t you? Amazon have this for £4.49 paperback and £4.27 on Kindle. I got it cheaper... HA! 


 

This is my least favourite of the three stories. It dragged a bit and didn’t hold my attention as well. I did keep drifting off into nowhereness. I didn’t feel as invested in the mystery, probably because I didn’t like Darius – more about him later in this review. The story started promisingly with an encounter shrouded in secrets to be revealed and my interest was piqued but it deteriorated slightly as I felt that I was being left out of the loop (in a bad way). The writing itself was good though and I did like it, I just feel the pace was slightly off and I had some character issues which I’ll address now.

Darius – Well he certainly likes to enter a story with a bang. At the end of his first scene he’d keeled over! Just because that much attention isn’t enough we then find out a revelation about him and one of our school kid heroes. I didn’t particularly like him and he did nothing to change that. Everyone around him is collateral damage, as long as he comes out on top all is well with the world. He needs a few lessons in respect. I’ll teach him.
Bullet – Oh Toby! You’ve let me down! I thought with all your geekiness you’d be super awesome and remain untainted by the influence of idiots. Unfortunately not because for a portion of this book I was wondering if he’d been reading “How to be a Tool” because he was a bit of a spanner! That pretty much sums up Bullet for me. Disappointment on my part and idiocy on his!

Theo – Theo got a slight taste of his own medicine in this. If you read book 2 you’ll know what he did and in this one Ricky does it back. Mature boys! I do like him but I can’t help but think he’s a bit bratty and spoilt and whiny here. I really didn’t like that one iota. I want my lead character to be strong, brave and coolness personified and Theo wasn’t really anything like that here. He seems to have lost a few brain cells as well. He should see a doctor about that before it gets worse and he turns into an airhead.

Overall not as enjoyable as its predecessors but by no means is this a bad book. The writing is of the high standard you come to expect from Malorie Blackman. You know you’re in safe hands when she’s at the helm, but the plot and the character development just weren’t doing it for me. I think my age has finally caught up with me. I’m too old for this caper. I can see what she was trying to do. 





Mainly for the writing. My issues are personal ones and it’s not like I’m sat here raging so there’s no need for me to penalise this too heavily. I do think that kids should read this and the previous stories. Buy them for the little ones!! Spread the joy of reading!   


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