Can I Predict the Premier League? (31 Aug-1 Sept)

I'm back online, no thanks to Orange Broadband (EE) messing it up. I'll mention that saga another time.

Before I begin with this weekend's Premier League predictions, here is a recap on last weekend. For those who follow me on twitter I posted my predictions on my twitter feed. This is how I fared compared to Lawro's predictions.

Match	My Prediction	Lawro’s Prediction	Actual Result
Fulham vs. Arsenal	Arsenal Win	Draw (1-1)	Arsenal Win (3-1)
Everton vs. West Brown	Everton Win	Everton Win (2-1)	Draw (0-0)
Hull vs. Norwich	Draw	Draw (1-1)	Hull Win (1-0)
Newcastle vs. West Ham	Newcastle Win	Newcastle Win (2-1)	Draw (0-0)
Southampton vs. Sunderland	Draw	Southampton Win (2-0)	Draw (1-1)
Stoke vs. Crystal Palace	Stoke Win	Stoke Win (2-0)	Stoke Win (2-1)
Aston Villa vs. Liverpool	Liverpool Win	Liverpool Win (2-1)	Liverpool Win (1-0)
Cardiff vs, Man City	Man City Win	Man City Win (2-0)	Cardiff Win (3-2)
Tottenham vs. Swansea	Tottenham Win	Tottenham Win (2-0)	Tottenham Win (1-0)
Man Utd vs. Chelsea	Chelsea Win	Draw (1-1)	Draw (0-0)

Looks like Lawro could only get four out of ten match predictions correctly. While I manage to get one more with five.

Correct predictions by me = 9/20
Correct predictions by Lawro = 9/20

No Leader Sofa

Onto this weekend's matches. Due to Chelsea playing in the UEFA Super Cup, there are only nine matches. I will confess when I saw the fixture list, making these predictions were hard to call.

Match	My Prediction	Lawro’s Prediction	Actual Result
Man City vs. Hull	Man City Win	Man City Win (3-0)
Cardiff vs. Everton	Everton Win	Draw
Newcastle vs. Fulham	Newcastle Win	Newcastle Win (2-1)
Norwich vs. Southampton	Norwich Win	Norwich Win (2-0)
West Ham vs. Stoke	Draw	West Ham Win (2-1)
Crystal Palace vs. Sunderland	Crystal Palace Win	Crystal Palace Win (1-0)
Liverpool vs. Man Utd	Liverpool Win	Draw (1-1)
West Brom vs. Swansea	West Brom Win	West Brom Win (2-0)
Arsenal vs. Tottenham	Draw	Arsenal Win (2-1)

If you decide to be foolish and bet £1 and all nine predictions are correctly predicted by me then you will win £3,500.11. If  you go to what Lawro is predicting then you could win £2,174.48.

Can I Predict the Premier League? The Result (17-19 August 2013)

First batch of matches are over. Here is how myself and Lawro fared. Green indicates a correct prediction, red indicates a incorrect prediction.

Match	My Prediction	Lawro’s Prediction	Actual Result
Liverpool vs. Stoke City	Liverpool Win	Liverpool Win (1-0)	Liverpool Win (1-0)
Arsenal vs. Aston Villa	Arsenal Win	Arsenal Win (2-0)	Aston Villa Win (3-1)
Sunderland vs. Fulham	Draw	Draw (1-1)	Fulham Win (1-0)
West Brom vs. Southampton	West Brom Win	West Brom Win (2-1)	Southampton Win (1-0)
West Ham vs. Cardiff	Draw	West Ham Win (2-0)	West Ham win (2-0)
Norwich vs. Everton	Norwich Win	Norwich Win (2-1)	Draw (2-2)
Swansea vs. Man Utd	Draw	Draw (1-1)	Man Utd Win (4-1)
Crystal Palace vs. Tottenham	Tottenham Win	Tottenham Win (2-1)	Tottenham Win (1-0)
Chelsea vs. Hull	Chelsea Win	Chelsea Win (2-0)	Chelsea Win (2-0)
Man City vs Newcastle	Man City Win	Man City Win (2-0)	Man City win (4-0)

Apart from the disaster with the matches on Saturday (one correct prediction from seven). Everything has gone to plan.

Correct predictions by me = 4/10
Correct predictions by Lawro = 5/10

Pretty much even after the first weekend.

Chelsea play Aston Villa on Wednesday due to the Super Cup against Bayern Munich on 30th August. This won't count towards the prediction total but no doubt it will be a Chelsea Win.

Can I Predict the Premier League?

Going to start a not so interesting experiment. Simply because many people are doing it. Heck, there are websites dedicated to them. Over the last few seasons I tend to guess how football teams would fare head to head in England's highest football league. I will confess I did say to my ol'man (Manchester United fan) in March 2012 that Manchester City could win the league. Bookmakers had them at 25/1. Low and behold, Manchester City won the league by goal difference. My ol'man hates losing.

Therefore, over the coming months I will be predicting the outcome for each weekend. This is how it's all going to work,

- I am not a pundit, football expert or own/work for a bookmaker. I will be using intuition and instinct for each match prediction.
- For each match I will say whether the result is a home win, away win or a draw. Unlike Mark (Lawro) Lawrenson, I will not predict the score. Simply I am useless predicting correct scores. However, I will mention the score Lawro predicts.
- I will compare my predictions to Lawro for comparison. The following weekend or whenever, I will state how many matches I had a right/wrong prediction and how I am faring compared to Lawro.
- I will also be offering the accumulator odds from William Hill based on a £1 stake. However, I must stress gambling can be mugs game and to read the Gamble Aware website etc... Also my predictions will not be 100% correct otherwise I am in the wrong job.
- I can confirm some bookmakers are offering cash out/cash in schemes. Where you can leave with less your original stake if everything goes wrong. However, if everything goes your way you can bank your winnings early at a fraction of your estimated returns but do you hold your nerve and win it all? It's basically Football Deal or No Deal.

My predictions were made on Tuesday 13th August. Mark Lawrenson's first set of predictions was published on the BBC website after 6pm on Friday 16th August.

Match	My Prediction	Lawro’s Prediction	Actual Result
Liverpool vs. Stoke City	Liverpool Win	Liverpool Win (1-0)
Arsenal vs. Aston Villa	Arsenal Win	Arsenal Win (2-0)
Sunderland vs. Fulham	Draw	Draw (1-1)
West Brom vs. Southampton	West Brom Win	West Brom Win (2-1)
West Ham vs. Cardiff	Draw	West Ham Win (2-0)
Norwich vs. Everton	Norwich Win	Norwich Win (2-1)
Swansea vs. Man Utd	Draw	Draw (1-1)
Crystal Palace vs. Tottenham	Tottenham Win	Tottenham Win (2-1)
Chelsea vs. Hull	Chelsea Win	Chelsea Win (2-0)
Man City vs. Newcastle	Man City Win	Man City Win (2-0)

Comparing my predictions to Lawro. There are nine predictions that are the same with a slight difference with West Ham vs. Cardiff. I am predicting a draw whilst Lawro are going for a West Ham win.

If you decide to place an accumulator on my ten match predictions at William Hill and they all decide to go the right way, then...

£1 stake win you £1,680.26

If you decide to go with Lawro then..

£1 stake will win you £1,018.34

Can I predict the Premier League on the very first weekend? We will see at 10pm Monday night.

Just Read: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

When I noticed about Gone Girl it was in WH Smith with the sticker "Thriller of the Year". That statement was given by The Observer newspaper. Although I haven't read any thrillers that were published in 2012, I thought I would give it a go, given the popular reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Warning: Contains major spoilers

Gone Girl focuses on two main characters, Nick Dunne and Amy Elliott. The novel begins with their fifth wedding anniversary. Nick heads out to open up his bar in North Carthage, Missouri. Hours later he returns home to find the front door open, his living room ransacked, blood on the kitchen floor and his wife, Amy nowhere to be seen. The police are called and have labelled it as a missing persons case. Part one of the book is split between Nick and Amy. Written in the first person view, the chapters featuring Nick are set from the day Amy disappears onwards where we see him worrying about his missing wife. The police discovers he increased Amy's life insurance has been increased and Nick has been maxing out credit cards by buying luxury items. Nick stresses he has never done those things but never confesses he has murdered Amy. Nick does confess in his narrative he has told many lies to the police and revealed he never had a perfect and happy marriage with Amy. With every anniversary Amy would set Nick to go on a treasure hunt. He confessed in his narrative he isn't that clever compared to Amy but finds the clues too easy to solve. It is until solving the final clue everything comes into place. While Nick solves the clues, the police detectives involve question whether Nick actually killed a pregnant Amy.

Amy's narrative is in the form of diary entries. They begin in 2005 where she meets Nick and ends up getting married. With Amy's success with her Amazing Amy young adult books and writing personality quizzes, her cash dwindles due to Nick losing his job, not being able to afford their home in New York and decides to move back to Nick's home town of North Carthage. Amy reveals they are having a good relation and although, everything not going their way, Amy adjusts to living in North Carthage. Towards the end of part one, Amy begins to reveal she is afraid of Nick's temperament and worried about staying alive.

It is where the second part of the book reveals a massive twist that actually fooled me. Both sides of the story were complete lies. Nick reveals that he has having an affair with a college student. While Amy is fed up with Nick and he isn't the ideal man she wants to be with. After finding out Nick is having an affair. Amy sets up everything, including a fake diary, a fake pregnancy, plans to make her disappear and frame Nick to say he murdered her. She explains how she produces the perfect setup to frame Nick and put him into prison for life and reveals where she is whilst watching the news reports of Nick's demise. Meanwhile, Nick works out Amy has been framing him and decides to hunt her down and prove his innocence.  

This has been a fantastic read. A true thriller. I was fooled and never expected the plot twist where Amy is revealed to be a psychopath. I had the impression either Nick performed the perfect murder or someone abducted her to gain revenge on Nick. The only bug bear I had was how the third and final part was written. It was revealed Amy decided to return to Nick after being briefly held prisoner by one of her old friends. Nick had wanted to kill Amy but she reveals she is actually pregnant. She explains to him he is in a no win situation and are meant to be together with a child. I suppose the ending was written that both Nick and Amy are meant for each other. Both unlikeable and sinister.

This is Gillian Flynn's third novel and has proven to be a massive hit in American and in the UK. The popularity of her novel has been given the green light for a film adaptation to be released in 2014. David Fincher (Seven, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) will be directing, while the roles of Nick and Amy will go to Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike respectably.

I gave Gone Girl 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

Next to review: The Big Sleep

Just Read: And a Puzzle to Die On (Puzzle Lady #6) Parnell Hall Double Part 2

Continuing on from my last blog post (here). The second part looks at Parnell Hall's second major literary creation, The Puzzle Lady.

Where ambulance chaser Stanley Hastings lives in real life New York. The Puzzle Lady series of books are set in the fictional town of Bakerhaven, Connecticut. Cora Felton is a celebrity in the crossword business, publishing crossword puzzles for major American newspapers as well as appearing on TV commercials for her cereal. She has been labelled as The Puzzle Lady. However, the fact is, Cora Felton is a lie. She cannot solve a crossword puzzle to save her life. The real Puzzle Lady is her niece Sherry Carter, who actually creates and publishes the puzzles but couldn't get the fame due to her young age. She uses her Auntie, who is older in age and is more believable to be a crossword compiler. This is a closely guarded secret and only the two of them and Sherry's friend, local reporter Aaron Grant know the true identity of The Puzzle Lady. Although Cora is useless at puzzles, she is a master of solving murders and helps the local police, much to their annoyance. Simply picture Cora Felton as Jessica Fletcher. However, unlike the cursed one and solver of all murders. Cora Felton is simply one who likes to drink heavily. smokes her head off and plays bridge at the local bar. The early books had Cora as a drunk but throughout the series she eases off the alcohol but continues to smoke to Sherry's annoyance. Bakerhaven is a small town and features a small police station which is headed by Chief Dale Harper (picture Ted Levine's Leland Stottlemeyer from the TV series Monk). In the first book he asks Cora to help with a murder case but in further books she pokes her nose into the murders with Harpers disapproval. The books have many regular characters. There is cruciverbalist Harvey Beerbaum who admires Cora's work. He doesn't know Cora is a fake and tries to wriggle out of situations where Harvey askes for her help. Becky Baldwin, the local lawyer and Aaron's former flame where Sherry has a small rivalry. Dennis Carter, Sherry's ex-husband, failed rock star who moves to Bakerhaven. Dr. Nathan Barley, the local medical examiner and Dan Finley who works with Dale Harper at Bakerhaven Police.

With the books having a theme around crossword puzzles. Each book has a play along feature. As well as solving who the murderer is. Each book has one of more crossword puzzles to solve. In some chapters you would see the crossword puzzle where the answer is revealed a couple of chapters later. These puzzles have been created from the likes of Trip Payne and Will Shortz. It's worth noting given this is a US published book, all the crossword puzzles are published using the US style grid. Not all the books features crosswords. Later books looks at Acrostics, Sudoku and KenKen. if you're not good at these puzzles then there is no need to worry as they're a small distraction from reading the novel and the answer is revealed shortly later on in the books.

The main reason down to The Puzzle Lady' success is down similarly to the Stanley Hastings series. Although there is a serious theme with murders and killers. There is a lot of humour, mostly down to Cora's character as well as her banter between Sherry, Aaron and the other characters/suspects. It is recommended to read the first book (A Clue for the Puzzle Lady) onwards as it slowly introduces the sub characters. As Christmas is coming I also do recommend the fourth book, A Puzzle in a Pear Tree.

The first eight books can be bought in paperback form from Amazon and The Book Depository. While from the ninth book onwards can be bought for the Amazon Kindle. There are fourteen books in the series with the fifteenth, NYPD Puzzles being published in early 2014. You can see the list of books here.

And a Puzzle to Die On (Puzzle Lady #6) by Parnell Hall.

A change to previous books. Cora is asked by Becky Baldwin to prove a murderer, Darryl Daigue that he didn't commit his crime twenty years. Although she didn't seem interested, Becky advises there was no evidence. This intrigues Cora to see whether Daigue was framed and therefore innoncent. Turns out the murderer becomes not so co-operative to Cora, thinking he was guilty after all. Further into her investigation, Cora discovers the parole panel isn't all that "neutral" and it looked like the murderer was actually framed and was meant not to get parole. Cora's digging around ends up in trouble with the prison and the local police. As well as being followed by some one.  Whilst Cora proves the guilty was innocent, Harvey sets up a surprise birthday party for Cora. He does this by asking fellow crossword constructors sending her birthday cards in the form of crossword puzzles. With Cora being unamused given her lack of solving them. It's when at the surprise birthday party at the local library a body falls from above and lands dead on Cora's birthday cake. Determined to find out who the killer is, she goes digging around with constant warnings from Harper as she breaks unlawfully into offices and the victims home.

Where I have enjoyed the the first five books. I felt this started to lose  momentum. Possibly because the book focuses heavily on proving the innocence and the first proper murder didn't occur half way into the book. It is an interesting twist having a closed case but maybe it could've worked with the cold case as the main theme instead of that and a fresh murder. I also felt the ending was confusing as it hard to track who did what. That said, the humour is still good as ever with Cora now more sober than ever but still craving for a cigarette.

I gave And a Puzzle to Due On 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

Next to review: Gone Girl

Watching Telly: Take on the Twisters

Oooh. What's this? The Chase has been replaced by a new 5pm quiz show. Fear not, The Chase will be back with new episodes from Monday 2nd September. In the meantime, lets see if the summer replacement is any good.

Take on the Twisters is the latest show produced by 12Yard. Given their history, they have produced some successful shows. In It to Win It, being the most successful National Lottery show lasting over 11 years. Their sister show, Who Dares Wins (The Rich List), BBC Two quiz Eggheads who will be 10 years old this November and Channel 4's Coach Trip. However, there have been some stinkers. Such as Channel 5's Double Cross (what the hell was that show all about?) and ITV's The Colour of Money. The devisers for this show are Josephine Brassey, Liz Gaskell, Chris Greenwood and John Lomax. You might recognise Josephine as the deviser of Sonority Girls (decent show but hated by the public here and in the States) and BBC One true or false quiz Perfection.

The main concept features eight giant egg timers, known as Twisters. Each one holding a different amount of sand. The game begins with four contestants who are trying to bank as much money as possible via playing against the Twisters. To determine who plays against the Twisters multiple choice questions are asked. The player who is in control only see the question. They can decide to "stick" and see the three choices, or they can "twist" and dump the question and choices on an opponent of their choosing. If they "stick" and answer the question correctly they can choose an unlit Twister. If they "twist" and the opponent gets the question right, they can choose an unlit Twister and will gain control. If the opponent gets the question wrong the person who gave the question will gain control and choose an unlit Twister. Whoever chooses the sixth unlit Twister will play against The Twisters to bank some cash. The contestant answers quick fire questions inside sixty seconds. After each correct answer given they can choose to "stick" and leave the sand running through all the Twisters or "twist" to turn over a Twister to avoid one running out. Once a Twister runs out it is eliminated from the round. After sixty seconds, any Twisters remaining are awarded with a cash value. In the first round the values are revealed for any in-play Twisters. They can range from £300 to £1,000. From the second round onwards, if a contestant decides to play against all Twisters that cash has yet to revealed and keep them active after sixty seconds, every Twister is doubled in value. After four rounds, whoever has banked the most money gets to play The Final Twist. The other three goes home with nowt. Similar to Tipping Point, others might have banked some money but if it's not enough they go home with nothing.

The Final Twist sees the finalist taking on all eight Twisters. The total money they banked in the previous four rounds is hidden inside one of the eight Twisters by an independent adjudicator (who are the reliable folk at Beyond Dispute). As before they answer quick fire questions in sixty seconds. Any sand running out of a Twister is eliminated. After sixty seconds they can choose either to "stick" and walk away with any lit Twisters that are worth £200 each or to "twist" to see if one of the lit Twisters contains their banked money. However, if neither of the lit Twisters contain the money they go home with nowt.

The massive bug bear I have is how the format is devised. With The Chase, the main concept features the player against the Chaser, we see this throughout the show. Tipping Point features their coin pushing machine. Again, that is used throughout the show. The Twisters are only used five times per show, each a minute long. Totalling five minutes inside an hour show with adverts. The rest of the show focuses on who gets to play against The Twisters, This is dragged out and boring. I can see the devisers trying to be a bit like their sister show, In It to Win It. However, this idea works on In It to Win It as each question is treated as ULTIMATE JEOPARDY. One wrong move and the contestant risks their place to play for some money and even to win a share of the prize fund. On Take on the Twisters a wrong move would cost the contestant nothing. Since it takes at least six questions to see the Twisters being used. It's a good 8-10 minutes wait to see the main concept being used. I would've preferred if they had more rounds by having at least 3-4 twisters being used per round and perhaps increasing to 5-6 for later rounds. Perhaps if they used buzzer rounds rather than multiple choice it could increase the pace. You can have an open question, someone answers it and light up a Twister then they hear the next question and could "stick" and play or "twist" and dump it on another contestant. I know this is used on Tipping Point but that is against one opponent, not three. Given the show only has four rounds, if you have a dominant player, they could win the show easily before the any remaining rounds are played.

Whilst The Final Twist does work in some capacity. There is a drawback regarding the gamb... sorry, the decision to "stick" or "twist". Given the Twisters are only worth £200 each. If you're playing for around £9,000 then you might as well go for it. Even if you have seven out of eight Twisters lit, you're only risking £1,400 to win over six times that. However, there is a catch. Given the independent adjudicator places the money in one Twister before The Final Twist is played. There is a chance (albet slim) the money could be placed in that unlit Twister. It's the classic Blackjack no-win situation. If your hand totals 14 and the dealer has a 10. If the next card is either a face card, 10, 9 or 8 then the dealer will win anyway. If you stick you will bust but if you twist then the dealer will win as it's more than your hand. Obviously, if you hardly kept any Twisters lit after sixty seconds then you might as well walk away. For those who remember the Chris Tarrant quiz show, It's Not What You Know. Tarrant would offer the contestants an offer to walk away before playing final question. It's usually a percentage on the money they can win after the final question. Perhaps it could work in a similar way with host Julia Bradbury offering the finalist a percentage rather than £200 per Twister.

Been thinking about The Final Twist this week. It could be improved if the finalist plays against all eight Twisters answering questions over two minutes. However, for any Twister the contestant lose then one-eighth is taken off their total and what is kept after two minutes they would leave the show with that amount. For example, Monday's contestant walked away with £9,100 by finding the chase in five twisters. Had she played under my suggested rules then she would leave with £5,687.50 but that is after sixty seconds and not two minutes. There is the drawback if one Twister remains they can win some money but the contestant still has to answer questions correctly. There is a chance they can have an unlucky run of questions and the final Twister runs out of sand, leaving them with nowt.

Going back to the main game. I suggested it could be improved if they have more rounds with less Twisters then increasing to more Twisters towards the end. The only thing I can think of if they use the Twisters in more capacity. On Tipping Point they use an elimination format. Perhaps it could work for Take on the Twisters? I don't know how it can be done but perhaps having different rounds could keep the viewer from being bored from the main game.

Julia Bradbury is a competent host and doesn't fluff up her questions. Given her TV experience she is easily relaxed into her role, given she hasn't hosted many quiz/game shows in her career. While the questions used are the standard you would see on In It to Win It. Meaning the producers weren't looking for people with good general knowledge. The set is quite spacious. Compared to The Chase and Tipping Point where their sets are very compact.

Overall it's a decent format on how the Twisters are used in the sixty second rounds. I wonder if they got the idea from constantly spinning plates on poles and the video game Tapper? However, it's hampered by the long, boring main game to determine who plays the Twisters. An opportunity has been missed to use the Twisters in a longer, much larger capacity. That said, shows that are recommissioned can make tweaks. Simply look at BBC Two's Breakaway and ITV's early 2000 quiz show The People Versus.

One final note. I think they've missed a trick by not calling it Lets Twist Again or Lets Do the Twist rather than Twisted/Take on the The Twisters.

EDIT: Something else to mention. I don't like how Julia gets to reveal if the Twister holds the money of not. I know this is a producer tactic to inject tension but it's obvious the money will not be in the first few Twisters. I would've preferred if the contestant choose the Twisters one by one.

Just Read: Client (Stanley Hastings #5) Parnell Hall Double Part 1

It's been a while since I updated my reading traits. I'm currently reading "thriller of the year", Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and into the last 150 pages. I will blog about that book soon. After reading Pudsey: My Autobidography, I spent reading a Parnell Hall double bill with two of his three creations.

UK readers might not have heard of Parnell Hall. This could be because he is an American author where some of his books are out of print and not available to buy in British bookshops. You can either buy his books from the likes of Amazon and The Book Depository in print or in ereader format. You can read about his past and current work by visiting his website. You can also email him with any questions and yes, he does reply and doesn't bite.

Client (Stanley Hastings #5) by Parnell Hall

Stanley Hastings is a New York PI. A Philip Marlow-like PI he is not. He is simply an ambulance chaser working for an accident law firm, signing retainers and taking photos of the accident scene. However, Hastings seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, bumping into murders, being interrogated by the police and he is the only person to get himself out of the mess. The book begins with Hastings admitting his bad teeth and with high dental prices, needs something to pay the bill. Enter Marvin Nickleson, an actual paying client who is asking Stanley to keep an eye on his wife, Monica Dorlander. Who thinks she is having an affair in her workplace. Suspicions arise where Nickleson would only contact Stanley at work at a certain time. Whilst juggling with his retainers and calls from the office. Hastings hunts down Monica to her workplace with one evening following her to an out of town motel. The next morning Monica is found dead in her motel room with Stanley being quizzed by the authorities once again as the number one suspect. On all of top of this, Nickleson does a runner and is nowhere to be seen, also the deceased is not all it seems.

I was disappointed with the fourth book, Strangler I read last year. Simply it was mostly stuck in Richard Rosenberg's office and Stanley hardly had any interaction into solving the case. However, Client is an improvement and it goes back to the early books like Detective and Murder where Stanley has to prove his innocence to find the accused. Given the book was published in 1990, there are many cultural references. I especially loved the scene where Stanley and his son Tommie play the original The Legend of Zelda for the NES. The whole chapter is very accurate to the actual game and inspired Stanley to find a clue to prove his innocence. With it being 1990, there is a side story where his wife earns money via computing. In Stanley's eyes this is going over her head but he learns that Alice's IT skills plays a key part to capturing the killer. When the author gives Stanley Hastings the freedom of travelling across New York and beyond the story becomes entertaining. Like so in Client, Stanley ends up in Trenton and actually gets lost, but due to spoilers I cannot say how he ends up in Trenton. As with most books featuring private detectives, this is written from the first person. Unlike the Philip Marlowe series. The Stanley Hastings books are slightly humorous. Given the character tends to put himself down in the narrative, the reader will want him to achieve and to win.

I gave Client 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

The Stanley Hastings books are a fun series to read. The books are only 250ish pages long and can be read in a few days. I will stress that Stanley is not one to keep his swearing under control and uses the f-word to express his stress. In addition, some murder scenes can be blood thirsty and grotesque, As the books were written and published throughout the 1980s and 1990s. I do suggest  picturing them to when the book were originally published, as the cultural references makes sense to the time period it was written. Given the books in this series are mostly out of print, you can now purchase them for Amazon Kindle and e-readers for under £2.00. If you would like to try the first book, Detective, then you can purchase the Kindle version for only 49p. That's less than most national newspapers. I do suggest reading the books in order as Hall's narrative slowly introduces the major characters. From Alice and Tommie in Detective to homicide cop, Sergeant MacAullif in Murder.

Next to review: And a Puzzle to Die On (Puzzle Lady #6).