Review by shaz1994 -- Pancake Money by Finn Bell
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shaz1994
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Review by shaz1994 -- Pancake Money by Finn Bell
[Following is a volunteer review of "Pancake Money" by Finn Bell.]
4 out of 4 stars
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"The Holy man killer," is the biggest headline in the city of Dunedin. This comes after the brutal murder of three retired priests whose only crime was service to humanity. The story looks like the diary entry of the events in the life of a detective in a span of a week which actually felt like a lifetime. Detectives, Bobby Ress and Pollo Latu report to work on Monday morning after a drinking spree and their first assignment is to check out a priest who was murdered under mysterious circumstances in a very morbid way.
Just as the detectives try to unravel these cases, James Maihi, a famous gangster who had been brought to justice by both Pollo and Bobby escapes from prison when he has only 12 weeks left to complete his jail term. This raises a few detective questions such as, Why would he do such a thing? Is it possible that James is the mastermind behind the cruel murder of three priests in a row? What is the motive behind the killings? Who did the priests offend this much? What is more perplexing is the manner in which the bodies were mutilated and staged eventually leading to their death. The methods are described as medieval, used by the Catholic Church centuries ago as a form of punishment and warning to wrongdoers. Reference is made to Catherine wheel about how St Catherine was murdered cruelly by a priest who later served his jail term and died in prison.
Bowlby's examples in the forensic psychology class about what motivates human behaviour sound very untrue but they are actually realistic and sensible. She says, "when you hurt someone so much and long enough you can make them do anything."The main reason behind this theory is needs. She adds that, " Everything that is alive has needs. To stay alive you have to meet your needs. If you don't meet your needs you die. Not meeting your needs will give you pain. Too much pain will change you. You will do whatever you can to stop the pain." I found Bowlby's examples leading to solving the murders even though the detectives did not realize it at first.
The book was quite captivating,what I liked the most are the examples used by Bowlby trying to explain the concepts of forensic psychology. I found the description of Bowlby to be comical. The writer says that she is a tiny old lady with the mind of a serial killer. I also learnt a few cop sayings that were commonly used by Pollo and Bobby in their conversations. The Maori legend about the movement of the sun was a great relief from the depressing events in the book. The Maori people have been well described and their culture is quite appealing. The description of Dunedin and it's people's history was quite educative.
I disliked the way the detectives acted a bit slowly in some instances leading to the loss of lives and letting criminals escape. I found them to be sloppy and too slow in response such that the offender was always one step ahead even when the clues seemed obvious.
The book is well written, there are a lot of examples and advice that I found to be helpful. The writer has used dialogue in his writing, the sequence of the events are written in the form of a diary which made it easy to connect the the chapters. The chapters flow quite well. The book is an easy read. The language is simple to understand except for the few forensic terms that require some knowledge in the field of psychology
I rate Pancake Money a perfect 4 out of 4 stars since I found very minimal grammatical errors. I recommend the book to lovers of crime, thriller and detective stories. This book is suitable for an adult audience. Readers who are sensitive to scenes of violence might want to avoid reading the book since it contains very disturbing scenes.
******
Pancake Money
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4 out of 4 stars
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"The Holy man killer," is the biggest headline in the city of Dunedin. This comes after the brutal murder of three retired priests whose only crime was service to humanity. The story looks like the diary entry of the events in the life of a detective in a span of a week which actually felt like a lifetime. Detectives, Bobby Ress and Pollo Latu report to work on Monday morning after a drinking spree and their first assignment is to check out a priest who was murdered under mysterious circumstances in a very morbid way.
Just as the detectives try to unravel these cases, James Maihi, a famous gangster who had been brought to justice by both Pollo and Bobby escapes from prison when he has only 12 weeks left to complete his jail term. This raises a few detective questions such as, Why would he do such a thing? Is it possible that James is the mastermind behind the cruel murder of three priests in a row? What is the motive behind the killings? Who did the priests offend this much? What is more perplexing is the manner in which the bodies were mutilated and staged eventually leading to their death. The methods are described as medieval, used by the Catholic Church centuries ago as a form of punishment and warning to wrongdoers. Reference is made to Catherine wheel about how St Catherine was murdered cruelly by a priest who later served his jail term and died in prison.
Bowlby's examples in the forensic psychology class about what motivates human behaviour sound very untrue but they are actually realistic and sensible. She says, "when you hurt someone so much and long enough you can make them do anything."The main reason behind this theory is needs. She adds that, " Everything that is alive has needs. To stay alive you have to meet your needs. If you don't meet your needs you die. Not meeting your needs will give you pain. Too much pain will change you. You will do whatever you can to stop the pain." I found Bowlby's examples leading to solving the murders even though the detectives did not realize it at first.
The book was quite captivating,what I liked the most are the examples used by Bowlby trying to explain the concepts of forensic psychology. I found the description of Bowlby to be comical. The writer says that she is a tiny old lady with the mind of a serial killer. I also learnt a few cop sayings that were commonly used by Pollo and Bobby in their conversations. The Maori legend about the movement of the sun was a great relief from the depressing events in the book. The Maori people have been well described and their culture is quite appealing. The description of Dunedin and it's people's history was quite educative.
I disliked the way the detectives acted a bit slowly in some instances leading to the loss of lives and letting criminals escape. I found them to be sloppy and too slow in response such that the offender was always one step ahead even when the clues seemed obvious.
The book is well written, there are a lot of examples and advice that I found to be helpful. The writer has used dialogue in his writing, the sequence of the events are written in the form of a diary which made it easy to connect the the chapters. The chapters flow quite well. The book is an easy read. The language is simple to understand except for the few forensic terms that require some knowledge in the field of psychology
I rate Pancake Money a perfect 4 out of 4 stars since I found very minimal grammatical errors. I recommend the book to lovers of crime, thriller and detective stories. This book is suitable for an adult audience. Readers who are sensitive to scenes of violence might want to avoid reading the book since it contains very disturbing scenes.
******
Pancake Money
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like shaz1994's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: Dolphins Don’t Run Marathons by Sam Brand
