I paid very little for this book or I would be really annoyed. The grammar, as has been mentioned previously, was dreadful. I thought that the author had probably written a much shorter book then decided to revise it by going through it with a thesaurus at his side and adding lots of adjectives and adverbs. The plot itself was juvenile, the character development non-existent and the writing very poor. People trapped in a mall GO UP looking for a fire exit. If they have the nous to look for a fire exit,why didn't someone think to trigger the fire alarm or even burglar alarm? A killer drops his gun entering the house of a lone female and worries that she might have picked it up and be aiming it at him. Then having trapped her in a closet, starts trying to stab her through the door, apparently now unconcerned about the missing gun. I gave up shortly after this.

This genre is not usually my cup of tea. However, I liked this book a lot. It manages to keep you on the edge of your seat while at the same time developing the characters so that you do care about them. I agree with other reviewers that there is quite a lot of blood and violence, but given the subject and plot, there could hardly be any less. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

I found this book very disappointing. I know something of Irish history and was looking forward to real insights into the lives of the protagonists. The descriptions of the conditions of the rural poor were quite interesting and the two women at the centre of the piece were well drawn. The sheer grinding drudgery of the life was made apparent. There is not much of a storyline - will Sarah marry and will Annie be left homeless again? However, there is one very shocking incident in the book which comes from nowhere and although it plays on Annie's mind for the rest of the book, it is left unresolved. This rather spoiled the book for me.

I've bought several of these DT general knowledge crosswords and am proud of the fact that I actually completed one of the crosswords without access to a computer. They are extremely difficult but addictive and, even at my age, educational. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the cumbersome format. Make the book bigger and fit the puzzles on two pages rather than three.

I bought this on the strength of the excellent reviews. However,I thought it tried too hard to follow the recent spate of 'my tragic childhood' autobiographies. I found that I could not accept the premise that everyone the boy comes into contact with (except one) is either uncaring and neglectful or just downright incompetent. The idea that the care system is not only badly run but also full of vindictively ambitious people is plainly unbelievable. That said, the story itself does have merit and is very well written. Unfortunately, the ending when it came, was disappointingly handled with, again, incompetence in a supposed professional, a deciding factor. Mark is an intelligent and complex character who, on one hand, can rationalise the horrific things he does but, on the other hand, makes several decisions during the book which are plainly stupid and, even worse, out of character.

Overall this case is quite good. The opening for the on/off switch is not perfectly placed but workable. The leather is soft and looks and feels good. For the price,it is a good buy.

I got this after reading the reviews and the blurb as I had never heard of the author before. The idea was very topical and the characters were juggled quite effectively. However, there were several places where I was unconvinced that the situations would have developed in the way described and at least one of the main participants did not seem to act consistantly throughout the piece. Apart from these quibbles, I enjoyed the style and the way the tension was built. I would definitely try another of this author's work.

I bought the UNO having tasted coffee from my daughters Senseo. The machine comes with 5 free pods which, unfortunately, are not labelled so that I could not tell which of the varieties I was drinking. However, the taste was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed the coffee. I e-mailed the manufacturer and was informed what variety of coffee I had been sent with the coffee maker. As I couldn't find the pods at either Asda or Tesco, I visited the manufacturers website to order more pods. To my chagrin, they were out of stock of every variety and when questioned could only plead "unfortunate circumstances" for the lack of stock and the hope that they might have some in two to three weeks time. I have tried other pods with the machine but each without exception were bigger than the strainer and had to be scrunched up to fit. The resulting coffee was acceptable but not great. Although it makes good coffee, if the manufacturer cannot guarantee the ongoing supply of the pods, it is useless. I would not recommend this machine to anyone.