A Matter Of Life And Death - Book Review

I was sent a copy of Paul Carroll's debut novel, A Matter Of Life And Death, earlier in December, and I thought I'd give you a little book review.

It's weird writing that phrase. I feel like I'm back in secondary school (I'm OLD, they weren't called High School when I went. And mine's a flaming "academy" now), and I'll have to write 200 words on the main character's motivation & feelings, and what the author was trying to tell us.  And basically retell the entire story to prove that I've read it, or Mrs Jones will have a go at me.  But in real life, book reviews aren't like that. If I did that, I would have comments of SPOILER!!SPOILER!! there would be no point in you reading the book, and no-one would like me any more.  So this is a real world book review, not a GCSE.

Paul Carroll's A Matter Of Life And Death is, well, all about death.  It's a dark comedy, taking on the public mourning that seems to be growing ever more commonplace since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and just takes it to the seemingly inevitable extreme.  Sideswipes at the government, reality tv, twitter, and celeb-crusaders keep it light, despite the subject matter.

For a debut novel, I was actually really impressed.  The style of writing, and the approach to the subject matter was very reminiscent of Ben Elton, and the way of bringing a seemingly unconnected selection of characters to a joined up finish was really well written.  I love that way of writing, and spent a lot of my reading time trying to second guess how the characters were connected, and the significance of certain events.

I might be devoted to my kindle, but there's something about an actual printed book that feels so much better.  And with a real book, I can share it with Squeaky Daddy so much easier.

If you're intrigued, and want to a copy of your own, A Matter Of Life And Death is available on Amazon, or if you're all spent out after the sales, you could win yourself a copy on this very blog. Go win a book! But be quick, the draw closes on 31/12/12!

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of the book free of charge for the purposes of this review, and further copies for the linked giveaway. I was not told what to write and all opinions are my own. Links are provided for convenience only, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.