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Life on Mars #4
Life on Mars: Get Cartwright
Time to leap into the Cortina as Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt roar back into action in a brand new installment of Life on Mars.
‘Women in the Force?! It’s against nature! Just look what happened here when they let Cartwright in. Like bloody Yoko, she’s been.’
The team at CID is falling apart. Internal conflicts are stretching loyalties, wrecking friendships and turning A-Division against itself. And somehow, with their department splitting like Rod Stewart’s tightest trousers, DCI Gene Hunt and DI Sam Tyler must deal with a case that is leaving dead coppers all over the city, threatening to destroy the mighty Guv’nor himself, and sees Annie Cartwright pursued by a killer who will let nothing stop him – not even death.
‘Women in the Force?! It’s against nature! Just look what happened here when they let Cartwright in. Like bloody Yoko, she’s been.’
The team at CID is falling apart. Internal conflicts are stretching loyalties, wrecking friendships and turning A-Division against itself. And somehow, with their department splitting like Rod Stewart’s tightest trousers, DCI Gene Hunt and DI Sam Tyler must deal with a case that is leaving dead coppers all over the city, threatening to destroy the mighty Guv’nor himself, and sees Annie Cartwright pursued by a killer who will let nothing stop him – not even death.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 6, 2013
6 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Tom Graham
27 books6 followersMultiple authors with the same name, this author is entered with 1 space.
Tom Graham left school at 14 without qualifications. He is a smoker, and says that writing the Life on Mars novels is the nearest thing he's had to a regular job since he got banned from driving. He part-owns a greyhound called Arthur and his ambition is to get fruity with Raquel Welch (to be clear about it, that's Tom's ambition, not Arthur's).
Tom Graham left school at 14 without qualifications. He is a smoker, and says that writing the Life on Mars novels is the nearest thing he's had to a regular job since he got banned from driving. He part-owns a greyhound called Arthur and his ambition is to get fruity with Raquel Welch (to be clear about it, that's Tom's ambition, not Arthur's).
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 31, 2015
As I said in my reviews of the previous books in this series, there are many reasons why these must be hard to write. One difficulty must be getting the characters' voices right. Graham did this well in book 3 . He did it badly in this one. Gene didn't sound like Gene. Annie didn't sound like Annie. Sam fared better, but was still off, compared to the previous books. We read these books because we want to hang around in the world of the show a little longer, and this book didn't deliver.
The plot also had issues - because of the build up of the past 3 novels, characters had certain places they had to be at certain times. This led to things like a hostage situation at a church, which Sam handles by... abruptly leaving to go somewhere and establish the next plot point. Sam would NEVER leave a hostage situation at a church. And then the book forgets about it for quite a while, until it is needed again. And then the end. I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I will say it was ambitious. Graham tried to make it a grand payoff, and I applaud him for that. But it didn't succeed for me. I know what he was trying to do, and I'm saying it failed. I wanted it not to.
There were some nice moments. I loved the conversation between Sam and a character from a previous book. More exploration of "If this is the Ashes=to=Ashes universe, what would life be like there for people who weren't Sam?" I wish there were more of that.
And I have to also say it was a page turner. (What is the phrase for a "page-turner" if you are using a Nook? A finger on screen swiper?) Once the action got intense, I couldn't put the thing down. Even though we all knew what has to happen to make Ashes-to-Ashes in continuity, Graham makes us forget all that, and makes us feel a lot is at stake. As I said, I really wish the ending worked.
Anyway, now I say goodbye once more to Sam and Gene and Annie and Ray and Chris, for reals this time. My life is much for their having been in it.
The plot also had issues - because of the build up of the past 3 novels, characters had certain places they had to be at certain times. This led to things like a hostage situation at a church, which Sam handles by... abruptly leaving to go somewhere and establish the next plot point. Sam would NEVER leave a hostage situation at a church. And then the book forgets about it for quite a while, until it is needed again. And then the end. I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I will say it was ambitious. Graham tried to make it a grand payoff, and I applaud him for that. But it didn't succeed for me. I know what he was trying to do, and I'm saying it failed. I wanted it not to.
There were some nice moments. I loved the conversation between Sam and a character from a previous book. More exploration of "If this is the Ashes=to=Ashes universe, what would life be like there for people who weren't Sam?" I wish there were more of that.
And I have to also say it was a page turner. (What is the phrase for a "page-turner" if you are using a Nook? A finger on screen swiper?) Once the action got intense, I couldn't put the thing down. Even though we all knew what has to happen to make Ashes-to-Ashes in continuity, Graham makes us forget all that, and makes us feel a lot is at stake. As I said, I really wish the ending worked.
Anyway, now I say goodbye once more to Sam and Gene and Annie and Ray and Chris, for reals this time. My life is much for their having been in it.
January 5, 2019
I did enjoy bits of this book, the fourth and final entry in the continued Life on Mars saga, but it was a little disappointing as well.
The Good: The build of the world post Life on Mars events was, overall, interesting. On occasion, a character voice shone through, and there were a couple of great lines.
The Bad: More often than not, character voices did not come through. I loved LOM and would watch it often, so it was frustrating when they would speak in close approximation of how they would speak, or act in close approximation of how they would act. More often, it fell way off.
The Ugly: They did wrong by Annie's character in my opinion-more object than living, breathing person-and criminal underuse of Ray and Chris. Phyllis got a brief "appearance." Everyone-even our mains-felt flat.
As this bears my thoughts on the overall series of books (as this concluded a larger narrative brought forth by the first), I think that there was effort and thought put in. At a few times it was good, but I found myself cringing more often than not. Was happy to read them (and, yes, I did derive some enjoyment), but I'd not be soon to recommend them.
I'd say that the show (the British version) is worth your time to watch.
Also, the Korean one, but only after the British one.
The Good: The build of the world post Life on Mars events was, overall, interesting. On occasion, a character voice shone through, and there were a couple of great lines.
The Bad: More often than not, character voices did not come through. I loved LOM and would watch it often, so it was frustrating when they would speak in close approximation of how they would speak, or act in close approximation of how they would act. More often, it fell way off.
The Ugly: They did wrong by Annie's character in my opinion-more object than living, breathing person-and criminal underuse of Ray and Chris. Phyllis got a brief "appearance." Everyone-even our mains-felt flat.
As this bears my thoughts on the overall series of books (as this concluded a larger narrative brought forth by the first), I think that there was effort and thought put in. At a few times it was good, but I found myself cringing more often than not. Was happy to read them (and, yes, I did derive some enjoyment), but I'd not be soon to recommend them.
I'd say that the show (the British version) is worth your time to watch.
Also, the Korean one, but only after the British one.
January 1, 2021
Gene Hunt is my hero :-)
December 31, 2023
I'm glad it's finally over... The last book of 2023 was a dissapointment. I really regret spending my money on this...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews