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Jac
Mae Jac yn darganfod corff marw yn y twyni tywod ac yn benderfynol o fynd at wraidd y llofruddiaeth trwy helpu Jim, y ditectif. Mae'n mynd ar daith y clwb golff i Iwerddon, yn syrthio mewn cariad ac yn cael sioc erchyll sy'n newid ei fywyd am byth... Nofel dditectif, sy'n llawn cyffro, antur ac erchylldra.
94 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 2, 2020
(Title means "Sheep pen series: Jac". This is a Welsh language book)
This book is marketed as for 11-15 year olds. Jack (whose age is never mentioned but appears to be in the middle of that intended age range) discovers a dead body in sand dunes near his home in North Wales. He is determined to get to the bottom of what has happened. Who was the murderer and why? He latches onto and helps out Jim the local police detective.
The story is something of a boy’s own detective adventure, but I found myself confused as to what age it was really intended for. I think teen readers would find this a bit young for them, and might be driven somewhat to distraction by the preposterous way that Jac inserts himself into the role of detective and has the police working with him! Younger readers who might let that slide could potentially be turned off by the slightly gory nature of the murders – but perhaps not! So I suspect the readership of this will be at a younger age than advertised.
That is also a good thing because the writing suffers from some issues. Characterisation is weak, and there is little development of the embryonic side plots. A romantic interest hits the buffers as soon as Jac predictably fails to turn up for his first date when Jim invites him along to do police work, for instance. After that there is only really one mention of the event and that is brief and contrived.
Younger readers won't mind because what is left is a fast plot based detective adventure without getting distracted by any other stuff. Nevertheless I can't help but think that if this book had been presented in English it would have been unlikely to get published. Not as a young adult novel, although perhaps as a younger children's novel.
Being set in North Wales (near Bangor) this story is written in North Wales dialect. Welsh dialects differ quite strongly, particularly between North and South, and so there were some phrases that had me scratching my head a little, but by the end of it I felt a lot more fluent in the dialect!
There is a twist in the end of this story. I predicted it very early on, and many other readers will too, but it does make the story more powerful.
All in all, this was a grand boy's own adventure about a boy who turns detective on the trail of a murderer.
This book is marketed as for 11-15 year olds. Jack (whose age is never mentioned but appears to be in the middle of that intended age range) discovers a dead body in sand dunes near his home in North Wales. He is determined to get to the bottom of what has happened. Who was the murderer and why? He latches onto and helps out Jim the local police detective.
The story is something of a boy’s own detective adventure, but I found myself confused as to what age it was really intended for. I think teen readers would find this a bit young for them, and might be driven somewhat to distraction by the preposterous way that Jac inserts himself into the role of detective and has the police working with him! Younger readers who might let that slide could potentially be turned off by the slightly gory nature of the murders – but perhaps not! So I suspect the readership of this will be at a younger age than advertised.
That is also a good thing because the writing suffers from some issues. Characterisation is weak, and there is little development of the embryonic side plots. A romantic interest hits the buffers as soon as Jac predictably fails to turn up for his first date when Jim invites him along to do police work, for instance. After that there is only really one mention of the event and that is brief and contrived.
Younger readers won't mind because what is left is a fast plot based detective adventure without getting distracted by any other stuff. Nevertheless I can't help but think that if this book had been presented in English it would have been unlikely to get published. Not as a young adult novel, although perhaps as a younger children's novel.
Being set in North Wales (near Bangor) this story is written in North Wales dialect. Welsh dialects differ quite strongly, particularly between North and South, and so there were some phrases that had me scratching my head a little, but by the end of it I felt a lot more fluent in the dialect!
There is a twist in the end of this story. I predicted it very early on, and many other readers will too, but it does make the story more powerful.
All in all, this was a grand boy's own adventure about a boy who turns detective on the trail of a murderer.
Displaying 1 of 1 review