Aussie Lovers of Crime/Mystery/Thriller/Suspense discussion

First thoughts on by Dead Regular by Harry Colfer

I am going to give this one a go. It's Aussie and gets good reviews .

I am enjoying the book so far. Though anyone who doesn't like too much graphic description of traumatic injuries might find it a bit too gory. The only thing is, and I have no idea if this is so, but I would say the author has either been an ambulance driver in the past, or knows someone who has. It seems that he has a list of gripes about the job that he is going to shoe horn in at any cost.
The call outs have all had a lesson in what ambulance drivers hate. IE, one showed how time wasted on paperwork kept them from going out on a job, another how they deal with drunks and the mess they make. Another about people calling ambulances out for no good reason, time wasting and another shows the rivalry between ambulance staff and the doctors. It just all seems like a list of points that have to be made. I hope it all comes together a bit more later on.

In his blurb he describes himself as as experienced paramedic who works in Brisbane Shell. So I guess his list of gripes is probably real. Maybe he should be a bit more restrained though!!!

Perhaps if he writes another one he will have got them out of his system now. The good part about that though is the medical detail he includes about the treatment and the different injuries. They are much more detailed than most fiction books, which makes it a lot more interesting to read. I am learning a lot of medical things I didn't know.

I'm about a third of the way through the book and also finding the paramedic, Jon a bit obnoxious. His constant wisecracking and griping about management and paperwork would get on my nerves if I had to work with him!
I do like the action and the medical descriptions, but I agree with Shell that he could be a more more subtle in the way he gripes about the negatives of the job, including that he's only paid $2/hour more despite extra training in intensive care procedures. Not that they're not real gripes, but he could make his point just as well by weaving them into the story less directly, allowing Jon to be a bit more likeable.

Hi Carolyn, it took me a while to get into the characters and the story, but stick with it. I think you will like Jono a lot more by the end of the book as I think we get to know him a lot more in the second half and I became quite attached to him by the end.

You're spot on there Shell. I wrote the comments above when I was 30% into the book and almost immediately after that, the griping stopped and the plot got more interesting. Jono still come over as a bit annoying (to other characters as well as me!) but that is just part of his personality, and I did like him more.