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Wednesday 9 March 2011

Review: Remix

Title: Remix
Author: Lexi Revellian
Nationality: British
Year: 2010
Publisher: Hoxton Press
Rating: 9/10
Summary: Quirky, old-fashioned and quite unlike anything else on the market

The outline

Rocking-horse restorer Caz Tallis wakes up one morning to find a handsome man and a cute dog asleep on her balcony. The story develops into a good old-fashioned murder mystery with a modern twist.

Sample

I didn't see the man straight away.
The sun was shining, so I'd taken my breakfast toast and coffee out on the terrace. I strolled to the far corner to admire a view I never tire of: a London roofscape, a glimpse of trees in Hoxton Square two streets away, and the distant Gherkin gleaming in the early morning sun. Already the faint hum of traffic competed with the coo of a courting pigeon. My blackbird hopped towards me, bright eye cocked, waiting for his ration of sultanas. I put them in the dish, and stopped dead.
There was a stranger asleep on my outdoor sofa - my new expensive sofa that I can't really afford and shouldn't have bought - a scruffy mongrel curled up beside him.

The verdict

This is a highly addictive novel, a good old-fashioned murder mystery with a dash of 21st century celebrity glamour. It’s a book that is worth far more than the sum of its parts – sometimes cheesy, sometimes predictable, sometimes naïve, but always a rollicking good read. I struggled to put it down. Lexi Revellian is great at crafting a plot that moves at speed but her biggest talent is in creating characters that the reader can really care about, characters that seem like old friends as the novel draws to a close.

Overall, Remix is great fun, extremely entertaining and – dare I say it – would make an excellent transition to the small or big screen.

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