What Remains by Tim Weaver – A Discussion. Part One.

Publication Date: Available Now from Penguin (Michael Joseph)

Source: Netgalley

Colm Healy used to be one of the Met’s best detectives. Until, haunted by the unsolved murders of a mother and her twin daughters, his life was left in ruins. His failure to find an elusive killer – or even a motive for such a merciless crime – consumed him, his career and his family.
Missing persons investigator David Raker is the only friend Healy has left. The only one who understands that redemption rests on solving these murders. As they reopen the investigation together, Raker learns the hard way how this case breeds obsession – and how an unsolvable puzzle can break even the best detective.

So fellow blogger Christine and I spent a very happy weekend buddy reading and tweeting about the latest David Raker novel from Tim Weaver – What Remains. Rather than a standard review we had a little discussion about it- part one below, then pop over to Christine’s blog (link below) tomorrow to see the rest. We also asked Tim a couple of little questions (thanks Tim!)

Liz: So first of all that was probably THE maddest reading experience of my life…so tense and SO addictive – I’m sure I’ve now got a bald patch. Did you end up stomping around and muttering like I did? How did it go for you?

Christine: I think I scared the cat, with my various mutterings and shocked exclamations.

I felt sadness, pity, grief, shock and stunned amazement. That was only in the first part. Tim Weaver really knows how to manipulate the reader.

Liz: Yes. Yes he does. You remember THAT moment? The one that had me hysterically tweeting (and NOT being soothed by you despite your best efforts! ) – it was so perfectly written, the emotive edge and tone leading up to the discovery just had me hanging on every word. I was literally repeating in my head “please don’t do this please don’t do this” and then BAM! That’s some creative evil genius right there….

Christine: Yes THAT moment! I was trying to work out, when you’d got to it. It is some of the best dramatic writing, for building up tension and completely setting the reader up. I read it TWICE.

Liz: It is DEFINITELY worth reading more than once. Especially because at that point the adrenalin truly kicks in and seriously I could not bear to put it down after that. Although I did stomp around a bit while reading it from thereon in. I think its worth mentioning how tightly plotted this is – such a terrific flow to things and of course you are already a Raker fan so you’ll know how Tim Weaver has a knack of getting you right where it hurts when it comes to your emotional connection to the characters. And each mystery is so compelling – with this one I especially liked the setting and background. The pier for example – not sure I’d want to visit now but then again I kind of do….

Christine: I think that is why it works so well. We care about Raker and Healy. We know them and they matter. Their turmoil is our turmoil. And Tim Weaver just loves playing with that.

I actually looked up the Pier to see if it really existed. I’m a sucker for a story with strong historical links….

We asked Tim: What a TOTALLY fantastic book. I particularly loved the way we see Healy self destruct and the emotional effect on the reader. As a reader, I was there with him feeling his pain and hoping he finds some way to move forward. It had this amazing sense of brutal realism. A man going from employed to homeless and desperate. That could happen to any one of us. How hard was it to write?

Tim: I find writing hard, generally. I absolutely love doing it, but the ten-month process of getting a book finished is pretty tortuous. The one thing that always remains a light at the end of the tunnel, though, is Raker and Healy: I know them so well by now (six books into the series) that I don’t have to work hard to get back into their heads – they just kind of naturally evolve, right there on the page, as I write them. So I suppose that, ultimately, the hardest part of writing Healy this time wasn’t getting to know him again, or constructing a plot arc for him, it was the process of ruining the life of someone I’ve come to care quite a lot about!

Thanks Tim! And don’t forget to visit Christine tomorrow at https://northerncrime.wordpress.com/ to find out how we coped with the rest of the read, and for another insight into the novel from the author himself.

Find out more here: http://www.timweaverbooks.com/

Follow Tim on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TimWeaverBooks

Buy the book! http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Remains-David-Raker-Novel/dp/0718181670/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

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