After having adored other books by this writer, I was saving Acid Row for a treat. Each book she writes is different, but reliably excellent in terms of pacing, structure, characters, and plot elements, and there is always a very satisfying payoff. This book was a major disappointment in each of these areas and more. I couldn't believe Minette Walters wrote it.Interesting characters (good and bad) were created and set aside. Intrigues were established and never developed. Paragraphs were wasted on second-string pasteboard types who didn't do much, and what they did was not credible. The police involvement in both story lines was highly unrealistic. Race and class characterizations were extremely clumsy and simplistic, as were the criminals themselves. Some jarringly anachronistic media/culture references played a significant role. Also: Walters usually adds a leavening of grace, humor, romance, or beauty. If they were here, they were atrophied. All were missed.Instead of introducing a moral dilemma and plot points to lead the reader to a logical conclusion, one point was made by ham-handed hammering, and the other was unbelievable. (It might have been believable if a certain clarification had been made, but none was provided.) Many of the psychological points were either incorrect or poorly made, leaving the high-toned moralizing unsupported. Unforgivably, serious topics (hot trigger issues) were handled in a blithe, callous fashion. But even someone not specifically vulnerable might loathe heavy-handed moralization and flippant attitude. Content aside, the storytelling itself was inconsistent and hard to follow. (Sorry if this sounds muddled; this is technically a mystery, so I'm trying to avoid spoilers.)Usually, one would build a situation and allow it to simmer over time. Here, most of the events occur over a few hours. The riot (mentioned on the cover) is not clearly described and turns into a confused slog. Because there is not enough groundwork before the riot begins, no tension is created. We also haven't had time to make an investment in the characters, and so we have no reason to care about their outcomes. At best we have mild curiosity, and dogged hope that the story will soon start to coalesce in a way that makes us care. It never does. It doesn't help that the two main story lines are only related by accident -- literally. Making the *lack* of overlap a plot point is a mistake; instead of being an interesting twist, its merely a diversion from the main action. It's just so many more dead ends and pointless beginnings and characters we don't care about. Two half-told stories don't make a novel.Worst of all is the utter lack of payoff. The many minor open threads and possible intrigues are left unresolved. The characters we know best are abandoned, except for one who is given a tired, unrealistic final scene.This book is hundreds of pages of confused fragments in search of a story. Trade this stinker back to the bookstore and get one of her earlier mysteries, which are brilliant, re-readable classics.
Acid Row is a place in London, associated with "slums" but is legally tolerated by the police. This place is where they dump single mothers, teenagers with drug activities, gangs, handicaps, etc. That is what I've understood. Correct me if I am wrong. The whole book is crazy. The riot is realistic but the lack of activity by the police is not. Well, there is a very dignified reason behind it but I find it really unrealistic. (It's really hard to write a review without you, getting spoiled.) The novel consists of different events occurring in a day. I understood all the 400+ pages of the book happened in just one day. And it's really a challenging read. You rarely read things like that, you know. But don't fret, Walters is really good in transferring the reader from one dimension to the other. It's detailed, but I've noticed how some of the events weren't resolved in the end and characters were indeed abandoned. It's as if, just because the main character finally found resolute, Walters left the others in the desert to rot. It's tempting for criticism but I also came into the realization, that those characters left in the desert, were insignificant at all. It's better to leave the unnecessary behind, to bring the readers into the more important matters. It's a good read, yes it is. I went, "ooh" and "ahh" and frowned. Never really read the past mysteries of the author but reading some of the reviews for this book, makes me think of her as a good crime writer. Others say, this book is nothing like her other books, and that I should read her past mysteries for me to satisfy myself with her writing. It's like people expect her to be like this and that. It's hard when people expect, and people label you because of what you did in the past. What if this is something new? It may suck or not but it's her writing. I'm so bias. Because for a first time reader of Minette Walters, I really like Acid Row.
What do You think about Acid Row (2003)?
Set in 2001 at a time when the News of the World was threatening to print names and addresses of all paedophiles in the country, trying to make us believe that we didn’t really know who our neighbours were, this is a story about mob psychology. When residents of a sink estate get word that a newcomer is in fact a convicted paedophile, coupled with the fact that a local 10 year old girl is missing, tempers soon start to flare. The actual storyline is pretty good, it really kept me interested and gripped me. We know fairly early on that there will be three deaths in the story, and I really wanted to know who was and who wasn’t going to survive.I did have a few reservations about it. I thought the depiction of Melanie, the smoking and drinking pregnant single mum of two with a heart of gold came just a little bit too close to being patronising to be true. I would have liked to have seen her character toned down just a little bit. Some of the dialogue was just a little bit “off”, and didn’t fit the characters and their upbringing at all. As for Barry and Kimberley, the stereotypical clinically obese fat teenagers, well at least they weren’t in it that much!I have seen a lot of 1 star reviews for this book and whilst I did have issues with it, I don’t think it was “that” bad. I certainly enjoyed the storyline anyway.
—Elaine
Walters is at her best in exploring the banality of criminal activity and intent -- and in this book, once again, she shines. In pursuing the leads to find a missing 10-year-old girl, the reader is led into a maze of inter-connections which is at once astounding, predictable, and tragic. I don't know how Walters manages to weave all three into one mundane little crime, but she reveals herein she has a masterful grasp of the depraved indifference that men and women often demonstrate towards each other. Clever little book -- which sneaks out from the reeds and pounces on you unawares. At first glance, her novel may seem quite pedestrian, but think about it a little, and you'll see she's absolutely brilliant!
—Julie
Ow, avert your eyes. Such very bad dialogue! Such cardboard characters! Quite shocking. Here we have a novel which tries really hard to turn today's headline into a fast-paced insightful, gritty yet ultimately inspiring novel but drastically fails on every page. Minette Walters does not appear to have first hand experience of how the unrespectable working class actually talk, whether black or white, so she makes it up... It sounds more like an Ealing comedy, if they were still makeing them in the 1980s. And there's page after page of it.... That must man the author, her partner, her agent and her publisher all thought this stuff was okay. She's surrounded by idiots! minette, save yourself! Leave them all now!Where do you begin with Acid Row? Every scene we've seen before - the angry crowds, the hostage taken, the subtle police interrogation, the crisis which brings out the best and the worst in people...and every character is a huge cliché the size of a dirigible with the word CLICHE written in shocking pink on the sides - the frail old woman who turns out to be feisty ("You've been a very bad influence on me, Jimmy. I'm swearing, I'm party to crimes, and I haven't felt so useful in years!"), the misunderstood paedophile, the low-life teenagers. But there's one character who isn't a cliché at all. You never came across anyone like him. It's that not so very reluctant hero Jimmy Jones, the giant black guy, very large, friendly in a deadpan sort of way, and willing to have a go at anything - running back into burning houses to rescue known sex offenders, carrying unconscious people across his shoulders, and all the time being sensitive to old folks and little kids. The "Two months later" chapter at the end puts the tin hat on the whole thing, where Jimmy and the feisty old lady have a good chuckle about their crazy wild adventure, just the way they used to in the last scene of any American TV show of the 60s and 70s. A few wry comments, a few lessons learned. Here's the lesson I learned : steer clear of Minette Walters!
—Paul Bryant
