Review - 'The Echo' by Minette Walters

The Echo by Minette Walters
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

" Who was Billy Blake? And why did he die of starvation beside a freezer full of food in one of the wealthiest parts of London?
Mike Deacon, a cynical and somewhat discredited journalist, is intrigued by Blake's macabre death and by Amanda Powell, the beautiful woman who discovered his body. Her sudden obsession with Blake's life fuels Deacon's interest, but the unlikely connections he finds only bring more questions."

This book took pretty much right up to the last 50 pages to finally grab me. There were just too many wild assumptions made through the entire book that I actually had difficulty in following most of the time. Then, when it all finally came together at the end I was left feeling a little deflated.
I seemed to have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Mike Deacon. Sometimes, when his personality shined through in a good way he was a really likeable character, but at other times his tendency to be obnoxious and overly confident bothered me a little bit.
This book gives you a really gook look into the life of a homeless person and how it is to live in the slums of London. It also covers some deeper topics such as homosexuality and family issues.
I mainly read this book because it has been one that I've owned for many years so it was a good candidate for The Dusty Bookshelf Challenge. I also had recollections of enjoying the other Minette Walters book I'd previously read.
Overall, I have to admit that the trail that was linked up in this book in the end was very clever, but for some reason it just didn't completely gel with me and at times I was left thinking 'Well that's a bit of a stretch'. Maybe I'm just getting a bit too cynical myself with the more books I read in this genre.

A bit about Minette Walters I grabbed from her website here:

"Miles away from the "cosy" confines of preconceived notions of what an English murder-mystery author should be, Minette Walters can be found, glass of wine in hand, explaining the finer details of plumbing in a larder sink...

Web bookmarks for Minette's research can run the gamut from brain trauma to the anti-war campaign, paedophilia and racist propaganda...

And, along with husband Alec, she's only too happy to engage in 'full and frank' conversations about any topic you care to name, punctuated at regular intervals by her infectious laugh and reprimands for her omnivorous Golden Retrievers... "

Has anyone else ever read a novel by Minette Walters? If so, what did you think?