The latest installment in the DI Clare Mackay series is Seventh Heaven
Marion Todd is a St. Andrews based novelist who with the help of her publishers, Canelo Crime, has produced a great series of detective novels featuring the forthright DI Clare Mackay as she navigates high profile crime cases upon the streets of the famous Scottish town.
The latest case which pushes Mackay to the limit is about the mysterious disappearance firstly of solicitor Harry Richards and then the discovery of his corpse. What follows is a typically labyrinthe case that has many twists and turn as Clare discovers Richards was not the straight laced figure he appeared to be.
While the case gets more involved, Mackay must also contend with personal relationships as the blossoming relationship with her boyfriend continues apace and the possibility of moving in together looms.
What sets Todd's novels apart from others is the camaraderie of Mackay with her colleagues, it paints the loyal serving police force in a positive light with no bent coppers on this force.
Something I have noticed for the first time is how well Todd writes about her hometown, with a real eye for landscape and the feel of nature, this is a writer who loves where she lives and wants to share that love with her readers.
Gripping as always and page-turning to the maximum, A Blind Eye does not disappoint and as ever this reader can heartily recommend this crime thriller to fans old and new.
A Blind Eye is out 8th June from Canelo Crime on all platforms.
Brand new book from Annie MacManus THE MESS WE'RE IN from Wildfire books
Renowned DJ Annie Mac returns with her second book, set in the early 2000s it follows a young Irish girl named Orla who moves from Cheltenham to London to follow her dream of becoming involved within the music scene. This goes hand in hand whilst living with an up and coming indie band called Shiva in the digs of Kilburn.
Orla wants to make music, but juggling a temp job in new PR company RedStar and a pub job whilst partying every night is not helping. Meanwhile, in Ireland her parents marriage is falling apart and she is not speaking to her Da.
As Shiva strife to breakthrough, the hedonism gets bigger and relationships within the house are strained.
A story about a young woman making sense of living in a strange land but finding yourself through the rhythm of life. Annie Mac delivers in a big way with this nostalgic look at the boom in music and how being in the music business remains one of the coolest aspirations for many people
Fifth book in the Bob Sutherland series by Scottish based author, Ken Lussey, out 26th May from Arachnid Press.
It is April 1943. Set in and around Stirling Castle, Bob and his bride-to-be Monique Dubois are attending a secret meeting at the castle to discuss details of national security.
Meanwhile, medical student Helen Erickson is followed from London to her aunt's farm in Perthshire, why is she being followed? Is it about the work her mother is taking part in at Bletchley Park?
An old adversary is murdered mysteriously whilst the secret meeting is taking place, Bob and the MI11 team are called in to investigate when everyone has a motive to the victim.
Lussey has in the past six years created this quite wonderful world of World War Two espionage and mystery surrounding this lone central character of Bob Sutherland and yet in each book through the four previous (Eyes Turned Skywards, The Danger of Life, Bloody Orkney and The Stockholm Syndrome) there has been perpetual growth of Bob as an officer and a gentleman, he and Dubois have grown closer together from flirting to close to being married and in the last book Bob killed a man with his gun breaking his virginity.
What is so good about this book in comparison to others previously, is that there is a genuine sense of not coming next. While others have followed traditional narrative paths, for instance in the Stockholm Syndrome the daring pair are in the Swedish capital meaning the action is contained within that city. Here we start in Stirling Castle, yet there was a short prelude where German crew seek asylum and land in Scotland. We then go to Stirling Castle and after the murder, Monique is on the trail of Helen while Bob must investigate the murder himself.
The separation of the pair for narrative reasons is cleverly done because again it helps to let the pair grow, but Monique's chase of Helen across the Scottish Highlands and train tracks means it is her story we are more engrossed upon. The scene where Helen and Anthony discover the carnage at the aunt's farm was to this reader reminiscent of the opening to No Country for Old Men told with such assuredness that comes from a writer confident in the characters he has created.
While that is daring and driven, Bob's castle death is closer to an Agatha Christie novel and those famous drawing room murders where everybody is a suspect.
Drawing from a wealth of influences and his own Royal Air Force career, Lussey has again written an entertaining page-turning novel that delivers in spades of enjoyment and tension.
Hide and Seek is out in Paperback from Arachnid Press on 26th May
New documentary by Mira Erdevicki follows three Roma people living in the UK and how Brexit and Covid has affected their lives.
This eye-opening documentary by Slovakian director shows this reviewer, an Anglo-Saxon middle-class individual a view to a world I am unfamiliar with. It is about three gypsies who have come to the UK to seek progress and raise a family in a better world.
We see Denisa, the first Roma British lawyer who helps migrants affected by post-Brexit legislation; Petr who has been awarded the MBE for community policing and Ondrej, a teaching assistant who wants to study psychology.
All are supporting their family, all have hopes and dreams yet these are scuppered firstly by the decision of the British populace to leave the European Union and then Covid which restricted their movement on a different level.
The determination of the trio is undeniable, their character never waivers and the belief that they can make a difference is powerful. There is no agenda foisted upon the viewer in this document, merely the three people speak for themselves serving as vital cogs within the community at large from Leicester to Peterborough to London suburbs - hard working people who are valued for their industry and personality.
As a time capsule of those moments in 2020 when we were moving through a difficult social and world-changing event, Ondrej's footage of Leicester as a ghost town as he states it reminds us of what we were experiencing.
Shot mostly by the three people themselves with hand-held point of view perspective mixed with telling voiceover of the individuals, this is a powerful document for those who have not seen such lifestyle or are ignorant of other people's hardships and what they must overcome to fulfil their dreams and aspirations.
Leaving To Remain is out on 28th April on limited release by Verve Pictures
My thanks to EmFoundation PR for the review opportunity.
Exciting new paranoid thriller CAIRO CONSPIRACY out today from Picturehouse Entertainment
Set in and around the illustrious Egyptian Islamic institution Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which is the center of Sunni Islam. Small town fisherman's son, Adam, arrives to begin his studying at the school; shortly after his arrival the highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, suddenly dies and Adam becomes a pawn in the power struggle between the religious leaders and political elites as they seek to elect a new high leader.
Boasting an impressive lead performance by Tawfeek Barhom as the erstwhile Adam, and featuring Fares Fares as the state security agent, Ibrahim, who is the key player in this game of chess bearing a resemblance to Mandy Patinkin's Saul from 'Homeland', the intense nature of the political game being played by both sides makes for a gripping conclusion.
Shot in Turkey as the director Tarik Saleh, has been banished from Egypt since the release of 2017's TheNile Hilton Incident (which starred Fares also) - the backdrop provides a luminous base for rich production design from Roger Rosenberg and crisp cinematography by Pierre Aim creating a world that is bright and clear but underneath darkness lurks.
Cairo Conspiracy is out now from Picturehouse Entertainment
Much awaited debut album from Kent four piece PYNCH released 14th April
The four-piece band from Kent, Pynch came to prominence and attention in the latter part of 2019 when their debut single 'Disco Lights' appeared on the esteemed Speedy Wunderground label and then they released the track 'Somebody Else' in May 2020 which became an underground anthem for dealing with pandemic which was a rage against the situation that many people found themselves in, and rightly so the single was a breakthrough with recognition ranging from The Guardian to NME.
Pynch are by their own admission, a DIY band who hailed from Margate, Kent - a building in the town is basis for the album cover art - and with little more than the records made in Spencer Enock's home. Enock is lead guitar and vocals in the band ably assisted by Julianna Hopkins' keys, Scott Enock's bassline and James Rees on synths.
The musical influences of this band range from dreampop, britpop to electronica in the rich late 20th century tradition of bands ranging from Pet Shop Boys to Depeche Mode and up to the Mystery Jets. Yet it is all about the situation the band find themselves in, this is a post-austerity album an album full of disillusionment and crisis in dealing with the existentialism and longing for halcyon days that parents used to talk about it. There is a cynicism that runs throughout the album and yet that social commentary gives way heartfelt reflection and general optimism for better days by album's end.
From the opening track 'Haven't Lived A Day' the concept of trying to find answers amidst the madness and the difficulty of living is at the forefront of Enock's lyrics 'Trying to figure out what I'm feeling/Trying to understand just what I'm seeing' - the twin threads are seemingly enmeshed and attempted to untangle across the ten-track running time.
The sequencing of this album should be applauded, second track is 'Disco Lights' a key track in their history followed by most recent single 'Tin Foil' another track with humorous takes on the collision between emotion and worth, cynicism and sincerity. It is a fine balance that Enock navigates very well - the tracks do not speak of a band laying everything on the line, merely a precursor for more to say in the future which bodes well.
Nostalgia appears in the track '2009', followed by the two-part 'The City' which delves into the malaise of life then with 'Karaoke' which is about lost love. Penultimate track 'London' is about the living crisis and the general disappointment his generation feels towards governance and how austerity has left that generation to flounder while those before them flourish.
'I just want to feel something real'
When this listener first heard 'Somebody Else' it was ear-opening to a sound that was very much of the moment and artists aware of the moment they are living in during this tumultuous period of world history - the world keeps turning even when you stand still. That track you felt would have been the album opener, and yet it makes sense that it closes the album having been around for nearly three years it serves as self-referential to the band themselves supplying answers to that which they seek. That sense of melancholic ennui that underlies so much of the album is that which you end with, but that is not a detriment more a triumph for Pynch.
It is a testament to them that they can create an album of this maturity and intent, not being overawed by the level of expectation that was awaiting them.
This is one of the best debut albums of recent times, a joy to listen to and for this listener who has followed the band from the early singles a pleasure to see the long playing album rise to the occasion and fully deliver on that promise.
Howling at a Concrete Moon is out on Chillburn Recordings from April 14th.
New album from Chicago trio FACS out 7th April via Trouble in Mind
When the world was on lockdown, there was the opportunity to catch up on cultural aspects you missed but also a chance for discovery. In this role as a mild-mannered music reviewer, you get sent links to all sorts of musical genres and it is very hard on occasion to weave out of your lane and yet the chance came to review a three-piece from Chicago that were definitely not on my radar. This band was FACS encompassing guitarist Brian Case, bassist Alianna Kalaba and drummer Noah Leger.
The album from 2020 was Void Moments and for this writer, it was a touchstone and portal for those times in lockdown - an album of ferocity and anger that spoke to me as this writer dealt with the boredom of lockdown and not seeing friends. FACS' brand of intense and post-punk noise was a calling card to me and yet a band that cleverly spoke more to me than an acoustic guitar.
After Void Moments came 2021's Present Tense, a quick follow-up to that pandemic album that sustained their growth as a band with buzzy feedback aplenty and Cage's lyrics again struggling to make sense of the world.
The new album Still Life in Decay is possibly the final swansong for the threesome as Kalaba seeks pastures new, yet the rhythm and unity of the band is still paramount, their tightness again only growing to this resounding maelstrom of disquiet. FACS are a loud band but are capable of such quiet moments of reflection amidst the undoubted sensory overload.
Opening track 'Constellation' is indicative - Cage's vocals burst out of the gate and then quickly recede to the pulsating bass and drum dance that Kalaba and Leger create. 'When You Say' is a call to arms of making sense of the world. 'Slogan' is about watching someone change which is a theme running through the album.
As Brain Case explains: 'change...how that's seen
from different people's perspectives. 'Still Life In Decay' is about that kind
of change, realizing that relationships exist in different ways for individuals
in shared situations, and how you navigate that as a unit. We knew when we were
making this record that Alianna was going to be stepping away from the band,
which of course heavily informed the sessions. Filled with deep understanding
and love, but still those insecurities and feelings of loss, or an end of
something. Despite that, 'Still Life In Decay' feels more like a beginning,
it's tense and vulnerable in a way we haven't presented ourselves before. I'm
so proud of what the three of us did with this album.'
The album is akin to a ghostly presence with this aura of transformation abounding, drifting past you but maintaining a lingering presence throughout, there is something earthly and yet other-worldy about the album as a whole. A journey of anxiety and white noise and with a gripping energy throughout.
Still Life in Decay is out from Trouble in Mind on 7th April
My thanks to One Beat PR for the review opportunity
