Thicker Than Water - Ken Lussey

 

Brand new novel by prolific author Ken Lussey

Lussey has been quite the prolific author since just before the pandemic, this is his 10th novel in nearly six years.

Lussey first came to this reader's attention in the summer of 2018 when he released his first book EYES TURNED SKYWARDS which merged historical fact and detective fiction to create a rip-roaring narrative with a new sort of hero in RAF pilot Bob Sutherland who becomes a Thaw like detective when investigating the actual crash of King George VI's younger brother the Duke of Kent. The intrepid former police officer uses his wits to find out what caused the crash and avoid the cover-up. This is itself the birth of a special branch of Military Intelligence where Bob must come to grips with a new sort of political espionage all while co-operating with a new partner, Madame Monica Dubois, a double agent. Together they forge a passionate and honest relationship of secrets and lies, where the only thing true is their burgeoning love for each other.

Over five books, this reader has followed the paths of Bob and Monica from restricted Scottish highlands to chases in Stockholm and most recently their honeymoon spy tour in Malta in THE EYE OF HORUS.

Whilst writing those books, Lussey has also written two books starring Callum Anderson, a former Metropolitan Police officer who following a bitter divorce has returned to his roots in Scotland to become a private investigator. He is now courting a doctor, Jenny Mackay, who is overcoming her own alcoholic demons and yet the unlikely pair (like Bob and Monica) have found solace together when the chance for love may have gone in their eyes.

Lussey has taken the bold and brave decision to melt his two universes (1940s war-time and modern day detective) together in a story about place and how history can tie a place to two separate occasions when one act takes place. This is not a time-travel story but a place-portal story. 

It is the season of Hogmanay, Callum and Jenny visit Sarclet Castle in Caithness where they are asked to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman in 1943, whose ghost is believed to haunt the castle. A cold case to begin with but not the first woman to be stabbed in nearby Sarclet Broch; there was another murder nearly two thousand years earlier. And upon their arrival, a third fatal stabbing occurs. Can Callum prove anything on a case eight decades old while avoiding danger in their hunt for the contemporary killer.

Callum in his third appearance comes across as a more stable protagonist not too dissimilar from Bob Sutherland - methodical, patient and intelligent, yet it is the growth of Dr. Jenny that is the most impressive portion of the book. Jenny is treated as an equal to Callum, they slowly are forming a working as well as a personal partnership that will hold them in good stead in books moving forward.

Lussey has attempted something grand and he has achieved success, crafting a thrilling cat and mouse with his usual admiring travelogue with snippets of history. Like whiskey, this is a wonderful blend of escapism, entertainment and education

Thicker Than Water is published by Arachnid Press on all formats.

The Negotiator - Brooke Robinson

 

Second novel by Robinson out now from Penguin 

Police officer Tia recently failed her exam to become a negotiator: her dream job. But when a peaceful climate change protest at a London museum escalates, and one of the radicalised members takes Tia and others hostage, she realises this is her chance to prove she has what it takes.

Three years later, Asher is being released from prison for the part he played at the museum that day. He’s always maintained his innocence, but when someone starts threatening the survivors, leading one of them to take their own life, Tia isn’t convinced Asher is telling the whole truth. Refusing to have another death on her conscience, Tia begins to investigate

My Review

Robinson writes a gripping and tense drama based around a situation that not many do write about. There is a podcast I listen to where they hypothetically talk about what happens the day after the film ends. In this instance, the film would end with a crescendo and a round of applause. Here Robinson, continues the narrative showing us both Tia and Asher time after while flitting back to the fateful day in question.

This duelling narrative structure at the beginning can be a bit confusing, yet it does not dumb down for the reader, which is a credit to the author, who treats her readership with the credit they deserve.

Observant and making a social comment within the dramatic structure, Robinson crafts a high paced grounded realistic story for our time that will have readers gripped throughout.

The Negotiator is out now from Penguin books.

My thanks to Tracy Fenton (Compulsive Readers) for a copy of book in return for my honest review

Paradise Is Burning

 

Swedish Debut Festival Award Winner released 30th August in UK/Ireland

Winner of the BFI/LFF Sutherland Award for best debut feature at the 2023 London Film Festival, this debut by Mika Gustafson is highly touted and expectation is high for its release from Conic Films on 30th August.

Following a storyline, that is tried and tested, we follow three young Swedish girls who are trying to navigate a summer without parental guidance as a mother is absent from their lives.

We follow the girls get into scrapes and fights, steal food from supermarkets and play truant from school. Their lives are so entwinned that one doing something has a direct impact upon the other two, for instance the middle sister, Mira (12) gets into a fight, prompting the eldest, Laura (16) to intervene forgetting to put in her forged signatory letter in the relevant pigeonhole. This leads to a phone call from Social Services wanting to come and visit their house leading to some desperation from the eldest to make sure they and Steffi (7) do no lose their home.

An embracing film about sisterhood and the power of summer, how that affects your mood shifting from joy to despair, Gustafson has crafted a film of quiet craft featuring three amateur actresses (Bianca Delbravo, Dilvin Asaad, Safira Mossberg) who all conveying unexpexted performances beyond their young years.

Filmed with a real clarity, eliciting those fine performances from that trio of youngsters this is a film of real power and modesty. Filmed during the summer, it is a marriage of a coming-of-age film with that memory of a memorable summer; it calls to mind such films as My Summer of Love yet the parallel to Regan's UK feature Scrapper is so striking.

The children have to learn quickly that with glory there is pain, with unity there is loneliness and with youth there is the fear of growing up, when society can come crashing down on you exponentially rapidly. 

Gustafson cleverly mixes the elements of humour and tragedy - a powerful marriage in Swedish cinema from Bergman to Roy Andersson - with a deftness even mixing different photographic styles from quiet poetic moments to the rave-filled vibrancy of all night parties.

Also a winner of Best Director and Screenwriting at the Venezia 2023 Festival; Paradise is Burning is a film of immense promise from a young filmmaker with a unique voice and vision to share with the world. 

Paradise is Burning is released from Conic Films on 30th August