The Wreckage

Debut novel from Robin Morgan-Bentley released by Trapeze Books on 6th February

Morgan-Bentley is a debut author, but one who works in the world of Audio books, a new voice who spends a lot of time listenting to other people's words in his day to day life, this has led to the creation of a traditional well told story but with a twist on the narrative.

The Wreckage tells the story of a road traffic accident told from three different viewpoints. Ben is a primary school teacher who is driving to work one cold wet January morning and then he sees a white flash. He has hit something, or more like someone. That someone is Adam, who has jumped in front of Ben's car that morning - this has led to his untimely death a few weeks later leaving behind a grieving wife, Alice and seven year old son, Max.

Ben, understandably, feeling guilty from breaking up this domestic bliss attempts to make contact with Alice at the hospital to explain himself. Following a frosty first reception, the two start to become more entwinned into each other's lives; Ben provides a shoulder for Alice to cry upon and a parental rock for Max during this difficult period of transition for all.

The book so easily could become a rote tale of the stalker, and RMB does flirt with that at times with the shifting perspective from Ben to Alice which never allows you to fully sympathise with one narrator and the balancing act of emotions and feelings from both parties does the service of oddly seeing and appreciating both sides of the story.

That is until the twist reveal which opens up a totally different storyline and plot, when the realisation to Alice of what has happened to her husband is shown to her.

A tale as much about mental health and well being, reaching out to those you love for the help required to overcome; and in this new year the resolution to be more open about the interiority of ourselves and channel that in a way that people can understand. All people have these moments of inner torture, how Adam deals with it is not the best way to go about it and how he attempts to make life better for his family is evidence of someone who went too long without help. Help is available to us always, starting with the ones we love.

Morgan-Bentley is an author to watch out for, this is a very interesting debut and one that shows how the benefit of reading and listening to an abundance of literature over the years leads to a unique and personal voice telling an often told tale with a different twist.

The Wreckage is out from Trapeze Books on 6th February.

Hangman

The highly anticipated sequel to Ragdoll by Daniel Cole, has a lot to live up to.  When we finished Ragdoll, the hero Wolf had fled the scene following his colleague Baxter's decision to let him leave the crime scene.  Wolf has gone underground and no-one has seen him, we find Baxter now two years after the end of the Ragdoll murders and the numerous copy cats.  Now there is a new mass murderer who is taking bodies and having them hang from great heights with the word 'BAIT' scored into the torso of the mainly male bodies.

Baxter and her team, including the returning Edmunds have to work with new friends including the ex-pat Rouche, a man born in England but working for the CIA in America who is as disruptive as Wolf was but just as conflicted.

The book has the feel of the writer spreading his wings, but whereas the first book had the social context of fear and panic of unknown attackers on the streets of London, with the media spinning people into a frenzy for their health and safety; this novel though has the feel of being a lost love child of Dan Brown.  Extensive plotting with twists aplenty, by the book characters with little in the way of emotional connection and elaborate set-pieces of action and gore being given precedence over telegraphed dialogue.

This reader feels that following the high-octane, gasping intensity of Ragdoll this is a step backwards although the (very) late introduction of someone means that another book is in the offing and this return to the mean may hopefully incite a return to form.

Cole is a writer who clearly likes to take risks with his writing, compounded intentions and expectations of his readership but for this reader it seems to have come up short to the level of what Ragdoll was, my hope is that the expected third book is a return to that thrilling form.

Hangman is released by Trapeze Books on 22nd March

Calling Major Tom

David M. Barnett has written a wonderful novel which through the irony of timing and the (un)fortunate nature of planning, has become a story that may well live longer in the memory than any other run of the mill novels that name check celebrity.

A typically British yarn that is a fish-out-of-water story about a man way in over his head and not being able to deal with the surroundings he finds himself in and yet overcoming those same odds to better himself; the lead character is rich in the vein of misanthropic antagonists who is at loggerheads with the world a la 'The Man Called Ove'.

David M Barnett, Author

Whilst reading you can seemingly imagine a film adaptation in the same remit as The Full Monty or an Ealing Studios masterpiece, a lithe British film that wants to shout out and say how mighty we can be while Americans look upon us as merely that small island.

The ending of the book is handled very well and warrants a re-read in how Barnett handles the two storylines coming together, whilst it is far-fetched to believe an astronaut circling the earth would make contact with a down on their luck family in Wigan; nevertheless the narrative and the delicately handled characters make the scene not so far fetched due to the lightness of the writing and dialogue.

While the title may well be indebted to the White Duke, David Bowie and certain songs are name dropped throughout, this does not read as a sycophantic novel that jumps on the death of an idol instead it reads as a comment on how that very special artist became somewhat embedded into our cultural psyche by just being memorable in terms of his persona and song-writing.

For this reviewer, it was a book that was read quickly and turned pages swiftly with its lightness of touch and deftness of plotting and character.

Calling Major Tom will be published by Trapeze on 18th May 2017, in paperback (£7.99) and e-book (£7.99).