Getting Away - Kate Sawyer

New summer read by Kate Sawyer

This was a very pleasing read. A word of caution though, you will require a family tree/understanding of genealogy to remember the names and relations of all the people. However, once you get your head around that - this book was entertaining and enlightening. 

Using family holidays as the means to show familial relationships and how they alter over the years, decades and generations coupled with the ever-changing types of family holidays - from day outs to the beach by train, to the growing market of package holidays booked on Ceefax, to the globe-trotting gap years of the grandchildren.

Indebted to the work of David Nicholls, nevertheless Sawyer has crafted a work that is original yet familiar, comforting but challenging and by the end the reader would have developed a lump in their throat. Delicately handled with poise and guile by a writer with nuance. As you get nearer to the present day, the writer is able to incorporate the ever changing landscape of communication - using tweets, emails and magazine articles as a changing style of writing from by-gone eras of postcards and diary entries.

Sawyer writes with assuredness having an ear for how characters talk to each other, and she does this well with her plethora of protagonists ranging from the overweight police officer, to the shy retiring teenager who was born premature and must keep on fighting for his place in society

This is a book that will stay with the reader after completing it, and is a real find and a must for the summer of this year.

My thanks to Compulsive Readers for letting me be part of the blog tour for this title and the preview copy in advance.

Getting Away is published by Zaffre/Bonnier Books, thanks to them 

The Way It Is Now - Garry Disher

 

New novel by Australian author THE WAY IT IS NOW 

out from Viper Books 4th August  

WHO SHALL INHERIT THE SINS OF THE FATHER?

This thrilling novel is set in Australia and tells the tale of a mother gone missing and how suspended policeman Charlie Deravin tries to solve the case following the discovery of two bodies in a local building site.

Disher weaves a clever tale throughout here, making sure you understand the motivations of his characters whilst taking the time and not rushing unnecessarily. He follows Deravin from counselling following his suspension to the difficult family relationships - his mother and father were going through a divorce at the books beginning in the year 2000 where the book begins. His mother is reported missing and we jump forward to Christmas 2019 and the beginning of the global pandemic which would engulf us all.

The book is prominently set in a small seaside town of Swanage, which for this reader is a lovely notion of kismet as I spent significant formative summer holidays with my family in the English seaside town of Swanage, Dorset. So anytime I read that name, I myself am transported to those wonderful halycon days of beaches, ice cream, cricket and Punch and Judy.

Disher writes effectively and with great nous throughout, short chapters keeps the reader engaged and while it might not be to everyone's taste it kept my attention nonetheless. And you would expect nothing less from a writer of over 50 titles, this is the first time I have encountered Disher and I am sure it will not be the last.

My thanks to Viper Books for the opportunity to review a new title at short notice and the copy sent in the post.

Happy reading one and all

Those Who Know - Alis Hawkins

 

The third novel in the Teifi Valley series arrives from Dome Press. It has been my pleasure to be a part of the blog tour for the release

The novel brings us back together with Henry Probert-Lloyd, lead coroner for region who is having to experience a local election for his role against a favoured local. Henry along with his loyal subject, John Davies, are reporting on a local death of a popular school teacher, Nicholas Rowland, who has died under strange circumstances. Amidst the local hustings, Henry and John must find the answers to a local death which has become murder, rule upon the case and win an election while saving face - this threatens to undermine his ambition and his career.

Hawkins does a great deal of work in creating the gothic and eerie atmosphere of the surroundings of the Valley; what also must be said is how we are at a tipping point in Welsh history and for that reason the culture of body science. One character very much would like to conduct an autopsy of the dead victim to see the full extent of the injuries suffered, the belief being that you will learn more by opening up the body and discovering that the inside will tell more of a story than mere external contusions, lacerations and blood loss.

Following the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, there was a real fear of grave robbing and a fear of surgeons with god complexes who may well carve up bodies for their own reasons. Probert-Lloyd must cleverly weigh the aspirations of his medical career with a political aspiration and being a novice detective.  Lloyd must navigate this path of being true to science and rationality, and not use his intelligence as a weapon against those less fortunate.

Hawkins' expert research and natural storytelling creates a well written narrative; a story that can be dove into on newcomers to this series as well as existing fans.  In Probert-Lloyd you have an enjoyable but flawed main character who in partnership with John Davies is a tandem to follow and saviour.

Those Who Know is out from Dome Press in September.

My thanks to Emily Glenister for the review opportunity.

Follow Alis Hawkins on Twitter here

Things Can Only Get Better - David M. Barnett

Following on from his best seller CALLING MAJOR TOM, David M. Barnett is back with a new novel set in the mid 1990s.

Our lead protagonist is Arthur Calderbank, an elderly widow who is not living in a chapel that overlooks the cemetery where his deceased wife, Mollie lays now.

Arthur is the custodian of the cemetery, keeping gravestones clean and making sure the proper respect is paid by those who visit and those merely passing through. In his elderly years, life has one more surprise for Arthur. It is Christmas time and his wife's birthday is December 23rd, every night of her birthday an unknown person leaves moonflowers on her gravestone.  Arthur is perplexed as he has no idea who it could be as they had no children and no living family members.

Meanwhile, Arthur encounters four teenagers - Kelly, Gemma, Nicola and Timmy - who through will and determination believe they can be a rock and roll band reminiscent of Oasis and other Britpop bands of that esteemed era of popular music.

Tension ensues as the days wind down to the night flower mystery, the children have their own bad luck to contend with as bullies from all sides make themselves known.  All the children have dreams but living in a former mining town, their parents are out of work and looking to blame someone for it; they feel they have to dream to be able to leave the town, Kelly visits along with her mother to her factory job and has this vision of being the unlikely sprocket, the cog that is not wanted but can still get out of the system.

Barnett writes wittingly and lovingly, he is assured in writing genuine dialogue for both teenagers and the elderly getting the write back and forth between all generations spot on, which is difficult in these times nevermind trying to time capsule how people actually did speak, one teenage girl constantly says, 'He is well fit' which memory serves as a correct term of endearment over twenty years ago.

The author is a self-confessed cinema geek and his filmic references are great to spot throughout the novel from the little nod to a pharmacist recalling Its A Wonderful Life to the British cinema mining town Brassed Off to the youngsters wanting to make something of themselves a la Sing Street.

He also does a clever trick of talking about today by looking into recent history - the ground swell of opinion on immigration, entitlement of youth - and the past being lost to newer generations. Barnett makes a comment that we should all remain strong as a community of support and respect.

Barnett writes so well that this reader devoured the book in merely a couple of days, his recall and use of historical events help set in stone an entertaining piece of work that will be enjoyed with relish by many a new reader.

Things Can Only Get Better is published by Orion Books on November 14th.

My thanks to them for the review opportunity

Ghoster by Jason Arnopp

The second novel by Jason Arnopp is out now on all formats

This novel is a sophomore effort following the 2016 release, The Last Days of Jack Sparks.

This story is about Kate Collins, a paramedic from Leeds, who believes she has found true love with Scott Palmer from Brighton, when they meet on a digital detox weekend in Wales.  Following a period of courting, the couple decide that Kate should move in with Scott in his swanky flat apartment near the city centre on the South Coast.

Kate has moved jobs, and moves all her stuff in a van. She arrives at the flat and finds it is completely empty, there are no furnishings and no sign of Scott.

Scott though has left his phone, and with that Kate decides to find out what is exactly going on, and with that the novel dives into a tale of addiction and social media.

Kate is a young, independent woman; one who is knowledgeable and steadfast, good at her job and yet one who does not refuse to put her phone down. The heartbreak of a relationship break-up leads her to stalk the ex online and this puts her colleague at work in jeopardy; Izzy her best friend suffered an injury at work while Kate was on her phone.

Throughout, we are made to witness these sorts of interactions by characters, those who are stubborn in living vicariously through online personas while the world flies by around them. We see them all the time in our own personal lives, those whose heads are down in the screen oblivious and ignorant to others. Those who cannot say thank you to someone serving you coffee and the reluctance to make eye contact.

In this 21st century, people are wary to make real connections with people without being honest and real. This is clearly on Arnopp's mind in the character of Scott, a young individual lacking in self-esteem and with an addiction of his own that finds him lacking in striking up meaningful relationships with women.

As Kate delves deeper and deeper into Scott's web of lies that brought her all the way to his doorstep in Brighton, we are sucked also into her world - the flipping back and forth of narratives, as we have the running parallels of her going from day to day with the realisation that all is not what it seems with their courtship. The twist then comes when we are made aware of Scott's addiction and we start reading his TrooSelf diary entries; these open up again all their encounters in hindsight from a different angle.

Reading like the long treatment of a nightmare episode of Black Mirror, the horror of the situation and the grip that it holds upon you is like a tightening of the chest or neck, as the circle of truth draws in upon Kate

Part urban horror, part ghost story, part social commentary and part critique on the pressure(s) facing the millennial generation, Ghoster is a unique reading experience and one that will stay with you long after you switch off the bedside lamp.

Ghoster is out now from Orbit Books.
My thanks to Compulsive Readers for the review opportunity.

Marion Todd - See Them Run

Published by Canelo, Marion Todd's debut novel is out on 31st October

Set in the plush and lovely surroundings of the illustrious St. Andrews, DI Clare Mackay is in a new job having relocated from Glasgow following a firearms incident.

Mackay is trying to get back in the saddle and find a reason to work, the relocation to the supposed quiet surroundings of the famous golf resort should hold her in good stead, as she gets over the trauma of the shooting mishap.

The quiet gets disrupted by a hit and run case at a local wedding one Saturday night; a supposed mistake becomes a criminal case and apparently pre-meditated as a card with the number 5 on his body. Once they delve into the deceased's history they find that he simply disappeared every Thursday evening with no reason.

So a hit and run, no surprise. Accidents can happen, but then another attack occurs the next day with a number four on this victim.  With the second victim being a local business mogul who owns the renowned brewery, and a friend of Mackay's superior; the attention turns to finding the murderer quickly. Mackay knows there will be a third victim and suddenly a serial killer is on the loose

Mackay must navigate all manners of boundaries; be they constructs of her gender, her class and the fact that she is coming from the gritty Glaswegian streets to the quaint St Andrews countryside. Throughout the book, a great trick is Mackay learning her way around the town and surrounding locations, she constantly has to ask for directions and how far away places are.

And yet as Mackay tries to keep her head on straight, more bodies start to turn up with the same vehicular modus operandi - knowing that a third would turn up soon enough, it could have been prevented yet her eagerness scuppers the preventative measures.

Todd has written a unique character in Mackay, one who is secure in her position as an authority figure, confident in her decision making and respected for her work.  The camaraderie of her team is one that will build up in more novels in the future, yet it is good to read a book with a leading female protagonist defined by her job and not her being a women coupled with a fish out of water narrative.

For a debut, Todd has written a well crafted thriller with genuine moments of jeopardy faced by our St. Andrews police force as they track down the killers.  The use of the Scottish town is clever in that it translates the worst of human nature into a microcosm of a small town, as if St. Andrews is a petri dish of all that is wrong with the world.  This is something that could be developed in further tomes but it is clear that DI Mackay will be able to handle anything this bad world can throw her way.

See Them Run is released from Canelo on 31st October.
My thanks to Tracy Fenton for running the book blog tour

Endgame by Daniel Cole

The third Ragdoll book, Endgame, by Daniel Cole is published on Thursday 5th September

William 'Wolf' Fawkes returns following a brief absence from the majority of Hangman; to be the main driving force of the narrative.  Fawkes returns following the suicide of former colleague, Finlay Shaw; something does not add up though for Wolf who believes there is more than meets the eye in regards to the suspected suicide.

With his former partner, Emily Baxter and private detective Edmunds; Wolf attempts to solve the case in a race against time as he puts his career on the line while not everyone in the Met wants him back to begin with.

Cole does a clever narrative trick of showing the investigation into the suicide along with a flashback narrative of Finlay along with his then partner Christian in the late 1970s, when they made a name for themselves in drug busts and yet became the target of gangs who seeked retribution.

Once the narrative gets going in the 70s narrative in terms of Finlay and Christian dicing with death and establishing the relationships Finlay's suicide leaves in limbo, then the present day narrative takes off especially when Wolf and Baxter must address his leaving the end of Book 1, Ragdoll.

Daniel Cole, author of Endgame.

Cole has created in Baxter a unique female protagonist - fierce yet vulnerable, stubborn but knee-jerk - and the chemistry with Wolf who is a cantankerous soul brings the emotions to the fore for all.  In this novel, Wolf is merely a tool for psychological insight into the waste he left behind, his reappearance granting people a chance to vent and rage against his cynicism and selfishness.

What sets this book apart from the other novels of the trilogy - whereas the opener was a true original concept and plot; the sequel was an action packed female fronted thriller; Endgame is a book less about the end result but how you get there, a tale about camaraderie and fraternity within the police force - the bond forged between the boys (and girls) in blue and the ties that bind them to each other.

While the title may have a sense of finality to it all, hopefully that is not the case and the characters such as Wolf and Baxter can continue to work together and we be able to join them on the ride.

Endgame is out from Orion Books on 5th September.
I am appearing on the Compulsive Readers Blog Tour on 6th September

My thanks to Tracy Fenton for the opportunity to review.

Dark Sacred Night

Michael Connelly returns with the latest novel featuring Detective Harry Bosch

Set in and around Los Angeles, Bosch is not necessarily the lead protagonist of this novel. He is partnered up with the younger female Renee Ballard, a detective who must navigate the dreaded graveyard shift.

The wonderful plot device that Connelly uses is that we have the dual threat of following both Bosch and Ballard as they go around investigating, and while Bosch can seemingly focus all his efforts on solving the case of Daisy Clayton, a murder case that has not been solved for 10 years.

Ballard is used as a political statement - a younger member of the police force who must navigate all various channels of enquiry as well as the actual beat of hitting the street and resolving disputes. 

In the middle part of the book, Ballard investigates the disappearance of an elected official's son; she visits the apartment where he resides, questions the room-mate and then notices a rug has been moved.  It shows that the flat-mate has murdered the missing son, this is great writing and shows the ingenuity and intelligence of Ballard in such matters, in another chapter she attends a strip joint that is worried about someone breaking in and robbing them, this turns out to be youths sneaking a peek at female flesh.

This constant dipping in and out of actual day to day work away from the deeper dive into the Clayton murder case keeps the reader on its toes while appreciating the sincerity of Ballard married with the sheer doggedness of Bosch - a nice union which has perhaps breathed new life into the old sage. A sequel or new book the The Night Fire is out in October of this year

Connelly shares the writing style of contemporaries Child and James Patterson, it is quick and zips along at a clip that allows the book to be devoured in several sittings.  Like James Ellroy who famously writes about Los Angeles and Hollywood, Connelly writes about the city using the vast landscape of the sprawling cityscape to his advantage with a milieu of background characters and cameos breathing life into the story whenever needed.

Dark Sacred Night is one of those thrilling books that can be perfect for the beach or the bedroom, a master storyteller at the peak of his powers.

Out from Orion Books in Paperback from 16th May.

My thanks to Tracy Fenton for the review opportunity and being part of the blog tour

Where The Dead Fall

MJ Lee's second DI Ridpath novel WHERE THE DEAD FALL is out from Canelo in April 2019

This exciting new novel is in keeping with a renaissance of British crime writing which had laid dormant following the unprecedented success of Inspector Rebus. Whereas, those memorable series of books by Ian Rankin where driven by the lead character at the helm; the resurgence spearheaded by A.A. Dhand and Joseph Knox has seen characters from different backgrounds come front and centre yet these men have been grafted from the landscape they reside in.

Away from the metropolitan mess of London; these novels are showing us a sign of Britain in dire straits - in Leeds and Manchester, crime is just as rampant and they need policemen to be the law.  The men though have their own demons to combat; whilst Rebus saw solace at the bottom of the bottle, Harry Virdek in Leeds most combat racial prejudice and Aidan Watts (Knox) in Manchester must overcome his drug affliction.

DI Ridpath in Manchester is no different, a long serving detective who has to overcome personal struggle and the pull of wanting to see his growing daughter more which is putting a strain on his married life.  Ridpath must overcome the cancer scare he suffered in the first novel, and we see him returning home.

At the start of Where The Dead Fall, we encounter Ridpath travelling back to Manchester from a rehab centre looking forward to seeing his family; travelling on the rush hour roads on the same night as a Manchester United match and stuck in traffic, he sees a near-naked man running across the carriageway running away from something. Ridpath sees a shooter tailing the man, or did he, and in an instant a life is crushed and Ridpath is slap bang in the middle of it all, when he just wants a quiet road back to balance.

Lee has woven a gripping rip-roaring novel that was devoured by this reader in four large chunks - characters are rendered efficiently and the everyman Ridpath is a sympathetic character to get behind.  Featuring a unique forensic pathologist who is a growing child in adult form; gang warfare and daily traffic gridlock this is a tale of our time - frustration for many with paperwork being tied up and the grind of office politics.

Lee crafts a picture of Manchester much like Lowry one of dourness, rain, darkness and yet one full of life and character with football very much (sometimes) the centre of the universe.  This may only be the second of the series but I cannot wait to read more of him in the future.

Grab this book for your holiday read or just a page turner to get away from the April showers.

Where The Dead Fall is out now from Canelo.

MJ Lee can be followed on Twitter @WriterMJLee

My thanks to Tracy Fenton for the review copy and opportunity to be on the Blog Tour

Tainted Love by TS Hunter

Tainted Love by T.S. Hunter is out now from Red Dog Press and is a new addition from an up and coming independent publisher.

Set in the mid-1980s, it follows the tale of young Joe; a young homosexual who has come to the big city to meet his friend Chris who has offered him a job and a pathway to come out to the world in these difficult socio-cultural times when homosexuality is still frowned upon.

We meet Joe at a gay club, dancing and having fun. Chris is with him and whilst going to the bathroom, he sees Chris in an altercation. Joe shies away, even when Chris tells him he has to leave. Very later that night/early morning, Joe returns to Chris' flat where he is staying over and finds Chris' body in the hallway beaten and bloodied, dead at the scene.

Joe connects with Chris' room-mate, Russell an ex-police officer - unceremoniously removed from the force after a bust exposed his own homosexuality - and they decide to solve the case of Chris' killer by doing the leg work around Soho themselves; as the prejudiced police see Chris' murder as another rent boy murder gone wrong.

The book is only 125 pages long, but it is written in a real whirling wind of detail and breeziness by Hunter. This promises to be a serious of Soho Noir as he has christened it; perhaps Russell and Joe will be the 'Cagney and Lacey' of the coming years in publication circles.  However, there is a lot to be said for this type of novel - short, sharp, easy to follow with convincing characters in a nostalgic age which is easy to place in a time and place as the AIDS epidemic starts to take hold.

Hunter has expertly crafted a group of characters you would like to return to again and again. The fact that it involves gay characters is neither here nor there, this is a story well told and gratefully received.

Tainted Love is out from Red Dog Press on April 18th, I shall be appearing in the book blog tour on April 15th.

Ben Kane 'Clash of Empires'

This is the first book in a new series by historical fiction author Ben Kane.

The historical details, which you can find at the end of the book in the Author's Note, concerning this wonderful story are very well researched and documented, and these details are superbly implemented within this great historical tale.

At the beginning of the book you'll notice two well-drawn maps of the Kingdom of Macedon and of Asia Minor and the Propontis, both in 202 BC, and besides that there's a short note from the author himself about the two maps at the end papers of the book, front Latin and back Greek.

The book starts with a very interesting prologue situated in the year 215 BC, before the book, which is divided into 4 parts, begins to flourish into a magnificent story that starts in the year 202 BC and will end in the year 198 BC.

Parts 1 and 2 are divided into 4 main streams; the first one being King Philip V of Macedon, who's trying to emulate his forebears King Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, by recapturing all of Greece and beyond; the second being Demetrios, after having been a rower in the army of King Philip is now due to a lucky encounter with Simonides a phalangist in that same Macedonian army; the third being Senator Flamininus, who's doing all he can to become Consul and win glory for himself by defeating Philip and the Macedonians; and finally fourth the brothers Felix and Antonius, who after having defeated the Carthaginians at Zama are dishonourably discharged after falling asleep on sentry duty, and now they've enlisted themselves with the Legions who will invade Greece and will be fighting the Macedonians.

In parts 3 and 4 we find King Philip V of Macedon and his Macedonians, with Demetrios in their midst, in war in Greece against the Roman legions, lead by Consul Flamininus, and with Felix and Antonius in their midst, where battles will be fought to the death, causing lots of casualties.

Kane, much like his peers Simon Scarrow and Bernard Cornwell, is able to structure a well told tale with characters you can sympathise for with dialogue that rips along as well as painting a great picture of a changing world.

Clash of Empires is out in paperback from Orion Books.

My thanks to Compulsive Readers book blog for the review copy.

For The Missing - Lina Bengtsdotter

It seems that Nordic noir is not going away, from the high point times of the The Girl trilogy by Steig Larsson to the Wallander novels; noir from Scandinavia is in vogue and not retreating to the shadows.

The debut novel by Bengtsdotter, is one of those novels that takes a while to get its claws into you, and once it does, it refuses to let go.

Nordic noir follows a template of a structure familiar to crime readers old and new; a young detective fighting her own demons must go back to her hometown following a long absence as a new case opens up old wounds for not just our protagonist but the family and friends she left behind for the bright lights of a big city.

This familiar tale of redemption to overcome a failing is well handled. DI Charlie Lager, is a detective with an affliction for alcohol, but the type of drinking where she drinks to an oblivion yet she wakes up for work with no problem; her peers know of her vices and dance around the issue as she is good at her job.

A missing child in her hometown leads Charlie to head north away from Stockholm, at odds with her partner and at odds with the town she returns to; nevertheless Charlie must find the missing Annabelle before it is too late.

And yet it is not Annabelle she is really looking for, Charlie is really looking for herself and this journey home helps her. Good writing is not just by the numbers of thriller and crime tropes, Bengtsdotter navigates a gripping tale of kidnapping, infidelity and violence against women with assuredness.

For The Missing is out now from Orion Publishing on all formats.

Eyes Turned Skywards

New novel by Ken Lussey, focuses on rumours surrounding a number of real-life events including the death of the Duke of Kent in the summer of 1942 during the Second World War.

Wing Commander Robert (Bob) Sutherland used to be a detective before the War began, he thought those days were behind him, he was wrong.

On 25th August 1942, the Duke of Kent, brother to King George VI is killed in Northern Scotland in an unexplained air crash. A second crash soon after suggests sinister details may be afoot. Sutherland is tasked with visiting the base in Oban and the first crash site in Caithness to gather clues and rule out the threat of sabotage.

Reflecting on a country that is not as united as Winston Churchill nor history would have us believe, and with the kingdom recovering from the bombardment of the blitz, we follow Bob as he unravels lies and deceit from corners of the nation he did not expect.

There is a lovely economy to the writing of Lussey in the growth of Sutherland as a character and how the narrative progresses as he attempts to uncover the truth of the Duke's crash.  Lussey weaves a winning formula of transplanting a detective storyline into the wartime narrative, Sutherland is smart enough to be one step ahead of people and yet stay cool under pressure of which there is many.

Lussey writes with a real efficiency and the dialogue is indicative of putting fictional stories into a historical narrative; a lot of dialogue is exposition so we learn about various medals awarded to Sutherland and the different type of aircraft but it serves as important in the grander scheme of things.

Sutherland has an everyman quality that resonates throughout the book and makes you want to know what is going to happen to him during the remainder of the war time years as well as beyond once he returns to Edinburgh - the possibility of stories from Sutherland's pre-war days in the police force is both enticing.

As an introduction to a new charming character, Eyes Turned Skywards is enlightening and full of enterprise both gripping in its thriller form and wartime context.

Eyes Turned Skywards is released from Fledgling Press on Thursday 28th June