Tuesday 27 April 2021

 

Later, by Stephen King..

 

  


          Jamie Conklin sees dead folk.  Not that he’s looking for them, you understand, but for some inexplicable reason they reveal themselves to him just after they have died - starting with his neighbour’s wife, standing in her nightie next to enormously distressed Professor Burkett, who is weeping in at the door to his apartment.  Jamie is six years old, but he can tell that he is the only one who can see Mrs Burkett, so he stays silent, letting his Mom comfort the poor man – even when Mrs Burkett says to Jamie ‘I bet he’ll ask that Dolores Magowan out to lunch now!’ Jamie still stays silent until the next time he sees a dead man at a traffic accident:  the man’s injuries are so terrible that Jamie can’t bear the horror of it, and finally tells his mom, even though he knows she will think he’s seriously ‘disturbed’ – maybe the same as his Uncle, mom’s brother, in a care facility with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

            Naturally enough, mom doesn’t believe him at first, but her checking reveals certain irrefutable facts, enough of them for her to swear Jamie to secrecy about his ‘gift’ – no-one else must know about it, ever.  Fair enough;  as far as Jamie is concerned, it’s not something he can brag about, anyway.  His lips are sealed.

            Until years later, when mom meets a woman who becomes more than a friend -  Liz Dutton, an NYPD detective who now takes up a lot of his mother’s time and attention.  Jamie isn’t sure what to think of this interloper who calls him ‘Champ’, which he dislikes – but she also buys him Matchbox cars for his collection and sometimes makes him laugh – which he loves.  He doesn’t know how he really feels about her until he finds out that mom has told Liz about his ‘gift’ and Liz wants to use him to speak to Thumper, a notorious supermarket bomber who, before committing suicide a couple of days ago swore he’d hidden another bomb, bigger than all the others and guaranteed to kill hundreds.  Unfortunately, Liz doesn’t want to find the bomb to save all those lives:  she wants to save her job because she’s that worst of people – a bent cop.

            Stephen King takes us, as always, on another heart-stopping journey through supernatural highways and byways, scaring us all rigid, then using his inimitable humour to relieve the tension.  He is that most enviable of writers:  each new book feels like a yearly reunion with a treasured old friend.  FIVE STARS.   

 

           

Saturday 17 April 2021

 

Avoiding the Autobahn, by Tony Straw.

           

 


           The arrival of Covid-19 has effectively ruined the world’s travel plans.  One cannot now travel with the freedom we all took for granted just a year ago:  we are now the nation (the Team of Five Million) who, because they must stay at home, must also play at home.  Fair enough.  But we can always remember yesteryear when a chance cough as a stranger passed by didn’t make our hair stand on end, and nostalgia trips were what we experienced when we viewed all the photos of various Great Holidays.  Now we must rely on others to provide the nostalgia trips for us, and Levin author Tony Straw (Bon Vivant and all-round Good Bloke) has filled the gap admirably with ‘Avoiding the Autobahn’, an account of a trip that he and his wife Lee made to central Europe in 2015.

            Flying via San Francisco for a couple of day’s sightseeing and shopping (‘Going shopping with your husband is like shopping with the Game Warden’ observes Lee.  Any woman would agree.), then, having a last beer (Tony has an Advanced Degree in Beer Appreciation) at the airport they tip their large, exuberant barmaid all their remaining dollars after she deliberately regurgitates her tongue-piercing.  She relishes their admiration of her vast array of ‘body-jewellery’.  Pride knows no Pain!

            From San Francisco to Zurich, then on to Berlin to meet friends Adrian and Ulrike.  A rough itinerary is planned, car hire and travel from North to South on the minor roads to avoid the stress (for timid Kiwis unused to 200+KPH speeds) of the ubiquitous Autobahn system.  The Czech Republic and Austria are on the way, but what better place to start than Berlin, that wonderful Paris of the North (they say that about so many cities, don’t they, but it’s true.), steeped in culture and history, good-fellowship und bier.  Lots of it.  Und Wurst.  Every kind imaginable and all excellent.  Except Curry Wurst:  it is impossible to understand Berliners’ attraction to Curry Wurst so it’s best not to try.  It will be one of life’s mysteries.

            The tour starts:  on the road with Tony, Lee – and their recalcitrant GPS baptised Gretel.  Gretel has a mind of her own and shows it at every opportunity, taking them on some wild rides into very obscure places, regardless of how carefully Tony has programmed their route.  Driving is hazardous anyway;  thanks to having to drive on the ‘right’ side of the road,  our Kiwis are already at a disadvantage without having to battle Gretel.  BUT!

            All’s well that ends well:  Tony charms us all with his warm and witty commentary of a wonderful holiday that may be their last  for some considerable time thanks to Covid – but not permanently, I hope:  at the end of the book they were already planning their next trip.  Let’s hope it can eventually happen, so that we can enjoy the next instalment.  FIVE STARS

 

           

Sunday 11 April 2021

 

The Siberian Dilemma, by Martin Cruz Smith.

 

   


         The Siberian Dilemma: if one is fatally unlucky and falls through thin ice on Lake Baikal (or any Siberian lake), does one drown beneath the surface, or scramble up through the hole – then freeze to death within minutes on the ice?  Either way, the outcome is the same.  Dire.

            And being vulnerable to such an end is no surprise to Arkady Renko, Senior Investigator of Police in Moscow;  permanent sufferer of burn-out and world-weariness, but still oh-so-good-at-his-job and catcher of bad guys no matter how powerful they have become – or who in the Kremlin can protect them.  He is a thorn in the side of his hateful boss Zurin, but knows too much about him to be removed.  So Zurin does the next best thing:  Arkady will be despatched to Irkutsk, Siberia, to prosecute a Chechen terrorist on behalf of Zurin.  Said terrorist had made an attempt on Zurin’s life ‘so needs to be put away for a good long time’.  Arkady’s absence would also give Zurin some breathing space in which to pursue an affair with a Cuban ‘lady’ he has been lusting for.

            Arkady is thrilled to be going to Siberia – what a stroke of luck, for Arkady’s great love, crusading journalist Tatiana Petrovna is doing an article there on Oligarchs, and is currently travelling with one, Anatoly Kuznetsov. 

            Arkady hasn’t heard from her, and the less he hears, the more he worries.  His ‘exile’ will be the perfect excuse to reassure himself that she is safe – and that she is still his, especially when he meets the Oligarch:  Kuznetsov is charismatic, brilliant and charming, and is thinking seriously of starting a political party in opposition to Putin.  Which makes him the ideal subject for Tatiana’s article – and a moving target of the Kremlin.  Tatiana refuses to acknowledge the danger:  this is the best story she will ever write!  And maybe the last, thinks Arkady who, in the short time he has been in Irkutsk has already worked out that the Chechen terrorist is exactly the opposite, and a sniper is taking shots at him.  Siberia isn’t the friendly destination it’s promoted to be.  What a surprise!

            This is the ninth book in Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series;  its quality of writing is as high as ever - as is the body count;  there are the usual beautifully drawn and engaging minor characters, and Arkady has a very droll line in self-deprecating humour.  He’s getting a bit long in the tooth now, but he’s still a lethal weapon.  FIVE STARS.