Sunday 27 December 2020

 

THE BEST OF THE BEST, THE CRÈME DE LA CRÈME 

THE FIRST FOURTEEN OF THE GREATEST READS OF THE YEAR 2020, FOR ALL GREAT READERS!

1.    The Testaments, byMargaret Atwood.

2.    The Butterfly Girl, by Rene Denfeld.

3.    The Overstory, byRichard Powers.

4.    American Dirt, by JeanineCummins.

5.    Saving Missy, byBeth Morrey.

6.    The Mirror and theLight, by Hilary Mantel.

7.    Broken, by Don Winslow.

8.    The Dickens Boy, byTom Keneally.

9.    The Last Crossing,by Brian McGilloway

10.          Call Your Daughter Home, by Deb Spera

11.          The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donohue

12.          The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman

13.          Like a House on Fire, by Caroline Hulse

14.          The Sound of Stars (YA), by Alechia Dow

 I thank you all for your interest throughout the year - isn't it great to have great stories at our fingertips.  In spite of Covid and its attendant worries, we are still able to enjoy the best escapism of all.  Season's greetings everyone, and let us hope that 2021 will be a vast improvement on crappy old 2020 - we all should have a refund on this year!  Lots of love to all.  

Tuesday 22 December 2020

 

Like a House on Fire, by Caroline Hulse.

 

 


        
Stella and George Mandani are getting a divorce – for reasons as diverse as unforgivable untidiness on George’s part (constantly leaving kitchen cupboards and doors open, thus driving Veterinary surgeon Stella into a permanent state of frothing-mouth resentment, just as one example), but they have decided not to announce the fact just yet because it is her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary;  her mum Margaret Foy has gone to an enormous amount of trouble to plan the weekend, beginning with an Original Murder Mystery Party written by Margaret, and all parts played by family members, favoured friends and neighbours, but unbeknownst to Margaret, there are several hitches and glitches waiting to spoil what should be her perfect weekend.

            First, her husband Tommy has just lost his retirement job at the local supermarket for not being Politically Correct:  his breezy statement ‘Cheer up, it may never happen’ was taken amiss by a woman in a bad mood and, rather than enrol in a course to help one avoid today’s hidden minefields of unwitting offense he has handed in his notice.  Helen, Stella’s ‘Perfect’ older sister is feeling anything but:  her 10 year-old daughter is turning into a bit of a rebel – a rebel with a cigarette lighter!  Add to that the fact that Margaret’s favourite child, gay son Pete is VERY late, which is worrying because he has a starring role in the drama (being the favourite this is only fair), so when should one get the Show On The Road?  It is vexing, to say the least.

            But what is most irritating is that there is another cloud on Margaret’s horizon:  on the following Monday she is due to start Chemotherapy for a cancer that looks pretty terminal so, being Margaret the Controller of Everything, she has decided not to start the treatment:  what’s the point in feeling sick enough to WANT to die, when she will die anyway.  She might as well feel as healthy as she can for as long as she can and chemo can just go and get forgotten about.  Except that secrets have a way of revealing themselves whether one wants them to or not, including George and Stella’s decision to part – not to mention what happens to Helen’s daughter and her cigarette lighter.  The weekend definitely ends with a bang!

            Ms Hulse has written a sparkling novel of the times – I’m sure we can all identify with the myriad family problems faced by the Foy family and their singular ways of dealing with them.  She has achieved the perfect balance between humour, seriousness and every other emotion in between:  a perfect Christmas read.  SIX STARS.

Sunday 13 December 2020

 

The Dirty South, by John Connolly.

  


          Private Detective Charlie Parker’s creator John Connolly has written a prequel set in 1997 to his famous and riveting series, starting just after the unspeakably sadistic murders of Parker’s wife and young daughter, and detailing the beginning of Parker’s search for their killer – and his overwhelming need for revenge.

            Charlie’s resignation from the NYPD notwithstanding, he is still able to call in many favours from former colleagues in his search for cold cases that resemble in any way the gruesome methods used to dispatch his beloved family;  he will travel anywhere and employ any means possible to find parallels between unsolved murders and those of his loved ones: Charlie’s grief is raw and terrible, and retribution is the only fitting response. 

            To that end, he finds himself in Burdon County, Arkansas, an impoverished part of the state that is hoping for a big economic injection from a huge international firm thinking of establishing itself in either Arkansas or Texas, bringing prosperity and hundreds of jobs – and the ripple effect – to whichever state it chooses.  But lately, Burdon County has been plagued by a series of sadistic murders of young black girls, each killed by multiple stab wounds, and as a final indignity, impaled at either end of their bodies by branches.  And even worse, the local sheriff, member of the premier family of the county was seen kicking the corpse of the first victim onto private land.  It had originally been dumped on federal land, which meant that the FBI would have investigated, but private land denoted just a local investigation, ensuring that the crimes would stay ‘local’ and under the radar of the prospective international investor;  negative publicity of any kind being anathema to those who would make a huge profit from the deal’s success.

            As always, the more Charlie finds out, the more secrets and corruption are exposed, not to mention the thriving business in methamphetamine in which all the local good ole boys are involved – but that’s a minor crime in the scheme of things as yet more bodies are discovered:  Burdon County has a terminal disease that Charlie can’t cure.

But he can find out its source, and does so with the aid of Angel and Louis, his two staunch friends who have his back, always.  And as always, Mr Connolly fills the book with wonderful characters, drawn with great detail and accuracy, and heart-stopping action that keep the pages turning well into the night.  And you’ll never guess whodunnit!  FIVE STARS.    

Monday 7 December 2020

 

The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman.

 


            The Thursday Murder Club is Osman’s first, and so far, his best novel.  Well. You can’t say fairer than that.  And that statement alone will give readers a taste of what’s to come, all of which is a pure delight.  I’ve been wading through some pretty heavy stuff lately and it was an utter pleasure to sit back and enjoy that rare combination of excellent characters, a complex plot (you have to pay attention at all times!), and wonderful humour combined with shrewd observation on what to expect when we reach the wrong end of life.

            The residents of Coopers Chase retirement village have reached that stage of their existence, but a number of them are refusing to throw in the towel just yet, and have formed The Thursday Murder Club, held on that day in the Jigsaw Puzzle room and organised by Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron, all of whom had very interesting occupations before Old Age caught up and galloped past them:  Elizabeth was something mysterious and high up in law enforcement (she has influential 'friends’ seemingly everywhere);  Ibrahim is a retired psychiatrist with a huge, not to say alarmingly pedantic grasp of facts and statistics, and Ron – Red Ron is a famous Union stirrer and battler of legendary repute, the bane of every British Prime Minister for the last forty years until arthritis and his short-term memory did for him.  They are still intent on using their combined formidable intelligence to solve a Cold Case, and have just recruited Joyce as a new member.

            Joyce is practical, disarmingly cheerful and a prolific baker of excellent cakes – and she’s a nurse, providing necessary medical knowledge to the group – oh, they’re going to have great fun solving the cold-case murder of a young woman who died in the 70’s!

            Except that not one, but two ‘fresh’ murders occur within days of each other:  first, the builder of the retirement village is bludgeoned to death in his home, then the developer for whom he worked is poisoned with a massive overdose of Fentanyl.  Never mind that the police are on the scene with alacrity – the Thursday Murder Club will provide invaluable assistance, not least because they live On the Job.  And it’s great to have mysteries to solve, for it makes them feel young.

            Mr Osman successfully negotiates the fine line between pathos and bathos by treating his great characters with utter respect, and giving them – and the reader – myriad opportunities to laugh;  at themselves, at each other, and at life.  SIX STARS!    

Saturday 28 November 2020

 

Troubled Blood, by Robert Galbraith. (a.k.a. J. K. Rowling)

         

        


 
The welcome reappearance of ex-soldier, amputee and private detective Cormoran Strike and his attractive, resourceful and secret love Robin Ellacott is hardly helped by the size and weight of their latest adventure together, ‘Troubled Blood’, nearly 1000 pages of myriad characters, mind-taxing detail – and first-class storytelling.  Yep, you’ll have to do plenty of wristy push-ups to manage its weight, especially when trying to hoist it up to read in bed.  I speak from experience!

            But, as usual, weight and size count for nothing from the very first chapter:  the reader is as hooked as Strike when a woman approaches him in a Cornwall bar – he is visiting his beloved Aunt Joan, who has terminal cancer, and he’s having a necessary break with a friend – and asks if he would like to take on a 40 year-old Cold Case, specifically that of her mother, a respected doctor in general practice, who went out for a drink with a friend after work one night, never to return – and never to have left any trace of herself anywhere from that day to this.  Her daughter has no memory of her mother, being only a year old when she disappeared, but her desire to know what happened is overwhelming – as it eventually becomes for Strike and Robin.

            There begins the meticulous ‘no stone unturned’ poring over old evidence, made more difficult by the fact that the original supervising police detective had a huge nervous collapse when he started bringing in Astrology and the Occult into his investigation, but his replacement couldn’t have been more different – a by-the-book copper with no belief in intuition or hunches.  And zero imagination.

            There are red herrings galore, dead ends for Africa, and the wrenching loss of Strike’s beloved Aunt Joan, not to mention approaches from Strike’s Rock Star father, with whom he wants no contact at all – and tells him so:  why should this man who is world-famous anyway, want to claim kinship with Strike, because he is now a famous detective?  He didn’t want to know Strike as a child;  now Strike is returning the ‘interest’.

            And Robin’s divorce from her self-centred husband is progressing at a snail’s pace:  anything that he can do to cost her extra time and expense is worth a try – even though he was the one caught in adultery, everything is still all her fault.  In the meantime, Strike’s ex Great Love Charlotte, society Belle, mother of twins and sender of texts announcing suicide attempts is busily doing just that:  no peace of mind for HIM.

            Robert Galbraith drags us into Strike’s complicated world yet again with no effort whatsoever – beautifully plotted, unforgettable characters and dialogue, and still no Declarations of Love!  The  Robin/Strike love affair has to happen, but when???  FI VE STARS.      

Wednesday 18 November 2020

 

The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue.

 

  


          Influenza - ‘The Pull of the Stars’:  Italians believed that the influence of the constellations could indeed make them sick, and in November, 1918, the whole world is slave to Influenza.  As if an earth-shattering world war hadn’t caused enough suffering, the Flu, the Grippe – call it what you will, had invaded every home, especially those of the poor.

            Emma Donoghue’s latest novel was started in November, 2018, the centenary of the disease that wiped out between 3 and 6% of the human race, and was rushed into print to coincide with the latest threat to humanity:  COVID 19.  It describes the events of just three days in the maternity/fever ward of a catholic hospital in Dublin, severely understaffed as more nurses and doctors succumb to the illness, leading to ‘promotions in the field’ of staffers who have previously kept strictly to their allotted tasks.  Such a worker is Nurse Julia Power, suddenly in charge of three patients, all of whom are infected, and all in danger of going into labour as a symptom of the disease.

            The Night Nurse, a nun, arranges an assistant from the Mother House, a catholic orphanage just around the corner, and Bridie Murphy enters Julia’s life:  semi-literate, half-starved, and the owner of mysterious scars, she is still a breath of fresh, clean air in the ward, heartbreakingly willing to please, a natural nurse and the possessor of a memory that forgets nothing, good or bad:  together, she and Julia quickly weld themselves into an inseparable team – even the sadness Julia has waiting at home in the shape of her mute brother (wounded in the war, in his spirit.  He no longer talks.) can dim the satisfaction of a job well done.

            Until Day Three dawns, and with it the re-arrest at the hospital of Dr Kathleen Lynn, a Sinn Feiner and dangerous rebel, released early to attend to the appalling numbers of flu sufferers;  her second incarceration coincides with new exhortations from the Government pasted on city walls:  EAT AN ONION A DAY.  LIE DOWN FOR A FORTNIGHT.  ‘WOULD THEY BE DEAD IF THEY’D STAYED IN BED?’ Julia is living in a nightmare which continues with no respite throughout the day:  young lives cease without warning – youth is no insurance against this disease, especially with poverty and malnutrition as a base:  the stars are pulling strongly indeed.

            Ms Donoghue, acclaimed author of ‘Room’ and ‘Akin’ to name just two of her great stories, recreates superbly the terror and fear of a century ago when our world was held hostage to an unknown, all-powerful enemy, an illness that we didn’t know how to vanquish:  she draws the obvious parallels to the corona virus, but surely – surely – we can beat it this time around – can we? -  can’t we?  SIX STARS!!

 

                     

Friday 6 November 2020

 

The Girl in the Mirror, by Rose Carlyle.

 


            Sibling rivalry takes a horrible new twist in Rose Carlyle’s debut novel:  main protagonists are identical ‘mirror’ twins Summer and Iris Carmichael, who were born with several unusual quirks – Iris’s heart is on the right side of her chest  for example;  she ‘mirrors’ Summer in every way, except where it counts:  Summer is the good twin, the popular, radiant twin.  The one with all the luck.  And the whole family certainly needs some, for the twins’ despotic, philandering, very rich father has unexpectedly died and, instead of bequeathing his estate of one hundred million dollars fairly to his warring, various families he has instructed that the first of his daughters to produce a child shall inherit all of it.

            Naturally, this does nothing to bring all the siblings closer together;  instead of being united by grief, the opposite occurs.  Iris enters into a disastrous marriage which fails to produce the desired baby, but Summer marries for love, declaring that she doesn’t care about the money – she has been put on this earth to help people, as seen by her choice of career (nursing) where she met her wonderful husband, bereft after the tragic death of his first wife who left a little baby boy to be cared for.  No, money doesn’t mean a thing to Summer – besides, her husband Adam runs a chain of successful travel agencies established in the Seychelles by his family, so they are quite secure, in fact so secure that they are currently cruising on dear old dead dad’s ocean-going yacht Bathsheba in Thailand, but -  they’ve run into a bit of bother with the Thai authorities;  they have to sneak out of Thailand and sail to the Seychelles because their yacht paperwork is no longer valid, due to the baby’s unexpected illness and hospitalisation:  would Iris like to come and help Summer sail Bathsheba across the Indian Ocean, their old stamping ground?

            How could Iris possibly refuse?  She has always been a great sailor, much better than Summer, and to be back on Bathsheba, her favourite place in all the world, sailing her favourite ocean is finally a sign that her luck might be changing, even temporarily.  She hopes.

            And it goes without saying that that the worst does happen:  Summer is lost at sea and Iris, traumatised and grieving, sails Bathsheba  to the Seychelles, there to enter into a deception so overwhelming that she doesn’t know how to sustain it.  Iris, the bad twin, finally has everything her good twin had – but does she want it?

            Ms Carlyle is a smart and observant writer;  all her characters are chillingly credible and the plotting is first-class, but there’s a shocking twist to the tale at the end that leaves a bitter taste:  one hopes there will be a sequel so that someone will get what they deserve!  FOUR STARS

Friday 23 October 2020

 

The Sound of Stars, by Alechia Dow.              Young Adults

 


            The Aliens have landed!  In Alechia Dow’s hugely entertaining debut novel, the Ilori have taken over planet earth and enslaved the population – not in a bad way so far (and they wouldn’t have been forced to kill huge swathes of the world population if a certain power-crazy president hadn’t attacked them first, destroying a number of their space ships), but with a view to eventually feeding everyone a vaccine which will disable their minds, thus leaving their bodies ‘a perfect husk’ for rich, planet-hopping true Ilori to inhabit so that they can enjoy touring the world and its beauty in style and comfort.  All true Ilori are fabulously rich and continually looking for new places to amuse them;  earth is the latest planet to be added to their ‘to-do’ list.

            True Ilori have created minor versions of themselves, Labmade Ilori, to do the hard yards and unpleasant chores, like keeping humans in check, keeping them fed, housed and occupied until the mind-killing vaccine is perfected, and in New York City, 16 year old Janelle ‘Ellie’ Baker lives with her parents, neither of whom are handling the occupation well:  Mum has hit the booze and Dad has already been injected with a substance that has turned him into a stranger, a guard loyal only to the Ilori.  Ellie finds comfort and refuge in nothing but her forbidden, hidden library of books, wonderful stories of life as it used to be in all its imperfection – and freedom.  She lends these books secretly to others who need the succour and relief of escapism from their terrible situation;  she has a collection of music too (also forbidden, for the true Ilori don’t feel emotion.  They are neither happy nor sad.).  Music gladdens her heart;  she will survive with these treasures until the vaccine ends her life.

            Until an Ilori finds one of her books and reads it, makes contact and blackmails her into giving him some music to enjoy:  HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN???  Ilori don’t care for human pursuits, but M0Rr1S does – he has been programmed by his powerful mother to be a labmade Ilori with a difference:  he has feelings, and his secret mission is to instigate a rebellion against the true Ilori.  But he never expected to feel the overwhelming happiness of falling in love, or the terrible heartache of loss:  M0Rr1S and Ellie are truly star-crossed lovers.

Ms Dow tackles many age-old questions here:  racism (Ellie is black) greed, apathy, NIMBYism – all the usual human failings, versus trust, loyalty, love – and music and stories.  Her story is mighty!  SIX STARS.          

Saturday 10 October 2020

 

Call your Daughter Home, by Deb Spera.

 

 


           This is Deb Spera’s debut novel, though one would never tell from the accomplished ease with which she tells her lovely story, that of three very different women who are known to each other but live vastly different lives in Branchville, South Carolina in the 1920’s:  Anne Coles, educated, aristocratic – and rich, thanks to inherited money from her father, but in danger of losing it all because of the failure of the cotton crop, and her husband’s desperate venture into tobacco:  woman of colour Oretta Bootles, Anne’s renowned cook and lifelong nursemaid to Anne’s children.  Oretta and her beloved husband Odell had a daughter of their own who died of fever, as so many did at that time, but Oretta has the Sight, and hopes one day – knows one day that she and her darling will be reunited.  In the meantime, she battles on, holding the Cole’s lives together with her practicality and huge goodwill, for the Cole’s children have been blighted and damaged by life:  two daughters have left home, one son committed suicide, and the other two sons are in thrall to their tyrannical father.  It is not a happy home.

            Enter Gertrude Pardee, in desperate need of employment:  she has heard from her brother that there is employment with Mrs Cole, and is desperate to find a home for herself and her four daughters, for her life with Alvin,  the drunken lout her daddy married her off to has grown unimaginably worse since he lost his regular job and moved them all out to a swamp hut owned by his brutal father:  it’s up to her to support them, because Alvin won’t – particularly now, after the latest beating, because Gertrude shot him with her Mama’s gun:  he ain’t gonna beat any of them, ever again.  Gertrude is on the run and hoping that the swamp alligators will enjoy Alvin for supper so that there is no evidence of her crime.  Which doesn’t stop her conscience prodding her something fierce, especially when she attends the local church.

            And God hasn’t grown bored with these three singular women:  He still flings up barriers and issues impossible challenges in the shape of an early Depression and a terrible Diphtheria epidemic.  Loved ones will die and starvation will take up residence in Branchville, but all have their own ways of surviving, and it is inspiring to read how they do it.  Ms Spera based her wonderful characters on memories of her own family, and what a great family it was.  SIX STARS.       

Saturday 26 September 2020

 

The Last Crossing, by Brian McGilloway.


 

          Brian McGilloway divides the action of his superb story into chapters alternating between the present day, and terrible events of thirty years before, when The Troubles dominated the whole of Ireland.  No-one could ever be neutral in those times;  you were either a staunch Republican and ready to die for the cause and/or kill for it, or Northern Irish, who felt the same.                       

            Now, a Peace Agreement has been signed, and fanatical enemies of thirty years ago have supposedly jettisoned their innate hatreds and are jockeying for positions in the new government.  It’s the dawn of a new peaceful  era!

            Oh, really? 

            Thirty years ago, lovers Karen and Tony are inveigled into supporting and facilitating clandestine acts of sabotage controlled by Duggan, an acquaintance who appeals to their sad history of having family members murdered by the Military and Derry Police:  ‘It’s the least yez can do to avenge their memory!’  And that’s alright, as far as it goes, until they are party to a cold-blooded assassination performed by Duggan on his best friend, who has been unmasked as a tout, a snitch, a betrayer.  This was not what they signed up for, especially as Tony, a teacher, finds that one of his pupils, a child he knows and cares about, will become collateral damage:  he can’t let that happen.

            Thirty years later, he, Duggan and Karen are summoned by political hopeful Sean Mullan;  he’s running for office and wants to exhume the Snitch’s body from its secret hiding-place, returning the remains to the family so that they will have ‘closure’, and Mullan will be seen to be magnanimous in letting Bygones be Bygones.  The cynicism of his reasoning is breathtaking, but is so outrageous that it will be successful, as the tout’s family have been searching for him fruitlessly for many years:  they truly do want ‘closure’, and as Tony, Duggan and Karen are the only ones who know where they buried him, they are the ones who must find him again.  Except that their world has changed;  life has gotten in the way and nothing - and nobody – is the same:  Duggan is still full of hatred – ‘the war is never over’;  Tony is a solitary, childless widower, and Karen has a family but has been marked forever by the events of their youth.

            And the revelations keep coming, in Mr McGilloway’s spare, beautiful prose.  Each sentence does the work of ten and his protagonists speak to us eloquently of the dreams we all have but are seldom realised.  Superlative.  SIX STARS.     

 

Tuesday 15 September 2020

 

Deacon King Kong, by James McBride.

           


            It is 1969 and Cuffy ‘Sportcoat’ Lambkin is a Deacon of Five Ends Baptist Church , but he has been a sinner for many years, being a slave to the Demon Drink called King Kong, a lethal home brew made by his friend Rufus, janitor in one of the enormous New York slum housing projects in which they both live.  That Badass King Kong makes him do awful things and then forget completely that he did them, so he reacts in shocked disbelief when he hears that he shot off the ear of the local drug dealer:  Sportcoat needs to go on the run – immediately:  when Deems Clements gets out of hospital, his revenge will be terrible.  And permanent.

James McBride’s latest novel brings to life superbly the New York of 50 years ago;  the migration of black people from other states into the already ramshackle housing projects vacated by the Jews, Irish and Italians, none of whom want to mix with Coloureds or Hispanics, and the hardscrabble life those outcasts made for themselves – even establishing their own church – until hard drugs appeared, and even worse, sold by their own people.  And sold by Deems Clements, who had been coached as a very young teenager by Sportcoat to be a baseball pitcher of enormous potential – a youngster who had a chance to leave his lowly origins through sheer talent, and what does he do?  Peddle Heroin in his neighbourhood, that’s what, selling poison for The Man.  No wonder the Deacon (heavily influenced by King Kong) shot him.  And he aimed for his head, too, but because he was so drunk he got Deems’s ear instead.

Mr McBride’s novel teems with wonderful characters, all full of life, including Potts, a sympathetic Irish policeman who is wistfully attracted to the noble and statuesque wife of the Church Pastor.  Sister Gee works as a cleaner:  ‘You an’ me, Officer.  We both clean up the dirt’. And Italian Tom Elefante (known as The Elephant – now there’s a surprise!), one of the few Italians still living in the area and working at his late father’s business of smuggling, but hugely respected because he won’t touch drugs.  But he’s 40 years old, and so lonely.  Will he ever find someone to care for?

A great veneer of exuberant humour has been employed to temper the horror and sadness of the characters’ existences, but it doesn’t disguise the fact that black lives have always mattered – and always will.  SIX STARS.

        

             

Sunday 6 September 2020


The Dickens Boy, by Tom Keneally.


         In 1868, the author Charles Dickens is beloved by the world.  His books hold the English-speaking world in thrall, and each new publication, many of which started  life in episode form, is awaited with breathless anticipation:  he is a sorely-needed literary god, not least in Australia, that raw, new colony peopled by gentlemen, remittance men – and convicts, sent there for ‘The Term of their Natural Lives’.  Imagine the delight, the honour that people feel to know that the Great Man has decided to send two of his sons to New South Wales, ostensibly to Make Men of Them. 
            Fair enough.  Twenty-five year old Alfred is the first to be sent to make his mark as a gentleman drover, but Edward, youngest of the ten Dickens children (nicknamed Plorn, and as a child baptised by his father as ‘the jolliest boy in the world) is just sixteen when he makes the three-month ocean journey.  He is sent to work in the Outback because his illustrious Pa doesn’t think Plorn is ‘applying himself’ – which may be true:  Plorn is not known for academic brilliance, nor has he read a single one of his father’s novels, a secret he keeps with utmost guilt.  His only talent is cricket:  he’s a very useful all-rounder!
            Revered Australian author Tom Keneally tells Plorn’s story with great empathy of the completely different lifestyle he must accustom himself to, from food (mutton, damper and black tea for most meals) rough-and-ready colleagues (some of them shifty indeed) to the utter vastness of the landscape and the varieties of sheep that the drovers manage.  Words like ‘flock’ don’t apply here where sheep number in the hundreds of thousands – a ‘mob’ of sheep is more appropriate;  likewise the incongruity of calling boundary fences ‘paddocks’, which must be patrolled even though each paddock may stretch for fifty miles.  She’s a Big Country alright, but even more exotic and alien to Plorn are the Aborigines, some of whom work with him and are protected by his Boss.  He is fascinated by them, intrigued by their customs and agog at their equestrian skills – yes, Plorn, that homesick boy longing for England and his beloved family, believes he has truly found his niche:  he is ‘applying himself’, and hopes Pa will approve.
            Mr Keneally has recreated brilliantly Charles Dickens’s literary and family life, including his cruel treatment of Catherine, mother of his ten children, and his continuing affair with actress Ellen Ternan :  only a  master novelist could reimagine Plorn and Alfred’s  consternation at the liaison, revealed publicly at Dickens’s tragic death in 1870, but Tom Keneally has recounted Plorn’s small triumphs  and great tragedies most fittingly:  Plorn the Dickens Boy has applied himself well!  FIVE STARS.    

Saturday 29 August 2020


Broken, by Don Winslow.

            What an absolute pleasure it is to read this latest  by Don Winslow, because the quality of his writing is so reliable.  The reader knows that there’ll be no slacking off because the author is bored with his characters or fed up with the plot – in these five short stories, the opposite is true as Mr Winslow thrills, charms and horrifies us with the richness and humour of his prose and the harsh and terrible reality of criminal greed and corruption, especially among those who paint themselves whiter than us all.
            ‘Broken’ is first, telling the story of a Police family:  Mum Eva operates the department switchboard, her husband has recently retired from the police and she has two sons who have taken his place;  son Andy is a high-flying Drug Squad detective, and younger brother Danny is a patrolman.  Danny is ‘The Nice One’.  The sensitive one.  And he is the one who is kidnapped from his patrol car, tortured and murdered because brother Andy sent the wrong message to a drug dealer.  Eva and her family want – need revenge, and she instructs Andy accordingly.  Danny is avenged, but nobody feels better for it:  as she knows all too well, 'it don’t matter how you come into the world, you leave it broken'.
            The next three stories are gems, comparatively gore-free and full of sly or laugh-out-loud humour;  with continuing characters,  con-men and thieves of varying intelligence, but the story that will stay with me permanently is ‘The Last Ride’, the story of Good Ole Texan Boy Cal Strickland, not much motivated to do anything except his job as a Border Guard – until he becomes incensed at the new law that came in via the new President (Hell, Cal voted for him!) that separates asylum-seeker refugees from their children, resulting in parents being deported, and their children permanently lost in ‘the system’.  This doesn’t sit at all well with Cal, particularly when he comes across a little 6 year-old Honduran girl in a cage:  WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIS COUNTRY??!!
            And Cal is so horrified by her circumstances that he, a law-abiding (former) Trump supporter, decides to take the law into his own hands, and attempt to return the little girl to her deported Mum – knowing that should he be successful, his life as he knows it will be over, for no-one humiliates Washington and gets away with it.
            Mr Winslow is an enormously powerful writer and he demonstrates with every new novel that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.  This is a mighty book.  SIX STARS.
. 
             

      

Sunday 23 August 2020


The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins.
Young Adults.

          The acclaimed author of ‘The Hunger Games’ Suzanne Collins has done it again:  created another heart-stopping episode in her Dystopian fantasy series of America ‘After the War’, this time giving her millions of fans (including me!) a forerunner to Katniss Everdeen’s heroic exploits for her people in the first trilogy.
            In this prequel we follow the teenage life of President Snow – hard to believe such a man was ever a young man with normal hopes and dreams, but as a teenager, Coriolanus Snow (Ms Collins has a lot of fun with Latin names for her characters here) is no different from his other classmates at the Academy, an elite school in the Capitol, famed for producing future leaders – and he has a shameful secret:  despite living in a penthouse in one of the most desirable apartment buildings in the city, he, his Grandmother and cousin Tigris are struggling to put food on the table;  their family’s former rich holdings were all destroyed in the war, and Tigris has had to work long hours at menial work to keep the household afloat.  The Snows could not bear the humiliation and shame of their neighbours learning of their dire straits, so try to keep up appearances, and Coriolanus is very accomplished at presenting himself as that which he is not – rich.
            A prize-winning opportunity arises with the introduction of ‘mentoring’ tributes for the latest Hunger Games, providing back-up and support for whomever is chosen for Mentors to sponsor.  Initially Coriolanus is hugely disappointed in Lucy Gray Baird, his tribute from District Twelve – she doesn’t look like she’d last five minutes up against all the other desperate youngsters, though most of them do look half-starved and ill.  Oh well, time will tell, and it does:  readers are treated to another horrific, hair-raising and tragic account of the Hunger Games, resulting in victory for Lucy Gray, and humiliating disgrace for Coriolanus who, instead of realising his ambition of going to university, is shipped off to District Twelve as a lowly PeaceKeeper.
            And his rich, would-be friend Sejanus goes too, but for entirely different reasons:  he wants to escape from the Capitol, that hotbed of privilege and corruption, and join rebels that surely hide in District Twelve.  He wants to live a peaceful, honourable life some day. 
            Ms Collins brilliantly conducts us all yet again through a tightly plotted and suspenseful adventure that juggles ambitions, excuses and rationalisation with morals, principles and ideals:  guess who comes out on top?  SIX STARS  

Wednesday 12 August 2020


Magpie Lane, by Lucy Atkins.

            A Scottish Nanny is being interviewed by two detectives in the university city of Oxford:  they wish to know her version of events leading up to the disappearance of her eight-year-old charge, Felicity, the daughter of a new, hugely influential and charismatic College Master.  What is the child like?  Has she many friends?  Does she ‘get on’ with her new, pregnant stepmother, glamorous Mariah?  Is she still grieving for her mother, dead for four years?  For Felicity suffers from a number of psychological problems, not least ‘selective mutism; she communicates with no-one except her father – and that seldom because of the demands of his job and social life.
            Dee is eager to answer their questions accurately;  the sooner they can find her damaged little girl, the better – but she gradually sees that the questions take a sinister turn, one slanted by Felicity’s parents to portray Dee as having a negative influence on the child, innocently caused by  gradually winning Felicity’s trust with affection and support, virtues spectacularly lacking in the little girl’s life.  Felicity now ‘speaks’ to Dee reasonably often, even less to her father, and never to Mariah:  it’s painfully clear where her loyalties lie.
An added and frankly eerie complication is that the ancient house they have been allocated seems to have more than its fair share of Things That Go Bump In The Night, and Mariah’s attempts to redecorate in cool Nordic colours (she’s from Denmark) horrify the other Oxford Dons, stout supporters of 400 year old traditions:  could they have given this illustrious position to someone Gravely Unsuitable?
Ms Atkins takes us on an intimate tour of the great city, bastion of all that is noble in Western thought, ‘of history, literature, philosophy, politics, art and scientific discovery’, but she cleverly presents quite a different side to those who frequent its dreaming spires:  lofty thought still descends regularly into dog-eat-dog rivalry, arrogance and ignoble disapproval.  This is no place for Felicity’s spectacularly dysfunctional family, still less for her, and the new information that a child may have been murdered in Felicity’s bedroom a century before fills Dee with dread: are they haunted, and where is her poor, damaged, mute little girl?
Ms Atkins has created an intelligent and fascinating mystery, with strong, credible characters and a pace that doesn’t falter;  add to that a wealth of intriguing historical details about Oxford luminaries of the past, and we have the perfectly written ingredients for a great reading experience.  FIVE STARS