Pony, by R. J. Palacio.                     Junior Fiction.

 

            The celebrated author of ‘Wonder’ has produced something completely different for children this time round:  a novel set in 1859 in Ohio, just before the start of the American Civil War. 12 year-old motherless Silas Bird lives with his father Martin, a photographer and engraver in a small town where one would think, given the difficulty of spreading news in those days, that Mr Bird’s solid reputation for producing wonderful portraits by new methods self-invented would remain in the immediate vicinity.  Sadly not – good work spreads by that best advertisement, Word of Mouth, and very late one night, Mr Bird is visited by a gang of men with two spare horses, one for Mr Bird – and one for Silas.  They are to come with them to visit their boss for a week, and earn more money than they can imagine in their wildest dreams – but if they refuse ….. well, who knows what could happen?  The house set on fire?  A terrible accident befalling Silas?

            The upshot, to Silas’s horror, is that his Pa finally agrees to go off with them, but only if Silas stays put:  he is not to leave the property no matter what.

            And this is a promise that Silas is utterly unable to keep.  He cannot sit idly by, waiting for Pa to come home – or not - especially when next morning, the pony that the men had brought for him to ride with his father suddenly turns up in the yard, waiting. And, despite the uncomfortable fact that Silas has very little experience horse riding (their donkey’s back is the closest he has come to equine travel) he decides to start the search for Pa – much to the horror of his ‘imaginary friend’ Mittenwool, who councils against breaking his promise to Pa.  Mittenwool is the reason Silas has been home schooled all his life by his father, for Silas talked to Mittenwool when he went to school and earned the contempt and derision of not only his class mates, but his horrid teacher as well;  consequently Silas’s education covers many wondrous subjects, but his only companion is Mittenwool – until the mysterious and wondrous arrival of Pony.

            Ms Palacio gives the reader a wonderful combination of wild-west adventure and heroics, nail-biting suspense, and familial love, both actual and spiritual – for Silas also sees spirits – whether he wants to or not, and the spirits he encounters all help him on his quest to find his father.  This is a singular, beautiful book, and deserves to be the children’s classic that ‘Wonder’ has become.  SIX STARS.         

 

Razorblade Tears, by S. A. Cosby

 

  

          S. A. Cosby has done it again:  proven he is no One-Hit-Wonder with his second brutal, stunning novel about Black life south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  He’s here to tell you that it’s still less-than-satisfactory, not to say downright dangerous for a Black man to try to carve a new, different life for himself when he finishes a five-year jail term, then tries to rehabilitate himself – which Ike Randolf does, starting a landscaping business with a fair measure of success.  But there is still suspicion aplenty as to how that Nigger is driving his  Black Ass  around in such an expensive truck, when all the Good Ole Boys are not so lucky.

            Whatever.  Ike is glad to be back home with his family, even though his reporter son Isiah is an enormous disappointment to him, having come out as gay recently, and even marrying his boyfriend Derek, a chef, and a white boy, too.  Ike is full of rage whenever he thinks of his boy, so he tries not to think of him at all – until Isiah and his husband are brutally murdered outside a restaurant, pumped full of so many bullets that their faces are unrecognisable.  And it’s not because they were gay this time, though God knows, crimes against gays are right up there with crimes against Blacks, but because Isiah had been given damaging information about someone prominent that he was going to publish in the newspaper for which he worked.  They were marked men.

            To add terrible insult to unbearable injury, Ike hears from the Police that they are making no progress with the crime because the boys’ friends refuse to speak to them;  it’s impossible to get the time of day out of them, let alone any information, so they are declaring the case ‘inactive’.  Just another example in Ike’s eyes of yet more discrimination, so he and Buddy Lee, father of Isiah’s husband decide to team up and see what they can find out themselves, for they want vengeance for their sons – need vengeance, as a sop to all the times they refused to accept what their boys were, all the memories of their intolerance and angry rejection, now leaving them with the saddest words in the world:  ‘If Only’.

            Mr Cosby has shocks galore here (not to mention some wild metaphors) in store for the reader;  his prose is savage and his characters brilliant and unforgettable.  Blood flows freely through the second half of the book, but he also asks the big, gnarly questions about all the ‘isms’ and ‘phobias’ that must keep on being asked, especially by a writer of his calibre.  I hope his third novel isn’t far off.  SIX STARS!           

 

Gone by Morning, by Michele Weinstat Miller.

 

   

        
68-year-old Kathleen Harris is having a morning trip on New York’s vast subway system.  Her carriage is full of happy tourists, and ordinary folk who try to ignore them – until a bomb goes off just up the line and everybody scrambles in panicked hordes to gain the safety of the street:  it transpires that the bomb in a backpack was placed in a garbage bin and has caused huge loss of life and enormous damage.  Kathleen’s aborted trip to the city results in a four-hour walk home to her suburban apartment in a building - which she owns.  For Kathleen is a retired Madam;  she has seen much more of the harsh side of life than your average sweet little old lady, having been a crack addict and serving a 5-year jail term for buying the heroin on which her husband fatally overdosed.  She lost custody of her only daughter Lauren too whilst in jail and has been estranged from her for many years, her daughter blaming her for all their misfortune.  So, despite her material security, Kathleen has lost everything she ever loved on her way to respectability.

            In her own way she has tried to make amends, secretly helping her granddaughter Emily get an influential job in the Mayor’s Office, and making available one of her apartments for her to rent.  So far, so good, until Kathleen receives a call after the bombing from one of her ‘girls’ who needs to see her urgently, something she can’t speak of on the phone – then doesn’t arrive.  Her body is found dumped days later.  Her throat has been cut.

            Ms Miller also has the reader by the throat, and doesn’t let go:  she is masterly at directing suspense in whichever way she feels inclined, and she has plenty relevant to say about the hypocrisy of people’s attitude towards sex workers, and what drives those women towards The Life – with Kathleen being a perfect example.  The plot thickens most satisfyingly, veering off in unpredictable directions, especially concerning the Bomber - and that is enjoyable;  there is nothing worse than knowing WhoDunnit before the writer reveals all.  Ms Miller’s prose can be a bit rough around the edges and she must know just about every eatery and café in New York, giving them all a plug, but she raises some very cogent arguments in favour of those who live The Life and do the dirty jobs – because they must.  FOUR STARS. 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr.

  

       

          Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr has long been a master of the literary magic that engages us, thrills us, and compels us to keep reading until the story is finished.  Now he has excelled himself:  after the wonder of ‘All the Light We Cannot See’, he has again proven his  mastery with a tribute in praise of The Story, the tales that keep us reading,  and searching for more when the tale is finished.

            It’s not immediately clear where we are being directed by Doerr in this sometimes confusing travel through time, starting two hundred years in the future on a spaceship voyaging to a new unpolluted planet after Earth becomes uninhabitable – not every traveller expects to arrive in their lifetime, but Konstance, barely a teenager, has high hopes that she and her beloved father will arrive safely.  She hopes.

            Back to 2020:  Octagenerian Zino Ninis is rehearsing five children in a local Idaho library to perform a play he has written based on an ancient Greek legend by Antonius Diogenes about Aethon, a simple shepherd who longs to fly, to be an owl, to live in Cloud Cuckoo Land, where rivers flow with wine (Aethon likes his wine!), and turtles plod by with honey cakes on their backs – in short, Paradise.  Zino and his five ‘actors’ are presenting their play For One Night Only, and tonight is the dress Rehearsal. Sadly, they haven’t anticipated the arrival of Seymour, a severely disturbed and angry young teenager with a pistol and a home-made bomb.

            Then there is a dizzying shift in time to the Siege of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453:  Anna, a young Greek orphan who needs money for her sick sister, chances across (steals) an ancient text from an abandoned monastery;  she sells as many of these precious papyri as she can before her Italian customers flee the besieged city, but keeps one codex – the story of Aethon, and his efforts to reach Cloud Cuckoo Land.

            We learn more about Zino Ninis, too – a solitary man who was unable to acknowledge his true self, even to the man whom he most loved when it most counted, but who redeemed himself with a great act of heroism, an act which saves his child actors – and his translation of Aethon’s adventures in his efforts to get to Cloud Cuckoo Land.

            Until just before the end of this wonderful story, it wasn’t clear to me how all the different times would join up;  each section and its engaging characters seemed to be separate stories within The Story, but the link is Diogenes’s simple shepherd who, after various disguises and frightening adventures decides that he’d like to go home now, thanks.  Fair enough!

            Konstance from the future has the last chapter in this wonderful tribute to the written word:  she uncovers shocking truths, helped by clues furnished by a man whom society has justly rejected and, thanks to him, she manages to escape, to live a productive life.  Anthony Doerr asks all the big questions of us here – and provides many of the answers.  What a journey!  SIX STARS.

             

               

 

Silverview, by John Le Carré.

 

 

                

             Former high-flying City man Julian Lawndsley has recently renounced his ‘heavy metal’ job (moving other people’s money around) and, in a concerted attempt to lead a completely different life, has started a boutique bookshop in an East Anglian tourist town.  It doesn’t take him long to realise that there is much more involved in running such a shop than he first envisaged, and practical advice – any advice is welcome, even from an elderly, charming Polish gentleman who mysteriously appears at closing time on several different occasions ‘just for a chat’ about books in general, but with some surprisingly sound suggestions about opening up his basement as a ‘Republic of Literature’, complete with wi-fi access to the world’s great publications – along with hard copies, of course.  Yes, Edward Avon is fast becoming his first friend in his new environment, and when Julian receives an unexpected dinner invitation from Edward’s terminally ill wife to join the family at Silverview, the nearest thing the town has to a mansion, he feels that socially at least, he has arrived!

            But the opposite is true:  the dinner is inexpertly served by Lily, the couple’s daughter, herself more a force of nature than an observer of social etiquette, and the conversation between husband and wife is fraught with barely-concealed animosity, causing Julian to make his excuses at the first decent opportunity – only to be joined on the way home by Lily, who needs a friend.  And only a friend, for now.  Whilst not wanting to be involved in anyone’s family dramas it doesn’t take long to discover that Edward is many things to many people, that his dying wife belonged to MI5, and that she suspects Edward of passing along British Intelligence to Britain’s enemies.

            Indeed, Julian was asked by Edward to be the conveyor of a letter to a ‘dear friend’ when he travelled to London on business for the day – no problem, Edward.  Happy to help.  Until he receives a visit from MI5’s Mr Proctor, detailing the treasonous nature of his assistance, and the various ways in which he could redeem himself in the eyes of his country.

            In his last posthumously published novel, John Le Carré demonstrates yet again why he has always been the peerless master of Spy fiction, not least for his matchless characterisations, wonderful dialogue – and dialects, but the cleverness and intricacy of his plotting.  He knows definitely whereof he speaks, but sadly will speak to us no more.  I am sad.  FIVE STARS.     

 

 

The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman.

   

         ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ was TV presenter Richard Osman’s first and (he said) ‘finest novel’.  Fair enough.  The story of various elderly residents of a Retirement Village solving not only a cold case murder, but two very recent ones was a smash hit, and endeared its characters to millions.

            Could he do it again?  And with the same flair and riotous humour that left readers sorry they had reached the last page?

            Of course he could, and it’s the perfect antidote for doom and gloom in these Covid times.

  The Thursday Murder Club is still meeting, having become very fond of each other whilst solving crime.  Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim and Joyce are now firm friends and it isn’t long before the next mystery  demands to be solved:  Elizabeth has been sent a letter from a man thought to be long and most definitely dead, and when she makes reluctant contact, discovers to her horror that the ‘deceased’ is her ex-husband Douglas,  a marriage she ended for all the right reasons – his infidelity; utter unreliability;  irresponsibility – and fatal charm.  He was also, like Elizabeth, an excellent MI5 Operative.  Now, he wants to stay for a short time (unspecified) at the retirement village:  it's the perfect safe house.  Who would think of looking for him in an Old Folk’s Home?

Meantime, retired Psychiatrist Ibrahim has been attacked by street toughs in front of – of all places – the police station, and has to spend several days in hospital.  When he returns home he is a frightened old man and decides never to leave his apartment again, which incenses his best friend Ron, ex union-organiser (among other things until old age caught up) who always has his ear to the ground:  it doesn’t take him long to find out who the attacker was and plan a fitting revenge.

Once again, Richard Osman delivers a complex plot with well-drawn lesser characters, several different corpses, and everyone getting their just desserts at the story’s conclusion.  All I’s and T’s are dotted and crossed.  And again, he explores the vulnerability and loss of confidence that old age brings, and the fear that should never be felt when walking past teenage boys.

And the fear that the three friends feel when they hear that ex-nurse Joyce is contemplating getting a rescue dog!  There’s one at the local shelter called Alan, and his online credentials look sound. We’ll find out if that’s true in Book # three.  Scary stuff!  FIVE STARS.

 

   

 

Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys.                      Young Adults.

 

            On January 30^th 1945, German passenger liner the ’Wilhelm Gustloff’, was attacked by torpedoes from a Russian submarine as she sailed for Kiel in Northern Germany.  The ship was carrying thousands of evacuees from the Baltic and East Prussia, mainly women and children, plus hundreds of wounded German troops, on the run from the approaching Russian Army.

            The ship sank within an hour, with an estimated loss of 9000 people, 5000 of whom were children.  It is the worst maritime disaster in history, dwarfing the Titanic and Lusitania disasters – but the least known.  Until  Author Ruta Sepetys (of Lithuanian ancestry) decided to write a novelised version of this dreadful event:  the characters she has chosen to tell the story are heartbreakingly, appallingly real enough for us to care deeply for them and their goal, which is to eventually board a converted ocean liner at the Polish port of Gotenhafen, thence to Kiel, and safety in Der Fuehrer’s Germany.

            Emilia:  Polish, but trying to hide the fact, for everyone knows what Germans think of Poles:  they are subhuman.  Well, this subhuman has already met the advancing Russians, was brutally raped and is now pregnant.

            The Wandering Boy:  he comes out of the trees to walk with their growing numbers.  He is 6 years old and ‘his Oma didn’t wake up’.  His name and a Berlin address is pinned to his coat.

            Florian:  a young restorer of fine art, (with a clever, hidden talent for forgery) who has also committed the theft of one of the most precious pieces of art from the art thieves he worked for.  He rightly trusts no-one.

            Joana:  a compassionate Lithuanian nursing assistant, who feels perpetual guilt for leaving her family behind – as they all do:  uppermost on everyone’s mind is the fate of their loved ones caught up in this cruel, inhuman maelstrom:  will they ever see each other again?

            More people join them, wounded, suffering, but buoyed by the hope of eventually being evacuated to Germany – even though the news they hear on the road is ominous:  the Fatherland is obviously losing the war, but the main objective is to keep ahead of the Russians.  Terrible tales have been told of their brutality.  And they’re all true.  Still, the evacuees are in front,   There will be no-one left to slaughter;  they’ll all be gone by the time those beasts arrive.

            This novel reads like a thriller.  Ms Sepetys ratchets up the tension with every chapter, but her characters never lose their authenticity or humanity.  It was a privilege to read this book, and it should be read by everyone, not only Young Adults, as a testament to the goodness of people, as well as to their worst excesses.  SIX STARS.

 

Love after Love, by Ingrid Persaud.

 

            ‘What is Love?’  A question that has been baffling famous figures of history – and mere mortals such as we – for millennia.  I think the question should be not what it is, but why does it change (especially to its opposite) as time passes.

            Ingrid Persaud’s debut novel explores the nature and degrees of loving each other, commencing with Betty and Sunil Ramdin, Trinidadian descendants of the Indian canecutters imported five generations ago.  They have one little boy, Solo, whose birthday it is when Sunil takes a tumble down the back stairs and doesn’t survive the trip:  Betty now has to raise Solo herself – fortunately, she has a good admin job at a high school and they manage to make the best of their new life, which becomes even better with the advent of Mr. Chetan, the maths teacher, who asks to rent a room from her.  He is with them for several years, becomes a much-loved father figure to Solo, and a better-than-best-friend to Betty, to the point that one night, they share secrets.  Betty reveals that Sunil didn’t fall down the stairs:  he was pushed.  By her.  For Sunil was a drinker, and became a different, monstrous person when he was drunk – as her numerous hospital visits and injuries showed.  She didn’t expect him to die;  she just wanted him to experience broken bones, cuts and bruises, the same he had inflicted on her, but the worst happened.

            Mr Chetan’s secret is his homosexuality, worse than a crime in Trinidad  - it can get you killed!  His own family had banished him from their lives after he and his schoolfriend Mani were discovered in an embrace;  Mani’s family eventually saw sense and accept and love him as he is, but Chetan’s family have not:  he is dead to them.  And Trinidadian attitudes to LGBTQ people are biblical in their condemnation:  all ‘Bullers’ are fair game!

            Sadly, teenage Solo overhears some of these revelations and his love for his Mammy turns to hatred.  He leaves for New York to seek out his father’s family in the hope that he will find a better kind of familial love than that from which he flees – and finds a very different life from what he expected.

            Ms Persaud has filled her story with exuberant, wonderfully engaging characters, all the while demonstrating with almost careless ease the many and various necessary connections we need to have a life of some meaning:  maternal love, familial love, romantic and sexual love, and the love of friends:  have I covered all the bases?  FIVE STARS.  

 

Billy Summers, by Stephen King.

 

 

           Prolific and acclaimed author Stephen King introduces us in his latest novel to a singular new protagonist, former Marine sniper turned hit-man Billy Summers.  Billy is used as often as needed by the Mob – he has an ‘agent’, Bucky Hanson, through which his work is vetted and his one proviso is that the target be a truly bad man.  Which must surely be an oxymoron of sorts, but Billy has a moral code made up of Marine honour, good and evil and a past life that explains everything.

            Of late he has felt like retiring;  it’s time to hang up the weaponry and live normally if such a thing could be possible, but Bucky has offered him one last job that pays so much, he’d never have to work again at anything.  The target is an Asshole Extraordinaire who doesn’t deserve to live another  minute, much less all the time his crooked lawyer has managed to buy him.

            Billy takes the job, which involves living in the community as a writer, an alias that turns out to be a very good way for Billy to blend in as an aspiring author attempting his first novel, all the while scoping out from his ‘office’ the Courthouse where the shooting will occur:  piece of cake!  Except for the Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men etc etc:  Billy does the job and expects payment, only to find that his contractors aren’t going to pay, and they aren’t going to let him live, either.  He’s been stiffed.

            It takes King a while to get to this point in the story;  in fact (dare I say it!) I was starting to wish he’d ratchet up the action, get things moving, when that’s exactly what happens:  Billy’s on the run;  he’s been forced to don another identity, including wearing a ridiculous disguise – but it works, and it buys him time in his new little hidey-hole to plan his next move.

            Which is to pursue those who betrayed him, and find out who employed them, for whoever did so, is the most evil one of all, and must be removed from this earth like the disease that he is.  This world has no place for such bad men, and Billy intends to eliminate them all.  Needless to say, Billy has morphed into a hero of Biblical proportions, with the reader cheering him on every bloodstained step of the way and, as an added bonus, we are privy to Billy’s writing attempts in his guise of ‘author-to-be’.  It is no easy task to write a novel-within-a-novel but Stephen King’s storytelling skills are superlative:  unforgettable characters, great dialogue, superb action - when it gets going.  Piece of cake!  FIVE STARS.   

 

Wanderers, by Chuck Wendig.

         

  

          An apocalyptic novel forecasting the end – and possible rebirth – of a different  civilisation is not inappropriate for times such as these, when the world is fighting wars against disease, bigotry and fanaticism;  in fact, there is the inescapable ring of truth in Wendig’s huge (800 pages!), densely plotted novel which teems with characters and has subplots galore.  And I have to tell you that nothing becomes really clear until the very end, which means that you have to stick with it, so there!

But it’s worth it.

            In early June a new comet, named Comet Sakamoto after its discoverer, passes over the United States, and a phenomenon coincidentally occurs:  certain people start walking, beginning with Nessie Stewart, a 15 year old girl who literally drops everything one morning at her home in Pennsylvania and starts walking – where?  Her elder sister Shana tries to stop her and is horrified that her attempts provoke a terrible physical response:  it is clear that her sister will literally die rather than stop walking.  In a very short time, Nessie is joined by other ‘walkers’, all silent, zombie-like and seemingly impervious to outside influences – they don’t need food, water or toilet-breaks:  they are in stasis till further notice.  The walkers are trailed by a band of loving, concerned relatives, and a team of scientists from the Centre for Disease Control, for surely this phenomenon must be an outbreak of a previously unknown pathogen? 

            In the meantime, a new disease has reared its ugly head in San Antonio, Texas:  a bat population disturbed by an explosion bites every human they find, and the resulting symptoms develop into a 100% contagious, fatal disease called White Mask, after the ghastly white mucus that runs from ears, eyes and noses.  It doesn’t take long before Southern Evangelicals start chanting about the End Times, and white supremacists begin blaming niggers, spics and slit-eyes for the breakdown of society – which, of course, was doing just that, well before comets and disease.  And it doesn’t take long before the Far Right start blaming the Walkers as well, for all of society’s ills:  it’s time for them to go, to be rubbed out!  After they’ve gone, Amurrica will be great again! 

            There are some great characters in this story – too many to list, but controlling everything is an Artificial Intelligence presence developed by one of the scientists called Black Swan:  he/she/it literally has the last word. 

            ‘Wanderers’ is similar in theme and content to Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ and Justin Cronin’s ‘The Passage’, but retains its originality and frightening message to the end:  start walking, world!  FIVE STARS     

           

   

 

Falling into Rarohenga, by Steph Matuku.    Young Adults.

           

            Tui and Kae are twins, and contrary to all the stories we hear about the close bonds of twins, that happy state doesn’t apply in this case:  Tui is a school prefect at the small-town high school they attend;  she’s a swot and gets consistently high marks in everything, the object of which is to get away from this little nothing place, get to the big city and eventually cover herself with academic glory.  Kae is just the opposite – who cares about good results, as long as he has his mates – and his ukulele, the source of his biggest pleasure, for if there’s one thing Kae worships, it’s music, and composing his own songs:  music is the most important thing in his life, certainly not his snobby sister, who is Nigel No-Friends because she’s too smart.

            Until they arrive home from school (fighting all the way) one day, to discover that their beloved Mum, their mainstay through the divorce of their  jailed fraudster Dad and the death from cancer of their darling aunt Huia, has disappeared without a trace – but what follows next is so unbelievable it can’t be happening:  what they at first thought was one of the frequent earthquakes that plague Aotearoa New Zealand turns out to be a summons from Aunty Huia in Rarohenga, the Maori Underworld:  they have to fall through the portal to look for their mother, who has been abducted by their father, of all people!  Only the intervention of the twins will save her from dying before her time and staying in Rarohenga.  Neither of their parents are meant to be there, but their father learnt some pretty dreadful magic from one of his cellmates;  now, he has his prize, their mother, and who cares about the twins?  They were only distractions to divert their mother’s attention from him. 

            There begins a series of hair-raising adventures for the twins, including meeting Hinekoruru, Goddess of Shadows;  a fearsome taniwha with paua-shell eyes and many sad memories;  and an unbelievably handsome fairy called a túrehu.  They all provide assistance for the twins’ quest, but all demand payment – in the túrehu’s case, it’s Tui’s hand in marriage.  To which she agrees, fervently hoping that she will be able to get back to the real world before she has to honour her promise – which, perhaps, would not be that bad:  he’s pretty damned hot!

            Once again, the author of ‘Flight of the Fantail’ delivers the goods:  an exciting, topical meld of today’s New Zealand with Maoritanga and its ancient myths and legends - and she does it so well. Twins Tui and Kae are heroes for the ages! SIX STARS.  

 

Pilgrims, by Matthew Kneale.

 

  

        In thirteenth century England, it was common for groups of people to make journeys to various holy places in expiation of their sins – which were usually decided by their local clergy, as was the punishment, length of journey and number of prayers to be said at each shrine, depending on the gravity of the sin.  Indeed, Sir John of Baydon has been forced  by the church authorities to walk all the way to Rome to pray for forgiveness for punching the local abbot, whom he swore was trying to steal land from him. 

            With wife Margaret reluctantly in tow, he joins a diverse and motley band who also have Rome as a destination:  there is Tom son of Tom, also known as simple Tom;  a kindly and truly simple young bondsman who is persuaded by his crafty family to become a pilgrim after his cat dies and he can’t stop dreaming about him (Tom’s absence will free up space in their hovel);  a prosperous farmer and his wife who pretend poverty;  a rich widow and her sickly little son who may die if they don’t reach Rome to pray to St. Peter at his mighty church for the boy’s salvation.  Her avaricious sister comes along ‘to help’, and as their journey progresses, more supplicants join their little band. After enduring a nightmare trip across the channel, they all feel that God has punished them enough:  surely their way to the Holy City will now be straightforward and uneventful.  (I’m very tempted to say ‘yeah, right! here.  Get thee behind me, Satan!)

            It is impossible for us who now live 800 years later to imagine the awful privation and physical sacrifices made by ordinary people, rich and poor, who were so sure that, were they able to reach their destination, their sins would disappear;  from Tom son of Tom hoping that his dear cat Sammo would get to heaven instead of plaguing his dreams, to religious zealot Matilda who is sure that when she gets to Rome, Jesus (with whom she converses all the time even though no-one else can see him) will give her a wonderful gift.  Because he said so!  And don’t forget those holier-than-thou women, mother and daughter, who are so pious they may be Jews in disguise:  vipers in the nest!

            Matthew Kneale makes a fine job of recreating the teeming times of the age;  the terrible superstitions (especially regarding Jews) that were wielded by clever, unscrupulous men in the name of religion to keep the populace in thrall;  and the irrefutable fact that regardless, human nature always prevails:  the Seven Deadly Sins will exist as long as does the human race.  We haven’t changed at all!  FIVE STARS.     

 

Falling, by T.J. Newman.

 

            Thriller writers, this is how it’s done:  a by-the-numbers, textbook example of suspense and impending doom on every page of T. J. Newman’s debut novel ‘ Falling’ – and she knows what’s she’s writing about:  she spent ten years of her life flying the friendly skies as a flight attendant;  no-one knows better than she how staff and passengers manage long-haul flights – or how they react to danger.

            Captain Bill Hoffman has been unexpectedly rostered on at the last minute to take a flight from Los Angeles to New York, leaving him very unpopular with his wife Carrie;  it’s their 10 year old son Scott’s first little-league game of the season and Bill promised he’d be there. To add to her displeasure their internet connection is down, and baby Elise is trying to walk – everywhere.  It’s not a good day!  Especially when he promised to be at home.  They part on very cool terms, just as the internet serviceman turns up;  well, thinks Bill, that’s something positive.

            Except that it isn’t.  For the internet repairman turns out to be a kidnapper, holding Bill’s little family hostage at gunpoint, with the object of forcing Bill to crash the plane with upwards of 150 souls on board:  if he refuses, his family will die – and he will be able to witness that unspeakable horror on his family’s newly restored internet link.

            T.J. Newman is skilful enough to have a compelling reason for the kidnapper to be taking such terrible steps to draw the world’s attention to his dreadful act:  internet repairman Sam is from Kurdistan, a country that the American President (unnamed) promised the world to if they would help his troops fight in Syria, only to leave the Kurds in the lurch by eventually withdrawing all American troops, and making all Kurds a defenceless target of chemical warfare, which killed hundreds of thousands of innocent villagers and townspeople – including Sam’s entire family.  And a prime example of Sam’s murderous determination is his Plan B if Bill refuses to crash the plane and kill everyone on board:  there is a traitor amongst them – but who?  Who will release poison gas first so that all passengers will die the horrendous death that Sam’s family suffered?  Well, no spoilers this end.

            This is a very impressive effort from T. J. Newman, not least because she has vast experience of the story she tells.  It’s a bit rough around the edges but what an amazing journey we travel with her.  Having said that, I reckon there’s a lot to be said for train travel.  The world should slow down so that that form of travel becomes profitable once more.  FIVE STARS.

           

 

The Perfect Lie, by Jo Spain.

 

   

         This is fast-food writing:  tasty but vitamin-free – fills the gap but has very little nutritional value.

            Having said that, Jo Spain’s latest thriller is well-plotted, well-researched and in this mad day and age, almost credible.  Her characters, while two-dimensional, still manage to carry the story along at a very fast pace, and I have to say that, clever as I think I am at figuring out WhoDunnit,  I never saw this particular ending coming.  If only we were able to travel again, this would be the perfect Airport and Beach read.  How the world has changed!

            And Irish Erin Kennedy’s life changed in the space of hours, from waking in the morning with her African American Detective Husband, preparing to go to her job as an editor for a Publishing firm, to the disintegration of her world when her husband is visited by his Police colleagues – who are there to arrest him for corruption and, instead of leaving with them, he flings himself to his death from their fourth-floor balcony.

It goes without saying that Erin’s husband had many secrets, and Erin had no idea of any of them;  she can’t believe that she could have been so woefully ignorant of his problems, but when someone doesn’t want their loved one to know things, they get very good at the cover-up, especially if one is a Detective.  Still, Erin owes it to herself and his family to try to expose the truth, whatever that may be;  she just hopes she will be brave enough to accept it, especially if it destroys completely her vision of the man she thought she knew and loved.

Until she finds herself on trial for murder –the murder of her husband, a crime too ludicrous even to contemplate, but Erin’s life has taken such a bizarre turn since her husband’s death that this is God just playing with her again:  having acknowledged that, can God stop faffing around and get her acquitted from this murder charge that will have her in prison for the rest of her life.  Please God.

Ms Spain tells a parallel story of minor characters in flashbacks that link up cleverly with the main protagonists by the time everything is done and dusted, but I wonder if she just got sick of her story (and/or Erin!) and couldn’t be bothered fleshing things out.  What a shame.  THREE STARS.      

 

We Germans, by Alexander Starritt.

 

 

           ‘What did you do in the war, Grandpa?’ was the classic question asked by all young offspring of their grandfathers after the Second World War, and some of the answers were horrifying, heart-stopping adventures, but told with verve and, if the memories weren’t too awful, depending on the age of the grandchild, related in the sure knowledge that they fought to liberate the world from Tyranny and Injustice, and a mad Leader who wanted to destroy civilisation.  For they were on the winning side.

            A young Scotsman asks his German Opa the same question;  Callum’s mother is German but he has been raised in Scotland and, despite being bilingual and having regular holidays with his German grandparents in Heidelberg, he sees himself as a countryman of the Winning Side:  when he asks the question of his Opa, it is in such a way that the old man is irritated and refuses to discuss his experiences.  Callum’s curiosity is not satisfied until after the old man’s death, when a letter from Opa is discovered, addressed to him, which relates in chilling detail exactly what Opa did in the war, the war that started so gloriously for hundreds of thousands of German troops marching East to Moscow, and ended with the starving remnants of those ‘invincible’ forces trying to make their way back to a Germany that was in utter chaos:  ‘this is what I did in the war, Callum.’

            Callum’s Opa went to war as a conscripted Artilleryman in 1940.  His scientific studies at University were interrupted, but he didn’t think he’d be away for very long;  he was sure that he would realise his cherished dream of being a scientist once victory was achieved, and life would be back to a comforting normality with his family.  Now it’s 1944 and he finds himself ‘foraging’ for food in the Polish countryside – any kind of food, with other starving soldiers from the remains of various regiments as they tried to reach the  German border.  He is ashamed, too, to be taking food – any kind of food – from the villages they pass through, for he knows that the inhabitants are starving as well.  But hunger has no morals.  And they know the Russian Army is not far behind:  there will be no mercy from them.

            Opa’s experiences are a classic example of what it was like to be on the losing side, the side that committed crimes of such heinous savagery that the world will never forget;  a cultured nation that will always be branded by the terrible sins of supreme power and blind obedience.  By the end of this powerful narration Callum – and every reader – will know, too.   Alexander Starritt has produced a brilliant, singular morality tale, one that should be taught in schools.  SIX STARS.

                  

 

Katipo Joe series, by Brian Falkner.  Junior Fiction

Book One, Blitzkrieg

Book Two, Spycraft.

 

            Brian Falkner’s wonderful wartime adventure series opens in Berlin in 1938:  Hitler is massing his troops and Germany is preparing for the Thousand-Year Reich and a pure Aryan race.  Joseph St. George is 12 years old and living in Berlin, the son of British Diplomats.  He has lots of friends at school and is envious of them because they are all joining the HitlerJugend, the Hitler Youth – why can’t he?

            His parents explain to him very succinctly why he can’t, especially after Kristallnacht, The Night of the Broken Glass, when Jews and their property were beaten and smashed:  on the surface Deutschland sparkles; behind the glitter are horrible undercurrents which culminate in a midnight visit to their home from the Gestapo, who drag Joe’s father off for questioning.  Joe finally realises that his idyllic childhood in Germany is over, especially when he and his mother are forced to flee to a series of Safe Houses on their way to Switzerland and eventual safety in Britain – where his mother immediately sends him home to her brother in New Zealand because he will be safe there.  Outrageous!

            Joe doesn’t believe he can survive without his mother.  He still doesn’t know what happened to his father, and he has no idea what kind of work she does in Whitehall, but he is determined to get back to her whichever way he can – and after three years he does, stowing away on a cargo ship, nearly drowning when a U boat torpedo strikes, but he does make it back to London – just in time for the Blitz, and to find that his Mother is spying for Churchill.

            Brian Falkner keeps up a cracking pace throughout Book One;  his research is top-notch and he provides a glossary and relevant photos as Joe is eventually recruited by Whitehall to train as a Junior Spy;  he is tall and fair, the perfect Aryan specimen, and his language skills are exemplary.  After the right training he will be sent back to Berlin – as an assassin:  no-one would ever suspect a tall, handsome Aryan Hitler youth as a murderer of one of their own.

            Spycraft, Book Two, is set in Bavaria in Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s planning and social centre:  once again Joe has been parachuted into Germany to replace a HitlerJugend lad who mysteriously disappears from the train that Joe must take to join other young girls and boys who are the cream of the Hitler Youth.  They are to appear in a movie by acclaimed film-maker Leni Riefenstahl, a propaganda film to show the German public – and the world – the perfection of German Aryan youth under the Third Reich and, as with Book One, there is more to Joe’s mission (and more life-and-death risk) than he could possibly imagine;  the suspense and excitement never falters, and Falkner’s portrayal of all the monsters of history is first-rate.  At this stage of the series, Book Two should be classed as Young Adult as themes and the story change, but the only criticism I have so far is the lack of Book Three.  I need to know what happens!  SIX STARS!!