All the Broken Places, by John Boyne.

 

            This superb sequel to ‘The Boy in Striped Pyjamas’ examines the nature and essence of guilt:  how much one can feel, and how much one can block out and hide away so that one can carry on living in this sorry world.  Widowed Gretel Fernsby has become an expert over her long life at doing just that;  now in her 90s, she is highly proficient at guarding her terrible secrets, among the worst being that she was the 12 year old daughter of the notorious Kommandant of a concentration camp:  he was hanged for his heinous crimes after the Second World War, but Gretel and her mother escaped to France, there to hide until their disguises and false papers were exposed by furious and vengeful neighbours, with predictable results.

            Gretel’s life journey has veered down several blind alleys and wrong paths during her youth but, thanks to the love, kindness and stability of her marriage to Historian Edgar Fernsby, her awful secrets have slept like the dead for many years;  she is financially secure and lives in an apartment block in London’s Mayfair where property values rise daily;  she is within walking distance of theatres, Fortnum’s and Harrods, and her only son whom she loves but considers to be a bit of a no-hoper in his personal life (he has been married three times, gearing up for a fourth!) visits her regularly – to ask for money.

Life could be worse and has been, but all is serene at the moment, even regarding her younger friend and upstairs neighbour, who is succumbing to early onset dementia – until the downstairs flat is sold to a powerful film producer, his beautiful actress wife and their 9 year old son.  The age of Gretel’s brother when he died:  the brother whose name she cannot say:  the brother whose fate was her fault. HER fault.

            Well, she’ll have to make the best of things and have as little to do with them as possible – which is easier said than done, especially when it becomes painfully clear that the little boy and his mother are being bullied and beaten by their husband and father, bringing back searing childhood memories for Gretel and a crisis of concience:  should she ignore what is plainly happening in the flat below, or report his cruelty thus ruining his reputation - and stirring up a rats’ nest which could lead all the way to her door and the terrible secrets behind it.

            Mr Boyne has created a marvellous protagonist in Gretel;  as broken as the places in which she once sought refuge, she still ennobles herself by a final selfless act which permits her, at last, to say her brother’s name.  SIX STARS.     

 

The Tilt, by Chris Hammer.

         

  

          Master exponent of Aussie Noir Chris Hammer has forsaken his usual protagonist Martin Scarsden, burnt-out Sydney journalist, for a couple of Scarsden’s police acquaintances who have been sent to a small town on the border of New South Wales and Victoria to investigate a cold case, the discovery of skeletal remains at the bottom of a dam recently blown up by activists unknown.  The police are involved because the skeleton’s skull has a bullet hole in it, clearly not an accident, and Detective Constable Nell Buchanan, originally a local girl whose adoptive family has lived in the area for four generations, is raring to solve the mystery, if only to prove to her parents, strongly disapproving of her career choice, that she has the skills to bring criminals to justice.

            The great Murray river courses through the Millewa/Barmah forest where the crime scene is;  it is a breathtaking natural wonder, home to flora and fauna found nowhere else in the country – and home too, to drop-outs, conspiracy theorists and small-time racketeers:  the wildlife involves more than the four-legged kind, once one knows where to look, and Nell and her boss Ivan Lucic are astonished at the variety of busy criminal activity in the area – and shocked again at the discovery of a second body as the dam, called The Regulator, gives up its secrets. 

            And what secrets they are!  Especially as Nell eventually discovers that the second body is her natural grandfather, coldly murdered because he was a reporter and was investigating lucrative rackets controlled by a man who was supposed to be everyone’s friend.  But the worst discovery for her is the fact that her own family – her mother and father, uncles, even her grandparents! – were all involved to a lesser or greater degree in the criminal ‘family  business’ (obviously why they disapproved of her choice of job!) but, most shocking of all in Nell’s eyes is that they kept up the veneer of respectability to such a degree that her retired dentist dad, her agoraphobic mother (hasn’t left the house in years!), and her newspaper editor uncle could have taken their secrets to the grave if those two bodies hadn’t been found. 

            The Regulator isn’t the only yielder of secrets:  the forest with all its secret waterways has much to hide as well, and Chris Hammer doesn’t let the mystery or the suspense flag for a minute.  His characters are all true-blue, Dinky-Dye Aussies without being caricatures and his colourful prose effortlessly evokes a provincial Australia that is changing all the time, as he proves in his World War Two flashbacks.  Aussie noir at its best.  FIVE STARS            

 

Fairy Tale, by Stephen King.

 

 

           Master of the macabre Stephen King‘s ‘Fairy Tale’ is yet another fitting tribute to his seemingly bottomless well of imagination, in which he weaves the fear and vulnerability of today’s world with the awful desperation and magic of another:  ‘Fairy Tale’ is an amalgam of everything that went bump in the night and scared us silly when we were little – leavened with rewards:  the promise of huge pots of goblin gold, and the hand in marriage of a fair princess – but only if we could complete certain tasks, usually involving giants and witches.

            It goes without saying that Mr King has stamped his own royal seal on this story, classic in its way:  his hero is Charlie Reade, 17 years old and an athletic, strapping (6ft 4”) high school student.  Charlie has had a rough few years – his mother died in a tragic accident when he was a child, and his much-loved father spent some years cosying up to the bottle.  Life was bleak until quite by accident (really?) Charlie one day hears a dog’s frantic howling coming from the Psycho House – so called because it looked exactly like Norman Bates’s creepy home in the movie – and when he investigated, found the reclusive owner, Mr Bowditch, lying on the back porch with a badly broken leg.  He’d been trying to climb a ladder and had fallen.  Charlie’s efforts to get him to hospital and later kindnesses (fixing his fence, looking after his old dog Radar while he was hospitalised, and running various errands – including biking to a nearby town to sell 4lbs of gold pellets (whaaaat!!) – to a shady jeweller) become the foundation of an unusual but firm friendship, finally culminating in a bizarre message from Mr Bowditch as he succumbs to a heart attack:  the locked wooden shed at the back of the property contains a staircase to a well.  It is the portal to another world, and if he decides to journey there, he may not return, because it contains unspeakable horrors  - and riches beyond imagining.  Risk and Reward.

            What to do?  Well.  Easy- Peasy!  Except that gold doesn’t hold the usual attraction for Charlie – he has fallen for Radar, Best Dog in the World, and there may be a way to make her young again:  if that’s a possibility, then tarry not!  And they don’t, entering a world controlled by magic, but still peopled by those whose lust for power is very similar to Charlie’s own messed-up modern existence.

            There are juicily documented monsters galore, and enough pace, tension and excitement after the ambling scene-setting to make anyone burn the midnight oil.  Stephen King is STILL the king!  SIX STARS.       

 

The Bullet that Missed, by Richard Osman.

           

Game-show host Richard Osman has, with his third novel about a gang of retirement-village sleuths, cemented his reputation as the new master of the comic Crime novel:  his Thursday Murder Club series is rightly lauded as perfect entertainment, while glossing over none of the sadness and isolation that affect so many of the elderly – and the vulnerability, physical and emotional, that they are forced to deal with in their everyday lives, as shown so powerfully in Book Two, ‘The Man Who Died Twice’.

In Book Three, the gang is still meeting every Thursday, and have decided that their latest cold case investigation should centre upon the murder ten years before of Bethany Waites, an ambitious and talented young TV journalist whose car was found at the bottom of a Dover cliff.  Her blood and clothes were found in the car, but her body has never been found.  There was no doubt of her murder, as she was investigating a huge VAT fraud at the time, but the police investigation revealed practically nothing – just the sort of mystery that former spy Elizabeth, retired nurse Joyce (whose new rescue dog Alan loves them ALL with tongue-licking abandon), retired psychiatrist Ibrahim, and former firebrand unionist Ron delight in sinking their teeth into.

There’s just a tiny complication, though:  Elizabeth has just received a text from an unknown number instructing her to kill Viktor, an old friend from her spying days, a retired (naturally!) KGB officer, who now lives in great style and wealth in London as a money-launderer:  if Viktor is not disposed of in two weeks, Joyce will die.

Naturally, Joyce is blissfully unaware that she may have only a fortnight to live, and when she and Elizabeth take the train to the Big Smoke, she is enjoying herself tremendously – until she meets Viktor in his palatial Penthouse and Elizabeth suddenly points a big gun at him:  even her threat never to speak to her best friend EVER again does not persuade Elizabeth to lower her weapon.  What had been a lovely day out (it wasn’t even raining!) has turned into the worst time of Joyce’s life.

Once again, we are all willingly sitting in the palm of Mr Osman’s hand:  his plotting is water-tight and his supporting characters are, as always, people like thee and me, and wholly delightful (as thee and me are)!  And because life isn’t always a laugh a minute – even though it should be – we must make the journey with Elizabeth as she witnesses her beloved husband’s inexorable decline into dementia.  With this great series, Mr Osman has shown that he is a true voice of Those of a Certain Age – the Elderly.  And he does it with great style and wit.  Well done!  FIVE STARS.   

 

Fight Night, by Miriam Toews.

 

            9 year-old Swiv (an abbreviation never explained) lives with her actress mother in Toronto.  Swiv’s Grandma has recently come to live with them too, which is handy because Swiv has recently been expelled from school for being recalcitrant, incorrigible and impossible in the classroom.  Fair enough.  The break will do everyone good – you know:  clear the air, calm the waters (for her teachers), that kind of thing, the only disadvantage being that Grandma has a severe heart condition (Swiv is the custodian of Grandma’s myriad medications:  she knows to the minute what should be taken when), and Swiv’s mum is rehearsing for a stage play, even though she is hugely pregnant.  Life and its problems has become ‘very complex’ to say the least and, as part of a grandmotherly stab at home-schooling, Swiv has been instructed to write a daily letter to her absent dad.  According to mum and Grandma, he is off fighting as a guerrilla for some obscure foreign cause, so he must be kept up to date with news from home.

            And that is the heart and soul of this lovely story – Swiv’s daily version of life and love with the two most important women in her life – mum, who is on a short fuse a lot of the time – not good in Swiv’s opinion for Gord, the mysterious occupant of mum’s womb – Swiv is really looking forward to being a sister – and Grandma, unfailingly optimistic despite her many health problems.  It has to be said that daily life with Grandma is never dull, from watching their favourite basketball team on TV to meeting up with Grandma’s old friends (and they really are old!), to deciding to take a trip to Fresno, California, ‘The Raisin Capital of the World!’ to visit Lou and Ken, two of Grandma’s many nephews, whom Swiv is shocked to find are a couple of old Hippies with long hair.  Lou prefers to walk everywhere – it clears his head – and Ken has  a girlfriend called Jude who likes oil massages with Ken,  an incomprehensible reason for using oil in Swiv’s opinion;  regardless, they are both thrilled to see their beloved aunt and make their visitors hugely welcome – until a visit to Grandma’s friends for lunch at a local rest home takes a very serious turn, and their time in the Raisin Capital of the World is cut short because Grandma decided that she could still do a high kick for her friends – with predictably disastrous results.

            Swiv’s letters to her dad (and we find out the real reason for his absence) become a marvellous chronicle of familial love, secrets laid bare, and a hymn of praise for humour, resilience and resistance in the face of adversity:  Swiv is unforgettable and it’s a shame she is confined to just one book.  SIX STARS.      

              

 

Peninsula, by Sharron Came.

 

 

           This mighty collection of short stories is Ms Came’s first book – and that’s hard to imagine because her writing is relaxed, polished and assured, as if she had been a published author all her working life.  She has set her stories and their characters in the small fictional town of Hereford, north of Auckland;  it is a farming community, recently gaining popularity because of its proximity to the Big Smoke as a weekend bolt-hole for rich city-dwellers, and the locals that haven’t sold parts of their farms for development are chuffed because of the extra business flowing through the district.  Times certainly are a-changing!

            And not always for the best:  along with the Big Smoke Folk come all their faults, particularly alcohol consumption and methamphetamine use, an illicit market that soon has its own local suppliers and dealers.  The farmers who haven’t sold up and sold out watch their world disappearing in front of their eyes, powerless to stop the rot.

            The Carlton family is a case in point:  Jim Carlton has been farming the area all his working life;  now his son Jack is doing the heavy work and cheekily trying to make the big decisions without consulting him – so what if he drops off to sleep in the hayshed sometimes – he’s still there to do his share of the milking and if anything needs fixing he’s right there.  Jack never was any good with mechanical things.  Jim’s wife Di hasn’t been too chipper lately, though:  her ticker’s been playing up, she needs an operation.  Still, Jack’s not ready or experienced enough to take over the show yet (even though he has his own family and house down the road):  nah, Jim won’t be able to retire for a while yet.  It’s a shame his other two kids, Jack’s twin sister Rachel and second son Willy aren’t interested in the farm – Rachel has a high-powered legal career but only visits when she wants to go running, and Willy has worked very hard at being the family Black Sheep:  he is a recovering P addict.  It’s enough to make ya wonder what bloody life’s all about, doesn’t it?  Jim certainly doesn’t have a clue.

            Ms Came guides us expertly through the experiences of her great short story cast of protagonists; we see through their eyes the sad and inevitable effects of ageing, the irrevocable changes wrought on their beautiful environment by ‘progress’ and greed as opposed to need;  and the ever-hovering threat of climate change, all here in this wonderful microcosm of Kiwi country life.  SIX STARS.

                  

 

Before the Rising, by Keryn Powell.                Young Adults.

 

 

           How many visitors to the beautiful New Zealand East Coast city of Napier have had their photos taken next to the lovely statue of Pania of the Reef, legendary sea-nymph who defied her people for love of Karitaki, a handsome human, only to have her love betrayed and tragedy ensue, but not before having a child.  In Maori legend the descendants of this union still exist, as Keryn Powell’s debut novel attests, and it is up to them to prevent their world from certain destruction.

            And that’s not so easy when you don’t even know you’re a descendant!

            Eighteen-year-old Rebecca lives with her adoptive mother Mary, a midwife at the local hospital.  She has just finished high school and is trying to decide what career options appeal the most – hopefully, something connected with the sea, for which she has a great love.  She is excited too, because her best friend Polly’s older Marine Biologist brother Martin is back in Napier trying to finish his thesis for his PhD;  he has asked her to be his assistant for a week as he studies pods of dolphins and other sea life on a chartered boat – how lucky is that?  What a great start to the holidays, and Rebecca cannot deny that Martin is even more interesting than the creatures of which he is so knowledgeable – until she realises that another ‘crew-member’ is Jessica, Perfect Jessica, she of the gorgeous looks and figure, and Rebecca’s long-time bully and tormentor. 

            It will obviously be another of those weeks.  Rebecca will just have to bite the bullet:  so much for her timid feelings of attraction – Jessica will be all over Martin – he doesn’t stand a chance!

            But the very opposite happens, and Rebecca finds that her natural swimming and diving skills in the water, especially near Pania’s reef, introduce her to a people she has never known before until they decided to reveal themselves:  her own Sea-people, relatives of whom she would never have been aware, had they not shown themselves.  And they revealed their identity because the world as we have always known it, is in mortal danger – from the Rising.  The implacable, unstoppable rising of the sea-level everywhere, resulting in terrible coastal destruction and huge loss of life, thanks to unscrupulous trickery and misinformation by WeatherTech, a huge international profit-driven firm now established in New Zealand:  only Rebecca as a direct descendant of Pania, holds the key (which she doesn’t even know she has) to averting tragedy.

            Ms Powell takes us on a wild but importantly credible ride with the Sea-people, Kaitiaki (guardians) of an environment the human race has so shamefully desecrated.  And her great affection for Napier and its still-beautiful coast and wondrous wild-life shines;  she has done her city proud.  Not every ‘t’ is crossed at the conclusion of this great story – can this mean there will be a sequel?  Hope so!  FOUR STARS.         

 

Eddy, Eddy by Kate de Goldi.

 

  

          Teenager Eddy Smallbone, orphan, lives with his uncle Brian (unkindly called Brain by Eddy, for Brian’s absurdly knowledgeable vocabulary) in Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island city of Christchurch.  Christchurch has recently been devastated by a huge earthquake which reduced the city to ruins and killed 185 people:  recovery of any kind will be a long-term process, and Eddy is not doing so well at it.  He hates his life with middle-aged bachelor Brain, despite Brain legally adopting him so that he wouldn’t be lost to the family, thereby changing Brain’s life plans irrevocably;  he hates the Catholic secondary school he attends and manages to get himself expelled after organising a ‘survey’ proving (he said) that two thirds of the school’s pupils didn’t believe in God.

            Yes, Eddy is an angry young man, and his attempts to make sense of his life so far are causing distress to the people who love him the most – Brain, and Brain’s eclectic and ‘catholic’ variety of friends, which include a disgraced Catholic priest, an atheist union organiser and Eddy’s godmother Bridgie, proud lesbian companion to the atheist – and, as much as all these loving, well-meaning people irritate him, they are the only constants in a life which seems to have little purpose – unless he finds one.

            And that is what this marvellous story is about:  Eddy’s attempts to carve out a different future for himself, beginning with a pet-minding business that he starts through word-of-mouth advertising that inadvertently turns into minding the children of the pets of one particular harried and divorcing family as well.  He is surprised to find that he has some success at it, having a natural affinity for animals which seems to go down well with the kids, too, especially when they meet Mother, a male cockatoo belonging to a nun (!) called Sue who has just had a hip replacement.  BUT!  The very best thing to happen is the return of his beloved ex-girlfriend Roberta – but for how long?

            For Eddy has more than family and religious problems to contend with, if he can’t face up to the fate of his very best friend.

            Kate de Goldi is queen of the marvellous metaphor and a superb writer, marshalling her dazzling array of characters with great humour and wit. Her skilled and beautiful language  describes the ruination of a city, its cautious renaissance, then the return of that most elusive of feelings:  hope – for all.  SIX STARS.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

Violet Black, by Eileen Merriman.                   Young Adults.

 

            Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand:  the time is the foreseeable future, and a huge new Measles pandemic has swept the region, infecting children and teenagers with deadly accuracy.  Scientific modelling so far has revealed a shocking 95% fatality rate, leaving myriads of families grieving for those they have lost, and the 5% who survive find it a long, hard road back to recovery – until ….. until some of the few survivors realise that they are equipped with a frightening new knowledge:  they can read the thoughts of those who are speaking to them.  They know what those people are thinking – whether they want to know or not!

            Violet Black is such a survivor:  seventeen years old and thankful to be alive, she is nevertheless frightened of her new ability, especially when she learns that all is not above board with the people who are managing her recovery.  In her search for others who share her ‘gift’ she meets teenager Ethan Wright in hospital and, aside from the fact that they find each other irresistible, it becomes obvious that certain ‘authorities’ are very interested in their new-found talents and want to exploit them for their own mysterious purposes.

            This is the first book of an action-packed trilogy that Young Adult author Eileen Merriman has written, and international terrorism is the theme:  it eventually becomes clear – after hair-raising kidnappings and misunderstandings – that the shadowy ‘Foundation’ who, after snatching them from hospital has published false death notices for them, all supposedly suffering relapses of the dreaded M-fever – are the Good Guys:  they want to harness this new talent to monitor people’s thoughts by sending (with intensive training) the Thought recruits to infiltrate various worrisome Far-Right and Ultra-National Groups and Cults, thereby learning in advance of plans for violence and murder.

            All fine in theory, until the first mission:  Violet is sent to Germany – not with Ethan as she’d hoped, but with ex-soldier Phoenix:  they are to get as close as they can to a couple who have a handicapped child – a couple who are planning terrible violence.  Sure enough, everything turns pear-shaped, Violet is seriously wounded by someone not calculated for at all, and tragedy overtakes her in her efforts to stay alive.

            Ms Merriman has done herself and her readers proud here – I already have Book Two ‘Black Wolf’ lined up next. An extra treat, quite apart from the clever plotting and suspenseful action, is her view of Auckland in the not-so-distant future:  everyone gets around in Zubers – and they appear to be free.  That’s my kind of transport!  FOUR STARS.   

 

Violet Black, by Eileen Merriman.                   Young Adults.

 

            Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand:  the time is the foreseeable future, and a huge new Measles pandemic has swept the region, infecting children and teenagers with deadly accuracy.  Scientific modelling so far has revealed a shocking 95% fatality rate, leaving myriads of families grieving for those they have lost, and the 5% who survive find it a long, hard road back to recovery – until ….. until some of the few survivors realise that they are equipped with a frightening new knowledge:  they can read the thoughts of those who are speaking to them.  They know what those people are thinking – whether they want to know or not!

            Violet Black is such a survivor:  seventeen years old and thankful to be alive, she is nevertheless frightened of her new ability, especially when she learns that all is not above board with the people who are managing her recovery.  In her search for others who share her ‘gift’ she meets teenager Ethan Wright in hospital and, aside from the fact that they find each other irresistible, it becomes obvious that certain ‘authorities’ are very interested in their new-found talents and want to exploit them for their own mysterious purposes.

            This is the first book of an action-packed trilogy that Young Adult author Eileen Merriman has written, and international terrorism is the theme:  it eventually becomes clear – after hair-raising kidnappings and misunderstandings – that the shadowy ‘Foundation’ who, after snatching them from hospital has published false death notices for them, all supposedly suffering relapses of the dreaded M-fever – are the Good Guys:  they want to harness this new talent to monitor people’s thoughts by sending (with intensive training) the Thought recruits to infiltrate various worrisome Far-Right and Ultra-National Groups and Cults, thereby learning in advance of plans for violence and murder.

            All fine in theory, until the first mission:  Violet is sent to Germany – not with Ethan as she’d hoped, but with ex-soldier Phoenix:  they are to get as close as they can to a couple who have a handicapped child – a couple who are planning terrible violence.  Sure enough, everything turns pear-shaped, Violet is seriously wounded by someone not calculated for at all, and tragedy overtakes her in her efforts to stay alive.

            Ms Merriman has done herself and her readers proud here – I already have Book Two ‘Black Wolf’ lined up next. An extra treat, quite apart from the clever plotting and suspenseful action, is her view of Auckland in the not-so-distant future:  everyone gets around in Zubers – and they appear to be free.  That’s my kind of transport!  FOUR STARS.   

 

Pieces of Her, by Karin Slaughter – and the sequel,

Girl Forgotten.

 

            It’s obviously best to read Book One first (Duh!), where we meet Andrea Oliver, a 31-year-old college drop-out who is finding it hard to get out of bed, let alone get her life into some kind of order, even though she has an enormously supportive mother who lives and works in a lovely Delaware seaside community as a speech therapist:  Andrea lives above her mum’s garage in a very small apartment – and wishes she didn’t, but can’t summon the will and determination to organise herself away from there and Mum’s loving but smothering apron strings.

            Until a coffee morning at the local Mall turns into a bloodbath, with her life being threatened by a disturbed (I’ll say!) eighteen-year-old with a gun:  two people die in the carnage, but her mother, in an act of impossible bravery, saves her – by knifing the shooter.  It transpires that in the subsequent investigation, Andrea’s mum is the complete opposite to the façade she has always presented to the world, in fact she is in a witness-protection program instituted by the US Marshal Service, part of a plea-deal she made with authorities to incarcerate a band of would-be domestic terrorists many years ago. All were intent on blowing up various parts of down-town New York to protest at the corrupt capitalist world-order.

            Needless to say, Andrea is in shock, and finally gets enough gumption to start investigating the past.  What she discovers will change her life forever.

 

            ‘Girl Forgotten’ starts in a flash-back to the Eighties in the same seaside town that was Andrea’s home:  Emily Vaughn, a hugely pregnant high-school student, is determined to attend the school Prom, regardless of her rich and powerful parents’ orders not to.  She wants to confront her former friends who have all blanked her since she found that she was pregnant, the friends who were known as The Clique, envied, admired, intellectually and culturally superior – they were all going to make such an impact!  Until Emily appeared and embarrassed them, especially their charismatic ‘leader’ Clayton Morrow:  he expected to go farther than anyone – for God’s sake, get her out of here. 

            Emily’s naked body is eventually found in a dumpster.  The murderer is never found, and The Clique disbands, all going their separate ways, until Andrea Oliver, newly graduated as a US Marshal, is sent to the town to protect the late Emily Vaughn’s mother, a prominent Supreme Court Justice, from recent death threats.  Yes, Andrea has finally gotten herself together;  she has discovered some terrifying secrets about her origins, but they have energised and given her focus at last, and Emily’s cold-case is just one of several mysteries she wants to solve.

            This is the first time I have read anything by Ms Slaughter, and I greatly admire her ability to keep the many and complicated threads of her plot powering along at a mighty rate.  The suspense almost never flags, except for a time just before the end of ‘Girl Forgotten’, but that’s a small quibble when viewed overall.  She is an immensely enjoyable and entertaining writer and deserves her best-seller status.  FIVE STARS EACH.    

 

These Days, by Lucy Caldwell.

 

  

          April, 1941:  Doctor Philip Bell and his wife Florence live with their three children in a leafy suburb of Belfast.  As one would expect they are prosperous, able to have a housekeeper and a cleaning girl for several days of the week and all should be hunky-dory;   eldest daughter Audrey is in a deepening relationship with Richard, a young hospital Doctor; middle daughter Emma is a night-shift volunteer at the local First-Aid Post, and youngest child Paul, at thirteen, is dying to be seventeen so that he can enlist in the Air Force and blast those Germans out of the skies!  So.  Even though there is a World War taking place on their doorstep, they are all managing, so they are.

            Until German pilots drop incendiary bombs on the docks and industrial parts of Belfast to disable Britain’s war effort.  Belfast suddenly has its very own Blitz and the entire city reels in shock:  at the First Aid Post, wardens are bringing in people who should be in the hospitals, and the hospitals are dealing with corpses.  Belfast is not managing any more.

And neither is the Bell family:  Audrey has accepted Richard’s marriage proposal, partly because Richard was so distraught at the thought of losing her to the bombing (his declarations of love were irresistible!), but marriage means giving up a job in the Tax Office that she really likes – married women don’t ‘work’ after marriage – and the friends and workmates that she enjoys seeing.

Emma is still on the night-shift at the First-Aid Post which suits her admirably, for she has begun a passionate love-affair with her Supervisor, Sylvia.  She has never known such heady, ardent emotions and is prepared to devote the rest of her young life to Sylvia, and damn the consequences!  She can’t imagine what her prim and proper mother Florence would think if she knew – but Florence has secrets and longings of her own, memories of another war, and another love.           

Ms Caldwell moves her various characters expertly through their reactions to the first bombing and the second fire-storm;  she is a superb storyteller and from her thorough historical research recreates a searing, tragic  account of a terrible chapter in Belfast’s history, where the only certainty is that one’s life will never be the same.  No-one is immune to tragedy and woe:  it’s how they react to it that determines their lives.  ‘Belfast is finished’, said so many:  how wrong they were!  SIX STARS.   

             

 

The Last to Disappear, by Jo Spain.

 

 

         The last woman to disappear in Jo Spain’s taut thriller is a temporary Hotel tourist guide in the winter wonderland of Lapland in Northern Finland, but unlike the others, her body surfaces thanks to the efforts of an ice fisherman on the lake looking for other prey.  It is the height of the tourist season, being close to Christmas, and the town of Koppe depends heavily on its tourists:  ‘The Home of Father Christmas!’  ‘See the Northern Lights!’  ‘Skiing – Saunas – ice swims!’  A dead body could be very off-putting, so the local police inform the unfortunate woman’s British family that she has had a fatal accident, and would anyone care to come and collect their loved one’s remains?

            Alex Evans, Lobbyist (he hates his job but loves the money), makes the trip, for the awful news has left his parents in disarray;  his mother is felled by a heart attack and his father won’t leave her side – Alex himself feels enormous guilt because he didn’t get on with his sister Vicky;  he considered her irresponsible and a spendthrift and, at the age of 26, capable of making more mature decisions about her life:  now she’s gone, and he didn’t even let her know his new phone number months after he changed it.  He is bereft.

            And totally unprepared in his Burberry raincoat and leather shoes for the subzero climate of Koppe;  fortunately local police chief Agatha Koskinen is aware of his ignorance and has brought boots and jackets to the airport, saving him from certain weather-induced death - and the awful news that the post-mortem has revealed that Vicky’s death was not accidental:  she has been murdered.

            It was agonising enough to have to be the family member to identify ‘the body’, but to think that his sister met her death by someone else’s hand infuriates Alex. He decides to stay on for a few days to see what he can find out and, apart from hearing about the other missing women (the locals are great gossips), it is clear that Agatha has a murky history of her own:  this is the Town of Secrets, as well as Santa Claus.

            There are parallel flashbacks to 1998 throughout the story, recounting the circumstances of the first young woman to go missing and revealing the Viper’s nest a small town can be as people try to survive in a land of extreme weathers.  Jo Spain has painted a bleak but beautiful picture of life, love and lust in a cold climate and all her characters are credible and well-drawn without being the least formulaic.  This book is the ideal holiday read (if you’re lucky enough to have one!)  FIVE STARS.

             

 

Black River, by Matthew Spencer.

         

 

         Matthew Spencer’s debut novel  is bolstered by the fact that he knows irrefutably Whereof he Speaks:  as a journalist for twenty years of a prominent Australian newspaper, he is well-versed in the way news is reported, and how influential (or not) certain people can be in its presentation.

            One of his main protagonists is a sad-sack, mid-forties journo, usually consigned to the very minor news stories, suddenly promoted to a huge murder investigation, solely for the fact that he used to go to the posh high-anglican school that is the scene of the crime – and the police are not letting anyone onto the grounds.  Does he know, from his schooldays, any secret ways in to have a snoop around?  Well, of course he does, as would any other Prince Albert schoolboy.  Adam Bowman can’t believe his luck:  is he finally catching a break?

            The police are investigating the murder of the 17 year-old daughter of the school chaplain, and they are hoping it’s not linked to two other vicious rapes and murders of teenage girls who lived near each other in river suburbs.  The investigating detectives don’t have a lot to go on, except that the killer leaves strange ‘t’ signs close by and really likes his ‘work’, according to the police behavioural psychiatrist;  in fact he likes it so much it won’t be long before he strikes again.  He has been baptised BMK (Blue Moon Killer) by one newspaper, because both his killings so far have been on a Blue Moon.  The police have certain extra evidence which they arrange to release gradually – to keep the killer on the back foot –exclusively through Adam Bowman’s newspaper:  Bowman’s Editor is ecstatic, and Bowman should be feeling the same, but his feelings are the opposite, for returning to Prince Albert has stirred up many traumatic memories:  this was the place where his parents’ marriage crashed and burnt after the terrible accidental death of his little brother, leaving Adam with scars that will stay forever.  This is why he’s an alcoholic.

            But he can still get the job done, and matching him drink for drink is Detective Sergeant Rose Riley, who relies on her gut instinct as much as hard evidence – and there’s something off about Adam Bowman.  Nobody is above suspicion.

            Mr Spencer is a no-frills writer – there’s nothing fancy or romantic here, just the hard facts of living – and dying, as his characters play their roles capably in his fast-paced plot.  But Sydney and its rivers is the star, wild and crowded and beautiful, as always.  FOUR STARS.

             

 

City on Fire, by Don Winslow.

 

            

Homer's classic‘The Iliad’ gets a 20^th century makeover here by the great Don Winslow in the first book of a new trilogy.  And what a trilogy it will be -  if he gets it right - as he transfers the Grecian siege of ancient Troy to avenge Spartan king Menelaus for the abduction of his breathtakingly beautiful wife Helen by Trojan prince Paris, to the modern setting of Rhode Island, U.S.A.

            August, 1986. A summer clambake is being held by the local Italian mob boss.  His Irish counterparts who run the docks and the unions also attend, for the two sides have had a peaceful co-existence for many years, dividing the various rackets equitably between them – you could almost say they were good friends until …..

            “Danny Ryan watches the woman come out of the water like a vision emerging from his dreams of the sea.

            Except she’s real and she’s going to be trouble.

            Women that beautiful usually are.

            Danny knows that;  what he doesn’t know is how much trouble she’s going to be.  If he knew that, knew everything that was going to happen, he might have walked into the water and held her head under until she stopped moving.

            But he doesn’t know that.”

            Winslow’s Danny Ryan is a minor captain in the Irish gang led by John Murphy, and through his eyes we see the disintegration of trust and vengeful territorial incursions that start after Murphy’s son Liam makes a pass (oops!) at Pam, gorgeous new girlfriend of Italian mobster Sal Antonucci.  Liam earns a huge beating for his attempts to touch the untouchable, so severe that he nearly dies in hospital, BUT!  The beauteous Pam visits him to apologise for causing him to come within an inch of losing his life – and the Gods must have laughed themselves to a standstill at their devious manipulation of events, for she ends up forsaking the brutal Sal and retiring to a safe house with Liam when he’s well enough to leave hospital.

            The new hostilities soon degenerate into outright war, with all its attendant tragedy:  Murphy’s gang is on a hiding to nothing through lack of numbers, including the loss of his son Pat, Danny’s best friend, in a brutal and bloody ambush.  It’s time for Danny to decide his own fate, especially as his wife is dying and he has a young son to care for. It’s time to desert the sinking ship.

            Everyone speaks like a 1940’s Private Eye in this novel, which I thought was overkill;  some of the dialogue sounds almost like parody but as always, Mr Winslow has created sufficiently compelling new characters and situations out of the ancient verses (the new version of the Trojan Horse is particularly convincing), that his story can only improve.  And there was even an excerpt from Book Two at the end.  A taste of better things to come?  FOUR STARS.       

 

Managing Expectations, by Minnie Driver.             Non-fiction.

         

           

            From the time she reluctantly became an 8 year-old boarder at a school she loved going to as a day-student, actress and writer Minnie Driver has questioned situations that she thought unfair,  loudly and vociferously at times as she did when not wanting to return to stay at school, demanding other drivers trapped at the same traffic lights to ‘Call the Police – She was Being Abducted!’ while her mother stoically eyed the road ahead.   As all witnesses were British, stiff upper lips were shown and an air of faint embarrassment persisted until the lights changed, freeing everyone to heave sighs of relief.

            Minnie has blessed us with a book of reminiscences, a ‘memoirish’ book, as she says - well, it’s quite the most charming Memoirish book I have read for some considerable time, and I can’t help wishing that Other People’s Memoirs were even half as entertaining:  book sales would go through the roof!

            Minnie questions everything, especially everything she considers unfair, and when she was a child, there were many situations that earned her  attention, especially when her father had Minnie and her sister for the summer holidays in Barbados.  His new girlfriend was there too, and Minnie disapproved loudly of her micro-bikinis, asked her how long she was staying, then asked her if she was twenty or thirty years younger than Minnie’s dad.    Ah, the sweet satisfaction of girlfriend tears!  Until her father demanded an apology, which 11 year-old Minnie refused to give, and was staggered to be evicted from the holiday home and sent back to England.  By herself.  And thereby hangs a tale, of revenge, chastenment, and character-building – but of whom? 

            Due to unavailability of flights, Minnie was stranded for a day at a plush Miami hotel – with her father’s credit card details to hand:  she wrought her revenge in the Gift Shop by starting out with one travel bag and had to purchase another two.  She doesn’t record her father’s reaction to her excesses, but her sister was thrilled to get some duty-free ‘Charlie’ by Revlon, something her father would never have allowed because he said ‘it smells like a tart’s window-box’.  Which all proves that Minnie is a force of nature, and does indeed make her mark upon the world – as she should.  And just in case readers are persuaded that Minnie Driver is 100% unconquerable and never has a bad day, there is much poignant proof to the contrary:  life, as we all know, is unknowable.  In her words:  ‘the story doesn’t necessarily begin or end where it should:  happy endings are overrated, and happy endings are almost never the end.’  This book is funny and wise and true.  Everyone should read it.  SIX STARS. 

 

Vine Street, by Dominic Nolan.

 

          Dominic Nolan’s latest novel is a mighty tome in size (You’ll need strong wrists for in-bed reading) and scope as he takes us into superb thriller territory starting in 1935, when vice-squad detective Leon Geats is summoned to a mean Soho address where the body of a prostitute has been found strangled by one of her stockings knotted round her neck.  The Flying Squad are the lead investigators – what do the vice squad know, being less than elite (they are known as The Dirties) – and it isn’t long before the lead Flying Squad detective declares that the death is a suicide.

            Leon, an expert reader for years of everything happening in Soho – the ponces, their prostitutes, ethnic gangs, in fact everything in that London area that corruptly generates money, is horrified and infuriated by the Higher-Up’s casual verdict;  the willingness to let someone literally get away with murder because the Coppers couldn’t be bothered working the case through to its conclusion – she was only a whore anyway.

            Until more bodies are eventually discovered, and the authorities finally decide to put on more manpower to apprehend The Soho Strangler, as he is now called by the Press, and Leon is teamed up with Flying Squad detective Mark Cassar – who is less than enthusiastic.  Dead whores don’t rate very highly with him until, despite his initial lack of interest, he finds that working with Geats is a lot better than being the most junior member of the Flying Squad.  Together, they hope to crack the case, Geats to get justice for the steadily mounting number of murder victims, and Cassar for the status he longs for in his career.

            Mr Nolan effortlessly steers the reader through 1930’s London, introducing intriguing characters high and low;  a couple of the Mitford sisters make an appearance, along with Oswald Mosely and his Blackshirts, but by the start of World War Two,  the murderer has still not been caught. He   continues killing, cleverly disguising his crimes amidst the wreckage and chaos of the Blitz.  And his modus operandi is particularly cruel:  every victim has been whipped till they are bloody by a razor strop;  some have been shot in the head but are kept alive for a time of the murderer’s choosing.  Geats and Cassar are beside themselves with frustration and the lack of concrete evidence available, and aghast at the authorities for eventually blaming an innocent mentally disturbed man for the crimes.  Case closed!

            Mr Nolan has proved himself a master of the unpredictable as he takes us up to 2002 and the unmasking, and I would be very surprised if any reader could foresee the outcome.  This is indeed a great read.  SIX STARS!