The Summer Guests, by Tess Geritsen.

 

            Summer guests:  a euphemism for the thousands of summer visitors that pour into the state of Maine every year when the weather warms up, and acting-police-chief Jo Thibodeau expects the usual minor dust-ups with the vacation crowds that descend on the little town of Purity – traffic offences, offensive behaviour, drunkenness;  the usual, except on a larger scale.  Well, she’s ready for the ‘guests’ in Ms Gerritsen’s second book of the Martini Club series, but she’s still not ready to welcome into her confidence the members of the Martini Club, a group of retired CIA intelligence officers – with nothing better to do than meddle with perfectly legitimate investigations and seemingly always arriving at conclusions ( and destinations!) before she does.  It does absolutely nothing for her confidence to be upstaged – especially when a young girl, a summer guest goes missing, and all evidence points to an elderly man who gave her a lift back to her house by Maiden Pond.  Luther Yount doesn’t seem to have a water-tight alibi either, seemingly evasive about his destination.  Case solved, except that the young girl is still missing.

            Unfortunately for Jo, Luther is the admired and trusted neighbour of Maggie Bird, chicken farmer and former crack CIA agent:  if Jo will only bend the rules a little and allow her to see Luther in his holding cell, she’s pretty sure she’ll find out what really happened.  Which she does, and it’s not long before events require a search of Maiden Pond, revealing a woman’s skeleton which has been there for a considerable time.

            Suddenly, in the space of a week, Jo’s Summer Guest schedule has been blitzed:  she is forced to rely on the doubtful services of a State Detective with whom she does not get along, (he doesn’t believe that women can function in positions of responsibility) and whether she likes it or not, she realises that the Martini Club, for all their pretence at suggesting lofty titles for their ‘Book Club’ – which seems to be an excuse to consume copious amounts of alcohol – they also have a far-reaching recall of their former talents.     

            Ms Gerritsen keeps the action moving along at a satisfyingly furious pace with plenty of plot twists and turns, and her minor characters are, as always, beautifully drawn – and she knows her environment so well, as she and her husband had medical practices in Maine before she became a full-time writer:  everything has the ring of authenticity here, and The Summer Guest’s Unputdownability score is 100%.  FIVE STARS.   

 

The Girl in Cell A, by Vaseem Khan.

         

          Orianna Negi is the notorious dweller of Cell A, convicted at 17 of killing her wealthy father – because she was found unconscious by his body, next to  a shotgun that had blown his head nearly off.  Her fingerprints were all over the weapon and gunshot residue was on her clothes.  An open-and-shut case – but was it?  The advent of the internet, chat shows, podcasts et al has made her a celebrity, because she doesn’t remember the actual crime;  she has perfect recall up until the killing itself, but not a single memory exists of The Deed:  now she is 35 and eligible for parole after a lot of counselling to see if she is ready to deal with the outside world – and she is, for Orianna is convinced she didn’t kill her father (even though he deserved it!) and wants to return to Eden Falls, the small town where she grew up to prove her innocence once and for all.

            Unsurprisingly, she encounters a lot of hostility:  the good townspeople of Eden Falls don’t want a convicted murderer in their midst, particularly one of her pedigree – her mother was housekeeper to the Wyclerc family, the local mine owners and major employers of the area;  she had a reputation as the local girl to go to for a good time – which one of the Wyclerc sons availed himself of every now and then, until the inevitable happened, followed by Orianna’s birth and lonely upbringing in the Big House.  She had no knowledge of her father’s identity until the day he died – but everyone else in the family knows, including her grandfather Amos, who didn’t acknowledge the family relationship until she returned to Eden Falls to such hatred that he insists that for her own safety she stay in the Big House – no longer run by Orianna’s mother who has since died in mysterious circumstances – ‘Accidental Death’ is the official term, but Orianna wants no help from anybody, particularly a family that ignored and rejected her.  She’ll take her chances without them, and expose who really murdered her worthless father.

            This is Vaseem Khan’s first psychological thriller, as he tells us at the end of the book;  it’s the first set outside India, first first-person narrative – so many firsts, but what a success!  Plot twists and turns come thick and fast, and all the characters are completely convincing, in fact it’s hard to believe that he hasn’t a long list of thrillers to his name, such is his ease in the genre.  My only grizzle is that you’ll need strong wrists to read this;  it stretches to 574 pages – not easy for late-night ‘My God, what’s going to happen next!’ readers (me), but totally worth all the yawns the next day.  FIVE STARS.

 

Going to the Dogs, by Pierre Lemaitre.

Translated by Frank Wynne.

 

            What does one do when there are sure signs that one’s star staff member starts showing signs of losing her marbles?  And missing her targets.  And disposing of the wrong (Sacre Bleu!) targets?

            Such a fraught problem is presenting itself to the Commandant, head of a very shadowy organisation that specialises in removing obstacles (usually of the human kind) to certain people’s plans:  efficiency and accuracy in planning are always paramount, and if the Commandant does say it himself, there is always 100% satisfaction at the completion of each mission.  Until now.

            It is 1985 and Mathilde Perrin, now in her 60’s and a decorated wartime member of the French Resistance, has always been his most reliable assassin, fast, skilful and totally reliable – as is he, for he has the same decorations, shown the same bravery and resourcefulness, the difference being that Mathilde gets extra pleasure out of killing:  there is always an extra unnecessary shot or wound that demonstrates her sadism, and now she is starting to unravel.  And the Commandant is understandably worried that her deterioration will lead eventually to himself and his organisation:  she must be removed from his staff by someone cleverer than she. 

            And so begins Pierre Lemaitre’s sparkling, horrific Gallic satire on the subject of dementia, the disease that frightens us all as it waits in the wings and makes random stabs at its random victims:  even serial killers are not immune, no matter how efficient they are at their jobs.  As Mathilde’s condition deteriorates, she starts making dreadful errors, killing her cleaning lady who hasn’t even started the job yet, killing random people in a Mall carpark as she goes shopping for shoes, and slitting the throat of her faithful dog for no reason that anyone can see – except an observant police detective who interviews her just as a matter of course and finds the head of the dog under the hedge. 

            Lemaitre does a wonderful job building up suspense as to who will be the next victim, and the backstories he has for his great characters are fascinating;  as in real life it’s a lucky dip as to who will survive till the end of this superb little story and, as in real life, it’s always the last person one would suspect of finally bringing Mathilde to justice.  SIX STARS   

 

Three dogs, two murders and a cat, by Rodney Strong.

 

            Cosy Crime is now an established genre in TV series and books;  there’s always a satisfying ending that no-one saw coming and it can be guaranteed not to strain the brain too much about Life, the Universe and Everything.  Such a story is Three dogs etc. etc., but what is definitely and enormously entertaining about it is that it is set in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city:  for that reason alone, locals will love reading about all the novel’s improbable events with their city as the backdrop.

            And protagonist Nicolette Briggs is definitely a Private Detective with a difference:  she doesn’t do Humans. She investigates crimes against animals – sometimes with her fists if the need arises.  Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t make much money, but as we all know there are always plenty of cases of animal cruelty that need investigating, and she has a stellar reputation, eventually receiving a call from an aged member of the Silvermoon Retirement Village concerning a cat that is in a bad way:  according to the local vet it has been poisoned and, even though  no resident owns this feline friend, they don’t want anything to happen to her, and hope  that Nicolette can ferret out who officially owns her and if she was poisoned deliberately.

            Fair enough, Nicolette needs the money as her car requires urgent attention (a newer model would be great, but is an impossible dream, especially with a teenage daughter at a private school) so:  the first thing to find out is the identity of the true owner of the cat who, it transpires, lives (officially, anyway) in one of the properties adjoining the village, but true to form, everything gets very murky when the body of a young woman is found in the bath of the same property – then one of Nicolette’s rescue dogs is taken from her car, causing her to get very angry with the thief to the extent that she is witnessed assaulting him, which is not a  good look when he becomes the next murder victim:  the plot thickens!

            Rodney Strong states that this is the first of a series of books featuring Nicolette and her unorthodox and sometimes physical ways of fighting crime – which is just as well;  she comes from a very confusing group of relatives thanks to her mother’s several marriages and it’s hard to keep them all in their places – likewise his cavalier use of apostrophes:  they can be  tricky little things!  Having said that, it was great to travel around our lovely capital with Nicolette, unafraid to get physical when the defenceless can’t:  Cosy Crime can be fun!  FOUR STARS

 

 

     

 

Banquet of Beggars, by Chris Lloyd.

 

              This is the third book in Chris Lloyd’s series of the German Occupation of Paris during the Second World War.  Its Protagonist Inspector Eddie Giral is, like every other Parisian, surviving on very little with an ill-fitting and voluminous wardrobe to prove it – the only healthy-looking individuals in the City of Light are the German Occupiers;  the local Black Market doesn’t discriminate between Reichmarks and Francs:  whoever can pay the price-gouging sums will get the goods.  Naturally, the Germans are at an advantage here, having plenty of funds and not having to queue for hours for a loaf of bread, only to be turned away when meagre supplies have run out.

        The people of Paris are seething, so it comes as no surprise when Eddie is sent to investigate the murder of a local Black Marketeer, found trussed up in a miniature bath with a big lump of precious butter jammed in his mouth.  Death by suffocation, and good riddance. According to all the locals;  if ever someone deserved their fate it was THAT oily little scum.

            Fair enough, thinks Eddie, until his interviews and digging reveal more than just a passing involvement of the despised victim with various German factions of their armed forces – which brings him again into reluctant contact with Intelligence Officer Major Hochstetter, whose interest in Parisian crime is more involved and comprehensive than it needs to be:  once again Eddie has an investigation which has more skins than an onion, and all of it centred around the deprived and starving population of a beleaguered city hugely disappointed and crushed by their useless government.

            Hochstetter, too, has secrets to hide which Eddie unwittingly discovers, but what at first seems to be a bargaining chip turns once again into potential blackmail concerning Eddie’s estranged son Jean-Luc:  there are several compelling reasons for Jean-Luc’s silence, all of them having the ring of truth – but which one is the RIGHT one?

            Chris Lloyd brings to horrifying life a city under siege, a city full of desperate people calling for help which never arrives, and what they are forced to do to survive.  His minor characters are unforgettable, world-weary, cynical – and starving, and his day-to-day accounts of Paris under Occupation made this reader a whole lot more appreciative of the food which we put so regularly on our table.  FIVE STARS.  

           

           

 

 

Onyx Storm, by Rebecca Yarros.                                              

         

          Here is the third riveting book in Ms Yarros’s series of five fantasy novels about the mythical world of the Empyrean and the love affair between little, deceptively frail Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson, flawed but irresistible (not to mention impossibly handsome) man of shadows, who in book two has just been converted to the Dark Side in order to save her life, which means that they spend most of book three trying to find a cure for him so that he can defeat their toxic and supremely malevolent enemies, the Venin.  So far, because of his great love for Violet and his superhuman willpower he has been able to resist the terrible call of supreme and evil addiction, but Violet knows what a struggle it is for him but loves him the more because he has endangered himself for her. 

            The problem is that the rest of the Continent in which they live and study depends on them too, to prevent the entire population from being annihilated by the Venin, and to make matters worse, Violet herself is being pursued by an ex-highpriestess of Dunne (don’t ask. Oh, OK then:  God of War).  Theophanie is evil incarnate but is confident of winning Violet over to evil:  she just has to find the right trigger.  Xaden is the obvious prize along with them both being rulers of the Empyrean world forever – or could it be her second dragon, adolescent Andarna? 

            Once again, the dragons have won my  heart:  they are such great characters, especially Andarna, who has a mind of her own – talk about the impetuosity of youth!  I have to admit that I got a bit bogged down and confused at the warfare plans and the introduction of a whole swag of new characters as Violet and Xaden travel to far-off corners of the Empyrean to try to recruit allies and converts;  fortunately Ms Yarros knows what she’s doing and keeps the whole show on the road at its usual break-neck pace – and thank the Gods that someone is still in the driver’s seat for, once again, she saves the biggest shocks for the last page.  Which is hell on the nerves, especially as it’s going to take a while for book four to present itself: do your best, Ms Yarros, and I’ll still dream of a jolly nice little dragon choosing me for a pet!  FIVE STARS    

         

 

Onyx Storm, by Rebecca Yarros.                                              

         

    
      Here is the third riveting book in Ms Yarros’s series of five fantasy novels about the mythical world of the Empyrean and the love affair between little, deceptively frail Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson, flawed but irresistible (not to mention impossibly handsome) man of shadows, who in book two has just been converted to the Dark Side in order to save her life, which means that they spend most of book three trying to find a cure for him so that he can defeat their toxic and supremely malevolent enemies, the Venin.  So far, because of his great love for Violet and his superhuman willpower he has been able to resist the terrible call of supreme and evil addiction, but Violet knows what a struggle it is for him but loves him the more because he has endangered himself for her. 

            The problem is that the rest of the Continent in which they live and study depends on them too, to prevent the entire population from being annihilated by the Venin, and to make matters worse, Violet herself is being pursued by an ex-highpriestess of Dunne (don’t ask. Oh, OK then:  God of War).  Theophanie is evil incarnate but is confident of winning Violet over to evil:  she just has to find the right trigger.  Xaden is the obvious prize along with them both being rulers of the Empyrean world forever – or could it be her second dragon, adolescent Andarna? 

            Once again, the dragons have won my  heart:  they are such great characters, especially Andarna, who has a mind of her own – talk about the impetuosity of youth!  I have to admit that I got a bit bogged down and confused at the warfare plans and the introduction of a whole swag of new characters as Violet and Xaden travel to far-off corners of the Empyrean to try to recruit allies and converts;  fortunately Ms Yarros knows what she’s doing and keeps the whole show on the road at its usual break-neck pace – and thank the Gods that someone is still in the driver’s seat for, once again, she saves the biggest shocks for the last page.  Which is hell on the nerves, especially as it’s going to take a while for book four to present itself: do your best, Ms Yarros, and I’ll still dream of a jolly nice little dragon choosing me for a pet!  FIVE STARS    

         

 

 Frankie, by Graham Norton.

            I am sure anyone would agree that we are living at the moment in very uncertain times;  the world is undergoing great change politically and physically and ordinary people (thee and me) are reluctant witnesses, it seems,  to many international injustices both large and small so we must look for any form of escapism that works – and reading, the art of the story, still features hugely with the majority of us:  we need something elevating and heartwarming to remind us that the world is still a good place., and such a story is Graham Norton’s ‘Frankie’.

            In Ireland, Frances Howe’s parents died in a car accident when she was ten years old;  Frances was an only child and her care was taken over by her mother’s sister who was married to an Anglican minister who tended to address everyone in biblical phrases, always careful to stress how charitable her aunt and he were being in providing her a home.  Frances’s only happiness at this time was her schoolfriend Norah’s home in which she was always welcomed by Norah’s refreshingly normal parents;  sadly, this situation changed when Frances was seventeen:  her Uncle married her off to another clergyman who was much older than she and when her new life commenced, Frances found that the reality of being a Canon’s wife was vastly different from what she’d imagined – including the marital bed, the mysteries of which remained as opaque as ever.  Until Frances, delivering eggs to needy parishioners as part of her wifely duties, met one of the flock whose very presence ignited an eroticism with which Frances was entirely unfamiliar:  needless to say, there was no happy outcome for Frances;  her sham marriage was over, she was ‘cast out’ by her anything-but-saintly husband, and exiled to London, to share a flat with Norah.

            And Norah had been having adventures of her own, deciding that the company of women was infinitely more preferable than men, but she was instrumental in ‘retraining’ Frances in the secretarial arts – shorthand and typing, filing etc – to an efficiency that earned Frances a trip to New York with her new Boss, a woman of ‘that’ persuasion hoping to change her new secretary’s mind as to her sexual preferences – which didn’t happen, and after a disasterous start to her time in The Big Apple, Frances becomes Frankie and her real life, with its stratospheric highs and dismal lows, finally begins.

            Graham Norton in his Acknowledgements pages says that his editor always makes him feel like a novelist rather than a chat-show host with notions.  Well, the wonderful protagonist he has created is a shining example of his talent at story-telling on the grand scale:  I defy anyone to say that they were not fully engaged with Frankie’s adventures, from her sad beginnings to her loving end, for this is a story of love in all its colours and stripes, and that is what the world certainly needs at this troubling time.  FIVE STARS. 

              

 

 

 

 

 

The Cracked Mirror, by Chris Brookmyer.

            Penny Coyne (yes, really!) is a very elderly librarian from a small Scottish village:  what makes her notable is that she has highly reputable skills as an amateur detective, solving numerous cases that have foiled many police, and forcing them to call on her services more than they would wish to.  Eat your heart out, Miss Marple!

            She is about to meet Johnny Hawke, typical burnt-out LA detective, with a reputation not only for putting away the bad guys (some of them in a very permanent fashion) but also for inadvertently causing the demise of every partner he has had so far:  in light of that fact, are Ms Coyne’s days numbered?

And why would they ever meet except for both receiving invitations to an impossibly High Society wedding at a very grand Scottish Mansion now being run as a hotel – neither of them know either bride nor groom.  Which is enough to prick anyone’s curiosity, so here they are, Penny in tweed skirt and twinset, and Johnny, trying not to look like an LA cop in a very cheap suit.

            The stage is set for one of the cleverest Whodunnits I have read for years, and the Big Reveal doesn’t happen to the very last page – and even then presents more questions than answers.  Johnny has ended up in Scotland because he’s on suspension for being the cause of death yet again of his latest hapless partner and has been told by his boss to ‘get out of town and stay out’.

The wedding invitation arrives at a very welcome time though he is worried as to how the bank account will survive the experience, especially in light of the Great and the Good arriving for the wedding;  they have no such financial worries.  The bride and groom, too, seem madly in love – until the bride reveals to Penny last-minute cold feet, then she disappears just before the ceremony is to begin – and is found dead, a presumed suicide, in a similar fashion to the circumstances of the crime Johnny was investigating in which his new partner died, and further investigation reveals that this is the third similar death in similar circumstances. 

            It is not long before the brawny brainy gumshoe recognises a kindred spirit in the woollen-clad, keen observer of human behaviour  -  ‘there are always consequences when you break any rule, Johnny’ – and they combine to make a formidable team.  Until , further into this dazzling story, the reader is aghast to realise that Johnny and Penny are not bona fide protagonists, (spoiler alert) but characters in a  brilliant video game:  no-one is what they seem and Chris Brookmyre has tricked us all with his marvellously inventive characterisations and plotting:  what a booki!  What a writer!  What a game!  SIX STARS     

 

The Spy Coast, by Tess Gerritsen.

        

            Where do old spies go when it’s time to retire?  (always assuming they last that long.)  In Tess Gerritsen’s first novel in her new series, five of them have moved to a  small seaside town in Maine, on the North-Eastern Canadian border.  It’s a very tame life now for these ex-CIA veterans but they meet regularly and try to be content with their safe but boring new circumstances – until a strange woman – obviously from the agency – confronts one of their number at her home, full of questions that she has no intention of answering.  Maggie Bird is happy with her new life;  she has had a career of great danger and enormous rewards which led to the most tragic event in her life;  now she is content to live in peace on  the chicken farm she purchased, and has no intention of getting dragged into any ructions caused by the last (and worst) job she was on.  She sends the woman away with instructions not to come back.

            But she does:  as a corpse, laid out crucifixion-style with two bullets in her skull, all done while Maggie was meeting with the other exes for Martinis.  Her neighbour appraises her of this when he sees the police-car lights in Maggie’s driveway.  It would seem that Maggie and her friends are going to be dragged back into the old job with its old mysteries and those seeking revenge whether she wants it or not.  To make matters worse, the local (acting) Police Chief, Jo Thibodeau, is not satisfied with the friends’ version of what they were doing at the time of the murder:  drinking Martinis and calling themselves the Martini Club was not befitting the seriousness of the crime committed in Maggie’s driveway, and how come Maggie has the best security cameras that money can buy – for a chicken farm?  And Jo would appreciate it if she could show them the footage NOW, please, which only reveals an SUV with tinted windows and a heavily-disguised shape delivering the body.  Which satisfies no-one. And sends Jo Thibodeau away with the knowledge that somehow, some way, Maggie Bird and her friends know a lot more than they are saying and that makes her determined to find out what, and who they really are.   She may never have left Purity, Maine, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be good at her job, so there!  She’ll keep on digging whether they like it or not.

            Ms Gerritsen has written a perfect airport thriller, strong, believable protagonists,  (read the Author’s Note), mile-a-minute action, and a plot that takes us all over the world without losing its credibility. FIVE STARS

( And Book Two is available at your library:  ‘The Summer Guests.’  Can’t wait!)      

 

Sea Change, by Jenny Pattrick.

 

            Jenny Pattrick is New Zealand’s premier historical novelist – who hasn’t read ‘The Denniston Rose’ and ‘Heart of Coal’ - and IF you say to your shame ‘not me’-  then it’s time to start gorging yourselves on her lovely stories of early New Zealand and its turbulent history, BUT! 

            This is a contemporary novel, dealing with and exposing 21^st century problems and the differing solutions according to those with the power, and what’s available those who have none.

            A huge earthquake devastates the top of NZ’s South Island;  the damage and loss of life is huge and all the North Island’s first responders are sent to the worst-hit areas;  meantime, the quake has struck a small Kapiti Coast village not far from capital city Wellington – the damage from that was bad enough, but a huge tsunami has inflicted a fatal blow to property and people living close to the beach.  Those few whose houses are on higher ground fare better than others, like Lorna, a retired public servant, and her neighbour Toddy, a retired engineer – who is also blind.  And their next neighbour is Eru, 9 years old and an orphan:  his father was fishing in his dinghy when the tsunami rolled in. 

            When everyone eventually meets up at the school hall (still standing, but the school isn’t) there is a very disparate group:  those who want to stay and get electricity and communications up to speed again;  those who want to get out immediately – not so easy – there is only access by sea; two gay plumbers (the Plumbelles) who will try everything to get fresh water piped again if they can only find a source;  and several jack-of-all-trades including a brilliant engineer (‘but he’s a recluse!’) who are undaunted by the situation – if only they could get some assistance from Wellington, which is sending manpower, firepower and dollars to the worst-hit in the South Island.

            Eventually the word from Wellington is that the village is too inaccessible to save:  there will be a managed retreat.  Which is not acceptable to everyone who has worked so hard to get everything up and running again, and definitely NOT cricket when it is found that the ‘managed retreat’ is to enable Lorna and Toddy’s very rich neighbour Adrian Stokes to eventually buy up cheaply all the undamaged land to build an exclusive private resort:  betrayal of the worst kind, and so easily done with friends in the right places.

            Jenny Pattrick has charmed us yet again with a story of triumph over adversity that could be ho-hum and mawkish in other hands;  instead she shows us all what logic, kindness and common sense can achieve when backs are against the wall – in a very logical, kind and common-sensical way!  SIX STARS.

                

 

The Valley, by Chris Hammer.

    
          Chris Hammer is a happily familiar face for all the tens of thousands of Crime novel fans in this part of the world, knowing as we do that each new book is always meticulously plotted and characterised, and that each story is a microcosm of contemporary Australian lives and times.  He has several returning characters to the differing themes in his books;  in this story we meet again with Nell, short for Narelle (what a good Aussie name that is!) Buchanan and Ivan Lucic, Detectives who didn’t work together very well at all a few titles ago;  now the rough edges have been worn away and they are a polished and effective team who always get their man.  Eventually.

            They have been sent to a central NSW valley where a local, a young and wealthy entrepreneur has been found dead, drowned in a beautiful lake not far from where he had established a luxury eco-resort for the wealthy and jaded to recharge their batteries.  It hasn’t taken long to confirm that blunt-force wounds to the head rendered him unconscious when he was put in the water:  drowning completed the job.  His young wife (his second) seems more business-like than mourning – she has a business to run, after all!  And the local businessmen of his acquaintance don’t appear to be mourning his passing.

            And there seems to be a secondary scandal and mystery pertaining to the abandoned goldmine halfway up the escarpment;  the woman who owned it threw herself off those cliffs when her husband’s body was found murdered in the depths of the mine.  But the more questions Nell and Ivan ask, the more mysteries they expose, including Nell’s parentage:  she was adopted as a baby and never knew her biological parents.  Now, that is about to change.  By birth, she is a local, too!  The clues to the victim’s seed wealth all seem to point to the abandoned and played-out mine, but countless searches for any gold have revealed nothing over the years, and the mystery of Nell’s parentage is almost more than she can cope with;  however, dogged determination as always, solves everything satisfyingly at the end  -  as it should. 

            And as always, Chris Hammer produces a highly satisfying page-turner, full of red herrings and pretzel turns and, particularly when describing The Valley, a lyrical and beautiful hymn to the wonderful Australian landscape and wildlife.  We can only pray that it stays that way.  FIVE STARS. 

 

The Things We Didn’t Know, by Elba Iris Pérez.

 

       
     Eight-year-old Andrea and her six-year-old brother Pablo are on their way to Puerto Rico with their mother.  Mama has grown terminally discontented with life in a U.S. East Coast mill town – which isn’t even a town;  she can’t even shop for food, or socialise with any friends unless her husband Luis takes her in his beloved Oldsmobile, and he will not hear of her learning to drive:  she is effectively his prisoner, subject to every one of his whims.  Which doesn’t mean that he’s a bad man;  he just loves his job at the paper mill, loves his family and doesn’t know why she doesn’t love her life too, which is so much better than Puerto Rico.

            The only way to convince him that all is not well is to leave, to return to the life they had before America, Land of the Free, started singing its siren song – sadly, her children don’t feel the same way, especially when Mama immediately leaves them in the care of her sister Cecilia, a very kind and loving woman who would rather be a man, and lives as one.  It takes several weeks before they are used to their new living arrangements, gradually looking forward to starting school again in a strange environment but, just when they are starting to enjoy their new life with their manly aunt their Mama turns up with a new boyfriend and another sister for them to stay with.  And this sister is very poor to the extent of not having enough for them to eat:  their future looks grim, until Cecilia manages to contact their father – this criminal selfishness of a mother who refuses to mother her children has to stop, and Luis arrives to right the awful wrong his wife has created.

            But this lovely story is about much more than a marriage;  it’s about racism in all its forms:  aunt Cecilia isn’t despised in some quarters because she’s lesbian but because she’s negrito – her father was black and so is she.  Andrea finds that as she grows up, despite being blonde and blue-eyed by some genetic quirk, ‘white’ Americans regard her with suspicion, her first boyfriend’s mother as a typical example.  And her own beloved Papa is horrified and furious that she is choosing to marry a black man – never mind that he’s a University Professor:  he has fuzzy hair!

            Ms Pérez’s debut novel starts in the turbulent 60’s and covers some brutal times and huge changes in American society, especially when so many young men returned from Vietnam in wheelchairs – or coffins.  The Land of the Free is still in a state of discomfit and uncertainty, but there is always hope for it as long as they have writers like her to tell its truths.  FIVE STARS.    

 

 

When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole,

By Geoff Parkes

.

 

            Just as Aussie Noir has become an established genre in South Pacific Crime writing, New Zealand writers have taken up the baton to produce their own brand of bushy WhoDunnits – and doing pretty well at it too, thank you, as evidenced by (amongst others) Catherine Chidgey, Michael Bennett and Rose Carlyle’s success, for our beautiful country has myriad spaces and places to create mysteries and murders galore.

            Such a place in the 80’s is the small Waikato town of Nashville – fictitious for the purposes of Geoff Parkes’s debut novel, but typical of small towns everywhere:  everyone knows everyone else;  they all love to gossip, and they can be forgiven for that for not much happens of note in Nashville – until a young hitch-hiker goes missing, a Finnish girl on her OE, who was temporarily working as a roustabout in a shearing gang on one of the local farms.  And this is not the first hiker to disappear in the town:  a couple of years before a young woman was last seen just out of town trying to hitch a ride;  someone unknown picked her up and she was never seen again.  The locals are starting to mutter about a Serial-Killer, gossip rubbished by the local police, but they don’t seem to have any clues either, even though HotShot detectives have been sent to investigate from the big cities. 

            It’s a mystery alright, especially for Otago law student Ryan Bradley, home for the holidays and working in the same shearing gang – and lover of Sanna, the missing girl:  he is frantic with worry for her but doesn’t believe he can do anything to help, so stays silent about their affair, thinking that no-one else knows.  Which is rubbish:  someone always knows something.  And he’s mystified by the change in his friendship with Phillip Nash;  growing up they were like brothers, peas-in-a-pod;  now, Phillip avoids him and only speaks if he has to, the excuse being is that Ryan thinks he’s too good for his old friends ‘now that he’s a lawyer-boy’:  there’s lots of anger simmering just under the surface, and lots of grubby secrets, too, which makes for a very satisfactory attempt at plot twists and turns.

            To reveal any more would spoil things, for it’s not just Ryan in the frame, and not all the characters are credible, which is a shame.  Having said that, what I really enjoyed about Geoff Parkes’s writing was the fact that his protagonists are a very good cross-section of society, with all its foibles, weaknesses – and loving-kindness.  FOUR STARS.     

 

Spirit Crossing, by William Kent Krueger.

           

      
      Once again it’s good to meet Cork O’Connor, longtime First Nations investigator and upholder of the law (when he’s not running his burger bar) in beautiful Minnesota, one of the Northern states bordering Canada.  Life is pretty much the same as it was in ‘Fox Creek’, except that his beloved daughter Annie has returned from hard charity work in the barrios of Guatemala, bringing Maria, her new partner with her.  They are returning for the wedding of Cork and Rainey’s son Stephen; it will be a joyous occasion for them all, except that Annie has a secret
that she doesn’t want to reveal until after the festivities are over – in fact she doesn’t want to disclose anything:  she’s just glad to be home once again, in the bosom of her loving family;  everything will be revealed eventually anyway, nothing stays secret for long.

            Meantime, it’s blueberry-picking season – as we all know there is nothing more delicious than those heavenly fruits on one’s breakfast and in pancakes etc, so Cork and his little grandson Waboo (little rabbit) are on their way to a secret site by a cabin in the woods once owned by an old Finnish man who used to swap blueberries for other kinds of food (who needs money when you can use the barter system?).  As Cork thought there is a considerable stash of blueberries, but there is something else which reveals the fact that little  Waboo has a gift for speaking with the dead – which he does by a mound covered with blueberries.  The young Lakota girl dumped in a shallow grave wants Waboo to tell her how to find The Path of Souls.  And it’s not long before the old Finn’s cabin reveals another terrible secret:  another murdered girl, this time from a prominent white family, and it doesn’t take long before the huge publicity following the white girl’s death, that Waboo’s identity is revealed and he has to go into hiding for his life, not only a victim of publicity but to keep him safe from the murderers of the girls:  if he can talk to dead girls, what can he say about the murderers to police?

            Meantime, a huge new oil pipeline is being constructed through tribal land (‘Drill, baby, drill!’) much to Ojibwe outrage, and furious protests have ignited hatred all along its route:  there is much for Cork and his family to navigate and try to change even though the class and racism cards are strongly stacked against them.  They have a strong and faithful ally in William Kent Krueger – long may he record the myriad injustices – and victories – that First Nations people receive.  FIVE STARS.    

 

Precipice, by Robert Harris.

 

            ‘The Shot That Was Heard Around the World’:  Gavrilo Princip, a young Serbian Nationalist and leader of a rebel group assassinates the heir to the Austro/Hungarian Empire and his wife, thus starting the First World War. Austria’s traditional ally Germany rallies its forces and attacks Belgium and France and their treaty partner Britain reluctantly starts recruiting troops for the war that everyone thinks will be ‘over by Christmas’.

            Meantime, Britain’s Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith is enjoying a great wave of popularity for his strong leadership and cabinet, not least First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and Secretary for War Lord Kitchener, surely an unbeatable combination. 

            And Asquith is also enjoying – and is happily enslaved by – a passionate affair with 26 year-old Venetia Stanley, a much younger socialite of aristocratic birth with which he shares secret communications from his overseas ambassadors;  Venetia and her common-sense approach to huge military problems helps him to have a more clear-eyed view, especially about other members of his cabinet.  She has become indispensable to him in life and in love.- the only problem being his cavalier treatment of the decrypted telegrams and documents that he shows her on their many drives around London – he does insist on several occasions on screwing up these official state secrets and throwing them out the car window.

            Which is hardly a good look as people, in the first great flush of patriotism, hand the telegrams and state secrets into Scotland Yard, and a discreet investigation is obliged to begin, revealing that the affair is common knowledge among the Great and the Good, in fact it’s nearly last week’s news amongst the aristocracy – except for Margot, Asquith’s strident, social-climber wife:  she has also known about his affairs, but this is the first time he has been so impossibly, uncontrollably smitten.  This whole thing must stop!

            Meantime, the War rages on;  casualty lists are horrific, especially since Germany has started using Poison gas, and a new offensive touted by Winston against the Dardanelles is proving to have the opposite desired effect:  Gallipolli has been an exercise in supreme carnage.  Asquith must pull himself together, Vanessa must marry someone – not quite anyone, for she is an aristocrat, but Asquith’s government musn’t fall:  everything depends on sound leadership to beat the Hun, and distractions like socialites can’t be allowed:  in short, Asquith has to show a bit of Stiff Upper Lip – which he does, at the eleventh hour.

            Robert Harris has written superbly of this fraught time, using all the correspondence from Asquith to his darling Venetia, plus many of the decrypted messages and telegrams which are still in existence, and he has endowed all main players in the drama exciting new life, especially demonstrating that Love doesn’t always Conquer All – sometimes it can produce the opposite effect!  FIVE STARS.      

Julia's 2024 Top Reads

 

I have a Special Little List ……… 

(which I should have prepared MUCH earlier) of 2024’s Top Reads on Libraries Horowhenua’s review blog, Great Reads for Great Readers.

1.    The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons, by Karin Smirnoff

2.    Horse, by Geraldine Brooks

3.    Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett

4.    The Hunter, by Tana French

5.    All the Words we Know, by Paul Nash

6.    Fox Creek, by William Kent Krueger

7.    City in Ruins, by Don Winslow

8.    Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stephenson

9.    James, by Percival Everett

10.            Long Island, by Colm Toibin

11.           Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life, by Helen Fisher

12.           The Trees, by Percival Everett

13.           The Spy, by A. J. Choudhury

14.           The Mountain King, by Anders de La Motte

15.           Table for Two, by Amor Towles

16.           Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson

17.           Patea Boys, by Airana Ngarewa

18.           Nine Girls, by Stacey Gregg         Junior Fiction

19.           Tell Me Everything, by Elizabeth Strout

20.           Juice, by Tim Winton

These are truly great reads as every great reader will know, and aren’t we all blessed that our exceptional library enables us to be the Great Readers that we aspire to be. 

The staff and volunteers at Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po wish you all a most happy and healthy 2025.  (And some summer sunshine would be nice!)