Month: May 2021

LINDSTROM DRAWS THE READER INTO HER HEARTWARMING DEBUT

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I don’t how you did in school? Me? I was an average kid. Usually given the yard stick of looking up to my high achieving cousins by my well-meaning parents. But as is often said, everyone has their own unique talents and therefore just because maths or metalwork, languages or technical drawing isn’t your thing, doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Usually by the time you graduate college you will have found your true calling.

Some people may discover their unique talents earlier than most, because of being gifted or highly intelligent. This often leads to problems with socially interaction with their peers or being unable to develop loving relationships, unless they find someone or a group of other high achieving likeminded individuals. Usually, they turn into loners because no one can relate to them or understand what internal struggles they are dealing with. Thus, everyday routines that you and I may carry out almost naturally can be seen as a hurdle. Dealing with the complexities of being gifted is the main story of this months third book review, its The Draftsman by Laurel Lindstrom and published by Unbound (www.unbound.com)   on the 21st April 2021.

Martin Cox is an untrained, but gifted, draftsman, in his early twenties, who has become quite wealthy due to a number of shrewd technical designs. But he’s also damaged by his parents protective care and is obsessive as a result of his superior intellect. When he purchases Shadowhurst a large estate in the West Country as both an investment and a way of finding peace and tranquillity for his overactive mind, he soon discovers that there is more than a bit of history to it, and as a result he finds an outlet to occupy his mind, researching its history.

At five pages short of two hundred, this book is not to far off being a novella. Is it a one sitting read? That depends on the reader. For me, the first quarter of the book didn’t really do much and I had feelings of entering The Milkman territory – which I had to throw down after twenty pages. With The Draftsman, I felt adrift and unable to find a footing, but persevered and shortly afterwards when the back story about how Martin made his money was being told, I fell in love with it and from then on it made a lot of sense.

Martin is a beautifully written and a very believable troubled character trying to cope with his foibles and weird mannerisms, and as he starts to slowly overcome them, you feel happy and even emotional at times. Any fear you might have for him dissipates near the end as you realise he has some very good friends and family, including his old boss, Bill, who sees what a complicated character he is due to his high level of intellect, but slowly allows him to move from being just an office tea boy, to a skilled and much sought after draftsman.

Laurel Lindstrom

There is also the unrequited love storyline that takes place between Martin and his financial advisor Joshua. You get the feeling, Joshua wants something to happen, but in the end, Martin just too wrapped up in himself to notice.

Meanwhile the research that Martin takes on, around the history of Shadowhurst is straightforward, but the mystery that surrounds one particular part of it is lovely and excellently revealed at the end.

This is the debut novel of English author, technical writer, and journalist Laurel Lindstrom  (www.laurellindstrom.org) . She’s written a number of collections of short stories in the past as well two books of nonfiction Internet for Beginners (1997) and Past, Print, Future (2018). She has a degree in linguistics from UCLA and is a visiting professor at the Shenzhen Technical University in China. She currently lives in east Sussex.

So, if you are looking for short, but heart-warming read about a gifted individual that, then take up a pen and write a note reminding yourself that next time you are in your local bookshop to look out for it or put an order in.

Reviewed by – Adrian Murphy

This book is part of a Random Things Blog Tour, to see what the other reviewers thought, visit their blogs listed below. Then, if you get a copy, comeback and tell us what you thought, we would really appreciate the feedback.

BENJAMIN GIVES ME A NEW SEASON ANNUALLY WITH HIS SECOND BOOK

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Do you have a “Bucket list”? Most people have some sort of one, but what about one made up entirely of foods and rare delicacies from around the world, that you want to try before you die, and if so what’s on it? I know mine has Caviar, which I have eaten, Dover Sole which I ate a couple of years ago when on a holiday in Devon, I’d been waiting around for years thinking I’d have to go to a high-class restaurant to order it. But no, it was a lovely little family run restaurant just off the harbour in Ilfracombe.

I’ve had kangaroo and crocodile too.  Really, I’m doing quite well, although there is still plenty on the list, like a coffee made up of Kopi Luwak, the rare coffee bean (the most expensive type) passed through the intestines of a wild Asian Civet. Wagyu beef steak from Japan, again rather pricey. Getting closer to home, I haven’t had lobster or whelks, a delicacy in the UK. Georgina (my wife and fellow Librarian)  laughed at me when she saw this, saying we can have the the latter anytime we visit her mum in Skegness. Another thing on that list is truffles, I’ve had the chocolate confectionary shaped one’s, mass produced for Christmas, but the original ones found growing wild in France, Italy and Spain particularly, no. There are two types, a black one and a rarer white truffle. They are harvested from the wild using pigs or specially trained dogs (which are less likely to eat them, unlike their porcine colleagues). This brings us to this months second book review, it’s The Hunting Season by Tom Benjamin and published by Constable Books (www.littlebrown.co.uk/imprint/constable/page/lbbg-imprint-constable) in November 2020.

Its truffle hunting season in the hills around Bologna and the search is on to find the elusive ‘Boscuri’ white truffle. But when Ryan Lee, an American “Supertaster”, goes missing in the area, widower and local private eye Daniel Leicester is hired by the young man’s parents to find him. Daniel’s search finds him delving into the multi million euro culinary trade, while the ever present hint of Mafiosa involvement rears its ugly head. Soon after a high a profile Italian chef is found murdered, forcing Daniel to team up with a glamorous Italian TV journalist, but before long there’s another murder connected to the case and this time Daniel finds himself the prime suspect. Can he clear his name along with the help his ex-Carabinieri father in law and find the truth behind the disappearance of Ryan Lee…

I love Italy and have been there on numerous occasions, the nearest I’ve been to Bologna is a day trip to Florence 100 km away so I was quite looking forward to reading this murder mystery by Tom Benjamin. It’s a nice easy enough read at just under three hundred and thirty pages long. There’s a hint of a mash up between Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana and A Year in Provence.

Also, with it being set in the historical environs of Bologna, there’s a sort of Morse / Lewis vibe to it with Daniel representing the Sgt Lewis Character and his father-in-law the “The Comandante” Giovanni, a retired senior member of the Carabinieri, providing the excellent fatherly role similar to Colin Dexter’s Iconic hero.

I liked this book and could get to really yearn for an annual fix of Daniel Leicester, as I do with the Jack Reacher series. He’s a nice and very believable character, who hates Brexit and loves BBC radio 4. The widower aspect and his relationship with his daughter Rosie, was a nice angle and could appeal to male and female readers alike.

There are a few minor downsides. There are quite a number of random characters, that pop in the story. Also I did sometimes feel like there was no real distinction between when Daniel is speaking Italian to Italians and English to English speaking characters, so at times you think everyone is speaking English, when actually Daniel is speaking Italian to them, and every now and then Benjamin does highlight it, but not enough.

Tom Benjamin

This is English born author Tom Benjamin’s (www.tombenjamin.com) second novel featuring Daniel Leicester, the first and his debut book was A Quiet death in Italy (2019). Benjamin began his working career as a journalist, before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard. He later moved into Public Health, where he developed England’s first national campaign against alcohol abuse. He now lives in Bologna.

So if, like me, you want to immerse yourself in a well written and very atmospheric Italian crime novel, while staycationing this year, observe the covid regulations and Click and Collect from your local book shop or download a copy and join Daniel Leicester and the team from Faidate Investigations as they hunt a killer around Bologna. Then go and pick up Tom Benjamin’s first book too.

Reviewed by: Adrian Murphy

This book review is part of a Random Things blog tour, to see what the other reviewers thought visit their pages listed below, then if you get a copy comeback and tell us what you thought, we’d really appreciate the feedback.

BRENNAN AND REICHS STILL KNOW THE CODE TO DELIVER A SCALPEL SHARP THRILLER

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The arrival of Covid 19 brought with it a whole raft of conspiracy theories. Was it all a plan by Bill Gates to microchip us and track our movements? Was the virus released by the Chinese to cause the West’s economies to crash? Was it all a lie by governments to help control their citizens? Was it spread by new generation WIFI transmitters? The list is endless and its scary to see what some people will spout as truth and how many gullible people will believe them.

So what will the world be like post covid? What truths will eventually be revealed? Are some people using the global pandemic to make a fortune? No doubt. This brings me to this month’s first book review. Its of the Bone Code by Kathy Reichs and was published bt Simon &n Schuster (www.simonandschuster.com) on the 29th April. 

It is set immediately post covid/ current day in Canada. The population are vaccinated and life seems very much back to normal, air travel, dining out, staying with friends etc. When a hurricane hits, it uncovers two bodies which share a striking resemblance to a fifteen year old cold case, which has haunted Temperance Brennan. Meanwhile a rare bacterium, which eats human flesh is discovered and people rush for genetic testing as there’s a genetic mutation, which makes you more susceptible. In a search that soon proves dangerous, Temperance discovers a startling connection between the cold case and the outbreak.

I’ve always looked forward to reading the next Temperance Brennan book. So, I started this one as soon as I could, after almost trampling my husband in the clamour to get my hands on it, the moment it arrived in the post. In true Kathy Reichs’ style , it had a cliff-hanger at the end of each chapter, which draws you onto read the next one (very late nights were involved!) Also there’s a lot of scientific detail and acronyms.  I now know far more about vaccine development and manufacture than I ever thought I would need to, even as a medical professional. For new readers there’ adequate explanation of how Temperance’s  bi-location job and relationships work so you could read this as a standalone. I had, however, forgotten how scientifically detailed and complex the stories are, so I may do a reread under less time and academic pressures myself to enjoy it again. The story had several threads, one of which I found unnecessary and therefore slightly confusing. I felt it would have made a good novella or a great episode of ‘Bones’ , if the series still ran. Note to new readers, the Temperance Brennan here bears no similarity to the one in the TV series apart from the name.

I do love how the care of Birdie, Tempe’s cat features large. Do they have no catteries in Canada? I speak as someone who prefers homecare myself too . However, the idea of trailing a cat to strange houses by plane ? Too stressful! In too many books and screen-based thrillers I’m left wondering who is taking care of the pet?  I often say,’ that dog must need a wee’ or similar to the annoyance of my husband. I’m saying it’s a vet nurse thing and sticking with that as my excuse!

Kathy Reichs (Ben Mark Holzberg / nationalnews.com)

This is American author and Forensic Pathologist Dr. Kathy Reichs (www.kathyreichs.com) 21st book featuring her heroine Dr. Temperance Brennan, they include DeJa Dead (1997), Fatal Voyage (2002), Bare Bones (2003) , Flash and Bones (2011), she has also written three novellas centred around Brennan. and was the executive producer on the Bones TV series. While also writing a one off tie-in to the series with Max Allan Collins called Bones: Buried Deep (2006). On top of that she’s written five Young Adult books and three YA novellas with her son Brendan Reichs. All the the while working as a forensic pathologist, and serving on numerous boards associated with Pathology and law enforcement in America and internationally.

I’d highly recommend this to Kathy Reich’s aficionados but also to anyone who like a good conspiracy driven thriller and murder mystery set in current times. Its an interesting idea, well thought out and backed by science.  I’m  not  worried at all  about my upcoming vaccination at all, honest!

So get down to your favourite book store or download online for the next injection of thrills and deduction from Kathy Reichs.

Reviewed by : Georgina Murphy

This book Review is part of a random Things Blog Tour. To what the other reviewers though visit their blogs listed below. Then id you get a copy, comeback and tell us what you thought. we’d really appreciate the feedback.