Book Review

YOU’LL WANT TO BE EXILED FOR A DAY TO ENJOY HIEKKAPELTO’S THIRD BOOK

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TheexiledcbrOne of the main rivers in central Europe is the Tisza at one stage called “The Most Hungarian River“ for despite now also flowing through Hungary,  Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia  at one stage it flowed entirely though the kingdom on Hungary. Along it banks you will find numerous forms of wild life among them is the Mayfly. It was the Swedish – Finnish journalist Heidi Avellan who coined the phrase ‘The Mayfly Effect’, to describe a movement or an event which harnesses the right social current at the right time.

Avellan’s comment sprang to mind while I read this month’s book as it is set during the Mayfly Flowering on the Tisza.  The book is The Exiled, the latest offering from Kati Hiekkapelto’s’ and published by Orenda Books (www.orendabooks.co.uk)  in November 2016.

This is the third novel featuring Hiekkapelto’s Finnish Police detective heroine, Anna Fekete. Here, she travels from Finland to her home village in the Balkans to have a holiday and catch up with family and friends. Her visit is set to coincide with the much anticipated ‘Flowering of the Tizsa’ when the mayflies hatch and take to flight in great clouds over the river. A cause for celebration in the locale each June. Her break gets off to a poor beginning however, when her bag is stolen. Later the thief is found dead by the riverbank.  Anna cannot help but take an interest in the investigation, which she feels is being poorly carried out. The victim is identified as a refugee and local in tolerances and prejudices come to light.  As she delves deeper Anna finds links to her own father’s death. Untangling a web of deception and corruption, her own life and that of a refugee child are put in danger.

Kati Hiekkapelto

Kati Hiekkapelto

This is the first of Finnish author Kati Hiekkapelto’s (www.katihiekkapelto.com)  three books I have read and I will certainly be reading the others. The Hummingbird was published in the UK in 2014 and her second , The Defenceless was published in the UK in 2015.  Hiekkapelto started writing when she was two recording her stories on to a tape cassette, her first job was as a special needs teacher to immigrant children. Nowadays she devotes her time to writing from her base in a 200 year old farm house in northern Finland, while in her spare time she performs with her band, runs, ski’s hunts and tens her garden.

Anna Fekete is a strong female lead. I was particularly impressed by the sensitive portrayal of the strained relationship between herself and her mother and how, as secrets are revealed, Anna and her mother learn to understand each other better.

The movement of populations and the rezoning of country boundaries loomed large in the book and made it very relevant in the current refugee crisis. Whilst we were given descriptions of the refugee camps and the problems they faced we were also aware that Anna’s family were themselves had been refugees. I was also given the impression that the Hungarian inhabitants of the area where being sidelined by the Serbian population. Anna is herself, living as an immigrant in Finland and much was made of the differences in the two cultures. My knowledge of the geography and history of the area are poor and I was prompted to do a small amount of background reading. However, my own lack of ‘sense of place’ did not detract from my enjoyment of the book.

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Mayfly “Flowering” On The Tisza

I found the book to be well written and tightly plotted with a good level of suspense. It had a certain depth and I would not consider it a light read, whether that is due to the setting or the content I’m not sure. Anna is a multidimensional character. Driven and feminist, she can also show a more vulnerable side, which we see in her relationship with Peter. The supporting cast of characters were also well drawn and I was fascinated by  the descriptions of the riverside village, the camps  and the library club.

Whilst the mayfly only lives for the briefest of times , I hope Anna Fekete makes many more appearances. So flit down to your local bookshop for a copy or download it.

Reviewed by Georgina Murphy

MARTELL DELIVERS THREE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL TALES FROM UP IN THE MOUNTAINS

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High Mntns of Portugal cvrI’m no stranger to the Iberian Peninsula, having been there numerous times with my family on holidays when I was growing up. Then with a good mate in my early twenties. After that a girlfriend dumped me midway through another holiday there in my early thirties, by a poolside in front of fellow sun worshipers stretched out on sun loungers – classy. Then, last year I went there on my honeymoon.

I’ve never been any further north than the Algarve not even to its beautiful capital city of Lisbon, often referred to as the San Francisco of Europe because of its Golden Gate styled bridge and cable cars. Neither am I acquainted with any of Portugal’s mountains. To be honest there aren’t really any. The highest Portuguese mountain isn’t even on the Portuguese mainland but in the middle of the Atlantic, on the Azores. The highest point on continental Portugal is Torre “Tower” at 1,993m and that’s the highest point in a mountain range, not an individual mountain so you can see why there was some smiles when we discussed this month’s second book at our recent book group. It’s the High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel – published by Canongate (www.canongate.tv)  in 2016.

The book is basically a compilation three novellas the first one entitled “Homeless” follows the exploits of Tomas a grief-stricken archaeologist as he goes in search of a religious icon, over his short Christmas holidays. The artifact in question is a crucifix with monkey on it brought from Africa by a long dead Portuguese missionary. To help him in his search, his wealthy uncle entrusts him with one of his prized new-fangled automobiles, something he has never encountered before, let alone driven. The second story tells of a Pathologist who is asked to perform an autopsy on a man by his widow, when  she turns up at his offices late at night with the deceased in a large trunk. Finally, a Canadian politician, retires to Portugal after the death of his wife with a monkey he bought from sanctuary, to start a new life in his ancestral home in the last tale.

If you’ve never read anything by Yann Martell, then this book is going to feel a bit weird. But if like me you you’ve had the experience of reading his work before, then it’s going feel a bit like par for the course. However, this book is straight out of left field even by Yann’s standards.

Yann Martell

Yann Martell

One thing you should be made aware of from the outset is that Martell has a fascination with Animals – especially monkeys. The Life of PI features a Tiger, Orangutan, Hyena, Zebra and boy in a life raft… Beatrice and Virgil, explores the relationship of a writer and a taxidermist and two of his prized works; a donkey and monkey. Then again, in the High Mountains of Portugal he places monkeys in all three stories.

Regarding the three stories, the first one is humorous  in the main – especially when we observe Tomas trying to get to grips with the art of driving after a very brief 5 minute lessen from his uncle and his manservant. His run ins with the locals who are both scared, bewildered and in awe of this new contraception. Then his exploits in making sure he can get fuel for the car is the wilderness that is the uplands of north eastern Portugal, the ending has a tragic event which had the book group divide as to whether it was deliberate or an accident.

After the brevity of the first story, the second one entitled “Homeward” is a real head scratcher and had me thinking I was reading the script to an episode of the British TV series “Tales of The Unexpected” or similarly, “The Twilight Zone”. But the twist at the end is fantastic and considering the first half of the story centres on a discussion between the central character and his wife on the parallels between Agatha Christie and the miracles of our lord, near the witching hour on new years eve. I was almost falling a sleep but the autopsy it self had me sitting bolt upright again and not knowing whether to laugh or cry after it.

As for the third and final story called “Home”,  which follows the ups and downs and the Every which way but loosewacky events of the previous two stories, this is straight out of the Disney school of how to write a heart wrenching and emotional feel good animal story. It’s ‘Lassie-esque’, with the theme of the film “Every Which Way But Lose” driven straight through it. Images of Clint Eastwood and Clyde were stuck in my head while reading it.

This is Canadian writer Yann Martell’s (www.yannmartel.ca ) 8th book, the others being The Facts Behind The Helsinki Racamatios(1993), Self(1996), Life Of PI(2001), What Is Stephen Harper Reading(2009), Beatrice & Virgil(2010) and 101 Letters To a Prime Minister(2012).

Just to add to the Twilight Zone feel of this book is the discovery gradually that all the stories are linked in a roundabout way, this in turn adds to the appeal of the book.

The thoughts of the book group, where divided. None of them bar one person, myself, recognised a  theme running  throughout, grief,  The whole book is an examination of how different people deal with it. Everyone at some stage in their life experiences loss, and no two people go through it the same way. Myself included. It was quite by coincidence that the 18th anniversary of my father’s passing occurred while reading the book.

It’s strange that this book had me feeling quite apprehensive at the start, going on the experiences left over from Beatrice and Virgil. It took me to heights and places I’d never felt Martel’s work could do. As a result, I now see his work in a new light, making me want to give his other unread works a go. So if you fancy tripping the light fantastic and finally getting into the mind of this author, download a copy or get down to your local bookshop and begin a fantastic journey.

JOHNSON CONTINUES TO OVERCOME HIS DEMONS IN A DEADLY GAME WITH THE AID OF A GREAT BRITISH BOBBY

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Deadly game CvrBattle Stress, Shell Shock, War Neurosis, Post-traumatic stress disorder, it’s been around for centuries but only recently, the 1980’s actually, has it been officially recognized and become more widely known thanks to its buzzy new moniker PTSD. For years battle weary soldiers and those in the front-line of emergency response who’d witnessed truly awful sights, things you wouldn’t have shown a five-year-old, let alone a thirty-five-year-old. They have suffered in silence trying to deal with the images seared onto their temporal lobe, usually dealing with the repercussions through substance abuse and self-harm, leading ultimately to taking their own life in some cases. The author of this month’s book is a former policeman, who was advised to take up writing to overcome his PTSD, brought about by having been at the centre of some of the worst atrocities caused by the IRA and other terrorist groups on the British mainland. He was one of the first officers on the scene of the Regents Park bombing in 1982, was injured in the Baltic Exchange bombing in 1993, and traveled with his mortally wounded colleague WPC Yvonne Fletcher after she was shot by Libyan terrorists in 1984. The book is Deadly Game by Matt Johnson published by Orenda books (www.orendabooks.co.uk)  at the end of March.

For Inspector Robert Finlay, things are hopefully starting to return to normal following the attempt on his own, his family’s life and the lives of a few of his former SAS colleagues. On returning to work with London’s Metropolitan Police force, he finds himself the centre of internal and inter agency politics and the fear by other officers that he is a “Bullet Magnet”.  Assigned to the Department dealing with the Eastern European Sex Slave industry, whilst Robert and some of his superiors thought  it might be a way of keeping out of trouble, they are in for a rude awakening.

For no sooner has he started his new job and while on a Mediterranean holiday, he saves a young woman from drowning and is invited to her wedding as a sign of her gratitude, only to realize that his past and present lives are about to collide again.  Her families publishing company are a well-known front for the sex trafficking industry and their latest book is a rehashed memoir of an operation Finlay’s SAS team were on in Afghanistan. During the wedding, he defuses a situation by disarming a security guard. Then a couple of weeks later, while investigating the murder of an escaped sex slave worker turned informant, he and his new partner come face to face with the same man in an armed standoff in a London street. Add to that, the kidnapping of a female Firearms officer and Robert is hurled into a race against time to disrupt the Sex Trafficking gang’s activities and save the life of the kidnapped police officer. This, all while trying to decipher the mysterious documents that were found in the papers of an ex-army buddy , which are costing people who come into contact with them their lives.

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The aftermath of WPC Yvonne Fletcher’s fatal shooting

I didn’t get a chance to read Johnson’s first book “Wicked Game”.  If I had and it had been written as well as this one was, and all the reviews seem to point to that conclusion, then I’d have camped out overnight in-front of my local book store book on this one’s publication date or at least politely harangued my friends at Orenda for a copy. What starts out slowly, soon explodes into a vibrant and Le Carre-esque read that had me on the edge of my seat from the first page.

Most books have one main story running through it, but here Johnson has so many threads running at once that, I almost needed a towel to mop the sweat from my brow and a masseur to work on my neck which was almost constantly sore from looking over my shoulder, so enveloped by this book and Johnson’s writing was I. The last fictional police hero to leave me with this excitement and enthusiasm for his next book was Frank Pagan, the hero of the books Jig, Mazurka, Mambo, Jigsaw and Heat by the late Scottish author Campbell Armstrong.

This is English author Matt Johnson’s second book(www.mattjohnsonauthor.com), his

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Matt Johnson

first one Wicked Game was originally self-published in 2012, then following the acquiring
the rights to it. Orenda published in 2016, where it went on to be long-listed for the 2016 John Creasey New Blood Dagger award, as well being listed on Amazon as the highest rated debut novel of the year.

Like Pagan, Finlay, is an old-school policeman whose graduated from the University of hard knocks and developed his skills on “The Beat”, but unlike Pagan he’s also got a military background which gives him additional talents in the firearms and hand to hand combat departments. Thus, enabling him to swim against the tide when in deeper waters than most coppers would find themselves in.

The main story line centering on the modern sex Slave trade is still very current and hasn’t been over worked by numerous authors before him.  Although I was worried that he was going to fall back on a hoary old chestnut in the form of IRA involvement – because in the past authors who’ve written about ex-SAS operatives, think the only foes they’ve ever faced were in Northern Ireland, but this ends up as just a bit of a red herring in Johnson’s case.

There are a few loose ends in this book, which look intriguing going forth, I’ll therefore look forward to seeing what future perils Johnson pits his very believable creation against in in future books.  While doing so, I suggest you buy or down load a copy of Johnson’s first two books and get in at the start of what could be another crime series featuring a great British bobby.

TREMAIN’S SONATA IS MORE ROCK AND ROLL THAN WALTZ, BUT WORTH THE DROPPED NOTES

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gustav-sonata-cvrOn the day that I finished reading this month’s second book, back at the start of February, it’s ironic  that Rolf Harris was cleared of three further historical sex abuse charges. One of his greatest hits was a firm favorite at Christmas and  I’ve  found myself humming regularly, especially while reading this book.  Since his conviction it and all his other work, both artistically and musically has been scrubbed from playlists and removed from public view, which is a shame.

I’m referring of course to Two Little Boys. A song which tells the story of two friends who grow up then get separated in battle only to have one ride out of the smoke and rescue his mate with the chorus line “Did you think I would leave you dying, when there’s room on my horse for two….” and this is the main theme of this book, The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain published by Vintage publishing www.Penguin.c.uk/Vintage  in January this year.

Gustav Perle grows up in the sheltered existence of neutral Switzerland just after the second world war. Raised by his widowed mother Emilie, they live a hand to mouth existence as she works two jobs, at the Cheese factory and cleaning the local church early on Saturdays, doing her level best to try and keep their heads above water and provide some sort of respectable normality to his childhood, although her own depression and borderline alcoholism is a hindrance. One day Gustav’s solitary existence is shattered when a new boy Anton Zweibel (which translates as onion) arrives at his school. They hit it off instantly and from there on a lifelong friendship begins which goes deeper than just friends and the boys discover different things about each other’s past.

The book deals with a lot of topics which are current even today, such as immigration, the Humanitarian Crisis, as well as what is right or wrong and it asks the question, what would we do if in a certain situation. Through Gustav’s journey of discovery, we uncover the truth about what happened to his father during the war and why his mother will not talk about it. What unfolds via a revelation is his old man’s infidelity, his work related stress, but also the beautiful and passionate courtship of his parents, before Gustav’s birth and early life.

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The main part of the book centres on the relationship between the two boys . There is a  ‘will they won’t they ‘unrequited gay scenario. While also showing how two friends lives can change over time due to their different aims or more importantly upbringing.

Gustav’s life is pure struggle to survive until he meets Anton. Anton is the son of a Jewish banker who has everything he needs and is being groomed to be a concert pianist, only for his nerves to get in the way. What comes across in the book is that Gustav is a virtual doormat to all of humanity and is all but used by everyone he meets, even Anton, who comes across as a spineless self-centred human being is used to having things done for him and who can’t really deal with any harsh challenges (bit like the youth of today in the blogger’s opinion). Thus he needs Gustav to be his emotional crutch, who must break various bits of bad news to Anton’s parents’, employers etc, etc… Gustav it appears, is the son the Zweibel’s never had and wished they did instead of Anton. Through his friendship he is exposed to the good things in life, things his poor washed up mother can’t provide. Expensive holidays in Geneva and Davos and skating at the local ice rink.

This English Author Rose Tremain’s www.rosetremain.co.uk thirteenth novel, the others include The Sadler’s Birthday(1976), The Cupboard(1981), Restoration(1989), which was shortlisted for The Booker and made into a film with a stellar cast, including Robert Downey Jnr., Meg Ryan, Hugh Grant, Sam Neil and David Thewlis. The Road Home(2008) was the Whitbread Novel of the year and Trespass(2010) was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick.  She has written five collections of short stories and a children’s book called Journey To The Volcano(1985). Rose was made a CBE in 2007 and currently lives in Norfolk with her partner the biographer Richard Holmes.

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Rose Tremain

This isn’t the first time she has used immigration and sexual discovery as a subject for her books, Her 1992 book Sacred Country tells the story a young English girl who is gender challenged. While The Road Home, follows the exploits of a young Eastern European man as he leaves his homeland to start a new life in London.

The general reaction to this book at the book group, including myself was that the book was a nice read. But could have been a bit longer, and was a victim of over editing, which is usually lacking in other similar novels. Thus, the story in the Gustav Sonata is not given more time to develop, so what you get is short jumpy bits which feels a bit like a hashed-up time travelling piece.

The ending also feels a bit twee and just thrown in to finish a book the author had lost interest in or was under pressure to finish. The topics covered in the book allowed for a frank and in-depth discussion on current problems facing Europe and the world, what with immigration through Europe and Trump’s botched travel ban. So, take yourself off and download or pick up a copy of this book.

BROADRIBB GOES FROM CRITIC TO CRITIQUED TO BURY THE OPPOSITION DEEP DOWN IN A KNOCK EM’ DEAD DEBUT.

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deep-down-dd-cvrI was in the UK’s second city recently at an event in the NEC, when I was informed by a sign on the wall of some of the well known people who have come from Birmingham. The likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Leona Lewis were mentioned, while the literary world wasn’t referenced. The West Midland’s capital has produced such luminaries as J.R. Tolkien, James Barlow, Bill Odie and Barbara Cartland. When it comes to bounty hunters though… They’re a bit thin on the ground, until now. This month’s book is written by a former bounty hunter, who’s a Brummie. The book is Deep Down Dead by Steph Broadribb and was published in January by Orenda books www.orendabooks.com .

Our heroine Lori Anderson is a single mother working as a bounty hunter in Florida. When the medical bills for her nine – year old daughter’s treatment start to stack up, along with the rent, she’s forced to take an out of state skip trace worth enough to cover her mounting bills. But there’s a deadline, she must have him back in court in three days. The ‘him’ turns out to be her mentor, JT, whom she hasn’t seen in ten years. Getting him back from West Virginia in three days should be a cake walk. But then things start to go downhill,  her child minder goes  away early to see relatives out of state, thus forcing her to take Dakota on a “Ride-Along”. JT is being held by another bounty hunter in the hills awaiting Lori’s arrival.  At the hand-over she’s ambushed and just about manages to get away with JT, then Dakota is kidnapped by a theme park owner running a pornography ring from one of his parks ,who wants incriminating evidence JT has on him. Meanwhile the mob also want a piece of JT.  Will she get Dakota back? Will she manage to return JT to Florida without letting her past with him get in the way?

The first thing that strikes me about this book is that it’s full of the usual bog standard storyline building blocks of your average half decent American tv drama. A kid, a bounty hunter playing fast and loose with the law, the mob and the two main characters bumping off each other or having done so in the past with the usual results…. But add to that Broadribb’s tense and moving writing style we are presented with a steadfast page turner of a first novel and if she can keep this up for the next couple of books she’ll set herself up as a force to be reckoned with in this genre.

The child pornography ring being run out of a Winter Wonderland theme park was original, but in parts reminded me of the plot of Beverly Hills Cop 3, when Axel investigates a money laundering racket in a theme park. Also, the link between the three main characters is a bit predictable but again it doesn’t take away from the self-assured, fresh – in your face writing style of this new kid on the block.

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Steph Broadribb

Broadribb’s life reads almost like my own, I was born in London grew up in Chesham in Buckinghamshire and then moved to Dublin where I write this blog. Ok, so I haven’t trained as a Bounty hunter but I often thought about it while growing up watching “The Fall Guy”.

This is the first foray into becoming a crime fiction writer for the Birmingham born debutant, but not her first time writing about crime fiction, as she’s been writing the book blog www.crimethrillergirl.com for several years now. She trained as bounty Hunter in California, studied creative writing at the City University London and now lives and writes surrounded by horses and cows in the English home county of Buckinghamshire.

Steph is planning to make this into a series set around the exploits of her heroine Lori Anderson,

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Duane “Dog” Chapman

who comes across as very likeable and far more interesting character than the real-life Duane “Dog” Chapman and his cohort of hanger-on’s in the reality TV series “Dog”.  The methodical way Lori goes about things and the style of writing shows experience and sufficient knowledge of Broadribb’s field of expertise, means she is to this sub-genre what Kathy Reich’s is to the Medical Examiner sub-genre.

So without further ado download this book or hot foot it to your local book store and snap up a copy and get in at the start of what looks set to be an enthralling series.

SIJIE’S LITTLE SEAMSTRESS MAKES A FLUFFY SILK PURSE OUT OF A VERY UGLY MAO’S FOUR YEARS

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balzac-cvrIn a little over 6 weeks time, one of the smallest countries in the world, with the largest diaspora celebrates its annual holiday. I am of course referring to Ireland and St. Patrick’s day, which is celebrated almost the world over. While this weekend sees one of the largest countries in the world with an equally wide spread diaspora celebrate its New Year, four weeks after the rest of the world. That is China and the arrival of the year of the rooster. This month’s second book  is  written by a Chinese writer, something I wouldn’t normally get much chance to experience, unless of course, like me  you’re in a book group, which is how I came to read this. The book is Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, published by Vintage publishing in 2002 (www.vintage-books.co.uk).

The book tells the story of two teenage boys Ma Jianling and Luo Min  – sons of doctors, who as part of Chairman Mao’s re-education program, are sent to the wilds of rural china to knock the elitist well educated corners off them. Here they are put to work in the paddy fields, down mines, doing back breaking hard labour and other menial tasks. They are treated with disdain by the town elders and their poor and uneducated subjects but from the outset the two boys prove they can offer more than just cheap easy labour. One of them plays a violin, while the other is a fantastic story teller and they are soon given the additional task of going to the local city to watch the films and re-enact them to the locals. During their first couple of weeks traipsing back and forth across the foothills to and from the their daily back breaking chores, they meet a local travelling tailor and his beautiful daughter – whom Lou starts to court. Shortly after that  they discover a friend known as “Four Eyes,”  has a stash of forbidden 19th century European novels in a suitcase under his bed. They borrow one of the books and as they educate the young seamstress in the writing of Balzac, they realize she wants to hear more and so they set about planning to liberate the suitcase and its contents from under Four Eye’s bed. Will they succeed? Will the elders discover the books and burn them, or will their re-education program come to an end sooner? Will Lou and the little seamstress – end up happily married.

I didn’t know anything about Mao’s “Re-Education” program. Not until I opened the book and started reading, did  I realize it was part of the Cultural Revolution and was more commonly known as the “Up To The Mountains, Down To The Countryside Movement”. Through this program the People’s Party under Mao set about ridding the country of capitalist influences, by sending an estimated 17 million young people from the large cities to rural hard labour camps between 1966 – 76.

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The book is very short. At only one hundred and seventy pages it is a classical novella, so theoretically there is no reason this can’t be read in one sitting. Of the two main characters, we only really get to know the name of one Lou – the other one never reveals his name and if he does it is a fleeting reference (it was only through research of the film did I find his name in the credits). The story is educational and well written and documents perfectly the coming of age and re-education or widening of every character’s knowledge from the little seamstress’s exposure to literature to the boy’s introduction hard labour and the joys of romance as well as sex.

Dai Sijie was born in china, the only child of two medical professors under the Re-Education program he was sent to rural Sichuan. Although, as an only child he would have

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Dai Sijie

been exempt, but he went any way to experience the spartan lifestyle. On his return after 4 years, he became a lecturer in art in 1974. In 1984 he moved to France on scholarship where he still lives today. There he developed a liking for writing and  directing films. Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress ( Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise) was the first of two books he’s written and his experiences in the re-education camp are the inspiration for the book. His second book Mr Mouch’s Travelling Couch ( Le Complexe de Di)  was published in 2003. It was translated into English in 2005. He made Balzac And the Little Chinese Seamstress into a movie in 2002, he has made five other films since.

Sijie does for the Cultural Revolution through this book, what the likes of Schindler’s List, The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas and The Book Thief for example did for the brutality of the Nazi regime. Lift a small stone and shed a very big light on it. Although compared to Schindler’s List – Balzac and The Little Chinese Seamstress is a laugh out loud comedy. Though, this is not to denigrate the experiences of those who survived the Re-Education camps. Sidjie has put a rather fluffy feel on a very arduous and harrowing period in Chinese history.

So buy or download a copy of this book, then as you decide what’s for dinner, maybe opt for Chinese take away with  traditional New Year’s Moon Cake, and settle down for both an educational and hugely enjoyable romp through the Cultural Revolution. Xinjian Kuaile…

 

WILSON HAS ME YEARNING TO GO ‘BACK TO BLACK’ GIVEN THE OPTION…

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comfrt-of-blk-cvrMy husband  works in the hospitality sector – or to be more precise publishes an Irish Hospitality trade magazine. Although in the past he’s held  a number of roles in the hospitality field, from reservations team member for a chain of five star London hotels to reservations account manager with the second largest car hire company in the world and as an account manager with one of the leading car-hire websites. In his spare time, as you may already have seen from being a regular visitor, he writes and edits this site. So, as they often say, there’s a book inside all of us and I have no doubt he will write one in the future. But till then we’ll  have to be contented with  some one else in the hospitality industry making it as a successful writer.  That person is Carter Wilson and this month’s book is his third novel “The Comfort of Black” published by Oceanview Publishing (www.oceanviewpub.com) .

Hannah and her tech start up owner husband, Dallin have it all. They live in Seattle, in an Condo overlooking the city. They are on the verge of taking the next step in their marriage by starting a family but over the recent months Dallin has become distant and then one night in his sleep he starts talking aggressively to another woman. A couple of days later when Hannah Confronts him about it he attacks her. She manages to escape to the safety of her sisters house but when she agrees to meet him on neutral ground to talk things over, Dalinn tries to have her kidnapped. Only the intervention of a mild mannered stranger she met in a coffee shop moments before the abduction thwarts Dalinn’s plan. Who is Black Morrow? what is Dallin up to and what does it have to do with her past? The past that she and her sister had thought they’d left behind?

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We are initially introduced the Hannah, The Comfort of Black’s main character by visiting a traumatic event in her childhood. I found this captured my interest immediately and built some empathy for a character who, if I wasn’t aware of her background, I would have had little initial enthusiasm for. I must admit I found a couple of the character names preposterous. Maybe that’s my northern English roots rebelling. Or maybe it was part of Wilson’s design , to delineate so clearly between the working class folk of Kansas and the Hollywood like glamour of Dallin and Black Morrow. I mean, surely his surname could have been Black! However, Hannah’s back story and the immediate sense of secrets and mystery prevented me from dropping the book with snort of derision.  Hannah finds her life with successful technology entrepreneur, Dallin isn’t all as happy and contented as she thought. Already concerned that he has grown distant she is horrified when he reveals a startling dark side whist talking in his sleep. Hannah decides to investigate. Is the man she married who she thinks he is? As she tries to find the truth, her whole life is turned upside down and abduction, violence and even murder ensue. Who can Hannah trust?  Who is the architect of her nightmare situation?

Carter Wilson (www.carterwilson.com) was born in New Mexico and grew up In LA. He studied at Cornell and is now a consultant and lecturer in the hospitality industry. His other books are Final Crossing (2012), The Boy In The Woods (2014) and his latest, Revelation, just published at the end of 2016. One wonders if this rather dull sounding persona is merely a blind for an exciting double life as a spy or mercenary because he certainly seems to be extremely familiar with a murky underworld of fixers and criminals. As for my husband, the jury is still out…

Whilst all his books are thrillers, Carter cannot be easily categorized within the thriller genre. His novel ‘The Boy in The Woods’ is about a young boy who witnesses a murder and

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Carter Wilson

is unable to put the memory out of his mind. Later as a thriller writer he recounts the story, representing it as fiction. He is contacted by the person he believes is the killer and a deadly game ensues.’ Final Crossing’, his other novel is about a religiously motivated serial killer being pursued by an ex ranger and a psychic detective. There seems to be no common denominator here. I feel it’s kind of refreshing that the settings and plots are so different. Certainly not predictable! His influences appear wide ranging as Dan Brown, Gillian Flynn, Dennis Lehane, Lee child, Ian Fleming and Stephen King all sprang to mind whilst looking at synopses of his work. As these are some of the best thriller writers, he is in good company.

It’s actually a very difficult book to put down at all. Wilson keeps you guessing with every twist and turn and ratchets up the tension continuously. Even a regular reader of thrillers, like myself, was left giddy with each revelation. Every time I thought I had it sussed, there I was, wrong again! There was even romance in the mix. I won’t spoil the conclusion which tied everything up nicely but I must admit to being a little disappointed at the loss of a main character with more to give.

This is certainly a book I shall recommend to male and female friends alike. A great holiday read. I look forward to finding more of Carter Wilson’s enthralling and hopefully crazily named characters in his previous and future works..

 

Reviewed by  Georgina Murphy

FEARS FOR MY FUTURE HEALTH LEAVE ME MISSING OUT HEALEY’S DEBUT

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ezbth-missng-cvrIn 2015 The world Alzheimer’s report stated there are currently 46 million people worldwide suffering from some sort of dementia related illness and that figure will double each year going forward. Like cancer or any other large global illness, we all know someone with dementia and to be honest with those figures, it’s a scary thought that anyone of us reading this piece could fall victim to it. That brings me onto this month’s second book, its Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey, published by Penguin in 2015 (www.penguin.co.uk).

Maud forgets things, the cup of tea she made earlier, what she went to the shops for. Even where she lives and her own family, are at times, strangers too her. But one thing Maud does know is that her friend Elizabeth is missing. How? Because there’s a note in her pocket. No matter who she tells, even the police – no one believes her and they just tell her to forget it. Whatever else she may mentally let go of, Elizabeth’s disappearance isn’t one of them. Maud is in her eighties. So, she isn’t just pushing against everyone else in her search for the truth about her friend’s whereabouts, she’s also trying overcome the cloying effects of her illness. On top of that, there’s the mystery surrounding what happened to her sister 60 years ago, can Maud work out the clues in her rolling ship of a memory? Is Elizabeth even missing? Did her sister ever return?

I read a lot of books, as you can gather and if you’ve read most of these reviews you’ll be aware that I have a fifty-page rule. If the book doesn’t get me by fifty pages then I put it down, as life’s too short to read bad books. This book, I had to put down not before fifty pages but at one hundred and eighty-six!!!! Why? Because the writing and storytelling was so compelling, I got upset. Maybe I was at a low time in the year, this was strange because when I picked it up and started reading it, I was on a week’s holiday in the Algarve with my new wife, enjoying blue skies and temperatures of 30 degrees in late September. But for some reason I got all worked up about dementia and started to wonder what would happen if I got dementia and how I would cope with it? Silly isn’t it?

I’ve read other books that have upset me in the past and as I said then, I’ll say now. It’s not a sign of failure, but of success on the authors part and here Emma Healy has

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Miss Marple – aka Joan Hickson

succeeded in getting the reader into the shoes, or more appropriately, the disheveled mind of Maud. If Agatha Christie had given Miss Marple Alzheimer’s, herself and Maud would be almost alike.

In those one hundred and eighty-six pages that I read and from what I ascertained from friends and acquaintances who have read the full two hundred seventy-five. Healey keeps you on the edge of your seat and at times your heart in your mouth, with worry and concern for our heroine as she goes about trying to solve the two mysteries.

This is British writer Emma Healey’s (www.emmahealey.co.uk)  first novel and was inspired by her grandmother. She grew up in London and studied art in college. In a recent interview in The Times, she admitted that at sixteen she contemplated suicide, but that art saved her. After working in libraries, universities and bookshops around the UK she eventually settled in Norwich in 2010, to complete her MA in Creative Writing and never left.  Elizabeth Is Missing won the Costa First Novel Award in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize in 2015, there is currently no news on her next book.

The only bad mark against this book is that there is a lot of jumping back and forth between present day and post world war II Britain as Maud tries retrace the final movements of her sister and recount run-ins with her shifty brother-in-law. Mixed with the constant disruption caused by her faltering and decimated memory it can get a bit confusing. Maybe it’s planned that way? As well as that, there is a rather dark comedic element to Maud’s predicament which at times serves to lighten the mood of the book.

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Emma Healey

I never apologise for wearing my heart on my sleeve and letting my emotions get the better of me. I’m not alone in letting thoughts of our own mortality rise to the surface, but to quote James Shirley in Death The Leveller “There is no amour against fate…”. We must just get on and enjoy life as best we can.

What I read of it, this was a lovely book and as other reviewers such as Debra Moggach and Emma Donoghue have claimed, it is a haunting and unsettling read that will stir and shake you. So, if you can lock your fears of mortality and the future in a metaphorical steel casket for a while, then go out and buy or download a copy of this book.

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From myself and the other contributors to the Library Door, we’d like to take this opportunity to again thank you for visiting the site over the past year and hope you’ve enjoyed reading the reviews as much as we have writing them. Thank you to the publishers who keep my postman busy – especially Karen in Orenda books who continually surprises us with regular parcels. If you are an author or publisher and you’d like to send us copies of your latest releases you can contact me  on twitter @apaulmurphy  or by email at apaulmurphy@gmail.com . We hope you had a great Christmas and wish you a very happy New Year.

Adrian Murphy

DARK, SMOULDERING AND CHILLING IT MAYBE. BUT JONASSONS THIRD BOOK SETS OFF MY LITERARY AQUAPHOBIA

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black-out-cvrCan you remember where you were between the 15th-21st April 2010, yes I know its a long time ago, but go on try to remember…If I said Eyjafjallajokull… No, I’m not swearing at you, but that word or similar sounding expletives were on the tip of quite a few European tongues that week in 2010.  That was when a little known Icelandic volcano, until then that is, decided to erupt and the ensuing ash cloud grounded the European air traffic system, stranding over 10 million people worldwide and costing the airline industry $1.7 billion in lost revenue. That volcano, yes the one no one with out a large bottle Brennivin inside them can pronounce, plays a central role in this months second  book, titled Black Out by  Ragnar Jònasson  published by Orenda Books (www.orendabooks.co.uk) in July 2016.

When  man is killed at a remote cottage in Northern Iceland.  Detective Ari Thór Arason a troubled and complex small town policemen  and his colleagues start to investigate the crime. Was the man the intended victim? What kind of man was he? Why was he killed? Throw into the mix a reporter with secrets of her own, along with the convoluted lives of the investigating officers, their relatives and former lovers and you have a complex plot that’s even murkier without the added bonus of the ever present ash cloud.

This was my first foray into the series and almost my first exposure to Nordic Noir. Noir is certainly the word. As a lover of thrillers both crime and psychological since my early teens, somewhat foolishly I took this book as holiday reading on a sunny beach holiday. Not a good choice. This book needs a dark winter evening, in front of a roaring fire, with something stronger than cocoa, maybe Brennivin, the Icelandic Schnapps often referred to as the Black death.

Set during the 24 hour light of an Arctic summer you might think this book would inspire

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Eyjafjallajokull erupting in 2010

you with wonderful descriptions of the Icelandic scenery. However, this is the period of the volcanic eruption and ash cloud . The cloud is shutting out the sun in Reykjavik and making life depressingly claustrophobic for the Icelanders who have endured the dark winter. I found this coloured the whole book. It was unremittingly dark and depressing. Not surprising for crime fiction you might say but even the parallel character plots were depressing. The most interesting character for me was Isrun, a young reporter. Her character is pivotal to moving the plot forwards and the representation of the cutthroat world of TV news, whilst not original, seemed realistic.

Everyone was miserable, suicidal or just downright nasty. When I say ‘everyone’, there were a lot of characters and a lot of threads, at least one of which, seemed to me unnecessary.  However as this is the second of a series of linked novels, I appreciate some characters and storylines may be revisited and fleshing out of characters and laying the base of future plots could be required. I lost patience with the book several times but picked it up again and was eventually rewarded with the ‘hook’ which finally ignited my interest half way into the book. For myself, a hint of this or the reveal itself coming a little earlier would have invested me much more.  Maybe Noir fans prefer the slow burn? I certainly found it confusing, having to turn back or reread to work out who people were etc. Not a book I’d recommend for the Kindle so!

 

This is Ragnar Jónasson’s (www.ragnar-jonasson.squarespace.com) 3rd book to be translated into English, his  debut novel Snowblind was published to crital aclaim in 2015 followed closely by Nightblind in the same year. There are two more english translations scheduled for publication in 2017, they atre Breathless and Ruptiure.

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Ragnor Jonasson

 

Before beginning to write his own stories,  Jónnason translated Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic and founded  a crime writers festival in Iceland. I was hoping for some hint of Christie here. Reviews of ‘Snowblind’ referenced Jonasson as a modern Christie.  He has obviously spent a long time honing his characters and plot lines for a series of books. I could also easily see a TV series. I was hoping to dip my toe into Nordic Noir with this book but in the end I found it too cold and bleak to take the plunge into the whole Fjord.

But if series like Fortitude (which didn’t get me either) are your thing, then get your togs or thermal swimsuit on and dive right in.

 

Reviewed by Georgina Murphy

WE LOSE A LOT MORE THAN THE MAIN CHARACTER IN SEMPLE’S SECOND BOOK

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whered-you-go-bernadette-cvrThere’s a lot to be said for the quirkiness of the residents of Seattle, hey look at Frasier Crane.  Lets not forget that in real life Jimi Hendrix was born there.  It might also have something to do with the amount of coffee they consume, thanks to it being the birthplace of Starbucks. Add to that, each year they have an annual No Pants Light Rail Ride day, where they are encouraged to take off trousers and skirts and show off their underwear on the daily commute, and we thought mum’s doing the school run in their  PJ’s was OTT.

Seattle is also home to one of the largest IT hubs outside of Silicon Valley, being where the Amazon and Microsoft Head Quarters are situated. The MS facility alone has something in the region of 40,000 staff working there, spread over 17 buildings on a campus covering 500 acres, so much so it needs its on private bus network called the Microsft Connector to enable it’s staff to get to and from work. Its on board these buses and this campus as well as the Seattle environs that most of this months book take place, its Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple (www.mariasemple.com), published by Little Brown & Company (www.littlebrown.com) in 2012.

Now, I like my humour witty – quick, incisive and accurately honed to the unexpected target. And I like my satire served with an undertone of viciousness.

Maria Semple’s  humour (she wrote for “Arrested Development”) is very much in the tradition of farce: slapstick, ‘wacky’ and laid on thick.  Her satire relies on over-the-top rants and exaggerated caricature that have as much bite as a soggy cracker.

So I HATED this book! I could – and probably should – stop there. But I feel the need to explain this extreme reaction. Actually, that’s not true. The real reason is that, having read the book, I want to have a good rant to get it out of my system!

When we first meet the book’s protagonist, Bernadette, she’s living the life of a semi-recluse with her daughter and husband in an almost derelict house on an overgrown lot in Seattle. An architect by profession, Bernadette has forsaken work to devote herself to her daughter, Bee, who was born with a heart defect. Bee is now fifteen, a straight-A student and more than capable of looking after herself. She has to. Bernadette, poor pet, is incapable of doing anything. For 75c/hr she has outsourced virtually all every-day activity to an Indian online personal assistant, to whom she gives personal and family information, including banking details. Bernadette’s husband is a Microsoft ‘guru’ – a level 8 corporate VP – with a commensurate large salary. Her daughter is “a pure delight. Her love of learning is infectious, as are her kindness and good humour”. Both of them love Bernadette dearly.

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So Bernadette’s life is hell.  She has to put up with ordinary people.  She even has to interact with some of them. She disparagingly refers to other mothers at Bee’s private school as ‘gnats’ and treats them accordingly – swotting them out of her way. One of the main reasons Bernadette doesn’t like leaving the house is “because I might find myself face-to-face with a Canadian………..to Canadians everyone is equal ………..The thing Canadians don’t understand is that some people are extraordinary and should be treated as such”. Other reasons for Bernadette not leaving the house include infuriating 5-way street junctions, having to wait at traffic lights, having to step over “runaways, drug addicts and bums” on the way to shop in Nordstrum. What an imposition! How dare they BE there!

Bernadette is, of course, a genius. (We know this because she’s won a genius prize!!). And her genius is being suffocated in the mediocre, social-climbing, Microsoft shallows of rain-sodden Seattle.

What’s my problem? This is a fantastic set up for brilliant biting satire! And it could be. Except that Semple wants us to IDENTIFY with Bernadette!! To empathise with the trials and tribulations she endures by having to stoop to doing anything mundane – like living a life. We’re expected to applaud Bernadette’s oh-so-superior dismissal of the pretentiousness of the ‘gnats’, her ridicule of her husband’s granola-eating, bicycle-riding lifestyle, her disparaging of Microsoft, the people of Seattle and – well, everything.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I enjoy ridicule of middle class pretentiousness, social climbing and the ‘dairy-free, gluten-free, whatever-comes-into-my-head-free’ attention seekers. Some of Semple’s pithy lines even generated a smile or two. But derision of these traits is so much a part of the ‘look-how-smart-and-different-I-am’ supercilious pretentiousness of the exact same social-climbing middle class that it packs as much satirical punch as a dairy-free wheatgrass smoothie does taste.

There is a point about halfway through the book where Bernadette’s long-suffering husband gets so alarmed and pissed-off by her behaviour that he arranges to have her committed to a psychiatric institution (or ‘loony bin’ as Bernadette herself describes it).  It’s then that Bernadette disappears. What a pity! The ‘I-am-so-exceptional-that-it’s-the-world’s-responsibility-to-do-what-I-want’ Bernadette in a loony bin? Now THAT would have been worth reading.

But, no, Bernadette evades her persecutors, travels to the Antarctic and ‘finds herself’ in a project to build a station at the South Pole – a place she particularly likes because she could put her hand “on the South Pole marker and declare that the world literally revolved around me”. Bee and her much-derided husband, Elgie, track her down and they all live happily ever after. Time for me to reach for the sick-bag.

OK, rant over. I, unlike Bernadette, must return to the real world where not everyone shares my tastes or opinions. And in this instance, very few do. Even in my own bookclub I was in a small minority. Most thoroughly enjoyed it. Hilarious, entertaining, clever, quirky and touching were some of the adjectives they used to describe it.  A scan through Goodreads reviews (and there are lots of them) shows an abundance of four and five-star ratings with only a small sprinkling of one-stars from cranks like myself. Not for the first time, I have to acknowledge that my funny bone is in a different place to many others. If you enjoy “Arrested Development” – and I understand that quite a lot of people do – you will likely also enjoy this book. So go for it!

But I retain a small personal fantasy. At the same time as Bernadette escapes to the

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Maria Semple & Ralphy

Antarctic, avoiding committal to the looney bin, Semple’s writing style changes. Up to Bernadette’s disappearance the plot-line is presented at a fast ‘rat-at-tat’ pace in the form of emails, notes and texts. After her disappearance it changes abruptly to a descriptive presentation of Bee & Elgie’s sleuthing.  The tone also shifts from ranting diatribe to warm-fuzzy emotion.  Even those in my bookclub who thoroughly enjoyed the book found this unexpected shift disconcerting – and liked the first part considerably better than the second.

So, my fantasy. Could it possibly be that Semple wrote the first half with the intention of putting Bernadette in the loony bin, but did an abrupt swerve to avoid alienating a large swathe of her target market?

Total fantasy, I’m afraid. Semple is a pro. She cut her teeth as an LA comedy writer in the ‘90s and noughties. As well as Arrested Development, she also wrote for the other highly successful comedies Ellen, and Mad about you and for Saturday Night Live.  Her writing resonates with a large audience. Where’d You Go Berenadette  is her second book her first was This Ones Mine published in 2008, while her third novel, another comedy also set in Seattle called Today Will Be Different, has just been published.

Bernadette was a year on the New York Times Bestseller List and a feature film – rumoured to star Cate Blanchett as Bernadette – is in the pipeline. No stars for guessing that I’m unlikely to be heading to see the movie. Unless… (fantasy alert)…. there’s a change of script … Bernadette ends up in the loony bin… Please!!

Reviewed by Clare O’Connor