Alan Bradley - Thrice The Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

An excellent instalment 

 

I very much enjoyed Thrice The Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d.  After a slight dip in quality in its predecessor, this is a fine return to form.

Returning from Canada, Flavia finds her father is gravely ill, but then discovers a body in very odd circumstances and, of course, involves herself in a complex investigation.  Old friends like the redoubtable Dogger and Inspector Hewitt are very welcome features of the book, of course, but again it is Flavia’s narrative voice which makes it so special.  Some readers aren’t keen on the rather darker tone in places, but I think it is very successful.  Flavia is developing a keen sense of what is happening in relationships and in the wider world, and that awareness brings with it more of the cares of an adult, along with more sophisticated pleasures and deeper griefs.  In short, Flavia is growing up and the books are growing up with her, but she still retains the charm she has always possessed.

I would recommend reading the series from the beginning.  The books do work as stand-alones but the development of the characters means that they are far better taken in order.  If you have read previous books you will only need me to say that this is one of Flavia’s best and is warmly recommended.

Agatha Christie - The Body In The Library

 

Rating: 4/5

Review: Still very enjoyable

 

 I had forgotten quite how good Agatha Christie is.  It is many, many years since I read any of her classics and enjoyed this one very much.

The plot and mystery are, of course, very well done and somewhat less implausible than I expected, but what I enjoyed most was Christie’s style.  Her prose is excellent and often witty, she has a very neat and penetrating way of painting her characters and the dialogue is, by and large, very natural and convincing.

After all these years, this remains a thoroughly entertaining, enjoyable read which I can recommend warmly.

Catherine Aird - A Late Phoenix

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Very enjoyable 

 

I am thoroughly enjoying this series.  This time, Sloan and Crosby are called to the discovery of a skeleton unearthed on a building site which becomes an investigation involving both past and present skulduggery, with a good deal of Wartime background.

It’s a very decent plot, but it is Catherine Aird’s writing which makes these books so enjoyable.  There is a sly twinkle of wit running throughout, which she somehow manages to maintain even in a post mortem scene containing a lot of very well researched forensic detail, and without ever losing  respect for the situation or the victim.  Sloan and Crosby’s relationship is a constant source of amusement, as is Sloan’s relationship with Superintendent Leyes, and characters are skilfully and beautifully drawn.

I will, of course, be reading on in this series and I can recommend A Late Phoenix very warmly.

Zoe Sharp - First Drop

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Silly but fun 

 

First Drop is a lot of preposterous nonsense really, but it’s great fun.

Charlie is embarking on her close protection career by minding Trey, a rich, obnoxious teenage boy in Florida.  Things become very involved indeed as there is an attempt on the boy’s life, his father’s work seems to be involved somehow and Charlie and Trey end up on the run from almost everyone, including the law.

Frankly, it’s packed with unlikely occurrences, implausible twists and so on, but Zoe Sharp writes well, Charlie is an engaging narrator and if you’re prepared to suspend disbelief from a great height as I was, it’s a lot of rather silly fun.  A fan of the series has told me that this isn’t a favourite and that they get better so I’ll certainly read on, but meanwhile I can recommend this as a good, rather brain-off read.

Cyril Hare - When The Wind Blows

 

Rating: 4/5

Review:

Very enjoyable

 

This is another very enjoyable book from Cyril Hare featuring the engaging Francis Pettigrew.  We are now post-war (but still very much in Rationing) and Pettigrew is living in rural domesticity – and getting roped into community life, including as a member of the committee of the local Music Society.

The plot revolves around a murder at a concert given by the Society and its resolution depends on a fine point of law which Pettigrew, having been reluctantly drawn into the investigation, is the man to spot.  Meanwhile, there are red herrings and a very enjoyable set of character portraits and wry observations on provincial life.  Hare writes with his customary wit and readability, and I found the whole thing very entertaining.  This is a very enjoyable series so far and I will certainly be reading on for the pleasure of it.

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - Roseanna

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

very good early Scandi-crime 

 

I thought Roseanna was very good indeed.  It won’t be everybody’s cup of Aquavit because it is quite slow, methodical and atmospheric and the lead detective, Martin Beck, doesn’t have a Complicated Personal Life and a lot of Inner Demons, but I found it very gripping and involving.

First published in 1965, Roseanna begins with the body of a woman emerging naked from a river bed.  Martin Beck and his team have to find out who she was, deduce how she got there and use all sorts of ingenuity first to identify a suspect and then to incriminate and capture him, all of which takes many months of careful work, frustration and occasional inspiration and success.  It sounds a bit flat, but I thought it was terrific; full of atmosphere, a realistic view of police work and very believable, engaging characters.

The ending was a slight let-down.  There’s a rather overblown action climax and then a somewhat Maigret-esque interview, neither of which quite rang true to me.  Nonetheless, I thought it was very good overall and I’m looking forward to more in the series.

Georges Simenon - The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret

 

Rating: 3/5

Review:

A disappointing collection 

 

I like Maigret very much, but I found this collection rather unsatisfactory.  

For me, Maigret doesn’t lend himself to the short story form.  The novels are commendably brief, but they have the scope for Simenon to do what he does best: to build both an enveloping atmosphere and sense of place, and to paint some shrewd character portraits.  The mysteries themselves are well done, but they aren’t the main point of the novels; in a short story that’s pretty well all we get, of course, and their tricky-puzzle-and-almost-instant-brilliant-solution structure left me rather cold.

These new translations aren’t bad, but they aren’t as lucid as most of those in this series and overall I found the collection disappointing.  I am currently gradually reading the whole Maigret canon from the beginning with great pleasure, but I can’t really recommend this.

Carol O'Connell - Shell Game

 

 Rating: 4/5

Review:

Not one of O'Connell's best

 

 This isn’t among my favourite Mallory books.  I’ve read most of them by now and they are nearly all excellent, but I did struggle with some of with Shell Game.  Many of Carol O’Connell’s trademarks are still here: shrewd and penetrating character studies, fine tension, great atmosphere and sense of place (back in New York this time) and so on.  However, I think her great storytelling gift is a little in abeyance here.

This time, Mallory becomes involved in a case involving four elderly magicians/illusionists.  When a trick goes wrong and someone dies, Mallory suspects that it is not the accident that everyone assumes it to be.  What follows is an extremely convoluted tale of friendship, love and rivalry which extends back to wartime Paris...and frankly, I thought it was too involved for its own good, especially when overlaid with a lot of illusion/reality stuff as the magicians ply their trades in all sorts of contexts.  I got very bogged down in the different characters, timescales and events.  At one point Mallory taunts a suspect with “That’s your style, too complex, too messy…” and I thought it rather apposite for the book as a whole.

Although Mallory was still a sufficiently magnetic character to pull me through, it wasn’t the unalloyed pleasure of most of this series.  It’s still good enough to round 3.5 stars up to four, but it’s not one of O’Connell’s best.

M.R. James - Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

A delight 

 

 I re-read these stories with immense pleasure.  I don’t much like being frightened, but these aren’t so much terrifying as enjoyably unsettling.  They are masterpieces of implication and atmosphere, with the occasional overt shock.

I really like the donnish narrative voice, the wit and erudition and the fact that all the stories are based in scholarly activity of some kind.  James sets a wonderful tone and his character portraits are a delight, with flashes of real wit and insight.  For example, of one minor character he says “...he was then just become a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, I may say, and subsequently brought out a respectable edition of Polyaenus…”  I just love that “respectable” (and, by the way, I hadn’t heard of Polyaenus either).   In another place we get, “…tea was taken to the accompaniment of a discussion which golfing persons can imagine for themselves, but which the conscientious writer has no right to inflict upon any non-golfing persons.”  I find it a delight to read.

These stories are tightly regarded as classics, but they are classics which I read just for the pleasure of it and not, as with a number of other “classics,” because I feel I ought to.  I can recommend them very warmly indeed.

Agatha Christie - Murder Is Easy

 

 Rating: 2/5

Review:

Disappointing

 

It seems a lèse-majesté to give an Agatha Christie book only two stars, but although this started well, I’m afraid I found it pretty poor overall.

Murder Is Easy is effectively a stand-alone mystery.  It is listed as a Superintendent Battle book, but Battle himself appears only as a minor character in the last couple of chapters.  The protagonist is Luke Fitzwilliam, a police officer returning from the Malay Straits, who meets an elderly lady on the train.  She hints at a mass murderer working in the small village of Wychwood under Ashe and Luke ends up going there under cover to try to solve the mystery.

So far, so good, but I found what followed disappointing; unconvincing characters, a wholly chichéd romance and some extremely unlikely events.  These included some convenient and implausible coincidences, Luke’s clumsy investigations, which people responded to with open frankness when they would in reality have clammed up and told him to mind his own business, and some unpleasant attitudes to some of the working people.  For example, a difficult young man has been killed and Luke dismisses the grief of his sneeringly painted, working-class mother by referring to his five siblings with the contemptuous, “I gather she has five blessings left to console her.”

There are some decent red herrings, but there is also an awful lot of ponderous discussion of likelihoods and possibilities and frankly, I got rather fed up with it and skimmed in places.  The denouement is pretty silly and overall I was left wondering why I had bothered.

Agatha Christie wrote some very fine, enjoyable mysteries, but this isn’t one of them, I’m afraid, and I can’t recommend it.

Christopher Fowler - The Memory Of Blood

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review: 

Very enjoyable 

 

The Memory of Blood is very good, but perhaps not one of the best in this series, which is often absolutely brilliant.

Here, Bryant and May and the PCU investigate a horrible murder in which the young son of a wealthy impresario is thrown from the window of a locked room during a part for cast, crew and backers of a play.  A figure of Mr Punch is found by the bed, and as others die a link to the Punch & Judy tradition begins to emerge.

As always, this is very well written, exceptionally well-researched and full of entertaining characters.  It is by turns funny, gripping, touching and exciting.  However, it’s not an absolute favourite of mine, possibly because the background this time isn’t about the arcane history of London but about Punch & Judy.  This is interesting, but doesn’t have quite the same atmospheric appeal as some books.  Arthur is his usual self (“eccentric” doesn’t begin to cover it) but doesn’t consult quite the usual range of misfits, mystics and oddballs.

Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable read which I can recommend warmly. It will stand on its own, but I think you get a good deal more form the books if you read them in order – and I’m already looking forward to the next.

Simon Brett - Waste Of A Life

 

Rating: 4/5

Review:

Enjoyable, with some real emotional heft

 

I very much enjoyed Waste Of A Life.  This series has a good deal more emotional heft than some of Simon Brett’s other work, which I like very much.

Here, in the third of the series featuring professional declutterer Ellen Curtis, an old and much-liked client dies and the death soon begins to look suspicious.  As Ellen and her close friends and family become involved, the only real solution is for them to try to catch the culprit.

Brett, as always, gives us an interesting cast of very well-drawn characters, and Ellen herself is an engaging narrator and protagonist.  The publishers’ blurb describes this as “a light-hearted mystery,” which I suppose is true of the mystery itself and, to be honest, I found the plot and its denouement a little thin.  However, what does give these books real interest and drive for me is Brett’s treatment of various aspects of trauma and mental health problems in his characters.  He is perceptive and humane, and I have become very invested in the regulars here: Ellen herself, her adult daughter and son Julia and Ben, and her friend and colleague, Dodge.  This may not be to everyone’s taste; the books have all Brett’s usual readability, but slightly less of the light, humorous tone of many of his books.  Personally I like it very much and I’m already looking forward to the next in the series.

(My thanks to Severn House for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Horace McCoy - They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Brief, bleak and brilliant

 

This is brilliant – but very, very bleak.  First published in 1935, it is the story of two failed Hollywood hopefuls who meet and enter a dance marathon for a prize of $1000 – and also because they will be fed for the duration.  Robert, who narrates the book, is quite an upbeat, hopeful man, while his partner Gloria is embittered, depressed and angry, often expressing suicidal thoughts.  The narrative opens after the marathon with Robert being sentenced for murder, and each chapter closes with another fragment of the Judge’s pronouncement, with chilling effect.

The main narrative is a description of the marathon; it is a frightful, humiliating, exhausting struggle, in which the couples have to dance continuously with just ten minutes rest every two hours, the winners being the last couple left standing – after what is likely to be several weeks.  The organisers are rapacious and exploitative while trumpeting their wonderful treatment of “these marvellous kids” and also organising extra humiliating spectacles to draw in the paying public...and so on.  It’s a scorching look at some horrible, exploitative media practices – which still seem to pertain in some of today’s reality TV shows – and at our attitudes to them.

The impact is all the greater because Robert’s voice is unsensational and usually quite optimistic, but a sense of the nihilism of utter physical and mental exhaustion does grow, especially as Gloria becomes even more bitter and disillusioned.  The climax is desperate, but told in a quiet, matter-of-fact way which I found gave it a visceral punch.

I found the whole thing utterly compelling and exceptionally well done.  This belongs in the same class as noir classics like The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Maltese Falcon, and I can recommend it very warmly.

Margaret Kennedy - The Feast

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

A terrific read 

 

I thought The Feast was excellent.  It was a recommendation about which I was slightly dubious, but I thought it was a delight: witty, perceptive and exceptionally well written.

First published in 1947, it is the story of a disparate group of adults and children who stay at a rather run-down Cornish hotel.  It is principally a novel of character, with seven of the characters representing the Seven Deadly Sins.  This may sound rather clumsy and preachy, but I found it very shrewd and a pleasure to read.  Things happen at a good pace and the people are beautifully portrayed with an exceptional subtlety, clarity and insight.  I found myself wholly immersed in it and was very sorry when it ended.

This really was an enjoyable treat for me and I can recommend it very warmly indeed.

Georges Simenon - The Night At The Crossroads

 

Rating: 3/5

 

Review:

A disappointing Maigret 

 

 I have enjoyed most of these new Penguin translations as I make my way through the series, but I wasn’t so keen on this one.

Partly it’s the original story: Maigret goes to investigate a very curious murder at a crossroads outside Paris where there are only three buildings and a limited number of suspects.  Somehow, the atmosphere which Simenon usually generates wasn’t there for me this time, though, and the structure seemed rather clumsy with a wholly implausible denouement where the criminals confess and rat on each other.  Simenon usually has rather more class and subtlety than this.

This time, the translation really didn’t help.  It seemed rather clunky to me, with some stale usages and infelicities and sometimes almost literal translations of French idioms where an equivalent but different English idiom would be far better.  The criminals often spoke in the sort of corny slang you’d find in a bad 1940s gangster B movie and the whole thing just didn’t gel.

I’m sorry to be critical, but ths was a disappointment for me in a usually excellent series – but I have no doubt that things will look up in the next few books.

A.N. Wilson - Confessions

Rating: 3/5

Review:

Good in parts

 

I found Confessions a real mixed bag of a book.  A.N. Wilson writes extremely well, of course, and there are some nuggets of insight and description, but there is also a lot that I found frankly boring.

The opening of the book, describing Wilson’s first wife’s advancing dementia is gripping, moving and piercingly well described.  However, after this short passage, there is a very lengthy section indeed about his grandfather and father, and their intimate connection to the Wedgwood factory and family.  Even though this is about places very familiar to me from my infancy, I found it far too long and eventually very dull.  Things pick up rather when Andrew goes to school; his descriptions of the schools he attended, his intellectual awakening and some of the abuses there are all fascinating (and sometimes quite horrifying), but again there are considerable longueurs, too.  I found this throughout the book.

Wilson is in some ways frank about his own sometimes extremely bad behaviour, especially in relationships, but only to a very limited extent.  There are a number of references to his marriage “unravelling,” but no real acknowledgement of his own contributions to it.  It reminded me of the self-exculpatory passive used by Lorelei in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes where, having shot someone, she refers to him having “become shot”.  It all felt rather evasive and almost dishonest to me.

There are some good portraits of friends and acquaintances, but also rather a lot of uninteresting stuff.  The same is true of Wilson’s experience as a university lecturer at Oxford and then as a journalist.  The name-dropping is of a truly world-class standard, although I suppose those were the circles he moved in.  When talking about his own intellectual activity and relationship with religion he can be fascinating and manages to stay this side of pretention most of the time – but I did mutter “Oh, for heaven’s sake” (I paraphrase) when told “I still read the New Testament in Greek every year,” for example.

I reached the end of the book (with some judicious skimming) sooner than expected because I hadn’t realised that the last 10% was index – and felt rather relieved.  I had the sense of having waded through more mud than I’d have liked in order to retrieve a few gems.  I can only give Confessions a very qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Catherine Aird - The Stately Home Murder

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

An enjoyable, witty mystery 

 

 Catherine Aird’s Sloan and Crosby mysteries have been a joyous discovery for me.  They are clever, witty and a pleasure to read.

This, the third in the series from 1970, is set in a Stately Home, where Aird produces an enjoyable version of the Golden Age Country House Mystery, while also mildly but wittily parodying the genre.  A body is discovered hidden in a suit of armour, and the long-suffering Inspector Sloan and the bemused Constable Crosby investigate.  Possible irregularities in the Earl’s inheritance, elderly and eccentric aunts and a wayward family member are among the immensely enjoyable ingredients of an entertaining plot, but what makes this so enjoyable is Aird’s style, which is quietly erudite, with excellent, readable prose and a vein of dry wit.  

I found it a pleasure from beginning to end.  I can recommend it warmly and I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Richard Osman - The Bullet That Missed

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Another excellent instalment

 

I thoroughly enjoyed The Bullet That Missed, just as I enjoyed its two predecessors. It has the same blend of humour, mystery, rather perceptive character analysis and plain feel-good fun.

The plot? Who cares, really. I mean, it’s a good, well-constructed mystery involving money-laundering and the death of a journalist who was looking into it, but all we really need to know is that the Thursday Murder Club are on excellent form, their personal lives have some interesting developments – some heart-warming, some very sad and poignant – and both the third person narrative voice and Joyce’s contributions are as enjoyable as ever.

Little more need be said, I think. If you liked the first two, you’ll like this and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Natalie Haynes - Stone Blind

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

An excellent, readable and thoughtful retelling 

 

I thought Stone Blind was excellent. I am not a classicist, but I have read quite lot about Greek myths and this seemed to me a fine, readable and thoughtful retelling of the Medusa myth.

We all know the story, I suspect. Medusa was, of course a monster. She was a Gorgon with snakes for hair whose glance turned any living creature to stone, whom the hero Perseus decapitated with divine aid from Athene and whose head he then used as a terrible weapon to save Andromeda etc. Natalie Haynes is interested in far more than that, and especially in Medusa’s origins and the question “Who decides what is a monster?”

Medusa was originally very beautiful, so much so that Poseidon desired her and, in the way of male gods, overpowered and raped her in a temple to Athene. This made Athene angry, so whom did she punish? The victim, because the perpetrator was too powerful to touch, and Haynes paints Medusa as an ordinary, loving woman who has been made into a monster by people and forces over whom she has no control. It’s a point with strong contemporary resonance which Haynes makes dextrously and wittily, while never diminishing its power. She also considers Perseus’s actions and finds him, rather than heroic, to be vain, reckless, incompetent and “a murderous little thug” who “thinks anyone who is not like him is a monster”. Again, it’s thought provoking and has real contemporary relevance.

This is anything but a stodgily politically correct polemic, though. Haynes writes with wit and zing, using various narrative voices, the most powerful of which is Gorgoneion, Medusa’s severed head which became a symbol of protection in ancient Greece. Haynes brings these ancient, mythical characters to life wonderfully; she spares no-one, male or female, their faults, but has a sympathetic understanding of many of them – especially the Gorgon sisters, whose characters are very far from monstrous.

Although it is very different in tone, for me Stone Blind is up there with Pat Barker’s The Silence Of The Girls as a modern re-telling of the tales of ancient Greece – which is very high praise indeed. I thought it was an excellent read which has left me with much to think about, and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Ianthe Jerrold - The Studio Crime

 

Rating: 2/5

Review:

Stale, flat and unprofitable

 

The Studio Crime has been described as an influential Golden Age classic, but I’m afraid I found it improbable, ponderous and dull. The characters are pretty stereotypical, the dialogue is rather forced, the pace is funereal, the plot is predictable and I spotted the killer early on, just from the way they were presented rather than from any clues. I ended up skimming several sections and didn’t feel I’d missed much.

Others have plainly enjoyed this far more than I did, but although I enjoy a lot of Golden Age detective fiction it really wasn’t for me.

Percival Everett - The Trees

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Brilliant but slightly flawed 

 

 I thought much of The Trees was brilliant, but it was somewhat flawed.

In the small town of Money, Mississippi there are strange goings on. Relatives of now-dead racists who were the instigators of a terrible lynching many years ago are being killed in apparently inexplicable circumstances, possibly by the ghost of the lynched boy, in ways which resemble the lynching. Black detectives come to town to investigate, to find – unsurprisingly – that attitudes and language haven’t changed all that much. As more bodies emerge, things become even more complicated and widespread, and the hideous reality of lynchings becomes more and more apparent.

The real strength of the book is the balance which Percival Everett strikes between humour, satire and horror. It is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in places and the banter between the two Black detectives (and sometimes with the racist cops and others they meet) is brilliant; natural, biting, funny and a harsh light on sometimes disguised attitudes. Then, around half way through the book, there is a sort of brief interlude in which we see a dossier of a lynching; it is simply horrifying and, after the slightly knockabout feel hitherto, it hits like a hammer blow, as does the list of names of victims of lynchings which follows it. At one point, too, the lyrics of Strange Fruit are quoted in full – another incredibly powerful moment.

I have to say that later in the book, that skilful balance is lost rather. We do get a stark, unspoken, contrast between the panic caused by the murder of a number of White people with the utter indifference to the murders by lynching of black people. However, it takes on some of the character of farce, which for me robs it of some of its power. All the white supremacists are depicted as semi-literate idiots, many have pantomimic names, there is a rather clumsy (if apposite) satire of Donald Trump, and so on. While I agree wholeheartedly with the points Everett is making, this comes over as bitterly sarcastic ranting rather than the careful, poised and powerfully structured narrative of the earlier parts of the book and, for me, it diminished rather than enhanced the power of what was being said.

Reservations aside, this is a very good and extremely readable book which has very important and timely things to say and I can recommend it.

Georges Simenon - The Hatter's Ghosts

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Dark and haunting 

 

The Hatter’s Ghosts an intense psychological study of a murderer, with a rather gripping cat-and-mouse story as its carrier.

Set in La Rochelle, Simenon creates an oppressive, brooding atmosphere as we see a town frightened by a series of murders of elderly women. The whole book is written from the point of view of the respectable hatter Léon Labbé, who from early on is established as the murderer. His motives emerge gradually, as we get a remarkable portrait of a mind at first arrogant and assured but which begins to come apart at the psychological seams. It is a dark and enveloping book; even though I’m not wholly convinced by Simenon’s psychology at times, I found it gripping and involving. As always, he creates an excellent sense of place and character, and introduces real tension as a conflicted Labbé flirts with exposure.

This new translation by Howard Curtis is excellent. Curtis manages to preserve the atmosphere of the original, but introduces the occasional word like “loser” which may not have been in general use as Simenon wrote the book, but whose dismissiveness and modern associations perfectly convey the arrogance of Labbé. I found the prose a pleasure to read.

This is a dark, haunting book. I haven’t always got on well with Simenon’s non-Maigret books, but this was very good and I ca recommend it.

(My thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Cyril Hare - With A Bare Bodkin

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Very enjoyable

I thoroughly enjoyed With A Bare Bodkin. Cyril Hare writes excellently with a rather witty and very readable style and gives us an enjoyable mystery and some nicely drawn characters.

Francis Pettigrew is seconded to the Pin Control, doing vital War Work ensuring that pin production is properly controlled and battling the dangerous black market in pins. A death occurs among his new colleagues and, with the redoubtable Inspector Hackett on hand, Pettigrew becomes involved in the subsequent investigation.

Needless to say, Hare uses this background to gently satirise the bureaucracy of such places during the Second World War, which he does beautifully and without it intruding on the plot. He creates interesting and generally credible characters (I am especially fond of Inspector Hackett) and a rather intricate plot which kept me interested throughout – and largely fooled as to the identity of the villain.

It is, in short, a lot of fun and a very enjoyable read. Recommended.

C.S. Forester - Lord Hornblower

 

Rating: 3/5

Review:

A dip in my enjoyment

I have recently re-read most of this series for the fifth or sixth time with immense pleasure. I’ve read Lord Hornblower fewer times, and this re-read has reminded me why.

It’s still good, as all Foresters books are, but it’s certainly not among my favourite Hornblowers. It begins very well with Commodore Hornblower sent on a very difficult mission to suppress mutiny on a ship threatening to defect to France. There is some thrilling action and the usual ingenuity as he tackles the problem. This then leads to a bold plan to foment insurrection in the dying days of Bonaparte’s reign as Emperor and much of the book then takes place on land as Hornblower acts as official and diplomat in this delicate situation. This, and subsequent events are well enough done, but for me don’t have the dash and thrill of many of the earlier books, while the dealing with Hornblower’s psyche as he wrestles with affaires de coeur is rather more drawn out and clumsy than before.

I still enjoyed the book, but nothing like as much as its predecessors. I have rounded down from 3.5 stars which may be harsh, but reflects the drop in my enjoyment here.

C.S. Forester - The Commodore

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

More great Hornblower 

 

This is another terrific Hornblower book.

Here, Hornblower is appointed as the eponymous Commodore of a naval task force in the Baltic as Bonaparte launches his offensive against Russia. There are a number of thrilling action scenes, both naval and military, plus an insight into the extreme importance of Hornblower’s tactical and diplomatic decisions in a time when communication with England took weeks. The whole thing is engrossing and fascinating; Forester’s grasp of the politics of the time and the importance of relatively small acts in determining great outcomes is a great feature, as is Hornblower’s introspective character.

I have been thoroughly enjoying re-reading these books for the fifth or sixth time, and The Commodore is among the best. Warmly recommended.

Alan Melville - Weekend At Thrackley

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

An enjoyable Golden Age mystery 

I enjoyed most of Weekend At Thrackley very much, although I did think it tailed off rather toward the end.

Published in 1935, this is a variant on the classic country house mystery. It has all the most appealing elements of the genre: an engaging protagonist in Jim Henderson, a variety of well drawn and sometimes amusing characters, a very bad baddie and some romantic interest. The plot is decent and unusual (if scarcely credible in places) and kept things moving nicely, but it is Alan Melville’s style which gave me the most enjoyment here. It is very readable, often wryly amusing and, in the dialogue especially, sometimes very funny. The banter between Jim and his old school friend has a Wodehousian feel to it and it is a huge compliment to Melville that it doesn’t feel like an inferior imitation of the Great Man.

Things did peter out a bit in the last quarter of the book, with some rather over-convenient wrappings-up, but it was still a very engaging read which I can recommend.

C.S. Forester - Flying Colours

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Another gem in the series 

Flying Colours is another beautifully written and constructed Hornblower book, and is a cracking read.

It is impossible to give any summary without significant spoilers for both this book and for the end of A Ship Of The Line which precedes it. I will just say that, yet again, Forester manages to involve us closely in the lives and characters of Hornblower, Bush and others and to strike a great balance between character, background, tension and action – although this time it’s not quite the action we are accustomed to.

In short, it’s yet another cracker from Forester which remains as involving and thrilling on what must be my fifth or sixth read. Warmly recommended.

C.S. Forester - A Ship Of The Line

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Another great instalment

This is yet another cracking Hornblower book.

Following on from The Happy Return, it is 1810 and Hornblower is now in command of a 74-gun ship of the line. We follow his grave difficulties in manning his ship, his thrilling exploits on his commission near Toulon and an absolutely thrilling and devastating naval battle at the climax.

C.S. Forester gives us a fine insight into the workings of the Navy at the time without ever making it ponderous or didactic. He also develops Hornblower’s character very well here, with his self-excoriation, periods of depression and puzzlement at the esteem and affection in which he is held. It’s a winning combination and yet again I found myself wholly engrossed in the story and characters.

(It should be said that, written in 1938, the language used by some characters does occasionally include insulting names for the French and Spanish, for example, and even one use of the n-word. It is the way seamen of the time would have spoken, of course, but it may grate on the modern ear. It often happens when reading historical fiction, but you may like to be warned.)

This must be my fifth or sixth reading of these books and they have lost none of their sparkle and allure. Very warmly recommended.

C.S. Forester - The Happy Return

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Another enjoyable, thrilling tale 

 

Age cannot wither these Hornblower books, nor custom stale. I read Hornblower And The Hotspur for probably the 5^th or 6^th time, just for the pleasure of it, and had to go straight on to The Happy Return. It’s just as good.

Newly promoted to Captain, Hornblower is in command of the frigate Lydia in the Pacific, dealing with tricky diplomatic matters with Spain and with a half-mad tyrant whom he has orders to assist. It’s another superbly told tale, full of fascinating detail which is never ponderous, and with some absolutely spellbinding battle sequences. C.S. Forester’s portrait of Hornblower’s psyche is as acute and believable as ever and the whole thing is just a pleasure from start to finish.

Written in 1937 (it is actually the first Hornblower book Forester wrote), some of the racial language used does grate on the modern ear – but that’s always a factor in reading books of earlier periods and sensibilities and it didn’t spoil things for me at all.

Many of my very well-worn 1970s paperbacks of the series carry an endorsement from Winston Churchill: “I find Hornblower admirable, vastly entertaining.” Well, I’m with Churchill on that one, and this is up there with the best of them. Very warmly recommended.

C.S. Forester - Hornblower and the Hotspur

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Still brilliant after all these years 

This must be the fifth or sixth time I have read Hornblower and the Hotspur, but I’ve not read it for at least ten years. I read it again for the sheer pleasure of it, and wasn’t the slightest bit disappointed.

Hornblower is in command of the Hotspur, a Sloop Of War in the blockade of Brest. C.S. Forester constructs an involving and sometimes thrilling tale with very well-drawn characters, a deep understanding of naval warfare in Napoleonic times and a superb portrait of Hornblower himself. He is a brilliant creation, I think, and Forester’s fine psychological portrait of a complex character is what gives these books their real depth to add to his brilliance as a storyteller.

Many of my very well-worn 1970s paperbacks of the series carry an endorsement from Winston Churchill: “I find Hornblower admirable, vastly entertaining.” Well, I’m with Churchill on that one, and this is up there with the best of them. Very warmly recommended.

Mick Herron - Nobody Walks

 

 Rating: 4/5

Review:

A very good thriller

I enjoyed Nobody Walks. It’s not in the stellar class of most of the Slough House series, but it’s a very good thriller which fleshes out some familiar characters – most notably Dame Ingrid Tearney and J.K. Coe.

It’s a clever, labyrinthine plot: Tom Bettany, ex-Service agent, returns to Britain after the apparently accidental death of his son and goes looking for those responsible. There are twists and revelations as Bettany has to decide whether he is being manipulated into action, and if so, why and by whom.

Herron has frequently been compared to le Carré, but I’ve often felt that that was just lazy thinking because although they’re both fine writers and take espionage as their subject, the style and approach of the Slough House novels is very different from le Carré. Here, Herron produces a thoughtful, serious and penetrating character study of Bettany which is more reminiscent of le Carré. Herron also builds a fine, tense plot peopled with well drawn characters and which refuses to give easy, neat answers.

This isn’t classic Herron, but it’s very well done, it’s gripping and it left me thoughtful and a little haunted by events and characters. Nobody Walks is well above the average slew of spy thrillers and I can recommend it.

John Boyne - All The Broken Places

 

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

More brilliance from Boyne 

This is yet another brilliant book from John Boyne. I found it involving, very moving and an engrossing read. It is a sort of sequel to The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, but although reference is made to events in that book, this works fine as a stand-alone.

All The Broken Places is at heart a study of guilt – which makes it sound worthy and turgid, but I found it nothing of the sort, but an involving, page-turning read. We meet Gretel Fernsby, now a respectable 93-year-old widow living in Mayfair but who was the daughter of a concentration camp Kommandant and in whom the guilt of her supposed complicity in her father’s monstrous crimes still burns. The arrival of a new set of neighbours involuntarily takes her back to that time and she is eventually presented with the possibility of atonement, but at great personal cost.

The narrative, in Gretel’s first-person voice, switches between the present and past events in places she has lived – escaped to, in reality. Boyne judges it to perfection, so that her stories emerge naturally and those things which made the woman she is now come together completely plausibly. All this is in excellent, readable prose which just carried me along throughout.

The blurb makes much of the question of how guilty Gretel really is, but the book is more subtle than that. Boyne understands that whether or not the guilt is justified, it exists in the minds of others and in Gretel’s own mind, and it is this that keeps her always having to lie and evade – and possibly face danger or flight. Whatever her past, I found Gretel a rather sympathetic character, which is quite some achievement given that members of my family died in the camps. It is also worth saying that Boyne treats the subject of the Holocaust with respect and thoughtfulness but without the excessive reverence many writers feel it requires, and is a world away from the exploitative use of the Holocaust by some writers to lend spurious gravitas to otherwise mediocre books. I think it’s perfectly judged.

All The Broken Places can be emotionally bruising at times, but it’s never a difficult read and I was gripped throughout. I can recommend it very warmly.

Sarah Caudwell - The Sibyl In Her Grave

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

A delight

This is the fourth and, very sadly, the last in the Hilary Tamar series. I enjoyed it enormously; as before, the chief delight of the story is in the telling.

Julia’s aunt has a minor tax problem on which she consults Julia, and the usual quartet of young-ish barristers plus Hilary are drawn into a strange web of dodgy psychics, insider dealing, possible poisoning and mysterious deaths. I found the plot rather weaker than in the previous books, but I didn’t care at all. Hilary’s narrative voice is as enjoyable as ever, with its wit, pomposity and self-delusion (or at least self-exculpation), and the usual communications by letter of events elsewhere are equally well done. The dialogue is invariably brilliant (I’m a particular devotee of Selena’s searching and acerbic wit) and the whole thing is a delight.

Sarah Caudwell’s books for me stand with those of P.G. Wodehouse, Damon Runyon and Flann O’Brien; the prose in all of them makes me laugh out loud, no matter what the story. I can give them no higher praise and recommend all of them very warmly.

Cara Hunter - Hope To Die

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review: A good, enjoyable episode 

 

I enjoyed Hope To Die. It’s a well-constructed and involving police procedural which also develops the characters in the series nicely.

Fawley’s team are called to a shooting at an isolated house outside Oxford. Quite soon, anomalies begin to appear in the story told by the two elderly occupants and links emerge to a sensational crime of fifteen years earlier which cast doubt on the conviction. The investigation which follows becomes gripping as the team slowly close in on the truth, but Cara Hunter makes it refreshingly unsensational and avoids cheap Shocking Twists.

There is plenty of very familiar stuff here – the re-investigation of a very high-profile crime and conviction, huge press interest and so on – but Hunter handles it well and manages to make it feel quite fresh. She structures the narrative with a number of points of view, transcripts from police interviews and TV programmes, newspaper articles etc., which in other hands can sometime be very wearing but here I found it very effective. The one thing that grates slightly is Fawley’s first-person contributions among the other third-person sections, but it’s a very minor gripe.

One of Hunter’s best achievements is her creation and development of the police team. They are a varied, wholly believable bunch in whose lives I have become quite invested. Fawley himself is actually rather a bland protagonist, but I find I like that as a welcome change from the overblown, melodramatic Complicated Personal Lives of so many fictional detectives. The characters add to the story rather than distract from it, which is a cause for celebration.

This has been a slightly variable series so far, but this is an enjoyable and involving instalment which I can recommend.

(My thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Francis Iles - Malice Aforethought

 

Rating: 3/5

 

Review:

Good in parts 

 

I enjoyed the beginning and end of Malice Aforethought, but it flagged pretty badly for me in the middle.

This isn’t a conventional murder mystery – we know from the outset who the murderer is – but more of a character study of the murderer. He is Dr. Bickleigh, a GP in a West Country village, who pursues local women in the belief that he is genuinely in love with each...until the next comes along. His stern and overbearing wife becomes an insurmountable obstacle to his supposed happiness and his homicidal plans begin to take shape.

It’s an excellent beginning; Francis Iles (a pseudonym for Anthony Berkeley) writes with real wit and his intimate portrayal of Bickleigh’s internal thoughts and state of mind is shrewd and very well done. He also paints waspish portraits of the village’s other residents, which works well for a while, but seemed a good deal less original to me, in that it’s been done by a good many other writers of that age and since. The parade of sexist – even misogynistic – stereotypes which form his female characters became rather too much for me, as each one is portrayed as having at least one clichéd supposed defect of her gender to make her contemptible in some way: gossipy, bitchy, overbearing, timid, clingy, stand-offish, unintelligent snobbish...and so on. Particularly coupled with a long, slow examination of Bickleigh’s thought processes, I struggled with the middle part of the book.

The later part did pick up very well, though, with a police investigation and some very well done courtroom scenes. I didn’t enjoy this as much as others have done, but it does have its merits and may well be worth a try.

Alan Garner - Treacle Walker

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Wonderfully evocative and compelling

 

 I loved Treacle Walker. It is brief, strange, atmospheric and compelling – and extremely hard to describe.

We meet Joe Coppock, a youngish lad alone in an apparently isolated house. From the dialect (and what we know of Alan Garner), it appears to be in the Cheshire area. A rag-and-bone man appears – the eponymous Treacle Walker, who knows Joe’s name...and then a mixture of everyday and strange, mystical things happen as Joe’s “lazy eye” develops a curious kind of vision. An ancient sleeper in a bog awakens, and Joe begins to learn…

It really is rather odd, but there’s a compelling, ultimately rather satisfying narrative even though much is left unsaid. The things Garner has always done so well are well in evidence here: the evocation of the power of ancient myth, the sense of deep, ancient mystery and powers in the landscape and also the brilliant language in his use of local dialect, in old rhymes and sayings and in touches of invented language, too. To me, these things carried echoes of The Owl Service, Red Shift and The Stone Book quartet, which I first read many years ago and have stayed with me ever since. I think Treacle Walker will do the same. I read it almost in one sitting, somehow quite spellbound. I think it’s exceptionally good and is very warmly recommended. (And I hope it wins the Booker, too!)

Jim Crace - eden

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Readable, but rather familiar ideas 

 

I find it quite difficult to review eden. I enjoyed the writing and became quite engaged with the characters, but I wasn’t sure that it added up to all that much in the end.

Set in the Garden Of Eden long, long after Adam and Eve have left, we see a picture closely resembling an oppressive, totalitarian regime. Those remaining in the Garden have eternal life; they do not age nor bear children. The price for being fed and sheltered for eternity is hard daily work tending the Garden and subservience to a hierarchy of angels. These are physically splendid but morally flawed, bird-like creatures without arms and with beaks, who enforce rigid routines and dispense propaganda about the dreadful life lived in the outside world. We see into the minds of a go-between (or snitch) who informs on his fellow “habitants”, of a hard-working, decent orchardman and a rebellious woman who has somehow escaped Eden just before the narrative begins.

Setting such a story in Eden is subversive and clever, and could be read as a satire of organised religion, offering (in this case, literal) eternal life but requiring subservience, labour, adherence to strict ritual and acceptance of hierarchy in the life currently being lived. Habitants also have an unrealistically hubristic view of their own superiority and benevolence, angels are enforcers flawed by pomopsity and arrogance, but as one habitant asks, “What can an angel do without a little help, except expect to be obeyed?”

The thing is, I’m not sure it says anything very fresh or new. There are echoes here of Brave New World, for example, and especially of the conversation between Mustapha Mond and the Savage. There are some rather well-worn ideas about freedom, for example “being free to die is also surely being free to live as well.” The poisonous effect of envy and spite on an ordered community was well done but not terribly original. I enjoyed the prose, the book was atmospheric and quite involving, but in the end I wasn’t sure I’d really got much out of it.

I thought Harvest was an outstanding, original book showing the fragility of an ordered community subjected to disruptive influences. This covers some of the same ground but for me doesn’t have the same depth of insight. I have rounded 3.5 stars up to 4 because it was quite an involving read, but it’s a qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to Picador for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Carol O'Connell - Flight Of The Stone Angel

 

 Rating: 5/5

Review:

An excellent Mallory instalment

This is the fourth in Carol O’Connell’s brilliant Mallory series. It’s one of the best so far, I think, but not one to start with; you definitely need to have read the previous three to understand the characters and how we got here.

“Here” is Dayborn, Louisiana, a small town in the wetlands of Louisiana where, within a few hours of Mallory’s arrival, there is a murder and an autistic young man has his hands smashed by two locals. They are members of a local “church”, which is a dodgy cult with a charismatic leader. We also meet a selection of other wonderfully drawn characters including the local Sheriff, his rookie Deputy and Augusta, and older, tough and shrewd woman, all of whom take an interest in Mallory – especially when her reason for being in Dayborn begins to emerge.

The plot is fascinating as terrible past events begin to emerge and we learn more about Mallory’s hitherto mysterious origins. There is O’Connell’s usual excellent dialogue and sense of place (even if it is a long way from New York), slowly building tension and menace and some stunning set pieces – including an extraordinary and gripping climax.

My only slight reservation is the rather long and not wholly convincing coda in which some loose ends are tied up – but it’s certainly not enough to subtract a star. This is an immensely enjoyable book with a gripping story and some genuine weight of insight into characters and into the workings of a cult. Warmly recommended.