Kathy Reichs - Two Nights

Rating: 3/5

Review:
A decent read but nothing special

I haven't read a Kathy Reichs book for many years but I thought I'd give a new protagonist a try.  I thought this was an OK read but nothing special.

The bulk of the narrative is by Sunday Night (oh, please!), an ex-military, ex-cop who has all sorts of demons in her past and is living as a virtual recluse on a tiny island in South Carolina.  She is recruited to find and either kill or bring to justice a group of four people who planted a bomb which killed members of the family of a very wealthy old lady. 

The beginning is very good.  Sunday's (oh, please!) narrative voice is snappy and convincing, the set-up is well done and Reichs creates some believable characters.  This carried on for a good deal of the book, but the smart comebacks did get a bit much, the emergence of Sunday's (oh, please!) Traumatic Past and her bond to a victim she'd never met didn't really convince me and the plot, while no more absurd than many books in this genre, was pretty implausible.  Add to this a lot of very lengthy details about geography and exactly what food was eaten by absolutely everyone at every meal and so on, plus some long and pretty vacuous psychologising (not to mention some absurdly unlikely reasons for not informing the police about an impending major atrocity) and things did begin to pall for me.

There are also some plot holes; for example, the baddie seems to know an impossibly large amount about Sunday's (oh, please!) activities, but we're never told how he does it other than "I have my sources" and that he's "good with gadgets," apparently. There are other problems, and they do get in the way a bit.

I did finish Two Nights, it's certainly no worse than a lot of thrillers and might make a diverting afternoon's beach read, but only a lukewarm recommendation from me, I'm afraid.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Sarah Tomley - What Would Freud Do?

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Enjoyable and informative

I enjoyed this book.  It's not quite what it claims to be, I think, but it is an entertaining and interesting introduction to the thinking of the best-known (and some less well-known) psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.

The first thing to say is that although this book is subtitled "How the greatest psychotherapists would solve your everyday problems," it contains very few actual solutions - as you might expect from psychotherapists.  However, it does have more than I expected in the way of helpful guidance rather than just a lot of theorising about how the psyche works.  This is not in the form of "if you have problem x, then do y," but rather some helpful perspectives (and, it has to be said, some considerably less helpful ones, in my view).  For example, in the short section on procrastination and why some of us tend to put things off, I liked this quote from Oliver Burkeman (whom I'd never heard of before, by the way): "The problem…isn't that you don't feel motivated; it's that you imagine you need to feel motivated." 

This is much less of a self-help book than an introduction to the thinking of various psychotherapists, which it does very well.  In the introduction  Sarah Tomley writes "feel free to pick and choose your own truths," which I found a questionable use of the word "truths," but then, we are dealing with psychotherapy here.  I can certainly agree that you need to decide which is the most helpful approach offered toward each problem.  Tomley writes very well, presenting the ideas with clarity and sometimes with wit.  There are some very clear and helpful explanations – for example of Freud's idea of the relationship between the ego, the superego and the id (although she fails to include my favourite definition of the superego as that part of the ego which is insoluble in alcohol).

Do be warned that the text is printed in a very small font which can make it a little hard on the eyes, but the general layout is friendly and I found this a readable and informative book.  Recommended.

Kristen Lepionka - The Last Place You Look

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Well written and exciting

I enjoyed The Last Place You Look very much.  It's a well-written and exciting crime story with an engaging protagonist.

The story is narrated by Ohio private investigator Roxane Weary, and sounds rather well-worn.  A man's date of execution is finally fixed for two months hence, but his sister believes that she has just seen his alleged victim whose body was never found and she seeks Roxane's help in proving him innocent.  Roxane meets suspiciously strong hostility from the local police as her investigation leads her into unexpected and dark territory.

So far, so familiar, but it's very well done so the whole thing felt pretty fresh to me.  Roxanne is a fine creation: tough and determined but flawed, she seemed very real to me, as did the other characters.  The plot development was well handled and the final stages are genuinely exciting.  Kristen Lepionka writes very well; I know it's usually just lazy cliché to trot out the name of Raymond Chandler when talking about a PI novel, but there did seem to me to be some Chandleresque features here.  There's the odd striking simile like "My stomach felt like I'd swallowed a bottle opener," for example, and the smug, hostile small-town police department felt rather like Bay City Police in Farewell, My Lovely.  Nonetheless, Lepionka has her own style, and I like it.

This isn't an instant classic, but it's an enjoyable, well executed thriller and a very promising start to a series.  I'll be looking out for the next Roxane Weary book and I can recommend this one warmly.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Sophie Hannah - Did You See Melody?

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very enjoyable

I thoroughly enjoyed Did You See Melody?  It's ostensibly a psychological thriller – which it does pretty well – but it also has a witty and rather penetrating take on US "justice-by-media" and other aspects of the differences between US and British culture.

The plot sounds fairly well-worn: Cara, an English mother has left her family to visit a luxurious spa in Arizona for a couple of weeks.  On checking in, she sees someone who, it emerges, was declared to be murdered five years ago, although her body was never found.  We get various, possibly unreliable, accounts of present-day events and of the circumstances of Melody's disappearance and the subsequent media and court trials.  Cara comes under threat and around half-way through events begin to move in fast and frightening ways.

Frankly, the plot is…well, improbable, shall we say.  However, Hannah writes so well and with such wit that I didn't mind that.  Her picture of an ordinary Englishwoman pitched into extremes of American luxury and customer service is well observed and funny, Cara herself is made believable and there are two fabulous creations in a monstrous, ruthless, egocentric TV "justice-show" host and a pushy, rude fellow guest whom I ended up liking a lot.  Hannah paints excellent portraits, sometimes in just a few neat words, like "…the blond, goodlooking one, made considerably less attractive by his air of seeming pleased with himself for no apparent reason."

There is more than a hint of tongue-in-cheek here, but Hannah still makes her points very well and presents us with a very cleverly structured and well-written story.  I was very happy to suspend my disbelief for the duration and I found this an enjoyable read from a very good writer.  Recommended.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Will Self - Phone

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Long and involved, but enjoyable

I enjoyed Phone.  It is long, rather rambling and disjointed and full of distinctive style, all of which I would expect to combine to make me very grumpy, but it's very well done and I was surprised to find myself pleasurably immersed in it.

Phone is by turns funny, touching and full of sharp social observation.  It's about…er…well, aspects of modern life, really.  There are interweaving strands and we jump between stories and time periods.  There is never any indication of the jumps, which happen in the middle of a paragraph, sometimes in the middle of a sentence, I think – you just become aware that suddenly he's talking about someone else in a different place and time.  It sounds like the sort of tricksy, show-offy writing which generally puts me right off, but I found Will Self's style and his portraits of the minds of his protagonists so involving that I didn't mind that much.  In particular, his depiction of a fine mind decaying into dementia is exceptionally good, I think, and he makes shrewd and witty comments on aspects of how we live now, too. 

Some examples of Self's style may help to illustrate what I mean.  This, about the workings of the mental health system, "..he'd passed all the required tests, and eventually gained a full-time position as a clinical depressive," or a description of nurse which I found witty and apposite, "..a hatchet-faced woman who wouldn't now what tenderness was…if you beat it into them with a meat tenderiser."  Or this musing of the former psychologist succumbing to dementia, "…my brain is being choked in a convolvulus of neurofibrillary tangles…"  If you like those, you'll probably like the book; if you don't, you won't.

I do like them, and although 600-odd pages at a stretch was too much for me and I had to take a few breaks and come back to it, I thought Phone was an engaging and rewarding read.  Recommended.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Joyce Carol Oates - Dis Mem Ber

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Another good collection

Dis Mem Ber is another good set of creepy and unsettling stories from Joyce Carol Oates.  The seven stories gathered here were all published elsewhere in 2016 and form a very good collection.

The stories feature some familiar Oates character types: controlling and domineering husbands, damaged and traumatised young women, a self-deluding student who may or may not have stumbled on something sinister and so on.  Each story, some told in the first person and some in the third, portrays convincing characters whose story becomes very involving, often with a growing sense of menace.  This is done with a light touch and by suggestion rather than explicit exposition and it is very skilful.  I have to say that in a couple of the stories, The Drowned Girl and The Situations, it was *so* inexplicit that I'm still not quite sure what the overall point was – but I still found them involving and well worth reading.

The final story is different in character; it's well done, of course, but more satirical and darkly humorous in tone.  It's a good piece but less suspenseful, so I don't think it fits well in this collection.  Nonetheless, this is a very satisfying read overall by a fine writer.  Recommended.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Marcus Weeks - What Would Nietzsche Do?

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A good philosophical introduction

Popular books on philosophy are, shall we say, very variable in quality, so I approached this book with some scepticism.  I was pleasantly surprised: it is nicely done, readable and, so far as I can tell as a relative layperson, accurate in its representations of the thinking of some of the great philosophers.

The book presents itself as a sort of self-help solution to some of life's problems by following the advice of the great philosophers, and it is structured around some tricky questions which one might encounter in life.  However, the answer to the question "What Would Nietzsche do?" is, "He'd ask a load of irritating questions rather than actually *do* anything." Of course he would – he's a philosopher, and that goes for all the other philosophers represented here, too.  What we actually get, therefore, is a summary of the approach of various philosophers to the deeper moral problems and fundamental philosophical questions thrown up by the problem under consideration.  In fact, this works very well – just don't expect much (if any) direct guidance or instruction about what you should actually *do*.

Marcus Weeks knows what he's talking about and presents it in a readable and accessible way, without patronising his readers or trivialising his subject.  I rather liked the slightly comic-book presentation (although a rather larger font for the main text would have been welcome) and overall I think this is a good introduction to a wide range of thought.  It's structured so that you can dip into it easily, which is always a good idea in books like this, and I found it an enjoyable and interesting read.  Recommended.

Christopher Madden - Vin Decanter

Rating: 4/5

Review: 
A very decent introduction

Vin Decanter is a very decent introduction to wine.  It is intended as a guide for the interested beginner and I think it succeeds pretty well.

Christopher Madden takes us through the basics of types of wine, major wine-producing countries with a little about their regions and the major classifications of quality.  He helps to lead us through the huge variety of wines and to give an idea of what to look out for, how to get the most from your wine and so on.  I like his lack of pretence in insisting (quite rightly) that blended wines suffer an unjustified prejudice and that there can be huge prices charged for wines with famous names which may not always merit the expense.  There's plenty of other advice and by and large it's good, reliable stuff.  Crucially, Madden 's fundamental theme is to trust your own palate.  Quite right, too.  We like what we like and should never apologise for that, and Madden aims to help us both to find what we like and perhaps to expand the range of wines we enjoy.

There are quite a few good introductions to wine available (not least the excellent Bluffers' Guide To Wine) and this is as good as most, I'd say; it's an easy read, gives sensible advice and is quite nicely illustrated.  If you're looking for somewhere to start with wine, I can recommend this.

(I received a free review copy.)

Carlos Magdalena - The Plant Messiah

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Important and interesting, but a little too messianic

This is an important book which makes vital points about plant conservation.  It is in may ways interesting and informative, but I did have my reservations about the way in which Carlos Magdalena presents his work and his message.

Magdalena has been a botanical horticulturalist at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew for many years.  This means that he has received the best training and experience available in his field, and it is evident that he really knows what he is talking about.  He is genuinely deeply concerned with plant conservation and driven to do all he can about it.  This has given rise among colleagues to his slightly tongue-in-cheek title of The Plant Messiah, and in this book he tells us about how his upbringing led him eventually to Kew and about some of his inspiring work in rescuing endangered species.  He makes the detail of the work very interesting - even minutiae of the techniques of propagation and grafting for example - and his world-wide forays to save plants from extinction in the face of ignorance, greed, political intransigence and the like are also a fascinating read.

I did react rather against the general tone of the book, though.  I want to be clear that I unreservedly support what Magdalena is doing and I admire his untiring and sincere efforts.   I am rather less admiring of the somewhat egocentric narrative here and the way in which he seems to have taken the Messiah tag a little too seriously.  I had a strong sense of his always trying to show us that he cares more than anybody else and has insights which others are too obtuse to see.  It is noticeable how infrequently he uses the pronoun "we"; when there is brilliance or success it is "I," but errors are generally by "people."  Science is a collaborative effort, and a little more humility and recognition of that would be welcome. 

Magdalena also sometimes allows his passion to outstrip reasoning; for example, he says "Destroy one species and you give yourself permission to destroy them all."  Well, no, Carlos – you don't.  You may make it slightly easier to destroy some others, but that's not the same thing at all.  There's quite a lot of this sort of exaggerated rhetoric, which for me weakens rather than strengthens his case.

I have given this book four stars because its message is so important and there is a good deal of real interest to be found here.  I repeat, I think what Carlos Magdalena is doing is admirable and vitally important – but I find spending time in his company can be hard going in places.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

Leavis Carroll - Alice In Brexitland

Rating: 4/5

Review:
An amusing read

This is a brief, amusing read.  It's a very good parody of Alice in Wonderland (complete with some very clever illustrations which closely mirror the great Tenniel originals), which excoriates the Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum.

Alice in Brexitland is a very clever piece of work, because "Leavis Carroll" has the skill to stick closely to some of the original scenes and characters in Alice while neatly skewering some of the Brexit events and people.  The author is very obviously opposed to Brexit so it's not at all even-handed (although Jeremy Corbyn is mercilessly satirised) but it is clever enough and accurate enough to remain witty pretty well throughout.

I didn't find this laugh-out-loud funny, and the idea was beginning to pall a little by the end, but it's an entertaining read which I can recommend for a diverting hour or two.

Terry Stiastny - Conflicts Of Interest

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good novel

I thought Conflicts of Interest was very good.  I enjoyed Terry Stiastny's first novel, Acts of Omission; this is even better.

Conflicts of Interest is a sort of political thriller.  I say sort of, because it is unlike conventional political thrillers.  There are no car chases, deeply sinister threats or Conspiracies Which Go Right To the Top (thank heavens!); it's a thoroughly believable novel which is largely about character and about how politics, international charity, high-level PR and journalism interact.  Here is a world of networking, social gatherings with the Right People, words in the right ears and a sense of entitlement and everything being within one's grasp – until apparently small, unimportant blind eyes turned in the past begin to resurface.

Written in the third person we get narratives from  two points of view: Lawrence Leith, a British TV journalist with what sounds like PTSD who is now retired in Provence after a near breakdown and divorce, and Martin Elliott, once Lawrence's producer and now head of a very successful high-end PR and reputation management consultancy, who also owns a house near Lawrence's in France and who moves in very exalted political circles.  The plot moves slowly but grippingly as Lawrence begins to rebuild and events begin to close in on Martin.  It's hard to say more without giving away too much, but all the main characters seemed extremely real to me and Stastny paints a vivid, wholly plausible picture of the way in which corruption's stain can spread to those around it and how loyalties can evaporate instantly when self-interest intervenes.

I found this readable, gripping and thought-provoking.  It has important things to say about the world of politics and those associated with it and also about loyalty and friendship.  I was expecting to enjoy the book but I was still surprised by how good I found it.  I can recommend it very warmly.

Benjamin Black - Prague Nights

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A very involving historical mystery

I enjoyed Prague Nights; it's a slow but involving mystery in a beautifully evoked historical setting.

The story is narrated by Christian Stern, a young scholar, who arrives in Prague in late 1599 and by chance discovers the body of a young woman and is then drawn into the inner circle of Emperor Rudolf II.  Rudolf, who shares Stern's passion for alchemy the arcane, and charges him with solving the murder.  As the young, naïve Stern is drawn into the political and sexual intrigues of the court, it emerges that much larger affairs of state are involved.

Black builds a fine atmosphere of cold, of mystery, of threat and of disorientation.  Although the plot is driven  by a decent, slowly progressing murder mystery, the real strength of the book is Banville/Black's evocation of Rudolf's Prague court and city.  He paints what is to me a very convincing picture of the plotting, betrayals and danger of the Imperial court and of the untrustworthiness of absolutely everyone.  His portrait of Rudolf is very well done, as are those of his chief courtiers, all of whom seemed to me like very real, if often repellent, people.  (Two heroes of mine, Sir Henry Wootton and Johannes Kepler, also make brief appearances and even Tycho Brahe is seen at a banquet, all of which is a bonus for me.)  Black has plainly done a lot of research and has used it very effectively.

I found Stern's narrative voice and language very convincing, being accessible to the modern reader but conveying the atmosphere and feel of the time very well.  Banville is a real master of language and he is at his best here so that I felt completely immersed in Stern's world and genuinely gripped by the book.

Although I admire John Banville/Benjamin Black, I haven't much enjoyed his recent output and wasn't sure whether to bother with this, but I'm glad I did.  It's a well written, gripping and very atmospheric tale which I can recommend as a compelling read.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)