Michael Innes - The Weight Of The Evidence

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Not one of Innes's best

I have to say that I didn't enjoy The Weight Of The Evidence as much as some Innes novels.  It has his characteristic dry, satirical wit but I do have my reservations.

This, the eighth in the Appleby series, sees him in "Nestfield" University (a scarcely disguised Leeds) investigating the death of an academic who has been killed by a falling meteorite.  It is plainly an act of murder and Innes's trademark cast of wittily satirised suspect characters and a plot which depends intricately upon precise times and the exact placement of buildings and people develops.

Innes's skewering portraits of academics when set in Oxford seem like poking fun at his peers.  Here, I find a tinge of condescension which I don’t like at all.  I know that Innes himself was a lecturer at Leeds and he even has Appleby inwardly condemn one academic as a snob, but there is still a slight air of sneering at provincials who don't do things "properly" in the way that Oxford Colleges do.  As a result it seemed far more self-consciously - perhaps even self-regardingly - highbrow than some of his other books.  This is a personal feeling, and I'm sure it is not what Innes intended, but it still marred my enjoyment in quite a few places.

Others may not agree, and certainly if you like Innes's dry, witty academic banter and rather grumpy take on modern (i.e. 1940s) life there is much here to enjoy.  For me, though, it's not one I'll be going back to.

(My thanks to Ipso Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

G.D. Abson - Motherland

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent read

I thought Motherland was excellent.  It is well written, has a good story and gives a very convincing picture of present-day Russia.

The main protagonist is Natalya Ivanova, a senior investigator in the equivalent of the St. Petersburg CID.  She is called to investigate the disappearance of the daughter of a Swedish businessman who is very rich and therefore gets police attention to the case.  A complex story of corruption, murder and mafia involvement emerges, which I found to be a gripping tale.  The writing and background are so good that even when the odd familiar trope of the detective thriller crops up, it still rings true in the context.

Although this becomes a very gripping and exciting story, the plot unfolds very slowly to begin with.  I though this was actually a strength of the book because what really makes Motherland stand out is the picture of life in modern Russia, with endemic corruption, mafia bosses and state enforcers acting with near-impunity and so on, while ordinary people try to get through as best they can.  This includes Natalya, whose character and everyday compromises seemed very real to me, as did all the characters in the book.   It's exceptionally well painted and – to this non-expert, at least – thoroughly convincing.  I marked a number of passages, like this neat summation: "That's what happened when old KGB men were put in charge of a country.  News studios pretended propaganda was the truth.  Elections pretended to be fair.  Everyone pretended to be someone else, and nobody knew who they were any more."

I think this is a very impressive debut indeed, and I look forward to more from G.D. Abson.  Warmly recommended.

(My thanks to Mirror Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Jon Butterworth - A Map Of The Invisible

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Readable and fascinating

I thought A Map Of The Invisible was very good indeed.  Jon Butterworth is both a fine physicist and a very engaging writer.  The combination produces something rather special here.

Butterworth's aim is to give the non-physicist an insight into the quantum world, from the basic structure of atoms to more recent developments like the discovery of the Higgs boson and also into more arcane theories and theoretical methods and the current directions of thinking in physics.  He does this by an extended analogy in which particles are envisaged as inhabitants of islands with their "geographical" position representing the mass/energy level of the particles and means of transport representing the mediators of the fundamental forces.  This works well – at least as well as any other analogy I have come across.  It can get just a little wearing at times, but as a template in which to anchor so many entities and ideas it gives the book a welcome coherent structure.

Butterworth writes very well.  His prose is readable and direct, with a very welcome absence of gee-whizzery and often a nice humorous undertone.  As a tiny example which may give you a flavour (no quark pun intended), this footnote about wave/particle duality: "The equation which describes these waves is the Schrödinger equation.  Less famous than his cat but much more useful."  I found the style carried me well through some pretty tough intellectual workouts and he strikes a very good balance between providing enough technical and mathematical meat while allowing a non-physicist to keep up.

This requires a good deal of intellectual effort; no amount of analogy or clear writing is going to make quantum physics simple.  I have a background in physics (some time ago, now) and I still found some of it a bit of a struggle - it's just the nature of the beast.  However, this is one of the best, clearest and easiest-to-understand guides I have found to the state of physics in late 2017 and I can recommend it warmly.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Sarah Hilary - Come And Find Me

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Well written and gripping

I thought Come And Find Me was a good, gripping read.  It is a police procedural which has the immense merit that police do actually follow procedure, so it's a pretty plausible story and Sarah Hilary writes very well.  It is the fifth in her Marnie Rome series and can be read as a stand-alone, but it's probably best to read at least some of the previous books first.

Marnie, Noah and the team are hunting a dangerous escaped prisoner following a gruesome prison riot which he apparently instigated.  We get a third-person narrative from the point of view of various police officers (principally Marnie and Noah) and also the internal voice of another prisoner in hospital after the riot.  It's a good story whose surprises actually made sense (which is a very welcome change from those books whose "twists" sacrifice all plausibility of story and character in trying to produce a surprise ending).  Hilary develops her characters well and there is some pretty decent psychological insight here, as well as an understanding of the realities of prison life.  I became very gripped by the story and the writing. 

I do think that Sarah Hilary overdoes the psychologising and backstories of her police characters sometimes.  The digressions into the murder of Marnie's parents and Noah's tribulations with his brother - not to mention a lengthy episode involving the dementia of the mother of a minor police character - interrupted the narrative flow.  Hilary creates good, rounded characters without all this slightly overblown stuff which was a distraction rather than an enhancement for me.

This small personal reservation aside, I enjoyed Come And Find Me; I can recommend it as a well-written, thoughtful and gripping story. 

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

 

Mick Herron - The List

Rating: 4/5

Review:
An enjoyable diversion

This is a brief story from Mick Herron which takes about an hour to read.  It's not in the same league as his full-length Slough House books, but it's an enjoyable diversion.

In The List, an old agent dies and it emerges that he was up to something a little shady.  His old handler, threatened with destruction by Diana Taverner, attempts to find out what is behind it.  On the way we meet some old friends including J.K. Coe, newly recruited to the Service and Jackson Lamb in a cameo role.  It's a neat, twisty tale, although slightly unsatisfying in that even this small dose of Lamb seems oddly diluted – he answers a knock with "Who the hell's that?", for example.  "Hell?" The Lamb we know and love would have used a considerably more forceful term than that, surely.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed this for what it is.

Mick Herron doesn't write bad books and Slough House addicts like me will certainly want to read The List.  It's a decent read but don’t expect too much.

Terry Pratchett - Carpe Jugulum

Rating: 5/5

Review:
One of Pratchett's best

This is perhaps one of Terry Pratchett's less well-known Discworld novels, but I think it is one of the best – which may be all that need be said, really, but for the record: 

Carpe Jugulum features the Witches, as vampires arrive in Lancre and take over the country.  These are very *modern* vampires who have overcome many of their old vulnerabilities and want to use their immense power to enslave the country so they may exploit and kill people – but in an oh-so-orderly and civilised fashion while convincing everyone that it's in their best interests.  It is, of course up to Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat (now Queen Magrat) and Agnes Nitt to stop them.  Things don't go as you might expect, and a genuinely thrilling and at times truly scary story develops.

Pratchett manages his usual miraculous combination of a superbly gripping story, real laugh-out-loud humour and important insights.  Carpe Jugulum was published in 1998 but, twenty years on, might arguably be read as an allegory of the behaviour of some current multinational companies.  It certainly celebrates the individual and has plenty of Pratchett's wonderfully clear-eyed and humane insights into more intimate human issues.  The opening scenes, for example, with Granny Weatherwax visiting a difficult birth and what she says about choices are among the most powerful in any of the Discworld books, I think – and yet characters like Igor, the Wee Free Men and Hodgesaargh (not to mention Nanny Ogg) add wonderful humour and wit while quietly making some very serious points.

In short, this is a great read and very, very warmly recommended.

Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A Pratchett gem

A Terry Pratchett book scarcely needs another review from me, but for what it's worth: I have read Reaper Man several times now and I enjoy it immensely every time. It is very funny and also has Pratchett's characteristic wise and insightful view of important human issues.

Here, Death is forcibly retired and goes into the Discworld to live as a mortal farm worker, where he struggles to understand human life in his bemusedly literal-minded way. Meanwhile, his absence means that the life force builds up throughout Discworld with extraordinary consequences. It actually starts rather slowly, but soon becomes a thrilling, funny and thought-provoking story. Beneath the humour Pratchett has serious things to say about, among other things, the importance of friendship, the life-sapping soullessness of shopping malls, care for others, the value of life and, of course, the critical importance of a three-eighths Gripley.

This is among my favourite Discworld books (and contains one of Pratchett's finest lines: "What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the reaper man?"). It's a real gem and warmly recommended.

Mick Herron - London Rules

Rating: 5/5

Review:
More Herron brilliance

This is another absolutely brilliant book from Mick Herron.  It is rare for me to rave so unreservedly about a book, never mind a series, but Herron's Slough House series has been outstanding.  London Rules is the fifth; its predecessor, Spook Street, was perhaps not quite as good as the others (which still meant it was at least as good as anything else I read last year), but this is possibly the best so far.  It can be read as a stand alone book, but for maximum enjoyment I would recommend reading the books in order, beginning with Slow Horses.

In London Rules, the Slow Horses become semi-officially involved in trying to track down a terrorist cell on the loose following a number of outrages committed by them.  Slough House is recovering from its own bloodbath, including Lamb's expense returns for repairs: "Catherine waded through the day's work…replacing his justifications ("because I blanking say so") with her own more diplomatic phrasing."  (I have substituted the word "blanking" for a considerably more robust copulatory term which would be unacceptable in an review here.)  This sets the tone for the first half of the book, with Jackson Lamb in magnificently offensive, repellent form.  I highlighted lots of gems; this is one of the more printable ones:

Flyte looked at Lamb. 'Ever consider disciplining your staff?

'All the time.  I favour the carrot and stick approach.'

'Carrot or stick'

'Nope.  I use the stick to ram the carrot up their arses.  That generally gets results.'

It is truly laugh-out-loud funny in lots and lots of places; I read some of it over breakfast and nearly did myself some serious internal damage trying not to spray mouthfuls of muesli over my Kindle.  Herron also creates a very good, tense story which he develops with skill, wit and real tension in the second half.

What makes Herron's books so good is this brilliant combination of excellent storytelling, a lot of genuinely hilarious moments and a very shrewd skewering of many of the absurdities and hypocrisies of our time.  The tense internal politics of MI5, political opportunism, ludicrous Twitter theories based on no knowledge and so on all come in for excoriating comment, often from Jackson Lamb whom I regard as one of the truly great creations of 21^st-Century literature.

I don't think I can give London Rules any higher praise than to say it is one of Herron's best.  Very, very warmly recommended.

(I received an ARC via netGalley.)

Michael Innes - The Secret Vanguard

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very entertaining

I enjoyed The Secret Vanguard very much.  It is a departure from Michael Innes's previous Appleby mysteries, which are extremely intricate, donnish puzzles; this is a 1939 tale of spies and kidnapping set largely in the Scottish Highlands and which has strong echoes of John Buchan in its plot and setting, but which preserves much of Innes's dry wit in the telling.

The death of a minor poet and an overheard conversation on a train lead to the discovery of a sinister plot (presumably by the Nazis, although this is never explicitly stated) to steal a vital chemical formula.  This develops into a lengthy chase story with plenty of close shaves and unexpected turns.  It's a hopelessly improbable romp with just sufficient plausibility to be an enjoyable and rather engrossing read.  In addition, Innes's characters are nicely done – the doughty young woman, the distracted but determined academic, and the great Appleby himself, among others – and he paints a good picture of remote Scotland.

As usual, the chief pleasure for me is in Innes's style and in his sometimes quite acute observations about people and social mores.  As a distinguished Professor of English, Innes expects his audience to be unfazed by references to Swinburne, for example, or exchanges like this about the murder victim, with no further explanation:

"He had been listening to Opus 131."

"Ah."

Innes rejoices in the use of quite recondite language – the words otiose, belletrist and crepuscular all occur in a single paragraph at one point, for example – which gives the narrative a wry, slightly ironic feel.  Personally, I find all this very entertaining, and if you feel the same way, I can recommend The Secret Vanguard as an amusing and surprisingly rewarding read.

(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)

Hendrik Groen - On The Bright Side

Rating: 2/5

Review:
A disappointment

I'm sorry to say that I didn't get on with On The Bright Side.  I have not read Hendrik's first Secret Diary but on the basis of  all the rave reviews I was expecting to enjoy this very much.  I'm afraid I didn't.

I recognise that the book tackles important issues about ageing and the treatment of older people, and that it does this in a spirit of wit and determination.  These are issues which are important to me and which I genuinely care about.  The trouble is that I just found the book thoroughly dull.  I didn't find it funny, neither Hendrik nor the other characters seemed very real to me and his thoughts and antics didn't tell me much that I didn't know or inspire me to do more than I already do.  There is an awful lot of this book (440 pages) and having struggled to about half way, I gave up. 

I am sorry to be so critical of a book which has a noble purpose, but it wasn't for me.  Many, many others have enjoyed Hendrik Groen so don't let me put you off, but this really wasn't for me.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Thomas Perry - The Bomb Maker

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Not for me

The Bomb Maker has some of the makings of a good thriller, but didn't think that the writing and characterisation were good enough to carry it off, I'm afraid.

Set in Los Angeles, the main thrust of The Bomb Maker is in a battle of wits between a highly ingenious designer and maker of bombs and the LA Bomb Squad whom he wants to kill.  We get long, intricate descriptions of both the designing and building processes of the bomber and of the painstaking work of the Bomb Squad to make them safe.  Much of this is actually very interesting and quite gripping, although it does get a bit much when expressed in such plodding prose and with rather cardboard characters. 

Outside the technical detail, the rest of the story is pretty poorly done.  The main protagonist is Dick Stahl – heroic, sexy, modest and unflappable.  Of course.  We originally meet him as he attempts to rescue a businessman kidnapped in Mexico, where he brilliantly and heroically…well, I expect you can guess.  He is then called back to head up the Bomb Squad he used to lead in order to tackle the threat from the eponymous bomb maker.  It's hopelessly implausible both in characterisation and plot, and the prose is horribly clunky at times.  This, for example, as his squad are about to tackle a very dangerous bomb: "Elliot and Hines stared at Stahl, who seemed deep in thought.  After a moment he looked up at them and noticed that they looked worried, apprehensive, scared.  "Don't worry.  We can do this."  It's not exactly thrilling, electrifying, exciting, is it?  I'm afraid I found this throughout and it became very wearing after a while.  There is an extremely awkwardly drawn romantic liaison with dialogue which verges on the embarrassingly bad at times and which has a faintly ludicrous Pretty Woman feel to it as well.  And so on.

So, I'm afraid this one wasn't for me.  It's painstakingly researched and has its moments, but I really can't recommend it.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Simon Brett - The Liar In The Library

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A very good read

I enjoyed The Liar In The Library very much.  Like so much of Simon Brett's work, it is entertaining and witty, but also has some excellent characterisation and some acute observations on modern life.

The plot?  It's not really the important thing, but after a talk in the library at to Fethering, a small, affluent village on the English South Coast, a successful author is found dead in his car.  Jude becomes a suspect and she and Carole investigate in their usual way.  It's a decent if slightly silly story with a lot of nods to Golden Age crime, which it acknowledges fully in the story.  What makes it so enjoyable is Brett's writing.

His style is easy to read and has a quiet excellence about it.  Jude and Carole's slightly spiky friendship works very well and there are some witty sallies at pretension in modern literary life – for example, "...the fact that his novel was just an old-fashioned romance with a happy ending had been disguised by enough tricks of postmodernism and magical realism for the literati not to feel they were demeaning themselves by reading it."  There are also some enjoyable, skewering portraits of a pompous author, a ridiculously arrogant academic and so on.  Brett also makes some quiet but important points about subjects like library closures, homelessness, xenophobia and so on which give the book rather more weight than you might expect.

In short, this isn’t Great Literature but it's witty, thoughtful in places and a very good read.  Recommended.

Alan Parks - Bloody January

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very noir indeed

I thought Bloody January was a good crime novel and a promising start to a series.

Set in Glasgow in January 1973, Harry McCoy is a Detective Inspector who gets a cryptic tip-off from a gangster in prison that a murder is about to take place.  McCoy and his new partner then investigate an increasingly complex case involving Glasgow's seamiest criminal side of drugs, prostitution and violence in which some very rich and powerful people seem to be involved.  It's a good story, well told.  Alan Parks writes well and generates a very good, convincing atmosphere of both the period and the milieu.  It is pretty unremittingly dark, with plenty of drink, drugs, miserable weather and some sickening violence.  (There is language to match, which is completely appropriate to the characters, but some readers may like to be warned of liberal use of both the c- and f-words.)

I did think that the book was treading some quite well-worn paths at times.  I mean, does a maverick Scottish Police Inspector with a desolate emotional life who drinks far too much, has a morally ambiguous relationship with a powerful criminal and is barely tolerated by his superiors sound at all familiar?  Or a plot with aristocrats behaving badly and using their highly-placed contacts to protect themselves? 

Nonetheless, I still found this an involving read and I will look out for the next book.  Harry McCoy has the potential to be a very interesting character and I think Alan Parks may develop this into a very good series. Recommended if you like your crime dark and seedy.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)