Mick Herron - This Is What Happened

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Implausible and unsatisfying

I have loved every one of Mick Herron's Slough House novels and tried the stand-alone This Is What Happened on the strength of them.  It is nothing like as good.

It is hard to give an idea of the book without excessive spoilers, but although it appears to begin as an espionage novel in an exciting opening sequence, it becomes apparent very soon that all is not what it appears to be and the book develops into more of a run-of-the-mill thriller.  Herron writes well (of course), but the plot and characters really didn’t convince me, with implausibilities and coincidences which stretched my tolerance well beyond its elastic limit.

So, I'm afraid I thought the book was rather silly, wholly unbelievable and simply unsatisfying as a book.  I'm looking forward immensely to the next instalment of Jackson Lamb, but This Is What Happened didn't come anywhere near the quality of that series and I can't recommend it.

(My thanks to John Murray for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Liz Nugent - Skin Deep

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Not for me

I wasn't very keen on Skin Deep, although that response is entirely personal.  Liz Nugent is s very fine writer, but I just didn't find this life-story of a manipulative, sociopathic woman very involving.

The opening is excellent as Delia, the 50-year-old narrator finds herself destitute in Nice with a corpse in her wrecked flat and intimations of the dishonest, Ripley-like way she has lived.  However, we then go back to her childhood on a small Irish island and follow her development as she grows up and becomes the almost monstrous character we meet at the beginning.  It's very well done; Nugent writes extremely well and creates a convincingly frightful character – as she did so well in the excellent Lying In Wait.  Here, though, for a very long time it is another Portrait Of A Dreadful Childhood And Adolescence In The Oppressive Ireland Of The Past and then more of a psychological study than a thriller or even an involving narrative.  I'm afraid I didn't find myself drawn in at all and I also found the brief inserts of narrative from other characters to show the damage Delia leaves behind her.  I even got rather bored, which I certainly didn’t expect from Liz Nugent.

So, I'm afraid Skin Deep wasn't for me.  Plainly, I'm in a pretty small minority but for all its oppressive atmosphere and clever characterisation, I can't really recommend it.

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

Hamilton Crane - Miss Seeton Flies High

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Not a classic Miss Seeton

I have thoroughly enjoyed all the Miss Seeton books I have read, but I'm afraid that I didn't find this one quite so good.  It has its moments, but Miss Seeton herself is a slightly tangential character for quite a lot of the book, and it is only when she is the subject of the narrative that the book has the charm of many of its predecessors.

There is a long, long set-up involving a possible kidnapping near Glastonbury and the inheritance shenanigans of a rather unconvincing family in the same area, during which Miss Seeton is a minor, almost unrelated character.  In addition it all seemed uncharacteristically laboured and even rather clunky at times, so having slogged through about a third of the book (around 100 pages in old money) I came close to giving up.  Fortunately, at this point Miss Seeton herself becomes the focus as she takes a brief holiday in Glastonbury and is her usual delightful self.  "Hamilton Crane" also gives a lovely portrait of Glastonbury in 1976 (I knew it a little around then as I lived in both Bath and Bristol and visited sometimes), and captures the blend of ghastly nonsense and endless shops selling little figurines of Merlin with the undoubted beauty and sense of spirituality of the area.

Later, the book again reverts mainly to police activity and some pretty thinly-stretched deductions from Miss Seeton's pictures, even making the very generous allowances I'm happy to apply to this series.  As a whole, then, I found it a bit of a disappointment.  This came as a surprise because the Miss Seeton series under all three authors including recent additions by "Hamilton Crane" has been characterised by excellent writing and a lovely lightness of touch, which seemed to be rather dimmed in Miss Seeton Flies High.  I will, of course look forward to a return to form (and hopefully to The Village) in the next book, but I'm afraid I can only give this one a very qualified recommendation.

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

John le Carré - A Legacy Of Spies

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Vintage le Carré

I thought A Legacy Of Spies was excellent.  I've not been all that keen on much of le Carré's post-Cold War output (with a couple of notable exceptions) but this sees him back to his best I think.

Here, Peter Guillam is called back to account for his and others' behaviour in a Cold War-era operation as Twenty-First Century standards are applied by those who were affected and by politicians.  It helps to have read both The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in order to understand fully what has happened here.  Guillam narrates an account of the questioning, his reviewing of documents and his memories of the time, and I found it riveting.  There is care over tradecraft, genuine humanity and believable characters, all done in le Carré's beautiful, calm and poised prose.  There are no high-speed chases, nor one-to-one stand-offs in a deserted location or any other of the standard clichés of the genre, but there is an atmosphere of real threat and some genuine nerve-tingling suspense.

I see that some other reviewers have found this sub-standard, but I disagree.  I think this compares with le Carré's best, and he still has the gift of compassionate human insight.  For example, he says of one old torture victim, "The tortured are a class apart.  You can imagine – just – where they have been, but never what they've brought back."  That is of the highest class, I think, and there's plenty of a similar standard here.  I found this profound and gripping and it's very warmly recommended.

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

Colin Watson - Charity Ends At Home

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Another little Flaxborough gem

Charity Ends At Home is another hugely enjoyable Flaxborough mystery.  The plot revolves around the murder of an indefatigable charity committee-sitter, from which elements of rivalry, adultery, genteel jiggery-pokery and out-and-out farce develop. 

As always, it's a neatly crafted mystery distilled into fewer than 200 pages and superbly written.  Watson's style is, as ever, wry and witty and he uses it to pierce the hypocrisies and self-importance of many his small-town characters.  The estimable Inspector Purbright and his colleagues are on fine form and the wonderful Miss Lucy Teatime reappears after her triumphant entry in Lonelyheart 4122.  There are, of course, plenty of lovely phrases, descriptions and dialogue to enjoy; as a small example, as the fire brigade pump water out of a crime scene, "…the last of the water disappeared with a noise like German political oratory."

This whole series is a delight.  This is the fifth; it is fine as a stand-alone book, but I am reading them in order and enjoying them all the more for doing so.  Whether you start at the beginning or just read  this one, I can recommend it very warmly.

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

John Harvey - Body & Soul

Rating: 2/5

Review:
Slow and rather silly

I'm afraid I struggled to about half way in Body and Soul and then gave up.  It's been some time since I read and enjoyed some of John Harvey's Resnick novels and I'm sorry to have to say this, but this really isn't a patch on them.

Harvey can still write well and create a good atmosphere and sense of place.  However, his ability to present a believable  plot with people who behave at least semi-plausibly seems to have deserted him.  I just found the whole thing a slog through a slow, slow set-up, a lot of extraneous detail, pretty far-fetched events and psychology and so on.  I diligently read on until a wholly ridiculous extra twist was thrown into the mix around half way and decided life was too short.

I am very sad to be so critical of an author I have liked in the past, but I found Body and Soul a real disappointment and can't recommend it.

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

Graham Simsion & Anne Buist - Two Steps Forward

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Good in parts

I enjoyed some of Two Steps Forward, but I had some pretty serious reservations.

This is an older-person's love story, set on the Camino, the pilgrims' way to Santiago de Compostella.  It read to me a little like Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods with a somewhat cloying Richard Curtis film script imposed on it.  Two middle-aged characters with recently ended marriages coincidentally begin the 2000km walk at the same time and for very different reasons.  She is a Californian, he is a buttoned-up English engineer; the first time they meet there is hostility, and as things progress…you get the idea.  And as they walk they both learn Important Life Lessons.

It's better than I make it sound; the writing is good, I found both the central characters pretty believable and reasonably interesting, and for the first half of the book I was quite enjoyably involved in an OK-I'll-go-along-with-this sort of way.  I found the second half an increasing struggle as the plot relied on more and more unlikely coincidences, implausible misunderstandings and sudden interruptions at critical moments which prevented people saying something important.  One or two of these are inevitable in a book like this, but it really did get absurd.  I did find the final section of the walk quite touching (it would be a spoiler to say why), but overall the Important Life Lessons which every single character learns seemed rather pat and trite in the end.

Like everyone else, I thought The Rosie Project was brilliant and tried Two Steps Forward on the strength of it; this isn't in the same league, I'm afraid.  I've rounded 3.5 stars up to 4 (just) because I did enjoy aspects of this, but I can only give it a qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to Two Roads for an ARC via NetGalley.)

The Secret Barrister

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent, timely book

This is excellent.  It's very readable and often witty in style, but its message is stark and worrying: we have a serious problem in the criminal justice system which is getting worse.

Written by an (understandably) anonymous barrister, The Secret Barrister is an account from the inside of the realities of the English and Welsh legal system.  It is interesting and very clear about how we came to have the current system, its undoubted strengths, its true aims and the terrible mess which so often prevents those aims of fairness to all being achieved.  The author puts his case with genuine passion, but also with humanity and clear-sighted, lucid argument.  Some of the problems are structural (I was astonished to learn the detail of how Magistrates are selected and "trained", for example) but a great deal of it is because the system is being appallingly overloaded while being starved of the resources to do the job by a state "arrogant in the assumption that those hardest hit are those for whom public sympathy will never register on opinion polls."

It's easy to read in that the prose and style are excellent, but the content is a very tough read indeed.  We all need to be aware of the issues, though, because the very fairness of our society depends on a decent, fair criminal justice system which the author currently characterises (fairly, as far as I can see) as in the main, "getting numbers through the door and out again as inexpensively and swiftly as possible.  It's roulette framed as justice…" 

I was surprised and impressed by how fascinating and involving I found The Secret Barrister, and I can recommend it very warmly.

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

Michael Farris Smith - The Fighter

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent

This is an excellent, powerful and affecting book.  As in the outstanding Desperation Road, Michael Farris Smith is in the Mississippi Delta examining lives of both desperation and hope.

The central protagonist is Jack Boucher, and ageing cage fighter suffering the effects of multiple injuries and concussions and dependent on painkillers and alcohol simply to survive the day.  He returns to his old home town where his loved foster-mother is dying and where debt and brutal circumstance threaten to force him to fight once more. 

It doesn't sound very alluring on the surface, but Farris Smith creates a powerful, gripping atmosphere of the struggle for redemption among the threat and violence, and also a convincing, moving portrait of the history of both brutality and humanity which brought Jack to this point.  He writes wonderfully, in an almost poetic style at times which both conveys the humanity and pity in Jack's life and also looks unflinchingly at the cruelty and violence.  Just as a small example, I liked this fragment: "…the only thing he knew was that he had once been a boy and then he had become a hitchhiker in his own life."

This isn't a light read, but it's utterly absorbing and shows a rare humanity and insight.  Very warmly recommended.

(My thanks to No Exit Press for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Terry Pratchett - Hogfather

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Good, but not one of his best

Hogfather is good, but I don't think it's one of Pratchett's best.  It is his take on Christmas and the nature of belief, as the Hogfather (the Discworld equivalent of Father Christmas) mysteriously disappears and Death takes his place dispensing good cheer and delivering presents.  Sinister events unfold as we slowly learn what is going on and Susan Sto Helit (in fine form, as always) takes a hand.

There is plenty of fun here with the Wizards, anthropomorphic personifications, Death as always not quite Getting It and so on, and also Pratchett's typically thoughtful insights into the nature and importance of belief, but for me it doesn't quite have the gripping narrative drive and laugh-out-loud moments of his very best.  That means that it's still very good, just not quite as brilliant as some.  Still recommended, but if you're looking for somewhere to start I'd recommend Mort, Going Postal or Feet of Clay, for example, before Hogfather.

Colin Watson - Lonelyheart 4122

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A real pleasure

I absolutely loved Lonelyheart 4122.  It is the fourth of Watson's Flaxborough mysteries and for me is the best so far.

The redoubtable Inspector Purbright is concerned about the apparent disappearance of two local women, both of whom have used a local lonely hearts agency.  As investigations continue we also meet Miss Lucy Teatime, a wonderful character of uncertain past and infinite resource who arrives in Flaxborough and also registers with the agency. 

What follows is a small masterpiece of witty, inventive storytelling.  Watson writes superbly and it feels as though he's hit his stride by this stage; his style is still dryly funny and very acute in its observations and characterisation but slightly more fluid and relaxed than in the first three books, so that I was carried along without effort and with huge enjoyment.  At about 150 pages, the book is also gratifyingly concise and feels like a perfectly crafted little gem.

If you haven't discovered Colin Watson yet, do try him.  He's been a truly joyous discovery for me and I can wholeheartedly recommend Lonelyheart 4122.

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

Lucy Mangan - Bookworm

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A delight

I found Bookworm a delight.  It's a book about the joy of childhood reading, probably more so that about the books themselves, and I think Lucy Mangan captures the experience of being a bookish child beautifully.

I'm about 20 years older than Mangan, but I know a lot of the books she talks about and I think she talks about them and their effect with real love, humaity and understanding - including that thing about books you were supposed to like but didn't. I always felt as though I had some dreadful flaw because I didn't much like Babar or Swallows & Amazons, for example, so it's lovely to have an ally.

There's some very shrewd (and very readable) analysis as well as capturing the experience so well.  For example, there's a great section on the appeal of Enid Blyton and of the problematic side of her books.  You don’t have to agree with what Mangan says (although I largely do) to appreciate the clarity and insight of the points she makes.  She is very good at remembering the child's point of view as well as having a balanced, humane adult perspective and a sensible notion of children's ability to survive and gain from what some adults may think they need to be protected against. 

And, by the way, she's very funny.

Obviously, there are overlaps between my childhood reading and Mangan's, just as there are many books she read that I didn't and vice versa, and most readers will find the same.  I still found that I enjoyed much of what she writes about the books I don't know, although I did indulge in a bit of judicious skimming here and there.  She writes with such engaging enthusiasm and wit that it's all a pleasure to read – and anyway, someone who loves The Phantom Tollbooth as much as I do is plainly sound to the core.

In short, if you loved reading as a child, I think you'll love Bookworm as I did.  Very warmly recommended.

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

Robert Crais - The Monkey's Raincoat

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Very enjoyable

I enjoyed The Monkey's Raincoat very much.  It is the first Robert Crais that I have read, but it definitely won't be the last.

Written and set in 1987, The Monkey's Raincoat introduces us to Elvis Cole, an LA private detective and his partner, the near-silent and entirely deadly Joe Pike.  Narrated in the first person by Cole, he takes a job to find a missing husband and his nine-year-old son, which becomes embroiled in drugs, Hollywood sleaze and organised crime.  It's just about plausible (other than the huge body count without any noticeable consequences) and it's an entertaining, well written story.  Cole is an engaging narrator with a penchant for a wisecrack (he even quotes Raymond Chandler at one point, so we can see where he's coming from) and the plot is well-paced and constructed with an exciting (and very violent) climax.

Highbrow Literature, this ain't, but it's a very well written, readable book which kept me hooked and left me wanting to read more in the series.  What more could you want?