Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Tiger

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Disappointing

This is the first Sharpe book I have read and I’m afraid I don’t share the general enthusiasm for it.

Sharpe’s Tiger is chronologically the first Sharpe story. We find him as a private in India in 1799, first in serious trouble with his regiment and then involved as a spy in the siege of Seringapatam. It’s a fairly rollicking tale with plenty of action but it didn’t really engage me. I suppose I was hoping for a land-based version of C.S. Forrester or Patrick O’Brian, but I didn’t think this was a patch on them; it seemed stodgy and over-explained by comparison with none of the excellent characterisation or superb storytelling of either of the naval series. There is a good deal of pretty implausible action – for example, Sharpe endures 200 lashes which cause so much damage that actually expose a rib, but he’s fit for active duty almost immediately. There is a villain who is positively pantomimic in his clichéd antics...and so on.

I know I’m out of step with the majority on this one, but I wasn’t impressed. It’s not terrible, but I ended up skimming fairly extensively without feeling I was missing much and I probably won’t be bothering with the rest of the series.

Liz Moore - Long Bright River

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Disappointing

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t get on well with Long Bright River. I like Liz Moore’s work and thought that Heft in particular was excellent. This one didn’t do it for me, I’m afraid.

The story is narrated by Michaela (“Mickey”) who is a police officer in a tough, drug-riddled part of Philadelphia. Mickey’s sister Kacey is a drug addict and is missing, it emerges that there is a killer preying on such women and we get her search for Kacey intercut with Mickey’s history, while the police investigation feels rather like a minor side-issue.

Liz Moore’s books aim for deep, insightful character studies and this is a study of Mickey and a picture of the drug culture in some parts of the USA. It’s pretty good at both, but I didn’t find it all that original this time and it is extremely slow to the point of turgidity in places as we also get pictures of lots and lots of other characters including Mickey’s extended family - which seems to extend forever at times – while the crime story is a bit thin and unsatisafctory. I’m afraid I got pretty fed up and began to skim.

I’m genuinely sorry to be critical of an author whom I like and who is writing about important matters, but the truth is that I didn’t like this one much. If you haven’t read Heft I’d strongly recommend it, but although others have enjoyed it more than me, I can only give Long Bright River a very qualified recommendation.

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

Edward Carey - Little

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Terrific

I thought Little was terrific. It’s beautifully written, utterly engaging and extremely interesting.

This is the somewhat fictionalised story of the childhood and younger adulthood of Madame Tussaud, narrated by her. Born Marie Grosholtz in Switzerland we get the story of this small, odd-looking orphaned girl who finds a talent making wax anatomical models. Moving eventually to Paris, her story is of servitude, the desperation to express her talent and her yearning for love and humanity. There is a beautifully created atmosphere of pre-Revolutionary Paris, of life in the Palace of Versailles and of the Revolution and The Terror. All is seen from Marie’s – or “Little’s” plain point of view and described in quite simple, unemotional language, which makes it all the more impactful and real.

I found the story and its telling wholly gripping. It is sometimes macabre, sometimes fascinating, sometimes profoundly touching and is wonderfully illustrated with the author’s drawings, done as a part of Marie’s narrative. The characters that Edward Carey creates are complex, human and completely convincing and his research into both Marie’s life and the historical background is plainly extensive but never intrudes; it simply paints a wonderful picture of the woman and her times.

Little is one of the best books I have read this year. Very warmly recommended.

Emma Donoghue - Akin

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Rather disappointing

I was rather disappointed in Akin. Emma Donoghue certainly writes well, but I found the book a bit of a mish-mash of themes which in the end didn’t say anything very new.

The story is of Noah, a retired, recently widowed professor, approaching 80 with a comfortable life in New York and on the verge of a sentimental journey to Nice where he was a child before the war. He becomes temporary guardian of Michael, his great-nephew whose mother is in prison, whom he has never met and who comes from a much tougher background and they head to Nice together.

What follows is a mixture: the rather unoriginal story of the two hopelessly unmatched people beginning to understand and bond with each other, a love-letter to Nice, some history of the dreadful events of the Nazi occupation of the city and a rather unconvincing mystery about Noah’s mother’s activities during the war. I’m afraid it felt like a bit of a mess to me because it lacked focus as it jumped from one theme to another, and the supposed mystery didn’t convince at all as Noah jumped from one tenuous, ill-founded conclusion to another. I found Michael’s character and voice pretty unconvincing as he quite often showed an astuteness and vocabulary well beyond his years. I was also slightly uneasy at the use of some of the Nazi and Holocaust material which felt just a little exploitative to me – although that may be just a personal view as my antennae are rather sensitive to that because of my own family’s history.

Donoghue is a good writer, so it’s all readable and I did finish it (with a little judicious skimming), but I wasn’t bonkers about it and it’s certainly not a patch on the brilliance of Room.

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

Philip Parker - The A to Z History Of London

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Beautifully produced

This is a beautifully produced book with a lot of interesting stuff in it.

The first thing to say is that this history of London in maps really only covers the last 100 years, since the A to Z was born. I was a little disappointed to find such a thin covering of London’s rich history before then, but in fairness this is an A to Z history, so I can’t really complain. The bulk of the book is set out in topics like Entertaining London or Moving London which cover the development of a specific aspect of London life over the last 100 years or so. It is all very well researched and in general nicely illustrated with maps from different periods, posters and advertisements and the like, and there are plenty of nuggets of interesting information.

This is very definitely a coffee-table book rather than a serious work of history, but it is well founded in good research. It looks lovely and is very well printed and made. It would make an excellent gift for anyone interested in the history of London and I can recommend it.

H.F. Ellis - The Papers of A.J. Wentworth B.A.

Rating: 4/5

Review:
An amusing read

I thought that The Papers Of A.J. Wentworth BA was gently amusing, but the cover quote of “One of the funniest books ever,” from the Sunday Express is stretching it a bit.

Wentworth is a hapless, inept and hopelessly unaware schoolmaster in a small boys’ boarding school in 1938. Mainly told in the first person by Wentworth himself, we get accounts of various “mishaps” as the boys amuse themselves at his expense, while Wentworth pompously tries to preserve his dignity, oblivious of the fact that the rest of the world is laughing at him. It is very neatly done and cleverly written, so that I recognised some traits of teachers I have known and the attitudes of the boys.

For me this a brief, lightly amusing read rather than laugh-out-loud funny, but there is actually some rather acute character observation underpinning it. Not a classic, then, but certainly worth a read.

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

Rosamund Lupton - Three Hours

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Gripping and thoughtful

A lot about Three Hours was excellent. I found it very gripping and well done a lot of the time, but it did have its flaws in the end.

This is the story of a school siege by initially unknown gunmen. The school is in an isolated part of north Somerset and it is snowing heavily, giving the story extra atmosphere which Rosamund Lupton does very well. It begins dramatically with the shooting of the headteacher and from there we get several points of view as it unfolds: various students including a refugee from Syria with PTSD, a parent, a police officer and so on. These are all excellently handled and feel very real so that even filling in the back-stories, a device which can sometimes feel very clumsy and tired, seems natural to the narrative. Lupton also writes very well much of the time; as an example, capturing the intensity of teenage love (before the siege has begun), “A white snowflake landed on a fiery gold strand of her hair and for a moment he saw the beauty of it,” which I thought very evocative and there’s plenty more of a similar quality.

For much of its length this was a five-star read for me – gripping, exciting, intelligent and thoughtful. In the last third or so, though, there began to be just a few too many unlikely contrivances for the sake of a tense plot which weakened it for me. Also, there is suddenly some rather heavy-handed political evengelising. I agree entirely with what Lupton is saying and she is making very important points, but it did feel a little clumsy and over-polemical to me.

That said, Three Hours is still very good. It is very well researched, I found it hard to put down and Lupton’s thoughtful and sensitive portraits of her characters are excellent. Recommended.

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

Tim Dorsey - Shark Skin Suite

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Cracking entertainment

This is another absolutely cracking entertainment from Tim Dorsey. The Serge Storms books are always a pleasure and Shark Skin Suite is no exception – although it perhaps starts a little less alluringly than some.

The book opens with Serge on the run from both the law and his ex-wife, which is quite amusing but not the carefree Serge we know and love. However, he’s soon back to racing around Florida spouting high-energy facts and history (much of which is genuinely very interesting), dealing with Coleman’s drug- and alcohol-fuelled antics and visiting satisfying revenge on scumbags of various sorts. The main focus this time is on the greed and careless arrogance of banks and large corporations and their lawyers, some of whom get a very pleasing come-uppance in the end.

As always, this is funny, engrossing and with an underpinning of both erudition about Florida and a shrewd analysis of the behaviour of some financial institutions. I loved it and can recommend it very warmly.

Joyce Porter - Dover One

Rating: 3/5

Review: 
Disappointing

I didn’t enjoy Dover One nearly as much as I’d hoped. Farrago have done an excellent job in finding and reissuing some really good humorous series – notably Colin Watson’s Flaxborough books, the Bandy series by Donald Jack and Miss Seeton; sadly, for me this wasn’t nearly as enjoyable.

Written and set in the mid 60s, the book features the eponymous Chief Inspector Dover who is idle, unscrupulous and offensive in both manner and person. He and his super-keen and squeaky-clean sidekick are called to investigate the disappearance of a young woman in “Creedshire” where we meet, Agatha Christie style, a cast of locals who may all have had a motive for doing away with her, but her (very substantial) body is nowhere to be found.

The mystery is decently plotted and well written but I’m afraid I became pretty tired of it all by about half way and began to skim. I still can’t quite put my finger on why, but it’s partly that the characters are a collection of almost uniformly repellent caricatures which I found rather heavy-handed rather than witty. Things do move pretty slowly, so in the absence of an engaging character or of much to make me smile I got quite bogged down. Also, even allowing for the prevailing attitudes of the time, I found some of it pretty jarring and using the hideous suffering survived by one character in a concentration camp as a humorous (even darkly humorous) plot device really did seem a bit much.

It may just be me; the prose is well written and it’s well plotted, so others may enjoy Dover far more than I did, but personally I can’t really recommend it.

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

William Shea - Conversations With Galileo

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Rather disappointing

I was rather underwhelmed by Conversations With Galileo. It’s not a bad insight into some of the man’s character and discoveries, but for me it had some pretty big flaws.

William Shea plainly knows a great deal about his subject and has a real enthusiasm for both Galileo and the times in which he lived. The book is structured in a series of brief chapters, each with a brief introduction and then in the form of some rather open questions from Shea and Galileo’s supposed answers. It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t really come off for me, largely because Galileo’s voice is completely unconvincing. He describes events from his life and some of his work in very understandable terms, but it’s all about as natural as the 123-metre spire stuff about Salisbury from those two Russian...er...gentlemen. It’s stilted and rather awkward to read, and it’s not helped by a lack of focus in places. For example, the plague from 1630-33 was a catastrophic and influential event in Galileo’s life, but in such a short book the amount of time devoted to the plague itself rather than its influence and effect on Galileo was a real distraction.

I don’t mean to be too critical, but I did find the book unsatisfactory. Even the introduction by Dava Sobel (whose knowledge I respect greatly) was rather overblown for my taste. I think this would have been better as a simple, brief explanation of the man and his work, which I think Shea would do very well. The structure of imagined conversations didn’t do it for me and I can only give this a very qualified recommendation.

(My thanks to Watkins Publishing for and ARC via Netgalley.)

James Sallis - Sarah Jane

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent book

I thought Sarah Jane was excellent. James Sallis is a very fine writer and his spare style is quite riveting here.

It’s a hard book to describe. Narrated by the eponymous Sarah Jane Pullman, we get the story of how she ends up as a cop in a small town, a job which she didn’t expect to be in but which she’s very good at. The thing is, we don’t get quite the full story as the narrative unfolds and events in Sarah Jane’s past eventually begin to catch up with her – the faintest shadows at first, which begin to build to something more substantial. It’s a humane, thoughtful story which I found utterly gripping as Sallis builds a picture often through the recounting of small, relatively mundane events which are full of insight and compassion but where the sense of looming, growing threat is always present.

It’s beautifully written as Sallis creates his people and places almost like a brilliant artist can with a few lines in a charcoal sketch, with just a few, seemingly simple lines capturing the subject perfectly. It also has the immense merit of brevity at just over 200 pages; nothing is wasted and there’s absolutely no padding. I was completely gripped throughout and I can recommend this very warmly indeed.

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

Attica Locke - Heaven My Home

Rating: 5/5

Review: 
Excellent

I thought Bluebird, Bluebird was excellent. This, the sequel, is just as good. (It can be read as a stand-alone book, but I would strongly recommend reading Bluebird, Bluebird first.)

In Heaven My Home, Darren Matthews is still mired in the aftermath of his unethical but understandable behaviour previously. After a period of office work, he is sent to investigate the disappearance of the son of a convicted white supremacist killer because as a black Texas Ranger his boss thinks he may be able to glean information about the racist organisation the boy’s father belongs to. Things don’t go as planned or expected and Darren’s flawed but fundamentally noble character continues to be pulled in different directions both professionally and personally.

It’s a gripping, compelling story and again we get an unvarnished picture of the racism still rampant in some people in the USA and how it has been strengthened by recent political developments. Some of it is raw, ugly and abusive, some is more genteel but no less corrosive and repellent. There is also decency here and an excellent portrait of a (literally) backwater community and its attitudes.

I may have made this sound worthy and a bit turgid, but it’s anything but. I found it completely engrossing and an excellent read; there is some real weight to both its current comment and historical research, but both are lightly worn. It’s an excellent book which I can recommend very warmly.

(My thanks to Profile Books for an ARC via Netgalley.)