Castle Freeman - Children Of The Valley

 

Rating: 5/5

Review: A joy

This third book in the Lucian Wing series is as good as its predecessors, which is high praise. It can easily be read as a stand-alone book, but I’d recommend reading All That I Have and Old Number Five first in order fully to appreciate the characters – and also because they’re terrific.

This time, Lucian is made aware of a couple of young runaways in his area who are being sought by some very serious people who work for the girl’s mega-rich father. As ever, Lucian goes about his “sheriffing” in a dogged, pragmatic and honourable way as some quite heavy (and some rather comic) events unfold. It’s a good, gripping tale in which things happen quite slowly but in a very involving way.

As always, it is Lucian’s narrative voice which makes this special. There are some echoes of Cormac McCarthy in the solid, laconic style which paints such a vivid picture of the country and the characters in it – although it is also very funny in places. This is just one of Lucian’s meditative gems to give a flavour:

“In my line of work, you can’t usually make a bad thing good, or even mucch better than it was; but sometimes you can make a bad thing go be bad someplace else for a while. If you can get that, I say, take it.”

(I would say, by the way, that there are a couple of major personal issues which arose in the last book which are simply not referred to here: Deputy Olivia Gilfeather isn’t even referred to, and nor is the somewhat vital matter of Lucian’s immediate ancestry. I found that a pity, but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book at all.)

I have loved all of these books and am delighted to have discovered them. They are all a joy to read and I can recommend Children Of The Valley very warmly.

Castle Freeman - Old Number Five

 

Rating: 5/5

Review:

Another gem in a great series

I loved Old Number Five, the second in Castle Freeman’s Lucian Wing series. It is beautifully written, gripping and quite a shocker in its way.

Lucian is sheriff of a small backwoods area of Vermont. He does his job by knowing everyone and generally nudging things back into place. This time an incomer bent on making a political career for himself begins to make life difficult for Lucian as a series of unexplained serious injuries befall some local troublemakers – something which seems to go back years. Meanwhile, Lucian himself is reduced to living at the office as his wife carries on at home with someone else and his mother begins to show signs of dementia.

The true joy of these books is Lucian’s narrative voice. Laconic and subtly wise in many ways, he paints a quietly vivid picture of the local area, its characters and its events. A couple of examples which I enjoyed are, speaking of a new female deputy he has hired:

“Deputy Olivia Gilfeather was a serious piece of business; rangy, red-haired and six feet high, more than an inch taller than me.”

And this little rumination after admitting that something has to be done:

“Now, I don’t care what it is, my idea is and always has been, if something has to be done, don’t do it. Nine times out of ten, it didn’t have to be done, at all, and you’re better off.”

If you like those, you’ll like the book – although be warned that this is no cosy plot and things eventually take quite a shocking but wholly plausible turn. In short, I thought this was terrific and I’ve gone straight on to the next (and last) book in the series. Very warmly recommended.

Lauren Oyler - Fake Accounts

 

Rating: 2/5

Review:

Lacking in focus and penetration

 

 I’m afraid I’d had enough of Fake Accounts after about a third of the book and gave up.

The set-up sounded intriguing: a young woman finds that her partner has secretly been posting to conspiracy theory blogs, which seems entirely alien to who she believes him to be. This leads into an investigation and analysis of how people’s on-line lives and real lives interact, the role of truth and lies in our lives today and so on. This is at the core of much of modern existence and should have been intriguing. In fact what I got was an extremely wordy internal monologue, largely consisting of an unfiltered stream-of-consciousness as the narrator spends hours on-line, falls for her partner, Donald Trump is elected, she eats and buys stuff she probably shouldn’t...and so on. Frankly, after I’d waded through the best part of 100 pages of this (it felt like far more) with no sign of the promised analysis, I lost the will to carry on.

Lauren Oyler writes well, but it’s all so diverse and diffuse that I found very little focus in the narrative. There is the odd pithy remark, like “some people on Twitter seemed to believe every problem could be solved with publicity,” which is neat but hardly a penetrating or original analysis. The publicity blurb tells us that, “Narrated in a voice as seductive as it is subtly subversive, Fake Accounts is a wry, provocative and very funny debut novel about identity and authenticity in the age of the internet.” I’m afraid I found the voice neither seductive nor subtly subversive and the claim that it’s very funny is funnier than anything in the book itself, which I found flat and tedious.

I’m sorry to be so critical, but I thought this was well-written but an unfocussed mess. I can’t recommend it.

(My thanks to Fourth Estate for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Carl Hiaasen - Stormy Weather

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Classic Hiaasen 

 

Stormy Weather is another enjoyable Skink episode from Carl Hiaasen. It has all his hallmarks of amusing plotting, enjoyable characters, scumbags getting their come-uppance and some biting commentary on the shady dealing in Florida and celebration of the wonders of the place.

This time, the scumbaggery is to do with the exploitation of hurricane victims by corrupt politicians and inspectors who allow unsafe building practices which result in the wholesale destruction of homes, and by various scammers and cowboys who profit from those desperate for shelter after a storm. The plot...well, it’s complicated. Suffice it to say that various dodgy characters behave badly, a couple of people behave well and both Jim Tile and Skink are on hand to dispense some measure of appropriate and restorative justice. It is, in short, classic Hiaasen and therefore thoroughly readable and enjoyable.

Alan Bradley - The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Very enjoyable 

 

I enjoyed The Weed That Strings The Hangman’s Bag very much. It’s a good mystery, told in the delightful voice of 11-year-old Flavia de Luce.

This time, a visiting puppet theatre turns out not to be quite as innocent as it likes to appear and a curious death begins to unearth secrets of the past. Set in 1950, Alan Bradley gets the tone and vocabulary very well (with the very occasional anachronism, like the vicar visiting “shut-ins”) and Flavia’s narrative voice makes the whole thing a hugely enjoyable. She is thoroughly engaging, occasionally very funny and just a pleasure to read. The story carried me along very nicely, as did some excellent characters and I’m already looking forward to the next in the series. Warmly recommended.

Mel Giedroyc - The Best Things

 

Rating: 3/5

 

Review:

Disappointing 

I really like Mel Giedroyc. I find her very funny and extremely engaging, and behind that slightly daffy persona there’s an extremely intelligent mind, so I was hoping for something very good here. I’m afraid I was disappointed.

The Best Things relies on a very well-worn trope: a very wealthy woman finds herself rather bored and without purpose. She has little relationship with her husband or children who are all cocooned in their own comfortable worlds...until they lose everything and have to survive together and begin to learn Valuable Life Lessons.

It’s fine for what it is; Mel writes well, it’s decently structured and readable. The trouble is, it all seemed such old hat – to the point of being trite in places. The characters are well drawn but oh-so-familiar and I really couldn’t work up much enthusiasm for any of it.

The Best Things isn’t actively bad by any means; I may not be the target audience and others may enjoy this more than I did, but I can’t really recommend this. Sorry, Mel.

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

Castle Freeman - All That I Have

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

A Joy 

I loved All That I Have. It’s involving, shrewd, witty and above all has the most wonderful narrative voice in Sheriff Lucian Wing.

Wing is Sheriff in a rural part of Vermont; he knows the people he polices and has a thoughtful, flexible approach to “sheriffing,” as opposed to that of his deputy; as another character puts it “All he does is run around arresting people. That’s not what anybody wants.” Wing’s contemplative, laconic style is tested when a local tearaway becomes involved with some very serious Russian gangsters; the plot moves quite gently and plausibly, interesting things happen without resorting to overblown action or violent sequences and it kept me interested throughout. The real joy of the book, though, is Wing’s voice and his take on things. These couple of examples give a flavour:

“Fact is, Wingate’s barely making it. After all, he’s eighty-three or -four. I go visit him every so often, but Clemmie don’t come. Wingate don’t want her. He don’t want Clemmie to see him broken down the way he is, it looks like. If you’re Wingate, you don’t show weakness, or anyway you don’t show it to women, or anyway you don’t show it to women of an age to be your daughter. Wingate’s old school.”

or

“Addison’s what you could call a pillar of the community, though he’s the kind of pillar where the side facing out gets a little more paint than the side facing in.”

and this typical little comment on his own role:

“I sat there and thought things over – didn’t get far with it, though. I decided I didn’t yet have quite enough to think about to make thinking worthwhile.”

If you like those, you’ll like the book. Don’t expect a high-octane mystery full of Twists; for me this was far more involving with its quiet, thoroughly engaging view of the complexities of ordinary lives – and it made me laugh out loud several times. Castle Freeman is a wonderful discovery for me and I have immediately bought the next two in the series. I can recommend this very warmly indeed.

Matt Haig - The Midnight Library

 

Rating: 3/5

 

Review:

Not one of Matt Haig's best

I’m afraid I didn’t get on quite as well with The Midnight Library as almost everyone else seems to have done. I like Matt Haig’s work very much and thought that How To Stop Time in particular was quite brilliant. This one left me with some reservations.

The premise is well described in the publishers’ blurb – Nora Seed is deeply fed up with her life and full of regrets and self-blame for all the opportunities she didn’t take. The Midnight Library offers her the chance to experience some of the lives she might have had if she had made different decisions. It’s full of Matt Haig’s usual humanity, insight and compassion, Nora is a believable, flawed and rather likeable character and the message of the book is a fine, life-affirming one. However, I found the tone somewhat preachy and a little clunky at times, and the episodic nature of the story left me rather unengaged. At its best it reminded me a little of The Phantom Tollbooth (which I loved) and at its worst it reminded me a bit of Sophie’s World (which I really, really didn’t). I found it perfectly readable (of course I did – it’s Matt Haig) but by the end I felt a bit as though I’d read a slightly sententious self-help book rather than a moving novel.

I’m sorry to be slightly critical of an author whom I admire and of a book which is so widely loved, but I didn’t think this was one of Matt Haig’s best. Plenty of people have loved this, but I much prefer How To Stop Time. Only a qualified recommendation from me.

Kristen Lepionka - Once You Go This Far

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Review:

Another enjoyable instalment 

I’m enjoying the Roxanne Weary series. Kristen Lepionka writes well and Roxanne herself is an engaging, flawed character with an interesting, believable personal life which doesn’t intrude unnecessarily into the story.

This time, Roxanne is almost witness to the death of a woman who apparently fell while hiking in the woods, and is hired to investigate how it happened. This leads her into a complex case involving a mysteriously missing woman and her children, the politics of women’s health and a sinister fundamentalist religious group. It’s well done and gripping, with Roxanne’s narrative voice a very engaging companion. The sense of place is, as always, very strong, Roxanne’s relationship with Tom develops in interesting and plausible ways and I found myself very involved for much of the book’s length.

The book does have a couple of weaknesses: Lepionka is very keen on the big set-piece climax in which Roxanne has to try to save the day, which in this case didn’t really convince me and had a somewhat contrived feel. Also, there are a lot of characters who only appear occasionally but importantly which meant I wasn’t always sure who was who at critical moments. Nonetheless, I found it a very enjoyable read; I can recommend it and I’m looking forward to the next in the series.

Christopher Fowler - Ten Second Staircase

 

 Rating: 5/5

Review:

Another fine instalment from Fowler

I enjoyed Ten-Second Staircase very much. Like all of Christopher Fowler’s books it is amusing, gripping, thoughtful and full of fascinating historical details.

This time the scene is set with an impossible murder in an art gallery in which an artist is drowned in her own installation with no apparent means of entry or escape for the murderer. More crimes follow, while the Peculiar Crimes Unit itself is under threat from enemies in the Home Office...in other words, pretty much business as usual for the team. It’s a good, involving story, but as always, the real joy of these books is in Arthur’s arcane and eccentric probings into the dusty corners of London’s history and the strange but wonderful people he consults and associates with.

Pretty much all that need be said here is that this is Christopher Fowler on excellent form. Warmly recommended.