Terry Pratchett - Making Money

Rating: 5/5

Review:
One of Pratchett's best

This is another Pratchett classic, I think.  It's best to read Going Postal first but it can be read on its own; here Moist von Lipwig takes on the finance sector and Pratchett gives us a typically witty but penetrating look at what banking and money are and how they work, wrapped in a hugely enjoyable and often very funny narrative.  Moist himself is a wonderful character, as is Adora Belle Dearheart, Vetinari is on outstanding form, there's an Igor and even cameo appearances from Carrot and Detritus…what more could you possibly want?

After at least two re-reads, this is still one of Sir Terry's best, in my view.  There isn't a much higher recommendation than that.

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.)