Book Review: The Predicament by William Boyd – a return to the complicated world of a reluctant spy

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This is the second novel of a planned trilogy which began with Gabriel’s Moon – the story of travel writer Gabriel Dax whose little trips abroad researching locations to write about have become conveniently put to use by MI6. We’re in 1960s Britain, so there’s the Cold War going on, JFK’s the president of America, and as always, there’s a difficult political problem somewhere in the world for MI6 to poke its nose into.

Gabriel has never wanted to be a spy. He’s a successful writer, publishing popular books that earn him a respectable living. When we catch up with him at the start of The Predicament, his MI5 handler, Faith Green, who Gabriel’s a little bit in love with, has got him acting as a double agent, meeting up with a Russian counterpart and accepting bribes in return for information. He’s not happy about this, but the money has helped him buy a country cottage where he can forget about the shadier side of his life and pretend he’s just a writer.

With another couple of chapters in his Rivers book to write, Gabriel is sent off to Guatemala to interview a presidential hopeful in a country plagued by unrest. He’s posing as a writer again, so again it’s convenient for MI6, but nothing quite goes to plan and Gabriel can’t help feeling he’s not being fed enough information. This doesn’t stop him from making acute observations, particularly about potential CIA involvement.

The Guatemala sojourn is interesting in that it describes the way political interests of American businesses and the Mafia hold sway. You also get the benefit of Gabriel’s expertise as a travel writer in the descriptions of the setting. But before long he’s off again, to West Berlin this time, where JFK is about to make his famous “Berliner” speech and an assassination plot has been hinted at. So we really are in the thick of the period, of history being made, with Gabriel a bit-part player.

‘Their job is to look for traitors in the British security services – MI6, MI5, the Foreign Office, the army, the navy, etcetera – looking for double agents,’ he said. ‘They call them “termites”.’
‘Termites?’
“Just a slang word. A word they use among themselves.’
‘Termites. I must remember this.’
Gabriel suddenly realized that, in fact, Varvara Suvorina, and indeed the KGB, probably knew everything about the Institute. ‘Termites’ was the only piece of information that intrigued her. So why, he asked himself, had he been set this redundant task? Was it indeed some kind of test, as Faith had suggested? If he had lied or claimed not to know much about the Institute would they begin to suspect him?

Through all this, Gabriel is emerging as quite a good spy even if he is reluctant to get his hands dirty. He’s observant, can think on his feet, and thanks to Faith Green and her cohorts at “the Institute”, has learned not to take everything at face value. He’s even getting quite good at self-defence. But Gabriel is also self-aware and constantly examining his feelings, not only about the spy business, but also about himself as a man. When it comes to women, he can’t help feel that he should be looking elsewhere, but Faith Green seems to have him on a string.

Pulling off the second book in a trilogy can be tricky, but William Boyd has made The Predicament work at least as well as Gabriel’s Moon, with plenty of tension, some exciting action scenes, and Boyd’s wonderfully crafted prose to enjoy. There are some amusing more worldly characters who contrast nicely with Gabriel’s sensitive writerly persona – such as Ulsterman Sergeant Major Begg who teaches him self-defence and his old lock-picking mate Tyrone who does the odd “no questions asked” job for Gabriel from time to time.

As, Gabriel gets so much better at being a competent agent, you can only wonder if this will be his lot in life. We’ll have to wait until Book 3 to find out. I have a feeling Boyd will ramp things up even more and bring out some excellent twists. I can’t wait. The Predicament is a four-star read from me.

The Predicament is due for publication on 4 September – I read an advance copy courtesy of Netgalley.

Book Review: The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller – a carefully crafted and moving historical novel

~ Judith ~ 1 Comment

It’s always nice to see a novelist you admire long-listed for a Booker Prize. The Land in Winter has been on my radar for a while, since it won the Walter Scott Prize, and also because Miller’s an author I always look out for. So I was excited when I finally got my hands on a copy. And it didn’t take me long to become engrossed in this story of two couples who live in a village near Bristol and their struggles through the particularly cold winter of 1962-3, known as The Big Freeze.

There’s Bill and Rita on the farm – both new to farming and finding their way. Bill has big dreams for his land, as well as the kind of private school accent that doesn’t win him much respect among the farming community. Rita grew up too fast, with a father in a nearby asylum due to his experiences during the war. She has a veneer of glamour from her time working in a nightclub and fills her days reading sci-fi novels – so not farmer’s wife material. They are expecting their first child.

In a cottage nearby, Irene is also pregnant, her husband Eric a doctor at the local practice as well as visiting the asylum, where a young man has just taken his life. Eric has to deal with that and the pressure of his job, while having an affair he doesn’t know how to end. Irene meanwhile is trying to be the perfect wife but her middle class upbringing is sometimes at odds with Eric’s humbler beginnings, and the two seem to have different ideals.

Miller takes four characters who are each battling problems or being quietly miserable and then throws a tough winter at them. The narrative switches between them so we are right inside their heads as we watch them get things wrong and try to do better. They are so sensitively drawn that you can’t help but feel for each of them, caught as they are at a time when the war is still a raw memory and the future about to change. The class system is ready for a shake-up and feminism still emerging, but none of it can come fast enough for our characters.

In the kitchen, the cat jumped off the table where it had been licking out the inside of last night’s spaghetti pan. There was no obvious alarm in its jumping; it was not fleeing, merely taking up a more fortified position under the table. Next to the saucepan was the egg basket. She had not washed the eggs, she had not washed the pan.
On the floor by the Rayburn was a mug, a cushion, a book. He picked up the book and the mug, placed the mug in the sink and examined the book. That she liked to read, he had thought of as something that made up a little for the difference in their education. But Venus Plus X? And the rest she came back with from the library van, flying saucers on the covers, astronauts, red planets. He had suggested other things to her. She might, for instance, like Virginia Woolf. He had known girls at university who adored Virginia Wool and probably wanted to be her. Did the van have any Virginia Woolf? And she had given him a look, wide-eyed, not overly friendly, then turned to the cat to ask, ‘Does the van have any Virginia Woolf?’

A budding friendship between the women is viewed with suspicion by their husbands, but is never-the-less a godsend, opening up connection and different viewpoints for the two. There’s small-town gossip which only makes Rita and Eric separately more self-conscious. The period comes to life with some of the trashy horror and sci-fi movies of the day and music (dancing to the Mashed Potato; listening to Acker Bilk). There’s a brilliant chapter where Irene and Eric host a Boxing Day party – one of the best party scenes I’ve read – all that alcohol making people reveal themselves.

And then there’s the relentless cold. Nobody dies of hyperthermia or endures frostbite, but you can’t help feeling it’s not impossible as you read. So this is a novel best read somewhere warm. The story is carefully plotted and builds to a climax for each character with truths revealed that have to be dealt with, to find a way through.

You might think it sounds a little bleak, but I loved The Land in Winter because any time spent reading Miller means enjoying his wonderful writing. Every so often you hit a sentence you want to read again because it’s a fine and wonderful thing. It’s an altogether brilliant read and well worth the award nominations that have come its way. A five-star read from me.

Book Review: This Is the Day They Dream Of by Robert Goddard – Superintendent Taleb returns in this endlessly entertaining thriller

~ Judith ~ 1 Comment

Robert Goddard’s crime novels seem to be going from strength to strength. I’ve been enjoying his Umiko Wada mysteries about an unlikely Tokyo private investigator (The Fine Art of Invisible Detection and The Fine Art of Uncanny Prediction). Goddard seems to be alternating Wada mysteries with his thrillers set in Algeria featuring his jaded policeman, Superintendent Mouloud Taleb.

This Is the Day They Dream Of is the second story to throw Taleb into a much bigger problem than any retirement-age cop should have to deal with by himself. Taleb was widowed and lost his daughter in a terrorist attack during the 1990s, the décennie noir or ‘dark decade’ of instability and violence in Algeria’s history. Since then work and a high cigarette consumption have kept him going. Plus a strong sense of what is right in a system determined to hide the truth and protect the powerful.

The story begins with Taleb being ‘volunteered’ by his boss, Director Bouras, to be part of a panel on a current affairs TV programme. He’s to give a policeman’s point of view of the events of the décennie noir, now that thirty years have passed. He’s been instructed not to say anything controversial, but somehow he lets slip that the assassination of President Boudiaf may have had something to do with the Secret Service, when he’s egged on by a determined freelance journalist.

Just who really killed the President is the least of Taleb’s worries when he’s sent off to France to negotiate the release of a hostage – none other than the son of General Mokrani, the boss of the Secret Service at the time of the assassination. Taleb finds himself in a country villa also hosting hush-hush negotiations between Algerian and French parties, and the Secret Service agents on site to see they aren’t disturbed aren’t happy with Taleb.

Fortunately for Taleb he’s got an ally in the Secret Service, non other than fit, uncompromising, motorbike-riding Agent Souad Hidouchi. The two made an odd-couple pairing in the previous book (This Is the Night They Come for You) which makes this story all the more entertaining. Hidouchi is just as much for finding out the truth as Taleb, but goes about it differently. She gives her own boss, a vain and self-serving career man, cause for concern, often going off the radar and disobeying orders. But for how long will she be able to get away with it?

When Hidouchi first went into the field as an agent, she was advised by her trainer always to concentrate on herself – her effectiveness, her safety, her management of any situation she found herself in. One of his maxims was that worrying about colleagues was not just a waste of mental energy, since she couldn’t control what they did, it was a loss of focus. And a loss of focus was to be guarded against at all costs, since in some circumstances it could prove fatal.
Hidouchi had taken the advice to heart. She always left her fellow agents to look out for themselves, as she assumed they would her. She is faintly irritated to discover, however, that this doesn’t apply to Taleb. She’s genuinely worried about him, because, of course, she cares what happens to him. And she knows he cares what happens to her. They depend on each other. Her trainer would say dependency creates vulnerability. And he’d be right. But there’s nothing she can do about it now.

The story brings to light horrific events in Algerian recent history, the ongoing effects of the colonial past under France, as well as corruption past and present, and a whole new conspiracy that seems weirdly plausible. Goddard is a mastermind at keeping a bunch of story threads going, weaving them together seamlessly, with an assortment of interesting characters in support. The plotting is superb, and I couldn’t put the book down, making the most of a wet weekend to whizz through the chapters.

I do hope we’ll see Taleb and Hidouchi again (and Umiko Wada) for more tautly plotted mystery-thrillers. The Guardian quote on the book cover states that Goddard is “the world’s greatest storyteller” and I really can’t disagree – in this genre at least. This Is the Day They Dream Of is a five-star read from me.

Book Review: Tenderfoot by Toni Jordan – a coming-of-age novel set in the world of greyhound racing

~ Judith ~ 3 Comments

There has been a lot about the greyhound racing industry in the news lately, with information coming to light over the cruelty towards the dogs, the frequent euthanising of young animals. This novel couldn’t be more timely but I didn’t need a lot of prompting to pick it up, having immensely enjoyed Toni Jordan’s previous novels, Dinner with the Schnabels and Prettier if She Smiled More.

Tenderfoot by Toni Jordan, is a coming-of-age novel about 12-year-old Andie. Set in 1970s Queensland, Andie narrates the story, decades later, of the year her parents marriage ended and she lost her dad, and with him the four greyhounds that made up his business.

Andie loves those dogs, especially Tippy, but they are not pets. We are introduced to the nefarious world of greyhound racing, gambling and addiction. Jordan keeps what really happens to the dogs off centre stage, which is fortunate, so we never really know the specifics of what happens to Shep, Crumbs, Sally and Tippy who used to live in the basement – the how and the when. Anyone who has a fondness for dogs might still find this sobering reading, so be warned.

Through it all Andie is a brilliant character, determined to win back her dad, her friends and her dog, solve the mystery of what happened to Macavity, her former bestie’s cat. All this despite her difficult mother, Mum’s shady boyfriend Steve, and a world that seems to block her ambitions at every turn. Andie is a determined battler with an eternal optimism that she can make everything normal again.

Jordan balances the seriousness of what happens – a promising child of parents who constantly let her down, the greyhound and gambling business, the adults with their own demons – with humour that comes from children interacting with adults who aren’t as adult as they should be. The characters come to life through dialogue, something the author does really well – the caustic remarks and endless criticism from Andie’s Mum, the sly innuendo that bounces between her and Steve, the playground politics that Andie struggles with.

Jordan recreates the 1970s, down to the choice of sweets available at the corner store. You also get a scorching Queensland climate for plenty of atmosphere and a poor neighbourhood where gambling is for some the only hope. It all comes together well for a thought-provoking and moving read – five stars from me. I read the novel courtesy of Netgalley. Tenderfoot is due for release on 26 August.

Book Review: Fonseca by Jessica Francis Kane – a novel of Penelope Fitzgerald’s sojourn in Mexica

~ Judith ~ 3 Comments

In her new book, Jessica Francis Kane takes several months from the life of Penelope Fitzgerald and weaves them into the kind of novel Penelope Fitzgerald might have written herself. As you may recall, Penelope Fitzgerald is the author The Bookshop, which was made into a movie, and Offshore, which won the Booker Prize – and a lot more.

Fonseca charts a time in Fitzgerald’s life when she had two small children and another on the way. She and her husband Desmond were living beyond their means, editing a literary magazine which was yet to make their fortune, and hampered by Desmond’s drinking problem. We’re in that post-war period, the early 1950s, and the war has taken its toll on Desmond, and so the two are keen to make a go of their literary review. But the bank manager has his concerns, and the family is likely to lose their home.

Penelope learns of a couple of elderly women sitting on the proceeds of a silver mine in Mexico, former friends of her late mother’s, when one contacts Fitzgerald with the news that they have nobody to leave their money to. Why doesn’t she send her boy Valpy to stay for a while to see how they get on? It’s a long journey by sea and bus and things are different from what they expect when they arrive.

The women expect an older boy and they don’t expect Fitzgerald to have tagged along. Fitzgerald discovers there are other people hovering, dropping in for evening drinks each night, who hope to get something too. There’s a lot of drinking, and the nights are cold. Penelope sleeps on a couch so her son can have the bed, and there’s no chair with the desk where she hopes to work. Somehow she and Valpy manage to stay three months as Christmas approaches and the weather becomes colder than what they have packed for.

In 1952 November fell on a Sunday, and that afternoon a mother and son stood in front of the Delaney house in Fonseca, Mexico, poised to knock. They had traveled a long way, were quite stunned, mainly from the last leg of their journey through the American South, and now it was late afternoon the day after the day they were supposed to have arrived. The season was warm, and in the square behind them people were wearing calaveras and the air smelled of smoke and marigolds. In the distance and also quite nearby they heard the pop and spray of fireworks. A band was playing in the square, the music brassy and bright, punctuated by shouts. It was all very disconcerting, and even though he didn’t know who or what was behind the door, the boy wanted to go inside. In all his six years, he had never entered a house that did not have someone making or about to make tea. But his mother would not knock.
“This isn’t a holiday,” Valpy said, turning to sit down on the front step. A young woman passed chewing a large sugar calavera with the name Pedro across the forehead. She was sobbing and laughing at the same time.
Penelope sat down next to him. “How can you tell?”
“I’ve never had new clothes for a holiday before.”
“That’s not true. What about your bathing costume last summer?”
He didn’t say anything. They both knew that bathing costumes didn’t count.

Jessica Francis Kane brings to life this quirky household – the tricky old women, the staff who can be difficult to communicate with. Over time, Penelope explores the area, meets people – mostly, but not only, expats – and learns about local customs. Valpy is a bright boy for his age and delightful. There are misunderstandings and superstitions that put a spanner in the works of Penelope’s best intentions.

Apart from the possibility of money, the time away gives Penelope time to consider her marriage, particularly when another potential heir arrives, “the Delaney”, who is charming, adding another strand to the story. You also get the feeling that she might be incubating the stories that will later make her name.

Jessica Francis Kane has obviously done more than simply research Penelope Fitzgerald’s life and the period she spent in Mexico. You get the feeling that she has lived with and loved Fitzgerald’s literature for a long time. Probably no one else could have written this book. I suddenly want to read and reread more by Fitzgerald. Altogether, Fonseca is a brilliant read – clever, well written and with fascinating characters. A five-star read from me.

I received Fonseca as a reader’s copy from Netgally. The book is due to be released on 12 August.

Book Review: Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell – a heart-stopping novel about a woman trying to leave her marriage and start again

~ Judith ~ 1 Comment

This book reads more like a thriller than a slice-of-life contemporary novel. Nesting is about Ciara Fay who decides to leave her husband. She makes the sudden decision to grab the clothes off the line, bundles her children into her car and takes off, not knowing where she’s going. Her husband Ryan, upstairs in the shower, is completely oblivious.

Ciara has very little money. Ryan managed their finances, only giving her a bit of housekeeping money in cash and expecting her to account for it all. All the same, she has saved enough to tide them over for a few days. But with two girls under five, it’s going to be tough, even before she discovers she is pregnant again. The only reason she is putting herself through this is because she is so scared of her husband.

Ciara does everything right – she keeps Ryan informed about needing a break to keep everything above board. She doesn’t want to lose her girls. Her family – a mother and sister – are both in England and she can’t leave Ireland with her girls without their father’s permission.

When she finds a place in social housing, you get a lot of insight into the soul-destroying situation this can be. The lack of space – one hotel room for a family – and minimal cooking facilities. People hide rice cookers in their rooms, but there’s the threat they could be kicked out if discovered. They mustn’t use the lifts, it’s off-putting for the other guests, so they have to sneak up the back stairs. Even so, there’s a sense of community here and Ciara makes friends.

‘I left my marriage and it’s all been a bit … You know.’
‘One of those.’ Cathy nods. ‘Fair play to you. Takes some guts to leave.’
‘I just don’t know, if I did the right thing.’
She looks down at the endless corridor. Mottled red carpet blotted with stains. Scratched walls. The stench of cheap industrial disinfectant. Sepia prints of colonial-era Dublin. Ryan’s voice in her head. For no reason. You are tearing this family apart for no reason at all. She says, ‘I don’t know if I should have left. He didn’t cheat, or drink, or gamble. And it wasn’t physical. He didn’t hit me or anything.’
‘Your husband didn’t hit you? Well that was very fuckin nice of him. Make sure you text and say thanks.’

All the while, there are incessant text messages from Ryan which are like a battering ram, either declarations of love or hostile accusations, but always intense. Ciara is always on edge, her husband’s voice constantly in her head, dominating her thoughts. She doesn’t realise how bad it is until she talks to other people.

The story follows Ciara’s desperation to find a home, to find work, to make a new life for herself and Ryan’s ability to always crank things up another gear through lies and deception. So it isn’t surprising there is that thriller level of suspense. So often did I have my heart in my mouth, wondering if Ciara and the children would ever be safe. And it’s right down to the wire in the last chapters. Such an emotional roller-coaster of a read.

Through it all there’s imagery of birds. There are the young crow chicks Ryan finds in an abandoned nest on a building site and decides the girls can help him nurture. Another ploy. But other images too. It’s a beautifully written and crafted book. I enjoyed the audiobook, read by Louisa Harland. Even so, Nesting is so tense, so vivid, I could only listen to a little at a time. But gosh, what a great story. A five-star read from me.

Book Review: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon – a midwife and her battle for justice in 18th century Maine

~ Judith ~ 1 Comment

There’s something about settings in winter that can be very atmospheric. Ariel Lawson conjures up the depth of a very cold winter in The Frozen River, set in Maine in the late 1700s. Mere decades before, the militia had a fought long and hard to drive out the French as well as the native people of the area, ready for settlement. Martha Ballard, our protagonist, lives in the town of Hollowell with her family, her husband running a sawmill on the river, Martha the town midwife.

The story begins when Martha, with her medical expertise, is asked to examine a dead man, pulled from the river just before it ices over completely. As soon as she sets eyes on him, she is shocked to see that it is Joshua Burgess, one of two men accused of raping Rebecca Foster, her friend and the wife of a pastor. Rebecca had upset some townsfolk by making connections with the local Wabanaki people. What is also disturbing is that Joshua has been beaten and hanged.

When a newly-graduated doctor arrives and declares that the injuries sustained by the dead man are consistent with drowning, Martha is appalled to see her opinion discredited. She decides to find out what really happened, particularly when she learns that her son had an altercation with Joshua at the town dance on the night in question. She’s also determined to find justice for her friend Rebecca, who is still emotionally and physically scarred by her ordeal.

I keep up with the journals because I enjoy it, but also because it is my job. One of the duties of my profession. As a midwife and healer, I am witness to the details of my neighbors’ private lives, along with their fears and secrets, and – when appropriate – I record them for safekeeping. Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality. That, I believe, is why so few women are taught to read and write. God only knows what they would do with the power of pen and ink at their disposal. I am not God – nor do I desire to be – but, being privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in this town, I have a rather good idea what secrets might be recorded, then later revealed if more women took up the pen.

The plot really sweeps you along for the first half of the book and I couldn’t put it down. And then it kind of stalled. It was still interesting, in that the book is peppered with Martha’s diary entries, based on journals the real Martha Ballard kept, and you get a lot of the day-to-day life of a midwife in winter. The saddling up – she has a horrifically scary stallion called Brutus she’s still getting used to – and riding out in all weathers to tend to women in labour.

Apparently Martha never lost a mother during childbirth and her skills are recorded here, as well as those of a French speaking Black woman known as Doctor, who visits from time to time. But women skilled in medicine were not taken particularly seriously, and Martha often has a battle on her hands to make her patients and their husbands see sense. She’s a feisty character, always knows best, and a thorn in the side of powerful men. We also get a lot of her relationship with her husband Ephraim, still an intense passion now they’re in their fifties.

Then there are Matha’s battles against the local judge and businessman, Joseph North, the other man accused in the rape of her friend. He’s a nasty piece of work, and has the power to make things difficult for the Ballards. The ending is quite the showdown, if a little difficult for this reader to swallow. The author has written quite a lengthy explanation in a note at the end of the book about her reasoning here and the research which informed her story.

I’m glad I read The Frozen River as I had known little about this corner of history and the life of this interesting woman. I can see why the author wanted to fill in so much detail of her history, family and the settler township where she lived. I feel a more carefully edited version would have made a better novel. Overall it’s an engaging read and a three-star read from me.

Book Review: The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey – a story about friendship, growing up and a small town’s dark secrets

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The List of Suspicious Things is a debut novel which takes you back to 1979. Thatcher has just been elected PM and the Yorkshire Ripper is at large, killing young women, while the police have few clues to his identity. In Miv’s Yorkshire town the mills have closed down, so things are already tough, and likely to get tougher. At home, Miv’s mother never speaks, Auntie Jean delivers food to the table and terse comments, while her dad seems a bit lost.

When the family thinks a move down south might be a good idea, Miv is desperate. At twelve, she’s bright but a bit socially gauche, partly due to her home life, so her friendship with Sharon is too precious to lose. She’ll do anything to save it so decides to investigate and catch the Yorkshire Ripper. She buys a notebook and makes lists, and with Sharon’s help, begins to look for suspicious characters close to home.

As names are added to the list, the reader is introduced to the people of the town, beginning with Mr Bashir who runs the corner shop. He’s one of the nicest adults Miv knows but he has dark eyes and a moustache, so makes the list. There’s a truck driver from her father’s work, people she knows from church and a teacher among others. Other people in the community include Helen at the library – because where else do you go for information in 1979?

The people we saw on our way to school were like the buildings we passed: predictable and unchanging. At eight-fifteen we chimed, ‘Morning!’ in perfect unison to Mrs Pearson, out walking her snappy Jack Russell. After her, we knew we would say hello and stop for a chat with the man in the corner shop, as he would be outside by now, arranging the daily newspaper stand. He would call us the ‘Terrible Twosome’ and we would laugh, as if it were the first time he had said it.
Just before we got there, Sharon nudged me hard in the ribs and muttered, ‘Watch out!’ under her breath. Following her gaze, I saw another familiar person, the only person we didn’t say hello to on our journey and whose name we somehow knew was Brian, though we didn’t use it. To us, he was just ‘the man in the overalls’.

Of course, the girls don’t catch the Ripper, but their investigations uncover some of the darker elements going on in the town – the racism, the misogyny, the prejudice against those who are a bit different. Miv learns one or two secrets that are a bit close to home, and finds herself caught up in some of the fallout. She’s a girl who is left too much to her own devices, there’s just too much going on at home for consistent parenting. But then in 1979, kids were often left to find their own entertainment and the town is their playground.

Through Miv you also see the struggles of the adults in the story. Sometimes the narrative shifts to Austin, Miv’s dad; Helen; or Mr Bashir, who each have personal sadness and secrets. The setting – the late ’70s is well realised. Mr Bashir is always singing along to his favourite Elton John songs, jeans go from bellbottoms to stovepipes and Sharon buys a glittery lipgloss to try. And it’s also very Yorkshire, though not posh Yorkshire – the kids go ‘laiking about’ and at least one character’s house has an outdoor loo.

While overall I enjoyed the book, I did feel at times that it was rather overloaded with issues. So many dark things happen with a lot to fall on Miv’s small shoulders. Still, The List of Suspicious Things is a quirky and interesting novel, easy to get lost in. I was reminded of Joanna Cannon’s The Trouble with Goats and Sheep – another novel about two young girls investigating – in this case a neighbour’s disappearance – also set in the ’70s, and which is well worth checking out. The List of Suspicious Things is a three-star read from me.

Book Review: Still Life by Val McDermid – a layered cold case mystery with lots to keep you interested

~ Judith ~ 2 Comments

I’d long known Val McDermid to be one of the top Scottish crime writers, ever since Wire in the Blood showed on our TV screens in the 2000s. While I enjoyed the characters, I’d never really taken to the books as I’m not such a fan of plots about serial killers. But the stories were always complex and the characters engaging. Then I came upon Still Life, a mystery in the Karen Pirie series.

Karen is a DCI from Fife working in a Historic Cases unit. When a body is found by fishermen in the Firth of Forth, Karen is called to investigate due to the dead man’s connection to a politically sensitive missing person’s case she’d had a hand in years before. Karen is a little reluctant as the local police have just started their investigations but is given no choice by her snooty boss “the Dog Biscuit” with Sergeant Daisy Mortimer as her back-up. Daisy is with the original team and with her French degree will be particularly useful when their case takes them to Paris..

This is an engrossing mystery not least because of the interesting characters. Victim James Auld had absconded when the police began to finger him for his brother’s presumed death, although the body of Ian Auld was never found. Ian was a high-level civil servant in the Scotland Office when he disappeared.

There’s a connection to art theft and a well-known Scottish artist who painted unique collage styled portraits of the rich and powerful, lost to suicide around a decade before. And throw in the fact that James had a seven-year stint in the Foreign Legion, and was a talented jazz musician and you start to feel a real interest in the victim. So many strands to investigate and very few clues.

‘He couldn’t have fallen and hit his head on the way in? There’s plenty of rocks along that part of the Fife coast.’
‘The injury’s too regular for that. If you pressed me, I’d be inclined towards a baseball bat or a steel pipe.’
‘So, homicide.’
The professor gave a sharp sigh. ‘You know it’s not my job to make that judgement.’
‘I wasn’t asking, Jenny.’ He softened his words with a bashful smile, then turned to DS Mortimer. ‘The passport?’
She spotted the evidence bags on the side counter and picked up the two relevant ones. ‘It’s a French passport. Issued just over two years ago to a Paul Allard. Like the prof said, he’s forty-nine. His driving licence was issued in Paris at the same time – ‘
‘What? Exactly the same time?’
‘Same date. That’s weird, isn’t it? I mean, nobody has a passport and a driving licence issued on the same date, do they?’

Meanwhile Karen’s Historic Cases sidekick, Jason Murray (the Mint), is left carrying on with the case of a three-year-old body found in a camper van parked in a garage. And if that’s not enough to keep the story humming along, Karen is also upset when the man who killed the love of her life is released from prison. A woman of strong emotions and fierce actions, her grief bubbles to the surface again, threatening to overwhelm a promising new relationship.

But in the end, it’s Karen’s intelligence that shines through. She’s an impressive tactician, works hard and is brilliant in the interview room. The story allows Jason and Daisy to show their strengths too in very different ways, with Daisy a new recruit for more in the series.

If you enjoy character-driven police procedurals, this is a great read with lively prose full of Scottish vernacular. This didn’t hamper my understanding of what was going on, but added an appealing touch of local colour. I broke my rule about reading a series in order – Still Life is number six in the Karen Pirie series – but it didn’t seem to matter; it worked fine as a standalone novel. I’ll be checking in with Karen again and definitely trying some other Val McDermid mysteries. She’s definitely reliable for a satisfying read. Still Life earns a comfortable four stars..

Book Review: The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey – an enthralling and haunting dystopian novel

~ Judith ~ 4 Comments

It can be a bit nerve-wracking reviewing a book that has already had a lot of publicity and kudos. Even as you start to read it you know you are supposed to like it, but what if you don’t? Fortunately, The Book of Guilt soon drew me in with it’s 1979 English setting, although it’s not quite like how anyone would remember it.

Catherine Chidgey has reimagined the world as it might have been if England had signed a treaty with Germany in 1943, ending the war and continuing similar scientific experiments to those the Germans had been working on. We’ve got triplets, Vincent, Lawrence and William – 13 year olds who are the last boys living at Captain Scott house, a kind of children’s home. They follow a strict regime of activities and medication, overseen by their caregivers – Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.

Along with taking daily medicine, their dreams are recorded in the Book of Dreams, and any misdemeanours noted in The Book of Guilt. Lessons are from The Book of Knowledge – a kind of old-school encyclopaedia. The house is shabby, toys are minimal, but then the boys don’t always feel well enough for a lot of physical activity. But once they have beaten “the Bug”, they are promised they will be sent to Margate, a child’s paradise, where they’ll meet up with their old friends again, and every day enjoy the amusement park, described in loving detail.

Soon our reader’s antennae are twitching, as we know this isn’t normal and the boys part of a grander scheme, pawns in some kind of experiment. There are visits by an avuncular Dr Roach, eagerly awaited, with his little dog Cynthia. The mothers are reluctant to share what’s really going on and shut down any questions with platitudes. And when the boys are at last allowed to visit the village, the locals are wary, hostile even.

Through the high-street windows we saw whole sides of pork and whole jars of sweets, mannequins wearing real clothes and painted-on hair, tins of rice pudding arranged in precarious stacks, and, in the bakery window, a little automaton dressed in a white apron and white hat, nodding his head and tapping on the glass with a wooden spoon. But although we were locals – we’d lived in Ashbridge our whole lives, after all – the villagers never really warmed to us; they gave us the briefest of nods if we said hello, and the schoolchildren in their smart uniforms nudged one another and stared wide-eyed, and the shopkeepers stonewalled most attempts at small talk.

The story is told largely from Vincent’s point of view, but interspersed is Nancy’s story, a girl about the same age, whose own family situation is unusual and plagued with secrecy. And then there’s The Minister of Loneliness, who is tasked with overseeing the closing of the boys’ home and others like it, and finding suitable families to take the remaining children. She is clearly uncomfortable about what she sees when she visits the boys at Captain Scott.

This is such an intense read, so haunting I could think of little else. And things get pretty dark, with new revelations and plot developments. At one point I had to take a break, so I read a crime novella about a wife murderer for a bit of light relief. But I did continue and I’m glad I did as it is such a compelling and thought-provoking story.

Chidgey is brilliant at detail and at times this was like a trip down memory lane with artifacts from everyday life circa 1979 appearing – leatherette furniture, the knick-knacks on display, Nancy’s Spirograph. You can feel the world through Vincent and Nancy, just as a young person might, all five senses vividly recounted. And the way children, no matter what circumstances they are living in, will sometimes burst into moments of imagination, or excitable play.

Ideas around power and what should be sanctioned for the greater good, of difference and prejudice and, of course, guilt trickle through the storyline. It all adds up to a top literary achievement and I can see why there’s a lot of talk about the novel. Crafted and intelligent, The Book of Guilt is a five-star read from me.