Tag: humour

Book Review: The Wedding People by Alison Espach – a witty comedy-of-manners and second-chances novel

~ Judith ~ 2 Comments

I must say I was a little dubious about the premise of this book, but I’d heard so many good things, I hesitantly plunged in. In The Wedding People, life has hit rock bottom for our protagonist, Phoebe Stone, an academic who teaches Victorian literature, but has never finished her dissertation. She’s stuck in a low paying role at the same university as her ex-husband Matt. He’d left her for her best friend after he and Phoebe had tried and failed to have a child. Already at a low ebb, the discovery of Harry, her cat, dead in the basement is too much and she plans to kill herself. What better place to do it than the Cornwall Inn.

The Cornwall Inn was a holiday destination Phoebe had hoped to enjoy with Matt, but he’d had other ideas. It’s a luxury hotel on the coast, so she books herself into the penthouse suite and arrives in her best dress and with no luggage, Harry’s painkillers in her handbag. She’ll order room service, watch the sunset and pass gently away on the canopied bed. The thought of reading about someone about to take their life was a little daunting but, as Phoebe waits to check in at the hotel’s reception, I soon realised this novel was going to be fun.

Also at the hotel, people are gathering for a wedding. Lila is throwing a huge, million-dollar affair to celebrate her nuptials to Gary, and thinks she’s booked the entire hotel for her guests for the week. She’s not pleased to find an interloper in the penthouse suite and challenges Phoebe about it in the lift. The two strike up an odd kind of alliance over the days leading up to the wedding, and Phoebe finds herself a confidante to all manner of concerns Lila has, which for some reason she doesn’t share with her bridesmaids. Lila seems to be as much alone as Phoebe.

“I never understood why my mother was so obsessed with art. I studied it for four years, and honestly, I get it even less now. Like seriously, what’s the point of it?”
Again, the bride looks at Phoebe and waits.
“Are you asking me?” Phoebe asks.
“Have you never been in a conversation before?”
“It’s been a while, actually.”
“I can tell.”
“And to be honest, I’m not sure I get the point, either.”
When Phoebe left for graduate school, she had very clear and beautiful ideas about art, how art is what elevates us, art is the magnificence wrung from the ugly dish towel of existence. Art helps us feel alive. And this had been true for Phoebe – Phoebe used to read books and feel astounded. She used to walk around galleries, inspired by the beautiful human urge to create. But that was years ago. Now she can’t stand the sight of her books. Can’t bear the thought of reading hundreds of pages just to watch Jane Eyre get married again.

As the wedding draws closer, Phoebe becomes swept into the wedding preparations, filling in for a missing maid of honour and taking part all kinds of events – from the bachelorette party to learning to surf – and develops an unfortunate attraction to the groom. Without a charger for her phone she is quite cut off from her old life, and starts to imagine something new. I loved how her area of expertise appears in the book, her knowledge of Victorian heroines like Jane Eyre and also the Mrs Dalloway she decides to finish when she finds it on the hotel bookshelves.

There’s also a host of humorous characters that you get to know, like Jim the best man who Lila finds a bit over-friendly, and Patricia, her mother, accused of drinking in the afternoon. Phoebe gets to know them and learn their secrets. Weddings, it seems, don’t bring out the best in people, and Phoebe discovers all sorts bubbling away under the petulant exterior of Marla, the groom’s sister, or the sullenness of young Juice, his daughter. You can talk to someone like Phoebe, who you’ll probably never see again after the wedding, a bit like talking to a priest.

Which is the other thing I love about this book – the dialogue, which is hugely entertaining. I can just imagine the book would be terrific on screen (apparently, film rights have been sold). The Wedding People is probably the most enjoyable book I’ve read this year – it’s fun, clever and resonates emotionally too. So it’s an easy five stars from me.

Book Review: Go Gentle by Maria Semple – a smart comedy caper that gives you something to think about

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I confess I still have Where’d You Go, Bernadette on by bookcase, unread, but hope to rectify that soon, having just finished Maria Semple’s new book: Go Gentle. This was such a fun read, although on opening the book, I hadn’t a clue what to expect. And I’m still not quite sure what kind of book it is, as it seems to blend a lot of genres: mystery, romance, intrigue, family relationships, and comedy.

The narrative is all from the point of view of Adora Hazzard. Now in her mid-fifties, she’s planning her later years by ensuring the other people moving onto her floor of the New York apartment building where she lives are like-minded older women she approves of. Known by some as the coven, the idea is that they’ll look out for each other as they age, avoiding aged care facilities and sharing costs.

Adora has a stipend with an old-money family, the Lockwoods, Layla and Lionel, tutoring their young twins in things philosophical in their extraordinary glass house, or at work across the road at the Lockwood Library, with its amazing art collection. For a confirmed stoic, there’s a lot of abundance on show. Her stoicism comes from a dark part in her life when she was a twenty-something comedy writer in Hollywood. The story dips back in time to fill you in, along with Adora’s recovery and path to philosophy.

Nietzsche said, Amor fati. Love fate. You have to love what happened to you. I actually got that tattooed. When it truly clicks, no matter what the universe throws at you, you’re like, Please, sir, I want some more. I’m not talking Wagyu beef and béarnaise, I’m talking the grand parade, the whole catastrophe, I’m talking life.

Adora is an interesting character with many layers, which Semple reveals little by little. She’s not always likeable – to start with she’s got a smart stoical answer for every situation, something her fifteen year old daughter endures not so stoically. If there wasn’t an art heist, a fascinating handsome stranger, a flit to Paris, and a close call with danger, there’s still plenty to keep you turning the pages. I enjoyed the balance between the two. The way Adora tries to live a planned life of the mind, but also how events take her by surprise and shake some of that out of her.

The story is rounded out with a wide cast of characters – the people in Adora’s apartment building, including staff; the Lockwoods and their entourage. I loved meeting landscape gardener Blanche and her South American contractor Dorris, who are full of surprises. These characters are all shown through Adora’s perspective and in the lively dialogue, which as a non-American did sometimes challenge my knowledge of American slang. But in the end I decided to just go with the flow and still found heaps to enjoy.

Go Gentle is due for release on 14 April. I enjoyed this novel courtesy of Negalley and Hachette Australia in return for an honest review. It’s a fun, intelligent novel that gives you plenty to think about even after the last page – a four-star read from me.

Book Review: This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum – an original and riveting L.A. thriller with all the feels

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I hadn’t a clue what to expect from this debut novel, and even looking back having turned the last page, it still seems an interesting mix of genres – by turns a psychological thriller, a dramedy and a love story.

This Story Might Save Your Life is named after the massively successful podcast hosted by besties Benny and Joy. The idea behind the show is life-threatening situations, and how to survive them. Each episode describes one such event researched by one of the team, who then asks the other, how would you escape – for instance, being caught in the mouth of a humpback whale. So yes, we’re not just talking house fires and boats capsizing.

There’s a lot of comedic banter, and it’s really the personalities of the two that make the show work. Neither Benny or Joy ever thought they’d be still doing the show years later but subscribers write in with their own near-death survival situations and it goes from strength to strength. Joy’s husband Zander has helped grow the brand, running the business side of things and even taking the show on tour.

The situation is complicated by Joy’s medical condition. She has narcolepsy, which means those closest to her are aware that she might just fall asleep at any moment. With care and meds she leads a fairly normal life. The other complication, which happens right at the start of the book, is that during the season that the Santa Ana winds threaten trees and cause general mayhem, Joy and Zander disappear from their home.

We get Benny’s story about the disappearance, the police investigation and the growing concern that the two may be in danger. Benny’s not a big fan of Zander – there’s some jealousy there between them – so his main concern is for Joy whose narcolepsy makes everything tricky anyway. Interwoven with the all the CSI, the search teams and suspicious looks from a probing Detective Keller is Joy’s story. She and Benny have a publishing deal to write a two-person memoir, so this is her story, going back to her learning to deal with her illness, make a life for herself, her meeting Benny and then Zander.

The switching between the two stories makes you beaver through the chapters desperate to see what happens next. Joy’s backstory is just as interesting as Benny’s search for clues, slowly bringing us up-to-date with potential reasons for the disappearance. The plotting is excellent, but the characters are engaging too. Joy and Benny are charming and funny – Joy captures our empathy because she’s just so positive in spite of her medical condition, while Benny’s a bit of a goof, but also intense. He’s also been through some difficulties and has a temper.

Zander is a bit of a dark card, and there are other characters who have emotional connections to the two MCs – among them Zander’s sister Mallory, and Benny’s ex, Luna, which adds further complications. It’s quite likely someone’s lying, but who? And even Benny and Joy seem to be hiding something. So there are plenty of twists that keep you eagerly reading to the end. I also loved the L.A. setting which Tiffany Crum helps you visualise – a place I’d be happy to revisit.

I read this novel courtesy of Netgalley and Hachette, Australia for an honest review. It’s a great story, and I’d certainly be keen to read more by Tiffany Crum. This Story Might Save Your Life is due for publication on 10 March and is a four-and-a-half star read from me.

Book Review: Hastings: a boy’s own adventure by Dick Frizzell – an entertaining memoir of growing up in 1950s provincial New Zealand

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Gosh life in the 1950s could be dangerous. Kids jumping on bikes and disappearing for the day, nobody really knowing where they were, mowing the lawns with bare feet, impromptu caving adventures under a mountain known as The Peak. Somehow the author managed to survive childhood to write this entertaining memoir about growing up in his home town of Hastings – that’s Hastings, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand – not the one in England or any of the other Hastings around the world.

Dick Frizzell is one of New Zealand’s most instantly recognisable artists – his paintings, that is. When you read this book, you’ll discover that not only did he win an art prize at his high school, but an English prize as well. As a writer, he has a chatty style, the kind that you can imagine him using to tell a funny anecdote over a beer. It’s also very descriptive, with many original and quirky turns of phrase that help you imagine what things look like. The visual artist coming out in his prose.

Although I missed the 1950s entirely, my quite a bit older siblings would tell similar tales from their childhood and a similar picture of New Zealand would emerge. This book begins with Dick’s early years, and the arrival of a whole bunch of sisters, his parents’ concern that he needed a brother and the sudden arrival (and departure) of Ray. The book is full of characters, beginning with his parents – his engineering father’s ability to build and fix, and to get through large amounts of beer during a rabbit hunting excursion. Or his mother’s love of entertaining, her cottage art and determinedly sunny nature.

These characters – neighbours and kids from school, elderly aunts and teachers – emerge in the stories, which are often wild and whacky tales, capturing the young Richard as an innocent at large. The decision of Dick and his mates to test the saying ‘like shooting fish in a barrel’, which of course meant ‘borrowing’ a gun and fish; the unusual ‘mates’ he makes in hospital on a men’s ward following a burst appendix; joining a theatre troupe performing South Pacific as a call boy and painting on tattoos.

A couple of days later we got the fish into the barrel. Well, we got one fish into the barrel; the other one was dead when I retrieved the bucket from its hiding place. Maybe the crushed-up Snax biscuits didn’t suffice. Could’ve been the salt.
So now we had a fish in a barrel and were beginning to feel a bit half-hearted about the whole enterprise. The actual logistics were starting to look a bit daunting too. Just how do you shoot a rifle into a barrel? We were going to have to stand on boxes. Maybe it was meant to be ‘shooting fish in a half-barrel’.

Such a busy time, and all through it a nostalgic look at how we lived. New products at the corner shop, like the arrival of the first popsicles (marketed as TT2s), driving his mother’s 1936 Austin Sherborne, saving up to buy Beano, Phantom and Uncle Scrooge comics, teenagers with motorcycles at the milk bar. Through it all lots of drawing and art, the future painter starting to develop. It all seems so innocent now.

Did the outside world impinge at all on any of it? As a kid, I remember being very aware that my older brother could get drafted into the Vietnam War, that there was a nuclear arms race, pollution and not enough food for countries in Africa, George Harrison singing about Bangladesh. I remember getting really worried before I even got to high school. It was a different time, I guess.

Hastings: a boy’s own adventure is a fun read though. I chuckled my was through the thirty stories, some of them quite hair-raising. A trip down memory lane, or your parents’ memory lane. It’s the kind of book you can pick up and put down as each story is a separate vignette, which makes a nice bedside read, or gift, I should think. The first in a series of planned memoirs, Hastings: a boy’s own adventure is a four-star read from me,

Book Review: Back When We Were Grown-Ups by Anne Tyler – revisiting an old favourite

~ Judith ~ 1 Comment

While there are so many terrific new books out there to tempt and distract, I like to come back to old favourites now and then. A favourite author for me is Anne Tyler. Back When We Were Grown-Ups was first published in 2001 but has a kind of timeless quality which I find very appealing. It follows Rebecca who wonders how life would have been different if she hadn’t been swept off her feet by Joe Davitch all those years ago; if she’d finished college and gone on to marry her childhood sweetheart instead.

At barely twenty, Rebecca had met Joe at a party venue his family ran called the Open Arms, a large terrace house with high ceilings in a slightly rundown part of Baltimore. An odd coincidence makes her laugh, and Joe is drawn towards her apparently cheerful nature. But all the while, Rebecca had always seen herself as a fairly serious girl, intent on finishing her history degree.

Not only does she marry Joe instead, but she also takes on his three daughters, has one of her own and, when Joe dies in a car crash six years into their marriage, she runs the Open Arms as well. This doesn’t even include the elderly folk she looks after, first Joe’s mother, then Poppy, his uncle. The Open Arms needs constant repairs, and as the decades pass, there are grandchildren to babysit too.

She’s fifty-three when we meet her at the start of the book, organising a family barbecue and trying to make everyone happy. Which isn’t always easy – the Davitches are a prickly, discontented bunch at times, particularly the girls, who are prone to squabbling or disapproving of their sisters’ choices. Circumstances trigger Rebecca into wondering what happened to the boy she dumped for Joe, and she decides to look him up.

Min Foo turned to Rebecca. “I was thinking about your dream,” she said.
“My dream,” Rebecca echoed. In the flurry of lunch, she had started to forget her dream. Now it came back to her, but with the boy more distant now, more of an other. “What about it?” she asked Min Foo.
“If you dreamed you had a son, not daughters, and if the son was blond, not dark …” Min Foo was shepherding the children toward the front of the house, so that Rebecca had to follow her. “Well, it seems to me,” she said, “that you were dreaming how things would be if you’d chosen a different fork in the road. You know what I mean? If you’d decided on some different kind of life than you have now.”
This struck Rebecca as so apt, and so immediately obvious where it hadn’t been before, that she stopped short. Oh, her girls could surprise her so, every now and then!

This really is a novel of characters – the four daughters all with their own set of problems are constantly in and out of the Open Arms, also the Davitch home which Rebecca still shares with Poppy, now approaching his 100th birthday. We’ve got the girls’ partners and offspring, as well as Zeb, Rebecca’s goofy brother-in-law, a hospital doctor who’s never married.

They’re all interesting and entertaining, but I particularly loved Poppy with his memories and enjoyment of food, his discourse on what it’s like to be so old and so on. And Peter, who at eleven is a new arrival into the family via his father’s marriage to one of the girls. He sticks out for being pale compared to the dark haired Davitches as well as shy and nerdy. Tyler captures beautifully the bickering dialogue of sisters, the way conversations waft in and out between characters, between topics as people pounce on ideas or lose the thread of what they were saying, with all the humour that results.

The story takes its time as Rebecca rethinks her life and tries to reconnect with her old flame, now a divorced physics professor, and ponders her choices. Was Joe ever in love with her, or was she just useful when he needed help? Some readers may find the pace a little slow as the scenes, often party scenes, pile one on top of the other. A baby is born, there’s a wedding and Poppy has his birthday bash, meals are served and tradespeople called in.

But without being an out and out comedy, I found myself chuckling my way through them all. I once came across a comment Tyler made about the fiction of Barbara Pym in which she stated: “she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life”. The same could be said of this novel, the way Tyler captures all the muddles, missteps and misconceptions. I loved it, finding it well-worth a reread, both relaxing and hugely entertaining – a four star read from me.

Book Review: Totally Fine by Nick Spalding – an entertaining comedy of manners with a touch of philosophy amid the humour

~ Judith ~ Leave a comment

The main character in Nick Spalding’s new novel is Charlie King, who could be a really annoying person if he was in your life, if he wasn’t so well meaning. Obviously his girlfriend Annie sees this in him, as do his long-time buddies, Leo and Jack, but really, life with a Charlie King around would be exhausting.

Charlie makes his living planning events, all kinds of parties and marketing do’s for the middle classes. And he’s really good at it. The story begins with the birthday party he’s planned at a bowling alley for Annie’s young nephew, with a Jurassic Park theme, actors in costumes and fake dinosaurs, the works. A panic attack hits Charlie, triggered by an annoying song by the Black Eyed Peas – the same song that was on the radio when he had that car accident a while ago – something he’d never told Annie about. In fact he’s rather blotted it from his mind.

Doing his best to put the incident at the birthday party behind him, He gets back to work. But something isn’t right and he makes a big mistake at a gender-reveal party, which sees his business suddenly going south. Charlie decides the time out this offers is the perfect opportunity to confront his issues. But when he realises that his best mates Leo and Jack are also suffering from anxiety, Charlie decides they can all fix their problems together. Because that’s what Charlie does – fixes things up and makes everything perfect. If he can do that with events, he can do that with personal problems, right?

I have Zenith Games at 10.30 a.m. to talk about the event they’d like to hold for the launch of their first PC adventure. Then at 2 p.m., I’m back over to Howling at the Moon to go through the finer points of their first gig back together for sixteen years. And then I have to fit in poor Elaine and the poodles at some point, as well. The pet expo, which is only three weeks away now, has told her she needs to reduce her floor size by ten square metres, which is going to be problematic, to say the least. Those poodles enjoy their space.
My brain is buzzing with a whole series of disparate jobs that I wish I could manage over the course of the next few weeks … but here I am in the perfect storm of them all needing to be sorted out today.
And then there’s little Teddy’s birthday party!

The story follows Charlie’s harrying his friends into different therapeutic options, from magic mushrooms, to navel-gazing in the wilderness. This creates plenty of amusing and visually interesting scenes. Throughout everything, he ignores Annie’s advice to consult a doctor, or his friend’s growing resentment. He seems unable to see what’s under his nose or understand his own problem. Why is he so afraid to see a doctor?

Totally Fine is an entertaining look at some of society’s ills – the pressure to perform, the endless distractions demanding our attention, the need to seem strong to the ones we love when inside we need help. Nothing really new but maybe ramped up here for the digital age. This is shown through one man’s problems, and as a professional tasked with providing his clients with the perfect social media opportunities, Charlie is the perfect protagonist for this. Perfectly imperfect, that is.

It’s a light, fun read, if you don’t mind a bit of schoolboy humour from time to time. It’s touch and go whether everything will turn out “totally fine” for Charlie and his friends, but you can bet there will be lessons learned. I read this after some darker novels, and it was a relaxing read that was just right. Nick Spalding is the author of around 20 books, mostly humorous fiction about modern life with his new book, Totally Fine, just released this week. I read it courtesy of Netgalley, and it’s a three-star read from me.

Book Review: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman – a very funny crime caper and first of a series

~ Judith ~ 2 Comments

I came somewhat late to The Thursday Murder Club party, only picking the book up when a movie starring Helen Mirren and other big names was in the wind. It was such a fun read, I was keen to get my hands on the first of Richard Osman’s new series:, We Solve Murders. And I’m glad I did.

The story begins with Amy Wheeler, a private security officer – a body guard no less. Her current job is looking after world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio at her home on a remote island off the South Carolina coast. It should be a cinch, lots of relaxing by the pool and better than decent meals served by an ex-Navy Seal turned chef. But someone wants to kill Amy, and before you know it, she’s on the run with Rosie, who has her own plane, which comes in handy.

Next thing, the scene switches to the more hum-drum world of Amy’s father-in-law, Steve – an ex-copper turned private investigator. Living in a quiet English village in the New Forest, where ponies wander the streets as if they own the place, which they kind of do, his cases are no more tricky than missing pets and minor misdemeanours. He has mates at the pub and never misses Quiz Night, but still desperately misses Debbie, his late wife.

Amy and Steve are good pals, Amy on the phone to her father-in-law most days with her encouraging banter. So when she needs help, Steve’s the person she turns to. There follows a very complicated plot, involving money laundering, social media influencers trying to hit the big time, and the growing reality that Amy can’t trust anyone – except Rosie and Steve, that is.

The three make an odd team – Amy thrives on adrenaline and has passed her employer Jeff’s psychopath test with flying colours – Jeff’s criteria when hiring security staff. Rosie is all glamour, seemingly ageless, drinks everyone under the table and has an eye for the men. She’s quite keen on Steve, but he’s still devoted to Debbie and the quiet life. He also hates planes in spite being inveigled into joining an investigation that will take them to Dubai, via St Lucia and Ireland.

‘Cat, ginger, unapproachable. Haughty even, the little bugger. Mason’s Lane. Contact attempted but rebuffed. 3.58 a.m.’
Steve puts his Dictaphone back in his pocket. He hears the sound of the ginger cat inexpertly scaling a back fence. It was not often he saw an unfamiliar cat on his walk. It was almost certainly nothing, but almost everything was almost certainly nothing, wasn’t it? And yet some things did eventually turn out to be something. He once caught an armed robber because of a Twix wrapper in a blast furnace. One rarely knows the significance of things at the time, and it doesn’t cost a penny piece to note things down.

While there is a well-plotted mystery to keep you turning the pages and keep you guessing, for me the book was more about the characters and how they bounce off each other. Steve in particular has a stream of consciousness that is very funny, his ex-copper-like observations on a Cictaphone for seemingly ordinary things, his way of summing people up. But Steve, like pretty much everyone here, if full of surprises, even at times surprising himself.

This isn’t probably the book for you if you like to analyse every clue and figure it all out yourself through logic and deduction. But do pick it up if you’d like a lively, fun read to while away a wet weekend. There’s plenty of excitement – shootings, fights, helicopter, jet and jet-boat rides, and killers – plenty of those too. I imagine this would make another terrific movie or TV series – it’s full of visually interesting and unpredictable scenes, interesting characters and great dialogue. I loved it and will be keen for the next in the series. We Solve Murders is a four-star read from me.

Book Review: Murder Before Evensong by Rev. Richard Coles – an ecclesiastical cosy that takes you back to the ’80s

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The cosy mystery genre is as varied as any, and some are definitely better than others. I am always on the lookout for the feel of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories when I pick one up, so this one with its classic English village setting seemed promising. Murder Before Evensong introduces us to the parish of Champton, a village with a lord of the manor, Lord Bernard de Floures of Champton House, and a rectory, the home of our sleuth, Rev. Daniel Clement.

When Daniel suggests the installation of toilets at St Mary’s during a church service, he couldn’t possibly have imagined the fallout. A posse of flower ladies are appalled that the space required will mean the loss of the back pews. Daniel is reluctant to back down, but soon has his hands full with other matters. There’s the arrival of his actor brother Theo doing background research for a new role as a TV vicar in a ‘gentle comedy’. He wants to follow Daniel around to get a sense of what he does.

Then there’s the annual open day at Champton House, with the whole village mucking in, managing the door, running guided tours, serving tea. But the day ends in tragedy, with Daniel discovering Bernard’s cousin Anthony Bowness, who’d been archiving the family’s papers, dead in a back pew of St Mary’s. Anthony, a troubled man, often came here to pray, which is where Daniel’s naughty dachshunds come upon the body, stabbed in the neck by a pair of secateurs. What secrets had Anthony uncovered? And who knew how to kill so effectively, picking the exact spot for the carotid artery?

There are more murders before the last page, and multiple suspects. Nathan, the de Floures odd-job man, has a shady past, and the grandfather he lives with an even shadier one. And no one knows what to make of Bernard’s younger son, Alex, with his wild enthusiasms for art installations and his unsuitable friends. Other characters seem to be hiding secrets, and the village’s role in the war can’t be discounted either.

‘And you took the dogs?’
‘They usually come with me to church. And it’s their wee-wee time before bed.’ What a ridiculous phrase, he thought. How would that sound read out in court? ‘And they like to sniff for mice. If they’re lucky, maybe they’ll find half a biscuit … and I thought they would be particularly enthusiastic this evening because we had a lot of visitors come through church on Open Day and some of them bring dogs. Lots to sniff. And that’s when I noticed. Or rather didn’t notice: they didn’t sound enthusiastic. They were barely making a noise, and that’s what made me think something was out of the ordinary. I called them, they didn’t come.

The story is well plotted, adding enough interest to keep the reader guessing and turning the pages. But the steady humour of the writing and the interplay between a host of quirky village characters lift this cosy above the average. Author, the Reverend Richard Coles, obviously knows well the life of an Anglican priest, and as a former member of the band the Communards, seems keen to evoke the 1980s here – Cagney and Lacey on the telly, Wham on the radio. But in a village like this, you feel it could be any time, that things don’t change a lot.

Daniel is a thoughtful, always considerate rector, at times struggling with the demands of those around him – not just his parishioners. His perceptive but interfering mother Audrey has to be constantly held in check, as do the two dachsunds, Cosmo and Hilda. The tiny general store and post-office is often the scene of gossipy councils of war between the anti-toilet brigade which contrasts nicely with scenes at the old-fashioned rectory and the palatial Champton House.

The writing is terrific too. Coles blends in Biblical and other ecclesiastical references to add authenticity without overburdening the story, which is generally lively and full of wit. I chuckled my way through, not particularly caring whodunit, as I was enjoying the journey so much. I’ll definitely be keen to continue with this series – the fourth is out later this year, so there’s a few to catch up with. Murder Before Evensong is a four-star read from me.

Book Review: Mr Campion’s Christmas by Mike Ripley – a fun, seasonal read with both thrills and period charm

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Mike Ripley is the author of the Fitzroy Maclean Angel crime series featuring an enigmatic bandleader as its sleuth. Then about ten years ago he picked up where Margery Allingham left off and has written another twelve novels in her Albert Campion series. I feel as if I’m rather late to the party having never read any of the Campion books, which Allingham began way back in 1929, a kind of spoof, supposedly, of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

Having just read Mr Campion’s Christmas I feel I have a bit of catching up to do. The story begins with a bus journey from London, leaving the Victoria Coach Station a couple of days after Christmas. It’s 1962, a year that went down in history not only for the Cuban Missile Crisis, but also a severe season of blizzards that particularly rocked East Anglia. The coach is heading for Walsingham, a Norfolk village famous for its shrines and as such a destination for pilgrims.

Walsingham is also near an RAF airbase, so there are three genial American airman on board, as well as a small collection of odd characters: Hereward Henderson, a history buff and general bore, Miss Pounder, a reserved middle-aged woman, Reverend Breck who is planning to retire in Walsingham, and Fred De Vries, a Dutch art dealer who guards his luggage with his life. It’s a nerve-wracking journey for Graham Fisk, the driver, as snow turns to blizzard, so he’s only too happy to hand over the driving to one of the airmen. But even Oscar can’t keep the bus straight in such horrific conditions and the coach collides with one of the gate posts of a country house named Carterers.

Yes, it’s the home of Albert Campion, his wife Lady Amanda and their son Rupert, just home from his first term at a University in America. The three are hunkering down as the snow falls, along with Campion’s side-kick Magersfontein Lugg, a large man with a few rough edges. The hot meals keep coming thanks to Mrs Thursby, the housekeeper, and the family have also rescued Lloyd Thursby, Mrs Thursby’s deaf father-in-law who has a passion for watching westerns on the TV.

Suddenly the Campions are playing hosts to the stranded coach party and sleeping arrangements have to be sorted. But what starts out as Yule-tide hospitality turns into a hostage situation plus a murder, and it’s a return to the old days for Campion and Lugg who must save the day. It’s a classic kind of thriller, made entertaining and fresh by the quirky characters of the household as well as those from the coach. Most of this group seem to be harbouring a secret, just to make things complicated.

Mr Campion flung open the kitchen door, strode in and turned the light on as if he owned the place, which of course he did. He and Lugg were confronted by a scene of simple domesticity, if the detritus of catering for eight unexpected guests arriving in a snowstorm could be described as simple. Everything seemed to be in its place, or at least where Amanda and Mrs Thursby had left it.
‘If we ‘ad a burglar, he wasn’t peckish,’ said Lugg, indicating the tray of geometrically arranged mince pies Mrs Thursby had baked ‘just in case’ before she went to bed. As if moving chess pieces, he carefully picked out two which did not disturb the pattern unduly and began munching.
‘Can I get you the brandy butter and a pot of tea perhaps?’ hissed Campion. ‘Or can we get on?’

Of course the telephone loses connection so there’s no chance of rescue, and the Campions must rescue themselves, although help comes from an unexpected quarter. Lady Amanda is a modern woman, with a career in the aeronautical industry, and also gets to show her mettle. Just as all seems lost, Campion devises an oddball plan that is very entertaining as well as reasonably nail-biting. Campion hides his skill at handling tricky situations behind a facade of batty eccentricity, that’s a little P G Wodehouse, while his brain is in overdrive looking for windows of opportunity. There are codewords and his number one weapon, the size and heft of Lugg, is eventually deployed.

Bubbling through it all is a steady stream of wit, humorous incidents and smart writing that makes this update of an old favourite nicely readable for a modern audience. But you’re still happily in 1962 and the classic crime writing of this era – the perfect light, diverting escapade for Christmas. Mr Campion’s Christmas is a four-star read from me.

Book Review: The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward – a humorous take on the bookshop mystery, packed with local colour

~ Judith ~ Leave a comment

I went to an author talk recently at which authors Gareth and Louise Ward described how they came to write a book together set in the New Zealand village of Havelock North where they live and where they own a bookshop. The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone is a delightful cosy mystery and part of the humour for me, anyway – and this is a very funny book – comes from the way the main characters, Garth and Eloise Sherlock, owners of Sherlock Tomes, are seemingly versions of the authors and their world.

In real life, Gareth and Louise were also, once upon a time, coppers back in the UK, or Blighty as they call it. And they do have a large dog with a sensitive personality who is often at the shop – I’ve been there a few times, so I know. The world of these booksellers just seems made for a cosy mystery series, doesn’t it? At the talk I was amused to learn that the dog, Stevie, was a more prominent character in the first drafts, until the editor cut out large chunks with “too much Stevie” scrawled in the margin. So for lovers of mysteries where pets save the day and solve the murder, this doesn’t quite happen, although I am happy to say, Stevie does play a pivotal role in things.

The story revolves around a cold case, the disappearance of schoolgirl, Tracey Jervis, decades before. A bright student with a talent for poetry, Tracey left home, heading for the circus, and was never seen again. There were rumours of her being caught in a clinch with a teacher, but the work she did helping a politician with his campaign seems to have thrown up more questions. As well as being politically ambitious, Franklin White is a property developer, with an arrogance that makes him easy to loathe. And then there’s Tracey’s controlling father; and what about the ex-boyfriend?

Meryl is an artist, as she’s told us often, although I’ve never seen any of her work in Havelock North’s galleries or that other purveyor of fine art, the local coffee shop. She barges past me pulling a granny trolley, which she is far too young to be using. ‘What other calendars have you got?’ she asks, seeming indifferent to the fact that I haven’t set up for the day, or even yet switched the lights on.
Despite having been ordered from the reps in February, the main drop of calendars hasn’t arrived yet. They get later each year and the shipping issues we’ve had thanks to Covid have only made matters worse. ‘They’re in a box up at the counter,’ I tell Meryl. ‘We’ve just had a couple of the smaller suppliers so far.’ I grab two piles of magazines banded with plastic strips from outside the door and hurry after her.
‘What about “Nice Jewish Guys”?’
When we first opened the shop, and didn’t know what we were doing, we got an eclectic mix of calendars of which perhaps the most bizarre was ‘Nice Jewish Guys’. We put a photo of Eloise swooning over it up on Facebook as a bit of a giggle and sold all four copies the same day. Ever since it has been a firm seller every year, though the calendar rep told us we’re the only retailer in New Zealand that stocks it.

Garth and Eloise had never heard of Tracey Jarvis until a mysterious package is delivered to the shop with a copy of a book inside – See You in September, by real-life local author, Charity Norman. The book has been annotated with a message – a call to action to reinvestigate Tracey’s disappearance, and on the package is a reference to Eloise’s old police badge number, which was hardly something anyone local would know. The couple can’t help wondering if there’s a link to a nasty criminal Eloise had helped put away years ago and who casts a lingering shadow.

Other story threads are woven in, the most notable being the decision of one of the world’s best-selling authors to launch her latest book at Sherlock Tomes, a colossal and mind-boggling event that has to be kept under wraps. Then there’s the flower pilferer that is pinching flowers from the shop’s window box as well as the menace provided by some thuggish gang members who try to put a stop to the Tracey Jarvis investigation.

Everything comes together neatly, the plot building to a simmering conclusion full of surprises and fair dose of action. But while the book lives up to it’s ‘cosy mystery’ label, it’s also a view into the enchanting world of bookshops and the people who visit, its quirky and loveable staff, and the curious characters who inhabit the village. Dead Girl Gone is the first in a series, with a second book already in the pipeline to look out for. Can’t wait! This one’s a four-star read from me.