Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson

 

You can buy Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas... Here

You can find out more about Hunter S Thompson...Here (Rolling Stone aricle)

This review is by Owen Powell 

• The Blurb...

Roaring down the desert highway, Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo are seeking out the dark side of the American Dream. Armed with a drug arsenal of stupendous proportions, they confront casino operators, police officers and assorted Middle Americans, in surreal, chemically enhanced encounters.

Hilarious, hallucinogenic and subversive, Hunter S. Thompson’s semi-autobiographical novel is a cult classic and a masterpiece of gonzo journalism.

• Our Review...

This book is mad. I don’t think there’s another word that can accurately describe it. Imagine some strange man has cornered you in the pub and is regaling some insane drug-fuelled story of his past. That’s essentially what this book is. You’re trapped, subject to this utterly insane tale, and yet, you find yourself needing to know what happens next.

The writing is very fast-paced, which I found to be a welcome change compared to reading most other books. Each sentence is a brand new thought, almost as if we’re watching our main protagonist’s thoughts working, and spiralling, in real time. This writing style perfectly conveys the paranoia and chaos of the heavily intoxicated mind (I imagine) The obstacles Raoul Duke and his attorney face are objectively minor setbacks, and yet they are made urgent and catastrophic through their hallucinatory lenses, which is very entertaining to read. The fast writing and jargon can prove a little overwhelming at times, but it also immerses you completely into the twisted mind of a heavy drug user.

There is little of an actual story to speak of here. Our protagonists are sent to Las Vegas to cover a famous motorcycle race with a convertible full of drugs and alcohol. That’s it. But their exaggerated reactions to otherwise mundane events is what makes this book so special. They will ALWAYS assume the worst case scenario playing out ahead of them, which forces them to act in a way to try and avoid it, thereby just making things worse for themselves. Likewise there isn’t much to the characters either, other than they love getting incredibly high, hate all the downsides that come with it, and are extremely paranoid about everything. Our main protagonist, Raoul Duke, seems to repeat the question “Why not?” throughout this story, which I think also accurately sums him up as a person. Despite the many hallucinatory terrors they face, all these people want to do is chase pleasure, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it. Neither of the protagonists are very respectable or even likeable, and yet, because of this, they are. They clearly care for each other as friends, and also hate each other’s guts as enemies, providing yet another entertaining element to this book.

There are moments, however, when our protagonist stops regaling the events of this story to explain his interpretation of the context of the time and place. Whilst this may work for some people, I thought it brought the story to a grinding halt whenever it occurred.

Overall, despite there being little to the story and characters, I found Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to be both extremely entertaining and (ironically) very addictive. Once i thought I was going to stop reading, I couldn’t. This book sinks its hooks into you and before you know it, you’re in for this crazy ride too. 

• Selected Quotes...

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”

“Hallucinations are bad enough. But after a while you learn to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth. Most acid fanciers can handle this sort of thing.”

“Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits - a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.”

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

On The Road by Jack Kerouac

Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

• About The Author...

Hunter S. Thompson, in full Hunter Stockton Thompson, (born July 18, 1937, Louiseville Kentucky, U.S.—died February 20, 2005, Woody Creek, Colorado), American journalist and author who created the genre known as gonzo journalism, a highly personal style of reporting that made Thompson a counterculture icon.

Thompson, who had a number of run-ins with the law as a young man, joined the U.S. Air Force in 1956. He served as a sports editor for a base newspaper and continued his journalsim career after being discharged in 1957. In the following years he also wrote two autobiographical novels, but both were initially rejected by publishing houses; The Rum Diary eventually saw publication in 1998 (film 2011). In 1965 Thompson infiltrated the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, an experience he recounted in Hells Angels (1967). The book led to writing assignments for Esquire, Harpers, Rolling Stone, and other magazines. In addition to his irreverent political and cultural critiscm, Thompson also began to attract attention for his larger-than-life persona, which was highlighted by drug- and alcohol-fueled adventures and a distaste for authority.

In 1970 Thompson introduced his subjective style of reporting with the article “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” in which he was a central part of the story. A 1971 assignment for Sports Illustrated to cover a motorcycle race in Nevada resulted in perhaps his best-known work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which became a contemporary classic and established the genre of gonzo journalism. First serialized in  Rolling Stone in 1971, it documents the drug-addled road trip taken by Thompson (as his alter ego Raoul Duke) and his lawyer (Dr. Gonzo) while also discussing the end of the 1960s counterculture. The book featured frenetic artwork by Ralph Steadman, who illustrated many of Thompson’s works. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was adapted as a 1998 directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Torro.

(From Brittanica.com)

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

 

You can buy Blood Meridian...Here

You can find out more about Cormac McCarthy...Here

• The Blurb...

Through the hostile landscape of the Texas–Mexico border wanders the Kid, a fourteen year-old Tennessean who is quickly swept up in the relentless tide of blood.

A group known as the Glanton gang hunt Indigenous Americans, collecting scalps as their bloody trophies. At the centre of this violence stands Judge Holden: a massive, hairless man, mysterious if not supernatural, erudite and cold-blooded. He is singularly extreme in his sadistic violence.

But the apparent chaos is not without order – the Glanton gang, too, are stalked as prey.

Read as both a brilliant subversion of the Western novel and a blazing example of that form, it is a powerful, mesmerizing and savagely beautiful novel – and one of the most important works in American fiction of the last century.

• Our Review...

Well then, where to begin with this one. There is a lot to unpack

Not a great commercial success on its release, it has matured over the years to become the great Cormac McCarthy's magnum opus. Some have claimed it to be the mythical great American novel by the greatest American author. 

It's tale is a simple one if you refuse to see the huge philosophical and moral debate that McCarthy is showing between the actual lines of text. On it's surface a young lad known, as the kid, runs away from Tennessee and after some bloody encounters ends up riding with the infamous Glanton gang of scalphunters. Hired by the local authorities to inflict genocide on the local indigenous population. The narrative follows their adventures. 

Seems all relatively nice and quite, if not cosy then not unusual. It could be taken for a plot of a John Wayne film back in the day. 

However it is not. It is ultra violent and blood drenched. Yet somehow this isn't the most disturbing part. The mood or tone throughout the book is one of unrelenting doom and misery. There is just no hope or redemption. It fills you with dread for the future of the human race. I have also read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This too had the same underlying melancholy on steroids that can throw your soul off kilter.

The one redeeming feature is that the author does it superbly well.  He places the horror next to the everyday so that as if by osmosis they blend. The horrific becomes everyday and everyday becomes horrific. McCarthy does this also in the road. It takes a certain sort of talent to make you fear for your moral conscious.

This is not an easy book to read, in fact it is very challenging. The language is archaic, and in addition it is heavily laden with 1800s cowboy jargon. Even if you are reading on a kindle and you try to look up every weird, new word you are batting on a sticky wicket. Most of them are not even in the Oxford English dictionary. McCarthy has a very loose and quite frankly ridiculous relationship with punctuation. He just doesn't do punctuation, especially quotations marks. You find yourself thinking now did he actually say that or was he just thinking it?

Which brings me to another point. The beauty of writing over TV is that writing lends itself to exploring thoughts and internal emotions of our cast. McCarthy throws away this most versatile of the writers tools and just describes the action. All 3rd person, no 1st person. It's akin to willfully only using the first two gears in your car. The engine may be screaming to slip into third and fourth gears but McCarthy refuses.

The distance between the start of a McCarthy sentence and the end is vast. See the first of our selected quotes. You could get lost and lose the will to live in one of his sentences. Often the word "and" is used ad infinitum to extend the sentence. I have seen it advocated that he uses this method to resemble a more old testament type narrative. It works. One up side of his style is numerous metaphors and similes, which I really enjoy.

So all in all its a challenge to read this book. It's not easy. I resorted to a childhood tactic of reading out loud to myself so as not to get lost in the lines. You can't just pick this book up and read it. It is not user friendly. You need to put the concentration in. It is a mode of reading which becomes slightly easier the more times you slip into it. After reading this I immediately started reading a Stephen King novel. It felt like returning a shopping trolley with the busted wheel and then picking up the greased up proper four wheeled one. Lot easier to drive but definitely not so challenging.

All this before we even get to the characters.

The main character is Judge Holden. He is a behemoth at the centre of this book, similar to Capt Ahab in Moby Dick. 

He is polyglot, renaissance man skilled in music, philosophy and science. Sounds like a top guy? No he is bloodthirsty, paedophile with a love of war. He just appears one day out of the desert. He may even be the devil personified. He is a huge man with no hair at all. He is 25 stone but is nimble and quick. A sort of cross between Buster Bloodvessel the lead singer from Bad Manners and Hannibal Lector. His fireside musings on the purpose of life are by far the most fascinating part of this book. 

So is the hype of this book worth it? A bit of both really. At times I felt like the actual themes being discussed were a brilliant read but all the smoke and mirrors of the archaic style, jargon and lack of punctuation felt a bit like the emperors new clothes. 

One last thing. I hope McCarthy's view of human nature is wrong. I hope we are not dark and doomed. I hope that there is hope. 

This is a fascinating must read book for any bibliophile, I just don't know if you'll "enjoy" it. It is disturbing in its darkness. It is not easily forgotten.

• Selected Lines...

They crossed before the sun and vanished one by one and reappeared again and they were black in the sun and they rode out of that vanished sea like burnt phantoms with the legs of the animals kicking up the spume that was not real and they were lost in the sun and lost in the lake and they shimmered and slurred together and separated again and they augmented by planes in lurid avatars and began to coalesce and there began to appear above them in the dawn- broached sky a hellish likeness of their ranks riding huge and inverted and the horses’ legs incredibly elongate trampling down the high thin cirrus and the howling antiwarriors pendant from their mounts immense and chimeric and the high wild cries carrying that flat and barren pan like the cries of souls broke through some misweave in the weft of things into the world below.

The good book says that he that lives by the sword shall perish by the sword, said the black. The judge smiled, his face shining with grease. What right man would have it any other way? he said.

Is that why war endures? No. It endures because young men love it and old men love it in them.

He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.

......War is God

The judge smiled. Might does not make right, said Irving. The man that wins in some combat is not vindicated morally. Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak.

• If You Like This Then You May Like...

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

American Psycho by Bret Eason Ellis

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

• About The Author...

Cormac McCarthy was born in Rhode Island. He later went to Chicago, where he worked as an auto mechanic while writing his first novel, The Orchard Keeper. The Orchard Keeper was published by Random House in 1965; McCarthy's editor there was Albert Erskine, William Faulkner's long-time editor. Before publication, McCarthy received a travelling fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which he used to travel to Ireland. In 1966 he also received the Rockefeller Foundation Grant, with which he continued to tour Europe, settling on the island of Ibiza. Here, McCarthy completed revisions of his next novel, Outer Dark. In 1967, McCarthy returned to the United States, moving to Tennessee. Outer Dark was published in 1968, and McCarthy received the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing in 1969. His next novel, Child of God, was published in 1973. From 1974 to 1975, McCarthy worked on the screenplay for a PBS film called The Gardener's Son, which premiered in 1977. A revised version of the screenplay was later published by Ecco Press. In the late 1970s, McCarthy moved to Texas, and in 1979 published his fourth novel, Suttree, a book that had occupied his writing life on and off for twenty years. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981, and published his fifth novel, Blood Meridian, in 1985. All the Pretty Horses, the first volume of The Border Trilogy, was published in 1992. It won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award and was later turned into a feature film. The Stonemason, a play that McCarthy had written in the mid-1970s and subsequently revised, was published by Ecco Press in 1994. Soon thereafter, the second volume of The Border Trilogy, The Crossing, was published with the third volume, Cities of the Plain, following in 1998. McCarthy's next novel, No Country for Old Men, was published in 2005. This was followed in 2006 by a novel in dramatic form, The Sunset Limited, originally performed by Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. McCarthy's most recent novel, The Road, was published in 2006 and won the Pulitzer Prize.
(from Amazon.com)

The F-Word Reality Show by Chris Westlake

 

289 pages

You can buy The F-Word Reality Show...Here

You can find out more about Chris Westlake...Here

• The Blurb...

Andrew Macintosh is one of fifty seemingly random individuals offered the opportunity to appear in a reality show, to be aired to millions of viewers across the world. There is only one catch: the contestants must not – under any circumstances – tell anyone where they are going.

Before entering the show, each contestant chooses their F-Word reward for winning: Fame, Fortune or Freedom. Transported to a giant glass hall in the middle of nowhere, guards patrol the hall and cameras watch their every move. There is nowhere to hide.

As the days pass and the events unfold, Andrew discovers that not only is he fighting for his freedom, but he is fighting to stay alive. The choice is brutally straightforward... Andrew must kill, or be killed.

The F-Word Reality Show is a compelling thriller that will leave you wondering whether the cameras watching your every move are your best friend, or your worst enemy.

• Our Review...

In the F-Word Reality show. Andrew is a man socially adrift and a little lost. He is offered the chance to take part in a reality game show, where he can win fame, fortune or freedom. There is one condition nobody must know he has agreed to take part.

So far, so good. Andrew jumps at the chance of something, anything happening in his life. But be careful what you wish for.  Andrew is housed with 49 other "contestants" who simultaneously discover they  must battle to the death, completing various themed rounds over the next seven days. Only the last contestant left alive wins. Literally death or glory!

I don't know where to put this book on my shelves. Is it science fiction? Well probably not. There isnt any science in it as such. Is it just general fiction then? Yes but only just. Game shows are getting more and more extreme in an effort to capture an audience who have become dulled to contestants breaking legs in TV game show ski jumps, extreme physical beastings as in SAS training and so on. Life is cheap and given where we are as a society it would not surprise if the scenario of the F-Word Reality Show became a real game show during my children's lifetime. 

While writing the review for this book I did some research about extreme game shows. Have a read of this website, it will blow your swede...Here

There will be obvious comparisons with this book and the recent Korean TV world wide hit Squid Game. Indeed you can see the narrative is heavily influenced by the show. However the book is very British in it's persona. The TV show was bright colours, symbols and quirky. This novel is introverted, gritty and post-industrial. It's like Squid Game has been written by George Orwell and Andrew is our Winston Smith. 

What elevates the simple story is the way the author encapsulates two things about society.

Firstly the seemingly relentless, monotonous daily grind at the bottom of society including the isolation and lonliness of a society that is well on its way down the slippery slope of losing its soul and sense of camradarie. 

Secondly he displays a keen eye for the depravity and lack of moral standards intrinsic to the upper reaches of society. I would be surprised if both these themes were not honed during the pandemic lockdown when scandals of PPE and parties were at their height. I think the pandemic cleared the mist of rhetoric, the scales fell from our eyes and  many people saw what society was really like and not the myth they had been sold. I think the author has really taken this on board.

If you enjoyed Squid Game read this book. If you didn't see or enjoy Squid Game still read this book. It'll make you fear and cheer for the protagonist and it'll make you weep for society.

• Selected Quotes..

Sometimes as I walk the soulless, deserted streets I imagine that I’m living in an apocalypse.

I’m haunted by yesterday’s words, the most brutal of them all. What exactly do you have to lose, Andrew?

“And now I live in a bleak, one bedroom flat on my own. Sure, I get to see the kids every so often. But you know what? You know what really gets me? I get the distinct impression that they don’t want to see me. Not really.”

Do you really think those people out there are living? Or do you think they are dying slowly?”

We said that viewers could pay to watch fifty suicidal contestants fight to stay alive for seven days. The irony of it all never fails to make me chuckle.”

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Duel by Stephen Havard. review...Here

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

The Running Man by Stephen King.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy.

• About The Author...

Chris’s page-turning novels will make you doubt what happens next, but leave you in no doubt that you sure as hell want to find out. His thrillers toy with your mind and play with your emotions.

Chris has published five novels, including three thrillers. His latest novel, THE F-WORD REALITY SHOW, is a compelling thriller which will leave you wondering whether the cameras that follow your every move are your best friend or your worst enemy.

30 DAYS IN JUNE is a serial killer thriller, and I AM HERE TO KILL YOU is a psychological thriller, with a key focus on cults, the power of manipulation, and brainwashing.

After completing a Creative Writing course in 2010, Chris Westlake's short story, Welsh Lessons, was awarded 1st place in the Global Short Story Award (not bad for the first writing competition he had entered). He followed this up with 1st place in the Stringybark Erotic Fiction Award and 2nd place in the HASSRA Literary Award.

Chris is determined to write many, many more novels - his main regret is that he didn't start writing earlier. He is always looking to make his next novel even better than the last. He is continuously experimenting with different styles, different genres.

The Last Line by Stephen Ronson

 

341 pages

This book is not due out untill 2nd November 2023. 

You can pre order The Last Line...Here

• The Blurb...

May 1940.

With Nazi forces sweeping across France, invasion seems imminent. The English Channel has never felt so narrow.

In rural Sussex, war veteran John Cook has been tasked with preparing the resistance effort, should the worst happen.

But even as the foreign threat looms, it's rumours of a missing child that are troubling Cook. A twelve-year-old girl was evacuated from London and never seen again, and she's just the tip of the iceberg - countless evacuees haven't made it to their host families.

As Cook investigates, he uncovers a dark conspiracy that reaches to the highest ranks of society. He will do whatever it takes to make the culprits pay. There are some lines you just don't cross.

• Our Review...

John Cook, Sussex landowner and veteran of WW1 and Afghanistan tries to re-enlist for the new war. However given his history he is instead recruited to form a resistance cell, which is to become active after the Germans have invaded in a few weeks.

On his return from London a young girl is found murdered on his property. John is implicated and he begins his own investigations. What he finds horrifies him and he resovlves to fix the problem his way. All the while with one eye on the coast and recruiting a diverse band of feisty fighters.

Having recently read the excellent Paris Requiem by Chris Llloyd and the equally good Embassy Murders by Mark Ellis, I thought I was in for more of the same. Police procedural set in wartime europe. This book sort of started out like that but by the end it had pivoted at least twice into WW2 James Bond territoty and again into WW2 Jack Reacher territory. And what a belting idea to set Reacher in a WW2 setting. I even wrote in my notes (WW2 Reacher?) When I later checked other reviews, I saw others had been thinking along the same lines. Nice to know it's not just me going off on a tangent then. 

So it's a bit of a hybrid then. Much like a hybrid bike or car, the concept may seem odd until you get one yourself and then you realise the was a slot in the market for it all along, This was a very entertaining book in all aspects. The violence was well written ala Lee Child. However the bits I liked the most were the historic setting parts as can probably be seen by my choice of quotes (see below.) 

The auxillary (resistance) unit that Cook is asked to develop in his home area was a real thing. Having read the authors notes for Resisitance by Owen Sheers, I discovered that it also inspired that book. 

With the war in Ukraine it makes you stop and think what would I do? Would I fight? Would I just shrug my shoulders and instead of paying  tax  to HMRC it would go to Berlin (as one character in the book puts it). 

I thought the opening scene was paticularly well thought out and a bit different from the norm. In addition I like the rugged character of John Cook. I think I am roughly the same age as the author and grew up in 70s. There were some hard, quiet men in the village who were forged in the war. The like of which we dont see today. I dont know if thats a good thing or not. On the plus side it means we haven't needed men like that, men who can kill en mass for a long time because there hasn't been a major war since.

 I digress, back to the book. Although the high body count without police involvement means it as more of a step away from historical accuracy than the police procedurals that I have been reading, I found this to be an enjoyable adventure. It sort sits like Where Eagles Dare sits next to A Bridge Too Far. One is fantasy one is history but if you didn't know that both are equally enjoyable.

Look out Reacher.. John Cook is coming 

• Selected Quotes..

Uncle Nob didn’t do well in the last war. The Great War: always capitalised, always thick with meaning.

 ‘She’s grown up fast,’ he said, watching her. I knew what he meant. She was like one of those pictures they painted on the bombers in the newsreels, all curves and smiles and rosy cheeks.

‘You drink in these huge pubs where they bring you gallons of the stuff. You just sit there at your table while birds with their tits falling out of their shirts keep topping up your glass.’ He looked around at his own pub. No birds with tits falling out of their shirts. No revelry. I almost felt sorry for him. ‘Maybe the birds with the tits will follow behind the tanks,’

Let them come, I thought. Let them roll through my farm and my town. I’d surrender, and I’d say my ‘Heil Hitler’ along with everyone else. I’d survive and I’d make sure my family survived. And then, when their generals had gone back to Bavaria to plan the invasion of Russia, I’d be ready. Ready to do my bit. Ready to get the job done.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like..

Resistance by Owen Sheers

Fatherland by Richard Harris

SSGB by Len Deighton

The Embassy Murders by Mark Ellis

• About The Author...

Stephen Ronson grew up in Sussex, and spent a large part of his childhood exploring the woods and fields around Uckfield, many of which were still dotted with reminders of WW2 - pill boxes, tank traps, nissen huts, and graffiti left by soldiers awaiting D-Day. He is a passionate student of local history, and when he learnt about Auxiliary Units - groups of men who were instructed to lay low during the predicted nazi invasion and lead the fight back, he knew he had to write about a Sussex farmer, one with a love of the land, and a natural desire and ability to get the job done. Many of the locations and characters in the John Cook series are inspired by real places and real people. In particular, Stephen was inspired by his grandparents, Eric, Bessie, Peter and Vera, each of whom did their bit on the home front.

Nowadays, Stephen divides his time between Vermont, USA, and Uckfield, East Sussex. When he's not writing, he can be found renovating his house, or walking the woods and the fields.

The Embassy Murders by Mark Ellis

 

This book was formerly entitled Princes Gate

354 pages

You can buy The Embassey Murders...Here

You can follow Mark Ellis...Here

• The Blurb...

When a brilliant emigré scientist is killed by a hit-and-run driver and the body of an American embassy employee is washed up in the Thames, DCI Frank Merlin and his team are called to investigate.

Merlin's investigations soon ruffle feathers at the Foreign Office - the American ambassador, Joseph Kennedy, is a well-known supporter of appeasement, and has gained many powerful and influential friends in the pursuit of a negotiated peace settlement with Hitler.

The death of yet another embassy employee leads Merlin deep into the seedier quarters of wartime London, until his investigations are hampered by interfering superiors fearful of disrupting international relations. As Merlin is drawn into a web of secrets, what will the truth cost him - and Britain?

• Our Review...

The Embassy Murders is dark political crime drama that is set in the now long distant historical era of the second world war. Sadly the questions that this book asks are the same ones that we should be asking today. Indeed they are probably the same questions that should have been asked through out all history.

Namely, why do we treat people with power differently to those without power, especially when it comes to enforcing the law. Same as it ever was then. And during the early years of the Second World War the American ambassador to London had power and influence aplenty. 

Two lowly British employees of the American Embassy are murdered. Is it politically or  criminally motivated? The answers are not what you think they are. Is it irrelevant enough to sweep under the carpet? If it is hidden for the benefit of our betters, are they really our betters?

What is more important, the lives of a couple of nobodies or getting the most powerful nation in the world to fight on your side in the war? If you turn a blind eye, will it work out in the end? or could you live with the injustice. Is it a black and white issue or is it a grey area balancing act. 

The author weaves these themes wonderfully throughout his narrative. We cheer our hero Merlin on through the jungle of political interference and bureaucracy not to mention gangs of thugs, pimps and pornographers.  Merlin is a veteran of the Great War with Spanish heritage. He knows when you fight for the little people you fight for what is right. What is the point of winning a war if in doing so you lose the soul of a country.

The author does a bang up job of placing the reader in war torn London of blackouts and violent crime. For what better time to commit crime than in a blacked out city, with the best part of the police called up for active service and a population who are more concerned with bombing raids than burglaries. It's a perfect storm for the Capital's felonry. In addition the backdrop of the developing political situation is set out at a perfect pitch. There are little clues in the background of the ongoing Chamberlain/Churchill, appeasement/fight duel going on in society. Also setting the scene are a number of cameos of personalities and locations synonymous with that period. All in all the author creates a fitting landscape into which his characters and the plot is set. 

Merlin puts together, as best he can, a motley crew to chase down leads and bang on doors. He follows the twist and turns through the dark alleyways of London, while at the same time doggedly pursuing leads in the gilded halls of the rich and powerful.

If you enjoy your history, especially WW2 and you enjoy your murder mysteries, this is a very good book that will keep you entertained and questioning from begining to end.

• Selected Quotes...

People need beer to lubricate their dreams and drown their fears.

Merlin had met Mrs Gatehouse several times. A formidable lady in a formidable body.

However unlikely it may be, we don’t want the murder of an insignificant girl to queer the pitch in any way, do we?” Merlin could not help visibly bridling at this. “‘Insignificant’, sir? Are you saying you don’t want me properly to investigate the murders of ‘insignificant’ people while the war’s on?”

He still found it hard to believe that business life continued almost normally with the spectre of war, death and destruction looming larger every day, but it did. The Stock Market was as active as ever, while cargoes of oil, minerals, rubber and tea, moving largely without interference as yet over the oceans of the world, were traded freely in the commodity markets of the City. The factories of the Midlands continued to manufacture everything from cars to pots and pans. Cinemas, having been briefly closed at the outbreak of war, had reopened. Tea and cakes were still freely available at Lyons Corner Houses and cafés everywhere. People were dying natural deaths and being buried, marriages were being celebrated and, with or without benefit of the latter, babies were still being conceived. And, as he knew well, ordinary people continued to commit ordinary crimes, regardless of the latest news from Poland or France.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Unwanted Dead by Chris Lloyd

Enigma by Robert Harris

Resistance by Owen Sheers

• About The Author...

Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur.

He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London. His books treat the reader to a vivid portrait of London during the war skilfully blended with gripping plots, political intrigue and a charismatic protagonist. 

Mark grew up under the shadow of his parents’ experience of the Second World War. His father served in the wartime navy and died a young man. His mother told him stories of watching the heavy bombardment of Swansea from the safe vantage point of a hill in Llanelli, and of attending tea dances in wartime London under the bombs and doodlebugs.

In consequence Mark has always been fascinated by WW2 and in particular the Home Front and the fact that while the nation was engaged in a heroic endeavour, crime flourished. Murder, robbery, theft and rape were rife and the Blitz provided scope for widespread looting.

This was an intriguing, harsh and cruel world. This is the world of DCI Frank Merlin.

Mark Ellis’ books regularly appear in the Kindle bestseller charts.

He is published by Headline Accent, an imprint of Headline.

He is a member of Crime Cymru, the Welsh crime writing collective, and of the Crime Writers Association (CWA).

His third book, Merlin at War, was on the CWA Historical Dagger Longlist in 2018.

The Conjuror's Apprentice by G.J.Williams

 

347 Pages

You can buy The Conjurors Apprentice...Here

You can follow G.J. Williams...Here

• The Blurb...

Born with the ability to hear thoughts and feelings when there is no sound, Margaretta Morgan’s strange gift sees her apprenticed to Doctor John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, and alchemist. Using her secret link with the hidden side and her master’s brilliance, Margaretta faces her first murder mystery. In the cruel time of Tudor England, Margaretta and Dee must uncover the evil bound to unravel the court of Bloody Mary.

The year is 1555. This is a time ruled by fear. What secrets await to be pulled from the water?

• Our Review...

Wow, what an unexpected treat. I was asked to review this book by the author after a chance meeting at the Crime Cymru festival. I duly undertook to carry this out. However I must confess it was with no great eagerness. "Oh another book set in the Tudor/Elizabeathen period, I thought to myself." Much like sharks and the Nazis on the discovery channel, it seemed to me it had been done to death. The ground had been saturated by Phillipa Gregory, Hilary Mantel, CJ Sansom not to mention Cate Blanchett, Margot Robbie, Glenda Jackson, Bette Davis, Helen Mirren et al.  I longed to explore the less trodden paths of history. How wrong I was! This book injected new life into the era for me.

There are several reasons why I particularly enjoyed this book.  The motivations and emotions of the characters are well drawn. The driving forces of each person intertwine in a sort of ecology web. Probably more so than most books that I have read. This makes sense when you realise that the author is a doctor of pyschology.

The murder mystery is an enjoyable romp but the wrong un can be spotted very early. The enjoyment though is in seeing how our mis matched heros track him down.

Set in an interesting period when superstition was begining to give way to science. The story blends history with magic. Dr John Dee was indeed a mathmatician, alchemist and scientific advisor.  Folk lore/dark arts are explored in the form of Margarreta, a reader of souls, alongside Dee's interest in tarot and crystals.  I Loved Margaretta's Welsh background. While reading this I was reminded of the English Rugby Union ex Chairman Dudley Wood's quote on the relationship between Wales and England. "The relationship is based on trust and undertstanding, We dont understand them, and they dont trust us. 😁

Truth can be stranger than fiction especially when you come across Dee's connection to James Bond!

I liked that the author put the thoughts and emotions that Margaretta was reading into italics. It served well to seperate these from the rest of the narrative.

What you can really feel in this and other great books set in different time periods is the absolute immersion (love?) of the author in(for) the era. The scenes are beautifully, and sometimes brutally set with enough specific detail to be fascinating but not so much as to be swamped. (see selected quotes.) This is a hard lesson to learn for most historic era  authors.  In addition the setting adds to the human story it does not overwhelm it. 

Once you have read the book, do yourself a favour and read the historical notes at the end and read the author's blog about the setting for the book. 

I could find only one thing that threw me. There is a lot of winking in this book. 😕 I counted 35 winks. Was this practice vastly more widespread back then? This minor concern apart I thought that this was an absolute gem of a book. It rekindled my interest in this era.  Amazing to think this is the author's first. I think I will be spending some time in the future with the good Dr and Margaretta.

• Selected Quotes...

he had proved his formula and now he would apply it again. She would walk in her master’s shadow, using her gifts to go amongst the people, watching, listening, investigating and feeling their thoughts and fears. As a woman she could be invisible and bring back the snippets, talk and evidence which they would compile into a picture in his office. Her ancient gifts of insight would meld with his brilliance of mind and they would uncover the story behind the murder, reveal the killer and their motive.

He softened his face. ‘We share the same curse, Margaretta. We remind our mothers of our fathers…and so their loss.’

Ydy ch’yn siarad cymraeg?’ Do you speak Welsh? Before he could answer, Goodwife Barker snapped from the end of the table, ‘Do not bring that robber’s tongue into this house.’ She raised a finger and pointed at Margaretta. ‘I have warned you. You live by my rules. Do you hear?’

The only women were the market fishwives, gutting the catch with blades which would slice through steel, their fingers bandaged in bloody rags to cover the cuts and nicks. Today, being Friday, was the busiest of their week. Outside the taverns, pot-men threw buckets of filthy water to slew down the pavement where last night’s drinkers had fallen over and emptied their stomachs. It stank of fish-guts, vomit and old beer. Margaretta covered her nose with a linen and pressed on.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like This...

The Last Tudor by Phillipa Gregory

The Virgin Queen's Daughter by Ella March Chase

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

• About The Author...

G.J. Williams is the author of The Conjurer’s Apprentice, the first in the Tudor Rose Murders series.

G.J. Williams is a Welsh woman living in Somerset, England. She is a doctor of psychology and ran an international consulting business for 25 years before putting her love of writing to the forefront of life. She lives between Somerset and London and is often found writing on the train next to a grumpy cat and a cup of tea.

Life is always busy. When she is not writing, she is researching, travelling to historic sites or plotting while sailing the blue seas on her beloved boat.

Her dream is to be chosen by readers who love the books of CJ Sansom, SJ Parris and Rory Clements

The Duel by Stephen Havard

 

326 Pages

You can buy The Duel...Here

You can follow Stephen Havard...Here

• The Blurb...

Ashley White is desperate. An ill-advised investment in cryptocurrency has left him in financial meltdown, with the bank threatening to repossess his home and a wife that knows nothing about the mess he is in. A new quiz show called ‘The Duel’ is about to hit the TV screens, offering a mouth-watering 2 million pounds to the winner. The show is to be hosted by Patrick Reed; the scandal hit presenter who hopes it will revive his flagging career. Ashley hopes the show can be his way out of his financial problems, and does all that is necessary to appear, even when those things have murderous intent.

• Our Review...

An interesting thriller set in the world of TV production in general and quiz shows in particular. Not so much a "murder mystery" it's more of a "will he get away with it."

Firstly I know you should never judge a book by its cover, however I thought the cover of this book didn't try to attract my attention or allure. It looks a bit generic? Anyway onto the narrative. 

A meaty tale in many respects but I was left with sensation of being slightly unfulfilled at the end. It would take me a while to work out why?

 

The parts of Ashley White are written in the first person. Other parts, included those of Patrick Reed (the quiz show host) are written in the third person. Apart from Ashley the other main character is Patrick. So are they Protagonist and Antagonist?

Well, no not really. They are not in any conflict with one another, although both face challenges elsewhere in their lives. 

So are they good guy and bad guy? Again no, not really. They are both a couple of wrong uns but for differing reasons.

So, then is one of them a bad guy who we secretly wish to win out in the end? Again, no not really. To be one of  these characters, we have to have some reason to be on their side. eg. Tom Ripley in the Talented Mr Ripley murders his way to the upper strata of society, but we inwardly cheer him on because he is the under dog, cast aside by society. No one cares about him. But he appreciates fine art, literature, food and cultures far more than the aristocracy that continually keep him down. He deserves his place at the top table, and the people he kills dont. In this way we sympathise for his position and in a skewed way his morality.  I found I didn't sympathise with Ashley. He was just as sleazy and morally corrupt as Patrick. It felt like the tale had two villians and no heros. 

The setting of TV production was interesting. The author has had some dealings being a guest on TV quiz shows and his insight into the power politics that goes into making a tv show I found interseting. 

Without giving anything away, there is a nice little hook at the end which could lay the ground work for a possible sequel.

• Selected Quotes...

Since a young age I had always craved this recognition. Growing up, I had always felt like an invisible soul who was never really part of the cool crowd. Even my own parents never really pushed me, or complimented me on many things, so as an adult I was determined to prove them all wrong and make that “invisible kid” the most famous person in the country.

I’d always been a glass-half-empty type of person. Moaning about a TV show might seem like a trivial thing, but to me it probably masked a deeper problem. I was a distant person, someone who found it hard to express my feelings, someone who was far more negative than I was positive.

‘You were clearly much closer to her than your father, though, wouldn’t you agree?’ ‘Aren’t all sons?’

If he could pull it off, then surely I could. It was just like work, be on top of your brief and you could pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. If I was prepared, I could bamboozle anyone, so I was sure a couple of TV researchers would be no problem. I hoped…

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Winner by David Baldacci

Bad Show: The Quiz: The Cough: The Millionare Major by Bob Woffinden and James Plaskett.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind by Chuck Barris

• About The Author

 Stephen Havard currently works in the IT industry and lives in Swansea with his wife and two children, he also has two older stepchildren. An avid quiz obsessive he has appeared on many TV quiz shows, these include: Pointless, Revenge of the Egghead, Eggheads, 15-to1 Only Connect and The Chase.