Silent Riders Of The Sea by John Gerard Fagan

 

Rating 4 ⭐s

You can buy Silent Riders Of The Sea...here

You can visit John Gerard Fagan's website...here

• The Blurb...

In 1930, Jack the miner is grieving the loss of his young son.

In a desperate attempt to escape his misery, he makes the choice to leave.

With a motley crew of Scots, he embarks on Arctic fishing with the promise of a better life.

John Gerard Fagan, the author of the memoir Fish Town, takes us on a ride to the Arctic Sea through Jack's battle for survival on a crammed and gruesome ship and inescapable submission to the cruelty of nature and humankind alike.

In the background, memories of his life as a miner, while a permanent excruciating pain from mourning his own child lingers.

Be ready for a tale of human suffering, violence, and sadness with this story of the hard side of human life.

• Our Review...

Now then where to start with this very unusual item. I began reading this expecting a novel, you know the usual set format. Protagonist, antagonist., plot, character arc, redemption etc, etc. However it becomes clear from very early on this is not your bog standard novel. 

For a start the chapters are numerous and very short and I mean very short. There are no capital letters or full stops.. How do you know when a new sentence ends and a new one begins.? Well the author just starts a new line. In addition the author leaves out a lot of minor words that help the narrative flow such as conjunctions. The result is prose that is as close to poetry, without actually being poetry that I have ever read. At one point I found myself counting syllables convinced that he was, in part at least, writing in iambic pentameter. All very odd and it succeeds it making you feel a little off kilter as if your horizon of normality has tilted a little. Dare I say it makes you feel little sea sick which all adds to the immersive experience. This literary sleight of hand is similar to "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy where there are no chapters at all, just an endless trail with no respite which foreshadows the narrative. 

So if it doesn't feel like a novel what does it feel like. Well the author has such a gift for creating a living, breathing, visceral world that if feels like an insertion into an actual life. Like the old TV show Quantum Leap but not in a cute, feel good, solve the mystery, all's right with the world sort of way. The author's world is horrifyingly brutal and unforgiving. Its probably the most bleak thing that I have ever read. Bleak because its probably the most like real life that I ever read. It's like a cross between The Road by Coramc McCarthy and the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner by S.T. Coleridge all mixed together and then given a seasoning of grim, dour, hard edged Scottishness. 

 The reader really feels as if he really has lived Jack's life. It is very real. The trouble is Jack's life is horrific at the start and goes downhill from there.. Death, at times, seems a much better option.  

I feel that this will be a marmite book. Some will love it, some will find it too grim..

I enjoyed the experience, I thought the writing was captivating and stimulating. Something very different from the norm. Going on the doomed voyage with Jack was unforgettable. Hence the four stars. 

The author is very good at what he does. Just don't expect happiness anywhere or anytime. 

• Selected Quotes...

"as soon as they were away from the shore cabins damp n diseased from the lack of sunlight human faeces mixed with blood n vomit from the last voyage left to harden in corners dirt n mould blooming like weeds in summer splintered wood soft to the touch and crumbled in your fingers those were the highlights of that ship"

"breath smoking through the cold the nets were cast once more water swept back to the deep fish were slaughtered gutted canned floating on swollen waters and all on board acted like they were not inches from death."

"the local rich working the local poor to death to feed the foreign poor n line the pockets of the foreign rich there was the only meaning he found."

"night sandpapered the remains of the day away and left the sky blood red"

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

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. (review ...here)

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter.

• About The Author...

John Gerard Fagan is a Scottish writer from Muirhead in the outskirts of Glasgow, who currently lives in Dunbar..He has published over a hundred short stories, essays, and poems in Scots, Scottish Gaelic, and English. Fish Town is his first book, about leaving everything behind to move to a Japanese fishing village for seven years. Silent Riders of the Sea, a Scottish verse novel of struggle set in 1930, is his second.

The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 

Rating 4⭐ 

206 pages

You can buy The Haunting Of Hill House...here

• The Blurb...

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a 'haunting'; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

• Our Review...

THOHH is considered to be one of the cornerstones or horror writing and you can see why. Seen through the eyes of Eleanor a young, vulnerable, innocent soul. The story shows how such a naïve, blank canvas of a person can be targeted by more powerful and dark influences. If this scenario is true with people in life, perhaps it can be true with otherwordly spirits interacting with the human world.

While reading this novel you may think to yourself that the tropes here are well worn and have become a bit of a cliché. That may be true but this is the tale that began a lot of the tropes as this was written in the 1950s, way before the Overlook hotel drove Jack Torrence bonkers in The Shining. As the novel was written in the 50s some of the interaction between the characters, especially Eleanor and Theodora, must seem a little dated to our ears.

The four guests settle in to the house and initially Eleanor and Theodora hit it ,off right away becoming firm friends. I have seen other reviews suggest there is an air of lesbian romance between the two. Personally I didn't pick that up but I'm a grumpy old man so not my area really. As the house sets its sights on Eleanor their friendship unravels under the intensity.

Despite being given the history of the house we are never quite sure whether the house is haunted by dead spirits or if the house itself is an evil entity. Eleanor herself drawn to the only place she has felt wanted. At the shocking conclusion we are left wondering whether the things that occur are the result of paranormal activity or mental illness. Or in the thin line between the two, could paranormal activity induce mental illness. Indeed which is more terrifying is a question the reader will inadvertently ask themselves subconsciously. It will certainly make you think.   

• Selected Quotes...

the gate was so clearly locked—locked and double-locked and chained and barred; who, she wondered, wants so badly to get in?—she made no attempt to get out of her car, but pressed the horn, and the trees and the gate shuddered and withdrew slightly from the sound.

I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

She watched them, seeing their apprehensive faces, wondering at the uneasiness which lay so close below the surface in all of them, so that each of them seemed always waiting for a cry for help from one of the others; intelligence and understanding are really no protection at all,

‘Nothing in this house moves,’ Eleanor said, ‘until you look away, and then you just catch something from the corner of your eye.

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

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James

The Shining by Steven King

• About The Author

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."

Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".

In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.

Blood & Lies

 

Some info on my book, Blood &Lies, launch on 22/12/24

1. You can preorder a kindle version for £2.99. link Here

2. Unfortunately Amazon do not offer the option to preorder the paperback version. However I will post a link when it is available on the 22nd Dec. It will cost £13.25. I know 😳 but I don't set the price Amazon do.

3. For each version (kindle or paperback) my cut is approx £2.50. Everything (if  I do make anything!) will be donated to the Alzheimer's society.

4. If you read it, please leave a little review on the Amazon website. Fifty reviews and the algorithm thingee kicks in and it gets seen by more people in their social media.

5. So what's it about? Well here's the blurb...

A Deadly Secret...

When a simple blood donation triggers a chain of events that could shake the very foundations of the British Monarchy, a world weary bodyguard finds himself at the centre of a deadly game. as he uncovers a sinister plot involving genetic manipulation and political intrigue, he must confront a shocking truth about his history that forces him to question everything he knows. Alongside a small band of helpers he must fight for his life and the future of the nation.

😁👍🏼📚 Many thanks

Noel.

The Detective Gone Gray by Jake Needham.

 

342 pages

Rating 3.5 ⭐s

You can buy Detective Gone Gray...here

You can find out more about Jake Needham...here

• The Blurb...

The Chinese foreign minister is speaking at a Bangkok university, and there's a diplomatic reception for him before the speech. Like most diplomatic receptions, it's an occasion that's dull as dishwater.

Until it isn't.

The assembled diplomats discover the main doors of the reception hall have been locked. That's when a masked gunman comes in through the back and opens up with a silenced MP5. It's like shooting the proverbial fish in the proverbial barrel. Thirteen dead and nine wounded, including the British ambassador, the Korean ambassador, and the American deputy chief of mission.

The Thai police are overwhelmed, and they ask Interpol to send a homicide investigator to help them. Interpol doesn't investigate homicides, so the regional office asks the Singapore police to lend them an experienced detective.

Inspector Samuel Tay was once a legendary investigator for Singapore's Criminal Investigation Department, but now he's retired. It wasn't exactly voluntary, of course, but that's another story. When he's asked to help the Thai police, he reluctantly agrees. Bangkok's not his favorite place, and the Thai police aren't his favorite people, but retirement is ... well, dull.

Worse, he's getting old, and it's a melancholy feeling to know he's at the end of his career. Just maybe, he thinks, he's got one more big case in him before it really is time to let it all go.

Maybe he does, but there are powerful forces out there that aren't going to let it be this case. If he gets too close to the secret they've hidden behind the slaughter, they've already decided what they'll do.

They'll just kill Samuel Tay, too.

• Our Review...

Detective Gone Gray is the 8th in the Inspector Tay novels. I have read very little literature based in South East Asia, well actually I haven't read anything based in South East Asia so this was a refreshing change. I have read "fish out of water develops into bromance" novels before but always the protagonists are from the Anglosphere so a collaboration between a staid, serene retired Singapore cop and a big, uniformed, motor cycle riding Thai cop was new one me. Each seemed to represent the cultures that they were from. Singapore logical, steady organised maybe a little  repressed, the other loud, brash and uninhibited. Reading about this culture clash dynamic which I previously knew nothing about was one of the joys of reading this book. It made me realise I need to explore more geographically, albeit from the comfort of reading a novel in an armchair in my home. That is one of the beauties of books. You can broaden your horizons without actually having to go anywhere.

The author does have his little foibles. He tends to describe a lot more than most crime/thriller authors. This is in regards to locations, architecture and even facial descriptions of characters. There does seem to me to have been a trend for a long time to avoid description but I quite like it. It is like going for a meal and not being rushed, and be allowed time to savour every last morsel as opposed to rushing to the end of the meal for the bill. Of course too much is just as bad as not enough. Luckily the author strikes a perfect balance between description and pace.

The character of Inspector Tay is an interesting one, in that he doesn't have any gimmicky flaws eg Poirot was vain, Holmes had huge ego and was possibly bi polar, Kojack was bald and loves lolipops. Tay is absent of drink, drug, family or attitude issues. The nearest thing to a flaw is that he is trying and failing to give up cigarettes. He is just a nice, gentle thoughtful man. He may be a little lonely but this is not brought front and centre but is merely a whisper in the background. It is nice that quiet normal people can be heroes too.

Why then only 3.5 stars then? (By the way that is still between ok and good according to my self created scale, so still very much worth reading.) Well there was a change in the narrative about 80% of the way in. 

Let me explain, In a series of books you can get two types:

1. Episodic. Same characters but different story every book.. Think SherlocK Holmes.

2. Serial. Same characters but with one long story throughout the books. Think Game of Thrones.

This novel was strictly episodic up until it wasn't (to semi quote the author.) I had totally bought into the format only to be switched at the last minute. While both types are similar they are slightly different. It would have been akin to watching my beloved Scarlets play a game of rugby union only for them to start playing rugby league in the last 10mins. It threw me bit. Either style would have been fine on their own. So I think it cost the book half  a star form me. 

Despite this quirk, which is probably a me thing anyway,  I still found this book to be an interesting new avenue of crime/thriller for me. I would gladly read a Jake Needham novel again. It just made me wish that I had started at book number 1

• Selected Quotes...

A suntan in Western countries might be a symbol of wealth and leisure, but it was the opposite in Asia. The only Asians with suntans were those forced to do manual labor outside to earn their living. Pure white, untanned skin meant wealth and leisure, and most Asian women went to considerable lengths to make sure theirs looked that way.

All I’ve been told is that the countries that had people killed or wounded in the attack are clamoring for an arrest, and the Thai police are completely overwhelmed.” Tay nodded. That made sense. In his experience, the Thai police would be completely overwhelmed by too many people parking illegally.

Americans don’t understand how much they’re resented by nearly everyone. They seem convinced that everyone else wants to be them. Almost no one wants to be them. Everyone just wants to have the stuff they have.”

That was the way things worked in Washington. Somebody has to take the fall for screw-ups, and when it was you or the president, it was you.

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

The Teenage Textbook by Adrian Tan

The Singapore Sling Quartet by Oon AhPhing

The Inspector Chen Series by Qui Xiaolong

• About The Author...

JAKE NEEDHAM received the Barry Award at Bouchercon 2024, the world's largest convention of mystery readers, for BEST PAPERBACK MYSTERY OF 2024. He is a three-time Barry Award nominee, as well as a nominee for the International Thriller Writers' award for BEST PAPERBACK THRILLER OF THE YEAR.

Needham is an American screen and television writer who has lived in Thailand for over thirty years. He started writing crime novels when he realized he really didn't like movies and television all that much. Since then, he has published fifteen popular mysteries and thrillers in two different series — The Inspector Samuel Tay Novels, and the Jack Shepherd Novels — as well as the international bestseller, THE BIG MANGO.

I Claudius by Robert Graves

 

Rating 5⭐s

416 pages

First published 1934

You can buy I, Claudius...here

You can find out more about Robert Graves...here

• The Blurb...

Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors: from the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia to the sadistic Tiberius and the insane excesses of Caligula. Written in the form of Claudius' autobiography, this is the first part of Robert Graves's brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of ancient Rome.

With an introduction by Barry Unsworth

• Our Review...

Claudius was born into a great family. A descendant of both Julius Caeser and Mark Anthony but alas he was lame, partially deaf and with a stammer. However his curse was also his blessing. Because of his failings he was never seen as a potential contender for the title of Roman Emperor, however due to his family connections he was always in the room. His calling was to be an historian, which puts him in the perfect position for the author to choose him to be our "unreliable" author. The historical record is correct, the names, dates and battles are correct. The only point of conjecture is what the characters thought and felt, and the author conjures up the characters with such tone and personality as to become very real to the reader.

Thus we learn all the court intrigues through three generations of Roman Emperors. Augustus the practical one, Tiberius the depraved one and Caligula the absolutely bonkers one.

We see through Claudius's eyes the life and times of Imperial Rome. There are orgies, and gladiators and plots and depravity. The body count is huge and all through the decades Its feels like we are being given all the gossip from the most powerful family in the world by our mate who is telling us all this over a pint at the pub. 

My favourite character is Livia, Claudius's scheming grandmother. From now on whenever I see a debate about the most evil female character in literary fiction on social media, I am going to throw Livia's hat into the ring. She is the ultimate wrong 'un. For me she takes the crown from Cruella Deville by knock out in the first round. No spoilers, I will let you uncover her wicked ways for yourself.

I must mention the BBC adaption for TV in the 1970s, with a stellar cast of Derek Jacobi, Sian Phillips, John Hurt, Patrick Stewart, Bernard Hill, Peter Bowles, Kevin McInally. It was a wonderful production. I'm afraid that the BBC couldn't do something similar today. But no matter how good the TV show, the book was still better. 

Yes it is 2000 year old history and there are some instances where it is very apparent that this is a very, very different society to todays. However for the vast majority of the tale, the reader feels very "in the moment." Imagine a Tory government cabinet member from in 2010 and the glorious rise to power to the scandal riddled collapse and chaos of 2024. Now imagine this intelligent and eloquent but non descript cabinet member telling you everything that went on from the affairs, scandals and powers grabs. All this from someone who was actually in the room when the big stuff happened. That's how up to date this still feels. Human emotions never get outdated they are timeless.

If you look at the "If you liked this, then you may like..." section you will see that I have recommended Wolf Hall set in the Tudor area of England and The Godfather set in the 1950s of New York. Not very much like Rome AD34 you say? Yes but the politics of family, time, dynasty, power, money and death are very much the same.  There is a reason why Hilary Mantel loves this book. It is basically Wolf Hall set 1500 years earlier.

I first read this book as a 16 yr old studying for my Classical Studies O level. Yes I am that old. This book along with The Iliad and to a lesser extent the Odyssey fired my passion for reading in general and the classical period in particular.

Loved it then. Love it still.

• Selected Quotes...

I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus this-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles), who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as ‘Claudius the Idiot’, or ‘That Claudius’, or ‘Claudius the Stammerer’, or ‘Clau-Clau-Claudius’, or at best as ‘Poor Uncle Claudius’, A.D. 41 am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the ‘golden predicament’ from which I have never since become disentangled.

Augustus ruled the world, but Livia ruled Augustus.

Most women are inclined to set a modest limit to their ambitions; a few rare ones set a bold limit. But Livia was unique in setting no limit at all to hers,

The gift of independence once granted cannot be lightly taken away again.

He was always boasting of his ancestors, as stupid people do who are aware that they have done nothing themselves to boast about.

To use the majesty of the law for revenging any petty act of private spite is to make a public confession of weakness, cowardice, and an ignoble spirit.

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

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell

Imperium by Robert Harris

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

• About The Author...

Robert Graves (1895-1985) was an English poet, translator, and novelist, one of the leading English men of letters in the twentieth century. He fought in World War I and won international acclaim in 1929 with the publication of his memoir of the First World War, Good-bye to All That. After the war, he was granted a classical scholarship at Oxford and subsequently went to Egypt as the first professor of English at the University of Cairo. He is most noted for his series of novels about the Roman emperor Claudius and his works on mythology, such as The White Goddess.

Blood On The Broadcast by S.D.W. Hamilton

 

Rating 3.5⭐s

318 pages

You can buy Blood On The Broadcast...here

You can find out more about SDW Hamilton...here

The Blurb...

A Locked Room. An Improbable Murder.

When Private Investigator Jacob Kincaid is approached by mystery podcaster Natalie Amato, he senses a case that matters may have finally fallen across his desk.

The former journalist hires Jacob to investigate the death of a colleague, convinced what was initially written off by police as an accident, was actually murder.

With an unlikely crime and a cult of Ireland’s elite watching from the shadows, Jacob must navigate an increasingly deadly case to get the answers he needs and where every new truth uncovered puts his life, and Natalie's, at risk.

Our Review...

While writing this review I have decided to include a spoiler (well sort of ish) Dont worry before you come to it I will announce it red letters so you have the opportunity to either carry on or look away. 

Set in Northern Ireland. The story focuses on Jacob Kincaid an ex-police officer drummed out of the force for reasons unknown. Now down on his luck he is running a one man (with a secretary) sleazy private investigator business. He is hired by a female, podcast journalist to investigate the death of her colleague who was found dead in a totally locked room after an apparent drunken slip and fall.  At the time she was investigating a shadowy but highly influential cult in Northen Irish society. Add in ex boyfriends, other podcast colleagues, unloving wealthy father, scheming brother and a murky MI5 agent and the gangs all here.

The Northen Ireland (N.I.) setting is interesting with little nods to the past and some colloquialisms. I haven't heard the term Peelers since I was a kid and I still don't know what "hoking" is despite trying to look it up, but the location was a plus. The only downside here was that the author does, I feel, get dragged into too many road names and routes eg.

They came off the motorway at Stockman’s Lane and took Kennedy Way up to the Andersonstown Road,

in the centre lane through Dunbar Link onto Great Patrick Street and saw Natalie follow the road towards the M3 and her home in the East of the city.

through town and onto the M2 motorway. It was only a short distance before they exited and turned into the Harbour estate, following the road down into Sailortown.

circled back onto the M2, following the road until it merged with the M5. As they exited the motorway

crossed back through Writer’s Square. Instead of continuing across the road to Talbot Street, she took a right, heading along Donegall Street.

While reading, these instances of specific directions took my head out the narrative. If you are familiar with N.I. then I am sure it all adds to the ambience. However I feel for an audience not familiar with N.I. a generic description would suffice. 

 As a reviewer one of the prompts i set is "ask the main question." In this case the main question was not Whodunnit? but how they committed murder in a locked room. This question is consistently teased through out the story. More of this later.

The road directions/names thing aside., the writing is simple and concise as befits the breathless pace of the story. The writer did keep me turning the page with the several action sequences including fights, car chases and even even a bit of arson thrown in. It reminded me of the Alaistair McClean stories I used to love as a teenager. This is clearly a strong point for the author.  

This is the author's first novel and as such augers well for a future writing pacy thrillers.

SPOILER (sort of ish) 

As I have stated earlier, the main question asked was how do you commit a murder in a locked room. Again as stated earlier this question was highlighted a number of times through out the texts thereby raising the stakes continually. When the payoff was finally revealed the scenario that kept popping into my head was "Kobayashi Maru" from Star Trek. Where Kirk is confronted with the ultimate no win scenario in a battle situation simulation. No one has ever passed this test but Kirk wins a commendation for his approach to the problem. What does he do? he breaks in the night before and changes the programming of the simulation so what is billed as a " no win situation" isn't really a "no win situation." I remember feeling a little let down by this "cop out." If you are advertising a no win situation then that is what the viewer, wants to see. Similarly in our case the locked room 

mystery isn't really a locked room. You want to see it solved by ingenious but potentially possible methods (some were even suggested in the text) rather than changing the parameters of the security of the locked room. 

As i am writing this it feels a bigger issue than it actually was.. It feels that I may be making mountains out of molehills. and this is a "just me then" issue. I feel It just would have added a little more to what was a very good, engaging first novel.

Selected Quotes..

Old suspicions died hard in Belfast. It was the third time in the last hour Jacob had noticed the twitching of the curtain in the upstairs bedroom. Belfast’s housing estates were still divided by ancient grudges and on a street like this, memories lingered and a stranger in a strange car stood out.

Half an hour ago he had thought the investigation was nothing more than him pissing in the wind. Now, a slow shiver crept up his spine. Not fear, but excitement. It had been a once familiar sensation. The anticipation that came with a sudden crack in an investigation, a previously unseen avenue opening up,

The man was on him. Small and junkie thin,

“And you think they’re capable of murder?” “Any religion is capable of murder. Anyone from here knows that well enough.”

He had read once that coincidence was the word used when you couldn’t see the levers and pulleys.

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

Country by Michael Hughes

Divorcing Jack by Colin Bateman

Fear is the Key by Alastair McClean

About The Author...

S.D.W Hamilton is a writer from the North Coast of Northern Ireland. 

His debut novel, Blood on The Broadcast, a crime and mystery thriller set in Belfast, released in February 2024.

He has also recently completed his first foray into the Young Adult genre with a mystery novel titled Our Strange Town, and is currently working on the sequel to Blood On The Broadcast.

His writing can also be found in CrimeBits and over at Punk Noir Press.

When not writing, he geeks out over video games and most things Star Wars related.

He lives with his wife, daughter, son, and two doggos in Belfast.

The Gathering Storm by Alan Jones

 

Rating 5⭐s

You can buy The Gathering Storm..here

You can find out more about Alan Jones...here

The Blurb...

The Gathering Storm: Book 1 in the Sturmtaucher Trilogy, a powerful and compelling story of two families torn apart by evil.

Kiel, Northern Germany, 1933. A naval city, the base for the German Baltic fleet, and the centre for German sailing, the venue for the upcoming Olympic regatta in 1936.

The Kästners, a prominent Military family, are part of the fabric of the city, and its social, naval and yachting circles. The Nussbaums are the second generation of their family to be in service with the Kästners as domestic staff, but the two households have a closer bond than most.

As Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party claw their way to power in 1933, life has never looked better for families like the Kästners. There is only one problem.

The Nussbaums are Jews.

The Sturmtaucher Trilogy documents the devastating effect on both families of the Nazis’ hateful ideology and the insidious erosion of the rights of Germany's Jews.

When Germany descends ever deeper into dictatorship, General Erich Kästner tries desperately to protect his employees, and to spirit them to safety.

As the country tears itself apart, the darkness which envelops a nation threatens not only to destroy two families, but to plunge an entire continent into war.’

Our Review...

This is a heart rending cautionary tale of politics gone wrong. It tells the tale of Eric (played in my head by Curt Jurgens!) and Yosef. Childhood friends who saw out the first world war in action together. Now Erich is a General working for German military intelligence and Yosef is his domestic help/driver. However its 1933 in Kiel. Yosef and his family are jewish but not fervently so. This is the first part of a trilogy that encompasses 1933-1945 in total.

We meet both sets of families. Erich's two sons progress from the compulsory Hitler Youth into the Army. Franz honourable and thoughtful like his father, Johann a womanising hot head. We also meet Erich's wife Maria, desperate to be a leading socialite and accepted by the aristocracy. To this end she is seeking a high society match for her oldest daughter.

Yosef's family is less aspirational. His wife is the Kastner's cook. They along with their children live with them in a small servants house on the Kastner's estate.

So now the scene is set we follow the slow, inexorable rising tide of the nazi party.  With each new law, diktat and convention the pressure builds a little more. Step by small step the tension continually ramps up. until it is unbearable. Yosef's family's freedoms and rights are eroded, the thugs both in brown/black shirts and in civilian garb get a little louder and a little closer. How can Yosef protect them without being taken to the camps as a criminal. What can Erich do with being denounced as a traitor. 

This is in part a epistolary novel. The writer is very clever in using telegrams between military intelligence departments and letters between Jewish friends to increase the temperature without telling you that he is increasing the temperature dial. 

Often you see two questions posed about WW2 and the nazis. 

1. How did the German people just go along with the race hatred policies of the nazis?

2. Why didn't the Jewish population do something about it?

If you read this book, it transfers into you by osmosis into the feel of the time and place, you will understand how both these situations occurred. And it is truly horrific and a scenario that one can see playing out around us in populist politics today. 

Any negative things about this book? It felt heavy, serious and important. Although given the subject matter there was no way around this. It was never going to be rainbows and lollipops although perhaps it could have been a little shorter.

However this does not deflect from an excellent book. You really feel for the characters and it's heartbreaking that you now whats coming while they don't.

Like being with a friend who you know has a terminal illness but he is oblivious to it.. This book should be studied in schools in History or English classes to see how media manipulation can lead to societal control. Read this as history and then read 1984 to see the next evolution. 

The research is amazing and the reader would do well to read the appendages to appreciate this mammoth 5 year undertaking.

This is a tour de force and I can give it no higher praise than to say it could be a "Schindler's List" prequel.

Selected Quotes...

The thing is, Yosef, people are disillusioned. Unemployment is soaring, living conditions are worse than ever and our politicians are indecisive and do nothing but bicker and prevaricate. We are being bled dry and treated as pariahs by the rest of the world and our armed forces are emasculated. Is it any wonder that people see him as some sort of saviour?’

We went from a democracy to a dictatorship in a few short months, without so much as a whimper.’ ‘Because deep down, the German people don’t really like us, and if we’re the price they pay for putting Germany back on the world stage, they’ll give him anything.’

He paused again, looking around at the faces of people desperate for guidance, both temporal and spiritual. ‘I am leaving Germany with reluctance because, until recently, I regarded myself as German, and I loved this country. If it were just our leaders who were trying to impose their anti-Semitic views on the nation, I could live with that. But the German people; not all of them, but a significant proportion of them, are embracing those views and, in my view, it can only get worse.’

She gave him a worried smile. ‘You too? It’s getting to the stage when I think everyone is looking at me.’ ‘Maybe we’re just overthinking it all. Surely everyone hasn’t become Jew-haters overnight?’ ‘Maybe they’ve always hated us, but only now do they feel they can show it.’

the alcohol slowly glued the group together, and loosened their tongues,

wasn’t the National Socialists or the government who threw the bricks and lit the fires of Kristallnacht, although they stood back and let it happen. It was the German people who smashed and burned our homes, shops and synagogues.’

Memo: Geh.KdoS. ABW 31/08/39 CAC0842.1 For Attention Only: General Erich Kästner, Abwehr, Kiel office, Abwehr. From: Vice Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Chef der Abwer

The British fleet has mobilised; all leave has been cancelled and all naval ships have been made ready to go to sea. [END]

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About the author...

Alan Jones is a Scottish author with three gritty crime stories to his name, the first two set in Glasgow, the third one based in London. He has now switched genres, and his WW2 trilogy was published in the second half of 2021. It is a Holocaust story set in Northern Germany.

He is married with four grown up children and six wonderful grandchildren.

He retired in 2020 as a mixed-practice vet in a small Scottish coastal town in Ayrshire and is one of the RNLI volunteer coxswains on the local lifeboat. He makes furniture in his spare time, and maintains and sails a 45-year-old yacht in the Irish Sea and on the beautiful west coast of Scotland. He loves reading, watching films and cooking. He still plays football despite being just the wrong side of sixty.

His crime novels are not for the faint-hearted, with some strong language, violence, and various degrees of sexual content. The first two books also contain a fair smattering of Glasgow slang.

He is one of the few self-published authors to be given a panel at Bloody Scotland and has done two pop-up book launches at the festival in Stirling.

He spent five years researching and writing the Sturmtaucher Trilogy.