The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet

 

244 pages

You can buy The Maltese Falcon...here

You can find out more about Dashiell Hammet...here

Our Rating...4⭐s

• The Blurb...

Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?

• Our Review...

Well this was a pleasant surprise. I don't really know why I decided to read this novel, probably a sense of lacking depth. A sort of " i haven't any 1930s hard bolied noir before, it's a notable genre, I suppose i had better read the daddy... The Maltese Falcon." I'm glad I did. I found it very enjoyable. I Genuinely returned to it night after night out of a desire to find out "what happens next" rather than out of a sense of duty, and that hasn't happened for a while.

It's got all the tropes, cynical tough Private Investigator (P.I.), duplicitous femme fatale, sneaky oily villains. The plot has more twists than Chubby Checker's corkscrew. So very stereotypical, but sometimes that's a good thing. The reader knows the route to follow. 

The characters are great too. We come for the plot but stay for characters. Whenever I hear that saying the example that always appears in my head is Only Fools And Horses. Originally we start to watch for the storyline but the gems are Del Boy, Trigger, Grandad, Trigger et all. The same applies to this Sam Spade isn't really a good guy, he's having an affair with a married woman. How he feels about his Miss Wonderly, his distraught client, who throws herself on his mercy is very mercenary. He is cynical to the point of being emotionally dead inside. The three villains are very different but all are very self-centred (as indeed is Sam Spade.) To this end having now read the book, I must commend the casting of the black and white film directed by John Huston. The acting troupe of Bogart, Greenstreet, Lorre and Astor fit precisely into the characters on the page.

Throughout the book a question that kept me on tenterhooks was what would Spade end up doing with Miss Wonderly. While not as overly evil as Gutman, Cairo or Wilmer she was the cause of much destruction. Would Spade rescue her or destroy her or maybe something in between. I think this was the question that intrigued me the most.

It may be a me thing, but while reading this novel I feel there are underlying themes of good and evil and particularly the bible (see first selected quotes in describing Sam Spade.)  Spade calls his secretary his angel on several occasions, and indeed she is probably the most moral character, while Miss Wonderly is very contrasting in her duplicity and using her womanly charms to lure men to their doom like a siren. While the falcon itself may be seen as a false idol that drives men into greed, betrayel and murder. Or perhaps I am thinking too much and seeing patterns that exist only in the chocolate fudge of my brain.

One thing that did surprise me, after reading the novel I was browsing an afternote that stated throughout the novel Hammet did not have an inner monologue. No thoughts or emotions are described and to my surprise I realised that this was true. The author had just discarded one of the writer's best, most versatile rules. I hadn't noticed, that may be a testament to the skill of the author. I have read Cormac McCarthy and I did notice when he did it. Also this very visual style of writing maybe why The Maltese Flacon transferred so well to the big screen. 

Whatever the ins and outs this was an enjoyable thrill ride through the dangerous jungle of deception and double cross. Well worth a read.

• Selected Quotes...

his pale brown hair grew down from high flat temples in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.

Tom Polhaus poked his own left breast with a dirty finger. "Got him right through the pump with this." He took a fat revolver from his coat-pocket and held it out to Spade.

Spade nodded. His face was stupid in its calmness.

We believed your two hundred dollars." "You mean?" She seemed to not know what he meant. "I mean that you paid us more than if you'd been telling the truth", he explained blandly "and enough more to make it all right."

the lie was in the way I said it, and not at all in what I said."

The fat man was flabbily fat with bulbous pink cheeks and lips and chins and neck, with a great soft egg of a belly that was all his torso, and pendant cones for arms and legs. As he advanced to meet Spade all his bulbs rose and shook and fell separately with each step, in the manner of clustered soap-bubbles not yet released from the pipe through which they had been blown.

distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice.

The looseness of his lower lip and the drop of his upper eyelids combined with the v's in his face to make his grin lewd as a satyr's.

I want you to know that I couldn't be any fonder of you if you were my own son; but well, by Gad! if you lose a son, it's possible to get another and there's only one Maltese falcon.

the shortest farewells are the best.

I'm a detective and expecting me to run criminals down and then let them go free is like asking a dog to catch a rabbit and let it go.

• If you Liked This Then You May Like..

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Pilgrims by M.R. Leonard

 

Our Rating 3 ⭐s

You can buy Pilgrims by M.R. Leonard ...Here

You can find out more about M.R. Leonard...Here

• The Blurb...

Out-of-work Latin teacher and borderline alcoholic Austin DeSantis is determined to spend his final days in the arms of a prostitute—that is if the aliens don’t exterminate humanity first.

But when the aliens land at the Vatican, begin speaking Latin, and reveal themselves to be Catholic, the world turns upside down.

Pressed into service as a translator and thrust into the center of humanity's first contact with a cryptic alien race, Austin must uncover their true intentions before religious turmoil rips the planet apart. But with Austin caught between the Catholic Church, the US military, and an enigmatic alien AI, he'll have to decide where his loyalties lie as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

• Our Review...

Spoilers ahead.

Well, where to start with this one. Its an absolutely bat-shit crazy bonkers premise but is nicely delivered. Aliens approach Earth but when they eventually get here, they are latin speaking fundamentalist Roman Catholics. Yeah I know! Totally headshot. Upon reading I immediately thought that this author is definitely Roman Catholic and very probably from the USA. Turns out I was right. What's more after Muslims kill the Pope and top level Cardinals, The aliens start a lightning fast, brutal genocide of all  Muslims. Sounds like a President Trump fever dream. Imagine if a Muslim had written a Muslim version of this. I guess the aim of narrative is to point out if we don't all get along together, we are all doomed together. But wow, just wow.

If you can get over the right wing religious bonkers stuff, the writing is decent. But it's like being given a hand grenade wrapped up in a nice bow. This one is not for me.

• Selected Quotes...

“Terror is the most brutal kind of pain. At least when we nuked the Japs, they didn’t see it coming.”

if you don’t want to be told by the pope to go up to an alien spaceship, then don’t join the priesthood.”

“Said like a man who only sees power.” Father Ambrose took off his glasses and began cleaning them on his shirt. “One who is blind to compassion and mercy.” “Compassion and mercy?” General Fergusson scoffed. “Those are mere luxuries for those at the top of the food chain.”

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Nope... I got nothing soz

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O Farrell

 

Our Rating 3⭐s

401 pages 

Published 2016

You can find out more about Maggie O'Farrell here

• The Blurb...

A reclusive former film star living in the wilds of Ireland, Claudette Wells thinks nothing of firing a gun if strangers get too close to her house. Why is she so fiercely protective of her family, and what made her walk out on her career at the height of her fame?

Her husband Daniel, reeling from a discovery about a woman he last saw twenty years ago, is about to make an exit of his own. It is a journey that will send him off-course, far from home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back?

This Must Be The Place crosses continents and time zones, creating a portrait of an extraordinary marriage, the forces that hold it together and the pressures that drive it apart.

• Our Review...

Full disclosure, this was a buddy read with my daughter who loved Hamnet. 

The characters are all fully developed and all have a hinterland that drives them. This book is about love and death and loyalty and missed chances. All life is here. It is a complex novel in that there are numerous characters and zigg-zagging timelines for most of the main ones. 

I must admit I am not a fan of literary fiction. It feels to me like reading a tv soap opera. I just dont get the point. Describing someones life is, well just a bit....boring. I love a murder, a denuemont, and arrest and an end point. That said this a fine example of writing. The ups downs of Daniel and Claudettes love life tug on the heartstrings and there are moments of comedy. Maggie O Farrell does have a wonderful way of writing about real life. She has depth and warmth and a wonderful turn of phrase as can been by our selected quotes.  But I think that's my problem. I dont want to read about real life. I read to escape real life. Its not that the author or book is not for me I think the issue is that the genre is not for me. I love to read about The Godfather, or Emporer Claudius or George Smiley. I have seen numerous reviews that gave this book 5 stars and my daughter loved the book. Its just not my jam. 

• Selected Quotes...

Here is what my brother smells of: paper, computers, cotton, emollient, toast, soap substitute, herbal tea, windowless rooms. My brother smells of hard work. My brother smells of intelligence, of all-nighters, of education, of dedication and sometimes, I think, loneliness.

On the surface I am one thing but underneath I am riddled with holes and caverns, like a limestone landscape.

The groom will rarely look at the photographs and, when he does, will be struck most by how many of the guests – considered, at the time, to be crucial presences in his life – he no longer

Spry’ is the word used for people of her age, isn’t it? Horrible word, Rosalind reflects, like a mixture of ‘spray’ and ‘why’.

When Todd and Suki heard that an American exchange student was being billeted in the vacant room in the eaves of their graduate flat, they were not pleased. They pictured a toothy type with trainers and V-necks and white socks. They pictured someone who might, of all things, attend church. Americans were religious, weren’t they? He would have hotdog-scented breath, a penchant for soft rock and a backpack full of college sweatshirts. He would want to join fraternities.

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Kill For Me, Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh

 

Our Rating 5⭐

401 Pages

First published 2023

You Can Find Out More About Steve Cavanagh...here

• The Blurb...

One dark evening in New York City, two strangers meet by chance.
Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realise they have so much in common.

They both feel alone. They both drink alone.
And they both desperately want revenge against the two men who destroyed their families.

Together, they have the perfect plan.
If you kill for me, I'll kill for you...

• Our Review...

A standalone by Ireland's answer to John Grisham. Obviously heavily influenced by Patricia Highsmith's Strangers On A Train, (which we have also reviewed.) Cavanagh does a bang up job of updating and twistifying ( adding more twists!) to the original. The original's plot still stands up but it does feel very dated now. Cavangh's updated plot is slightly more complex but doesn't feel forced. It's not twists for twists sake. I started reading unconciously just expecting a rerun of the original but with modern day language and sensibilities. This would have been a worthwhile enterprise on it's own but the deciously dark corruption of the plot is just a juicy bonus. There are a couple of cracking twists. I read a few other books at the time I read this and this is the one that stays with me. If you loved the original, or even if you didn't this is well worth a read.

• Selected Quotes...

“That kind of death didn’t ride alone. It brought more dark horsemen with it: unemployment, debt, addiction and pain that at times was too great to bear.”

“In any other world that meant he would lose his job—but not when his father owned the company. Some people, those with money and the ear of power, never pay for their crimes the way ordinary people do.”

“Stronger than lover’s love is lover’s hate. Incurable”

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

The One by John Marrs

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Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham

 

You Can Buy Sleepyhead...here

Our Rating 4.5 ⭐s

436 pages

first published in 2001

You can find out more about Mark Billingham ...here

• The blurb...

It's rare for a young woman to die from a stroke and when three such deaths occur in short order it starts to look like an epidemic. Then a sharp pathologist notices traces of benzodiazepine in one of the victim's blood samples and just traceable damage to the ligaments in her neck, and their cause of death is changed from 'natural' to murder. The police aren't making much progress in their hunt for the killer until he appears to make a mistake: Alison Willetts is found alive and D.I. Tom Thorne believes the murderer has made a mistake, which ought to allow them to get on his tracks. But it was the others who were his mistakes: he doesn't want to take life, he just wants to put people into a state where they cannot move, cannot talk, cannot do anything but think.When Thorne, helped by the neurologist looking after Alison, starts to realise what he is up against he knows the case is not going to be solved by normal methods - before he can find out who did it he has to understand why he's doing it.

• Our Review...

Mark Billingham’s 2001 debut, "Sleepyhead," did for the British police procedural what a jagged blade does to soft tissue: it left a permanent, ugly scar. This isn't a polished "whodunit" found in a country manor; it is a masterclass in working-class noir, written with a blunt, rhythmic honesty that reflects the soot and exhaust of South London.

At the heart of this decay is DI Tom Thorne. Thorne is a refreshingly bitter protagonist, stripped of the "super-sleuth" polish. He is cynical, insomniac, and fueled by a steady diet of country music and disappointment. His world is one of grey skies and greyer moralities, where the police are overworked and the victims are often just statistics in a filing cabinet. Billingham’s prose mirrors this—it’s lean, gritty, and devoid of unnecessary flourishes, capturing the exhausted cadence of men and women who have seen too much.

The narrative’s darkness stems from its uniquely horrific premise. The antagonist isn't a serial killer who wants his victims dead; he wants them "locked-in." The descriptions of Alison Willetts—awake, aware, but unable to move a single muscle—are visceral and terrifying. It taps into a primal, claustrophobic fear that lingers long after the book is closed. The only thing that stopped this novel from being a 5 star for me is that I didn't quite get the motivation of the killer but perhaps thats the point. I'm never going to get the reasons for a deranged serial killer to do what he does unless I'm a bit deranged too?

Crucially, Billingham refuses to offer the reader a fairy-tale ending. There is no soaring triumph of the human spirit here. While the procedural elements reach a conclusion, the emotional fallout is heavy and unresolved. The "hero" doesn't ride off into the sunset; he simply retreats further into his own isolation, and the victims remain shattered. It is a bleak, uncompromising look at the reality of trauma, proving that in Thorne’s London, the "good guys" don't always win—they just survive to fight another miserable day. For readers who prefer their crime fiction with a shot of vinegar rather than a spoonful of sugar,

• Selected Quotes...

"Thorne didn't believe in closure. It was a word used by people who didn't understand that some things never shut."

"He lived his life in the gaps between the things that other people found important."

"Imagine being awake in your own coffin. Now imagine that coffin is your own skin."

"Evil doesn't always wear a mask. Sometimes it wears a suit and a tie and asks you how your weekend was."

"Thorne’s flat was the kind of place where dust gathered out of sympathy. It was a holding pen for a man who spent his life waiting for the next bad thing to happen."

 

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Pagan Rite by Leslie Scase

 

Our Rating 4 ⭐

You Can Buy Pagan Rite...here

You Can Find Out More About Leslie Scase...here

280 Pages

First published 2026

• The Blurb...

1897
Inspector Thomas Chard is sent to investigate the discovery of a mutilated corpse feared to be the work of Jack the Ripper. His investigation leads him to a ‘Festival of the Unknown’ and when a second murder occurs, rumours of demons and hell-hounds flood the public’s imagination. With the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations fast approaching, Chard has to fight his prejudices to deal with psychics, fortune-tellers, druids and scientists in order to expose a deranged killer.

• Our Review...

This is the fifth in the Inspector Chard series, the others being 

Fortunas Deadly Shadow

Fatal Solution

Sabrina's Teardrop 

Flames of Anarchy

Each has a slightly different taste but all under the genre of Victorian Industrial Noir. I dont actually know if thats a thing. I may have just made it up, but it sums up the field of expertise that the author writes in. I use the word expertise deliberatley. The author includes a section on his research at the rear of the book and it is almost as fascinating as the fictional narrative. So why do i keep coming back to this series, and why this book in particular. Well theres a few reasons..

Atmospheric Verisimilitude: Scase doesn't just describe the setting; he makes you smell the coal dust and feel the damp Welsh mist. The tension between the burgeoning industrial world and the deep-seated "old ways" of the hills is the book's strongest asset.

The Protagonist: Thomas Chard remains a refreshingly grounded lead. He isn’t a "super-sleuth" with flashes of divine inspiration; he’s a methodical, dogged, and often weary investigator who relies on local knowledge and persistence.

The "Pagan" Element: The title isn't just window dressing. Scase explores the revival of Druidic traditions and neo-paganism in the 19th century with historical nuance, avoiding the "occult thriller" clichés while keeping the stakes high.

"Pagan Rite" is a slow-burn procedural that rewards patient readers. While it helps to have read the previous books  Scase provides enough context that this functions well as a standalone mystery.

The story is set against the backdrop of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. While the British Empire is celebrating its height, Pontypridd is gripped by fear. A mutilated corpse is discovered, and the brutal nature of the crime immediately sparks a media frenzy, with headlines suggesting that Jack the Ripper has moved to the Valleys. As Chard investigates, he finds himself caught between two worlds: The Rational: A group of scientists and Victorian sceptics trying to debunk the supernatural and The Mystical: A "Festival of the Unknown" arriving in town, featuring fortune-tellers, psychics, and a revived interest in ancient Druidic rituals.

Some of the key themes and elements are mass hysteria: When a second murder occurs, the public’s imagination runs wild with talk of "hell-hounds" and demonic entities. Scase brilliantly captures how quickly a rational community can descend into panic when traditional beliefs are challenged. The clash of eras: The book highlights the friction of 1897—a time of rapid scientific advancement (the rise of forensic thought) clashing with a desperate nostalgia for ancient Celtic "pagan" roots.  The "Ripper" shadow: By invoking the specter of the Whitechapel murders, Scase raises the stakes for Chard, who has to solve the case quickly to prevent a full-scale riot during the Jubilee celebrations.

It may be a bit selfish but I also like the series because I know the locale in which it is set. I have drunk in the Llanover Arms. I have walked over the old bridge in Ponty. I have been on the Gower many times. Geographical experience always adds a little to the experience of reading a book. I recently found a website that suggests books set in the place that you are about to visit. Isnt that a good idea! The link is Trip Fiction

Unlike the earlier books, which focused more on industrial espionage (Fatal Solution) or anarchist plots (Flames of Anarchy), Pagan Rite is much more atmospheric and eerie. Chard is a fantastic "fish out of water" here; he is a man of facts and evidence who is forced to navigate a world of "miracles" and mysticism to find a very human killer. 

• Selected Quotes...

The tiny pistol’s hammer made a gentle click as it was cocked and placed against skin and bone. A crack, no louder than the sound of a snapped twig went unheard as the bullet found it’s mark…… then oblivion ………… at least for a while……

he’s a simple-minded soul, but pretty. It was her sixteenth birthday and fruit ripe for the plucking.’ ‘A chip off the old block!’ laughed the magistrate.

‘She asked about someone, and I consulted the cards. It was this one,’ said Sibylline, turning over the one in her hand, ‘the ten of swords.’ Chard looked at the image of a figure lying on the ground, pierced by blades, and felt a shiver through his spine.

Bugger won’t talk, despite walking into the wall a few times.’ ‘You know I don’t approve of prisoners having “accidental” injuries,’ admonished the inspector. ‘But as he’s a lying bastard of a killer, I’ll let it pass, just this once.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like.

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The Last Murder At The End Of The World by Stuart Turton

You Can Buy "The Last Murder At The End Of The World...Here

Rating 3⭐

First published 2024

432 words (paperback)

You Can Find Out More About Stuart Turton...Here

• The Blurb...

The small group of villagers who live on the tiny island lead simple, but happy lives. There is no world beyond their shores, but they're content with what they have. Only Emory feels frustrated. Unlike everyone else on the island she doesn't yet seem to have a purpose. All she seems to be good at is asking questions.

But then one of the scientists who guides the villagers is found murdered and as there has never been a crime before, there is no detective to call on. There is only Emory and her gift for asking questions. So now Emory must explore every inch of her island - from the cliffs to the jungles, from sandy beaches to the very top of the mountain - to find clues that apparently don't exist.

How can she solve a mystery on an island where no one lies but there's still no way to find the culprit?

• Our Review...

I cant recall if I have ever read a post-apocalyptic/science fiction/murder mystery before. This may be my first. The world has ended, all that is left is a tiny island, with a few hundred people which is surrounded by a killer fog, full of killer insects. It is only kept at bay by equipment cobbled together and maintained by three scientists. They are the elders, each very different. The way of life is no longer technologically advanced but is none the less idyllic. That is until the senior scientist is found murdered. Emory our disaffected gobby chip-on-the-shoulder  villager, who just cant seem to settle into the lovely-dovey hippy-dippy vibe of the island is called upon to find the murderer when there hasn't been a murder in living memory. However she is against the clock. If she doesnt solve in a couple of days the island will be engulfed by the killer fog. 

So simple, yes? well yes and no. Here is where POTENTIAL SPOILERS come. The author has so may things going on  and they come at you at such a pace that I felt a little overwhelmed and  unable to keep up. There is a central intelligence hub that has contact with each individual mind on the island but not collectively. This intelligence can converse with each person (as a voice in their head) but the people cannot use this to communicate with each other. Its name is Abi and it acts as an addition to their own conscience. It subtly  guides the individuals. When reading we are sometimes in the point of view (POV) of Abi in the person and sometimes we are in the POV of the actaul person. So each person is potentailly not one but two unreliable narrators. A very clever trick to write an engaging tale but it can be tough to follow. In addition strange things happen to the villagers. An enforced curfew where they all just fall asleep at a given time and wake up the next day covered in bruises and scrapes. Oh and they drop dead at sixty1

In addition the convoluted clues for the murder come thick and fast. I just couldn't process all the info quickly enough or to any great depth. I felt like I was watching an episode of countdown where I could get a four letter word but everybody else was getting 6 and 7s. Perhaps I should have read it slower I did guess the perp before the end but didn't get the how and the why. 

While I did feel a little out of my depth, there is much to commend this book. The author's imagination is off the scale. The scenario and world structure are both very creative. The moral behind the tale is one that can be seen throughout the world at the moment and is (as always very relevant.) Looking through the lens of this book man's capacity for destruction and the invention of A.I. is basically fuel mixed with fire. As ever evolution will find a way....

• Selected Quotes..

From my vantage in her mind – and the minds of everybody on the island – I can predict the future with a high degree of accuracy. It’s a confluence of probability and psychology, which is easy to chart when you have access to everybody’s thoughts. Streaking away from this moment are dozens of possible futures, each waiting to be conjured into existence by a random event, an idle phrase, a miscommunication or an overheard conversation.

My only skills seem to be noticing things people don’t want noticed, and asking questions people don’t want answered.’

I’ll have to treat her like everybody else, concealing information while subtly manipulating her actions. As with every other human, her emotions make her erratic. She can’t be trusted to act logically, even in service of her own goals, which is what I’m for. Sometimes the only way to win a game is to let the pieces think they’re the ones playing it.

He was a billionaire’s son. He never had to learn to hide his emotions convincingly, or make excuses for his behaviour. The world did that for him.

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Dark Side by Belinda Bauer

437 Pages: First Published 2011

Our Rating 4.5⭐s

You can find out more about Belinda Bauer...Here

• The Blurb...

THE QUESTION IS: WHO IS HUNTING WHO?

In a small village where no stranger goes unnoticed, a local woman has been murdered in her bed.

This is PC Jonas Holly's first murder investigation. But he is distracted by anonymous messages that seem to come from the killer . . .

Is Jonas going to be able to solve the crime, whilst being taunted by a psychopath?

• Our Review...

Regular visitors to this site (if there are any...) will know that we love a Belinda Bauer novel, and have reviewed a few here. (see reviews by author) and Dark Side is another brilliant addition to the cannon, albeit I am 15 years late to the party with this one. 

In the sleepy little village  of Shipcott on Exmoor nothing happens, nothing changes until the day it does. A paralysed old lady is murdered and the village bobby Jonas Holly ( played in my head inexplicably by Jimmy Carr, but a nice version) is powerless to help protect his people.  The killer begins to leave cryptic notes for Jonas as the out of town, bid city detective swoops in with his entourage. The Detective inappropriately named Detective Marvel is a crude, opinionated bully. Think Gene Hunt from "Life on Mars" and you would be about right. He disrespects Jonas. More kiliings of people deemed a burden on society happen. Jonas tries to help the investigation but he also needs to care for his disabled wife. In addition The dark history of the seemingly idyllic village resonates throughout the investigation.  

So the scene is set for the hunt for the killer. 

Belinda Bauer is a very gifted writer. She can create compelling, deep and dark characters that are nuanced and multilayered. However the real genius is in mixing very dark, very relevant humour to situations that shouldn't be humorous to the average sensibility. I realise she is a crime writer and as such death is something that happens in her stories but she takes the emotional baggage of death and right and wrong and moulds them into a challenging, emotional atmosphere that envelopes the narrative and demands debate. This is true for the other novels of hers that I have read namely Rubbernecker, Blacklands, Snap and Exit. To simplify she blends dark characters, dark humour and death into a wonderful thought provoking story. Often in the end nobody wins. A bit like real life then?

• Selected Quotes...

Margaret Priddy awoke to the brilliant beam of light she had been anticipating with fear and longing for years. Finally, she thought, I’m dying.

Jonas understood how almost everything important happens underneath, and away from public view – that signage and medals and headlines are just the tip of the village iceberg, and that real life is shaped long before and far below the surface in the blue-black depths of the community ocean.

She had always liked horror films. As a teenager they had just been a way to allow a boy to put his arm around her at the movies without feeling as though she was being a slut.

Marvel watched the empty ribbon of tarmac lined by dirty brown moor race at them out of blackness and disappear as soon as the lights had passed over it. It was like travelling through space, or a lower intestine.

She’d pat his hand and look into the past, which was somewhere over his left shoulder.

Robert Springer was both an ardent horseman and an ardent smoker – two hobbies that Marvel gathered should be kept apart, like wives and girlfriends.

the police grapevine had whispered of Marvel squeezing the facts to make them fit a suspect – or squeezing that suspect to make him fit the facts.

It made him think of his nan sellotaping names to her nick-nacks, so they’d all know who was getting what when she died.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Rating 3⭐s

You can buy The Picture of Dorian Gray...here

You can find out about the author...here

253 pages

• The Blurb...

Oscar Wilde's alluring novel of decadence and sin was a succès de scandale on publication. It follows Dorian Gray who, enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his depravity. This definitive edition includes a selection of contemporary reviews condemning the novel's immorality.

• Our Review...

Wilde's famous for his one and only novel. Dorian a young, very wealthy and strikingly handsome man loves himself so much he wishes for eternal youth as he is sitting, having his portrait painted. Low and behold after a while he notices his picture is ageing cruelly, but he is not. Dorian decides his life from now on will be one of excess and hedonism, knowing that there is no cost to his depravity (at least in the physical.) But how much depravity can one man sustain. How will it end. Will his past come back to claim revenge at some point?

Wilde famously was sent to prison for homosexuality, in a time when this was illegal. Reading The Picture of Dorian Gray (TPODG) feels like it is written by a man who wishes there was no consequences to his vices. If only Wilde could drain the shame out of himself and trap it in a painting, leaving him to lead a care free life. Of course the irony, these days his actions would not be illegal, he would suffer no guilt or shame. One century's crime is another centuries freedom.

Famous his wit and insight into society, TPODG is rife with razor sharp wit, beautifully balanced one liners and sage like asides on life and class. See selected quotes for just a few. So why only 3 stars? Well I feel the novel is less than the some of its component parts. It is pure upper middle class indulgent naval gazing, where the most pressing issue is how to deal with "ennui." No, i didn't know what it was either, It's a deep, existential weariness that comes from feeling like nothing is worth doing. I don't think i have ever been that far up the financial food chain to be rich enough from what is essentially very posh boredom. 

He is forever naval gazing and talking about himself. It is so very narcissistic and self indulgent. It is not a very attractive quality. "But it's just the character of Dorian Gray"  you say. But for reasons stated earlier Gray and Wilde seem to me to be one and the same person. His attitude to the lower class in general and women in particular speak to a lack of empathy. Yes he is insightful and witty but that wit is disparaging and cruel and self aggrandising. I can appreciate the humour and societal analysis but I don't think I'd go for a pint with Oscar Wilde/Dorian Gray.

• Selected Quotes...

The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live—undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet.

"she is a peacock in everything but beauty,"

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself,

I should fancy that the real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich."

In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.

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The Quiet American by Graham Greene

 

208 pages

Our Rating 5 ⭐s

You can buy The Quiet American...Here

You can find out more about the author...Here

• The Blurb...

Into the intrigue and violence of 1950s Saigon comes CIA agent Alden Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious 'Third Force'.

As Pyle's naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as Fowler intervenes he wonders why: for the greater good, or something altogether more complicated?

• Our Review...

This is the third Graham Greene that I have read, after Brighton Rock and The Power And The Glory, and it is once again excellent.

Set in Vietnam in 1952 when the Vietnamese forces were fighting the French colonial power before they went on to defeat the USA. The tale focuses on three people. 

The old cynical English journalist Fowler, whose weapons of choice is a witty mind and a cruel tongue

His young local lover Phuong

An a newcomer to Indo-China. Pyle a young brash American. He is the human equivalent of a Labrador puppy. All innocent and bouncy but sadly lacking in nuance and decorum. He is working for the USA government in some pseudo industrial cartel/quango.

So the scene is set the males both want to be with Phuong. Phuong just wants a comfortable life. Pyle just turns up and oblivious to everyone else just blunders in  and Fowler is just hanging  on knowing his golden era is long gone but is just hanging on to the vestiges of life and love with Phuong. And so the three leads are obviously analogous to the politics of the time. ie the tug of war between the old powers and the new powers for countries that really just to be left alone. They have no interest in capitalism, communism or colonialism. They just want food, health and to be left alone. 

Greene manages to create a romance book about political intrigue in an historical flash-point that includes a whodunit and all the while it is an anti-war novel. That takes some doing not only that, it is one of the best books that I have ever read. 

In some ways Greene's novels are very diverse. Brighton Rock is about English Gangsters, The Power and the Glory is about the persecution of Catholic priests in Mexico, and the Quiet American is about political interference in Vietnam. However the backdrops may be different the same themes run through all. Morals, introspection, corruption both of the soul and the real world, loss, love and hope. 

The book is 73 years old but unbelievably it is more of the now than ever. I was born in 1967 so 73 years before that would have been 1894. I can't imagine a book written in 1894 being relevant in 1973 as The Quiet American is now. It forewarned of the naive, USA getting itself involved in a draining war over decades, which it had brought on itself by interfering in a different part of the word and a very different culture to itself which it has no idea about. For Vietnam 1955-1975 see Iraq 2003-2011, Afghanistan 2001-2021.

Similarly a film version was made starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser in a classic case of bad timing it was test screened in Sept 2001 but after 9/11 it was shelved for a few years as it was thought to be anti American.

However to focus on the political landscape of the novel would be to do it a disservice. There is so much more in this novel as hopefully the selected quotes will show. It encompasses a huge range of emotions and dilemmas. There are no good guys just guys who do the things they do for different reasons with different outcomes. No black and white just grey and shades.   

He just has an awareness of how emotions link  into small lives that link into bigger actions that develop into political and moral concepts. How everything in life relates to everything else like a circular butterfly effect.

I know others will read Greene and think  meh! 🤷 but he is just on my wavelength. I will read more Greene and look forward to reading his autibiography.

• Selected Quotes...

The Minister had a great respect for Pyle—Pyle had taken a good degree in—well, one of those subjects Americans can take degrees in: perhaps public relations or theatrecraft, perhaps even Far Eastern studies (he had read a lot of books).

Vietnamese Sureté that seemed to smell of urine and injustice.

It’s always the same wherever one goes—it’s not the most powerful rulers who have the happiest populations.’

The canal was full of bodies: I am reminded now of an Irish stew containing too much meat. The bodies overlapped: one head, seal-grey, and anonymous as a convict with a shaven scalp, stuck up out of the water like a buoy. There was no blood: I suppose it had flowed away a long time ago. I have no idea how many there were: they must have been caught in a cross-fire, trying to get back, and I suppose every man of us along the bank was thinking, ‘Two can play at that game.’ I too took my eyes away; we didn’t want to be reminded of how little we counted, how quickly, simply and anonymously death came.

Wouldn’t we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife a husband, a lover a mistress, nor a parent a child? Perhaps that’s why men have invented God—a being capable of understanding.

‘And if you lose Phuong, will you be sensible?’ ‘Oh yes, I hope so. And you?’ ‘I doubt it. I might even run amok. Have you thought about that, Pyle?’ ‘I wish you’d call me Alden, Thomas.’ ‘I’d rather not. Pyle has got—associations.

You and your like are trying to make a war with the help of people who just aren’t interested.’ ‘They don’t want Communism.’ ‘They want enough rice,’ I said. ‘They don’t want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don’t want our white skins around telling them what they want.’

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