Up coming Blog Tour

 I am taking part in my first blog tour 😲🙈 My review for the 3 book Alex Cohen series will be available on Jan 20th

A Christmas Past by John Trotter.

⭐⭐⭐

Outline...

Ebeneezer Scrooge was the mean spirited miser in Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. This short story sets out to examine why the young Ebeneezer came to despise Christmas.

My Review...(spoiler alert)

The author has given us a little pre Christmas taster with this mini investigation into the origins of Scrooge. It's an appetite whetter for the many Dickens fans. This is a solid tale, competently told which is both the strength and weakness of this short story (14 pages.) 

A short story often gives a view from a different perspective or a twist in the tale and I feel this story does to a certain degree but it could have gone a little further. The revelation that Ebeneezer hates Christmas because he had a traumatic Christmas in his younger days, I think would not be a surprise to most people.

Perhaps if the story was in the first person perspective from his mother, father or sister's viewpoint or if we drilled down into the 5 whys of his fathers alcoholic bullying it may have been elevated  even more. 

A Christmas past is the first in an annual serial. Look out for part two at Christmas 2021

The author has a very good knowledge of the characters of A Christmas Carol alongside an excellent  command of language. His  chosen setting of Scrooge's youth is one that is ripe for investigation. Clearly he has all the tools to build a interesting  tale. I just feel he could have gone deeper or come at it from a differing standpoint.

About the author...

John Trotter is a lifelong Newcastle United FC  fan from Hexham and regular contributor to https://twitter.com/game_ne1 . He is currently based in Lancaster.

 

A Pig Squeal at Midnight by Michael Thame

 

⭐⭐⭐

Outline...

Based on real people and real events. A Pig's Squeal at Midnight tells the story of four young siblings (John, Tom, Chrissie and Mary) and their friend Philly as they evacuate from the slums of Liverpool to rural Shropshire. Here they meet Meg, whose parents become hosts for the evacuee girls. Initially Meg resents the intrusion but eventually they all become firm friends. As well as dealing with the impending war and being transplanted to an unfamiliar environment, the children become aware of a pig rustling operation and set out to find the culprits.

My Review...

This is the first children's book that I have reviewed (or even read) for decades, so I found it difficult to judge where to pitch my review. In the end I decided to review it as I would for an adult book. I gave it 3 stars. However I think a regular reviewer of children's books would probably have given it more. 

While there is a vast amount of TV Programmes, films and books about World War 2 there is not that much, comparatively speaking, in the mainstream about the evacuees. As an aside, I remember speaking to my dad and asking if his village had any evacuees. He said that they had a few, one of which grew up to be the singer Petula Clarke.😲 Anyway I digress, back to the book.

The characters of the children are engaging and sympathetic and you feel invested as they progress on their adventure. There are several simple sketch illustrations which are a great help in imagining the children and several locations in which the action takes place.

I felt the book fell into two areas. The first one is the operation to catch the pig thieves. It put me in mind of a boy's own or famous five adventure. The author is cunning in using this to draw child readers in with this and while doing so they cannot fail to take in the historical points of the evacuation and the war. Learning by stealth. I like it! Like blending the veg and hiding it in the yorkshire pud!

While the plot to catch the pig rustlers was engaging it was the second area (the historical context) that I found more intriguing, The change from industrial slums to the rural area is a huge culture shock for them. We begin the tale with the children  embarking on their journey into the unknown and I found the chapter where the children are massed in the school hall, not knowing where they are going, chaos all around quite moving. Even more so when you read that this is based on a true story.

In addition there is an appendix at the back of the book that gives some statistics on Operation Pied Piper (the evacuation of built up areas) The scale and pace of this is quite breathtaking. The Government of today could learn some lessons from decisiveness and organisation of the Government in pre war Britain.

This book is as an engaging, entertaining and educational tool for children and would sit well alongside titles like "Carrie's War" and "Goodnight Mr Tom,"

A Pig Squeal at Midnight is the first part of the Conyers Street Gang Series. Other titles include...

"GeeGee and the Germans"

"Spies, Lies and Dangerous Skies" and 

"Land of Dragons"

Selected Quotes...

"It was noisy in the hall, but it was serious, not fun. No one quite seemed to know what was going on, including the teachers and the parents.

"None of them really knew what poaching was to start with, and when Uncle Fred told them it was catching wild rabbits and shooting pheasants or ducks or whatever you could find, so that you could take it home and cook it, none of them understood why it was illegal."

"We don't have anything like this amount of food back in Liverpool. Mam and Pop can't afford it, or it's too rationed. The war doesn't seem to be happening here."

About the author...

Michael Thame was born in Kent in 1974 and it was a lightbulb moment 42 years later that would result in the Conyers Street Gang series of whodunits. It's a series that brings to life the real life childhoods of John, Tom, Chrissie and Mary Boden and their friends GeeGee and Philly Brown.

For decades Michael listened to his grandfather, Tom Boden, as he told of his time in the Liverpool Blitzes, as an evacuee and of his time in the Royal Navy. Michael committed these memories to paper for future generations of his family. This was the kernel from which the Conyers Street Gang would grow.

Today Michael lives in Didsbury Manchester and has two daughters.Whereas Tom Boden provided the inspiration, his daughters provide the motivation to keep going.

DeLuca by Darren Arthurs

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Blurb...

Breanna Deluca is a wisecracking, streetwise woman whose mundane life of delivering groceries and dreaming of becoming an international DJ is interrupted when she's asked to find her old childhood friend who mysteriously disappeared a few months before.

What should be an easy payday turns into something more complicated than she had ever imagined where she will find her herself mixing with drug lords, European criminals, gym owners, car salesmen and a dangerous gangster with his own reason for finding the missing woman.

DeLuca is a character you'll immediately love and find yourself rooting for in this funny story of lost friendships and family connections.

 

My Review...

While the plot is interesting, the main driver is the colourful personality of the main character the self named Breanna DeLuca. Her life is drudge, interspersed with daydreams of success as a hip, D.J. She is approached by an old friend's father to help find his missing daughter. He thinks DeLuca may have an insight as to where his daughter may hide and is willing to pay.

We follow the sassy and brassy, innocent, fast talking, kind hearted and cunning girl on her adventures. It must be a challenge to write a unworldly, naive but brash extrovert into one person. You would think that some of those character traits do not sit well together but the author pulls it off in fine style. She is  a character you can really get behind and you end up living the adventure through her eyes. Also I thought it very brave for a male author to attempt to write this through a young, black, female's viewpoint too. I wouldn't have gone anywhere near it! Does he pull it off? You would probably have to ask a young, black, female but I thought it was great.

In any good double act there is a straight man. Breanna's comedy/investigative partner is Pavek. He is a big grumpy, quiet, Polish, freelance bruiser who likes nothing more than to sit in peace and feed the ducks. He's my type of guy. Some of the best scenes are between these two. 

Breanna takes us on her underworld odyssey through sweaty gyms, handsy car mechanics, hacking boltholes and libraries to find her old friend. Setting us up for an O.K  corral of a showdown. 

As well as being a grumpy old man, I'm also a bit on the miserly side. One of the perks of reviewing is often free books! There is a nasty rumour that I even turn the gas off when I turn the bacon over! 😲 But I am willing to actually pay to read the forthcoming sequel. That's how much I enjoyed this novella.

DeLuca is refreshing palette cleanser of a mini novel. It is short (168 pages) and bright and breezy. If your'e looking for a "Shuggie Bain" or "Angela's Ashes" this ain't for you. It is however a revitalizing reset for the reader. Perhaps something is telling me to take a break from the heavy stuff and enjoy the literary lighter side.

An enjoyable, feel good, happy, vivid, character driven, short, cosy crime thriller.    

                                                                              

Selected quotes...

"But money enjoys the company of money, and once you have a lot, it seems more lines up to join the party."

"She would work much faster with Herman Munster  behind her cracking skulls and fetching her drinks."

"Say what you will about Pavek," thought Breanna he's got more going on in that head than previous steroid abuse."

"Maybe he was just bringing her along for the ride to stop her from redecorating his place with pink wallpaper and posters of Beyónce."

"then she would travel like a fat man on a greased slide."

"...let alone a woman with an afro and tiger print matching tracksuit, a lesser man could feel intimidated by being confronted by curves and animal print clothes. The sight of her purple toenail varnish beneath her white Adidas sliders might make him run a mile."

"nothing stands between an uncomfortable woman and a toilet."

About the Author...

Darren is a hobbyist writer living in Swindon. He comes up with stories whilst driving to work and they niggle away at him, fleshing out details and characters until he has to write it down. He mostly reads crime and historical drama. DeLuca is his third book and a sequel has already been written and is in the editing phase. He is currently being plagued by plans for a fantasy book that he is worried will keep him busy for all of 2021. 

Riverflow by Alison Layland

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Blurb...

After a beloved family member is drowned in a devastating flood, Bede and Elin Sherwell want nothing more than to be left in peace to pursue their off grid life. But when the very real prospect of fracking hits their village, they are drawn into the frontline protests. During a spring of relentless rain, a series of mysterious threats and suspicious accidents put friendships on the line and the Sherwell's marriage under unbearable tension. Is there a connection with their uncles death? As the river rises under torrential rain, pressure mounts, Bede's sense of self begins to crumble and Elin is no longer sure who to believe or what to believe in.

My Review...

This is a lovely unusual book. It does not really fit into a genre. Or I should say it fits partially into several genres and possibly even invents a small new genre of it's own. Those of us who read a lot often get struck in the straight lines of a genre or trope. There is a lot to be said for the certainty of genre. You know where you are, where you are going and how you are going to get there. A good writer can deliver a good narrative inside any given genre. But what most of us regular readers long for is something different that bends the lanes of formulae. There are plenty of allegedly genre busting books out there but very few are well written. This one is well done and does not bust genres but does blur the lines between genres.

This book is fiction and there is a crime but it is not really "crime fiction," as the crime only becomes really evident in the last few chapters, even though there are hints and whispers through-out the book.

It is nearest to a psychological thriller. However in most thrillers the threat and danger are more evident through-out. In Riverflow we do not even see the threat. It only slowly emerges from the narrative.

Riverflow begins as sort of country soap opera, where an eco-friendly couple are trying to assimilate and inspire the rural community. Slowly, one by one, things start to go wrong. So , from the idyll, a slow downward spiral for them begins to materialize. Is it just what happens in life? is it bad luck?or is something more sinister involved. I am going to have to place this book in several of my categories including Welsh interest because it set on the Welsh Marches and the author is a member of "Crime Cymru."

Even the main protagonist  of Riverflow is not your run of the mill. Bede is a self-sufficient, long haired, mechanic. He has a chip on his shoulder, is surly and an all round sanctimonious knob head ( yes! I know he sounds like me!) The inconvenient truth is constantly hammered home by Bede. The author has taken a big gamble by having this moody loner as the hero.

The author has a lovely comfortable style of writing. It is easy to read. It is like reading downhill, you just sort of freewheel.

This book is an entertaining pastoral and moral tale with a thrilling culmination.

Selected quotes...

"Elin sometimes conceded that they were not so much teaching by example as simply living by their consciences."

"During one visit to his mum's hospice bedside, as he braved the veneer of cheer and kindness thinly cloaking the inevitability of death."

"It's the human race needs saving! the world will keep turning long after we've pushed ourselves to extinction."

"She picked up her book, ready to escape to someone's world."

"Nothing stays the same. You know that as well as I do. Like the riverflow. There are peaceful times but even theres the scratch, scratch, scratch or erosion. imperceptible but...there. Until its time for big change, for renewal and the floods come."

About the author

Alison Layland is a freelance writer and translator who lives and works on the Welsh borderlands. She is the author of two novels, Someone else's conflict and Riverflow, both published by Honno Pres and also translates from German, French and Welsh.