Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

 

Our Rating 5⭐s

You can buy Demon Copperhead...Here

Find out about the author...Here

• The Blurb...

Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single wide trailer, looking like a little blue prizefighter. For the life ahead of him he would need all that fighting spirit along with buckets of charm, a quick wit and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.

In the southern Appalachain Mountains of Virginia, poverty isnt an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents and friends. "Family" could mean love or reluctant foster care For Demon born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day.

Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.

 

• Our Review...

Often, when I read a book that has won multiple awards and received huge hype I find myself sub-consciously raising the bar that the book get over to genuinely feel loved by me. It's a " you come into my zone all hyped up with your medals thinking you can win, well we'll see about that!" There have not been many up to the challenge. Barbara Kingsolver has done it easy pops. 

What a ride. Famously based on Charles Dickens's David Copperhead, it also feels a little like trainspotting meets The Dukes of Hazzard but without the happy bits. But OMG what a powerful, emotional book.. 

We follow the life of Damon, a melungeon child, from birth to adulthood. Damon (or Demon as he becomes known) does not win the lottery of life.. No life of Princes William or Harry for him. He is born to an  addicted, trailer-dwelling, poor mother with a dead father. And things just get worse from here on. It is hugely Dickensian in its depiction of childhood poverty and exploitation. Add to this mix an abusive stepfather, cruel foster homes and the cherry on the cake, massive industrial scale opioid abuse. It sounds like a horrific read and yes at times it is very challenging. If you have even an ounce of empathy it will make you cry. But this book makes you feel everything.

The novel is written in southern USA states vernacular which it had to be as the location is intrinsic to the story. It does take some getting used to as a Brit. But it is worth it as it adds an authenticity to the narrative. I felt a strong association with the people of Appalachia. A historically strong coal mining area that was the powerhouse of the country, both now having been sucked dry of both coal and money have been left to rot by their national political overlords. Good people that have been ridiculed in the media as stupid, incestuous, bestial. It seemed to me that she could have been writing about Wales, and it broke my heart just a little more. 

The book was choc full of literary gems. See selected quotes for a few. When reading I highlighted 60+ quotes that I could use to demsonstare Kingsolver's similie and metaphor use or to show her clarity of thought. A gifted writer she can explain complex situations in few words.. Masterful.

Over the years I have often read of the mythical quest to find the great American novel or author e.g. Hemmingway, Faulkner, McCarthy, Steinbeck. All of these authors I feel searching for the distillation of what is America. I get the impression that they see the essence of America as a candle light in the darkness, a hope that truth and justice will guide us home.  I feel Kingsolver sees  it for what it is. An oncoming train heading down the tunnel.A train  that doesn't care if it goes through you, your friends, your family or your people. People are a resource or source of income to be used and abused. Government of the people, by the people, for the people = absolute bollox. And the same applies in the UK. Corporations, Media, Tech, power, super wealth, corruption it all stinks like a whores draws. Nothing is done for the people and hasn't for a long time. Kingsolver sees this and this is why this is the great American novel.

When reading this book I think it helps if the reader is of a certain age and has suffered some of what circumstance and poverty can inflict. Demon may be our protagonist but ultimately it is the backdrop that takes centre stage. Life in all it's rawness will engulf us all at some stage. It can overwhelm for entire lifespan if we let it. Ultimately this book isn't about poverty, addiction, loss or fate, it's about a more important thing than that. It's about how we face these things. Do we curl up into a ball and just take the kicking or say no I am not accepting that. I am going to be better and tomorrow I will be better than today. What is inside me is more important than what is outside. 

This is a great book. It will be in my top 10 of all time and I will read the Poison Wood Bible. 

• Selected Quotes...

Kid born to the junkie is a junkie. He’ll grow up to be everything you don’t want to know, the rotten teeth and dead-zone eyes,

A whole new life for young Demon was Stoner’s plan, described to me one morning at breakfast after Mom left for work. I was going to learn self-discipline, like they teach you in the army. Not that Stoner had done military service, mind you. I reckon he saw the movie.

By the time Mariah got to the courtroom her scars were healed. Not his. If you’ve noticed, it’s the prettiest people that everybody wants to believe,

If you’re standing on a small pile of shit, fighting for your one place to stand, God almighty how you fight.

We both lay back down, and she looked at me in the eyes, and we were sad together for a while. I’ll never forget how that felt. Like not being hungry.

Being checked out of school mentalwise for the last year and then some, I was so far behind it looked like a race with my own ass. But the weirdness wasn’t in what I didn’t know. It’s what I did know. How to watch your back at all times. What a hooker means by “fun” and an asshole means by “discipline” and a caseworker means by “We’re working on it.” And money. Christ. Watching these kids pull it out of their pockets in fistfuls of fives or ones or tens, holding out the whole wad for the lunch lady to pick through, like they don’t know the difference. Or don’t care.

wondered how it would feel to like who you are,

Certain pitiful souls around here see whiteness as their last asset that hasn’t been totaled or repossessed.

The wonder is that you could start life with nothing, end with nothing, and lose so much in between.

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

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The Boy From The Sea by Garret Carr

 

You can buy The Boy From The Sea...Here

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

Our Rating 3⭐s

• The Blurb...

In 1973 on the west coast of Ireland, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Who is he? Where is he from?

Ambrose a local fisherman, is far more interested in who he will become and – with a curious community looking on – takes the baby home and adopts him. But for Declan, the baby’s new brother, this arrival is surely bad news. Rivalries can be decades in the making . . .

Set over twenty years, The Boy from the Sea is about a restless boy trying to find his place, in a town caught in the storm of a rapidly changing world.

• Our Review...

The Boy From The Sea (TBFTS) tells the story of Brendan a new born baby washed ashore in half barrel to the shores of the West of Ireland. Taken under the wing of the village as something akin to a spiritual gift from the Sea Gods. He swiftly ends up being ensconced in the Bonnar household with kindly, hardworking dad Ambrose, caring and nuturing mum Christine and jealous as hell older natural born brother Declan.

We follow their adventures over the following decades through the trauma of Christine's fathers illness, the self sacrifice of her sister Phyllis, the ups and downs of the fishing industry and the slow depressing grind of Donegal catching up with the late 20th century and all that it brings. The main relationships feel like a battle. Always fighting repression, resentment and economic erosion. Will the adoptive brothers ever treat each other with love? Will Phyllis and Christine come to terms with the roles that they have slipped into? Will his family ever give Ambrose the peace he is looking for? The questions are well set but the answers, if they are answered at all, aren't what we desire. 

 The enduring after taste is one of sadness and depression. It took an unexpected left turn when of the main characters dies, and not just dies but dies off screen, so to speak. We only get to hear about it via a letter from a family member, which just felt odd. There doesn't seem to be a resolution to any of the conflicts raised between the family members, The plot doesn't feel like a plot, more just an unending soap opera with an Irish setting . It's ending just sort of drifts and doesn't actually end. Is there a message? if there is it must be that life is an awful grind so be prepared.

This wasn't my cup of tea, it took me almost a month to get through.  This is probably down to my foibles and subjectivity although on the plus side I have discovered though that family saga novels may not be for me. I have no doubt that anyone who enjoys this genre may well give this 5 stars instead of the 3 stars that I gave it. 

That's not to say this novel is without merit. On the contrary the author does an excellent job of evoking the West of Ireland in the 70s and 80s. Laced through out the narrative are occasions of Irish charm and and whimsy but overall it left me feeling a little bit sad.

• Selected Quotes...

The tide brought the child in,’ he said, ‘he was laid in a barrel.’ Attempts were made to get sense out of him. ‘Who’s he belonging to?’ asked Justine O’Donnell. ‘He’s a gift from the sea,’

this was before contraception so things were simpler, so simple some of us went a year or two unsure if we were technically virgins or not.

By making it clear he wanted to impress her, Ambrose had handed Christine the role of being hard to impress, and therefore put her in command. She decided to keep hold of this position.

fundamentally, every child comes in from the sea, washes up against the ankles of their parents, arms outstretched, ready to be shaped by them but with some disposition already in place, deep-set and never quite knowable.

When Ambrose was young, shortage still looked like it did in history books: poor people had no electricity, no bank account, no teeth, but they didn’t have debt either; they lived outside money, in inherited cottages and supported by relatives and the community. But those people were gone, everyone had money now, just not enough. Shortage had become pernicious and harder to recognize. It crept into your brain and gave you no peace, keeping you at every moment aware of your home’s easy crushability. And it was almost impossible to talk about. Many families were this way, but you still felt alone with it, so alone.

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

The Misremembered Man bv Christine McKenna

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Still Life by Sarah Winman

  

Our Rating 4.5⭐s

You can buy "Still Life"...here

You can find out about the author...here

• The Blurb...

1944, Italy. As bombs fall around them, two strangers meet in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa and share an extraordinary evening.

Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner a 64-year-old art historian living life on her own terms. She has come to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and relive memories of her youth when her heart was stolen by an Italian maid in a particular room with a view. Ulysses’ chance encounter with Evelyn will transform his life – and all those who love him back home in London – forever.

Uplifting, sweeping and full of unforgettable characters, Still Life is a novel about beauty, love, family and friendship.

• Our Review...

This is a very different book for me to read, totally not of my usual fare. I normally go in for twisty plots, thrilling chase to a climatic end and a denouement of the arch villain. This book isn't like that. It is akin to a family saga (although the protagonists are mostly unrelated) that covers roughly 75 years from about 1900 on. It does so in two stages 1945 to 75ish and the last part of the book relates to Evelyn remembering her early twenties.

Evelyn and Ulysses cross paths during the war and the story follows them as they weave their way through the subsequent years until they both end up where they first met in Florence, birth place of the Renaissance. Indeed Florence is as much a presence in this book as any of the characters. It and its art and its architecture and its soul are intertwined in every chapter. You would do well to keep a phone or PC next to you when reading this book to look up the numerous works of art and areas of the city that are constantly mentioned throughout. I only did this towards the end of the novel and wished I had started doing so earlier.

So the author clearly has a huge passion for both Florence and the appreciation of art. The love of art in this narrative is borderline obsessive with a sprinkle of pretentiousness. hence the 4.5 instead of 5 stars. Maybe I am a bit too basic in my outlook. I think art is a pleasure in life, this novel puts art on a level with love as being one of the vital drivers of life which is a little bit of a reach for me. I suppose the pursuit of art becomes more of a priority if you don't have to think about where your next meal, or the payment for the roof over your head is coming from. This is not a criticism, it is just my lived experience. 

The decades long soap opera of a story follows the working class found family of Ulysses in London's East End and the life and loves of Evelyn a teacher and art lover from a very privileged background, who comes across many famous artists and authors including a young E.M. Forster. The cast is wide and deep including a very wise old man, who doesn't really know how wise he is, a love interest who is hard as nails and a heartbreaker and the most intelligent and linguistically gifted parrot in the whole of literature. Life happens to them all. Lifelong unrequited love, coming of age, loss, friendship, good luck, bad luck and serendipity. Fortunes are never too good nor too bad but a little of both and at often at the same time. From the book I think the lesson is it matters not what tribulations may come it is how we face them that is of more importance. And the best way to do this is with friends and above all kindness. What can I say, I like books with a moral compass.

However, where this book towers above the herd is how the author delivers the big poignant moments in life. You don't read this book, you feel it. It'll make you double cry, tears of both happiness and despair.  There are times in life e.g. when your father passes away or when you hold your grandchild in your arms for the first time, when time stops, and you connect with...with well everything and the author conveys these many moments in this novel. The sweet sadness of life and the sad sweetness of death tear on the threads in your emotions. It feels as if you are living the opening scene of Disney's "Up" or that scene from Jon Voight's "The Champ." It is amazing to think that just looking at words in a book can induce such wild emotions in the reader. It really is a kind of magic or legal drug dealing. Sarah Winman should change her name to Houdini Escobar. Wow.. just wow.

• Selected Quotes...

The man was a dreamer, he said. Had a loser’s luck and a winning smile and was never happy unless he had a churn in his guts that denoted money riding on an outcome. A feeling he often equated to love.

We like beauty, don’t we? Something good on the eye cheers us. Does something to us on a cellular level, makes us feel alive and enriched. Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world, Ulysses. It repositions our sight and judgement. Captures forever that which is fleeting.

She’s gone up in the world. Typist. Sixty words a minute and that’s just her gob.

You’re a good mum, Peg. No I’m not but it’s good of you to say. Your mum was a good mum, Temps. That’s what a good mum is. Mine was competition.

Her beauty had been her currency. Always had been. No one talked about when the bank ran dry as it inevitably would.

We shall be at war one day with your European brothers, as you call them, Mr Collins. It’s inevitable, said Mr Lugg. They’re not like us. But they want what we have. And do we not want what they have, Mr Lugg? Michelangelo? Dante? Beauty? Wine on a sun-drenched terrace? Villas nestled in the hills going for a song? Mr Lugg ignored Mr Collins and reached for a plate of stinking goat’s cheese. Yes, but will you fight? said the reverend, bringing the conversation back to British imperialism. It’s a simple question. For what cause? said Mr Collins. Cause is irrelevant. Cause is not irrelevant. To teach another nation a lesson, then, said the reverend. A nation is not a person. And so I will not.

• If You Liked This You May Like...

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      Sarah Winman author of Still Life

Mick Herron; The New Charles Dickens?

 

While recently re-reading the wonderful Mick Herron's Slow Horses, a re run of Oliver the musical was on the TV. This serendipitous coincidence led me to muse on the writings of both master story tellers. I began to jot down a few similarities, the list grew quite quickly. Here are some of my more coherent thoughts ...

Mick Herron's Slough House series and Charles Dickens' works, particularly Oliver Twist, share striking similarities, especially in their portrayal of misfits, institutional corruption, and the grim reality of London. Both authors use a cast of eccentric, flawed characters to critique the failings of the system, a system that spits out those it deems unworthy.

​The Unlikely Mentors: Jackson Lamb and Fagin

At the heart of both narratives are morally ambiguous patriarchs who preside over a group of outcasts. Jackson Lamb, the flatulent and slovenly head of Slough House, is a modern-day Fagin. Like Fagin, Lamb is a master manipulator who thrives on the margins, using the failures of others to secure his own position. He's a cynical, often cruel, mentor to his "slow horses." Just as Fagin's gang of pickpockets is a family born of circumstance and survival, the slow horses are a family forged in professional purgatory. Lamb's decrepit office, a mirror of Fagin's squalid den, is both a refuge and a prison. It's a place where the unwanted are given purpose, however inglorious that purpose may be.

​The Aspiring Apprentices: River Cartwright and the Artful Dodger

​Within this motley crew, the young, ambitious, and often reckless River Cartwright stands in for the Artful Dodger. River, like the Dodger, is full of bluster and a misplaced sense of competence. He has a quick wit and a desire to prove himself, but his impulsiveness and a naive belief in the righteousness of the system often get him into trouble. While the Dodger's aspirations are criminal, River's are noble—he wants to be a "real" spy. Both characters are defined by their potential, their street smarts, and their struggle to navigate a world that has branded them as failures. The Dodger is an expert pickpocket; River, for all his mistakes, has a certain raw talent for espionage.

​The Tragic Figures: Kathryn Standish and Miss Havisham

​The parallel between Kathryn Standish and Miss Havisham (not from Oliver Twist but from Great Expectations) is one of profound sadness and shattered lives. Just as Miss Havisham's world stopped on her wedding day, Kathryn's life was irrevocably broken by the death of her boss and hero Charles Partner. Both women are trapped in a past they cannot escape. Standish, like Havisham, is a haunting presence, a figure of melancholic despair. Her struggles with alcoholism and her constant emotional fragility are a testament to her arrested development, a life on pause. She serves as a poignant reminder of the collateral damage caused by the cold, unforgiving world of espionage, much as Miss Havisham embodies the tragic consequences of a life consumed by bitterness and a broken heart.

​The Institution and the City: Slough House and Victorian London 

​Mick Herron's Slough House is a physical embodiment of the broken bureaucracy of MI5, much like the workhouses and legal systems of Victorian London were to Dickens. Both authors use their settings as characters in themselves. Slough House, with its decaying facade and stench of failure, is as much a symbol of systemic decay as the smog-choked, crime-ridden streets of London in Dickens' novels. Both environments are teeming with misfits and those abandoned by society, forced to fend for themselves in a world that has no use for them. Herron, like Dickens, masterfully crafts a world that is simultaneously bleak and darkly comedic, exposing the absurdity and cruelty of institutions that prioritise power over people.

The brooding bullies: Lady Diana Taverner and Bill Sikes 

Every story needs a bad guy/boogeyman. Ours are both compelling antagonists who embody different facets of a ruthless world, yet share a core similarity in their unwavering focus on self-preservation and control. Both are intimidating personalities and they know others see them as such. Both use this fear of themselves to their  own advantage. Both have a position of power over our protagonists (Lamb and Fagin.) While Taverner operates within the polished, bureaucratic world of MI5 and Sikes in the grimy underworld of Victorian London, both characters are defined by their ambition and their willingness to use others as a means to an end.

​Taverner, often referred to as "Lady Di," is the quintessential modern-day schemer, using manipulation and political manoeuvring to climb the ladder at MI5. Her primary motivation is to ascend to the top position, "First Desk," and she views people, including her colleagues, as pawns in a long-game chess match. She is an embodiment of the "new corporate world of espionage," where image and success matter more than principles.  This parallels Bill Sikes's brutal and pragmatic approach to his criminal enterprises. Sikes, a professional burglar and murderer, uses intimidation and violence to assert his dominance and ensure his survival. While his methods are primitive and visceral compared to Taverner's calculated psychological warfare, the end goal is the same: to get what he wants, regardless of the human cost.  Both characters maintain a tight grip on those around them, demanding absolute loyalty and obedience. Taverner's cold and superior demeanour instils fear in her subordinates, a tactic she is "definitely aware" of and uses to "turn up the volume." Sikes's control is more overt and physically brutal, exemplified by his abusive relationship with Nancy. Both characters see emotional attachments as vulnerabilities. Taverner's lack of empathy is a key part of her personality, allowing her to make ruthless decisions without a second thought. Sikes, though a "somewhat conflicted character" with a "small spark of compassion," ultimately proves his monstrous nature by killing Nancy when he perceives her as a threat to his position and freedom. The two characters, despite their vastly different settings, are united by their shared nature as cold, calculating individuals who prioritise their own interests above all else.

The former colleagues now the harbingers of doom: Jacob Marley and Dickie Bow.

Even minor characters echo each other e.g. a former colleague's death plays heavily on our protagonist's mind. Something is amiss. Our protagonist feels an overwhelming need to correct a wrong. Could Jacob Marley be a precursor to Dickie Bow (which in itself sounds like a Dickensian name!) 

The evolution of descriptive scene setting.

It's not just in the characters I see Dickens influence. Some of the descriptive writing is eerily reminiscent of Dickens. I place before you a sample of A Tale Of Two Cities 

"There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all."

Now, compare to this to Herron's description of the darkness of  night creeping over London in London Rules.

When dusk at last comes it comes from the corners, where it’s been waiting all day and seeps through Slough House the way ink seeps through water; first casting tendrils, then becoming smoky black cloud and at last being everywhere, the way it always wants to be. Its older brother night has broader footfall, louder voice, but dusk is the family sneak, a hoarder of secrets. In each of the offices it prowls by the walls, licking the skirting boards, testing the pipes and out on the landings it fondles doorknobs, slips through keyholes, and is content. It leans hard against the front door – which never opens, never closes –and pushes softly on the back, which jams in all weathers; it presses down on every stair at once, making none of them creak, and peers through both sides of each window. In locked drawers it hunts for its infant siblings, and with everyone it finds it grows a little darker. Dusk is a temporary creature, and always has been. The faster it feeds, the sooner it yields to the night."

When comparing the two it's like comparing a photo of my son to a photo of my mother. They are different but the same genes can clearly been seen to run through both. 

And finally...

Of course all of this is just conjecture. If I may create an idiom car crash I might say my ramblings may be the delusions of a fan trying to hammer a round peg into a square hole with his with his rose coloured glasses and tunnel vision blinkers on. Or perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree. Whatever the answer I would hate if Mr Herron ended up flogging a dead horse. It doesn't really matter where he gets his inspirations as long as his Slow Horses series continue galloping along. Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk 😁

x

The Welsh Man by Dave Lewis

 

Our Rating 3⭐s

You can buy The Welsh Man...here

About the author...here

• The Blurb..

An authentic British road trip and old-fashioned love story. A violent but compelling tale of grim landscapes and dark morality. Paul Thorne is no angel. A hard man with a troubled past, his mistake was to fall for the wrong girl. When he said yes to love, he opened the door to death.

A tragic accident finds him running for his life from a vicious London crime boss. He seeks sanctuary in a sleepy, Welsh seaside town but instead of solace, he finds jealousy and betrayal.

A brutal journey through the underbelly of 80s and 90s Britain. Violent and sad. Powerful, beautiful prose lingers like a bruise, haunting the mind, long after the last page is read.

• Our Review...

The Welsh Man tells the tale of Paul. Big  lovable but rough man from a lovable but rough part of the world. The Welsh Valleys are a place like no other. To most brits going to the valleys is like going back in time 50 years, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

 Due to their weird geography they are not your average urban rough area. Most valleys run north–south, roughly parallel to each other, creating a “hand and fingers” pattern of development. flanked by steep hillsides, often covered in open moorland or dense forest. Between the valleys lie high, relatively remote plateaux that contrast with the busy valley floors. The topography restricts movement between valleys, with only a few high passes connecting them. Settlements stretch along the valley bottoms and lower slopes, forming long, narrow towns rather than compact cities.The geography shaped the rise of coal and iron industries in the 18th and 19th centuries, with mining communities built into the hillsides. Railways and roads snake through the valleys, linking communities but rarely crossing the uplands. 

The result is often ribbons of semi autonomous urban wasteland. very different to the rougher areas of London, Manchester or Glasgow. I often thought of the valleys as being like heroin. Amazing but cruel and can even drag you down to despair. But I love it (The valleys not drugs obv) 

The humour is self deprecating. eg. more blown out windows than Beirut, twinned with Mordor. Being a valley commando (as locals are known within Wales) is akin to being a member of the mafia, or the IRA. Once you're in you're never out. Fierce enemies and fierce friends, they will rob your last penny but will give you their last penny. They are honest and honest to your face, which some find rude. 

It is hard to find novels set in the valleys. As always Wales flies under the radar. So I chose this novel to read in part to see how the author (a fellow valley boy) portrays the mothership. And he's got it bang on. Hard as nails with a heart of gold.   

We follow Paul from Porth. A kind but tough kid from a broken home who finds his way into being a bouncer back in the 90s. He meets and falls in lovely with Charley. So far so good, but Charley one day just leaves, leaving Paul heartbroken. He eventually drifts to London and ends up working for some very serious gangsters. I'll leave the story there to avoid spoilers.

The story isn't a particularly complex one, but then not all stories have to be complex. The novel is very violent, as the subject matter dictates. The prose is sparing but accurate. Reminded me of Cormac McCarthy but from Wales with better punctuation.

 Overall I though it was OK and nice to read about the valleys.  

• Selected Quotes...

The valleys left a mark on you for sure and I’ve certainly inherited the sick sense of humour and extraordinary spirit about the place. Deprivation and hardship became a badge of belonging. You know what I mean? Everyone’s had to suffer something; otherwise you wouldn’t fit in.

The bouncers know the clubs are swimming with drugs, the punters know, the dealers know, the manager knows and of course the cops know. Nobody does anything though. There is just too much money to be made and it’s too much hassle to try to stop it. Everyone knows this except the poor, law-abiding parents of the unfortunate sods that get poisoned every weekend.

It’s getting late and Charley decides it’s time Cara was safely tucked up in bed. Michael wasn’t arguing and was keen to do the tucking, with a capital F.

The legacy of the Tory policy to divide and conquer, leaving the hapless and hopeless to scrounge around for the scraps thrown to them by those lucky enough to have been dealt a better hand in life’s sick poker game.

I decided enough time had elapsed to risk it. I’d go home. Back to the land of my father. The father who was god knows where.

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

East of England by Eammon Griffin (review here)

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Close To Death by Anthony Horrowitz

 

Rating 4⭐s

You can buy Close To Death...here

You can find out about the author...here

• The Blurb...

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, a gaggle of shrieking children and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and they quickly offend every last one of their neighbours.

When Giles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator that can be called on to solve the case.

Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?

• Our Review...

I like Anthony Horrowitz as an author. He is both prolific and dependable. He never delivers anything less than about an 8 out of ten. He is my go to guy when I'm in a reading slump. In rugby when an outside half is trouble, going backwards and cornered invariably he just ships the ball out to his inside centre. A big ball carrier who dips his shoulder and drives forward to get the team back on the front foot. A good centre has good decision making skills coupled with clarity of thought and the nous of years of experience. Horrowitz is my inside centre, my literary Jamie Roberts. He is also recognised as a safe pair of hands by both the James Bond publishers and Sherlock Holmes publishers. He now writes officially sanctioned novels for both franchises. I digress, back to "Close To Murder (COM)." Once again he does not disappoint.

The beauty of the Hawthorn and Horrowitz (H&H) novels is the relationship between our mismatched protagonists. The character Horrowitz is indeed the very same as the author. Is it narcissistic to write yourself into your own book? He is very self deprecating about though, often portraying himself as a bumbling, out of his depth but essentially nice bloke. For the vast majority of the series he writes in the 1st person. Although for a large part of this novel, he writes in the third person as he is recounting a time before he met Hawthorn. Hawthorn, Played in my head by Phillip Glenister (of Life on Mars fame,) is a taciturn curmudgeon who doesn't play well with others. He does however have one magnificent redeeming feature. He is a genius at solving complex criminal cases. Horrowitz sadly lacks even the basic crime solving skills of Hawthorn, he does however possess the skills so lacking in Hawthorn. Namely those of openness, empathy and the ability to engage and communicate with others. So Hawthorn is the brains of the outfit while Horrowitz is basically the scribe recording events as they happen for later novelisation. Keen eyed bibliophiles would have spotted the obvious inspiration of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Well if it isn't broke don't fix it, update it and sell it again.

This tale, the 5th in the H&H series centres on Riverside Close, a residential area in the posh, middle class area of Richmond London. Incidentally where the author lives. (I bet his neighbours are scanning this book for possible references to them!)

So far, so peaceful until the Giles Kenworthy moves in to the area. Definitely not one of their recognised social strata. A self made hedge fund manager, right wing borderline racist who blocks peoples drives with his multiple vehicles, has numerous parties and barbecues, gets planning permission to build a pool and generally recognised as being an awful neighbour. As time goes by he gives all the neighbours a cause to hate him. Which in the end gives the police far too many suspects to handle when he is found dead at his home with a cross bow bolt protruding from his neck.. Which one of them did it or did they go full Orient Express. DCI Khan suspecting a potential political banana skin calls in Hawthorn. He is to either solve the case and give the plaudits to Khan or in the event of failure to be a scapegoat. A no lose situation for the media savvy, upwardly mobile career policeman.

Hawthorn is unleashed on the suspects and along the way, he solves a few side quests. What is up with the two elderly reclusive spinsters? why does everyone employ a gardener who is not very good at gardening? Who was John Dudley, Hawthorns previous no2 and why hasn't Hawthorn ever mentioned him? These are the starters to whet the appetite for the main course of who killed Kenworthy and why. We are fed juicy red herrings a plenty. The author is very cunning, he shows us the obvious path to a solution and another hidden trail and yet another more deeply camouflaged trace but wrapped up in these and buried deep like Vietnamese sniper in the jungle is the actual solution. I must admit he had me caught up in one of his rain forest booby traps. But when the investigation concludes it becomes embarrassingly obvious. A real fore-heading slapping "of course" moment

Wonderfully intricate and plausible plotting, with more threads than Jeffrey Epstein's contact list. It also boasts well developed and distinct characters. With so many players it was a possibility that they merge in readers head. It is teastament to the writer's skill that they do not. If she were alive today Agatha Christie would be reading Anthony Horrowitz books

• Selected Quotes...

“Did he think he was about to be arrested?’ Hawthorne asked. ‘He didn’t say. But the police wouldn’t have arrested him for something he hadn’t done.’ ‘I’m sure that’s never happened,’ Dudley agreed.”

“Surely that’s just semantics.’ ‘The trouble with you, Tony, is that you’re great with long words, but you never think them through. The semantics! It’s the small things that matter. That’s how criminals give themselves away.”

“But you will give me the solution!’ ‘No. I won’t.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘You never know the solution, mate. That’s what makes your writing so special. You don’t have a clue.’ Had any compliment ever been more backhanded?”

It was part of the charm of the place that it existed in the world as it had been fifty years ago, when neighbours left their doors open or their keys under the mat and burglaries were rare enough to be news.”

“Most murderers don’t really think about what they’re going to do,’ he said. ‘You get the fantasists, the husbands who hate their wives, the kids who hate their stepdads, and they may think about murder for years . . . but they’re never going to do it. Planning it is enough. You know as well as I do that most murders are acts of passion – spur-of-the-moment things. One drink too many. A fight that gets out of control. But then, just now and again, you get the genius, the killer who’s not going to get caught, who sits down and works it all out. These are what you call the stickers, the crimes that are like no others because there’s an intelligence behind them. That’s where I come in. That’s sort of my speciality.”

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

"The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman, 

"The Marlow Murder Club" by Robert Thorogood,

"How to Solve Your Own Murder" by Kristen Perrin,

Freebourne By Salman Shaheen

 

Rating 4⭐s

You can buy Freebourne...here

You can find out about the author here

• The Blurb...

After learning of his wife's affair with his best friend and business partner, divorced and unemployed MindTech entrepreneur Dr Harry Coulson arrives in the idyllic English town of Freebourne, looking to start a new life. But any hopes of quietly picking up the pieces of his broken world are shattered when he steps off the train to discover the body of a young woman lying in the snow. It's almost as if she'd been left there for him to find. Harry does everything he can to help. But as a stranger arriving on the night Freebourne witnesses its first murder in over a century, he not only becomes a suspect in the woman's killing but finds himself caught in a deadly game between science, faith, and free will - in a secret far darker and more terrifying than anything he could have imagined.

• Our Review...

I found this to be a very interesting book in many ways. I try not to read the blurb or reviews of books that I review until after I have reviewed them. I like to come to the story without preconceived ideas.

So for me this tale started as a murder mystery. Initially I thought the writing too fast paced for my taste. e.g. (Slight spolier here...) in the story within  about a month there the had been several murders and our protagonist had set up and funded a company staffed by people he had only just met and found love. All this when our protagonist had only just arrived in his new environs! With the fast pace there comes a lack of opportunity to develop depth of characters. So far so OK but nothing to set my reading world alight. At this stage had it carried on it was probably going to a solid 3 star read for me. Ok but probably wouldn't remember any part of it in a few years time.

However as we progress and begin hitting the twists the reasons behind the fast forward love affair and the spree deaths not to mention the quickfire tech empire building become apparent. This book is a shape-shifter what starts as murder mystery evolves into a mash up of black mirror and House of Cards and Frankenstein. It is here that the narrative kicks on. I sat up in my chair my interest piqued and began reading more voraciously. 

I feel the author has two (at least) strengths. His plotting is very clever. Seasoned readers are experienced in spotting the tropes that lead to the twist, so much so that part of fun of reading is spotting the twist. If reading is like going on Safari then spotting the twist is akin to the thrill of shooting the Lion at the end! (NB we do not condone big game hunting obvs.) I did see one twist but not the subsequent emerging one so well played sir, well played.

The other element of his writing is political commentary. The author is politician so no doubt operates in a world of cunning, subterfuge and dare I say manipulation. He writes about these and his fears for the future in a heartfelt and striking way. As can be seen in selected quotes. Orwell is obviously an influence. He has a good turn of phrase. "Tourists in the misery of others" is a wonderful way of describing internet trolls and paparazzi.

In the end I enjoyed this book, it gradually morphed into a thought provoking cautionary tale that we as a society will do well to take on board.

• Selected Quotes...

in politics those who wield the knife, no matter how well they buried it and where, rarely get to wear the crown.

It would be all over the metaverse soon. Fear and outrage traded for clicks, views, shares, likes, influence, vanity. A young woman was dead and all these people cared about was collecting experiences. Tourists in the misery of others.

those of us who have the privilege of building the future also have the duty to preserve our past.

The whole system is geared towards producing compliance. Replicating a set of values held by a tiny elite because having a bigger stick is so passé. We know the state has a monopoly of violence, and it will deploy it against its own citizens if it needs to, but it rarely does. Why? Well, we’re recorded over 300 times a day simply going about our daily lives. The whole world is one giant panopticon now. That we know we are constantly watched unconsciously changes our behaviour. That’s another form of violence, against our minds, but it’s far from the most insidious. The mass media, almost exclusively owned by the same sliver of society who rule us, tell us what to think, what is acceptable, permissible, within established parameters;

Seventy years ago, most of the world’s countries were dictatorships. Today, hardly any survive. Because they don’t need to. That’s real hegemony. The biggest lie people are told in the free world is that they are really free.”

power relies on controlling and corrupting the institutions of society, not destroying them.

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

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Here Be Dragons by Sharon Penman

 

Rating 3.5⭐s

You Can Buy Here Be Dragons...Here

About The Author...Here

• The Blurb...

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king's beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband.

But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales – and Llewelyn – Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie.

Beginning the medieval trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.

• Our Review...

As a proud Welshman I have always been a little perturbed by my lack of historical knowledge of my people. When I was a child we were taught history from England's viewpoint, Longshanks and all. I did a little research and now the GCSE curriculum focus in Wales is on Wales, eg The Lord Rhys, Owain Glyndwr  and it's place in European and world history e.g. Wales in The Civil War. This awareness of OUR history is nice to see and long may it continue. I have recently seen in the UK Black History Month in addition to South Asian Heritage month on sky. While these are worthy promotions I despair that in Great Britain we do not have a Celtic Heritage/History month concentrated through BBC/ITV/Sky. The media of Tv, films and indeed books have a huge part to play in keeping a nations heritage alive. Before the flawed but exciting epic Braveheart I guarantee not may people outside of Scotland had heard of William Wallace. 

I enjoy historical fiction so I decided to go for two birds one stone approach. Fun and educational.. Here Be Dragons is the fictionalised Biopic (Biobook?) of Llewellyn the Great, one of Wales favourite sons. Here again the story of Wales is heavily influenced by England. The focus of the book is actually Llewellyn's wife Joanna. The illegitimate daughter of KIng John (yes the bad guy from Robin Hood!) Both Llewellyn and Joanna are coerced into a political marriage which by all accounts went very well...until it didn't (no spoilers but the marriage encounters a big bump in the road!)

I found the book really hit the spot in feeding my quest for historical learning. I could really place myself in the room with Llewellyn and Joanna and developed a far better understanding of the timeline than I would if i had just read a straightforward dry non-fiction. When I read an historical fiction novel it ceases to be history, I am transported to that time and place and the history spontaneously evolves into something more akin to current affairs.

The author does have a nice way with words and  smooth style. The focus of the tale, I felt, was more from Joanna's point of view, so affairs at court took precedence over affairs on the battlefield. While I realise most readers are female, I being a Welshman would have liked more emphasis on Llewellyn. A little more Bernard Cornwall a little less Gregory for me would have been my sweet spot. Again this is purely subjective. I suppose there is a subtle difference between male and female historical fiction. You pays your money and takes your choice. This slight caveat aside I did enjoy this book and I will no doubt at some point delve into the author's Biobook of the greatest Welsh hero Owain Glyndwr. 

• Selected Quotes...

They say a Welshman’s word is worth spit in the wind. And they are right, lad. An oath given to an enemy is made to be broken; we understand that. We use what weapons we have available to us, and when we fight, we fight on our terms, not theirs.

I do not mean to offend you, but the Welsh have been given little reason to love the English.” Joanna had never thought of herself as English; in fact, to one of Norman-French descent, that qualified as an insult. She did not quibble at Adda’s inaccuracy, however, realizing that to the Welsh, the distinction drawn between Norman and Saxon was irrelevant.

it would be a drawn-out, bloody, and brutal war. Wars with the Welsh always are. They disappear into inaccessible mountain retreats, phantom foes we cannot find. But they have no trouble finding us, my liege; they excel at ambush, at surprise attack and counterattack upon the morrow. There is no glory in wars against the Welsh, only blood-spattered rocks and shallow graves, and once you win, you find precious little for the plundering.

A scar signifies past pain, a wound that did not heal as it ought. But it testifies, too, to survival, breila

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