The Loney

The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So much hype surrounds this book, the first novel by Andrew Michael Hurley. Waterstones wax lyrical about it; the Sunday Telegraph said: “Modern classics in this genre are rare and instant ones even rarer; The Loney, however, looks as though it may be both”. A rather effusive statement - gilding a lily that doesn’t cut it for me.

As for genre - where would you place it? Much of the story revolves around an Easter retreat of profound religious importance to those involved. A place known to the participants as The Loney, a strangely isolated area where neap tides can cut a person off in seconds. A hardened religious fervour exists amongst the participants. The narrator is one of two brothers. His sibling Andrew, known as Hanny, has never spoken. The family hope to bring about the miracle of speech for Hanny through prayers at a local shrine, but all does not go according to plan.

Religion is the fundamental core of the plot. There are tense, unsettling moments and unanswered questions. Most of the characters left me cold, particularly Mummer, the boys mother.

The Loney is well written - it’s just not my cup of tea.

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After The Crash

After the Crash by Michel Bussi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After The Crash is a quite remarkable thriller, indeed one of the best I have ever read. The plot is very cleverly constructed and very different from most in this genre. It is a compulsive page-turner.

On the night of 22nd/23rd December 1980 an Airbus 5403 flying from Istanbul to Paris crashes on the Franco-Swiss border. All the passengers and crew are killed instantly, apart from one miraculous survivor - a three-month-old baby girl. But who is she? Two families step forward to claim her - the mega-rich de Carvilles and the impoverished Vitrals. Is the baby girl Lyse-Rose or Emilie? The conundrum runs for eighteen years until the detective investigating the case makes a discovery that could change everything....

As you read this you will question everything. The shocks come fast and furious in this relentless page-turner. It is a psychological masterpiece that I really could not put down. The concluding sting in the tail is so unexpected it left me completely bemused.

Total, compelling enjoyment and I thoroughly recommend it.

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The Dying of The Light

Having contact on FB with someone I had lost touch with for 25 years and given my advancing years, prompted me to post a few lines from this, one of my favourite poems by Dylan Thomas. Brilliant and emotional:

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The House On Cold Hill

The House on Cold Hill by Peter James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful stuff! This new book by Peter James is a reminder that his long absence from the supernatural genre has not dulled his edge. Far from it. I am a long time fan of James and particularly enjoyed his earlier writing in this vein. Since the success of his enormously popular Roy Grace detective novels I had wondered if he would ever return to ‘things that go bump in the night’.

The House on Cold Hill is every inch the equal of his earlier efforts with more complex attention to character detail. Once started you won’t put it down. Perhaps best not to read in bed at night, though!

Ollie Harcourt and his wife Caro (along with their 12-year-old daughter Jade) abandon the suburban comfort of Brighton (my own stomping ground) to move to a dilapidated countryside Georgian mansion—the eponymous Cold Hill House. As you wait on tenterhooks for things to go wrong, it doesn't take long before the family realise that they are not alone in the house. Oh dear me, no! Sinister events threaten to envelop the family....

If you have enjoyed James’ novels such as ‘Sweetheart’, ‘Possession’ and ‘Denial’ then don’t hesitate to grab a copy of ‘The House on Cold Hill’. A relentless page-turner that is completely mesmerising!

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The Children Act

The Children Act by Ian McEwan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“One of the best and most perfect novels I’ve ever read’ said Michael Frayn. I agree. The Children Act by Ian McEwan is one of the best and most perfect novels I have ever read. A quite beautiful work of fiction. Not a word out of place in prose that is quintessentially English in its restraint. In one word he can hint at depths of emotion. Lyrical, spellbinding and in some ways unaccountably romantic, devastating, gripping and heartbreaking. This is the work of a great writer.

Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge, intelligent and sensitive. She is called on to try an urgent case. For religious reasons a seventeen year old boy is refusing the medical treatment that could save his life. Time is running out... Her judgement will have momentous consequences...

In little more than 200 pages McEwan will hold you in awe as only a master storyteller can.

I urge you to read this.

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Camille

Camille: The Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy by Pierre Lemaitre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In September 2013 I read the book “Alex” by Pierre Lemaitre without realising this was the second installment of the Commandant Camille Verhoeven trilogy. “Camille” is the third and final part. I missed the first: “Irène” but this has not spoilt the enjoyment of reading this brilliant crime thriller.

Commandant Camille Verhoeven of the Brigade Criminelle has to deal with the most brutal crimes against women. “Camille” includes carefully calibrated scenes of horrific violence. But the crimes we witness are never quite what they seem. This is the kind of book that will keep you up late; it did, me.

Camille begins on Day 1 at 10am with a brief meditation on how an event such as the one that is about to unfold, might destabilise your life. The book is full of shocks but the rewards are great. An armed robbery is carried out in a jewellery store in the upmarket Galerie Monier in Paris. A woman who witnessed the robbery is brutally attacked and left for dead. She happens to be Camille’s lover....

If you have not read the first two books in this trilogy it is of no matter as the threads can be picked up. It is superbly constructed and executed and fully deserves its CWA International Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel.

I have to decide now whether or not to read book 1....


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