Book #41 Black Rabbit Hall

Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. The debut novel from Eve Chase is so beautifully written, she so puts me in mind of Daphne du Maurier - shades of Rebecca and Manderley here in the house nicknamed Black Rabbit Hall, set in Cornwall and full of original characters, the plot absorbed me completely with its underlying tone of menace about what really happened in the late 60s, as decades later Lorna winds her way through the countryside in search of a wedding venue and is inexorably drawn into questions surrounding her own past, a past intertwined with the Alton family who spend every blissful summer in the 60s at their family's Cornish home, four children enjoying endless days without an adult in sight. Until the storm brings tragedy that not all will survive. Page after page left me breathless with anticipation, eager to read on and yet not wanting it to end. Full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very last page. It really did hold me spellbound. Highly recommended.

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Remain or Leave

Tomorrow will be one of the most important days in the history of the United Kingdom. Whether or not you vote to remain in or leave the EU. I have followed most of the televised debates with a sense of alacrity, only to become disenchanted with the appalling abuse thrown by both sides towards the other. I am left with the same feeling of despondency over the behaviour of so many individuals on social media. This ‘debate’ has polarised our nation. Knuckle-draggers have emerged on both sides, hurling vitriolic comments at each other. If you are in the ‘Remain’ camp you are prepared to surrender every last vestige of our sovereignty to Brussels, if you are in the ‘Leave’ camp you are a racist. Where on earth do these confounded arguments come from? Those of you who cannot debate without dissolute finger pointing should perhaps reconsider your behaviour when it comes to posting on social media. I have read so much unfounded, ill-conceived comment from both sides, enough to make me wonder if perfidy is rampant in our society. I have yet to read any comment on social media that is not at least condescending or at worst, derogatory to the ‘other side’. I know my own mind and I know how I have decided to vote in this referendum. We do live in a democracy (well, just about) and if you are a friend of mine I respect your decision to vote either way. I trust that you will respect mine. I will be voting to Leave and my decision is based upon my experiences of dealing with EU bureaucracy during my tenure as Managing Director of a company in Brighton. I built a thriving company (and it still is after me) by importing materials from disparate countries such as China, India, Indonesia, South America and Canada. Those same materials sourced from EU suppliers were too expensive and often subjected to insurmountable EU restrictions. My export markets were developed along the same lines - to build markets outside of the EU, although much sales business was conducted with UK customers. UK supplier to UK customer. During my tenure as Managing Director I wrote on several occasions to the EU Commissioner on subjects of EU doctrine that concerned me. Not once did I receive the courtesy of a reply. EU diktat destroyed an opportunity I had developed for a product that realised over £200,000 in sales, to countries outside of the EU. Not a decision made here in the UK but one I had to reluctantly accept. That decision came from Brussels. I am not therefore surprised that so many owners of small businesses believe that we have better prospects when we shake off the influence of the mandarins of Brussels.

Book #40 Hotel du Lac

Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first read Hotel du Lac in 1986 I think it was. Anita Brookner had been awarded the prestigious Booker Prize for her short novel. "The Hotel du Lac was a dignified building, a house of repute, a traditional establishment, used to welcoming the prudent, the well-to-do, the retired, the self-effacing, the respected patrons of an earlier era". It is beautifully written, quietly commanding, a humorous, witty, touching and formidably clever love story. 30 years on and it has stood the test of time. Anita Brookner died earlier this year by which time most of her books were out of print. Penguin has decided to revisit her back catalogue and, once again, publish them all in their typical modern classic format. I came across this edition of Hotel du Lac on a recent visit to Waterstones and was beguiled by the cover; the cover design will often persuade me to purchase. I enjoyed reading again about Edith Hope, the romantic novelist who has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. And yet, her actions then would cause hardly a ripple in today's society. It is a story anchored in the 80s and should be approached as such. The eloquent prose is typical Brookner and deserves its place in the realms of great 20th century literature.

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Book #39 Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers by Belinda Bauer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You would hardly want to go on holiday to Exmoor after reading Belinda Bauer's trilogy. Six children were buried on the moor in Blacklands, eight vulnerable victims met their ends in its follow up, Darkside, and the curse isn't over yet for the residents of Shipcott, the Somerset village where the author sets her thrillers: now their children are being stolen from cars and replaced with a note: "You don't love her", or him, or them... The familiar characters are here - Steven Lamb, the boy who wrote to a serial killer in Blacklands, his younger brother Davey, Mum and Nan, DI Reynolds (who failed to catch the last killer to terrorise Shipcott) and of course, Jonas Holly. Bauer's renditions of a teenager falling in love are pitch-perfect, the jealous younger brother, the clash between old and new, locals and incomers, money and lack of it. This clash lies at the heart of the novel providing a motivation for the kidnapper's actions. And here, the novel becomes cloaked in the macabre almost descending into horror - some scenes are really creepy. And the latter part of the book ties up so many loose ends resulting in a satisfying conclusion. For plausibility's sake though, it might be time Bauer found a new location. Perhaps she has?

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Book #38 Love You Dead

Love You Dead by Peter James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

He's done it again. Peter James at the top of his game - Love You Dead is worth all of a five star rating as once again I became immersed in the world of DS Roy Grace and my home city of Brighton and Hove. The latter provides an added frisson as I know so many of the locations used. The familiar characters are all here including some adversaries that have featured in previous books in the series. The police officers have become familiar and well-liked with perhaps the exception of the capricious ACC Cassian Pewe; but I suppose every force has to have its bad egg. Apart from being the usual headlong adrenalin rush, Love You Dead is so satisfying in many respects, certainly for those who have read the Roy Grace series. Many threads tidied up; and yet... Clearly there is more to come and I cannot wait for number 13 to be published!

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Book #37 Our Game

Our Game by John le Carré
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

John le Carré's England in "Our Game" is that familiar land that is governed a bit like a giant public school, from whence the upper echelons of the Whitehall civil service and especially the secret service are usually drawn. Former Treasury official and secret spymaster named Timothy Cranmer, has retired to his 17th-century mansion in southwest England after being pensioned off at the end of the cold war. Cranmer is from public school and can recognise a '55 Cheval Blanc when he tastes it (I might get as far as recognising a claret…). He has also found himself a sexy young mistress, Emma, of the right type: boarding school, musical education in Vienna, rich friends in Paris -- even though she has played the field a bit before arriving in Cranmer's drawing room. Cranmer is visited late one Sunday night by two of the most improbable policemen I have ever encountered. They insolently inform this mandarin that a friend of his, Larry Pettifer, has disappeared, under suspicious circumstances, from his lodgings in a provincial university town, and want to know if Cranmer has seen him lately. Pettifer is Cranmer’s former double agent - dreamer, dissolute, philanderer and disloyal friend - and he has vanished along with Tim’s mistress. The trail will take Cranmer to the lawless wilds of Russia and the North Caucasus…

Our Game contains all the authentic background of post Cold War Europe and espionage that is far removed from the world of James Bond. Le Carré was a former intelligence officer and, for me, is the the great master of the spy story. I enjoyed it.

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