Book #25 Essential Muir: A Selection of John Muir's Best Writings

Essential Muir: A Selection of John Muir's Best Writings by John Muir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

John Muir was born in 1838 in Scotland and spent his formative years in Wisconsin, where his family emigrated. His writings are better known in the USA. He died in 1914. This selection of essays were chosen by Fred D. White who describes Muir's legacy as complex and important. Muir led a remarkable life and spent much of his solitary life in Yosemite. Muir had a fierce love of all of nature, from squirrels to glaciers. He once described himself as a "poetico-trampo-geologist-botanist and ornithologist-naturalist". A rather whimsical description but one that does rather sum up his desire to fuse rational and investigative sensibilities with aesthetic and spiritual ideas.

Read here about his faithful companion Stikeen (his dog), his reflections on the society of Eskimos and his touching tribute to the mighty baobob trees of Africa. Writings that inspire us more than a century after his death.

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Book #24 Beware the Past

Beware the Past by Joy Ellis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! I hadn't come across Joy Ellis before. Happenstance brought me to Beware the Past. What a stunning standalone crime thriller this is and certainly a candidate for my Best Read of 2018.

A very believable DCI Matt Ballard is haunted by a case from 26 years ago. Although the perpetrator was identified Matt had serious doubts about the validity of the outcome, as the suspected murderer was killed by a hit-and-run driver. And now the killer seems to be back. Is that possible?

The hectic pace of Beware the Past is relentless. So many breathtaking moments, so many twists and turns with a conclusion that knocked me sideways! A savage twist totally unforeseen.

If you like your thrillers tense and full of menace this is definitely one for you!

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Book #23 Finding Gobi

Finding Gobi: The true story of a little dog and an incredible journey by Dion Leonard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dion Leonard is an ultramarathon runner, introduced to this extreme sport by his wife Lucja. They live in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dion is a 42 year old Australian; as his father came from Birmingham Dion is entitled to hold a British passport. In 2016 Dion took part in a 155 mile race across the Gobi Desert in China. As he set off on the first leg a small, stray dog became rather attached to him and kept pace with Dion over almost 80 miles of this arduous race. Dion fell in love with this little dog, a little dog with a big heart. Dion wore yellow gaiters above his running shoes: ”The day Gobi stood by my side and looked up from my yellow gaiters and stared into my eyes, she had a look about her that I’d never seen. She trusted me implicitly…" (Dion had named the dog, Gobi). He knew, come the end of the race, he would do everything possible to get Gobi back to the UK.

”They say it takes a village to raise a child. I think it takes almost half a planet to rescue a dog…" Dion had no idea of the momentous task he was about to undertake. The tale of Gobi had already made the news and a Crowdfunder appeal quickly raised thousands of pounds. News media around the world picked up and broadcast the story. But, the devil is in the detail…

I won’t say more without spoiling the details. Finding Gobi is a true story of determination, anguish, bureaucracy, paranoia, sorrow, tears, joy. And the unquenchable love for a little dog. A heartwarming tale for any dog lover.

You will love Finding Gobi.

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Book #22 The Ghosts of Galway

The Ghosts of Galway by Ken Bruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been a seventeen year journey. Jack Taylor first appeared in The Guards, published in 2001. Needless to say, Jack has aged. Very much alone now. No real friends. Some acquaintances and a solid fan base. The best in Irish noir. But how much longer will we shadow Taylor's stumble through life? An unsuccessful suicide attempt after a mistaken medical diagnosis. At an all-time low Jack has been hired as a night-shift security guard by a Ukrainian boss who has another agenda - he wants Jack to find the first true book of heresy, The Red Book, currently in the hands of a rogue priest hiding out in Galway after fleeing from the Vatican. Jack cannot turn down the money on offer.

Then Em reappears - she seems to be entangled with the story of The Red Book. Needless to say her presence leads Jack down lethal pathways with resulting carnage that goes beyond any other Jack Taylor book. Some of it gratuitous, much of it full of gallows humour.

Given the last two pages I wonder if we will encounter JT once more. Only Ken Bruen can answer that.

Me? I hope that The Ghosts of Galway (#13) is not the last....

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Book #21 The Bletchley Girls

The Bletchley Girls by Tessa Dunlop
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to my brother for this one. Another book covering the remarkable story of Bletchley Park, a story that remained withheld from the public for three decades following the end of the 2nd World War. Station X as it was known was home for the duration of the war to thousands of personnel working on decoding Enigma signals from the Germans. By 1944 women outnumbered men at Bletchley three to one. These are the girls who helped outsmart the enemy within the confines of a Buckinghamshire estate. Everyone working here had to sign the Official Secrets Act.

In order to make this book different from other accounts of BP, Tessa Dunlop interviewed fifteen nonagenarians, still alive when the book was published in 2015. This results in a very personal approach. Talking to these ladies gives her book an immediacy and intimacy, hearing the details of these elite veterans in their own voices. The book is full of anecdotes describing the hardships and heartaches of wartime work, much of which was humdrum and monotonous. Most of the 'romantic' cryptanalysts were men. The women were mostly involved with data entry and listening in to morse-code traffic.

This is an engaging work; my only criticism is the way the narrative jumps about from one woman to another making it difficult to keep track of who is who. Beyond that though there is much to enjoy here as the women of Bletchley Park tell their own story. Well worth a read for anyone interested in this period of history. These dedicated people no doubt helped to shorten the war, some say by as much as two years.



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Book #20 The Emerald Lie

The Emerald Lie: A Jack Taylor Novel by Ken Bruen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jack Taylor. Somewhat akin to Marmite. You either love him or hate him. I am definitely in the former camp. The Emerald Lie is #12 in the series and there is just one more: The Ghosts of Galway (awaiting delivery). I have followed Jack's story since the very first - The Guards. Ken Bruen is the master of contemporary Irish noir with his gallows humour, weird typography (which so many reviewers dislike) and unorthodox wordplay.

Jack often appears to have hit the self-destruct button. He is not getting any younger. His battle with the booze is legendary. Jack is on a downward spiral. He receives another savage beating, not one but two. He is approached by a grieving father who wants Jack to help exact revenge on those responsible for his daughters brutal murder. Jack agrees to get a lead on the likely perpetrators and then Emily appears once again (AKA Em, Emerald) - a chameleon, passionate, clever and utterly homicidal. She coerces Jack to conspire with her against the serial killer the Garda have nicknamed The Grammarian, a Cambridge graduate who becomes murderous over split infinitives, improper punctuation and any other sign of bad grammar.

I wonder how much longer Jack will survive, particularly given the cliff-hanging ending in The Emerald Lie. Jack is at his lowest ebb. Will it all be over soon? I hope not but feel a certain inevitability.....

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Book #19 The Outcast Dead

The Outcast Dead: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 6 by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The best of six, so far. Well, that is my opinion! I love this series. I like the characters. The vulnerable Dr. Ruth Galloway and her daughter Kate, the old-fashioned copper DCI Harry Nelson, his bagman DS David Clough, a tough, dedicated officer and Cathbad (Michael Malone), raised a Catholic and now a druid and self-professed shaman. The series knits seamlessly together; elements of forensic archeology, myth, the supernatural and superstition. In The Outcast Dead child abduction is a major element in the plot, which adds to the tension and results in a breathless race against time.

Ruth has excavated a body from the grounds of Norwich Castle, thought to be that of Jemima Green, called Mother Hook for her claw-like hand. Jemima was hanged for the murders of five children. But, was she guilty? Frank, an American historian, thinks otherwise. Present as part of a US film crew, to create a documentary.

Harry Nelson is investigating the case of three infants found dead, one after the other and he is convinced that their mother is responsible. A clever interweaving of story-lines here.

And then a child goes missing.... Is there a possible link to the long-dead Mother Hook?

A rich, dark and fast-moving plot. Thank you Elly Griffiths for another cracking read!

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Book #18 Dying Fall

A Dying Fall: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 5 by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A change of location in Ruth Galloway number 5 when her long-time friend Dan Golding is killed in a house fire - in Lancashire. Is it a coincidence that Ruth receives a letter from Dan, written the day before he died? He had made a ground-breaking discovery and said he was scared. Ruth is compelled to head north to investigate further. So does DCI Harry Nelson who takes his wife on holiday to Blackpool. Ruth takes her daughter Kate with her and faces untold risks in another well paced mystery. I enjoy the continuity of this series, which includes her friend and Kate's godfather Cathbad (Michael Malone) - a druid and self-professed shaman. The eerie North Norfolk coast is replaced with the brooding landscape of the Pendle Forest and the windswept Lancashire coast....

So, five down, five to go....

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Book #17 A Room Full of Bones

A Room Full of Bones: The Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries 4 by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven't read a Ruth Galloway for a while. I have read the first three and have four through ten on the bookshelf. (I like the matching livery!). Well, it's more of the supernatural and superstition from Elly Griffiths, some of it rather far-fetched, but hey, I like the mix of ancient and contemporary so why not?

I like the eerie landscape of the Norfolk Coast, the saltmarsh where Ruth lives with her daughter Kate, fathered by DCI Harry Nelson during a brief affair. It has created tension between Ruth and Harry and, as night falls on Halloween Eve Ruth is to supervise the opening of a coffin excavated from the site of a medieval church. She finds the museum's curator dead beside the coffin. And so it begins. Another case when Ruth and Nelson cross paths and past tensions are reignited.

Perhaps not one of Griffith's best but I still enjoyed it.

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Book #16 The Music Shop

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Any book with 'music' in the title is like a magnet to me. I love my music. I have an eclectic collection. So does Frank, who owns The Music Shop. It's 1988 and Frank stocks music from every speed, size and genre - as long as it's vinyl. My kind of shop. Frank has an uncanny knack of finding his customers the music they need - helps them to learn how to listen and how to feel. It rather took my breath away when, from all the millions of albums there are, one of Frank's first recommendations happens to be one of my top ten: Waltz for Debby by Bill Evans. Uncanny.

Franks life revolves around close friends: Maud the tattooist, Father Anthony and Saturday Kit. That is, until the day Ilse Brauchmann walks into his life... A strangely still, mysterious woman who asks Frank to teach her about music.

The Music Shop is a beautifully crafted love story. It will make you laugh, it can make you cry. It captures the redemptive power of music. It reveres vinyl. It pulses with hope. So much wonderful music spreads through the pages and the Music Shop playlist can be listened to at www.bit.ly/TheMusicShopPlaylist.

I loved this book.

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Book #15 Force of Nature

Force of Nature by Jane Harper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the author of The Dry another exhilerating read featuring Federal Agent Aaron Falk. Falk and his associate Carmen are investigating serious money laundering by the Bailey family in Melbourne. He has coerced a whistleblower, Alice Russell, to obtain evidence. Alice works for the family.

Alice and four other women who work for Bailey are sent on a team building exercise in the outback, a hike in the bush intended to teach resilience. Five women set out on the muddy track. Only four come out the other side. Alice is missing.

Harper builds tension as the plot moves between the last days of the hike and Falk's endeavours with other searchers to find the missing woman. Four women tell Falk about their relationship with Alice, a tale of suspicion and disintegrating trust. Who is telling the truth?

A brilliantly paced plot wrong-footing the reader at every turn. It's another stunner from Jane Harper.

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Book #14 The Dry

The Dry by Jane Harper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Breathtaking! Another candidate for my Read Of The Year. And this is Jane Harper’s crime debut, which is seriously hard to believe. But, there it is. Set in Australia during the worst drought for years - The Dry. Notices everywhere warning of the high risk of serious bush fires. This is Kiewarra, a small town in the outback.

Federal agent Aaron Falk is compelled to return from Melbourne, after twenty years absence. He spent his formative years in Kiewarra, along with his best friend Luke Hadler. For whatever reason it appears that Hadler has mudered his wife and son before committing suicide. Falk is there to attend the funeral and is unwillingly drawn into an investigation. Did Hadler kill his family? Falk is despised by the local community over events that occurred twenty years ago. Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret…

I won’t say more about the intricate plotting in this relentless page turner. Read in just two sittings. Utterly compelling, gripping and atmospheric.

Grab yourselves a copy and be ready for a helter-skelter read!

Highest possible recommendation.

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Book #13 The Darkness

The Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Iceland, its rugged beauty and volcanic terrain. I have visited several times. My thanks then to NetGalley and Penguin UK-Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read this ARC of The Darkness, an Icelandic thriller set mainly in Reykjavik.

Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir is facing retirement at the age of 64. She is being pushed aside by her boss to make way for a fast-track younger officer to take over her case load. The fact that she is a woman does not go unnoticed and Hulda resents the attitude of her fellow officers. Told she can review cold cases during her remaining tenure she choses the mysterious death of a young Russian woman that occurred more than 12 months ago, that essentially has been closed as a probable suicide. Hulda’s investigation soon leads her to think otherwise. She unwittingly puts herself in harm’s way….

This is a well written piece of Nordic noir as details from Hulda’s past are slowly revealed. She is a woman alone and has sought companionship with a widower of similar age. You want this to work.

As Hulda unravels the background to this crime one fears for her safety. The pace quickens but the conclusion left me blind-sided, as new readers will find out for themselves. It sets this book apart from others in the same genre.

Ragnar Jónasson has written a classic crime story, one to be recommended.

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