Book #15 I Looked Away

I Looked Away by Jane Corry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A complex story, a parable for our time built around dissociative PTSD, a dissociative fugue that affects Ellie with devastating consequences. Married to a philandering husband, Ellie devotes her time looking after her grandson, Josh. Until that fateful moment when Ellie was distracted....

What follows is a beautifully composed tale of how tragic events can impact on mental well-being. What happens to Ellie? Who is Jo? The two characters around who the plot is built. At times it's exasperating, time lines blurred. What happened when? At times I Looked Away is not an easy read but it deserves our attention as Jane Corry has exposed much of the brutality of homelessness and the despair that most often results. Many people end up on the streets because of mental health issues and Jane highlights how easily people can become homeless.

I would urge anyone who is concerned about homelessness and PTSD to read this hard-hitting story. My thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

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Book #14 Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I struggled to finish this. The title is captivating as is the cover. But Lucy Mangan and I are poles apart - thirty years or so in age. A woman born in the 70s, a man born in the 40s. In terms of childhood reading then there is little cross pollination. Lucy enjoyed books aimed at girls and me? Different choices. The only books we both read as kids were The Famous Five series and The Secret Seven series by Enid Blyton and rather surprisingly the Just William books by Richmal Crompton. You certainly won't find Anne of Green Gables or What Katy Did amongst my childhood memories! As well as Just William I favoured books aimed at boys: the Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge, Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School created by Charles Hamilton (writing as Frank Richards), and of course the Biggles books created by Capt. W.E. Johns.

Different childhoods, different memories and much of Lucy Mangan's book was just too boring for me (particularly the heavy use of parenthesis!)

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Book #13 Secret Service

Secret Service by Tom Bradby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had no idea that Tom Bradby is such a prolific writer. He is my favourite ITV news anchorman (no flannel Tom - it's a fact) and I jumped at the opportunity to read an ARC of Secret Service when offered by the publisher Random House UK, Transworld and NetGalley. Thank you! So, I was rather taken aback to learn that this is Tom's seventh novel; I thought it was his first!

Stand aside John Le Carré - Tom Bradby has nailed it! Secret Service crackles with tension. Puts you right inside MI6 and the machinations of government. This is 'Spooks' on steroids. When the current Prime Minister suddenly announces that he is resigning owing to ill-health, the possible candidates to succeed him bare their teeth. Foreign Secretary James Ryan and Imogen Conrad at Education are the front runners. Intelligence at MI6 has identified that one candidate might be a Russian spy and a mole known as Viper is suspected to be amongst their own ranks.

Kate Henderson is a senior operative at the Russia Desk; her boss, Ian Granger, is head of Europe and Russia; 'C', the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, is Sir Alan Brabazon. Kate works with Rav and Julie and is married to Stuart, who happens to be the private secretary of Imogen Conrad. Could anyone of them be Viper? The race is on in a deadly game of smoke and mirrors as Kate and her crew travel to Istanbul and Greece, coerce a young Serbian, Lena Savic to work as a clandestine nanny for a high ranking oligarch family - all to try and identify who might be the spy and who is Viper. And like the best plans so much goes horribly wrong. This is real, this is clear and present danger. Heady stuff that rattles along at breakneck speed. The last twenty minutes of Secret Service had me reeling, at one moment shouting out: "OH **** NO! Completely blindsided! Never saw it coming!

This is one of the best spy stories I have ever read. Superb characterisation and an all too realistic plot. Brilliant! An unequivocal 5 STARS from me!

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Book #12 Pet Sematary

Pet Sematary by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I first read Pet Sematary back in the 80s, more than thirty years ago. All the hype surrounding the forthcoming film (movie) persuaded me to buy a copy and read again. I rather wish I hadn't...

The story rose out of incidents that occurred with Stephen King's own family. His daughter's cat, Smucky, was killed on Route 5 near their home and buried in the PET SEMATARY - that is how the sign read at this charming little makeshift graveyard. And became the book's title... When King finished the book he read it over. He found the result so startling and so gruesome that he put the book in a drawer, thinking it would never be published. But of course it was and the rest, as they say, is history...

The protagonist is Dr Louis Creed and on this read through I came to detest him. Funny how time can twist opinion. The book's most resonant line, spoken by Creed's elderly neighbour Jud: "Sometimes, Louis, dead is better". In the case of Pet Sematary, Amen to that. Because the book is insane, although on this second read - not as scary - I guess because I knew more or less what was coming.

Nevertheless - if you are going to read this for the first time I would suggest not reading on your own at night. King can make the flesh creep half a world away...

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Book #11 The Island

The Island by Ragnar Jónasson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I started reading The Island, Hidden Iceland Series Book 2, I had no idea this is a trilogy written backwards. So, this precedes Book 1 in chronological order and had me confused when I soon encountered Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir. Hang on a minute, isn't she....? And then the penny dropped! Book 3 will no doubt go back even further. It's of no consequence as this reads well as a standalone. And what a cracking read it is as Hulda travels to the isolated island of Elliðaey to investigate the unexplained death of a young woman, one of four friends who had visited the island. There seem to be similarities to a notorious case from ten years ago, another woman found murdered in the equally desolate Westfjords. It doesn't help matters that this earlier case was investigated by her senior colleague, Lýdur. What part did detective Andrés have to play? There is something not quite right here.

Hulda has three suspects and it seems that no one is telling the truth about what really happened on Elliðaey. Do past events have a bearing on this case? Didn't someone confess to the earlier murder and later commit suicide?

Beautifully constructed this haunting tale had me gripped throughout as our tragic protagonist conducts her rôle with persistence to unravel this intriguing mystery. Another excellent piece of Icelandic noir from Ragnar Jónasson and highly recommended.

My thanks to Michael Joseph Penguin UK and NetGalley for this ARC of The Island.

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