Book #32 The Cabin

The Cabin by Jørn Lier Horst
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Cabin by Jørn Lier Horst, the second book in The Cold Case Quartet. I had previously read The Katharina Code, the first in the series, so had some idea what to expect. A lengthy, slow burner of Norwegian noir in which Chief Inspector William Wisting once again is called upon to investigate a cold case that goes back to 2003. It's been fifteen years since Simon Meier walked out of his house, never to be seen again. And just one day since politician Bernard Clausen was found dead at his cabin on the Norwegian coast. Is there a possible link here? Could both events be linked to a heist of foreign currency worth some 80 million kroner at today's values?

The story unfolds layer by layer as Wisting and his team, including his daughter Line, seek to unravel the complexities of these old events.

This is another superbly plotted tale with perfect characterisation and highly believable day-to-day details of police procedures.

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Book #31 Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A gentle, moving, whimsical tale by the author of The Guest Cat set in a café in Tokyo where coffee has been served for 100 years, from where folklore says it is possible to travel back in time. Those who wish to do so must sit in a particular chair and their time spent in the past is limited to the time taken to drink the cup of coffee in front of them before it gets cold. They can only meet customers who patronise the establishment and have to understand that, no matter what, their experience will not change the present.

Four visitors each take such a journey. Each story is touching and told with great empathy for the individual time traveller. To go back to a moment in the past and return in the short time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Do you see the person you want to, does anything change?

A clever tale told with charm and great skill.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Book #30 The Most Difficult Thing

The Most Difficult Thing by Charlotte Philby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So much hype surrounds The Most Difficult Thing not the least being that the author, Charlotte Philby, is the granddaughter of Kim Philby, Britain's most famous communist double-agent, the elusive 'third man' in the notorious Cambridge spy ring.

Overall, I found this a confusing read and it took me a good while to finish, which means that it did not really live up to expectations. I found nothing to like about the protagonist Anna Witherall, a magazine editor, married to her university boyfriend and socialite David - she has a beautiful home and gorgeous three-year-old twin daughters, Stella and Rose. David is heir to his father's multi-billion dollar business TradeSmart, an operation that deals with toxic waste amongst other things, illegally disposing of the deadly chemical compound mercaptan. The companies' activities are being investigated by MI6...

Anna is hiding a dark secret, or so we are led to believe. I never found out exactly what that was. She finds herself drawn into the dark and highly controlled world of secret intelligence, forced to question her family's safety and her own. Someone she thought she could trust is determined to make TradeSmart pay.

For me, confusion reigned because of the leapfrogging backwards and forwards across a three-year timeline. I didn't know what or who to believe. And the so-called devastating last sentence? Just left me bemused and relieved to have finished this 424 page "spy novel".

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Book #29 Aliens

Aliens: Science Asks: Is There Anyone Out There? by Jim Al-Khalili
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

ARE WE ALONE?

Do you ever stare up into the night sky and wonder? If we are alone, well, it's a helluva waste of space... But what is the likelihood of we earthlings ever finding extra-terrestrial intelligence? The SETI organisation continues to search with ever more sophisticated means.

In Aliens: Science Asks: Is There Anyone Out There? nineteen contributors from the fields of astronomy and astrophysics give their opinions. Edited by Professor Jim Al-Khalili, theoretical physicist and host of BBC Radio Four's The Life Scientific.

One of the really forward thinking astronomers is Sara Seager. She reviews what will be possible with the new James Webb Space Telescope and updates Drake's famous equation to give us a way of calculating the likelihood of alien life using some of the most recent advances in our understanding.

Our Galaxy is teeming with planets and there is compelling evidence that all stars have planetary systems. As many as one in ten stars like our Sun could have an approximately Earth-sized planet in a favourable orbit such that, as heated by the star, the planet's surface is not too hot, not too cold, but just right for life.

We do not understand how life originated on Earth and, whilst there is still no evidence that alien life exists - equally there is no evidence that it doesn't....

So, if you have ever looked up into the starry sky and wondered - Aliens is the perfect book for you.

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Book #28 When All Is Said

When All is Said by Anne Griffin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I did not want this to end. This heartwarming/heartbreaking story of 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. I saw so much of me in Maurice, or was that so much of Maurice in me. This is the debut novel of Anne Griffin - hard to believe - such perfect, polished prose - put me in mind of the writing of John Boyne, in a good way. So beautifully written that I found myself subconsciously reading the dialogue with an Irish accent.

Curmudgeonly, compassionate and engaging Maurice sits at the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town. He is alone, but perhaps not so, as Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of the evening he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him (and here I have much empathy for anyone who appreciates the perfection of Midleton whiskey...). His story is full of unspoken joy and regret - a life so poignantly laid bare...

"I am here to remember - all that I have been and all that I will never be again..."

Maurice is a character who is trying to make amends and in so doing drew a silent sob from me and tear filled eyes, come the end.

When All Is Said is a remarkable book, a real page-turner and certainly one of my top reads of 2019.

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Book #27 Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

THE GAME WAS ROUX'S IDEA.... this shotgun of a game. The latest tenant in the Airbnb house that was the bane of the cul-de-sac. A game that will ultimately shred the nerves as Amy's dark past is used to threaten her and her family. When it comes down to it Roux is a fearsome adversary who has done her homework on Amy. Amy who has inherited a substantial nest-egg. Roux wants it and will undermine Amy's resolve to get it. What the hell does she know that is so dreadful? Something that will shatter Amy's comfortable life with husband Davis, step-daughter Maddy and baby son Oliver. And interwoven into the plot a background of scuba diving that will come to the fore in this war of nerves. So many times I wanted to say to Amy "let Roux Publish and be damned!"

At every turn the tension is racked up. At every turn I thought there cannot be more and then, WHAM! Twists and turns galore. Nerve jarring, nail-biting tension. For a first novel Never Have I Ever is a peach. A slow starter that gathers roller-coaster pace and left me breathless come the final denouement ....

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Book #26 Miracle Creek

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It has taken me two weeks to read Miracle Creek. So much hype, so many five star reviews. My interest level was piqued and yet I was mildly disappointed. As a debut novel Miracle Creek is very well written but I found it rather depressing. A Korean family - Pak, Young and daughter Mary - immigrants to Virginia, USA. Pak is a certified Hyperbaric Technician, starts a business with such a chamber used to help autistic patients and those with other diseases. It is a recognised therapy. An unusual plot line that results in catastrophic consequences:

"MY HUSBAND ASKED ME TO LIE. Not a big lie. He probably didn't even consider it a lie..."

An explosion, two patients dead and a family torn apart by conspiracy and deception. A lengthy courtroom drama ensues and this is the meat of the story. A gladiatorial contest between prosecution and defence. The mother of one of the dead on trial for murder. And that lie that ensnares so many, so much soul searching amongst mothers with children undergoing similar treatment.

It is not a happy read but it does have redemptive qualities. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had read Miracle Creek quicker. Still worthy of four stars though.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for my ebook in exchange for an honest review.

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Book #25 Eighteen Below

Eighteen Below by Stefan Ahnhem
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Scandinavian noir at its best, dark, complex, compelling, full of twists and turns and a breathtaking final third as Astrid Tuvesson, Fabian Risk and a team of detectives hunt for a serial killer (or is it killers?) involved in an identity theft plot with frightening levels of violence. A second thread sees horrendous videos posted on YouTube by a group of "happy slappers" in which Fisk's own son Theodor is implicated. This is book #3 in the Fabian Risk series, something I was unaware of when accepting this ebook from the publishers, Head of Zeus. A pity as there are clearly events in Risk's past that impact on his present demeanour. Nevertheless, Eighteen Below can be read as a standalone. It's a lengthy read - but well worth the time.

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Book #24 Come a Little Closer

Come a Little Closer by Karen Perry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A plot of few characters. Anton, Mark, Leah, Jake, Hilary and Greg. And not one of them to root for. I thoroughly enjoyed Karen Perry's Your Closest Friend. I cannot say the same for Come a Little Closer. It was far too slow for me.

Anton is released from prison where he has been incarcerated for nineteen years, for murdering his wife. He returns to the family home to find that his son Mark has found new tenants for the basement flat - Leah and Jake. Jake has a seven-year-old son, Matthew, who lives with his mother, Jenna. It's a tangled mess. Anton has always claimed that he did not murder Charlotte. Hilary and Greg are teachers who had occupied the apartment all those years ago, waiting for their house over the road to have renovations completed. Hilary it seems, was obsessed with Anton...

So, if Anton didn't - who did? With so few possible culprits I had it figured out all too soon, which made completing the book a chore; although the final fifteen minutes had some redeeming qualities of suspense. It just did not grip me...

My thanks to Penguin UK-Michael Joseph and NetGalley for my ARC.

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Book #23 Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface by Fiona Neill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph and NetGalley for my ARC of Beneath the Surface. Three stars for some laugh out loud moments (were they intentional I wonder) but otherwise I was not enthused with the Vermuydens - a dysfunctional family without many if any redeeming qualities. Apart perhaps from 10-year-old daughter Mia. (She puts me so much in mind of Karen from the TV series Outnumbered). Parents Patrick and Grace, whose marriage was boringly monotone, and elder daughter Lilly, a high achiever at school until the day she has a seizure in Mr. Galveston's class:

'"They say to try chest compressions" Freya shouts back. Mr Galveston breaks into the chorus of 'Staying Alive' by the Bee Gees...!' Visions of Vinnie Jones... There are several more very humorous moments in the book - just as well because there was little else to entertain me. Small things concerned me, like - Mia keeping an eel in a bucket, an eel that has no doubt made the journey from the Sargasso Sea only to be marooned in a muddy backwater in Cambridgeshire - where Mia finds it. This was not a rescue - it was unnecessary and cruel and bothered me the more I read about it.

I could drone on about un-achieving Patrick and paranoid Grace - but I won't. I am beginning to feel over-generous with three stars.....

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Book #22 And Then She Vanishes

And Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A breathtaking opening chapter with an equally shocking ending! And Then She Vanishes is a terrific thriller. Has it all. A claustrophobic, page turning, slow burner - when two bodies, thought to be local businessman Clive Wilson, 58, and his mother, Deirdre Wilson, 76, are found in a cottage in the seaside Somerset town of Tilby. They had been shot. A third person, Heather Underwood, was found unconscious at a caravan park less than half a mile away, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest... Heather, whose sister Flora disappeared in 1994, never to be seen again. Everything points to Heather being the murderer. But why?! There is no apparent motive, yet....

Jessica Fox is a journalist in Bristol where she lives with her boyfriend, Rory. Could Heather be the friend she fell out with back in 1994? She works with Jack, the photographer for the Bristol and Somerset Herald, a twice weekly publication. Looking for any kind of exclusive the layers are slowly peeled back. Jessica has a dark past that saw her leave The Tribune in London, for reasons she has never fully explained to Rory. And all the time, the question that pervades this whydunnit is: What really happened the night Flora disappeared?

I will not say any more about this thrilling story - don't want to spoil it for future readers. I can say that you will love it!

My thanks to Penguin UK-Michael Joseph, NetGalley and Claire Douglas for my ARC. Wonderful!

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Book #21 Stone Cold Heart

Stone Cold Heart by Caz Frear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Bonnier Zaffre and Caz Frear for my ARC of ‘Stone Cold Heart’.

Never a good idea though to start at book Two in a series as this is the second featuring DC Cat Kinsella. There is a back story from book One that is left tantalisingly unanswered, although Stone Cold Heart can be read as a standalone. A pity that it has taken me so long to read; other priorities got in the way. So, I rather lost the thread of what is, in most respects, a fine police procedural.

The murder of Naomi Lockhart takes centre stage. Investigated by Kinsella and her sergeant Luigi Parnell with DCI Kate Steele very much in charge. The investigation is constantly thwarted by a silent family, protecting each other it seems from prosecution. And a secret from way back that connects them all. Difficult to know who to believe but Kinsella is a tenacious investigator. Will she finally reconstruct what actually happened? Will her judgement be clouded by past events in her life - a past where she had always suspected her dad knew something about the disappearance of Maryanne Doyle - a teenager from the west coast of Ireland? Will we ever know for sure?

Perhaps book Three will reveal more? I am sure there will be a book Three given the cliffhanger of an ending in Stone Cold Heart!

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Book #20 The Never Game

The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. It has received several 5 Star reviews and I regret to differ. This galley was so peppered with typographical errors it spoiled any enjoyment. It needs saying because proof readers are going to have one hell of a job correcting the text.

Beyond that, the protagonist Colter Shaw, is an interesting character. Different. He generates an income by following up rewards offered by individuals to help find missing persons. He is good at it. An individual schooled in survival and tracking techniques by his father. When a student is kidnapped from a park in CA her disconsolate father offers a $10,000 reward for her safe return. The nub of the story that is composed around the lucrative video gaming industry. I have never played a video game and could not develop any interest in the plot. It's a pity. It just wasn't for me.

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Book #19 The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*SPOILER ALERT*

Nuri and Afra Ibrahim. A beekeeper and an artist. Gentle folk who live in the beautiful city of Aleppo. Nuri and his cousin Mustafa have a thriving business harvesting honey from a multitude of bee colonies. Until the devastating day when someone burned and destroyed their hives, bees left dead on the ground. As war spreads in Syria, Aleppo burns. Tragedies beset both families, children killed in the bombing. Mustafa and his wife Dahab flee. Nuri knows he must too, but his wife has gone blind after the horrific events she has witnessed.

Their journey to seek asylum elsewhere is full of anguish and danger as they journey through Turkey and Greece, relying on human traffickers to reach England. I often lost sight of the fact that this is a fictional story - so factual is it. To share the plight of these people is heartbreaking: Hope existed then in the unknowability of the future. Istanbul felt like a place of waiting, but Athens was a place of stagnant resignation.

Mustafa makes it to England and has the opportunity to take over the husbandry of a colony of black British bees. He keeps in touch with Nuri by sporadic email. Come and join me. Nuri, who now treats Mustafa as a brother. The ending is both uplifting and uncertain. And there we both stand, battered by life, two men, brothers, finally reunited in a world that is not our home.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a hymn to the refugees of war ravaged Syria, the strength of the human spirit. A book that everyone should read.

My thanks to Bonnier Zaffre and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Book #18 The Darling Buds of May

The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Celebrating 60 perfick years of the Larkins

Wonderful stuff. I loved the TV adaptations of the Larkin family, broadcast in the 90s. Saw this Penguin reissue with the delightful art-deco cover and snapped up a copy. H.E. Bates used my neck-of-the-woods as the location - the garden of England - the county of Kent, near the village of Pluckley. Pure nostalgia for me - strawberry picking, cherry blossom, home baking, balmy Kent evenings and the song of the nightingale.

The Darling Buds of May follows the raucous adventures of the Larkin clan and the local tax collector. Ma and Pop Larkin have a large brood, living in 1950s rural England. Six children, the eldest is Mariette (they were going to name her Marie-Antoinette but thought it too long!). When the local tax inspector Cedric Charlton arrives to challenge Pop Larkin that he has never filled in a tax return, well - the fun begins. Soon to be called Charley by the family (found 'Cedric' too pretentious) he becomes smitten with the beautiful Mariette and persuaded not to go back to his office but enjoy a prolonged stay with the Larkins....

It's fun, it's full of laugh out loud moments - a comedy of country manners - and takes me right back to my childhood in the 50s in the unspoilt countryside of Kent. Full of wonderful characters and hilarious moments.

I loved it!

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Book #17 Goodnight Mister Tom

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Aimed at the younger reader, this Puffin edition of Goodnight Mister Tom was reissued in 2014 with this wonderful cover artwork by David Frankland. Michelle Magorian's uplifting story of an evacuee, William Beech, and the reclusive Tom Oakley, who provided a home for Will at the outbreak of the 2nd World War. Many readers, I am sure, will have seen the excellent TV adaptation starring the lovable John Thaw. It made me want to read the book. And it is a rich experience, no matter your age.

Goodnight Mr Tom in many respects is educational. World War Two began in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. When Neville Chamberlain declared war with Germany, over four days 1.9 million people were evacuated from areas thought to be at risk from bombing. The Blitz, the relentless bombing of Britain's cities, lasted from September 1940 to May 1941 and claimed over 40,000 civilian lives. Goodnight Mister Tom is set against this backdrop. Days of evacuees, Anderson shelters, billeting officers, blackout curtains and the old fashioned wireless. Plenty of nostalgia for me.

Goodnight Mister Tom was voted one of 100 favourite books in a BBC survey and voted favourite Puffin book at the Hay Literary Festival in 2010.

I recommend this story to all readers, the tale of William Beech evacuated to the countryside. A sad, deprived child who slowly begins to flourish under the care of kind old Tom Oakley. But then his cruel mother summons him back to war-torn London. Will he ever see Mister Tom again....?

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Book #16 Ask Again, Yes

Ask Again, Yes: A Novel by Mary Beth Keane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC of Ask Again, Yes. Mary Beth Keane's novel is a magnificent tour-de-force. In 1973 two NYPD rookies are assigned to a Bronx precinct. Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are not close friends. When Gleeson graduated from the police academy he asked Lena Teobaldo to marry him. They moved to the suburb of Gillam, soon to be followed by Stanhope and his wife Anne. Children follow: three girls for the Gleesons - Natalie, Sara and Kate. Kate - born just six months after the Stanhope's son, Peter.

Two families living side by side, one neighbourhood and a sense of false domesticity. All families have problems, don't they? And then one violent, tragic event, unexpected, unpredictable (or was it?) tears the fabric of family life apart.

The broad canvas of Ask Again, Yes spans four decades. Despite everything that has occurred, years later Peter and Kate get married. Old family wounds sit just below the surface and lives spin out of control. A very moving story told with great skill and wonderful character development. A story that draws you in and gets under your skin.

Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended.

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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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