Book #49 Dead If You Don't

Dead If You Don't by Peter James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Number fourteen in the Roy Grace series. I know. Fourteen. Peter James is a prolific writer and manages to publish a RG every year. I have followed his career with enthusiasm (Grace). He is a copper in my city - Brighton and Hove. Each book takes me on a tour of my beloved location and further afield into the Sussex hinterland. Many of the police who feature are real people, which adds so much authenticity to the plots. Roy Grace isn't, but is inspired by former Detective Chief Superintendent David Gaylor. Some accolade, huh?

Dead If You Don't takes us in a rather different direction - into the world of the Albanian community in Brighton. Most are honest, hardworking people but the criminal element is clear and present, as Kipp Brown is about to find out. Successful business man and prolific gambler. He attends Brighton & Hove Albion's first premiership football match at The Amex Stadium (that's just up the road from me) with his son, Mungo. Briefly distracted, his boy disappears. Then he gets the terrifying message that someone has his child and, to get him back alive, Kipp will have to pay. He defies instructions not to contact the police and reluctantly does just that. Who else would run the investigation but Detective Superintendent Roy Grace... And what appears to be a straightforward case of kidnap soon leads Grace into the dark, criminal underbelly of the city. Rules are different.

The plot is taught, spanning just four days. James racks up the pressure in inimitable style, with short chapters - short, pulse racing chapters. The final quarter is a thrill ride against time, leaves one quite breathless.

Peter James has done it again but just where will he go next with the Roy Grace saga?

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Book #45 A Shot in the Dark

A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Lumme!" A word right out of the 50s. I can hear my mum saying it, when she was rather surprised. Constable Twitten uses it too, in this romp through Brighton in the 50s. Remember Bob-a-Job week? Ha! My memories of being a cub and boy scout! Knickerbocker Glories? Vim (the cleaning variety)? cockles and mussels in vinegar, saucy postcards, reprehensible Max Miller jokes, Stick-ups (not hold-ups)? It's all here in this comical, witty crime fiction by Lynne Truss.

Brighton in 1957. Inspector Steine is senior bobby by the sea. No more crime here since the Middle Street massacre. A quiet life - no criminals, no crime, no stress. And then the ambitious new constable shows up to work and starts investigating a series of burglaries. How annoying then, when Constable Twitten is despatched to the Theatre Royal for the night and has to sit next to a nasty theatre critic who is promptly shot dead part way through the opening night of a new play.

A Shot in the Dark is great fun, it's lighthearted despite the fact that some crime investigation is recorded! If you remember the 50s you will love this. If you don't you will still enjoy this witty delight.

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Book #31 The Brighton Mermaid

The Brighton Mermaid by Dorothy Koomson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the opportunity to read this ARC.

A tangled, intriguing web spread across twenty-five years in my home city of Brighton and Hove. The setting is realistic, the locations are authentic. I know them all - not so much the beach where teenagers Nell and Jude stumble across the body of a young woman at the waterline. It is 1993. She has an intricate tattoo of a mermaid, the only distinguishing feature, and inevitably becomes know as the Brighton mermaid. Three weeks later Jude disappears. The crime is not solved and Jude is never found. Wind on 25 years and Nell is obsessed with solving the identity of the Brighton mermaid and finding her friend, Jude.

Nell has saved enough to take a year off work in order to carry on her investigation using genealogy and DNA profiling to try and find a familial link. Her sister suffers with OCD, for reasons that become apparent in the plot, and is constantly irritated with Nell's determination to seek a solution to the 25 year old mystery. It puts them in harms way. Someone doesn't want the truth to be revealed....

Other characters are drawn into a plot that spools backwards and forwards through the timeline. A slow burner that picks up pace and leads to a breathtaking climax.

Well worth a read.

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Book #37 Need You Dead

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

Review to follow. I am away on holiday (vacation)!

Now back from a most enjoyable break in Prague. So, what of Need You Dead? Nothing short of brilliant! Peter James's plots are so convincing, so thorough - probably the best author when it comes to police procedurals. Like so many other readers I feel like I know Roy Grace. I have followed his career through thirteen episodes, the trauma caused by the sudden disappearance of his wife Sandy some ten years ago, finally tracking her down in Germany, the shock of her suicide and finding out he had a son, Bruno. (I have a nasty feeling about Bruno - for some reason he reminds me of Damien...) Roy's new wife Cleo takes Bruno under her wing, a new brother for her and Roy's son Noah. Why am I waiting for a car crash to happen? I could be completely wrong.

His old mucker DI Glen Branson is here along with his nemesis ACC Cassian Pewe and so many other police officers some of who actually exist. And I know Roy Grace's patch like the back of my hand; I drive around it; I live here. All the streets and landmarks are so familiar. Like slipping on a favourite pair of slippers - I sit in my favourite chair with a glass of single malt and immerse myself in the Brighton of Roy Grace.

Need You Dead is another fast-paced, unputdownable (yes, it's that word again!), adrenalin rush, sinister case for my favourite detective. Brighton Rocks? It sure does in the hands of Peter James!

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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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You Are Dead

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

Peter James does it again, just gets better and better. The chase for the unsub (sorry, I watch too much 'Criminal Minds') is as relentless as ever. The 'will they get there in time, won't they' chase is afoot. Is this getting just a little bit formulaic? Perhaps. I don't care. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is in usual 24/7 mode aided by sidekick Detective Inspector Glenn Branson - and the race is on! Around the streets and locations of my city, Brighton and Hove. Hang on a minute, characters living in Elm Grove? That's only a few streets away from me! It's the locality that gets me completely hooked - it's like travelling through the pages with my neural sat-nav switched on! Well, Peter James does it for me. And that ongoing event from Roy's past? Well, it's still an ongoing event from Roy's past. And that unsub? Probably the most diabolical that James has yet created. Is a serial killer at loose in Brighton? Do events get confusing? Are there plenty of red herrings? Are Cleo and Noah in danger? Did something happen in Hove Lagoon many years ago? Is English's Fish Restaurant mentioned? (Love that place!).
Buy it, settle down with a glass, or better still a bottle, of your favourite tipple and a bag of twiglets and embark on another helter-skelter ride with Roy Grace - and find out!

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My Favourite Eatery

You probably already know of my love for Bellota's Bar y Tapas in Brighton. Well, I was there again yesterday with my brother Dave and friends Graeme and Lesley. We kicked of the day with a couple of beers at The Evening Star pub in Surrey Street before making our way to Bellota's.

Me (on the right) and brother Dave enjoying a pint of Estrella beer at Bellota's

Three tapas from the lunchtime menu is seriously as much as one can eat and a snip at just £9.95. And the house red at £17.25 a bottle is good value for an excellent tempranillo. 

All in all this was another very enjoyable day with great company.

It's Inevitable

I had to visit Brighton centre yesterday. My wife had two wristwatches that required new batteries and I wanted to purchase the Blue-Ray of the film 'Gone Girl'. This took me to Churchill Square for Goldsmiths - to install new watch batteries - and HMV for the Blue-Ray. It also took me close to the location of Waterstones, my favourite emporium....

I am a bibliophile. I cannot walk past a bookshop without slowing my step. I will linger at the window, gazing through the glass at stacks of books I have not yet read. I hover, telling myself I must read the pile on the bedside table before buying another. But I cannot resist the lure. Before long, I open the door, and that's it. I'm in, and I am going to be a while....

And so it was. There I was again, surrounded by thousands of books distributed over four floors. And of course I did. I bought a copy of "The Fish Ladder" by Katharine Norbury. It's her first book. According to Philip Pullman it is "a beautiful, strange, intoxicating and utterly unique story". Sounds good.

Meanwhile I must press on and finish reading "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel - all 674 pages and then I have to read "Bring Up The Bodies", the sequel to Wolf Hall. So, I am not watching the BBC TV adaptation, currently showing, as this would probably get very confusing. I shall buy the series on DVD when it is released on 2nd March.

And then tackle that pile of books on the bedside table, not forgetting "The Fish Ladder"...

The Imitation Game

This is one film I am determined to see at the cinema and have booked tickets for Ros and me for a performance on Sunday at Cineworld, Brighton.

The film (sorry US readers - movie) is a nail-biting race against time following Alan Turing (pioneer of modern-day computing and credited with cracking the German Enigma code) and his brilliant team at Britain's top-secret code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. Turing, whose contributions and genius significantly shortened the war, saving thousands of lives, was the eventual victim of an unenlightened British establishment, but his work and legacy live on.

The cast includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Beard, Matthew Goode and Allen Leech.

Wonderful Waterstones

My favourite emporium in Brighton is the bookseller Waterstones. If I am in town I am compelled to visit, I cannot walk past the place. It is a magnet that draws me in and it is futile to believe I won't buy at least one book, which will be added to the list of at least forty or more I have at home waiting to be read. To date this year I have read forty-five books so I have almost a year's worth of reading material stacked away upstairs. Will I ever catch up I wonder?

It is that time of year when Waterstones unveil their eight contenders for Waterstones' Book of the Year, with titles nominated by the chain's UK stores. The winner will be announced next month from the following:

• Everyday Sexism Laura Bates Simon & Schuster
• The Miniaturist Jessie Burton Picador
• The Narrow Road To The Deep North Richard Flanagan Chatto & Windus
• Persiana: Recipes From The Middle East & Beyond Sabrina Ghayour Mitchell Beazley
• Once Upon An Alphabet Oliver Jeffers HarperCollins Children's Books
• The Opposite Of Loneliness: Essays And Stories Marina Keegan Simon & Schuster
• H Is For Hawk Helen Macdonald Jonathan Cape (This gets my vote)
• Capital In The Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty Harvard University Press

I would like to have seen This Boy by Alan Johnson amongst the nominations but I will Take H Is For Hawk as my favourite.

The Brighton beautiful light extravaganza

MOTHER Nature has once again laid on a spectacular light and sound show.

The sky was illuminated with multiple bolts of lightning, crackling with electricity – and then came the crashing of thunderstorms over southern England.  The dramatic images show the impact of the unsettled weather on the South Coast on Sunday evening.

Warm winds brought in the lightning, thunder and sheets of driving rain along with the dark, foreboding skies.

The ruins of Brighton’s West Pier were eerily framed by two large fingers of lightning, while the night sky was split in half above the Isle of Wight by a huge lightning bolt.

And we can expect to be lit up by more powerful lightning strikes again over the coming days....

Lunch Club at Bellota's

Our monthly lunch club meetings are calendar days. Time to meet up with old friends, enjoy good food and wine, share anecdotes, discuss books, music, politics, travel and any other subject that takes our fancy. My brother Dave is a legend in musical knowledge, runs a great blog on Live Journal (DavesMusicTank) and is placed currently at No.12 in their list of blogs. No mean feat!

So, here we are again at Bellota's Bar y Tapas in Brighton, our favourite eatery, on a day when the weather was clement and added to the wonderful, convivial atmosphere. Phil had travelled over from Sittingbourne in Kent to join me, my brother and my good friends Graeme, Georgina and Lesley.

Someone referred to this group as 'a bunch of old gits'! That may be so. But we know how to enjoy ourselves. No malingerers here! Mind you, Phil as the youngest member of our esteemed club, would prefer not to be entitled with such a sobriquet!

The food here, as ever, was very tasty. The service was a bit slow today, because Mark - the manager - was having to cope single-handed, owing to being short of staff. He did well and we were in no hurry anyway. Time to dwell over good food, good company and great conversation. And speaking of 'old gits' - here are two at the bar enjoying a Torrés 10 brandy....

Salad days.....

International Birdfair 2014

I have been spending a lot of time watching the Commonwealth Games on BBC television and have just watched the breathtaking final of the Ladies 4 x 100m Medley Final in which England took the silver medal and then the final final in the pool of the Mens 4 x 100m Medley Final in which England took the gold medal in thrilling style. And then I realised that the Birdfair 2014 is just two weeks away....

I will be attending for the fourth year in a row with my good friend Graeme. We will be driving from Brighton to Uppingham in Rutland on Friday 15th August and staying at one of our favourite Inns anywhere: The Crown Inn an 18th century pub that serves the finest ales, wonderful pub grub and offers fantastic hospitality.

We will visit the Birdfair on Saturday 16th August, no doubt nursing mild hangovers...

Birdfair encompasses the whole spectrum of the birdwatching industry whilst at the same time supporting global bird conservation. This is the event of the year if you’re into birds and wildlife. It is a fabulous event not to be missed.

A Year on Blogger

I cannot let my first anniversary on Blogger pass without a few comments and observations. I reckon my blog is at best, modest. Nevertheless I have published 248 posts that have been viewed 24,456 times. I know that there are bloggers out there who receive far more hits on their sites but I am pleased with this number.

Some interesting statistics (well, interesting to me!):

Of the page reads to date 14,974 have originated from the USA. That's 61% and I am a Brit living in Brighton, England. Thank you American readers for your encouragement. 2,869 page reads come from the United Kingdom, 457 from France, 246 from Russia, 181 from Germany, 153 from China, 149 from Ukraine, 136 from Canada, 115 from Belgium and 64 from the Netherlands, plus sundry others.

Page-views by Browsers is interesting: 74% from surfers using Firefox, 11% using Chrome and only 8% using Internet Explorer and 3% Safari. Many years ago I used Explorer, migrated to Firefox and now use Chrome.

Data on page-views by OS (if you have read this far!) show 82% still using Windows, 11% using Macintosh (I am a Mac user), 2% Linux, 2% Android and 1% iPhone.

So, there you have it. My year on Blogger. Thank you for reading my ramblings; I wouldn't do it without you.

BTW

For those of you who might have followed the garden shed saga, well, we are about 36 hours away from delivery and erection. We have enjoyed about two weeks of fine weather here in Southern England and today was no exception. Overcast at times but plenty of sunshine. But as Sod's Law predicts, things will go wrong at the wrong times. The weather forecast for Brighton on Friday 27th June is for 'Heavy Showers'....

The shed company has assured me that delivery and 'on-site' erection will take place no matter what the weather conditions. So, I am likely to finish up with a new garden shed that is thoroughly wet on the inside as well as the outside and in need of 'paint treatment' when it ultimately dries out.

In no uncertain terms this could be a bit of a 'bummer'....

E2EG

A little late posting this but I have been occupied with preparations for the new garden shed... Yawn. Yeah, OK...

Anyway, on Wednesday I travelled into Brighton wearing an E2EG as I thought about the lunch I was about to enjoy with brother Dave and good friends Graeme and Leslie. The E2EG was somewhat stimulated by the 83-page glossary of internet terminology, which has been leaked online from a certain US government agency. Who? No, I'm NSAW, that's FMTKFYTFO ( can you believe folk actually use these acronyms?)

I met up with the others at http://www.bellotabrighton.co.uk/ our favourite Bar y Tapas place, which has a wonderful, bright decor and friendly atmosphere...

So, there we were, a BOGSAT.... OK, that's Bunch of guys sitting around talking. Sheesh! Mind you, we ALOTBSOL ... You can work that one out...

And here are Los tres réprobos as my brother puts it:

Another great lunch, San Miguel beer, Valdepeñas red and Torrès 10 Spanish brandy. A fun day.

E2EG - got it yet?  Ear-to-ear grin.  Sheesh......

The Little Mermaid

My wife and I will be flying on Thursday to Copenhagen. Flying Norwegian Air to Denmark. Norwegian Air from London Gatwick airport. To Denmark. I rather like that. I have flown Norwegian Air before and find its service exemplary. They have one of the newest fleets of Boeing 737-800s in Europe and use LGW as their hub in the UK. Perfect for us as we live in Brighton, just 35 miles (56km) away.

We will be staying at The Hilton Hotel on Wednesday evening at LGW South Terminal. A good night's sleep before our flight at 8:45am on Thursday. The Hilton has a walk through from reception to the South Terminal concourse. Easy.

I have visited Copenhagen many times. It will be the first visit for my wife, Ros. More than anything she wants to see The Little Mermaid, based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen.

A visit to Tivoli Gardens, the famous amusement park, will certainly be on the cards as well as a stroll along Strøget, the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe. Just hope there aren't too many shoe shops!

And we will be having lunch on Saturday with old friends, probably at a restaurant in Nyhavn.

All we need to make our trip perfect is some good weather....

Baggins Book Bazaar

It's a strange name for a book shop. Or is it? Baggins seems to suggest a link to Bilbo Baggins, the protagonist of the Hobbit in the book by J.R. Tolkien. My brother assures me that this book bazaar is indeed still trading and does allegedly contain more than half a million books. I want to establish if there is a link between Baggins Book Bazaar and the author Malcolm John and the publisher Midas Books.

This is apparently the shop front of Baggins Book Bazaar

So, a trip to Rochester in Kent is on the cards. Not the easiest place to get to from Brighton in Sussex. I don't particularly want to drive so this would mean a train from Brighton to London Victoria and then a train from there to Rochester. I am determined to do this. I want to find out more about Malcolm John and what happened to him. He also wrote a book called Rochester and I would love to find a copy of that.

Quaerite et invenietis.....

Favoloso Bellota Bar y Tapas!

Favoloso it is. Fabulous in English. Belloto Bar y Tapas in Brighton. Once again I enjoyed lunch here today with brother Dave and friends Graeme, Phil and Leslie. We try and get together once a month to enjoy the excellent tapas here, San Miguel beer, terrific house Tempranillo red and a few Torres 20 brandies.

Take a look at the menu. Three tapas for £9.95 and it is as much as you can eat:

The Pescado Rebozado is a particular favourite - deep fried white fish in a special-recipe San Miguel batter served with aioli and grilled lemon. The Ensalada Bellota is the perfect salad, consisting of baby gem lettuce, peppers, soft boiled egg and tomato. Add Potatas al la pobre for the perfect lunch at £9.95, washed down with San Miguel beer and house red. The addition of espresso coffee and 20 year old Torres brandy is somewhat incremental but then we weren't counting too much!

If you find yourself in Brighton do give this wonderful restaurant a visit. Great atmosphere, friendly and attentive staff and above all - great food! 

Our Trip to Medieval Rye

There is infinite pleasure in travelling by train, particularly if your journey is the 1 hour 25 minutes from Brighton to Rye, on the Sussex coast. A journey that, for several miles, hugs the shoreline from Norman's Bay, along Cooden Beach to Hastings. Shingle beach, calm sea, high tide, sea birds foraging, peace with the world for a while. My journey was with my best friend, my soul mate for 41 years, my wife Ros. There is a special contentment in enjoying her company; we share the same values, the same love of our natural environment, the same love for life and all its vicissitudes, the same love for our country, our environment... and the same delight in a visit to Rye. A visit to Rye is always full of anticipation. This wonderful, medieval Cinque Port is always full of surprises. If we did not live in Brighton, this would be our choice of domicile.

On the journey over I plugged into my iPhone and became bewitched once again by the voice of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf singing the 'Four Last Songs' (Vier letzte Lieder) of Richard Strauss. Music to calm the soul, utterly captivating.

We arrived at Rye railway station just before 11:00am. The beautiful station building was opened in February 1851.

A short walk up Market Road leads to the High Street, where the full splendour of Rye begins to unfold. Which way to go? So much to see. Ros heads for the Edinburgh Wool Mill shop and I disappear up Lion Street to my favourite Barbour stockist: The Golden Fleece.

It is not possible to visit this emporium without making a purchase. I bought a Guernsey sweater in traditional blue colour. As I browsed, my wife arrived. She found nothing of interest in the EWM shop but found a beautiful (expensive!) dress in The Golden Fleece. I guess we left happy with our new outfits.

When in Rye I always visit my favourite independent bookshop. Martello's. So, it was a major disappointment to find that the owners had retired and the shop was closed. Oh dear!

The next port of call then had to be the best fish and chip shop this side of the South Downs...

Marino's serves fish and chips. That's it. And in my opinion, the best fish and chips by a country mile. Run by a Cypriot family who go out of their way to make you feel welcome and serve up delicious light, crispy battered Cod and the best chips - hand peeled potatoes, hand cut, double cooked - sheer heaven! We enjoyed Cod & Chips, bread and butter, pot of tea for two (fabulous tea) for the princely sum of £13.90 all in. Mind you, this was a special offer for the senior citizen!

No visit to Rye would be complete without a pint of English real ale and here is the place to enjoy it:

Ye Old Bell Inn

It's old, it's fabulous, it's welcoming and you don't want to leave!

Here is Ros window shopping at 'Cordelia James' establishment (Cordelia is the mother of the author Peter James):

OK - she had window shopped, now there's more to explore!

And here are a few more pics of the medieval Rye in Sussex. If you ever have the opportunity, do come along and enjoy!

Mermaid Street

I will never tire of this beautiful old town. Ros and I will continue to enjoy its beauty for years to come... I hope.