The Pain Tourist

By Paul Cleave https://www.paulcleave.com/ @PaulCleave

Published by Orenda Books https://orendabooks.co.uk/ @OrendaBooks

501 pages ISBN 9781914585487

Publication date 10 November 2022

I was sent an electronic proof copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.

From the blurb

James Garrett was critically injured when he was shot following his parents’ execution, and no one expected him to waken from a deep, traumatic coma. When he does, nine years later, Detective Inspector Rebecca Kent is tasked with closing the case that her now retired colleague, Theodore Tate, failed to solve all those years ago.

But, between that, and hunting for Copy Joe – a murderer on a spree, who’s imitating Christchurch’s most notorious serial killer – she’s going to need Tate’s help.

Especially when they learn that James has lived out another life in his nine-year coma, and there are things he couldn’t possibly know, including the fact that Copy Joe isn’t the only serial killer in town…

My thoughts

When you get around to reading The Pain Tourist make sure you are sitting comfortably, ‘strap in and enjoy the ride’ and quite a ride it is too. My electronic copy had 501 pages, so hardly a short novel, but it’s packed with so much action and incident it remains completing from start to finish with no padding at all. So set aside a day or afternoon for yourself and be immersed.

Central to the plot is James, who is shot in the head as an eleven-year-old boy and wakes up after a coma lasting nine years as a kind of man-child with a child’s brain and a man’s body albeit with wasted muscles. On the night he was shot they ‘lost’ him on the operating table, and he was resuscitated four times. Naturally they fear what damage has been done during this time, he could have sustained permanent brain damage, but his reawakening suggests something more akin to a resurrection. He recovers so well they are astounded; he has difficulty in speaking but has developed new abilities on a par with superpowers. No spoilers here, but his newly developed skills put him in danger if they can be proved to be genuine.

Family members are encouraged to talk and play music to loved ones in a coma, presumably to provide a trigger or catalyst to help guide the way to consciousness. Can they hear and comprehend conversations, are they able to absorb information from their surroundings even then though they are in a deep sleep? Just one of the fascinating questions posed amongst the action.

The plot itself is magnificently constructed with two serial killers, a historical case and the fate of James and Hazel all intermingled at various points. As the investigation progresses expect blind alleys, the odd red herring and a nice touch in cliff-hanger ends to chapters. The chapters are fairly short so you’ll only be on tenterhooks a little while.

The Pain Tourist of the title was a description used to describe those people who revel in the pain and suffering of others. Most of us are guilty of a little morbid fascination; people rubber neck accidents on the roads or are drawn to the emergency services at work, but this goes deeper. I do read true crime but sometimes it can be too voyeuristic or distasteful. People will happily go on Jack the Ripper tours, after all that is the ancient past, but would they go on a Yorkshire Ripper tour? In the novel it is those revel in walking in the footsteps or shadows of killers, where obsession takes over and pollutes the mind. Here Copy Joe not only wants to follow his ‘idol’ but also recreate in his image.  

Another poser is can an obsession with serial killers create other killers? I think the answer to this is yes, we have already had Stephen Griffiths who was such a narcissist that he gave himself the sobriquet ‘the Crossbow Cannibal’ in court.

The central characters are strong, engaging but also suffering themselves. James’ pain is obvious, his sister Hazel blames herself for his shooting as if she had believed him quicker, they may have both got out. Detective Rebecca Kent is terribly scarred from a car bomb, as one character says she went from a 10 to a 2 but this only ramps up her determination to succeed and do good. In the case of Theodore Tate, the former detective who failed to catch the killers of James and Hazel’s parents, he is mired in grief. A traffic accident killed his daughter Emily and obliterated his wife’s mental health, she varies between clarity and torpor and unable to come to terms with the loss of their daughter. Her state of mind has recently deteriorated such that she is in a care home but with the added complication of advanced pregnancy. Even Tate’s former work partner is dead. Despite all this suffering the novel is surprisingly upbeat and not a misery tale. The siblings Hazel and James’ familial love and caring is strong, as is the professional relationship between Tate and Kent and both are put to the test.

Two serial killers mean death and destruction in the storyline and there is action liberally interspersed. There is plenty of jeopardy within, these scenes show great invention and it’s not all left for a grand finale. There were a couple of places I thought whoa where did that idea come from. The pacing of it all is expertly judged and not all gung-ho. Time is taken to develop the character of James, what is happening to him and what his abilities are now, but then when there is some action and jeopardy and the pace is ramped up increasing the tension, building the anxiety, and leaving you quite breathless at times. The final 200 pages are best described as gripping.

If you like your crime thrillers action packed enough to keep you turning pages long after you should have gone to bed but with a thought-provoking side too, then The Pain Tourist is one for you. Intelligent and exhilarating in equal measure.

The Pain Tourist can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Paul is an award-winning author who often divides his time between his home city of Christchurch, New Zealand, where his novels are set, and Europe, where none of his novels are set. His books have been translated into over twenty languages. He’s won the won the Ngaio Marsh Award three times, the Saint-Maur Crime Novel of the Year Award, and Foreword Reviews Thriller of the Year, and
has been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly, Edgar and Barry Awards. He’s thrown his Frisbee in over forty countries, plays tennis badly, golf even worse, and has two cats – which is often two too many. The Pain Tourist is his (lucky) thirteenth novel.

Don’t forget to check out the other stops on this Blog Tour:

Better the Blood

By Michael Bennett

Published by Simon & Schuster https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/ @simonschusterUK

336 pages ISBN 9781398512214

Publication date 18 August 2022

I was allowed access to a pdf review copy on Net Galley.  Thanks to the author and publisher for organising this.

From the blurb

Hana Westerman is a tenacious Māori detective juggling single motherhood and the pressures of her career in Auckland’s Central Investigation Branch. When she’s led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man hanging in a secret room. As Hana and her team work to track down the killer, other deaths lead her to think that they are searching for New Zealand’s first serial killer.

With little to go on, Hana must use all her experience as a police officer to try and find a motive to these apparently unrelated murders. What she eventually discovers is a link to an historic crime that leads back to the brutal bloody colonisation of New Zealand.

When the pursuit becomes frighteningly personal, Hana realises that her heritage and knowledge are their only keys to finding the killer.

But as the murders continue, it seems that the killer’s agenda of revenge may include Hana – and her family . . .

The publisher’s trailer

My thoughts

This novel caught me off guard, I was expecting a routine (in a literary sense) serial killer thriller, but it turns out to be so much more. Amongst all the action in Better the Blood is also a powerful study of the need for retribution, the desire for revenge and how good intentions can become corrupted by it. Serious questions posed to the reader, most notably how can people individually and collectively work to put right the wrongs of the past. It is also a cracking thriller set in Auckland, about as far away as it is possible from the regular settings of the serial killer genre, Los Angeles and Midsomer.

The past looms large, and the novel starts with an atrocity carried out by British colonial troops 160 years ago. An atrocity still remembered for which there was neither justice nor retribution. Then eighteen years ago there was an incident at a Māori demonstration involving the now senior detective Hana Westerman, who was then a pregnant rookie officer, which is forever lodged in the mind of one child who witnessed it.

The plot is one of the single-minded serial killer, one who has a set number of specific targets, killing with a purpose rather than just on a Sado sexual killing spree. The methods of dispatch are varied and inventive at times to keep the reader intrigued. The killer himself is interesting and charismatic, brought to life as being thoughtful educated man, if somewhat corrupted by circumstances. A man who has thrown his life into trying to do good and right wrongs the accepted way through the justice system only to be thwarted at every step makes for a very human killer.

Hana is strong minded and dedicated to both her job and her family. She separated from Jaye her now superior officer shortly after the birth of her daughter Addison. Now seventeen Addison flits between her parents but Hana is determined to keep her safe particularly after a rapist shows an interest in her. Hana has green fingers and uses gardening to de-stress and feel in touch with the land. She is also a skilled artist and brings the observational skills of the artists eye to her work including sketching crime scenes, a nice touch of originality.

Addison is a shaven-headed beauty who is typical for many of her age, a DJ and rap artist who is at the early stages of experimenting with life, dabbling in drink, drugs and sex. Her best friend PLUS 1 is non-binary and is referred throughout as they/them and they have an off-kilter bonded friendship. Addison has fierce conviction in the opinions that she holds, as most of us were at that age, so when she accidently discovers the part played by her mother before her birth she is rocked to her core. However, as time passes the certainty of youth is eroded, she changes and comes to see the other side of the argument.

Māori culture is at the core of the novel and as someone who knew little of it I though it made for fascinating reading. The prose is peppered with native words and phrases together with some of their social customs and interactions, which are helpfully translated or explained by footnotes. The author is clearly proud of his heritage, and rightly so, and in reading this we can become to understand a little of a culture ravaged by colonial expansion. These were a people in tune with nature and the land on which they live but have no concept of ownership of, they were stewards of nature, not land barons. Being swindled and ripped from it by colonial powers caused a trauma and subsequent poverty that is difficult for the modern Brit to comprehend, truly a motive for retribution.

Hana has the constant dilemma of trying to be true to her Māori roots and working as a police officer. That bad day in the past led to many of her community severing ties with her and she somehow needs to bridge this gap and be accepted back.

Is debt and honour held individually or collectively by a group, a tribe or family is a searching question posed. It is not just the man who wields the stick who bears responsibility but also those of the collective who haven’t even touched the stick and the debt does not just vanish with the passing of time. It is here where the title is established in that in their justice it is better the blood of the innocent than no blood at all. Just as ‘an eye for an eye’ risks leaving everyone blind, outdated beliefs must be left behind, something that Addison comes to see.

Better the Blood manages to combine a very modern entertaining thriller with a powerful and thought-provoking social message. It is almost impossible to put right the wrongs of the past, but we must keep trying. A remarkable novel.

Better the Blood can be purchased via the publisher’s website here

The author

Michael Bennett (Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Whakaue) is an award-winning New Zealand screenwriter and author whose films have been selected for numerous festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and New York. In 2008 Michael was the inaugural recipient of the Writers Award from the New Zealand Film Commission, and in 2005 he was awarded the British Council/New Zealand Writers Foundation Award. In 2011 Michael’s feature film Matariki won Best Feature Film Screenplay at the New Zealand Screenwriting Awards, and in 2013 he was awarded Best Documentary Screenplay for his documentary on the Teina Pora case, The Confessions of Prisoner T. He went on to publish In Dark Places in 2016, which won Best Non-Fiction Book at the Ngaio Marsh Awards and Best Biography/History at the Nga Kupu Ora Awards 2017. Michael lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and is Head of Screenwriting at South Seas Film School.

Source: Goodreads profile

Quick reviews 3: #MyNameIsJensen by #HeidiAmsinck #TheWayOfAllFlesh by #AmbroseParry #AttackAndDecay by #AndrewCartmell

A selection of audiobooks which I have listened to recently.

My Name is Jensen by Heidi Amsinck

Published by Muswell Press on 31 August 2021

385 Pages

The first novel in the Jensen thriller series.

Format: I listened to the Audible audiobook version which is narrated by Tim McInnerny.

After reviewing The Girl in the Photo, book 2 in the series in August 2022 for a Blog Tour, I decided to go back and start at the beginning.

Dagbladet journalist Jensen notices a young man in the street, another homeless beggar. The following morning, he hasn’t moved so she decides to approach him. Horrified she realizes he has been fatally stabbed. She reports this to DI Henrik Jungersen, who is an ex-lover, and for her the soul searching begins. If she had done something sooner, perhaps he would be alive, should she have called someone else and not stirred up old memories? Jensen finds herself unable to write about the crime but compelled to follow up on the young man’s background, which puts her in grave danger, whilst Jungersen is searching for a serial killer of the homeless.

A cleverly constructed plot with Jungersen tackling the investigation, as a jaded policemen whilst Jensen goes in search of the story behind the murder. Nicely paced allowing for the necessary scene setting of a first in a series novel and plenty of characterization, without straying from the central storyline. The main characters are engaging, with the mysterious and pugnacious Jensen and the unsettled Jungersen at loggerheads but also great cameos in apprentice Gustav and coffee vendor Leron.

Excellent Scandi-noir novel with the heart and social morals that often set the genre apart, tackling sensitive subjects without being preachy or detracting from the entertainment. A self-contained story but one that lays down threads there to be developed later in the series.

The Way of all Flesh by Ambrose Parry

Published by Cannongate Books on 30 August 2018

434 Pages

The first novel in the Raven and Fisher series.

Format: I listened to the Audible audiobook version which is narrated by Bryan Dick and Louise Brealey.

I read this novel shortly after publication but listened to it to reacquaint myself with the characters for when I read book three in the series A Corruption of Blood for a Blog Tour in the summer.

Its 1847 and in Edinburgh Will Raven is about to commence his apprenticeship to the brilliant and well-regarded Dr Simpson at his premises in Queen Street in the New Town. Sarah Fisher is a mere housemaid there but proving her worth when given jobs around the consulting rooms. She is fiercely intelligent and quick witted but from an impoverished background so with little social standing and being a woman, she has few chances of self-development. She believes that women are the equal to men and sees no reason why they cannot study medicine. Initially Will and Sarah do not get along but agree to put their differences aside once young women they are close to die agonizing deaths. Believing in more than coincidence they join forces to investigate and thereby put themselves in danger.

Early Victorian Edinburgh is beautifully imagined here, the prestige of the New Town, the grime of the Old Town, such that you can almost smell the horse manure on the streets. Central to the novel is the love/hate relationship of Sarah and Will and the almost inevitable sense of sexual tensions in a romance seemingly destined never to blossom. A time of entrenched social class alongside great riches and poverty, where a doctor must marry a woman of his station. The injustice and hypocrisy of the time is laid out in full warts and all.

The plot is skillfully interwoven with real life people and incidents which add to the flow rather than being merely research. Dr Simpson was an enlightened and well-respected man, a hero of the City of Edinburgh achieving much including the discovery of the benefits of chloroform over ether for use as a sedative in medical procedures. The combination of real discoveries within the fiction is a winning combination for me raising it above pure entertainment. Historical fiction at its finest.

Attack and Decay by Andrew Cartmel

Published by Titan books on 14 June 2022

480 pages

The sixth novel in the Vinyl Detective series.

Format: I listened to the Audible audiobook version which is narrated by Finlay Robertson.

The Vinyl Detective is asked to negotiate and collect a record by a reformed Demonic Metal band the Storm Dread Troopers, the ABBA of death metal, from a contact in Sweden. Not really our hero’s cup of tea (he’s a jazz collector and a coffee connoisseur) but girlfriend Nevada sees it as a both a payday and a way of wangling a cheeky little holiday into the bargain. One bout of determined negotiation sees them, with Tinkler and ‘Clean Head’ in tow, on a road trip to Sweden, except they fly, into a whole heap of trouble. The band congregates on the hotel in which they are staying, bodies start piling up and of course Stinky Stanmer turns up once again looking to steal our hero’s ideas. It seems the murders are following the tracks on their most famous album.

An overseas trip helps to freshen the series up and provides a few nods to the Scandi-Noir genre. The whole gang are there doing their usual stuff, but this time added to mix we have, a crow with a distinctive beak, a ‘corpse-faced mother fucker’, a pizza restaurant stripper and a band who are a bigger motley crew than Mötley Crüe. Expect laughs aplenty from great jokes, asides, word play and ludicrous situations. Of course, there are deaths, gruesome murders but suffused with silliness and some cartoon like violence.

This is one of my favourite series and one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Genuinely funny and original. Perhaps a little formulaic but like Ronseal ‘it does what it says on the tin’, the reader knows they’ll discover something about music and recording along with murder and mayhem, and plenty of belly laughs. If Murder She Wrote could run to 264 episodes there’s no reason why the Vinyl Detective shouldn’t get a few more outings. Great escapist fun that may well get you trawling the secondhand and charity shops.

The Night Stalker by Chris Carter

Published by Simon & Shuster 1 August 2011

464 pages

The third novel in the Robert Hunter series.

Format: I listened to the Audible audiobook version which is narrated by Thomas Judd.

A woman’s body is found on a slab in an abandoned butcher’s shop. An explosive start that leads to Robert Hunter of the LAPD Special Homicide Section being called in. Naturally he is on the look out for a serial killer, it is LA after all and he comes up against a former detective who now works as a PI specializing on missing persons cases. Could her missing person be one of the victims of the killer?

A warped serial killer, gruesome murders and cleverly contrived set pieces are just what we come to expect in a Robert Hunter novel and fans won’t be disappointed. The introduction of razor-sharp witted and sassy investigator Whitney Meyers provides a perfect foil for the personality of Hunter and the chemistry of their shared scenes is perfect for this sort of novel. Once again, a little more of Hunter’s past is teased out along the way and adds further layers to his complex character.

Once again Mr Carter has produced a disturbingly entertaining novel, graphic at times and skating up to the boundary of good taste but never quite crossing it. For me the best writer of novels in this genre.

The Rising Tide

By Ann Cleeves https://www.anncleeves.com/ @anncleeves

Published by Pan MacMillan https://www.panmacmillan.com/ @panmacmillan

384 pages ISBN 9781509889617

Publication date 1 September 2022

The Rising Tide is the tenth novel in the Vera Stanhope series.

I was allowed access to a pdf review copy on Net Galley.  Thanks to the author and publisher for organising this.

From the blurb

Fifty years ago, a group of teenagers spent a weekend on Holy Island, forging a bond that has lasted a lifetime. Now, they still return every five years to celebrate their friendship, and remember the friend they lost to the rising waters of the causeway at the first reunion.

Now, when one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in. Learning that the dead man had recently been fired after misconduct allegations, Vera knows she must discover what the friends are hiding, and whether the events of many years before could have led to murder then, and now…

But with the tide rising, secrets long-hidden are finding their way to the surface, and Vera and the team may find themselves in more danger than they could have believed possible…

My thoughts

An addition to the Vera series is usually a treat and this proves to be no exception. Here we find Vera in a slightly different guise, more mellow and thoughtful, still forthright but less combative. There are even moments of self-doubt. As ever she carries the emotional baggage of her father Hector like a Geordie sherpa but there are no late-night drinking and brooding sessions resulting in a bad night’s sleep in the armchair. No matter how much she tries to socialise and empathise with people his legacy will remain the defining factor in her life.

The novel starts as a variation on the classic country house murder, with a group of friends together on Holy Island whose causeway to the mainland is cut off at high tide. After determining that the victim was murdered, rather than being suicide as it was disguised to be, there is a small list of suspects. This setting allows for a compactness within storyline, as Vera teases out the personalities of the suspects, but without the claustrophobia of a more limited setting once a second murder happens on the mainland.

The themes of the novel are love and loyalty that spread over a lifetime. The group has managed to stick together over fifty years through a combination of friendships and shared secrets, a loyalty to those who were on the first weekend away. Members of the group have also loved each other, married and divorced, providing more strong and lasting bonds between them but also loneliness for others.

The plot weaves in and out as suspects are discarded, only for some to be later re-considered, and red herrings exposed. Vera is tenacious as ever, with Joe and Holly dutifully doing her bidding and starting to absorb some of her traits, including Holly coming up with ‘bollocks’ as an unsaid but thought response.

As ever there is some great dialogue and subtle humour. There’s Vera being compared to a bag lady and then later Joe being startled in the dark only for it to turn out to be a scarecrow with a coat rather like the one Vera wears. The description of a private room as being a kind of mash up of a junk shop, curry house and Victorian brothel was one thing, for Vera to find it all comforting had me laughing.

About two thirds through I thought that the story was going to peter out, but when the jeopardy commences the tension ratchets up nicely to produce an excellent final third and a bold conclusion. Any thoughts I may have held of the series running out of steam being banished. Most series and characters naturally have a literary shelf life, thankfully there’s room for a few more in this great one. Perhaps having more than one series running helps the keep the ideas and writing fresh?

The Vera series of novels remains in rude health and The Rising Tide is an excellent addition to it. With clever plotting, acutely observed characters and tense climax, if you’ve enjoyed the previous ones, you’re going to love this one.

The Rising Tide can be purchased via the publisher’s website here

The author

Ann Cleeves is the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV’s The Long Call respectively. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide.

Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of ‘Murder Squad’, working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann also spends her time advocating for reading to improve health and wellbeing and supporting access to books. In 2021 her Reading for Wellbeing project launched with local authorities across the North East. She lives in North Tyneside where the Vera books are set.

One Woman’s War #ChristineWells #OneWomansWar

By Christine Wells https://christine-wells.com/

Published by William Morrow & Company (an impress of Harper Collins) https://www.harpercollins.com/collections/william-morrow

383 pages ISBN 9780063111806

Publication date 4 October 2022

I was sent a pdf copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.

From the blurb

World War II London: When Victoire “Paddy” Bennett first walks into the Admiralty’s Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans he requests the newlywed Paddy’s help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?

Socialite Friedl Stöttinger is a beautiful Austrian double agent determined to survive in wartime England, which means working for MI-5, investigating fifth column activity among the British elite at parties and nightclubs. But Friedl has a secret—some years before, she agreed to work for German Intelligence and spy on the British.

When her handler at MI-5 proposes that she work with Serbian agent, Duško Popov, Friedl falls hopelessly in love with the dashing spy. And when her intelligence work becomes fraught with danger, she must choose whether to remain loyal to the British and risk torture and execution by the Nazis, or betray thousands of men to their deaths.

My thoughts

There are some historical novels that are purely fiction set in an historically accurate period. Others, like the late Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series, insert a fictional character amongst real historical figure to create a life like fiction. One Woman’s War goes much further and imagines the interactions and lives of real people who were involved in a real military operation during World War II. Can creativity with the characters overcome the restrictions of the plot?

The plot is essentially that of Operation Mincemeat which was a creative and outlandish plot to deceive the enemy. Readers of Ben Macintyre’s non-fiction works Double Cross and Operation Mincemeat will be familiar with the story, the key points of which are beautifully distilled here to be entertaining. They will also be very familiar with the main characters, who are finally getting recognition for their brilliant work, with the author doing a fine job of bringing to life.

For those who don’t know the plot I will post no spoilers here other than to say that it resulted from the ‘Trout Memorandum’ which Ian Fleming worked on. Looking to hit back at the enemy before Allied invasion forces landed, Winston Churchill was looking for ideas to catch the Axis powers by surprise. No matter how crazy they were everything was up for consideration and this memorandum was packed with these ideas. Fleming had a flair for blue-sky thinking, a creative ideas man, but also an inveterate ladies’ man and a bit of a cad. Here Ms Wells has him down to a T.

The two central female characters “Paddy” Bennett and Friedl Stöttinger are not extensively covered in the non-fiction accounts, so the author has more freedom to express the personalities of these women and she has done a magnificent job of bringing them to life. The author clearly likes writing about brave, doughty and determined women and this pair have these qualities in spades.

Paddy it is believed is the inspiration for Miss Moneypenny of the bond series and if she is anything like how the author portrays her it is easy to see why. Her actions at Bordeaux docks at the start of the novel sets the tone, a resourceful woman not to be messed with. They say that authors should start by writing about things that they know. One Woman’s War is a clear indication of where Ian Fleming found his inspiration for the early Bond novels. The main characters are there and with Q there is the link with the Trout Memorandum. Fascinating to see the links and the gestation.

Why has all of this taken so long to be recognised? Well, a good deal was classified in the first place but also there were people like Paddy and those who worked at Bletchley Park who took their loyalty serious often taking their secrets to the grave. We see Paddy agonising over the secrets of her role to the extent of risking her own marriage into the bargain. Much has been made of the men fighting but many others took enormous risk and placed themselves in mortal danger, like Fridl, for the sake of allied victory. Top marks to Ms Wells championing their cause.

Historical accuracy is important and here we see a particular slice of wartime London life. This is the London of gentlemen’s and officers’ clubs, fine restaurants, and nightclubs. How they managed keep going in a style their patrons were accustomed to one wonder, but the rationing doesn’t seem to have bitten too hard thanks to ‘friends’ and country estates though one supposes precious cellars were decimated by the end of the war. One aspect that is captured is the sense that things were going to change, that you had to live for today because for many there would be tomorrow. A war that would change the thoughts and attitudes of a generation.

The writing style is quite upbeat and breezy, and a great plot holds everything together as the main players are fleshed out. Nerds like me will love to read along and see St Pancras coroner, oh that will be Bentley Purchase (I agree what a magnificent name to drop), adding to the overall pleasure of what is an entertaining novel. The one constraint placed by the plot is that of a lack of jeopardy and life-threatening danger. The author has done well to include some but if you like you war thrillers packed with death, mayhem, and Gestapo torture then you may be a little disappointed. Instead, you get a thoughtful portrayal of spirited women determined to play their part in the war effort and how this impinges on their lives.

One Woman’s War is a highly imaginative and entertaining recreation of the lives of two woman connected to Operation Mincemeat and traces the genesis of Miss Moneypenny in Ian Fleming’s imagination.

One Woman’s War can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Christine Wells writes historical fiction featuring strong, fascinating women. From early childhood, she drank in her father’s tales about the real kings and queens behind
popular nursery rhymes and she has been a keen student of history ever since. She began her first novel while working as a corporate lawyer, and has gone on to write
about periods ranging from Georgian England to post World War II France.
Christine is passionate about helping other writers learn the craft and business of writing fiction and enjoys mentoring and teaching workshops whenever her schedule permits.
She loves dogs, running, the beach and fossicking for antiques and lives with her
family in Brisbane, Australia.

Don’t forget to check out the other stops on this Blog Tour:

The Un-family #LindaHuber #TheUnFamily

By Linda Huber https://lindahuber.net/

Published by Hobeck Books https://www.hobeck.net/

306 pages ISBN 9781913793937

Publication date 15 November 2022

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Rebecca at Hobeck Books and the author for the invitation to participate.

From the blurb

For better, for worse

Wildlife vet Holly’s life seems blissful: husband Dylan is the man of her dreams, she has a rewarding career and a lovely home. And yet, a tiny niggle is growing daily. Dylan is becoming increasingly remote – but why? Holly is determined to mend the fissure in their relationship. But a shocking discovery changes everything…

Family ties

Then there’s Dylan’s family: his wayward twin Seth and their widowed mother Elaine, who is rather fond of a glass or two of sherry. Nothing in Elaine’s life is easy, bringing up teenage granddaughter Megan while the family grieves the loss of Megan’s mother.

Family lies

A tragic event rocks the foundations of the family, and Holly’s life starts to unravel. Dylan drifts ever further away. Megan is left uncertain and alone, while Seth falls deeper into himself.

The bonds that once bound the family together are breaking. Can they ever be repaired?

Synopsis

The old saying goes ‘you can choose your friends but not your family’ and this is critical to the life of Megan. Her very successful mother was also somewhat reckless and as a result died when Megan was very young. All is not lost though as she goes to live with her grandmother who clearly loves her but is starting to show her age.

Sibling rivalry is unedifying and, in this case, turns ugly as twins Dylan and Seth clash. Seth is outgoing and possesses self-confidence and natural ability. He doesn’t have to try hard to excel and so he doesn’t put much effort in and becomes an underachieving slacker. Dylan is the opposite and needs to work hard to achieve anything, and work hard is what he does. No matter what he does though, Seth remains Elaine’s favourite, the only thing he puts effort into is ingratiating himself with her. Dylan’s life moves on whereas Seth’s stagnates until he finally moves out from under his mother’s feet.

Their lives may move apart but one unfortunate incident still sears itself into the memory of one twin. That twin has hold over the other, an ‘ace up his sleeve’ which will one day be played to his advantage but with disastrous consequences.

My thoughts

The Un-family is a psychological thriller but not of the constant danger or deep jeopardy type, this is far more subtle. Here the author chips away at the characters’ self-confidence, creating a climate of uncertainty and self-doubt. Central to this is Holly’s marriage to Dylan. Early in the narrative it becomes clear that their marriage is heading for the rocks, but Holly still loves Dylan and is determined to do what she can to save it. Dylan is under pressure, so Holly keeps making allowances and giving him the benefit of the doubt. The reader may consider her to be merely re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic but her pain is drawn out as she agonises over her choices. However, through it all she proves to be a tower of strength, particularly in her support of Megan.

Megan’s doubts and worries manifest in two ways her fear for her future, particularly after tragedy strikes twice, and her relationships with her uncles. Can she trust either of them to have her best interests at heart? In the end it is quite fitting that her own desire to succeed is stoked by the achievements of her mother during her short career.

The storyline is written as an ensemble piece rather than centring on one character; Holly life and thought’s is covered the most but there is Megan’s development against the backdrop of her battling uncles. This means that as you read you have uncertainty how the plot will develop so interest never drops.

The characters themselves are well drawn. Holly just may be too nice, I bet many women readers will be tutting at her too trusting nature. Megan is a great amalgam of teenage angst and inner steel, a young woman destined to succeed. The twins are entertainingly loathsome, two men who have allowed jealousy and petty rivalry sour both their lives.

Relationships and family ties are central. Holly effectively becomes a surrogate big sister to Megan, in her finding an outlet for her warmth and human spirit spurned by Dylan and Megan certainly feels closer to her than her uncles. Generally, families should stick together, but if hatred starts to develop perhaps, they are best apart. In the end the reader finds out what the ‘un-family’ of the title stands for.

The plot has two timelines, the current one and flashbacks to incidents in the lives of the twins which eventually catch up to the current and then a final epilogue. As a structure this is perfect, we understand that all is not as it should be and gradually understanding of the twins’ relationship is revealed with each flashback. It also works to keep the pacing of the storyline in check to build up the tension within.

The Un-family is an excellent psychological thriller that examines the effects of toxic sibling rivalries on family ties.

The Un-family can be purchased direct from the publisher here.

The author

From Linda’s website:

I’ve always been a reader, starting with Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome, and moving on through Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Mary Higgins Clark – and so many others I couldn’t possibly list them all. Nowadays, I write my own books. At the moment I’m working on another psychological suspense novel as well as a feel-good fiction series set right here in Switzerland.
I love hearing from readers so do make contact on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting on my blog.

My eleventh novel Pact of Silence is out now, published by Hobeck Books. Click the title to see the book on Amazon.

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The Confession

By Maureen Myant https://www.maureenmyant.co.uk/

Published by Hobeck Books https://www.hobeck.net/

357 pages ISBN 9781913793890

Publication date 8 November 2022

I was sent an electronic copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Rebecca at Hobeck Books and the author for the invitation to participate.

From the blurb

A house on a quiet street on the southside of Glasgow. Neat, terraced homes with manicured lawns and pruned trees. Not the sort of place that reeks of decay or where dead bluebottles pile up on a windowsill.

When the police break in, there’s a surprise in store for them. They find Julie Campbell’s decaying body at her desk, her laptop open beside her. She’s a well-liked, respectable woman. On the laptop is a confession – to five murders. There’s one major problem though – only one of the victims she names is actually dead.

DI Mark Nicholson is persuaded by his boss DCI Alex Scrimgeour that the confession is a fantasy, and to drop the case, but Mark senses there’s more to it than meets the eye. As he delves further, the darkest of secrets are revealed, and everyone around him is dragged into a vortex of fear, danger and murder. No one is beyond suspicion as The Confession becomes a murderous reality.

Synopsis

In a ‘death-bed’ confession Julie Campbell sets out in some details the five murders she claims to have carried out before a cocktail of whisky and pills. She is no ordinary serial killer though as there is no MO, the victims have nothing in common and are despatched using different methods, leaving five random killings carried out on a whim. It may well be written as a confession but it’s certainly not contrite, as she appeared more amused wondering what would have happened if one of the victims was themselves a serial killer than sorry for what she has done. She also confides to telling her neighbours that she was a serial killer in a drunken party game. So, discovering what if any of it is true falls to DI Mark Nicholson. Would anyone really type a bogus confession before ending their life?

Mark is only able to find one crime that matches those described and that one has been solved and the conviction looks cast iron. Ordered to stop wasting time on the case he reluctantly shelves it, but does manage to get something out of the case, an affair with Suzanne the adopted sister of Julie. This complicates his private life somewhat as he already has a partner and children.

Then a murder comes in that is a little bit like one in the confession, Mark is convinced but he can’t get through to Alex. More corpses; more coincidences? Julie can’t murder from the grave so who is doing it? Mark’s life becomes intolerable and complicated as there are few suspects and the evidence begins to mount.

My thoughts

The novel starts with the finding of a body writhing with maggots and bluebottles who have done their job, a nice graphic beginning to grab the reader’s attention. Infront of the remains of the corpse is a MacBook (all writers seem to love MacBooks) with a confession typed on it before a simple suicide. Does this mean we have the answer before chapter two and the remainder just police procedural? Of course, it’s not so simple, in The Confession misdirection can be found everywhere.

The story quickly gets into its stride and with each body comes another layer of complexity leaving no time to dwell or get bored. This may be Glasgow, but it has a small town feel through the tightness of the interconnections between characters. Rather than expanding out into a wide vista, the plot is so tightly centred that it could almost collapse in on itself, like a black hole, as suspects are close to home. Expect surprises and twists along the way, just don’t let your imagination run away from you, as I did, or you’ll come to the wrong conclusion.

The characters are an entertaining butch of largely unpleasant misfits, damaged but still making bad decisions. Our ‘hero’ Mark is weak willed and liable to think with the contents of his trousers. Somewhat hapless and in thrall to women who run rings around him. Partner Karen is untrusting, perhaps rightly so, but with a past she wants to put behind her. Suzanne is the femme fatale in proceedings and is deliciously portrayed. A one point appearing to be three parts Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) to one part Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction) a real recipe for disaster for Mark as much as it was for Michael Douglas. The fact that Alex, Mark’s boss, is a pompous prig but one the reader warms to as the story progresses is great writing.

The plot reveal when it comes is dark, disturbing and rather sad, but also quite believable. All those apparently motiveless murders eventually come together with a purpose for a disturbed mind. The use of the musical connections is very clever and opera a perfect choice with its slightly over the top use of tragedy mirrored within the plot. Some see opera as the highest of artform, is the murderer trying to achieve something on a higher plain with smoke and mirrors to distract from a perfect crime?

Considering the darkness within, the writing style is rather upbeat and subtle compared to many in the genre. There’s humour within the dialogue and Alex gets some nice put down lines. The descriptions are not overly graphic or gratuitous, some even working on a subconscious level with the request for the commissioned artwork to be more visceral and paint splattered overalls juxtaposed for blood splatter (well at least in my mind!) Even a child’s attempt at murder is slightly comic when the ‘weapon’ is considered.

The Confession is an excellent crime thriller with a fiendish plot disguised by multiple levels of deception. More like this please.

The Confession can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Maureen worked for over 25 years as an educational psychologist but has also worked as a teacher and an Open University Associate Lecturer. She is a graduate of the prestigious University of Glasgow MLitt in Creative Writing course where she was taught by Janice Galloway, Liz Lochhead, James Kelman, Alasdair Gray and Tom Leonard among others. She also has a PhD in Creative Writing. Her first novel The Search was published by Alma Books and was translated into Spanish, Dutch and Turkish. It was longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award and was one of the books chosen to be read for the Festival du premier roman de Chambéry.

Maureen has been a voracious reader since the age of six when, fed up with her mum reading Noddy stories to her, she picked up her older brother’s copy of Enid Blyton’s The Valley of Adventure and devoured it in an evening. She hasn’t stopped reading since and loves literary fiction, historical fiction, crime fiction, psychological thrillers and contemporary fiction but not necessarily in that order. Her favourite book is The Secret History by Donna Tartt and go-to comfort read is Anne of Green Gables.

Maureen lives in Glasgow with her husband. She has three grownup children and six grandchildren who love to beat her at Bananagrams.

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The Dove is Dead #JohnUttley #TheDoveIsDead

By John Uttley https://www.johnuttleyauthor.com/#

Published independently

218 pages ISBN 9798847657624

Publication date 27 October 2022

The Dove is Dead is the final part of the The Unholy Trinity trilogy, following on from Where’s Sailor Jack and No Precedent.

I was sent a paperback copy of the novel to participate in its Blog Tour. Many thanks to Mr Uttley and Team LitPR for allowing me to participate in the tour.

From the blurb

The Northern grammar school pals, Bob Swarbrick and Richard Shackleton, are now well into their seventies. While Richard’s daughter, the ‘delightful mistake’ Amy, is studying History at Oxford, they’re more concerned with the viva they’ll be facing soon with the almighty. Everything is changing; their native Lancashire is barely recognisable and the industries they grew up with have vanished. Early boomer men and woke Gen Z girl tread a path together through a world of western cultural decline and collapse of faith, in a searingly sad but still joyful celebration of life and death. While Bob and Richard grapple with the shifting cultural landscape, Richard’s daughter, Amy, is preparing for her final exams.

My thoughts

The Dove is Dead is a bold novel with a family story of religious beliefs, social history and change. At times sad and melancholic it looks at the final stages of life, our attitudes to death and finally our preparation and acceptance of it. Afterall the one certainty of life is ultimately our death, it’s the one thing we cannot escape but we can attempt to live our best lives and live in hope that there is something better, for those left behind or in some afterlife if we believe in it.

The story is narrated through the eyes of Amy the ‘delightful mistake’ of the Shackleton’s, Richard and Helen’s late addition to the brood. The book is effectively split into two periods with a linear timescale progression. The first threequarters covers her period at university and coincides which the Covid outbreak. The final quarter of the book is set post Covid and runs into an imagined future up to 2034.

It takes an historically accurate view of the Covid period, documenting the lockdowns and restrictions in force at the time, still very fresh for us now but will perhaps be a curiosity to revisit in a few years. I suppose that with Covid being such a significant marker for 2020s it will be covered in fiction for some time to come, here it is nicely judged but for some of us who have lost loved ones it may be a bit too soon.

At university Amy is the typical modern undergraduate, leaning very much to the left hating the Conservatives and loathing both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. Strident, of course, she wears her ‘wokeness’ as a badge of honour, embracing the ‘in’ theories of the day, in gender and critical race, but hoping never to be a ‘snowflake’. As the story progresses some of her opinions soften and attitude mellows, though not all. As her father Richard observes he was lucky to go to a grammar school and university under the Conservatives, feeling it was easier for talented and hardworking working-class children to advance in society, the abolition of grammar schools levelling down rather than up. He says that current attitudes are black and white, if you are not with us then you are against us, if you don’t like you hate, not his way at all as he believes in liberalism and the middle way. On this they don’t see eye to eye, though as time passes Amy can see the errors in her certainty of youth. For some wisdom truly does come with age.

Religion is central to the plot and runs throughout. Richard is a lay reader at his local church which itself is going through great change most noticeably when enforced by the death of the vicar. We see the infighting with factions in favour of the High Church looking down on Richard’s own individual style of sermon and his favouring the Low Church. A church divided and destined to splinter further. Richard firmly believes liberal Christianity has allowed the West to thrive for the last half millennium and has help maintain social fabric. There is a fair bit of church politics within which I found interesting but may put off some readers.

Another central theme is that of change. Everyone of us has seen change in our lifetimes, the older amongst us have arguably seen the most significant ones. Even so, technological developments mean that the pace of change is ever increasing and relentless. Most of us adapt well over the years but come to a point where we are left behind. This change is well tackled during the generational debates within the storyline.

For me it is the deaths of the lifelong friends Bob and Richard which is where the story comes into its own. I’m 59 so much nearer the end than the start so perhaps why it chimed so much with me. For the message was to try and live your best life, love and care for the ones close to you, family and friends, pass on the wisdom you gained over your lifetime and hope for a dignified end. This bit is covered beautifully whether you believe in a religion or not.  

The Dove is Dead is a sad and poignant look at family life, change and religion in the social context of modern life.

The author

John Uttley was born in Lancashire just as the war was ending. He was educated at a grammar school before reading Physics at Oxford. He then embarked on a long career with the CEGB and National Grid Group.

John was Finance Director at the time of the miners’ strike, the Sizewell Inquiry and privatisation, receiving on OBE in 1991. Shortly afterwards, he suffered his fifteen minutes of fame when he publicly gave a dividend to charity in the middle of the fat cat furore. Following this, he took an external London degree in Divinity while acting as chairman of numerous smaller companies, both UK and US based.

He is married to Janet and lives just north of London. This is his third novel, based on the characters of his first, the much-loved and critically acclaimed Where’s Sailor Jack?

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Havana Fever #LeonardoPadura #HavanaFever

By Leonardo Padura

Translated by Peter Bush

Published by Bitter Lemon Press https://www.bitterlemonpress.com/

286 pages 9781904738367

Paperback publication date 15 January 2009

Havana Fever is the fifth novel featuring Mario Conde.

I was sent a paperback copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and publishers.

From the blurb

Havana, 2003, fourteen years since Mario Conde retired from the police force and much has changed in Cuba. He now makes a living trading in antique books bought from families selling off their libraries in order to survive. In the house of Alcides de Montes de Oca, a rich Cuban who fled after the fall of Batista, Conde discovers an extraordinary book collection and, buried therein, a newspaper article about Violeta del Rio, a beautiful bolero singer of the 1950’s, who disappeared mysteriously.

Conde’s intuition sets him off on an investigation that leads him into a darker Cuba, now flooded with dollars, populated by pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and other hunters of the night.

My thoughts

A story of passions and obsession, of secrets, love and betrayal which provide the skeins of thread to be woven into a vivid tapestry of a noir that bridges generations in Havana. A story of opposites and alternatives.

The text itself is divided into two sections; the A side: Be gone from me and the B side: You’ll remember me. Thereby mimicking the two sides of a record quite fittingly as the plot is centred on discovering what happened to the beautiful bolero singer Violeta del Rio. Each half is divided into unnumbered chapters most of which are of decent length and allow the reader to become absorbed in the fine prose, which the translator Peter Bush has managed to maintain. This is not fast paced tale packed with action but taking the reader on a journey more attuned to the Caribbean pace of life as the storyline plays out. Yes, there is jeopardy, violence and death but it’s almost as if they are absorbed into everyday life, a brutal life for some.

The novel is set in the ‘current day’ of its writing (2003/4) but has constant references back to the end of the Batista regime, the revolution, and its aftermath (1958-60). Both periods are evocatively brought to life in their own way, there are the rich, the haves and have nots, but the poverty and daily struggle is never far away for many.

The glamour of the late 1950s rich man’s playground is there in all its splendour: the casinos, the nightclubs and bars. However, amongst the Hollywood stars are the mafia like Meyer Lansky, who features within the storyline, funding legitimate schemes trying to launder their dirty money. A Cuba that’s nightlife can provide an escape from poverty for young women from the countryside, like Violeta and her friend Catalina, through singing and escorting, but with a personal cost to be paid in the future.

It is the Cuba of the early 2000s that is most prominent. This is not the Cuba of the holiday brochures, the vintage cars and faded beauty of Old Havana, but one strangled by economic sanctions and rationing, one where the US dollar is king, and existence is hand to mouth in the dark underbelly and the barrios. One where people trade what they can to eke out an existence but also one where friends and neighbours offer support. When Mario Conde starts to get a little cash from selling the books from the library, his immediate thoughts are to take care of his close circle of friends by taking them for a banquet with the foods they can rarely eat and decent liquor. The descriptions of this existence are intense, often quite dark, but totally convincing and rather compelling. There are times when you can practically smell Havana never mind imagine it!   The imagery is masterful and there are intelligent literary references, comparisons with the circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno, the relative in the attic as in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and JD Salinger all feature.

The characterisation is simply wonderful with a memorable cast. The unfortunates, cripples, prostitutes, and criminals are portrayed with a good deal of affection. Through it all Mario Conde, the former detective and now book dealer, strides in the shoes of all those gumshoes who have gone before. A man of honesty and integrity battling against a tide of crime and immorality but also a man who recognises the struggles of others. We see his regret at the consequences felt by others as a result of his interventions.

The obsession is Mario’s desire to discover what happened to the singer Violeta to the point of almost being possessed by her soul or could it be the soul of his father. He distantly recalls his father’s love for a singer, his own obsession, listening to her record in the dark with tears in his eyes. It is this that drives Mario on to get the answers he feels he wants, though not all of them are welcome.

Love is the key to the plot and to expand would be something of a spoiler as there are secrets and surprises to be revealed. The effect is profound though even on Mario as he considers his future with occasional lover Tamara.

Havana Fever is as fine a piece of modern noir writing as you can find, intelligent, evocative, and totally absorbing. Simply brilliant writing.

Havana Fever can be purchased direct from the publisher here.

The author

Leonardo Padura was born in Havana in 1955, lives in Cuba and has won the prestigious Spanish Princesa de Asturias prize for literature. We have published nine of his novels, including the much-lauded Havana Quartet, all featuring Inspector Mario Conde. The Quartet has won a number of prizes, including the Spanish Premio Hammett. Havana Fever also features Mario Conde, now retired from the police force but drawn into a new investigation that leads back to the Havana of Cuban dictator Batista, the city of a hundred night clubs where the paths of Marlon Brando and Meyer Lansky crossed. 

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