The Broken Afternoon

By Simon Mason @SimonMasonbooks

Narrated by Matt Addis https://mattaddis.com/ @themattaddis

Published by Riverrun Books @riverrunbooks (an imprint of Quercus Books) https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/ @QuercusBooks

315 pages (9 hours 40 minutes) ISBN 9781529415735

Publication date 27 April 2023

The Broken Afternoon is the second novel in the DI Wilkins Mysteries series.

I was allowed access to an audio review copy on Net Galley @NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.  Thanks to the Author and Publisher for organising this.

The cover

Misty generic street scene (presumably Oxford), atmospheric but probably wouldn’t grab my attention in a shop.

From the blurb

A four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area, her mother only a stones-throw away.

Ryan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead.

Ray begins to delve deeper, unearthing an underground network of dark forces in the local area. But will he be able to get closer to the truth of the disappearance? And will Ryan be able to stay away?

The narration

A good solid performance considering the full range of voices, by sex and age, required.

My thoughts

The novel begins with a harrowing crime, child abduction. Poppy Clark goes missing from her nursery school whilst wearing a pirate costume. There are no immediate sightings, but surely somebody would remember a little girl dressed like that? With most crimes there is a ‘window of opportunity’ after which it becomes increasingly more difficult to achieve a conviction. With a child abduction that window is exceedingly small, perhaps only a few hours. If they are taken by an estranged parent or a family member, they will be relatively safe and there will be more time, but there is a strong possibility of fleeing the country. If they are taken by a stranger, then the likelihood of falling into the hands of abusers is high and the available time might be little more than an hour. So immediately we have a highly sensitive, emotive crime to deal with and a real race against time.

The senior investigating officer (SIO) is DI Raymond Wilkins a stylish and personable officer who is going to be fully immersed in the case, his wife Dianne being pregnant and twins. As the case intensifies and takes a darker twist solving it becomes an obsession, one he ends up staking his career and reputation on. Determination comes at a cost though as he neglects Dianne by missing her prenatal appointments and not giving her the attention she needs, they start to drift apart.

Until a few months ago Ray had a colleague, another DI R Wilkins, Ryan, who is pretty much the antithesis of Ray. Ray has a prosperous family, went to university and was a boxing Blue, whereas Ryan went through the care system, had little formal education, but possessing the survival skills needed from having to be street smart he managed to pass the DI training. Ryan is the loosest of loose canons through, he is reckless, abrasive and no respecter of protocol or authority. These qualities earned him a dishonourable discharge from the force so now he is working security night shifts to survive. Two things happen to turn his world upside down. A schoolfriend is killed by a hit and run a matter of minutes after Ryan saw him and he is given a shot at redemption by reinstatement to the force, if only he can convince the review panel.

Having two Wilkins, Ray and Ryan, can be a little confusing at times, but of course they are not so much as opposites as different sides of the same coin, Ying to Yang. They work on different strands of the investigation through the story, Ryan is not even a police officer, but were their paths intersect their interrelationship works well. Ryan is impulsive and instinctive but has the keener investigative instinctive, Ray tries to temper his recklessness and ensure the case isn’t compromised. The third key officer is the Superintendent Wallace who is everyone’s idea of a tough ball-breaking Scottish officer, who suffers no nonsense but is also practical. He has diversity statistics to fulfil and Ryan being ‘white trailer trash’ ticks one of the boxes. Wallace also recognises Ryan is an officer who can get results and because of that he may be asset if he can be brought under control. Naturally this is easier said than done.

The plot digs into paedophilia and child abuse without getting too dark or disturbing. There is some examination of the reason for their actions and attempts to rehabilitate offenders, but in the end, there is an acceptance that many can’t be. There is also the influence of money and power both to reform and to corrupt, often these gangs are protected by individuals of influence. We also see the problems of a failing care system, where individuals can be damaged from an early age with little chance of redemption in the eyes of some. Many of the faults with Ryan’s attitude being down to his time in the care system.

Family is at the core of the story. There is the pain suffered by Poppy’s mother, the redemptive love Ryan shows for his son (little Ryan), the breakdown in relationship between Ray and Dianne and in the case of the offender, there are the lengths family members will go to protect one of their own.

The story moves along at a good pace as progress is made and then stalls. The narrative switches between following Ray and then Ryan which keeps the interest going but is in no way choppy so is easy to follow. There’s enough action and jeopardy to keep most readers happy and Ryan’s occasional bursts of insubordination and offensiveness, bright some light relief to a story where humour would have been inappropriate.

The Broken Afternoon is an entertaining police thriller that tackles every parent’s nightmare with tact and compassion.

The Broken Afternoon can be purchased via the publisher’s website here

The author

Simon Mason was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, on 5 February 1962. He was educated at local schools and studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He splits his time between writing at home and a part-time editorial position with David Fickling Books, an imprint of Random House and publisher of his 2011 children’s novel, Moon Pie.

He is the author of the Quigleys series for young readers: The Quigleys (Highly Commended in the UK’s Branford Boase Award), The Quigleys at Large, The Quigleys Not for Sale, and The Quigleys in a Spin. He has also written three adult novels.

Simon lives in Oxford with his wife and two children.

Source: Goodreads profile

The narrator

Matt is a highly regarded audiobook narrator, and has voiced a wealth of work for Audible, Penguin Random House, Naxos, Oxford University Press, Hachette, Hodder & Stoughton, Bloomsbury and the Royal National Institute of Blind People. He is a multiple AudioFile Magazine EarPhones award winner and was nominated by Audible as one of 12 finalists for Audiobook of the Year, among such august company as Stephen Fry and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Source: Narrator’s website

Murder Under The Tuscan Sun #RachelRhys #TammyCohen #MurderUnderTheTuscanSun

By Rachel Rhys (the pseudonym of psychological thriller writer Tammy Cohen) https://tammycohen.co.uk @MsTamarCohen

Published by Penguin https://www.penguin.co.uk/ @PenguinUKBooks

352 pages 9781529176575

Publication date 30 March 2023

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

The cover

An attractive cover that captures the isolated castle in the verdant Tuscan countryside.

From the blurb

An isolated castle, a deadly crime. Is this real or a nightmare?

High up in the Tuscan hills in a remote castle, secrets are simmering among its glamorous English residents:

The ailing gentleman art-dealer

His dazzling niece

Her handsome Fascist husband

Their neglected young daughter

The housekeeper who knows everything

and Connie, the English widow working for them.

There is a terrible wailing inside the walls and sinister noises at night.

Is Connie losing her grip on reality? Or does someone in the castle want her gone?

My thoughts

This novel would be an ideal summer read, not one for the beach or around the pool, but rather one to be read in the shade in a lush garden or park with a long cool drink. Its an immersive book, one that is low on action and incident but draws the reader in with intrigue and its setting. It’s a slow read, in a way mimicking the lifestyle of the Tuscan hills where life is unhurried and travels at its natural pace, where time is taken to observe and experience what is happening around you. The prose artfully brings a near tangibleness to the descriptions making them even more convincing. What makes this truly remarkable is that the novel was written during the Covid lockdown but not actually in Tuscany.

The storyline is split, starting with an introduction set in spring 1946, where we are introduced to a castle broken by war and then a continuation in the epilogue. The heart of the novel though is set in the spring and summer of 1927, with Europe still reeling from a war that ended only nine years ago, a Britain that had just the previous year had a general strike and an Italy dividend between those with communist sympathies and a rising Black shirts fascist movement. A world where change is all around which proves central to the plot.

The principal character is Constance Bowen and the story is told from her perspective. In 1927 people were probably not indulged with what we would now regard as a mid-life crisis, this being a time of knuckle down and get on with it. Constance is troubled though and feeling unsettled. Now a widow, her daughter succumbed to tuberculosis and her son increasingly distant she is feeling suffocated in her house in Pinner. She wants new experiences while she still has the time. Opportunity arises when she sees a job posting for a companion to Mr William North, a celebrated art expert and dealer, who has suffered a brain haemorrhage and whose recovery is expected to be slow. Whilst dealing with his daily needs, his correspondence and reading to him might not seem too appealing, he does live in a castle in Tuscany, which should enrich her time there. Ignoring the protestations of her son James she accepts the job and sets out on an adventure.

The first weeks are promising as Constance settles in, is accepted as being valuable to the family by Evelyn (William’s niece) and husband Roberto, and William’s condition starts to improve. However, this idyllic start doesn’t last long though. After a party William starts to deteriorate rapidly, it transpires Roberto is a senior Black shirt and Evelyn increasingly treats daughter Nora with distain. Constance is troubled by night-time disturbances, woken by strange noises she cannot trace, a violin playing and a child crying. This is the start of a downward spiral where Constance begins to doubt her sanity and Evelyn puts her under increasing pressure.

The central portion of the novel builds up the suspense as Constance is wracked with self-doubt but this is interleaved with rich descriptions of life in the Tuscan countryside, together with the opulent and slightly decadent parties of the rich. Elements of the supernatural add to the psychological pressure and in the background, there is a legend of gothic horror which could come straight from straight from Edgar Allan Poe. All the while there is a sense that something is not quite right, that there’s something more happening in the background, not quite tangible but real enough. The unwind to the reveal is rapid and you may get a step or two ahead but there are still surprises in store. Ultimately though, this remains very much an historical drama rather than a true thriller.

Naturally in what is a quite emotional book the themes are strong and clear. Much deals with the need for acceptance, for the individual to embrace who they are but also for their loved ones to accept this. Not to seek or rely on the approval of others but to find you own way on your terms, as beautifully displayed by the emotionally neglected ‘ugly duckling’ daughter Nora. Most of all to live in the moment and generate memories to hold in your heart as well as the mind.

Murder Under the Tuscan Sun is an intense historical mystery, rich in imagery and description. A novel to take your time over.

Murder Under The Tuscan Sun can be purchased direct from the publisher here

The author

Rachel Rhys is the pseudonym of psychological thriller writer Tammy Cohen. Her debut, Dangerous Crossing, was a bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club pick and was followed by A Fatal Inheritance and Island of Secrets. Rachel’s latest novel, Murder Under the Tuscan Sun is once again superb historical suspense crime, this time with an irresistible Italian 1920s setting. She lives in North London, with her three (allegedly) grown up children and her neurotic rescue dog. Visit http://www.tammycohen.co.uk to find out more about her work, including her latest pyschological suspense title The Wedding Party. You can also find her on facebook or twitter as @MsTamarCohen or on Instagram as @tammycohenwriter.

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

The Silence of the Stands – The ‘Director’s Cut’ #DanielGray #TheSilenceOfTheStands

By Daniel Gray https://danielgraywriter.com/books/ @d_gray_writer

Published by Bloomsbury Sport https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/non-fiction/sport-fitness/ @BloomsburySport

176 pages ISBN 9781399404068

Publication date 10 November 2022

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

Review

I posted my review of the book last December here. This additional post covers some of the author’s observations and my interactions with them on a personal level.

My thoughts

They say that great art touches one’s soul be it painting, music, film, or the written word. Most of us have our favourite pieces but just occasionally something touches us on a deeper level or makes a connection with us. When reading The Silence of the Stands to review it there were so many parts of it where I had a similar experience or thought yeah, I noticed that. It would be wrong to include these within that review, but seeing as this is my blog, I can spare myself the occasional self-indulgent post.

The post-industrial north can be grim, to live there and to visit, but there is beauty and wonder all around if you look for it and Mr Gray certainly has an eye for it. It was in the section about Cowdenbeath that was most noticeable to me. The town is perfectly described, a former coal mining town that is physically sinking and financially battered “even the Greggs had closed down” but a beacon of light is spotted in the form of some landscaping and gable end murals. I am fan of murals (when they are done well) and there are some fine examples in my home city of Hull. My brother in law and I were up there in December 2021 on one of our annual trips to watch Scottish football and between finding the only pub in town that serves cask ale and the Central Park ground I spotted these two breath taking murals. What better way to reflect a heritage and the future.

He goes on to describe Cowdenbeath’s “incomparable home ground” which is owned by the local stock car racing club, and the remaining part of the old stand with its “wooden benches and iron beams”. Indeed we loved this old fashioned time-warp of a ground.

The end of the 2019/20 season was an odd one, after a three-month hiatus it was rushed to completion. For non-league there was no resumption in the lower tiers, the season was merely expunged, as if it had never really happened. This was felt unsatisfactory and frustrating by many, something we felt locally as the phoenix club North Ferriby was battling for promotion from step six on its climb back up the pyramid.

The lengths that fans would go to get their football fix is captured perfectly, such as the old man and the ladder incident, that have the reader wishing they were there to see it. This was an incident the author experienced at Gala Fairydean Rovers and their magnificent Netherdale ground which is probably best known for their brutalist concrete stand. We’ve yet to get there but after getting a copy of Snapshot (reviewed here) and marvelling at the photographs of it the ground was added to the bucket list. These days under Covid were tough and various suggestions were made amongst my friends including getting a cherry picker and ladders in the allotments at our local non-league ground in North Ferriby, but nothing transpired. For a short period one of the club sponsors flew a drone but that was soon outlawed. We salute those who used their initiative to get a football fix.

Season 2020/21 was the season that passed fans by, one where a journalist pass was the equivalent of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket that provided access to a sterile football environment and lower down the pyramid every man and his dog played of their lose connections to clubs to get into behind closed doors games. Never has there been a season where so many ‘stewards’ marshalled so few fans (sometime none). I was very fortunate during the behind closed-doors period due to my hobby of videoing non-league football; I was invited by some clubs to record a highlights package of their games. It felt a little awkward being there when fans couldn’t but at least we were able to give them something even if it was just five minutes on YouTube.

Mr Gray noted that there was an increased vigour to the start of the 2020/1 season and some players were trying to cram six months of missed football into the first ninety minutes back. This was something we noticed watching locally, step six is certainly robust but the first few games had more than a pinch of added spice. Like a dam of pent up frustration had been breached with an almighty ejaculation of testosterone, players flew into tackles and played like this could be the last ever game. It was of course just the feeling of relief and with small numbers of fans being allowed back into the grounds, the baiting and barracking were back, like we’ve never been away. People were anchored, a degree of normality returned, and all was well with the world, at least until the next shocking refereeing display.

The normality hadn’t quite returned though as once again the English non-league season was again abandoned, two weeks after the author watched Hibernian v Aberdeen. The 2021/22 season started in a cautious fashion, with a sense of optimism, one that was to go through the roof in my home city as finally the long protracted sale of Hull City was completed in January 2022. There was some fear mongering as we went into winter, but surely the country couldn’t manage another lockdown. February started with some shocking weather including one weekend of terrible storms over much of England, a weekend that we just happened to have planned to spend in Scotland. As we drove up we saw trees with their crowns blown out and plenty of standing water but we were committed (well I had paid for the hotel and us accountants hate waste.) The Friday match we planned at Dunfermline was postponed, so we pondered whether East Fife on the Saturday would. A decision was made to head to the Hibernian match as this was more likely to survive and if it didn’t Edinburgh would be better for pubs than Methil. Unlike in England, it turned out to be a beautiful sunny but cold day. It was sat high up in the stand at Easter Road in this welcome sunshine that I though, yeah we’ve made it through to the other side.

The Covid crisis was an unprecedented time for most of us; some lost loved ones, others had their lives turned upside down and many people are still suffering with their health. Friedrich Nietzsche is credited with the aphorism ‘what does not kill me makes me stronger’ and I think in this case there may be elements of truth in it, but also perhaps it will change people’s perspectives in life. Cherish life, don’t waste a day and don’t take anything or anyone for granted. Football is only a game, but the love of the game is something that helps bind society together and the world would be a lesser place without it.

The Silence of the Stands is a magnificent testament to the season that wasn’t for the fans and the importance of the game to so many of us and it’s part in the social fabric of life. Wryly observed, its written with great wit and passion for the game and the people who love it, a book I could relate to and I think a great many other fans would too. A must read for football fans.

The Unwanted Dead #ChrisLloyd #TheUnwantedDead

By Chris Lloyd https://chrislloydauthor.com/ @chrislloydbcn

Narrated by Timothy Bentinck https://www.timbentinck.com/ @timbentinck

Published by The Orion Publishing Group https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/ @orionbooks

464 pages (12 hours 37 minutes) 9781409190271

Publication date 18 March 2021

The first thriller in the occupation series featuring Eddie Giral

I listened to the audio version of the book purchased from Audible https://www.audible.co.uk/ @audibleuk.

The cover

Furtive man in an overcoat is typical noir, but the upside down Eiffel Tower scene at the top works as a metaphor for the world that now needs to be navigated by the protagonist Eddie Giral.

From the blurb

Paris, Friday 14th June 1940.

The day the Nazis march into Paris, making headlines around the globe.

Paris police detective Eddie Giral – a survivor of the last World War – watches helplessly on as his world changes forever.

But there is something he still has control over. Finding whoever is responsible for the murder of four refugees. The unwanted dead, who no one wants to claim.

To do so, he must tread carefully between the Occupation and the Resistance, between truth and lies, between the man he is and the man he was.

All the while becoming whoever he must be to survive in this new and terrible order descending on his home…

The narration

Excellent. Solid performance demonstrating a good range of voices, with a touch of melancholy at times and the necessary gravitas for the subject matter.

My thoughts

Historical fiction remains a popular genre and one I find myself reading more of. In particular there are some very good crime and thrillers set in the early part of the twentieth century around the two world wars. Already this year I have reviewed The English Führer the seventh novel in Rory Clements’ Tom Wilde series and now I am starting with the Eddie Giral series (at book 1 for a change regular readers of this blog will note.) It is probably poor form for a reviewer to reference another author and his characters in a book review but some readers will make the obvious comparison with Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series. Yes there are some similarities, but there are a great many subtle differences between Giral and Gunther as characters and the writing style is very different. That said if you like one then you are likely to enjoy the other and as Mr Kerr is sadly no longer with us then it seems fitting that Gunther passes on the baton to Giral. I for one am looking forward to much more from this character.

The novel commences with the fall of Paris. The ‘Phoney War’ is over, the British Expeditionary Force has been sent packing via Dunkirk and the Russians are still in a non-aggression pact with Germany happy to divide up the spoils of war in the division of Poland. Great change is to sweep France as lives are turned upside down. This feeling is captured so well by the author. We see the callous and drunken German soldiers, for whom victory was easy, treating people and the opulent buildings with distain. There is the fear of ordinary people, a first taste for the French but prolonged suffering for the Poles who have already fled once and are central to the plot. Those in power in French establishment face the dilemma of how to react, how much to cooperate with the occupiers, as Eddie soon discovers. It is also a period of adaptation for the Germans as there are territorial and jurisdictional disputes between the Wehrmacht (army), Schutzstaffel (SS) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) which proves vital to Eddie’s ability to function as an officer.

The plot is one of hidden secrets vital to the war effort. Four Polish refugees trying to escape Paris are gassed in a cattle truck whilst another commits suicide with his young son rather than face interrogation. There is an American journalist keen for the evidence of atrocities necessary to bring the US into the war. The evidence from these events keep pointing back to a small town in Poland. Obstacles are placed in Eddie’s path, but he remains determined to investigate in the name of truth and justice, the only things he has left worth fighting for. These dead people may be unwanted by the Nazi occupiers and by some of the occupied French, but they are individuals, part of humanity, deserving of compassion and respect. Summed up perfectly by John Donne’s ‘No man is an island’.

Eddie Giral is a man who has been damaged by events, who survives on a day to day basis but who tries to do the right thing, because his morality is all he has left. Dreams of university were shattered by the First World War and being called up into the army. A war that left him damaged physically and mentally, with a future he is unable to cope in. Hospitalisation from shell shock and remaining disturbed by what he saw, his behaviour is erratic and ultimately leads to estrangement from his wife and son, for their own safety and piece of mind. Taking one day at a time Eddie is looking for something, some internal peace or salvation, but maintains an unhealthy obsession with a Luger and dud bullet. When his now adult son Jean-Luc appears, after fifteen years apart, despising his father and hell bent on finding personal glory at any cost he must confront his past to ensure Jean-Luc’s future. A complex character with clearly more to him than one novel.

The storyline presses on relentlessly, steady rather than fast as there is a lot of incidents packed in along with great descriptions of life in Paris. The tone is sober and sombre, this is not a wisecracking hard-boiled protagonist, though he does get some great lines. The messages are clear, war brutalises and someone needs to stand up against tyranny, a timely reminder, as eighty years on nothing seems to have changed. There are seeds of hope though as the reader will see the totemic power of books. Long may authors write thought provoking books and people read them.

The Unwanted Dead brings occupied Paris to life in a gripping tale and reminder of what humanity should mean. Book two in the series Paris Requiem is out now and I will be reviewing it soon.

The Unwanted Dead can be purchased via the publisher’s website here

The author

Straight after graduating in Spanish and French, Chris Lloyd hopped on a bus from Cardiff to Catalonia and stayed there for over twenty years. He has also lived in Grenoble – researching the French Resistance movement – as well as in the Basque Country and Madrid, where he taught English and worked in educational publishing and as a travel writer. He now lives in South Wales and is a translator and novelist. Paris Requiem is his second novel set in Paris, featuring Detective Eddie Giral. The first, The Unwanted Dead, won the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown Award for best historical novel of the year, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger Award.

Source: Publisher’s website

The Narrator

Tim studied Modern Languages at school, then History of Art at the University of East Anglia, and trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has been a professional actor since 1978.

He won the Carleton Hobbs Radio Award in 1978 and joined the BBC Radio Repertory Company, which led to being cast as David Archer in The Archers in 1982.He has played leading roles in film, television, theatre and radio, is a voiceover and dubbing specialist, with a huge range of vocal styles and accents. 

He is also a musician, travel journalist, inventor, computer programmer, website designer, house renovator and author. His autobiography Being David Archer – And Other Unusual Ways of Earning a Living was published in 2017.

He was awarded an MBE for Services to Drama in 2018.

Source: Narrator’s website

​

Death of a Book Seller

By Alice Slater https://alicemjslater.com/ @alicemjslater

Narrated by Emma Noakes (as Roach) @emmanoakes1 and Victoria Blunt (as Laura) @IamVicBlunt

Published by Hodder & Stoughton Audio, Hodder & Stoughton

384 pages (11 hours 59 minutes) ISBN 9781529385366

Publication date 27 April 2023

I was allowed access to an audio review copy on Net Galley in exchange for a fair review.  Thanks to the Author and Publisher for organising this.

The cover

Well, the colour is effective as its eye catching, but a bit jarring for me. Books, blood and a snail cover a fair bit of the plot and hint at what is instore.

From the blurb

Roach – bookseller, loner and true crime obsessive – is not interested in making friends. She has all the company she needs in her serial killer books, murder podcasts and her pet snail, Bleep.

That is, until Laura joins the bookshop.

Smelling of roses, with her cute literary tote bags and beautiful poetry, she’s everyone’s new favourite bookseller. But beneath the shiny veneer, Roach senses a darkness within Laura, the same darkness Roach possesses.

As Roach’s curiosity blooms into morbid obsession, it becomes clear that she is prepared to infiltrate Laura’s life at any cost.

The narration

Usually a double hander is male/female to cover the different sexed roles. Here it is two women who cover the two principal roles that are narrate in the first person. It works brilliantly as they are two very different character’s; Roach is grungy and sullen whereas Laura is bright and breezy, very much the modern urban young woman. Here they are given to chance to take on a role which is more akin to acting.

My thoughts

Well, this is a rather bold novel, as it takes a sharp (metaphorical) stick and gives a satirical poke at professional book sellers and the type of earnest young woman drawn to the poorly paid jobs in publishing. So the middle class to posh, those can help from the bank of Mummy and Daddy, the pretentious deep thinking chin strokers, all publishers tote bags and gushing review cards on how this book influenced my life. I hope that these folks possess a sense of humour as these caricatures are gunned down by an expert sniper. Not the best of ideas when these are the very people the author needs to promote this her debut novel. As you will see from the profile, she has worked in the business, which gives her this cutting insight, so I think she’ll be forgiven.

The novel starts bright and breezy as we get to know Roach and Laura and the early put downs are delivered. Roach is an oddball, partly due to her upbringing, who loves true crime and detests PSGs. PSG being her abbreviation of Pumkin Spice Girls, those young women in love with life and their own self-image, who queue up in Costa for their pumpkin spiced lattes in winter. Of course when Laura is posted to the shop Roach immediately has her down as a PSG, a very gregarious one and a poet as well. Laura also has a troubled past, a secret she is hiding, one that grabs hold of Roach’s psyche and burns a hole through it. So, light moves through to shade and then darkness, with a story bordering on disturbing and uncomfortable at times for the reader.

The storyline centres on the relationship between Roach and Laura. Initially Roach wants to be liked and accepted by Laura, who seems to get on with everyone else but regards Roach with distain (on a good day). Roach’s interest in the true crime genre disgusts Laura, with good reason as her mother was a victim of the ‘Stow Strangler a low key but local British serial killer. Poetry is her outlet for her feelings as she writes about victims. Our true crime fan, of course, distastefully tries to deduce who the murderers were. When she discovers that Laura’s mother was murdered, obsession takes over as Roach is desperate to know who the killer was and tries to insert herself into Laura’s life. Alarm bells ring as behaviour get more outrageous and disturbing. Important questions are raised, is true crime gratuitous entertainment and can exposure to too much of it lead to modified behaviour much in the way of video nasties and violent video games?

 The characters are wonderfully drawn and the author manages to change this readers view of them as the novel progresses. I was very much in the Roach camp then switch allegiance when she became obsessed, only desert them both before the finale. Pretty good writing to create such vacillation in me.

Being character based means the story ambles along more than dashes and regularly switches viewpoints. It works by building up the psychological pressure as behaviours escalate. Perhaps a little over stretched in the middle by a few pages, but that’s me being a bit picky, it certainly never becomes boring. If you’ve ever wondered what it will be like working in a book shop, a dream job for many readers (if only the pay was better…) , then would get a good feel here. The awkward customers, the staff rivalries, internal competition, and the pride in their own sections. Oh, the disappointment for poor Roach as her true crime section is broken up, all the books she ordered using fake names that of course were never collected, but read and loved by her, are place on the general shelves, you can almost feel her pain.

What humour there is subtle and quite dark, or of the makes you cringe variety from situations and pot shots that strike home. That includes all of us obsessive readers who can’t stop buying. A great example is when Roach has a makeover and asks boyfriend Sam’s opinion and he replies that it makes her look like Myra Hindley it takes a second or two to dawn on you that its meant as a compliment.

The story is set before the 2020 Covid lock downs but concludes after, in 2022, with a satisfying two-part epilogue. Only then does it become apparent that all that has gone on before is a catalyst for change. Both women end up going on personal journeys, making discoveries about themselves along the way and end up in very different places.

After reading Death of a Book Seller you are going to see the person serving you in a different light. Now can you direct me to your true crime section…

Death of a Book Seller can be purchased via the publisher’s website here

The author

Alice Slater spent six years working as a bookseller with Waterstones. She started as a Christmas temp in Manchester Deansgate and worked her way up to bookshop manager of Romford, then Gower Street’s fiction section, and eventually Notting Hill Gate, lending a hand in 20 different branches across the UK on the way. Now a London-based writer, she is a co-host of literary podcast “What Page Are You On?” and writes about short stories for Mslexia.

Source: Publisher’s website

The Dead Will Rise

By Chris Nickson https://chrisnickson.co.uk/ @ChrisNickson2

Published by Severn House https://severnhouse.com/ @severnhouse

291 pages ISBN 9781448310197

Publication date 7 March 2023

The Dead Will Rise is the fifth novel in the Simon Westow mysteries series. I was sent a NetGalley @NetGalley copy to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author, Publisher and NetGalley.

The cover

Bold and on point with the story. I like the faint skull almost like a water mark.

From the blurb

Thief-taker Simon Westow is used to finding stolen goods, not stolen bodies . . . Can he hunt down those committing crimes against the dead in Leeds?

Leeds. April, 1824. Wealthy engineer Joseph Clark employs thief-taker Simon Westow to find the men who stole the buried corpse of Catherine Jordan, his employee’s daughter.

Simon is stunned and horrified to realize there’s a gang of body snatchers in Leeds. He needs to discover who bought Catherine’s body and where it is now. As he hunts for answers, he learns that a number of corpses have vanished from graveyards in the town. Can Simon and his assistant Jane bring the brutal, violent Resurrection men who are selling the dead to medical schools to justice and give some peace to the bereft families?

My thoughts

The North of England 1824, a time of great change. The Industrial Revolution is ramping up to meet the demands of an expanding British Empire and to exploit its raw materials. People had moved from a countryside existence to urban slums to provide the labour the industrial machine needed. Living in cramped insanitary conditions life for inhabitants was short and brutal. There was no recognisable police force, law and order was maintained by the local city watch and justice was often vicious. Minor crime could see you sentenced to an appointment with the hangman, if not and you were lucky, then you might to be transported to the other side of the world and let to your own devices. This background is exploited to the full and drawn out in shades of light and dark in this historical crime novel. The poverty, the downtrodden people but also those with some wealth and power.

Simon Westow is a ‘thief taker’ a strange amalgam of bounty hunter and debt collector. If you were robbed of something of value then the best chance of recovering the goods would be to engage a man like Simon and that would be his principal concern. If he is successful then he may also manage to apprehend the thief and bring them before the magistrate for a form of summary justice.

The plot centres on the heinous crime of grave robbing. Science like industry is increasing rapidly and medicine is at the forefront, but there is a serious shortage of cadavers for dissection which is vital for students to learn. This brings work for the Resurrection Men, grave robbers after fresh corpses rather than any jewellery or valuables. Foul and backbreaking ‘work’, a crime against society but not one that would result in the noose, for it was only a misdemeanour not a felony. To be a felony they would need to sell valuable possessions of the corpse. So, a disgusting crime but a low risk one unless they follow Burke and Hare and murder to provide corpses. When the body of a ten-year-old girl is stolen from a Leeds graveyard Simon is approached to locate those responsible, not his usual target but the disgust of his wife persuades him to get involved.

Whilst this is a Simon Westow novel it is not all about him the hero, as strong, at times deadly women are there front a centre. There is Jane the victim of appalling abuse in her childhood, destroyed as a girl who is being rebuilt as a young woman with the affection and counsel of Mrs Shields. Mrs Shields is the wise and cautious mentor she needs, as Jane is now able to handle herself in dangerous situations and is skilled with a knife to deadly effect. Able to be an everybody or a nobody she manages to blend into the background when working, her empathy with and generosity to the downtrodden, of whom she considers herself one, is a valuable source of information from the street. We also see her developing as a person too as she is learning to read with the guidance of Mrs Shields and with Rosie’s help basic mathematics.

Rosie is also keen to resume work with Simon and be in the thick of the action. Their twin boys are eight and Simon acknowledges that another pair of hands would mean they could take on more work. Desperate to be useful on the case, Rosie works on the fringes and proves her worth. Like Jane a woman to be trifled with at your peril.

The chase is across Leeds, not the city we know today, but one where villages and suburbs like Sheepscar and Headingley are distinct from the city itself. It’s clear the author has great affection for his home city as the action criss-crosses back and forth across this canvas. An excellent imagining of what a developing city might have been like 200 years ago.

The storyline ebbs and flows as Simon and assistant Jane become the hunters and the three men eventually identified as the resurrectionists are the hunted.  Paths intersect more than once as authorities fail in their duties and jeopardy is faced. Jane suffers great pain and indignity that fuels a desire for revenge, one that threatens to overwhelm her judgement. Knives are sharpened and violence meted out regularly but not graphically portrayed. More a case of if you draw your knife, you must be prepared to use it and the reader discovers that Jane is only too willing to do so, as is Simon’s wife. Sometimes you need to strike first and ask questions later.

The stop-start progression builds to a dramatic finale, one where answers are found, and justice is served but of a hollow kind as wrongs cannot be put right.

The Dead Will Rise is an excellent historical novel with a crime that can shock even the most brutal and downtrodden of society.

The Dead Will Rise can be purchased from Amazon here

The author

I’m a novelist and music journalist, the author of many books set between the 1730s and 1950s in Leeds, as well as others in medieval Chesterfield and 1980s Seattle.

Above all, though, its Leeds I love, the people, the sense of the place changing with time. Yes, I write mysteries, but ultmiateoly they’re books about people and their relationships, and the crime becomes a moral framework for the story.

Source: Goodreads profile

Don’t forget to check out the other reviews in this Blog Tour:

Fire in the Mountain #AJAberford #FireInTheMountain

By AJ Aberford https://ajaberford.com/ @AJAberford

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

458 pages ISBN 9781915817082

Publication date 14 March 2023

Fire in the Mountain is the fourth novel in the Detective George Zammit series.

Click on the links to read my review of book one in the series Bodies in the Water and book three Hawk at the Crossroads.

I was sent an electronic copy in exchange for a fair review.  I would like to thank Rebecca at Hobeck Books and the Author for the invitation to participate in the Blog Tour.

The Cover

A very striking cover where there is plenty going on, just as in the book. A cover to whet the readers appetite.

From the blurb

A colleague in need

Superintendent George Zammit is persuaded to go to Sicily to investigate the disappearance of his superior’s niece.

There, George discovers a city overshadowed by the mighty Mount Etna, a huge volcano perilously close to a major eruption that would have disastrous consequences around the world.

The magic of the volcano

George finds the volcano not only provides unlimited energy, but has long been worshipped by an ancient, mysterious cult, which believes it has the power of renewal and rebirth. Strange priests and monks wander the volcano’s flanks and the old volcanic tunnels, risking the wrath of Mother Etna to keep its secrets safe.

Unlimited power, unlimited wealth

The dark forces of organised crime have captured the green energy of the volcano and grown rich on the profits. Others have noticed this deep source of wealth and they gather to plot and scheme to take a share of their own.  Rival organisations play their cards, leaving George trapped between the warring factions.

George enters a world beyond his control  

In his quest to find the missing girl, George, and his unlikely allies, find themselves caught between the forces of nature, superstition and organised crime. It is time for a hero to step forward and risk all to take on all these competing threats. Can it be George? And how does he learn an important lesson about trust and loss?

My thoughts

Poor George. He’s a straightforward man who just wants a quiet and contented life, happy doing community policing work, then coming home to some traditional cooking and a snooze in favourite chair. Not a lot to ask. However, daughter Gina’s wedding is looming on the horizon and is taking more time in the planning than the Normandy invasion. He can zone out when its just talk, a skill most of us men can manage, but he cannot avoid being cajoled into clothes fittings and meeting the in laws. This is relatively small beer though; his boss Assistant Commissioner Gerald Camilleri is the man who can really make life difficult for him. George has become Gerald’s go to man when he needs a favour doing or a problem smoothing over. Camilleri always gets his way using the carrot and stick approach albeit a tiny carrot and a whopping big stick. George’s wife gets to attend prestigious events, which make her happy, whilst George is sent all over southern Europe for weeks at a time and in the face of danger.

The plot revolves around the search for Camilleri’s niece, Silvia, an eco-demonstrator who has gone missing in Sicily. Camilleri offers George the chance of being restored to the rank of Superintendent if he will go over and cast his expert eye over the investigation files to ensure the case is being investigated properly and taken seriously. George reluctantly accepts and heads off to put his head in the lion’s mouth again. This adventure involves an active Etna which is threatening a big eruption, corrupt police, the ‘Ndrangheta and a mysterious religious sect. The perfect ingredients for another magnificent geo-political thriller that the author excels at.

George our hapless policeman is a magnificent character. Much of the enjoyment comes from this accidental hero who always seems to succeed despite, rather than because of, his actions, leaving observers in awe of his skills. This time it is Camilleri’s turn to fall under his magic spell.

The series includes other great characters as well as George, the background of whom are filled out along the way. This time we learn much more of Camilleri, who even allowed George to call him Gerald when off duty! Here we learn a little of his upbringing and home life being able to see a softer side to him away from the scheming and skulduggery. Natasha Bonnuci is still able to pull his strings, she is still just as deadly but is a lower profile in this story. The Hawk’s influence is increasing and he is very much becoming Natasha’s literal partner in crime.

The injection of new characters helps to keep any series fresh and in Fire in the Mountain there are several. There is Lucy the doughty geo-scientist who is Silvia’s partner and whose expertise helps George. I won’t be surprised if these two women make a later appearance in the series. Then there is Diego the young, rotund and very clumsy police officer, whom the local officers regard as a joke, who is assigned to ‘help’ George. Diego provides some great light relief with some great slapstick performances but his enthusiasm is infectious as he falls under George’s spell.

The story buzzes along as if it were a race to get away from the lava flow itself, there is action and incident everywhere as dangerous situations crop up. Its not rushed though as there is time and space to breathe, to describe the magnificent setting and some of the delicious food. George always appears to have a ‘spare’ pastry in his pocket for moments of high stress like a Maltese Paddington Bear.

The themes are serious and bang up to date, energy security, fracking, organised crime and corruption. One wonders if Malta is the hotbed to foment these ideas or whether the author possesses a crystal ball. If Etna erupts this year my money is on the latter. The great skill is being able to knit all these serious themes into a cogent and entertaining story that is as good as anything produced by the greats of the genre.

There is also a sense of the modern rubbing up against the ancient like two tectonic plates. The modern is the exploitation of the volcano in the pursuit of clean energy for a green future; the ancient being the worship of the Mother Earth, in this case being Etna which brings life and death to the region. This is where the religious sect becomes significant, providing a metaphor for man’s abuse of the planet and our need to take heed of its warnings.

This intelligent geo-political thriller series just gets better, action packed but with moments of sublime comedy, Fire in the Mountain has it all. A must read.

Fire in the Mountain can be purchased direct from the publisher here.

The author

AJ Aberford has enjoyed a varied career, having been both a corporate and banking lawyer, owning and running a private investment company and founding a leading Yorkshire craft brewery. Changing direction again, he is now a debut author of the Inspector George Zammit crime and thriller series.

AJ Aberford still keeps his house in Yorkshire, but lives primarily in Malta, which is the inspiration for the Inspector George Zammit series. Upon moving there, he soon became enthralled by the culture and history of the island that acts as a bridge between Europe and North Africa.

Malta’s position at the sharp end of the migrant crisis, as well as the rapid growth of its commercial and offshore-financial sectors, provide a rich backdrop for his writing. The culture, politics and geography of the southern Mediterranean continually throws-up surprises in this fascinating part of the world, nothing is ever what it seems, with the lines between right and wrong often blurred and twisted.

AJ Aberford is married and has has two grown-up sons, as well as grandchildren. He is a keen cook, an adventurous traveller, a cyclist and is currently writing the fifth book in the Inspector George Zammit series.

Source: Author’s website

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

The Belfast Crime Case-Files Volume 1

By Phillip Jordan https://www.pwjordanauthor.com/ @pwjordanauthor

Published by Five Four Publishing

351 pages

Publication date 31 January 2023

This Kindle compilation comprises the first three books in the series, The Devil’s Elbow, Behind Closed Doors and Into Thin Air.

I was sent a copy of this Kindle compilation in exchange for a fair review.

From the blurb

The Devil’s Elbow

With the anniversary of one of The Troubles most infamous atrocities only days away, Detective Inspector Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Taylor and her team face another tense Halloween policing their divided city.

As pressure mounts to find the perpetrators behind a spate of illegal dumping, a mysterious witness puts Taylor and her colleagues on the trail of a missing student.

Will scepticism stop the investigation in its tracks, and is there a link between a university paranormal society and a case of coercive control?

Behind Closed Doors

Detective Inspector Veronica Taylor is summoned to assist in the aftermath of a horrific domestic incident.

With the suspect offering no opposition to the charges and with witness testimony and his own violent history stacking up against him, the charge officer deems the case open and shut.

As the victim’s influential Mother pressures her police contacts for a quick resolution and with only one lone dissenting voice speaking out, Taylor guided by her own intuition must uncover the circumstances leading up to the tragic events that played out Behind Closed Doors.

Into Thin Air

Aido Quinn went for a run and didn’t come back.

For his distraught wife, Aoife, the disappearance of a much loved family man has plunged her down a well of desperate grief. For his friend and business partner, Jackie Mahood, it brings deep distrust.

The discovery that Aido Quinn had been hiding personal financial troubles from them both and that his recent actions have put a valuable company expansion in jeopardy leave the business facing an uncertain future.

In the void left behind, family, friends and colleagues are torn in bitter conflict as they try to pick up the shattered pieces of Quinn’s seemingly selfish actions.

Detective Inspector Veronica Taylor investigates how a man who on the surface had it all; model wife, a young family and is the toast of his professional peers can suddenly vanish into thin air.

My thoughts

Phillip Jordan is an author with a distinctive writing style. It is deliberately stripped back and incisive, cutting straight to the core of the story. I have previously reviewed Agent in Place the first Taskforce Trident Mission File featuring Tom Shepard, a special forces style thriller, and this very focused approach was perfect for a edge of your seat thriller. The kind of book you won’t want to put down and one I suspect many readers will polish off in one sitting. Does this style work for crime fiction?

This compilation comprises three different stories, one a short story and two of novella length that are more like very short but complete novels. These three stories are completely different in content, something very welcome when it seems crime fiction must include at least a couple of murders and where serial killers are ten a penny.

The Devil’s Elbow draws on folklore and the paranormal. Most localities have a feature named and shrouded in superstition and hearsay (such as The Devil’s Bridge) and here is it refers to a particularly dangerous stretch of river. Naturally any deaths at this spot will be blamed on malign forces, the work of the Devil, even though it is the most dangerous spot. This comes into play in a dramatic finale infused with risk and danger. The supernatural element is provided by a university paranormal society, no doubt fuelled by all the ghost hunter shows that suffuse satellite TV, where all they seem to do is frighten each other, those pesky kids. There is also the input of a medium, who are always regarded as cranks until things get desperate and the police have no ideas. Nonsense of course, its all cold-reading and spotting tells, but then there is just occasionally an instance that has you thinking how they could possibly find that out. An entertaining story that just plants a little seed of doubt in it. Nicely judged.

Behind Closed Doors is a classic open and shut case, where there is pressure from on high to close it, to get a confession, but where doubt leaks in. A man arrested for killing his son and critically injuring his wife with a shot gun. He is traumatised, near catatonic at times, at other others he wants to know how they are and claims it was an accident, he was cleaning his shot gun. A man with some violence in his past and perhaps pent-up resentment and anger. The mother of the wife just happens to be head of the local Police Committee, which shouldn’t make any difference but of course it heaps more pressure on the investigating team. As the investigation gets deeper into their lives it uncovers the unexpected. A great story where things are not as they appear to be.

Into Thin Air is a case of literally that, a man appears to vanish on his morning run. Is he dead, is he injured with a lost memory, has he been kidnapped or has just gone on a break? This is a missing persons case that morphs into something else as information is uncovered. Fraud, improper dealing and emotional entanglements all come together in a case with one surprise after another. A story of how pressures can distort pipedreams and desires, where the goal you spend your life working towards may not be enough.

The minimalist style means that in any one story there isn’t a great deal of room for in depth character studies of the main players. However, over the three stories we do discover a surprising amount. DI Veronica Taylor is a determined and driven individual and this comes largely down from her parents. Her father, a policeman, was murdered by a booby-trapped bomb under his car and her mother died a year later, unable to come to terms with the loss, with a broken heart. This destruction of the foundations of her life is what drives Veronica on. She gets support from DS ‘Doc’ MacPherson colleague, mentor and at times surrogate father. Nicknamed ‘Doc’ after one of the Seven Dwarfs he may be short of stature but is big in heart, though the sort of man who would want this fact downplayed. An old school, old fashioned and unreconstructed man with a keen sense of right and wrong, who just gets the job done. It is Doc who is the catalyst for the light-hearted moments, the dodgy jokes and banter. He also possesses a prodigious appetite, with no stakeout complete without a takeaway.

Some readers will prefer more ‘meat on the bones’ but for me it’s all about the quality of the storytelling. Crime fiction doesn’t have to be 400 or 500 pages long, my journey into the genre started with the Maigret novels written by Georges Simenon, recognised as classics, and they were certainly on the short side.

Its good to have a bit of variety and The Belfast Crime Case-Files certainly provides that with three satisfying fast paced stories that still manage to surprise.

The Belfast Crime Case-Files Volume 1 can be purchased from Amazon here

The author

Phillip Jordan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He had a successful career in the Security Industry for twenty years before transitioning into the Telecommunications Sector.

Aside from writing in his spare time Phillip has competed in Olympic and Ironman Distance Triathlon events both Nationally and Internationally including a European Age-Group Championship and the World Police and Fire Games.

Phillip now lives on the County Down coast and is currently writing two novel series.

Source: Author’s Amazon profile

Quick reviews 1: #BadActors by #MickHerron #BlueNight by #SimoneBuchholz #ThunderBay by #DouglasSkelton

Some of the books I’ve read or listened to recently

Bad Actors by Mick Heron

Published by Baskerville on 12 May 2022

338 Pages

The eighth instalment of the Slough House series.

Format: I listened to the Audible audiobook version which is narrated brilliantly by Sean Barrett.

A new government advisor, a super forecaster, is recognized by a ‘milkman’ (a washed-up spy who keeps an eye on other older wash up spies). Except it surely can’t be, that was a KGB colonel, and she hasn’t aged a day in over 30 years.

Just another ‘normal’ day in life at Slough House. One in which Shirley summonses her inner domestic goddess and Roddy tries Star Wars cosplay as a way to a woman’s heart (and bed). Naturally the Svengali like influence of Jackson Lamb, like a reincarnated Bernard Manning ensures a positive outcome.

 The concept of government special advisors and those morally bankrupt at the top is expertly shot down with a satirical guided missile. Seamlessly switching between funny, crass, and vulgar the crosshairs never leave the target. One of the greatest series of the new millennium just gets better and the author is now reaching the audience his work richly deserves.

Blue Night by Simone Buchholz

Translated by Rachel Ward

Published by Orenda Books on 28 December 2017

182 Pages

The sixth instalment of the Chastity Riley series.

Format: I read the paperback version which I bought in the Easter Sale.

State Prosecutor Chastity Riley has been side-lined to keep her out of mischief, well she did shoot a gangster in the ‘crown jewels’. Riley is a strong independent woman and quickly bores of her new role of witness protection which is little more than babysitting crime victims. However, when she is assigned the case of an anonymous, badly beaten man who has had his right index finger hacked off, she is determined to make a connection. Gradually he opens and she heads off to Leipzig, following up his lead, where she finds a new police ally. Working together they might be able to bring down a major drugs importation gang and provide Faller with a crack at Hamburg’s Albanian mafia boss.

Another wonderful slice of Ms Buchholz’s unique take on German Noir. The prose is stripped back and minimalist, almost as if each word is carefully selected and mounted like a jeweller would a stone. The result is amazing with language that ebbs and flows but then forms unexpected patterns, like Dave Brubeck experimenting with jazz time signatures. The dialogue is nice and crunchy like the best noir, with a hard edge and often a leftfield slant to it. Ms Ward again does amazing work on the translation to keep the form and poetic qualities of the prose.

Chastity Riley is a wonderful character, a woman taking on men and beating them at their own game but still retaining a vulnerable side. Tight plots and inventive situations promise a surprise with every turn of the page. The brevity and directness may not to be everyone’s liking but all I can say is wow.

Thunder Bay by Douglas Skelton

Published by Polygon on 7 March 2019

333 pages

The first instalment of the Rebecca Connolly series.

Format: I read the Kobo format eBook.

Mary Drummond is dead, and it seems likely that her son Roddie will return to the island of Stoirm for the first time in many years to pay his respects. He has been in self-imposed exile after he was tried for the murder of his girlfriend, Mhairi Sinclair, in a case which produced the Scottish third verdict of ‘not proven.’ Most on the Island believe him to be a guilty man and his return will stir up intense passions. Aspiring journalist Rebecca Connolly senses a story and sets off to Stoirm, but she also has an ulterior motive. Rebecca’s father was a native of the Island but left as a young man and refused to return or talk about his time there or why he left.

The portrayal of life on a small island is perfectly captured here as we get the juxtaposition of the lonely and desolate alongside the claustrophobia of living in a tightknit community and the paranoia it can breed. Problems and disputes on the Island are settled here not on the mainland. The business of Stoirm stays on Stoirm and people are judged by their peers. Overall, there is a feeling of darkness and foreboding to the novel which intensifies as the plot progresses. Likewise, the themes are dark and serious a hint at still having a foot in the past as change and progress is slow as well religious intolerance. Rebecca’s family secret is the darkest of all.

A mix of modern problems and historic wrongdoings blended perfectly to produce an intelligent story of morality and person strength, where doing the right thing now may cause suffering but far less than that experienced in the future. Serious, dark and at times harrowing but with jewels of sparkling Scottish wit. A truly impressive piece of fiction that could easily have its roots in fact.

Agent in Place by Phillip Jordan

Published by Five Four Publishing on 30 December 2019

162 pages

A Taskforce Trident Mission File: the first instalment of the Tom Shephard series.

Format: I read the paperback version gifted to me by the author in a Twitter prize (remember if you don’t enter you can’t win).

Dr Feriha Najir is a covert assent of western intelligence services codenamed Kestrel. She holds evidence of Russian involvement in a massacre of villagers by a pro-government militia given to her by a journalist. The evidence needs to be seen but Kestrel’s cover is blown, she needs immediate extraction. Tom Shephard’s team are called in to carry out the work, but hostile forces prevent it. Tom makes a split-second decision to leap from the helicopter and get feet on the ground in a desperate attempt to keep Kestrel alive. Fighting their way across hostile territory to a back up extraction site they link up with local militia. Together they take on government supporting militia and their Russian ‘advisors’ and discover more than they bargained for.

The style is stripped back but even so the reader gets a good feel of both the life on military camp and within hostile territory. The military sections feel convincing (don’t let the code names and acronyms put you off) as does the dialogue and banter between the characters. You get a sense of the camaraderie between men (and women) who put their lives in the hands of others. The action pieces are good, they don’t fall into the silly gung-ho territory of Rambo and fans of military hardware will be purring at the boy’s toys and weaponry. In amongst all the action difficult questions are posed such as whose side is anyone really on and do they really know what they are trying to achieve? Once all the violence ends someone will have to work to put things back together.

A very short novel but feels much more than a novella. It’s an intense and action packed read which is pacy and relentless. A genuine thriller but one that recognises the human cost of conflict.

The Hand That Feeds You #MercedesRosende #TheHandThatFeedsYou

By Mercedes Rosende @mujerequivocada

Translated by Tim Gutteridge @TimG_translator

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

271 pages 9781913394745

Publication date 23 February 2023

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 @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and Publisher.

The cover

Early evening traffic, fairly unremarkable but I love the strapline ‘murder and mayhem in Montevideo’. That grabbed my attention.

From the blurb

The attempted robbery of the armoured car in the back streets of Montevideo is a miserable failure. A lucky break for the intrepid Ursula Lopez who manages to snatch all the loot, more hindered than helped by her faint-hearted and reluctant companion Diego. Only now, the wannabe robbers are hot on her heels. As is the police. And Ursula’s sister. But Ursula turns out to be enormously talented when it comes to criminal undertakings, and given the hilarious ineptitude of those in pursuit, she might just pull it off. She is an irresistible heroine. A murderess with a sense of humour, a lovable criminal with an edge and she is practically invisible to the men who dominate the deeply macho society of Uruguay.

My thoughts

In the last twelve months I have made a conscious effort to broaden the geographical horizons of my crime reading and I am doing well. The Blog has covered plenty of Scandinavian noir of course, but also some Antipodean and a few from Latin America. So, the opportunity of a stop off in Montevideo Uruguay was too good to turn down, not that I know much about the place other than some rather brutal footballers from the past.

The story is an unusual one, essentially taking place after the heist rather than covering its planning and execution. In that there is some connection with the movie Reservoir Dogs but the similarities end there, as this is entirely different in style. it can perhaps be summed up as the pursuit of the loot, as corrupt law officers have publicly said that all involved were killed in the scene and the money destroyed in the raid. One of the raiders, Diego, has the money and the plot revolves around a group of people trying to get their hands on it. A simple plot but one that is cleverly constructed and executed, one that piques the reader’s curiosity and feels rather devious right up to the clever finale.

It’s the characters that bring the story to life and a right oddball collection they are. The heroine Ursula is an attractive if slightly overweight woman of 48 who translates poetry for a living and maintains a love-hate relationship with the spirit of her dead father. Described by him as a black hole she is unreadable but also strong willed and inventive. Her sister Luz is beautiful, slender and glamorous, rich by marriage and in the process of trading up in model. Diego is so highly strung as to be a liability, his anxiety level is off the scale has he trying to lay low with the money for a month. He is indebted to Ursula who saved his life by shooting fellow robber ‘Hobo’. How Ursula came to be at the original crime scene is serendipitous and one I will leave the reader to discover.

In pursuit are a corrupt detective and a borderline psychopathic lawyer, who is handy with a rocket propelled grenade, responsible for masterminding the raid. Of course, nothing in life is simple though. Luz believes Ursula may know more about the death of their Aunt Irene and so employs a private detective to follow her, and what an unusual gumshoe this proves to be. Not all police are corrupt, and a female Captain doesn’t buy the explanations of her superior and though warned off the case, in true good cop fashion follows up in her own time. A veritable conga line of people who are either after a suitcase stuffed with cash, or the people who are after the cash. This results in some fabulous interactions as their paths cross and converge. Even love manages to blossom in this unlikely setting.

The tone is light, it’s a crime caper rather than an investigation into the dark hearts of criminals. The humour is nicely judged being more farce (like kidnappers falling asleep) than of a jet-black hue. The translator has clearly done a great job in keeping the prose light and entertaining. There is even a cheeky self-reference as lawyer Antinucci leafs through some crime novels and decides to purchase Crocodile Tears, the novel before this one. A nice bit of chutzpah, well why not.

The perspective is quite unusual, there are sections in first person, but mainly it is third person. However, the third person is more of a narrator, with a jokey and friendly persona, observing events and describing them whilst occasionally doing the written equivalent of breaking the fourth wall. Quirky and distinctive it works well.  

As a setting Old Town Montevideo is lovingly portrayed with its old style classical, albeit somewhat faded, beauty. Picturesque and photogenic, part colonial, part modernised but without the poverty and decrepit seediness of Havana. A city where Punta Carretas Prison, close to the centre, can be demolished are replaced by a shopping mall, gone but not forgotten as the reader discovers.

The Hand That Feeds You is a quirky crime caper, entertainingly written with more than a dash of Latin flair. Another winner from the inventive Bitter Lemon Press.

The Hand That Feeds You can be purchased via the publisher’s website here

The author

Mercedes Rosende was born in 1958 in Montevideo, Uruguay. She is a lawyer and a journalist when not writing fiction. She has won many prizes for her novels and short
stories. In 2005 she won the Premio Municipal de Narrativa für Demasiados Blues, in 2008 the National Literature Prize for La Muerte Tendrá tus Ojos and in 2019 the LiBeraturpreis in Germany for Crocodile Tears.

The translator

Tim Gutteridge is a Scottish literary translator based in Edinburgh. He works from Spanish and Catalan into English. His translation of Potosí (Ander Izagirre) won a PEN Translates Award and was published by Zed Books as The Mountain that Eats Men.

Don’t forget to check out the previous reviews on this Blog Tour: