Murder at Holly House #DenzilMeyrick #MurderAtHollyHouse

By Denzil Meyrick https://denzilmeyrick.com/ @Lochlomonden

Published by Bantam, Transworld Books @TransworldBooks (a division of Penguin Random House UK https://www.penguin.co.uk/)

368 pages ISBN 9781787637184

Publication date 9 November 2023

I was allowed access to a pdf review copy on Net Galley in exchange for a fair review. I would like to thank Net Galley https://www.netgalley.com/ @NetGalley, and of course the Author and Publisher for granting this access.

The Cover

A cover that conjures up the ‘golden period’ of crime fiction with a cracking strap line “In a village of lies… death comes with the snow”. All quite fitting for this period piece, I like it.

My thoughts

The first point for the pedants, is it a Christmas story? Well for those of you who still question whether ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie (it is) I believe it is. It is set in December 1952 during the run up to Christmas and the land is covered with a thick blanket of snow, which is good enough for me. That said it can be difficult to tell these days with the shops stocking Christmas gifts from October, and I managed to buy hot cross buns in November. It’s the 2020’s and life is all mixed up, things were more straightforward back in 1952 weren’t they?

I’ve been a fan of the author’s DCI Daley series from the beginning and so was curious to see what this novel would bring, being based in Yorkshire and historical. Through Twitter I was aware of his family links to my home City Hull so I wondered if it would be included within; I was not to be disappointed. Curious is an appropriate adjective as this very engaging novel is a bit like a Victorian cabinet of curiosities with plenty of appealing oddities.

The story only came to light when a distant cousin of Frank Grasby was sent some crates from the home of his late parents. In searching through all the paperwork enclosed he discovers the unpublished Memoirs of Inspector Frank Grasby along with several police reports, telexes and memorandum. From this the author has managed to piece together this tale…

Frank Grasby is a bit of a bumbling buffoon of a policeman working in York. He is prone to mishaps and lapses of judgement for which he has something of a reputation. After one too many cock up Superintendent Arthur Juggers decides it is time for Frank to be moved away for a short while for the benefit of everyone. Frank is chilled, he dreads being posted to Hull, and more importantly the beat down Hessle Road tackling ‘three day millionaires’ the drunken trawlermen briefly ashore between voyages. To Frank’s relief it’s not Hull but Elderby in rural North Yorkshire where he is to investigate a series of thefts from farms. Now what could possibly go wrong here? Well, he does find a body stuck up a chimney, but thankfully it’s not Santa Claus…

So, we have the spoof journal of a hapless fool who manages to get himself into The Yorkshire Post for all the wrong reasons. The start of the novel is very funny as we discover his errors and terrible attempts at excuses, not to mention the strange foibles of his character. Here is a middle-class snob who doesn’t pay respect to his seniors but expects it from subordinates. A man who is ‘all piss and wind’ at times hopelessly ineffectual but still not without some charm. A complete embarrassment but also an accidental hero we can warm to.

The characters are wonderfully drawn, as eclectic as they are colourful. Towards the end of the story, we discover that some of these characters are not who they appear to be, which results in a beautifully chaotic finale.

There is the widow Mrs Gaunt who runs the guest house which is dark and spooky (though it is spooks of another variety play a part in the tale) whose companion is Cecil, a crow who perches on her shoulder. Sergeant Bleakly is a war hero, he served in Burma with Orde Wingate in the Chindits, but he now has a condition which means he falls asleep at inopportune times. Also at the station is Daisy Dean (Dee Dee) an American intern who has the looks to turn heads. She may appear to be sweet and demure but there is steel under the surface, a woman not to be taken at face value.

The dialogue is peppered with beautifully dated language where men are good chaps or coves, and ‘oh I say there old chap’ would be considered a firm rebuke. The plot quickly transforms from simple robbery with the discovery of murder and then into a spiffing Boy’s Own story (keeping in the spirit of the novel there). All the while Frank is a couple of steps behind the action and getting hints at a mysterious past in Elderby. Why is there drawing on the wall in Frank’s room at Mrs Gaunt’s which includes a man who looks remarkably like his father the Reverend Grasby?

Overall, this novel is intended to be jolly good fun and that it certainly is. Packed with gentle humour, buffoonery, a bit of slapstick and the occasional flash of danger, it brings a sense of feel-good satisfaction. I could see this book having wide appeal and appearing in many Christmas stockings. I dare say a few copies will be intended as gifts but end up being kept once the buyer skims the first few chapters! It’s the sort of book I would come back to, and I feel sure the author will be able to piece together some more hair-raising tales from Frank’s memoirs.

Take a quirky cast of characters, liberally soak with humour and the add a dash of action, combine and bake on a medium heat and you end up with Murder at Holly House, a perfect Christmas mystery that can be enjoyed anytime.

Murder at Holly House can be purchased direct from the customer here

The author

Denzil Meyrick was born in Glasgow and brought up in Campbeltown. After studying politics, he pursued a varied career including time spent as a police officer, freelance journalist, and director of several companies.

Beginning with Whisky from Small Glasses, then The Last Witness, Dark Suits and Sad Songs, The Rat Stone Serenade, and Well of the Winds, the DCI Daley series have all become Scottish Crime bestsellers. Whisky from Small Glasses reached #2 in the UK Kindle store in 2016.

An anthology of short stories, One Last Dram was published in late 2017.

The Daley series to date have all been number one bestselling UK audiobooks on Audible. DCI Daley #6 The Relentless Tide and #7 A Breath on Dying Embers one of the Scotsman newspaper’s books of 2018 and 2019. A Breath On Dying Embers was longlisted for the 2019 McIlvanney Prize.

Source: Amazon profile

No Less The Devil

By Stuart MacBride https://www.stuartmacbride.com/

Published by Bantam Press (an imprint of Penguin Random House) https://www.penguin.co.uk/

480 pages ISBN 9781787634909

Publication date 28 April 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

‘We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.’

Synopsis

Operation Maypole has stalled. It is seventeen months since the serial killer ‘The Bloodsmith’ first struck and the police are getting nowhere. The press is brewing up a media storm and the ‘High Heidyins’ at police HQ desperately want a result. It’s the sort of case that can make a career, but more likely it seems, sink one without trace. The case is passed to DCI Ross to handle, and he foists it on to DI Tudor.

Tudor is relying on his team to get the required result and DS Lucy McVeigh and DC Duncan (Dunk) Fraser keep getting the short straw.

Lucy has problems of her own and when the recently released killer Benedict Strachan appears begging for her help they multiply rapidly. When Benedict was eleven, he and an accomplice stabbed to death a homeless man in a dark side street one night. Benedict was caught and convicted but never revealed the identity of the other child with him and now released from prison is convinced ‘they’ are out to get him. Is he just paranoid or are there really two monstrous killers out there?

Lucy and Dunk’s search takes the from the dangerous streets of Kingsmeath to a version of Hogwarts for the children of the rich and influential.

My thoughts

Back to fictional Oldcastle but this time not an Ash Henderson novel. Here we have new characters in the form of DS Lucy McVeigh and DC Duncan (Dunk) Fraser to keep us entertained and they certainly do that!

It treads familiar ground for regular MacBride novels in that the main character is a troubled cop (think Logan Macrae) who is saddled with a slightly barnpot side kick (think Tufty or Alice). Lucy’s problems stem from a girl’s night out and an apparent White Knight being nothing of the sort. The ordeal of Lucy and her friend are particularly harrowing, with no punches being pulled by the author. Strong stuff indeed but not gratuitous. This seems to explain Lucy’s erratic behaviour and motivations but of course there is always a little something extra added to the mix. The ‘Dunk’ provides plenty of light relief him being unfit and a short arse with a propensity to dress like a 1960s beat poet. The butt of some jokes but no fool, more the Ying to Lucy’s Yang.

As with most of his work it is the author’s ability in mixing dark and light is what impresses. He can convincingly describe the grotty side of life in Scotland’s housing schemes and some the lowlife that add to this misery. The murders are gory and gruesome and sometimes quite inventive. These are always unflinchingly described making the novels not for the highly sensitive.

Then just when everything seems to be bleak and desolate, he resorts to humour which unerringly hits the spot. As usual there is plenty of dark, gallows type humour but also moments of the daft, strange, or surreal. Fancy including a barman known as ‘Hedgehog Dundee’ but not elaborating on it or having Lucy resorting to using her late father’s pink Bedford Rascal van complete with dancing sausages logo which everyone describes as copulating. I’m a fan and find it inspired stuff though not for everyone’s taste, I guess.

The dialogue is the usual mixture of snappy one-liners mixed with his trademark stream of consciousness ramblings in the background. At the flat of the third victim the new renter is unaware of the murder that happened in his bathroom, so whilst Lucy and Dunk are investigating, he is on the phone in the background ranting to his wife about the estate agent. Also, there are the interruptions of the cheesy local radio every time they are in the car. I can’t work out if this is out of love or hate for that form of the media, but it adds extra layer to the overall feel.

There are several damaged characters in the novel who are sympathetically handled, though one is considerably darker than the rest.  

As you are reading its progresses as you might expect a typical Stuart MacBride book to, perhaps a little formulaic for some but packed with just what his readers have come to expect. Then at 75% through it starts to get a little bit strange. At 80% in the author borrows Spinal Tap’s guitarist Nigel Tufnel’s amp and turns it up to eleven (“It’s one louder, isn’t it?”) and it gets totally insane. It would be difficult to explain without a spoiler but certainly everything is suddenly turned on its head. I expect this will divide opinion, but I loved it. It’s not often you can read a book by an established novelist whose work you are familiar with and think I never saw that coming.

A crime novel packed with light and dark, brutality and laugh out loud humour, peaking with a totally unexpected twist. Fingers crossed for a follow up!

The author

Stuart MacBride is the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae and Ash Henderson novels. He’s also published standalones, novellas, and short stories, as well as a slightly twisted children’s picture book for slightly twisted children. Stuart lives in the northeast of Scotland with his wife Fiona, cats Gherkin, Onion and Beetroot, some hens, some horses, and an impressive collection of assorted weeds. 

No Less The Devil can be purchased direct from the author here

Red Traitor #OwenMatthews #RedTraitor

By Owen Matthews

Narrated by Mark Bramhall https://www.markbramhall.com/

Published by Bantam Press (Penguin) www.penguin.co.uk

336 pages ISBN 9781787634961

Publication date 29 July 2021

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

From the blurb

The year is 1962, and KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin is searching for ghosts: for evidence of the long-rumoured existence of an American spy embedded at the highest echelons of Soviet power. But it’s while on this wild goose chase, a high-stakes espionage race against a rival State agency, that Vasin first hears whispers of an ominous top-secret undertaking: Operation Anadyr.

As tensions flare between Nikita Khrushchev and President Kennedy over Russian missiles hidden in Cuba, four Soviet submarines – each carrying tactical ballistic missiles armed with thermonuclear warheads – are ordered to make a covert run at the U.S. blockade in the Caribbean . . .

Synopsis

The first Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K19 already has a reputation for bad luck before its maiden voyage, with several deaths taking place during its construction.  After less than a year of service it develops a fault with its cooling system and nuclear disaster is only averted by jury-rigging a new cooling system.  This comes at a high cost though with 22 men ultimately killed through exposure to radioactive steam.  Deputy commander Vasili Arkhipov though physically unharmed is greatly affected by this experience.

The Soviets believe there is a mole operating at the top of the security services and Alexander Vasin is instructed to dig him out.

Due to a shortage of long range Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles the Soviet high command hatch a plan to negate this by installing missiles on the island of Cuba in the United States’ back yard.  They are of course discovered and the United States blockade Cuba; the Cuban Missile Crisis is born.

The Soviets attempt to breach the blockade with four traditional diesel-electric submarines each armed with 21 conventional torpedoes and 1 special weapon a nuclear tipped torpedo.  They are tracked down and submarine B59 is surrounded by 11 destroyers and a carrier of the US fleet who drop signalling depth charges to try to make it surface.  Effectively out of power Captain Savitsky of the B59 with the agreement of political officer Maslennikov could use the special weapon but Arkhipov who is only number two onboard but has overall control over the flotilla knows what carnage this will create.  Can he win the battle of wills onboard and thereby prevent a nuclear disaster?

My thoughts

I enjoy books in which real life figures are woven into a fictional narrative.  In recent years (the much missed) Philip Kerr was a master of this placing Bernie Gunther convincingly within the action of the German war machine.  This novel goes a step further in being more of a fictional dramatization of real events.

Submarine warfare and disasters has provided rich pickings for makers of film and television fiction but capturing the tension and claustrophobia onboard in print is a different matter.  A 300+ page story based solely on a submarine would be a taxing and difficult read.  The introduction of the mole hunt into the plot to add to the submarine incidents breaks up this narrative and gives it some variety.

The plot unfolds from the point of view of the Soviets, which is always a refreshing change.  It is clearly meticulously researched as can be seen by the comprehensive Authors’ notes section at the end of the book.  He manages to balance the telling of tense story, that has an authentic feel to it, without denigrating the memories of those involved, in some cases by introducing fictional characters to avoid doing so.  However, it remains a work of fiction though and reads like a traditional espionage story rather than a Cold War history book.

The pacing of the plot varies as there is much to fit in with the K19 disaster and the mole hunt before it concentrates on the B59 incident where the intensity is ratcheted up which overall works out just about right.  The author does a great job in building up the tension especially as we already know that nuclear disaster was averted.  It has been said many times before that this was the closest the world came to all out nuclear war and after listening to this and doing some careful background reading, prompted by the author notes, I can well believe it. 

The subsequent assassination of JFK and the thousands of conspiracy theory books and television programmes have overwhelmed the Cuban Missile Crisis as a historical incident.  Yes, there have been books and films covering the incident before (including a documentary ‘The Man Who Saved  the World’ about Arkhipov) but it feels as if it is now just relegated to a footnote of history like the Bag of Pigs invasion as part of the JFK story.  Arkhipov was clearly a very honourable and brave man to risk his career and life by making the decision which could have sent him to the gulag.  Thankfully he made the right call thereby saving the lives of many and is rightly recognised in the western world.

The narration style of Mark Bramhall is level and somewhat understated which is perfect for the subject matter.  His Russian pronunciations, to this non speaker, seemed genuine and he didn’t fall into the trap of sinister Russian comedy accents.  Sometimes less is more really does apply. As a listener to a great many audiobooks this is one narrator I will keep an eye open for.

This was an enjoyable read and a fitting testament to a brave man. One for Cold War espionage fans.