Author: steven

A Little Life

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A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 
This is a very big book!! Just to give you a warning! Another warning is that this is not for the faint hearted and carries within it a very dark and disturbing reality which doesn’t get a full reveal until a long way through the book. It’s the tale of a group of friends who have just finished university and set up home together in New York. They have very strong connections with each other and we trace them through their professional careers and relationships. We have an artist, a lawyer, an actor and one who doesn’t need to work as he has wealthy parents. All the characters are interesting but the author increasingly focuses on Jude who is a very damaged soul both physically and mentally. We will him to enjoy life. We delight in his relationships with adoptive parents and lover…

The experience of entering Jude’s life is like becoming part of an obsession you can’t shake off, even when reading becomes painful .

Once you are hooked , and if you have a strong stomach, you will be unable to concentrate on anything else till the book is finished.

EM

Olive Ketteridge

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Olive Ketteridge by Elizabeth Strout

This a book which creeps up on you quietly although you can actually tell from the very first page that the writing is poetic yet absolutely clear and very readable. You wonder where the eponymous heroine is on this first of a collection of short stories all based in small town America….. Olive only gets a brief mention whereas her long suffering husband is centre stage. As the book progresses from middle to old age however we see the everyday trials and tribulations of this feisty and ultimately sympathetic heroine. We see her dealings with her neighbours, with a returned depressive native son and utterly central to the unfolding tale the relationship with both her husband and her own son who does his best to escape. The book became utterly riveting and even though I am not a fan of short stories the way these connected held me completely gripped. A must read particularly for those of us of a certain age !

EM

The Madness of July

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The Madness of July by James Naughtie is a cracking spy novel set in London in the 70’s. Quite a lot of journalists seem to turn their hand to writing a novel, Naughtie has done a great job with this.

This is a complex cold war novel, you are never quite sure what is going on and the plot has plenty of apparent red herrings which all come together at the end. Not quite at the level of Le Carre’s Smiley but very very good and definitely worth a read.

4/5

Yellowthread Street

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Yellowthread Street by William Marshall is the first in a series of hilarious crime fiction set in Hong Kong in the 60’s. The first 3 books in the series have just been republished by Farrago.

Think of Hill Street Blues meets Ed McBain with a touch of Jackie Chan. Yellowthread Street is short, violent and gonzo funny, a good holiday read and probably a series that could be rediscovered and become quite cultish.

3.5 out of 5 but could go up after reading a couple more

Dodgers

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Dodgers by Bill Beverly was billed as “a powerful debut literary crime novel”.

Easy is a tough kid working for an LA drugs crew managing the look outs for a crack den. When the den gets busted he is forced out of LA on a road trip with three others with the aim of murdering a key witness against the head of the drugs gang. Think road trip, right of passage, and gang psychology.

Dodgers is good dark stuff, I’m not sure that I agree with some of the rave reviews that I read before buying it. Half way through it had lost it’s novelty and I wanted it to be over but it was good enough that I would give Beverly a second read when his next novel is published

3/5

Time Heals No Wounds

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Time Heals No Wounds by Hendrik Falkenberg (translated  from the original German by Patrick Brown) is a good police procedural with a couple of twists.

The central character Hannes is a newly appointed detective working his first murder case with a quirky and crotchety older officer who is nearing retirement. Standard fare but nicely portrayed and the developing relationship combined with the insecurity of Hannes adds some personality to the novel. Lurking behind the murder is the shadow of the victim’s family and the relationship between their family chemicals business and the Nazi government. Any more and I might spoil it for you.

This is a good novel, the threads in the plot are absorbing even if they have been used by others many times before. I would read  more from Falkenberg.

4/5

The Dark Forest

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The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu is the second part of the “Three-Body Problem” trilogy. This is much more ‘straight’ scifi with less Cultural Revolution than the first part, it is very very good though.

This is classic scifi, alien invasion pending, how does earth come together to defend itself sort of stuff, but with the twist that the plot evolves over a 400 year period with people knowing that the invasion is approaching and unable to prevent it (or are they?). There are some thought provoking ideas around characters hibernating and then awakening a century later and having to adapt to dramatically changed technologies and societal organisation which have resonance for the older generations of today who may struggle to cope with the pace of technological innovation.

A cracking scifi novel, I will grab the final part of the trilogy when it is published later this year. No plot busters please from people who have already read in the Chinese.

4.5/5

 

The man who wanted to know

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I thought ‘The man who wanted to know‘ by DA Mishani, a police procedural set in Tel Aviv (although it could be set any where as there is nothing particularly Israeli about this novel), sounded like an interesting read.

Avi, the lead character has just been promoted to head up an investigations team, that gets called to the murder of an elderly lady in a  locked room. He is plagued with self doubt as to his own abilities, a struggling relationship with his girlfriend and a boss who doesn’t want him to follow leads that point to a rogue policeman at the heart of the case.

I have to confess that by half way I didn’t want to know who had done it or what happened to the characters. It’s not terrible but Mishani is going to have to step up his game if there are more of these to follow.

2.5/5

The Riddle of the Sands

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The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers is a mystery set at the start of the 20th Century, apparently it has become something of a cult novel amongst those fascinated by early spy novels. I haven’t been tempted to join the cult following despite the combination of a mystery with a novel set aboard a small yacht (I enjoy sailing as well as reading, reading whilst sailing on a fair day may be close to heaven).

I really can’t be bothered to try and describe the plot, upper class twits  in a yacht puzzled by some mysterious Germans who may or may not be plotting something. I suppose it describes the growing paranoia in the build up to the Great War. I found this slow paced, overly descriptive and not massively absorbing. I kept going with an expectation that I would ‘get it’ but just ended up breathing a sigh of relief at the end.

1.5/5 Don’t bother

The Body on the Doorstep

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The Body on the Doorstep by AJ Mackenzie is an excellent historical mystery. Set in the Romney Marshes at the end of the 18th century the plot combines a murder, the local community of smugglers, the corrupt and dysfunctional customs services with the threat of a French invasion. Smugglers, spies and toss in a drunken vicar as a detective.

This is an enjoyable read, lots of interesting historical detail, engaging characters and plenty of twists to the plot. There is definitely potential for a series based on these characters and setting, I would like to read more.

4/5