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Archive for August, 2020

‘The October List’ by Jeffery Deaver

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , on August 31, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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This audiobook, narrated by Todd Boyce, follows an unusual format, in that it starts at the end of the story and then goes backwards in time, with each chapter being set earlier than the previous one. It’s an interesting idea, and I’m not sure that it completely worked. The ending (or the beginning, as it were) was very satisfying and provided lots of ‘aha!’ and ‘wow!’ moments, but for the first few chapters (or indeed the last few!) it was confusing and somewhat frustrating. Jeffery Deaver has written some excellent books, and I don’t think this is one of them. It was good in the end, but I was tempted to give up on it after listening for the first hour or so.

Anyhow, the story revolves around a woman named Gabriella MacKenzie, sitting in a room with a man who is obviously there to look after her, while she anxiously awaits to hear if her kidnapped daughter Sarah has been rescued. Sarah was taken by a mysterious man named Joseph, who demands a huge sum of money and a mysterious document called The October List, which Gabriella’s boss has ownership of, and which contains details of people he had been dealing with in criminal financial activity. The boss has disappeared with the list and with Joseph’s – and several other people’s money – and Joseph wants it back. The story covers Gabriella and her new boyfriend Daniel’s attempts to retrieve the mysterious list and get it to Joseph before her daughter comes to any harm.

The narration was fine and the story was clever, but as mentioned above I’m not sure I would read something else written in this format. Normally when people are introduced into a story, there is some background or information provided about them which gives the reader an idea of the role they are going to play. Not so here however; characters are introduced with no explanation of how they fit into this story. It’s kind of like piecing together a jigsaw without ever having seen the picture you’re trying to make.

So a bit of a mixed bag. If you manage to get halfway through then it’s definitely worth sticking with it, but be prepared to be a bit lost at first.

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‘Scottsboro’ by Ellen Feldman

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scottsboro is fact based fiction. It tells the story of the nine Scottsboro boys – nine young black men who were wrongfully convicted several times over, of raping two young women on a train in the American south in 1931. The colour of their skin ensured their guilty verdict, even when one of the girls retracted her statement and admitted that they had both lied about the rape.

The main narrator of the book is a (fictional) journalist named Alice Whittier, who covers the trial and tries to help in seeking justice for the boys. Parts are also narrated by Ruby Bates, the girl who admitted that she and her accomplice Victoria Price, had lied about being raped.

I think it is a skilful piece of writing, expertly blending fact and fiction. It will make you outraged at the absolutely blatant racism against the young men, (and also at the blatant sexism against the women in the story). It’s very eloquently written and I found it easy to lose myself in the pages, and hard to put the book down at times. However, while I could certainly see the usefulness of Alice as a character – her job entitles her to sit in the court while the trials were taking place, and to get to know Ruby and the nine Scottsboro boys – I did feel that unnecessary details about Alice’s personal life intruded somewhat. Of course people want a well rounded character, but certain events which she wrote about, just stalled the narrative.

However, anyone who is interested in civil rights and how they can be denied based solely on the colour of one’s skin (and this is not something that should come as a surprise to anyone) could do worse than read this book. I would recommend.

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‘Dirty Little Secrets’ by Jo Spain

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , on August 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated extremely well by Michele Moran.

In the exclusive gated community of Withered Vale in Dublin, one of the occupants is found dead, having lain undiscovered in her home for three months. When it becomes obvious that her death was no accident, detectives Frank Brazil and Emma Child suspect that the culprit is one of her neighbours. As they interview the residents, it becomes clear that each of them had secrets which Olive had discovered, and all of them had reason to have killed her.

The narration alternates between all of the neighbours (seven houses in all) including Olive herself from beyond the grave, and the two detectives. This sounds like a lot of characters to keep straight, but Jo Spain did a super job of giving each character a distinctive voice. It’s true that Olive was clearly a deluded and often deeply unpleasant character, but I’m not sure that this is a community anyone would want to be part of! Some of the neighbours had more damaging and salacious secrets than others as you would expect, and each of them had had a falling out with Olive.

My favourite characters were the two detectives, who despite being of different eras and opinions, formed a respect and appreciation for each other.

I was kept guessing right until the end, and the ending itself did come as a surprise. Overall, a great listen and I would definitely read or listen to more by Jo Spain.

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‘As Meat Loves Salt’ by Maria McCann

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , , on August 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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I read Maria McCann’s novel The Wilding several years ago, in just a couple of sittings (most of it was read on a flight to Italy so I had little else to distract me). I had quite enjoyed that book so expected much of the same of As Meat Loves Salt, which was McCann’s debut novel. However, apart from the genre of historical fiction, there was little similar about these books. I far preferred As Meat Loves Salt, which is easily the darker of the two novels.

Set in the early years of the English Civil War, the anti-hero and narrator is Jacob Cullen, a man who is in domestic service with his two brothers, although they were originally born into wealth. Having committed murder (don’t worry, this is revealed in the first few pages and is not a spoiler), Jacob flees with his new wife and one of his brothers, but when things go wrong he finds himself joining the New Model Army fighting in the ongoing war, and befriending the enigmatic fellow soldier Christopher Ferris.

After they leave the New Model Army, Ferris returns to his home in London and offers Jacob a home there. For fear of spoiling the story for anyone who wants to read this book, I’ll not reveal more, except to say that things get very dark very quickly. Emotions run extremely high and Jacob in particular has little success in controlling his feelings. To say he is quick to anger is an understatement. He is a large, strong man, capable of committing much physical harm, and almost a slave to his own violent tendencies. He always acts without thinking and no matter how much he regrets his outbursts later, he is seeming unable to control his rage when it bubbles up inside him.

For all that he is a man who one would wish to avoid, he’s not the only one in this book. Ferris is charming and well meaning, but mercurial and manipulative. I actually cared for him very little, but the relationship between him and Jacob was a fascinating one. (It has just occurred to me that the women in this book come across by and large far better than the men.)

The one thing I would have liked to have known more about was the fate of Zeb – without giving anything away, I did think he would feature more than he did, and that there was an interesting story. If Maria McCann ever feels like writing the story from his point of view, I would definitely be interested in reading it.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book. It’s not an easy read, and there are a few very violent scenes. But it’s well written with a not very likeable but always interesting narrator – if this is the kind of book that appeals to you, I would give this one a try.

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‘The Shape of Lies’ by Rachel Abbott

Posted in Book Reviews, tagged , , , , , on August 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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I listened to this audiobook over the course of a week. It’s narrated by Lisa Coleman, who did an excellent job. This psychological crime thriller is apparently the eighth in a series featuring DCI Tom Douglas, and had I known that going in, I may well have skipped it; I have always felt that book series needed to be read in order from the beginning. However, it didn’t matter one iota – clearly there is a backstory to Tom’s personal life but it’s all explained clearly enough, and this book could actually serve as a standalone novel.

The story centres, and is largely narrated by, Anna Franklyn – mother, wife, headteacher, and a respected member of the community. As she is driving to work one day, Anna hears a voice from her past on a phone in radio show – that of her ex-boyfriend Scott, who says he is going to phone back in a weeks time and tell the story of himself and his lost love ‘Spike’ and their tragic relationship. The only problem is….Scott died 14 years earlier, taking Anna’s most guarded secrets with him…and now it seems he is here and ready to expose her past. Anna has a week to find out what happened to Scott, and to stop him ruining her life.

The narrative jumps forwards and backwards between Then (14 years earlier) and Now, and also includes chapters written in the third person which focus on the police investigation.

I actually really enjoyed this book. Yes, it is fairly implausible, and I did guess the twist about halfway through, but it was a well told story which did a good job of illustrating how a young naive woman found herself in such a predicament all those years ago. I HATED the character of Scott, but he was far from the worst character in the story. I felt sorry for Anna, but also wanted to shake her and tell her to get a grip! I’m not going to reveal any spoilers because the ending, although partly predictable, was still written well, and there was in fact one final twist which I didn’t expect.

My only niggle is that sometimes things were over explained. For example, there is a poker game that happens at one point where every play seems to be explained in detail. Unless you play / understand poker, this bit is all unnecessary filler – it would be enough to explain who won and who lost. But still – a minor niggle.

Overall, excellent narration and an enjoyable storyline (kept me listening for the most part anyway) made me give this a thumbs up, and I would definitely read / listen to moron this series.

 

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