JuneBuyer’s Notes Review Club Pages
Fiction, Crime & Thrillers
The Asylum by John Harwood, Jonathan Cape, 9780224097413
Reminiscent of Wilkie Collins, this is a gripping novel set in the 19th century, about a woman who wakes in a madhouse to find that no one believes that she is who she knows she is. Instead, the doctors are determined to cure her of her ‘delusions’, and another woman seems to have taken her place in the outside world. With traditional themes of mistaken identity, deceitful villains, horrific scientific techniques, hidden parenthood, madness and murder, this will satisfy any urge you may have for good gothic literature!
Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor, Bertrams
Carver’s Quest by Nick Rennison, Corvus, 9781848871793
It’s 1870 London and archaeologist Adam Carver and his surly sidekick, Quint, are in for an adventure with more than a hint of Holmes about it. A beautiful girl appears at Carver’s apartment and disappears again, her tale half told; a mysterious appointment comes to nothing when murder intervenes; blackmail, another murder, a tale of hidden treasure – all that is in the first part of the book. With all this action set in the often dangerous streets of London and in Carver’s flat and his club I found this intriguing and convincing. However, their travels around Greece were, for me, less so and I hope that, for their next outing, they stick closer to Baker Street.
Tony Keats, Lower Slaughter, Gloucestershire
Cemetery Girl by David Bell, Michael Joseph, 9781405910620
When Tom and Abbey Stuart’s daughter is snatched while walking their dog, they believe that she has gone forever. But four years later she is discovered, dishevelled but otherwise unharmed, near to a memorial created in her honour. As they find how much their daughter has changed, the reunion isn’t all her parents hoped for. This novel explores the frightening consequences of child abduction and how the family cope with the realisation that their daughter has fallen in love with her captor. A gripping read that turns the idea of ‘happy ever after’ on its head.
Leanne Cork, Norwich
The Execution Of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver, Headline Review, 9780755399505
This twisty crime novel is not so much a whodunit as a whydunit – the eponymous Noa P. Singleton has been on death row for ten years for shooting Sarah Dixon, but the reasons for the murder are still obscure. When Sarah’s mother Marlene, of all people, decides to try and appeal for clemency in Noa’s case, Noa begins to tell her story. The details of the case are mingled with Noa’s no-nonsense, almost indifferent attitude to her fate, in a narrative which draws a stark portrait of the American justice system.
Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor, Bertrams
The Hanging by Lotte & Soren Hammer, Bloomsbury, 9781408816011
It took a little while to get used to the Danish names but once into it this book rolled along. The story is quite brutal but it is a thriller as opposed to a horror story. The storyline is up to date in this current climate, paedophilia. It has lots of twists and turns. A very good story, very well written. I look forward to their next Konrad Simonsen book.
Caroline Evans, The Book Boutique, Ripley
Little Green by Walter Mosley, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 9780297870067
Set against a backdrop of race riots and hippie love-ins in America during the late 1960s, Easy Rawlins is increasingly a man-out-of-time who seems to only stay alive through force of will (and narcotics provided by voodoo shaman Mama Jo). In his search for a friend’s son, he becomes tangled deeper in the underbelly of a country still struggling to accept the more permissive society that is emerging. Mosley is on top form here, effortlessly guiding his protagonist through the mire in a bright red 1965 two-door Plymouth Barracuda. Truly, a welcome return for the coolest, most hardboiled private dick ever.
Cliff Shephard, Dartington Bookshop, Totnes, Devon
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison, Headline, 9780755399796
The ‘wife’ of the title, Jodi, is not in fact married, but has been living with her philandering partner Todd for 20 years, ignoring his many affairs. But when he moves out and in with his best friend’s daughter Natasha, a teenager who he’s made pregnant, and threatens to have Jodi evicted from their home, she changes her passive attitude. This isn’t really a crime novel, it’s more of an incisive dissection of a failed and flawed relationship, told from both sides. Neither character is appealing – Todd takes no responsibility for his actions and is selfish to the core, and Jodi is disturbingly old-fashioned, coming across like a 1950s housewife. But the story is compelling nonetheless, and highly readable.
Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor, Bertrams
The Start Of Everything by Emily Winslow, Allison & Busby, 9780749014056
Unusually told from several points of view, including police officers Chloe Frohmann and Morris Keene, and many other characters caught up in the plot, this is a sophisticated and satisfying mystery. Set in Cambridge, against the background of the bleak fenlands, the intricate story slowly unfolds, even as the personal lives and problems of Chloe and Morris grow more complicated. I’m already looking forward to the next in the series!
Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor, Bertrams
This book is a fantastic whodunit! It is set in Cambridgeshire, as a body of a young woman is found in the flooded fens. DI Chloe Frohman and partner Morris Keene begin their search to find the identity of the young woman. Their trail leads them to CambridgeUniversity and then onto Deeping House. What happened in Deeping House during the Christmas break? There are so many twists and turns it had me totally gripped, I couldn’t put it down.
Sonya Maxey, eContent Administrator, Dawson Books
Until You’re Mine by Samantha Hayes, Century, 9781780891484
A diverting thriller with 3 main protagonists – Claudia, stepmother to twins, wife to an often absent Navy submariner, who is expecting a baby; her newly recruited nanny Zoe, who is clearly not who she says she is; and detective Lorraine, who, along with fellow detective husband, Adam, is investigating the murder of a pregnant woman, whilst trying to cope with her dysfunctional family life. The pace keeps up nicely, and the plot is well-executed, but the writing style is a little flat, as the characters blur into each other after a while.
Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor, Bertrams
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was interesting to read about a few women’s lives in the same book. I was intrigued from the beginning of but I never suspected the murderer. How could she do such horrible things or think about it, even? How desperate was she? I am not sure that I could understand her actions and needs but I had a goosebumps after reading her last words. I highly recommend this book to readers.
Laisvune Kutniauskiene, Supply Chain Analyst, London
Fiction, General
Call It Dog by Marli Roode, Atlantic Books, 9780857899453
Jo, a young journalist, returns to South Africa after ten years. Despite deep reservations she agrees to meet her estranged father who persuades her to join him on a road trip through the country to prove his innocence in the murder of a black man by the security forces during apartheid.In some ways her father is the embodiment of the violent, racist regime of the past but was he involved in murder?The conflicting loyalties Jo feels towards her father, a man she knows she cannot trust, are played out against the wider background of a country also asking whether the truth is always desirable and if it can lead to reconciliation.A dark, intelligent and compelling debut
Helen Gallagher, Bertram Library Services
Children Of The Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 9780297869023
I was caught up in this story from the very first page and I couldn’t put the book down. I cried and worried over each one of the characters as I couldn’t read fast enough to find out how their stories would unfold. I came to understand the all-consuming fear that the total control of your life in another’s hands brings and how this fear permeates into everything even the future. A lovely bitter sweet book and a must read.
Lesley Ellis-Day, Business Support Administrator, Dawson Books
Jacob’s Folly by Rebecca Miller, Canongate, 9780857868961
This is like no other novel I have read; theaction switches between 18th century Paris and 21st century America, but involving the same protagonist. The language is full of lyrical imagery, but thestories aredown-to-earth and demand to be read. Jacob rises and falls and rises again in his search for love and fortune, eventually succumbing to illness. Yet he then lives again, but as no human, and his fascinating life is a literal fly-on-the-wall experience, with a superb twist.
Stu Charmak, Philip Howard Books, Wickersley
Little Beauty by Alison Jameson, Doubleday, 9781781620007
Laura is a sad and lonely woman living on a small Irish island in the 1970s, although it reads as if it is much earlier. She is having an affair with Martin another odd soul, which is going nowhere. They are using each other for sex, but Laura wants to be married. But her plan to force Martin’s hand backfires and she leaves the island to work for Finn and Audrey on the mainland. Audrey is recovering from numerous miscarriages and has been told to rest for a while. Finn takes Laura back to the island to get her belongings but because of a bad storm they have to stay over. Everything that happens afteris a result of this. The characters are complex and you will both love them and hate them. It is written in a simple but very moving way with lots of layers. A beautiful must read novel.
Caroline Evans, The Book Boutique, Ripley
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight, Simon & Schuster, 9781471111297
Single mother and lawyer Kate Baron is in the meeting of her career when she’s interrupted by a telephone call. Her teenaged daughter Amelia has just been suspended from her exclusive prep school for cheating. When Kate eventually arrives at Grace Hall an hour later, she’s greeted by news that her daughter has killed herself. Denial leads her to delve into the world of teenage communication and discover how the anonymity of the internet can fuel the cruel streak in all of us. As Kate begins to wonder if she even knew her own daughter she receives an anonymous text : ‘Amelia didn’t jump’.
Olwyn Cross, Director, Houtschild International Booksellers, Netherlands
Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld, Doubleday, 9780385618496
In Sisterland Sittenfeld explores the territory of the family, not just that of the siblingsof the title but the relationshipsbetween parents, friends, lovers and children. Is the novel too long? Is there too much child care? There will be discussion, debate and argument as book groups get to grips with the many and various relationships in the bookand the many possibleinterpretations of characters’ actions. What is not under debate is Sittenfeld’s ability to make you believe in the all too human characters, warts and all, that form the basis of the novel. Book groups beware Sisterland is coming to a bookshelf near you soon – you had better lay in supplies, it will be a long night!
Carole Robinson, Midleton Books, Ireland
I really enjoyed this novel about twin sisters who find they have psychic powers (‘the senses’) when they are children, and whose lives diverge in very different directions as adults. The narrator, Daisy / Kate (she changes her name when a teenager), is the sensible one who renounces her powers, gets a degree, gets married and has kids; whereas Vi is full of sarcasm and rebellion, never finishes her education, and becomes a medium. The action centres around Vi’s prediction that there will be an earthquake in their hometown of St Louis, on a specific date, which attracts the attention of the media and shakes up all of their lives. Sittenfeld alternates between telling the current and past stories of the sisters, and, essentially, this is a tale about family relations and how they change, and yet remain the same, as the characters grow up and get older.
Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor, Bertrams
The Story Of Before by Susan Stairs, Corvus, 9780857899064
This suspenseful novel is set in Ireland in the 1970s, as 11 year old Ruth Lamb predicts that something bad will happen to her family one New Year’s Eve. The Lambs have recently moved to a new estate to accommodate the latest addition to their family, baby Kevin. They’ve grown to know their many neighbours but have never quite fit in. A tale of childhood secrets and lies, with a wonderful sense of time and place,you know that the ‘something bad’ is coming, but when it does it’s still a surprise.
Ruth Hunter, Booktime Editor, Bertrams
Fiction, Historical
The Skull & The Nightingale by Michael Irwin, Blue Door, 9780007476312
Richard Fenwick, an amiable young man, has just returned from the Grand Tour. An orphan totally reliant on the generosity of James Gilbert, his godfather, he is summoned to the old man’s Worcestershire estate where he is presented with an intriguing proposition. Gilbert wishes to vicariously sample the pleasures of London which he denied himself in his youth and Richard will be his proxy. Richard is at first delighted to be financed to live the life of a man about town, but soon he is dragged into a web of deceit and betrayal where one of the intended pawns in the game is the woman he loves. This is a darkly disturbing tale where love, unfortunately, does not conquer all.
Lynn Brunskill, Holmans Bookshop, Whitby
Graphic Novels
Naming Monsters by Hannah Eaton, Myriad Editions, 9781908434210
17 year old Fran’s life is an story of exam worries, a self-absorbed boyfriend and life with her Nan, set in 90s London. Parallel to her quotidian existence there is another in which Fran is pursued by monsters. As we follow her through a liminal summer, so Fran leads us in turn through a series of disturbing tales that both illuminate the shadows of her life and create a framework through which she can engage with them. Told through a series of deceptively simple pencil drawings, Naming Monsters is a very British take on the territory explored by Ghost World and a welcome reminder that there is a lot more to Graphic Novels than just superheroes.
Lee Mason, Beccles Books
Biography & Autobiography
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, Granta, 9781847085115
This is a bitter-sweet collection of memoirs and stories which explore personal passions and literary musings. Rebecca's book entertained and delighted by weaving a wide range of subjects, (from Frankenstein to Icelandic volcanoes, Che Guevara to the Snow Queen) with personal insights to her relationship with her mother. We all have a story to tell and Rebecca has touched on so many themes
through literature and folklore as well as her personal offerings.
Steve Baskerville-Muscutt, Fred Holdsworth Books, Ambleside
The Short, Strange Life Of Herschel Gryszpan by Jonathan Kirsch, W.W. Norton, 9780871404527
Essentially this is about the assassination of a minor Nazi official in Paris by a young Jewish man just previous to the Second World War. However, it also expertlyexplores the background to this strange murder, includingKrystallnacht, which wasorchestrated because ofit, France’s abject fear of German aggression, the precision and massive organisation ofGoebbels’ propaganda machine,and the indolence and cowardice of all the free nations inthe face ofthe plight of Jewish communities all across Europe.Grynszpan is an enigmatic figure and, as in all lone gunman situations, no one knows what really went through his mind when he decided to perpetrate this deed.
Stu Charmak, Philip Howard Books, Wickersley
Children’s Young Adult Fiction
The Grisha 1: Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo, Indigo, 9781780621418
This is a more grown up story than I thought this would be! I was hooked by the end of the first chapter. Alina is a young lady who grows more beautiful the more she uses her powers. Add in a lifelong friend who she loves. A loveable, dashing pirate with royal blood, and the Darkling who you would love to hate but you always feel he be good in the back of your mind. An incredible story that I would recommend to any age group.
Caroline Patel, Customer Service Representive, Dawson Books