The Appeal by Janice Hallett - #BookReview

 

To Olufemi Hassan and Charlotte Holroyd.

Dear both,

As discussed, it is best you know nothing before you read the enclosed. Please bear in mind:

1. Only a limited number of emails, texts and messages could be recovered, so correspondence is not complete.

2. It is, however, broadly chronological.

3. I've included various extras - i.e. newspaper clippings, social media activity and other sundries - in the pursuit of context.

4. If I come across anything else of interest I will forward it to you.

***

ONE MURDER. FIFTEEN SUSPECTS. CAN YOU UNCOVER THE TRUTH?

There is a mystery to solve in the sleepy town of Lower Lockwood. It starts with the arrival of two secretive newcomers, and ends with a tragic death. Roderick Tanner QC has assigned law students Charlotte and Femi to the case. Someone has already been sent to prison for murder, but he suspects that they are innocent. And that far darker secrets have yet to be revealed...

Throughout the amateur dramatics society's disastrous staging of All My Sons and the shady charity appeal for a little girl's medical treatment, the murderer hid in plain sight. The evidence is all there, waiting to be found. But will Charlotte and Femi solve the case? Will you?

***

This was one of those books which I could hardly tear myself away from. It is an incredibly clever book and written in a unique style as it is written in the form of emails and text messages throughout, with the occasional newspaper clipping thrown in.

Initially, I was daunted by the number of characters, all of whom are suspects of the crimes which are committed. However, there are occasions whereby the two characters who are working their way through the correspondence, Femi and Charlotte, write out a list of who is who and the reader is able to peruse these also and keep track.

Along with Femi and Charlotte, as readers, we are also enlightened little by little of what has gone on here. It is a journey of discovery as opposed to a traditional crime/mystery novel. This made me feel almost as though I was one of the characters involved in the uncovering of the crime. A uniquely intelligent format in which to present the book.

This was a refreshing and thrilling book to read as it is completely different to the usual crime format. There may be other books out there written in a similar style but I unaware of any.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a puzzle, or who enjoys a murder mystery. 

ISBN: 978 1788165303

Publisher: Viper

Formats: e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages: 464 (paperback)

About the Author:

Janice Hallett studied English at UCL, and spent several years as a magazine editor, winning two awards for journalism. After gaining an MA in Screenwriting at Royal Holloway, she co-wrote the feature film Retreat. The Appeal is inspired by her lifelong interest in amateur dramatics. Her second novel, The Twyford Code, will be published by Viper in 2022. When not indulging her passion for global adventure travel, she is based in West London.

(author photo and bio. info. courtesy of Viper Publishing)

The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas - #CoverLove

 Hello and welcome to this week's cover love feature. This gorgeous cover is of The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas.

When I came across this book I fell instantly in love with the cover. I asked myself, who is in the house? Is the girl running to safety of danger? I wonder.

 It was actually a difficult decision this week. I looked at all of covers of Louise's books and they are all gorgeous.

Have you read any of her books? I would love to hear which you have read and whether you would recommend it.

A child who does not know her name…

In 1903 fishermen find a wrecked boat containing a woman, who has been badly beaten, and a young girl. An ambulance is sent for, and the two survivors are taken to All Hallows, the imposing asylum, hidden deep on Dartmoor. The woman remains in a coma, but the little girl, Harriet, awakens and is taken to an attic room, far away from the noise of the asylum, and is put in the care of Nurse Emma Everdeen.

Two motherless boys banished to boarding school…

In 1993, All Hallows is now a boarding school. Following his mother’s death and his father’s hasty remarriage, Lewis Tyler is banished to Dartmoor, stripped of his fashionable clothes, shorn of his long hair, and left feeling more alone than ever. There he meets Isak, another lost soul, and whilst refurbishment of the dormitories is taking place, the boys are marooned up in the attic, in an old wing of the school.

Cries and calls from the past that can no longer be ignored…

All Hallows is a building full of memories, whispers, cries from the past. As Lewis and Isak learn more about the fate of Harriet, and Nurse Emma’s desperate fight to keep the little girl safe, it soon becomes clear there are ghosts who are still restless.

Are they ghosts the boys hear at night in the room above, are they the unquiet souls from the asylum still caught between the walls? And can Lewis and Isak bring peace to All Hallows before the past breaks them first…

The Manningtree Witches by A.K.Blakemore - #BookReview

 

A hill wet with brume of morning, one hawberry bush squalid with browning flowers. I have woken and put on my work dress, which is near enough my only dress, and yet she remains asleep. Jade. Pot-companion. Mother. I stand at the end of the cot and consider her face. A beam of morning sun from the window slices over the left cheek. Dark hair spread about the pillow, matted and greasy and greying in places.

There is a smell to my mother, when she is sleeping. It is a complicated, I think mannish smell. I smelled a like smell when I was sent, as a little girl, to fetch my father away from the Red Lion and to supper. The inn would be clattery with men's voices and small-beer sour, and my father would be very jolly indeed, sweeping me up and kissing me on the forehead, his coat crisp from the rain in the big fields.

***

Fear and destruction take root in a community of women when the Witchfinder General comes to town, in this dark and thrilling debut.

England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow.

In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers – the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes. But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins takes over the Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins. When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge.

The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust and betrayal ran amok as the power of men went unchecked and the integrity of women went undefended. It is a visceral, thrilling book that announces a bold new talent.

***

I was given this book by my son as a birthday gift. He said when he saw it in the bookshop he thought, 'this looks like the sort of thing mum would read and enjoy.' He was spot on because I enjoyed reading it very much.

The writing in this book is beautiful. It flows lyrically along and is a joy to read. The language is appropriate for the period in which the book is set and the author has chosen and placed every word with precision.

Whilst it is not an action packed page turner, the writing alone is sufficient to carry the reader along through the steady pace of this story. However, a lot happens in this book and it is a powerful example of the way men abused and exerted their power over women. 

It is no surprise that it won the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2021 as it exudes passion and depth. The author has taken a dark and disturbing period of history and created a novel which portrays a time which is  disturbing and mesmerising in equal measure.

As a debut novel it is an amazing accomplishment and, in my opinion, confirms Ms. Blakemore as  one to watch.

ISBN: 978 1783786442

Publisher: Granta Books

Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages: 304 (paperback)

About the Author:

A. K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others.

(author photo courtesy of Amazon and bio info courtesy of the publisher)

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman - #BookReview

 

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his ageing father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody paw prints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.

***

This has been on my reading radar for a while but have not found an opportunity to read it. However, when I heard that it had recently been banned from a school curriculum in an American state, claiming that it contained an "unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and it's depiction of violence and suicide," I thought it was time that I got around to reading it.

It is true that the book does contain all of the things quoted above, but I would argue those things deemed unnecessary were highly necessary. Let's not forget that as a graphic book these are drawings that are depicting images of the Holocaust and it is and should always be, impossible to tell of what happened in the death camps without it being disturbing.

I recently read a book which I will not mention by name. It was hugely popular and set in one of the concentration camps. In my opinion, the lighthearted way in which some of the narrative described the experience is far more disturbing than anything to be found within the covers of Maus.

Incidentally, since the American School Board released that statement, sales of Maus have rocketed, and I would strongly encourage you to read this book for yourself. It is actually two separate books but the version here is a complete volume and contains both books. 

This is also the first graphic novel I have read. I was never sure that I would enjoy reading in this format, but I was pleasantly surprised and I may try another at a future date. 

To date, it is the only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize.

 

ISBN: 978 0141014081

Publisher: Penguin

Formats: Hardback and paperback.

No. of Pages: 296 (paperback)

About the Author:

Born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel Maus. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines Arcade and Raw has been influential, and from 1992 he spent a decade as contributing artist for The New Yorker. He is married to designer and editor Françoise Mouly, and is the father of writer Nadja Spiegelman.

The Ascension of Mary by William West - #BookReview

 

I know you think I'm an old fool, Esther, but this is important, and I need you to listen to me. I've been sitting on this front porch waiting for two months now. I watched the sky, and I watched the road. I sipped my tea, and I did some more watching, some more waiting. I thought you'd be here by now. Every day has been the same as the one before. I was sure the time to go was getting close. I felt it in these old bones. But then something strange happened. This young girl walked by in front of the house. Oh yes, I know, a lot of young girls live in the neighbourhood and pass through here on their way to the other side of the Eisenhower, but this girl was different. I could tell right away. She had a determined way of walking. Something was special about her, and it wasn't long before my suspicions came true. Things began to happen - things that changed the last fifteen years or at least made me think I needed to stick around and help fix things.

***

The Ascension of Mary tells the story of Mary Hester, a 14-year-old violin prodigy, who moves to a new home near Chicago with her mother and discovers a ghost in her bedroom. Mary believes that the ghost is her father who gives her the power to heal others. When Mary begins to help others with her powers, strangers hoping to be healed show up at their house. Mary’s efforts to help them turn tragic, and Mary must turn to her family and her music to find answers to the losses in her life.

The story is told from alternating perspectives of three main characters. Mary tells her story through her diary as she talks to her imagined father about the changes in her life. Mary’s mother, Rachel, reveals to Mary the secrets of their family, and her history with Mary’s father who was killed in what appeared to be a racially motivated drive-by shooting. Jonah Culpepper, who lives next door, talks to his dead wife, Esther, about Mary, and how she has given him a reason to live.

The Ascension of Mary addresses relationships, diversity, racism, grief, and discovery in today’s society through the eyes of a blended family which finds strength in its broken parts.

***

This novel has a triple narrative which I really enjoyed. The story is told from the perspectives of Mary, her mother Rachel and their neighbour Jonah. It was very interesting to see how these three different voices moved the story along and ultimately come together.

The author is a good storyteller and wove several strands and issues together. He deals with some difficult themes throughout the book; grief, racism, bigotry, and ultimately, love and family and the effect that those three former themes have upon the individual characters.

ISBN:  978 1952816888

Publisher: Touch Point Press

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages: 219 (paperback)

About the Author: 

I grew up in Texas, went to UT, graduated from University of Houston and started a career in social work before moving to California in search of something different. I ended up in law enforcement and spent most of my time investigating major crimes. That's about it. Basic stuff, huh? Well there was a lot of life mixed in there which I will probably add later, bit by bit. Suffice it say, looking back, I wish I had studied creative writing and literature. That's where my real love was. So I took the long way around, and now I have the time to write. My debut novel, Evolution of a Young Man in Love, was published in 2018 but was not able to reach a wide audience.

I have completed two additional novels, The Ascension of Mary and Kissproof World, which have been accepted for publication by TouchPoint Press, and will be released in 2021 and 2022, the long delay due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of my novels speak to relationships and how we get through troubling times, on a personal level as well as a collective society.

(author photo and bio. info courtesy of the author's website

ARC courtesy of Netgalley)

House Boy by Lorenzo DeStefano - #BookReveiw

 

It is impossible at first to confirm the thing or thing's identity. The Tamil Nadu sun, true to its savage reputation, renders familiar people, even members of one's own family, as unrecognizable as total strangers. The quasi-human shapes move in a kind of undulating fashion along one bank of the sacred Cauvery River, appearing then disappearing in the piercing glare. When the dust parts, softened momentarily by obscuring clouds, it reveals not one being but two.

Modestly dressed and delicately mannered, Sakthi and Amala Pallan crouch by a narrow flow of water, bend their long necks in unison over their work...

***

House Boy is a contemporary thriller set in Southern India and in the polite suburb of Hendon, North London. 

At 321 Finchley Lane, ancient traditions take root and prosper in our so-called civilized society. The lives of a boy from rural India, Vijay Pallan, and an Indo-British woman and her son, Binda and Ravi Tagorstani, collide as if decreed by history. Through Vijay, we experience the shocking realities of modern slavery, the human spirit's boundless capacity for pain, and the ultimate blessing of one young man's redemption and survival.

***

I rarely use terms such as 'unputdownable' in my reviews but on this occasion it is the perfect adjective to describe this book. It is hugely powerful, and I can confidently say that it is the best book that I have read this year.

I devoured it over the course of a weekend and made the big mistake of finishing it in bed one night as I could not get to sleep afterwards. There was so much to process, and aspects of the story were going through my mind for ages.

Through the narrative the author provides a good explanation of the Indian caste system and the main character, Vijay, is a wonderful creation. There were many times that I could have cried at the harsh treatment he is forced to endure.

To the reader it quickly becomes apparent that Vijay is being recruited into human trafficking, and I wanted to shout at the book to warn him. His naivety was understandable, and the author did an excellent job in portraying how easily he was lured into becoming a victim of trafficking and exploitation.

Whilst the book delves into some challenging issues that did not make for comfortable reading, it is ultimately a story of hope and is one that I can envisage reading again as well as purchasing for friends and family.

As a film director, Mr. DeStefano has imbued this novel with a cinematic feel through vivid imagery of Vijay's world. According to IMDB it is in development to be turned into a screen play.

This is his debut novel and I hope he will produce more fiction. He is an excellent storyteller and has written a book which is thought-provoking and powerful and which I think everyone should read.

ISBN:  978 1639882434

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages: 310 (paperback)

About the Author:

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Lorenzo DeStefano is a playwright, screenwriter, producer, director, and photographer. A member of the Directors Guild of America, he has produced and directed network series, documentaries, and narrative films, worked in U.S. and U.K. Theater, and written fiction, non-fiction, original screenplays, and adaptations.

In addition to House Boy, his first published novel, DeStefano is author of the short story collection, “The Shakespearean”, the essay “On Knowing Daniel Aaron” , the fact-based short story “Hitchhike”, the memoir “Visitations – Finding A Secret Relative In Modern-Day Hawaii”, “Diary of a Nobody”, a feature article for The Guardian, the photographic memoir “La Hora Magica/The Magic Hour – Portraits of a Vanishing Cuba”, and the cinema memoir “Callé Cero–An Encounter with Cuban Film Director Tomas Gutierrez Alea”.

(author photo and bio. info. from the author's own website https://houseboynovel.com

ARC courtesy of NetGalley)

Books to Read in July 2022

 

July is absolutely 'the' month for heading to the beach with a good book. However, the children will be breaking up from school for the summer holidays so adult reading time may be somewhat diminished.

 We have a family holiday to look forward to this month but with all my grandchildren there I doubt I will get through many books. But time with them is precious and just for that week my books will be taking a back seat. However, I will probably be slipping into my suitcase some books that I can enjoy reading with them, and I can't wait.

Do you have any summer reading plans? I would love to hear about them.

In the meantime, here are some of the books I hope to read this month.

Daughters of Castle Deverill by Santa Montefiore

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Black Dress by Deborah Moggach

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

Brother Jacob by George Eliot

The Commandant's Daughter by Catherine Hokin

Happy Families by Julie Ma

Pamela by Samuel Richardson