Monthly Archives: August 2024

#BookReview ‘Restless Dolly Maunder’ by Kate Grenville #historical

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Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville tells the life story of a poor white girl who wants to be a teacher in late 19th century Australia. Dolly Maunder must gain her father’s approval to take the pupil teacher test and is determined to ask though she knows he will refuse. This beginning sums up the story of Dolly’s life which Grenville recounts until her end in 1945. Kate GrenvilleA melding of fiction with family history, memoir and feminist study, we follow the restless heroine who always wants more. At the beginning I was sympathetic with Dolly’s lot, cornered into marriage, her dreams crushed, taken to live on a windswept isolated farm. This is a portrayal of a woman who rubs against her parents, their narrow expectations, the drudgery and lack of emotion and who as a parent herself struggles with the same constraints. But when life improves and there is money, Dolly still struggles to connect with those around her.
This constant searching for something new is a classic case of grass being greener on the other side of the fence. Sometimes Dolly’s plans work out financially for the family but sometimes end in struggle and hardship. And each time her three children are uprooted, taken somewhere unfamiliar where they must start again.
Dolly was born too early, struggling for her right to be a woman in a man’s world where every legal document must be signed by a man. From farm to shop to hotel and bar, Dolly and husband Bert Russell move on as the 20th century passes from the Great War and Great Depression to the approach of the Second World war. She is a tough woman living in tough times, unwilling to reshape her ambitions and accept the good of what she has achieved, unable to soften herself to allow others to love her.
At the end of the novel the position of women in society is contextualised, viewed across three generations comparing Dolly’s life with that of her mother and her own daughter Nancy. ‘She thought of all the women she’d ever known, and all their mothers before them, and the mothers before those mothers, locked in a place where they couldn’t move.’ Dolly’s own generation, she decides, is like a hinge allowing a door to be opened, slowly at first, painful inch by painful inch, for the women who follow.
A linear story which I read quite quickly, at times admiring Dolly’s determination and sheer strength of will, but struggling with her inability to connect emotionally with anyone around her. Don’t miss the Author’s Note at the end which adds context to the story.
A sad, depressing story.

Read my review of A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES, also by Kate Grenville

If you like this, try:-
‘Barkskins’ by Annie Proulx
‘At the Edge of the Orchard’ by Tracy Chevalier
‘My Name is Yip’ by Paddy Crewe

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview RESTLESS DOLLY MAUNDER by Kate Grenville https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7wJ via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Verity Bright

#BookReview ‘Inheritance’ by Nora Roberts #contemporary #gothic #suspense

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I’m a newcomer to Nora Roberts and didn’t know what to expect from Inheritance, first in her Lost Bride trilogy. This amazing, page-turning, gothic slash romance slash suspense story had me grabbing every spare minute to read another couple of pages. I’m a Nora Roberts convert, are all her books like this? Nora RobertsInheritance ticks all the gothic romance boxes. An unexpected inheritance. A haunted house. A conflicted heroine who faces challenges in her life. Ghosts with personality. And a handsome hero. Sonya MacTavish’s wedding plans take a U-turn thanks to her cheating fiancé, so when she discovers the hidden truth of her father’s birth and has an opportunity to change her life, she grabs it. Sonya inherits not only a mansion but the money to run it and a support network of local lawyers and tradespeople.
Surprising herself by loving the lonely seafront mansion and the small town nearby, city girl Sonya soon hears bumps in the night – and the day – and discovers Lost Bride mansion (its nickname locally) has other residents besides herself. Sonya, who prefers to call a spade a spade and refuses to be intimidated by the unknown, gets herself a rescue dog, learns to cook pot roast and wins new clients for her freelance graphic design business. There are new family members to meet, her lawyer and his relatives, the man who cuts logs and sweeps snow from the drive and a chef in town who shares her recipes.
Sonya loves her new life and refuses to be cowed by the slamming doors and weeping in the night, a decision which means she must confront the ghosts and solve a mystery to lift the curse.
A bit silly in places, funny, heartwarming and spine tingly. Loved it. And what a great ending, beware, it’s a cliffhanger. Bring on number two, The Mirror.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

If you like this, try:-
‘A Sudden Light’ by Garth Stein
‘The Bear’ by Claire Cameron
‘The Invitation’ by Lucy Foley

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview INHERITANCE by Nora Roberts https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7ws via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Kate Grenville

#BookReview ‘Death at the Sign of the Rook’ by Kate Atkinson #crime

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Oh what a treat, a new Jackson Brodie book from Kate Atkinson. Death at the Sign of the Rook is sixth in this fast-moving, witty character-led crime series. This time, Jackson is on the trail of a stolen painting. Or perhaps it hasn’t been stolen after all. Kate AtkinsonNew grandfather Jackson, in the midst of a mid-life crisis and driving a huge new Land Rover Defender, takes on the case of a missing painting belonging to the recently deceased mother of the most boring brother and sister. As he investigates Dorothy Padgett’s carer Melanie Hope, who disappeared at the same time as ‘The Woman with a Weasel,’ Brodie finds other unsolved cases involving stolen paintings. Could they be linked? Jackson is reunited with police officer Reggie Chase who helps – checking things on the police computer, despite her misgivings – and the duo become pulled into a surreal world of a dual reality.
Burton Makepeace, a rundown Yorkshire country mansion, has also lost a painting, in this case by JMW Turner. Now partly converted into a hotel, Burton Makepeace is hosting a Murder Mystery Weekend and as the snowfall turns into waist-high drifts, travellers are stranded and the murders begin. Truth and fiction become entangled as a group of actors are let loose in the large country house with endless rooms, hidden stairs and dangerous battlements. Local vicar Simon, who has recently lost his voice, gets lost in the snow and stumbles into the Murder Mystery, immediately to be confused by the amateur sleuths as the fictional vicar on their cast list. At times I read in a haze of confusion as real people and actors merged; a social comment on today’s perception of truth, sort-of-truth and fake truth perpetuated by social media. How do we know what is really true and who to believe. Jackson, with the help of Reggie, has to sort out truth from lies and work out who’s who. The cast of characters is a combination of Agatha Christie and Cluedo.
Told at breakneck speed, so many laughs, what a wonderful book. Only Kate Atkinson could write this story, wonderful craftsmanship, tension, farce, wicked humour and dark threat. It starts off racing from the first page and doesn’t stop until the last.

Read my reviews of these other novels by Kate Atkinson:-
A GOD IN RUINS
BIG SKY #5JACKSONBRODIE
LIFE AFTER LIFE
NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY
SHRINES OF GAIETY
TRANSCRIPTION
… and try the #FirstPara of EMOTIONALLY WEIRD

If you like this, try:-
‘The Vanished Bride’ by Bella Ellis #1BronteMysteries
‘Elizabeth is Missing’ by Emma Healey
‘Cover Her Face’ by PD James #1AdamDalgliesh

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK by Kate Atkinson https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7w6 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Nora Roberts

#BookReview ‘Night Train to Marrakech’ by @DinahJefferies #mystery #Morocco

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Night Train to Marrakech is last in the ‘Daughters of War’ trilogy by Dinah Jefferies and it, sort of, squares the circle. Its two years since I read the first, Daughters of War, and I was a little rusty on the three sisters, Hélène, Élise and Florence, who lived in the Dordogne during World War Two. Night Train to Marrakech is set in Morocco in 1966 and tells the story of fashion student Vicky Baudin, daughter of Élise, as she travels on the night train to meet her previously unknown grandmother. Oh, and to meet Yves St Laurent. Dinah JefferiesWhen Vicky arrives at the Kasbah du Paradis in the Atlas mountains she is puzzled by the cool welcome she receives from her grandmother Clemence. Determined to meet her fashion guru, and dismissing Clemence’s warnings to be wary of trouble, Vicky heads for the night lights. Morocco is politically unstable and while various factions fight, and foreign powers spy on the fighting, the Marrakech beautiful set including Yves St Laurent, John Paul Getty and Tabitha Pol seem to float above reality. Vicky soon sees the horrifying reality for herself and becomes entangled in situations she doesn’t understand.
Yes, Vicky and Bea, her cousin, are annoyingly naïve at times but their impulsive decisions drive the plot along and take the reader through the twists and knots of Clemence’s past and the mysteries of Vicky’s family. Reference to Victor, Vicky’s father, relate back to the first book in the trilogy. Although its possible to read Night Train to Marrakech as a standalone novel, many back references will be missed. A foreword explaining the trilogy, including summary of action and list of characters, would help.
I admit to being more fascinated by the life of Clemence than Vicky, and wish there had been more focus on her story. The second half of the novel went quicker for me, partly because of the number of secrets revealed. Marrakech is colourfully described and the Kasbah reminded me of Mary Stewart’s The Gabriel Hounds, set in a rundown Lebanese palace.
I enjoyed Daughters of War most of the trilogy, perhaps a case of one good novel being stretched too far. The three books are at heart about family, the visible and hidden connections that link relatives together, and how that familial link survives through war, distress and violence. Incidentally, and disappointingly, the train of the title features only on the front cover and in the Prologue of Night Train to Marrakech. The Kasbah du Paradis and Marrakech city have more importance to the story than the train and neither Vicky nor Clemence stand in sand dunes.

Click the title to read my reviews of the first two books in this trilogy:-
DAUGHTERS OF WAR #1DAUGHTERSOFWAR
THE HIDDEN PALACE #2DAUGHTERSOFWAR

And here are my reviews of other novels by Dinah Jefferies:-
THE TEA PLANTER’S WIFE
THE SAPPHIRE WIDOW
THE TUSCAN CONTESSA

If you like this, try:-
‘The Gabriel Hounds’ by Mary Stewart
‘The Photographer’s Wife’ by Suzanne Joinson
‘Summertime’ by Vanessa Lafaye

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview NIGHT TRAIN TO MARRAKECH by @DinahJefferies https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7uT via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Kate Atkinson