Author Archives: sandradan1

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About sandradan1

Novelist. I blog about writing, reading and everything to do with books and writing them at http://www.sandradanby.com/. Come and visit me!

#BookReview ‘The Little House’ by Philippa Gregory #thriller #mystery

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In The Little House by Philippa Gregory, Ruth’s story starts with Sunday lunch at the in-laws and builds slowly, pulling you in relentlessly until you can’t put the book down. Tension between Ruth and her mother-in-law, a newborn baby, a chilling tale of tension within a familyPhilippa GregoryIt is deceptive in its simplicity, at various points in the story I found myself thinking ‘but they couldn’t do that’ or ‘that would never happen.’ But it does and you believe it. The denouement is startling.
The Little House is very different from the historical novels by Philippa Gregory but shares the same aspects of a pageturner: you simply want to know what happens next.

Read my reviews of these two Tudor novels by Philippa Gregory:-
THE LADY OF THE RIVERS
THREE SISTERS THREE QUEENS

Read the #FirstPara of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, also by Philippa Gregory.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Past’ by Tessa Hadley
‘Lord John and the Private Matter’ by Diana Gabaldon
‘The Knife with the Ivory Handle’ by Cynthia Bruchman

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LITTLE HOUSE by Philippa Gregory https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-4aQ via @SandraDanby 

Great opening paragraph 32… ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“The morning was clear. There was no wind on the lake. There was also a great stillness. When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves.”
John McGahernFrom ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Crying of Lot 49’ by Thomas Pynchon
‘The Fortunes of War’ by Olivia Manning
‘The Impressionist’ by Hari Kunzru

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN by John McGahern https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mo  via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph…32

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john McGahern - that they may face the rising sun 10-6-13“The morning was clear. There was no wind on the lake. There was also a great stillness. When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves.”
‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern

#BookReview ‘The Man Who Disappeared’ by Clare Morrall #contemporary

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Felix Kendall longs for a family, as a boy he lost his own. From the first page of The Man Who Disappeared by Clare Morrall, where Felix stands in a dark street watching a family illuminated in their dining room, curtains open, you know Felix must be the ‘man who disappeared’ but you don’t know why. Clare Morrall The characters are believable and the pages turn quickly as we follow the stories of Felix, his wife Kate, son Rory and daughter Millie as they come to terms with what has happened. I expected this to be a slow indulgent read, lyrical, beautifully written, which it is, but I raced through it in the way I am accustomed to do with thrillers.
Clare Morrall is one of my favourite authors, I’ve been a fan since her first book Astonishing Splashes of Colour was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of these other novels by Clare Morrall:-
AFTER THE BOMBING
NATURAL FLIGHTS OF THE HUMAN MIND
THE LANGUAGE OF OTHERS
THE LAST OF THE GREENWOODS
THE ROUNDABOUT MAN

Read the first paragraph of ASTONISHING SPLASHES OF COLOUR here.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy’ by Rachel Joyce
‘Housekeeping’ by Marilynne Robinson
‘Ghost Moth’ by Michele Forbes

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MAN WHO DISAPPEARED by Clare Morrall via @SandraDanby https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-4aR

Great Opening Paragraph 31… ‘Bel Canto’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“When the lights went off the accompanist kissed her. Maybe he had been turning towards her just before it was completely dark, maybe he was lifting his hands. There must have been some movement, a gesture, because every person in the living room would later remember a kiss. They did not see a kiss, that would have been impossible. The darkness that came on them was startling and complete. Not only was everyone there certain of a kiss, they claimed they could identify the type of kiss: it was strong and passionate, and it took her by surprise. They were all looking right at her when the lights went out. They were still applauding, each on his or her feet, still in the fullest throes of hands slapping together, elbows up. Not one person had come anywhere close to tiring. The Italians and the French were yelling, ‘Brava! Brava!’ and the Japanese turned away from them. Would he have kissed her like that had the room been lit? Was his mind so full of her that in the very instant of darkness he reached for her, did he think so quickly? Or was it that they wanted her too, all of the men and women in the room, and so they imagined it collectively. They were so taken by the beauty of her voice that they wanted to cover her mouth with their mouth, drink in. Maybe music could be transferred, devoured, owned. What would it mean to kiss the lips that had held such a sound?”
Ann PatchettFrom ‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The L-Shaped Room’ by Lynne Reid Banks 
‘The Last Tycoon’ by F Scott Fitzgerald 
‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mY via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Dominion’ by CJ Sansom #WW2 #dystopian #thriller

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You know that feeling, it happens once in a while, when you finish reading a book that was so good you want to go back to the beginning and start again? Well, it was like that for me with Dominion by CJ Sansom. CJ SansomIt was the premise that caught my attention as soon as I read the pre-publication reviews: an alternate history set in Britain in 1952, peace is made with Hitler in 1941 which changes the direction of World War Two. An alternative world. Previously I had read one Sansom novel, Winter in Madrid, which I enjoyed; three of his Matthew Shardlake mysteries sit on my to-read shelf. After Dominion, I will turn to them quickly.
The story focusses on four main characters, a scientist, a civil servant, the civil servant’s wife, and a Gestapo officer based at Senate House in London, the tall university building being the Gestapo’s London HQ with torture cells in the basement. This is a different Britain, where Jews are being rounded-up and transferred to camps in the country, where the Isle of Wight is occupied by the German army [which is still fighting in Russia], and where it is rumoured in Berlin that Hitler is either dead or dying.
To say more would risk spoiling the plot twists, of which there are plenty. The darkness of the time is shown symbolically by the Great Smog which actually happened in London, December 1952. It sheds a stifling blanket of choking fog which stops life and blinds everything more than a foot away. The smog is a metaphor of course for the blindness of the Government, and much of the population, who accept their situation with apathy and do nothing to aid the Resistance led, inevitably, by Churchill.
Sansom’s central message is about the danger of nationalism and xenophobia and what, in the extremes, they can lead to. A subject which, as he says in the Appendices, he fears is all too relevant in modern Europe.
A thought-provoking read.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

And here are my reviews of CJ Sansom’s Shardlake detective series:-
DISSOLUTION #1SHARDLAKE
DARK FIRE #2SHARDLAKE
SOVEREIGN #3SHARDLAKE
REVELATION #4SHARDLAKE
HEARTSTONE #5SHARDLAKE
LAMENTATION #6SHARDLAKE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Aftermath’ by Rhidian Brook
‘Homeland’ by Clare Francis
‘The Bird in the Bamboo Cage’ by Hazel Gaynor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DOMINION by CJ Sansom https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-4aP via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 30… ‘The L-Shaped Room’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“There wasn’t much to be said for the place, really, but it had a roof over it and a door which locked from the inside, which was all I cared about just then. I didn’t even bother to take in the details – they were pretty sordid, but I didn’t notice them so they didn’t depress me; perhaps because I was already at rock-bottom. I just threw my one suitcase on to the bed, took my few belongings out of it and shut them all into one drawer of the three-legged chest of drawers. Then there didn’t seem to be anything else I ought to do so I sat in the arm-chair and stared out of the window.”
Lynn Reid Banks From ‘The L-Shaped Room’ by Lynn Reid Banks 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Perfume’ by Patrick Suskind
‘Time Will Darken It’ by William Maxwell
‘Mara and Dann’ by Doris Lessing

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE L-SHAPED ROOM by Lynne Reid Banks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mV via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph… 30

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lynne reid-banks - the L-shaped room 10-6-13“There wasn’t much to be said for the place, really, but it had a roof over it and a door which locked from the inside, which was all I cared about just then. I didn’t even bother to take in the details – they were pretty sordid, but I didn’t notice them so they didn’t depress me; perhaps because I was already at rock-bottom. I just threw my one suitcase on to the bed, took my few belongings out of it and shut them all into one drawer of the three-legged chest of drawers. Then there didn’t seem to be anything else I ought to do so I sat in the arm-chair and stared out of the window.”
‘The L-Shaped Room’ by Lynn Reid-Banks

Great opening paragraph 29… ‘The Murder Room’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“On Friday 25 October, exactly one week before the first body was discovered at the Dupayne Museum, Adam Dalgliesh visited the museum for the first time. The visit was fortuitous, the decision impulsive and he was later to look back on that afternoon as one of life’s bizarre coincidences which, although occurring more frequently than reason would expect, never fail to surprise.”
PD JamesFrom ‘The Murder Room’ by PD James 

Here’s my review of THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH

… and my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries by PD James:-
COVER HER FACE #1ADAM DALGLIESH
A MIND TO MURDER #2ADAMDALGLIESH
UNNATURAL CAUSES #3ADAMDALGLIESH
SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE #4ADAMDALGLIESH
THE BLACK TOWER #5ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS #6ADAMDALGLIESH
A TASTE FOR DEATH #7ADAMDALGLIESH
DEVICES AND DESIRES #8ADAMDALGLIESH
ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
THE LIGHTHOUSE #13ADAMDALGLIESH
THE PRIVATE PATIENT #14ADAMDALGLIESH

Here are my reviews of the two Cordelia Gray mysteries:-
AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN #CGRAY1
THE SKULL BENEATH THE SKIN #CGRAY2

And two other books by PD James:-
INNOCENT BLOOD
TIME TO BE IN EARNEST

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Lucky You’ by Carl Hiassen
‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain
‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE MURDER ROOM by PD James https://wp.me/p5gEM4-ny via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph… 29

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pd james - the murder room 30-4-13“On Friday 25 October, exactly one week before the first body was discovered at the Dupayne Museum, Adam Dalgliesh visited the museum for the first time. The visit was fortuitous, the decision impulsive and he was later to look back on that afternoon as one of life’s bizarre coincidences which, although occurring more frequently than reason would expect, never fail to surprise.”
‘The Murder Room’ by PD James