#BookReview ‘Good Me Bad Me’ by Ali Land @byAliLand #thriller

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Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land is a difficult book to review without giving anything away. It is compulsive, difficult reading, and though I raced through it I can’t honestly say I enjoyed it. Teenager Annie is living with a foster family whilst waiting to give evidence at her mother’s trial. Her mother is accused of being a serial killer of children, Annie turned her in to the police. As she waits for the trial, Annie [now called Milly] is coached by her foster father on how to handle being in court and giving evidence under cross-examination. For Milly, there is no escaping her horrible childhood. As Mike tells her, the only way out is through. But Milly isn’t telling Mike everything.
Milly’s identity is secret, her name false, her reason for being fostered is fabricated. In this world of officially-approved lies, Milly must face her memories of what happened: what is real, and not-real. What did her mother really do? What did Milly do? At times of stress – and there are many as she fits into a foster family with an unwelcoming teenage daughter – Milly hears the voice of her mother in her head, encouraging her to be controlling, to be nasty. This is the ‘good me, bad me’ of the title. Of course every person is a mixture of light and dark, what matters is the decisions we make. Will Milly be able to let go of her past and make a new life?
Covering the few tense weeks in the run-up to the trial, Good Me Bad Me is a turbulent emotional read. One minute I thought ‘please don’t do that, Milly’, the next I was indignant on Milly’s behalf at some of her foul treatment at the hands of school friends. The picture of teenagers, girls selfish and taunting, boys over-sexualised, is not an easy-read. You will make up your own mind whether to like Milly and whether to believe her.

If you like this, try:-
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder
‘The Girls’ by Lisa Jewell
‘Taunting the Dead’ by Mel Sherratt

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview GOOD ME BAD ME by Ali Land @byAliLand http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2ip via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Penny Heart’ by Martine Bailey @MartineBailey #historical

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This is the sort of novel which creates a world into which you can sink. It is a story of revenge, cookery and two women in 18^th century England, connected by one man. The story of The Penny Heart by Martine Bailey is told by the two women, who cannot be more different. It is about the nature of truth, the passage of time and the difficulty of deciphering the lies hidden within truth. In 1787 when Mary Jebb is caught playing a confidence trick on a young man, she is sentenced to the colonies. Before she leaves, she sends two pennies, each engraved with a promise, to the two men she blames for her fate. These are the penny hearts. In contrast, virtuous and timid Grace Moore marries handsome Michael Coxon in a property deal arranged by her father and husband. She soon learns that her husband is not what he seems. At the isolated and rundown Delafosse Hall she is lonely but finds a friend in her new cook, Peg.
By halfway through I really didn’t want to put the book down and the last third runs along with an ingenious ending that was impossible to foresee. Whose story to trust? Mary, resourceful and struggling to survive in a world which gives her nothing. Or Grace, who escapes a drunken father and finds herself marooned with an exploitative husband? Will Grace realize Peg is not what she seems? Will Peg’s plans work out? And which facts are true, and which lies? This is not a pretty historical story set in which involves a few recipes. It is a dark story of murder, double-crossing and lies.

And here are my reviews of other novels by Martine Bailey:-
AN APPETITE FOR VIOLETS
THE ALMANACK #1TABITHAHART
THE PROPHET #2TABITHAHART

If you like this, try:-
‘The Miniaturist’ by Jesse Burton
‘Gone are the Leaves’ by Anne Donovan
‘The Other Eden’ by Sarah Bryant

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PENNY HEART by Martine Bailey @MartineBailey via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2ii

#BookReview ‘Fair Exchange’ by Michèle Roberts #historical

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This story by English/French author Michèle Roberts starts with a woman dying, she has a secret to confess. We must wait until almost the end of the book to find out the truth. In a village near Paris, Louise is dying, it is the early 1800s, after the French Revolution and during the subsequent English/French war. Fair Exchange is the story of that secret, of Louise’s part in it and how she impacts on the lives of two other women, one English one French. In an Author’s Note, Roberts explains the inspiration for the story: William Wordsworth’s love affair, at the beginning of the French Revolution, with Annette Vallon. This is not a true account, it is historical fiction about the romances of two couples – English poet William Saygood and Annette Villon [note the mis-spelling], and Jemima Boote [sketchily based on Mary Wollstonecraft] and Frenchman Paul Gilbert. Roberts’ telling of the story combines the detail of poverty at that time – the grinding daily life of Louise and her mother Amalie in the village of Saintange-sur-Seine near Paris – with sumptuous description. Louise is picking plums: ‘The plums were so ripe that they fell into her hands. They smelled fragrant in the warm sunlight, as though she were biting them off the tree and tasting their sweet juice. Flies rose up in clouds as she pushed into the web of branches and she beat them away from her face in clouds. They had got there first, settling, in blue glints of jewelled wings, on minute cracks in the fruit that oozed gold.’
This is a period of history about which I am ignorant. First Annette, and then Jemima, arrive in Saintange-sur-Seine, single women, and pregnant. Louise is drawn into their lives, caring for them, supporting them, observing them. Fascinating stuff.

Read my review of THE WALWORTH BEAUTY also by Michèle Roberts, and try the first paragraph of FAIR EXCHANGE.

If you like this, try:-
‘An Appetite for Violets’ by Martine Bailey
‘The Knife with the Ivory Handle’ by Cynthia Bruchman
‘Gone are the Leaves’ by Anne Donovan

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview FAIR EXCHANGE by Michèle Roberts http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Of via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Pale as the Dead’ by Fiona Mountain @FionaMountain #geneaology #mystery

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Pale as the Dead by Fiona Mountain is an unusual mix of genealogy mystery and history, centred on the glamorous Pre-Raphaelite artists and Lizzie Siddal, the girl in the famous ‘Ophelia’ painting.
Ancestry detective Natasha Blake – Pale as the Dead is first in the Natasha Blake series – meets a mysterious, beautiful young woman, Bethany, who is re-enacting the Lizzie Siddal scene for a photographer. Bethany confides in Natasha her fear that her family is cursed following the deaths of her sister and mother. After asking Natasha to research her family tree, Bethany goes missing. Has she run from a failing love affair, committed suicide, or has she been murdered?
The trail is cold. Natasha must turn detective in two senses: she searches the birth, marriage and death records, census returns and wills, to find Natasha’s ancestors; at the same time, she is being followed by someone driving a red Celica. Adam, the photographer, is also Bethany’s boyfriend but Natasha feels there is more to his story than he is telling.
The narrative wandered rather from the central story, complicated unnecessarily by Natasha’s own history and love life which added little. Perhaps this could have been avoided by telling part of the story from Lizzie Siddal’s point of view. There were so many peripheral characters, both in the present time and the historical story, that at times I lost my way. I was also unconvinced by the threat to Natasha – the red car, the break-in. These jarred, almost as if added as an afterthought to appeal to lovers of crime fiction which I think was unnecessary. The kernel of the story about Bethany and Lizzie is fascinating in its own right.

And here’s my review of the next in the series:-
BLOODLINE #2NATASHABLAKE

If you like this, try:-
‘Deadly Descent’ by Charlotte Hinger
‘In the Blood’ by Steve Robinson
‘The Marriage Certificate’ by Stephen Molyneux

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview PALE AS THE DEAD by Fiona Mountain @FionaMountain http://wp.me/p5gEM4-23v via @SandraDanby

My Porridge & Cream Read: Jane Lambert

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Today I’m delighted to welcome contemporary women’s novelist & actress Jane Lambert, whose Porridge & Cream book is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

When I was about fifteen my mum gave me a copy of her favourite book, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It is my Porridge & Cream read and makes me think of her. Jane Lambert The book opens in Monte Carlo, where the heroine (we never know her name) meets and marries widower Maxim de Winter after a whirlwind courtship. He whisks her away to Manderley, his Gothic mansion in Cornwall. The new bride soon discovers there are dark secrets lurking in Manderley and that the memory of the first Mrs de Winter, the beautiful and witty Rebecca, is very much alive. Maxim spends more and more time away on business, leaving the second Mrs de Winter alone with her insecurities and the creepy housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, who resents her taking the place of her adored Rebecca.

When the boat in which Rebecca supposedly drowned is raised, we learn that things are not as they seem: the perfect Rebecca was promiscuous and wicked and made Maxim’s life a misery, driving him to shoot her, disposing of her body on the boat and sinking it. Maxim confesses all to his new wife and she realises he was not in love with Rebecca after all, but with her. As he prepares to face his fate, it’s discovered Rebecca was dying of cancer and the judge rules a verdict of suicide.

As a shy, gauche teenager I identified with the second Mrs de Winter. The book taught me not to always take situations or people at face value, that being shy and quiet is not a sign of weakness and to always be true to yourself.

In 2005 I was part of a touring stage production adapted by Frank McGuinness, starring Nigel Havers as Maxim.”

About ‘Learning To Fly’ by Jane Lambert
Written while sitting in grotty digs and draughty theatre dressing rooms on tour, the book is best described as a romantic comedy of self-discovery. It follows the ups and downs of struggling 40-something actress Emily Forsyth as she juggles odd jobs (and some odd dates) with humiliating auditions; from performing Macbeth single-handedly at Scone Palace to chauffeuring the world’s top golfers at St Andrews – and getting hopelessly lost. The comedy aside, there is a serious message behind the book: you are never too old to have dreams and to never ever give up.

Jane Lambert’s Bio
Jane taught English in Vienna then travelled the world as cabin crew before making the life-changing (and slightly mad) decision to become an actress in her thirties. Her debut novel, Learning To Fly was written whilst on tour.
The sequel, Marriage, Mafia & Mozzarella is due to be published next year.

In 2017 Jane will be appearing in the new musical, The Girls written by Gary Barlow & Tim Firth.

Jane Lambert’s links
You can follow Jane on Facebook or Twitter.

What is a ‘Porridge & Cream’ book? It’s the book you turn to when you need a familiar read, when you are tired, ill, or out-of-sorts, where you know the story and love it. Where reading it is like slipping on your oldest, scruffiest slippers after walking for miles. Where does the name ‘Porridge & Cream’ come from? Cat Deerborn is a character in Susan Hill’s ‘Simon Serrailler’ detective series. Cat is a hard-worked GP, a widow with two children and she struggles from day-to-day. One night, after a particularly difficult day, she needs something familiar to read. From her bookshelf she selects ‘Love in A Cold Climate’ by Nancy Mitford. Do you have a favourite read which you return to again and again? If so, please send me a message via the contact form here.

Discover the ‘Porridge & Cream’ books of these authors:-
Rosie Dean
Rachel Dove
Jane Cable

‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier [UK: Virago Modern Classics]

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does @JaneLambert22 love REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier? #Porridge&Cream #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2fY

#BookReview ‘Taunting the Dead’ by Mel Sherratt @writermels #crime

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The first in the Detective Sergeant Allie Shenton series, Taunting the Dead by Mel Sherratt hits the ground with a bang. Literally, the murder victim has her head bashed in. Nine out of ten murders are committed by someone who knows the victim, unfortunately for DS Shenton, the husband of the victim is a local businessman/crook. Unfortunately, too, that Allie and Terry Ryder seem to have some sexual chemistry going on. And the third unfortunate thing is that Terry has an alibi. Steph Ryder is killed on a girls night out, then the story retreats to show her life in the days before she is killed. An abrasive alcoholic, she has few friends and has arguments with her husband and daughter Kirstie. She is also having an affair with one of her husband’s employees. Not a clever thing to do. The Ryders flash the cash around and accumulate enemies. At one point it seems as if practically everyone has a motive for killing her.
This is a full-on read without pause so if you want a book to keep you reading through a boring journey, then this is the one for you. The action is brutal and unremitting and the pages turn quickly. The setting, Stoke-on-Trent, is somewhere I don’t know but Sherratt makes it a real, dark, creepy sort of place. This is crime in the raw, so if you’re not keen on sex and swearing it might be best to give this a miss.
Allie Shenton is a typical fictional detective, likeable with flaws, who at times seems young and naïve for her job. She makes decisions which propel the story along nicely, though I hope real detectives would not make similar choices.

Read my reviews of more books in the Allie Shenton series:-
FOLLOW THE LEADER #2ALLIE SHENTON
ONLY THE BRAVE #3ALLIE SHENTON

If you like this, try:-
‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley #1GEORGIECONNELLY
‘Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley’ by MC Beaton #4AGATHARAISIN
‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood #1PENTECOST&PARKER

And if you’d like to share a link:
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#BookReview ‘Murder at Catmmando Mountain’ by Anna Celeste Burke #cosycrime

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I nearly gave up on this in the first few pages, and what an error that would have been. Anna Celeste Burke is an American writer specializing in cosy mysteries, so why did I almost stop reading Murder at Catmmando Mountain? Chapter one introduces narrator Georgie Shaw who works in PR at tourist attraction Marvellous Marley World, based on the cartoon characters of tycoon Max Marley. The action starts in chapter two and that’s when the fun starts. Early one morning, a body is found. Not just any body, a dead body. The body of Mallory Marley, obnoxious daughter of Max Marley. Lying next to the body, and dipped in Mallory’s blood, is Georgie’s scarf. Georgie, who recently moved to the PR department from Food and Beverage rather than take retirement, is forced to consider her life in a new light. Is one of her colleagues trying to frame her? Homicide detective Jack Wheeler, who reminds Georgie of James Garner in The Rockford Files [watch out for the American detective references], makes being a suspect easier for Georgie to deal with, though she does have an alibi as the transponder in her car was clocked by a state police camera at the time of the crime. But other clues linking Georgie to the crime continue to appear.
All the time I was reading this book, it reminded me of the comedies of Carl Hiasson, the Florida journalist turned novelist who wrote the hilarious Lucky You, Skinny Dip, Native Tongue and Basket Case. I liked Georgie from the beginning, and her Siamese cat Miles. This is comfort reading, easy, it was fun eliminating the suspects one-by-one and choosing the wrong one.
This is a read-in-one-sitting novella, 178 pages, and I would have liked it to be longer. The last chapter is a summary of how the case is solved, and it would have been more dynamic to read the action.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Cornish Wedding Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #1NOSEYPARKER
‘Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death’ by MC Beaton #1AGATHARAISIN
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #2DEATHINPARADISE

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Great Opening Paragraph 92… ‘Back When we were Grown-Ups’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.

She was fifty-three years old by then – a grandmother. Wide and soft and dimpled, with two short wings of dry, fair hair flaring almost horizontally from a center part. Laugh lines at the corners of her eyes. A loose and colourful style of dress edging dangerously close to Bag Lady.

Give her credit: most people her age would say it was too late to make any changes. What’s done is done, they would say. No use trying to alter things at this late date.

It did occur to Rebecca to say that. But she didn’t.”
From ‘Back When We Were Grown-Ups’ by Anne Tyler

Here’s the #FirstPara of DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT, also by Anne Tyler.

Read my reviews of these other novels by Anne Tyler:-
A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD
CLOCK DANCE
FRENCH BRAID
LADDER OF YEARS
REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
THREE DAYS IN JUNE
VINEGAR GIRL

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Couples’ by John Updike
‘Jack Maggs’ by Peter Carey
‘Norwegian Wood’ by Haruki Murakami

And if you’d like to share a link:
#Books #FirstPara BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWN-UPS by Anne Tyler http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Tg via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Under A Pole Star’ by Stef Penney #historical #adventure

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In 1883, twelve-year-old Flora Mackie is taken by her father, captain of the Vega, a whaling ship, to the Arctic. She returns to the Arctic as a young woman, a meteorologist, heading her own expedition. ‘Under a Pole Star’ by Stef Penney is Flora’s story and that of the troubled 1891 Armitage-de Beyn expedition to Greenland. The story starts in 1948 as an American group leaves New Jersey, the purpose unclear. Onboard the plane are scientists, air force men, a television crew, a journalist, and Flora Mackie. The Snow Queen. What unfolds is the story of the two rival expeditions: the British, told by Flora, and the American, told by Jakob de Beyn, geologist with the Armitage party. It is quite a while before there is even a hint of what the controversy may be. Until then, we follow the lives of Flora in Dundee and London, and Jakob in New York, as they grow from children to adults. Finally the separate Greenland expeditions set off, unaware of each other. When Flora and Jake meet in Greenland in 1892 there is a spark between them. At this point I was unsure what the book was about – Arctic exploration, romance, a thriller?
Penney’s writing about the Arctic makes me want to go there. The ice, the light, the endless horizon. But this is not just a story of women crossing boundaries at the end of the 19^th century, it is a mystery with claim and counter-claim from rival explorers. Ultimately, this is a story of what men, and women, will do to be the first to their goal.
A fascinating story which moves slowly at times with some things left unexplained. It makes me want to read more of Penney’s books, but I was left with the feeling that the story could be tighter with a stronger spine of mystery.

Read my review of THE BEASTS OF PARIS also by Stef Penney.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Surfacing’ by Cormac James
‘The Leviathan’ by Rosie Andrews
‘Devotion’ by Hannah Kent

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview UNDER A POLE STAR by Stef Penney via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2bx

First Edition: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

#BookReview ‘Good Me Bad Me’ by Ali Land @byAliLand #thriller

#BookReview ‘The Penny Heart’ by Martine Bailey @MartineBailey #historical

#BookReview ‘Fair Exchange’ by Michèle Roberts #historical

#BookReview ‘Pale as the Dead’ by Fiona Mountain @FionaMountain #geneaology #mystery

My Porridge & Cream Read: Jane Lambert

#BookReview ‘Taunting the Dead’ by Mel Sherratt @writermels #crime

#BookReview ‘Murder at Catmmando Mountain’ by Anna Celeste Burke #cosycrime

Great Opening Paragraph 92… ‘Back When we were Grown-Ups’ #amreading #FirstPara

#BookReview ‘Under A Pole Star’ by Stef Penney #historical #adventure

First Edition: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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