Tag Archives: book review

#BookReview ‘Treachery’ by SJ Parris @thestephmerritt #historical #crime

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The Giordano Bruno historical mystery series by SJ Parris is into its stride now. Treachery is fourth in the series and my favourite so far. It is 1585 and Sir Francis Drake is assembling a fleet of ships to attack the Spanish. Bruno, with poet and gentleman Sir Philip Sidney, visits Plymouth as the covert expedition is about to leave. But departure is delayed by a murder on board the flagship ‘Elizabeth Bonaventure’ and Bruno agrees to solve the crime. SJ ParrisA slow-build that turns into a page-turning mystery, Parris twists the plot this way and that, suspects come, go, and return as Bruno tracks the murderer on water and on land. Plymouth is a colourful setting for the mystery. Set three years before Drake plays bowls on Plymouth Hoe as the Spanish Armada approaches, Parris weaves a complicated tale of European politics, spies, military strategy plus old-fashioned greed and revenge. Bruno follows clues in the city via an upmarket brothel to Drake’s Island in Plymouth Sound, a small fortified island reached only by boat. Or, according to local legend, through a maze of secret underground tunnels used by smugglers and villains.
Giordano Bruno, the Italian who longs for his home but cannot return, is no longer a monk but a philosopher, academic, a foreigner wherever he lives and works; all things that make him the man he is. A modern man in the sixteenth-century. ‘My face, my voice, my ideas mark me as different. Perhaps, as I have often feared, a man like me belongs everywhere and nowhere.’ Is that why he makes such a good spy, a good solver of crime? He is brave and has a poker face which is useful when confronting suspects, but is sensitive also to emotion and fear. And in the background lurk the influence of master spy Sir Francis Walsingham and political demands of Queen Elizabeth I. Parris mixes fact, particularly the lasting impact of Drake’s earlier voyages and the friends and foes, and some characters are real.
For one said to be good at solving mysteries, Bruno does have a tendency to backing his latest theory and throwing accusations around. But perhaps causing trouble is his gift as a detector as his efforts invariably upset some people, so he makes enemies but also uncovers new clues and suspects. Bruno is such a likeable hero, brave but not macho, lacking the peacock posturing of Sidney and the politicking of Drake. In his position in society as an outsider in a foreign country in politically uncertain times, he is cautious but given to moments of recklessness. It is these moments that enable Parris to kick-start the plot to a new level of tension.
A sprawling story with connections to characters from the previous books in the series, I approached the end turning pages quickly and reading into the night to finish it.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read my reviews of other books in the series:-
HERESY #1GiordanoBruno
PROPHECY #2GiordanoBruno
SACRILEGE #3GiordanoBruno

If you like this, try:-
‘The Fire Court’ by Andrew Taylor #FireofLondon2
‘The Swift and the Harrier’ by Minette Walters
‘The Key in the Lock’ by Beth Underdown

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview TREACHERY by SJ Parris @thestephmerritt https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7uw via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Dinah Jefferies

#BookReview ‘Murder at the Dolphin Hotel’ by Helena Dixon @NellDixon #cosymystery #crime

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I do like starting a new cosy mystery series and have great hopes of the Miss Underhay series by Helena Dixon. The first book Murder at the Dolphin Hotel, is set between the world wars and stars Kitty Underhay. Helena DixonIt is 1933 and at the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth, Kitty is left in charge of the family hotel by her grandmother who must visit a sick relation. Before she leaves, and without explaining her reasons to her grand-daughter, ‘Grams’ employs a hotel security manager Captain Matthew Bryant. There is quite a cast including a deliciously grimy newspaper reporter, a well-meaning but nosy friend of Grams, and a glamorous American jazz singer. When a dead body is found in the river and hotel rooms are burgled, Kitty and Matt begin to share their fears, without sharing all their secrets. This is the first meeting of what will become an established detective pairing; at the time of writing there are now 17 in this 1930s series. Some of the language at times seems modern; a trait I dislike as it takes me away from the page and the characters, as did a couple of other discrepancies including the fate of the unnamed verger.
It always takes me time to settle into the first book of a new series by an unfamiliar author and the first half seemed a slow read. But the book blurb promises a hunt for a stolen ruby and the pace of the story picks up when the promised jewel makes its first appearance. There is no shortage of dodgy characters and therefore loads of suspects. And all the time Kitty must balance dealing with daily hotel tasks, organising the visit of singer Miss Vivien Delaware, and curiosity about the real reason for Captain Bryant’s appointment. Grams, Kitty fears, has not told her the whole truth. Throw in Kitty’s history as an orphan, the lasting effects of Matt’s wartime service and the suspected reappearance of Kitty’s disreputable father, and there are a lot of mysteries to keep me reading to the end.
A light enjoyable read, quickly finished, and a promising start to a new series. Next in line is book two, Murder at Enderley Hall.

Here are my reviews of other books in the series:-
MURDER AT ENDERLEY HALL #2MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER AT THE PLAYHOUSE #3MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER ON THE DANCE FLOOR #4MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER IN THE BELLTOWER #5MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER AT ELM HOUSE #6MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER AT THE WEDDING #7MISSUNDERHAY
MURDER IN FIRST CLASS #8MISSUNDERHAY

And my reviews of the first in a new series by Helena Dixon:-
THE SECRET DETECTIVE AGENCY #1SECRETDETECTIVEAGENCY
THE SEASIDE MURDERS #2SECRETDETECTIVEAGENCY

If you like this, try:-
‘A Very English Murder’ by Verity Bright #1LadyEleanorSwift
‘Murder at Catmmando Mountain’ by Anna Celeste Burke #1GeorgieShaw
‘The Cornish Wedding Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #1NoseyParker

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview MURDER AT THE DOLPHIN HOTEL by Helena Dixon @NellDixon https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7sK via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- SJ Parris

#BookReview ‘Earth’ by @JohnBoyneBooks #Elements #contemporary

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Evan Keough is a handsome, talented famous footballer. Accused of being an accessory to rape, he becomes notorious. It is up to the reader to work out the truth of Evan’s evidence, his back story, the stories he gives to his mother and to priest Ifechi. Earth by John Boyne is second in his Elements quartet and, like its predecessor Water, is another small book with a powerful story. John BoyneLike Willow in Water, Evan’s past story is revealed in pieces. As a boy on the remote Irish island first introduced in Water, Evan is unable to be who or what he wants to be. He knows he is gay. He is certain he wants to be a painter. Unfortunately he is better at football, which he hates but which his  father loves, and is a moderate artist.
A theme that runs through the first two books in the Elements quartet is complicity in guilt, about burying deeply the moral instinct of right and wrong, and dealing with the consequences as time passes. It is about bearing a grudge. Throughout the story I didn’t know if Evan was truthful or not, never knew what he was hiding. His back story is brutal at times and difficult to read. Evan’s down-to-earth upbringing is contrasted with the wealth he encounters in London and in the world of professional football. The theme of earth runs throughout the book, the burial of the dead, earth as a hiding place, of being grounded to the earth of losing a foothold, of the final return of a traveller to the soil of their homeland.
I can’t say I enjoyed reading Earth, the first of John Boyne’s books that I can say that about. It is a truthful, awkward, shameful and sad book about a young man who can’t find his place in life, who is horribly abused and exploited. I remain unclear about culpability. Boyne purposely blurs the line between lies and truth, both in the evidence given in court and discussion on social media. In today’s world, the presence or absence of data on a mobile phone can win or lose a criminal trial, and public speculation about guilt and innocence is often based on ideas not fact where the loudest voices are heard.
A disturbing social commentary.

Click the title to read my reviews of these other novels by John Boyne:-
A HISTORY OF LONELINESS
A LADDER TO THE SKY
A TRAVELLER AT THE GATES OF WISDOM
ALL THE BROKEN PLACES
STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND THEN LEAVE
THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES… Curious? Read the first paragraph of THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES here.
WATER #1ELEMENTS

If you like this, try:-
‘Nutshell’ by Ian McEwan
‘Lean Fall Stand’ by Jon McGregor
‘Days Without End’ by Sebastian Barry

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview EARTH by @JohnBoyneBooks https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7s0 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Helena Dixon

#BookReview ‘Water’ by @JohnBoyneBooks #Elements #contemporary

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Who is Willow Hale? When Vanessa Carvin arrives on an unnamed Irish island, she changes her name to Willow and shaves her head. Can she simply disappear or will her past follow her? Water by John Boyne is first in his Elements quartet. It is a small book with a powerful story. John BoyneVanessa is escaping a truly horrendous time but at heart she knows she must acknowledge the choices she made throughout a difficult marriage. On the island she hopes to escape notice, but few people live there and everyone is curious about the newcomer. Her landlord is invisible, her daughter Rebecca is ghosting her messages, her nearest neighbour is nosy. She does connect with local priest Ifechi, Bananas the cat and neighbouring young farmer Luke. ‘I can call myself Willow Hale till the cows come home but, underneath, I’m still Vanessa Carvin. I just can’t let anyone know.’
Slowly as Vanessa remembers, her story becomes clearer. The offence committed by her husband, what she did and didn’t do during this time. Families were broken, not only families of the victims but also the family of the guilty party. Actions have consequences. John Boyne writes with such intensity of emotion and spareness on the page, he takes you straight into Vanessa’s shoes. It takes distance, isolation on an almost empty island surrounded by sea, for Vanessa to admit what happened.
I’m intrigued to see how the books in this quartet of novellas are linked; by theme, character, setting? At the end of Water, Willow says, ‘The elements – water, fire, earth, air – are our greatest friends, our animators. They feed us, warm us, give us life, and yet conspire to kill us at every juncture.’ Earth is next.
Sensitive. Bold. Excellent.

Click the title to read my reviews of these other novels by John Boyne:-
A HISTORY OF LONELINESS
A LADDER TO THE SKY
A TRAVELLER AT THE GATES OF WISDOM
ALL THE BROKEN PLACES
STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND THEN LEAVE
THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES… Curious? Read the first paragraph of THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES here.
EARTH #2ELEMENTS

If you like this, try:-
‘Old God’s Time’ by Sebastian Barry
‘Did You Ever Have a Family’ by Bill Clegg
‘My Name is Lucy Barton’ by Elizabeth Strout

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

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- John Boyne

#BookReview ‘Disobedient’ by Elizabeth Fremantle #historical #art

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Knowing little of the life of seventeenth-century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, reading a fictionalised account of her life in Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle was a delight. Elizabeth FremantleIt is an absorbing read. In Rome, 1511, Fremantle creates a fierce world in which teenager Artemisia lives with her father and three brothers. Expected to accept her fate as a lesser person – she is not taught to read and write, must defer to her drunken father and isn’t consulted about decisions that affect her life – she must assist her [lesser talented] artist father while secretly painting her own work.
When her friend Piero assess a work-in-progress and says ‘Apparently, you know more than you think you do about men’s desires,’ Artemisia replies, ‘I watch. And I listen.’ Her skill, her dedication to her art, her confidence and simple difference from other subservient women, is her strength and her weakness. Men feel threatened by her or attracted to her. When her father Orazio begins a search for a husband for her, he courts Agostino Tassi in the hope that as a painter he will allow Arti to continue to paint after marriage. But Tassi is not all he seems. Arti finds herself trapped in a nightmare. Fighting against the restrictions placed on women, her only rebellion is on canvas. She paints the most disturbing, violent, incisive art that has been seen, by a man let alone by a woman. Desperate to be free of Tassi, she has two options. Marriage, or the law court.
Disobedient is an unflinching portrayal of life for women in seventeenth-century Italy, and a portrayal of one artist who refused to submit. Artemisia Gentileschi was a real person, she painted the pictures depicted in Fremantle’s novel, she was raped and tried by torture. Around the historical facts, Fremantle has constructed a compelling, emotional, heart-rending story that is uplifting and at the same time difficult to read.
Excellent. The anger and sense of injustice pours off the page.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Silence of the Girls’ by Pat Barker
‘How to be Both’ by Ali Smith
‘Girl in Hyacinth Blue’ by Susan Vreeland

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

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Fiona Leitch

#BookReview ‘The Princess’ by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden #historical #royal

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The early days of a young girl who is in love with the idea of being in love, with heroes, with paperback romances. Whatever love means. The Princess by Wendy Holden starts with two thirteen-year old girls, Diana Spencer and her friend Sandy, on the train going back to boarding school. Love, thinks Sandy, sounds ‘like a particularly delicious bath, deep and warm, with lots of bubbles.’ Wendy HoldenIt is Diana’s character that beams off the page. Packed with contemporary references, foods, music, expressions, we see what happens when the enthusiasm and can-do attitude of a teenage girl meets the tradition and rules of royal life. Through Diana’s voice and thoughts, through Sandy’s eyes and that of Stephen Barry, valet to the Prince of Wales, we see the young girl who is destined to become a queen. Holden has captured the exuberance as well as the shadows and emotional bruises of a broken family. But this isn’t a love story, it’s the story of old-fashioned matchmaking by two grandmothers.
The second part moves quicker than the first. I enjoyed the meetings between Diana and Princess Margaret. The pace, and sadness, picks up after the engagement when Diana moves into an empty, soulless Buckingham Palace; foreshadowing the days her body would lay at rest at St James’s Palace before her state funeral in 1997.
A poignancy hangs over this tale, the knowledge of the marriage’s failure and Diana’s death. Also the sadness of Charles, trapped in his role, unable to marry the woman he loves, forced into marriage by the need to marry and produce an heir. But The Princess is Diana’s story.
Though young and naïve in this book, she was also smart and not afraid to challenge the status quo. Her influence can be seen in the royal family today. Holden ends her story in 1992, the divorce was finalised in 1996. The book is packed with familiar incidences and quotations mixed in with many inventions. The story of how the famous photograph was taken of her in a transparent skirt at her nursery school in Pimlico, her sister Sarah saying, ‘Your face is on the tea towels,’ the Emmanuels taking in the waist of her wedding dress at every fitting.
Holden gets the tone of Diana’s voice spot-on. So familiar from page one from her public appearances and recordings, it is clear that the spoken words on the page, and the inner thoughts, belong to Diana.
Not as compelling as I expected, perhaps because the story is so well known. The Princess seems to end when it is just getting going.

And here’s my review of THE DUCHESS, also by Wendy Holden.

If you like this, try:-
‘Shrines of Gaiety’ by Kate Atkinson
‘The Forgotten Sister’ by Nicola Cornick
‘The Heiress’ by Molly Greeley

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PRINCESS by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7pI via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Elizabeth Fremantle

#BookReview ‘The House of Doors’ by Tan Twan Eng #historical #Malaya

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The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng is a quiet tale, beautifully written, focussing on the life of one woman in Penang early in the 20th century. Tan Twan EngObserved partly through the eyes of Lesley Hamlyn in 1920s Malaysia and later in 1947 from South Africa, and partly through the voice of Willie Maugham, this is a tale of social class, the freedoms and restrictions on women at that time, Chinese revolutionaries and an Englishwoman charged with murder. Lesley is a society hostess at Cassowary House for her lawyer husband, Robert. Into their life comes the author W Somerset Maugham and his assistant Gerald. The interconnection of this coterie of British people living in an ex-pat community is unpeeled in microscopic detail as relationships, secrets, betrayals, risks and ruin are unveiled.
This novel is an exquisite slow burn. As Lesley suspects Robert of infidelity she begins to take risks, volunteering as a translator in the office of a Chinese dissident Dr Sun Yat Sen. Willie, under financial pressure to produce another bestselling novel, observes the society around him and sees things he did not expect, all the time taking notes. The action takes place in the most sublimely described setting.
This a beautiful novel that will stay with you long after it is finished. Fact mixed with fiction, some of the characters and events are real. Somerset Maugham did visit Penang and this visit inspired his collection of short stories, The Casuarina Tree. Sun Yat Sen’s struggle for modern China was true, as was the murder case of Ethel Proudfoot. Such is the quality of the writing, you sink into this world of colonial Malaya, the tensions beneath the polite surface, contrasting cultures and people.
Excellent.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Here are my reviews of other novels by Tan Twan Eng:-
THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS … and try the first paragraph of THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS here.
THE GIFT OF RAIN

If you like this, try:-
‘Quartet’ by Jean Rhys
‘Stanley and Elsie by Nicola Upson
‘Islands of Mercy’ by Rose Tremain

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE HOUSE OF DOORS by Tan Twan Eng https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7os via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Wendy Holden

#BookReview ‘A Witness to Murder’ by @BrightVerity #cosymystery #crime

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When the local MP dies in suspicious circumstances at a posh dinner at Farrington Manor, the local women’s political group comes knocking on Ellie’s door. Will she, they ask, stand at the by-election on a platform of women’s rights. In A Witness to Murder, third in the Lady Eleanor Swift 1920s detective series by Verity Bright, is based round Ellie’s electioneering and detecting. Because the MP is not the only one to die. Verity BrightDetermined to follow the advice of Detective Chief Inspector Seldon not to get involved in detecting again, Ellie changes her mind when Mrs Pitkin, the cook to Lord and Lady Farrington, is sacked and in disgrace after the fateful dinner. It was her chocolate fudge that is thought to have poisoned Arnold Aris, MP. Ellie’s job gets more difficult when Mrs Pitkin disappears and a second body is found. When Ellie and Clifford find clues to a dodgy land deal, they must discover who gains, who loses, and who is the most desperate.
Finally, the love triangle hinted at in the first two novels becomes more pointed when the second man’s intense looks at Ellie become more overt and at last the rather silly but charming Lord Lancelot Fenwick-Langham has a rival in love for Ellie’s attentions. Lancelot is getting more Wooster-ish with every book and I can’t help but think Ellie’s affection will turn elsewhere.
This series is becoming a firm favourite for me. The pages turn quickly, the mysteries are twisty and this time I didn’t correctly predict the murder. The identity of the murderer prompted possibilities in my mind that I hadn’t previously considered; about Ellie’s own origins, the death of her parents, and the role of her intriguing uncle.
The Twenties setting is charming, if at times suspiciously 21st century, and the by-election theme in A Witness to Murder adds a tougher edge to Ellie’s adventure. The tone is settling to a hybrid mixture of period crime/comedy/cosy mystery, any danger is lightweight and the most of the daft asides are funny [though Lancelot is too much for my taste]. Just the ticket for a quiet night in.

Read my reviews of other books in the Lady Eleanor Swift series:-
A VERY ENGLISH MURDER #1LADYELEANORSWIFT
DEATH AT THE DANCE #2LADYELEANORSWIFT
MURDER IN THE SNOW #4LADYELEANORSWIFT
MYSTERY BY THE SEA #5LADYELEANORSWIFT
MURDER AT THE FAIR #6LADYELEANORSWIFT
A LESSON IN MURDER #7LADYELEANORSWIFT
DEATH ON A WINTER’S DAY #8LADYELEANORSWIFT

If you like this, try:-
‘Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet’ by MC Beaton #2 AgathaRaisin
‘The Art of the Imperfect’ by Kate Evans #2 Scarborough Mysteries
‘Moonflower Murders’ by Anthony Horowitz #2SusanRyeland

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A WITNESS TO MURDER by @BrightVerity https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Yz via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Tan Twan Eng

#BookReview ‘Each of us a Petal’ by Amanda Huggins @troutiemcfish #shortstories

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All of human life is reflected in the perceptive short stories by Amanda Huggins and the focus of her latest anthology, Each of us a Petal, is Japan. From city streets and bars to the silence of snow-covered mountains, Huggins’ love and knowledge of the country shine clearly. It is her love song for Japan, its people, its heritage, countryside and traditions. Amanda HugginsThe Japanese lens brings a new flavour to themes familiar from earlier anthologies, of love and loss, being adrift and on the outside or left behind, and notions of identity. The small details are beautifully described. Ume, who collects champagne and oranges to start her day with a mimosa. Suzume who catches a glimpse of graceful cranes through a train window, ‘their black-tipped wings lit by the sun.’ Huggins has sat in the late night bars watching salarymen down glass after glass of whisky, she has walked the mountain paths where bears may lurk in shadows. As well as winning the Saboteur Award for Best Novella twice, prizes for poetry and the 2018 Costa Short Story Award runner-up award, she is also an award-winning travel writer. In Each of Us a Petal, these disciplines and insight are drawn together.
One of my favourite stories, one I found myself thinking about days later, is the shortest. ‘Sparrow Footprints’ is only one page, a brief tale as delicate as a bird’s footprints in the snow but the emotional message between the words is heavy and oh so familiar to anyone who has loved.
‘The Knife Salesman from Kochi’ is a longer tale with a shock at the end. Mr Omote is the knife salesman from Kochi who stays at the inn owned by Yumi, inherited from her mother. Huggins explores a depth of grief that, once the surface signs have faded, lurks deeply hidden from even those closest.
‘Stolen’ is about the illicit freedom that comes with anonymity, questioning how well you know yourself and the one that you are closest to. Anna and Keizo meet friends in the woodlands in moonlight, it is kitsune festival time and families picnic, children play, many wear masks. Keizo’s friends all wear traditional fox masks which cover the whole of the face, Anna and Keizo are given masks too. When couples begin disappearing into the woods, hand in hand, Keizo says they are taking advantage of the privacy offered by the trees.
Huggins is a master of condensing emotion into a few pages, focusing on one element and exploring it with precision and beauty. I finished the book and immediately started leafing through the pages again, searching for favourites to re-read. The title of the anthology is a quote from Huggins’ essay ‘Each of Us a Petal,’ included in this book, and refers to cherry blossom.
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK AT THE AUTHOR’S WEBSITE

Read my reviews of other work by Amanda Huggins:-
Novellas
ALL OUR SQUANDERED BEAUTY
CROSSING THE LINES
THE BLUE OF YOU
Short stories
AN UNFAMILIAR LANDSCAPE
BRIGHTLY COLOURED HORSES
SCRATCHED ENAMEL HEART
SEPARATED FROM THE SEA
Poetry
THE COLLECTIVE NOUNS FOR BIRDS

If you like this, try:-
‘A Town Called Solace’ by Mary Lawson
‘Himself’ by Jess Kidd
‘Anderby Wold’ by Winfred Holtby

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:-
#BookReview EACH OF US A PETAL by Amanda Huggins @troutiemcfish https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7h2 via @SandraDanby

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

#BookReview ‘Viper’s Daughter’ by Michelle Paver #WolfBrother #YA #fantasy

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After an eleven-year gap while writing other fiction, in 2020 Michelle Paver returned to her ‘Chronicles of Ancient Darkness’ YA series with the seventh installment, Viper’s Daughter. Torak and Renn’s peaceful life, living alongside Wolf, Darkfur and their cubs, is broken when Renn disappears without a word. Michelle PaverOnce again, the trio are catapulted into danger as they travel to the Far North, an unfamiliar land without trees, negotiating ice flows, ice bears, mammut and firey demons. Wearing claws strapped to their feet and shields over their eyes, their always sharp senses are minimised in this unfamiliar territory, oh so cold and without their normal forest prey for food. But the foe they seek is worse than they could ever have imagined.
The story is told in turn from Torak, Renn and Wolf’s viewpoints. As always, Wolf’s voice is a standout. The world created by Paver is so believable, based on a phenomenal amount of research and expeditions in Scandinavia, Siberia, Greenland and Alaska. She knows what she is talking about. And Wolf’s observations seem to clarify the differences between the trio’s home in the Forest and this eerie place of the ‘Great Hard Cold’ where the ground rumbles ‘like the earth talking to itself.’ Paver’s love for the natural world is behind every description and her imagination continues to thrill as this mature series continues to surprise and delight.
This is a great read, full of magic, love, loyalty, challenge and adventure. Such a pleasure to be back with such well-loved characters, though if you are new to the series Viper’s Daughter can also be read as a stand-alone novel.
Seventh in the fantastic ‘Chronicles of Ancient Darkness’ series, which started with Wolf Brother, with another two books, Skin Taker and Wolfbane, taking the series to nine. Don’t miss the audio series, narrated by Ian McKellan. Great for children and adults alike.

And read my reviews of two other novels by Michelle Paver:-
THE OUTSIDERS #1GODS&WARRIORS
THIN AIR
WAKENHYRST

If you like this, try:-
‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar
‘Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane’ by Suzanne Collins #2UnderlandChronicles
‘Insurgent’ by Veronica Roth #2Divergent

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview VIPER’S DAUGHTER by Michelle Paver https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7g8 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Amanda Huggins