Tag Archives: book review

#BookReview ‘An Expert in Murder’ by @nicolaupsonbook #JosephineTey #crime #mystery

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An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson is an intriguing concept and the first in a series. A historical crime novel based on a real person – mystery novelist Josephine Tey, pseudonym of author Elizabeth MacKintosh – Upson places Tey in London’s theatreland where her successful play Richard of Bordeaux is drawing the crowds. This stage success happened for real, but Upson adds a murder. Or two. Nicola UpsonHow will a writer of crime and mystery novels deal with murder so close, so threatening? Will her creative imagination help friend Detective Inspector Archie Penrose find the murderer. And what happens when someone you know becomes a suspect. More a character-led mystery than a detective or crime story.
A mixture of fact and fiction – Tey was real, the role of John Terry was in reality played by John Gielgud – the story is slow to get going after the initial death. Partly this is the curse of the first instalment of a series, characters must be drawn, relationships established, clues laid for storylines which will run throughout future novels. The 1930s theatre setting is full of colourful characters though not much action actually happens in the New Theatre itself. The story kept me guessing but at times I lost track of the labyrinthine connections between people dating from the Great War and worried that I had missed something. In places there is so much new information I had to re-read. I particularly wanted to know more about Archie Penrose but perhaps that will come in the next book.
The period between the two world wars is a fascinating time with enormous social change but still retaining a straitjacket of Edwardian social conventions, which is fertile territory for a novelist. However there were moments when language and behaviour seemed a little too modern for the Thirties setting.
This is a slow to start to the series but intriguing enough to make me want to give it another chance. Perhaps I’ll try a novel later in the series [at the time of writing there are 11]. Ultimately, more a mystery than a detective or crime story.

Read my reviews of these other books by Nicola Upson:-
ANGEL WITH TWO FACES #2JOSEPHINETEY
STANLEY AND ELSIE

And here’s my review of BRAT FARRAR by the real-life author Josephine Tey.

If you like this, try:-
‘Curtain Call’ by Anthony Quinn
‘Shrines of Gaiety’ by Kate Atkinson
‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood #1Pentecost&Parker

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview AN EXPERT IN MURDER by @nicolaupsonbook https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-71K via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Elodie Harper

#BookReview ‘The Rector’s Wife’ by Joanna Trollope #familysaga #contemporary

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No-one writes a small village saga like Joanna Trollope. Though the main character of The Rector’s Wife is the said wife, the tensions within her marriage, family and community are universal. The independence of the woman, the stifling controlling behaviour of an uncommunicative husband, the disapproval of outsiders making judgements on the family with no knowledge of the truth. Joanna TrollopeFirst published in 1991, The Rector’s Wife is about a priest’s wife struggling to rediscover her own identity, a feeling of self that faded on marriage and has been swamped since by the competing needs of husband, children, church and village. The flower committee, the Sunday School, the newsletter, the endless teas and cakes to bake. The silent expectation that she will do this without payment. It is a sad story about a struggling marriage where communication is limited and the three children – Charlotte, Luke and Flora – observe in fear, confusion and ultimately in rebellion, in their own individual ways. How can they know who they are if their father rarely talks and their mother is having her own identity crisis. But it is also a heartwarming story about family love and adaptation.
Anna Bouverie’s rebellion begins when her husband Peter fails to be awarded promotion to archdeacon. ‘He would be changed by this; he couldn’t avoid that. Even the gradual assimilation of his disappointment would leave scars and blights, like a landscape after fire.’ Anna wonders if he will become even more difficult. Peter retreats into himself, leaving Anna to deal with the family’s financial problems. Son Luke wants to drive to India in an old van with friends, but doesn’t have the money. Flora is being bullied at her comprehensive and longs to go to the convent school. Oldest child Charlotte, away at university, avoids going home. Anna’s solution is pragmatic. To the scandalous whispers of the village women, she takes a job as a shelf-stacker at Pricewells supermarket. To her surprise, she enjoys the work. Her husband is scandalised. Two newcomers to the village, a rich businessman, and the brother of the new archdeacon, observe the upheaval and watch Anna with interest.
As Anna faces down her husband’s sullen disapproval, her mother and mother-in-law rebel in their own small ways and navigate their own choppy waters with resilience. There are asides which raise a chuckle, particularly old villager Mr Biddle, and some of Flora’s pronouncements. I finished the book feeling indignant at how the men in Anna’s life, no matter how well-meaning, seem to treat her as an appendage to themselves rather than seeing Anna the person.
The ending is satisfactory, not neat but realistic. “I married the man, not the job,” Anna tells a parishioner. “I’m not an outboard motor, I’m another boat.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read my reviews of other novels by Joanna Trollope:-
A PASSIONATE MAN
A VILLAGE AFFAIR
MUM & DAD
THE CHOIR

If you like this, try:-
‘We Are Water’ by Wally Lamb
‘The Language of Others’ by Clare Morrall
‘The Last Day’ by Claire Dyer

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:-
#BookReview THE RECTOR’S WIFE by Joanna Trollope https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-70O via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Nicola Upson

#BookReview ‘The Collaborator’s Daughter’ by Eva Glyn @JaneCable #WW2 #Croatia

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Modern-day grief and the turmoil of a wartime past are entangled for Fran in The Collaborator’s Daughter by Eva Glyn. Looking for a new start after the death of her beloved adoptive father, Fran leaves wintery England for the warmer streets of Dubrovnik. Feeling alone, vulnerable and anxious, Fran searches for the strength to look for answers. Eva GlynBrought from Yugoslavia to England as a baby at the end of the Second World War, Fran was raised by her mother to believe her father was a war hero. But Fran has recently discovered the name of Branko Milisic on a list of Nazi collaborators executed by partisan fighters in 1944. Unable to rationalise her gentle, loving mother Dragica as having loved a Nazi, Fran visits Croatia for the first time, taking small steps in discovering the history of the city where she was born. Her life is drifting. Having nursed her mother then father in their last years, raised her son and cared for grandchildren, Fran now realises she needs time for herself. But after a life of caring, being selfish is not as easy as it sounds. In her sixties, she lacks confidence and feels old, unattractive and shy.
Fran’s rebirth as an independent woman unfolds slowly, sometimes tortuously, as she treads the warm streets of Dubrovnik, shyly meeting the locals, learning their language, baking local delicacies and plucking up the courage to ask questions about her mysterious father. Fran is an introspective character and she spends a lot of time re-examining her motives, asking what-if, worrying about what she will find, summoning courage to take the next step, to ask the next question. As the grief at the recent loss of her father begins to lessen, she becomes bolder, finding strength with the new friends she has made in the beautiful city. Glyn’s descriptions of Dubrovnik are pictorial, so much so that the city almost becomes a character with a personality.
This is a compassionate telling of an emotional story about grief, about the fear of the past and ultimately about forgiveness. The truth about Branko and Dragica’s life during the Second World War seems deeply hidden, impossible to find, records lost, witnesses dead. As Fran struggles with the idea that her father was a traitor, perhaps a murderer, she is introduced to a local man who fought in the more recent Balkan War. Jadran knows what war is really like, the fear, the shame, the horror, the impossible choices, the loyalties and betrayals. Glyn cleverly juxtaposes the different wartime experiences as Fran tries to forgive a father who possibly did terrible things.
At times Fran is overcome with the enormity of what she is attempting. But with the help of her new Croatian friends, and bolstered by rallying Skype sessions with best friend Parisa back home in England, she investigates the truth, one small step at a time.
An original storyline in a country whose wartime story is read little in fiction.

Read my reviews of these other books by Eva Glyn:-
THE CROATIAN ISLAND LIBRARY
THE MISSING PIECES OF US

Eva Glyn is the pen name of author Jane Cable, here are my reviews of some of Jane’s other novels:-
ANOTHER YOU
ENDLESS SKIES
THE CHEESEMAKER’S HOUSE

If you this, try:-
‘The Last Hours in Paris’ by Ruth Druart
‘The Book of Lies’ by Mary Horlock
‘The Camomile Lawn’ by Mary Wesley

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE COLLABORATOR’S DAUGHTER by Eva Glyn @JaneCable https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Zl via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Joanna Trollope

#BookReview ‘The Missing Pieces of Us’ by Eva Glyn @JaneCable #romance

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The Missing Pieces of Us by Eva Glyn is a touching tale of love, self-awareness and how love persists over the years. Izzy and her daughter Claire are shopping. It is just before Christmas. The streets of Winchester are crowded and the air is icy. Izzy bumps into a tramp, a homeless man, and is sure she knows him. But when she turns round, he is gone. Eva GlynThis is the story of Izzy and Robin’s love for each other, their loss, and how they find themselves and each other again. Central to the story is a faerie tree. It is place where children leave gifts and messages for the fairies, and where the fairies leave their replies. It is a story of hope and compassion, of flawed characters, real people, finding their way out from the darkness. Beneath the faerie tree, Izzy and Robin swear eternal love to each other in 1986 but are soon after parted by circumstances. When they finally meet again, their memories of their early time together are so different: why? And whose memory is correct, whose is flawed?
This story combines a love story with suspense and a sprinkle of folklore.
This review was first published here in 2015 as ‘The Faerie Tree’ by Jane Cable. The book has since been republished by One More Chapter as ‘The Missing Pieces of Us’ by Eva Glyn, Jane Cable’s pen name.

Read my reviews of these other books by Eva Glyn:-
THE CROATIAN ISLAND LIBRARY
THE COLLABORATOR’S DAUGHTER

Also by Eva Glyn, writing as Jane Cable:-
ANOTHER YOU
ENDLESS SKIES
THE CHEESEMAKER’S HOUSE

If you like this, try:-
‘Love and Eskimo Snow’ by Sarah Holt
‘The Museum of You’ by Carys Bray
‘Please Release Me’ by Rhoda Baxter

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MISSING PIECES OF US by Eva Glyn @JaneCable https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6YM via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Eva Glyn

#BookReview ‘A Very English Murder’ by @BrightVerity #cosymystery #crime

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A Very English Murder by Verity Bright is first in the Lady Eleanor Swift series of 1920s historical cozy crime novels. It’s a rollicking mystery that speeds along at a fair clip with lots of red herrings, dastardly villains and multiple glasses of homebrew. Verity BrightLady Swift inherits her title from her uncle, along with his mansion Henley Hall at Little Buckford in the Home Counties. Accustomed to fending for herself she has travelled alone around the world, in jungle, deserts and cities, plotting routes for travel companies. But now Ellie finds herself in foreign territory; an English village. Not only must she become accustomed to being mistress of a house and its staff, a local celebrity, source of fascination, causer of awkward silences, she also witnesses a murder.
When the local police don’t believe her, given the lack of a body or evidence, Ellie sets off on a detective spree. In her search for clues she gets into scrapes, makes all kinds of wrong assumptions, and some correct ones, doesn’t know who to trust and argues with lots of people. The only ‘character’ she trusts to be on her side is gentle bulldog Gladstone. There’s also a rather dashing neighbour with an airplane, who also may be the murderer. Her title fails to elevate her in the eyes of the local mayor or police – who see only a woman so obviously incapable, ill-equipped and unfit for murder detection – so she teams up with one of her suspects, Clifford the butler at Henley Hall. “A mere woman and a mere servant. Two classes undervalued and underestimated for generations joining together to make a formidable team.”
This is a fun historical mystery which, despite a few unlikely plot points and some silliness, is curiously addictive. It is however set in the Twenties with few references to the events of the day though the upstairs/downstairs divisions at Henley Hall are soon broken down. This was a decade of adjustment after the Great War; the men who didn’t come home, the injured men who can’t work, the women who took on men’s jobs during the war have now been pushed back into a pre-war world. None of this seems to impact on Henley Hall or Eleanor’s lifestyle. Nor is there is mention of women’s suffrage, female MPs or the rights of titled women to sit in the House of Lords; all of which would affect Lady Swift when she inherited her title. But of course this is a cozy mystery, an escape from the real world, and A Very English Murder does this job well.
It’s an entertaining read which made me chuckle. Plus there are plenty of unanswered questions to fuel further adventures.
PS. I loved the cover artwork too.

Read my review of other books in the Lady Eleanor Swift series:-
DEATH AT THE DANCE #2LADYELEANORSWIFT
A WITNESS TO MURDER #3LADYELEANORSWIFT
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
A ROYAL MURDER #9LADYELEANORSWIFT
THE FRENCH FOR MURDER #10LADYELEANORSWIFT
DEATH DOWN THE AISLE #11LADYELEANORSWIFT
MURDER IN AN IRISH CASTLE #12LADYELEANORSWIFT

If you like this, try:-
‘The Vanished Bride’ by Bella Ellis #1BronteMysteries
‘The Mystery of Three Quarters’ by Sophie Hannah #3Poirot
‘A Fatal Crossing’ by Tom Hindle

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

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Eva Glyn

#BookReview ‘Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods’ by Suzanne Collins #fantasy #adventure

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A plague is circulating in the Underland and every warm-blooded creature may die. In the third book in the Suzanne Collins series, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, hero Gregor returns to Regalia, the land below New York, to find people he loves are dying of the deadly disease. Suzanne CollinsThe world below the streets seems familiar now and it’s great to see Gregor join up again with familiar characters; rats Ripred and Lapblood, cockroach Temp and human Vikus, newcomers Hamnet and his blue-green giant lizard, Frill, and a surprise appearance by someone thought lost. After listening to the Prophecy of Blood – as undecipherable as the previous prophecies – Gregor, without his bonded bat Ares who is desperately ill with the plague, sets off on his quest to find the starshade plant. Thought to be the only cure for the plague, it is said to grow in the dangerous Vineyard of Eyes. The team must survive poisonous plants – it’s a struggle for Gregor to get his little sister Boots to understand she mustn’t touch the pretty flowers – deadly jungle animals and the ferocious cutters, five foot long and two foot tall red ants.
Themes of selflessness, empathy and courage run throughout these books as Gregor is forced to confront wrong assumptions he has made, the danger of rushing to judgement, the hurt caused by making casual ill-thought throwaway statements, and the truth of his own nature. Can he set free his inner ‘rager’ to defend his friends and sister when the cutters attack. And will the Regalians admit how their past behaviour in the Underland has caused some of the hatred and resentment with the other peoples that live there.
The Underland books are about family, siblings, parents and also the extended family of friends and neighbours. As this book draws to a close, the fourth instalment is anticipated as Gregor’s family is once again under threat. But help may come from the most unexpected places.

Here are my reviews of the other books in the series:-
GREGOR THE OVERLANDER #1UNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE PROPHECY OF BANE #2UNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE MARKS OF SECRET BY SUZANNE COLLINS #4THEUNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE CODE OF CLAW #5UNDERLANDCHRONICLES

And try the first paragraph of THE HUNGER GAMES, also by Suzanne Collins.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Magician King’ by Lev Grossman #2THEMAGICIANS
‘The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden #2WINTERNIGHT
‘The Secret Commonwealth’ by Philip Pullman #2THE BOOK OF DUST

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview GREGOR AND THE CURSE OF THE WARMBLOODS by Suzanne Collins https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6P5 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Stephen Spotswood

#BookReview ‘The War of the Worlds’ by HG Wells #classic #scifi

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A story so well-known but how many of us have read the original HG Wells novel The War of the Worlds? I hadn’t, until now. Tempted in a bookshop to pick up the Penguin paperback, I’m glad I turned away from the 2005 Tom Cruise film, the 2019 BBC series, the 1938 Orson Welles radio drama that cause such a panic, and Jeff Wayne’s musical drama featuring the voice of Richard Burton. HG WellsSet at the end of the 19th century, this is the story of one man’s experience when an alien capsule lands on Horsell Common near Woking in Surrey. The story builds slowly, as information on the ground spreads slowly. No television, no radio, no internet to disseminate the news of invasion and imminent danger from the strange creatures which emerge from metal cylinders sent to earth. While people die and towns burn in Surrey, a few miles north unknowing Londoners party, eat out, go to work, to the theatre, make love. The narrator, an un-named Londoner, whose wife is considered to be safe in Leatherhead, is driven solely by his need to be reunited with her. He witnesses things he can never have imagined, technology beyond the knowledge of man, but longs to find his wife. But events push him in other directions and into the company of strangers; a timid curate who hides his fear in drink and food, a fantasist artilleryman who imagines a post-apocalyptic world. He sees the bravery, and destruction of, small groups of British military. In central London, the narrator’s brother knows nothing of the Martian tripod fighting machines to the south until, reading of the threat in newssheets, he flees the city. Rescuing two ladies in a pony-chaise who are under attack from ruffians, the trio head east towards the coast and evacuation.
The juxtaposition of everyday small details with the monumental aggressive force that has arrived on earth points to man’s inability to look beyond small, personal concerns to the bigger picture. A tendency that Wells would recognise today. Chapter One, The Eve of the War, is through-provoking for this reason. The arrogance of man to assume we know everything about our planet and the wider universe, that we are supreme, that what we do and think is correct.
What an imagination Wells had. This is an amazing depiction of alien invasion. A classic. Read it, if you haven’t already.
The cover shown above is the edition I read, the 2018 Penguin edition, but there are many editions available.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Ship’ by Antonia Honeywell
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing
‘The Choice’ by Claire Wade

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by HG Wells https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Vj via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Suzanne Collins

#BookReview ‘The Shadows of London’ by @AndrewJRTaylor #Historical

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When a body without a face is discovered on the site of Cat Hakesby’s latest building venture, Whitehall secretary James Marwood is ordered to investigate. The Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor is sixth in the Marwood & Lovett series that started on the night of the Great Fire of London. Andrew TaylorCat’s renovation of a city almshouse is delayed for the coroner’s verdict, putting extreme financial pressure on her architecture business. Marwood soon discovers two possible identities for the dead man – a French tutor to the daughter of the almshouse’s owner, or a civil servant at the Council of Foreign Plantations. Both suspects suggest a foreign connection to the affair. This excellent series about Restoration London is a wonderful portrayal of the squalor, smells and grime of daily reality juxtaposed with the corruption of wealth, power and politics. Stink, disguised by a clove-studded orange pomander. Meanwhile the eye of King Charles II is distracted by a young French newcomer to court, Louise de Keroualle. Surrounded by panders, English and French, who see advantage to a dalliance between monarch and maid of honour, Louise longs for a lost love and attempts in vain to stop the inevitable happening.
Set in 1671, this novel is a wonderful mixture of murder mystery, political thriller, seventeenth-century fashion [gorgeous shoes] and romantic suspense, set in the complex Restoration period. Eleven years after the restoration of King Charles to the throne and five years since the Great Fire, London still bears the marks of destruction. As Marwood investigates the murder, pulled this way and that by the demands of his political paymasters, Cat struggles to find skilled workers when all the ruined City of London is being redeveloped. The plot is complex, with modern echoes to pick up, and Taylor pulls the strings of tension this way and that. I stayed up late to finish it.
Cat remains one of my favourite fictional characters; independent, spiky, steadfast, a little solemn with endless determination. Marwood is alternately frustrating, arrogant and impulsive but also loyal, brave and honest. It is this last quality that is most pressed in The Shadows of London as, finding himself in unfamiliar territory, he questions what he is doing and why. Cat and Marwood are a brilliant pairing.
Excellent.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read my reviews of the first five books in this series:
THE ASHES OF LONDON #FIREOFLONDON1… and read the first paragraph of THE ASHES OF LONDON.
THE FIRE COURT #FIREOFLONDON2
THE KING’S EVIL #FIREOFLONDON3
THE LAST PROTECTOR #FIREOFLONDON4
THE ROYAL SECRET #FIREOFLONDON5

And a World War Two novel by the same author:-
THE SECOND MIDNIGHT

If you like this, try:-
‘The Lady of the Ravens’ by Joanna Hickson #1QueensoftheTower
‘The Drowned City’ by KJ Maitland #1 Daniel Pursglove
‘Wakenhyrst’ by Michelle Paver

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SHADOWS OF LONDON by @AndrewJRTaylor https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Qd via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- HG Wells

#BookReview ‘A Passionate Man’ by Joanna Trollope #familysaga #contemporary

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I started A Passionate Man by Joanna Trollope wondering about the identity of the man in the title, and finished it not being entirely sure. There are three men in the story who could fit the label and although I enjoyed the book I finished it feeling incomplete. Joanna TrollopeJoanna Trollope is so good at exploring the experiences faced by couples and families, relationship challenges are emotionally similar despite differences in the ages of the people involved, class, geography, decade or century. In A Passionate Man, published in 1990, she deals with a seemingly happy couple whose lives are rent apart by the death of a parent and the unexpected interest of an amorous colleague. Trollope’s characters are middle class, doctor Archie and teacher Liza Logan live a comfortable life in a covetable house in a Hampshire village. But all is not beautiful in this beautiful setting. A plan to build house on a field causes ruptures between friends and neighbours, locally-born workers struggle to live where they grew up while the elderly die quietly in loneliness. The cosy life of the Logans begins to fracture.
As husband and wife become focussed on their own emotions and needs, the divisions grow to the degree that their three children notice the undercurrents. Grief of a parent is an unexpectedly intense, disorientating experience which makes one question one’s own life, achievements, mistakes, dreams and longings. Trouble can often follow. I found myself becoming irritated by both Archie and Liza, rather than sympathetic, as each struggles with the consequences of their own actions and the other’s. As the family’s fractures deepen to chasms, Trollope’s portrayal of the children however is excellent.
I was left feeling that the ending is rather rushed and convenient and that ‘passionate’ is not the most appropriate adjective. Not my favourite Trollope novel.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Here are my reviews of other Trollope novels:-
A VILLAGE AFFAIR
MUM & DAD
THE CHOIR
THE RECTOR’S WIFE

If you like this, try:-
‘In the Midst of Winter’ by Isabel Allende
‘The Marriage Plot’ by Jeffrey Eugenides
‘In Another Life’ by Julie Christine Johnson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A PASSIONATE MAN by Joanna Trollope https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6KA via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Andrew Taylor

#BookReview ‘Bad Actors’ by Mick Herron #spy #thriller

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I’ve loved every one of the Slough House books by Mick Herron. In Bad Actors, eighth in the series about the reject spies, the Prime Minister’s special advisor has plans to reform the intelligence service. Break it and re-make it is his motto. But this threatens First Desk Diana Taverner, who has a few things to hide, as well as Jackson Lamb and his eccentric failures in the anonymous office in East London. Mick HerronA ‘superspreading’ specialist working for Downing Street has disappeared, Russia’s First Desk has flown into London and gone off radar and Shirley Dander is banished to ‘The San,’ a retreat in the West Country for spies who’ve gone off the rails. Meanwhile SPAD disruptor Anthony Sparrow – who calls anything ‘fake news’ if it doesn’t suit his storyline – is seen eating at an anonymous pizza restaurant in London which is odd as he does nothing without a scheme.
It takes a while for the details to connect, for the full impact of what is happening, to sink in. The certainty is that what is expected to go well will always be a car crash. Devious, selfish, deluded politicians, each with their own plan for advancement, cause problems for the slow horses who are sent by Jackson Lamb on missions that sound safe, innocuous and boring but turn out to be anything but. Roddy Ho’s computer wizardry takes centre stage and it’s good to see a full storyline given to Shirley Dander.
There is an element of predictability in the plot structure, perhaps inevitable in what is becoming a long series. Threat, Slough House endangered, Lamb’s unlikely spies save the day. But this doesn’t negate the enjoyment and Herron is so good at surprises. The wit is laugh-out-loud.
Twisty, turny, loopy, always surprising. Never disappoints. For true appreciation, start with Book One.

Click the title to read my reviews of the previous books in the Slough House series:-
SLOW HORSES #1SLOUGHHOUSE
DEAD LIONS #2SLOUGHHOUSE
REAL TIGERS #3SLOUGHHOUSE
SPOOK STREET #4SLOUGHHOUSE
LONDON RULES #5SLOUGHHOUSE
JOE COUNTRY #6SLOUGHHOUSE
SLOUGH HOUSE #7SLOUGHHOUSE

If you like this, try:-
‘Five Days of Fog’ by Anna Freeman
‘I Found You’ by Lisa Jewell
‘The Second Midnight’ by Andrew Taylor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BAD ACTORS by Mick Herron https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6K4 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Joanna Trollope