Tag Archives: books

#BookReview ‘Devices and Desires’ by PD James #crime

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Perhaps of all the Adam Dalgliesh books so far, and Devices and Desires is the eighth in the series by PD James, this is the one with the strongest sense of place. The East Anglian coast: a bare, windswept, desolate landscape, its coastline dominated by Larksoken nuclear power station, it is a tight-knit community where there are few secrets and no hiding places. PD JamesThe power station’s staff, its purpose and existence are at the centre of this murder mystery. Dalgiesh’s Aunt Jane has died and he visits her house, which he has inherited, both as a break after the Berowne murder [featured in the previous book, A Taste for Death] and as an opportunity to consider the house and decide whether to sell it or keep it. Meanwhile, the community on the remote coastal headline is being terrorized by a serial killer, The Whistler. And, of course, a few pages into the book, The Whistler kills. Or does he?
This is a magnificent mystery, I challenge anyone to work out the plot twists and turns. But it is not just James’ talent at plotting which sets this book aside from its predecessors. It is thoughtful, considered, and very moving: about death, love, and all the big human emotions.
I wonder how far ahead James planned her books. Reading A Taste for Death, I noticed that Book Four [of seven] is called ‘Devices and Desires’. Evidently James liked the title and used it for this eighth, and she repeats the phrase several times throughout the book: “Here the past and present fused and her own life, with its trivial devices and desires, seemed only an insignificant moment in the long history of the headland.”
I read this book many years ago and still have my original copy [below], I think I prefer this cover design. PD JamesRead my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
COVER HER FACE #1ADAMDALGLIESH
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
ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH … read the first paragraph HERE
THE LIGHTHOUSE #13ADAMDALGLIESH
THE PRIVATE PATIENT #14 ADAMDALGLIESH

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

And another PD James novel:-
INNOCENT BLOOD

If you like this, try:-
‘Or The Bull Kills You’ by Jason Webster #1MAXCAMARA
‘The Accident’ by CL Taylor
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview DEVICES AND DESIRES by PD James http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Nc via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The House on Cold Hill’ by Peter James @PeterJamesUK #ghost #thriller

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Is it a crime story, is it a ghost story, is it a thriller? I don’t care, The House on Cold Hill is great. This is the first Peter James book I have read, and I loved it. It is a mystery about a family moving to a new house in the country, then everything starts to go wrong.  Have they just bought the wrong house? Bad luck? Co-incidences? Or is someone attacking them, and why? Peter JamesAs the oddities become more frequent, Ollie becomes more frantic as the house crumbles, his new business clients are sabotaged, and he fears for his wife and daughter. The tension is handled brilliantly, the first quarter of the book is a slow build as we get to know the family and the house, after that the screw is turned relentlessly. James is a skilled storyteller.
After finishing reading this novel, I discovered that Peter James used his own experience of living in a haunted house. This shows on every page, the things that happen in the house, Ollie’s reactions, the understandable belief that ‘this is not real.’

And here’s my review of DEAD SIMPLE, the first in the Roy Grace crime series by Peter James.

If you like this, try:-
‘A Sudden Light’ by Garth Stein
‘The Cheesemaker’s House’ by Jane Cable
‘The Quarry’ by Iain Banks

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL by Peter James @PeterJamesUK via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1P8

#BookReview ‘Please Release Me’ by Rhoda Baxter @RhodaBaxter #romance

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Please Release Me by Rhoda Baxter really grew on me. It was a trifle slow to start with lots of everyday detail, and I wondered where the story was going. And then there is a huge jump and the story flies. I finished reading it on a plane, exactly the right sort of book for my location as I was completely unaware of the time. This is a romantic comedy about tragedy, grief, death and… no, I won’t give away the clever twist. It also questions how well we actually know the person we are closest to. Rhoda Baxter The endpoint of a lot of romantic comedies is a wedding. This book starts with one, and a car accident. We meet Sally, who is marrying Peter. Sally is bright, bubbly, seems manipulative, and has a gambling problem. I can’t say I took to Sally, who is the first character we meet. On the surface this seems a light and fluffy read but there is much more going on. After the accident, Peter recovers but Sally is in a coma. After months of no response from Sally, Peter meets Grace, another hospice visitor. Their relationship triggers all sorts of issues for the three main characters. I think there is more we could know about Peter, IT specialist, and Grace, scientist, and how their jobs shape their personalities and their attitudes to the situation in which they find themselves. I was three-quarters through the book and realized I didn’t know what Grace’s job was, and had to flick back to check.
This is the first of Rhoda Baxter’s books that I’ve read, but will certainly read more.

Here’s my review of another novel by Rhoda Baxter:-
GIRL IN TROUBLE #3SMARTGIRLS

If you like this, try:-
‘Kings and Queens’ by Terry Tyler
‘If I Knew You Were Going to be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go’ by Judy Chicurel
‘The Other Eden’ by Sarah Bryant

And if you’d like to share a link:
#BookReview PLEASE RELEASE ME by Rhoda Baxter @RhodaBaxter via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Np

Great opening paragraph 79… ‘Illywhacker’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“My name is Herbert Badgery. I am a hundred and thirty-nine years old and something of a celebrity. They come and look at me and wonder how I do it. There are weeks when I wonder the same, whole stretches of terrible time. It is hard to believe you can feel so bad and still not die.”
Peter Carey From ‘Illywhacker’ by Peter Carey 

Read the #FirstPara of JACK MAGGS, also by Peter Carey.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘After You’d Gone’ by Maggie O’Farrell
‘Fortunes of War’ by Olivia Manning
‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Plath

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara ILLYWHACKER by Peter Carey http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1KP via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘The Ends of the Earth’ by Robert Goddard #WW2 #thriller

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Don’t do what I did, and read the first two books in this series by Robert Goddard and then leave 12 months before reading The Ends of the Earth, the third. Ideally this trilogy should be read back to back, in full sun when sitting on a sunlounger. The story runs along at a cracking pace, with dense plotting, loads of characters, politics, spies and locations from Europe to Japan. The pace of this, the third book, is constant, hardly time to draw a breath. Robert GoddardQuestions that I had forgotten about from the first book are revisited, challenged and solved. Japan is the scene for the climax of this tale of James Maxted, ‘Max’, and his hunt for the truth about his father’s death. But this is so much more than a single case of murder, on it hangs the future of post-Great War Europe and the twentieth-century relationship of Japan and America. At times things happen which seem a little convenient, a person turns out to have a skill or history of which we knew nothing before, but I forgave Goddard for this. He is a prime storyteller. It is clear he knows his settings – Paris, Marseilles, Switzerland, Japan – and this adds to the verisimilitude.
In this rollicking spy story, Goddard examines the nature of courage. Max finds himself drawing on the type of bravery he needed to survive in the Royal Flying Corps. “He was not surprised by how calm he felt, how undismayed by what lay before him. He had discovered his aptitude for taking risks early in the war. ‘You should be more careful, sir,’ Sam had said to him more than once. And Max had always given the same reply. ‘Being careful is what gets a chap killed.’ Eventually, he had come to believe that. And it was a belief that had served him well. So far.”

Read my reviews of Goddard’s other books:-
THE WAYS OF THE WORLD #1WIDEWORLD
THE CORNERS OF THE GLOBE #2WIDEWORLD
PANIC ROOM
THE FINE ART OF INVISIBLE DETECTION #1UMIKOWADA
THIS IS THE NIGHT THEY COME FOR YOU #1SUPERINTENDENTTALEB

If you like this, try:-
‘Midnight in Europe’ by Alan Furst
‘Stay Where You Are and Then Leave’ by John Boyne
‘Slow Horses’ by Mick Herron #1SLOUGHHOUSE

And if you’d like to share a link:
#BookReview THE ENDS OF THE EARTH by Robert Goddard http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1O8 via @SandraDanby 

#BookReview ‘Stormy Summer’ by Suzy Turner @suzy_turner #romance #chicklit

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Stormy Summer is not my usual sort of book. I guess I grew out of chick lit novels four decades ago. But this book made me laugh. So I’ll put a warning up front for the sensitive: the book starts with a sex scene. But don’t let that put you off. Yes, this is a fun read as author Suzy Turner takes her eponymous character Summer on a relationship road trip. Suzy TurnerFor a year she has been manless and therefore sexless, and when she does meet a nice guy it goes wrong for an unexpected reason [I did see this coming, but it still made me smile]. So, Summer and her best friend Gwen fly off to the Algarve for two weeks of intended flirting, laughter and girly gossip. Of course when she isn’t looking for a nice man, she stumbles over one.
Turner is good at writing physical comedy scenes. Summer is a likeable klutz, we all have/had a friend like her at some point in our lives. She is prone to misunderstandings and is rather gullible, accepting the most obvious explanation of a situation rather than thinking ‘what if?’ This is a coming-of-age story, Summer learns to look beyond the surface and look for the less obvious answer.

If you like this, try:-
‘An Englishwoman’s Guide to the Cowboy’ by June Kearns
‘The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me’ by Lucy Robinson
‘The Audacious Mendacity of Lily Green’ by Shelley Weiner

And if you’d like to share a link:
#BookReview STORMY SUMMER by Suzy Turner @suzy_turner via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Nt

#BookReview ‘A Taste for Death’ by PD James #crime

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Two men found dead in a church: murder and suicide, or double murder? One a politician, the other a tramp. Because A Taste for Death is a PD James novel we know it is murder, but we don’t know why or who by. PD JamesA Taste for Death differs from the preceding six in this series because of its length [656 pages], compared with its predecessor Death of an Expert Witness [400 pages]. For this we get extra plot twist and turns, more detail about the potential suspects, more internal monologues, and more of the literary depth which characterizes the later Dalgliesh novels. Some readers will appreciate the extra detail, others may prefer a quicker moving, shorter, crime novel.
The story is book-ended by the meeting and subsequent relationship between Miss Emily Wharton and 10-year old Darren Wilkes. They find the bodies and after that their very human story is lost in the swirl of police procedure and suspicion, accusations and alibis.
Commander Adam Dalgliesh heads up a new squad to solve serious crimes which need sensitive handling. This murder of Sir Paul Berowne, a government minister, is the squad’s first case. On Dalgliesh’s team is John Massingham, familiar from earlier novels, and newcomer Kate Miskin. Miskin’s storyline is a welcome female perspective in a male-dominated job [this book was first published in 1986].
This was the first novel I read, I still have the original paperback [below]. PD JamesCertainly I have a clear memory of a man called Berowne murdered in a church. It was the beginning of a fondness for Adam Dalgliesh and I have read every one of his series since.

Read my reviews of the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries:-
COVER HER FACE #1ADAMDALGLIESH
A MIND TO MURDER #2ADAMDALGLIESH
UNNATURAL CAUSES #3ADAMDALGLIESH
SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE #4ADAMDALGLIESH
THE BLACK TOWER #5ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS #6ADAMDALGLIESH
DEVICES AND DESIRES #8ADAMDALGLIESH
ORIGINAL SIN #9ADAMDALGLIESH …read the first paragraph HERE
A CERTAIN JUSTICE #10ADAMDALGLIESH
DEATH IN HOLY ORDERS #11ADAMDALGLIESH
THE MURDER ROOM #12ADAMDALGLIESH… read the first paragraph HERE
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 another PD James novel:-
INNOCENT BLOOD

If you like this, try:
The Killing Lessons by Saul Black
One False Move by Harlan Coben
No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A TASTE FOR DEATH by PD James via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1MD

#BookReview ‘Business as Usual’ by EL Lindley #crimefiction

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Business as Usual was very excitable from the beginning, a debut author, EL Lindley, who lets the need for tension dominate. It’s a busy story: an unpredictable documentary producer, Georgie Connelly; a missing teenage girl; a silent ex-soldier; and a dodgy Russian businessman. At times, I wanted a breather from the tension, a slower build. EL LindleyThe plotting is clever and it’s a tight group of characters, I hope they will continue in book two. I particularly liked Mervyn the taxi driver. The sexual chemistry between Georgie and former US marine James is evident from day one, though on the page they snipe and squabble.
The novel is set in Los Angeles, though this is not immediate on the page. There is huge potential for this to be exploited in book two, I’d also like to see more of Georgie’s documentary production; in this book she just seems to sit in the office. So there’s lots to develop here for a likeable group of characters. There are three books in the series and I liked Business As Usual enough to want to read more.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Various Haunts of Men’ by Susan Hill #1SIMONSERRAILLER
‘Snow White Must Die’ by Nele Neuhaus
‘The Blind Man of Seville’ by Robert Wilson #1FALCÓN

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BUSINESS AS USUAL by EL Lindley via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Ij

My ‘Porridge & Cream’ read: Judith Field

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Today I am pleased to welcome short story writer, Judith Field to share her ‘Porridge & Cream’ read.

“My book is Anybody can do Anything by Betty Macdonald. I’d read her books The Egg and I (which, like the Curate’s egg, is good in parts) and The Plague and I (which I love), so when I saw Anybody in a second hand bookshop in 1981 for only 25p, I grabbed it. I re-read this funny and uplifting boot, with its brilliant character descriptions. when I need picking up, but I leave it long enough between reading that I can’t remember the text word for word. When I do read it, I feel a thrill of recognition, like meeting an old friend. Judith FieldPublished in 1945, it’s a memoir of life in Seattle during the Depression, in the early to mid nineteen thirties. Betty leaves an unhappy marriage and, with her two small daughters, goes back to live with her quirky, warm, and supportive family of four sisters and a brother headed by Mother, who “with one folding chair and a plumber’s candle, could make the North Pole homey.”  Betty says “It’s a wonderful thing to know that you can come home any time from anywhere and just open the door and belong”.  The title comes from the positive attitude of Betty’s sister, Mary, who spends her time finding jobs for her sisters (especially Betty), and Betty often winds up in uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous, work situations.

The character descriptions are wonderful. The book is often contemplative, for example when the electricity is cut off because they can’t afford to pay the bill, but it’s never miserable or preachy. The final sentence, of Mary’s, is wonderful. Betty has just had her first book accepted and tells Mary about her “strange, enchanted feeling”. Mary says “You just feel successful, but imagine how I feel. All of a sudden my big lies have started coming true!”

About The Book of Judith by Judith Field [Rampant Loon Press]
Judith FieldThe Book of Judith is a collection of 16 short stories: sometimes funny, sometimes poignant; sometimes whimsical and fantastic; sometimes romantic, and sometimes disturbing, and sometimes both in the same story!

There’s no better endorsement than that from a reader. One Amazon customer said: “A collection of tales of the fantastic that manage to be sweet, poignant and laugh out loud funny all at the same time.”

Judith Field’s Bio
Judith Field lives in London, UK. She is the daughter of writers and learned how to agonize over fiction submissions at her mother and father’s knees. She’s a pharmacist, medical writer, editor and indexer, and in 2009 she made a New Year resolution to start writing fiction and get published within the year. Pretty soon she realized how unrealistic that was but, in fact, it sort of worked: she got a slot to write a weekly column in a local paper shortly before Christmas of 2009 and that ran for a several years. She still writes occasional feature articles for the paper. She has two daughters, a son, a granddaughter and a grandson. Her fiction, mainly speculative, has appeared in a variety of publications, mainly in the USA. When she’s not working or writing, she swims and sings, not always at the same time. She speaks five languages and can say, “Please publish this story” in all of them.

Judith Field’s links
Luna Station Quarterly blog
The Mill Hillbillies blog
Buy The Book of Judith here.
For more about Judith’s publisher, Rampant Loon Press and its Stupefying Stories series, click here.

porridge_and_cream__rainyday_111_long

 

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:-
Sue Moorcroft
Claire Dyer
Lisa Devaney

Judith Field

 

‘Anybody Can Do Anything’ by Betty Macdonald [UK: University of Washington Press] 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Why does author Judith Field love love ANYBODY CAN DO ANYTHING by Betty Macdonald? #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1MU

#BookReview ‘A Question of Identity’ by Susan Hill @susanhillwriter #crime

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A Question of Identity by Susan Hill starts with a flashback to a trial: a man is found not guilty of three murders. Elderly, vulnerable women. Such is the public outcry that he is given a new identity. This is the seventh book in the successful Simon Serrailler detective series. Susan Hill Lafferton, ten years later. A woman is killed. Elderly, vulnerable, murdered the same way as those three women in 2002. But how can Simon Serrailler track down a villain who doesn’t exist: the man was given a new name, a new face, a new identity and was relocated. But we’re talking about murder, so surely one police department will help another?
This is an intriguing premise, all too believable. As ever with Hill’s novels, this is efficient and chilling. She introduces us to prospective villains, each seems a little questionable: but are we being unfair, reading something into signs that don’t exist, generalising, making assumptions? In parallel with the introduction of prospective villains, we are also shown prospective victims.
Whilst Simon Serrailler deals with this emotional case, his own heart is being pulled between love and guilt, and his sister Cat must manage two warring children.
An excellent tale which keeps the pages turning, an examination of the jury system. When ‘not guilty’ can be the wrong verdict, when ‘with reasonable doubt’ can condemn more vulnerable women. A disturbing take on the efficiency of our justice system.

Read my reviews of the other novels in the series:-
THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN #1SIMONSERRAILLER
THE PURE IN HEART #2SIMONSERRAILLER
THE RISK OF DARKNESS #3SIMONSERRAILLER
THE VOWS OF SILENCE #4SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET #5SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BETRAYAL OF TRUST #6SIMONSERRAILLER
THE SOUL OF DISCRETION #8SIMONSERRAILLER
THE COMFORTS OF HOME #9SIMONSERRAILLER
THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT #10SIMONSERRAILLER
A CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE #11SIMONSERRAILLER

And also by Susan Hill, HOWARD’S END IS ON THE LANDING

If you like this, try:-
‘No Time for Goodbye’ by Linwood Barclay
‘The Art of the Imperfect’ by Kate Evans #1SCARBOROUGHMYSTERIES
‘A Taste for Death’ by PD James #7ADAMDALGLIESH

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A QUESTION OF IDENTITY by Susan Hill @susanhillwriter via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1CR