Book Reviews – Page 31

No Further Questions by Gillian McAllister

Published on August 6, 2018 by Margaret2 Comments

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was hooked right from the start of No Further Questions by Gillian McAllister. It plunges straight into a trial as Martha sits in the courtroom listening to expert witnesses being questioned and cross-examined about the death of her baby, Layla, just eight weeks old. Her sister Becky is accused of murdering her. Becky was looking after Layla, a difficult baby who cries and screams endlessly, whilst Martha was away in Kos, organising a school for refugee children and her husband, Scott was away at a work conference. She found Layla dead in her cot and denies killing her. It looked like a cot death – until the postmortem showed otherwise – and the police are convinced it was murder.

This is a tense, tightly plotted book, narrated from several viewpoints, but mainly alternating between Martha and Becky, revealing their thoughts and emotions as they relate what had happened. Despite being very different characters with different lifestyles Martha and Becky love and trust each other – otherwise Martha would never have left Layla with Becky. Martha doesn’t want to believe Becky is guilty but as the trial proceeds, as medical and social worker witnesses as well as neighbours and a school teacher present their accounts it looks increasingly bad for Becky. And yet, and this shows how real this trial and these characters came over to me, I couldn’t believe she had done it either.

Despite being written in the present tense, I was gripped by this book. I didn’t want to stop reading it and when I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it, about the characters and their relationships, about how they had got themselves into such a terrible situation. Gillian McAllister presents such a complex subject, with great insight into human nature, with characters that are not perfect (as none of us are) – they each have their flaws and make questionable decisions, so it is next to impossible to untangle the truth from supposition.

This is simply an excellent book, and it is without doubt one of the best books I’ve read this year.

Thank you to Gillian McAllister, the publishers and NetGalley for my copy of this book for review.

Format: Kindle Edition ( also to be published in paperback on 18th October 2018)
File Size: 2892 KB
Print Length: 421 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1405934603
Publisher: Penguin (2 July 2018)-

Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas

Published on August 3, 2018 by Margaret2 Comments

COULD YOUR DREAM HOME BE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE?

This is the second book by Claire Douglas that I’ve read – the first was her third novel, Last Seen Alive, which I thought was excellent (you can see my review here). So I was keen to read her latest novel Do Not Disturb – I wasn’t disappointed!

Description:

After what happened in London, Kirsty needs a fresh start with her family. And running a guesthouse in the Welsh mountains sounds idyllic.

But then their first guest arrives.

Selena is the last person Kirsty wants to see. It’s seventeen years since she tore everything apart.

Why has she chosen now to walk back into Kirsty’s life? Is Selena running from something too? Or is there an even darker reason for her visit?

Because Kirsty knows that once you invite trouble into your home, it can be murder getting rid of it . . .

Kirsty, husband, Adrian and their two daughters, Amelia aged 11 and Evie aged 6, together with Kirsty’s mum, Carol have just moved to a house in a little village in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. The house, a big double-fronted Victorian house with pointed roof gables and arched windows, had been empty for several years and they have renovated it to run it as a guesthouse. It had been their dream for years and when the opportunity arose to move away from the frantic pace of life in London it seemed the ideal fresh start, particularly as Adrian had just recovered from a breakdown and had left his job in order to write.

The book opens as Kirsty is woken by shrill screams and finds her mother crouched over a body. It then moves back to the events leading up to this scene beginning two months earlier as they work on getting the guesthouse ready. Amelia isn’t too happy at the move and thinks the house is jinxed and Evie has started to walk in her sleep. Kirsty and Carol have a tense, awkward relationship and Adrian seems detached from the rest of the family. The locals are unfriendly and hostile to the family, regarding them as outsiders, even though Kirsty is Welsh, and there are tales that the house is haunted.

This is a novel with many family secrets that only gradually come to light and right from the start things go wrong beginning with the arrival of the first guests. Amongst them are Selena, Kirsty’s cousin and her little daughter, Ruby, a skinny, disabled child in a wheelchair. Selena and Kirsty fell out seventeen years ago after a major row and haven’t met since then. Kirsty’s brother Nathan and his wife Julia arrive and they too are having problems. Dead flowers arrive on the front doorstep. Evie says she’s seen a ghost, and that things have been moved in her bedroom, Kirsty worries that Adrian is heading for another breakdown and when a man from their past turns up things go from bad to worse. Kirsty can’t work out who she can trust or believe and I began to think that maybe I couldn’t trust Kirsty either.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is full of atmosphere, from the brooding Welsh mountains, their tops hidden in the clouds, the cold and rain, the almost Gothic house – was it really haunted? – to the moods of the characters and their tangled and unsatisfactory relationships with their secrets and lies. It looks at the nature and role of parenthood, of mother/daughter and husband/wife relationships and questions how far you would go to protect your loved ones. It’s a book that kept me guessing for most of the way. The ending, which I had guessed, after discounting most of the suspects, left me feeling quite unsettled, leaving several situations that could easily go wrong. It certainly gave me food for thought.

Many thanks to Michael Joseph – Penguin Books and NetGalley for a review copy.

Format: Kindle Edition, available now – also in Paperback to be published 9 August 2018)
File Size: 3618 KB
Print Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Penguin (1 Aug. 2018)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B079NPZMBY

The Tudor Crown by Joanna Hickson

Published on July 23, 2018 by Margaret6 Comments

The early life of Henry VII

Description:

When Edward of York takes back the English crown, the Wars of the Roses scatter the Lancastrian nobility and young Henry Tudor, with a strong claim to the throne, is forced into exile.

Recently widowed and vulnerable, his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, forges an uncomfortable alliance with Edward’s queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Swearing an oath of allegiance to York, Margaret agrees to marry the king’s shrewdest courtier, Lord Stanley. But can she tread the precarious line between duty to her husband, loyalty to her son, and her obligation to God and the king?

When tragedy befalls Edward’s reign, Richard of York’s ruthless actions fire the ambition of mother and son. As their destinies converge each of them will be exposed to betrayal and treachery and in their gruelling bid for the Tudor crown, both must be prepared to pay the ultimate price…

Little is known about Henry Tudor’s early life and this novel covers the time he spent in exile when he was fourteen years old up to the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 when he was twenty eight. The son of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort, Henry was born in Pembroke Castle in Wales. As a Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Henry’s life was in danger and so, together with his uncle, Jasper Tudor, he fled the country after Henry VI was killed in 1471 and Edward IV took the throne. They were aiming to seek refuge in France, but storms drove them to land in Brittany (I hadn’t known that Brittany was not part of France at that time). Where they spent the next fourteen years.

If I knew little about Henry VII, I knew even less about his mother Margaret Beaufort. She was only thirteen when Henry was born and saw little of him during his early life in Wales and subsequent exile in Brittany. The Tudor Crown is told from both her perspective and that of Henry’s, including letters between them telling of their plans for Henry’s return to England.

The funny thing about historical fiction, to my mind, is that although I know the outcome of events as I read I found that I was willing Henry on and wondering how he would be successful. Joanna Hickson has brought the period to life, capturing the danger and frustration and hopes for the future that both Henry and Margaret experienced. I could visualise the scenes, particularly the storm at sea and the perilous landing on the shores of Brittany, Henry’s fictional love affair with Catherine de Belleville and the account of the Battle of Bosworth. She has filled the story with characters that have their own personalities. In particular I grew to like and admire Margaret Beaufort. She comes across as an intelligent and compassionate woman, loyal to her son, always ready to help him financially and ambitious for his future.

I think this is a good mix of fact and fiction – in her Author’s Note Joanna Hickson explains that ‘with the odd exception’ the people Henry met and the places he went to existed but their characters and descriptions are from her imagination. She say she ‘has never doubted that Richard was responsible for the deaths of the Princes in the Tower’ in contrast to other accounts that I’ve read, particularly Sharon Penman’s The Sunne in Splendour in which she portrays a very likeable Richard and a different solution to what happened to the Princes.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and as in all good historical fiction Joanna Hickson has included details of the sources she has used in her research for The Tudor Crown. Now, I’m hoping she will write more books about Henry’s life after he became King.

Many thanks to Harper Collins and NetGalley for a review copy.

Amazon UK link

Ruined Stones by Eric Reed

Published on July 20, 2018 by Margaret8 Comments

Ruined Stones combines two of my favourite genes – crime fiction and historical fiction. It’s set in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1941 during the Second World War, where Grace Baxter, who has recently moved from Shropshire, is working in the Women’s Auxiliary Police force in a small sub-station. As the young policemen have joined up, the police are recruiting women but their duties are restricted and they can’t make arrests.

The body of a young unidentified woman is found in the ruins of a Roman temple not far from the police station. Grace is assigned to interviewing the neighbours but no one admits to seeing or hearing anything suspicious during the night due to the blackout and the fog. The police initially think it could have been an accident or suicide, but why are the victim’s legs and arms arranged into the ancient symbol of the reverse of the Nazi swastika?

Grace comes from a line of ‘wise women’ and is sensitive to the remains of the Roman temple, sensing something unthinkably old and powerful in the pagan ruin. Then another body is found, implicating Mavis, Grace’s landlady, although there are number of other suspects as well. Mavis, is viewed with suspicion by her neighbours because of her friendship with a Dutch refugee, Hans, who some believe to be a German. When the murdered man is identified as Mavis’ husband, Grace finds her life in great danger as she investigates the mystery and finally discovers the culprit.

I enjoyed this mystery, with its convincing characters, set against the backdrop of the war, as the Germans repeatedly bomb Newcastle and the inhabitants seek shelter in the crypt of the local church, which takes a direct hit. It provides an interesting look at life during the war, complete with black marketeers and criminals taking advantage of the blackout, and the prejudice and fear shown to foreigners and strangers. I was also interested to see the attitudes to women and their work for the police during the war and the hostility towards them from the public and from police officers. And I also enjoyed the hint of the supernatural through Grace’s own background.

This is the second book featuring Grace Baxter – the first is The Guardian Stones, set in the remote Shropshire village of Noddweir, where Grace’s father was the village constable until he joined the armed forces at the start of the war.

‘Eric Reed’ is the pen name of husband and wife, Mary Reed and Eric Meyer. Mary spent her early life in Newcastle and the setting in this city is depicted as it was in 1941, apart from two imaginary streets. The temple ruins, dedicated to the local god Antenociticus, still exist – you can see a photo and information about it on the English Heritage site. There is a glossary of Geordie dialect words and phrases included in the novel at the end of the book.

Many thanks to the authors and Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link

On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill

Published on July 15, 2018 by Margaret11 Comments

I’ve been doing quite well with reading books for my 10 Books of Summer Challenge – but not so well at writing reviews of them.

On Beulah Height (Dalziel & Pascoe, #17)

So here is a quick review of the first of my 10 Books. It’s also one of my TBRs, a book I’ve owned for a couple of years:

I loved On Beulah Height is Reginald Hill’s 17th Dalziel and Pascoe novel. He wrote 25 in this series and although it would probably make sense to get a picture of their development I’ve been reading them out of order. It doesn’t seem to matter much, but in this one there are a few references to something that had happened in an earlier case (told in The Wood Beyond) that had affected Pascoe personally. It had filled him with anger and it is still affecting him, whilst investigating this case. But this book can easily be read as a standalone novel.

It is not just a crime fiction novel, it is also a book that raises many issues about parenthood, the relationship between families and their children and the devastation and anguish of parents and a community at the loss of a child.

I’d really like to re-read it some time as it is a complex book, that begins with a transcript written by Betsy Allgood, then aged seven, telling what had happened in the little village of Dendale in Yorkshire before the valley was flooded to provide a reservoir. That summer three little girls had gone missing. No bodies were ever found, and the best suspect, a strange lad named Benny Lightfoot, was held for a time, then released. Benny then disappeared from the area

Fifteen years later another little girl, Lorraine, also aged seven went out for a walk one morning with her dog before her parents got up and didn’t return home, reviving memories of the missing children from fifteen years earlier. It was a case that has haunted Dalziel – and the fears increase when a message appeared, sprayed on the walls: BENNY’S BACK. It’s been a hot, dry summer and the buildings beneath the reservoir are gradually becoming visible and tensions are rising as memories of the missing children increase the fears for Lorraine’s safety.

This book is tightly plotted with many twists that made me change my mind so many times I gave up trying to work out who the murderer was and just read for the pleasure of reading. Hill’s descriptive writing is rich and full of imagery. The main characters are fully rounded people and the supporting cast are believable personalities, often described with wry humour.

Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (30 Jan. 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0007313179
ISBN-13: 978-0007313174
Source: I bought the book
My rating: 5*

The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse

Published on July 10, 2018 by Margaret7 Comments

The Burning Chambers is the first in a new trilogy set in Languedoc in the south-west of France. It’s set in 1562 during the French Wars of Religion – Kate Mosse sets out the history of these civil wars that took place between Huguenots (Protestants) and Catholics from 1562 and 1598 and explains that the trilogy is set against the backdrop of 300 years of history from 16th century France to 19th century South Africa.

I found the beginning of this book hard to follow and slow-going with the introduction of several different characters, and I wasn’t entirely clear how they all interacted. Fortunately there is a list of characters at the beginning of the book, but it’s a bit distracting having to keep referring to it. Once I had sorted out who was who I became engrossed in the story. It’s a complicated story of war, conspiracies, love, betrayal, forgery, torture and family secrets.

It’s centred on the Joubert family, Catholics living in Carcassonne and Piet Reydon, one of the Huguenot leaders. Bernard Joubert, a bookseller had been imprisoned accused of being a traitor and a heretic, when he let slip information about a secret will, the importance of which only becomes clear later on. He is traumatised by his experience and withdraws into himself. His oldest daughter Minou receives a message, sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: SHE KNOWS THAT YOU LIVE. She doesn’t understand what this means and unable to speak to her father puts it out of her mind for the time being. Piet, meanwhile is on a dangerous mission in Carcassone to further the Huguenot cause and finds his life is in danger from the priest Vidal, formerly his friend, and is helped by Minou and her younger brother, Aimeric to escape.

Bernard suffering from the torture he endured leaves Carcassone and travels to the small village of Puivert, after persuading Minou, who has fallen in love with Piet, to go with Aimeric to Toulouse where the their aunt and uncle live thinking they would be safer there. But Toulouse is being torn apart by the warring factions, putting them all in terrible danger. Alis, their little sister left in Carcassone with a servant and family friend also finds herself in great danger when Blanche de Bruyere, the ruthless Chatelaine of Puivert arrives in search of Minou.

With a large cast of characters, a few stand out, in particular Minou, a resourceful young woman, her aunt, Madame Salvadora Boussay, outwardly a meek woman dominated by her husband but as the story progresses she is shown as a much stronger personality, and then my favourite, clever little Alis, much braver than any of her family realised.

So, having started slowly, The Burning Chambers develops into a fast moving story, with engaging characters, set in a convincing historical background and ending with a dramatic climax as the secrets of the past are finally revealed. The book ends with an epilogue telling of events ten years later and hinting at what may follow in the next book in the trilogy and also in the final book set in South Africa.

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan, Mantle for a review copy via NetGalley.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link