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The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths

Published on October 30, 2016 by Margaret6 Comments

The Blood Card (DI Stephens & Max Mephisto, #3) The Blood Card by Elly Griffiths is the third in the DI Stephens and Max Mephisto series. Known as the ‘Magic Men’ they had been part of a top-secret espionage unit during the War.

This book captures the atmosphere of 1953 – a time of great change and optimism. Britain is looking forward with eager anticipation to the new Queen’s coronation. The newspapers and newsreels are full of it and more than half the homes in the country have bought a television in order to watch the coronation live- it was the first British coronation to be broadcast on television, a momentous occasion. But there are fears that an anarchist group is plotting to disrupt the coronation.

Max, a magician, and his daughter Ruby, also a magician, are preparing for a TV Coronation Variety show, whilst Edgar is leading the investigation into death of Madame Zabini, a gypsy fortune teller, on Brighton pier. However, when their former war-time commander is murdered both Edgar and Max are instructed to investigate his death. A playing card, the ace of hearts had been found on his body, next to the knife still in his chest. Magicians call it the ‘blood card‘.

Whilst Max investigates the show business connection, Edgar flies to the States to interview a witness who has links to an anarchist group, leaving Sergeant Emma Holmes to look into Madame Zabini’s death. At first it looked as though she had committed suicide when her body had been found washed up near the Palace Pier but Emma suspects it was not an accident or suicide. As the investigations progress it appears there may be a connection between the two deaths and also links to the plot to disrupt the coronation.,

I loved the way this book is so firmly set in 1953, and conveys the public’s excitement about the new Queen and the coronation, especially as it was being broadcast live on television. I enjoyed the insight into the history of television as Max is sceptical about performing magic on TV thinking the ‘smug grey box’ will be the death of the days of music hall, that magic tricks needed to be performed on stage not in close up with a camera over his shoulder. But he is persuaded to take part in a new show after the coronation – Those were the Days ( that is The Good Old Days). And I also liked the character progression as Edgar and Max continue their friendship. Edgar is engaged to Ruby, although Max is not too happy about it. And Edgar appears to be unaware of Emma’s feelings for him. How this will end is yet to be resolved.

The Blood Card is a most entertaining book, with a convincing cast of characters. The mystery is expertly handled, with plenty of suspense and lots of twists and turns as the separate plot strands are intricately woven together. I loved it.

Thanks Quercus Books and Netgalley for an advance review copy of this book ahead of publication on 3rd November.

Amazon UK link

The Bookish Time Travel Tag

Published on October 25, 2016 by Margaret14 Comments

The Bookish Time Travel Tag has been doing the rounds and I’ve been tagged by Sandra at A Corner of Cornwall to take part. It’s not been that easy coming up with my answers to some of the questions and it’s taken some time to write this post. But I have enjoyed it and would like to thank both Sandra and The Library Lizard, whose original idea this was.

What is your favourite historical setting for a book?

Not an easy question to start off with as I love reading historical fiction set in several periods and different countries. It’s hard to choose just one, but I love the Tudor period and historical crime fiction and so I’m highlighting C J Sansom’s Shardlake books set in the reign of Henry VIII for this question. Matthew Shardlake is a hunchbacked lawyer, but the books are more than crime novels – Sansom’s research is excellent, his characters are well drawn and the atmosphere and sense of place are convincing. I love his books.

What writer/s would you like to travel back in time to meet?

I’m not sure I want to do this, being a bit shy and I think I would feel very awkward. Maybe Jane Austen – she lived in such a different period from today and I would love to know more about her inspiration for writing and who was the inspiration for ‘Mr Darcy’.

What book/s would you travel back in time and give to your younger self?

I would give myself The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J R R Tolkien. I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was in my early twenties and loved it, so much so that over the years I’ve re-read it several times. But somehow I ignored The Hobbit, maybe thinking that because it’s a children’s book it was too late for me to appreciate it. I only read The Hobbit three years ago after seeing the film, and then I realised how wrong I was not to have read it before ‘“ The Hobbit is a book that all ages can enjoy. But I do wish I’d read it first as a child.

What book/s would you travel forward in time and give to your older self?

A Christmas Carol (Illustrated Edition)'¦

By this The Library Lizard means ‘what book do you want to remind your older self of because it was really important to you?‘ One Christmas when I was a child my Great Aunty Sally gave me a beautiful little hardback copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, one of my favourite books of all time – and I no longer have that copy. I read it many times and loved it for its story and because she was my favourite aunty. I’ve looked everywhere for it. I now have this edition with the same illustrations. Appropriately for this tag one of its themes is time as Scrooge experiences scenes from the past, the present and the future.

What is your favourite futuristic setting from a book?

Most of the books I read now are set either in the present or in the past. But I did enjoy Frank Herbert’s Dune books with sandworms and the ‘spice’ drug when I read them years ago. The books are set in a far future, where warring noble houses (House Atreides and House Harkonnen) are kept in line by a ruthless galactic emperor. I can’t remember the details now, but remember that I was hooked on reading them.

What is your favourite book that is set in a different time period (can be historical or futuristic)?

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman is set before and during the Wars of the Roses and in particular it focuses on Richard III from his childhood to his death at Bosworth Field in 1485. I think this is one of the best historical novels that I’ve read. It is full of detail, well researched and very readable.

Spoiler Time: Do you ever skip ahead to the end of a book just to see what happens?

These days I resist skipping ahead as in the past I’ve immediately regretted knowing the end if I did. But if I know I’m not going to read to the end I sometimes look and if it looks interesting I have gone back and finished the book.

If you had a Time Turner, where would you go and what would you do?

I wouldn’t want to travel to the future and I would only like to travel to the past as an observer, following the prime objective in Star Trek, so that my actions wouldn’t interfere with history. For example, I would like to go to Ancient Rome and see what it was like in its heyday, be there at a performance one of Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe, go to the Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace in May 1851, visit Australia (not in a convict ship) with the early settlers, see China with Gladys Aylward and watch Vesuvius erupt – from a safe vantage point.

Favourite book (if you have one) that includes time travel or takes place in multiple time periods?

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks is a book covering so many different periods of history in different parts of the world. It’s about the hidden history of a book known as the priceless Sarajevo Haggadah ‘“ a medieval Jewish prayer – told in reverse chronological order beginning in 1996 and working back to 1480. It’s a story too of love and war, of family relationships, of Anti-Semitism and of historical religious conflicts as the haggadah survived disaster after disaster; a novel about preserving the past, its culture and history for future generations. It has depth and breadth and is beautifully written.

What book/series do you wish you could go back and read again for the first time?

Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet series – apart from the last book I read them in the 1990s before I began to write my blog. The first four of these follow the lives of the Cazalet family from 1937 to 1947 and the last book All Change written twenty years after the fourth book, Casting Off picks up their story beginning in 1956.

The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble

Published on October 23, 2016 by Margaret3 Comments

Margaret Drabble’s latest book, The Dark Flood Rises explores the ending of life, the nature of aging, and life and death. But it is by no means depressing or morbid. It’s told from a number of viewpoints, centring around Fran (Francesca) Stubbs, set against a backdrop of rising floods in Britain and in the Canaries, both of the influx of immigrants arriving by boat to the Canaries from Africa and of the effect of the tremor off the small Canary Island of El Hierro on the tides.The ‘dark flood ‘ is also used to refer to the approach of death.

Fran, now in her seventies, is an expert on housing for the elderly. She keeps herself very busy, acting as a carer of sorts and cooking meals for her ex-husband Claude, and travelling around the country attending conferences on care for the elderly. She visits old friends and her daughter in the West Country. She keeps in touch with her son, Christopher, as he deals with the sudden death of Sara, his girlfriend, and is visiting friends in Lanzarote.

But this book is not plot-focused – it ponders the questions of what is a ‘good’ or even an ‘heroic’ death, the morality of suicide and in contrast the desire for the human race to go on living at all costs. It focuses on personal relationships, on love, on the vagaries of memory, on the ordinary, everyday aspects of life and on the ‘heroism’ needed for old age.

I liked it very much. It’s densely layered, thought provoking and moving. It’s a book to re-read.

And, incidentally I was intrigued to find that the pop artist, Pauline Boty who is mentioned in the last book I read, Autumn by Ali Smith, is also mentioned in The Dark Flood Rises when Sara’s death reminds Christopher of Boty who had died at the early age of twenty-eight.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Canongate Books, for letting me have an advance copy. The Dark Flood Rises is due to be published on 3 November 2016.

Amazon UK link

Autumn by Ali Smith

Published on October 22, 2016November 1, 2017 by Margaret6 Comments

Autumn

Autumn is the first of Ali Smith’s books I’ve read and at first I wasn’t sure what to make of it. The blurb attracted me – it describes it as ‘a breathtakingly inventive new novel, a meditation on a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, on what harvest means.‘ I didn’t find it ‘breathtaking’ but I did enjoy it.

I liked the beginning which begins with a stream of consciousness as Daniel Gluck, a very old man, ponders his life and his approaching death. The main focus of Autumn is the relationship between Daniel and Elisabeth Demand who first met when Elisabeth was a child and moved into the house next door to Daniel’s. We see their friendship at various stages in their lives throughout the book.

As I expected from the blurb Autumn is not a straightforward story, so whilst I wanted to know more about the Daniel and Elisabeth story I was quite happy to diverge from their story through the different sections about a variety of different themes from death, aging, love and of course autumn.

I liked the wordplay and references to many other books from Dickens to Shakespeare, the details about Christine Keeler and the Profumo Affair, the life, work and death of the pop artist Pauline Boty, and the accurate and amusing accounts of the frustrations of everyday life such as those describing Elisabeth’s attempts to renew her passport.

It’s both poignant and cutting in its look at modern life, how we got to where we are, and the mood of the country post-Brexit (that word is never mentioned) – the confusion and the misery and rejoicing, the insanity, and the division. It’s a remarkable book.

Autumn is the first installment in Ali Smith’s novel quartet Seasonal: four standalone books, separate yet interconnected and cyclical (as the seasons are), exploring what time is, how we experience it, and the recurring markers in the shapes our lives take and in our ways with narrative.

Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962. She is the author of Free Love and Other Stories, Like, Other Stories and Other Stories, Hotel World, The Whole Story and Other Stories, The Accidental, Girl Meets Boy, The First Person and Other Stories, There but for the, Artful, How to be both, and Public library and other stories. Hotel World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize and The Accidental was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Orange Prize. How to be both won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and the Folio Prize. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge.

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 5464 KB
Print Length: 243 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0241207010
Publisher: Penguin (20 Oct. 2016)

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

The Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland

Published on October 20, 2016 by Margaret4 Comments

The Plague Charmer

Karen Maitland is a great storyteller.

The Plague Charmer is a fascinating medieval tale full of atmosphere and superstition. It’s a long but an unputdownable book, bringing the medieval world to life in all its brutality and hardship. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I received an uncorrected proof copy of this, her latest novel, from Lovereading. The book is set in Porlock Weir in 1361 where a village is isolated by the plague when the Black Death spreads once more across England. Following an eclipse of the sun, as a storm rages along the coast, a ship is blown ashore bringing a dark stranger, Janiveer, to the village. She warns the villagers that the plague, raging in other parts of the country will soon spread to their village and offers to save them – but for a terrible price.

It’s a complex story, told from different characters’ perspectives, following the lives of Will, a ‘fake’ dwarf, Sara, a packhorse man’s wife and her family, Matilda, a religious zealot, and Christina at nearby Porlock Manor amongst others. It’s a tale of folklore, black magic, superstition, violence, torture, murder, and an apocalyptic cult – and also of love. As the plague spreads and more horrendous deaths pile up bringing fear and hysteria, families are broken up, and hostilities surface as the village is isolated, left to fend alone.

I thought Will a fascinating character. He was not born a dwarf, but was subjected to horrific treatment as a baby, strapped into an iron bridle, compressed and deformed as he grew to form a squat little dwarf. He is remarkably free of bitterness and capable of more humanity than most of the other characters. Sara, too shows strength of character as she perseveres in her search for her two missing sons.

I like the Historical Notes, providing more detailed information about the period, the people and the location, as well as the legends, and the answers to the medieval riddles that head Will’s chapters. I particularly like the information about the plague and the various religious cults of the period. The Glossary is also invaluable, helping to flesh out the detail.

The Plague Charmer is a superb combination of historical fact and fiction. I really enjoyed reading this detailed and chillingly dark atmospheric book. It’s a memorable story with a colourful cast of characters, full of suspense and drama.

My thanks to Headline for also providing a proof copy via NetGalley.

Hardcover: 576 pages (also as an e-book)
Publisher: Headline Review (20 Oct. 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1472235827
ISBN-13: 978-1472235824

Amazon UK link

On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

Published on October 18, 2016 by Margaret2 Comments

One of my favourite books – On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin was first published in 1982 when it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Whitbread First Novel of the Year Award. The Black Hill is one of the Black Mountains on the border of England and Wales, although fictionalised in this book. It was made into a film in 1988. And today it is released in an e-book edition by Open Road Integrated Media.

It’s a gentle, richly descriptive book of both the landscape and the characters, about lonely lives on a farm, largely untouched by the 20th century. It follows the lives of identical twins, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, a period of over 80 years. They are inseparable, Benjamin in particular suffering whenever they are apart. Their lives are hard, lonely, brutal at times, but full of love for their mother and the land they farm.

I love this book and most of all I love they way Chatwin brought the characters to life, not just Lewis and Benjamin, but all the other personalities, some eccentric, some comic and some tragic. His attention to detail is remarkable ‘“ at no time does it seem excessive, or intrusive but all the little minutiae of daily life are essential to the book. It highlights questions of love, religion, death and above all relationships. It is most definitely not a book to race through to find out what happens, although I did want to know, but one to savour ‘“ and one to re-read.

File Size: 6409 KB
Print Length: 236 pages
Publisher: Open Road Media (October 18, 2016)
Publication Date: October 18, 2016
Language: English
ASIN: B01K6GBLWI
Source: review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

Amazon US link