Category: Fiction

Indefensible by James Woolf

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

Bloodhound Books| 5 January 2024| 413 pages| E-book review copy| 3*

Synopsis from Amazon UK

A lawyer crosses a dangerous line with a former client and discovers that some decisions are indefensible…

Daniel, a criminal barrister, is working all hours on a sensational trial, defending a client he believes is wrongfully accused of a grisly murder. Determined to keep Rod out of prison, he begins to neglect his wife—and soon suspects she’s having an affair.

After Daniel triumphs in court, the bond with his newly acquitted client grows even stronger. And when Rod offers Daniel a favour that he really shouldn’t accept, things take a catastrophic turn.

Daniel realises the lethal consequence of his actions and now his dream case threatens to become his worst nightmare…

My thoughts

I received a copy of Indefensible from the author, James Woolf for review. It’s his debut novel, although 30 of his short stories have appeared in magazines and books, including four in the longstanding arts magazine Ambit. James also writes stage plays (about 15 have been professionally produced) and has written radio plays for Radio 4 and LBC. He has worked in professional ethics within the law for 20 years, including taking calls from barristers when they have a question about their code of conduct. So his book explores the consequences of not following the code of conduct.

After a dramatic opening it took me a while to settle into this book. I couldn’t warm to Daniel at first, a barrister, recently appointed as a QC. He is a complex character who comes across as very needy, insecure and vulnerable, having left his wife on acrimonious terms. This has knocked his confidence and he finds personal relationships difficult. He is disappointed as his clerk is not getting him the cases he wants. But then he gets his first major case defending Rod, accused of a particularly grisly murder. During the course of the trial he meets Michaela, who is a crime reporter, and the two develop a relationship. I was never sure about the characters, were they telling the truth, and were they really what they seemed.

I enjoyed the setting – London in the 1990s with reference to real court cases, such as the trial of Fred and Rosemary West. For me the strength of this book is the court case, keeping me guessing about the outcome and eager to find out who was telling the truth. But as Daniel says the trial process is about testing the evidence – it’s the test that is important and not the truth. As the trial continued I began to fear the worst, that the truth was being obscured. What happened afterwards was not quite what I expected, as Daniel’s decisions and subsequent choices proved to be indefensible.

After a slow start I found this book compelling reading and I’ll be looking out for more books by James Woolf.

My thanks to James Woolf and Bloodhound Books, the publishers, for sending me the Kindle edition for review.

The Flower Arranger at All Saints by Lis Howell

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

The Flower Arranger at All Saints by Lis Howell was one of Prime Reader’s free books last year that I downloaded. I loved it! it’s my first 5* read of the year.

Synopsis

In quiet Tarnfield, local rivalries and parish feuds simmer under the genteel surface. It’s the sort of place where everyone knows each other’s business. And a new vicar wants to shake things up in the community. Then Phyllis the church flower arranger is found dead before the big Easter service.
With fingers pointing and tensions rising, the village is in turmoil.

Chaotic mum-of-two, Suzy Spencer, has just arrived in Tarnfield. She needs a fresh start after her husband betrayed her. Now she finds herself entangled in the mystery along with quiet widower, Robert Clark. The killer is set to strike again with another floral flourish. Despite their differences, can Suzy and Robert stop the murderer before anyone else suffers?

My thoughts

There is a lot to like in this book. The setting is Tarnfield, a fictional Cumbrian village. The setting is described so well that I could ‘see’ it all. It’s picturesque, quiet and secluded, where everyone knows everybody’s business. The church plays a huge part in village life, but traditions are being upended by the new vicar and his fondness for playing the guitar during sermons.

And the characters are so ‘real’. I believed in them and even though there are many of them they’re all easily distinguishable and I loved the biblical references and flower clues – they’re intriguing. The plot too kept me keen to carry on reading, wanting to know the identity of the murderer. As Suzy and Robert try to get to the bottom of the mystery many secrets are revealed – and it looks as though a relationship between the two of them is developing.There are more deaths and red herrings with several twists and turns before the culprit is found.

Why haven’t I come across this author before and her Suzy Spencer mysteries? The Flower Arranger at All Saints is the first in the series and luckily there are four more for me to read!

About the author

Lis Howell is from Liverpool, UK. She is the author of the Suzy Spencer cozy mysteries. They are set around the fictional town of Norbridge, Cumbria in the North of England. In her varied life, Lis has spent a short time running a post office in a Cumbrian village; and she lived for several years near Hadrian’s Wall between England and Scotland. Lis is an award-winning TV journalist based in London and is now an academic. Like Suzy, she’s a confused churchgoer, although she married a churchwarden! Anglican traditions feature in her books, along with modern media, family life and village intrigue.

I’m taking part in the  What’s In A Name Challenge? this year and this book fits into the category of a NFL team (New Orleans Saints).

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …

20

which for me is The Invisible Man by H G Wells. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 3rd March 2024

Synopsis from Amazon

‘The man’s become inhuman … He has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head.’

One night in the depths of winter, a bizarre and sinister stranger wrapped in bandages and eccentric clothing arrives in a remote English village. His peculiar, secretive activities in the room he rents spook the locals. Speculation about his identity becomes horror and disbelief when the villagers discover that, beneath his disguise, he is invisible.

Griffin, as the man is called, is an embittered scientist who is determined to exploit his extraordinary gifts, developed in the course of brutal self-experimentation, in order to conduct a Reign of Terror on the sleepy inhabitants of England. As the police close in on him, he becomes ever more desperate and violent.

In this pioneering novella, subtitled ‘A Grotesque Romance’, Wells combines comedy, both farcical and satirical, and tragedy – to superbly unsettling effect. Since its publication in 1897, The Invisible Man has haunted not only popular culture (in particular cinema) but also the greatest and most experimental novels of the twentieth century.

I was hoping I’d get one of the shorter books on my list – this one is just that at 192 pages. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Did you take part in the Classics Spin? What will you be reading?

Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56: The Hog’s Back Mystery

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

I’m featuring The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts one of the books I’m currently reading. I’ve read about half of it and am enjoying it although it is a bit repetitive. It’s a “Golden Age” mystery, first published in 1933.

Book Beginning:

‘Ursula! I am glad to see you!’ Julia Earle moved forward to the carriage door to greet the tall, well dressed woman who stepped down on the platform of the tiny station of Ash in Surrey.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head if Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

‘Well,’ said Sheaf, with a keen glance,what does it look like to you?’ ‘

This was the sort of question which on principle French never answered. He was certainly not to give an opinion until he had had time to think over the facts and come to a reasoned conclusion.

Description from Goodreads:

Dr James Earle and his wife live in comfortable seclusion near the Hog’s Back, a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside. When Dr Earle disappears from his cottage, Inspector French is called in to investigate. At first he suspects a simple domestic intrigue – and begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements beneath the couple’s peaceful rural life.


The case soon takes a more complex turn. Other people vanish mysteriously, one of Dr Earle’s house guests among them. What is the explanation for the disappearances? If the missing people have been murdered, what can be the motive? This fiendishly complicated puzzle is one that only Inspector French can solve.

~~~

What do you think, does it appeal to you? What are you currently reading?

Munich Wolf by Rory Clements

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

This is yet another one of my short posts about books I’ve read this year. This one is a review copy by one of my favourite authors, due to be published in January:

Bonnier Books| 18 January 2024|400 pages| E-book review copy| 3.5*

Description

Munich, 1935 – The Bavarian capital is a magnet for young, aristocratic Britons who come to learn German, swim in the lakes and drink beer in the cellars.

What they don’t see – or choose to ignore – is the brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home. When a high-born English girl is murdered, Detective Sebastian Wolff is ordered to solve the crime. Wolff is already walking a tight line between doing his job and falling foul of the political party he abhors. Now Hitler is taking a personal interest in the case. Followed by the secret police and threatened by his own son, a fervent member of the Hitler Youth, the stakes have never been higher. And when Wolff begins to suspect that the killer might be linked to the highest reaches of the Nazi hierarchy, he fears his task is simply impossible – and that he might become the next victim.

I’ve enjoyed several books by Rory Clements. Munich Wolf is a standalone murder mystery, a police procedural investigation set in Hitler’s Munich in 1935. I enjoyed it although I found the first half slow moving and disjointed, but the pace picks up in the second half. It is a darker novel than his Tom Wilde books, with some unsavoury and definitely unlikable characters, some of whom I found difficult to identify. The murder mystery takes second place to the historical setting. The novel is full of tension and suspense, some of which made it an uncomfortable read but conveyed what a dangerous time and place Germany was in the 1930s.

However, I really liked Detective Sebastian Wolff (Seb), and the way he investigates the murder of a young English woman, under orders from Hitler to close the case as soon as possible. And I really want to know more about Unity Mitford’s involvement. The time period seems well researched – I’m not familiar with the situation in Germany between the two World Wars as Hitler rose to power – and I found that fascinating.

I do hope Rory Clements will write more books featuring Seb Wolff.

Many thanks to Bonnier Books for a review copy via NetGalley.

Library Books – December 2023

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

These are the books I have on loan from my local library:

Daphne Du Maurier and her sisters : the hidden lives of Piffy, Bird and Bing by Jane Dunn.The Du Mauriers – three beautiful, successful and rebellious sisters, whose lives were bound in a family drama that inspired Angela and Daphne’s best novels. Much has been written about Daphne but here the hidden lives of the sisters are revealed in a riveting group biography. The sisters are considered side by side, as they were in life, three sisters who grew up during the 20th century in the glamorous hothouse of a theatrical family dominated by a charismatic and powerful father. This family dynamic reveals the hidden lives of Piffy, Bird & Bing, full of social non-conformity, love, rivalry and compulsive make-believe, their lives as psychologically complex as a Daphne du Maurier novel.

Politics on the edge : a memoir from within by Rory Stewart. Over the course of a decade from 2010, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister – before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise. Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow and inadequate our democracy and government had become. Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant. Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today. Stewart emerged battered but with a profound affection for his constituency of Penrith and the Border, and a deep direct insight into the era of populism and global conflict. This book invites us into the mind of one of the most interesting actors on the British political stage.

In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill. After just a year of close, loving marriage, Ruth has been widowed. Her beloved husband, Ben, has been killed in a tragic accident and Ruth is left suddenly and totally bereft. Unable to share her sorrow and grief with Ben’s family, who are dealing with their pain in their own way, Ruth becomes increasingly isolated, hiding herself in her cottage in the countryside as the seasons change around her. Only Ben’s young brother is able to reach out beyond his own grief to offer Ruth the compassion which might reclaim her from her own devastating unhappiness.

I’d love to know if you’ve read any of these books and if so what did you think? If you haven’t, do any of them tempt you?