Hogfather - Death meets Christmas

In Hogfather, by the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett, strange things are happening. The Hogfather (the Discworld equivalent of Father Christmas) seems to be missing... and it's the night before Hogswatch when all the children are hanging up their socks on the mantlepiece. Why no Hogfather ... well, it seems that children have stopped believing in him, and if people don't believe, then maybe he can no longer exist. But hang on ... isn't that the great man himself coming down the chimney - except he looks a bit skinny and his HO HO HO is a bit on the scary side. Yes, it's Death Himself, disguised and doing his best to act like Hogfather, and get people believing in him again. For every world needs a Hogfather. This book takes a swipe at the childhood beliefs and fears that we all have ... things like The Tooth Fairy and The Bogeyman, and puts them in the parallel universe of the Discworld. Danger is lurking in that there are grey figures called The Auditors, who run the world, but don't like the mess and inefficiency that humans have brought to it, so hatch a plan to tidy things up a bit! Death and his granddaughter Susan bring all their guile and stubbornness to bear in order to stop them. As always, the Discworld is full of silliness and laughs, but also makes you think about the world in a slightly different way. Imaginative and with plenty of action, readers should sit back and let their minds enjoy the flight of fancy that this book will bring to them.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 456 print pages.
Price I paid: 95 pence.
Formats available: print; abridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Forgotten Garden - Secrets never remain secret forever

In The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, be prepared to experience a fair amount of disorientation as the action takes you both back and forward through time as well as across two continents. There are three narrators - Nell, Cassandra and Eliza - each are strong women, and each have suffered great loss. Cassandra is trying to finish the quest that her grandmother, Nell, started 25 years ago, a quest to find out who her real parents were and why she was put on a boat and then abandoned by a lady she knew as the Authoress when she was just four years old. After discovering Nell's journal and that her grandmother has left her a house in England she knew nothing about, Cassandra sets off for Cornwall too see it for herself. Slowly, but surely the lives of each of the three women are revealed, as well as how their lives are intertwined. As mentioned before, there is a heck of a lot of toing and froing, and you definitely need to keep your wits about you to avoid getting lost ... have just thought ... there is a maze which features heavily in the titular garden ... a coincidence ... I think not! Overall, this is a family saga, but tied up around a bit of a mystery. There are some strong characters, but I felt that the male characters, with the exception of one, were totally unsympathetic, which meant they didn't provide any depth. It is also overly long and could have done with some sympathetic editing to tighten up the flabby, repetitive parts. I also found one of the main events somewhat unbelievable. For such a long book, there were still a couple of loose threads left behind unless I managed to miss them in the maze! It is an easy enough read, good for a holiday (which is what I am on right now), but it didn't stimulate my mind in the way that it could have.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 645 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from a friend.
Formats available: print; unabridged mp3 CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Act of Roger Murgatroyd - Light Entertainment

I was in the mood for something light, and happened upon The Act of Roger Murgatroyd, by Gilbert Adair in a pile of books my husband was going to donate to a charity shop. It looked like just the job, and it certainly was. It is a bit of a spoof on Agatha Christie - set up as a classic whodunit - but it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's Boxing Day, in a snowed-in manor on the edge of Dartmoor in the mid 1930's. All the characters you expect to see are there - an author, an actress, a vicar and his wife, a colonel and his wife and of course, the body in the attic - an attic which is locked from the inside! The body is that of Raymond Gentry, a gate-crasher to the Christmas Festivities at the manor and who, in the space of 48 hours, managed to turn everyone against him with his vicious tongue. When he turns up dead, no-one is too upset, except when they realise that there must be a murderer amongst them ... and one of them might be next. The guests decide that the best thing to do while waiting for the police is to try and persuade their neighbour, a retired police inspector, to come to the manor and wait with them. Needless to say, as the snow continues to fall, the police inspector decides to perform his own investigation, aided and hindered in equal measure by the author, one Evadne Mount, a formidable lady who writes crime thrillers for a living! Slowly we hear about the possible motives for murder from almost everyone at the manor ... but with so many suspects, will the real culprit ever be brought to justice? This is a book that will both entertain and keep you guessing. The characters are familiar yet have a little extra spice to them than your classic whodunit, and although the action, so to speak, is primarily people relating their own stories, it has a decent pace to it. This is the first in a trilogy featuring Evadne, but I fear I won't be venturing into book two any time soon. Not one that will stay a long time in the memory, but if you wanted something for a journey or for a holiday, then you could do a lot worse!

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 286 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.00 (borrowed from husband).
Formats available: print; unabridged audio cassette; ebook.