The Mangle Street Murders - a punt that paid off!

Don't you just love it when a complete punt on a book written by an author you've never heard of pays off. I am pleased to report that this has been my experience with The Mangle Street Murders, by M.R.C. Kasasian. Set in 1880s London, Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective and rampant tea-drinker, has become the guardian of his god daughter, March Middleton. He begrudgingly welcomes her into his home, but doesn't particularly like what he sees. And as far as March is concerned, the feeling is entirely mutual! He is set in his ways, opinionated, critical and unbending in his feelings of superiority to everyone else, particularly women. She is smart, sensitive and determined. Needless to say, their relationship does not get off to a good start, and it is almost a relief to them both when Sidney is called out by Inspector Pound to interview a man suspected of murdering his wife in the bloodiest of fashions. He is convinced of his guilt, but March is not. When she persuades her guardian to investigate further, she tags along and together they follow the twists and turns of what is a great plot. This is a book that really does keep you guessing and where nothing is as it seems. Lots of clues are revealed that seem to lead one way only for them to end up leading somewhere else. The back story to both lead characters is only partially revealed and leaves you wanting more. They are often at loggerheads, giving the author plenty of opportunity to give the reader incredibly entertaining and spiky exchanges. As the body count mounts (it is a crime thriller after all), and the blood starts to flow, there is still an immense amount of humour to keep things from getting too dark. The audio edition I read was presented exceptionally well by Emma Gregory, who I thought brought the correct level of vigour to this Victorian romp. The author has created an interesting and entertaining crime-fighting duo and it comes as no surprise that this book is just the first of their adventures in The Gower Street Detective Series. This could be the start of a beautiful relationship!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 336 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.92.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; unabridged audio CD; ebook.

Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay - not always so sweet!

When she was eleven, Amory Clay's father returned from the trenches of the First World War. But his experiences had broken him, and he was no longer the father who used to stand on his head just to amuse his family. Never was this more obvious than when he came to her school to take her out on a trip, and then drove the car into a lake in an attempted suicide. They both survived the ordeal and it may have been this event which triggered Amory to live her life to the full, which she definitely goes on to do. She loves photography and, despite all opposition, sets out to become a professional photographer with the help of her Uncle Greville. This profession takes her to 1920's Berlin, 1930's New York, the blackshirt riots in London and then, as a war photographer, to the Second World War. The reader gets to view her life while she is reflecting upon them as she compiles a journal during 1977. In her memoir, she relates the most intimate moments in an unflinching and unsentimental way - the way I imagine a photojournalist of the time would indeed take a picture - you shoot what's there, nothing more, nothing less. This, for me, sometimes made it hard for me to like Amor, but I did warm to her in the end. We hear about her lovers, the near-death experiences she had trying to get the shots she needed, and also her family. We also get a bit of the Vietnam War thrown in for good measure, almost as a last hurrah for a much older Amory. Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay is by no means a perfect book and I have to admit that I wasn't totally convinced by the ending. You do get to see much of the main events of the 20th Century through the lens of a female photographer, which is different, but at the same time, not totally believable that this one character would get to be there at all those crucial moments. Don't get me wrong, William Boyd is a tremendous author, and many of the passages were a joy to read, but for me, there were not enough of these to really make me gush about this book. I wish I'd liked it more!

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 465 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.92.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest - food, family and friendship

I have found Kitchens of the Great Midwest a hard book to categorise. At the beginning, it seems to be about a food loving chef whose wife leaves him, literally, holding the baby. He determines to bring his beautiful daughter up by himself, without bad-mouthing her mother ... but just as you are settling into this, the chef dies! What? Where's this going thought I. We then find out what happens to the baby ... one Eva Thorvald ... throughout the remainder of the book, by following a disparate and seemingly unconnected set of characters whose lives intersect with Eva. Each of these stories is perfectly drawn and apparently independent, so much so that you start to wonder what the heck they have got to do with the story. But somewhere down the line, up pops Eva, sometimes in person, and sometimes just in conversation. Whilst Eva features in all these "chapters", the absolute core to the book and the glue which binds them altogether is food. In fact, so important is the food element, that there is a liberal sprinkling of the recipes written out in full of the dishes cooked by the various characters. It is a study of the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people ... of whom one thing is common to all ... how important food is to our identity. We really are the food we cook and the food we eat. In this, his first novel, J. Ryan Stradal has given us what feels like a personal and enjoyable read, and I might just be trying some of those enticing recipes that got my taste buds tingling in anticipation!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 400 print pages.

Price I paid: £0.00 for the ebook which was on an offer at the time.

Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Monsters Of Men- fantastic finale to a triumphant trilogy

I kept putting off reading this, the last instalment of the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness, partly because I didn't want it to actually end, but mostly because I had experienced the first two parts in audio format and I'd now got the last book in print. I was worried that the characters wouldn't be as clearly defined in the print edition, and also that the main feature of the "noise" in people's heads would somehow not be as effective. I shouldn't have worried. From the very first sentence, I was back  in the thick of things on New World, where the controlling nutter that is Mayor Prentiss seems to be getting exactly what he wants ... ALL OUT WAR! The book picks up where the last one finished ... Todd is desperately trying to keep the Mayor under some semblance of control, and Viola is racing to intercept the army Mistress Coyle has gathered, but over the horizon comes a legion of the indigenous Spackle ... seemingly intent on ridding their home of the invading humans. Despite their best intentions, battle commences, and it is a brutal one. Finally, talks commence, and peace is on the cards .... but when 1017, the Spackle slave Todd released in the previous book seems bent on his singular revenge, mutual destruction is once again on the cards. Can Todd and Viola live long enough to restore peace and finally be with one another, or will Mayor Prentiss use his ever-increasing powers of control to destroy everything and everyone? And can humanity ever get to grips with being able to hear each others thought all the time? Monsters of Men keeps the pulse racing and the reader guessing until the very end. There are breath-taking sequences and the action is relentless. It's not often I'm so involved in a book that my heart almost breaks! Although shocking, exhilarating and full of foreboding about the immense stupidity of war, this is, at its core, a story of loyalty, love and hope in a world where those things are in short supply. I urge you to take the plunge and read the whole trilogy. My only criticism was going to be that there is no more ... but I have found out that there is a short story called Snowscape which, I believe, provides a well needed coda! Now, where can I get it from ...?

My STAR rating: FIVE (unsurprisingly!)

Length: 603 print pages.
Price I paid: 50p.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.

One Good Turn - it's not all fun and frolics at the Edinburgh Festival

Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police and ex-private detective is at the Edinburgh Festival with his paramour, Julia. She is an actress, and is in rehearsal for what could possibly be the world's worst play! While Julia is so engrossed, Jackson is at a loose end, and is starting to fear that not all is well with their relationship. While mooching about, he becomes embroiled in an incident which leads him down a very dangerous path. There are several plots all going on at the same time, involving the author of gentle crime novels, missing bodies, dodgy Russians and a fraudulent property developer. As Brodie keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, the police are wondering whether he is an unlucky witness, an investigate colleague, or a suspect. There is so much going on in One Good Turn, that the reader could become a little bit lost if they don't keep their wits about them. However, this is a very satisfying read, balancing a thrilling mystery with the everyday drama of people struggling to make a relationship work. Kate Atkinson weaves all these things together with aplomb. The reader is kept very much on their toes, with twists and turns stacking up ... and we are kept wondering about the significance of the Russian Dolls! Sprinkled with humour, there is much to enjoy about this second outing for Jackson Brodie, and with a bit of a cliff-hanger for an ending with regard to his private life, I am sure it won't be long before I succumb to the next instalment!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 544 print pages.
Price I paid: free (borrowed from library as an ebook).
Formats available: print; abridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Summer Knight - you really don't want Faeries at the bottom of your garden!

Harry Dresden, Chicago's very own crime fighting wizard is back for his fourth adventure in Summer Knight. And this time, it's very, VERY personal. We find Harry in a bit of a slump ... he's broke, has no work and is spending all his time trying to find a cure for his girlfriend, who was infected by the Red Court of Vampires in the last book. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he is called before the White Court of Wizards to answer charges of murder, which, if proven will mean his execution! Into this mix come the Faeries, a notoriously tricky bunch of creatures who have a knack of getting exactly what they want at everyone else's expense. The Winter Queen "hires" Harry to find out who murdered the Summer Knight - the Summer Queen's right-hand man - and clear her own name in the process. It's an offer he cannot refuse and he gets to work, enlisting help along the way from Chicago PD's Murphy (his very human friend) and the Alphas (the local werewolf pack). Harry gets himself, and those around him, into a series of increasingly dangerous scrapes as he works the case while trying to stay alive ... oh, and then there's the small matter of saving the world as we know it! The action comes thick and fast as do the surprises and witty dialogue. More of Harry's back story is revealed, which helps to create a more rounded character. Author Jim Butcher has certainly hit his stride with this series and these books are becoming a guilty pleasure for me ... combining crime and fantasy fiction in a most satisfying way. I thoroughly enjoyed the audio edition,  which is excellently narrated by James Marsters, who brings a world weary sarcasm to the proceedings that hit just the right note. Roll on book number five!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 448 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.84.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; unabridged MP3; ebook.

The Hare With Amber Eyes - a slow burner

Some books grip you from the very first paragraph and others are slow burners. The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance definitely sits in the latter category. When the author,  Edmund De Waal, inherits 264 netsuke from his great uncle Iggy, he becomes curious as to how this collection found its way into his life. As he starts to trace their history, his investigations reveal the lives of the owners too ... and so an inheritance of objects becomes an inheritance of his family. And what a family ... his ancestors were the Ephrussi family - who originally came from the Ukraine but found fortune in wheat and later banking in Odessa. They spread out to Paris, Vienna and Tokyo. Their wealth allowed them to indulge in beautiful things, and so the netsuke collection was born. Over the course of a tumultuous century, which saw an explosion of anti-semitism, this Jewish family went from the highest high, to the lowest low, having to up sticks and leave everything behind to escape with their lives. The story of how the netsuke collection was preserved is amazing. As one of the world's leading ceramic artists, the author unsurprisingly imparts the intrinsic beauty of the netsuke to the reader with great skill, a skill which carries over into his descriptions of place and time. We are on the same journey as the author, following each and every discovery which opens the door a little more into the lives, loves and troubles of his ancestors. The reader cannot help but be drawn into the Ephrussi family dramas as they unfold. The story becomes so absorbing that as you go further and further into it, you find it harder and harder to put down. It seemed to take me ages to get going, but once I was a third of the way through, I was hooked. I can heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves history, family or art.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 354 print pages.
Price I paid: £0.20 from a church fete.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.