#30. Picked Without Reading The Blurb – Pine by Francine Toon (Paperback)

Sometimes I think book cover designers are not given the credit that they deserve. For me, an intriguing cover can be a reason why I choose a book, and the cover on Pine was precisely why I bought it. I think the cover is simple, but hauntingly beautiful and intriguing. Fortunately, the book was just as good as the cover, and I can see why this was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year. 

“Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by forest. When a woman stumbles on to the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house. In the morning, she’s gone.

In a community where daughters rebel and men quietly rage, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might be able to read her father’s turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when a local teenager goes missing it’s no longer clear who she can trust.

In a place that can feel like the edge of the world, In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern Gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times..”

This is a perfect winter read; a good gothic thriller set in the wild Scottish Highlands that chills you to the bone. It’s one for curling yourself up in a blanket to read, preferably in front of a roaring fire and maybe with a little tipple of something to hand! 

Ten-year-old Lauren lives with her father in a tiny village near the Moray Firth. Her mother disappeared shortly after her birth and her father drowns his sorrows in bottles of whisky. This book reminded me of “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins – not in terms of the story – but because of the feeling of unease when reading it, and the mysterious ghostly figure seen wandering the woods dressed in a white dressing gown. 

One night when Lauren and her father are driving home, a female figure steps out in front of their vehicle. She’s unresponsive, and they take her back to their home. They give her something to eat and a bed for the night but come morning the woman has gone. Lauren vividly remembers the events of the night, but her father doesn’t, however, he is usually intoxicated most evenings so that doesn’t come as a surprise. Lauren keeps seeing this gaunt female figure, wearing just a dressing gown in this bleak, frozen Scottish landscape. Other villagers have seen the figure too, but they quickly forget they have seen her, which leaves Lauren confused and scared.

#29. Published In A Year Of The Dragon – Ten Seconds by Robert Gold (Audible)

2024 is the year of the Wood Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac. This meant that there were numerous novels to choose from in this year’s releases (let alone books from previous years of the dragon!) 

As I’ve been completing this challenge, I’ve been switching books from their initial category into a more suitable one and several of my #29 choices have ended up elsewhere. 

I noticed that Gold’s latest Ben Harper novel had been released on Audible, and as I’d read Eleven Liars earlier in the year, I decided I would listen to Ten Seconds whilst the earlier storyline was still in my memory. I couldn’t find another category to house this book, so it has ended up as my year of the dragon book choice.

“After a tense birthday celebration in Haddley, journalist Ben Harper watches his boss, Madeline, get into the car that has come to collect her. He walks home, never imagining that by the next morning, Madeline will be missing.

To find Madeline, Ben will have to return to the now infamous murder case that made her journalism career over a decade ago. A case which, Ben quickly discovers, was never as simple as it seemed.

But time is of the essence, and soon it's not just Madeline's life on the line . . .”

For me, one of the joys of listening to these novels is that they are easy to follow. I don’t want very complicated storylines for an Audible book because I want to be focused on my surroundings whilst walking, or I don’t want to be concentrating so hard on the book that I chop my finger off whilst cooking. This third novel in the series is about an hour shorter than the previous one, so it made for a quick easy listen and introduced us to plenty of characters, old and new, in another multi-layered tale.

In the previous storylines of this Ben Harper series, each case he has worked on has had a personal connection to him. In the earlier books we have visited the family history of the main character Ben and then we learnt about detective Dani Cash, his romantic “lead.” In this book we delve into the past of Ben’s boss Madeline Wilson. She now finds herself in grave danger thanks to her past investigations into crime and corruption when she was a young reporter. (It seems that if you know Ben Harper you should always keep your doors and windows locked and run if he ever asks for help!)

#28. A Yellow Spine – Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Paperback)

The cover of this book struck me as I was perusing the shelves of a little independent bookshop called Book.ish in Crickhowell whilst I was on holiday in June. It was described as a crime novel, however, speaking to the bookseller it became clear that whilst they thought it was a great book and they highly recommended it, it wasn’t really a crime novel at all, and if I was looking for a ‘whodunnit’, I’d be a bit disappointed.

If I’m honest, this made me even more curious to discover what lay hidden between the pages. Since reading this book, I’ve noticed that it has featured on BBC2’s ‘Between the Covers’, and it has been awarded winner of Waterstones book of the year 2024. In all honesty I can see why. It was an unusual book and I loved it.

“Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation's imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can't resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer", Asako Yuzuki's Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.”

The reason that this book falls under the crime genre, is because the premis of the book is based upon the real-life case of the Japanese “Konkatsu Killer”, a female Japanese fraudster and serial killer called Kanae Kijima. She was convicted of poisoning three potential husbands and suspected of poisoning a further four men during 2007 – 2009. 

Author Asako Yuzuki noticed that the media coverage during the trial focused more about Kijima’s lifestyle, and relentless body shaming, rather than the actual alleged crimes.  The novel uses this source material to investigate the impossible beauty and lifestyle standards that Japanese women are expected to uphold. Yuzuki thought about how Japanese women are left feeling conflicted about how they look and their attitude to work-life balance and so she wrote this book with these women in mind, not realising that these themes dominate Western culture too. 

“Japanese women are required to be self-denying, hard-working and ascetic, and in the same breath to be feminine, soft and caring towards men.”

Butter is the story of Manako Kajii, (also known as Kajimana) who is imprisoned following the suspected murder of three men. Kajii loves food and is an excellent cook, so being incarcerated means she can no longer indulge her passion for good food. Rika Machida is a journalist who is interested in the story but knows that Kajii has no interest in sharing her tale with journalists. Rika needs to find a way in which she can build a rapport with Kajii, and so, to appeal to her ego, she writes to her asking for her recipe for beef stew, the last meal eaten by one of her victims and asking her about what other food she enjoys. 

#27. By A Neurodivergent Author – Strong Female Character by Fern Brady (Audible)

I saw Fern Brady on the Channel 4 show ‘Taskmaster’, and I loved her refreshing honesty on the program. She saw things differently to the rest of the contestants, and it added an extra dimension to the show observing how she interpreted the tasks.

Before I watched Taskmaster, I had no idea who she was, but she is an award-winning, Scottish comedian, author and podcaster. She reached the finals of ‘So You Think You’re Funny’ at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe and won the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year in 2013. Since that success, she has appeared on numerous panel shows on UK television and so I thought her story would be an interesting one to read.

“Fern Brady was told she couldn't be autistic because she's had loads of boyfriends and is good at eye contact. This is a story of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the 'right kind' of woman. ”

In view of the subject matter, I specifically chose to listen to this book as Fern Brady narrated the book herself. I thought it would be more meaningful if I listened to the person whose story it was to tell. I’d read some reviews prior to listening to this book saying it was just her writing about sex, but I think if you sit and really listen to Fern talk about her past, the book is about so much more than her sexual exploits. The way she tells her story is far more nuanced than just a series of sexual encounters and you can hear the hurt and frustration in her voice as she relives her past, and some of the traumatic events she shares are not easy to listen to.

“Well, they say autism can be inherited from one parent, so I guess that’s answered the question of which one.”

At 34 years old, Fern Brady ‘phoned her father to tell him she had just received the news that she was autistic. His surprising reply was “Oh right”, and then he started complaining about the traffic on his commute home from work. No empathy, no emotion, just “Oh right”. Brady’s deadpan response was, “Well, they say autism can be inherited from one parent, so I guess that’s answered the question of which one.”

#26. Hybrid Genre – The Village Healer’s Book of Cures by Jennifer Sherman Roberts (Kindle)

This book was another Amazon Prime First read.  

Chosen in October 2023, the blurb sounded of a similar vein to a book I’d enjoyed called The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown. Both books feature a character called Matthew Hopkins, who in real life was a ruthless English witch-hunter and self-styled Witchfinder General. His career flourished during the English Civil War 1642-1651 and he was prevalent in the East Anglian area of England. His job as a witch-finder lasted from 1644-1647, but during those three years, he and his colleague sent more people to be hanged for witchcraft than all previous witch-finders in the preceding 160 years.  

“In seventeenth-century England, a female healer enflames the fury of a witchfinder in this propulsive novel about murder, revenge, and the dangerous power of knowledge.

Mary Fawcett refines the healing recipes she’s inherited from generations of women before her—an uncanny and moral calling to empathize with the sick. When witchfinder Matthew Hopkins arrives in her small village, stoking the fires of hate, he sees not healing but the devil at work. Mary’s benevolent skills have now cast her and her young brother under suspicion of witchery.

Soon, the husband of one of Mary’s patients is found murdered, his body carved with strange symbols. For Hopkins, it’s further evidence of dark arts. When the whispering village turns against her, Mary dares to trust a stranger: an enigmatic alchemist, scarred body and soul, who knows the dead man’s secrets.

As Hopkins’s fervor escalates, Mary must outsmart the devil himself to save her life and the lives of those she loves. Unfolding the true potential of her gifts could make Mary a more empowered adversary than a witchfinder ever feared.”

At under 300 pages this was a quick read. I found the start of the book interesting, but as the story progressed the plot started to veer off tangent and I wasn’t sure what I was reading, a murder mystery, a story about how women were mistreated in the 17th Century, or a book about the supernatural. I know the novel is a mixed genre, but I didn’t feel the author knew where the storyline was heading, so it just became a confusing mash-up of a tale.

Mary Fawcett is a young woman who is a talented healer. She has studied the recipes of her ancestors and refined them so that she can help the weak and sick in her village. Her parents are dead and so she is looking after her young brother Tom who was born with a club foot. The other children avoid him, so his best friend is a crow he named Greedyguts. 

#25. An Author “Everyone” Has Read Except You – The Scapegoat (Audible)

I’ve watched the TV and film versions of both The Scapegoat and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier but realised during this challenge that I’ve read neither of them. Many people can quote the opening lines of Rebecca… “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” and so it seemed that a novel by the author Daphne du Maurier would be perfect for this part of the challenge. I was initially going to read Rebecca, but then I remembered the film showed a wedding scene, and so I switched to The Scapegoat instead, and decided Rebecca could become my #44 read later in the challenge. So, the question now remained…was the book anything like the film version I enjoyed watched starring Matthew Rhys and Andrew Scott?

“By chance, John and Jean--one English, the other French--meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared. So the Englishman steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.”

Have you ever been mistaken for someone else? Has someone ever said to you “Oh I saw you in town the other week, but you were too far away for me to shout hello,” and you reply that wasn’t you, you’ve not gone into town for weeks. Do you ever look in the mirror, exasperated by your dull, meaningless life, and think that it should be more exciting? Do you crave something other than your lacklustre life? Why couldn’t you have been born into nobility, or be part of a dynasty of achievers? Do you ever wonder how different your life could be if you had done things differently? Would the life of the doppelgänger that people have mistaken you for be better than your own?

For John, his life is going to change immeasurably, not because he really wishes to have someone else’s life, but because someone is about to impose their life upon him. 

Written in 1957, Daphne du Maurier's atmospheric novel ‘The Scapegoat’ is an unsettling tale set in France. Du Maurier chose this location whilst she was researching her family history for another one of her novels, The Glassblowers. The glass-blowing foundry of her ancestors was to become the failing business of the de Gué family, which is central to the narrative of the book.

“He turned and stared at me and I at him, and I realised, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were known to me too well. I was looking at myself.”

The story is told by an Englishman, John, an English lecturer in French history. He sets off on his travels through France and whilst reflecting on his lonely, unfulfilling life, he is startled to find his doppelgänger staring at him at a train station in Le Mans. The man, Jean de Gué, is a French nobleman, and John confides to him that he is depressed with what life has to offer him. Swept up by Jean’s confident manner, John finds himself playing along with Jean’s games, overindulging in wine and spending the night in a disreputable hotel, rather than continuing his travels to a nearby monastery as he had intended.

When he wakes from his drunken slumber, John realises that Jean has disappeared, taking all of John’s belongings with him. Instead, he is left with Jean’s clothing and gifts for his family. Jean’s chauffer arrives at the hotel to take him home; unaware that John is not his master, and with John realising the police would think he was a madman if he told his story to them, he allows the chauffer to take him to a tired looking chateau in the country, and so the story begins, with John taking on the persona of the "Comte Jean de Gué".

At first John is angry and confused at the predicament he finds himself in, however, he suddenly realises he is free of the shackles that confined him as John. He isn’t plain old John anymore, as far as anyone else is concerned, he is Comte Jean de Gué, a role he could surely play, at least until Jean returned, and they could trade their lives back again. 

"possessed by a reckless feeling I had never known before, the sensation that I myself did not matter anymore... no one could call me to account for any action. For the first time I was free."

As John enters the ancestral home, and quickly learns the effects Jean’s influence has on his family, it soon becomes apparent that John has become Jean’s scapegoat. The family business is in a mess, and Jean, out of his depth, needs someone else to take care of matters.

Not only has Jean meddled in John’s life, but he has also twisted the lives of his mother, siblings and in-laws to suit his own purposes. John’s anger about the situation begins to dissipate as he uncovers family secrets, and he begins to feel sympathy towards these people who accept that he is Jean de Gué. They treat him with either love or hate, but they don’t treat him with the indifference he suffered at college. 

The longer John spends with the family, the more he begins to be committed to them, and righting the wrongs that Jean has subjected them to. Within a week, John has used his influence to try to ensure the workers at the foundry still have jobs, and that the family members are given roles in the family business that they should have been allowed to pursue when Jean was in charge.

Whilst reading the book, I did have to suspend my belief that two biologically different men could look and behave so like one another that their own wife, daughter and mother could not tell them apart. In fact, the only inhabitant of the chateau that suspected something was amiss was the dog, César. So, am I supposed to take this book literally, or figuratively? I don’t think it really matters; the book is written so beautifully that you don’t really care about how implausible it all is, you just get swept up by the story.

As the book continues, the two characters of John and Jean seem to merge into one another: 

"I knew that everything I had said or done had implicated me further, driven me deeper, bound me more closely still to that man whose body was not my body, whose mind was not my mind, whose thoughts and actions were a world apart, and yet whose inner substance was part of my nature, part of my secret self." 

John begins to realise that he houses a darker self, one well fitted to lying and deceit. The longer he hides his true self, the more confident he becomes, the persona of Jean starting to shadow his original self. Yet throughout, he still maintains his belief in trying to do good, to right the wrongs of Jean, a character that is not concerned with the feelings of others.

It could be argued that John was not the only titular scapegoat, indeed both Françoise, the Comte's neglected, pregnant wife, and Marie-Noel, the Comte’s daughter, are both willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of Jean. The young girl’s religious dedication adds to the already heightened sense of drama and suspense, but with it brings the sense of the macabre of an almost gothic tale.

There is an awareness of dark secrets, some evil doings that have taken place in the past, as du Maurier hints and steers the reader through the roles and relationships of the family, allowing them a sense of foreboding as John slowly catches up with the reader into an understanding of who Béla is, Renée's sensitive reaction to ‘his’ gift, the hostility of the elder sister and the resentful nature of the younger brother.

This is both a fascinating yet disturbing tale of the complexities of the human character. The conclusion of the book for some may seem weak, or even disappointing, but it does give rise for the reader to consider their own personality hidden within themselves. Whether we will admit it to ourselves, or indeed others, we all lead a double life to some extent. There is both good and evil in all of us. Which of our attributes will rise to the surface? The book fails to answer this question, instead it suggests that one man will go back to reality, albeit changed to a degree, and for the other a time of reflection and learning is required from the ‘opportunity’ granted to him. Whichever way you look at it, from time to time we can all feel as though we have been made a scapegoat by others, and that the best thing to do is reflect how and why these things happen and try not to harbour too many grudges.

(After reading this novel, it turns out that the 2012 film I enjoyed, starring Matthew Rhys and Andrew Scott, isn’t a true reflection of the book. For a start it’s not set in France. Set in England circa 1952, teacher John Standing has lost his job and decides to go travelling. He meets his doppelgänger Johnny Spence in a London pub and takes on the life of the failed businessman. Whilst the family interactions are initially similar to those in the book, there are a number of changes that make the story, and therefore the lessons learnt, quite different from that of the book, including the romanticised ending.)  

Genre: Fiction, Classics, Mystery, Gothic, Psychological, Historical Fiction 

Release Date: 5th November 2011

Publisher: Audible Studios

Listening Time: 13h 4m

“Disclosure: If you buy books linked to this site, I may earn a small commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops, at no extra cost to you.”

#24. A Cover Without People On It – The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa (Paperback)

I’m most definitely an animal person rather than a people person. I love animals and merely tolerate people. If asked, I prefer horses and cats to any other animal. I don’t dislike dogs, but I’ve always had cats. I can’t say owned, because no-one owns a cat, they make that very clear. That’s not to say they aren’t loving animals, they are, but everything is on their own terms. Perhaps that’s why I like them. You can learn a lot from a cat, if only you can be bothered to look.

“I heard this heavy sniffling sound.

Then a brush of whiskers.

When I opened my eyes, Tom was lounging on his side, gazing at me.

His black eyes were urging me to Get up!

He led me to the living room cupboard.

I’m hungry, so bring out some snacks! he said.

It was 3a.m.”

One of my favourite books over the last few years is ‘The Travelling Cat Chronicles’ by Hiro Arikawa. Even several years after reading it I get emotional thinking about it. I couldn’t remember sobbing over a book like that before. When I noticed this book by the same author in the bookshop, I didn’t think twice about buying the it. 

‘The Goodbye Cat’ has left me with mixed emotions. I think if you read a book you love, you leave yourself open to disappointment when the next one is published. I hadn’t realised it was a book of seven short stories when I bought it (I only looked at the front cover.) The various stories it tells revolve around the relationship between humans and cats, and as the title implies, each story ends with a goodbye, whether it being death or moving on in a different manner. It’s therefore essential to make sure you have a box of tissues handy!

#23. The Other Book With The Similar Plot – Murder on Lake Garda by Tom Hindle (Paperback)

As mentioned in the previous blog, this book was my friend’s holiday read which she passed to me once she’d finished with it.

I was already reading two books that I had taken with me, but one of them was a nice hardback I didn’t want ruining with sea and sand, so this seemed a perfect book to pop to the beach with. 

I wasn’t filled with much confidence as her assessment of the book was basically ‘it’s okay for a holiday read.’ By her tone, I surmised it’d be a quick easy read that wouldn’t give the old grey cells too much of a problem. Sadly, I was right, the new Agatha Christie this was not!

“One happy couple.

Two divided families.

A wedding party to die for.

 

On the private island of Castello Fiore - surrounded by the glittering waters of Lake Garda - the illustrious Heywood family gathers for a wedding to remember.

 

But as the ceremony begins, a blood-curdling scream brings the celebrations to a violent halt.

 

With the guests trapped on the island as they await the police, old secrets come to light and family rivalries threaten to explode.

 

Everyone is desperate to know . . .

 

Who is the killer?

 

And can they be found before they strike again?”

 

So, what is my issue with this book that I didn’t have with ‘The Guest List’? Well for starters I worked out who had been murdered after the first two pages…even though we hadn’t been told who had died (in two pages you haven’t been told much to be honest!) Secondly, we go back in time to two days before the murder, just so people’s back stories can be laid out before us. As soon as one of the characters said their name wasn’t short for anything, I thought, oh I imagine it is, and I wondered what the other variations of that name were, so as I ploughed on reading, I realised which one it was. The author has tried to incorporate alternate narratives to add to the tension and possibly sow seeds of doubt, but for me, the red herrings in the book turned out to be more of a pink-footed goose chase… and I’m not talking Fuchsia Pink here, more of a Blossom or Baby Pink. At least the ending made sense, if predictable, so not all was bad. In honesty, I kept reading because it was part of the challenge and to see whether my assumptions were correct. Just call me Jane Marple!

As a beach read goes, it was enjoyable enough and the setting I was in enhanced the experience. I might have been in Montenegro, but I was sat on a beach with a mountain range looming up before me, which reminded me so much of my holiday by Lake Garda several years ago. Coincidentally, I stayed in Malcesine where this book is set, and I have visited the castle where the wedding took place. The castle is actually on the mainland, but it does house a museum and a wedding was in full-swing  when we visited; the happy couple having their photos taken in the most idyllic surroundings.

#22. A Plot Similar to Another Book – The Guest List by Lucy Foley (Paperback)

This was originally going to be my “#7. At Least Four Different POV” read, however, whilst on holiday my friend finished reading “Murder on Lake Garda” and then handed it over to me.

As she told me the premise of the book, I couldn’t help but think it sounded like a very familiar story…in fact very similar to the previous book I’d just read! Now a murder on an island is not a new idea, indeed Agatha Christie did just that in great style with “And Then There Were None.” The first book I read for this challenge, “Daisy Darker” also features people stranded on an island where a murder takes place, however, both ‘The Guest List’ and ‘Murder on Lake Garda’ feature a WEDDING and MURDER on an island where there is a mystery to be solved!

"Each has a secret

Each has a motive

Off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year 

Old friends

Past grudges

Happy families

Hidden jealousies

Thirteen guests

One body

One guest won’t leave this wedding alive..."

The book starts in the middle of the story, where the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater has just taken place. This seems rather apt seeing as the focus of events takes place on an island in the middle of the sea!

The wedding guests are celebrating in a marquee as a storm starts raging across the island, the intensity of the tempestuous wind causes the electrics to short circuit and for a moment the guests are left in darkness. When the generator begins to operate and the lights come back on, the guests hear a terrified scream emanating from the darkness outside…

#21. Written By A Ghostwriter – There’s a Hole in my Bucket by Royd Tolkien (Kindle)

This is another of my forgotten Amazon First Reads – this time from July 2021. I picked this book because of the Tolkien name, but I knew it wasn’t going to be anything like the Lord of the Ring books due the difficult and sensitive subject matter. I did think it would be a harrowing but interesting read and would be treated with suitable gravitas. I was wrong.

 

“Having grown up on their great-grandfather’s stories, Royd Tolkien and his brother, Mike, have always enjoyed adventures. So when Mike is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, the brothers decide to use the time they have left to tick off as much as possible from Mike’s bucket list, from remote camping in Norway to travelling through Royd’s beloved New Zealand.

Yet, when Royd loses Mike, he discovers his brother had been writing another kind of bucket list: fifty things he wanted Royd to do after his death. His first task? Mike wants his mild-mannered brother to trip up on his way to the lectern to deliver his eulogy. What follows is a set of emotionally charged tests that will push Royd firmly out of his comfort zone.

This is the story of Royd’s journey to accomplish a challenging, humorous, and often heart-breaking list of unknown tasks that chart the brothers’ lives from childhood to adulthood. But above all, it is a story of the sibling bond, of grief—and of treasuring every moment.”

 

Due to the subject matter, I really wanted to be more positive about this book, but I found it hard to keep engaged reading, so I could only read a couple of the short chapters each evening until I eventually got to the end. The 357 pages seem to go on forever.

I cannot imagine how hard it would be to watch my adventurous brother become ill, health gradually declining, desperate to find an answer from doctors to what is wrong, only to finally be told it was Motor Neurone Disease. It doesn’t bear thinking about, and I wouldn’t wish that sort of suffering on anyone, but this book just feels like a self-indulgent bit of therapy cashing in on the Tolkien name.

It is clear from the book that Royd and Mike loved one another dearly but were very different people. Mike might have been the younger brother, but he would tease Royd mercilessly and always push that little bit further; whether it was how high he could climb a tree or how high he could throw himself out of an airplane, Mike always had to get the better of Royd who didn’t share the same bon homie as his brother, he seemed happier with his feet on the ground with a cuppa.

#20. A Revenge Story – Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Audible)

The temptation to re-read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas for the umpteenth time was hard to resist. It is a classic novel about revenge, but I put my thinking cap on and looked through my library of books and thought maybe it was about time I found out what Crime and Punishment was all about, as a) it is a classic novel I haven’t read, b) I keep putting off reading it, so this reading challenge is a good excuse to get it over with and c) whilst it is a novel about redemption, it does explore the themes of revenge and guilt…

 

“A century after it first appeared, Crime and Punishment remains one of the most gripping psychological thrillers. A poverty-stricken young man, seeing his family making sacrifices for him, is faced with an opportunity to solve his financial problems with one simple but horrifying act: the murder of a pawnbroker. She is, he feels, just a parasite on society. But does the end justify the means? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov makes his decision and then has to live with it. Dostoyevsky, in masterly fashion, contrasts the comedy and tragedy of life in St. Petersburg with the anguish and turmoil of Raskolnikov's inner life.”

 

I haven’t tried to read Crime and Punishment before because it sounds a bit depressing, and I thought it would be a dry and difficult read. I picked up an Audible copy in a 2-4-1 deal because it didn’t matter if I never listened to it, as in essence it was free. I’m delighted to say I really enjoyed both the book and this narration of it. Both Constantine Gregory’s narration, and Dostoevsky’s unique characters and writing style pull together, to provide an interesting look into the thoughts and mind of a killer.

This is a long book to listen to, but it clips along at fair speed to keep the listener engaged, but still slow enough to allow contemplation about the characters and their motives and actions. It is not only the protagonist’s actions called into question, but the people around him. What drives them? Are they ultimately good or bad people?

Meet Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov, an impoverished student, and the man at the heart of this tale. He has feelings of superiority over others, but as with all narcissists, he is no better than the other men he walks amongst. He has accrued debts with a local money lender, Alyona Ivanovna, and as he walks around his squalid neighbourhood, he has the notion of killing someone. He is utterly revulsed at this idea, yet the thought will no longer leave his head. It is said that some people have their best ideas whilst sitting in a pub, but the same cannot be said for Raskolnikov. He hears the conversations of the other drinkers; all are wishing that Alyona Ivanovna was dead.

#19. A Buddy Read – The Trial by Rob Rinder (Kindle)

I’ll admit that when I initially saw the release of this book, I thought, “not another celeb writing a book” but then my niece said she’d read it and enjoyed it; and so this challenge became the perfect excuse to read the book and an opportunity to discuss it with someone afterwards. I confess, I enjoyed reading the book and I’m now looking forward to reading book two and seeing Adam Green progress in his career. Rob Rinder has stuck to what he knows, being a barrister, a Jewish mother, and being charming and witty. It all adds up to an engaging read from start to finish. 

“When hero policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning in the Old Bailey, it threatens to shake the country to its core.

The evidence points to one man. Jimmy Knight has been convicted of multiple offences before and defending him will be no easy task. Not least because this is trainee barrister Adam Green's first case.

But it will quickly become clear that Jimmy Knight is not the only person in Cliveden's past with an axe to grind.

The only thing that's certain is that this is a trial which will push Adam - and the justice system itself - to the limit. . .”

 

Both legal thriller and courtroom drama, ‘The Trial’ is an engrossing read from someone who obviously knows a lot about the subject matter. Whilst the book looks at the dark side of corruption and justice within the legal system, it has a bright energy running through it, with engaging characters, enormous wit and a clever and unusual style of murder.

Beloved national hero (he once saved the Queen) DI Grant Clivedon is about to give his testimony in a major drug case at the Old Bailey, when he dramatically collapses and dies. Jimmy Knight has just been released from a ten-year stretch in prison for committing armed robbery. Co-incidence? Jimmy has history with the deceased and reports show that he met Clivedon in a pub only hours before he died. Perhaps Jimmy slipped a slow-release poison in Clivedon’s pint; at least that was going to be the working theory despite there being no tangible evidence linking Jimmy to the incident.

#18. An Apostrophe In The Title – Don’t Close Your Eyes by P A Cunliffe (Kindle)

Every month I receive a list of books from Amazon Prime First Reads UK and I look through to find what I think is the best choice in a list of titles, where the blurb doesn’t interest me and it’s written by someone I’ve never heard of. I tend to download a title because it’s free. It will go onto my Kindle App and often get forgotten about, but at least I know if I get stuck somewhere, there’s a book sitting on my ‘phone that I can read. Sometimes the book is as bad as I feared, other times I find a gem of a book; mostly the book is fine, but I probably wouldn’t buy it. This is one reason why I am enjoying this challenge; I am getting through some titles I doubt I would normally read. A book with an apostrophe should be easy to find, but there are very few on my bookshelf, and those that I have, I’ve already read, so, I’ve scrolled through my Kindle and I’ve found a debut novel from an author whose book I picked out in June 2023!

“One missing person. Ten sleepless nights. Whatever happens, don't close your eyes...

Catherine is frantic. It's her husband Simon's turn to take their son to nursery and he's nowhere to be seen. He promised he'd be here. So, where is he? And why isn't he taking her calls?

Her worst fears are soon realised when the police arrive at her door to tell her that Simon is missing, presumed dead. Refusing to accept that he's gone, Catherine spends her days retracing his last steps, and her nights searching the streets in desperation.

She will not rest, she will not sleep, until she's put her family back together.

The days merge into one, and things quickly unravel. Then comes another knock at the door. This time, a young woman. A stranger. Who tells Catherine she doesn't know her husband at all. That their whole life is a lie.

Catherine needs to know the truth. She needs to find Simon more than ever.

The body can't survive for more than 10 days without sleep. Will Catherine find her husband and uncover the truth, before it's too late?”

 

This is an interesting, albeit predictable book, and you will need to be able to suspend your disbelief to get through it all! It was one of those perfect quick read books you can get through in a wet weekend without too much trouble.

The book is told from various points of view and Easter eggs are drip fed through the story allowing the clues to build up so you can second guess the ending. There are also excerpts of a recording that is “played” in between the main chapters until it suddenly twigs in your head what’s going on and who it is in the recording.

The book starts with a newspaper clipping from September 2018, in which a jogger pushes a woman in front of a double-decker London bus. The woman was specifically targeted but survives; the jogger gets away, but there is a police appeal for anyone who might recognise the man in the CCTV footage.

November 2022, Catherine has been woken up by her son and she is exasperated. She is due to meet her friend for a full day of treats; a lie-in, brunch with her friend, followed by visiting an art exhibition. This is a day she has been looking forward to, but her husband is no-where to be found and it is his turn to take their son to nursery. Catherine can’t understand where he is, she has tried calling his ‘phone but he doesn’t answer. He had left a message on her phone in the early hours, so she assumes he has been out all-night drinking with work colleagues. She hurries to get her son Charlie ready for nursery, but as she opens the door to leave the house she is met by the police who inform her that Simon’s body has been found in a burnt out car.

#17. Nominated For The Booker Prize – Possession by A S Byatt (Audible)

I purchased this Audible book in February 2021. I found it tedious to listen to, despite the wonderful narration of actor Samuel West, and I stopped listening after the first few chapters thinking I’d try again “when I was in the mood.” At nearly 22 hours long, I couldn’t find the enthusiasm to listen to it.  I noticed that this title crept slowly to the bottom of my list as I continued to buy and listen to other titles which I found infinitely more engaging within the first few minutes of listening to them. 

When I read the blurb, I thought I had been buying an edgy detective novel, but this is a detective work more akin to family history research than a “who dunnit” murder mystery!  As I was looking for titles that had been nominated for the Booker Prize, I remembered that I still had this book to listen to and not only had it been nominated, but it had also won the prize, so it must have something going for it. 

Indeed, the book is cleverly constructed, and I found Sam West read it beautifully, however, it is a book full of beautiful prose and poetry and it is challenging to listen to and remember what’s going on.  If I need to sit and concentrate on a book, then my first choice is a paperback and this is a book you need to concentrate on, and perhaps flick the pages back and forth to remind you of events or look at things again in detail. You can't do this with an audio book and so my experience of the book fell a little short, but I still enjoyed it! 

“Winner of England's Booker Prize 1990.

 Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets.

 Following a trail of  letters, journals and poems, they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.”

Roland Michell is a literary researcher who has recently completed his PhD studying the eminent (fictitious) Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. He is frustrated that he cannot find himself a permanent job, however, whilst in a London library, he discovers, hidden in the back of a book that once belonged to Ash, two draft handwritten letters to an unknown woman. Excited by this discovery, he secretes these letters with his personal belongings before returning the book to the librarian. Michell suspects that Ash must have been having an affair and begins to delve deeper to unearth who the letters were meant for. His knowledge of Ash leads him to theorise that the letters were intended for a contemporary of Ash, a minor poet named Christabel LaMotte.

Dr Maud Bailey is both a distant relative and scholar of Christabel LaMotte and Michell arranges to meet her in Lincoln to discuss his hypothesis.  Maud shows him some additional documents which show a likely correspondence took place between the two poets around 1858/59. It would be a significant find for the academics if Ash and LaMotte had been having an affair, as it had been widely understood that Ash was happily married, and LaMotte was probably a lesbian. Michell admits to Maud about the letters he has stolen, whilst she confirms she is intrigued and wants to find out more about the affair. Any academic who managed to discover the truth about the relationship would bolster their career, so Maud and Roland try to keep their research secret; but hot on their heels are another group of scholars including James Blackadder, and American scholars Mortimer Cropper and Leonora Stern, thus much excitement and underhand activities follow in the pursuit of the truth.

#16. An Omniscient Narrator – Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (Audible)

As a child, I used to watch the ITV series “Sherlock Holmes” starring Jeremy Brett and David Burke on the family black and white TV. According to my mother, Brett was the perfect Holmes, and as I grew older and watched other people try to inhabit the character, I had to agree. Brett and Burke were the perfect double act as Holmes and Watson, but what of their creator? I knew very little about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Despite owning a beautiful clothbound version of the complete works of Sherlock Holmes (and a copy on Audible to listen to on the way to work) I’ve never thought about the man behind the pen. I stumbled across this title on Audible, I think it was in one of their 2-4-1 sales; I'd read some other works of Julian Barnes and knew he was a good writer, so I was interested to hear what he had to say about the real lives of George Edalji and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

“As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world’s most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife—their fates become inextricably connected.”

 

I think the story of George Edalji and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a fascinating one, and it is obvious that Julian Barnes has done an enormous amount of research into the lives of both men, but I think I made a huge mistake in getting this book on Audible. It is hard to write an unbiased review of a book when you're trying to work out if the book is badly written, or if it's due to the poor narrator. In this instance, I think it is safe to say that my main criticism of the book is not Barnes' beautiful prose, but the narration on Audible. My concentration was removed from the story and transferred instead to the poor accents, mispronunciations and general telling of the story, which is a great travesty to Barnes. 

George Edalji was a myopic solicitor, the son of a country vicar, and part Asian. His path only crossed with that of the creator of Sherlock Holmes for several months, but there meeting was most fortunate, as Doyle was instrumental in correcting a serious miscarriage of justice.

#15. Part Of A Duology – Deeper Than the Dead by Debra Webb (Kindle)

This was my selection from my Amazon Prime First Reads UK options for July 2024. At the time it was stated that this was the first book in a duology, and I thought the blurb sounded interesting enough for there to be a second book and that I’d read it once it was released. It now transpires that this is the first book in a new detective series, but I’m keeping it here under the #15 as I began reading it when I was under the impression there were only going to be two books!
 
“Crime analyst and newly disgraced deputy police chief Vera Boyett doesn’t visit home often, and she certainly doesn’t venture back into the cave on her family land. But when the remains of her long-missing stepmother are discovered, Vera will have to face a past that threatens all she is. She and her sister Eve had a fairy-tale childhood: good until it was tragic, with a stepmother they never found a bond with. At least they had each other, a baby half-sister, and a mutual devotion that would have them do the unthinkable. It’s a summer in small-town Tennessee, so thick with humidity it could drown you and so rife with secrets it could smother you. And deep beneath the surface, there are more bodies than you’d think….”
 
Twenty-two years ago, Vera Boyett's stepmother Sheree disappeared, it was presumed she had run away with her lover.  Human remains have now been discovered in a cave on the Boyett land in Fayetteville, and Vera's sisters need her to return home as the remains belong to Sheree. 39-year-old Vera has spent fifteen years working with the Memphis Police Department, working her way up to her current role of Deputy Chief in a specialised unit. Unfortunately for Vera, everyone on her team has been suspended, following a horrific shooting that claimed the lives of two of her officers. Vera is to be the scapegoat and the unit that she helped to create will be disbanded. With her career in tatters and the recent unearthing of human remains where she grew up, she is eager to head back to see her younger sister Eve and half-sister Luna. 

As with many novels focusing on domestic drama, families often have skeletons hidden in the closet, and Vera and Eve are no exception to this rule; although their skeleton is literally in a cave they used to play in as children. Twenty-two years ago, a family drama that they would prefer to keep hidden is about to be unearthed, but unknown to them both, there wasn't just one body hidden in the cave. Further remains are soon discovered in a deeper part of the cave system; some remains were deposited before Sheree's body was dumped there, and others were deposited after Sherree. Who else knew about the complex cave system and why was it chosen to dump the bodies in? 

#14. A Grieving Character – Eleven Liars by Robert Gold (Audible)

In 2020, as part of Hatchette publishers “secret reader” scheme, I received an advance copy of Robert’s book, “Twelve Secrets.” I enjoyed the book, so when I saw the second book in the Ben Harper series titled “Eleven Liars” pop up on Audible, I thought I would listen and see how the storyline had progressed.

 

“Journalist Ben Harper is on his way home when he sees the flames in the churchyard. The derelict community centre is on fire. And somebody is trapped inside.

With Ben's help the person escapes, only to flee the scene before they can be identified. Now the small town of Haddley is abuzz with rumours. Was this an accident, or arson?

Then a skeleton is found in the burnt-out foundations.

And when the identity of the victim is revealed, Ben is confronted with a crime that is terrifyingly close to home. As he uncovers a web of deceit and destruction that goes back decades, Ben quickly learns that in this small town, everybody has something to hide.”

 

This book starts pretty much from where the last one left off. Whilst it isn’t strictly necessary to read the first book in the series, I would recommend it, mainly because it helps to understand who the characters are, how their relationships fit together, and what issues have affected them in the first book. That said, the plot of the book is straightforward enough to follow, in chronological order, and Gold adds bit of information from the earlier novel, so you can quickly pick up on the back story without it hindering the rest of the plot.

The action starts immediately when investigative journalist Ben Harper takes a shortcut home  through the local cemetery and saves the life of a man who is trapped in a burning building. Despite Ben’s heroics, the man flees the scene before Ben can recognise him. The next day a skeleton is found in the ruins of the burnt-out building. No-one claims to know the identity of the body, or how it ended up in the foundations of the church’s community centre.

#13. An Academic Thriller – Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton (Paperback)

This is the second Rosamund Lupton novel I managed to sneak into this challenge and it was easy to see why it was chosen as ‘Book of the Year’ by The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Stylist, Red and Good Housekeeping.

 

“In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. Pupils and teachers barricade themselves into classrooms, the library, the theatre. The headmaster lies wounded in the library, unable to help his trapped students and staff. Outside, a police psychiatrist must identify the gunmen, while parents gather desperate for news. In three intense hours, all must find the courage to stand up to evil and save the people they love.”

 

Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds…it’s not that long a time, unless you are being held hostage. If you’re anxiously waiting for help to come, it can seem an inordinately long amount of time.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock…the amount of suspense that can be derived just from the thought of a clock ticking down. Will help come? Will the children be safe? Will the police fail in those last minutes? Whatever happens, we know that it will all be over in three hours. This is a book you can’t put down; you can’t leave the children in the school to their fate without knowing the outcome.

School shootings and stabbings are the horrific news headlines no-one wants to see, yet here, between these safe pages, you are invested in this cat and mouse game between police and gunmen, entering the psyche of the person at large. Why on earth would they want to target innocent children, children that have been dropped off at a place of safety, children who should spend the day knowing that in a few hours they’ll be back at home watching TV or texting their friends.

This is a story built on a parent’s worst nightmare, you are going to be with them every step of the way until you know whether their child is safe or not. Three hours is not a long time at all, and I certainly needed a bit longer than that to devour this book but devour it I did over a wet and windy weekend.