A Granite Silence – Nina Allan

 

My tummy goes wobbly when I know there’s a new Nina Allen book published. Since The Doll Maker I’ve read each one of her novels and I continue to explore her back catalogue. One of the things I love about her books and her work is that it cannot be easily categorised or compartmentalised. I’ve used the term “genre defiant” many times before in respect of her work and I’ll continue to do so. Like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

 

A Granite Silence Is quite extraordinary. It is offered as a novel but so much appears as factual, believable facts, autobiographical,  social history, that I would like to call it a “ficumentary”. I even went as far as googling Helen Priestly just to confirm that the events depicted in the book did have their feet in fact and truth.

(I even found a photo of the little girl’s grave.😢)

So it’s in part an historical novel depicting 1930s Aberdeen yet it also hints of autobiography where the writer is travelling on the later cusp of covid and lockdown coming across the true crime story of Helen Priestley’s murder from a photograph. She states that her journey is not essential, and we learn that the initial idea for a new book has nothing to do with murdered children. It’s to do with a Russian émigré, escaping the Bolsheviks! But she doesn’t leave that idea, or cast it aside when another idea seems to take precedence. It’s all woven into the complex narrative.

 

Nina Allen has always layered her work. One thinks of The Doll Maker were there are stories within stories, epistolary and a first-person narrative but it seems that with The Granite Silence she’s become more sophisticated, more diverse with these layered techniques.

 

Much of the book appears to be a direct account of the crime itself. Courtroom transcripts, newspaper articles are all referenced, some in full. But the book shifts in times and places pausing the crime exploration to examine the lives of those involved. From Jeannie Donald, accused of the crime, to the forensics professor who was instrumental in the progress of the crime investigation. The lines between fact and fiction become blurred and it’s as if a collection of short stories, thematically linked, are fused together to form a cohesive novel.

 

And if, after reading the factual parts of the book, the reader is left in any doubt that it is a work of fiction, the concluding chapter is utterly masterful.

 

The book is empathic, cathartic even. It looks at people, their motivations, their frailties. It tells of a community bonding through a crisis. It’s about telling a story. It’s about the different points of view. Who do we listen to? Who do we believe? And it leaves you almost breathless knowing that you have just read something quite extraordinary.

 

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin at riverrun books for my gifted copy.

 

The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

 

I’m not usually a great one for ghost stories or horror stories per se. My imagination is far too active for them, and they play on my mind. But I listened to a programme about Shirley Jackson which I found it fascinating. I was browsing in my local bookshop and came across this volume, considered to be a modern classic by penguin. So, I treated myself to it. The cover blurb suggests the story is acclaimed as one of the finest ghost stories of the 20^th century. I couldn’t comment on that because I’ve not read enough! But I have to say this was most absorbing. 

 

The word Gothic is much bandied about these days, but I would say that this really does tick all the boxes. The entire narrative has a chilling quality to it. Even the most prosaic of events still makes you feel a little off kilter. The description of the house’s layout made me feel like I was in one of those theme park houses with uneven floors and ceilings. Come to think of it they often have a haunted house theme!

 

It Isn't an out and out in your face, scary, ghosty, story. And I think that what makes it so disquieting. For it is subtle, nuanced, suggestive. The characters are all flawed, misfits in a certain sense with sub texts that leave the reader wondering and questioning.

 

Ultimately, I found myself struggling to differentiate between an actual haunting or whether the mental state of Eleanor was in question. So, I guess it’s also a psychological thriller as well as a ghost story!

                                                                                       

I won’t rush to read any more Shirley Jackson, but I won’t pass any by if they come my way.

  

1979 – Val McDermid

 

When I want to sit down and just read without having to worry about deadlines or publication dates, I go to my TBR shelf and pluck something. Well, I’m still struggling to recover from post Covid fatigue, I’ve found that I want books that just entertain me rather than books that I’ve really got to think about. On this occasion I happened to pick this Val McDermid novel. I’ve read most of her books and I’ve always found them to be very entertaining. This one is introducing a new protagonist Allie Burns, who is a journalist. It’s all that you might expect from a McDermid novel. Plenty of action, plenty of red herrings, a painstaking attention to detail. Here it is the world of journalism at the end of the 70s. So, it’s a palpable read. 

What is also interesting is that she wrote it during lockdown. It’s not the first book I’ve read by an author and it seems to me there could almost be an entire genre of lockdown literature! Granted you do need to concentrate on these type of thrillers but on the whole it’s an under demanding read that just lets you enjoy a book for the sheer escapism of it all. I believe this was a charity shop find.

The Female Hypnotist - edited by Donald K Hartman

 

Probably something of a niche volume, although I think it might appeal to short story aficionados, this collection of short stories are all about female hypnotists. The stories are all from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Some of my well-known writers like Louisa May Alcott and Arthur Conan Doyle and some are from people I’ve never heard of!

 

What struck me having read all of these stories is how similar they seem to be. It’s almost as if a female hypnotist is a particular species, culturally, socially and physically! Not possible? Or are we simply experiencing the writers’ imaginings of such a person?

 

There was something deliciously Gothic about several of the stories. And I’m wondering how much they appeal to the feminists out there. For to be sure it is the male of the species who seem to suffer throughout this collection of stories! But do all the women necessarily triumph? Maybe they do and maybe they don’t! I’ll not offer any spoilers here.

 

Stylistically all the stories are of their time. They are well written and completely accessible unless you are hellbent on books and stories that employ a more modern vernacular. But as one might expect the language is formal with much detail. 

 

And if reading the stories whets your appetite to find out more there is one of the most extensive bibliographies I’ve come across in a long while. I have absolute admiration for Donald K Hartman, who must have compiled it.

 

My thanks to Librarything where I won the book in a giveaway.

 

March Round Up

 I began the month with a book that I received for a blog tour at the end of the month. Stephen Oram’s We Are Not Anonymous. I reviewed it for the blog tour. 

 https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/03/we-are-not-anonymous-stephen-oram-blog.html  

I’ve read a previous book of Stephen’s called Extracting Humanity, a Collection short stories. Although there is a strong science-fictiony flavour to his work, I would say it’s more speculative fiction. I reviewed that on the blog. 

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2024/01/extracting-humanity-stephen-oram-blog.html

 

Back to the library for the second book of the month. And this was a random, unplanned pick. I came to return a book and I saw this displayed on the shelf. It’s called Heartbreak is the National Anthem by Rob Sheffield who is a writer for Rolling Stone. The book is about Taylor Swift. It’s an essay, love letter even to the artistry of Taylor Swift. He wrote about the songs as if they are poems looking at imagery and metaphor and I enjoyed the way that he examined her work as a serious creative artist rather than a popstar.

 

From time to time as a blogger, writers approach you to enquire whether you would be prepared to read and review their work. It can be a lottery. But I feel like I hit the jackpot here! A wonderful quirky offbeat collection of short stories by Katie Wimhurst called An Orchid in my Bellybutton. Who could resist a book with the title like that? It’s a wonderful collection and is one of the best books I’ve read this year. I absolutely love the stories.

 

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/03/an-orchid-in-my-belly-button-katy.html

 

Another library book recommended by my yoga teacher. Anne Youngson. Meet me at the Museum. It’s an epistolary novel which won a Costa prize back in  2018 for a First novel. A delightful story of a long distance friendship and endurance, a sharing of lives and confidences. Beautifully written.

 

Last October, a good friend of mine took a trip to Louisiana. And she visited some of the old plantations. She picked up this book at one of the plantations that she visited, and the owner of the plantation signed the book. The book is called Chained to the Land and it’s edited by Lynette Ater Tanner. The interviews took place during the 1930s.It’s absolutely fascinating to read accounts of the lives of the former slaves whose memories go back to before the Civil War. 

 

In spite of the fact that my TBR book shelves are groaning with an abundance of volumes I still can’t go past a charity shop without looking to see if there are any gems just waiting for me to buy them. I found Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty in one of those charity shops. I’d watched the TV series when I had Covid. And I was interested to read the book. It’s better than the TV series, I think. There are some significant details that differ. In my opinion they make a better story than the changes that they made for the small screen. I’d read one of Leanne Moriarty’s books before and quite enjoyed it. This isn’t a book I would have read had it not been a pound in a charity shop! That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but I guess other books take priority.

 

Another charity shop volume is next. Without a dust cover, but who cares?! I don't read the cover, I read the book! Quite pertinent too. It’s Suzanne Collins The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. It’s the prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy and as I’ve just received my copy of Sunrise on the Reaping I thought I would read this one first. It’s the type of book I just lose myself in and give myself up to escapism and adventure. And I’m a real sucker for dystopian trilogies!

 

Last but by no means least Sunrise on the Reaping. For those of you familiar with the Hunger Games series the character of Haymitch Abernathy features here and this book tells his story. We learn the reason he’s taken to drink. The familiar Hunger Games brutality endures here and in a sense there’s nothing new under the sun (no pun intended) but it’s immersi