Woman, Mapped - Edited by Jennifer Wong

 This impactful collection traces the journey of becoming a woman—highlighting its highs and lows. From childhood to old age, a dozen writers share frank reflections on what it means to express ourselves as women. 'Woman, Mapped' showcases a wide range of relevant experiences across different identities, cultures, and generations.

 

Poetry comprises the majority of the collection with some quite extraordinary pieces that keep you reflecting and thinking. I particularly enjoyed the work of Aoife Lyall. As ever for me, I have to read poetry aloud to really feel and try to get to the heart of what the poet is trying to express. I loved Equal Temperament, I’d like to quote it all, but I will confine myself to these lines. –

 

‘I want the out-of-tune piano

 

to hear the notes     stretch

 

in the rhythms of their shadows

 

     I want to feel        the felt

 

and know the strings are       trying’

 

I was also much absorbed by Janette Ayache’s A Poem in Which Female Writers Who Committed Suicide Visited Me. She seems to capture the essence of those writers  -

 

‘Sylvia Plath comes to me in the shower.

& she’s always too sad to speak.

her gaze, her oven gas, her bruised love,….’

 

And Sylvia Plath makes another appearance Ilse Pedler’s It was mountains i thought of where her poem Crossing the Water is referenced – 

 

‘it was mountains I thought of

In the silence that followed’

 

It seems to embody the spirit of Plath.

 

There are three essays in the collection, two. All of them fascinating. I’m not in general an essay reader. I’m more attracted by the poetry, but I have to say I found these essays very thought provoking. I loved Jesse Williams opening essay, Sisterhood. I loved the joyous affirmation of females together even though they have been to hell and back, the solidarity and the joy they managed to encompass was uplifting.

 

I loved Teddy Webb’s description of herself as an ‘angry feminist’ because that is the feeling I got from reading her erudite and impassioned words regarding her sexuality. 

 

The final essay in the collection, by Claire Harnett-Mann is a fitting conclusion to the anthology as it fuses the art of the essayist with the whimsy of the poet in a dissemination of class and identity - Women Poet Demolition Land.

 

It's a collection to ponder, to dip in and out of and to return to from time to time. 

My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon and Fly on the Wall Press for my proof copy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Deep water - Elle Blair

 

DI Rachel Harlow is off duty on a cruise with her twin teens and parents. Trying to escape problems at Northumbria Police HQ, she flirts with a stranger who turns up dead the next day. With no official investigation and an uncooperative crew, Rachel pursues the case alone, defying orders. In international waters, she uncovers a dangerous crime ring but has no team for support.

 

If a crime aboard a ship away from land constitutes a locked room mystery, then Deep Water might be that. But however you want to categorise the tale, it is immersive and engaging. 

 

There is a dual narrative cleverly delineated by ‘Land’ and ‘Sea” so you know exactly where you are with each chapter. The Land sections describe Rachel’s situation before embarking upon the cruise and inform the reader of how she is in her current position. The link between the two ‘worlds’ seems to be her colleague, Lennon. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the ‘on duty’ Rachel and the ‘off duty’ Rachel.

 

The story moves along at a cracking pace with plenty of suspense and some good twists. I was surprised to learn that this is a debut novel. The writing is efficient, absorbing and intelligent. 

 

Rachel is a formidable character, very determined and, as often the case with members of the crime prevention profession, treading a tenuous line between the personal and the professional. She faces up to conflicts on both these levels and show herself to be unafraid of challenge. 

 

Alongside the crime and its solving, family dynamics play a big part. They’re another minefield that Rachel must navigate, as a mother, as a daughter and as a colleague. But none of these themes get in the way of the main thrust of the story. They are used to complement it and cause Rachel to reconsider her priorities.

 

And as much as we are invested in Rachel as a character this author cleverly entices us into engaging with several others. There were times when I wanted to give Rachel’s mum a good shake but as the story unfolded, I became more sympathetic. The twins are great. I loved Jess’s teenage indignation at the injustices facing the environment and Jake’s adolescent shenanigans, (trying not to give anything away here). 

 

The long and the short of it is I can’t wait for Elle Blair’s next novel! But I don’t envy her the task of matching this one! It really is that good.

 

My thanks to Caitlin McCoy at HQ stories for my copy. 

 

 

The Kingpin - A.A.Dhand

 

If you've read The Chemist you'll want to read this. It follows on very naturally from that book where we met pharmacist Idris Khan. However it doesn't matter if you haven't read it because of all of the salient details are referenced within the narrative of The Kingpin.

I read The Chemist last year and I wrote about it on this blog. Much of I wrote would apply to this story too. 

https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-chemist-aadhand.html

Many crime/thriller series can become formulaic, they are no less enjoyable for that because sometimes you simply enjoy the familiar. The main protagonist often remains stable, not a great deal of  discernible progression in their lives and modus operandi. Not the case here though. We see how circumstances have altered Idris. The release of his brother from prison is a further tangle in this knotted life. You have a sense of the moral struggle within him. It's as if his world has disintegrated and his survival is in the balance unless he follows a path that could lead to his own demise. He's not alone! There are other characters who are considering their futures regardless of the ethics of their behaviours.

Dhand's prose doesn't dawdle, he's writing a sprint not a marathon and it is exciting. There's just enough detail to satisfy the readers' imagination but action dominates.  The characters are raw, real and often brutal. There are many here I would not like to meet on a dark night, or even in broad daylight!

There is violence aplenty, and Idris attempts to solve many of his problems with his pharmaceutical knowledge. I love this aspect of the stories, it gives the character an original edge. Drugs and turf wars, revenge and retribution, some challenging issues  populate almost every page in the book. There is the occasional bit of light relief but it's an intense read that will you have turning the pages desperate to know what happens next but, paradoxically, fearful of what atrocities you might encounter! 

And if you are hungry for more I suspect that a further book is intended as the conclusion of The Kingpin suggests that we have not heard the last of Idris Khan. 

My thanks to Caitlin McCoy of HQ stories for my copy.