Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry

Perhaps it was the hint of the Irish but I couldn’t help but think of Vladimir and Estragon as I read this tale of mid life musings and regrets. Two ageing gangsters aren’t waiting for Godot but they are waiting for the boat from Tangier that may or may not carry a daughter.  There is nothing particularly likeable about these hitherto violent and drug crazed individuals. But there is a paradox in the quality of the writing that describes their dissolute lives and disordered thoughts. The book reads more like a prose poem than a gangster fiction in parts. Yet it seeks to offer us the opportunity to dig deeper into the criminal mind than we might care to outside of the covers of a book.

Barry seldom allows his reader to stray far from the under current of threat that might be unleashed by Maurice and Charlie’s thug like mentalities but there is an attempt at humour and if you can allow yourself to step back emotionally and view these two caricatures, you can, almost but not quite, feel some sort of amused pity for them. 

Plenty of the tale is dialogue driven and set in a dual timescale, loosely, the past and the present. The potential consequences of felony are never far from the surface in the past sequences of the novel. The regrets and analysis of that nefarious past is mused on by the two men in the present sections while they wait. This creates another paradox because these ‘bad’ men seem to have hearts. But do they have regrets for their beleaguered pasts? 

There is an acute perception for the lives and minds of a certain section of society perhaps. It’s a world few of us will inhabit, hopefully, which allows us to be objective and I think that’s where the novel takes so much of its strength. That and the grace of the writing which somehow seemed unexpected within the context of a gangster story. The language of the two protagonists is rich and raw, (I won’t quote!) a further contrast between the more lyrical passages in the book. 

‘it is night again in Algeciras. The rain comes through the lights of the harbour but now more meekly. Charlie Redmond leans back beneath the jut of the ticket agent’s awning. He huddles into the knit of his thin shoulders. The prospect of another November is a mean taste at the back of his throat.’

And I suppose you could remove yourself from the gangster element and view this as a book about male friendship. Reminiscences of loves and lives lived and partly lost with considerations of how things might have been different.

It’s a clever book and I have to admit I found myself wanting to read it with an Irish accent. The suggestion of folklore and myth is also weaving its way through the narrative. It’s quite a unique achievement. And I can see why it was long listed for the Booker Prize.

Thanks to Canongate Books for this gifted copy. 

The Stone Girl - Dirk Wittenborn

This was one of those most glorious books that turns up unsolicited. I was expecting a completely different book from this publisher so there was the merest hint of disappointment. But of this book I had no expectations. I had no prior knowledge of the author, Dirk Wittenborn. Sometimes in these circumstances there is an incredible sense of freedom at the read you’re about to start. No blog tour dates with deadlines to chase. Just a publication date to bear in mind.

‘Deep in the Adirondack Mountains lies a speck of a town called Rangeley. There isn't much to this tiny town, but it is at the crossroads of serene fishing streams off the Mink River, pristine hunting grounds in the surrounding mountains and vast estates of the extremely rich. It is also the gateway to the Mohawk Club, which houses the Lost Boys, an exclusive group of wealthy and powerful men with global influence and a taste for depravity. Raised wild and poor in the shadows of the Mohawk Club, Evie Quimby was a teenager when she first fell victim to the Lost Boys. Seventeen years later, she is now a world-renowned art restorer famous for repairing even the most-broken statues. After spending half her life in Paris, establishing her reputation and raising her daughter Chloe, Evie has come a long way from the girl who left Rangeley behind. But when Chloe receives a visit from an elegant stranger who claims to be an old friend of her mother's, the ghosts of Evie's past return in full force, pulling her back to the North Country of her girlhood and into the tangled, intricate web of the Lost Boys. Evie bands together with her formidable mother and an embattled heiress, both victims of the Lost Boys, in pursuit of an unusual and heart-stopping vengeance.’

A formidable plot, coupled with a narrative that never loses momentum for a second, Wittenborn creates a landscape that drips with power and vengeance. A multi narrative that begins with a prologue deficient in detail so we want to know more, but with sufficient information to convince us there is something worth exploring here. The first person narrative from Evie’s daughter, Chloe, furnishes us with one perspective on all that happens. And the third person narrative, which is good all-fashioned storytelling fills us in on the rest. Balance is crucial. And it’s nigh on perfect here.

I saw the stone girl statue as metaphor on more than one level. The idea of fixing broken things in a concrete way serves as a parallel to look at how to fix things in an abstract way. Physical fixing versus emotional fixing. And the concept that something broken can be mended in a good versus evil sort of way. Much of the action takes place in the Adirondacks  area of the United States. Hunting country. I saw that as another metaphor. A gender issue if you like. The women are the prey, the men are the hunters. Can you turn it around though? I thought the book also looked at how wealth, education, class can disappear when there is a common aim. The sense of female friendship is strong in a Thelma and Louise kinda way.

I found the titles of the nine parts of the book fascinating. Sometimes I don't even notice them. But here they seemed to impose themselves upon my consciousness. I had a sense that they were very significant to the story. And Part II "Parts But Little Known" I ended up googling and found that it relates to an exhibition of maps of the Adirondacks dating from 1550. I felt like I had Yoda looking over my shoulder and telling me that my instincts served me well! Others relate to legal terms that just hint to the reader of potential outcomes. 

Something I found very interesting about the book is that it has a very strong message for women and about women and yet it was written by a man. It was as if Wittenborn has got under the skin of a violated woman and understands what happens in that headspace, not just in an immediate sense, but over time. It’s powerful. The female characters are all finally drawn. Evie and her mother, Flo, Chloe and Lulu, the heiress, have strong voices in this book and a part to play in the unfolding narrative.

Evie is indomitable. The spirit of survival. The love of a mother for her daughter and the desire to seek some kind of retribution for wrongs perpetrated in the past, examination of the mother/daughter relationship through a couple of generations -  all are explored here with Evie as the foundation. 

It’s a full blooded book. Meaty. It’s not a mere thriller to be read to see if the good guys win in the end. Oh yes, you can read it that way if you wish. But there is subtext to demand the cerebral reader think a great deal about what they've just read. Perhaps I’m enamoured  of the book so much because I wasn’t expecting such a good read. It’s one of those books that stays with you. You find yourself thinking about it at unexpected moments. 

My thanks to W.W. Norton for an advance copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Murder on the Moorland - Helen Cox - SOCIAL MEDIA BLAST

‘Kitt Hartley wakes to the news that a murder has been committed in Irendale, a village high on the wild Yorkshire moors where her boyfriend, DI Malcolm Halloran, lived with his ex-wife until she too, was murdered. The MO of the two crimes is identical, right down to the runic symbols carved into the victims' hands.

Unable to leave it to the local police to solve, Kitt and Halloran travel to Irendale, where a literary mystery awaits. A line of Anglo-Saxon poetry found on the victim leads to a hiding place, and another cryptic clue. What is the connection to the murder of Halloran's wife all those years ago?

It will take the combined ingenuity of Kitt and Halloran, as well as Evie Bowes, Grace Edwards and, despite their best efforts, Ruby the (possible) psychic to solve this case. The moors may be beautiful, but they're not peaceful!’

There is something infinitely cosy about getting to know the characters in a series of books. So that when a new one comes along you’re already invested in them and their lives. It’s like renewing the acquaintance with a group of friends somehow. Or maybe I need to get out more! Anyway I like to think of Kitt Hartley as a ‘literary friend’. 

And because she’s my “friend” I’m rooting for everything to go well in her love life! Murder on the Moorland focuses more on the relationship between Kitt and Malc. Let me qualify that; the book focuses mostly on the crime! Of course it does, there’s a murder!  But we learn much more about Kitt and Halloran as people. My favourite Grace, and Evie and Charley and also Ruby put in an appearance but the dominant players are Kitt and Malc.

I found this third book in the series darker, less cosy. No less an enjoyable read because of it. It seemed more serious, some of the comic moments from the first two books are less evident. The plot and the solving of the crime hinge on the interpretation of some Anglo-Saxon poetry which is of course where Kitt comes in maintaining the  librarian theme of the first two books. But Malc’s detective and policing skills work in tandem with Kitt’s literary expertise. 

But it's by no means straightforward. And there are many red herrings put in our path before this jigsaw puzzle of runic jiggery-pokery is solved. There are some tense, nailbiting moments alongside the more tender moments. There are characters are plenty; eccentric, untrustworthy, sinister -everything you want from a good old crime yarn.

The writing flows with the ease you'd expect from somebody comfortable with their genre and comfortable with their characters. The plotting is intricate and therefore makes it very difficult to second-guess or reach the correct conclusion. Always good to have some twists. Keeps the reader on their toes!

Delighted to be part of the social media blast for this book my thanks to Ella Patel and Quercus Books for the opportunity. Check out what other bloggers have to say!

The Innocents - Michael Crummey

With an elegant prose style that elevates this book beyond the mere telling of a story  The Innocents will grab at your heart with its curious paradox of the visceral and the almost ethereal. This tale of an orphaned brother and sister surviving in the harsh coastal landscape of Newfoundland ploughs the very depth of what it is to be human in an environment where existence teeters on a tightrope. 

The consideration of a blood bond and the effect it has intrinsically is explored to its limits. Issues, too, of circumstance and the effects that may have on such a bond are eloquently and subliminally offered for the reader to ponder. The interaction of man with the natural world is a potent force within this novel also. 

The authenticity of research and an understanding of time and place transport the reader back to a past time where the detail is such that you can feel the hunger, the cold, and the effort of understanding a world beyond your four walls that holds little but mysteries. You can smell the sea ad fell the sting of ice upon your skin as Ada and Evered bring themselves, and each other, up, in the absence of their parents. 

This is not ‘uplit’ - far from it. There is a bleakness  that inveigles itself within you like the cold air of the landscape described. But it prompts various thoughts regarding the entire nature of survival and the human condition. Ada and Evered struggle to make sense of emotion and their own physical developments for they have no one to advise or offer help. At times it seems as if they cannot allow themselves the luxury of feeling, not in the sense that we expect to feel in our privileged lives. To stay fed, stay warm often  seems to be the sum total of their expectations. The reliance on each other is perhaps the one thing that offers them a window into a wider emotional understanding.

The passage of time is skilfully depicted with a slow almost languorous prose bordering on the poetic at times. Ada and Evered cannot hurry their lives for they are too busy spending time trying to live life rather than understand it. At times their existence seems joyless, bleak, unyielding and yet there is the sense that, because they know no different, their acceptance prevents them from experiencing any real depth of despair. 

Their interaction with other humans is limited. For Evered it is the necessary visit to the enigmatically named Hope ship where he encounters the Beadle. A couple of chance encounters from other seafaring expeditions offer both Ada and Everett a small glimpse into what life beyond their  ‘tilt ‘and the confines of their shoreline might offer.

Not a story to forget in a hurry. Particularly when you understand that it was inspired by a story the author found in local archives. My thanks to No Exit Press for a proof of this book.

Ashes - Christopher De Vinck

Can I get away with calling this a Holocaust story? I’m not sure. Certainly the Holocaust is featured. And I shall put this book on my Holocaust shelf. But the intent is broader.

With an urgency in the narrative the story propels itself forward and it is as if the reader is trying to escape too. But from what? And from where? Possibly from the inescapable truth that war is an abomination perpetuated by madmen. Here in gentle, neutral Belgium, a country ravaged by World War I, and the evidence of that is still potent and palpable today, De Vinck offers his readers a  glimpse into the madness that Brussels was subjected to when Hitler ignored the country’s neutrality.

But before you conclude that this might be yet another World War II story please pause. For it is much more. It’s a story of friendship. A friendship simple in its purity but complex In the bond that has been forged between two Belgian girls. Typical teenagers? Except that one is Jewish. And the other is the daughter of a Belgian national war hero. Simone Lyon and Hava Daniels, two best friends caught up in the chaos of war. 

We are treated to a full picture of their lives before the unthinkable happens. Secure within their families and secure within their friendship until the day that the Nazis split their world asunder. The two girls begin a journey; a journey for immediate, physical survival,  and the journey of their souls, their selves, those parts that make them people that they are.

The novel is prefaced with a quotation from Anne Frank “Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl? “ it’s very pertinent. Because you get the feeling that Simone and Hava were not so very different from Anne as young girls. And I think the novel strikes a balance between offering historical perspectives on aspects of WWII but never allowing humanity to disappear.

I always think the mark of good historical research in a fiction is where you completely forget that any research has been done you become so enmeshed within the story. It’s only when you finish reading, stop, and reflect back, that you appreciate how thorough the research has been. The reader is transported palpably back to 1939/1940s Brussels, and France.

I guess the title of the book, Ashes, gives a hint of the outcome. I will not be guilty of spoiling by putting it into any kind of words. But it’s moving, though not unexpected. 

Thank you Readers First for a copy of this book. 

A Little London Scandal - Miranda Emmerson

You can’t fail to be reminded, to a degree, of the Profumo scandal especially after the recent TV series but that’s not to say that this story is in any way lacking in originality. It attempts to lay bare a sixties society defended by its class gulf and the prerogative of the wealthy and influential to protect themselves and their own when they venture into a seedier side of life, no matter what it takes. 

There is some historical comment on gay culture and attitudes which are fundamental to the plot and I hope is not a spoiler. Set against a theatrical backdrop in London, Anna Treadway (is this the Miss Treadway of Ms. Emmerson’s first novel, I wonder, thus admitting to the world that I haven’t read her first novel?) is the tenacious theatre dresser who won’t see a friend wronged and goes all out to seek the truth and justice.

It’s an intelligent story, substantial, written with a thorough plot, a literate narrative and some accessible characters who engage the sympathies of the reader from the off. I guess you could place it in the historical fiction genre as it’s set in the sixties but that's hard for me because I was alive then, although still a child, and I remember the whole Christine Keeler thing. But what that does also mean is that I can fully appreciate the depth of research and the attention to detail, spot on. 

The chapter headings intrigued me as chapter headings do. I alway enjoy it when an author takes the time to offer something beyond  the basic Chapter One, Chapter Two thing. At first I thought they were all going to be song titles, not necessarily relevant to the sixties but to the content of the chapters, but it's more subtle, more cryptic than that and some are simply lines from that chapter. 

The characters are diverse, and the links connecting them all is subtle and adds to the compelling thrust of the story as it evenly and solidly snowballs to its conclusion. Perhaps one might discern a social comment within its pages, Nik, the Smalltown Boy propelled into a world that was never of his choosing, Merrian the ‘understanding’ wife, torn and required to decide what doing the right thing really means. And Anna the synthesis of it all and you get the sense that were she not there everything would irrevocably fall apart. 

My thanks to Matt Clacher at 4th Estate Books for a copy of this highly enjoyable story. 

Three - D.A. MIshani translated by Jessica Cohen

Elegant isn’t the word usually associated with a psychological thriller. But if pushed I’m not sure that I would place this book firmly in that one genre. It’s elegant and compelling. It’s darkness is subtle, it’s nuanced to the extent that you almost don’t suspect anything untoward in the early stages of the book. You think you’re reading some scene setting, some character development. No evidence of the ubiquitous prologue that prefaces so many books of this type. There was no flawed narrator but a rich, character driven, narrative that demand the reader explore the emotion and minds of the three women of the title as well as the perp. Unusual, too, was the book blurb which I initially thought was giving too much away. The plot is benign, repetitive, almost, as the M.O. of our villain taunts the reader into relaxing as the story slowly unfolds. 

The relationship between story and reader becomes almost like a clandestine assignation. The reader is privy to what is happening but powerless, impotent, to stop these women from falling into the trap. You occasionally look over your shoulder because you don’t want Gil to know you’re on to him! But there’s nothing you can do as the story marches relentlessly on. And you, the reader, cannot put this book down.

It’s intelligent writing. And it’s intelligent plotting. I think because the book is slow and gradual it becomes all the more chilling. It’s almost prosaic, mundane even in terms of action and events but it’s the underlying, mental gymnastics that invade your consciousness and leave you feeling so twitchy and unnerved. So much seems so every day normal that the impact of what happens seems all the more devastating.

Sometimes with psychological thrillers I find it very hard to engage with the characters in any positive way. Very often they are difficult to like. That isn’t the case here, with the three women certainly. It is easy for the the reader to not only engage but relate in some way to where they’re at. And that pulls a punch too because you can end up thinking, there but for the grace of God……… 

I must admit I was left wondering what Gil’s ultimate issues were and why he behaved the way he did. The three women’s motivations were all very clear. His never seemed to be. Other than a power/ control obsession. And of course there is much that isn’t contained within the book. It made you wonder what had gone before in terms of Gil.

It's very accessible prose. The translator Jessica Cohen has done a marvellous job because it doesn't lose any of its cultural flavour in the translation.

My thanks to Ana McLaughlin at riverrun books for a gifted copy of Three.