Guarding Diana - Inspector Ken Wharfe with Robert Jobson

          I took this book on because I have a friend who claims to have a spiritual connection with Princess Diana and I intend to pass it on! A spurious reason for reading and reviewing a book? Maybe. But it was also an opportunity to delve again into the world of non fiction which may redeem my rather superficial intent!

Overall the book is a straightforward account of the security issues surrounding Diana and her overseas trips; both vacations and official engagements. It also examined the relationship between ‘protector’ and ‘protectee’. I had the feeling that Wharfe was being honest about Diana the person rather than Diana the icon. It was absorbing enough as a read but I can’t see that it covers any new ground. It is interesting to consider whether Diana still attracts a wealth of interest so long after her passing? Wharfe appears to offer an unbiased view of all the key ‘players’ from Diana herself to other members of the Royal Family including Prince Charles

Two things I did I garner from the book was the relentless and insensitive machinations of the press, paparazzi and media. The book does offer as balanced a view as it can. One intrusive photographer claimed ‘press freedom and public interest’ as justification for the relentless hounding of the Princess and her children. I was surprised at how frequently ‘deals’ were struck with the media - a photoshoot in return for the photographers' exodus.

I found the most interesting part of the book was the final chapter where Wharfe questions the public outpouring of grief and a potential hypocrisy?

‘Though it may seem harsh or cynical I felt that there was something spurious about the mass mourning that followed her death and attended her funeral. True, most people loved her, but they had not known her. They loved the media image; they loved the glamour, the humanity, the sympathetic tears but they had little idea of the real Diana. Truly they loved her because of what they had read or seen or heard about her. What they were mourning was an image moulded by the media and by the Princess herself from her years in the public eye.’

Wharfe goes on to question the public’s vilification of the press who had fuelled their desire for their image of Diana.

I found myself moved again by the final pages detailing the funeral and wondering how the world would be had Diana lived and continued her uplifting humanitarian work.
       

RETRO REVIEWING: Bitter Fruits - Alice Clark Platts

Number 10 in this series, Alice Clark Platt's debut novel was published in July 2015 and I was very enthusiastic about it! Earlier this year one of my Library Book choices was this lady's second novel. https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-taken-alice-clark-platts.html

I love debut novels. They are such a lottery. They can be dire and finishing them can feel like wading through treacle. They can be okay and you sense some promise and defer ultimate judgement until the next one. Or they can completely blow you away.

I couldn't put this book down and I mean that literally. Everything was put on hold until I finished it.

I hesitate to use the word brilliant because it is overused and my response is subjective but for me this wasn't far short.

It’s a deceptive book and more substantial than it seems at first. And yet curiously there is a danger that this substance could be overlooked as the reader focuses purely on the crime aspect because it is so well done the attention doesn't stray. 

The plot is tight, well constructed with a veritable shoal of red herrings to lure the reader into believing they have solved this crime. The characters are believable. There is no holding back when highlighting some of today’s contemporary issues; internet bullying so endemic nowadays, the morality of the media, or their lack of it, the dynamics of a police force pressured into delivering results unreasonably quickly to satisfy the bureaucrats and social commentators as if catching a murderer is so easy. And throughout the book how hard it is to be a young person in today’s world. I could go on the book has such a lot to offer.

There were imperfections; the story uses a dual narrative technique and there were a couple of inconsistencies, for example a character developed in the first narrative was suddenly mentioned in the second with no exposition. Some of the descriptive passages were so typical of a debut novel, that desire to demonstrate all at once the writer’s abilities. But I’m nit picking and this book  doesn't deserve it.

I’m very excited by this writer and I do hope there are more tales of this calibre to issue forth from her pen. Alice Clark-Platts? I am a fan.

RETRO REVIEWING: The Strings of Murder - Oscar De Muriel

They just keep on coming, don't they?! I am quite surprised at just how many reviews I have penned over the years. Another reason for doing this is my own completist nature and the need to have everything under the same roof. Although I back up regularly putting everything on my blog is tantamount to putting all my reviews in the Cloud? Here is retro review number 9 in a series of ............ I have no idea how many more........  This was published in February 2015.

If you enjoy historical fiction, read this book. If you like crime novels, read this book. If you like horror stories read this book. If you like the occult and the supernatural, read this book. If you can stomach gruesome, read this book. If you like detective tales with two dysfunctional, diametrically opposed policemen read this book. If you love a debut novel, read this book. If you relish a well written, plot driven, atmospheric, knowledgeable story, read this book. 

Oh, you’ve done it again Real Readers! Given me a debut novel that lifts my heart. And I see that it may be just the first in a series with Nine Nails McGray and Inspector Frey. Oh Mr. De Muriel please write them quickly. I want more!!

Imagine Mulder and Scully in Victorian Edinburgh, remember Eugene Tooms from episode 3 in the first series of the X Files? (geek? moi?) And you’re part way to the flavour of this new novel. 

The plot is so tight you can’t second guess, it unravels so skilfully you’re carried along desperate to know what’s going on because there are several strands to the crime itself, very clever ideas and no shortage of wit. And the dynamic between the characters are delightful. I loved it when McGray calls Frey ‘the Archbishop of Fussminster’!!! 

I can visualise this on the screen big or little, there’s an element of Ripper Street but it is more substantial than that.

It took guts to write a novel like this. Insert the wink emoticon here. The writer wasn’t just fiddling about. Insert another wink emoticon here. And I’m not saying why as I try not to do spoilers. 

If you would like to know what I mean, read this book!

RETRO REVIEWING: I am in Blood - Joe Murphy

Number eight in these old reviews this book was published in April 2015. It is unusual in that I don't think I have anything good to say about it!! That is a rarity for me as even if I don't like a book I try to look for the positives. Bizarrely this review was a runner up in a Guardian review competition in 2015. My prize was a signed copy of David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks!

This writer was unfamiliar to me when I began reading this book from Real Readers and as I read I thought it was a debut novel. It read in that way a debut novelist often has of almost trying to over prove themselves with elaborate descriptions. So I was very surprised to find that Joe Murphy has a couple of other books under his belt. Sorry to say I won't be seeking them out.

I found this book unpleasant overall. Both factually and fictionally Jack the Ripper has been done to death (no pun intended)  and we are no nearer to finding his identity -  the cold case that will never grow warm. I am not sure whether we are supposed to think that the killer here really is the Ripper because the subsequent finding and killing of him lacks credence given the historical perspectives. That is a spoiler I guess and I don't normally do them but then to my mind can you spoil something that is already spoilt?

Overall I couldn't see the point of this story. The graphic descriptions of the mutilations added nothing to the narrative. None of the characters are particularly likeable, Maybe George is the exception.  Ultimately I deduce that the premise of the book is to suggest that an individual’s predisposition to becoming a serial killer is genetic. Not a pleasant thought. It is not an uplifting or entertaining book, it doesn't seek to draw out any significant truths or philosophies. Is it written to shock? To thrill? It did neither for me. But, much as I like crime, thrillers, historical fiction this wasn't a pleasant experience. But that is just my opinion. I find it disturbing that someone’s mind can come up with this kind of material.

I am rarely this harsh about a book and I will try to end with something positive. Ultimately I believe it to be quite a well written book. The title’s reference to Macbeth offers a clue maybe that there is some remorse somewhere within the book and from the writer maybe? And also, for me, reading a book  I don’t like makes me aware of just how many I do like!!

RETRO REVIEWING: The Girl You Left Behind - Jojo Moyes

The seventh in a series of reviews that have never seen the light of blog before today! This one was published in September 2012

Often when you approach a writer for the first time it takes a chapter or two or even three or four to ‘get into’ the book. I’ve lost count of the times when I’ve had to really persevere with a book. It’s often been worthwhile and I’ve ultimately enjoyed the read. With this book though I was thoroughly ‘into it’ after a few paragraphs and I felt it boded well. 

Although the setting is WW1 it felt like WW2 descriptively although I have no doubt Ms Moyes did her research thoroughly. I couldn’t lose this feeling at all throughout the novel. Maybe I've read too many holocaust books; fiction and non-fiction, for those were the images that intruded into my head. (I am sorry to say also I did keep getting mental pictures of the TV sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo during some of the café sequences!) However that didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the tale.

We seem obsessed today with pigeon holing everything. So I pondered exactly what genre this book would fit into. Historic fiction? In part. My knowledge of WW1 France was certainly enhanced but the modern day sequences deny it a place wholly there. Romance? Certainly. The girl gets the guy in both timeframes, that was almost contrived, yet in a romantic novel, isn’t that what you want, what you yearn for? Chick lit? It dips its feet in there for sure but never totally stays there. Courtroom Drama? Yes to that too. And I think that’s why I liked as much as I did, purely because it can’t conveniently be genre stamped.

The characterisations were predictable for me in that it felt as if they were people I’d read about before but with different names and circumstances with slightly different details. But that isn’t intended as negative criticism, I quite enjoyed that. Similarly the narrative felt like several stories I’d read before fused into one. But I enjoyed the company of both Sophie and Liv and wished there was a bit more of Mo.

I think the book was well written overall. There is a danger that using more than one time frame can become confusing but I felt it worked seamlessly here. This book isn’t unique, it isn’t ground breaking, and I doubt it will win awards but it is a thoroughly enjoyable story to lose yourself in and immerse yourself in the tangled lives of others and end up with a satisfactory conclusion.

RETRO REVIEWING: The Tutor - Andrea Chapin

This sixth in the series of retro reviews was first published in March 2015.

When I think of Shakespeare as the man not the playwright and poet I always think of the familiar Chandos portrait from the National Gallery. But when I read this book I think of the Joseph Fiennes portrayal from the film Shakespeare In Love. And I suppose that is quite fitting as both are fictional representations of the man whose true self remains the enigma and source of so much speculation. Often referred as the Bard I am wondering, from reading this book, whether that is the Elizabethan equivalent of a text abbreviation, i.e. b***ard for that is how I might describe his behaviour in this book!! 

I did enjoy this novel; it owes as much to Jane Austen as it does to Shakespeare, methinks!! It does read as a ‘fan’ novel. In that the writer clearly reveres Shakespeare as a writer and I did wonder whether this story is the vicarious embodiment of a little fantasy she has about him, 50 Shades of Shakespeare! And so on one level I don't believe it is a novel to be taken seriously. It is what it is. But on another level that would be to dismiss the meticulous research that this writer has undertaken of the Elizabethan Age, socially and politically. 

Katharine is a well drawn, substantial character, full of goodness without being over pious and prudish. However many of the other characters seem there as a function of the novel, they had  part to play to further the narrative but they seemed one dimensional. Ned wasn't int he book enough to see his character was developed but the potential was there. 

And Shakespeare? This is one personnel view of how he might have been based on historical hearsay I suppose. And it made for an very pleasant read. I haven’t been been able to find any other books by Ms Chapin, maybe this is her ‘book that is in all of us’ and that somehow makes it all the sweeter to read.

RETRO REVIEWING: White Feathers Susan Lanigan

The fifth book in this Retro Reviewing series, White Feathers was published in August 2014.

For me this was almost a perfect novel. I could hardly believe it was the writer’s debut. Firstly how topical given the current wave of First World War centenary events, research projects and commemorative ceremonies. Secondly it had a good, solid story of love and betrayal and points to make about war and maybe class and sexuality. Neither facet overshadowed the other; rather the two strands ran alongside each other in full complement. An historical novel, this author did not fall into that first novel trap of shoving every piece of research at you whether it was integral to the plot or not. 

Thirdly it was a beautifully crafted book, it was economic without being sparse, and the characters were complete people. I’m going to say this, although I know many may ridicule me for doing so but I have to be honest. I was reminded of Pride and Prejudice. Mainly at the beginning of the book. Eva reminded of Elizabeth Bennett. She had sisters and friends who became like sisters, together with military interventions and scandals. Catherine and Roy Downey, however, are NOT Jane Austen’s Mr. And Mrs Bennett!!

And I said almost perfect for I didn’t find that perfection sustained right through to the end of the book. It was as if the writer suddenly thought, ‘Gosh, I better get this story finished!’ and I had the sense of everything being thrown in at the end. You could argue it was climactic and good plot tactics but given the control and flow of the rest of the novel it seemed to lose some cohesion. That is not to say that I didn’t continue to enjoy this book immensely and it is one of my favourite books of this year so far and I thank you, Real Readers, for giving me the opportunity.