RETRO REVIEWING: Miscellaneous Trio - James Grady, Gregory David Roberts and Donato Carrisi

No real intent behind this grouping. A miscellaneous collection of reviews books! Last Days of the Condor was published in August 2015 and it plopped through my letter box one day. Reader, I liked it.

Last Days of the Condor - James Grady 27 Aug 2015

Mr. Grady’s previous book about the Condor, Six Days of the Condor,  was made into a Hollywood film, clearly shortened from the book as it was called Three Days of the Condor!! Reading this story has made me want to watch the film and probably read the first book.

Mr. Grady is a best selling author and with good reason. This story is a tour de force of excitement and precision. I barely had time to catch my breath. It is truly action packed and I enjoyed it immensely. I found it required a high level of concentration to get the best from it as some of the spy protocols and practices were convoluted to say the least, as well as incredibly clever and well thought out. The tension and intrigue were sustained consistently . Violent in places but necessary violence for the most part to make it clear how ruthless a business espionage is.

I found the characters believable within the contact of the setting. Whether the character of the Condor was sustained from the first book I can't say as I haven’t read it. But the characters retained their humanity throughout in spite of the sometimes awful things they endured and carried out themselves. 

Someone I was reviewing for absolutely raved about Shantaram and was desperate for an ARC of the follow up. I believe that I received this advance copy of the follow up accidentally as the publicist misinterpreted the email from her which was requesting a different book to be sent to me. Two books were sent to me. So I read and reviewed them both.  It would have been rude not to! (The lady I was reviewing for did get her own copy of The Mountain Shadow, published in October 2015, I'm pleased to say).

Before I begin I must confess that I haven’t read Shantaram. I know, I know, I feel bad that I have been privileged to read The Mountain Shadow without serving my apprenticeship. But I do now have a copy of Shantaram and I will read it. Although I may change my opinion retrospectively when I have done so I don’t feel that my enjoyment of The Mountain Shadow has been compromised by the omission. 

This book is a glorious paradox. On the one hand you have a catalogue of criminality; torture, corruption, the mafia, violence, fraud, bribery, drug abuse, prostitution, gang wars, arson and then you are treated to aphorisms that would grace the pages of any new age, self help book of spiritual insight. At one point I thought Gregory David Roberts had morphed into Neale Donald Walsch and I was reading Conversations With God!

The breadth of the novel is immense, at 800 plus pages it has to be. It’s a thriller, a crime story, a love story, an adventure story. It has history, sociology, religion - surely something for everyone? And it all moves along at a cracking pace. There is a yin and yang to it all, synthesised by Shantaram himself and all kinds of questions are thrown up about good and bad, friendship and enmity, revenge and retribution, wealth and poverty and deeper issues, can a criminal also be a good person? And I sometimes feel myself inadequate to express the bounty within this work and do it justice. 

My understanding is that this, in common with Shantaram, is in part autobiographical with that indefinable Kerouac-like fusion of fact and fiction. And the characters contained within seem so real that you have to believe they are drawn from real life connections. 

And if I was pressed to define subliminally what this book is about what would I say? Love? Loyalty? Synchronicity? Hope?

And I am humbled for this book deserves better words than I can give it. So I’ll stop trying except to say that it has been more of an experience than merely ‘reading a book’. I have been ‘shantaramed”.

This crime novel, published in November 2015, was the book referred to in the introduction to The Mountain Shadow review. I enjoyed this so much I bought some other by Carrisi which I have yet to read. He's a thinking man's Dan Brown.

There is nothing like a good crime thriller. And this is nothing like a good crime thriller. This is like a brilliant crime thriller!!

Signor Carrisi is a new writer to me and you know what, I dread finding a new writer I like because it means I now have to go and find everything he’s ever written and add them to the pile. To quote Maud Casey, ‘I was born with a reading list I will never finish.’ and now I add Donato Carrisi.

I was drawn into this from the very first sentence and I couldn’t put it down. It was almost like an Italian Tony Hill, and Carol Jordan, the profiler and the policewoman. But add to that heady mix liberal helpings of psychology, philosophy, theology and more besides and you have a story of substance. and I think that’s what elevates this tale beyond the ‘ordinary’ crime thriller, there are so many layers to satisfy the discerning reader.

Credit, too, must go to Howard Curtis, the translator, who has done such a marvellous job. Italian is such a musical language of rhythm and richness that could so easily have been lost in translation but not so here. The descriptive passages retain all of the flow that they must enjoy in the original language.

There is so much going on on this story that it would be a crime in itself to try and précis it, something I am not keen on anyway. So if you enjoy crimes and thrillers and some kind of substance to your reading I doubt you will be disappointed with this novel.

It’s a complex plot with strands and sub plots that tantalise without becoming too muddled to persevere with as can happen sometimes.  There are clues a plenty and herrings as big and as bright as Royal Mail pillar boxes. I will smugly say that I did figure out the premise of the killer’s motivation but instead of diluting the latter stages of the book it was enriching. 

There’s nothing more I can say. Reading what I think is wasting the time you could be spending reading this book. Go do it. Now.

RETRO REVIEWING: A Trio - Emma Healey, James Sallis and Graeme Simsion

Another miscellaneous trio although I suppose there is a vague connection between all three as they deal with 'conditions' for want of a better word. Elizabeth is Missing, another book from the Genes Reunited Book Club, published in June 2014, won the Costa Prize of that year and went on to become a huge seller' 

Unless someone has dementia and/or Alzheimer's AND recovers from it (unlikely) we can never truly know what goes on in the head of a sufferer. But I'm willing to bet that this writer allows us to come pretty close.

I think this is a brave novel. I think the subject matter lays it open to possibly adverse criticism. It's an emotive subject and for those people who are maybe close to the situation in the book this story may hurt. But for those who have no such experience this book may educate and enlighten and as such, then, it must be a good thing.

It's hard to say if I enjoyed it or not. It wasn't a fun read by any means but a good read is not always defined by the fun element. It was an emotive read, I felt for Maud and Helen. I found it interesting that the person most laid back about her grandmother's mental state was the granddaughter who tried to treat Maud as normally as possible.

I'm glad I read this book, it was well written, human natures well observed and the underlying mystery of Sukey running through it possibly saved it from being 'just' a study in dementia. Thanks Genes Reunited and Penguin books for another opportunity to read a book I might not otherwise have chosen.



I'd only heard of James Sallis because of the film Drive with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan so this book, published in October 2013, didn't excite me initially because I thought it might be a violent read. Was it? Oh, no. You read the review. ;-)

Often when I have seen and enjoyed a film or TV drama that has been adapted from a fictional work I feel compelled to seek out the book and read it. I saw the film Drive but felt no such compulsion; the violence and intimidation of the film weren’t themes I was keen to pursue. So another book by James Sallis didn’t excite me when Real Readers offered it my way.

But this novella by Mr. Sallis has gone some way to modify my first feelings towards him.

I loved the economy of language in this book. There’s no lengthy, flowery, descriptive passages the tale flows along on the surface of the nitty gritty.

In our troubled social times much concession is given to the past or childhood experiences of those with anti social or criminal behaviour as if it can in some way excuse their excesses. What I love about this book is that it suggests that things don’t have to be that way. Quite the reverse; an appalling start in life can engender a caring, positive, purposeful human being who maintains a compassion even for their aggressors.

And there’s nothing more to be said. 

Read it.

Closing out today's trio is the first of the Rosie(Don Tillman) books by Graeme Simsion. I haven't read any of the others because Aspergers is too close to me for comfort.

I found it hard to be objective about this book as it touched a nerve. My nephew has Asperger's Syndrome and so I found it hard to laugh as for him it’s no laughing matter.

I wept whilst reading Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and I came close here. And I suppose that is testament to the skill of the writer that he so accurately observes and understands the mind of this type of autism. Perhaps it’s good to laugh about it? And there were potentially some very funny moments in this story but they were all tinged with pathos because the reactions and inter reactions were so real.

It was also quite sugar coated, how did Don land a job like that? It is not unusual for Asperger's sufferers to remain in the land of academia where their intellect shines above all else but I think of my nephew in an interview situation and it doesn’t ring true. And unlike many sufferers Don did seem to maintain some social relationships. 

My hope for this book is that it becomes a best seller and continues where ‘Curious Incident…..’ left off, to inform and educate the world about Asperger's Syndrome and promote understanding of people like my nephew. If he could meet a ‘Rosie’ I would be over the moon but life isn’t a novel and it remains unlikely.

And I’ll say no more which may sound like a cop out but I don't want to be unfair to the writer. I’m just too close to this subject to make fair comment.

RETRO REVIEWING: Two Gregor Reinhardt Novels by Luke McCallin

A couple of novels by the same author. It seems only sensible to group them together. The first was published in November 2014 and reading through the review I seem to have got my chronologies muddled.  This is the first Gregor Reinhardt novel despite what I suggest in the review and The Pale House, published in August 2015, is the second. There is a third in the series, The Ashes of Berlin, which I've not read yet.

This was a very satisfying read, a thorough, substantial, meaty novel. What struck me with some surprise was how refreshing it was to read a story that started in one place and simply moved forward in time with the central character dominating. There were no split or multi time frames or flashbacks, no switching from one character’s perspective to another and I’m not saying that any of those are bad devices but it only struck me though reading this book how prevalent those techniques are in modern fiction writing. There was something almost old fashioned about the execution of this work because of it.

This is a competent, controlled piece of writing. It’s well written, thoroughly researched and informative and whilst you can be forgiven for believing it to be ‘just’ a war thriller it is only when you reach the end that you realise the ultimate truth that the protagonist embraces transcends the literal war and extends into the metaphoric.

The characters are believable as is the plot given the conundrums that war throws wherever it reaches out with its insidious tentacles.

I believe this is the second Gregor Reinhardt novel and I fervently hope it is not the last. I shall be seeking out The Pale House (when I’ve completed all my Real Reader’s assignments!) and I wouldn’t be surprised if Herr Reinhardt takes his place up there, maybe not with the Holmes’s and Poirot’s but certainly with the Harry Hole’s and Tony Hills.

I read the first Gregor Reinhardt novel with considerable enjoyment. So I was delighted to receive this, the second one, from Real Readers.

There is a continuity between both books so it was easy to reacquaint myself with Gregor and find him intrinsically unchanged, a little more battered physically and emotionally but in fine shape to continue his role as a military Maigret.

It’s a story that pulls no punches and the senseless violence and brutality of war is never far away but I think what elevates these stories beyond mere war novels or crime thrillers is the thread of morality that extends throughout the narrative. So that by the end whatever the resolution or final denouement the reader is still left with plenty to think about.

It’s a sturdy work, muscular, strong characters with that curious rebellious detachment from decency that occurs in a war and that McCallin seems to comprehend with something akin to compassion almost. 

The research is immaculate and historically, I guess that at a stretch this could be slotted into that genre, it is enlightening and humbling.

The plot is complex and it requires attention from its readers to understand all that has happened and why. As with the first novel there are no clever tricks, all the writers’ efforts are concentrated into furthering the narrative.

I hope there’ll be more Gregor Reinhardt books; I like him, I want to know he’s okay!!!

RETRO REVIEWING: A Crime Trio - Linwood Barclay, Harlan Coben and PJ Tracy

Although I would describe myself as a fan of crime fiction I've only read a couple of Linwood Barclay's books.  It's not that I'm avoiding him it's just the way it is! But I loved this novel published in July 2013.

Hmmm, I think I might annoy a few people here; but if ever I were to find out that Linwood Barclay and Harlan Coben were the same person it wouldn’t surprise me. My response to their work is the same. Initially I am ambivalent towards them and seldom seek their work out. However when circumstances thrust their books my way I usually enjoy them immensely. 

But I didn’t like Trust Your Eyes. I loved it!! I appreciated the character of Thomas although to me he presented as autistic. More Aspergers than schizophrenic but there were elements of both. And the relationship between Thomas and Ray wasn’t quite Rain Man but that thought came in my head and I was amused towards the latter stages of the book when Howard referenced that albeit in a less than affectionate manner. There were times, too, in respect of Thomas’s enlistment by the CIA when I was reminded of A Beautiful Mind.

The twists and turns of a thriller can often become so complex and interwoven that the reader becomes lost and the final dénouement is almost meaningless because the real clues are so elusive. But this plot developed its complexities as we followed each ‘blunder’ by the ‘baddies’ thus it was always accessible and possible to keep abreast of it without the sense that the writer was trying to be too clever or outwit us. 

I really enjoyed the fact that my various suspicions regarding Thomas and Len Prentice were lurking as undercurrents throughout the narrative but there was nothing definitive to go on. And I have to say I did suspect Harry Peyton of some misdemeanour but I was way off the mark.

I found the majority of female characters to be one-dimensional and I can’t make up my mind whether that was intentional or not. It seemed as if they were more as integral plot tools than characters. Even Julie seemed to pop up only when she was needed for story development. On reflection that might also be true of the male characters apart from Ray and Thomas.

And that is probably, for me, the novel’s crowning achievement. It went beyond a good old crime thriller to an exploration of a foundered family relationship and the potential for a greater understanding between brothers.

Unfairly I will acknowledge but I do see Linwood Barclay and my next author, Harlan Coben, in the same light. I think it's the complex plots and the time in my life that I was reading them. This novel was first published in March 2012 and I remembered being both pleased and surprised to receive a best selling writer to review. With reference to the penultimate paragraph of the review I don't think the film is completed yet. 

As a keen reader of crime and thriller fiction you’d think a new Harlan Coben, and a hardback at that, to read and review would make me think it was my birthday, wouldn’t you? Tell the truth I was indifferent! I’ve only read one of his books previously and I found the twists and turns of the plot very clever but too complicated to make it a satisfying read. It didn’t resonate with me at all.

I’m delighted to say that I simply couldn’t put this book down. I loved it. 

I never see the point in a review of summarising a very complex plot and running the risk of a spoiler for would be readers. A précis is easy enough to find on book covers in a bookshop and descriptions if you’re buying online. So I’m not going to.

This plot is complicated with twists and turns but it is accessible. It moves along at a cracking pace with an economy of language that sets just the right tone. There was a point where I realised who the murderer was but it was so close to the end that it didn’t matter.

The likeable characters were inherently likeable and the dislikeable characters were masterfully obnoxious and creepily sinister.

The dialogue at times bordered on film noire clichés, for example “It’s been too long, Cassie.’

In fact I found the whole novel cinematic in its conception, I could easily visualise the story as a film; the seedy dives of Atlantic City to the suburban domesticity of the leading female character. I even managed to ‘cast’ it as a film!! That led me to research any movie adaptations. I was quite surprised to learn that the only one of Coben’s books to be filmed was ‘Tell No One’ in 2006 but, you got it, Stay Close is to be the next!!! A very good choice.

And I loved the character-naming charitable donation program. I’m tempted to apply myself!! 

So if any more Coben’s come my way I will read them with anticipation.

Finally in this trio a story from the  popular mother and daughter writing team. Sadly Mum, Patricia P.J. passed away in 2016 but her legacy lives on in these books. I've read several and always enjoyed them. This one was no exception. But it felt weird to be reviewing a new book from a series I already knew and loved. 

I’m no stranger to P.J.Tracy, Grace MacBride and the Monkeywrench crew so I kind of knew what to expect with this and I wasn’t disappointed.  The book gets off to a rollicking start, two dead bodies already by page 6 and that’s just for starters. 

It’s an easy read in many respects, undemanding and a paradoxical predictability for you don’t know what’s going to happen as the plot unfolds but you know the direction it's going to take. There will be a big part played by computers, Grace and the gang will be placed in situations of extreme danger and the cops and the FBI will try and sort things out. It’s a bit like the Famous Five for grown ups but the lashings aren’t ginger beer……..

I think that one of the dangers of two people writing the same book is you get double the plot complexity and characterisations so you have to stay on top of this to keep hold of the unravelling of exactly what’s going on. I don’t want this to be a spoiler so I’ll say no more.

It’s an easy, absorbing read; it doesn’t matter if you’re unfamiliar with this series of books. Whilst the characters have quirks aplenty they lack the depth of say a Tony Hill or a Harry Hole but if you enjoy a good ole crime yarn then you’ll enjoy this.

If you’re looking for more then go elsewhere, there’s the occasional attempt at social commentary but for me it never quite works. And there’s no need for it to this is a story that works and is simply a book to be enjoyed. End of.

RETRO REVIEWING: A Chick Lit trio - Catherine Alliott, Sheryl Browne and Emylia Hall

I'll lay it on the line right now. I don't really 'do' chick lit. But as a reviewer all genres come your way and I can only try to be objective. However I do realise that subjectivity does intrude and I can only apologise. I can only be honest. 

First up is Catherine Alliott's My Husband Next Door published in July 2014 which did have a point to make.

You know when you turn on the TV and catch a programme that you saw advertised in the listings? But you didn’t think it was your thing so you didn’t bother watching it? But when you do watch it you think that it wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be? That sums up my feeling about this book.

I’ve never read any books by Catherine Alliott before although I have heard of her and know that she is very popular and her books have sold well. So when Real Readers sent me this advance reading copy I cannot admit to feeling much enthusiasm.

But I’ve now read the book and I can admit to enjoying it reasonably well. It’s competently written and the writer knows her market very well. But I simply cannot identify with the characters and life styles described in the book.

Some are stereotypical it seemed to me and were there as functional to the plot rather than as people to relate to. There was something almost farcical in some situations and I found certain courses of events predictable. 

For most of the way through it seemed that it was just a good old yarn being spun of country and creative life, or marriage and parenting, of friendships and fidelities because it was possibly three quarters of the way through where the point of it all became apparent. It’s a good point; the one thing in the book I could relate to. I’m not going to issue any spoilers but it gave a final credibility to the story for me.

I won’t say I’ll never read another Catherine Alliott book but I can’t see myself actively seeking them out. They’ll have to find me!!!

This book, published in July 2015, was the first book I reviewed for an outfit who headhunted me via my Amazon reviews!! This book was offered to me within a day of my agreeing and I felt it to be some kind of test! For it was to be published in a couple of days so I was desperate to read it and review it by the publication date in order to 'pass' my potential test! I did it and they liked the review. But the author didn't! Or rather the author wanted to increase the star rating I had given. Dratted star ratings, I loathe them! I'm not sure the review ever appeared anywhere in the end so my zeal was in vain!

I  will put my hands up right away and say that this is not my preferred genre. But having read this book two things struck me right away. This author also writes thrillers and crime novels. I find it brave and fascinating for someone to write in two such diverse genres. It is almost like Guns and Roses composing a concerto for violins. The second striking aspect of this book is that so much of it was from the male perspective when so often the female viewpoint dominates in choc lit/chick lit. 

There is a tendency today in some circles to over intellectualise everything and an endearing quality of a story like this is that are no such pretensions. No writer of this genre is sitting with their fingers crossed hoping to be shortlisted for the Booker.  It does what it says on the packet. It’s a story, enjoy it. And that’s what I tried to do. 

It is formulaic; it’s seldom a case of will the protagonists reach a happy ending?  It’s more a case of how they do it. Like a romantic obstacle race and we want to see how they negotiate the hurdles that increase in height and proximity as the story gathers momentum.  It’s a safe, comfortable book. There are cliches a plenty in language and in situation but they are cuddly cliches. The characters, too,  are cliched but not exasperatingly so as can happen. I’ve read stories in this genre where all I’ve wanted to do was slap the main characters off the page. But I didn’t want to do this here. I was rooting for them to win their race without dropping the baton too many times or injuring themselves too badly as they fell against  the hurdles. The momentum is sustained throughout the book with some pleasing crescendos.

Whilst neither characters nor plot are mere caricatures they are a one step exaggeration of real life. That doesn’t make them unbelievable rather it make us remember that it is a work of fiction. The main characters in the book were well defined and their personalities maintained throughout the story so you weren’t just thinking they were there as a plot device. The friendships seemed genuine. And their behaviours and reactions were as frustrating as any we come across in our daily lives.

If you enjoy contemporary romantic fiction you will enjoy this book. 

Oh, and, if it floats your boat the sex bits are quite good. Insert wink emoticon here.

Completing this trio is a book published in May 2012. I have a great affection for this book. After an inauspicious start reviewing for Real Readers. I totally screwed up the posting of reviews with the first book they sent me (more in a later post on that) that I feared they'd never send me anything again. But they did. They sent me this book. It was an uncorrected proof. I'd never seen the like before!! I was thrilled!! I thought it meant that I'd really made the mark as a book reviewer because thy trusted me with a PROOF! I can chuckle now!! 

Reading a debut novel is sometimes like opening a new jar of coffee, an experience to be savoured, a promise of things to come.

The Book of Summers is Emylia Hall’s debut novel. The title gives little away other than a seasonal hint. But the book is a tale of growing up, coming of age, of wanting and getting and getting and not wanting.

It’s a colourful, vibrant narrative that contrasts a somewhat staid routine England with a Bohemian, natural Hungary. There are times when it seems that the writer is trying just that bit too hard to impress with imagery. There’s a simile too many here and there, the narrative would have worked as well without. But the story settles down into a more comfortable account of Beth and her seven summers. 

I have to say that I did predict the event that caused the rift between Marika and Beth and where it would happen, Balaton.  But that didn’t detract from a desire to see just how the characters dealt with the situation. But I felt that was too drawn out. And the sequence where ‘If things had been different’ precedes every paragraph becomes quite tedious because in a sense none of it needs to be said. 

I liked the mirror prologue and epilogue where the same phrases and sentences were used, but with Marika in the prologue and Beth in the epilogue.

All in all a laudable effort and I would be happy to seek out more of Emylia Hall’s future work. Genre? Not sure. Chick lit? Not really, it does go beyond that when it could so easily have stayed there.

RETRO REVEWING: A couple of family sagas - Nadine Dorries and Amanda Hodgkinson

I think family sagas were very much in vogue a few decades ago. I know my Mum used t0 enjoy them and often passed them on to me. It's not a genre I actively seek out and I remember the first time I saw the category adorning a shelf in my local library. I recall feeling unimpressed!! But I enjoyed these two. And Nadine Dorries has a new book out I believe so it seems a good time to post this.  This story was published in December 2015.

Nadine Dorries is a new writer to me  and this book was a delight to read, to be sure.  It is a competent piece of writing which does a good old fashioned job of straightforward story telling. It is the kind of book which highlights all that the love of reading is about. The reader is taken from our own world to the world of others and allowed to become enveloped in these lives so very different from our own. A world of Lords and Ladies and housekeepers and scullery maids. Of Ireland and  Liverpool, cottages and castles. A world of myth, secrets and intrigue, of fate and tragedy, love and death, villains and heroes. Although I have to say this book is populated mostly with the good guys. 

What prevented me from awarding five stars was the conclusion. It seemed to jump from a credible resolution of the bulk and meat of the novel to a fairy tale like future for the protagonists. And that ending might have worked had there been something in between. 

If you are a genre junky then I guess this tale is  a ‘family saga’.I believe there is a short prequel to this book which may or may not chance the enjoyment of Ruby Flynn. 

As for Ruby herself? She is quite the storybook heroine and what’s not to love about her? Certainly most of the other characters in the book do!! I can see this making a good period drama adaptation for TV. I’m not talking  Downton Abbey exactly but you get my drift?

Now if you will excuse me I have to go and ask Santa if he can slip a couple of Nadine Dorries’ books into my Christmas stocking this year. I have been good, I promise.

During a brief yet satisfying flirtation with genealogy where I joined Genes Reunited for my research I was part of their Book programme in association with Penguin. A monthly book was up for grabs and I enjoyed several family tree flavoured novels. Here's one published in February 2014. 

Firstly may I thank Genes Reunited for giving me the opportunity to read this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was unfamiliar with the writer before I received the book but I feel motivated to seek out more of her work after reading Spilt Milk.

Immediately I read the title the rest of the saying popped in to my head, ‘No use crying over…..” and that does seem to sum up the stalwart attitudes of the main protagonists in this story as well as maybe a wider, more metaphoric meaning.

In many ways several aspects of the plot are predictable but the subtext carries you along relentlessly like the river in the novel, which I see as another metaphor running through the entire book.

There are rich descriptions of the Suffolk countryside that evoke the sights, sounds and smells of the country. And the atmosphere of the pre war London pub is almost cinematic in its exposition. But whatever the location the writing remains elegant yet economical without stinting on the necessary information.

But it is the women in the novel that carry everything along and draw all the strands together.  Some may describe this as a family saga but it is deeper than most. The relationships between all the women from Rose through to Birdie’s granddaughter are bound by threads some so fragile you doubt they can hold with others so strong as to be indestructible.

And the much-worked literary theme of whether history repeats itself through the generations is fundamental to the plot, and possibly contributed to the predictability. But it is less the events that grab our attention more the effect on these women that give the novel its strength.

RETRO REVIEWING: A History Trio starring Conn Iggulden, Giles Waterfield and Simon Scarrow

Today sees a trio of historical novels. A genre I am particularly fond of especially this period of history. First up is Conn Iggulden's first Wars of the Roses story. I'd never read any of Iggulden's work before and I haven't since though I would like to.

A new writer for me, historical fiction, another recipe for enjoyment from Real Readers. And enjoy it I did. But perhaps not in the way I might have expected. When I read historical fiction I invariably respond to the research and accuracy of the historical data gathered. Somehow I didn’t with this novel. I have no idea whether these events took place within the chronology described. I have no idea whether all of the people were historical figures (apart from the Henrys of course!! And a few others…) I simply enjoyed this as a good old yarn of tactics, swashbuckling and political intrigue, the thwarting of intentions and the survival against all the odds of some of the characters. When I finished reading it I didn’t feel as if I had read a work of historical fiction and I find that curious and a testament to the capabilities of the writer. He just swept me in and carried me along with the tide of his narrative. 

This war tale was published in April 2015. I'd never heard of the writer, I've not read any subsequent works but I loved this story.

This was one of those rare novels where you were swiftly sucked into the narrative almost from the very first word. I’ve often wondered what the conditions are for this to happen as some novels take several pages, even chapters. to truly ‘get into’ it. It isn’t down to any particular writer or style I don’t think, it just seems to be ‘one of those things’. A fusion between the psyche of writer and reader for that particular piece of work, if you will.  I love it when it happens and of course it bodes well for the entire story.

I so enjoyed this book. The writer is a known art expert so it was no surprise that art was almost an extra character within the story without being overly dominant.

The First World War is very much in peoples’ minds from last year’s centenary and it’s almost a brave move to publish a book after that event so to speak. But what is interesting to me here is to question whether the events of this fiction are directly as a result of a war between two nations or the actual personalities and makeup of the people involved. I guess you could argue that there’s a bit of both and therein lies the strength of this novel. It is more than just a WWI story; it’s more than just a family saga. If Thomas and Irene had both been British would their ultimate situation have been the same and vice versa, if they were both German. One can only conjecture.

It’s a beautifully paced novel with a flowing narrative and the writer entrusts his readers with enough savvy to learn about his characters before the characters themselves do! I think particularly of Mark Benson, here.

If I have any beef with the book it is the decision to change fonts when the time scale changed. Because there it felt that the readers' integrity was underestimated. It was as if the writer had assumed that his poor reader could not possibly figure out for themselves that we had a different time scale and a different generation commenting. But it’s a small beef and possibly can be entered into the category of nit picking. And really, this book doesn’t deserve it. I really, really  enjoyed it.

Completing the trio is Simon Scarrow;s Sword and Scimitar published in April 2013. I think the review sums it up and my feelings are unchanged. 

From an historical perspective this book was fascinating. Whilst I know a fair bit about what went on in my own country during this period I was ashamed to find my knowledge beyond the shores of this island was scant indeed. And within the context of contemporary religious strife regarding Christianity and Islam the factual elements of this story were very important. I admire the writer’s research and attention to detail. I learnt a great deal from his work.

However this is not a history book it is a novel and a tale has to be told. And so from a fictional perspective I found the story somewhat predictable. Not unenjoyable for all that but I think most astute readers would have figured out the dénouement.

The characters were competently constructed, again, predictable and almost stereotypical. I’m not in the business of plot spoiling but Richard’s development was unsurprising. And I felt I’d met Thomas many times before.

The only downside of the book was the frequency and graphic descriptions of all battles and fighting. It isn't something I personally enjoy reading but I would acknowledge the need if points are to be made and I’m sitting on the fence about whether this was really the case here or whether much was gratuitous?

This writer was unfamiliar to me and I am grateful to Real Readers for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I doubt I should have selected it of my own volition.