Kelly Clayton

Third in a series but it would make a great stand alone novel.

Blood on the Rock

Amazon.com link

My review -

A body is found on a boat. It belongs to a member of a rather fractured family and as Le Claire and his team investigate, they are snowed under with people who might have wanted the man dead. Their task is to sieve out the evidence and find which one it actually was.

I’ve really enjoyed this series, this being the third. The relationships, within Le Claire’s own family, and between members of his team, are growing and strengthening, and I’m enjoying taking these journeys with them. Kelly Clayton manages to find a good balance between the popular but often incredible ‘rogue cop’ genre and the foot-slogging real life police drama. Sometimes you could shake Jack Le Claire, but you admire his tenacity and his attention to the job. Snippets of his family life add to the mix and a horrible episode from his past comes up to bite him at the end. There’ll be more Jack Le Claire, I’m glad to say! A really good story in which the island of Jersey is almost a character.

Louise Beech

I've been hearing about this book but sometimes there's just too much to read! Finally got around to it - it's jolly good!

How to be Brave

Amazon.com link

My review - 

What a great concept for a book this is. Young Rose, aged nine, is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes while her soldier father is away on a long tour and her mum, Natalie, has to cope with it alone. To persuade her daughter to allow her to do the blood tests and injections, Natalie ‘bribes’ her with a family story of her own grandfather’s time in the war.

Rose is a great little character, self-willed and often driven by the disease she’s battling. Natalie is real, flawed, hating what she has to do to her daughter to keep her safe, and often losing her rag doing it. Well, you would, wouldn’t you? Their story thread is wrapped around with that of Natalie’s grandad, Colin. They twist around one another, cross-linked here and there, very much like strands of DNA. They say blood is thicker than water – even sea water. It seemed that through their very different adversities, Rose and Colin taught one another ‘how to be brave’. A great bit of writing and one I’ll remember for a long time.

S D Mayes

  A wartime story, a family story - a great story!

Letters to the Pianist

Amazon.com link

My review - 

Ruth, her brother Gabi and sister Hannah experience the WW2 bombings in London’s East End. Ruth finds her best friend’s body in a bombed out house and eventually the children are rescued from their own bombed out home, orphans. The younger siblings go to one aunt, she to another, where she finds herself subject to the attentions of a very unpleasant uncle. Meanwhile, a man wakes in hospital knowing nothing about his former life, but discovers he is a very gifted pianist.

Though the book was quite long, it never dragged for me. It’s a riveting story and I liked the way it looked at different aspects of people’s war experience. The poor working people of the East End, the rich people who could eat and drink anything – not just the landed gentry but Ruth’s uncle who cheated his way to a pantry full of food, exploiting others. And of course, the way some people treated the Jews. It was interesting all the way through and exciting at the end. A great story!

I received an advance review copy of this book.

David Staniforth

Here's a man who writes great fantasy and excellent thrillers - and in this book, combines the two.

The Book of Maker

Amazon.com link

My review -

Clarissa Bell buys a book in a second-hand shop. It’s blank – a rather posh notebook, it appears. She discovers that it’s possible to communicate with characters in a book. It’s also possible that you’re a character in someone else’s book. What possibilities this idea opens for a fertile mind like David Staniforth’s.

A story about a girl who hangs around bookshops – a girl who discovers the power of the written word? What’s not to like? But, as always, it’s the way he tells them. David’s got a great prose style. His ways of describing things are entirely his own and add so much to my enjoyment of his work – right from the first book of his that I read. The two realities are so believably created and the two sets of characters so sympathetic, that you’re standing behind them both and cheering them on. There are heart-stopping moments in this story and plenty of action and excitement. There’s also some dredged-up past to deal with and accept, and it all comes together to make a fantastic read. The book is probably going to be labelled as YA Fantasy because of the age of the major protagonists but there’s something in here for readers of any age. Never let a label put you off a great story!

Patrick Gale

A brilliant tale combining the past and present of a strained family life.

Rough Music

Amazon.com paperback

My review -

Julian grows up a solitary boy, the only child in a rather straight-laced family. His father is a prison governor and Julian occasionally speaks to the prisoners. The family take a holiday in a remote seaside bungalow and are joined by his uncle and cousin. It’s as a result of what happened on that holiday that a repeat of the experience, when his cousin books the same bungalow proved traumatic for all, especially his mother with her gathering Alzheimer’s disease.

I’m a great fan of Patrick Gale’s writing. It’s elegant, sophisticated but not in the least flowery. It’s what writers should aspire to. He takes apart a family teetering on the brink of not really knowing each other, or of being in denial of what they know, and analyses their actions and deeds in an almost forensic detail. A really great book.

Carol Wyer

Third in a series which I'm really getting into.

The Missing Girls

Amazon.com link

My review -

A young girl’s body is discovered in a trunk in a storage facility. She hadn’t been reported missing by her family. DI Robyn Carter is on the case and all too soon, another young girl’s body is found, this time buried in a shallow grave. When a third girl goes missing, they are looking for a single perpetrator. Soon it comes closer to home for Robyn, as a child she knows disappears. Her team follow the social media activities of the youngsters to see if they can connect them.

This is a really well-paced story, action building upon action as we witness the detectives’ fight to tie these girls’ stories together. I enjoyed the clues along the way, though I misinterpreted some of them! I’m enjoying the exploits of DI Carter and her team and I hope to read many more of them.

Jim Webster

Another lovely collection of short stories from Port Naain. 

Tallis Steelyard. The Monster of Bell-Wether Gardens and other stories

Amazon.com link

My review -

If you wonder what comprises the life of a jobbing poet in the town of Port Naain, this little collection of stories will give you some idea. Tallis has a finger in many a pie, arranging soirees for ladies, helping to write and distribute literary journals (and their rivals!). He assists in redistributing the town’s abundance of food and arranges for a man to experience a haunting when he’s accepted the challenge to stay overnight in a disused tower. And that’s just some of it!

Reading these stories of Jim Webster’s is like putting on your slippers and picking up a cuppa. Comfortable, and they make you smile.