The Art of Dying

The second book by Ambrose Parry, a collaboration between author Christopher Brookmyre and his wife Marisa Haetzman, an anaesthetist. I loved it just as much as the first.

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Book description

Edinburgh, 1850. Despite being at the forefront of modern medicine, hordes of patients are dying all across the city, with doctors finding their remedies powerless. But it is not just the deaths that dismay the esteemed Dr James Simpson - a whispering campaign seeks to blame him for the death of a patient in suspicious circumstances.

Simpson's protege Will Raven and former housemaid Sarah Fisher are determined to clear their patron's name. But with Raven battling against the dark side of his own nature, and Sarah endeavouring to expand her own medical knowledge beyond what society deems acceptable for a woman, the pair struggle to understand the cause of the deaths.

Will and Sarah must unite and plunge into Edinburgh's deadliest streets to clear Simpson's name. But soon they discover that the true cause of these deaths has evaded suspicion purely because it is so unthinkable.

My review - 

In the second of these excellent historical/medical murder mysteries we find Will retuned from abroad to a married Sarah. Much angst. The two work together again to unravel the mystery of several deaths exhibiting strange symptoms. Nineteenth Century Edinburgh is once again well portrayed with its fine town houses and its nasty tenements. Places to be seen in and places you wouldn’t be seen dead in – or maybe you would. There are echoes from the previous book and many dilemmas for Will, which I found quite gripping. Seeing which way he chose to live his life, as he feared the devil within – his mother’s expression. The ending of the book is both exciting and satisfying. I would highly recommend it to all who love an historical mystery.

Thanks to Netgalley for a pre-publication copy.

About the author

Amazon holds no author information for Ambrose Parry but it's no secret that this name belongs to the collabration between author Christopher Brookmyre and his wife Marisa Haetzman, an anaesthetist. Long may they collaborate.

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Just a thought

Books fall open, you fall in ― David McCord

Meredith's Dagger

I've never read a Debbie McGowan book I haven't enjoyed.

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Book description

Huddled in a doorway, unseen by the men passing on great horses, Meredith watched from within the hood of her cloak. The pain of the cold, wet morning impaled her, rooting her in place, even as the cat rubbed against her shins with a force that should have felled her. She shooed him away. Go home. But he would not.

She wished she had died that night. She wished she had died, for to live like this was not to live at all.

* * *

When Richie Moorcroft takes a housekeeping position to finance his studies, it means moving back to his childhood home: an ancient, almost-derelict cottage locals claim is haunted. But he never believed those stories; he knows where they came from, and in any case, he has a job to do: keeping nineteen-year-old Julian Denby on the straight and narrow without Julian realising his wealthy parents are paying Richie to do so.

Luckily, Julian’s not very astute, although the same can’t be said for their newest housemates: Richie’s bestie, Anneke, and Julian’s older sister, Tamara. Add in George, the cat who appeared from nowhere and is in no hurry to leave, and that makes five…about to uncover the sinister history of their new home.


My review -

You always get a good story and credible characters in a Debbie McGowan book.

Take a 17^th C cottage. Add four young people from widely differing backgrounds, a stray cat and a strange artefact discovered when renovating. There you have the ingredients for a gripping story with a historic layer beneath. We move back and forth in time between the Meredith of the title and the four in the cottage. There are numerous other characters involved and the story goes much deeper than its slightly spooky surface. It makes us think about a woman’s right of self-determination – then and now. Such a good story on so many levels.

About the author

Debbie McGowan is an award-winning author of contemporary fiction that celebrates life, love and relationships in all their diversity. Since the publication in 2004 of her debut novel, Champagne--based on a stage show co-written and co-produced with her husband--she has published many further works--novels, short stories and novellas--including two ongoing series: Hiding Behind The Couch (a literary 'soap opera' centring on the lives of nine long-term friends) and Checking Him Out (LGBTQ romance). Debbie has been a finalist in both the Rainbow Awards and the Bisexual Book Awards, and in 2016, she won the Lambda Literary Award (Lammy) for her novel, When Skies Have Fallen: a British historical romance spanning twenty-three years, from the end of WWII to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967. Through her independent publishing company, Debbie gives voices to other authors whose work would be deemed unprofitable by mainstream publishing houses.

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Just a thought

A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it  - William Styron

To Night Owl From Dogfish

This book, described as for children, aged 9+, is a collaboration by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer. It's delightful and will be recognised by any parent of a 12/13 year old. 

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Book description

Avery (Night Owl) is bookish, intense, likes to plan ahead, and is afraid of many things. Bett (Dogfish) is fearless, outgoing, and lives in the moment. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and their dads are dating each other.

Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same camp for the summer vacation. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends – and possibly, one day, even sisters.

Against all odds, the girls soon can’t imagine a life without each other. But when the worst happens, and their dads break up, Avery and Bett must figure out a way to get them to fall in love again. Is keeping a family together as easy as they think it is?

From two extraordinary authors comes this moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters.

My review 

Two twelve year-old girls resent being pushed together on a summer camp by their fathers. The dads are long-distance boyfriends intending to become one big family and would like the girls to feel like sisters. If you have, or have had, pre-teen girls, you’ll be aware that you can’t make them behave as you’d like. The book takes the form of emails to and from the girls (and a few others) and brilliantly portrays the bookish Avery (Night Owl) with her anxiety and phobias and the irrepressible Bett (Dogfish) with her rebellious nature. I could see children I knew in these characters. The girls’ outrage at being expected to make friends, their excitement when things go their way and their subsequent scheming are a delight to read. I enjoyed this book immensely. It’s supposed to be for young people but I’m certainly not that. It’s a story for everyone and I read it in a day.

About the authors

Holly Goldberg Sloan was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Counting by 7s and Short, among other novels. After graduating from Wellesley College and spending some time as an advertising copywriter, she began writing family feature films, including Angels in the Outfield and Made in America.

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife (recently a major feature film), and Sleepwalking. She is also the author of the young adult novel Belzhar. Wolitzer lives in New York City.

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Just a thought

An unread book does nobody any good. Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page ― Brandon Mull

Before This is Over

A great read but hard to categorise. Not dystopian but definitely a version of the future. I imagine the term speculative fiction fits best.

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Book description

A normal family. A quiet, leafy street. A terrifying epidemic.

It's been coming for a while: a lethal illness. With sons of five and fourteen to look out for, Hannah has been stockpiling supplies, despite everyone telling her that it's unnecessary.

Then it arrives.

At first there are a few unconfirmed cases. Then a death. Now the whole city is quarantined. But Hannah's family is not yet safe behind their locked front door...

Basics soon become luxuries, and neighbours become hazards. There are power cuts, food shortages and an ever-growing sense of claustrophobia. How will the family cope?

How would you cope?

How far would you go to protect your children?

My review  

This book was inspired by the SARS outbreak of 2002/3 which spread with astonishing rapidity. It’s set in Sydney, Australia and feels frighteningly possible. Hannah seems to be paranoid but her meticulous planning comes into play when their suburb is quarantined. It sets up a lot of questions for the reader. Who would you trust? If you isolated your family, would you allow anyone else in? What when the usual services go off? I found this, although long, a really interesting and quite worrying read. I liked the family and wished the best for them. The characters were very well drawn, especially Zac, the teenager, whose principles were bright and shiny and sometimes clashed with his parents’ pragmatism. A great read.

About the author

Amanda Hickie lives a brisk walk from Coogee Beach in Sydney with her two computer oriented sons and husband and two non-computer oriented cats.

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Just a thought

I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else's story, the delicious ache of a last page ― Naomi Shihab Nye

Moths

Subtitled A Trio of Dark Novellas, this book by Sam Kates is a winner for those who like something dark but something a little different.

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Book description

The Goldfish Syndrome: a mystery takes a sinister turn—some secrets are best left undiscovered…

Moths: when the line between reality and fantasy grows blurred, tragedy beckons.

Returned: a soul dragged from the afterlife, an ancient secret and a race against time to thwart evil.

My review - 

The three novellas in this collection are all dark, as the subtitle says, but in very different ways.

In the first, a young woman comes down off Dartmoor with amnesia. Her story is followed up by a trainee reporter who finds more than he expected. This one I found very readable but deeply unsettling. Could it happen?

In the second – the title story, Moths – I began by sympathising with a youngster who had little in his life but one best friend. This story left me wondering what is true and what is in the mind. A really thought-provoking story.

The final one was more like a traditional horror story but, as often with Sam Kates, taken from a different perspective. Very dark humour in places and an exciting denoument. I loved this book and if your tastes lean towards the dark side, it’s the book for you, without a doubt.

About the author

As you've probably gathered since you've found your way to my author page, I sometimes go by the name Sam Kates. If there's a photo on this page of a middle-aged bloke with a hair shortage, that's me.

I live in Wales, a small constituent country of Great Britain and the U.K. Like many of my fellow countrymen, I possess a fondness for rugby union (though these days only as a spectator) and a good pint of beer. Usually the two go hand in hand.

As often as I can make the time (darn that interfering day job), I'm an author. I write science fiction, fantasy, horror and general fiction. Outside of writing, my main ambition is to see Wales beat the New Zealand All Blacks to win the Rugby World Cup. A forlorn hope, I suspect, but if you're going to harbour ambitions, they might as well be lofty, right?

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Just a thought

Books - the best antidote against the marsh-gas of boredom and vacuity ― George Steiner

The Marriage Betrayal

I love Shalini Boland's books and this one leaves you wondering who is hiding what from whom.

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Book description

Faye Townsend has planned the perfect summer trip for her family. But returning to the small seaside town her husband grew up in does not go to plan, the rain pours and the long days become stifling. And then the unthinkable happens…

Her husband Jake and her six-year-old son Dylan go for an early morning walk along the beautiful, windswept clifftops. They don’t come back.

As the hours tick by, Dylan’s red baseball cap is found on the beach and Faye finds herself being questioned by the police. They want to know everything about the man she married - is Faye ready to face her husband’s dark past? Or will she have to confront her own secrets first?

And just how far will a mother go to save her only child?

My review 

Faye arranges a holiday as a surprise for her husband Jake. Jake’s sister, Lainey and her husband Tom and their children are there for Jake’s birthday but there are underlying tensions. The reader knows there’s something wrong but not what it is, or who is involved. Shalini Boland is very good when it comes to tension and unease in a story. Gradually the situation unfolds and every mother’s nightmare occurs. Jake and their young son Dylan disappear. The true situation is revealed much later on in the book and I thought the tension was kept up all the way through. It’s an involving read and you find yourself taking sides, then wondering if you’re right. A very good read.

About the author

Shalini lives by the sea in Dorset, England with her husband, two children and their cheeky terrier cross. Before kids, she was signed to Universal Music Publishing as a singer/songwriter, but now she spends her days writing psychological thrillers (in between school runs and sorting endless baskets of laundry).

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Just a thought

What kind of life can you have in a house without books? ― Sherman Alexie

Killing the Girl

A new author is a great way of widening your reading. Elizabeth Hill has written a book I really enjoyed. Here's to the next.

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Book description

For over forty years Carol Cage has been living as a recluse in her mansion, Oaktree House. Fear is her constant companion. She’s been keeping a secret – and it’s about to be unearthed.

When she receives a compulsory purchase order for her home, she knows that everyone is going to find out what she did to survive her darkest weeks in 1970. She writes her confession so that we can understand what happened because she wasn’t the only one living a lie. The events that turned her fairy-tale life into a living hell were not all they seemed.

She’s determined not to pay for the mistakes of others; if she has to face justice, then they will too.

Carol Cage has a terrible secret … and she’s about to exact retribution on everyone who had abandoned her.

My review 

Carol, in her teens, comes under the spell of the charismatic Frankie and after he charms her and gives her jewellery she marries him. She’s not the only one he’s charmed, she discovers. The murky past comes to light when the home Carol inherited is demolished to make way for building and she has to relocate nearby. This is a terrific tale of obsession, envy, friendships made and broken, secrets hidden, and I was glued to it all the way. ‘The Girl’ that Carol was in 1970 is still inside her as she battles her demons in 2016. This is a really good read.

About the author

After a career Credit Management and Litigation Elizabeth is now a full-time novelist.

Enjoying a good psychological/crime mystery story, but tiring of them being based on the murder of women, her books reverse that premise so that men are at risk of being murdered in the course of a great story! 

Her debut novel is about a young girl who makes mistakes because of the confusing messages and expectations of 1970s society. She pays for those mistakes in a devastating way but grows stronger in the process.

Find out more on her website wickedwritersite.wordpress.com

Elizabeth lives in Bristol, UK.

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Just a thought 

Books, the children of the brain ― Jonathan Swift