Review: After the End

After the End by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I may not have read this book had I not heard of the author. “What appeals to you about this book?” NetGalley asks when you request a proof. “Author. I have heard good things about Clare Mackintosh. She writes thrillers.”

‘After the End’ is not the psychological mystery I was expecting but it is a profoundly moving novel, the story of parents faced with an impossible choice - to submit their terminally ill child to treatment that may prolong the length his life but not its quality, or to let him slip away, allowing his pain to end. It is a sad story but it makes you smile in places. It is harrowing but full of humanity.

In her afterword, Clare Mackintosh, who lost a son in circumstances which inspired the novel, says “this is not a story about loss, but about hope. Hope for the future, for a life beyond an unavoidable tragedy.” And, as the second half of the story explores possible outcomes, Sliding Doors-style, the message of hope is clear - life goes on, changed by the experience, but loss does not mean forgetting.

‘After the End’ is an intensely emotional novel and one that I am thankful to have read.

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Review: Six Stories

Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Six Stories is an unusual, and very successful, hybrid - the novel takes the form of six episodes of a ‘true crime’ podcast examining the circumstances which led to the disappearance of a 15 year old boy in 1996 and the subsequent discovery of his body a year later on a remote marsh in Northumberland. Each episode of the podcast centres on an interview with someone connected with the incident, the story told from the perspective of ‘six pairs of eyes’ leaving the listener, or reader, to make up his mind what happened.

As a novel, ‘Six Stories’ reads like a transcript of the podcast episodes (there is a connecting narrative but the story essentially unwinds in the conversations in the episodes) but it is as an audiobook that the story really comes alive. I am a big fan of the whispersync technology which allows the reader to switch from reading to listening seamlessly but I dispensed with the text completely in this case, immersing myself in the fictional true crime podcast.

Wesolowski has cited Serial, a true true crime podcast, as a major inspiration and he has really captured the feel of the genre and the medium. He also uses his love of horror (he previously published horror short stories) to ramp up the oppressiveness of the setting, the dank marshes, the overbearing fell, the local folk tales, to weave a really entertaining story. I loved it and have already started (listening to) the second in the series.

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Review: Their Little Secret

Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Been a while since I read Mark Billingham and I’m really not sure why because he never fails to deliver. In his latest, DI Thorne is haunted by a suicide and begins a personal investigation which reveals apparent links to the murder of a young man on Margate beach.

Billingham is skilled at police procedural with a cast of characters who come across as real people. And there is an excellent psychological thriller intercut with the police investigation as we follow a couple with a strange, complicated and unhealthy relationship. The writing is crisp and propels the story along; the dialogue is authentic, witty and sharp. This is the 16th in the Thorne series but can be read as a standalone with no issues. There are however enough references to events that have occurred in the five or six books that I have somehow managed to miss which, combined with a cast that I enjoy spending time with, make me want to jump back and catch up.

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Review: A Book of Bones

A Book of Bones by John Connolly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When a new novel in John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series lands I immediately drop whatever I’m reading and race through it. The race was slower this time, not only because A Book of Bones is nearly 700 pages long but also because a lot of the story takes place in London, and in a part of London I don’t know very well and in which I have just started to spend a few days a week, so I had to take time to look up the locations.
This is a sprawling, Dickensian beast of a novel which picks up just after The Woman in the Woods and which takes Parker to Arizona and, with Louis and Angel, to The Netherlands and England, in pursuit of Quayle and Mors as the saga of the Fractured Atlas culminates in Quayle’s attempt to bring about the end of the world. The plot, which involves ritual murder/sacrifice in locations throughout England, is interspersed with documents and diary entries which give historical context to Quayle’s quest and reference, among others, Jack the Ripper and Nicholas Hawksmoor, as Connolly pulls together threads which he has been weaving for years, to the original Fractured Atlas novella and, even further back, to the Travelling Man and the events that set Charlie Parker on the path which brought him here.
It is an astounding piece of work, obviously not a jumping on point for new readers, which is incredibly satisfying for those who have been following the series. The Book of Bones leans more towards the horror side while still being an effective mystery and there are echoes of Conan Doyle and Lovecraft, parts of it remind me of Ramsey Campbell, but it is very John Connolly. And, as this part of the narrative climaxes, Connolly throws in a final line that stops the reader dead and makes it clear that Parker’s story is not yet finished. In years to come, I really believe that this will be considered one of the great epic series of whatever genre into which you want to put it.

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