Review: A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970s

A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & The 1970s by Mike Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really enjoyable meander through progressive rock in the 1970s. I took my time with this, adding notable tracks to. Spotify playlist and listening along. Mike Barnes is clear that his subject is progressive rock and not Prog, a term which encompasses a particular subset, albeit one that most readers would be more familiar with. Barnes finds few concept albums and fewer wizards and hobbits. He does find musicians willing, and able, to push the boundaries of ‘popular’ music, whose influences are as likely to have been Leoš Janáček as Elvis Presley.

Rather than a strict chronology, Barnes finds themes with which to structure the book. He begins with the big hitters - King Crimson, Pink Floyd, ELP, Genesis, Yes and Jethro Tull - before taking a look at some possibly less well-known groups. This is perhaps the book’s only weakness, at least for me; I have never really had much interest in ‘the Canterbury scene’ and can’t get on with Van Der Graff Generator much either. I did find Henry Cow, of whom I had never interesting and came away with a renewed appreciation of Gong and Steve Hillage.

The book ends with a reappraisal of the often repeated theory that punk was a reaction to, and the end of, progressive rock (it really wasn’t) and revisits some of the better known names, and how they had changed by the decade’ s end.

View all my reviews

Review: Shooter in the Shadows

Shooter in the Shadows by David Hewson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like David Hewson’s writing. His prose is clear and straightforward yet descriptive and evocative. Some years ago I picked up THE LIZARD’S BITE, the fourth in Hewson’s Italian set series about Detective Nick Costa, and I have enjoyed periodic visits to catch up with Costa and to share the author’s love of Italy.  SHOOTER IN THE SHADOWS, set on a small island in the Venetian lagoon, coincidentally the location for that earlier novel, is a stand-alone but no less exciting and gripping than the series. 

SHOOTER IN THE SHADOWS is a thriller about an American journalist turned true-crime author, Tom Honeyman who, having had a huge success with his first book, about a grisly murder in upstate New York, has struggled to follow it up. Every year Honeyman comes to Maledetto, the small Venetian island which his success allowed him to buy, to start a new book in the hope of returning to the bestseller lists. But that initial success has proved a millstone, Honeyman’s life a mess, his wife having committed suicide, his daughter estranged and Maledetto a drain on his dwindling finances. When Laura, his daughter makes contact and him on the island, things appear to be improving, but soon both find themselves held prisoner by someone who believes that Honeyman got it wrong in his book and wants him to right a sequel to correct that error, to reveal the truth about who really burned two people to death, or die themselves. Honeyman has 4 days...

David Hewson’s characters are really well-formed. As the novel alternates Honeyman’s predicament with chapters of the new book, we find that he is not really a very nice guy, a talented writer but a poor reporter who substitutes vivid imagination for facts when necessary. But it is not only Honeyman who comes alive - the small town American cop; the wild, bohemian, sexually free teacher who died in the fire with her student lover; Honeyman’s wife, who gave up her own journalistic career to bring up their daughter - despite being drawn in relatively few scenes, jump off the page fully-formed. The joy of SHOOTER IN THE SHADOWS is the inherent unreliability of the narrator as we only have Honeyman’s version of what he think happened. And, even when I guessed the true events about three quarters in, seeing the truth play out was really satisfying. Except, I only thought I had solved it. There are events that even Honeyman doesn’t know, leading to a great twist. 

Hewson captures the essence of the lagoon, the sounds, the smells. The setting is excellent, Maledetto simultaneously within sight of Venice’s main islands yet as remote from civilisation as it is possible to be in the lagoon.

SHOOTER IN THE SHADOWS is highly recommended.

View all my reviews

#BlogTour - The Lies I Tell by Joel Hames

SHE’S WATCHING YOU

BUT WHO’S WATCHING HER?

From the bestselling author of Dead North, a tense, claustrophobic psychological thriller perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Claire McGowan and Clare Mackintosh.

Meet Polly. Meet Emily. Meet Belinda. 

They're all me. My name is Lisa and I’m an identity thief. If I’m not inside your system stealing your money, I’ve probably already stolen it. I’m your friend. I’m a thief. I’m gone. 

I’m in control. 

Only now, the tables have been turned. I’m in danger. My son is in danger. And I don’t know where that danger’s coming from. 

Any friend. 

Any enemy. 

Any stranger. 

Anyone from the past I’ve been trying to outrun for years.

NOBODY CAN BE TRUSTED.

#BlogTour - All Fall Down by M.J. Arlidge

“You have one hour to live.”

Those are the only words on the phone call. Then they hang up. Surely, a prank? A mistake? A wrong number? Anything but the chilling truth… That someone is watching, waiting, working to take your life in one hour.

But why?

The job of finding out falls to DI Helen Grace: a woman with a track record in hunting killers. However, this is a case where the killer seems to always be one step ahead of the police and the victims.

With no motive, no leads, no clues – nothing but pure fear – an hour can last a lifetime…

ALL FALL DOWN is the ninth in M.J. Arlidge’s series featuring DI Helen Grace and my first exposure to both character and author. The novel works well as a standalone though, and Grace, a determined, flawed investigator, is an intriguing protagonist whose backstory I am interested in exploring down the line.

Set in Southampton, the novel is a well-structured police procedural with strong, realistic characters. DI Grace investigates the murder of Justin Lanning, a successful businessman in his mid twenties. Lanning had, according to his partner, received a call prior to his death, the caller threatening that he had only one hour to live. As Grace’s team delve into the victim’s history they discover that he is one of five school friends who had been abducted by Daniel King eight years previously during a Prince of Edinburgh Awards hike on the South Downs. The five were tortured by King before four of them escaped. It appeared that, after killing the remaining student, King committed suicide, although his body was never found. Recently, King has returned to the public consciousness due to the publication of a book about the experience by another of the survivors. Grace and her team become convinced that there is a connection to the events of the past, and to King, and that the survivors may be at risk.

There is a mixture of action and character-driven drama. The relationships within the team, particularly between Helen Grace and her deputy, Joseph Hudson, whom she has, perhaps rashly, taken as a lover, threaten to derail the investigation. The relationship between the survivors of King’s torture are also more complex than they initially appear. The author maintains tension until the end and it all makes for an enjoyable thriller.

M.J. Arlidge has worked in television on prime-time crime thrillers and ALL FALL DOWN has that sort of feel. I could see DI Helen Grace and her team appear in that medium but meanwhile look forward to discovering the other books.

Thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n at Compulsive Readers @mjarlidge and @orionbooks @orion_crime for the opportunity to review ALL FALL DOWN.

Review: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven’t read all the Bonds but I have had the audiobook of this, read very entertainingly by David Tennant, on my list for some time so decided to read and listen. 

As with all Fleming’s output, the book, from 1963, is very dated. Fleming writes well in a very well-spoken English style but the book is as misogynistic as you would expect. It begins as Bond watches a young woman, and becomes concerned that she is considering suicide. We find a little bit about their relationship in flashback before they are both captured and whisked off to meet a shady Corsican who takes a shine to Bond.

The next section, where the book almost loses its way, follows Bond, typically poorly undercover, to the mountaintop retreat of his arch enemy, Blofeld, whose sinister plan seems to resolve around becoming certified as a Count and hypnotising some British farm girls into liking cows and an Irish colleen into appreciating potatoes… However, things take off when Bond’s identity is uncovered and he has to escape down the mountain in a genuinely exciting fashion, pursued by Blofeld’s thugs and an avalanche.

Those who have seen the movie will know the tragic ending. Indeed the film followed the book fairly closely and, having watched the movie recently, both are overlong and slightly out-stay their welcome. Enjoyable but disjointed, Tennant’s narration just about holding it together.

View all my reviews