Review: Knife Edge

Knife Edge by Simon Mayo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

KNIFE EDGE is a thriller about terrorism with a breathless opening which rivals anything I have read in the genre as, in 29 minutes one morning in May, a series of attacks leaves 7 London commuters dead. In the Canary Wharf offices of the IPS news agency, Famie Madden and her fellow journalists, begin to realise that the killings have been coordinated and the victims are colleagues in the agency's Investigation team. 

Simon Mayo, a radio and TV presenter, who presents my favourite film review show on BBC Radio 5, is a fine writer. The early chapters detailing the killings and their immediate aftermath are tense and claustrophobic, and Mayo's descriptions of an early morning London into which panic and fear erupt, are intensely vivid and convincing. The scenes following this are less riveting as the story alternates between Famie's attempt to protect herself and her family, while also attempting to identify those responsible for her colleagues' deaths, and scenes set in the terrorist cell. Here the story slows and the constant references to the terrorists as 'The Leader', 'The Woman' and "The Student' are a little clumsy. The book does lift again with a climactic confrontation with the terrorists which, while not reaching the heights of the initial chapters and being, perhaps, a little formulaic, does bring the novel to a satisfying conclusion.


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Review: The Stranger

The Stranger by Simon Conway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

‘My name is Nasruddin al-Raqqah.’

'I was kidnapped by the British for a crime I did not commit and they sent me to Damascus. I was questioned and tortured, I spent more than ten years in a tiny cell deep under the ground without sunlight, without speaking. Every day I washed the bodies of those killed by Assad. Thousands of bodies, men and women, I thought I was dead and in hell.'

'But now I am free.’

Ten years ago, MI6 Officer, Jude Lyon witnessed the rendition of The Engineer, a terrorist responsible for the killings of 25 British soldiers in a fiendishly clever attack in Pakistan. Haunted by his part in the handing over of the captive and his pregnant wife to torture, Jude becomes involved once more when The Engineer, long presumed dead, is offered for sale on the dark web by a terrorist organisation who have violently freed him from captivity. The press have now come into possession of documents proving British complicity in The Engineer’s rendition, Jude is caught in the political crossfire as the guilty scramble to cover their tracks while their rivals seek advantage, and he is unable to shake the memory of Nasruddin al-Raqqah’s last words as he was dragged away, “I am not The Engineer.”

And who is The Stranger...?

THE STRANGER is a fast paced ‘War on Terror’ thriller with interesting characters, a tightly plotted, tense set up, political intrigue, and an explosive climax but the characters are conflicted, the politics anything but straightforward. There are no goodies and baddies and Simon Conway, a writer with whom I was previously unfamiliar, has delivered a novel that is several steps above the gung-ho, flag-waving thrillers that seem to fill the shelves, much more Le Carre than Clancy.

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Review: Invisible Girl

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

INVISIBLE GIRL is an intense, absorbing, character-driven domestic psychological thriller. The narrative, told through the experiences of three viewpoint characters, concerns sexual assault, infidelity, suspicion, trial by media and social media. The 'action' takes place in the largely dark, claustrophobic streets of a village-like district of London.

Cate Four, mother of two teenagers, wife to psychologist, Roan, lives with her family in the temporary accommodation of a flat in Hampstead, as the family home in Kilburn is renovated. It should be an adventure, the desirable and affluent area known for intellectuals and artists. But Cate, who came close to separating from her husband when he had an affair suspects that Roan may be wandering but, having accused him of infidelity a year previously, buries her fears.

Owen Pick, a strange, socially awkward teacher, who lives opposite the Fours, is suspended from his job following accusations of sexual harassment from female students. When Cate's daughter, Georgia, is followed home along dark streets and her friend Tilly claims she was assaulted by a stranger, the Fours wonder about their neighbour.

Saffyre Maddox is a 17-year old former patient of Roan Four, whom she saw because she was self-harming, caused by something which happened to her when she was 10. Having developed an attachment to her psychologist, she misses her regular appointments and secretly follows Roan, frequently spying on the Fours' home. When Saffyre goes missing, and is found to have been near the Fours, suspicion naturally falls on their neighbour, Owen Pick.

Lisa Jewell draws her characters so well conveying emotions through their actions and reactions. We see the trauma caused by a lack of communication, the married couple tiptoeing around each other, the mother unable to confront her children, suspicions growing in relationships because people are afraid to ask questions. Owen Pick is adjudged guilty by the media and, as other sexual attacks are revealed in the area, we begin to question whether his embarrassment and discomfort around women is hiding more dangerous traits.

The story's shifts in viewpoint and timelines keeps the reader on edge throughout. In reality, not an awful lot happens, the action largely in the minds of her characters, but Jewell ramps up the tension expertly and we never really fully know any of the protagonists. There is some wonderfully descriptive writing too, particularly in the sections narrated in the first person by Saffyre, an incredibly perceptive 17-year old. One particular passage, as Saffyre describes Roan Four's consulation room, is among the best, most atmospheric scenes I have read this year, but throughout there are little touches that make INVISIBLE GIRL a joy to read. The story is tense and oppressive, the underlying subject matter harrowing and distasteful, none of the characters truly what they initially seem, but the Lisa Jewell skilfully holds this all together and delivers a satisfying mystery while raising questions which will stay with the reader long after the story is done.

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Review: Cry Baby

Cry Baby by Mark Billingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

CRY BABY is Mark Billingham's 20th novel in 20 years and the 17th in his Tom Thorne series. The story takes place 24 years ago in 1996 and sees Thorne as a 35 year old, less experienced but well on his way to becoming the character who first appeared in SLEEPYHEAD in 2001. Thorne investigates the disappearance of a 7 year old boy, a case which echoes another, years before in which a family died, deaths for which Thorne, unfairly, takes some of the blame. An empathetic investigator, Thorne is driven to find the boy, and to fight against the incompetence in the police team, which threatens to hamper progress.

Along the way, we see Tom Thorne's first meeting with Hendricks, a very funny beginning to their friendship, and the aftermath of the breakdown of his marriage, another source of black humour. Billingham, despite downplaying his ability to write historic novels in his afterword, perfectly captures north London in the '90s, particularly in the characters' obsessions with the Euro '96 football tournament, but also in the lack of mobile phones and internet. It feels authentic and is an entertaining and exciting police procedural. A fitting 20th anniversary tribute to the character but also a worthy addition to the series.

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Review: The Quality of Madness: A Life of Marcelo Bielsa

The Quality of Madness: A Life of Marcelo Bielsa by Tim Rich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A serviceable biography of Marcelo Bielsa. Bielsa is notoriously reluctant to give interviews so there are few insights into the man, the book largely restricted to a chronology of his career and comments from those who worked with him, most of which seem to come from previously published interviews and/or press conferences. Ending, as it does, mid way through the most recent, Covid-19 interrupted, season the book misses perhaps Bielsa’s greatest achievement to date, taking Leeds United back to the English Premier League after 16 years in the wilderness. I suspect a revised edition soon.

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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.

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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.

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#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.

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#BlogTour - The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey

The first in a gripping new trilogy, The Book of Koli charts the journey of one unforgettable young boy struggling to find his place in a chilling post-apocalyptic world. Perfect for readers of Station Eleven and Annihilation.

Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognisable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.

Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture beyond the walls.

What he doesn’t know is — what happens when you aren’t given a choice?

“The two sides is this: I went away, and then I come home again.”

M.R. Carey’s THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS was a stunning take on post-apocalyptic zombie/vampire tropes which made him one to watch for me. THE BOOK OF KOLI, the first of a trilogy, may eclipse that novel.

In the first half of the book, Koli, a fifteen year-old boy, tells of his life in the northern English village of Mythen Rood. The society is medieval-like although there are remnants of ‘old tech’, items of great power that have survived from times before ‘the Unfinished War, and which bestow great power on those who can ‘wake’ them. These masters of the tech, the Ramparts, are the village leaders and Koli desperately wants to become one of them, and he has reached the age at which he be tested for the ability to wake tech.

The joy of the novel is that we are evidently many years, possibly centuries, after the collapse of advanced society. Villages have become isolated, travel almost non-existent (very apt given the state of the world at publication), and fewer babies are being born. The ‘old tech’ is ‘future tech’ to us but, crucially, not so far advanced from early 21^st century to be unrecognisably plausible.

“That’s the heart of my story, now I think of it. The old times haunt us still. The things they left behind save us and hobble us in ways that are past any counting. They was ever the sift and substance of my life, and the journey I made starts and ends with them.”

Koli’s narration is naturalistic, jumping around at times, running off at tangents as something else occurs to him. He pulls you into the story, his innocence and inquisitiveness, his jealously of the Ramparts, his wonder at, and desire to possess, the old tech.

“I risked everything I hard to grab a piece of tech I could own. I broke the law to get my hands on the Dreamsleeve. Got myself made faceless, and almost got my whole family hanged on the gallows.”

The second half of the book tells of Koli’s journey beyond the walls of Mythen Rood, into the unknown where “everything that lives hates us.” The forests are full of carnivorous trees, another result of the old tech, a runaway experiment to grown plants in soil devastated by global warming. There too, live cannibalistic shunned men, outside village society and preying on those who become lost or detached. 

The book is incredibly entertaining - thrilling, scary and funny. Koli is a wonderful character, as is his companion, Monono, but it is only fair to let the reader discover her themselves. If the following books, the next of which is coming in only a few short months, live up to this, with promises of finding out more about mythical places like Half-Ax, Birmagen, even London, THE BOOKS OF KOLI may well become one of the classic sci-fi/fantasy trilogies. I can’t wait.

Thanks to Orbit Books and Compulsive Readers for the invitation to the Blog Tour. 

@michaelcarey191 @orbitbooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n