The Mole's Picks of the Year - 2014

My picks are split 2 ways, adult/YA, and children's/teens because I tend to be the one of us reading the younger readers books - out of choice. I haven't included picture books because - like a coward - it's so hard to choose.

So here I go with my choices for the older reader...
Firstly I am a fan of short story anthologies, where the anthology leads you from story to story on some form of journey and my number 1 select this year has to be Unthology 5. These anthologies are some of the best I have found, where the stories balance each other and reward you with an experience. Don't jump about the book, but read them as they come and enjoy every one.

Another very good collection was Stay Up With Me although this collection was all from the same author. Highly enjoyable and impossible to pick a favourite.




That Glimpse of Truth
was a very different collection,one that seemed more to chart the history of the short story. Starting with the story of Jonah  - and it's not really about a whale - moving through to modern stories. This is more a collection to keep on a shelf and cherry pick from as your mood suits - but still a book well worth having there.

Stepping away from short stories my next choice is a combined choice as I find it hard to select one over the other. Leigh Russell is the author of two detective series - Geraldine Steel and Ian Perterson. The DI Peterson series is a spin-off from Geraldine Steel and this year we have seen one book from each launched with more to come from both. Race to Death
 is the second DI Peterson and 

Fatal Act by Leigh Russell
 is the latest Geraldine Steel.

Brick Mother was a book that gave a very different experience and is hard to give a genre to - but the frustrations of management, the need to make a difference and the stresses of life are very well portrayed in this story.

A Bright Moon for Fools  is a story of a man who is out, unknowingly,to ruin his own life as he blunders,lies and cons his way from relationship realising, only too late,what he has done.

Above is a story in two halves of abduction  and dystopia. I preferred the first half but there was much to reflect on throughout the story. 

Shop Front was a story that took me by surprise. The story of a student taking a summer job while trying to get to university and the crowd he falls in with - and the surprises (or not) that he finds within that crowd.

Ghostwritten  is another story of self discovery and facing up to the past. It's done very well and we also learn of the hardships and deprivations suffered by interned citizens on Java during the second world war. An enlightening, if disturbing read.

But that's enough of the really serious stuff... let's lighten the mood with
Takedown Twenty I have to admit to loving the humour that the author can embed into her stories and make thrillers into a true comedic romp. The best way to end my adult selection.

My children's book selection is somewhat shorter and hopefully a little lighter although Seventeen Coffins is hardly a light read. Another time-slip story from this author bringing to life yet more of Scotland's chequered history.
 

The Reluctant Vampire is a very light read and as funny today as the day it was penned. Is a vampire who doesn't like blood "normal"?

The legend of Frog  is a story that will amuse children but keep them reading. I did have one small reservation about this book though - although it is still well worthy of inclusion.



 The Dark Inside A story of great sadness and loss - trust and friendship of the highest order and perhaps reconciliation?


But in thinking about loyalty and friendship, let's repeat those ideals - but with a generous amount of humour in Charlie Merrick's Misfits in Fouls, Friends & Football

Seventeen Coffins by Philip Caveney

Review by The Mole

We met Tom Afflick in Crow Boy when he suffered a time slip while visiting Mary King's Close and went back to the time of a plague in Edinburgh. He hasn't settled back comfortably into daily life and is haunted by memories so persuades his mum to let him revisit Mary King's Close. But the Close holds no answers and when visiting The National Museum he falls and strikes his head, once again causing a time slip.

This time he finds himself in 1828 and seeks lodgings in Tanner's Close after befriending Jamie, a vagrant. He survives by doing odd jobs for Billy and Will, a couple of Irish chaps who have offered him a roof but keeps slipping to alternative pasts and futures as he waits to return to his own future. But despite the danger he is in in 1828 (and there is plenty!) he is also being pursued across time by one of the characters from his time in Mary King's Close - and it's not to wish him well!! And once again Tom develops an affection for one of the girls he meets in history but the word 'love' is not used, which will please the boys. Poor old Tom certainly knows how to go for impossible friendships.

Who hasn't dreamed of going back in time and changing or accounting for a little bit of history? Well Tom creates such a paradox in this story and it's marvellously done. In fact is it 2 paradoxes?

 Another excellent story from Philip Caveney and this one is even better than Crow Boy as there is even more action but just as much history. Aimed at 9 and older this will appeal to both girls and boys. I thoroughly enjoyed this one as much as Crow Boy. If you haven't read Crow Boy then be warned that there are spoilers in this one - so get a copy of Crow Boy.

Publisher - Fledgling Press
Genre - Children's, historic, thriller

Buy Seventeen Coffins from Amazon

Watchers by Philip Caveney

Review by The Mole

Will Booth's father was knocked off his bike and killed a year ago but both Will and his mum are not getting over it. Will sees it in his mum and feels it in himself and try as he might he can't get either of them to start to move on. Then one quiet day, while walking his dog, a scruffy looking strange man tells him his dad has a message for him. Wary, frightened and very much spooked, Will flees back home only to meet him again the next time he's out walking and then he tells Will he was waiting for him. And then Will has the most terrifying time of his life with his family and friends in mortal peril.

This is one of those books that if you write a synopsis, any synopsis, you cannot do the book justice. Many a book has a fantastic synopsis but you end up reading something that bears little resemblance but this book... I have read (and enjoyed) Philip Caveney's writings before but this was something different - it was even more captivating. It's a book I definitely wanted to get to the end of but I didn't want to finish.

With an audience of 9+ (in my opinion) this should appeal to boys and probably girls too. Thoroughly enjoyable and an easy read.

Publisher - Fledgling Press
Genre - Children's supernatural thriller

Buy Watchers from Amazon

Crow Boy by Philip Caveney

Review by The Mole

Tom Afflick has had his life torn apart by his mother who has taken him to Edinburgh when she left his father to set up home with her new boyfriend. Tom is an outsider and is shunned and bullied by everyone at his new school. On a school trip to Mary King's Close he falls through the floor and a bizarre adventure starts when he is transported back to the seventeenth century.

Timeslip novels are a popular way of introducing history into novels but this is no ordinary timeslip story. It's more of a slip/slide/crash/slip type story and while it contains a lot of important history, that's not it's focal point. It focuses on the fiction added on and has the reader wondering "alternate universes? dreams? changed timelines?". Frequently in timeslip stories you get a feeling  that parts are merely a pretext to explain another part but this doesn't happen anywhere in Crow Boy - it just flows seamlessly along. It's exciting and engaging and readers won't want to put it down.

Extremely enjoyable and excellently done. This book will be enjoyed by readers of nine and older, surprisingly fifteen/sixteen year olds won't feel it's too young for them either. And while the hero is Tom, I can imagine it appealing to girls just as much.

Publisher - Fledgling Press
Genre - Children's/Teen's, historic, thriller

Buy Crow Boy from Amazon