The Feral Child by Che Golden

review by Maryom

"Maddy is fed-up. Since her parents died, she's been stuck with her grandparents in the tiny village of Blarney. She's sick of Ireland, sick of her stupid cousins, and, most of all, she's sick of her granddad's ridiculous stories about the faerie people who live in Tír na nÓg. But as Halloween approaches, strange things start to happen in the village. And when the little boy next door disappears, Maddy begins to think her granddad's stories aren't so silly after all... And so, Maddy and her cousins Roisin and Danny set off on an incredible journey to a land ruled by an ancient and powerful evil; a land of breathtaking beauty and deadly dangers; a land no adult dares to venture, even to rescue a child. To face evil as old as earth takes courage as bold as youth. "

The Feral Child is an exciting fantasy adventure for the 9+ age range set partly in the real world of Blarney but mainly in the faery land of Tir na nÓg. Here, faeries and the weird and wonderful creatures of Celtic mythology come to life; some are helpful; most are terrifying.

Maddy is a very rebellious sort of heroine - she doesn't fit in with her grandparents - and doesn't want to! So if granddad says 'Don't go near the castle at night', then Maddy is drawn there and if granddad says 'Don't have anything to do with the faery folk', then Maddy's bound to take them on! This kind of spirit that's needed though to enter the faery mound and attempt to rescue an abducted child. Her irritating cousins tag along out of nosiness but prove they're more helpful and dependable than Maddy realised.

An adventure filled with peril and excitement with some scary passages.  The creatures of Tir na nÓg are not to be confused with kind picture book faeries. Younger more sensitive readers may find some of the violence disturbing.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Quercus
Genre - Children's 9+ Fantasy

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Fractured by Teri Terry

review by Maryom

Kyla has been 'slated' - a punishment inflicted on the under-16s removing all their memories and supposedly giving them a fresh start. Kyla's problem though is that her memories haven't been quite erased; somehow they keep finding ways to leak through the block. When she recognises someone from her past she thinks he may be able to clear up some of the mysteries - but if anything he compounds them. Kyla finds herself pulled in different directions - should she go along with the suppressive Lorder regime to keep her family safe or commit herself fully to the freedom fighters who want to overthrow the regime? There aren't any easy answers.

Fractured is the continuation of Teri Terry's excellent teenage dystopian trilogy begun with Slated set in an oppressive not-too-distant future which I'd been waiting impatiently for since I finished the first book. As expected it is an engrossing unputdownable read - I picked it up one breakfast time and finished it the next! Whereas Slated was about discovering this unpleasant future England, Fractured is an uncovering of Kyla's past; following her attempts to recall who she was before slating and find out what makes her so special among the Slated in that she alone has memories from before. The reader sees things from Kyla's point of view and is caught up in her dilemma of how to act for the best; with a memory that's only reliable for the past couple of months, she doesn't know who to trust - or distrust - and I shared these doubts as I read.

Fractured is a compelling read whether taken at the surface level of non-stop thriller or the deeper, thought-provoking one, raising questions about punishment and opposing oppression with violence. The only downside is that it is necessary to have read Slated beforehand - and that, although brought to a nice rounding-off point, the story obviously hasn't reached its conclusion. I can't wait for Book 3!!

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Orchard Books
Genre - Teenage Dystopian Thriller

 The story continues with book three - Shattered

Payback Time by Geraint Anderson

Review by Maryom

"When City high-flyer Bridget, recently fired from her bank, is found dead outside her high rise apartment, her colleagues assume she's committed suicide. Cityboy Steve Jones is outraged and he and his City workmates decide to take revenge. They hatch an ingenious plan to sabotage her firm and succeed in bringing it to its knees. After wildly celebrating their success, Bridget's boyfriend Fergus insists they take down a much more prominent bank. But soon the gang are being targeted by the police and financial regulators. There must be a rat in their midst but, if so, who? Steve investigates and digging deeper realises he could be on the trail of a murderer. Suddenly there's a distinct possibility that an even bigger revenge is being planned and this time the pay back is heading in his direction..."

I have to say upfront that I didn't like the writing style of this novel - it's mainly written from the point of view of stockbroker Steve and presumably aimed at capturing how he would express himself, with a lot of 'robust' language and sexual references - and I found it difficult to care for Steve and his friends with their drug and drink fuelled life style. Having said that, I soon found myself pulled in by the plot, trying to guess the upcoming twists and turns and figure out who the mysterious man following everyone was. A lot of the story-line depends on understanding how stocks are traded but technicalities such as selling short, trading in futures and bear raids are explained as they occur - I might even have got to grips with them myself at last!
It's not as dark and sinister as Nordic Noir but more of a lightweight sort of holiday-read thriller.

Maryom's review -  3 stars

Publisher - Headline  
Genre - Adult Crime

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The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd

review by Maryom

Harriott and Horton, heroes of Lloyd Shepherd's first novel, The English Monster, are back with a new mystery to unravel.
The Solander has just returned from a voyage to Tahiti - every spare inch of space above and below deck filled with specimens of exotic plants destined for the hothouses at Kew. Amongst them all is one special plant for the individual attention of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society and financial backer of the voyage. The Solander's homecoming is not totally happy though. Within hours one of the crew is found dead - his throat cut, his room ransacked though no money taken and strangest of all a blissful smile fixed forever on his face. Magistrate John Harriott recognises this as an incident that calls for the unusual detecting talent of his constable Charles Horton and when he accidentally stumbles on more murders, Horton realises someone is stalking the Solander's crew and that the answers must lie in the ship's botanical cargo.

The Poisoned Island is a historical crime novel set during the reign of 'Mad King George', against the backdrop of Britain's exploration of the Pacific and plant-hunting expeditions when European botanists were extending their knowledge and trying to categorise the weird and wonderful plants to be found around the globe; there were high hopes of more finds such as the breadfruit tree discovered on Tahiti which became a major food source for West Indian plantations - and perhaps even of some miraculous cure-all plant. The Poisoned Island is full of amazing detail that brings the sights and sounds of early 19th century London - and Tahiti - to life on the page; events move from the hot tropical island, to the hustle and bustle of the docks of Wapping and Rotherhithe and to the more rarefied and genteel atmosphere of Kew with its massive greenhouses for the scientific study of the botanical marvels being brought back from around the world.
Having said that, the historical detail doesn't get in the way of a riveting thriller. While based around real historical people - for example,Joseph Banks was responsible for discovering and bringing back to England many botanical wonders -  the events of the Poisoned Island are totally fictitious. It's better in this regard than The English Monster which incorporated real murders and had me anticipating the unfolding of events; here they are all unexpected.
Charles Horton is back, of course, with his strange methods of observing and detecting rather than pouncing on the nearest suspect but I liked that this time his wife Abigail gets a slightly larger role - not only as a supportive wifely figure but as a woman interested in the scientific discoveries of the day and someone with a steady head, not given to the expected hysterics at the sight of blood. I half suspect she may be contributing more to her husband's investigations in future if some of his prejudices can be overcome.
An excellent read which should appeal to fans of both historical fiction and crime thrillers.



Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - adult, crime, historical fiction,


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Sweet Home by Carys Bray

Review by The Mole

A collection of 17 short stories of suburbia. But these are tales of the darker side of suburbia. Starting with a mother who is trying to be the best possible mother by reading anything published on the subject to the story of a father who desperately wants to rescue a son from a life of drugs with many tales in between. A retelling of the story of Hansel and Gretel in a modern setting will get you thinking and warrants that the police re-examine the evidence. There is a story of a sculptor and his wife who so desperately want a child that he carves one from a ball of ice - again a story based around folk tales.

With longest of these short stories being just 15 pages long they are a genuine coffee time read. That is if you can resist starting the next. And the next. They are not, by any stretch of the imagination, all similar tales but vary tremendously from story to story, some darker than others and some amusing but all of them thought provoking.

Yesterday I read "I will never disappoint my children" and for the first time in many years I went out and built a snowman - with my wife - while our daughter stayed inside. The story must have been written about my wife I think.

An excellent collection that I'm sure readers will enjoy.

Publisher - Salt Publishing
Genre - Adult short stories

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Jimmy Threepwood and The Veil of Darkness by Rich Pitman

Review by The Mole

Many centuries ago the Elders designed the world we live in, but they knew that through time and the advances in medicine and technology, the world would slowly start to die and man would ultimately destroy the planet. The Elders created a prophecy that every two millennia, four children would receive a mystical mark. The children would grow and (one day) be powerful enough to release the mighty beast, Tyranacus. Together they would purge the world of man, allowing it to heal before the life cycle would start again.

As Jimmy Threepwood approached his eleventh birthday he noticed strange and unusual things happening. Firstly, a mysterious crow started to follow him around school; this ultimately led to a Bunsen burner accident and an unusual scar forming on Jimmy's arm in the shape of a number nine. This was followed by Jimmy protecting his friend against the school bully, but one touch changed both Jimmy's and the bully's lives forever...

I know I always go on about this and I will get it out the way now... This book is sadly lacking in editing and so 'grated' on me all too often but once again I felt it was worth continuing to read (and OK, moaning to anyone present about the editing). And was it worth it! Pitman has come up with an extremely good story and on the whole it is very well written. As an adult I kept pulling up with certain parts and thinking "Who's this written for? Kids?" and then realising that yes, it is written for kids and Pitman keeps his target audience in mind and doesn't drift off to gore and themes that are too mature for his audience.

The story stops at a logical point and you know there will be more to follow as his quest is far from over but you are not left on a cliffhanger which can often be a real irritation.

Despite the editing I would recommend this to children of the 8+ age group and if you are looking for a book to read to children slightly younger even. I really did enjoy this book immensely and really hope that book two will be better edited.

Publisher - Ghostly Publishing
Genre - Children's Fantasy, 8+

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Windscape by Sam Wilding

Review by Maryom

Financial difficulties are forcing Jenny MacLeod's father to agree to having wind-turbines built on their Harris farm but Jenny doesn't want them to spoil the view across the beautiful Hushwish Bay. When a confrontation with protesters leads to her father being taken away to hospital in Glasgow, Jenny is taken in by Mr Murdoch, the neighbouring farmer behind the wind turbine project.There she discovers letters that should have been sent to her father and that may make all the difference to his acceptance of the wind farm plans. Determined to show them to him, she sets off for Glasgow with her faithful collie, Lord, and their new friend Pavel, pursued by the Murdochs. There are plenty of others along the way trying to stop Jenny, so will she be able to reach her father in time to save the beauty of their farm?

Windscape is an exciting children's thriller set against the backdrop of the debate about windfarms. Almost everyone has an opinion on whether wind turbines are beneficial or an eyesore; they may be an environmentally friendly way of producing electricity but should they be allowed to clutter up the countryside and spoil the view? Sam Wilding manages to discuss the arguments both for and against them while keeping up the pace of the action. Jenny is a very determined young heroine, not easily distracted from her goals, helped along by the more street-wise Pavel - making this a book that should appeal to both boys and girls.
An excellent adventure story for the 10 plus range with the added bonus of introducing environmental issues in an accessible, easy to understand way.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Strident
Genre - children's, thriller, 10+,

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