The Curse of Can-Balam by Matt Cartney

Review by The Mole

Danny Lansing Adventure number 3

While talking to a friend via a video link Angus and Danny witness the kidnap of Dr Gordon Campbell, an archaeologist working in Belize on finding lost Mayan treasures. The police are getting nowhere and so Angus decides they will travel to Belize to help look for him.

No ransom demands and no contact with the kidnappers starts to raise questions of why this has happened. When they pick up the trail of what they hope is the kidnappers, Angus and their guide are kidnapped and Danny is left alone in the rainforest to fend for himself against the many predators that the jungle harbours.

Danny sort of "comes of age" in this book and things are all the better for it. Here he recalls the training Angus has given him in the previous stories and uses that to survive. He is now more confident, not overly though, and makes more positive contributions to the adventure. I would stress that he is not a superhero and still unsure of so many things but finds ways to use what he knows to best effect.

The book launches straight into action and it twists and turns with tension right down to the last page.

I truly loved this book - and I'm not it's target audience! I was unable to leave it alone for very long and was left wanting more - although I think Danny had been through enough for one book. An excellent sequel that will again delight his many fans and maybe win many more. I look forward to reading more of Danny in the future.

Previous Danny Lansing Adventures Sons of Rissouli, Red, White and Black

Publisher - Strident Publishing
Genre - Boy's Adventure

A Place for Us (part 4) by Harriet Evans

review by Maryom

Here at last is the fourth and final part to Harriet Evans family saga, A Place For Us. Set around the Winters' family home,Winterfold, so far it's been a story of idyllic family life built on rocky foundations - and matriarch Martha's decision that the time has come to admit the truth behind the glossy image. Her devastating revelation has shaken the family to its core and left their lives in turmoil. Now it's time to heal wounds and, hopefully, move towards a happy ending.....

A Place For Us has been published as a four-part serial over the past few months. The first part set the stage for Martha's dramatic revelations with hints of the secrets she knew and the lies that the family had perpetuated over the years. Part 2 continued in a similar vein up to the bombshell that Martha drops among her unsuspecting family. Part 3 showed a family in crisis, reeling from shock, but ended with Martha freshly inspired by granddaughter Lucy's memories of an idyllic Christmas at Winterfold - memories which helped convince Martha that not everything had been a sham. Now, she's resumed her role as heart and soul of the family, and realising the distress around her, she's determined to make matters right.

I enjoyed the earlier sections immensely, getting to know the Winter family with their foibles and secretive lives, but taken on its own, part 4 wasn't such a satisfying read. Of course, by this stage, I know the family well, don't feel they can surprise me, and know how I'd like the story to end - and it did. Because of this, the path it followed seemed a little too predictable and the endings a bit too neat. I suspect if I'd read it as one whole book, with this section following directly on from the others and less time for me to think about things, I wouldn't have felt this way.  

Although you can now download all four parts to your e-reader, a paperback version is being published in January 2015.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Headline Review
Genre - adult fiction, family saga

That Glimpse of Truth Selected and Introduced by David Miller

Review by The Mole

I have to admit that I am a fan of short stories. When you read a novel you generally expect a rounded story that leaves you with that sense of loss, of wanting more and "missing" the characters now the story is over. Although when it's a serial murderer perhaps you expect the opposite? With a short story you expect to have to reflect on threads that have been left hanging - did you see everything? are there gaps you need to fill in yourself? You actually expect to have to complete some of the story yourself.

It wasn't always the case though. This collection of short stories goes way back through literature and starts with the story of Jonah. It's not a retelling of the story but a lift from an an English version of the old testament. There will be a few who would contest the validity of including this in a collection of fiction - but that's a separate debate and somewhere I don't want to go - but it does remind the reader that story was not about a trip in a whale, in fact the whale hardly gets a mention.

The stories are listed chronologically according to the birth date of the author and the second story by Miguel de Cervantes jumps forward nearly 2000 years to 1547. The Deceitful Wife is a rounded story told in reflection by the deceived husband.

No author features twice in this anthology of 100 tales but with authors as diverse as Nikolai Gogol, Charles Dickens, DH Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Richmal Crompton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Roald Dahl, Kate Atkinson and Joanne Harris so many favourite authors are included that this book has something for everyone and perhaps a finding of new authors as well.

This is a book for lovers of the genre and I admit now to not having read them all - yet! I have read many from the early part of the book (including authors I have never read before including Nikolai Gogol), a few from the middle and some from the end. While the end shows the styles at their very modern best (The Deep by Anthony Doerr is sublime by the way) the earlier styles are still as enjoyable as they ever were.

This is a collection that seems, to me, to fulfil the subtitle "100 Of The Finest Short Stories Ever Written" although I could easily swap many of these for others that I have read and it would still be worthy of the same title.

Publisher - Head Of Zeus
Genre - Short stories, adult fiction

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

review by Maryom

One morning in early May 1977, Lydia Lee doesn't show up for breakfast. Her bed hasn't been slept in, no one has seen her since the day before, and the family's worst fears are soon confirmed when her body is discovered in a lake. The police can find no evidence to suggest anything other than suicide. This isn't enough to convince her family. To them Lydia was a bright, happy high-achiever, studying hard for college entrance but with a wide circle of friends. What reasons would such a girl have to take her own life?  Her mother Marilyn believes this tragedy must be the work of a perverted killer. Her brother Nathan thinks the boy down the street, Jack, knows more about Lydia's death than he's letting on.  Hannah, the youngest child, always slightly ignored by the rest of her family, catches the others in unguarded moments and sees things they don't. Her father James, meanwhile, paralysed by shock and grief, turns outside the family for support and sympathy, a move which could tear them all apart.

Everything I Never Told isn't a crime novel as such; there's no frantic police search for a serial killer or last minute twist which uncovers a hidden psychopath. Rather, like another stunning debut Carys Bray's A Song for Issy Bradley, it's a portrayal of a family coping with tragedy; a tragedy that, as the Lees' family history is revealed, seems to have been almost inevitable.
Although outwardly an averagely happy, successful family, beneath the surface the Lees had hit a point of being so dysfunctional that something had to give somewhere. Moving forwards and backwards, through the aftermath of Lydia's death, and the events that led up to it, watching events unfold from the perspective of each member of the family, the author piece by piece reveals the secrets the family have hidden and the lies they've spun to each other. The threads lead back to the point when Marilyn, studying hard to break her mother's domestic mould and qualify as a doctor, meets and falls in love with lecturer James Lee, son of Chinese immigrants. James desires nothing more for him and his family than to fit in as average Americans; Marilyn is almost the opposite - she wants to challenge stereotypes and for her favourite daughter to achieve what she didn't. Both are blinkered though and do not see the reality of their children's lives.
The writing is understated and concise, the plot brilliantly constructed, pulling the reader in, and building gradually to the reveal of how Lydia died. For a début, it's a stunner, and I can't wait to read more by this author.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Little, Brown
Genre - adult fiction

Six Stories and an Essay by Andrea Levy

review by Maryom

With such a plain, unadorned title there's no doubt about what you're getting here - a collection of six stories and an essay from award-winning author Andrea Levy. It brings together 5 previously published short stories, spanning twenty years, with a new one written to coincide with the centenary of WW1, and an essay on how writing has helped the author's exploration of her Jamaican heritage and her relationship to the white society she grew up in. Now you might think that stories sound like fun and an essay a bit dull, but I found it equally fascinating -  not just the inside glimpse of the author's inspiration but the contrasting outlooks of Jamaicans, who saw Britain as their mother country, and the British who know next to nothing about Jamaica, and how, after a brief mention of the abolition of slavery, the West Indies barely get a mention in history books.
These themes recur in several of the stories which draw heavily on the experiences of Jamaicans coming to Britain to settle or to volunteer in the armed forces. Their naive veneration of the mother country - and their sharp awakening to the mistrust and prejudice that awaits them. "Loose Change" looks at immigration from a different angle - many of us claim to be sympathetic to the plight of refugees, but would we really put ourselves out for them?
"The Diary" tells the story of an overlooked theatrical dresser who finds a way to get revenge, and in
"Deborah" a child's game turns nasty.

The stories are by turn funny, disturbing, thought-provoking and, most importantly, enjoyable reads. My favourite was incidentally the shortest - "February" with its description of a Jamaican winter, the cool breezes, ripe fruit, and scented flowers - and the twist at the end, the seemingly unbridgeable gap, that it's not at all what an English teacher expects to hear.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher -  Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction, non-fiction, literary, short stories

Plum Puddings and Paper Moons by Glenda Millard

Illustrated by Stephen Michael King

Review by The Mole

Kingdom of Silk Book 5

Scarlet is now 15 and is looking for a part time job. She takes a job in the Colour Patch Café where she meets Anik. Anik is a refugee from his war torn country and many of his family are missing and his village destroyed because of the war.

Life in Cameron's Creek is generally isolated from world events so Scarlet is shocked and extremely upset that such things happen to bystanders in a war zone. Being a Silk she won't take this lying down so she declares peace and Cameron's Creek and organises a rally to support her campaign.

Once again the Kingdom of Silk is affected by the affairs of others and steps up to do anything they can to address their issues. Scarlet doesn't change the world but does make those around her stop and think and voice their opinions.

A suggestion that accepting everything around us without voicing our opinions is not the only way. This book feels like it's for the same age group as the rest of the Kingdom of Silk series but also for the older child.

Publisher - Phoenix Yard Books
Genre - Children's fiction

The Informant by Susan Wilkins

Review by The Mole

Alex Marlow has got "inside" Joey Phelps' criminal empire having befriended Joey, and as a police officer he wants only 1 thing - to put Joey away. Even as the story opens, Marlow has been discovered and very quickly is murdered by Joey in a gruesome and sickening killing.

Kaz, Joey's sister, is released from prison after doing six years for a murder Joey committed because she would not give him up. Kaz has spent the last six years dreaming of a life outside of crime and wants, more than anything, for Joey to join her and give up murder.

Meanwhile the police want DC Mal Bradley to befriend Kaz and turn her against her brother. But is that what they really want that?

And all the time DS Nicci Armstrong is trying to befriend Kaz's sister, Joey keeps the body count rising and Kaz's relationships with Mal and her lawyer keeps getting more and more complicated.

With twists and turns on almost every page this book keeps the readers attention by having very little "down time" as the author keeps moving the goalposts.

The death of Marlow was just a little bit gruesome - and I'm just a little bit squeamish - and happening in the prologue I very nearly put the book down and chose again. I am SO glad I stuck with it. Joey is a psychopath, as I'm sure you've guessed already, and Wilkins portrays this brilliantly which is a little bit disturbing in a way.

The twist at the end came as no surprise as there had been clues given, deliberately, the further we got in although it didn't detract from the telling one bit, although it did explain so much of what had happened. And a happy ending... only for those few it ends happily for.

A great crime thriller that is hard to put down - but you're glad it's over when you turn the last page.

Publisher - Pan Macmillan
Genre - Adult fiction, crime thriller