Sugar Hall by Tiffany Murray - re-read

review by Maryom

In the run up to Halloween publisher Seren Books have been holding a read-a-long of Tiffany Murray's Sugar Hall  - one of the few ghost/horror stories that actually sent shivers down my spine and at times terrified me - so I had to join in! I find a lot of scary stories miss their mark with me - either falling flat or turning to comedy in their desperate attempts to frighten - Sugar Hall didn't.
I thought re-reading a ghost story might be a bit like going back to a crime novel, you know what will happen, all the plot twists, how it ends ...... so how did it go?  Well, actually I found it more terrifying than before ....

Lilia Sugar and her two children have moved from London to her late husband's family home Sugar Hall. It's a place full of secrets, built with money from slave and sugar trade, and it's haunted by one of those slaves - a young boy who saw his mother buried alive, and was then killed by his owner.

On the very first page we meet the ghost -  Lilia's son Dieter is fleeing from something he's seen; he knows it's a ghost, the reader knows it's a ghost but his mother and sister dismiss it as a figment of imagination or an attention-grabbing story. Dieter is lonely, he decides to make friends with the ghost, and, even at the first reading, the reader just knows no good will come of it. Dieter is both attracted and repelled by this slave boy; knows at heart that he should resist him but can't. First time through, I was hooked, wondering what would happen next; this time, knowing what would happen, I was horrified. I just wanted to shake his mother and say "Look at what's happening around you! Do something while you can!" But of course, I couldn't, and the whole ghastly tale reeled out again like a slow-motion car crash.
In some ways it seemed there was more time to 'look around' at the rest of the story, to see the other characters as more than just supporting the main plot. Lilia's story - her flight from Germany just before world war two, her relationships with the men in her life, her barely acknowledged dislike of her daughter - grabbed me more, because I was happy to be distracted from Dieter's growing dependence on the ghost.


It certainly lived up to the horror I'd felt first time .....maybe next year I'll read it again....


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Seren Books
Genre - adult horror ghost story

The Ghosts Who Danced, and other spooky stories from around the world by Saviour Pirotta

illustrated by Paul Hess

review by Maryom

With Halloween just a day or two away, it seems like an ideal time to review this latest collection of folk tales by Saviour Pirotta. These ten stories from around the world are aimed at the younger reader, or listener, so although spooky they're not terrifying. In many of the stories the ghosts are friendly, willing to help those who are kind to them, and even the most frightening ghost can be out-witted.
There are tales of ghostly ships and wayside inns, of ghosts seeking something taken from them, or trying to make amends for things they did while alive, of mysterious dogs that come to the rescue of travellers, and,of course, the ghosts delighted to find a fiddler to play for them while they dance on Halloween.
As with many folk tales, there's a moral element to the stories - basically, be nice to others, including ghosts, and treat them kindly  - ghosts may reward you if you do, by pointing the way to treasure or helping you out in some other way, but turn into a nuisance if you don't!

It would make a gorgeous gift but won't be the sort that sits unread on the shelf. There are colourful atmospheric illustrations throughout, several full pages and many smaller ones scattered among the text, making it ideal to share with younger children while the slightly older will be delighted to read on their own.

This is the full list of stories with their place of origin, and there are more details about them and how the author discovered  them in the back of the book ; The Ghost Ship ( USA); Dogs to the Rescue (Russia); I’ll Be Back (Lithuania); The Ghosts Who Danced (Ireland); The Haunted Farmhouse (England); Them Bananas (Tanzania); Welcome to the Red Palace Inn ( China); The Guest (Brazil); The Ghost and his Uncle (India); Atchoo! (Korea)


Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - ghost stories, illustrated story book,

The Woman Under The Ground, and other stories by Megan Taylor

review by Maryom

I first 'discovered' Megan Taylor through These Seven, a collection of stories promoting Nottingham's bid for UNESCO City of Literature status and her story in that, Here We Are Again, persuaded me that she was an author I wanted to read more by - and this collection has just reinforced that view!

I loved the style of writing, the building of atmosphere, the way it lured me in, often with a false sense of security, and then dropped a bombshell on me!
The over-all tone of this collection is decidedly dark - so don't come looking for sweetness and light, and happy endings; these are a little twisted, a little macabre, and frequently disturbing. While some of the stories explore the darker, hidden side of human nature - children turn out to be far from the darling little angels we fondly imagine, adults are enveloped by loss, regret and guilt - others tell of things 'beyond' nature - strange things that shriek in the night or squat unwelcome at the end of the bed, and wishes that might come fatally true.

Through all of them runs a thread of finding one's identity, and of coming to terms with repressed emotions - maybe The Woman Under The Ground represents those buried parts of ourselves that we wouldn't wish to share with even our nearest and dearest?  I'm content to take things close to face value - to have a story that makes me stop a while and mull it over, but that's all. If, on the other hand, you do enjoy dissecting what you've read, pulling back the layers to reveal inner meanings, you'll find plenty to theorise about.

Something, somewhere, somehow reminded me of Mrs Gaskell's  Curious, If True collection of 'strange tales'. It's a description that fits this collection excellently as there's often an ambivalence about what is real and what imagined. Certainly they've crept under my skin, and now I'm longing for more!


 Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Weathervane Press
 Genre - adult fiction, short stories

The Betrothed Sister by Carol McGrath

 review by Maryom

After the death of her father, King Harold, at the battle of Senlac (Hastings), Thea's family has been split up - her mother has retired out of the world's eye to a convent, her sister Gunnhild is wasting her life away in another; of Thea's brothers, the youngest, Ulf, is being held hostage in Normandy, Magnus has died in an attempt to win back their lands, while the others, with their grandmother and Thea herself, have fled overseas vowing revenge on William the Bastard. In exile at the court of Danish king, Sweyn, Thea and her grandmother work towards finding her a 'match' worthy of her royal blood. When an offer is made on behalf of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, it seems like Thea's dreams are about to come true - but her troubles aren't over yet ....there are many obstacles in her way, years of waiting, first in Denmark, then in Novgorod, while she's 'trained' to become a suitable wife for a Russian prince, and while the power-struggles in Russia are resolved for its a country almost as divided by war-fare as her English home.


This last book in Carol Mcgrath's Daughters of Hastings series tells the story of Thea, daughter of Harold Godwinson and his 'handfasted' wife Elditha. Thea has appeared as a minor character in the previous books but now her story is fully explored. I found this a fascinating read in several ways - Thea's personal story as a homeless wanderer, still cherishing both hopes for happiness and a family, and a grievance against England's Norman conquerors, plays out against the backdrop of Danish and Russian history of the early eleventh century, of which I knew nothing.
It's fiction, of course, so maybe not absolutely 'true' in all ways, but the characters are brought to life as real, breathing people rather than names from a history book (I particularly liked the plain bitchiness of the Danish princesses, even though they made life difficult for Thea), it gives a flavour of the period in general, and the customs of Denmark and Russia at that time - both of which are strange to Thea; she's used to a lot more freedom than the courts of these countries allow women - and doesn't find sitting quietly sewing very suitable to her temperament! Even so, she does come across as more content to wait and let things happen to her, than either her mother (in The Handfasted Wife) or her sister Gunnhild (in The Swan Daughter) but as an outsider,living on the good-will of others, Thea's actions are fa more restricted.
The series as a whole has left me thinking about the lives of these princesses - of how they were caught up in events beyond their control, separated from family, and their lives planned out for them by others. I wonder if any of them found true happiness at all/



 Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Accent Press
 Genre - adult historical fiction

Blood Axe by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

When a 16 year old girl  is found brutally murdered and robbed, killed by a single blow from an axe, the hunt is on for the killer. DI Peterson looks at the only two suspects that are obvious but the question lingers - Who carries an axe unless it's with the intent to murder?

A few days later a jewellery store is robbed and the manager murdered even more brutally and there are only two things that the crimes have in common - stolen jewellery and the use of an axe as the weapon.

With the media making a meal of these killings the police need to get these crimes solved before the murderer can strike again and it becomes a hunt for a serial killer.

Russell, for me, has hardly put a foot wrong in any of her writing although there was a change in style between the early Geraldine Steel's and the later. In the first, the reader knew the identity and was following Geraldine's detection methods and thinking and in the later they became more "whodunnits". In Blood Axe she has combined those techniques extremely well and we spend time "in the head" of the killer (not a pleasant place at all!!) while not knowing their identity - in fact the surprise of their identity is greater than I expected.

DI Peterson is also becoming a more complete character and where I have always felt Geraldine was my favourite - not any more.

We all have moments when we are reading when we want to understand why the detectives don't broaden their search wider or do this or that but I found this to be Russell's best book yet (and there have been a lot of good ones).

If you can stand the tension of being in the head of the killer - whose reasoning is not as balanced as your own, you will love this book - I did.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Heap House by Edward Carey

review by Maryom

The lives of the huge, rambling Iremonger family are inextricably mingled with the rubbish heaps which surround, and at times threaten to engulf, their home, Heap House. Not only have they made their fortune, and their house, from the rubbish, but, out of all the things found in there, a special item is chosen for each Iremonger, given to them at birth and kept close throughout their life. Although the Iremongers are attached to these 'birth objects', they still appear to be just things - but Clod can hear them call out a name; his own sink plug, for example, is named James Henry Hayward. Now his aunt Rosamud has lost her door handle, named Alice Higgs, and the world of the Iremongers is in turmoil. While Clod is enlisted to search Heap House for the door handle, a new servant has arrived from London; her name is Lucy Pennant, and when she and Clod meet they realise there are more things to be uncovered than a mere missing door handle.

This first book of the Iremonger series is a quirky, original read. Carey has built a fantastic steampunk world full of weird but relate-able characters, where plugs, skillets and even a marble mantelpiece have secret names and hide a distressing secret; although so weird it's a world you can fall into and believe in completely. There are illustrations (by the author) to bring the characters to life, and a cut-away diagram displaying the hotch-potch construction of Heap House, with a room salvaged from the Heaps and added on here, and a staircase pushed in there. I know I often say this - perhaps too often - but it's difficult to describe the plot without giving the underlying secret away, but there's a lot of tense adventure, some life-threatening moments, very weird goings-on and, at the bottom of it all, that secret upon which the Iremongers' fortunes have been made.

For anyone who loves the weird and wonderful this is a must read - forget about the target age (10 and over, I'd guess) just read and enjoy! The concept is wondrous, the writing engaging, the tale enthralling - the only downside (slight spoiler), a cliff-hanger ending, isn't too troublesome as the next instalment is already published, and I for one can't wait to read it and find out what happens next!






Maryom's Review - 5 stars
Publisher - Hot Key Books
Genre - steampunk, fantasy, 10+ to adults

Sand Men by Christopher Fowler

Review by The Mole

Lea, Roy and their 15 year old daughter, Cara, have moved Dubai as Roy searches for work. Roy has been recruited to help build a luxury and exclusive holiday resort for the super rich - but health and safety standards are poor and workers keep dying deaths that should not be happening.

Lea is a journalist but is now expected to be a "stay at home" wife focussed on cooking and hosting dinners, but that's not enough for her - she wants to get into local journalism and pursue her own career. She starts to write articles for a local magazine, focussed on how great life is, and will be, at the resort when she hears about children who have gone missing from the construction town.

Christopher Fowler is probably best know for his Bryant and May stories -  stories of murder and detection with a fair bit of humour on the side - but this is a very different kind of novel. From the start the reader is aware that there is at least one mystery death and we are waiting for more. Lea, the main voice of the story, is unaware for a while and when she does hear then these "industrial accidents" are explained with a full technical cause. The pace starts slowly as Lea suspects nothing untoward and it takes a while before the pace really starts to race towards the book's conclusion but is it all paraphrenia?

Having read only the Bryant and May books before I was taken aback by the significant change of style in this book - everything is done differently - and once I got over that I thought it worked magnificently. Fowler is described as a master of horror and crime and this story reaffirms that title. A brilliantly plotted and told story of truly horrific crimes.

Put aside any expectations from Fowler's previous books and you will enjoy this from page one.

Publisher - Solaris

Genre - adult fiction,  crime mystery