Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

 Cushla and Michael first meet one evening in her family's pub just outside Belfast. Their attraction is instant and mutual, but what do a young, single, Catholic teacher and an older, married, Protestant barrister have in common, especially when British soldiers stand armed on every street, and sectarian violence is erupting all around them?

Meanwhile through a boy in her class, Cushla becomes involved in the welfare of a mixed Protestant/Catholic family. She starts out with the best of intentions, but it seems like everything she does just makes things worse. 

Set in 1970s Belfast, Trespasses is a Romeo and Juliet style tale of two people drawn to each other in defiance of everything that stands in their way. 

Beautiful and shocking at the same time, it's told from Cushla's perspective, and the reader can sense the desire sweeping her off her feet, going against everything she considers sensible, and the doubts that plague her about Michael - does he really feel the same, or is she just another extra-marital affair to him?  

It's both wonderful and heartbreaking. A feeling of imminent tragedy hangs over it all, but even though you instinctively know this love affair is doomed, when the end does come your breath catches. it's the sort of novel I want to push into everyone's hands and say 'read this!'.

An astounding debut from Louise Kennedy, and I can't wait to see what she follows it with

Shadowlands by Matthew Green

 Under Britain's streets, fields and lakes lies another landscape of forgotten villages and towns; places that for natural, economic or military reasons have been abandoned and left to decay. Maybe too many of the populace died of plague for the village to be viable, maybe the sea came crashing through doors too often, maybe authority in the form of city corporations in need of water or the Ministry of Defence needing training grounds decided their need was greater than that of the inhabitants, but all over the country remains can be found of places that for one reason or another people left; sometimes voluntarily, sometimes being evicted.

In Shadowlands, Matthew Green takes us on a tour of eight of these places from Skara Brae on Orkney, hidden for thousands of years under sand dunes, to Winchelsea on the English Channel, where not one, but two, towns have fallen foul of coastal conditions - the first washed away by violent storms, the second decaying slowly as its harbour silted and traders left.

On the way, he takes the reader to Wharram Percy, left a ghost town after the Black Death and a subsequent change in farming practices, 

Trellech on the Welsh Marches near Chepstow - once a bustling place feeding the English settlers need for iron armaments and accoutrements of war

Dunwich where a Medieval city on the Suffolk cliffs has gradually crumbled into the sea.

St Kilda which had to be abandoned by its inhabitants when its population dropped to unsustainable levels as young people sought a life beyond their inhospitable, isolated island home.

The lost villages of Norfolk taken over during WW2 for military training, and never given back.

And, the most poignant perhaps because it's still remembered by people who grew up there, the valley of Capel Celyn in North Wales, lost to Liverpool's growing need for water.

Part history book, part travelogue, this is both an engaging and informative read, bringing these locations back to life, and placing their growth and decline within a wider context of social change around them. Green also digresses into how previous visitors/generations have responded to these places - from touristy explorers of the Enlightenment looking for noble savages on the islands of St Kilda, to the romantic poets mourning the passing of Dunwich or Winchelsea.

I've always had a curiosity about the past, and forgotten places such as this have a mysterious pull about them - trying to imagine the lives of the people who lived and worked there, their sadness (or perhaps delight) at leaving - more so than the ruins you might find lurking under a shopping mall, so this books was definitely MY kind of thing, and I'd greatly recommend it to anyone with even a mild curiosity about the past.

Cunning Women by Elizabeth Lee

Following from Francesca May's Wild And Wicked Things, we have another story about witchcraft, but of a rather different sort. Wild and Wicked Things is set in an alternative early twentieth century, and its witchcraft is of its time - very glamorous and full of temptation. Cunning Women is set three centuries earlier, when witchcraft was very much believed in, something to be feared and persecuted, and it's far more down to earth in setting and story.

Sarah Haworth and her family have had to leave their home after the death of her father. They now live in an abandoned house outside the village, and scrape together a living selling potions and cures, which has earned them a reputation as 'cunning women' or witches. Sarah's mother is inclined to encourage this label as she feels it gives them protection as the villagers live in fear of the illness and pain witches might cause; Sarah would just rather live a normal life, and is delighted when Daniel, the local farmer's son, becomes attracted to her, and gives her a job at the farm. 

Then, following a series of strange deaths, a new magistrate arrives, and his eye turns towards the 'cunning women'. Public opinion has turned against the Haworth family, with people seeking to settle old wrongs and grudges. Can Sarah manage to protect her family, and save her relationship with Daniel? In a world set against anyone practising witchcraft, where too many innocent women have already died for the offence, it seems unlikely.

In many ways, this is a familiar story - a historical tale of witchcraft, of seventeenth century persecution of anyone suspected of it, of the personal grudges leading to false accusations and deaths - and, although good enough, didn't enthrall me.

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May

Annie Mason's parents separated when she was young, and her father has remained a distant, virtually unknown figure in her life, but when he dies she inherits his belongings and house on mysterious Crow Island. It's a place with a reputation, for Crow Island is the last refuge of magic in a world from which it's been banned., but Annie despite her misgivings needs to go there to sort her father's property, and there's an added incentive in that it was also the last address Annie had for her long-lost friend Bea.

 Annie is a 'nice girl'; her mother's brought her up to be good, to never question, let alone break, the law forbidding magic, and to only envisage a future of husband and family, but from the moment she arrives on Crow Island Annie is tempted. From the tourist shops selling harmless herb-scented teas, the crows gathering ominously on roofs and fences, to the wild kazam-fueled parties held at the Delacroix house there's a scent of magic in the air. But it's the enigmatic neighbour Emmeline Delacroix, with her dark, mysterious past and gender-bender style that Annie finds most bewitching; despite the warning from her father's friend/solicitor, and even after she uncovers the dark bond forged by Emmeline and Bea, Annie can't help being attracted.

I'm going to make it clear upfront that I know the author - in happier pre-Covid times she helped run the local Waterstones book group I attended - and I heard long ago of her pet fantasy novel - a witchy, gay take on The Great Gatsby, that to be honest I thought sounded a bit weird. But I applied for and received a Netgalley copy, started to read - and loved it! 

It's not remotely a formulaic lesbian re-telling of Fitzgerald's story  but a fantastic read in its own right - dark, wicked and so entrancing. Gatsby dazzled his neighbours with money and alcohol, and no one queried their sources; Emmeline does the same with magic, from the small innocuous potions to perhaps attract a lover, to dark dangerous spells that are bargains sealed with blood and demanding blood (very literally) in payment, 

Much like Gatsby and co, these wild and wicked characters are morally ambivalent at best; messed up by their personal backstories, and with no sense of right and wrong beyond how it fits their needs. No one is out and out 'bad', and not even Annie could claim to be 'snow white'. To my mind, it makes them more interesting and realistic, but in a fantasy novel they may not be to everyone's taste. 

A gentle warning - Wild and Wicked Things may start slowly and quietly but builds through unsettling moments to horror and bloody violence. So, be warned, it's may not be for readers of a tame, easily disturbed disposition. 

Last year I included another, more traditional, Gatsby spin off - Nick by Michael Farris Smith - in my picks of the year; this year Wild and Wicked Things will be up there.

Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett

 

Review by The Mole

Sam Vimes, the head of the nightwatch and sometimes drunk, is not taken seriously by the people of Ankh-Morpork. With guilds legalising most crimes how can you take the guards seriously?

In an aspiration to depose the Lord Vetinari a would be usurper introduces a hero who shall become king. Unfortunately they unleash forces beyond their understanding and get on the wrong side of Vimes as well as Lady Sybil.

It's going to be tough and messy but will the good guys win?

Vimes is another of the enduring and ever popular characters in the series so don't count him out yet.

Oh, and here there do be dragons.

Another fabulous trip to the discworld that puts an explanation to things that occur later in the series. No, you don't have to read them in order but it's perhaps more fun if you can.

Publisher: Transworld

Genre: Fantasy, comedy

The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola

 

Paris 1750 - Since her father's death, Madeleine Chastel has been forced to work in her mother's 'Academie', actually a brothel in a seedy part of Paris catering to all tastes and perversions. Now through one of her mother's clients, a police officer, Madeleine has a chance to escape this sordid life. Someone is needed to spy on the household of Dr Reinhart, a maker of fabulous lifelike automatons. Is Reinhart a talented mechanical engineer suitable to be introduced at the court of Versailles, or is he dabbling in black magic?

Wary of revealing herself, Madeleine manages to work her way into the confidence of the household, particularly that of Reinhardt's seventeen year old daughter, Veronique, but she's also troubled by the strange disappearances of young children from the streets. Parisians are growing scared and angry, gossip spreading about who might be abducting the children, and why. 

The Clockwork Girl is a chilling, atmospheric novel set in mid-18th century Paris, against the backdrop of real historical events in which children disappeared mysteriously. 

The story progresses through the eyes of three women of differing positions in society; Madeleine, now employed as a maid, Veronique, Reinhart's daughter newly returned from a childhood spent in a convent, and Jeanne, Madame de Pompadour, mistress of the king. Through their eyes we're introduced to the extremes of Parisian society - from the lowest depths to the glittering court of Louis XV. It's all too obvious that these two worlds cannot exist beside each other for much longer; that poverty and anger will lead the Parisians to revolt. 

It's slightly 'slow burn' in mood. For most of the book the building of atmosphere,  the gradually unwinding of Madeleine's back story and her current growing fear of something dreadful hiding in plain sight, take priority over action and dramatic events, but it's these aspects, particularly Madeleine's growing unease, that lend credibility to the plot. 

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

 

Review by The Mole

The kingdom is in a state of flux following the death of the king. Having been accidentally stabbed to death and died falling down stairs, his baby son is smuggled out of the castle and ends up in the worst possible place - with Granny Weatherwax. Granny is a good person but with all the parenting skills of a wardrobe. Between the three members of the "coven" they find a home for the child until it's time to restore the throne to the true line. Or something like that.

Here we meet Nanny Ogg, the second of the much loved witches but one who goes through life with a lower moral standard than Granny. Nanny loves her bawdy songs and has an extended family of which she is head.

Then there's Magrat Garlick, the youngster who's read too many books and believes that the rituals and potions are all necessary. Granny can't be doing with all that.

Getting into scrapes then out again, getting others into scrapes and leaving them there, getting it wrong more than they get it right - the three set about bring their order to chaos. Or is it the other way around?

Of course Granny and crew will save the day - Pratchett wouldn't be Pratchett if they didn't. And it's not about the how either - it's all about enjoying the confusion of the journey. 

Another fabulous Discworld story that has been enjoyed for years and will continue to be enjoyed for many years more

Publisher: Transworld

Genre: Fantasy, comedy