The Mole's Christmas reading suggestions...

The problem with a list like this is that any you leave out you seem to be 'knocking' in some way, but that is not the case, it's just the list has to be the one's that made the biggest impact on me.

Maryom has made her choice, which is HERE

Starting with children's and getting older as we go

The Fearsome BeastieA book to share with younger readers that is just good fun.

Ralph is not a spy Laugh out load moments with lots of activities too for young apprentice spies.

Lee On the Dark Side of the Moon

Just simple fun for younger readers with lots of laughs.

The Sons of Rissouli Boys own adventure stuff that they won't put down. Peace and quiet on Christmas afternoon?











Moving on to teenagers and beyond...

The Kiss of Death
A bit daft putting this one in really because it's out of print but if you can find a copy...

Philip Ardagh's Book of Howlers, Blunders and Random Mistakery

If you can bear to have your Christmas interrupted by someone piping up "Did you know...?" then include this one - otherwise get it for yourself and ruin everyone else's peace and quiet!

Spider

This is a very powerful story of speed, adrenaline and fallout - see if they can put it down.

Star of Sakova

I have read some fantasy this year but this one sort of 'sticks' with me more than the rest.









And now to just the adults readers...

The Liberation of Celia Kahn

A well told story of growing up.

Hot Dogs under the Dakota

Another one I keep coming back to as I found the story most intriguing.

Night Watcher

We found that we didn't get on with e-books but of the few I have managed to read that way this one was certainly worth reading.

Return to the Olive Farm

And last, but certainly not least, Carol Drinkwater's experiences certainly made me start to question much about the 'organic' labels.









To all those books that I have read and not included - apologies but I had to choose just 10... (Ssshhhh... she hasn't counted them!)

Night Watcher by Chris Longmuir

Vengeance is whose?
Review by The Mole

Julie's estranged husband is killed. The police are convinced he has committed suicide but Julie knows better. Julie swears vengeance on Nicole, the woman she blames for his death, and starts to stalk her. But Nicole is also being stalked by someone else, for the unhinged individual known as The Watcher has also arrived in Dundee.

Julie ingratiates herself with Nicole and begins to play mind games with her to fuel Nicole's increasing paranoia about The Watcher.

When Nicole is murdered suspicion falls on her latest lover and a disaffected employee whom Nicole has sacked. Meanwhile The Watcher turns his attentions to Julie. Will she be the next person to die?

Maryom read Chris's first book - Dead Wood which won the Dundee International Book Prize for new writers in 2009. She really enjoyed it and found it a crime thriller but also a whodunnit.

I haven't read Dead Wood but I took the opportunity to read Chris's second book, which, unfortunately, is only available as an ebook. Most people associate ebooks with ereaders but many, Chris's included, are available in several formats that can also be read on a PC. Chris sent the PDF version which I could read on a very small, very basic netbook. It is only the second ebook I have read so ebooks still contain some challenges for me.

I would not describe this as a whodunnit because I could see what was going to happen, often well before it did. OK, but I was still powerless to stop it - and that is the power of the crime thriller and Chris has harnessed this power beautifully. Things move fast and while Julie is out to take revenge on Nicole she must join the queue of people out to exact their own vengeance. Even at the end, with the killer in the hands of the police we are left wondering if Julie can now survive and what will become of Bill? When you read the story you will find the answer to one but sadly not the other... It's fiction so I could make my own answer but it's not for me to do that - it's up to Chris...

Extremely powerful crime thriller with twists and turns throughout. Highly recommended and worth battling with the Windows CE PDF viewer for - much easier with other Windows versions.

Published at: Smashwords

Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Buy Night Watcher (Kindle Edition) from Amazon

Dead Wood by Chris Longmuir

Don't Go Down To The Woods

Reviewed by Maryom

Young women are disappearing in Dundee but the police seem unaware of a serial killer out there, hunting down more victims - until bodies are discovered in woods outside the city, the site of a series of murders several years before. Among the victims is the daughter of local gang baron Tony Palmer and he intends to take his own revenge before the police can track the killer down. Who will get to him first?

It took me a while to settle into this plot. There seemed such a lot of characters to be introduced to and I was wondering how many of them were really necessary to the plot. But stick with it past the first 30 pages or so and the story starts to take shape and the tempo improves to a chase against the clock to discover the murderer from a long list of suspects.

There are so many characters that some inevitably feel sketched in rather than fully developed - but I particularly liked the portrayal of the family man/human side of gangster Tony Palmer. This is my sort of crime novel - without much blood and gore and without having to probe inside the killer's twisted mind - though not necessarily to everyone's taste.

Chris Longmuir is a comparatively new author - this novel won the Dundee International Book Prize for new writers in 2009 - and I look forward to reading more from her.

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher Poloygon

Genre - Adult Crime