The Mercenary River: Private Greed, Public Good: A History of London's Water By Nick Higham

Clean water available at the turn of a tap is something we all take for granted, at least in the 'developed' world. If you think about it at all it's when something goes wrong and supply fails, or when a documentary about conditions elsewhere reminds you of the value of water piped to your home. Does anyone wonder where their water actually comes from? Probably not; we've grown to expect it to be there when needed. And does anyone ever wonder about WHO decided to pipe water into our homes, and WHY?

These are the thoughts that prompted Nick Higham to research the history behind London's water system. It's basically a tale of two halves - on one hand of the recognition that fresh water delivered via pipes is a basic need, keeping dirt and disease at bay, especially in over-crowded cities; on the other, the realisation that there's money to be made in providing that service. It shouldn't really come as a surprise that such a basic necessity was so easily turned into a source of profit, and at such an early date, but somehow it does.

Medieval Londoners were supplied with water, surprisingly at no cost, via conduits, but as the city grew, so did its need for water, and, from 1619 with the setting up of the New River company, so did the network of pipes carrying it, and ultimately carrying sewerage away. And with the supply of water came other things - the creation of civil engineering, and a new form of financing; the joint stock corporation. The history of London's water supply is seen to be inevitably linked to so many aspects of life from health and hygiene to powering industry to nepotism and financial corruption. 

Considering the complexity and breadth of the subject, The Mercenary River is very readable, balancing anecdotes about the entrepreneurs, investors, and engineers associated with these colossal projects with the overwhelming amount of facts and figures necessarily involved. It's not a light bedside read but if you've an interest in the who and what and why of the development of society than it's very interesting. 

Traitor in the Ice by K J Maitland

In the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot, King James and his officials are looking to track down one of the perpetrators, perhaps even the mastermind behind the whole affair, who goes by the false name of Spero Pettingar, One of their agents is sent to investigate rumours that Pettingar may be in hiding at Battle Abbey, but is soon found dead, struck down and left to freeze in the dreadful cold. So Daniel Pursglove is despatched on the same mission - to infiltrate the household of Battle Abbey, home of Lady Magdalen Montague, a fervent Catholic and known supporter of priests and possible traitors - and to track down the murderer. 

Daniel finds a house of many secrets - a few hidden priests seems to be the least of them - and as with any secret of a dangerous nature people are prepared to kill to protect it. Daniel, obviously, has only his wits to help him solve the crime; no fingerprints or DNA, no minuscule spy cameras to catch people's movements, and it makes for a story that's very different to a modern thriller. The mix of fiction and historical fact is well done, with details such as Daniel's day-to-day role in the household, and the dire freezing winter of 1607 adding to the atmosphere and authenticity. 

This is the second 'outing' for Daniel Pursglove, and I think it's better to have read the first before this. There are a couple of initially confusing flashbacks to his past which I assume would make more sense if I'd read the books in order.

 

Call Me A Liar by Colette McBeth

Review by The Mole

I'm very late in picking this book up but fancied a change from what I'd been reading and the summary did sound worthwhile.

"You could say it started with vanity. We believed we were special. But the truth is we were simply vulnerable.

One of them is lying.
One of them is guilty.
No one is safe.
...
This is the chilling story of what happens when the idealism of youth turns toxic. Can it ever be justified to do bad things for the greater good?"

I worked in IT for many years and early on I had the reaction "NO!! It wouldn't be done like that!" but carried on and was thankful I had. The role of IT is merely a plot device to help with the scene setting, to establish the characters, and to set the ball in motion.

Each chapter is from one characters perspective and the voice is sometimes first person and sometimes third - sometimes going over how other people saw events, sometimes advancing the story line.

It builds to an ending that I certainly hadn't expected (and I cheated by skipping to the last page - I know, a capital crime!) and I was still taken by surprise by the ending. At times violent I found myself wanting to tell the characters "go on speak up!" but then realising that I saw what was happening to all of them while they were limited to their own experiences.

A great read that kept me page turning and one I'd certainly recommend to thriller and mystery readers.

Publisher: Headline
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Adult

The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements

review by Maryom

Scarcross Hall sits high on the moors, bleak and isolated, but for Mercy Booth this place is home; she's as hefted to the spot as the sheep she and her elderly father raise on the moorland.

Old rumours of horrific events, and the possibility of a curse on the place, have never troubled her before, but of late a creeping presence is unsettling her. Noises are heard at night in unused rooms, small items are going missing, and, at times, Mercy has sensed a shadowy figure watching her.

Taking on a new man to help with lambing does nothing to settle her mind, and, as the year turns, the odd incidents become more frequent and far more disturbing in nature. Something evil really does seem to be stalking the inhabitants of Scarcross Hall, perhaps seeking some form of retribution ...

Set in the years after the Civil War, the Coffin Path is a dark, atmospheric tale - not quite a ghost story, in my opinion, but a spine-tingler nonetheless. Mercy is an independent self-reliant woman, taking part in the day to day practicalities of running the farm, and used to the bleakness of her surroundings and the hardships encountered there - so not one to be disturbed by a few odd night-time noises. 

The spooky disturbing atmosphere is quickly established, with Mercy's feeling of someone constantly watching, and her equivocal attitude towards the new man, Ellis, whose arrival coincides with an increase in strange occurrences around the hall, but somehow, somewhere around the halfway mark, the tale lost its grip on me, as if the tension and creepiness had peaked too early. Fortunately, the ending picks up again, with revelations about the Booth family's past coming thick and fast, and over turning much of what Mercy herself had been brought up believing.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Headline Review
Genre - adult historical supernatural fiction, 

The Thousand Lights Hotel by Emylia Hall

review by Maryom

For thirty years, Kit's family has been tiny, made up of just her and her mother.  She was brought up never knowing her father's name, merely that he was a "not very nice" man, who died before she was born, and having no real idea why her mother chose to leave Italy for England. To press her mother for details always seemed to drag up such bad memories that Kit stopped asking. Then, as she lies dying in hospital, her mother admits the truth - Kit's father is still alive, and his name is Valentino Colosimo.
Weighed down by grief, Kit decides to go in search of the only relative she has - maybe to confront him with the anger her mother hoarded for all those years, maybe just to find some answers.

Tracking him down to the Hotel Mille Luci on Elba, Kit discovers a man nothing like her expectations. This Valentino is charming and kind, welcoming to all his guests, catering for their smallest needs, trying to anticipate every desire. Kit is taken aback - this surely can't be the man her mother despised so much? While she's trying to build up the courage to confront him, an added complication comes along in the shape of Oliviero, the hotel's chef, to whom Kit finds herself attracted before discovering he's presumably her half-brother! 

The Thousand Lights Hotel is Emylia Hall's fourth novel, and another one I've completely loved. The story is one of a young woman searching for identity and a place to belong, of the complexities of personal relationships, the steadfastness of love, and the sometimes disastrous results of trying to do the right thing. There are misunderstandings, and twists and turns enough for a crime novel, on the way to Kit and Valentino finally unravelling what happened thirty years before.
BUT the extra somethings that bewitched me and made me fall completely in love with the book were, firstly, the atmospheric setting - a cliff-side garden filled with an abundance of flowers, herbs and shrubs, a terrace strung with twinkling lights, the sea as backdrop. It's not the same, but there's a lot that reminded me of the garden of San Salvatore in The Enchanted April  and the feeling that as near as is possible here's a little piece of paradise on earth. For the ladies visiting San Salvatore, though, Italian food is a mystery, something to be braved and endured, whereas Hall and her characters delight in it; which brings me to the second wonderful aspect of this book - the food!  From breakfast pastries, through biscuits of almonds and chocolate fresh from the oven, platters of antipasti with sunset-coloured aperitifs as the sun goes down, to dinners of pasta in all its shapes and tastes, with breads strewn with salt, rosemary and even strawberries, every morsel is a joy and I wanted to try it all! Hall's evocation of Hungarian food in The Book of Summers hooked me in the same way, and her love of these tastes, textures and flavours shines through; it's like watching Nigella enthuse as she whips up a little something in her studio kitchen.

The Thousand Lights Hotel is a perfect beach read, but not a book you'll casually throw away at the end of summer. It's one to treasure, savour it as you might the food, to read in winter when summer seems so far away, and dream of being at the Hotel Mille Luci.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - adult,

How To Be a Grown Up

review by Maryom

For any of you (and, yes, maybe that includes me too) who've ever wondered what the secret is to being an adult, here is Grazia "Agony Aunt" Daisy Buchanan to help. Daisy has made her share of mistakes, with jobs, love, sex, health, and, the biggest, most secret one of them all, money, and now she's drawing on those experiences to offer advice on the minefield that is 'adulting'.


Now a book offering advice on, well, anything, can easily be dry and lecturing in tone, but How To Be A Grown Up is far from that. Daisy offers her advice with a large dollop of humour, and isn't afraid to laugh at herself and her past mistakes, making for a fun, enjoyable read even if you feel you don't need her help. Sometimes her life reads like that of a rom com heroine - messing up at work, being unable to remember the 'night before' or falling for the wrong man, time and again - but along the way Daisy has come up with a plan for surviving adulthood.

 Although aimed primarily at 20-somethings, fresh out of university, and experiencing the world truly on their own for the first time, suddenly without the emotional or financial support of family or long-term friends, it's a book in which lots of us, of any age, could find useful advice. My route to adulthood was very different to Daisy's - I was married with a mortgage at 19, and my first child was born when I was 21 - so I never had wild careful years in my twenties. Even so Daisy's advice would have been helpful - particularly on learning to relax, take time out for oneself, and not dressing to impress or how you feel you 'should' dress, but aiming for something which expresses your individual style.

Obviously there's no simple answer to the problems we encounter in life, but merely knowing that we're not alone, that others go through the same things, suffer the same embarrassments, fears and doubts, can help in itself - it's believing that our problems are unique that often makes them crippling. I'm definitely not the target demographic, but I loved this book, above all because it's fun. Not all the advice will suit everyone (spending anything more than 5 minutes quickly washing my hair in the shower would seem like a chore to me, not a pleasure) but it will start you thinking about how you might take steps to improve your life.


There's only one snag - I think my teen may have been hoping that it would teach me how to be more dignified and less foolish, but actually it's reinforced my tendency to embrace my awkward, inappropriate side, and just be myself.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - self-help, non-fiction

The Last Legionnaire by Paul Fraser Collard

review by Maryom

Jack Lark has, after many years' absence overseas, found himself back home - at his mother's gin palace in the East End of London. His time in the army, under a variety of aliases, has changed him but he thinks he's now ready to settle down and pick up life where he left it. Things aren't as straight-forward as that though - his mother is having to pay off local 'heavies' for protection, and Mary, the girl he thought he loved, is now a grown woman with a son to look after. Jack soon finds himself mixed up in trouble, and again indebted to army intelligence officer Major Ballard who has a new task for him overseas - this time in Italy, where French and Austrian troops are massing for war.

I've always rather liked Jack Lark and his adventures, and I'm pleased to see that the author is allowing him to grow and change with time, not to remain the impetuous young man he was in the Crimea (The Scarlet Thief) but become more mature, self-aware and able to see the down-side of his chosen career; even the victorious side leaves dead and mutilated soldiers on the field, and Jack now acknowledges than some day he could easily be one of them. This doesn't mean though that he's going to stand back well out of the way of danger; he's supposed to be on more of a mercy mission than actually engaged in the fighting, but Jack is Jack, and if there's a pitched battle or low-level skirmish around then somehow or other he'll find his way to it!


As I've come to expect from Paul Fraser Collard, The Last Legionnaire is a fast-moving action adventure which brings to life an odd bit of history that most of us are probably not aware of. (Although 'the Battle of Solferino' had a vague familiarity to it, I couldn't have said where or when it took place, and certainly had no idea about the involvement of the French Foreign Legion or the origins of the Red Cross). Collard isn't afraid to present the horrors of battle, so be prepared for violence, gore and lopped off body parts. None of this is gratuitous wallowing in blood and guts, but presenting war as it is (or was) and an important part of Jack's development.



Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - adult historical adventure

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

review by Maryom



Even before he moved to London, Richard Mayhew was warned that he would have a long way to travel, and that his journey would start with doors ...
For three years Richard's life has been uneventful. He has a steady office job, a steady girlfriend, and plans to settle down and marry, but things are about to change dramatically through an act of kindness. On his way out to dinner one evening, he stops to help an injured girl lying on the pavement, and takes her back to his flat. He assumed the only consequences would be irritating his fiancee, but matters are far more serious than that. For the girl is named Door (due to her ability to find and open them), she's the only surviving member of her family, the same assassins who murdered them are now pursuing her, and, most importantly, she comes from London Below, a shady world that exists beneath and between the streets and buildings of the capital. Some people are born there, some fall between the cracks of the 'real' world and end up there, some, like Richard, encounter its citizens and find themselves trapped between the two worlds. Having helped Door once, he finds he must help again if only to find a way to get home, and, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, Richard is off on an adventure in a world that's familiar but wonderfully weird.

No book lover can be entirely unaware of Neil Gaiman but somehow although I'd read many of his short stories and a novel or two, I'd not quite appreciated the full breadth of his writing. Since reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, all that has changed and I can't get enough!

Reading Neverwhere is like being taken back to childhood, to great fantasy adventures such as The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, which bridge the gap between our everyday world and a hidden fantastical one, but told here in a way to appeal to adults and older teens.

So what specifically is to love about Neverwhere?

Well, first and foremost that parallel world of London Below hidden behind an overlooked doorway, or in an abandoned Tube station, with a 'Floating Maket' that moves from place to place (often familiar London landmarks), a labyrinth guarded by the Beast of London and too many marvellous sights and sites to describe here.
The characters - from Richard, an innocent from London Above, trapped against his will in a world full of danger and excitement; Door, seeking to avenge the death of her family; a female bodyguard who specialises in killing off deadly monsters lurking in the tunnels and sewers beneath cities all over the world, and known only as Hunter; the Marquis de Carabas who carries his life rather differently to mere humans; to angels, temptresses, a bird-man who makes his home on roofs, and a pair of hit-men, currently hired to track down Door, and disappointed when their appetite for killing can't be assuaged. Happily though, it's an urban fantasy that manages to entertain and thrill without the inclusion of vampires!
The way Gaiman has taken familiar place-names, twisted and re-invented them with wholly different meanings - you'll never think of Earl's Court, Down Street, Shepherd's Bush or The Angel, Islington in the same way again.
And ... despite a lot of the story taking place underground, I never once felt claustrophobic!

It's a non-stop adventure, full of danger, excitement and false trails, where, as you half-expect, friends can be disguised as foes, and vice versa.
I absolutely adored this, and much like Richard, didn't want to leave the World of London below, once the adventure's end was reached. Better than The Ocean at the End of the Lane? That's a hard call. I loved both, and wouldn't like to have to pick between them.



Now for a word about some 'technical' matters; this isn't the first version of Neverwhere, in fact several previous editions have appeared - first it was a TV mini series of 1996, then there was a tie-in book, followed by a US edition which explained all those quirky British things that might be meaningless to any foreign reader. This new version brings the best bits of all these together, adds some wonderful,atmospheric illustrations by Chris Riddell, a Q+A with the author and a short story How The Marquis Got His Coat Back set in the same world of London Below to make a gorgeous collectors' edition, a special present for a die-hard Gaiman fan, or just a wonderful 'introduction' for a newcomer like me.

Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Headline 
Genre - Adult/YA urban fantasy

Eden Gardens by Louise Brown

review by Maryom

In a tumble down old house, in a poor part of Calcutta, live Maisy, her Mam, and their servant, Pushpa. Mam's dreams of marrying into riches among the British rulers of India haven't worked out, and particularly since the death of her husband, the family has fallen into poverty. To make ends meet, Mam 'entertains' a series of gentlemen friends, while planning that Maisy will be the one to mend their fortunes through an advantageous match.
Maisy has other ideas though. To her mother's dismay as a child she loved to explore the streets and bazaars of the 'Indian' side of town with Pushpa, as a teenager she falls in love with Sunil Banerjee, the son of her tutor, and a supporter of the Quit India movement. As the Second World War breaks out, and the end of the British Raj looks in sight,  Mam's hopes and dreams begin to crumble ... but she still is determined to shape Maisy's future.

To be honest when this book first arrived for review, I didn't think it was going to be my kind of read - but, out of curiosity, I read a few reviews here and there, decided to give it a go, and found I rather liked it!

The story unfolds from two very different perspectives - that of Maisy and Pushpa - which gives a nicely balanced, and sometimes very different, view of both the background and unfolding events. Maisy's starts out as a child's eye view of the world - of her mother's drinking, relationships with a variety of men, the happier times when her father was still alive, the hustle and bustle of the crowded streets; Pushpa's view is far more realistic and down to earth; her life hasn't been easy, and working for Maisy's family offers her a degree of security she's not had before. She's also privy to the secrets behind Maisy's parents' marriage but as a loyal servant is willing to keep them. the only drawback was that both accounts seem to be written at some pint far in the future, and the immediacy of events occasionally seems dimmed by time. The novel is set against the backdrop of World War Two and the upheaval that came with the creation of an independent India but these political events seem merely that - a backdrop. Pushpa is more affected by them but for Maisy and her mam they just seem a trifling inconvenience.
As Maisy grew up though, I came to care for her less and less. She seemed too willing to drift along with her Mam's plans, instead of striking out on her own, as I would have liked her to do. Even though it turned out more 'romantic' that I'd usually read, I did enjoy it.

Maryom's review - 3.5 stars
Publisher - Headline Review
Genre - adult fiction, historical fiction, 

The Butterfly Summer by Harriet Evans

review by Maryom

Nina Parr's father died on an Amazon expedition when she was only a few months old so she has grown up knowing little of him and nothing of his family. Then a chance encounter makes her begin to question everything. An elderly woman insists she recognises Nina, claims she knows her family and that Nina is the heir to Keepsake, an ancient country house surrounded in mystery. Nina's at an awkward point in her life - drifting along, stuck in a dead-end job, divorced for two years but still attracted to her ex - and she feels that following up these hints of a family she's never known will help her 'discover' herself and move on.
Alongside Nina's story runs that of her grandmother Teddy. Brought up as the future owner of Keepsake, she wants nothing more than to leave it and all it stands for.

The Butterfly Summer is a combination of family saga and personal discovery; the two playing out alternately, as the reader follows Nina in the present day, and Teddy in the 1930s. I loved the way this story started - the intrigue of a hidden family history, the hints of something very like a family curse, and the mystery of an old house buried deep in the Cornish countryside, all added up to something Daphne du Maurier might have written. But whereas I found Nina an interesting character whose story continued to hold me throughout, I soon grew to dislike Teddy, for being too self-centred, too immersed in her illicit love affair at the expense of others, and her tale actually became rather predictable.
As the two stories unfold there are, perhaps necessarily, several big plot twists. Now, for such a twist to be believable, there has to be a certain amount of forewarning in the way of hints that the reader might or might not pick up on, but (and perhaps blame it on reading too many crime novels) in this case I found that the clues were so obvious that some of the 'twists' came as no surprise.

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

Death Do Us Part by Steven Dunne

review by Maryom

DI Damen Brook is taking some well-earned leave, walking the Derbyshire countryside and trying to bond with his daughter Terri - but things aren't working out the way he'd hoped. Terri is clearly troubled by something - chain smoking, and drinking heavily each evening - and everything Brook says seems to put her more on edge. Then he receives a letter from a murderer he helped to convict, claiming that a recent murder investigation has been totally bodged by elderly investigating officer, DI Ford. At first Brook's inclined to dismiss it as attention-seeking ramblings but then he begins to wonder...

It all adds up to make Brook more than happy to lend a hand when his DS, John Noble, requests help on a double murder enquiry. 

In a quiet Derby suburb, an elderly couple have been murdered, cleanly, with single shots to the heart, in a style more akin to a gangland execution than a robbery-gone-wrong shooting. Noble also feels there may be links to a similar killing the previous month in a different area of the city - coincidentally another of DI Ford's cases. 

Although I read crime novels before, since I started blogging about books, I've read so many good thrillers that an extra hook is needed to make an individual story or author's work stand out. Steven Dunne's thrillers always hold on to that edge for me. Firstly, for the simple reason that they're set in my home city, Derby - though I hope that we don't have quite so many murderers in our midst as his books would imply! He's created a believable but troubled detective in Damen Brook, always provides a good array of suspects, and also does what might be called 'a good line' in murderers; not a psycho who'll just attack the first person to hand but someone with a warped mind who feels his actions are justified.

Death Do Us Part, with DI Brook making his sixth appearance, is no exception. While most of the action is safely on the far side of town, one murder scene is only a couple of miles from my door. Brook himself seems to be on the way to ridding himself of his personal demons at last - but unfortunately they seem to have moved on to his daughter Terri, whose life looks like it's descending into chaos. There's an excellent line-up of suspects, each of them seemingly quite capable of being the murderer, and, without descending to the squealing tyres of a tv car chase, there's a suitably dramatic ending.

Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Headline 
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

review by Maryom

After an absence of many years, the middle-aged narrator has returned to the area in which he grew up, to attend a funeral. But instead of going along with the other mourners, he heads off to visit the, now redeveloped, site of his childhood home, and the farm down the lane where his friend Lettie Hempstock lived. Sitting by the farm pond, he finds himself recalling things that happened when he was a child - things which through the intervening years have been forgotten; the suicide of his family's lodger, the unleashing of supernatural forces, and the stand that he and Lettie took against them ...

I was so over-whelmed by this that, for once, I'm lost for words to say, other than "Wow". I've read other Neil Gaiman books, even own a couple, but never really considered myself a huge fan. The Ocean at the End of the Lane may have changed all that!

You may have guessed, I loved this book. I don't think I've been this gripped by a fantasy novel since I first read Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen as a child. This story has much of the same feel - it too starts in the real world but soon supernatural horrors are bursting in from another world/dimension, there are strands of myth and folklore running through it, and our hero, the narrator, finds himself caught up in the very centre of the struggle to contain and expel those horrors. Fortunately, he has three generations of Hempstock women on his side -  the old grandmother, the mother, and eleven-year-old Lettie who seems wise beyond her years.

Although the hero is a boy of seven, it's not a children's book - my childhood self would have been terrified - though I'm sure it will appeal to many teens as well as adults. I, meanwhile, will be off to the library to borrow as many Neil Gaiman books as they have!


Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Headline Publishing
Genre - adult, YA, teen,  fantasy, 

Tastes Like Fear by Sarah Hilary

review by Maryom

DI Marnie Rome and her team have been searching for missing teenager, May Beswick, for twelve weeks, so when a girl is spotted leaving the site of a car crash, their first hope is that it might be her. But this girl, covered in scratches and dressed only in a man's shirt, has disappeared too, seemingly walking on auto-pilot, into the path of traffic but away again without harm. Following the trail of this unknown girl leads Rome and her DS, Noah Jake, into the world of homeless teens living rough on the streets and a sinister man who offers help and shelter but only on his increasingly controlling terms.

I've been saying this here and there on social media since I first read this, but it's worth saying again - I think Tastes Like Fear is Sarah Hilary's best book yet! It's written in a way to entice the reader in - alternating the investigation from Rome and Jake's point of view with first person insights into the world of the 'rescued' girls, using dialogue to set the scene, forward the plot and reveal character, and, of course, delivering a tense, tightly-plotted story-line.

With a mystery girl appearing and vanishing like a figment of imagination, not quite on page one but nearly, I was hooked immediately. Following the twists and turns of the team's investigation I was variously chilled, intrigued, shocked, and frequently surprised - for the shadowy world where runaways live almost in plain sight is one in which people are rarely what they seem to be; not only the man known as 'Harm', who is menacing and believable enough for the reader to feel the fear he radiates, but other characters as well. (I'm not going to list the others for fear of spoilers, though most parents won't be surprised to know that their teens keep all sorts of secrets from them)

Hilary's special knack has always been to get inside the head of her, frequently warped, characters, and she does that again here, entering the mindset of the teenage runaways, looking for somewhere to belong and call 'home', and 'Harm' who offers this to the girls; she presents even the villain as a believable complex person, for whom at times, it's possible to feel understanding if not quite sympathy.

As you'd expect, the villain's true identity is kept a closely guarded secret till the end, although, in retrospect, the clues leading to it were there all along, so it doesn't spring out as a total, unbelievable, surprise.

This is most definitely a series that goes from strength to strength, so I'm definitely looking  forward to what the author has in store for Marnie Rome and Noah Jake on their next appearance.

Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Headline Publishing
Genre - adult, crime, police procedural,

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood

review by Maryom

One hundred and four year old Ona Vitkus is an extremely private person; she doesn't make friends easily, doesn't share her life, thoughts or memories with everyone she meets; the neighbours, if they think of her at all, just dismiss her as an old woman with nothing interesting to tell. Then the local scout group send round a boy to help in the garden. He's eleven years old, with a passion for making lists, collecting weird things and knows all there is to know about Guinness World Records. He's also an excellent listener and soon draws Ona into talking about her life - hazy memories of her childhood in Lithuania, sharper ones of running away from home, marriage, children, and the one true friend she had -  while at the same time drawing her into his and inspiring her with things she could still achieve, possibly even her own world record.

Then one day, tragedy strikes, and he stops coming. After a couple of weeks, his father, Quinn, turns up instead, sent by his ex-wife to continue his son's commitment, and Ona must, in turn, inspire him with her new-found ambitions

The One-in-a-Million Boy is a story of a most unusual friendship, and of three lonely people brought together by tragedy, helping each other to heal their emotional wounds, both current and long-held, to put grief behind them and move on to more fulfilling lives. 

Ona has lived a solitary life for too long, almost just sitting waiting for her death, hoarding her memories like junk stored in an attic but never letting them out. Sharing them, and engaging with others again gives her a new lease of life.

Quinn's is a life of lost ambitions - both as a musician, and as father and husband - yet he continues in the belief that pursuing them is what he should be doing, while Belle, his twice-married, twice-divorced, ex-wife, is similarly trapped by her on/off relationship with Quinn. Ona oddly proves the catalyst to them re-assessing their lives.

The story emerges from a mix of present day narrative, flashbacks to Ona's conversations with the boy, his recordings of her life story and his lists - with Ona's reminiscences moving towards their conclusion alongside Quinn and Belle's currently unfolding story-line.

There's a fine line between heart warming and being swamped with sentimentality, and, with its themes of the healing power of friendship, of learning to let go of the past and move on, this story could easily have fallen on the wrong side of it but the author deftly avoids it. 

I liked the way the story shows that everyone, even the unremarkable old lady you'd pass on the street, has a tale worth listening to, and maybe we should stop and listen more to what our neighbours could tell us. On the other hand, particularly on reflection, I wasn't too happy with the feeling that the boy needed to die for his parents to find happiness. (It is though after all only a story, and not everyone will see it that way)

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - Adult fiction

A Savage Hunger by Claire McGowan

review by Maryom

It's two years after the events of The Silent Dead and Paula Maguire is getting ready to settle down and marry her teenage sweetheart, though not without a few last minute qualms. She's distracted from her personal life though by the disappearance of a student, Alice Morgan, daughter of an important official in the Home Office. Alice was last seen at the remote church outside Ballyterrin where she was doing research, and an important holy relic has disappeared too - the only traces left behind are some bloodstains. Is it pure coincidence that this is the same spot from which another young woman disappeared, back in 1981? or could the two cases be in some strange way connected?

In this fourth case for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire, a lot has changed - the Disappeared Persons unit has been disbanded, some of its members demoted, others moved away, and Paula's private life seems to have settled down (though maybe not for long).
As with any good crime novel, there are numerous suspects and leads that spin off in the wrong directions, but being Northern Ireland, the past, particularly the years of the Troubles, seems ever-present. So while the team work out the hidden secrets behind the present-day crime, things that have been swept under the carpet in the name of the Good Friday Agreement have a nasty habit of popping up again.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - adult crime 

The Road Beneath My Feet by Frank Turner

review by Libby Mayfield

On September 23rd 2005, Frank Turner played his last show with Million Dead. On April 13th 2012, he played Wembley with his band, The Sleeping Souls. Over the course of several EPs and albums, dozens of tours and more than a handful of transport disasters, last minute shows, and drunken nights, the singer/songwriter tells his story of playing in the back of a pub to playing to tens of thousands of people. 

With the title taken as a line from one of his own songs, The Road Beneath My Feet tells the almost unbelievable story of what can be achieved through sheer hard work and resilience, but it's not all glory and good friends. Turner speaks frankly, often brutally, about the harsh reality of a life on the road, from the predictable - long, silent drives for hundreds of miles across America or nights sleeping on floors - to the wildly unexpected - a dead deer or being totally lost in the English countryside. I'm not one to laugh out loud at books, or to be moved to tears of sadness, joy, and laughter by one, so perhaps it's the fact that every anecdote, no matter how self critical, is true that makes this an exception. 
Disregard any worries you might have that the stories will be a shoddily put together collection of scraps of half-forgotten tales; you'll be surprised by his ability to draw you into the atmosphere of his live shows and the grittiest moments of living out a suitcase.

Frank Turner is a humble man, and though he's obviously and rightfully proud of what he's achieved in the six and a half years the book takes place over, he's never one to brag about it. His passion for music is blatantly obvious and no matter how many hundreds of people he plays to, he remains down to earth. It works well as a biography, but for some people The Road Beneath My Feet could be a good guide on how to treat the chaotic music industry correctly. 

You don't need to be a fan of Frank Turner's music to be shocked and moved by some of the tales he has to tell; but if you are, you'll gain a new insight into the backdrop for some of his songs.

For any budding musician, this will be the book that decides for you if you want to pursue your dream further, and for any fan of adventure, this will be the book that shows you how many adverse situations one person can battle through.

Publisher - Headline
Genre - autobiography, music

The Lone Warrior by Paul Fraser Collard

review by Maryom

Jack Lark has earned his army discharge papers and is now free to live his life as he chooses - but India still has adventures and danger left in store for him. While he's waiting for a boat back to England, Jack gets involved with the rescue of a young woman, Aamira, from an exclusive gaming club, and escorting her half way across India to her home in Delhi lands him smack in the middle of trouble, as their arrival coincides with the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny. Despite his army discharge, despite the danger, Jack can't help but join in the fight to restore British rule....
This fourth Jack Lark story finds our hero still in India just as the Mutiny of 1857 breaks erupts. As a fighting man, one who's extremely good at his 'job', Jack isn't going to run away and hide, but feels he must join in with the defence of the British colony. Increasingly though, he finds it difficult to take the attitudes of many Army officers - towards the men under their command, their defeated enemies and the actual fighting itself. Although as capable a "killing machine" as ever, Jack's beginning to be sickened by the aftermath of battle, the personal tragedies he sees and ultimately by what he himself does. As always, Collard writes in a style that captures that allows the reader to feel there in the action, to share the tedium of laying siege for months under the burning Indian sun, the fear and daring of battle, the automated response that shuts down Jack's emotions but, increasingly, his disgust at his actions and those of the officers around him. By the end of this adventure he's definitely a sadder, wiser man, more mature in his outlook on life and, in my opinion, a better man for it. 

There's more than a touch of James Bond about Jack as this story opens - with him stalking into a gaming club, looking every inch the sort of man who belongs there, but having a very different purpose in mind to the other customers. Even his exit, fighting his way past guards and servants with a beautiful young woman to protect, has that same dangerous, glamorous vibe to it ...and I wonder if this is the way Jack's story will now unfold....

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - adult historical adventure

The Silent Dead by Claire McGowan

review by Maryom

Five people, four men and a woman, have gone missing from the area around Ballyterrin, near the Northern Ireland/Eire border. All were members of a breakaway Republican group, all suspected, tried, but not convicted, of having planted a bomb which killed sixteen innocent by-standers. Perhaps they've decided to leave the area completely - though for all five of them to do so on the same day seems unlikely - but then bodies start to turn up..... and DI Guy Brooking and his missing persons unit realise they're looking at kidnapping and murder. Who could be behind this increasingly grisly series of deaths - another branch of the Republican movement, one that's now more interested in promoting the peace process and legitimate political careers? Loyalists looking for revenge? Or maybe someone with closer links to the bomb victims?


This third book of the Paula Maguire series sees her caught up in an unusually disturbing case, one which raises issues about punishment and retribution. Popular opinion considers the missing five as terrorists, holding them responsible for a dreadful crime, placing a bomb on a busy high street; should they be entitled to police protection? Wouldn't the world be safer without them?  As the fifth anniversary of the bombing approaches, with the unveiling of a memorial planned, DI Guy Brooking and his team are working against the clock to find out who is responsible for these disappearances.
 Despite being seven months pregnant, and absolutely everyone she knows advising her to take things easy, Paula is convinced that as a forensic psychologist she can play a helpful role in finding the kidnappers and, of course, it helps distract her from the problems of her private life - small things like having a baby in a few weeks time and not being able to name the father, and the ongoing search for her 'disappeared' mother. 
 Set against the backdrop of modern Northern Ireland, Claire McGowan tells a story that will hook you with its twists and turns, but leave you wondering about the deeper issues behind it. It portrays a town still trying to come to terms with its past during the years of the Troubles but trying to build a lasting peace,despite having once been on opposing sides. This is seen through Paula's eyes, with her mother never having been officially accounted for, and through the long terms effects on the bomb victims' families, for whom nothing will ever be the same again.

This isn't a story that's easy to read or one for the squeamish - there are graphic descriptions of the injuries caused by a bomb blast that will upset anyone - but at its heart lies a interestingly knotty moral dilemma. The missing five haven't been found guilty of the crime they're accused of - is it right for others to take justice into their own hands? What do you think?

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - adult crime


Paula Maguire 1; The Lost
Paula Maguire 2; The Dead Ground

The Sea Between Us by Emylia Hall

review by Maryom

 When her parents decide to move and live by the sea in Cornwall, Robyn Swinton doesn't expect to settle and make her home there - after all she's already finished her first year at university and is looking forward to striking out on her own in some more glamorous, bustling, generally exciting place like London. Then she discovers her own private cove almost at the end of the garden and the beginnings of a love affair, or two; one with surfing, the other with Jago, the boy-next-door. For when a boy rescues a girl from the sea, they have to fall in love, don't they? If only life were that simple!


This, Emylia Hall's third novel, is the nearest yet to a straight forward love story. The relationship between Robyn and Jago grows and changes over a seven year span, as instant attraction turns to something deeper, but fate seems determined to push them apart. Theirs is a story of missed chances, of so often being in the wrong place at the wrong time, of letters and messages going astray, of other relationships getting in the way - a little bit like Friends' Ross and Rachel, a little like Emma and Dexter from David Nicholls' One Day - but while it's a love story, there's so much more to it than that.
What I've loved about Emylia Hall's previous books, and has made them stand out for me above so many others, has been the capturing of place and atmosphere; in The Book of Summers it's the hot, lazy days of Hungarian summers; in A Heart Bent Out of Shape it's the snow-filled streets of Lausanne in winter. This time, she's chosen a setting closer to home - the far west of Cornwall - and almost every page is filled with yearning for the sea and surf, from the shock of the first cold wave to the elation of a few seconds upright catching a wave, she captures that tug that the sea exerts on many of us, a longing to throw oneself in and become part of it. From her first surfing attempt with a huge board and her wetsuit on back to front, comical but charming in the way of a toddler's first steps, Robyn is hooked on it!
I also loved the artistic passion that permeates the story - from Robyn's attempts to capture the pull and sweep of the waves or the play of light on the ocean through painting, to Jago's instinctive understanding of wood or the 'high' that Eliot gets playing music on stage in front of a live crowd. It's very much a book fizzing with the joy of life, and the delight in finding the thing that one 'must' do.

With it's sea-swept atmosphere, it's a great book for summer, but it's one that will linger with you far longer than a lot of other holiday reads.


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - Adult fiction

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice

 review by Maryom

When Penelope decides to share a cab ride with a complete stranger she's taking a leap in the dark, one that will change her life. For the two girls bond instantly over a shared adoration of singer heart-throb Johnny Ray, and as her new friend Charlotte whisks Penelope away for tea with her Aunt Clare and cousin Harry, it's like the opening up of a whole new world for Penelope. Both girls share the same upper class world of stately homes and empty bank accounts but Charlotte is vivacious, impulsive, and confident - all things that Penelope feels she isn't - and more embracing of the new post-war world where a girl doesn't merely need to find a husband but can make a career of her own. Penelope's view of the world is tinted by the romance of her parents' love affair, tragically cut short when her father was killed during the war. One day Penelope hopes such love will come her way, but meanwhile there's Johnny Ray to sigh over, parties to attend, new American rock'n'roll to discover and the puzzle of Charlotte's cousin Harry to work out. A little against her will, Penelope is dragged into a charade with him, pretending to be his new girlfriend, with the aim of Harry winning back the girl who dumped him. Playing at being in love is dangerous though .... and maybe soon it moves on to being less of a pretence...

 Set in the 1950s post-war world where crumbling ancestral homes and penniless aristocrats rub up against Teddy boys and rock'n'roll, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is a delightful coming of age story, filled with the romance of first love, the glamour of champagne parties and all the excitement of being 18.
Written in the first person, it has an engaging gossipy style that makes you feel as if Penelope were your best friend sharing confidences with you. I loved it when I first read it and having just re-read it, love it still.

 First published ten years ago, I discovered The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets sometime between then and now, but it's coming out in a special anniversary edition with a new cover and an extra short story telling the tale of how Penelope's parents met. I'm now torn, do I stick with my old original copy or abandon it in favour of the new? I'm actually hoping that the short story on its own will become available as an e-book, so I don't have to choose.

 Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline Review
Genre - coming of age, adult/teen crossover