The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde

At the end of November 2020, Mo Wilde decided to embark on a year of eating wild. She's led foraging courses for many years, and frequently encountered the query 'but could you actually live on only foraged food?' - here was a chance to prove it. So on Black Friday when the rest of the world seemed overwhelmed by buying frenzy, she resolved to stop - or at least to stop buying food. In The Wilderness Cure  Wilde takes us on an incredible year of only living on what she gather - nuts, shoots, leaves, mushrooms (so many mushrooms!) and occasional gifts of a culled deer or surplus salmon; all foods which would have been familiar to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. 

I grew up in the country, so foraging is always something I've done a little of. As a child I went out to gather blackberries and elderberries in autumn, as an adult I've collected elderflowers in spring, sloes, crab apples, and the occasional chestnut in autumn - but the important difference is that to me they're additions to what I grow or buy. I knew that it was feasible to harvest more from wild sources - mushrooms being the obvious thing but I never had any one to teach me their secrets when young, and fresh spring leaves of hawthorn or beech which I'd rather looked on as extraordinary things for when harvests had failed. This book came as a revelation of the many, many things which can be gathered from the wild; the roots and shoots, seeds and flowers, which can be used as part of our daily food.

This book is more than a foraging diary. It digresses naturally into the author's philosophy, her belief in the Gaia world-system and how this challenge re-affirmed her connection with the Earth, into the disconnection between humans and the natural world, into the bodily changes brought on by this unusual diet, and even into archaeological research which provides historical context for 'foraging' (or 'collecting dinner' as I assume our pre-historic ancestors considered it). 

It's a fascinating read, even if you've only the slightest interest in foraging but in a world based round consumption and consumerism, doing anything for yourself is an act of rebellion - and nothing more so than deciding to live on only the food you can gather for free. 

 

The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell

Review by The Mole

When Alex gets a call for help from his brother Simon he arrives to find Ugo, their friend, dead - having been shot.

Alex is an Eastern Catholic priest - a sort of cross between an Orthodox and a Roman Catholic - while his brother has adopted the Roman church. Eastern Catholics recognise the authority of the Pope and priests are allowed to marry and have children. Alex's wife, Mona has left him leaving their young son Peter behind so when an intruder breaks in while he is out Alex becomes terrified for the safety of his son.

And it all seems to stem from the Diatesseron - a fifth gospel compiled from the other four to set about eliminating contradictions and attempt to establish historical fact. Ugo, was trying to authenticate the Turin Shroud using the Diatesseron and present his findings to the world - but it seems someone decided to stop him.

When the trial of Ugo's accused murderer starts it is like no other I have read - it's under canonical law and everything changes totally leaving the reader less able to predict the outcome. But is it a trial or political ping pong within the church?

The story is extremely well plotted and has no supermen that can pluck the answers from the sky - this makes the whole thing very readable. Alex - the protagonist of the book - comes to conclusion after conclusion and by sheer odds he ought to get it right sometime.

Did the ending come as a surprise to me? Honestly? No - but I'm not sure the story was about that. There are so many themes in the book that it's difficult to say what the main theme is. Loyalty, fatherly love, love, justice, validity of the gospels and so much more. Some have described this as a literary thriller and I suppose the depth of the themes may qualify as that but for me it was the thriller that kept me reading and enjoying it the most.

A really good book with ideas that some may challenge but remember - it is a work of fiction.

Publisher - Simon and Schuster
Genre - Adult Thriller

A War of Flowers by Jane Thynne

review by Maryom


It's August 1938 and Europe is preparing for war while still hoping it can somehow be avoided. Clara Vine, half-British, half-German actress, and part-time British spy, is in Paris filming her latest movie for the German Ufa studios. Mixing with the beautiful and powerful at Coco Chanel's salon, she encounters two very persuasive men;  Max Brandt, a German cultural attache to whom she feels almost irresistibly attracted, and Guy Hamilton, from British intelligence, who'd like her to be-friend Hitler's girlfriend Eva Braun and pass on any inside information she can pick up. Clara's no stranger to mixing among the wives of the Nazi elite but Eva Braun is kept very much out of sight as she's deemed bad for Hitler's public image. How is Clara is even meet her, let alone strike up a friendship?
Meanwhile, Clara's godson Erich holidaying on a luxury Nazi cruise ship, believes one of his fellow passengers has disappeared - the only real option being that she fell overboard. Despite assurances from the captain that nothing untoward has occurred, Erich won't let the matter drop and asks Clara for help.


The third of the Clara Vine series is set at the time of Germany's annexation of Austria, the War of Flowers of the title, when Europe was on the brink of war but some politicians still believed that Hitler's aims would soon be achieved and a certain level of stability return. Any information about his intentions would be valuable, and who should know his plans better than Eva Braun? Clara is again thrown into danger as her knack of listening in a way that makes others pour out their hearts proves so very useful. I actually found I felt rather sorry for Eva, forced to live an almost isolated life hidden away from the world, with no friends allowed past the guards, and only her dogs for company.

The story has a lot of threads weaving round each other, and sometimes they're a little difficult to keep straight, or one is dropped for a while as the others progress, but everything sorts itself nicely in the end. The whole book is filled with suspense with Clara constantly aware that she could be being followed at any point in time, and never being quite sure who she can trust; is the rather dashing Max Brandt merely interested in her romantically or does he have other more sinister plans? The tension cranks up an extra notch when Clara is taken to visit Hitler's mountain retreat Berghof. The views are wonderful but the atmosphere chilly and threatening.

I'm really liking this series with its slant on history, and spying, from a female perspective. I'm just hoping now that it won't end when WW2 actually starts..

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - thriller, historical fiction

If you haven't read the earlier Clara Vine novels, check them out here - Black Roses, The Winter Garden

The Secrets We Left Behind by Susan Elliot Wright

Review by The Mole

Eve hides to watch her daughter and granddaughter from afar. But it wasn't always like this. She once had a good family - a happy family - a loving family, but she kept a secret that had to come out. A big secret - one that had to change everything and things could never be the same again.

Scott has returned from New Zealand and is dying from cancer. Jo, Eve and Scott lived in a squat in Hastings in 1976. Today Eve and Darren are married and Eve's daughter, Hannah, calls Darren "daddy". Scott is Hannah's real father and now he wants the truth about their time in Hastings to be told... a secret they had agreed to keep buried forever.

The story started well and captured my imagination but then sort of stalled as I found, about 100 pages in, that I had stopped caring because it was taking so long. With nearly 300 pages left to go I was finding the idea of continuing a bit daunting. We had been told that Scott wanted their secret to be told but we had no idea of the true enormity of that secret - in fact I expected nothing like what was to come. There is a slight inference of what was to come but it had totally failed to arouse my curiosity. However I cheated by "dipping" into a later part of the book to try to understand where the story was going if I did continue, and armed with that knowledge I found I wanted to read on and finish it and I enjoyed the getting there. It was a journey worth making and the early "dipping" didn't spoil it. Perhaps a bit more or something different could have been revealed earlier?

A bit of an on/off read but on the whole one I enjoyed.

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - adult fiction

Savage Magic by Lloyd Shepherd

review by Maryom

1814 - another killer is on the loose in London. This time the victims are all members of a group of privileged young men whose main aim in life is the pursuit of pleasure in all its forms. The victims are found behind closed doors, with no signs of forced entry, all left wearing a satyr's mask. A classic closed-doors mystery? Not really, for, as usual when Charles Horton finds himself involved, the signs point to a more supernatural force.

This time Horton is on his own as John Harriott is indisposed. Sent by Magistrate Aaron Graham to Thorpe Lee House in Surrey, Horton at first finds himself investigating an outbreak of witchcraft, then getting pulled in to the spate of murders in London.
Horton's wife Abigail is indisposed too - the events of The Poisoned Island have left her disturbed in her mind. To seek a cure, she commits herself to a madhouse. Soon, perhaps inevitably, Horton's investigations and the series of deaths begin to point in the direction of one of Abigail's fellow inmates.

Savage Magic is another wonderful mystery in Lloyd Shepherd's signature mix of history and supernatural.
While I didn't find it quite as enthralling as Horton and Harriott's last outing in The Poisoned Island
I did still enjoy it. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader enthralled; though there are equally occasions when the reader, having a better overview of events, knows more than Horton ( I really wanted someone to prod him in the right direction at times).
Although she was always independent for the time, definitely not a shrinking violet hiding from the seamier side of life,  I very much like that Abigail has a larger part to play in events. And,who knows, maybe in future she'll be even more involved with her husband's cases.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - adult, crime, historical fiction, supernatural

other reviews; Curiosity Killed the Bookworm ,
                        For Winter Nights 

A Bright Moon for Fools by Jasper Gibson

Review by The Mole

Harry Christmas is a conman who has conned one too many. Now he is on the run from a lover's stepson who clearly wants him dead. Fleeing to Caracus would seem far enough to be safe - but is it?

Harry is also a hopeless drunk and that actually fuels his crimes so arriving in Caracus with his trousers on backwards doesn't surprise him - although he didn't know that he'd done it.

Harry is one of those fictional characters you will probably dislike from the off and find it difficult to get started in the story, but if you stick with it you will start to be more tolerant of him as he blunders from situation to situation and you may actually grow to like him. He is a hopeless womaniser and comes across as sexist but is he really? Some events in his journey are laugh out loud funny and many are extremely sad and moving but as the book moves on the humour is replaced by his frustrations of the chase, his anger of violence against innocents and his regrets at his own stupidity.

An extremely enjoyable book that, while very emotional at many times, will not bring you to tears but will have you joining in Harry's condemnations of his own actions.

Publisher - Simon and Schuster
Genre - Adult Thriller

Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash

Review by The Mole

"A deeply humane, piercingly funny, and already widely acclaimed new short story collection that features men and women we all know or might be.
The stories in Tom Barbash's evocative and often darkly funny collection explore the myriad ways we try to connect to one another and to the sometimes cruel world around us. The newly single mother in 'The Break' interferes with her son's love life over his Christmas vacation from college. The anxious young man in 'Balloon Night' persists in hosting his and his wife's annual watch-the-Macy's-Thanksgiving-Day-Parade-floats-be-inflated party, while trying to keep the myth of his marriage equally afloat. The young narrator in 'The Women' watches his widowed father become the toast of Manhattan's midlife dating scene, as he struggles to find his own footing.
The characters in Stay Up with Me find new truths when the old ones have given out or shifted course. Barbash laces his narratives with sharp humour, psychological acuity, and pathos, creating deeply resonant and engaging stories that pierce the heart and linger in the imagination."

I generally prefer anthologies of short stories by different authors but this collection of stories really has a great harmony and style that works tremendously well. Summing the collection up is not easy which is why I have borrowed the publisher's synopsis. Overall its appeal comes from the continuity of style and the way that the approach to the theme differs so much with each story, yet it manages to be one complete collection.

David Mitchell is credited as saying that his favourite "...was always the story I'd just finished." and I certainly found that my favourite was the last in the book - "The Women". Or perhaps it was just such a perfect story to finish on? Or was it "Somebody's Son" because I found myself pondering it long after I'd moved on? Although the mother we see in "The Break" is someone we all know even if not quite to the same extreme. Or was it...? Perhaps I don't end up with a favourite after all but this collection will certainly go onto my shelf as I'm sure there is more enjoyment to be got from it on a re-read.

A really great read and the stories are short enough for coffee time reads although whether you will concentrate on anything else after, I don't know.

Currently available in kindle and hardback but shortly to be available in paperback.

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - Adult Short Stories

Buy Stay Up With Me from Amazon

In The Blood by Lisa Unger

Review by The Mole

Lana was a child with personality disorders before she was further damaged by witnessing her father burying her mother, rolled in her mother's favourite carpet, in a grave in the woods. He then coaches her to lie to the police to cover-up what's happened. She's been medicated for years now, through special schools and is now a normal functioning part of society. Except for one thing... she lies. Constantly... to hide who she is, who her family are and what she has been through. She is now studying, under the mentorship of Dr Langdon, to help children like herself become normal members of society.

She takes a part time job 'babysitting' Luke who turns out to be a child who has the same issues that she has. Luke decides to play a game of Scavenger Hunt with Lana that starts out weird and turns weirder and more dangerous with each clue. How could Luke, eleven year old genius that he is, put together a hunt that seems to reveal so much about Lana's past, on his own. And now Beck, Lana's only true friend, has gone missing and the police want to question Lana as the only suspect.

Stories that involve characters with mental 'disorders' often leave me uncomfortable and I'm sure I'm not alone in this - and Lana seems a completely 'normal' person now she's medicated but as the story progresses we realise just how fragile she is. And Luke...I as a reader could see far more in the child than Lana could - but then that's what we expect from books... it involves us in them. Despite my discomfort I just had to keep reading and found this to be a book I would recommend to almost any adult - definitely not a bedtime read though or one for the kids.

A book with more twists than a Curly-Wurly, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite being totally creeped out by some of the goings on and did I readjust to the revelations at the end? I don't think I have or will.

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - Adult Psychological Thriller

The Darkening Hour by Penny Hancock

Review by The Mole

When Theodora Gentleman employs Mona as a maid and companion for her sick father (Alzheimer's) all is light and breezy.  Mona is employed under an agreement where if she doesn't work for Theodora then she must return to her native Morocco where poverty, a young child and a sick mother await. They hit it off straight away. But over time jealousy and paranoia take their hold and their relationship deteriorates - frighteningly so - to the point where one may actually commit murder. Or murders as the case may be.

This is one of those books that you can't carry on reading because it is too powerful but you can't leave it alone either. And while there's no happy ever after involved you will thoroughly enjoy it and become so involved you will want to shake either or both of them and scream at them "STOP! Look at what you've become!" but clearly you can't and they won't listen as they career towards unavoidable violent conflict.

What really worried me about this book is that the contract under which Mona is employed is actually a valid contract today and means such people can almost be treated, HERE in the UK, as slaves and that is worrying.

Political messages to one side, it's a thoroughly engaging read that will leave you moved, angry and just a little worried as to whether you could have been one of those characters.

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - Adult Psychological Thriller

The Winter Garden by Jane Thynne

review by Maryom

Four years have passed since the events of Black Roses, and Clara Vine is now an established actress at Berlin's Ufa studios about to star in a film with flying ace Ernst Udet, though like so many of the films produced there, this will be nothing more than thinly veiled piece of propaganda. Berlin has changed too in four years and the Nazi party are now firmly in control, welcoming and wooing foreign visitors like Edward, Duke of Windsor, and his wife Wallis Simpson, Charles Lindberg and two of the Mitford sisters - Unity, and Diana.  Clara still continues her dangerous balancing act passing gossip onto Joseph Goebbels while informing the British Embassy of insider information about the Nazis and their plans.
At one of the Nazis 'bride schools', young women are being trained in the domestic virtues that will be expected of them as wives of SS officers, but one of them holds a dark secret that someone is willing to kill for. Anna Hansen, ex-dancer and artists' model, seemed an unlikely choice of SS bride-to-be but the authorities seem curiously uninterested in her death and quick to cover it up. Clara, who knew Anna slightly, and her American journalist friend Mary Harker decide there's more to this than meets the eye - and decide to investigate...
Meanwhile through Udet, Clara makes friends with Ralph Sommers, a British aeronautical businessman and seemingly Nazi sympathizer, and Arno Strauss, a pilot in the technical division of the Luftwaffe conducting tests on new planes and aerial reconnaissance - areas that would surely be of interest to the British government. Through them and Mary Harker, Clara also learns of the German part in the Spanish Civil War, particularly the bombing atrocity at Guernica which points the direction that another European war might take.

The Winter Garden is a cleverly plotted thriller set against the very real backdrop of late 1930s Berlin; a world of glamour and luxury on the one hand, and squalor and food shortages on the other. A lot of the characters are of course real people and I love how Jane Thynne has brought them all to life - Goebbels with his double standards, gossipy Emmy Goering, Unity Mitford with her schoolgirl-like crush on Hitler, and her sister Diana, wife of Oswald Moseley, leader of Britain's 'blackshirts' and Nazi sympathiser.
It's a story full of tension and intrigue, in a world where it's hard to recognise friends from enemies. Clara is more confident in her role of spy now - she's been warned that the Gestapo are watching her movements, but this isn't going to put her off. They aren't the only people following her though - at one point, she has three people tailing her - all with different priorities! I often wondered how long she could go before she tripped up and revealed her secrets to the wrong person.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - thriller, historical fiction

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

review by Maryom

Daniel's parents have sold up their garden centre business and retired to a remote farm in his mother's native Sweden. For one reason or another, he keeps putting off visiting them, but believes them to be happily settled and enjoying their new life. Then out of the blue he gets a phone call from his father to tell him his mother is ill - in a psychiatric hospital. She's been imagining things, making all sorts of allegations against her new neighbours and eventually it was decided she should be hospitalised for her own good. This is shocking enough news on its own but then Dan gets a phone call from his mother - she's out of the hospital, on her way to London and everything his father said is a lie! As he listens to his mother's side of events, Dan doesn't know who to believe. One of his parents must be lying..but which..

You might have encountered Tom Rob Smith's Soviet Russia based thrillers featuring secret police officer Leo Demidov, the first of which Child 44 is currently being filmed with Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Noomi Rapace. Well, The Farm is a rather different sort of read; a psychological thriller of words rather than action. The tale is told mainly from Dan's mother point of view, from a series of notes that she has ready prepared almost as if giving a lecture. The style is rather formal too and I found the start a little slow so it took me a while to really get involved. His mother has a dreadful tale to tell, but should we believe her? That's the question at the heart of this story; who is telling the truth? As I read, I first believed the mother, then doubted her, went back to believing and so on. As is to be expected with a thriller, the twists and turns are saved till the very end, so, if you're wondering where the story is going, hang on in there.

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - psychological thriller,  adult fiction,  

Get The Farm from Amazon

The Dark Inside by Rupert Wallis

Review by The Mole

When James, thirteen, runs from his stepdad after yet another argument he comes across a stranger, Webster, - a man who is injured and extremely ill. James decides to help him by stealing food and medicines from home and so begins a very unlikely friendship. Since the death of his mother in a car accident - something he blames his stepdad for - he is desperately in need of friends. This friendship however has undertones of evil in it and danger like James cannot imagine.

This book has to be one of the darkest books I have read - but that doesn't count against it in any way. It has a paranormal element to it - possibly - but is very much about reality, friendship (no matter how unlikely) and grief. Grief seems to be a common theme in books of all ages lately and you would think they would repeat themselves but this book takes a look at another way that two people cope with their grief - and it only truly becomes apparent at the end of the book.

There is little to smile at in this book but none the less I found myself continuing to read and hoping against hope that the sun would come out and everyone would be happy and laughing. There are 'bad guys' to hiss at while you cheer James and Webster. With the end comes discovery where people learn who their friends really are.

An extremely enjoyable read despite the darkness. It requires a certain maturity, in my opinion, to cope with these issues and not be affected too deeply by them but I do feel that it would find that audience in the 13+ readers - and they will relish the action, the rebellion and the independence themes. And what young reader wouldn't want a friend like Webster?

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - Teens/YA, Paranormal, mystery

 Buy The Dark Inside from Amazon

Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith

review by Maryom

Moscow detective Arkady Renko is back  - this time trying to connect three seemingly unrelated deaths and solve an uncrackable code. Attending the funeral of murdered gangland boss Grisha Grigorenko, he's sidetracked by a protest about the death of reporter Tatiana Petrovna. With a record for exposing corruption and cover-ups in government circles, Tatiana had innumerable people who might have wished her dead - so the official verdict of suicide seems a little less than credible. When the clues lead him to the Baltic port of Kaliningrad, Renko finds another body - this time that of a translator with links within the government and Grisha Grigorenko's operations. The translator leaves behind a notebook that Renko believes would reveal the link behind the three deaths and all manner of dodgy dealings between the government, criminal gangs and foreign powers - if only someone could make sense of the translator's very personal indecipherable code.

I first discovered Arkady Renko through the film of Gorky Park and have been following him ever since
 - through the break-up of the old Soviet Union, the highs and lows of his personal life, his struggles with accepting any authority, and with shrugging off the ghost of his violent father. He's still the same rather dour, downbeat, glass-half-empty guy that he was back then - just maybe more disillusioned, if that's possible, with the passing of time. That doesn't make it sound like this book would be a barrel of laughs but the other constant in his life is his unerring ability to track down the truth, no matter how deeply hidden. So like a bloodhound, he's off on the trail from Moscow to Kaliningrad, searching for something, even though he doesn't yet know what it is.
In comparison to some crime novels, this is quite slight at 320 or so pages. It's not lightweight though - there are no long-winded descriptive passages, it's heavy on dialogue which carries the plot and develops character, and every word is made to count. The passages where Renko listens to Tatiana's taped reports of the Moscow Theatre siege, the Chechen school massacre or recordings from the doomed submarine Kursk are heart-stopping and better for not being over-worked. Scenes like these take this novel beyond mere 'crime thriller' status.
At it's heart though, is the mystery connecting these three dead bodies, a race to find and decipher the code book and save Russia from another disaster. The only very slight let-down was the rather simplistic drawing of the 'gangster' characters - they all seem just a little too cut from the same mould but fortunately they don't detract substantially from the overall impact.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - adult crime thriller

Buy Tatiana from Amazon

Some Day I'll Find You by Richard Madeley

  review by Maryom

" James Blackwell is sexy and handsome and a fighter pilot - every girl's dream partner. At least that is what Diana Arnold thinks when her brother first introduces them. Before long they are in love and marry hastily just as war is declared. Then fate delivers what is the first of its cruel twists: James, the day of their wedding, is shot down over Northern France and killed. Diana is left not only a widow but pregnant with their child. Ten years later, contentedly remarried, Diana finds herself in the south of France, sitting one morning in a sunny village square. A taxi draws up and she hears the voice of a man speaking English - the unmistakable voice of someone who will set out to torment her and blackmail her and from whom there can be only one means of escape..."

I must admit I was intrigued when I saw that Richard Madeley had written a novel - after all as co-host of the long-running Richard + Judy Book Club he must have developed some idea of what he likes and what makes a good book. So what would his offering be like?
Well, curiously it feels like the sort of story that gets labelled 'women's fiction' - a tale of love and deceit  moving from the English countryside at the start of WW2 to the glamorous setting of the French Riviera in the 50s. It's a great plot outline but unfortunately the style of writing didn't really 'grab' me. I found the characters a bit flat and the plot too predictable, especially after reading the publishers' synopsis quoted above.
I'm sure there are lots of readers who will love it - my mum for one -
but I'm not one of them.

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - romantic fiction

Buy Some Day I'll Find You from Amazon

Archipelago by Monique Roffey

review by Maryom

When his home is destroyed and his life torn apart by a nightmarish flood, Gavin Weald finds himself adrift and unable to settle back to his normal life. All he has left is his daughter Océan and his dog Suzy - and his boat, Romany. Having reached breaking point, Gavin decides to run away to sea. Journeying from Trinidad north towards Panama and 'west and then west again', he hopes they will find peace. After initial hiccoughs, the three of them settle into their voyage of discovery through unknown waters to islands of unbelievable beauty where they find flamingos, shoals of fish playing round coral reefs, free roaming iguanas - but even here there are signs of man's destructiveness; there are oil refineries scattered among the desert islands and tourism threatens the wildlife that brings it. Beyond Panama, the Pacific beckons but even out there in the endless ocean can Gavin escape his past? or is it set to return?

Archipelago is a hauntingly beautiful novel of loss and rebuilding. The reader is swept along on an almost magical voyage through the islands of the Caribbean. "World-building" is a concept normally associated with sci-fi or fantasy but that is just what Roffey has done here. I've never been to the Caribbean (and I'm not likely too; my dream islands of white sand and turquoise seas lie much further north) but I really felt I was there. There's lots of details about boats and sailing, geography and wildlife to bring the journey to life but this is more than a travelogue.  In trying to live out a dream he had when younger, Gavin embarks on a journey of self-discovery. The practicalities of life on the boat start to bring him out of the stupor he's sunk into and the events which so devastated his life are gradually revealed as memories seep through the mental barriers he's built up. The story is supposed to end on upbeat note but I found the events in the latter stage of the journey totally heartbreaking.

Archipelago is a beautiful and compelling read that I've come a little late to as it was languishing on the TBR pile with each of us expecting the other to read it. In some ways despite a very different setting in time and place it reminded me of Inman's journey back to Cold Mountain - and even Homer's original Odyssey!  I'm extremely glad to have been the one to pick it up and will now be looking out for more from Monique Roffey.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - literary fiction

Buy Archipelago from Amazon

The Things We Never Said by Susan Elliot Wright

review by Maryom

 Maggie wakes up in a psychiatric hospital having no idea of where she is or how she got there or even who she is. In fits and starts, prompted by the awful electric shock treatment she undergoes, her memory returns revealing the traumatic events that led to her being committed...
Meanwhile teacher Jonathan's life is in meltdown. He should be happily looking forward to the birth of his first child but he's plagued by nightmares, feeling angry and out of control. His father has always been a cold authoritarian figure and Jonathan is determined that he'll not be the same. But then his father dies suddenly and Jonathan's problems increase - lashing out at a pupil leads to him being arrested, police interest in a 'cold case' is reawakened and secrets from the past come tumbling out.

The Things We Never Said is a stunning debut novel about family - the relationships within it, the secrets that are kept and everything that's never said. The two strands, Maggie's and Jonathan's, weave round each other and gradually the pieces of their history emerge and slot together like a jigsaw puzzle. It's a very compelling read and, no matter how I tried to pre-empt the plot twists, I wasn't ready for the final missing link that shed light on all that went before.
The story looks both backwards and forwards. At this pivotal point in his life Jonathan feels a need to find himself, visiting his past haunts and old friends in the hope of making sense of what is happening to him now and settling the deep sense of loss that has pervaded his life before being able to move forward and embrace his role as husband and father.

This is an amazing first novel and an author to look out for in future.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - adult fiction

Buy The Things We Never Said from Amazon

Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie

 review by Maryom


It's been eight years since Gen Loxley lost her daughter, Beth: eight years of grief in which nothing's really moved forward, for all that her husband, Art, wills it to. Gen, once a writer of novels, has settled in to a life of half-hearted teaching, while Art makes his name and their fortune - and pressures her into trying IVF once again. For Gen, it seems a cruel act of replacement; life without Beth is unthinkable, unbearable - but still it goes on. And then a woman arrives on Gen's doorstep, saying the very thing she longs to hear: that her daughter was not stillborn, but was spirited away as a healthy child, and is out there, waiting to be found...So why is Art reluctant to get involved? To save his wife from further hurt? Or something much more sinister? What is the truth about Beth Loxley?

Sophie McKenzie is an award winning author of teen thrillers but here she turns for the first time to the adult market. This is the first of her novels that I've read and after the praise I've heard of her teen fiction, I was slightly disappointed.
Obviously Gen wants so very desperately to believe this outrageous tale but she barely for a moment doubts what she is told by a complete stranger and as the story is told in the first person through her eyes and thoughts, that's how the reader feels too; it's an accepted fact from the outset that Gen's baby was stolen and I think this takes some edge off the story. Gen doesn't seem crazy or deluded and her husband's claim that it's all a plot hatched by a business rival to discredit him is laughable, perhaps intentionally.
Unfortunately that's where my empathy for Gen stopped. I couldn't warm to her as a person; she seemed far too naive for her age, ready to trust people on the slightest acquaintance and any anguish or doubt she expressed didn't feel real.
I'd  guessed early on who was involved and part of what had happened to baby Beth, so although the story DID keep me turning pages it was only to find out if my guesses were right - I was almost tempted to just turn to the last page and read that..

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - thriller,

Buy Close My Eyes from Amazon

Black Roses by Jane Thynne

review by Maryom

Berlin, 1933. Warning bells ring across Europe as Hitler comes to power. Clara Vine, an attractive young Anglo-German actress, arrives in Berlin to find work at the famous Ufa studios. Through a chance meeting, she is unwillingly drawn into a circle of Nazi wives, among them Magda Goebbels, Anneliese von Ribbentrop and Goering's girlfriend Emmy Sonnemann. As part of his plan to create a new pure German race, Hitler wants to make sweeping changes to the lives of women, starting with the formation of a Reich Fashion Bureau, instructing women on what to wear and how to behave. Clara is invited to model the dowdy, unflattering clothes. Then she meets Leo Quinn who is working for British intelligence and who sees in Clara the perfect recruit to spy on her new elite friends, using her acting skills to win their confidence. But when Magda Goebbels reveals to Clara a dramatic secret and entrusts her with an extraordinary mission, Clara feels threatened, compromised, desperately caught between her duty towards - and growing affection for - Leo, and the impossibly dangerous task Magda has forced upon her.

I stumbled across this book after reading Magda, Meike Ziervogel's penetrating look at the wife of Joseph Goebbels. While that book dwells on the end of Magda's career, Black Roses captures her at the point when the Nazi leaders are newly come to power.
Although basically a spy thriller with a certain amount of romance thrown in, Thynne takes the reader behind the scenes of Nazi Germany in an unusual way - from a woman's angle. As an outsider, Clara makes friends in both the Nazi hierarchy and among those those they oppress. The book begins with the dramatic death of Clara's closest German friend, Helga, a fellow actress with Jewish friends who was too outspoken for the new regime. Her determination to avenge Helga's death is what drags Clara into using her privileged access to spy on Magda Goebbels, despite the danger involved. this insider's view gives the reader a look behind the scenes at the world of the wives and mistresses of the Nazi leadership; at their jealousies, snubs and constant jostling for power. And here's one of those contradictions with which Nazi Germany seemed riddled - these women dress in designer clothes imported from France or Italy, have perfectly made-up faces and beautifully coiffed hair; a far cry from Hitler's ideal of dirndl skirted, wholesome peasant women. Although I knew from school history lessons that Hitler had a belief that women belonged in the home, I had no idea how far he took his ideas - restricting university access and the kind of jobs open to women, forcing married women to abandon their careers and become housewives, even trying to govern the clothes they wore!

Don't think though that Black Roses is a dull fact-filled book. It gives a remarkable insight into Germany in the early 1930s but as a setting for a thrilling page-turning read. Living her double life Clara is constantly on edge, aware that the slightest wrong move could spell disaster for her and Leo - after all this is 1930s Germany and the overnight disappearance of friends or family is becoming commonplace. No one quite knows what the next day may bring...

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - thriller, historical fiction

Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted by Andrew Wilson

review by Maryom

Normally when I'm writing a review I start with either the blurb from the book or my own synopsis. In this case that's a bit redundant as the title really says it all; Life Before Ted - the story of Sylvia Plath's childhood, adolescence and college years up to her fateful meeting with Ted Hughes.
Now The Mole suggested that at this point I add a short bio of Plath , saying " the wife of Ted Hughes the poet laureate - and a writer herself" which made me wonder if this is how she's generally seen; firstly as the wife of someone famous with an afterthought about her own work and a sly inference that she only wrote because her husband did. If so, then a lot of people will find this book an eye-opener as it concentrates not only on her early life but on the hundreds of poems that she wrote before meeting Hughes. I must admit that although I 'discovered' Plath as a poet before Hughes, I still only had the most basic outline idea of her life - and a lot of that was based on her largely autobiographical novel The Bell Jar.

This account starts rather slowly with family history and the lives of Sylvia's parents Otto and Aurelia. Although her childhood circumstances undoubtedly influenced Plath, the narration at this point just seems like a stringing together of facts. It isn't till she leaves home for Smith College, that Plath really seems to take shape as a person - and what a contradictory person she was; a fun-loving high achiever, obsessed with her work but constantly out dating a string of boyfriends; mixing with wealthy friends but having to rely on scholarships and her own writing to fund her way through college. All these aspects fuelled and shaped her.

Wilson has encouraged never previously interviewed  friends and lovers from these early years to speak out about the Sylvia they knew but I sometimes felt there were questions, possibly less discrete ones, that I'd have loved to have asked. He also draws on unpublished letters and poems (the title comes from one of them) to shed light on Plath's emotional and artistic development and it's rather a shame that at least some of them couldn't have been quoted. Despite these quibbles, Mad Girl's Love Song is a most fascinating book whether you just want to know more about Plath's life or are looking for influences in the development of her work.
I'm generally inclined to think that the writing matters more than the personal details of an author's life but as I read this book it became apparent that for Plath the two were intricately and inextricably mixed.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Genre - non-fiction, biography,

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The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd

review by Maryom

Harriott and Horton, heroes of Lloyd Shepherd's first novel, The English Monster, are back with a new mystery to unravel.
The Solander has just returned from a voyage to Tahiti - every spare inch of space above and below deck filled with specimens of exotic plants destined for the hothouses at Kew. Amongst them all is one special plant for the individual attention of Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society and financial backer of the voyage. The Solander's homecoming is not totally happy though. Within hours one of the crew is found dead - his throat cut, his room ransacked though no money taken and strangest of all a blissful smile fixed forever on his face. Magistrate John Harriott recognises this as an incident that calls for the unusual detecting talent of his constable Charles Horton and when he accidentally stumbles on more murders, Horton realises someone is stalking the Solander's crew and that the answers must lie in the ship's botanical cargo.

The Poisoned Island is a historical crime novel set during the reign of 'Mad King George', against the backdrop of Britain's exploration of the Pacific and plant-hunting expeditions when European botanists were extending their knowledge and trying to categorise the weird and wonderful plants to be found around the globe; there were high hopes of more finds such as the breadfruit tree discovered on Tahiti which became a major food source for West Indian plantations - and perhaps even of some miraculous cure-all plant. The Poisoned Island is full of amazing detail that brings the sights and sounds of early 19th century London - and Tahiti - to life on the page; events move from the hot tropical island, to the hustle and bustle of the docks of Wapping and Rotherhithe and to the more rarefied and genteel atmosphere of Kew with its massive greenhouses for the scientific study of the botanical marvels being brought back from around the world.
Having said that, the historical detail doesn't get in the way of a riveting thriller. While based around real historical people - for example,Joseph Banks was responsible for discovering and bringing back to England many botanical wonders -  the events of the Poisoned Island are totally fictitious. It's better in this regard than The English Monster which incorporated real murders and had me anticipating the unfolding of events; here they are all unexpected.
Charles Horton is back, of course, with his strange methods of observing and detecting rather than pouncing on the nearest suspect but I liked that this time his wife Abigail gets a slightly larger role - not only as a supportive wifely figure but as a woman interested in the scientific discoveries of the day and someone with a steady head, not given to the expected hysterics at the sight of blood. I half suspect she may be contributing more to her husband's investigations in future if some of his prejudices can be overcome.
An excellent read which should appeal to fans of both historical fiction and crime thrillers.



Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - adult, crime, historical fiction,


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