Clariel by Garth Nix

review by Maryom

Clariel is not happy at having to move to Belisaere, the capital city of the Old Kingdom, but her mother has been offered a place in the prestigious Goldsmith's Guild there and so the family must go. While her mother insists Belisaere is a place filled with opportunities - for entering a guild or making an advantageous marriage - Clariel finds both the tightly packed streets and her future prospects stifling. She'd far sooner have stayed in Estwael, living and working in the Forest, maybe in time joining the Borderers who care for it.
The city itself is not as it once was - the king is a recluse, and his granddaughter (and heir) has disappeared, leaving a power vacuum into which Governor Kilp hopes to step, with a little help from Free Magic and from Clariel. Soon she finds herself caught up in events beyond her control, desperately looking for a way out and willing to jump at any chance that appears.

 I first discovered the Old Kingdom series by borrowing my daughter's books, and quickly became a fan, so when I was offered a review copy of Clariel I leapt at it! Set 600 years before the events of  Sabriel, and effectively 'back story' for the series, Clariel is both a great read for fans of Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series and for new-comers. For fans there's the delight of finding out what happened in earlier times, how certain peoples lives were shaped, and the appearance of many places and characters (I especially liked the early version of Mogget); for new readers, there's an insight into the balance between Charter and Free magic, the role of the Abhorsen, charter mages and the Clayr; for both, a compelling story, mixing problems to which we can all relate with a world of magic and fabulous creatures.
Clariel herself is an intriguing heroine, one who, despite her furious rages and momentously bad decision, I found myself curiously sympathetic towards - she prefers to be solitary, left alone in the forest; life in the city holds no attraction for her. Her parents have made no effort to understand her, and just seem intent on forcing her into what they want her to do, so it's not surprising that Clariel leaps at first one, then another, dubious method of getting her own way - and each time she lands her herself further in trouble.
At times I felt the story moved rather slowly - particularly the time spent at the Academy or putting up with Clariel's maid fussing over clothes - but overall it's a fast paced compelling read, especially in the last few chapters,and one which I loved.


Maryom's Review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Hot Key Books
Genre - teen/YA fantasy

Unthology 7 edited by Ashley Stokes and Robin Jones

Review by The Mole

"Wonderful and frightening..." but also much, much more. The fear in this collection comes in many forms. The fear that comes of recognising the danger a character faces who, even in a short story, you have become attached to; the fear of the loss of anchors that made up your childhood; the fear that the responsibility for the loss of a life could be down to your own actions from many years ago; the fear that your actions, though legitimate and well intentioned could now place your own life in jeopardy.

Each of these authors has produced (or been selected for) a work of brilliance that sort of complements at least one more in the collection and they are ordered so that you can detect a thread joining each story. This technique makes this collection potentially the least eclectic collection of the Unthology series and while the eclecticism of the previous collections was their strength in this collection the lack of it is its even greater strength. Each one is a coffee time read that doesn't involve a huge mood swing in to the next - something that I can find means I need a pause between stories.

This collection reinforces the editors' strengths in selecting stories and compiling anthologies - this isn't Unthology 6 with new stories, this IS Unthology 7 - a new selection and a new experience for the Unthology reader. More than any other collection - this is one I will pick up again and reread.

Loved it, loved it, loved it. What can they possibly do to Unthology 8?

I have read the previous 4 books in the Unthology collection and you can read their reviews here:- Unthology 3, Unthology 4, Unthology 5, Unthology 6

Publisher - Unthank Books
Genre - Adult short story anthology

Frank Derrick's Holiday of a Lifetime by J B Morrison

review by Maryom

Frank Derrick is about to be whisked away from cold damp Fullwind on Sea and his life of charity shop trawling and free bus-rides to the 'big Sainsburys', heading off to sunny California. He may be 82 but he's never been one to act his age so when his daughter Beth phones to tell him two pieces of bad news, he decides he must go and see her - after all what are fathers for if not to help out in a sticky patch? The main problem is Beth lives at least a 12 hour flight away. Then there's the minor issue of how to fund the trip; Frank doesn't exactly have money to spare - more like unpaid debts - but where there's a will there's a way to find the cash. So Frank buys a 'new' set of suitcases from the charity shop, gets out his best Hawaiian shirts and heads west. Arriving in California, he discovers granddaughter Laura has laid on an itinerary not only to show him all the sights, but for a family reunion to bring happiness back to her mum's life.

  Frank's holiday is like a dream come true - he visits all the famous locations he knows from movies and TV, sees the homes of Hollywood stars, walks in their footsteps, and is as over-joyed as a child - but the greatest happiness comes from being with his family again. At the same time, the book is tinged with sadness for even the best of holidays has to come to an end, and what will Frank do then?

 I loved  The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick, age 81 , and this second instalment of Frank's adventures is easily as funny as the first. Filled with wry humour, heart-warming without being schmaltzy, JB Morrison's tales of eighty-something Frank are a delight.

Like Extra Ordinary Life, this is a story about seizing opportunities, embracing new things, and not letting age be a reason to slow down and opt out. I hope there are many more adventures still to come for Frank.

Maryom's Review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Pan Books
Genre - adult fiction, humour

A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie

review by Maryom

 For a young woman growing up in the early twentieth century, Vivian Rose Spencer has had a remarkably liberated upbringing. An only child, her father has brought Viv up almost as he would have done a son, encouraging her interest in history and archaeology, and supporting her desire to study at university.   Now in the summer of 1914, aged 22, she finds herself in Turkey on a dig supervised by an old family friend. The Armenian-Turkish archaeologist, Tahsin Bey has been a familiar figure since Viv's childhood, but away from home under the blue Mediterranean sky, she begins to fall in love. Their idyll is cut short by war and Viv returns to London, volunteering as a VAD nurse. When the stress of treating wounded soldiers grows too much for her, she 'escapes' from the war by heading to India, to excavations taking place near Peshawar, where she hopes to fulfil a dream of Tahsin Bey -  to re-discover the Circlet of Scylax; a highly-decorated silver 'crown' given to the explorer Scylax by the Persian Emperor Darius and lost for centuries.
Meanwhile Qayyum Gul has come from Peshawar to Europe as part of the British Indian army called in to bolster Britain's forces at Ypres. Amid the horrors of the battlefield his loyalty remains firm but the attitudes he encounters during convalescence after a serious injury start to sow seeds of discontent. Invalided home, he searches for a new meaning to his life in the growing resistance to British rule.

A God in Every Stone is a novel of many themes - a search for lost treasure, an exploration of the relationships between men and women, British and Indians, the conflict between personal desires and duty.
It's wonderfully written, brilliant at capturing atmosphere - from battlefield to dazzling Mediterranean - or bringing to life small personal moments, such Qayyum's first encounter with the ancient statues in Peshawar museum but the storyline seems to dart about at tangents.  I don't want to say too much for fear of plot spoilers but I found this threw me a little, and, because of it, I felt my attention wandering in the middle third of the book. New characters are introduced and take over the centre-stage, particularly in the compelling section with which the novel ends.

Throughout I found echoes of EM Forster's A Passage to India; again people are trying to bridge the gap between cultures and Viv has certain qualities in common with Adela Quested - she's mostly well-intentioned but insensitive to others and often accidentally offensive. This is certainly not just a re-working of an old story though, but a powerful novel in its own right - one that I feel will pull me back to re-read several times.

This is one of this year's Bailey's Prize Shortlist; see other reviews below
A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre - adult literary fiction

Dark Suits and Sad Songs by Denzil Meyrick

Review by The Mole

A civil servant decides to take his own life in a spectacular fashion by setting fire to himself. There is no question of murder but still DCI Daley tries to find out why. Then two bodies come to his attention, both have been murdered in a spectacularly gruesome way, but two completely different ways - ways that relate to drug gangs. Can three violent deaths occur in Kinloch so close together and not be related?

Daley's wife makes a big play to win him back while DS Scott tries to return to duty although the pressure is too much and he needs the support of a bottle.

But these come to be the least of his worries as Meyrick takes us on another roller coaster of death and mayhem.

Many of the threads left hanging from The Last Witness are followed through but only some come to a conclusion. We are fed enough clues about some things to place us ahead of Daley which leads to "it's behind you" moments while, at the same time, understanding how Daley got suckered in.

Extremely cleverly plotted and well written but it left me wondering if I understand how everything went together - including the UFOs.

Another most excellent read from this author with enough left to commence the fourth book. There is to be a fourth book isn't there??

Critics have said that Daley is "set to join the ranks of Scottish crime fiction" - and being Scottish critics I can understand that, but let's be honest and fair and omit the 'Scottish'. The world should get to know Kinloch, Daley and Scott.

Publisher - Polygon
Genre - Crime thriller

Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton

review by Maryom

Catrin and Rachel had been friends for most of their lives till a moment of carelessness on Rachel's part led to the death of Catrin's two sons; since then, as best possible in a small island community, they've ignored each other. Three years on, Catrin feels she has nothing left to live for - apart from revenge. Her plans are disrupted though when a young boy goes missing. Although he's believed to have just wandered away from a family picnic, this isn't an isolated incident - two other boys have disappeared in the last couple of years leading some people to fear there's a killer at large on the island. The thought that one of their own number could be abducting children seems beyond belief, but what other explanation could there be?


Spanning a few days in November 1994 Little Black Lies is a gripping stand-alone psychological thriller from Sharon Bolton, author of the Lacey Flint series It's set on the remote Falkland Islands - a ready-made 'closed room' location of a tight-knit community where visitors are rare, mainly confined to the cruise ships that pass through in Summer. The story is told from three points of view, starting with Catrin, who while seemingly going about her day to day life is constantly thinking about death - that of her sons, her own, and the possibility of causing someone else's. Her version of events is followed by that of  her ex-lover Callum; one of the British paratroopers involved in the Falklands War, he's suffered post traumatic shock ever since, and has found that the only place he's at peace is oddly back on the Falkland islands, but he's still subject to periods of black-out during which he can be aggressive and violent. Lastly, we hear Rachel's point of view - for three years she has lived a life full of guilt and remorse, but maybe now there's a way she can make amends. As each version unfolds, we realise that what we first accepted as solid fact is open to interpretation, and that maybe events aren't as clear cut as we'd believed. I certainly found my sympathies shifting from one character to another as their back stories emerged. It's very cleverly done, and leads the reader first one way, then another, saving the final twist to the last page.
Definitely the sort of book that once started, you won't want to put down till it's finished!



Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Bantam Press
Genre - adult, crime, psychological thriller

The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham

review by Maryom

 Wyatt Petrie is the owner of a remote country house in Suffolk. Although the place is normally occupied by his uncle, Colonel Coombe, Wyatt regularly throws house parties there. On this particular occasion a group of young people are gathered for the weekend, including
George Abbershaw, a police pathologist, ....and a curiously foolish young man named Albert Campion. After dinner on the first evening, talk turns to a family heirloom, the Black Dudley Dagger and the ritual associated with it, which over time has turned into a parlour game. Just the sort of thing for a country house party - but as you'd expect, the minute the lights go out, someone gets killed. This isn't a random, personal killing though and the visitors soon find themselves embroiled with an important underworld gang leader

The Crime at Black Dudley starts as a classic country house murder mystery but then moves on to more of an action adventure with lots of scuttling through secret passages, attempts to escape from locked rooms and even a car chase. Sadly it's age is showing a little with Bertie Wooster-style dialogue and an insistence that the women of the party are weaker and more terrified than the men - I was longing for one of them to cease the initiative and save the day, or even turn out to be the murderer, but it was a man's world in those days.

This book marks the first appearance of Albert Campion but he's more of a bit-player than the leading man - that role goes to George Abbershaw who, inspired by his love for Meggie Oliphant another of the house guests, steps out of his everyday rather pompous persona and becomes an all-action hero. Campion meanwhile comes over as rather enigmatic - at first sight he's a more than averagely foolish young man but suddenly he takes charge in a surprisingly competent way; I can definitely see why the publishers thought he was the character worth bringing back.


Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Vintage
Genre - Adult crime