Lowly’s Book Blog

This book by first time author Miller is certainly new, fresh and unusual. But I haven’t got a clue about genre. Is it horror, suspense, fantasy or just a good old-fashioned war story. I for one haven’t got a clue.

The setting is modern England. Middle-class teenage boys are disappearing, hundreds of them. It looks like they are all running away, but they are never seen again. What is going on?

The situation is made much more intense by focusing on the disappearance of one boy, Timothy Dashwood. His father is a big wig for an international oil company, and the whole family have spent some time in the Mid East. With these connections, there is the assumption that Dashwood has been kidnapped and all that is to be done is wait for the ransom note. But several other boys from the same school have also disappeared, and no note appears.

The story is told in three parts. First through the eyes of Timothy as he drags himself through the last week of school before the Christmas break. He is the new boy at an exclusive private school and subject to bullying. The reader can clearly sense his desire to escape this torment. Once Timothy disappears the story is taken up by his father as he listens to a series of tape recordings made by the private detective hired to find the boy. These tapes gradually build tension and horror until the detective disappears, and only Dashwood knows how and where. In the final section of the book Dashwood decides to continue the investigation in an effort to get to the bottom of the mystery.

I found this book really quite disjointed and difficult. There were tons of literary references thrown in. Even the title has links to Peter Pan. Did Miller want to demonstrate his education by name dropping? Or was there a point to all these references that I missed. And the second section could easily have been cut in half. After 100 pages, I no longer cared that the tapes were old and faulty, so painstaking descriptions of every hiss and crackle was wasted ink. I was so accustomed to skipping all the italic comments about the quality of the recording that I nearly missed it when the detective disappeared. The third part was packed full of unnecessarily graphic language and sex that had absolutely no place in a story of a father’s search for his son.

But maybe I missed the point. Maybe the whole book is about the tragedy of children caught up in war. Maybe Miller was trying to convince his readers that as long as war exists anywhere in the world, no child is safe.  A worthy theme that is hard to treat with a fresh approach, but a reader shouldn’t be wondering in the end.

This book would have made a great novella, or even a short story, but in its current form it is simply too long and complicated.

A few weeks ago I reviewed the second book in this series. It isn’t often that I actually part with cash for a book because publishers keep me very busy, but this one I bought and even put it at the top of the reading list as a treat.

This time Oscar is late for a meeting, and arrives to find the room lit with candles and a dead body in the middle. Severely shaken, Oscar retreats to consider his next move, and when he finally decides what is to be done, he returns to the room to find it empty. Has there been a murder? Was the whole incident simply a result of an over-active imagination?

This is the first book in the Oscar Wilde series and as such it’s purpose is to establish characters. Brandreth is not as concerned with keeping the plot moving as he is determined to demonstrate that a historical figure of Wilde’s fame can truly be considered a likely detective.

I found this book considerably slower than the second in the series. I wanted the story to flow as brilliantly as the next. And I also felt the murderer and the motive were unnecessarily controversial. We all know that Wilde was gay at a time when it was seriously illegal. So why on earth did Brandreth feel it necessary to lay it on quite so thick?

Sometimes it seems that I get to review a lot of first time authors. However, from her bibliography page on her website, Lisa Jackson is an accomplished and popular author well experienced in producing suspense novels with just a touch of romance.

In this book a serial killer is loose in Montana, one state in the US that still has vast wilderness areas. This killer is regularly shooting out the tires of a car driven by a woman on a lonely mountain road, ‘rescuing’ the victim and holding her in an isolated cabin until she is partially healed, then tying her to a tree naked, leaving her to die from exposure. A team of detectives/FBI and others are working desperately to find this man. Enter Jillian Rivers, her tire is shot, she is rescued and she is even tied to a tree, but her rescuer is for real. Gradually they fall in love. The police agree that Jillian’s attacker is a copycat seem at a loss to find even the impostor.

This was a very effective thriller. The characters work, the plot is interesting with enough twists to keep the pages turning, and even the romance is conceivable. I will admit to thoroughly enjoying the read, right until the very end. But the story stopped so suddenly that it almost seemed like the publisher had a word count limit that could not be breached. Then why on earth were there 10 blank pages at the end. Was my copy incomplete? Or are the readers expected to wait for 12-18 months for a sequel.

My advice, wait a year before starting this. And make sure you have the sequel in your possession before you even start. Left to die? more like Left Hanging…

 Apparently Mark Billingham is a well known author of mystery novels, but this is a departure from his normal series. I haven’t read any of his normal series, but if this is typical of his style, they must be very stark and realistic.

This book begins with a random drive-by shooting, or that’s what it appears. A gang initiation requires one young man to fire a gun into a car chosen by his friends. The frightened driver loses control of the car and drives into a group of pedestrians waiting for a bus. One is killed.

The dead man happens to be a cop, and his pregnant girlfriend is even more determined than the rest of the police to get to the bottom of what exactly happened. Using a mix of careful police work, and the contacts she maintains with his friends to work out what happened.

This is a wonderfully crafted novel with many layers of complexity. Nothing is exactly as it appears. In many ways the young shooter is one of the more sympathetic characters in the book. But the story is well structured and the solution is not too extreme.

This is truly a frightening book about senseless violence, directionless youth, and a society totally dedicated to personal gain. But it is a very good read and will certainly give you plenty to think about as you read it.

Before you go any further – Do the following phrases mean anything? Lady Windermere’s Fan, The Importanct of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde. No? Then do yourself a favour and go on to the next review.

Now that I have found the Oscar Wilde fans, I can begin to introduce a most amazing new series. I will admit that I commenced the book with some misgivings. The whole concept of Oscar Wilde as a detective seemed on the surface, silly. However Brandreth built up a very convincing story.

The plot is very Agatha Christie. Seven friends meet once a month for dinner, each bringing one guest. (All must bring a guest, for it would be unseemly to have 13 at dinner.) With the port and cheeses Oscar would nominate a game of his own devising. On Sunday May 1 1892, the game was for each person in attendance to write down the name of one person they would like to see dead. The challenge for the others was to identify the victim for each man in attendance. All very fine in theory.

The atmosphere at the party becomes a little strained as the names of gentlemen in attendance begin to appear on the list. And everyone becomes concerned when those on the list begin to die, one each day. Oscar, number 13, is left to figure out what is happening before it is his turn.

Brandreth’s underlying idea is that Oscar Wilde was a careful observer of humanity. His stories and plays are clear demonstration of this idea. But Brandreth goes so far as to suggest that Oscar’s skills of observation were Conan Doyle’s basis for the character of Sherlock Holmes. Unlikely, but what a wonderful concept. And it works.

I found this book absolutely delightful. More for the wonderful characterisations contained than the complexity of the mystery itself.  And I immediately went out and bought book one of the series. Watch this space for more.

This is another first book by a new author, and this time I can find almost nothing about her on the web. Hangman Blind is the first book in a new series The Abbess of Meaux. I have been reading so many books by new authors recently, I was wondering about this as I started. I’ll say that the publishers have once again put the wrong cover on the book. The red dress on the cover is certainly not that of a medieval nun.

But to start from the beginning. Hildegarde (isn’t that a medieval name) is an widow of independent spirit and means after her husband is killed fighting in France. Rather than submit to the authority of another husband, she becomes a Cistercian nun living in a priory in the north of England. When the book opens she is seeking permission to begin a small chapter of her order that will eventually work within the community teaching and healing. She is sent to the abbot at Meaux to negotiate a suitable site with him. Through a series of circumstances too complicated for this review, she ends up at Castle Hutton, where she grew up. Like many heroes in this genre, death and murder follow them wherever they go. Hildegarde finds 6 dead bodies on her way to the abbey, and the owner of Castle Hutton is poisoned within hours of her arrival. I eventually lost track of the body count.

When I am reading a murder mystery I am looking for enough clues so that I am not totally surprised by the ending, but I want my interest held to the very end. This book certainly filled these requirements. About 3/4 through, I commented that I either had the murder solved or I was lost in a school of red herrings. Actually for a change in this genre there were several different scenarios in play, each accounting for different misdeeds. I liked that simply because it allowed a far more realistic solution to everything.

Clark opened the way for several continuing stories. What exactly is Hildegard’s relationship to Hubert de Courcy and where is it going? Is he really a spy for the French? Setting the book in the 1380s, soon after the Peasant’s Revolt also permits a wonderfully complex social commentary as well as offering opportunity for violence and bloodshed.

Most of all I really liked Hildegard. In medieval times there were surely independent women, mostly treated as property of fathers or husbands. Surely the religious orders were a haven for these souls, providing them opportunities rarely found elsewhere in society.

I look forward to the second book in the series, and I hope there are many more.

I can’t believe it. I have adored Pulman’s Janna Mysteries from the moment I opened book 1, and Random House was giving away book 4 FOR FREE!! Thank you, thank you. And even better, I had a long train ride home that night.

Anyway, about the book. For those of you who have been reading the Janna mysteries much of this will be old news, but for the rest of the world I will try to catch you up. Janna is a teenager who has been raised by her single mum. So what? Well, the story is set in 12th century England, a time when single mums were not so common. Janna’s mother was the village midwife and herbalist and used her skills to support the two of them. Eventually however a new priest came to the parish and condemned Janna’s mother as a witch.

Now Janna is alone. She has learned some of her mother’s skills, but certainly not all. And over the previous three books Janna has been adding to her knowledge and investigating her mother’s death and her own parentage.

In book 4, Janna is far more confident of her skills and she has obtained some hard evidence about her mother’s early life. She decides to visit the abbey where her mother was a novice and see if anyone there can help her. Along the way she travels with a troupe of entertainers for safety. Strangely a dashing young nobleman joins the troup, apparently attracted by Janna. And then the murders start.

Pulman admits that she was inspired to write these books by the Cadfael series written by Ellis Peters. I remember one delightful summer when I managed to read all 20 of that series. The Janna Mysteries are not really a ripoff, more an homage designed to lead younger readers into Medieval history. But as a Cadfael reader, I was well familiar with the Civil War between Stephen and Matilda. In this book, that dispute becomes very important.

OK, four down. All wonderful. When can I get my hands on book 5. Janna is awfully close to finding her father, and I can’t wait.

There are days when I love my job, and often those days are when I find a new author to enjoy. I would never have picked up a book by Michael Hoeye, simply because the covers are often childish and the blurbs sound silly. However, this book appeared on my mandated reading list, so I was forced to give it a go. Now I am prepared to admit I was wrong.

This book is the fourth in the Hermux Tantamoq Adventures, so I entered the story in the middle, not always the best place to start. The story is a tale of industrial espionage and its consequences, but dressed up as animal fantasy. Fans of the series will know that the chief detective is a mouse. In this book the main action happens around a family of squirrels, and everyone knows how silly they can be.

The use of animal characters forced the book to maintain its lightness and atmosphere of unreality. As a result, even the dark and dangerous plot developments maintain a sense of fun. Hermux is not afraid to laugh at himself, and the whole subplot about the wedding organisation provides a opportunity for comedy.

This is an ideal book for those children who are beyond the classics of children’t literature, but not yet ready for the angst often found in novels for young adults. This is an important section of the reading public that needs new literature. Thank you Hoeye.

It is not very often that I get to read pulp. But sometimes it is just nice to turn the brain off and whip through a bit of nonsense for a couple hours. Earlier this week I was on a train for a couple hours, so I dragged this off my shelf of ’someday’ books.

This book is very much ‘classic’ Mary Higgins Clark. Parents go out to dinner, while they are away their children are abducted and the rest of the book is spent with the authorities working out who-dun-it and why. The reader has guessed by half way through, but you have to keep reading to find out how long it takes for the cops to figure it out.

In this case the list of suspects is long. Bosses, neighbors and even brothers are included. And I think Clark does everyone an injustice by making everyone on the list guilty of something. OK so they didn’t kidnap the kids, but they were a drug runner. Or maybe a wife killer…

My other problem with the book is the amazing psychic link between the two twins. The whole idea that when one is pinched the other one bruises doesn’t sit well. And the fact that they can talk to each other when separated by three states is also beyond belief.

Sorry, it was a pleasant way to fill a couple hours, but I won’t be rushing out to buy any more Mary Higgins Clark.

I love a good crime novel as much as anybody else, and I was fascinated by this dark thriller by Norwegian author KO Dahl. This is the first book from this author translated into English, so it seems a little like we are picking the story up in the middle, with well established regular characters.

Detective Frank Frolich is involved in routine police work when he meets and rescues a woman. A few weeks later, they meet again, and a torrid affair begins. It is already too late for Frank when he discovers this woman is the sister of a notorious thief. But a murder is committed, the woman provides an alibi for her brother, and Frank is drawn into the story. Suspended and suspected Frank sets off to find his love, who has apparently disappeared, and clear his name if he can.

Reading this book was a very strange experience. The names can be measured with a ruler, some 2 or 3 cm long. At times it seemed the reader had walked into a film in the middle with little introduction to even major characters. Some of the plot twists could be seen long before they happened, and some of the action was unnecessary even to the point of silliness. Why on earth would anyone try to burn Frolich in his own sauna? But, if you don’t want to think too hard and you can deal with multisyllabic nomenclature, this is an entertaining read.