Inspector Ghote Breaks an Egg, by H.R.F. Keating
This the sixth book written by H.R.F. Keating detailing the trials and tribulations of Inspector Ganesh Ghote in his timeless quest to fight crime and bring about justice in Bombay.
In this story, Inspector Ghote finds himself sent far into the countryside to a small village to investigate a cold case, the mysterious death of the first wife of the Municipal Chairman. Unfortunately for Ghote, the Municipal Chairman has the whole town in his pocket, bought and paid for to ensure that he always gets his way. Ghote not only has to face very little aid from the villagers, but there is a whole anti-Ghote campaign headed up by a local holy man who has put himself on a hunger strike until Ghote goes home, even though it might kill him.
Deliverance from Evil, by Frances Hill
Deliverance from Evil is the third novel by Frances Hill. Author of several non fiction titles on the same subject, Hill’s novel charts the events of the 1692-1693 Salem Witch Trials, which took place in Massachusetts, New England, following the emigration of puritans escaping persecution in England during the 1620′s. The novel follows the true events of the Salem Witch trials, closely echoing Miller’s The Crucible, where young girls were involved in the accusation of witches- simulating terrible fits- which lead to the prosecution and death of nineteen men and women.
The narrative is split between events in Maine and Salem. In Maine the novel follows the story of minister George Burroughs and his new wife Mary whom he has rescued during a battle against the native Americans. We learn that George is a strong leader, a father whose two previous marriages have failed and a respected warrior admired for his amazing strength. Meanwhile in Salem a group of girls are starting to act strangely; having uncontrollable fits, fainting and seeing ghostly apparitions. As their symptoms worsen they turn against members of their own community as accusations of witchcraft are raised. The political figures of the village: ministers, land owners & merchants quickly realise they can use these accusations to their own advantage and get rid of people they have quarrels with or merely dislike.
Jew, by D. O. Dodd
A man, whose name we never learn, pulls himself from a pile of dead bodies. The pile is in some sort of extermination camp and, having freed himself from what would have been his place in a mass grave, he proceeds to a nearly building. Upon entering the building he dons a uniform with insignias and then shoots a man before leaving the camp in a car and driving to a nearby town which could be closely compared by its description to a Jewish Ghetto from World War II. On arriving in the town, he appears to be expected and is take to be the commander they have been waiting for. He takes over his role and meets a woman who appears to know him in an intimate way, but he doesn’t know how. His life appears to descend into a violent bloodbath and the authority his position gives him is only withdrawn when the man he shot turns up in the town.
The reason I chose this book was because I thought it was going to be about the holocaust. The title and the colour of the cover cleverly suggest this but, whilst in some ways it is about the holocaust, it actually isn’t. That may sound a little confusing but this is a book that based a story around the recognisable facts of the holocaust i.e. mass extermination, death camps and ghettos, to name a few, but when you start to dig deeper and see references to Allah and Islam the actual story begins to dawn on you. It is not about the holocaust , it is not about any conflict that has happened but it is about ethnic cleansing, religious persecution and genocide. The complete lack of contextualisation i.e. we don’t know where it is set or when makes it all the more confusing and perhaps this was done deliberately to prevent the reader from associating the book with a particular conflict. Read more
The Beautiful and the Damned: Life in the New India, by Siddhartha Deb
This book, by the journalist Siddhartha Deb, aims to explore and explain the lives of a handful of workers from across the spectrum. The workers come from the richest to the lowest. Deb was inspired by an assignment given to him while at the Guardian – to become a call centre operator for one of the many outsourced call centres. As such the book is journalistic in feel, with each of the chapters feeling very much like an assignment in its own right. But yet there is an undercurrent that links all these people’s stories.
The book is also political, explaining how and why India, the infrastructure and the people are thus. For India as a nation is relatively new (since its unholy split from Pakistan) and has embraced some political ideas all of its own – a mix of right wing consumerism which explains the plight of the poor as of their own doing – essentially right. Those ideas in turn are bred from western schooling coupled with the religion of the people. A merging of two worlds on many more than one level. As such this book helps to explain the current political climate of anti-corruption and why this popular movement, according to some, is likely never to succeed.
Adam Levin
Adam Levin’s stories have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Esquire. Winner of the 2003 Tin House/Summer Literary Seminars Fiction Contest and the 2004 Joyce Carol Oates Fiction Prize, Levin holds an MA in Clinical Social Work from the University of Chicago and an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. His collection of short stories, Hot Pink, will be published by McSweeney’s in 2011, following his recently published novel The Instructions. He lives in Chicago, where he teaches writing at Columbia College and The School of the Art Institute. He also has a parrot.
Headhunters, by Jo Nesbo
Headhunters is the most recent offering from Scandi wonderboy Jo Nesbo. A departure from the Harry Hole series, it is a standalone that introduces us to successful headhunter Roger Brown. Brown is the best in the business; his word is his client’s bond, his recommendations of candidates enjoying a 100% success rate. As if that were not enough, he also enjoys a lucrative sideline as an art thief. As should be expected from a man in his position, he has acquired all the trappings of success; the glamorous wife, the luxury home, the exorbitantly priced possessions.
His problems begin, however, when he encounters Clas Greve, a man easily Brown’s intellectual equal, but beyond that, a former special forces soldier and headhunter in the more classic sense. In addition to these attributes, Greve possesses one of the most sought after paintings on the planet, which Brown swiftly decides to liberate.
The Radleys, by Matt Haig
A quiet village. A place of immaculate lawns and perfectly kept houses. A clichéd image for any fifties commercial but not for a Vampire novel. The village of Bishopthrop is where Matt Haig takes us, letting us taste the quiet lives of desperation the residents of Orchard Lane withhold, but it’s the Radleys who hid behind the beautiful village even more because they’re Vampires. No dark castles, no eerie bats are to be seen, oh no, here Haig makes Vampires your next door neighbours.
From Dracula to Salem’s Lot and Interview With a Vampire to Twilight time has told us that Vampires will never die and new writers bring them back with new quirks like burning down houses to avoid an invitation but they keep the old enemies such as garlic and crucifixes. So any writer entering the daunting Vampire world knows what a task they’re taking on – what they must do to get the story right. Matt Haig does more than get it right.
Red Rackham’s Treasure, by Hergé
Red Rackham’s Treasure is the thrilling conclusion to Hergé’s tale of intrigue, treachery and pirate booty that began with The Secret of the Unicorn. Tintin and Captain Haddock had deciphered the three coded parchments that reveal the location of the Unicorn, a 17th century ship that was captained by Haddock’s ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. The Unicorn had been scuttled by Sir Francis Haddock during a fight with the pirate Red Rackham and Tintin and Captain Haddock believe that the pirate’s treasure is still aboard the ship.
In Red Rackham’s Treasure, Tintin and the Captain charter a ship so that they can go in search of the long lost treasure. Their expedition is complicated when news of their impending voyage is leaked to the press and numerous peculiar personages, each claiming to be a descendant of Red Rackham, present themselves and demand a share of the treasure. Fortunately, the press coverage does have one happy consequence: Tintin and Captain Haddock becomes acquainted with Professor Cuthbert Calculus, an eccentric inventor who proposes that they use his newly invented shark-shaped submarine during their search for the sunken Unicorn. The group, with Thomson and Thompson [still no relation] providing security in case of rival treasure hunters, then set sail towards riches and adventure.
The Traitor’s Emblem, by Juan Gomex-Jurado
A fierce storm at the entrance to the Med in 1940 has caught a Spanish ship unawares. Her crew, perhaps inexperienced, definitely second rate, is struggling to cope. Her captain spots a lifeboat in the water and somehow manages to rescue the four German passengers. He takes them to Portugal and is given a mysterious, golden, Masonic medallion.
That raises possibilities. Is this a war story, or Indiana Gonzalez and the Medallion of Doom, or perhaps Grandfather of Bourne? None of these in fact. Its a suspense thriller, set in post first world war Munich and with more gentle twists in it than a corkscrew. The basic plot’s quite simple. Two cousins, one the sadist son of a Baron’s wife, the other, Paul, the subservient son of her sister, grow up loathing each other. A mystery surrounds what happened to Paul’s father over how and where he died and Paul devotes much of his life to solving this mystery. His detested cousin becomes a brownshirt, involves himself in much thuggery during the failed coup of 1923 and rises through the Nazi hierarchy.
The Sense of An Ending, by Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes is fascinated with memory and how it can cruelly deceive or repress the most important details of a life. The Sense of An Ending is a first-person narrative that plays on these themes, and shows how a throw-away action in one’s youth can still cause hurt decades later.
The book is split into two parts, with narrator, Anthony Webster, first looking back briefly on his school years in the late 60s. He was a precocious teen, debating all that is ‘philosophically self-evident’ with his two closest friends. When Adrian joins the school, his own philosophical nature and mysticism catches the attention of the group and he’s accepted as one of their own. The group drifts as they leave for university, and Tony meets Veronica, his first girlfriend. After a messy break-up, Tony leaves the relationship behind and continues with his life. Read more
The Stranger You Seek, by Amanda Kyle Williams
The Stranger You Seek is the opening salvo in a new series from freelance writer Amanda Kyle Williams. Set in Atlanta, Georgia, it introduces us to a spunky new heroine, former FBI criminal profiler Keye Street.
Street tears up several of the clichés of the genre. She is Chinese-American and physically non-imposing (coming in at 5’4), and has, unlike so many other mavericks, actually managed to get herself fired from her job at the FBI. When we meet her, she has built up a small business working as a bail agent and process server. Accordingly, Williams has broken new ground, creating something of a freelancer procedural, combining the lone-wolfishness of the PI genre with the procedural accuracy of police works. When not staking out suspects, bouncing around theories or struggling to keep her abstinence from alcohol in check, she serves warrants, chases down bail jumpers and investigates missing persons cases.
Williams wastes no time in establishing Street’s traits, opening with character examination in preference to plot. Street lives a life of charmingly befuddled chaos, besieged by matchmaking parents and harassed by bail jumpers, forced to medicate the madness of her existence with fine pastries and confectionery. She is a strong character, written with enough skill to allow Williams to let the plot meander a little without losing the reader’s interest. Read more
A second look at The Legion, by Simon Scarrow
The hunt for the escaped gladiator who almost seized control of Crete from the Romans is on, and with a vengeance. Macro and Cato have pursued Ajax and his remaining followers to Egypt but lost track of them in the Nile delta. Finally arrived in Alexandria the Centurions, or rather the Centurion and the temporary Prefect, are instantly arrested to be held to account for the damage they’ve been causing along the delta.
What damage? It turns out that Ajax and his men have been attacking ships and terrorizing villages all along the coast. They’ve been wearing Roman uniforms, killing most of their victims, telling those they let survive that their leader is called Macro, or sometimes Cato, stirring up as much trouble as they can. After proving their innocence Cato persuades the provincial Governor to lend them some ships and extra legionaries and the hunt’s back on.
Last Dance with Valentino, by Daisy Waugh
The story is a balance of the past and the present life of Jenny Doyle. In the past, it is 1916 and young English rose, Jenny Doyle, is leaving England for New York, where she soon finds herself working for the de Saulles family. It is here that she meets the little known dancer and Italian immigrant, Rodolfo. However, when tragedy strikes, their small world is ripped apart, never to be the same again.
In the present, it is August of 1926 and Rodolfo is now Rudolph Valentino, the world’s most desirable film star. But will he and his lost love, Jenny, ever be reunited? Or will tragedy strike once again?
True Soldier Gentlemen, by Adrian Goldsworthy
Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was a strange and alien place. While Jane Austen was writing novels about the genteel and oh so vicious minor society in England the world from India in the east to the Americas in the west was engulfed in twenty three years of savage warfare. More than half of England’s male population was either in the Navy or in work to support it, most of the rest were in farming, and the very few left over after all that formed the core of Britain’s tiny army.
Rank in that army was confusing. Commissioned officers could have social rank and army rank, regimental rank and brevet rank all at the same time. Enlisted infantrymen (Britain didn’t introduce conscription until the first world war) could be boys, teenagers, adults or elderly men right into their forties or even fifties. Few lived longer than that back then. Then there were were gentlemen volunteers, gentlemen in their social rank but too poor to purchase a commission and without influence or a strong enough patron to procure one for them. They served in the ranks but lived with the officers. If Miss Austen had written about the young men instead of the young ladies of the times these would have been her characters.
The Secret of the Unicorn, by Hergé
When Tintin spots an old model ship at a Brussels market, he believes that it will make the perfect birthday gift for his friend Captain Haddock. It quickly becomes apparent though that Tintin is not the only one interested in the ship and he has to avoid the aggressive bargaining of two other would-be purchasers before he is able to get the model safely back to his flat. It doesn’t stay safe for long though as Snowy, Tintin’s loyal doggy companion, is scampering about the flat and knocks the ship over, breaking one of the masts. However, after a quick bit of repair work, the ship is patched up and duly presented to Captain Haddock.
Haddock is delighted with the gift, quickly realising that the ship is a model of the Unicorn, a 17th century warship that was captained by his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. His delight is short lived though as the ship is subsequently stolen but, with the aid of an old diary detailing the exploits of Sir Francis Haddock and a mysterious parchment that had been hidden in the broken mast, Tintin is soon on the trail of the thieves and, accompanied by the wonderfully bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson [no relation], the dynamic trio of Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock set off to uncover the secret of the Unicorn.
Simon Spurrier
Simon Spurrier was born in 1981. After completing a degree in Film & Television Production at S.I.A.D. he worked as an Art Director for the BBC, and was awarded screenplay bursaries at the National Academy Of Writing and the Met Film School.
Since 2001 he’s become a major writer for the UK’s foremost adult comic 2000AD, and in recent years has published multiple projects through U.S. giants such as Marvel (X-Men, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider), D.C. (Poison Ivy, Power Trip), Avatar Press (Crossed: Wish You Were Here, Disenchanted), Dark Horse (In Fetu) and Image (Gutsville).
He began his career as a prose writer in 2003 with a novelisation of the Kuju Entertainment/Games Workshop videogame Fire Warrior. He subsequently produced work-for-hire genre novels for BL Publishing (Lord of the Night, Strontium Dog: Prophet Margin) and Abaddon Press (The Culled). In late 2007 Spurrier published his first creator-owned novel, Contract. This was followed in 2011 by A Serpent Uncoiled.
Spurrier was born in Somewhere-You’ve-Never-Heard-Of, grew up in the heartlands of Nowhere-Terribly-Interesting, and lives today in North London. He spends much of his time in quiet cafes and pubs, where he exerts an unwanted cosmic magnetism upon any loud or malodorous patrons who should enter.
He spends far more time than he should on Twitter.
The Red Coffin, by Sam Eastland
The Red Coffin is the sophomore effort from Sam Eastland. Eastland’s debut, Eye of the Red Tsar, introduced us to Finnish detective, Inspector Pekkala. Formerly a personal servant to Tsar Nicholas II, Pekkala returns here in 1939, ten years after the events of the first book, and is now filling a similar role within the court of Stalin.
The story begins with the murder of the brilliant but eccentric engineer, Colonel Nagorski. Nagorski was on the cusp of completing his work on the T-34 tank. War with Nazi Germany is coming, despite the claims of each side, and without the T-34 ready for mass production, Russia’s future hangs in the balance. Read more
The End of Everything, by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott’s The End of Everything is set during the 1980s in the American town of Green Hollow. It is narrated by thirteen-year-old Lizzie, whose best friend and next-door neighbour, Evie, disappears one day on her way home from school. Frustrated at the lack of progress in the investigation being made by the police, Lizzie does her own detective work, and starts to uncover pieces of a story that she believes will bring Evie home.
The greatest strength of this book is the suspense and tension that is created. I read its 246 pages in three sittings, but if time had permitted, I would probably not have put it down at all once I had started. It does not have the obvious tension of a 1970s horror film, but rather an eerie, serene, lull into a complicated web of confused recollections and metaphorical jigsaw pieces. While the style of writing is easy to read, the psychology behind the story is certainly far more complex than the words themselves. Read more
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Star of India, by Carole Bugge
October, 1894. Nothing of interest is stalking the streets of London and Sherlock Holmes is plagued by ennui so Doctor Watson, having noticed his friend ominously eyeballing his cocaine stash, suggests an evening jaunt to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Unfortunately for Watson, his enjoyment of the Saint-Saens third violin concerto is hampered by the exotically pungent perfume worn by the young lady seated in front of him. While Watson battles his allergies, Sherlock Holmes spots that there is something far more amiss than a surfeit of fragrance and, when the young lady fails to return to her seat after the interval, the game is well and truly afoot.
The following morning the mystery of the young lady is uncovered when Miss Violet Merriweather comes to call on the detective duo at 221B Baker Street. She had attended the concert the previous evening in order to pay off a blackmailer and, when the blackguard had failed to show, she left for home during the interval. Miss Merriweather reluctantly explains that she has been conducting a clandestine relationship with a certain young gentleman, a royal young gentleman no less, and that she is now being blackmailed. To complicate matters further, her beau has entrusted to her the Star of India, a priceless gem that was a gift of friendship from an Indian prince. Sherlock Holmes agrees to keep the Star of India safe and to help Miss Merriweather, and he and Watson are soon embroiled in dangerous shenanigans involving chess, parrots, perfume, cockney roughs and a certain recently resurrected arch-nemesis.
Titanicus, by Dan Abnett
In the grim dark future there is only war.
The mantra of Warhammer 40k permeates every page of Titanicus: fantastic but believable science fiction, glorious and bleak .
This novel is about Titans: two opposing armies of enormous war-engines alternatively trying to invade and defend a planet, but also the fate of the soldiers and civilians caught in the firing line. To this reviewer it is almost perfect sci-fi presenting exotic, seductive ideas that are both alien yet utterly plausible at the same time. The Titans themselves are living beings – monstrous God-Machines – but operated in synchronisation and the will of their mecha-human pilots. The machines smoulder and growl in their desire to get into battle, battling wills for control with their operators who are wired into their ports, and their captains – the princeps – floating naked in amniotic caskets. The interfaces mean that the princeps and their crew not only have the radar view of the battlefield but also feel the burning desire for war that resides inside the machine itself, described perfectly when operator Gentrain, after his machine has just finished an engagement:
…felt the hunger pang of the empty magazines and shell hops.
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Simon Kernick is one of Britain’s most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the crime writing scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, the story of a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. However, Simon’s big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which was selected by Richard and Judy for [...]
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