Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart, by H.R.F. Keating
Ghote is defined by his obedience to rules, whether it be his superior at work or his own strict moral code. Inspector Ghote Trusts the Heart, eighth in the Ghote series, is the story of when these two motivators are at loggerheads with one another.
The book opens showing Ghote’s soft heart grudgingly giving alms to a smug crippled boy who knows that he is playing the policeman’s heartstrings. This soft touch, observed by the Police Commissioner, is just what is needed for Ghote’s next assignment.
The Submission, by Amy Waldman
The Submission is the striking new novel by American journalist Amy Waldman. One of the best debuts of the year, Waldman’s novel, set in New York City two years after the events of 9/11, centres around a competition to design a memorial for the victims. The book is released just ahead of the opening of the real 9/11 memorial on 11th September 2011, ten years after the tragedy accorded. In Waldman’s novel a jury is set the task of choosing a fitting design, and as the novel opens the winner is revealed to be Muslim architect Mohammad Khan. His design, a tranquil garden, a meditative, peaceful site of remembrance echoes the nature of the actual design. However his Muslim name raises questions, prejudices and anger that were only just beginning to heal.
One of the strengths of Waldman’s story is her ability to create and follow the lives of multiple characters all affected by 9/11 in very different ways, by doing this she heightens our awareness of stereotypes and prejudices. Amongst the jurors is the widow Claire Burswell whose wealthy husband was killed during the attack. She is the audiences’ idea of those affected, the white, middle class American, however it is Claire who stands up for Mohammad’s right as winner, whatever his race or beliefs. The jurors are faced with a dilemma; deny Khan his right to win because he is a Muslim, and condemn him or risk enduring the wrath of middle America.
The Silenced, by Brett Battles
The Silenced is the fourth in the Jonathan Quinn series, the creation of California’s Brett Battles. Battles picked up a Barry Award for his second effort, The Deceived, and his breakneck espionage thrillers have won him many admirers, not least Jeffery Deaver, whose gushing blurb adorns Battles’ latest dust jacket.
In this most recent addition to the series, Quinn receives an unusual task; remove the remains of a body hidden in a condemned London office block. The identity of the corpse is a mystery, but the danger surrounding the job is evident. Quinn and his team are under surveillance by an unknown rival organisation, and the job threatens not just his team, but Quinn’s nearest and dearest.
Win a complete set of the Gollancz 50th Top Ten Titles [closed]
It’s not often that you get a chance to win a prize as lovely as this. As any true bookgeek knows, Gollancz science fiction and fantasy imprint, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011, is the longest-established such publishing line in the UK. To celebrate fifty years of bringing us so much seminal science fiction and fantasy, Gollancz readers have selected their top ten Gollancz titles, which have been beautifully re-packaged in a style that pays tribute to the original look of Gollancz SF publishing, with new introductions from such luminaries as Joe Abercrombie and Adam Roberts – and we have a complete set to give away to one lucky winner!
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A second look at At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson
This is a “Did you know…?” book. By which I mean it will have the reader constantly grabbing the attention of passing family members to exclaim, for example, “Did you know…that ‘larder isn’t, as one might suppose, directly related to lard; it is from the French for lardon meaning bacon-a place where meat was kept.’?” And “Did you know…that in stealing eggs from a warehouse ‘one rat would embrace the egg with all four legs, then roll over on his back. A second rat would then drag the first rat by its tail to their burrow, where they could share their prize in peace.’?” Of course, some family members will be more receptive to these interesting morsels than others.
Bryson has positively crammed this book with fascinating facts about the history of the home; exploring both English and American living quarters, inventions that impacted upon the way we live, along with snippets from other European cultures in addition. Each chapter is dedicated to an area of the home, for example: bedroom; scullery and larder; and even the fuse-box! Bryson covers topics ranging from the invention of water closets, to Thomas Jefferson’s architectural plans; gas lamps, to equations on the tread depth of stairs (which is more interesting than it sounds). It is hard to imagine that any part of British or American history is not touched upon to some extent, although somehow the writer manages to allocate each subject their fair share of column inches, as it were. Some subjects are naturally less interesting than others. Concrete, for example, was not a highlight of my read. It may be necessary, and even revolutionary, but is certainly not the most enthralling of subjects to read about! Being bored for about 3 pages out of 600 plus, isn’t bad though. Read more
Doug Johnstone
Doug Johnstone is a writer, musician and journalist based in Edinburgh. His latest novel, Smokeheads, was published by Faber and Faber in March 2011. He has previously published two novels with Penguin, Tombstoning (2006) and The Ossians (2008), which received praise from the likes of Irvine Welsh, Ian Rankin and Christopher Brookmyre. He’s working on a fourth novel and a screenplay. Doug is currently writer in residence at the University of Strathclyde. He’s had short stories appear in various publications, and since 1999 he has worked as a freelance arts journalist, primarily covering music and literature.
Doug has a degree in physics, a PhD in nuclear physics and a diploma in journalism, and worked for four years designing airborne radars and missile guidance systems.
He grew up in Arbroath and lives in Portobello, Edinburgh with his wife and two children. He loves drinking malt whisky and playing football, not necessarily at the same time.
The Storm at the Door, by Stefan Merrill Block
Whilst this maybe only Stefan Block’s second novel, he has taken a candid yet inspiring decision to create a fictional story using real life family events and memories at its foundation. This provides the setting for a generation spanning engaging account of mental illness and the profound impact on the family.
Block’s grandfather underwent admission to a psychiatric institution in the 1960′s. From this he has creatively used the content of actual letters and photographs from his personal experience and shared memories to colour his story and I suspect to some degree consider in depth and appreciate what it must have been like to live with pronounced mental health issues during this period in time. Read more
The Cut, by George Pelecanos
“Never judge a book by its cover,” says the old adage. While this may work as an analogy for prejudice based on physical appearances, in terms of books themselves, the phrase is redundant, and no dust jacket makes this more apparent than that of George Pelecanos’ The Cut. On the rear, Stephen King opines that Pelecanos is “perhaps the greatest living crime writer,” and on the front, we are reminded of Pelecanos’ work as a screenwriter on the greatest crime drama ever, The Wire. As such, before turning a page, we know to expect a truly sublime work of crime writing, and Pelecanos delivers in spades.
A departure from his recent standalones, with The Cut, Pelecanos introduces us to a new hero, Spero Lucas. A Washingtonian of Greek descent, Lucas is a former US Marine and Iraq veteran, turned something of a private investigator since leaving the military. He possesses skills and determination in keeping with his former employment, and has the jaded outlook of a war veteran. A lesser writer may have plumped for a PTSD-addled hero, or a poster boy for the US Army; not Pelecanos. Instead, Spero Lucas is directionless, a man without long-term goals, living from job to job; in his daily life he risks falling through the cracks of the very society he served for. This is no polemic though, and Lucas is by no means a downtrodden ex-jarhead. He is young, athletic, capable and enjoys an easy way with women. Rest assured, there is material here for a lengthy series, should the idea take Pelecanos’ fancy. Read more
Rule 34, by Charles Stross
Rule 34 is what you get when you mix Philip K Dick with Irvine Welsh.
This near-future crime thriller, which has evolved from one of Stross’s earlier works – Halting State – is written entirely in 2nd person and takes you into the interesting, imaginative and at times alarming world of policing Internet porn. Add an international spamming network, sophisticated organised crime and the honorary consul for the Independent Republic of Issyk Kulistan and you’ve got a bizarre, yet completely gripping page-turner.
Stross weaves together three main characters and a few minor ones. DI Liz Kavanaugh is ex CID, following an altercation with a colleague some time back, she finds herself relegated to running the Rule 34 squad, a unit set up to police internet fetishism and monitor weird internet trends in the hope of uncovering criminal activity. No one lasts long on ICIU – the innovative crime investigation unit. Liz is tired of trawling through dodgy downloads, copycat crimes and maker culture, not to mention, “things that escape from the darker reaches of cyberspace and show up in suburban dungeons”. But when a suspicious death with a fetishist twist comes her way, Liz suddenly finds herself at the forefront of a criminal investigation – could this be the break she needs…
A Traveller’s History of Turkey, by Richard Stoneman
This book is the Turkish tourist’s ultimate secret weapon. If you’re taking a touring holiday of Turkey, with a group, you must have this book. Its jam packed with facts and figures, dates and dynasties, snippets of stories, lists of rulers and battles, everything you need to play tour-group one-upmanship.
Everyone else will have the guide books, the photo-guide to Ephesus, the map of St Paul’s journeys in Cyprus and the middle east and the astonishingly long list of Istanbul’s mosques, but you will have an invaluable two hundred and fifty pages of history from the bronze age to Turkey’s hosting of the UEFA cup final in 2009. When the group’s travel-bore (you know the one, she’s called Susan, the ex-teacher living in East Grinstead who’s seen everything but understood nothing) gathers an audience and expounds on Rameses and the battle of Qadesh you’ll be able to mention Muwatalli the second and the consequential loss of Mitanni. When you know someone on the bus is listening in you’ll be able to talk about the James the sixth and first being born in the year that Selim the Sot inherited the Ottoman empire from Selim the first, who wasn’t the first Selim at all but who had inherited that fledgling empire from Suleyman the Magnificent.
Elizabeth Miles
Elizabeth Miles grew up in Chappaqua, New York, not far from New York City. She graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2004, worked for several years at the Boston Phoenix, and now writes for the Portland Phoenix, an alternative weekly newspaper. She has won several awards from the New England Press Association and was nominated for an Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Award. Elizabeth serves on the board of trustees of Portland Players, a community theater and second home. She loves pizza; she can often be found running around on stage while scantily clad; and a cold winter night in Maine is one of the creepiest and most beautiful things she can think of. Fury, published by Simon & Schuster, is Elizabeth’s first novel:
It’s winter break in Ascension, Maine. The snow is falling and everything looks pristine and peaceful. But not all is as it seems…
Between cozy traditions and parties with her friends, Emily loves the holidays. And this year’s even better–the guy she’s been into for months is finally noticing her. But Em knows if she starts things with him, there’s no turning back. Because his girlfriend is Em’s best friend.
On the other side of town, Chase is having problems of his own. The stress of his home life is starting to take its toll, and his social life is unraveling. But that’s nothing compared to what’s really haunting him. Chase has done something cruel…something the perfect guy he pretends to be would never do. And it’s only a matter of time before he’s exposed.
In Ascension, mistakes can be deadly. And three girls—three beautiful, mysterious girls—are here to choose who will pay.
Em and Chase have been chosen.
88 Killer, by Oliver Stark
88 Killer is the follow up to Oliver Stark’s acclaimed debut, American Devil. NYPD Detective Tom Harper returns, aided (as he was in American Devil) by police psychotherapist Denise Levene, as they investigate the particularly gruesome murder of lawyer’s son, David Capske. Capske is found dead, wrapped tight in barbed wire, having been tortured for upwards of an hour before receiving a gunshot wound to the forehead.
As fellow Bookgeek Jennie Blake observed at the time, American Devil was a strongly character driven piece, giving admirable depth to Harper and Levene. In 88 Killer, Stark does not go over old ground on this score; instead, he turns his analytical attentions to the world of extremist political gangs.
Dog Walks Man: A Six-Legged Odyssey, by John Zeaman
Expectation about a book, for me, can make or break a read. It’s not about judging a book by its cover, or that I’m close-minded before I begin reading, but there are things that lead a potential reader to make some initial judgements. First off is the title. In my opinion what the author has chosen to call his book should be reflective of its content. ‘Dog Walks Man’ is a clever way of suggesting straight off that the dog somehow takes priority in the story. However, in this story it is not the case. Although Pete, the canine companion, does feature, the book is told from John Zeaman’s own perspective, as the walker of the dog. ‘Odyssey’ according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means “a long and eventful journey”. Zeaman and Pete’s walks may be long, but not what I would call eventful. Primarily, the story is that of a contemplative middle-aged man and his view on a series of dog walks; the details of which are described at length.
The writer does contemplate a couple of times throughout the book whether he is ‘making too much of [dog-walking]?’ Whilst the tales are momentarily humorous, the bulk is made up of descriptions of what the dog-walker sees and how he feels about it (notably, the industrialisation of wasteland), in addition to the sense of escapism he experiences when out and about. I would consider myself a ‘dog-person’, and have experienced plenty of dog walks, but I’m not sure this is necessarily relevant to the read, because there is just more about the walk than there is of the dog. Read more
Win a signed set of William Hussey’s Witchfinder Trilogy [closed]
Don’t ever say we’re not good to you – because to celebrate the conclusion of William Hussey’s young adult Witchfinder trilogy, we have a signed set of all three books to give away. This is only the second signed set in existence after William himself recently have away a set on his own website, and we’re sure you’ll agree they’re lovely looking books. So, to win:
- Witchfinder: Dawn of the Demontide
- Witchfinder: Gallows at Twilight
- Witchfinder: The Last Nightfall
you need to give us the answer to this question, the answer to which can be found on William Hussey’s website…
Darkie’s Mob: The Secret War of Joe Darkie, by John Wagner and Mike Western
It says a lot about the impact of World War II that war comics in Britain became, from the 60s, a pervasive artistic form that lasted for several decades. No other war inspired the same volume of war stories in this way – but then, no other war had action on land, sea and air, from the Arctic Circle to the Equator, the Far East to our own shores. As a child of the late seventies, I missed the heyday of Commando and Battle comics, but there were still plenty to be found in my childhood, dog-eared maybe but enthralling none the less, a car boot sale bargain. Despite, or perhaps because of, the moral simplicity of the stories, allied with the action, so often dependent on tanks, figher planes or warships, I was enthralled.
Now, perfectly timed to tie in with the recent Comics and Conflict event held recently at the Imperial War Museum, Titan Books are re-issuing several notable comic series from Battle Picture Weekly in beautiful hardbound editions – of which Darkie’s Mob is one such. It tells the story of a small unit of British soldiers, cut off by the Japanese invasion of Burma, and the man who appears from the jungle to take command of them, Captain Joe Darkie. A savage warrior, Darkie drives his small command deeper in to the Japanese controlled area, to conduct a vicious guerrilla campaign against the occupiers. It’s heady stuff, and Darkie is not really a team player, butting heads with the commanders of the Chindits column that Darkie’s Mob encounter. Told in Private Richard Shortland’s diary, we follow Darkie’s Mob on a number of seemingly impossible missions, as more is gradually revealed about the origin of Joe Darkie.
The Borrower, by Rebecca Makkai
Meet Lucy Hill, a 26 year old Missouri children’s librarian, who knows that she hasn’t quite made the best choices in life, but doesn’t really know how to do anything about it. She’s in a rut, with no proper love interest, not much of a social life, living in a shared theatre run by larger than life gay thespians – she just needs to ensure she doesn’t flush the loo whilst a show is on!
Enter Ian Drake a 10 year old precocious, manipulative yet lovable book worm, who has a passion for books that is compounded by his overbearing mother’s evangelical religious beliefs that make reading anything vaguely magical, about weaponry, the theory of evolution, Halloween, occult religions or adult content a violation of her rules. However anything encompassing the breadth of God should be actively promoted. Read more
Bloodland, by Alan Glynn
Bloodland is the third thriller from Alan Glynn, author of The Dark Fields (now known as Limitless since being brought to life on screen by Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper). Where The Dark Fields was, as Glynn calls it, “a pharmaceutical Faust,” Bloodland is a far more complex affair, taking the reader from recession-blighted Ireland, to the halls of economic power in Manhattan, to the sanity-sapping violence of the Congo, telling a timeless but contemporary tale of greed, lies and conspiracy.
The tale opens with Jimmy Gilroy, a young journalist, taking on an investigation into the death of Susie Monaghan, a z-list celebrity killed some years ago in a helicopter crash. As Gilroy’s investigation leads him deeper into a web of intrigue, Glynn offers up brief, punchy chapters, which ensure a tearing pace while teasing the reader with seemingly disparate chunks of information, ultimately revealed to be part of a horrifying but utterly plausible whole. As an exercise in conspiracy thriller writing, Bloodland is straight from the top drawer. Read more
Ghost Story, by Jim Butcher
Life as Chicago’s first [and only] professional wizard was difficult enough but in Ghost Story Harry Dresden quickly learns that his afterlife is going to be no picnic either. Following the dramatic conclusion of Jim Butcher’s previous novel, Changes, where, after finally triumphing over the Red Court and saving his daughter’s life, Harry was shot in the back by an unknown and very accurate assailant, Ghost Story [the clue’s in the name really] catches up with Harry the Shade.
From Harry’s point of view, no time at all has passed between him being shot and his meeting with Murphy’s ex-partner [ex as in dead, killed by a loup-garou in a previous novel] Carmichael who, with a bunch of other ex-cops, patrols a version of Chicago that is a sort of half-way house between the real world and whichever variety of afterlife citizens are destined for. The dead cop squad is led by Captain Jack Murphy [yep, Murphy’s not-so-dearly departed dad], who offers Dresden a choice – go back to real-world Chicago and track down his killer or move on and leave three of Dresden’s friends to come to serious harm. It’s a no-brainer really.
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Simon Kernick
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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Latest Competition
Five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was one of the big film releases of 2011, and to celebrate its release on DVD we have five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won – consisting of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
Latest Bookbitz reviews
