It was a great shock to discover that Maxine Clarke, one of the best known and best loved crime fiction reviewers, had passed away.
Although I never met her in person, she was one of the first to welcome me "on board" when I joined the Eurocrime team and was always extremely encouraging about my reviews. She said she loved to read them - praise indeed from someone who wrote reviews as well as she did and worked for NATURE; that most hallowed scientific journal that every biologist dreams of publishing in.
As you can see, she even commented on my Tombstoning review - the last post on this blog. I shall treasure her warm remark. It was a delight to read and is now all the more precious.
Maxine was so friendly and took time to make you feel welcome. There is now a huge hole in the crime fiction reviewing community. I am sure that every one of us will feel her loss.
Can I extend my thoughts and prayers to her friends and family, who must be missing her most dreadfully. I hope the outpouring of love and best wishes from around the world in response to the sad news will do just a little to warm your hearts in the days ahead.
Amanda xx
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Tombstoning by Doug Johnstone
This latest review of another highly recommended read has been produced with the help of my parrot, Milly. She has been flicking pomegranate juice at me to aid inspiration. Let me assure you that pomegranate juice in the eye stings rather a lot! Little monkey!
Tombstoning by Doug Johnstone. July 2012. Epub £1.71. 256 pages (estimated).
This deliciously disturbing tale was first published by Penguin in 2006. In July of this year it became available in Kindle format and can be purchased in either version from Amazon.
TOMBSTONING is Doug Johnstone’s first novel and is simply fabulous. Although it is less polished than his latest book, HIT AND RUN (still my Eurocrime Number 1 for 2012), it radiates with the talent that Johnstone is chock-full of and I love it. This is another book that messes with your head: a sure fire way to get onto my favourites list.
David Lindsay was born and raised in Arbroath. His best friend falls off a cliff in mysterious circumstances just before his 18th birthday, and David is the last person to see him alive. Churning with more questions than answers, he turns tail and runs, all the way to Edinburgh, where he stays and tries to forget. One day many years later he receives an email, from a certain Nicola Cruikshank, that turns his comfortable, if tedious, life upside down. Nicola has news of a school reunion and David, or Dave, as he now calls himself, is invited. David’s heart does a double flip, as Nicola was the girl at school that he fancied. He nervously replies and ends up meeting Nicola for her to arm-twist him into going to the reunion. Delighted that Nicola is still extremely attractive, he agrees to go and a few Saturdays later finds himself driving northward on a journey that will bring him head on with his childhood traumas. Instead of being a cathartic putting to rest of the past, the trip uncovers a whole hornets’ nest of trouble and once again David finds himself seeing the broken body of a friend, dead at the bottom of the cliffs. Who, or what, is the cause of this latest ‘accident’? Its timing is too good to be a coincidence and, with a finger of suspicion pointing at him, David takes it upon himself to find out the answers.
By far the best part of TOMBSTONING, for me, is Johnstone’s vivid description of David’s feelings towards the school reunion and the subsequent behaviour of his supposed ‘grown up’ school mates, that were nasty back in the day and are still pretty unpleasant people. I love the way the story keeps you guessing and hoping that things turn out OK (that’s the thing with Johnstone – there is no guarantee of a happy ending). The central characters are well developed and likeable and the pace of the story keeps you hanging on, wondering.
I have given this book 4 stars in my Amazon review. While I like it enormously, it isn’t as good as Johnstone’s later offerings, so I can’t give it 5 stars. Having said that, I do think this author is awesome and am delighted to have two more of his books waiting patiently on my ‘to be read’ pile!
Tombstoning by Doug Johnstone. July 2012. Epub £1.71. 256 pages (estimated).
This deliciously disturbing tale was first published by Penguin in 2006. In July of this year it became available in Kindle format and can be purchased in either version from Amazon.
TOMBSTONING is Doug Johnstone’s first novel and is simply fabulous. Although it is less polished than his latest book, HIT AND RUN (still my Eurocrime Number 1 for 2012), it radiates with the talent that Johnstone is chock-full of and I love it. This is another book that messes with your head: a sure fire way to get onto my favourites list.
David Lindsay was born and raised in Arbroath. His best friend falls off a cliff in mysterious circumstances just before his 18th birthday, and David is the last person to see him alive. Churning with more questions than answers, he turns tail and runs, all the way to Edinburgh, where he stays and tries to forget. One day many years later he receives an email, from a certain Nicola Cruikshank, that turns his comfortable, if tedious, life upside down. Nicola has news of a school reunion and David, or Dave, as he now calls himself, is invited. David’s heart does a double flip, as Nicola was the girl at school that he fancied. He nervously replies and ends up meeting Nicola for her to arm-twist him into going to the reunion. Delighted that Nicola is still extremely attractive, he agrees to go and a few Saturdays later finds himself driving northward on a journey that will bring him head on with his childhood traumas. Instead of being a cathartic putting to rest of the past, the trip uncovers a whole hornets’ nest of trouble and once again David finds himself seeing the broken body of a friend, dead at the bottom of the cliffs. Who, or what, is the cause of this latest ‘accident’? Its timing is too good to be a coincidence and, with a finger of suspicion pointing at him, David takes it upon himself to find out the answers.
By far the best part of TOMBSTONING, for me, is Johnstone’s vivid description of David’s feelings towards the school reunion and the subsequent behaviour of his supposed ‘grown up’ school mates, that were nasty back in the day and are still pretty unpleasant people. I love the way the story keeps you guessing and hoping that things turn out OK (that’s the thing with Johnstone – there is no guarantee of a happy ending). The central characters are well developed and likeable and the pace of the story keeps you hanging on, wondering.
I have given this book 4 stars in my Amazon review. While I like it enormously, it isn’t as good as Johnstone’s later offerings, so I can’t give it 5 stars. Having said that, I do think this author is awesome and am delighted to have two more of his books waiting patiently on my ‘to be read’ pile!
Friday, November 9, 2012
Links to reviews
Here are some links to reviews on Eurocrime that have been written for books by the authors I went to see at Bloody Scotland.....
Allan Guthrie Savage Night Slammer
Craig Russell A Fear of Dark Water, The Deep Dark Sleep
Karen Campbell Shadowplay, Proof of Life
Denise Mina The Field of Blood, The Last Breath
Ann Cleeves Silent Voices, White Nights
Peter May The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man
Gordon Ferris The Hanging Shed, Bitter Water
Russel MacLean The Lost Sister
Allan Guthrie Savage Night Slammer
Craig Russell A Fear of Dark Water, The Deep Dark Sleep
Karen Campbell Shadowplay, Proof of Life
Denise Mina The Field of Blood, The Last Breath
Ann Cleeves Silent Voices, White Nights
Peter May The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man
Gordon Ferris The Hanging Shed, Bitter Water
Russel MacLean The Lost Sister
The Black House by Peter May
I reviewed this awesome book for Eurocrime last year (see here) and it gives me great pleasure to put this review on my blog. Man (otherwise known as Mike) wrote this review recently and is my first guest blogger.
I hope you enjoy the review, and the book. If you've not read it yet you should hurry up as the final part of the trilogy is due for release in January 2013!!!
Upon arriving at Bloody Scotland, Scotland's first crime fiction festival, in September, I resolved not to buy any more books ("any more" as I'd a hefty stack back at home). But, the temptations of the text proved too strong and I came back with a few, one of which was The Blackhouse by Peter May.
Fin Macleod is a detective with Lothian and Borders Police based in Edinburgh. On top of investigating a grisly, unsolved murder Fin is struggling to both accept the death of his young son in a hit-and-run and to save his marriage. Despite these woes, Fin's guv dispatches him to the remote Isle of Lewis on the North-west of Scotland, as the local bobbies have a murder that bears a startling similarity to Fin's Edinburgh case. For Fin this is not only a new case, but a return home after many years of self-imposed exile. As he investigates, and true to the genre, he meet his childhood friend, Artair Macinnes and sweetheart, Marsaili, old memories return to haunt him, and long buried secrets from the past are dragged into the present.
The Blackhouse is an atmospheric read. The wind-swept, wave-battered, spare Lewis, populated by tough, God-fearing folk provides a suitably brooding landscape for Fin's investigation. May provides plenty of local colour (much of it shades of black and grey) with the stand-out being a gruelling description of Lewismen's annual guga harvest on the barren Atlantic rock of An Sgeir (An Skerr - non-Gaelic speakers, like me, will find the pronunciation page most useful!) May's use of third-person for Fin in the present and first-person for Fin in the past, helps us to contrast then and now and how our childhood experiences shape our whole lives, for better or worse. My only complaint was a sudden ending, but no worry, the next in the trilogy, The Lewis Man, is now out, and the conclusion, The Chessmen, arrives in January.
Just the read for a dark autumn evening, 4/5.
A big thank you to Amanda for allowing me onto her blog :-)
I hope you enjoy the review, and the book. If you've not read it yet you should hurry up as the final part of the trilogy is due for release in January 2013!!!
Upon arriving at Bloody Scotland, Scotland's first crime fiction festival, in September, I resolved not to buy any more books ("any more" as I'd a hefty stack back at home). But, the temptations of the text proved too strong and I came back with a few, one of which was The Blackhouse by Peter May.
Fin Macleod is a detective with Lothian and Borders Police based in Edinburgh. On top of investigating a grisly, unsolved murder Fin is struggling to both accept the death of his young son in a hit-and-run and to save his marriage. Despite these woes, Fin's guv dispatches him to the remote Isle of Lewis on the North-west of Scotland, as the local bobbies have a murder that bears a startling similarity to Fin's Edinburgh case. For Fin this is not only a new case, but a return home after many years of self-imposed exile. As he investigates, and true to the genre, he meet his childhood friend, Artair Macinnes and sweetheart, Marsaili, old memories return to haunt him, and long buried secrets from the past are dragged into the present.
The Blackhouse is an atmospheric read. The wind-swept, wave-battered, spare Lewis, populated by tough, God-fearing folk provides a suitably brooding landscape for Fin's investigation. May provides plenty of local colour (much of it shades of black and grey) with the stand-out being a gruelling description of Lewismen's annual guga harvest on the barren Atlantic rock of An Sgeir (An Skerr - non-Gaelic speakers, like me, will find the pronunciation page most useful!) May's use of third-person for Fin in the present and first-person for Fin in the past, helps us to contrast then and now and how our childhood experiences shape our whole lives, for better or worse. My only complaint was a sudden ending, but no worry, the next in the trilogy, The Lewis Man, is now out, and the conclusion, The Chessmen, arrives in January.
Just the read for a dark autumn evening, 4/5.
A big thank you to Amanda for allowing me onto her blog :-)
Monday, September 17, 2012
Bloody Scotland - IV
After all those months of planning and looking forward to going, we've been and are home again, unpacking the pile of signed books and adding the new ones to their designated places on the shelves. It was a fantastic weekend. The good news is that there is going to be another one! Same weekend next year! I am tempted to book a room in the same hotel already.
So, to conclude my short pieces about the events we attended...
Event number 5 was on Sunday and called Wild Girls. It featured Karen Campbell and Denise Mina, and was chaired by Craig Robertson. What a fantastic event! Quite a lot of the time was spent discussing author gender and how female authors are perceived as crime writers. We were also treated to readings by both ladies from their latest books. The audience was lively and interested, so the questions for the authors flowed and the hour ended all too fast.
The final event was The Red Headed League, which included a reading of the Sherlock Holmes adventure with the same name. Ten of the authors who spoke during the festival had parts in the reading. It was superb.
Finally, this event was concluded with an award ceremony for the winner of the Glengoyne short story competion Worth The Wait that had been held prior to the festival. The winning story is first rate and has been published in an anthology of the best stories from the competition. It is available from its publisher, Blasted Heath.
The final award of the festival was given to the winner of the Scottish Crime Book of the year award. The short list of six (Charles Cumming – A Foreign Country (Harper Collins); Craig Russell – Dead Men & Broken Hearts (Quercus; Denise Mina – Gods & Beasts (Orion); Peter May – The Lewis Man (Quercus); Philip Kerr – Prague Fatale (Quercus; Will Jordan – Redemption (Random House)) must have been very difficult to choose from but the winner was Charles Cumming. Excellent choice.
I'll follow this post with links to various reviews and photos.
It is a real shame to be home and back to normal after such a great weekend. I have a whole year to start to look forward to the next one!
So, to conclude my short pieces about the events we attended...
Event number 5 was on Sunday and called Wild Girls. It featured Karen Campbell and Denise Mina, and was chaired by Craig Robertson. What a fantastic event! Quite a lot of the time was spent discussing author gender and how female authors are perceived as crime writers. We were also treated to readings by both ladies from their latest books. The audience was lively and interested, so the questions for the authors flowed and the hour ended all too fast.
The final event was The Red Headed League, which included a reading of the Sherlock Holmes adventure with the same name. Ten of the authors who spoke during the festival had parts in the reading. It was superb.
Finally, this event was concluded with an award ceremony for the winner of the Glengoyne short story competion Worth The Wait that had been held prior to the festival. The winning story is first rate and has been published in an anthology of the best stories from the competition. It is available from its publisher, Blasted Heath.
The final award of the festival was given to the winner of the Scottish Crime Book of the year award. The short list of six (Charles Cumming – A Foreign Country (Harper Collins); Craig Russell – Dead Men & Broken Hearts (Quercus; Denise Mina – Gods & Beasts (Orion); Peter May – The Lewis Man (Quercus); Philip Kerr – Prague Fatale (Quercus; Will Jordan – Redemption (Random House)) must have been very difficult to choose from but the winner was Charles Cumming. Excellent choice.
I'll follow this post with links to various reviews and photos.
It is a real shame to be home and back to normal after such a great weekend. I have a whole year to start to look forward to the next one!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Bloody Scotland - III
Our third event was The Private Investigators and featured Gordon Ferris, Craig Russell and Russel D McLean. Another interesting event, looking at why these authors chose to write about PIs rather than police. The conversation was lively and the readings excellent. It was just a bit of a shame that it overran, so we had to hoof it down the road for our next event, that was 30 minutes later.
Our final event for the day was Island Crime with Ann Cleeves and Peter May. This was the event that I was looking forward to most and I wasn't disappointed. Both authors spoke about why they chose the Islands as the focus for their stories and how much of their own lives they had detailed in their work.
My paternal grandfather comes from Barvas, the town on Lewis where Peter May's story is based. It was a delight to finally meet the author of the books I love. Plus, he recognised me from my Twitter photo! That made my day!!
Man says he is also enjoying Bloody Scotland and now has a big heap of new authors to enjoy!
Our final event for the day was Island Crime with Ann Cleeves and Peter May. This was the event that I was looking forward to most and I wasn't disappointed. Both authors spoke about why they chose the Islands as the focus for their stories and how much of their own lives they had detailed in their work.
My paternal grandfather comes from Barvas, the town on Lewis where Peter May's story is based. It was a delight to finally meet the author of the books I love. Plus, he recognised me from my Twitter photo! That made my day!!
Man says he is also enjoying Bloody Scotland and now has a big heap of new authors to enjoy!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Bloody Scotland - II
Our next event was The Big Debate. This featured Ian Rankin, Peter James, Stuart Kelly and Prof. Willy Maley. The subject matter was a highly entertaining and interesting look at why a Crime Fiction book has never been awarded the Man Booker Prize. Plenty of discussion for and against, including why literary fiction that includes crime has won the prize but isn't crime fiction!
I brought a pile of books with me to be signed and am doing well in that regard. Poor Man has bravely offered to carry the stash for me in his bag. Excellent!
So, we are now relaxing again, with more coffee, and waiting for our next session....
I brought a pile of books with me to be signed and am doing well in that regard. Poor Man has bravely offered to carry the stash for me in his bag. Excellent!
So, we are now relaxing again, with more coffee, and waiting for our next session....
Bloody Scotland
How wonderful to be able to escape for the weekend. Two whole days with no classes. Nothing to do except listen to fabulous authors, read, relax and enjoy the unexpected sunshine.
Bloody Scotland is Scotland's first crime fiction writing festival and I trust that it will be the first of many. It is being held in several venues in Stirling and is certainly well attended and buzzing. The full programme of events is pretty interesting and we are spoiled for choice.
This morning Man and I started off with Downloading the Detectives; a discussion between Allan Guthrie and Gordon Ferris concerning the phenomenon of the ebook. The event was attended by a number of other authors and it was interesting to see how they see the future of publishing going. The issue of sock puppets also raised it's head, along with quality control in a medium that makes self publishing much easier.
The audience asked plenty of questions and there was an opportunity for having books signed afterwards.
An altogether excellent start, followed by a wonderful opportunity to relax over coffee for an hour or so......
Bloody Scotland is Scotland's first crime fiction writing festival and I trust that it will be the first of many. It is being held in several venues in Stirling and is certainly well attended and buzzing. The full programme of events is pretty interesting and we are spoiled for choice.
This morning Man and I started off with Downloading the Detectives; a discussion between Allan Guthrie and Gordon Ferris concerning the phenomenon of the ebook. The event was attended by a number of other authors and it was interesting to see how they see the future of publishing going. The issue of sock puppets also raised it's head, along with quality control in a medium that makes self publishing much easier.
The audience asked plenty of questions and there was an opportunity for having books signed afterwards.
An altogether excellent start, followed by a wonderful opportunity to relax over coffee for an hour or so......
Friday, September 7, 2012
The Barber Surgeon's Hairshirt
A review for another book by the very awesome Douglas Lindsay. It features his hilarious character Barney Thompson and is definitely well worth downloading.....
The Barber Surgeon’s Hairshirt by Douglas Lindsay. 2011. Version 2-1-3. Blasted Heath. EPub. ISBN 978-1-908688-14-9.
This is the second in Douglas Lindsay’s series about his unfortunate, yet endearing, barber, Barney Thomson. An earlier version of this book was published by Piatkus in 2000, then by Long Midnight Publishing in 2003, and called THE CUTTING EDGE OF BARNEY THOMSON.
You have to feel sorry for poor old Barney Thomson, talented barber and human magnet for all things dark and gruesome. He has never killed anyone in his life but, wherever he goes, he ends of knee-deep in mangled bodies, with circumstances pointing its accusing fingers at him. All he wants is to cut hair and be left in peace.
This time, though, Barney is in serious trouble. There is a national manhunt out for him after he was caught disposing of suspicious-looking cut up body parts – his mother’s handiwork, it must be said. Instead of explaining the truth, Barney ups and runs and, with Glasgow’s finest police officers hot on his heels, he goes to ground in a monastery. Cut off from the world you would think he would be safe. And for a few weeks he is. But it doesn’t take long for the old curse to strike again and, as the monks start to die around him, it looks as if poor old Barney is in the frame again.
The attractions of this series featuring Barney Thomson are several. First, he is an endearing character and his painfully unfortunate skill of being in the wrong place at the wrong time is highly entertaining. Second, Lindsay has this uncanny knack of describing people’s behavior and customs that, again, is hilarious but also embarrassingly accurate. For example, the way that all the people who help the police with their enquiries load them up with cake and coffee in a bid to be hospitable and tell them they need “fattening up”. The general public’s ridiculous obsession with celebrity and glossy magazines plays a fairly prominent role too, as does the way public opinion about Barney is swayed by the gutter press that has him tried, blamed for things not even related to this case and then exonerated before he has even been caught.
If you like your noir crime fiction with a twist and are entertained by laughing at the more inane side of British society, then you will love this book and, indeed, all of the books featuring Barney Thomson. Long may he be free to continue to cut hair!
Very Highly recommended.
The Barber Surgeon’s Hairshirt by Douglas Lindsay. 2011. Version 2-1-3. Blasted Heath. EPub. ISBN 978-1-908688-14-9.
This is the second in Douglas Lindsay’s series about his unfortunate, yet endearing, barber, Barney Thomson. An earlier version of this book was published by Piatkus in 2000, then by Long Midnight Publishing in 2003, and called THE CUTTING EDGE OF BARNEY THOMSON.
You have to feel sorry for poor old Barney Thomson, talented barber and human magnet for all things dark and gruesome. He has never killed anyone in his life but, wherever he goes, he ends of knee-deep in mangled bodies, with circumstances pointing its accusing fingers at him. All he wants is to cut hair and be left in peace.
This time, though, Barney is in serious trouble. There is a national manhunt out for him after he was caught disposing of suspicious-looking cut up body parts – his mother’s handiwork, it must be said. Instead of explaining the truth, Barney ups and runs and, with Glasgow’s finest police officers hot on his heels, he goes to ground in a monastery. Cut off from the world you would think he would be safe. And for a few weeks he is. But it doesn’t take long for the old curse to strike again and, as the monks start to die around him, it looks as if poor old Barney is in the frame again.
The attractions of this series featuring Barney Thomson are several. First, he is an endearing character and his painfully unfortunate skill of being in the wrong place at the wrong time is highly entertaining. Second, Lindsay has this uncanny knack of describing people’s behavior and customs that, again, is hilarious but also embarrassingly accurate. For example, the way that all the people who help the police with their enquiries load them up with cake and coffee in a bid to be hospitable and tell them they need “fattening up”. The general public’s ridiculous obsession with celebrity and glossy magazines plays a fairly prominent role too, as does the way public opinion about Barney is swayed by the gutter press that has him tried, blamed for things not even related to this case and then exonerated before he has even been caught.
If you like your noir crime fiction with a twist and are entertained by laughing at the more inane side of British society, then you will love this book and, indeed, all of the books featuring Barney Thomson. Long may he be free to continue to cut hair!
Very Highly recommended.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
The End of Days by Douglas Lindsay
This review was written several months ago and is only now reaching the light of day. Douglas Lindsay is an excellent author and shown himself capable of producing both hilarious and seriously noir fiction. He's ace. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did....
The End of Days. A novella by Douglas Lindsay. 2011. Blasted Heath (ePub). ISBN 978-1-908688-12-5.
A hilarious novella in Douglas Lindsay’s series about Barney Thomson, the much sought-after Scottish barber with magical talents in the hair department. It is set in December 2009 and there is big trouble down in Westminster. Ratings are slipping and the expenses scandal is set to blow out of control, so our Barney is called upon to save the day, by giving the flagging Prime Minister a killer haircut. This he does and, much to the PMs delight, his ratings start to climb once more. As seems to be the norm for poor old Barney, wherever he goes a trail of murder and mayhem seems to follow. Pretty soon, MPs are being slaughtered in worryingly large numbers and blood is gushing and squirting right, left and centre. Somewhat bemused, Barney, who has never been accused of anything in his life, is now dragged in for questioning and this is when things really start to get interesting.
A highly entertaining, quick and easy, read. THE END OF DAYS tickled me so much that I snorted loudly on the bus several times before I remembered where I was. It is full of amusing, yet painfully accurate, observations of the British people, our Government and our national relationship with the USA. It points at the way “celebrity”, reality TV and physical appearance are now more important than politics for the vast majority – politicians included - and is so effectively well written that you just can’t help but laugh at the stupidity of us all.
Very Highly Recommended.
The End of Days. A novella by Douglas Lindsay. 2011. Blasted Heath (ePub). ISBN 978-1-908688-12-5.
A hilarious novella in Douglas Lindsay’s series about Barney Thomson, the much sought-after Scottish barber with magical talents in the hair department. It is set in December 2009 and there is big trouble down in Westminster. Ratings are slipping and the expenses scandal is set to blow out of control, so our Barney is called upon to save the day, by giving the flagging Prime Minister a killer haircut. This he does and, much to the PMs delight, his ratings start to climb once more. As seems to be the norm for poor old Barney, wherever he goes a trail of murder and mayhem seems to follow. Pretty soon, MPs are being slaughtered in worryingly large numbers and blood is gushing and squirting right, left and centre. Somewhat bemused, Barney, who has never been accused of anything in his life, is now dragged in for questioning and this is when things really start to get interesting.
A highly entertaining, quick and easy, read. THE END OF DAYS tickled me so much that I snorted loudly on the bus several times before I remembered where I was. It is full of amusing, yet painfully accurate, observations of the British people, our Government and our national relationship with the USA. It points at the way “celebrity”, reality TV and physical appearance are now more important than politics for the vast majority – politicians included - and is so effectively well written that you just can’t help but laugh at the stupidity of us all.
Very Highly Recommended.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
DEAD MONEY by Ray Banks
Ray Banks is one of those authors that you really should look out for. I have already reviewed CALIFORNIA, also by him, for Eurocrime. DEAD MONEY is yet another awesomely nasty book......
Dead Money by Ray Banks. 2011. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. 180 pages ISBN 978-1-908688-04-0.
This epub is the second version of DEAD MONEY in circulation. The first was published by PointBlank Press, in the USA in 2004, under the name THE BIG BLIND.
Ray Banks is one of those excellent authors who aren’t afraid of writing a book that doesn’t necessarily have a soft and sappy ending. Such was the case with CALIFORNIA, my first experience of a book by him, and I was really looking forward to enjoying this particularly tasty-looking morsel. I wasn’t disappointed. He is fast becoming one of my firm favourites.
Hard-hitting and short but, thankfully, not at all sweet, DEAD MONEY smacks you in the gob right at the start and drags you along rather roughly, leaving you feeling somewhat bedraggled and fragile afterwards. It has the perfect amount of ‘ick factor’ and was the perfect accompaniment to my afternoon bus ride between classes in less than lovely areas of Edinburgh.
Alan Slater has a bit of a problem but refuses to let it get him down. His marriage is in tatters and his dog doesn’t like him but he has his best mate, Beale, and his job as a double-glazing salesman, so everything’s OK. Except his friend likes to gamble and has a bit of an attitude when he loses. Which tends to happen a lot, so Alan gets to look after his friend and keep him out of trouble – which also keeps him away from his wife. Things start to take a downward slide when he hits and kills a dog with his car one wet and rainy night. He dumps the dog, upsets his wife and then a poker game that goes badly wrong results in a request from Beale that he really shouldn’t say yes to. And it isn’t too long after this that his troubles really begin……
An awesome story with an awesome ending. Don’t let the short length of the stories by Ray Banks put you off trying them. If you like things black and nasty then you are going to love him!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan
Here is a review of my latest Kindle read. This one is a real cracker....
Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan. Dec 2011. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. 268 pages (estimated).
This book is still messing with my head and I finished it two days ago. It is a superbly crafted, blacker-than-black, account of a gang of vicious 14-year-old thugs, running wild in the streets of Belfast and will leave a very nasty taste in your mouth by the time you’ve done with it. Perhaps in the light of the aftermath of last year’s riots and the increasing amount of unrest amongst the youth of today, this tale of urban decay is closer to the truth than we would like to admit.
The story starts with the gang, the Wee Rockets, mugging an elderly lady for her purse and leaving her badly injured. Members of the community are incensed by the violent nature of the attack and one man in particular, Stephen McVeigh, decides to take matters into his own hands. He has a pretty good idea of who is responsible and, as he gets closer to the truth, Joe, the gang leader, decides to break ranks and leave the gang to save his skin. He hands the reins over to someone else, who immediately ups the ante and the risks they take to “earn” money for fags and cider increase significantly – as does the price they must pay if things don’t go to plan.
Meanwhile, Joe has other fish to fry. First his mum has a new boyfriend; that strange, ginger, McVeigh, who he is sure is out to get him, and, second, his dad is back in town, looking to make amends and catch up for lost time. Joe’s dad’s motives for befriending him, however, are not as paternal as would first appear and Joe is soon involved in something far more dangerous than his teenage gang and smoking dope…..
What really screams at you from every page of this story is the lack of respect everyone has for everyone else and the horrific way that this has impacted onto the dysfunctional lives and attitudes of the kids in the gang. They show the finger to everyone in authority and, really, when you see the role models that their lives are based on, you can’t really blame them or be shocked at the way they have turned out. Living in the Easter Road area of Edinburgh, I am familiar with groups of drinking teenagers out on the streets in the evenings. I wonder how long it will be before these children turn to violence to have a bit more money and excitement in their lives.
Gerard Brennan is a gifted Northern Irish writer and the author of THE POINT (published by Pulp Press) as well as WEE ROCKETS. You can follow his blog here.. http://crimesceneni.blogspot.co.uk/. I am looking forward to reading more of his work in the future.
Very highly recommended
Wee Rockets by Gerard Brennan. Dec 2011. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. 268 pages (estimated).
This book is still messing with my head and I finished it two days ago. It is a superbly crafted, blacker-than-black, account of a gang of vicious 14-year-old thugs, running wild in the streets of Belfast and will leave a very nasty taste in your mouth by the time you’ve done with it. Perhaps in the light of the aftermath of last year’s riots and the increasing amount of unrest amongst the youth of today, this tale of urban decay is closer to the truth than we would like to admit.
The story starts with the gang, the Wee Rockets, mugging an elderly lady for her purse and leaving her badly injured. Members of the community are incensed by the violent nature of the attack and one man in particular, Stephen McVeigh, decides to take matters into his own hands. He has a pretty good idea of who is responsible and, as he gets closer to the truth, Joe, the gang leader, decides to break ranks and leave the gang to save his skin. He hands the reins over to someone else, who immediately ups the ante and the risks they take to “earn” money for fags and cider increase significantly – as does the price they must pay if things don’t go to plan.
Meanwhile, Joe has other fish to fry. First his mum has a new boyfriend; that strange, ginger, McVeigh, who he is sure is out to get him, and, second, his dad is back in town, looking to make amends and catch up for lost time. Joe’s dad’s motives for befriending him, however, are not as paternal as would first appear and Joe is soon involved in something far more dangerous than his teenage gang and smoking dope…..
What really screams at you from every page of this story is the lack of respect everyone has for everyone else and the horrific way that this has impacted onto the dysfunctional lives and attitudes of the kids in the gang. They show the finger to everyone in authority and, really, when you see the role models that their lives are based on, you can’t really blame them or be shocked at the way they have turned out. Living in the Easter Road area of Edinburgh, I am familiar with groups of drinking teenagers out on the streets in the evenings. I wonder how long it will be before these children turn to violence to have a bit more money and excitement in their lives.
Gerard Brennan is a gifted Northern Irish writer and the author of THE POINT (published by Pulp Press) as well as WEE ROCKETS. You can follow his blog here.. http://crimesceneni.blogspot.co.uk/. I am looking forward to reading more of his work in the future.
Very highly recommended
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
The Unburied Dead by Douglas Lindsay
The following review is the first one written for a book read on my Kindle proper. The Unburied dead is another book published by Blasted Heath.
The Unburied Dead by Douglas Lindsay. 2012. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. ISBN 978-1-908688-17-0.
This was my first read of a Douglas Lindsay book that had nothing to do with his hilariously over-the-top demon barber, Barney Thompson. To be brief; well written and superbly in-your-face, this chilling tale is even better than Lindsay’s earlier works and I am fast becoming a fan of anything he produces.
Set in Glasgow, the plot switches between two separate stories. In one, we are introduced to the thoughts and actions of an unknown serial killer, who is obsessed with his former girlfriend and kills her repeatedly, believing his victims to be her. The deaths are brutally violent and send shock waves through the community.
In the second story, we follow the path of a down-beat police officer, DC Thomas Hutton. A former soldier who has seen active service and is still very much traumatized by it all, Hutton goes through women like nobody’s business, falling in love and getting married, then divorced, with alarming regularity. He is disillusioned with his job and seems to merely go through the motions, fuelled by his vodka and his loneliness.
It is just before Christmas and Hutton, along with most of his colleagues, is mixing merriment and gift-buying with this case, in order to try and catch the killer before he strikes again. While he is busy and pre-occupied, with his mind on his women – both past and present – more than on his work, he accidently stumbles across several clues that could indict keys members of the local constabulary, as well as identify the killer. Hutton’s Christmas ‘holiday’ is not that merry, to say the least, and he ends up trudging through the snow on Hogmanay in a last-ditch attempt to sort everything out, only to discover that things are far, far worse than he could ever imagine.
Lindsay is one of those talented authors that can mix dry humour with dark and bloody violence. He can get into your head and distract you from yourself, as well as make you chuckle. The short length of his stories are perfect for me just now, in my ‘New to Kindle’ state, as they are a fairly quick read, and, as a result, I am not the slightest bit concerned about how long I will be kept away from my pile of beloved paperbacks!
The Unburied Dead by Douglas Lindsay. 2012. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. ISBN 978-1-908688-17-0.
This was my first read of a Douglas Lindsay book that had nothing to do with his hilariously over-the-top demon barber, Barney Thompson. To be brief; well written and superbly in-your-face, this chilling tale is even better than Lindsay’s earlier works and I am fast becoming a fan of anything he produces.
Set in Glasgow, the plot switches between two separate stories. In one, we are introduced to the thoughts and actions of an unknown serial killer, who is obsessed with his former girlfriend and kills her repeatedly, believing his victims to be her. The deaths are brutally violent and send shock waves through the community.
In the second story, we follow the path of a down-beat police officer, DC Thomas Hutton. A former soldier who has seen active service and is still very much traumatized by it all, Hutton goes through women like nobody’s business, falling in love and getting married, then divorced, with alarming regularity. He is disillusioned with his job and seems to merely go through the motions, fuelled by his vodka and his loneliness.
It is just before Christmas and Hutton, along with most of his colleagues, is mixing merriment and gift-buying with this case, in order to try and catch the killer before he strikes again. While he is busy and pre-occupied, with his mind on his women – both past and present – more than on his work, he accidently stumbles across several clues that could indict keys members of the local constabulary, as well as identify the killer. Hutton’s Christmas ‘holiday’ is not that merry, to say the least, and he ends up trudging through the snow on Hogmanay in a last-ditch attempt to sort everything out, only to discover that things are far, far worse than he could ever imagine.
Lindsay is one of those talented authors that can mix dry humour with dark and bloody violence. He can get into your head and distract you from yourself, as well as make you chuckle. The short length of his stories are perfect for me just now, in my ‘New to Kindle’ state, as they are a fairly quick read, and, as a result, I am not the slightest bit concerned about how long I will be kept away from my pile of beloved paperbacks!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Sin Eater by Sarah Rayne
For some reason this book was very difficult to get hold of. Published by Severn House in March 2012 in hardback and trade paperback. I am delighted to say I have finally got hold of a copy. A hardback first edition at that.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wolf Tickets by Ray Banks
This review was written before I acquired my Kindle and the book was read using the iPad Kindle App. It is published by the new e-publishing company Blasted Heath and is a mighty fine read.
Wolf Tickets by Ray Banks. 2012. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. 187 pages ISBN 978-1-908688-18-7.
Another hard boiled stonker from the very talented Ray Banks, WOLF TICKETS features the antics of 2 former army mates; one, Farrell, who is Irish and one, Cobb, a Geordie, that have parted ways in recent years, mostly due to women, but are brought together again when Nora, one of these aforementioned women, and the love of Farrell’s life, does a runner, with a large wad of his cash and his precious leather jacket. Farrell, a thieving, all-round rascal, wants his money back, and knows exactly where to find it, as there is also a very large stash of money hidden somewhere in the North of England and his gut feeling is that Nora, also a money grabbing ne’er-do-well, is on her way to grab that too.
Both lads are hard-core trouble makers and are not afraid to use violence to get what they want. Cobb’s particular favourite is the old sock with batteries in the toe that he carries in his pocket and uses to slug people that get in his way. His other party tricks are shop-lifting, from charity shops, and fire raising – using the cans of paint stripper he has stashed in the boot of his car.
So, Farrell and Cobb set out to find Nora and get the money back but, being the kind of lads that they are, meet a whole load of trouble on the way.
Ray Banks has this talent for being able to smack you with hard core noir fiction and leave you exhausted and disturbed but, strangely, still smiling and reaching out for more. The short length of this latest shocker means you can read it in a few hours and enjoy the full impact all at once – in fact, you will lose the tension if you put it down, so just save it for an afternoon off!!
Banks and Blasted Heath together are changing my opinion of ebooks, since I get so engrossed in these nasty wee tales that I forget I am holding a Kindle and the format ceases to matter!
Wolf Tickets by Ray Banks. 2012. Blasted Heath. Epub £1.99. 187 pages ISBN 978-1-908688-18-7.
Another hard boiled stonker from the very talented Ray Banks, WOLF TICKETS features the antics of 2 former army mates; one, Farrell, who is Irish and one, Cobb, a Geordie, that have parted ways in recent years, mostly due to women, but are brought together again when Nora, one of these aforementioned women, and the love of Farrell’s life, does a runner, with a large wad of his cash and his precious leather jacket. Farrell, a thieving, all-round rascal, wants his money back, and knows exactly where to find it, as there is also a very large stash of money hidden somewhere in the North of England and his gut feeling is that Nora, also a money grabbing ne’er-do-well, is on her way to grab that too.
Both lads are hard-core trouble makers and are not afraid to use violence to get what they want. Cobb’s particular favourite is the old sock with batteries in the toe that he carries in his pocket and uses to slug people that get in his way. His other party tricks are shop-lifting, from charity shops, and fire raising – using the cans of paint stripper he has stashed in the boot of his car.
So, Farrell and Cobb set out to find Nora and get the money back but, being the kind of lads that they are, meet a whole load of trouble on the way.
Ray Banks has this talent for being able to smack you with hard core noir fiction and leave you exhausted and disturbed but, strangely, still smiling and reaching out for more. The short length of this latest shocker means you can read it in a few hours and enjoy the full impact all at once – in fact, you will lose the tension if you put it down, so just save it for an afternoon off!!
Banks and Blasted Heath together are changing my opinion of ebooks, since I get so engrossed in these nasty wee tales that I forget I am holding a Kindle and the format ceases to matter!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
My Most Embarrassing EFL Moment
I have been asked to share my most embarrassing EFL moment, so here it is. Nothing to do with Kindle or ebooks or reviews. Plenty to do with being a twerp. I hope it brings a wee smile to your faces.
I’ve been teaching English since November 2005. I did my first chunk of the awesome online i-to-i course at that time and have never looked back.
I went to Japan in 2005 for a year and had a fantastic experience. I worked for two language schools and also had private students at the weekend. The incident I am about to describe for you happened at around 9pm one evening. I had been working for this one school since 8am that morning and was pretty shattered. They didn’t believe in giving their native language teachers much in the way of breaks, since a break for a teacher meant they weren’t working – so not earning money for the school, which, according to them, was not good.
So, I was shattered and it was my last class of the day. An hour-long class for one single student, whose name I have long forgotten. He was a nervous and awkward young man in his 30s, who still lived with his mother and had a terrible “comb over”. I think he was a scientist of some kind and he was always smartly dressed in a suit.
On this particular day I was so tired that I could hardly remember what my own name was. I leaned forward to point at something in the textbook and, as I did so, let out an enormous fart! I didn’t even feel it! It echoed around the school room, filling the uncomfortable silence and bouncing off the walls! I slowly looked up, to see my student red faced and twitching. Oh dear. Flatulence is a massive taboo in Japan. Polite girls don’t do that sort of thing.
After apologizing profusely, I struggled through to the end of the lesson, keeping a tight hold on my sphincter muscles, and praying nothing else awful would happen. To my absolute horror the student went to talk to my headmaster after the class and then, to make things even worse, my headmaster walked over to talk to me. I was sure I was about to be sacked for my unforgivable error, but no! Headmaster smiled broadly, shook my hand and said the student had told him it was the best English class he had ever had!!!!
The full impact of my gaseous mishap became evident the following week, when the student appeared in casual clothes, and smiled at me broadly for the whole lesson. It would appear that, yes flatulence is a taboo in that country, but is also a fetish and my dear student thought my accident was my attempt at flirting!!!!
Needless to say, I have kept a tight hold on my muscles ever since!!!
I’ve been teaching English since November 2005. I did my first chunk of the awesome online i-to-i course at that time and have never looked back.
I went to Japan in 2005 for a year and had a fantastic experience. I worked for two language schools and also had private students at the weekend. The incident I am about to describe for you happened at around 9pm one evening. I had been working for this one school since 8am that morning and was pretty shattered. They didn’t believe in giving their native language teachers much in the way of breaks, since a break for a teacher meant they weren’t working – so not earning money for the school, which, according to them, was not good.
So, I was shattered and it was my last class of the day. An hour-long class for one single student, whose name I have long forgotten. He was a nervous and awkward young man in his 30s, who still lived with his mother and had a terrible “comb over”. I think he was a scientist of some kind and he was always smartly dressed in a suit.
On this particular day I was so tired that I could hardly remember what my own name was. I leaned forward to point at something in the textbook and, as I did so, let out an enormous fart! I didn’t even feel it! It echoed around the school room, filling the uncomfortable silence and bouncing off the walls! I slowly looked up, to see my student red faced and twitching. Oh dear. Flatulence is a massive taboo in Japan. Polite girls don’t do that sort of thing.
After apologizing profusely, I struggled through to the end of the lesson, keeping a tight hold on my sphincter muscles, and praying nothing else awful would happen. To my absolute horror the student went to talk to my headmaster after the class and then, to make things even worse, my headmaster walked over to talk to me. I was sure I was about to be sacked for my unforgivable error, but no! Headmaster smiled broadly, shook my hand and said the student had told him it was the best English class he had ever had!!!!
The full impact of my gaseous mishap became evident the following week, when the student appeared in casual clothes, and smiled at me broadly for the whole lesson. It would appear that, yes flatulence is a taboo in that country, but is also a fetish and my dear student thought my accident was my attempt at flirting!!!!
Needless to say, I have kept a tight hold on my muscles ever since!!!
Monday, May 21, 2012
I finally catch up with technology
When the Kindle first came on the market, I must admit I was sceptical. I was doing a lot of on-screen proofreading at the time and my eyes were suffering as a result. The thought of doing yet MORE reading on a screen was less than attractive to me, so I gave the Kindle a miss.
Then I bought my iPad,
which had a Kindle App...
... so I downloaded it, as you do (it was free after all), and acquired some ebooks...
Kindle on the iPad and I have a love/hate relationship. Once I managed to overcome the surges of nausea that hit me whenever I changed the page, I got on OK with it. Sort of. The books I read using it where extremely good. They had to be or I would never have stuck to them. Despite this, I still didn't manage to fully immerse myself in them and mourned the loss of the touch and smell of paper that is so much part of the reading experience.
Anyway, to cut a long and tedious story short, the number of ebooks I am being asked to review has slowly been increasing and my inability to bond happily with the iPad App meant I had to resort to drastic measures...
Two weeks ago I BOUGHT A KINDLE!!
Thanks to Mum for some birthday money, I figured that there was nothing as pressing as fast-approaching Middle-Age to encourage me to try a new piece of kit.
So, I am now the proud owner of a Kindle. The posh touch screen variety at that. And here is where this new blog comes in. I will publish reviews of the ebooks I read here, as well as on Amazon, and keep you all up to date on how I get on with it.
Wish me luck!! Ax
Then I bought my iPad,
which had a Kindle App...
... so I downloaded it, as you do (it was free after all), and acquired some ebooks...
Kindle on the iPad and I have a love/hate relationship. Once I managed to overcome the surges of nausea that hit me whenever I changed the page, I got on OK with it. Sort of. The books I read using it where extremely good. They had to be or I would never have stuck to them. Despite this, I still didn't manage to fully immerse myself in them and mourned the loss of the touch and smell of paper that is so much part of the reading experience.
Anyway, to cut a long and tedious story short, the number of ebooks I am being asked to review has slowly been increasing and my inability to bond happily with the iPad App meant I had to resort to drastic measures...
Two weeks ago I BOUGHT A KINDLE!!
Thanks to Mum for some birthday money, I figured that there was nothing as pressing as fast-approaching Middle-Age to encourage me to try a new piece of kit.
So, I am now the proud owner of a Kindle. The posh touch screen variety at that. And here is where this new blog comes in. I will publish reviews of the ebooks I read here, as well as on Amazon, and keep you all up to date on how I get on with it.
Wish me luck!! Ax
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