Welcome to my personal book blog - Brown Flopsy's Book Burrow!!
I am mad about books in all their forms - paper books, e-books and audio books - they are all good to me!
I review books in their many forms - both new and old - and share the bookish love. You may also see me talking about books on Twitter and Instagram (@brownflopsy).
I always try to give honest reviews and the views expressed here are completely my own.
Tuesday, December 31, 2030
Thursday, April 18, 2024
The Holiday Escape by Heidi Swain
Published 25th April 2024 by Simon and Schuster.
From the cover of the book:
Her dream holiday is his everyday life. His dream holiday is her normal life. What happens when they collide?Ally and her dad, Geoff, run the family business, a creative retreat, from their home Hollyhock Cottage in picturesque Kittiwake Cove. They give their guests their dream break, but Ally hankers after glamourous city living, fancy restaurants and art galleries.
Ally’s survival strategy is to escape out of season, take a break abroad and pretend to be the person she always imagined she would be. She meets Logan while she’s away and he turns out to be exactly the kind of distraction she’s looking for.
With her spirits restored, Ally returns home, picks up the reins again and sets her sights on another successful season, but when Logan unexpectedly arrives on the scene, she soon realises she’s in for a summer that’s going to be far from straightforward…
A story about bringing a holiday home – and what happens when what goes on on holiday comes back to bite you…
***********
When Ally's mother died unexpectedly, she suddenly found herself tied to a promise to help her dad achieve her parents' dream of turning Hollyhock Cottage, in Dorset's beautiful Kittiwake Cove, into a creative retreat. True to her word, Ally has done just that, never admitting to her father that in her heart she has never loved the house, or the Cove come to think of it, and yearns to follow her dream of exciting city living in Spain.
Ally tells herself that the escapist holidays she takes out of season, pretending to be the kind of person she once envisaged she would be, are enough to keep her sane amidst the busy, but unfulfilling, life she leads back in Dorset. But her latest trip to Barcelona has thrown an emotional spanner in her carefully curated works. For during her adventure in the guise of sophisticated 'Flora', she meets the extremely attractive Logan. She finds herself developing real feelings for him, when all she was looking for was a holiday fling.
When Ally returns home to Kittiwake Cove, she struggles to keep her conflicted feelings about more than one path not taken from bubbling to the surface. Determined to make the season a success for the sake of her father, she is just about holding it together. So the last thing she needs is for Logan to appear on her home turf, and set her emotions spiraling once more. It is time for Ally to make some big decisions about what she really wants...
Ah, what utter loveliness this book proved to be. Heidi Swain knows just how to pull you into a book with just the right mix of an escapist story in a gorgeous location, threaded with relatable themes, and with characters you can take to your heart - all wrapped up in a romantic bow! And she pulls this off in typical Swain-style in her larest gem, The Holiday Escape.
Ally is a great protagonist, pulled in two by the promise she made to her mother and her secret dreams, and nothing about the choices she must make is simple. As we get to know her, Swain does an excellent job of showing how she is grieving from not only the loss of a parent, but the life she thought she would be living, and this gives rise to layered storylines about forgiveness and unresolved feelings, that must be worked through before the heart-warming ending comes around - via all the necessary mishaps and misunderstandings along the way, of course.
I really enjoyed the multiple threads of gentle romance that run through this story, especially the clever twist that makes Ally reassess her feelings about the direction of her life through the eyes of Logan, and Swain builds in clever suspense around the will-they-won't-they element, as well as the nicely judged over-arching plotlines of deception and the weight of things unsaid. There are some cracking characters who spring from the pages to become living, breathing people (or foul-mouthed feathered friends), which makes the novel enjoyably cinematic - and their storylines have you chuckling, cheering, cussing, and crying in equal measure. Everything revolves beautifully around Swain's favourite topics of family, friendship, second chances, and a community pulling together in times of trouble - which just happen to be my favourite themes too!
This is one of those books you find yourself swallowing whole, completely tied to the fate of the characters until the emotional finale rolls around. I always know I am in for some powerful tugging of the heart strings when a new Heidi Swain book arrives, and The Holiday Escape hit that sentimental sweet-spot to perfection. I loved it!
The Holiday Escape is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to join this Books and the City blog tour.
About the author:
Heidi lives in beautiful west Norfolk. She is passionate about gardening, the countryside, collecting vintage paraphernalia and reading. Her tbr pile is always out of control!
Heidi loves to chat with her readers and you can get in touch via her website or on social media.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Leave No Trace (Kat And Lock Book Two) by Jo Callaghan
Published 28th March 2024 by Simon and Schuster.
From the cover of the book:
One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic.It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .
When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – and DCS Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case.
But with the discovery of another man’s body – also crucified – it appears that their killer is only just getting started. With the police warning local men to be vigilant, the Future Policing Unit is thrust into a hostile media frenzy as they desperately search for connections between the victims. But time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death.
For if Kat and Lock know anything, it’s that killers rarely stop – until they are made to.
***********
The Future Policing Unit (FPU) has performed well in its pilot phase, seeking answers to some tricky cold cases, and DCS Kat Frank is keen to set her team to work on a live case. When the body of a naked man is found crucified on a hill, familiarly known as Nuneaton's Nipple, Kat finally gets her wish, and the FPU get their chance to show exactly what they can do with the help of AIDE Lock, the world's first AI detective.
However, when a second victim turns up, bearing all the hallmarks of the work of a serial killer on a mission, the unfortunate media frenzy that ensues puts the ground-breaking FPU under the spotlight in undesirable ways - and puts enormous pressure on the team to ease public fears as soon as possible...
Having cut their teeth on several cold cases, the FPU now get the opportunity to work on a live investigation which tests them to the very limit in terms of their personal and professional lives. Returning to the criminal coal-face, DCS Kat Frank heads up a team comprising ambitious DI Hassan, a now very pregnant DS Browne, super-smart Professor Okonedo, and Okonedo's incredible invention AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock - an AI capable of Deep Learning. The team are bolstered this time around by two intriguing new members too, Karen-from-comms (affectionately referred to as KFC), and an unconventional pathologist in Dr Judith Edwards, both of whom I can see being firm fixtures in the books that follow.
The FPU's first live case is far from easy to solve, and the work of the team is hampered enormously by the pressure from above to move fast to ease the fears the public, which have been stoked by sensational media headlines about the profile of the (white male) victims, rumours of a serial killer, and misgivings about the involvement of Lock in solving the case. The pace is fast and furious, threaded with delicious detail about the police procedural elements (some of which are fascinatingly cutting-edge), set against a snowy backdrop that adds lovely atmosphere. The clever combination of narrative (from the FPU team, and the killer), transcripts of police interviews, and social media comments, come together to move the story along beautifully - all the way to the glorious wintry, climax where complicated judgement calls have to be made.
Callaghan does an incredible job of building on the tentative relationships between the members of the FPU, that began in the first book, to whack up the emotional content. As the point of view flips between Kat and her team, there are intensely touching moments that show how they have bonded, and are supporting each through their personal trials and tribulations. The relationship between Kat and Lock, with their continuing verbal sparring sessions about the pros and cons of logic vs intuition, remains the spine of the novel and provides so many moments of humour and heartache, as Kat gets to grips with the loss of her husband and empty-nest syndrome, and Lock learns about what it means to be human. Lock's character in particular gains real depth as he unexpectedly struggles with existential dread, and is forced to confront different, and ever more incomprehensible, aspects of human nature - I love that he becomes more playful in this second book too.
If Callaghan's writing was not impressive enough in terms of plot, character development, and emotive content, she manages to also thread a bevy of thought-provoking themes into this book. Her background as a researcher in AI in the workplace gives her the ability to present ways in which AI can be of benefit in solving crime, while highlighting the times when a human element gives the edge over facts, statistics, and data analysis, and I really enjoy the engaging way she explores this through Kat and Lock's partnership. This particular case throws up many other uncomfortable themes to examine as well, especially when it comes to violent crime; mental health; the role of the media; and the pursuit of justice. She also has some very interesting, and anger inducing, things to say about how race and gender can be used as weapons to discriminate, and pervert the truth.
In the Blink of an Eye was a winner of a debut, and this second book confirms that Jo Callaghan is so much more than a flash in the pan. I absolutely consumed Leave No Trace from cover to cover, and loved it even more that the first book, which is saying a lot. There is a spine-chilling little parting shot to lead you into book three, and I am already chomping at the bit for more...
Leave No Trace is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
After losing her husband to cancer in 2019 when she was just forty-nine, she started writing In the Blink of an Eye, her debut crime novel, which explores learning to live with loss and what it means to be human.
She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she spends far too much time tweeting as @JoCallaghanKat and is currently working on further novels in the series.
Monday, April 15, 2024
The Murder At The Vicarage by Agatha Christie
This edition published 16th February 2023 by Harper Collins. Originally published in 1930.
From the cover of the book:
A quiet English village.A shocking murder.
An unlikely detective.
Nobody liked Colonel Protheroe.
So when he’s found dead in the vicarage study, there’s no absence of suspects in the seemingly peaceful village of St Mary Mead.
In fact, Jane Marple can think of at least seven.
As gossip abounds in the parlours and kitchens of the parish, everyone becomes an amateur detective.
The police dismiss her as a prying busybody, but only the ingenious Miss Marple can uncover the truth . . .
Never underestimate Miss Marple...
***********
Welcome to the village of St Mary Mead, a quiet place where apparently very little happens, until the boorish Colonel Protheroe gets himself murdered in the vicarage study, of all places. No one was particularly fond of Colonel Protheroe, and he had certainly made enemies of more than one person in St Mary Mead, in his capacity as husband, father, magistrate, and church warden, but who would be bold enough to act on their dislike?
Everyone has a theory about who was responsible, and they are not shy about sharing gossip and innuendo in pursuit of the truth, but only one resident of St Mary Mead really has a handle on the situation - the elderly spinster, Miss Jane Marple. Miss Marple can think of at least seven people who might want the Colonel out of the way, and as an expert in human nature she is way ahead of the police...
The Murder at the Vicarage featured the marvellous Miss Marple in her first full novel in 1930 (having previously only appeared in a series of short stories, later gathered together in The Thirteen Problems) - a character that Christie said she based upon her own grandmother, and who grew as an extension of Caroline Shepherd from her 1926 novel, the Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The story is narrated by vicar Leonard Clement, who becomes involved in the murder investigation by Colonel Melchett (Chief Constable of the County) and the abrasive police detective Inspector Slack, by virtue of being the person who finds Colonel Protheroe dead in his study.
The characters are typical, small village, Christie fare, ranging in age, class and respectability, which allows her to spin delicious threads of intrigue, rife with red herrings to lead you astray. Despite appearances, there is rather a lot of lusting, hatred, and betrayal going on behind closed doors to keep the village curtain twitchers busy, but it is the deceptively pink and fluffy Miss Marple that really has her finger on the pulse of life in St Mary Mead. Christie has Miss Marple twinkling straight out of the gate, and she guides the action along in her gently persuasive, insightful way, through her interactions with several of the other characters - especially the vicar and his, enormously fun, much younger wife Griselda, who gradually realise that she is a lot more than the busy-body the police believe her to be. The case hinges on timing, misleading messages, and jaw-dropping deceit, and Miss Marple's logic is uncontestable, however bizarre the solution.
It has been years since I first read this book, and I had forgotten how gloriously funny it is. Leonard Clement is particularly amusing in his observations about the vicarage's truculent domestic help Mary, the acerbic Inspector Slack, the deceased Colonel Protheroe, and many other of the interesting characters in St Mary Mead, including his own wife and nephew, and Miss Marple! There are so many laugh out loud moments here that I found revisiting this book an absolute delight.
This was my April choice for #ReadChristie2024 as a book written by Christie in the 1930s, and I listened to the excellent audio book narrated by Richard E. Grant. I was not too fond of his rendition of The Moving Finger, but have to say that he does a sterling job keeping the humour going in this first Miss Marple book, and I loved every second. What a perfect pick!
The Murder at the Vicarage is available to buy now in multiple formats.
About the author:
Friday, April 12, 2024
Sword Of The War God by Tim Hodkinson
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Published 11th April by Aries, Head of Zeus.
From the cover of the book:
In a world of war and ruin, men and gods collide.436 AD. The Burgundars are confident of destroying Rome's legions, for the Empire is weak. Their forces are strong and they have beaten the Romans in battle before.
But they are annihilated, their king killed, his people scattered. Their fabled treasure is lost. For Rome has new allies: the Huns, whose taste for bloodshed knows no bounds.
Many years later, the Huns, led by the fearsome Attila, have become the deadliest enemies of Rome. Attila seeks the Burgundars' treasure, for it includes the legendary Sword of the War God, said to make the bearer unbeatable.
No alliance can defeat Attila by conventional means. With Rome desperate for help, a one-eyed old warlord from distant lands and his strange band of warriors may have the answers... but oaths will be broken and the plains of Europe will run with blood before the end.
Drawing on Norse mythology and European history, Sword of the War God is an epic historical adventure perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Joanne Harris, Neil Gaiman and Christian Cameron.
***********
436 AD. The Roman Empire is not what it once was, and its authority is being challenged on more than one front. A Roman army, under the command of seasoned general Flavius Aetius, prepares to do battle with the Burgundians. The Germanic kingdom stands ready to oppose them, convinced that they will be victorious against a foe they have defeated before. However, this time, things are different... the Romans have a new ally in the form of the Huns.
Under the command of Attila and his brother, the Huns' brutality proceeds them. They have heard of the fabled treasure held by the Burgundians and they want it for themselves - especially the legendary Sword of the War God, a talisman that makes the bearer invincible. Unable to withstand the might of the combined army, especially given the dishonourable tactics of the Huns, the Burgundian kingdom is obliterated. Its few surviving people are scatted to the winds, and the treasure is lost in time.
As the years pass, Attila's forces grow in strength and his greedy eyes turn towards the Empire. While he still seeks the legendary sword, there is a chance he can be stopped - but only if new oaths are sworn and former enemies become friends. The Roman Empire needs help from the Burgundians that have risen from the ashes and shaped themselves into a very different kind of people with the aid of a mysterious one-eyed warlord and his strange warriors, but will they ever become allies?
In Sword of the War God, Tim Hodkinson takes what we know about the messy politics of 5th century Western Europe, when the Western Roman Empire was in rapid decline, and weaves in a whopping slice of myth and legend, to create the kind of historical fiction adventure that can only be described as epic!
The story centres on the fate of the unfortunate Burgundians, who suffer a tragic defeat at the beginning of the tale at the hands of the Huns, losing their fabled treasure. In time, the surviving members of the Burgundian ruling and warrior classes come back together after serving the Roman Empire, or as guests in foreign lands, and the threads of Roman desperation, Burgundian transformation, and Hunnish ambition collide in a luscious tangle of family drama, intrigue, uneasy alliances, and good old fashioned betrayal that keeps you very entertained.
The cast of characters is somewhat sprawling, and it takes a while to get a handle on who is who and what their game is, but you soon find yourself pinning your colours to some and wishing grisly ends to others - and Hodkinson contrives more heart-pounding bloody battles, and stomach churning ritualistic murders, than you can wave a legendary sword at before his work is done. But what really makes this book so fresh and exciting is the way Hodkinson inserts some very familiar characters from Norse and Celtic mythology to spice up the action, delving deliciously into Wagnerian heights of delight, and he does it with such subtlety that it is not immediately obvious that these figures might be more than who they claim to be.
I have no intention of giving the game away, as it is so enjoyable spotting the many famous faces from legend who become an integral part of the tale, but there are clues a-plenty in name and deed. In a stroke of genius, these characters drive the story, blurring the lines between fact and fiction, to hint at supernatural undertones to the moments history records. Hodkinson does a lovely job of reflecting on many aspects of the legacy of Rome too, in occasional 'what have the Romans ever done for us' moments.
I promise you will find yourself going down a whole warren of rabbit holes about many aspects of the story before you are done... and if you do not listen to The Ride of the Valkyries at least once, I will be very surprised. I particularly enjoyed the, blink-or- you-will-miss-it, appearance of a very famous legendary King and his wizarding side-kick, during the sojourn to Britannia, which was rather unexpected!
I consumed this novel, flying through the twists and turns all the way to the cracking finale. It has the feel of the first in a new series for Hodkinson, with the whisper of further adventures for our surviving characters. I have my fingers crossed that another book will follow this one in due course. More please Mr Hodkinson.
Sword of the War God is available to buy now in hardcover and ebook formats.
Thank you to Aries for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Tim's more recent writing heroes include Ben Kane, Giles Kristian, Bernard Cornwell, George R.R. Martin and Lee Child.
After several years in the USA, Tim has returned to Northern Ireland, where he lives with his wife and children.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Nothing Without Me by Helen Monks Takhar
Published 28th March 2024 by HQ.
From the cover of the book:
April Eden is about to have the night of her life. The Vanished Woman, the film she wrote and directed is up for a raft of major awards. Her leading lady, Essie Lay, is on the cusp of a stunning comeback after the disturbing scandal that ended her small-screen career a year before.When Essie messages April to say she can’t face the ceremony, April presumes nerves and goes to her Hampstead mansion to persuade her to attend. Instead, April finds Essie dead in her swimming pool.
In that moment, April makes an agonising decision, which will force her onto a course of action she couldn’t have imagined. If she is to find out what happened – and protect her own freedom – April is going to find herself face to face with some of the most powerful people in her industry, unforeseen dangers, and discomfiting truths from Essie’s and her own past.
***********
TV star Essie Lay's career was in meltdown, when a face from the past, rising director April Eden, gave her a way back into the limelight with a leading role in her ground-breaking film, The Vanished Woman. The film is now up for a raft of awards, and is sure to herald great things for director April and 'born again' star Essie. However, on the night of the glamorous British Film Associate Awards, where they both stand to win, April receives a call from Essie to say that she cannot face turning up to the ceremony.
April makes a last minute dash to Essie's mansion, Lotus Lodge, in affluent Hampstead, to try to persuade Essie to attend the event, but instead of having to find a way to calm her anxious star, she is faced with a very different sort of dilemma... for Essie lies dead, face-down in her luxurious swimming pool. April is forced to make a decision whether to deal with Essie's tragic demise now, or continue the night as if nothing has happened. The choice she makes takes her on a dangerous path that has her confronting uncomfortable truths about her own and Essie's pasts, and the connection that lies between them.
In an absolute masterclass of plotting, Helen Monks Takhar spins a jaw-dropping tale of betrayal and revenge in the brutal world of film and television production. Told through the voices of April and Essie, the story unfurls in delicious slow-burn style in the past and the present, cutting back and forth between the time the two women met, the paths of their careers, the film production that reunites them, and the chaos that ensues from April's decision. Each thread adds context, and atmospheric texture to the story as a whole, and Monks Takhar uses them to stunning effect by gradually exposing the secrets at the heart of this mystery, and the truth about the moments that have defined April and Essie's relationship. It is not often that I really do not know where a story will land, but this genuinely had me second guessing myself the whole way through, until the cracking twists and turns in the final throes of the novel brought everything together in a series of moments of cleverly conceived clarity.
Not only is this a thriller that keeps you on your toes with its drama, but it positively thrums with themes for you to get your teeth into on both the personal and professional fronts. Monks Takhar examines how abusive relationships and dysfunctional families affect the course of Essie and April's lives in a way that makes you sick to your stomach, and she has a ball using them as motivators to drive a story centred around the darkest of emotions. But what impresses me the most is the spectacular way she explores many facets of control, exploitation, manipulation, expectation, and sexism, through the many shades of meaning in her excellent title, Nothing Without Me.
This is a classy novel that begs to be consumed in a single sitting. It will keep you turning the pages well into the night - and leave you with a lot to ponder on about the entertainment industry, and the pitfalls of celebrity, particularly when it comes to the way men and women are treated so differently. I loved it!
Nothing Without Me is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to HQ for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Helen Monks Takhar worked as a journalist, copywriter and magazine editor having graduated from Cambridge in 1997. She began her career writing for financial trade newspapers in 1999 before contributing to UK national newspapers including The Times and The Observer. Born in Southport, Merseyside in 1976, she lives in North London with her husband and two daughters.Friday, April 5, 2024
The Translator by Harriet Crawley (Paperback Release)
Published in paperback 21st March 2024 by Bitter Lemon Press.
From the cover of the book:
Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister.
His life is turned on its head when, after more than a decade, he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is now the interpreter to the Russian President.
At the embassy, Clive learns of a Russian plot to cut the undersea cables linking the US to the UK which would paralyse communications and collapse the Western economy. Marina stuns Clive with the news that she’s ready to help stop the attack, betraying her country for a new identity and a new life. Clive becomes the go-between, relaying Marina’s intelligence to MI6 back in London. What are the odds that two lovers, running the Moscow marathon with the FSB on their backs, can save Western Europe from economic meltdown?
***********
Clive is delighted to be back in Moscow, and finds himself looking forward to the challenge of testing his language skills once more, despite the difficulties of a country where the beady eye of the FSB is constantly turned in your direction. But when the talks begin, he is sent reeling by the presence of a woman he has not seen for ten years, who is now acting as interpreter for the President Servov - his former lover, Marina Volina.
Marina is part of Serov's inner circle, but she is embittered by the strain of living on a knife-edge and the impact it has had on her personal life. Clive's appearance stirs feelings she thought were long buried, and through him she sees a possibility that she might escape the position she is in. When Marina discovers a devious plot to target the undersea cables that link the USA and the UK, she confides to Clive that is is willing to betray her country by discovering all she can about the plans, in return for a new identity.
As the situation becomes ever more complex, Clive finds himself embroiled in a dangerous intelligence operation with the woman he loves. Can they gather the information they need to stop the plot before it is too late?
The Translator is just my kind of Russian spy thriller. Harriet Crawley enfolds you a very timely espionage story that highlights everything about the current complexities of the political situation between Russia and the West, while evoking all those Cold War vibes that I adore.
Crawley's Russia is one that finds itself torn between its long-standing Soviet ambitions and the temptations of the modern age, where corruption vies constantly with ideology. At the centre of the story, we have two characters in Clive and Marina who are not spies, and yet the nature of their jobs brings them into contact with the constant push and pull of the intelligence whirlwind that operates around them, and Crawley uses this to perfection to craft a story full of glorious underlying tension.
There are delicious characters on all sides, and the threads of their individual stories weave beautifully throughout to make an authentic spy thriller with lashings of emotional depth. Clive and Marina's relationships shed light on so many aspects of the mass of contradictions that make up modern Russia, from the cynical machinations of the corridors of the Kremlin, through the rise of the oligarchs, and right down to the political unrest on the streets. President Serov makes an intriguing Putin-esque figurehead, and the personalities in his inner-circle provide fodder for some excellent story-lines, especially the chilling General Varlamov with his personal and professional agendas.
Crawley deftly plays off the influences of the old world and the modern age against each other in this story. She lavishes you with references to art, literature and music, and also brings you bang up to date with themes of state-of-the-art technology, which makes this story delightfully many-layered. There are darker emotions and intrigues galore, but also rich threads of love, passion, romance, loyalty and friendship that tie you completely to the fate of the protagonists and their endeavours.
This book has everything I want in a political thriller, with an enjoyable twist that comes from looking at this through the eyes of two translators. This throws up some really thought-provoking issues around language and interpretation that I have not considered before - not only around the speed that translators of speech have to work at, but how their choice of words can influence the meaning of very tricky situations. One to ponder!
The Translator has all the hallmarks of the first part in a new series, and there is a lovely hook into a possible sequel that I really want to read. This is a classy novel, and I like Crawley's style very much. I look forward to reading more of her work.
The Translator is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.
**This review was originally posted in March 2023 to mark publication of the hardcover edition.
Thank you to Bitter Lemon Press for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
Thank you to Bitter Lemon Press for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
For almost twenty years Harriet had one foot in Moscow where she launched a technical publishing business for a Russian oil and gas company.
She speaks five languages and this is her fifth book.
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
March 2024 Reading Round-Up
March 2024 Reading Round-Up
Fourteen crackers read in March, and it was largely a month of tension and suspense!
You can find your way to my reviews of all of these by clicking on the pictures below...
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| The Murder After the Night Before by Katy Brent |
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| Original Sins by Erin Young |
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| Angel with Two Faces by Nicola Upson |
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| The Collapsing Wave by Doug Johnston |
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| The Big Four by Agatha Christie |
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| The Bordeaux Book Club by Gillian Harvey |
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| A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin |
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| Deliverance by James Dickey |
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| The Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters |
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| Crow Moon by Suzy Apsley |
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| The Trade Off by Sandie Jones |
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| Small Hours by Bobby Palmer |
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| Prima Facie by Suzie Miller |
More brilliant books on the way in April...
If you like my photos, why not pop over to Instagram and give me a follow - you can find me at @brownflopsy
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Prima Facie by Suzie Miller
Published 14th March 2024 by Hutchinson Heinemann.
From the cover of the book:
From the Olivier award-winning playwright of Prima Facie Suzie Miller comes her first novel, where power, patriarchy and morality diverge.‘This is not life. This is law.’
Tessa Ensler is a brilliant barrister who's forged her career in criminal defence through sheer determination. Since her days at Cambridge, she’s carefully disguised her working class roots in a male-dominated world where who you know is just as important as what you know. Driven by her belief in the right to a fair trial and a taste for victory, there’s nothing Tessa loves more than the thrill of getting her clients acquitted.
It seems like Tessa has it made when she is approached for a new job and nominated for the most prestigious award in her field. But when a date with a charismatic colleague goes horribly wrong, Tessa finds that the rules she’s always played by might not protect her, forcing her to question everything she's ever believed in . . .
***********
Barrister Tessa Ensler has fought hard to get where she is in the male-dominated legal world. Her career as a rising star in criminal defence is flying, and she has caught the eye of those who can help on her way to the pinnacle of her profession. Not bad for a working class girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
Tessa is convinced by the age-old rhetoric that her role is to present a client's case to the best of her ability, playing her part against the storytelling skills of opposing counsel, leaving the responsibility to decide innocence or guilt to judge and jury. She is proud of her ability to think on her feet, and is getting a taste for victory in the courtroom.
However, when Tessa is sexually assaulted by one of her privileged colleagues, she finds that the sanctity of the law plays second fiddle to gender, who you know, and where you come from...
Prima Facie, the novel, is based on Suzie Miller's award-winning play of the same name, starring Jodie Comer, and something of the original stage setting brings intriguing texture and immediacy to the drama that plays out within its pages. Told in the first person from the point of view of Tessa, the story comes together in sections that reveal events in the Then of her past, and the Now of her present, building up a picture of a young woman whose determination to succeed has brought its rewards, until the moment when her hitherto unflinching faith in the law is dashed by the entitled behaviour of another.
There is so much fascinating detail about the life of a barrister in this story - both behind the scenes and in the heat of the moment in the courtroom, but it is Miller's ability to portray Tessa as such a believable character that makes it so compelling. As much as Tessa tries to hide her working class roots in an environment that is so comfortable with its privilege, her ability to connect with those beneath the notice of most of her colleagues gives her an intangible edge, making her eminently likeable from the start... and it means that what happens to her cuts all the deeper.
Miller does an outstanding job of contrasting and comparing the Tessa we get to know before her ordeal, as a barrister firm in her belief that defending someone who has been charged with sexual or violent crimes is just part of the job, with the woman who no longer recognises herself when she becomes the victim of such a crime herself. As difficult as it is to read about the moment of her rape and its immediate aftermath, it is the court scenes at the climax of the novel that are actually the most painful ones to endure - but they also allow Miller to deftly explore aspects of consent, and victimhood, and to take this story to a peak of such emotional intensity that I found myself sobbing throughout the final chapters of the book.
This is a powerful, beautifully written book that shows how the dramatic arts can force society to take a good hard look at itself. I am very sorry not to have seen Jodie Comer's performance as Tessa, but can fully understand how Miller's play became the catalyst for real change in the way the law examines cases of serious sexual assault. This one will really stay with me.
Prima Facie is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Hutchinson Heinemann for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
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Saturday, March 30, 2024
Small Hours by Bobby Palmer
Published 14th March 2024 by Headline.
From the cover of the book:
The eagerly awaited new novel from Bobby Palmer, author of the critically acclaimed debut Isaac and the Egg.If you stood before sunrise in this wild old place, looking through the trees into the garden, here's what you'd see:
A father and son, a fox standing between them.
Jack, home for the first time in years, still determined to be the opposite of his father.
Gerry, who would rather talk to animals than the angry man back under his roof.
Everything that follows is because of the fox, and because Jack's mother is missing. It spans generations of big dreams and lost time, unexpected connections and things falling apart, great wide worlds and the moments that define us.
If you met them in the small hours, you'd begin to piece together their story.
***********
When Jack loses the job he has put years of his life into, at the expense of everything else, including his relationship with his family, he is lost. A phone call from his sister Charlotte, telling him their mother has gone missing, brings him back home and forces him to confront the reality of a crumbling family home that he has not visited in years, his sister's simmering anger at his abandonment of them, and the dementia that is slowly claiming their father, Gerry.
Jack is full of anger of his own at the direction his life has taken. He is unable, and unwilling to even attempt, to cross the divide that has grown up between him and his father - not to mention bemused at Charlotte's resentment towards him, and unable to get his head around why his mother would suddenly take off out of the blue.
Gerry is lost too. His life has become one of confusion, and memories of the past now seem to concern him more than the unfathomable human interactions happening around him in the present. His only solace is his garden and the wildlife that lives in the woods around his home. One thing he is sure of though... that his wife is not really missing, and will return once she has made the journey she needs to complete.
There seems to be no way to bring this troubled family back together, but all hope his not lost. Between Jack and Gerry stands a fox - a wise fox - that sees and understands much more than any wild animal should...
Lone foxes die alone...
Small Hours is the highly anticipated follow-up to Bobby Palmer's astonishing debut, Isaac and the Egg, and the emotive muscle that he exerts through the use of language and different literary techniques is, ironically, very difficult to sum up in words.
The story unfurls through beautifully written scenes from Jack's perspective as he tries to navigate extremely difficult family circumstances, which he knows he has been guilty of pushing to one side rather than dealing with, interspersed with fragmented passages from Gerry that represent his equally fractured state of mind; flashes back to the past of Gerry and his wife's relationship; and sections of what can only be described as free verse, mostly on the part of our friend, the fox. It is certainly unconventional in story-telling terms, but somehow everything comes together in an exquisite perfect storm of atmosphere and emotion that is simply breath taking.
Palmer manages to achieve so much in this story, immersing you completely in a compelling, inter-generational family drama that thrums with relatable themes. He explores the weight of loss, and facets of memory with such sensitivity, especially when it comes to Gerry's dementia. He writes so well about sibling relationships rife with recriminations, long marriages, parenthood, and the feeling that time has passed all too quickly to recapture the moments that have slipped through our fingers. I am not sure how 'real' Palmer intends for his fox to be, or if it is merely the metaphor for the healing power of nature on broken souls that it becomes, but this does not actually matter in the grand scheme of things - I was completely invested in the little furry creature that forms the catalyst to bring this dysfunctional family back together, and consumed with floods of tears about where this story ultimately goes.
This is a quiet novel, imbued with all the thought-provoking poignancy that its title, Small Hours, brings to mind, which makes it truly powerful. I promise you, this is novel that will stay with you a long time after you close the cover.
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