The Drownings by Hazel Barkworth

 

The Drownings by Hazel Barkworth.

Published 1st August 2024 by Headline Review.

From the cover of the book:

These waters became wild centuries before this university was dreamed of. Leysham has always been a dangerous place for women . . .

Serena arrives on campus reeling from the injury that destroyed her champion swimming career. She is lost until she meets Jane, an enigmatic tutor obsessed with the historic witch trials that took place in Leysham's freezing waters.

When several young women are assaulted, the university's shadowy legacy becomes inescapable. Those in power turn a blind eye, but Jane urges Serena and her friends to rise up. As their anger builds into an inferno of female rage, Serena takes matters into her own hands.

Leysham has reawakened something within her, a dark, impossible power. In the waters, she can see what must be done - and the sacrifice it will demand.

***********

Reeling from the accident that finished her career as a championship swimmer, Serena arrives at the prestigious university of Leysham to study history. Used to total dedication to the world of swimming, and now two years older than her contemporaries, Serena does not know how to fit in to the student scene, and her awkwardness makes her feel like an outsider.

One night, while drawn to the treacherous waters of the Leysham river that runs through the grounds, an incident brings her into close contact with the enigmatic tutor, Jane. A bond is formed in that frozen darkness, and Serena becomes consumed by Jane's obsession with the stories of the women drowned in the water as part of historic, vengeful witch trials.

When stories of young women being assaulted at Leysham begin to spread, Serena gets caught up in the campaign for the university authorities to take female safety seriously, spearheaded by her popular cousin Zara, a body positive influencer who is also studying at Leysham. Urged on by Jane's passionate drive for justice, anger amongst the female students rises to fever pitch, and in response, Serena feels a stirring of dark power. A sacrifice is demanded, and Serena knows just what to do...

The Drownings is an ambitious novel, and I have to tip my hat at Hazel Barkworth for the way she incorporates so many luscious storylines about patriarchal control, violence against women, consent, privilege, and the power of female rage - particularly in the way she blends age-old themes with bang-up-to date topics.

Against an atmospheric dark academia setting, Barkworth weaves an eerie tale with roots in the history of women drowned as witches in the river that runs through the campus. Leysham is an ancient university that honours the gods of money and tradition more than it does the well-being of its female students and colleagues, and when concerns about safety are brushed under the carpet something sparks between the characters that make up the author's modern 'witches, setting in motion a course of events that ends in tragedy.

The story unfurls in the present, through Serena's eyes, and in the past as she relives moments from the gruelling high pressure world of competitive swimming. Barkworth goes on to use the motif of water with accomplished flair throughout to explore all manner of themes around transformation and power, and she links the past and present through the stories and experiences of Serena, Jane and Zara, who stand centre stage in a twist on the 'power of three'.

This works beautifully, with storylines that are compelling as they are tragically heart-breaking, and you find yourself torn between outrage at the timeless exploration of violence and injustice against women, and exhilaration at the way the female students find power in joining together to make their voices heard. Serena's coming-of-age, supernatural awakening is absolutely gripping too, subverting the academia trope into a novel that really gets under your skin.

I think there are moments when Barkworth strays off the path of a darned good revenge story into the dubious delights of social media. She also tries a bit too hard to make attention-seeking Zara likeable, which seems out of place in a novel where much of the drama is motivated by jealousy and spite. But these are minor distractions in the grand, page-turning scheme of things.

This was a fascinating piece of literary fiction, and I have really only touched the surface of the depths Hazel Barkworth plunges in her story - pun intended. If you are looking for a book to get your teeth into for a reading group, then I highly recommend this as one as being full of thought-provoking themes that beg to be discussed.

The Drownings is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Headline for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Hazel grew up in Stirlingshire and North Yorkshire before studying English at Oxford. She then moved to London where she spent her days working as a cultural consultant, and her nights dancing in a pop band at glam rock clubs. 

Hazel is a graduate of both the Oxford University MSt in Creative Writing and the Curtis Brown Creative Novel-Writing course. 

She now works in Oxford, where she lives with her partner. 

Her debut, Heatstroke, was published in 2020. The Drownings is her second novel.

The Liars by Katherine Fleet

 

The Liars by Katherine Fleet.

Published 15th August 2024 by Michael Joseph.

From the cover of the book:

I thought I saw her today. Down by the water. It was her hair I noticed. Do you ever see her, Lex? Does she haunt you too?

I haven’t been back to Eos since I first met my step-sister, Lex. It’s been twenty-five years since that summer.
Since we went from strangers to sisters. Since Abigail went missing.

Since we told the first lie..

Now we’re back together on the island. So much has changed since we were teenagers. We’ve both tried to move on from the past – from each other. But the island won’t let us escape our secrets.

Only me and Lex know the truth about Abigail. We’ve been living a lie for so long. And if the truth comes out – neither of us will survive it . . .

***********

Zoe has not been to Eos since the summer her mother married Richard, and she met her step-sister, Lex. Twenty-five years have now passed, and Zoe is returning to the island for her step-father's funeral, and an uncomfortable reunion with Lex, who became a stranger after the events of those fateful few weeks.

Back together on the island, teenage memories come flooding back, heightening the already tense situation. The weight of things unsaid between Zoe and Lex is unbearable, and the island refuses to let their secrets stay in the past. They know a lot more about the case of Abigail, the girl who went missing that fateful summer, than they have admitted - and now the case has attracted fresh attention, just one wrong move may expose the lies they told, and bring their lives crashing down...

The story unfurls in simmering slow-burn in dual timelines, flipping between the events surrounding Zoe and Lex's first meeting twenty-five years ago (Then), and the story that plays out following their reunion on Eos for Richard's funeral (Now). You learn pretty soon that Zoe and Lex are keeping secrets about what happened to awkward Abigail, the girl that came between them, but Fleet keeps you guessing about the full truth until the timelines clash gloriously together.

In a masterclass of plotting, Fleet drops her reveals like the tastiest of breadcrumbs, tugging you on through dysfunctional family dramas, excruciating coming-of-age experiences, and intergenerational strife. The environment is described in lush detail, the characters are deliciously unreliable, and you can cut the tension with a knife as every intense moment commands your attention. 

Fleet knows how to pack a gripping mystery with compelling themes too, weaving in explorations of class, money, blended families, grief, trauma, consent, estrangement, guilt, envy, and memory. And I absolutely loved how she channels mythology and female rage, echoing themes and events in present and past, and examining changes in attitude. She delves nicely into the things that bind as well as those that divide too.

This was so darned good that I consumed it whole, from intriguing beginning to cracking twist and twist again ending.

The Liars is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Michael Joseph for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Katherine Fleet is a writer and author coach for The Novelry. As a journalist, she wrote for The Guardian, Sunday Times, Red, Stella and Grazia. 

She lives in a Cotswold valley with her two rescue dogs, where she writes and coaches full-time.

A trip to the small Greek island of Paxos was the inspiration for The Liars.

Pursued By Death (Varg Veum) by Gunnar Staalesen

 

Pursued By Death (Varg Veum) by Gunnar Staalesen.

Translated by Don Bartlett.

Published 15th August 2024 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

When Bergen PI Varg Veum becomes involved in the disappearance of a young activist, he comes up against one village's particular brand of justice … 

The international bestselling, critically acclaimed Varg Veum series returns…

When Varg Veum reads the newspaper headline 'YOUNG MAN MISSING', he realises he's seen the youth just a few days earlier – at a crossroads in the countryside, with his two friends. It turns out that the three were on their way to a demonstration against a commercial fish-farming facility in the tiny village of Solvik, north of Bergen.

Varg heads to Solvik, initially out of curiosity, but when he chances upon a dead body in the sea, he's pulled into a dark and complex web of secrets, feuds and jealousies.

***********

Bergen PI, Varg Veum has a spot of trouble when a tricky case he is working leads to his car and driving licence being confiscated on his way home to Bergen. Somewhat aggrieved at the unfair way he has been treated, Varg is forced into taking the journey home by bus, undertaking a bit of grumpy people-watching on the way.

Days later, a headline about a missing young man with a distinctive VW camper van catches his attention. He realises that he spotted this man in company of two young women at a crossroads, during his bus journey. Contacting the police to volunteer this information, he discovers that the trio were on their way to a demonstration against salmon farming in the tiny community of Solvik.

With the misunderstanding about his driving habits sorted, Varg heads to retrieve his car, and calls into Solvik to see if he can find out anything interesting about the young man's disappearance. His curiosity leads him to a dead body, and pulls him into a case mired in bad blood...

My favourite Norwegian PI, Varg Veum, is back in a brand new twisty mystery that delves deliciously into small town feuds. This is a case that takes Varg out of Bergen into the dying community of Solvik, embroiling him in the fallout of a dispute over a commercial fishing enterprise that is destroying the local economy and the environment.

In classic Varg 'gumshoe' style, dripping with Raymond Chandler vibes, he picks up the thread of a case and follows a chain of leads by inserting himself in the lives of those connected to the missing young man. As usual he manages to annoy a fair number of them with his penetrating questions and sardonic modus operandi, but the way he gets himself under people's skins is very effective. His determined tugging on loose threads is rewarded by an unravelling of mysteries as the twists and turns of the story play out. 

At first sight, this is a book all about environmental themes, and Staalesen certainly does not shy away from examining the significant damage that results from lucrative, commercial fishing operations. It is grim reading indeed. However, as Varg's tramping around Solvik and Bergen, wringing information out the locals, protestors, and warring businessmen produces results, it is the underlying, personal themes that come to the fore. Dark motivators of jealousy, betrayal, and hot-headed revenge blend cleverly into plotlines around environmental issues, dodgy business practices, and community strife, in a perfect storm of page-turning loveliness. The slow-burn beginning hots up in pace all the way to the just the kind of explosive climax and seriously slick twist-and-twist-again ending that makes Staalesen's Varg Veum series so enjoyable.

There is an undeniable melancholy strain to this latest instalment in the Varg Veum series, particularly when it comes to the relationship dynamics and stories of many of the characters here, including Varg himself. But there are touches of humour too, and Varg is as charmingly dysfunctional as ever. Translator Don Bartlett does an excellent job with pace, tone, character, to keep the story flowing nicely.  

Highly recommended for lovers of cracking Norwegian noir, from a master of the genre.

Pursued by Death is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to part of this blog tour.

About the author:

One of the fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty titles, which have been published in twenty-four countries and sold over four million copies. 

Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. 

Staalesen has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour) and Where Roses Never Die won the 2017 Petrona Award for Nordic Crime Fiction, and Big Sister was shortlisted in 2019. 

He lives with his wife in Bergen.

About the translator:

Don Bartlett completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbø and Gunnar Staalesen’s Varg Veum series: We Shall Inherit the Wind, Wolves in the Dark and the Petrona award-winning Where Roses Never Die. He also translated Faithless, the previous book in Kjell Ola Dahl’s Oslo Detective series for Orenda Books. 

He lives with his family in a village in Norfolk.

Fledging by Rose Diell

 

Fledging by Rose Diell.

Published 28th August 2024 by Renard Press.

From the cover of the book:

When Lia lays an egg she doesn't know what to do. At her age, it's impossible to escape the baby question, and all her friends seem to be having children. She feels her heart's not in it – but all the same, there's the egg, impossible to ignore, lying in a nest of towels in the living room. Her partner on tour on the other side of the world and her mother diagnosed with a terminal illness, 

Lia finds herself torn, unsure whether she's ready to give up on her songwriting dreams; but time is running out, and she must make one of the biggest decisions of her life. 

Beautifully written and brilliantly original, Fledging is a riveting tale and resounding call for a woman's right to make her own choices, whether that means embracing motherhood or living child-free.

***********

Lia is at a crossroads in her life. Should she continue to pursue her dream to be a songwriter, or follow the example of so many of her friends and put her energy into having a baby? With her mother having been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the inevitability of a ticking body clock, she is feeling extra pressure to make a decision before time runs out. 

One January morning, while her musician husband is on tour on the other side of the world, Lia lays an egg. She does not know what to do. The necessity of caring for the egg, and whatever it holds, cannot be ignored. But is she ready for this kind of responsibility?

Fledging is a beautifully written, allegorical novel from debut author Rose Diell, which follows songwriter Lia as she has to make big decisions, especially when it comes to choosing between motherhood or a childfree future. 

Lia becomes the relatable focus of the motherhood question, and in highly original, speculative twist, the mounting pressure she feels to come to a decision is crystalised in the bizarre moment when she gives birth to an egg. While coping with negotiating her mother's illness, a long-distance relationship with her husband, health anxiety, conflicting advice from her friends, and an upturn in her career, she now has the egg to deal with. The egg cleverly represents the baby issue she has been struggling with, and the immediacy of her situation suddenly becomes very real. Somehow, she has to cope with the burden of caring for this vulnerable object while dealing with the push and pull of everything else that is going on in her life. 

Diell takes Lia on a profoundly emotional journey before she makes her decision. She has a lot to consider practically and psychologically, and many aspects of the issues she faces are explored in sparse, but powerful prose. The notion of an egg may seem a bizarre way to probe the subject matter, but it works surprisingly well, and the unexpected connection Lia feels with the egg, and the bird that hatches from it, really pulls you into the story.

Diell writes with incredible insight and sensitivity about the tangled web of complex inner feelings and external pressures on women to decide whether motherhood is right for them - not to mention the increasingly loud tick of the body clock as the years go by. For a book that only spans 169 pages, I am impressed by how many aspects of the baby question she touches on - getting into sharply perceptive nitty gritty beyond feeling 'ready', and the expectation that motherhood is a natural progression for all women. 

I particularly loved with the way Diell explores the power of legacy, and different iterations of 'motherhood' through the sections of the story about Lia and her mother. Nothing makes you think about your own life like being confronted with the prospect of death, and Lia's need to discover everything she can about her mother's family before it is too late is heartrending. The feelings she has about passing on what she has learned are examined well, and the conversations between mother and daughter really strike a chord if you have been through the loss of a parent.

I came to this book expecting it to be all about the right of a woman to be taken seriously when she decides to live a childfree life, but it is actually about the freedom to decide what is right for you, having your decisions respected, and not being pressured to follow expectation. It is a book for all women, whatever your view on the baby issue.

Diell's writing is gorgeous, and her ability to convey emotion through such an unusual concept is astonishing. I defy you not to be moved by this little gem.

Fledging is available to buy now on paperback. You can support an amazing little indie publisher by buying direct from Renard Press HERE.

Thank you to Renard Press for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Rose Diell is a Londoner of Italian, Norwegian and American heritage. She writes in her spare time, with the encouragement and support of her writing circle, the Southbank Scribblers, whom she met through a City Lit writing course.

She loves studying language in all its forms and speaks Italian, French and Arabic. She has also lived in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. 

Rose lives in London with her civil partner and Tolstoy, an extremely fluffy ginger tabby. Fledging is her first novel.

Death In The Air by Ram Murali

 

Death in The Air by Ram Murali.

Published 20th June 2024 by Atlantic Books.

From the cover of the book:

Welcome to Samsara, a world-class spa nestled in the Indian Himalayas where all your wishes are only a gilded notecard away. Ro Krishna has just checked in. With his rakish charm, Oxford education, and perfect hair, he had it all - well, until he left his job under mysterious circumstances. It was super hectic, and Ro decides it's time for some much-needed R&R. At Samsara, he's free to explore the innumerable yoga classes, wellness treatments and guided-meditation sessions on offer alongside the rest of the exclusive hotel's guests.

Until one of the guests - gorgeous, charismatic, well-connected, like most of them - is found dead. As everyone scrambles to figure out what happened, Ro is pulled into an investigation that endangers them all and threatens to spiral beyond the hotel walls. Because it turns out it's not just heiresses and Bollywood stars-to-be that have checked in: cocktail hour is over, and death is on the prowl...

***********

Ro Krishna finds himself with some time on his hands when a troubling work situation results in an unexpected windfall. Without the need to look for work for the foreseeable future, and with the mysterious requirement to be elsewhere while a murky revenge plot is underway, Ro heads for the exclusive spa of Samsara in the Indian Himalayas. Ro's wealth, family background, and highly educated ways have given him all the charm he needs to fit in at Samsara - not to mention his good looks and perfect hair. He plans to while away his time relaxing, meditating and making the best of all the treatments on offer, but things do not go quite to plan. 

When one of the young and beautiful guests is brutally murdered, Ro finds himself co-opted to be part of an eclectic group tasked with discretely looking into the circumstances surrounding the killing. Suddenly there is an undercurrent of danger at the hotel, and the suspicion of dark deeds lies heavily on guests and staff alike. Can Ro and his sleuthing partners get to the bottom of what is going on at the resort before death comes calling again...?

Death in the Air is one of the most unusual murder mysteries I have read in a very long time. I was highly intrigued by its description as The White Lotus meets Knives Out meets Crazy Rich Asians, wondering quite how all of these storylines would fit together in a single novel, but debut novelist Ram Murali proves to have picked his inspirational elements rather well. 

The most impressive ingredient in this literary mix is the backdrop of an exclusive spa (think The White Lotus), which oozes the kind of luxury only the very rich can afford. There is something deeply unsettling about this remote location high in the Himalayas, and Murali does an excellent job of wielding weather and landscape to increase the atmosphere of menace - despite the opulence of the surroundings. Layered onto this setting, he then adds a murder mystery that delves into delicious themes of money, class, and revenge, pulled straight from classic crime stories, but given the modern twist that characterises the recent resurgence of this kind of tale in film and TV (like Knives Out). Then add the unconventional cherry on top - the characters that run amok in setting and plot to have a gossipy, tongue-in-cheek ball with the world of the super rich, and uber shady (hello, Crazy Rich Asians).

For the most part, the disparate elements work nicely, catching you up in the story, and providing you with many chuckles of the pitch black kind. The characters are generally unlikeable, and sometimes inconsistent, but this adds to the satirical fun, highlighting their hypocrisy. There is a lovely dynamic between the sleuths of the story, and I very much enjoyed the way Murali contrasts and compares the lives of the guests with staff - particularly in the way this adds to the heavier storylines around Partition and ancestry.

There are occasions when the novel loses focus, mostly around spiritual aspects of the treatments Ro undergoes; a bizarre (if comic) thread about a prophetic pendant; a weird obsession with jewellery; and the use of phrases in the narrative that do not scan well (or make sense). This all distracts from the flow of the central crime plot and the intriguing revenge sub-plot of Ro's, which is seeded in a Gatsby-esque beginning. I would have liked to have seen a lot more time given to this sub-plot which almost exclusively happens in the wings. There is also a persistent feeling that there is an elusive in-joke you are not quite grasping, which a tighter, faster flowing story would resolve.  

All in all, this has the bones of a promising debut novel, with shades of meaning around the title. I really enjoyed the left-of-field spin on the traditional murder mystery too. I await Murali's next novel with interest.

Death in the Air is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Atlantic Books for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to FMcM Associates for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Ram Murali was born in New York CIty. He began his career as a lawyer in London and Paris, then worked for many years in film and television development, production, and distribution. DEATH IN THE AIR is his first novel.

A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 16th February 2023 by Harper Collins.

Originally published in 1950.

From the cover of the book:

An ordinary village. A shocking announcement...

One morning the villagers of Chipping Cleghorn wake to find a strange notice in their papers:

‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30pm.’

Suspecting this is just a joke, they gather for some evening entertainment. Then a gunshot is heard.

In desperation, the police turn to an old lady whose hobbies are gardening, gossiping – and solving murders. After all, old ladies know better than anyone exactly what goes on in quiet English villages…

Never underestimate Miss Marple...

***********

The village of Chipping Cleghorn is buzzing when a strange notice appears in the local newspaper, appearing to announce a 'murder' will be taking place in their midst that very night. Miss Letitia Blacklock, whose home, Little Paddocks, will apparently be the venue of the crime, is bemused by the announcement. She is certain that several of her nosier neighbours will turn up at her door around the appointed time of 6.30pm, so nibbles and sherry are prepared while the household waits to see what will happen.

A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, 29 October, at Little Paddocks, at 6.30 pm. Friends accept this, the only intimation.

True to form, several villagers turn up at the door just before the 'fun' is about to kick off, anticipating the high jinks of a murder game. However, excitement turns to shock when the lights go out, a menacing figure appears, and shots are fired. When the lights go up, the horrified group discover Miss Blacklock has been injured, and a young stranger lies dead on the floor...

Inspector Craddock is puzzled why Swiss man Rudi Scherz, a slightly dodgy hotel receptionist, was attempting to hold up the residents of Little Paddocks and their neighbours - apparently shooting himself in the process. And as his investigation proceeds he is convinced that something is not quite right about the whole affair, but it is not until he gets the help of expert in human nature, Miss Marple, that this tricky crime can be solved.

A Murder is Announced, starring that fluffy old lady with a mind like a rapier, Miss Jane Marple, is one of my favourite Marple stories for its characters and the delicious complexity of its plot - incidentally, it also features my pick of the Marple police detectives, Inspector Dermot Craddock!

The story kicks off with a rapid introduction to the central players as we hear their views on the strange announcement, while they are browsing the local paper over breakfast - splitting between assorted nosy neighbours, and the residents of Little Paddocks themselves - who all seem to suspect some kind of prank. Any thoughts of entertainment are quickly dispelled when a murder actually takes place.

Inspector Craddock is on the case, with his charming manner, and a sixth sense that tells him the apparent accidental death of a young Swiss man who had no business being at Little Paddocks is more complicated than it seems. All the witnesses have a slightly different version of events, which makes ascertaining exactly what happened all the more difficult, but once he is introduced to the sharp Miss Marple (via Craddock's godfather, Sir Henry Clithering), all manner of interesting plotlines develop, and the bodies start to pile up - with suspicion cast upon various members of the Little Paddocks'  household, and the nosy neighbours.  

This is one of Christie's cleverest plots, revolving around money, deception, and false identities - with her trademark humour, and an enchanting slice of romantic suspense to boot. The secrets lie thick behind the doors of the residents of Chipping Cleghorn, leading to a bushel of red herrings. Miss Marple gradually discards these by playing her harmless old lady game, while staying with the village's vicar and his wife Diana 'Bunch' Harmon (a friend of the elderly sleuth) - with the help of the Harmon's cat. There is a lovely rapport between Miss Marple and Inspector Craddock, who recognises her talent from the start and worries about her safety in this nest of vipers - but Miss Marple is not to be underestimated, and she does not hesitate to co-opt the aid of some of Chipping Cleghorn's finest (and an excitable refugee cook) into a dangerous scheme to trap the guilty party in the very enjoyable climax. 

The twists and turns really keep you guessing. Even though I have read this one multiple times I loved the display of Christie's brilliance once again, and every time I admire quite how much social history she touches on in the telling of this story. There is so much here about life in the post-WWII landscape that anchors it in time and place, from the smallest (and not always legal) of domestic arrangements to some pretty major social changes.

For this revisit, I consumed the story through the voice talents of Emilia Fox with the audio book. She is not one of my favourite Miss Marple narrators (and her rendition of Bunch sounds a bit unhinged at my regular listening speed of x1.5), but this was rather entertaining, so I recommend a listen if audio is your bag.

This was my August pick for #ReadChristie2024 as a book written by Agatha Christie in the 1940s/50s and it is an absolute gem. I am very much looking forward to September's pick, Ordeal by Innocence, as it is one I have not read before!

A Murder is Announced is available to buy now in various formats.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Skelf Summer: The Big Chill (Skelf Book Two) by Doug Johnstone

 

Skelf Summer: The Big Chill (Skelf Book Two) by Doug Johnstone.

Published in ebook on 20th June 2020 and in paperback on 20th August 2020 by Orenda Books. 

From the cover of the book:

Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life.

While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly.

But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness – but could the real threat be to themselves?

Following three women as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill follows A Dark Matter, book one in the Skelfs series, which reboots the classic PI novel while asking the big existential questions, all with a big dose of pitch-black humour.

***********

When a car crashes into an open grave at a funeral that Dorothy is conducting, ending the life of the driver and almost killing her in the process, she finds herself on an obsessive hunt for the identity of the young man at the wheel - a hunt that draws in both Jenny and Hannah too. Dorothy also becomes involved in the search for one of her music students, who has mysteriously gone missing.

Meanwhile, Jenny and Hannah have issues of their own, and the spectre of Craig hangs over them all as his trial approaches...

The first Skelf book, A Dark Matter, introduced us the the three amazing Skelf women - the matriarch Dorothy, her daughter Jenny, and Jenny's daughter Hannah - who found themselves in charge of both a funeral directors' and a private investigation business, and what an absolute corker it was!

This time around, our three women are still reeling from the chilling truth about the part Jenny's ex-husband Craig played in the dark misdeeds visited upon them, and the orgy of violence that brought matters to a shocking head. Battered and bruised, although seemingly healed on the surface, Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah are each looking for a way to deal with the scars they are hiding deep inside.

Doug Johnston really pulls out all the stops in this novel, and plays mercilessly with your emotions. Dorothy throws herself into her work, on both the funeral and investigation fronts, and uncovers some heart-breaking truths, while making a kind of peace with her situation, and possibly introducing a new member to the Skelf family of waifs and strays. There is a real sense of sadness in Dorothy's storyline, that brings to the fore her need to mother and protect, and allows Johnstone to shine a poignant light on the social problems on the streets of a city like Edinburgh. Hannah is struggling with the horrific truth about her father, despite the best efforts her her girlfriend Indy. She is facing a deep existential crisis, that cleverly gives us the most thought provoking of book titles for this second Skelf book, but she is much stronger than she realises.

However, it is in Jenny's part of the big picture where Johnstone has a ball the most with a sense of insidious darkness. Craig is more of a monster than ever, manipulating the women around him, like a spider sitting in the middle of an unpleasant web of lies and intrigue. He spins his threads to get them to play his macabre game and it's thoroughly delicious!

I loved that the Skelf women seem to be finding their feet running both a funeral and investigation business in this book and there was just the right amount of mix of each, with them feeding nicely into each other to make a satisfying whole - with a core of pitch black humour. It really made me chuckle each time someone brought up the fact that mixing and funerals and investigations was more than a little odd!

This gripping book thoroughly engrossed me from shocking start to unsettling finish, and I cannot wait to find out what happens next!

**Review originally published August 2020.

The Big Chill is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Doug Johnstone is the author of Fourteen novels, including The Great Silence, the third in the Skelfs series, which has been optioned for In 2021, The Big Chill, the second in the series, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2020, A Dark Matter, the first in the series, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Independent Voice Book of the Year award. Black Hearts (Book four), was published in 2022, with The Opposite of Lonely (book five) out in 2023.

Several of his books have been bestsellers and award winners, and his first science fiction novel, The Space Between Us, was a BBC2 Between the Covers pick.

He’s taught creative writing, been writer in residence at various institutions, and has been an arts journalist for twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers.

He lives in Edinburgh.

The Right Place by Sophia Money-Coutts

 

The Right Place by Sophia Money-Coutts.

Published in paperback 15th August 2024 by HQ.

From the cover of the book:

From the outside, Maggie Lemon has a perfect life. But she and her husband have been trying for a baby for five years and she’s exhausted. She’s seen countless fertility experts and followed dozens of diets and homeopathic recommendations, and even gave up her dream restaurant in London when doctors suggested the stress might be too much. And now her estranged aunt has died, leaving her hotel in Provence to Maggie.

It's been years since Maggie visited Le Figuier. There’s a lot of work to be done and she knows she should sell it. But when a disgraced Hollywood actor hiding out at the hotel lends a hand, the load feels a lot lighter.

Is it just the chemistry with this handsome stranger, or is it starting to feel like Maggie might finally be in the right place?

***********

Maggie Lemon is tired. Although she might seem to have a comfortable life, and the perfect husband in property specialist Mungo, their attempts to complete the picture of domestic bliss with a baby continue to be fruitless. The last five years have been taken up with fertility experts, and rounds of IVF, to the exclusion of everything else. She can barely even remember the person she used to be when she was a successful chef, running her dream restaurant in London.

When Phil, the wild and eccentric aunt she has not seen for eight years dies, Maggie is surprised to learn that she has left her the hotel in Provence she owned - where the rich and famous used to party. She is filled with trepidation about returning to Le Figuier after so long, and shocked to see the state of disrepair that the hotel has fallen into. She has no choice but to sell this place to cover the debts Phil left behind, but as the memories come flooding back, she feels some of her worries start to lift.

There is a lot of work to be done before the place will be fit to sell, so Maggie decides that for a short few weeks she will continue to run the hotel as Phil would have wanted. A handful of guests should be manageable, and she is soon back in the bustling routine she remembers from golden summers working with Phil in the kitchen. But an unexpected guest brings her pause for thought - handsome Hollywood actor Gray is looking for a spot to hide out while a media storm rages about his personal troubles. Gray is also at a crossroads in his life, and when he offers to help Maggie get the hotel shipshape, she feels a the stirring of chemistry between them. Has she finally found the right place?

I have read every one of Sophia Money-Coutts' charming rom-coms and loved them all, so I was very excited to settle down with the latest one, The Right Place, for a bit of escapist loveliness. And, dear readers, it hit the emotional soft spot in just the right place (pun intended).

Maggie makes a great protagonist. We meet her at a low point, when she is reflecting on how small her life has become. Everything that once gave her joy has been stripped away, and the merry-go-round of failed fertility treatments, which are far from merry, has left her exhausted. Back in her old stomping ground in France, away from her husband and thoughts of babies, Maggie has some much needed time to breathe and take stock. She finds herself reflecting on her relationship with chinless-wonder Mungo, remembers the dreams she once had, rekindles her passion for food, and discovers the sense of purpose that has been missing for so long.

Enter stage right, Gray, the Hollywood star also floundering in a life that comes with its own trials and tribulations. Beneath the polished, and oh so swoon-worthy, good looks, Gray reveals himself to have hidden depths, and it is not long before Maggie and Gray are getting on like a house on fire - and finding that they have a lot more in common than they think.

All the elements of perfect rom-com setting and cast are here in abundance. The gorgeous location of the run-down hotel in Provence, that was once the 'it' location for the party-loving, rich and famous, is so beautifully described that you can feel yourself dipping your toes in the natural pool and being woken up by the braying of donkeys Paul and Ringo. The characters too are simply divine darling, radiating out from Maggie and Gray to bring in friends and found family to love and loathe. Maggie's PR bestie, the endearingly irreverent Jamie; the truculent Audrey; and all the lovely locals (maybe not creepy Pierre) are easy to take to your heart.... and on the other hand, you will find yourself wishing not so nice things for the boorish Mungo; Maggie's awful mother; and the hateful hotel developer who wants to rip Le Figuier apart. I loved how you also feel the poignant presence of the larger-than-life Phil through the memories of her that linger in all who knew her, and the parts of the book that flashback to Maggie's past fill in so much of the backstory.

Laughs, remembrances, second chances, and oodles of romantic suspense are the name of the game, touching on heavier themes too, in that way Money-Coutts does so well. There are echoing themes of fertility and parenthood that are handled with sensitivity and insight. And the will-they-won't-they element is superbly done - as usual, Sophia, you did not disappoint.

Oh, and the food! How I adore a book about delicious delights to tempt the tastebuds. This will have your mouth watering at the French treats that Maggie conjures up as her passion for cooking is reawakened (although you might think twice about the goat's cheese and onion tart). A recipe or two might have been a nice touch here, I think, in the way that Jo Thomas does in her romances - but in any case, my French cookbooks are about to get a dusting off.

I adored this book. I did not realise quite how much I needed this until I closed to cover with tears streaming down my face. Just the job for a stellar summer read!

The Right Place is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to HQ for sending me copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Sophia is a British journalist and author who spends most of her time writing at her kitchen table in South London, making a cup of tea whenever she gets stuck halfway through a sentence (this happens a LOT).

She's written five novels - The Plus One, What Happens Now?, The Wish List, Did You Miss Me? and Looking Out For Love - and hopes to carry on writing books that make people laugh forever. Because we could all do with more of a laugh, these days, couldn't we? 

Sometimes, if Sophia's not drinking lukewarm tea in her leggings at home, she appears on radio and television talking about important topics such as the Royal family and how to correctly eat a pear (with your fingers, having cut it into quarters first. Sophia didn't make this rule up, she's just passing it on).

The Right Place is her sixth novel.

Talking At Night by Claire Daverley

 

Talking At Night by Claire Daverley.

Published in paperback 6th June 2024 by Michael Joseph.

From the cover of the book:

Will and Rosie meet as teenagers.

They're opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother's wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer – destined to be one another's great love story.

Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered.

But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can't help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been.

What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can't let go?

***********

Will and Rosie are polar opposites. He is the school's wild-boy, with a string of girl friends, and is viewed through the lens of a tangled web of rumours that may or may not be true. She is a quiet, studious girl striving for academic success, dubbed a 'Vanilla Virgin' by her best friend. They move in very different circles, and although Rosie certainly knows who Will is, she doubts very much that he is even aware of her existence.

But in a twist of fate, Will is in the same Further Maths class as Rosie's twin brother, Josh, and they have become unlikely friends. When Will offers to tutor Josh, to help him through some maths problems he is struggling with, he meets Rosie and something sparks between the bad boy and the quiet girl. Through secret walks and late night phone conversations Will and Rosie feel their connection growing into a love that could last for ever, but then tragedy strikes, and the chance of the future they could have had is shattered.

Over the years, Will and Rosie's lives touch time and time again. The promise of something good still lies between them, but the weight of things unsaid seems insurmountable. Can there be a future for a couple for whom the timing is never right, or should they just forget each other and move on with their lives?

Talking at Night is a beautifully written, and powerfully affecting debut from Claire Daverley that will cut you to the emotional quick.

Daverley's writing reminds me so much of Sally Rooney in style and intensity, and in keeping with Rooney's iconic novel Normal People, Will and Rosie's story carries with it every ounce of yearning, melancholy, and frustration that marked the tragic love story of Connell and Marianne.

Will and Rosie are a couple who belong together, and yet circumstances contrive to keep them within touching distance of the passionate romance they are surely meant to pursue,. The story weaves through trials and tribulations of the teenage years and adult life, with a full dose of tragedy and family dramas and the emotional toll on the characters, and you as the reader, is overwhelming at times. For me, this makes this a book to be sipped, rather than consumed in big gulps, and I did have to put it to one side on more than one occasion, because the story was so unbearably sad.

However, there is something addictive about the lyrical way Daverley writes about these characters, especially in how they work through the rawness of loss and heartbreak through their conversations over the years. I found myself drawn back to the novel each time I had laid it down, until I had followed every twist and turn on their poignant journey... and, despite the heart pounding experience, I am glad that I did.

This is one of those books that gets under your skin with its rhythm, which works really well with the way the theme of music is used in the story. So, pun intended, if you enjoy your heart strings getting a serious strumming from a plaintive tune, then this will definitely be for you. Rest assured that there is an uplifting lilt in the final chords, but make sure you keep the tissues handy, because you will need them.

Talking at Night is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Michael Joseph for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Claire Daverley was born in 1991 and has been writing stories ever since she was six years old, inspired by art and film and her many trips to the library. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art from The University of Oxford, she began a career in publishing, writing about books by day but penning her own by night, on trains, and in the light of the early mornings. She has spent most of her life in Hertfordshire, but now lives in Scotland with her husband and spaniel.

Her debut novel, Talking at Night, has sold in twenty-two languages to date.

Prey (Sam Shephard Book Six) by Vanda Symon

Prey (Sam Shephard Book Six) by Vanda Symon.

Out now in ebook, and coming 29th August 2024 in paperback from Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation – the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican Priest in Dunedin.

The case has been a thorn in the side of the Police hierarchy, and for her boss it’s personal.

With all the witness testimony painting a picture of a dedicated church and family man, what possible motive could there have been for his murder?

But when Sam starts digging deeper into the case, it becomes apparent someone wants the sins of the past to remain hidden. And when a new potential witness to the crime is found brutally murdered, there is pressure from all quarters to solve the case before anyone else falls prey.

But is it already too late…?

***********

Detective Sam Shephard is back from maternity leave. Quite how she and her partner, fellow cop Paul, will negotiate the unfamiliar landscape of balancing work and home life now they are parents is yet to be established, but she is looking forward to getting stuck back into some interesting cases - even if she is apprehensive about being back in the office with her nemesis, her boss DI Johns.

Surprisingly, on day one, DI Johns puts Sam in charge of a case all of her own - the high profile murder of an Anglican priest that took place outside of Dunedin's imposing, gothic St Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunately, the case is twenty-five years old, and as cold as can be. As one of Dunedin's rare unsolved murders, and one that the police have been unable to get to the bottom of in all these years, this is not going to be easy. It is not helped by the fact that DI Johns was part of the original investigating team... and that the murdered man is his father-in-law.

Sam sets to work, unsure if Johns is deliberately setting her up for a fall. Locating witnesses and leads after all this time is a tricky business, as is trying to prevent Johns from interfering in a case that touches his own family so intimately, but she is determined to battle her exhaustion and get to the truth.

When one of the witnesses she has questioned is brutally murdered, the cold case suddenly becomes dangerously live. Someone is determined that the details of their past sins remain buried, and Sam is under pressure to find them before anyone else falls prey...

The Sam Shephard books by Vanda Symon are one of my favourite Antipodean treats, not least for shining a light on the sheer quality of the New Zealand noir crime scene. Prey is police detective Sam Shephard's sixth outing, and although this is a stand-alone case, I do recommend reading the whole glorious series for the ultimate experience, as she really has been shaped by all that has come before in her life - and there is a grand cast of recurring characters. You can thank me later.

Here we catch-up with Sam as she is returning to work after maternity leave, as she and partner Paul are trying to balance all the challenges that new parenthood brings to their lives. Hoping for an easing in to the new regime, Sam is knocked for six when her troublesome boss, DI Johns, gives her an infamous cold case to solve almost as soon as she is through the door. Given their difficult relationship, and his penchant for obstructing opportunities for her to advance in her career, she is naturally wary of his motives. Johns' close connection to the case is a minefield in terms of his overbearing, micro-managing nature, and the pitfalls of conflicts of interest, however this Sam is subtly different from the woman she was before motherhood, and she is now even less likely to take anyone's nonsense... 

The complex story unfurls from an intriguing prologue, that sets many questions buzzing in your mind, through the twists and turns of an investigation that ramps up from cold case slow-burn to the immediacy of a very bloody live one. Sam's skills as an investigator, and the intriguing nuances of her new mind set, give her an advantage in unearthing information that the macho undertones of the past inquiry missed - even if she is not aware of this through the fog of her exhaustion. 

Symon does an incredible job keeping the story flowing through the lovely police procedural elements, as always, and she combines these with the challenges Sam faces as a working mother beautifully - the humour and very relatable trials and tribulations of managing breast feeding are spot-on too. Themes of parenthood and 'let sleeping dogs lie' weave through the novel, with an excellent parting twist. There are lovely complementing themes around religion, prejudice, unresolved trauma, sins and secrets too, some of which touch significantly, and unexpectedly, on Sam's life (tears were shed).

Symon is such a talented writer. She brings the different faces of New Zealand alive, writes compelling characters, and knows how to spin a cracking story. The developing complexity of Sam's personality gives her such wonderful depth, and I really enjoyed seeing another side to Dunedin in the architectural history that tells of its prosperous past.  

I have thoroughly enjoyed all the Sam Shephard books, but this one is my favourite to date. I adored how Vanda Symon gives her special Kiwi noir treatment to a gripping story that thrums with Christie-esque character studies and a laying bare of deep dark sins. And the play on shades of meaning in the title, Prey (or is it pray?), is superb. Roll on book seven!

Prey is available to buy now in ebook format and is coming in paperback 29th August 2024. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Also coming in audio 15th August 2024.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending ne a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author: 

Vanda Symon lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. As well as being a crime writer, she has a PhD in science communication and is a researcher at the Centre for Pacific Health at the University of Otago. 

Overkill was shortlisted for the 2019 CWA John Creasey Debut Dagger Award and she is a three-time finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel for her critically acclaimed Sam Shephard series.

Vanda produces and hosts 'Write On', a monthly radio show focusing on the world of books at Otago Access Radio. When she isn’t working or writing, Vanda can be found in the garden, or on the business end of a fencing foil.

 

The Stolen Hours (The Wild Isles Book Two) by Karen Swan

 

The Stolen Hours (The Wild Isles Book Two) by Karen Swan.

Published in paperback 9th May 2024 by Pan Macmillan.

From the cover of the book:

An Island full of secrets . . .

Summer, 1929. Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it clear he can’t support her past the coming winter. On the small, Scottish island of St Kilda, her options are limited. But the MacKinnons’ neighbour, Donald, has a business acquaintance on distant Harris island also in need of a spouse. A plan is hatched for Donald to chaperone Mhairi and make the introduction on his final crossing of the year, before the autumn seas close them off to the outside world.

Mhairi returns as an engaged woman who has lost her heart – but not to her fiancé. In love with the wrong man yet knowing he can never be hers, she awaits the spring with growing dread – for the onset of calm waters will see her sent from home to become a stranger’s wife. . .

When word comes that St Kilda is to be evacuated, the lovers are granted a few months’ reprieve. But will a summer of stolen hours together just lead to more heartbreak . . . ?

The Stolen Hours is the second book in Karen Swan’s bestselling Wild Isle series, which began with The Last Summer.

***********

St Kilda. Summer, 1929. Mhairi MacKinnon is the oldest girl in a family of nine, and looking for a husband. Options are limited among the men of this tiny island community, and with her postmaster father struggling to support his growing family she needs to cast her net a little wider if she is to find a suitable marriage partner.

Their neighbour Donald suggests travelling across the water to the distant island of Harris, where he is planning to visit before the storms of autumn and winter close in. He has an acquaintance there whose son is looking for a wife, and thinks Mhairi should accompany him to see if the young couple hit it off. 

Events conspire to send Mhairi to Harris with Donald as her unlikely chaperone, but the trip does not go quite as planned. Mhairi returns to St Kilda in love and with an offer of marriage she feels she cannot refuse, but her prospective groom is not the man who has captured her heart. Instead, she has fallen for Donald, and he for her... sadly, Donald already has a wife, albeit one who shares as little liking for him as he does for her.

Over the harsh winter, and all through the preparations for the islanders to be evacuated in the summer of 1930, Mhairi and Donald spend as many secret hours together as they can. But they know their affair cannot last...

The Stolen Hours is the second book in the excellent Wild Isles series about St Kilda, which began with Effie Gillies' story in The Last Summer.  You do need to have read the first book before this one because, although this tale follows a different character in Effie's friend Mhairi, their two storylines are entwined - especially when it comes to the secrets that bind them about events on St Kilda at the time of the evacuation.

Mhairi's tale begins the summer before Effie's, when she finds herself embarking on a last minute adventure to Harris in the company of grim-faced Donald. Mhairi dreams of meeting a man who will be her romantic destiny, but the cold hard slap of reality brings with it a coming of age journey very different from her girlish imaginings. Destined to marry a man wildly unlike the one she hoped for, she is also now desperately in love with Donald, someone with hidden, passionate depths. 

In parallel with Effie's story, and with intriguing side glimpses of the events from the first book, Mhairi and Donald engage in a forbidden affair with consequences that ripple forward in time. Their romance is full of heady passion, true love, and fleeting stolen moments away from prying eyes, but the clock is ticking down to the time they must all leave St Kilda - and with it the twists that bring their storylines crashing together with Effie's to carry the plot forward into an unknown future.

As in the first book, there is oodles of social history about life in the remote Scottish islands, this time widening from St Kilda to Harris, with all the contrasts and new characters this entails. I loved the new insight this gives you about these isolated communities, how they lived, and the expectations they had for their lives and happiness. 

There is a different feel to the overall pace and atmosphere in Mhairi and Donald's tale than in Effie and Sholto's love story, with an intensity of passion and sadness that builds almost unbearably. This complements the story in the first book beautifully, adding lovely layers that Swan weaves together to fit Effie and Mhairi's parts together to drive the overall story on. The thread of mystery about events you know are coming adds a lovely sense of impeding doom, but Swan saves many secrets for this book that you have no idea about from Effie's story too, which makes this thoroughly compelling in its own right.

I adored this book just as much as the first one, and cannot wait to continue on to add the part Effie and Mhairi's friend Flora plays in the overall Wild Isles story next with book three, The Lost Lover!

The Stolen Hours is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Karen Swan is the Sunday Times Top Three and international best-selling author. Her novels sell all over the world and she writes two books each year - one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots.

The Last Summer is the first book in her five-book historical series called The Wild Isle Girls, set around the dramatic evacuation of the Scottish island St Kilda in the summer of 1930. It was partly inspired by Karen’s Scottish roots: her father’s family came from Skye, moving to Fort William where Karen was christened and where many of her family still live. Her childhood memories are full of Christmases, Hogmanay and summer holidays spent in the Highlands and she was married there in 2001.

She lives in Sussex with her husband, three children and two dogs.

 

Skelf Summer: A Dark Matter (Skelf Book One) by Doug Johnstone

 

Skelf Summer: A Dark Matter (Skelf Book One) by Doug Johnstone.

Published 23rd January 2020 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book: 

Meet the Skelfs: well-known Edinburgh family, proprietors of a long-established funeral-home business, and private investigators…

When patriarch Jim dies, it's left to his wife Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah to take charge of both businesses, kicking off an unexpected series of events.

Dorothy discovers mysterious payments to another woman, suggesting that Jim wasn't the husband she thought he was. Hannah's best friend Mel has vanished from university, and the simple adultery case that Jenny takes on leads to something stranger and far darker than any of them could have imagined.

As the women struggle to come to terms with their grief, and the demands of the business threaten to overwhelm them, secrets from the past emerge, which change everything…

A compelling, tense and shocking thriller and a darkly funny and warm portrait of a family in turmoil, A Dark Matter introduces a cast of unforgettable characters, marking the start of an addictive new series...

***********

A Dark Matter is the most wonderfully compelling and tense thriller that paints a darkly comic portrait of three generations of Skelf women trying to get along in the world, and with each other. This is the first part of a new family series by Doug Johnstone and is is an absolute corker. I could not put this book down once I started reading it and simply devoured it.

The lives of our Skelf protagonists have been turned upside-down by the events following Jim's death and trying to maintain a working relationship while dealing with their personal grief, suspicions and the strains of their new careers (and at the same time still be Grandmother/Mother/Granddaughter, with all that entails) is far from easy.

Dorothy is the unconventional matriarch - Californian born, with a gift for helping lost souls and a talented drum player to boot! The bottom has fallen out of her world with the loss of her husband and the discovery that he may not have been the man she thought he was. Dorothy may be old school in many ways, having lived on Scottish soil for most of her life, but her upbringing on the West Coast USA has given her a free-spirit at heart. She is complicated and acknowledges this, but she is also determined to see things through to the end.

Jenny, the daughter is also a complex character and having a hard time coming to terms with the loss of her father, Jim. She has been badly affected by her past experiences and is feeling untethered and unsure of the role she needs to play. Can she be relied upon to help her mother now she needs her? Can she be a good mother to her own daughter, even though she does not seem to need her? Does she have any answers...?

Hannah, the granddaughter, once so level-headed, so sure of herself and her relationship with her partner Indy. Uncovering the dark side of her missing friend's life, has shaken her to the core. Can you ever truly count on someone or really know them? Hannah may have more of her mother in her that she thought and her determined side is about to show.

All three are asking some pretty big questions of themselves and those they hold dear and Doug Johnstone steers us skillfully through their trials and tribulations as secrets and lies are uncovered along the way. The pace of the story is just right and the tension builds beautifully as the threads of each separate story-line are brought to satisfying and, in some cases, totally shocking climaxes. Our wonderful Skelf women are reeling by the end of the book, but at the same time, have discovered a lot about themselves and found a way to work together.

Alongside great characters and a cracking story, I really enjoyed the way Edinburgh is portrayed in this book. Our three Skelf women are from different generations and the city they know and love is individual to each of them. The changes that have come over the city of Edinburgh are acknowledged by Doug Johnstone in the way each of the Skelf women describe and interact with their surroundings and this really brought the city alive for me. I was particularly struck by the way Jenny harkens back to the Edinburgh of her youth, as she is closest in age to me. Edinburgh becomes more than just a backdrop for the events that are taking place in these pages - it becomes a character itself, and adds a depth to the whole story that is tantalising.

Reader, you will be won over by the way that the Skelf women discover that they are stronger than they ever thought possible, as they cope with everything that A Dark Matter can throw at them, and I have totally fallen in love with them all. There is something here for everyone! What a start to the series...

A Dark Matter is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

**Review originally published January 2020.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Doug Johnstone is the author of Fourteen novels, including The Great Silence, the third in the Skelfs series, which has been optioned for In 2021, The Big Chill, the second in the series, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2020, A Dark Matter, the first in the series, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Independent Voice Book of the Year award. Black Hearts (Book four), was published in 2022, with The Opposite of Lonely (book five) out in 2023. 

Several of his books have been bestsellers and award winners, and his first science fiction novel, The Space Between Us, was a BBC2 Between the Covers pick. 

He’s taught creative writing, been writer in residence at various institutions, and has been an arts journalist for twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. 

He lives in Edinburgh.

One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz

 

One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz.

Translated from the German by Rachel Ward.

Published 18th July 2024 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Sixteen-year-old Frieder's plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two subjects. In order to move up to the next school year in the Autumn, he must resit his exams. So, instead of going on holiday with his family, he now faces the daunting and boring prospect of staying at his grandparents' house, studying with his strict and formal step-grandfather.

On the bright side, he'll spend time with his grandmother Nana, his sister Alma and his best friend Johann. And he meets Beate, the girl in the beautiful green swimsuit…

The next few weeks will bring friendship, fear and first love – one grand summer that will change and shape his entire life.

Heartbreaking, poignant and warmly funny, One Grand Summer is an unforgettable, tender novel that captures those exquisite and painful moments that make us who we are.

***********

When sixteen-year-old Frieder's school year ends with him flunking two subjects, his plans for a carefree summer are thrown into disarray. Packed off to his grandparents' house to study for his resits, he is thoroughly fed up to be missing out on fun and trips away, especially since, as much as he adores his Nana, his strict step-grandfather (The Professor) is quite a different sort of prospect.

But thing are not all bad. His younger sister Alma will be close by doing work experience, and his best friend Johann will be around too, so there will be the chance of some larks between the heavy studying, if can avoid the beady eye of The Professor. Then something happens that turns this whole summer on its head. Frieder meets Beate at the swimming pool. The beautiful girl in the bottle-green swimsuit turns their trio into a quartet, and Frieder falls madly in love.

This summer will bring intense experiences for this group of friends - ones that will shape them for ever...

One Grand Summer is my first book by best-selling German author Ewald Arenz, and if I had to describe in a few words, I would liken it to a beautifully written, literary version of the kind of coming-of-age story that director John Hughes had in his eighties playbook. If you are of a certain age, you will know exactly what I mean...

The story focuses on a group of four teenage friends who are thrown together in the kind of golden summer that lives long in the memory for its intense experiences. Frieder, his sister Alma, and Frieder's wealthy bestie Johann, make a tight knit group who are used to pushing the boundaries of authority. Into this mix comes half-Brazilian Beate, who has an instant connection with awkward Frieder, sparking a heady romance driven by more than turbulent hormones.

The quartet become inseparable over the course of the holiday, and Ewald weaves lovely storylines around them rife with excruciating teenage insecurities, profound learning experiences about life and death, and poignant emotional journeys. With the light touch of an author who understands the fragile balance between light and shade, especially when it comes to teenagers, the story warps as darkness seeps into their sunlit adventures. The combination of high-jinks and navigating complex emotions leads this group of friends into stormy waters, and it has a powerful impact on how they see themselves and their future.

The jagged themes of heartbreak, loss, and disturbed mental health are arresting, but Ewald balances the sadness with joy by weaving them into a novel that is all about love, family, and friendship. Alongside the more vivid episodes of teenage turmoil, there is welcome warmth in the way Frieder thinks about his family, and in the way his relationship with his grandparents develops over the summer - especially with the stern step-grandfather he has always been a little scared of. I loved how this opens up thought provoking aspects of romantic attraction, family dynamics, identity, respect, and looking beneath the surface, to astonishingly profound effect. There is also something very clever about how unexpected subjects like science and uncomfortable history are incorporated into the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The translation by Rachel Ward just glides, and is full of emotional heft. There is a delicious vein of subtle humour that is very nostalgic too, fitting perfectly into the early eighties setting. What a little gem.

One Grand Summer is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books 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:

Ewald Arenz, born in Nürnberg in 1965, studied English and American literature and history. He is a teacher at a secondary school in Nürnberg. His novels and plays have received many awards. Ewald lives near Fürth with his family.

About the translator:

Rachel Ward is a freelance translator of literary and creative texts from German and French to English. Having always been an avid reader and enjoyed word games and puzzles, she discovered a flair for languages at school and went on to study modern languages at the University of East Anglia. She spent the third year working as a language assistant at two grammar schools in Saaebrücken, Germany. During her final year, she realised that she wanted to put these skills and passions to use professionally and applied for UEA’s MA in Literary Translation, which she completed in 2002. Her published translations include Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang and Red Rage by Brigitte Blobel, and she is a Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting.