War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy

 

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Translated from the Russian by Anthony Briggs.

This edition published 27th September 2007 by Penguin Classics.

From the cover of the book:

Tolstoy's magnificent epic novel of love, conflict, fate and human life in all its imperfection and grandeur.

War and Peace begins at a glittering society party in St Petersburg in 1805, where conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. The stories of quixotic Pierre, cynical Andrey and impetuous Natasha interweave with a huge cast, from aristocrats and peasants to soldiers and Napoleon himself.

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Anthony Briggs with an Afterword by Orlando Figes.

***********

War and Peace is one of those books that everyone knows for its hefty size, not without cause as this edition numbers a densely-printed 1400 pages! It was one on my to-be-read pile for many years before I finally tackled it in 2023 - at the pace of a chapter-a-day throughout the year. It is impossible to do justice to it in a short review, so, instead, this is more of a reflection upon my experience reading this (in)famous tale of love, loss and family, through times of war and peace in imperial Russia.

The journey begins in a grand salon in St Petersburg in 1805. War is on the horizon as Napoleon casts his ambitious eye towards the East, and for a country that has long been enamoured with courtly French ways, this act of aggression will set in motion unforeseeable consequences for mother Russia... 

It is a many threaded, complex story as befits one which deals with the complicated history Tolstoy presents, with a huge cast of characters, ranging from society glitteratti to the lowly peasant classes, many of whom are only on the stage for a short time. However, he mainly guides the reader through the momentous events through the eyes of a handful of central characters and their families - Pierre Bezukhov, an illegitimate son who finds himself becoming a wealthy Count; Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, Pierre's friend; and the Rostovs, primarily through brother and sister, Count Nikolay and Countess Natasha. I will admit to having a complicated relationship with many of these characters, especially the Rostovs, but Tolstoy deftly uses them all to display human nature in all its many shades of  black, white, and murky grey, and he certainly knows how to transport you through his words to feel every moment of their joy and despair. My favourite of them all was Pierre, who goes on an epic personal journey, through tremendous spiritual and emotional peaks and troughs - he is also the character who provides the most comic moments as he blunders about attempting benevolent works for the good of mankind, despite his marital woes. I adored him.

Of course this is a book which concerns itself with times of war and peace, and my expectations about how these elements would fit together - and how I would feel about them afterwards - have probably provided most of the surprises. I love a well-written battle, so was really looking forward to these parts of the story, and Tolstoy does an incredible job carrying you through the intricacies of Napoleon's attempt to conquer Russia. He can immerse you in the terrifying heat of battle with aplomb, but he also has a propensity to digress into academic speculation about the whys, wherefores, and what-might-haves about military strategy on both sides of the conflict which gets a bit tedious after a while. I found myself switching off during these ramblings, and wondering whether these might have been better shifted into an appendix for fans of the minutiae of military tactics. Nevertheless, I learned so much about this part of the Napoleonic wars that I did not know before, and went down a whole warren of rabbit holes about the battles and their aftermath - especially Borodino.

Ultimately, it is the characters who drive you on through the story, as you get to know them intimately through the years - and they pull you through the slower sections where Tolstoy indulges himself with wordy speculations. Tolstoy triumphs here. Despite some oddness at the closing of the tale, where we see a glimpse of the future, and times when I wanted more about some of the side characters, there is nothing I would have changed about how Tolstoy delves into the personal cost of war.  

I have had a lot of thoughts after having taken a few weeks to mull over my time with Tolstoy's masterpiece. I imagine this is a book that leaves many impressions in the minds of those who are brave enough to tackle it, but for me, it is a compelling story about identity - both on the part of the individual characters, and an entire nation - following the breakdown of Russia's love affair with France. I do not think I can claim to be in love with Tolstoy's style, but it was an incredibly rewarding experience to finally read War and Peace, and I am proud of myself for sticking through the thick and thin to the very end. I do not know whether I will ever revisit the story as a whole again, but there are beautifully written sections I will definitely refer back to in the future.  

If you have ever considered taking on this behemoth yourself, I highly recommend going the slow-read route with a chapter-a-day, as it really does make it more achievable. Take some time to think about the translation you use too, as I started with the Vintage Classics edition to begin with, but found the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation far too 'French heavy' for my language skills - in my opinion, the Penguin Classics Brigg's translation flows much better for English speakers.

I can also recommend reading this novel along with others, as there are many things you will want to talk about as you make your way through the many chapters - I would like to thank Simon Halsell aka @footnotes.and.tangents for organising the #WhiskyAndPerseverance readalongs on Instagram. His enthusiasm and love for Tolstoy is inspirational. Simon has another readalong for War and Peace going in 2024, so look him up if you are tempted to join in!

War and Peace is available to buy now in multiple formats.

About the author:

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote two of the great novels of the nineteenth century, War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie

 

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 10th November 2022. Originally published in 1920.

From the cover of the book:

After the Great War, life can never be the same again. Wounds need healing, and the horror of violent death banished into memory.

Captain Arthur Hastings is invited to the rolling country estate of Styles to recuperate from injuries sustained at the Front. It is the last place he expects to encounter murder. Fortunately he knows a former detective, a Belgian refugee, who has grown bored of retirement…

The first Hercule Poirot mystery, now published with a previously deleted chapter and introduced by Agatha Christie expert Dr John Curran.

***********

1916. Lieutenant Arthur Hastings (before his later promotion to Captain) is on sick leave from the Western Front when he bumps into his old friend, John Cavendish. Cavendish invites Hastings to stay at Styles Court for some rest and recuperation in the Essex countryside, warning him that all is not rosy at the family estate, as his elderly step-mother, Emily, has remarried to a much younger man - one Alfred Inglethorp, who the family considers to be after her money.

When Hastings arrives at Styles, he lands right into the middle of more than one family disagreement in the Cavendish household, but they all seem united against the interloper Inglethorp, especially Emily's companion Evelyn Howard, who is very vocal about her dislike of him. However, Hastings is delighted to find that his old pal, former police detective, Hercule Poirot is residing in the village, as part of a group of Belgian refugees. Hastings and Poirot rekindle their friendship, which becomes very important when a drastic turn of events happens up at Styles Court...

Following a day of violent quarrels, during which Evelyn departs apparently never to return, and Alfred is absent on mysterious business, Emily succumbs to strychnine poisoning during the night. Poirot is called to the scene by Hastings to put his little grey cells to the test in the quest for the guilty party. And so begins a a joyful pairing as they work together to track down the murderer through oodles of twists, turns and blind-alleys - with scorched wills, crushed coffee cups, and false beards having important roles to play in the surprising solution. This novel introduces good old Inspector Japp from Scotland Yard too, before his Chief Inspector days.

The Mysterious Affair At Styles marks the beginning of Christie's golden career, after she was challenged by her sister to write a crime novel. Written in 1916, during the midst of the Great War, it took four years for the novel to be published - and it only appeared after some changes were requested in the format by the publishers - changes which subsequently became part of Poirot's well-known MO. The rest is history.

Christie's inspirations are clear to see in this first novel. The experience she gained working as a VAD nurse and a drug dispenser during the Great War led to the theme of poisoning being central to this story, and this later became a mainstay of many of her novels. Her love of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Conan Doyle is also apparent here, particularly in Poirot's reliance on observation of little details that prove to be turning points in the story, and in the relationship between Poirot and Hastings, which is is very reminiscent of that between Holmes and his faithful side-kick Watson. You can also trace many of the themes which arise in Christie's subsequent work - family disagreements, contested wills, marital strife, greed, betrayal, jealousy, and passion - and of course, there is a lovely country house setting, with a delicious locked room element.

This was a very enjoyable reread for me. I had forgotten quite how complicated the plot actually is, and how many elements echo throughout her prodigious body of work. As usual, I alternated between the text and the fabulous audio book narrated by my favourite Hugh Fraser - whose role as Hastings in the sublime David Suchet adaptations adds a rich extra dimension.

It was an excellent mystery to kick off a new year of Christie reads for #ReadChristie2024 too. This year, the challenge is delving into the development of her novels across time, beginning with the 1920s and spanning the decades to the 1960s/70s. More 1920s up next... decisions, decisions... which little gem to choose?

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is available to buy now in multiple 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.

The Knowing by Emma Hinds

 

The Knowing by Emma Hinds.

Published 18th January 2024 by Bedford Square.

From the cover of the book:

In the slums of 19th-century New York.

A tattooed mystic fights for her life.

Her survival hangs on the turn of a tarot card.

Whilst working as a living canvas for an abusive tattoo artist in the slums of 19th-century New York, Flora meets Minnie, an enigmatic circus performer who offers her love and refuge in an opulent townhouse that is home to the menacing and predatory Mr Chester Merton. Flora earns her keep reading tarot cards for his guests whilst struggling to harness her gift, the Knowing - an ability to summon the dead. Caught in a dark love triangle between Minnie and Chester, Flora begins to unravel the secrets inside their house. Then at her first public séance in the infamous cathouse Hotel du Woods, Flora hears the spirit of a murdered boy prostitute and exposes his killer, setting off a train of events that leaves her fighting for her life.

The Knowing is a stunning debut inspired by real historical characters including Maud Wagner, one of the first known female tattoo artists, New York gang the Dead Rabbits, and characters from PT Barnum's circus in the 1800s.

Something Powerful Is Coming.

***********

Five Points, New York, 1866. Flora has only ever known the slums of Manhattan. Her life as the property of cruel tattoo artist Jordan, who uses her as a canvas for his art and a punchbag for his jealous temper, is a hard one. The only comfort she finds is from carefully inking herself in the few bare patches of skin he has left uncovered - and reading her well-worn tarot cards. 

When Flora meets Minnie, a former circus performer who runs her own stable of female artistes, she finally sees a way to escape the misery of her existence. Minnie needs her as an act for her show, and she promises Flora the kind of life she cannot imagine - but there are conditions. One of these is that they must live in the house of wealthy, debauched Chester Merton, a man whose appetites for young flesh cannot be contained, and whose relationship with Minnie is decidedly murky. 

Caught between the fear she may be dragged back to the slums by her former master, and the unwelcome attentions of Chester, Flora is plagued by worries that her life has not really improved, but more than that she is terrified people will discover that she is hiding a secret that gives her knowledge of much more than the fortunes her tarot deck can prophecy. For Flora has the gift of the Knowing... an ability to see and speak with the dead. Even though Flora has learned the hard way to keep this talent to herself, her new life makes her feel complicated emotions she does not know how to process, and brings her into contact with people who have many sins to hide, and the dead will not be denied...

Inspired by real characters from nineteenth century New York (including one of the first female tattoo artists Maud Wagner), the dangerous slums of a city ruled by brutal gangs, and the circus shows of P.T. Barnum, The Knowing is a mesmerising debut that holds you fast from the first page to the last.

Hinds takes you on a journey from the perilous lanes of Five Points, an area that displays its hard reputation front and centre, to the high-class salons of Uptown with their own share of despicable residents, albeit hiding underneath expensively clad facades - and in a lovely twist, to the cold hard streets of Manchester too. With threads of money, madness, cruelty, control, unsavoury vices, forbidden liaisons, and a fascination with 'freaks' and curiosities, Hinds begins her slow burn story in Gothic melodrama country, but it is not long before the powerful supernatural sway of the novel takes over through whispers of the shifting spectres that lurk on the corner of Flora's vision... and the tale explodes with blood, violence, betrayal, and ghosts in search of vengeance. The nightmare element burgeons, laced with the seductive pull of a love story playing out in gritty surroundings, and as Flora is overwhelmed with the call of the Knowing, so the dark, menacing side of the story dominates.

This is written to evoke all the discomfiting feelings Hinds deliberately sets out to lay before the eyes of the reader, and she holds very little back about the unpleasant nature of many of her characters, and the reality of life for women in Victorian society. But her heroines are also complex and carefully drawn, and Hinds does not shy away from delving into all the shades of grey around the things they do and the decisions they make in their fight for justice and agency in their own lives. 

Ultimately, this is a story about the many faces of power, that thrums with feminist themes, and although it drags you through the mire of wrenching emotions, there is plenty here to warm the cockles of your heart with threads of love, friendship, hope and family too. There are delicious echoes of Sarah Waters in this novel, and I cannot wait to see what comes from the pen of Emma Hinds next, because this is a spellbinding beginning.

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

Thank you to Ed PR and Bedford Square for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Emma is a queer playwright living in Manchester with a focus on telling untold feminist narratives. Her latest play, PURE, was featured in Turn On festival at Hope Mill Theatre Manchester in 2021 and she was the recipient of the Artist Development grant 2021 at Hope Mill Theatre. She has written a few previous non-fiction books in her capacity as an academic with an essay published in Tarantino and Theology with Gray Matter Books and her book Ineffable Love: Christian Themes in Good Omens published by Darton Longman & Todd.

Monument To Murder (DCI Kate Daniels Book Four) by Mari Hannah

 

Monument to Murder (DCI Kate Daniels Book Four) by Mari Hannah.

Published 21st November 2013 by Pan Macmillan.

From the cover of the book:

He selects. They die . . .

When skeletal remains are found beneath the fortified walls of an ancient castle on Northumberland's rugged coastline, DCI Kate Daniels calls on a forensic anthropologist to help identify the corpse.

Meanwhile, newly widowed prison psychologist Emily McCann finds herself drawn into the fantasy of convicted sex offender, Walter Fearon. As his mind games become more and more intense, is it possible that Daniels' case has something to do with his murderous past? With his release imminent, what exactly does he have in mind for Emily?

As Daniels encounters dead end after dead end and the body count rises, it soon becomes apparent that someone is hiding more than one deadly secret . . .

Monument to Murder is Maria Hannah's fourth gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels.

***********

The discovery of human remains in the dunes below Bamburgh Castle, on the Northumberland coastline, sparks a challenging new investigation for DCI Kate Daniels and her team - especially when the help of a forensic anthropologist reveals that the sand holds more secrets than they realise.

Meanwhile, Kate's friend Emily, recently widowed and weighed down with grief, returns to her job as psychologist at a nearby prison, where a convicted sex offender has become obsessed with her - the very prison where Kate's former lover Jo is now working. The time of his release grows near, and Emily is increasingly concerned about the threat he poses to the public - and potentially to herself and her family. As his mind-games put her under pressure, and call her professional judgement into question, old sins are revealed that might just link to Kate's current case...

Monument to Murder is the fourth book in the DCI Kate Daniels series, and it picks up hot on the heels of book three, Deadly Deceit. As winter gets a grip on the Northumberland coastline, Kate and her team set up a new murder wall in the northern reaches of their operational area, to try to get to the bottom of a horrifying series of murders that have intriguing links to the history of the area. 

The tale unfurls in two absolutely gripping threads - one covering the intricate police procedural ins-and-outs of an investigation into the murders of young girls in the north of England, and the other following Emily's side of the story behind prison walls. This is Hannah at the absolute top of her game, with perfectly timed reveals, and beautifully contrived twists, that serve to entwine both sides of the story - and there are more red herrings than you can poke a police baton at. This one really kept me guessing right until the end, as Hannah cleverly keeps the shocking truth of the matter murky enough to have you convinced of the guilt of more than one likely suspect. Along the way, Kate's personal family and relationship issues continue to run through the story, with all the will-they-won't-they suspense between Kate and Jo that Hannah does so well - I am starting to want to take them to one side and bang their heads together, so I hope there will be a resolution to this situation soon in the series!

For me, this is the book that throws up the knottiest issues to mull over so far when it comes to DCI Daniels' cases. Emily's role as a prison psychologist casts a lot of thought provoking light on the problem of tackling the release of serious sex offenders back into the community, particularly when it comes to the balance between allowing parole and keeping them contained until the end of their sentences. Lots of things to think about here around public safety, monitoring, and how we approach dealing with prisoners with psychopathic tendencies - both insightful and menacing writing from Hannah here. I will be thinking about this for quite a while...

This is definitely my favourite book of the series to date. The story flows with perfectly judged pace, and the pages fly by as all the little pieces of the mystery come together to make a thrilling whole - I devoured it! Well played, Mari Hannah!

Monument to Murder is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an hon3st review, and to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of #TeamDaniels. 

About the author:

Mari Hannah was born in London and moved north as a child. Sponsored by the Home Office, she graduated from Teesside University before becoming a Probation Officer, a career cut short when she was injured while on duty. Thereafter, she spent several years working as a film/television scriptwriter. During that time she created and developed a number of projects, most notably a feature length film and the pilot episode of a crime series for television based on the characters in her book, the latter as part of a BBC drama development scheme. In 2010, she won the Northern Writers Award. Monument to Murder is her fourth novel.

She lives in Northumberland with her partner, an ex-murder detective. 

Deadly Deceit (DCI Kate Daniels Book 3) by Mari Hannah

 

Deadly Deceit (DCI Kate Daniels Book 3) by Mari Hannah.

Published 11th April 2013 by Pan Macmillan.

From the cover of the book:

Four a.m. on a wet stretch of the A1 and a driver skids out of control. Quick on the scene, Senior Investigating Officer Kate Daniels and partner DS Hank Gormley are presented with a horrifying image of carnage and mayhem that quickly becomes one of the worst road traffic accidents in Northumberland s history. But as the casualties mount up, they soon realize that not all deaths were as a result of the accident . . .

On the other side of town a house goes up in flames, turning its two inhabitants into charred corpses. Seemingly unconnected with the traffic accident, Kate sets about investigating both incidences separately. But it soon becomes apparent that all is not what it seems, and Kate and her colleagues are always one step behind a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Deadly Deceit is Mari Hannah's third gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels.

***********

DCI Kate Daniels and DS Hank Gormley's day gets off to the worst start when they are called to the aftermath of a horrific, early morning pile-up on the A1. As some of the first responders on the scene, they are spared nothing of the bloody carnage that one of the worst road traffic accidents in Northumberland's history has to show them, and it is something they will never forget. Daniels is appointed SIO of the investigation into the accident, and a difficult task becomes much more complex when it appears not everyone in the tangled wreckage died as a result of vehicle-related trauma...

On the same night, as the public are consumed with World Cup fever, a case of arson across town seals the fate of a father and his baby son. Already with a mammoth task on her hands dealing with the massive RTA, Kate finds herself with another tragedy to get to the bottom of... one that is also not quite what it seems.

In Deadly Deceit, the third outing for DCI Kate Daniels and her team, Mari Hannah fashions an extremely knotty mess for them to investigate with two murky parallel investigations into tragedies that happen on the same night. The book starts with a real bang, dropping you into a full on multi-vehicle pile-up on one of the country's busiest roads, and then goes into slow-burn territory for almost the entire story as the narrative flips between the police investigations, and two females connected with the crimes. 

It is not until Daniels gets to see the bigger picture that the action takes off with oodles of bloody violence, high-speed chases, and an unsettling view into the mind of a cold-hearted killer, and the start-stop-start pace does make this a difficult book to immerse yourself in easily. I have to admit that I did not get into the story until a long way down the path, as the two storylines take a very long time to converge, and this delays the rewarding light-bulb moments. However, I really enjoyed where Hannah goes once the direction becomes clear, and the action scenes later in the book are as thrilling as anything I have read in the first two instalments of the series. I also liked the echoing themes Hannah builds up between the two female characters - one at the heart of each case - which brings a mighty kick to the twisty conclusion. 

 

This has probably been my least favourite books in the series so far, but Hannah's skill in pulling you along through the personal stories of Daniels and her team kept me reading, as this adds lovely texture and emotional substance in the background of the police procedural elements. There is a dollop of almost unbearable suspense in the Kate-Jo part of the story this time around, as their on-off relationship continues to keep you guessing, and I am looking forward to where this goes next. 

Onwards to book four, Monument to Murder.

Deadly Deceit is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Compulsive Readers for inviting me to join #TeamDaniels.

About the author:

Multi-award winning Mari Hannah is the author of the Stone & Oliver crime series, the Ryan & O'Neil series and the DCI Kate Daniels series.

In July 2010, she won a Northern Writers' Award for Settled Blood. In 2013, she won the Polari First Book Prize for her debut, The Murder Wall. She was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library 2017 as the author of the most enjoyed collection of work in libraries. In 2019, she was awarded DIVA Wordsmith of the Year. In that same year, Mari was Programming Chair of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival. In 2020, Mari was named as DIVA 'Wordsmith of the Year' and won Capital Crime's 'Crime Book of the Year' award.

She lives in Northumberland with her partner, an former murder detective.

The Guests by Agnes Ravatn

 

The Guests by Agnes Ravatn.

Translated by Rosie Hedger.

Published 18th January by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

It started with a lie…

Married couple Karin and Kai are looking for a pleasant escape from their busy lives, and reluctantly accept an offer to stay in a luxurious holiday home in the Norwegian fjords.

Instead of finding a relaxing retreat, however, their trip becomes a reminder of everything lacking in their own lives, and in a less-than-friendly meeting with their new neighbours, Karin tells a little white lie…

Against the backdrop of the glistening water and within the claustrophobic walls of the ultra-modern house, Karin’s insecurities blossom, and her lie grows ever bigger, entangling her and her husband in a nightmare spiral of deceits with absolutely no means of escape…

Simmering with suspense and dark humour, The Guests is a gripping psychological drama about envy and aspiration … and something more menacing, hiding just below that glittering surface…

***********

Married couple Karin and Kai are manoeuvred into accepting the offer of a week's holiday in a luxury cabin on the Norwegian archipelago, the exclusive playground of the country's elite. While carpenter Kai has a busman's holiday reconstructing a jetty for the cabin's wealthy owners, Karin feels uncomfortably out-of-place and, despite the dramatic scenery, she cannot help being irked by the fact she is surrounded by the trappings of a lifestyle she can never have.

As Karin's insecurities rise to the surface, she finds herself telling a little white lie to the famous authors in the neighbouring cabin, unaware that this will lead to the couple becoming entangled in an increasingly complicated web of deceit... and as events spiral out of control, Karin begins to question quite how much of her real life is actually a lie too.

In this razor-sharp literary novel, Ravatn takes you on an intriguing exploration of insecurity, envy and social segregation, through one couple's holiday on the Norwegian fjords. The story plays out through the eyes of lawyer Karin, when a brush with her childhood nemesis, Iris, sends her off-balance, and brings back all the feelings of inadequacy that she thought she had thrown off long ago.  

Trapped into accepting Iris' offer of a holiday in the slick, uber-stylish cabin she and her husband have built, Karin cannot help but wonder exactly what Iris is trying to prove by this uncharacteristic act of generosity. It sets Karin on a dangerous path. Although she convinces herself she does not envy the lifestyle Iris and her family live, her inner feelings boil over into bitterness and resentment. Kai's calm reassurances to take stock of all the good things she has in her life fall on deaf ears, and Karin blunders into a situation that exposes the rawness in her own heart - and in the lives of the very people she intended to impress. 

In many ways this is an incisive morality tale about counting your blessings, and the dangers of wishing for the things you think you want. Karin learns that, inevitably, the glossy magazine articles hide a multitude of sins and sorrows, and as the threads of the story unfurl in a delicious tangle of the very best of Norwegian dramas, rife with excrutiatingly awkward scenes, suspicion and the weight of things unsaid, she finds herself reflecting on her own life too. Ravatn's writing tugs you on through beautifully wrought, psychological twists, and she has a ball subverting an examination of the human condition, that drips with melancholy, into a wonderfully wicked denouement. Superb!  

This novel is incredibly clever. It thrums with dark, sardonic humour, and incredible insight, especially in the thought provoking themes it throws up about wealth, power, money, social mobility, how our childhood experiences shape us, and the pitfalls of discontent. I am so impressed with Rosie Hedger's translation skills in conveying the wit, drama, and nuance necessary to pull off this kind of complicated novel too - this clearly is a perfect partnership between author and translator. 

This book was a joy to consume. Ravatn's writing flows with such style, that I have totally fallen in love with it through the pages of this cracking little gem. I cannot wait to devour her other books!

The Guests is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support the very best of 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:

Agnes Ravatn is a Norwegian author and columnist. She made her literary début with the novel Week 53 (Veke 53) in 2007, followed by three critically acclaimed and award-winning essay collections: Standing still (Stillstand), 2011, Popular Reading (Folkelesnad), 2011, and Operation Self-discipline (Operasjon sjøldisiplin), 2014. In these works Ravatn shows her unique, witty voice and sharp eye for human fallibility. Her second novel, The Bird Tribunal (Fugletribuanlet), was an international bestseller, translated into fifteen languages, and winning an English PEN Award, shortlisting for the Dublin Literary Award, a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick and a BBC Book at Bedtime. It was also made into a successful play, which premiered in Oslo in 2015. The critically acclaimed The Seven Doors was published in English in 2020. Her newest novel The Guests is being published in English in 2023. Agnes lives with her family in the Norwegian countryside.

The Library Of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina

 

The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina.

Translated from the Italian by Lucy Rand.

Published 4th January 2024 by Manilla Press.

From the cover of the book:

To find what you have lost, you must listen to your heart . . .

On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from all around the world are collected. In this small, isolated building, the heartbeats of people who are still alive or have already passed away continue to echo.

Several miles away, in the ancient city of Kamakura, two lonely souls meet: Shuichi, a forty-year-old illustrator, who returns to his home-town to fix up the house of his recently deceased mother, and eight-year-old Kenta, a child who wanders like a shadow around Shuichi's house.

Day by day, the trust between Shuichi and Kenta grows until they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. Their journey will lead them to Teshima and to the library of heartbeats . . .

***********

Forty-year-old book illustrator, Shuichi, returns to his home town of Kamakura to renovate the house of his late mother, looking for a way to distract himself from the personal losses that weigh heavily on his shoulders. It is a process that brings back many memories of his childhood, and the only way he can cope with the overwhelming emotions is to remove all trace of his mother from the house.

As he goes about his decorating task, he becomes aware of a small boy lurking around the house and removing items from the garage, where Shuichi has stored his mother's possessions. Intrigued, Shuichi sets out to meet the boy, and he discovers that eight-year-old Kenta also misses the kindly old woman that lived here.

An unlikely friendship develops between man and boy, which is rewarding for them both, and as Shuichi works through his grief, he also finds himself becoming closer to Sayaka, a local woman from his past. However, it is not until Shuichi and Kenta realise there is something else that binds them together, and they go on a quest to Teshima, the home of the Library of Heartbeats, that full healing can come about for them all.

As in Messina's English language debut novel, The Phone Box at the End of the World, The Library of Heartbeats is a gentle tale of individuals coming together to find a way to move past tragedy and heartache. The pace of the novel is sinuous and slow-burn, following the central characters Shuichi and Kenta as their friendship grows, and little connections between them are revealed in a series of highly emotional scenes - with the addition of an enchanting side story of Shuichi's reawakening romance with Sayaka. 

The novel follows an unconventional format, once again like in Messina's previous book, which seems very fragmented at the beginning. The story blurs in that characteristic Japanese way between the present and hazy recollections of the past (particularly when it comes to Shuichi's childhood), and there are enigmatic sections of narrative between two boys, whose identities only become apparent quite some way into the novel in a powerful twist. With a deft hand Messina cleverly brings all these threads together through a series of tear-jerking moments of clarity, which are immensely enriching, and engineers a delightful circularity to the whole story.

The theme of 'hearts' elegantly thrums through every part of this novel, from the recurring thread of 'broken hearts', to the importance of Teshima, the home of the Library of Heartbeats (in reality, The Heartbeat Archive in Japan). There is a subtle, beating rhythm throughout that draws you onwards to the healing that Shuichi and Kenta finally find together, and to Shuichi's ability to open himself up to romantic love once again, which fits beautifully with the theme. Messina plays on this with the titles she gives to each part of the novel too - and I really enjoyed how she also guides you through the emotional journey of the characters with little textual clues for you to discover among the chapters.

This is a quiet book without bangs and whistles, although there are plenty of emotive impacts, but Messina's ability to delve into the human spirit, memory, and dealing with loss, makes for a spellbinding story that works its magic around you all the same. I was not sure if I could warm to this book as much as I did to The Phone Box at the End of the World, but as I closed the cover with a final shuddering sob, I knew these characters would stay with me for ever. The Library of Heartbeats proved to be the perfect dose of life-affirming loveliness I needed on a cold, grey January day.

The Library of Heartbeats is available to buy now in multiple formats.

Thank you to Manilla Press for providing me with a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Compulsive Readers Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Laura Imai Messina was born in Rome, and moved to Tokyo at the age of 23. Her international bestselling novel The Phone Box at the Edge of the World was published in 31 countries. Laura teaches at some of Japan's most prestigious universities, as well as writing for newspapers and working with the Japanese National TV Channel NHK.

About the translator:

Lucy Rand was shortlisted for the TAFirst Translation Prize for The Phone Box at the Edge of the World which she translated while living in Japan. She has also translated n9vels by Italian authors Paolo Milone and Irene Graziosi, and us tge editor of the guided audiobook app, Audrey. She now lives in Norwich.

One Of The Good Guys by Araminta Hall

 

One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall.

Published 4th January 2024 by Pan Macmillan.

From the cover of the book:

If most men say they’re one of the good guys, then why are so many women afraid to walk alone at night?

Cole is the perfect husband: a romantic, supportive of his wife, Mel’s career, keen to be a hands-on dad, not a big drinker. A good guy.

So when Mel leaves him, he's floored. She was lucky to be with a man like him.

Craving solitude, he accepts a job on the coast and quickly settles into his new life where he meets reclusive artist Lennie.

Lennie has made the same move for similar reasons. She is living in a crumbling cottage on the edge of a nearby cliff. It’s an undeniably scary location, but sometimes you have to face your fears to get past them.

As their relationship develops, two young women go missing while on a walk protesting gendered violence, right by where Cole and Lennie live. Finding themselves at the heart of a police investigation and media frenzy, it soon becomes clear that they don’t know each other very well at all.

This is what happens when women have had enough . . .

***********

Cole considers himself one of the 'good guys', so he is mystified when his wife, Mel, decides to leave him in the middle of IVF treatment for a much wanted child. Trying to piece his life together, and work through the hostility he firmly believes Mel is unfairly sending his way, he moves to a remote cottage on the coast and begins the kind of simple life he had hoped he would be living with a cherished wife and child.

Unexpectedly, Cole meets the woman he feels could actually be his soulmate, artist Lennie, who is staying in a similarly isolated cabin on the coastline. However, as their lives start to become entwined, two young women walking the coastal path as part of a campaign against gendered violence go missing, and Cole and Lennie find their relationship under the scrutiny of both the police... and the public. Cole soon realises that Lennie is not the woman he thought she was, but then maybe he is not the man he claims to be either...

One of the Good Guys is a feminist thriller with an intriguing twist or two up its sleeve, as Hall lulls you into the false security of thinking you know exactly where this novel is going... until the magic moment when you realise she has turned the whole set-up on its head and led you down an unexpected (coastal?) path into a morass of issues around the reality of being a woman in a modern world filled with 'good guys'.

Without giving the game away, the story follows three central narratives from Cole; his former wife Mel; and Lennie, the new woman in his life, set against the media frenzy of the case of the missing girls. As the story unfurls in the present, and in a past filled with emotional baggage, relationships between the three become increasingly twisted around, which Hall uses to beautiful effect to highlight a spectrum of of acts against women from the most subtle uses of control, to whopping acts of abuse. The way she uses extracts from on-line chat groups, podcasts and articles to break up the flow of the narratives is particularly clever - and shockingly thought provoking too.

This is a most uncomfortable book to read, not least because the characters in it - both male and female - are so tricky to like, even when you have deep empathy for their situations. However, I am incredibly impressed by the way Hall forces you to confront such a swathe of messy, darker shades of grey, especially where they stray into red flag territory, when it comes to modern relationships; the insidious abuse dished out by faceless trolls on social media; and the dangers of the unintentional complicity of women in falsely perpetuating the 'good guy' label. 

I am not sure I can say I actually 'enjoyed' reading this one, but, my goodness, it is a book that makes you think. Provocative, explosive, and anger inducing, this really is the 'water-cooler' book of the moment, and the perfect read for the post-#MeToo landscape.

One of the Good Guys is available to buy now in hardcover, 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:

Araminta Hall is a journalist and teacher. She is the author of five previous novels, including her first novel, Everything and Nothing, which was published in 2011 and became a Richard and Judy read that year. She is the great niece of Dodie Smith and the great granddaughter of Lawrence Beesley, who survived the Titanic and wrote a bestselling account of the tragedy in the book, The Loss of the SS Titanic.

She teaches creative writing at New Writing South Brighton, where she lives with her husband and three children.

The Dancer by Oskar Gudmundsson

 

The Dancer by Oskar Gudmudsson.

Translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates.

Published 5th January 2024 in ebook and 1st February 2024 in paperback by Corylus Books.

From the cover of the book:

Life was never going to be a bed of roses…

Tony is a young man who has always been on the losing side in life. He was brought up by his troubled, alcoholic mother who had a past of her own as a talented ballerina, until a life-changing accident brought her dreams to a sudden end. As her own ambitions for fame and success were crushed, she used cruel and brutal methods to project them onto her young son – with devastating consequences.

There’s no doubt that a body found on Reykjavík’s Öskjuhlíð hillside has been there for a long time. The case is handed to veteran detective Valdimar, supported by Ylfa, who is taking her tentative first steps as a police officer with the city’s CID while coping with her own family difficulties.

It’s not long before it’s clear a vicious killer is on the loose - and very little about the case is what it appears to be at first glance.

The Dancer was originally published in 2023 as a Storytel Original Series.

***********

Reykjavik, 1982. Tony is a troubled young man, raised by his chaotic, alcoholic mother, who was once a promising ballet dancer, until her career was brought to a premature end by a life-changing accident. Destroyed by the tragic turn in her life, Tony's mother has had one purpose - to forge her son into the dancer she could never be, but her brutal methods and cruelty have left their mark.

When a decomposing body is found on a snowy hillside, the job of solving the murder falls to veteran detective Valdimar, and his new colleague Ylfa. Somehow, the scattered clues in this bizarre case keep leading them back to a ground-breaking new dance production, but what can a disturbed killer possibly have to do with a ballet? Valdimar and Ylfa are determined to find out...

The Dancer is a blend of captivating Nordic noir crime yarn, and disturbing horror story, set in 1982, that is as sharp and breath-taking as a bracing Icelandic winter. Gudmundsson starts very much as he means to go on, with an deeply unsettling opening scene, starkly set against a crisp snowy backdrop, and from that moment on you find yourself unable to look away for a moment.

At its heart, this is an Icelandic murder mystery, with a framework firmly grounded in the grisly exploits of its killer and, rather intriguingly, Gudmundsson makes it easy for you to spot the guilty party from early on in the proceedings. However, the task of hunting down the killer is not quite so easy for Gudmundsson's detectives, wily Valdimar, with his unhealthy addiction to sweet treats, and the rookie Ylfa, who is torn between the demands of her personal and professional lives. 

As Valdimar and Ylfa work their way through the investigation, the police procedural elements weave subtly through the more dominant storyline of the killer. Once their individual threads become enmeshed it becomes obvious that this is much of a 'whydunit' delving into what motivates someone to wander so far from the straight and narrow. This is an unconventional way for a crime novel to unfurl, but it works so darned well, especially when it comes to the way Gudmundsson's killer fills out in shades of grey, despite the increasingly depraved acts they engage in. 

Gudmundsson holds nothing back in this story when it comes to unrelenting violence, and for a book of just over 200 pages there are a lot of gruelling scenes to work through, but these all have a place in leading you to the final belter of a blood-soaked climax that is wreathed in powerful emotions. Themes of childhood trauma, twisted relationships, victimhood, loneliness, betrayal, revenge and absolution resound, and the way Gudmundsson inextricably links them all to the compulsion to dance is striking. Excellent work here, once again, from Quentin Bates too, who is rapidly becoming one of my favourites for maintaining pace and potency in his translations from Icelandic to English. 

This is full-on Icelandic noir that packs a punch, with echoes of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, and a pinch of Psycho. Valdimar and Ylfa make for an endearing crime solving partnership against the gritty storyline, and deliciously atmospheric backdrop, and I cannot wait to see how this brand new series develops. More please! 

The Dancer is available to buy now in paperback and ebook.

Thank you to Corylus Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Ewa Sherman for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.

About the author:

With a unique voice and a style that doesn’t shy away from a sometime graphic take on shocking subject matter, Óskar Guðmundsson is one of the rising stars of the Icelandic crime fiction scene. 

His debut Hilma was awarded the Icelandic Crime Syndicate’s Drop of Blood award for the best crime novel of 2015, and the TV rights have been acquired by Sagafilm. This was followed by a sequel Blood Angels in 2018. The first of his books published in an English translation, The Commandments, was a standalone novel which appeared in Iceland in 2019. All of Óskar’s books have been bestsellers and rewarded with outstanding reviews.

The first in a new series of novels The Dancer was published in Icelandic simultaneously as an eBook, audiobook, and paperback - accompanied by an original song in which Óskar’s words have been put to music featuring some of Iceland’s leading musicians - and was an immediate bestseller. 

Óskar’s talents don’t end there, as he is also an artist and has held a number of exhibitions of his work.

About the translator:

Quentin Bates has personal and professional roots in Iceland that go very deep. 

He is an author of series of nine crime novels and novellas featuring the Reykjavik detective Gunnhildur (Gunna) Gísladóttir. 

In addition to his own fiction, he has translated many works of Iceland’s coolest writers into English, including books by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Guðlaugur Arason, Einar Kárason, Óskar Guðmundsson, Sólveig Pálsdóttir, Jónína Leosdottir and Ragnar Jónasson. 

Quentin was instrumental in launching Iceland Noir in 2013, the crime fiction festival in Reykjavik.

 December 2023 Reading Round-Up

Fifteen reviews up in December, and a hefty dose of festive reads among them. This rounds off a fabulous year of 200 books! You can find my thoughts on fourteen of these by clicking on the photographs below... War and Peace review incoming when I have digested this beast...

On the First Day of Christmas by Faith Hogan

Dead Sweet by Katrín Júliusdóttir

Survivor's Guilt by Robyn Gigl

Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

Past Lying by Val McDermid

Yule Island by Johana Gustawsson

Lowbridge by Lucy Campbell

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Silent Waters by L.V. Matthews

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie

Christmas by Candlelight by Karen Swan

Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (review to come)

Plenty of wonderful reads lined up for 2024, so stick around for more!

If you have enjoyed my photos, why not head over to my Instagram account for more at @brownflopsy.