The Gifts by Liz Hyder

 

The Gifts by Liz Hyder.

Published 17th February 2022 by Manilla Press.

From the cover of the book:

In an age defined by men, it will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are . . .

October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders.

Meanwhile, when rumours of a 'fallen angel' cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grip of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger...

The Gifts is the astonishing debut adult novel from the lauded author of Bearmouth. A gripping and ambitious book told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of nineteenth century London, it explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society and the dark danger of ambition.

******************

October 1840: In a Victorian landscape where men hold sway in private and professional circles alike, the ruthless ambition of one London surgeon, Dr Edward Meake, is about to have great significance on the lives of four talented women - his artist wife Annie, botanist Etta, storyteller Natalya, and writer Mary.

Each of these women suffers their own secret sorrows and has been brought low by the folly of the men in their lives, and even though Edward should be primarily concerned with the maters of his own household and Annie's longing for a child, his desire for recognition and renown consumes him.

The city is rife with the talk of 'fallen angels' fuelled by the body of a woman with 'wings' that has been pulled from the Thames. Edward has secretly acquired this body for dissection, and he is desperate to make his name tracking down the other 'angels' he has heard whispers of, by whatever means necessary - whether they wish to be bought and sold or not.

Mary is also intrigued by the rumours and employs her journalistic talents to follow the clues to the truth behind the 'angels' rumours. What she discovers appals her. Can she save these 'angels' from their desperate fate at the hands of the unscrupulous Dr Meake?

The Gifts is one of those stories that pulls you in and holds you vice-like from the first page to the last. 

The novel is told in five narratives, from Edward, Annie, Etta, Natalya and Mary, and the threads of their tales weave in and out beautifully as we are immersed in the details of their frustrations and sorrows. The ambitious Edward sits at the centre of the story, spinning his menacing web of intrigue and lies - he already holds the beautiful Annie captive, dismissing her talents as an artist and blaming her for her inability to produce the heir he feels a man of his position deserves; and it's not long before our downcast 'angels' Natalya and Etta come within range of his underground laboratory too. Who can save them? Well the heroic Mary is on the case, and your hopes are pinned on her quest to thwart Edward in his devious plans... 

There is a lot of the Gothic fairy tale about this story. I love how Liz Hyder entwines a thread of magical realism laden with metaphor by using angels as the theme for her feminist firebrand novel - especially the way she uses the motif of feathers so deliciously throughout, and how she ties the notion of freedom to the wings that our women mysteriously sprout in their times of despair. 

But there is also so much fabulous social history incorporated in this story, as she touches on the lives of both rich and poor - delving into issues of sex, class, race, religion, the world of journalism, the medical profession, and even modes of transport. It's all so fascinating.

Of course, at it's heart, this is a story about the freedom of women, how their intellectual efforts are trivialised, and how their wishes are trampled upon in the shadow of male ambition. I seethed with rage for almost the entire book, but all the anger was worth it for the cracking climax that Hyder contrives at the end - one which brought more than a tear or two to my eyes as I revelled in the way these women finally discover who they are, and what they are capable of when they join together. This is an impressive debut adult novel that will really appeal to lovers of Stacey Halls, and I look forward to seeing what comes next from Liz Hyder!

The Gifts is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer in ebook, hardback and audio formats.

Thank you to Manilla Press for sending me 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:

Liz Hyder has been making up stories for as long she can remember. She has a BA in drama from the University of Bristol and, in early 2018, won the Bridge Award/Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award.

Bearmouth, her debut young adult novel, won a Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Branford Boase Award and was chosen as the Children's Book of the Year by The Times. 

Originally from London, she now lives in South Shropshire. The Gifts is her debut adult novel.

12 Hours To Say I Love You by Olivia Poulet and Laurence Dobiesz

 

12 Hours to Say I Love You by Olivia Poulet and Laurence Dobiesz.

Published 3rd February by Headline Review.

From the cover of the book:

Whir, beep, click, breath. Whir, beep, click, breath.

Pippa Gallagher is rushed in to hospital following a traffic accident.

As Pippa lies unconscious, fragments of the past flash through her mind. The day she met Steve Gallagher, the man who would become the love of her life. The heartbreak she felt tonight as she got into her car, her eyes blurry from tears.

Meanwhile Steve sits at her bedside, his eyes fixed on her pale, still face. He has no idea where his wife was going when she crashed. No clue as to why she became distracted behind the wheel. All he knows is that she is his world. And that he wasn't there when she needed him most.

For the next twelve hours, Steve tells Pippa all the reasons he loves her.

But is it too late? Can Pippa find her way back to him?

******************

Pippa and Steve were meant to be together, something that Steve knew from their first meeting during their school days, but it wasn't until fate threw them in each other's paths again as adults that their relationship blossomed into romance and marriage.

Tonight, years later, Pippa has been rushed to hospital after a road traffic accident. She lies unconscious with thoughts drifting through her mind about her life with Steve, and the unhappiness that caused her to become distracted and lose control of her car.  

Steve sits bewildered at her side trying to fathom out where she was going and what caused her to crash. The one thing he is sure of is that he loves her and cannot think of life without her. Pippa's doctor tells him that the first twelve hours after such an accident are crucial, and if he sits talking to her the sound of his voice just might bring her round.

He has twelve hours to tell her all the reasons why he loves her, and desperately hopes this will be enough to help her find her way back to him...

If ever there was a tale about the many aspects of love and marriage then this is it. Told in alternating narratives from Pippa and Steve, this gorgeous book takes you from the time they first speak through the significant moments of their relationship, cutting back and forth between the present heart-rending scene at Pippa's bedside, and the past, until all the threads collide with the answer to the mystery of Pippa's car accident.

I'm not about to go into detail about the story, because this is one you need to experience blow by emotional blow, soaking up the delicious way in which Pippa and Steve's perspectives weave together to paint the picture of a couple who, though fated to be together, find themselves following a path through the highs and lows of joy and heartbreak, rather than the steady fairy tale happily-ever-after they envisaged.

Beautifully written by Olivia Poulet and Laurence Dobiesz, who are a married couple in the real world, this touches on so many themes that shape the way in which a marriage plays out, especially expectation, and it brings in so much about the power of love, family ties and close friendships along the way. Without a doubt, there is a lot here that makes you cry - I found my eyes brimming over in the very first chapter and had to mop up tears on and off all the way through, building up to a full on sob-fest at the end. But there are many heart-warming moments, and lashings of humour that will have you laughing out loud too. Imagine the way a Richard Curtis film can cut you to the emotional quick and make you chuckle in equal measure and you will get the picture.

For me, this is right up there with the best of Jojo Moyes, so if Moyes is your thing then you will absolutely adore this one too. It's wonderful!

12 Hours to Say I Love You is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

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

About the authors:

Olivia Poulet is a writer and actor living in London.

Her play, #Blessed, which she wrote with her husband Laurence Dobiesz, was pick of the week for BBC Radio 4.

In 2019 she started up production company 100 Names Films with a group of like-minded film makers. They have completed two short films as part of The Repertory Shorts. The first, Deliver Me, was written by and starred Olivia and Laurence. It won the Special Jury Award at the 2020 London City Film Awards.

As an actor, she is known for The Thick Of It, the Loop, Back, Doc Martin and Holby City.
12 Hours to Say I Love You is her first novel.

Laurence Dobiesz is a writer and actor, living in London.

12 Hours to Say I Love You, written with his wife Olivia Poulet, is his debut novel. It is published in the UK by Headline in Spring 2022.

As a team, Laurence and Olivia wrote the radio drama, #Blessed, which was BBC Radio 4’s Pick of the Week.

Their short film Deliver Me won the Special Jury Award at the 2020 London City Film Awards. It was the first instalment from The Repertory Shorts, which sees them write and act in a series of shorts alongside an ensemble of film makers. Their second film, Do It, which he co-directed, is being released late 2021.

Off Target by Eve Smith

 

Off Target by Eve Smith.

Published 17th February 2022 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

What if your future was just one modification away?

In an all-too-possible near future, when genetic engineering has become the norm for humans, parents are prepared to take incalculable risks to ensure that their babies are perfect - altering genes that may cause illness, and more...

Susan has been trying for a baby for years, and when an impulsive one-night stand makes her dream come true, she’ll do anything to keep her daughter and ensure her husband doesn’t find out... including the unthinkable. She believes 
her secret is safe. For now.

But as governments embark on a perilous genetic arms race and children around the globe start experiencing a host of distressing symptoms – even taking their own lives – something truly horrendous is unleashed. Because those children have only one thing in common, and people are starting to ask questions...

Critically acclaimed bestseller Eve Smith returns with a terrifying, cautionary glimpse of what the future may hold, with a startlingly thought-provoking blockbuster of a thriller.

****************************

Susan longs for a child, but after years of trying for a baby with her husband Steve the hoped for pregnancy seems an impossible dream. Frustrated that Steve refuses to consider investigating the possibility of medical intervention, even though IVF is a common solution for the increasing number of couples facing fertility problems, Susan has a drunken one night stand with a work colleague - a sexual encounter that results in her getting pregnant.

Susan cannot bring herself to end this pregnancy, especially since this may be her only chance of having a child, but she also cannot allow her husband to find out that he is not the father of this baby. Caught in a dilemma, Susan agrees to the suggestion from her best friend to undergo a pioneering genetic treatment at an unregulated clinic in Ukraine that promises to solve all her problems. It's vital that no one ever finds out about what she has done.

Years later, Susan and Steve are the parents of a ten-year-old daughter called Zurel, who seems healthy, despite recently choosing to become a selective mute for reasons they have been unable to fathom. Susan is concerned that the treatment she received when she was carrying her may be responsible, but she cannot admit this to Steve as he remains blissfully unaware of the circumstances of Zurel's conception and the procedure she underwent.

But world events are about to expose Susan's desperate deception. The consequences of the widespread abuse of genetic tinkering in the last ten years are now having an impact on the children who have had their genes altered. A host of unexpected side effects, otherwise known as off-target effects, are being exhibited in these children, including a range of serious illnesses, and some of them have taken their own lives.

People are asking questions about gene therapy, and the explosion of non-medical interventions for those who can afford the price tag to ensure their children are born 'perfect'. The tide is turning, and world-wide protests are just the start of a menacing movement against those who have received genetic interventions. Susan's secret is no longer safe, and her family is in danger...

Eve Smith has the knack for taking a contemporary issue and speculating just how perilous this could become in the near future if events go unchecked. This time, instead of turning her attention to the antibiotic crisis as she did so well in her chilling debut novel The Waiting Rooms, she opens up a whole new Pandora's Box of terrifying themes by exploring the world of gene therapy in Off Target.

Off Target is a cautionary tale, delving into a wealth of dystopian themes around how misguided genetic tinkering can lead to catastrophe. Much of this reminds me of the manner in which Michael Crichton explored how gene splicing could be abused for ill-considered ends in his books, as Smith plays with the 'standing on the shoulders of giants' theme like in Jurassic Park and the controversy surrounding the ownership of genetic material in Next. She asks the same sort of ethical questions - a case of never mind the 'Could we do this?', but rather 'Should we do this?' - weaving these threads into an unsettling thriller that grips your heart with icy fingers.

I think it's fair to say that the majority of characters here are generally unlikeable, and Susan's motives are especially unpalatable, even though she is convinced she is doing the right thing at the time, but Smith uses them all to great effect in this story provoking feelings of anger and loss as you get involved in the nitty gritty of their lives - and my goodness, does she make you examine the blacks, whites and all the shades of grey about gene therapy. 

I enjoyed how Smith brings in much wider issues in the telling of this tale, touching on aspects such as infertility, the right to parenthood, science vs religion, money, politics, control, and how AI can isolate us from each other. She offers an added thought-provoking dimension by examining how the children affected by genetic treatments might actually think about what has been done to them - something I have not really considered before. The references to Kubrik/Spielberg's movie AI are also cleverly used to enhance the poignancy of Zural's part in the story.

This book is a clear-your-schedule, read in one single sitting affair, because you will not be able to put it down once you begin, and it will leave you with a lot to think about once it spits you out at the end. I cannot wait to see what dystopian nightmare Smith chooses to dissect in her next book!

Off Target is available to buy now in ebook, paperback and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

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 be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Eve Smith writes speculative fiction, mainly about the things that scare her. She attributes her love of all things dark and dystopian to a childhood watching Tales of the Unexpected and black-and-white Edgar Allen Poe double bills. In this world of questionable facts, stats and news, she believes storytelling is more important than ever to engage people in real life issues.

Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize and described by Waterstones as "an exciting new voice in crime fiction", Eve’s debut novel The Waiting Rooms, set in the aftermath of an antibiotic resistance crisis, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award and was selected as a Book of the Month by Eric Brown in The Guardian who compared her writing to Michael Crichton’s.

Eve’s previous job as COO of an environmental charity took her to research projects across Asia, Africa and the Americas, and she has an ongoing passion for wild creatures, wild science and far-flung places. When she’s not writing she’s racing across fields after her dog, trying to organise herself and her family, or off exploring somewhere new.

Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin

 

Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin.

Published 23rd July 2015 by Inspired Quill.

From the cover of the book:

At fifteen, she made a life-changing decision. Thirty years on, it’s time to make another.

When Diana escaped her misfit childhood, she thought she’d chosen the easier path. But the past lingers on, etched beneath her skin, and life won’t be worth living if her secret gets out.

As an adult, she’s kept other people at a distance... until Simon sweeps in on a cloud of promise and possibility. But his work is taking him to Cairo, the city that transformed her life. She’ll lose Simon if she doesn’t join him. She’ll lose herself if she does.

Sugar and Snails describes Diana’s unusual journey, revealing the scars from her fight to be true to herself. 

A triumphant mid-life coming-of-age story about bridging the gap between who we are and who we feel we ought to be.

***********

Diana had a difficult childhood: never quite happy with the person she was, she considered herself something of a misfit, a feeling that has followed her into adulthood - despite making a decision at fifteen-years-old that had a huge impact on the course of her life.

Thirty years later, she has finally met a man called Simon who she thinks she can be happy with, but opening herself up to a relationship also means sharing the secrets she has kept hidden for much of her life. It doesn't help that this man only sees a future for their relationship if she follows him on his sabbatical to Cairo - a city inextricably tied to the event that changed her life at fifteen, and one that she has no wish to set foot in again. 

Can Diana find the courage to confront her demons and allow herself some happiness, or will following Simon to Cairo be too much for her to bear? Time for some big decisions...

I rarely find myself with such a dilemma in writing the review for a book that has impressed me as much as this one has, which is rather frustrating as I want to tell you all about how good it is. The blurb on the cover really does not prepare you for what lies within these pages, and as much as I would like to wax lyrical and delve into the way Anne Goodwin writes so beautifully about the affecting themes brought up in this story, the fear of spoilers prevents me.

So what can I tell you? This is a book about family, identity, working out where you fit in the world, and finding the courage to be open with others about who you are and what you want from life. It would seem that Diana should have found her answers at fifteen, when her life changed for ever, but actually her existence has been one limited by fear. She does not really come-of-age until she reaches forty-five and realises she has finally been given the opportunity to live her life as she wants to - if she is brave enough.

In effect, this book is a mystery story told in two timelines as we follow the threads of Diana's difficult childhood and adolescence in the past, and what happens in the present once she meets Simon. It takes some time for you to discover Diana's secrets, but the story is so perfectly constructed that at exactly the point when you put the pieces together and understanding dawns, all that has been hidden is now openly acknowledged in the text. It's almost surreal how well this works, and I am not sure I have ever seen this pulled off quite as brilliantly as Goodwin does in this story, with her cleverly sprinkled trail of breadcrumbs leading to a picture of such sudden clarity that all the theories you have previously been toying with are instantly dispelled and you wonder how you did not see the truth all along.

The writing draws you in and fills you with a myriad of emotions as you become immersed in Diana's story. There are many poignant and upsetting moments, and I was frequently brought to tears reading about Diana's experiences, but Goodwin handles them all with great sensitivity, and leads you to a moment in Diana's life that is filled with hope for the future. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - take my word for it, this will take you on an intriguing journey and you will be very glad to have given it your time.

Sugar and Snails is available to buy now in ebook and paperback formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Anne Goodwin for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Anne Goodwin writes entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice. She is the author of three novels and a short story collection published by small independent press, Inspired Quill. 

Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize. Her new novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, is inspired by her previous incarnation as a clinical psychologist in a long-stay psychiatric hospital.

One Bad Thing by M.K. Hill

 

One Bad Thing by M.K. Hill

Published 3rd February 2022 by Aries, Head of Zeus.

From the cover of the book:

She thought she'd got away with it. She was wrong...

Hannah Godley is an agony aunt on a London radio show Queen of Hearts. She's warm and empathetic; a good listener. Her catchphrase is: Be kind, always. 

But when a stranger phones in to tell a tragic story about her brother who killed himself after he was the victim of a terrible prank by two people, Hannah goes cold. Because she remembers Diane's brother well. In fact, all these years later, he still haunts her dreams. All because of that one bad thing she did when she was young...

Is Diane just a sad, lonely woman looking for a friend, or does she know what Hannah did, and is looking for revenge? 

Because as Diane insinuates herself into her life and family, Hannah is going to discover that you can never truly escape that One Bad Thing you did – sooner or later, you're going to have to pay the price...

*****************

Hannah is an agony aunt on a London radio show, Queen of Hearts, dishing out advice to troubled people over the airwaves. Her catchphrase is 'Be kind, always', but it is a motto that she has not always applied to her own life - something that is about to have great significance for what follows...

Queen of Hearts has become very popular, and Hannah is now moving on up to a spot on day-time TV. On her last day at the radio show, a woman called Diane calls in, telling the tragic story of how her brother Martin was tormented by two strangers years ago - an episode from which he never recovered, causing him to eventually take his own life. It is a story that Hannah knows only too well, as she was one of the strangers involved, and this woman somehow seems to know all about what she did. Before ringing off, Diane vows to get her revenge...

From this moment the 'one bad thing' Hannah has tried to forget can no longer be ignored. Even though she is not proud of what she did, and it was the turning point in her life that made her change her ways, she would prefer that it didn't become common knowledge. She feels compelled to track down Diane to protest her innocence, but once she meets her she cannot seem to to get rid of her. Diane is there at every turn and seems to know even the most intimate details about her life. Hannah is unsettled, but she cannot decide if Diane is really out for revenge or is just lonely and looking for a friend, until things start to go seriously awry. She is relutantly forced to turn to someone from her past for help - someone she really did not want to see again...

One Bad Thing is a deliciously creepy psychological thriller about how ill-judged episodes from our youth can come back to haunt us. 

Hannah is, for all intents and purposes, a very respectable wife, mother and professional agony aunt, dolling out advice to those who need a bit of extra help. But the veneer of her current respectability covers up the troubled young woman she used to be - the woman who drank too much and often stepped outside the bounds of acceptable behaviour to make herself feel something. It's a life she left behind when the traumatic event with Martin made her realise that things had gone too far and she didn't like who she had become.

The story is told in two timelines, moving back and forth from the past when the 'one bad thing' happened, and the present as Hannah's life goes into freefall. We only very gradually learn what the bad thing was and who was involved, which builds suspense nicely, and all the while the tension in the present ramps up notch by notch as the mayhem plays out. This is a plot full of glorious threads of secrets, deception, jealousy, and obsession, with some skillful misdirection that allows Hill to toy with your perception time and time again, until all the twists, turns and shocking revelations leave you feeling breathless.

Hill touches on some poignant themes about family dynamics, mental health, loneliness, and the treatment of the vulnerable which are really affecting, but I think this book also asks an interesting question about what actually makes someone an ideal 'agony aunt'. What qualities and experience should they have? And do they always have to be paragons of virtue? Something to ponder in your quieter moments...

I read this book in a single, highly entertaining sitting, with my heart in my mouth for almost the entire time. It's perfectly pitched, unnerving, and totally absorbing - and would make a cracking TV drama!

One Bad Thing is available to buy now in hardback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

About the author:

M.K. Hill was a journalist and an award-winning music radio producer before becoming a full-time writer. The first novel in the Sasha Dawson series, The Bad Place, was described as 'everything a police procedural should be' by The Times, who also named it as their crime book of the month. He lives in London.

We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal

 

We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal.

Published 3rd February by Faber & Faber.

From the cover of the book:

The case was closed.

Everyone in Ådalen remembers the summer Lina Stavred went missing. At first, the investigation seemed like a dead end: there was no body, no crime scene, no murder weapon.

The records were sealed.

Then a local boy confessed to Lina's murder. The case opened a wound - one the whole community has spent over two decades trying to heal.

But we know you remember.

Now Lina's murderer has reappeared, and detective Eira Sjödin must face the spectre of his brutal crime. This is her chance to untangle years of well-kept secrets - but the truth is something Ådalen would rather forget.

****************

The Summer of 1996 saw Ådalen bear witness to a crime that has etched itself on the memories of the people of Kramfors, Sweden. Sixteen-year-old Lina Stavred went missing, prompting a police investigation that made little headway until a local boy, fourteen-year-old Olaf Hagström, confessed to raping and murdering Lina, after following her into the forest one night. Her body was never found, but everyone in this community remembers who was responsible for her death, and the tragedy remains just below the surface despite happening over two decades ago.

One eerily bright Midsummer's Eve, another murder is discovered - one that reopens old wounds. Olaf Hagström is back in town, and has rather suspiciously found the body of his father dead in their old family home. He claims that he has not seem him since he was sent away as a boy all those years ago, and that he was already dead when he arrived at the house, but once a murderer, always a murderer surely?

Police investigator Eira Sjödin is just old enough to remember that summer when Lina disappeared, and is also back in town, caring for her mother who is slowly being overtaken by dementia. She now finds herself involved in the investigation of the murder of Olaf's father, but Olaf's association with former crimes is clouding the matter and throwing up all sorts of issues among the local residents. To get to the truth Eira is going to have to untangle years of secrets and lies in this small community... nothing is what it seems...

It's no secret that Scandi noir is one of my favourite genres. There is something about the landscape, the swathes of brooding, isolating forests of great parts of Sweden, steeped in ancient folklore, that makes it such a fabulous back drop for a claustrophobic, small-town crime story. And this book, has everything I love about it in one engaging package. I am not about to tell you the plot, which is breath-taking by the way, but I will tell you what marks this book as such an excellent piece of crime writing - the rest you will have to discover for yourself.

Let's start with the setting... a small-town community, a little on its downers with an aging population with very long memories. Something terrible happened in this place and the people here have never recovered from it, even though someone confessed to the crime. You know right from the start that this is a place that holds secrets about what happened back then, and it is going to take some digging on the part of Eira to discover what really went on. The dark and brooding forest has not yet revealed all that it knows...

This is troll country, and Alsterdal makes good use of the fact by seeding the story with descriptive scenes that evoke the feeling that something menacing is trying to pull the characters beneath the surface to their doom, and you with them, as the weight of sins of the past drag them down. The way she uses the elements of earth and water is delicious, using them in both sensuous and sinister manners to elicit just the right feeling at the perfect moment; and the representations of the interplay between light and shade in a literal and metaphorical way is very clever.

There are glimpses of the truth as Eira goes on her journey, which are mirrored beautifully with Alsterdal's repeated use of scenes where locations significant to the investigation are sighted through the trees, or across the water, giving Eira a different perspective on the case as she puts the pieces of the puzzle together too. Very nicely done indeed!

Everything comes together to bring the perfect pitch and pace to a mystery that keeps you spellbound through all the deftly spun twists, turns and revelations, with the kind of magic that blends all the emotions you want to see in a great crime story, with vivid characters who hold your attention; and it draws on the history of this area in a really interesting way weaving themes of collective and personal recollections together exquisitely. I was able to tick off my wish list with a myriad of plotlines around secrets, lies, jealousy, passion, revenge and redemption which kept me very happy indeed, and I loved investigating crime at the side of Eira.

The translation is just right, with odd moments that pull you up in a way to keep you off balance keeping the unsettling mood going throughout, which marks out the translator Alice Menzies as doing a fine job. There is quite a lot in the text about the history of the area, which Alsterdal's native Swedish audience would be familiar with in a way which I wasn't, but a little light Googling was more than enough to fill in any gaps and did not distract me from the overall excellence of the story - and it took me down some intriguing rabbit holes too.

This book kept me turning the pages into the night, and led me to places I did not see coming. It is one of the finest pieces of Scandi noir crime novels I have had the pleasure to enjoy, and I am delighted to find that this is the first part in a new series entitled The High Coast - I await the next instalment with much excitement. 

We Know You Remember is available to buy now in hardback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Faber & Faber for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. I have purchased a hardback copy of my 'Boks of 2022' shelf!

About the author:

Tove Alsterdal burst upon the Swedish book scene in 2009 with The Forgotten Dead and is the author of five critically acclaimed stand-alone novels. We Know You Remember, which was named Swedish Crime Novel of the Year and was shortlisted for the country's Book of the Year Award, marks her American debut.

Dálvi by Laura Galloway

 

Dálvi by Laura Galloway.

Published 3rd February 2022 by Allen and Unwin.

From the cover of the book:

One woman's story as an outsider in a reindeer-herding village in the Arctic Tundra, forging a life on her own in one of the most unknowable cultures on earth.

An ancestry test suggesting she shared some DNA with the Sámi people, the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic tundra, tapped into Laura Galloway's wanderlust; an affair with a Sámi reindeer herder ultimately led her to leave New York for the tiny town of Kautokeino, Norway. When her new boyfriend left her unexpectedly after six months, it would have been easy, and perhaps prudent, to return home. But she stayed for six years.

Dálvi is the story of Laura's time in a reindeer-herding village in the Arctic, forging a solitary existence as she struggled to learn the language and make her way in a remote community for which there were no guidebooks or manuals for how to fit in. Her time in the North opened her to a new world. And it brought something else as well: reconciliation and peace with the traumatic events that had previously defined her - the sudden death of her mother when she was three, a difficult childhood and her lifelong search for connection and a sense of home.

Both a heart-rending memoir and a love letter to the singular landscape of the region, Dálvi explores with great warmth and humility what it means to truly belong.

**********************

When a DNA test revealed to Laura Galloway that she might be related to the enigmatic indigenous Sámi people of the Arctic tundra, she was fascinated to think that her ancestors may have hailed from such an intriguing place. Keen to know more about the Sámi, Laura travelled to the far reaches of northern Europe from her New York home, and met a traditional reindeer herder called Áilu who she felt an immediate connection with, despite the fact that he could only speak a few words of English. It was a meeting that was destined to change the course of her life.

Unhappy with her her life in New York, and scarred from difficult family dynamics and a broken marriage, Laura was longing for a new start, so when Áilu asked her to move in with him she decided to take the plunge. She packed up her two rescue cats and headed to new life in Kautokeino, high in the Norwegian Arctic, full of romantic ideas of life among the Sámi. But Laura found it difficult to settle in this remote village, and struggles with learning the tricky Sámi language led to misunderstandings and a feeling of isolation. 

When Áilu decided to end their relationship after only six months, Laura was shocked and confused. Unsure about what to do, she made the brave decision to stay on living in Kautokeino - and this is her story...

Dálvi is the account of Laura Galloway's life among the little understood Sámi people of the Arctic tundra, full of fascinating detail about the landscape, culture, heritage and characters of the community she found herself living in, but it is also a heart-warming tale of her own inner journey to come to terms with her difficult upbringing, challenging family relationships, and private unhappiness.

The book follows two threads as Galloway tells us what happened to her from the time she set foot in the Arctic, through the six years she spent among the Sámi people and sharing all that she found out about living in such a remote indigenous community; and sheds light on what brought her to this place with an account of her personal history through the story of her upbringing, family dynamics and disastrous marriage - until all the threads collide in the present, encompassing everything she has learned and the way she draws on her experiences to reconcile all that has happened to her.

Galloway lost her mother at the age of three, and following her father's remarriage to a woman who brought a lot of emotional baggage to the relationship, she saw her family fracture and spent years treading on eggshells with a unstable step-mother. This developed a feeling in Galloway that she was unwanted and never really had a true home, feeding into her wanderlust in an attempt to find a place where she could belong. After training as a journalist and living on the West and East coasts of America, giving marriage a try, and feeling frustrated with her career, Galloway was reduced to a shell of a person, finding solace in the company of her two rescue cats. She was was looking for a whole new start, so when the glimmer of a life far away among her possible ancestors came her way it's little surprise that she grabbed it with both hands.

But of course, nothing is easy in life, and after six months her Arctic dream seemed to come crashing down around her ears. As Galloway takes us through the time she lived among the Sámi, this is where her true character begins to shine through. Her struggles with the language and negotiating a culture that was so alien to her own are heartrending at times, but I loved that she found her way, made enduring friendships, and learned a lot about herself at the same time. It is through this tough time that Galloway has discovered how to put her whole life in perspective, even her complex and dysfunctional family, and has ended up in a much better place.

This was such an interesting book, full of the kind of detail you can only get from living among a tight-knit and little understood community, and it really shines a light on the way of life of a traditional people in an engaging way. Galloway's love for the landscape, people, culture and animals of the Tundra shines thorough in these pages. But it is also an honest and emotional tale of a woman that found a way to lay her ghosts to rest. and finally achieved a sense of belonging. so she can now can look to the future with love and hope. 

Dálvi is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Allen and Unwin for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Midas PR for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Laura Galloway is a writer and communications strategist. She began her career at the Los Angeles Times and holds a Master of Arts in Indigenous Journalism from the Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Kautokeino, Norway, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Southern California. An ardent animal lover, she and her partner live with her two reindeer- herding dogs and two cats.

 January 2022 Reading Round-Up

Twelve delicious books to start off 2022, and some of these have already earned a place on my books of the year pile! Please click the links below each picture to get to the relevant review.

The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello by Chris McDonald

Betrayal by David Gilman

The Unravelling by Polly Crosby

Journey to Paradise by Paula Greenlees

Opal Country by Chris Hammer

The Actuality by Paul Braddon

Foolish Heroines by June Wentland

The Shadows We Cast by Sarah Tinsley

The Maid by Nita Prose

Storytellers by Bjorn Larssen

Wahala by Nikki May

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

More great books next month!

If you have enjoyed my photographic efforts, please head to my Instagram page

@brownflopsy for more!

Open by Rachel Krantz

 

Open by Rachel Krantz.

Published 25th October 2021 by Octopus Publishing.

From the cover of the book:

When Rachel Krantz met and fell for Adam, he told her that he was looking for a committed partnership - just one that did not include exclusivity.

Excited but a little trepidatious, Rachel set out to see whether love and a serious relationship can coexist beyond the familiar borders of monogamy. This is her open and honest true story.

Now, in her debut memoir, she chronicles her dive into non-monogamy. With fly-on-the-wall detail and extraordinary perceptiveness, Open takes us inside Brooklyn parties and into the wider swinger and polyamory community. Armed with her journalistic instincts, detailed journal entries and interviews with experts and therapists, Krantz also breaks new ground in confronting the unique ways tacit abuse and gaslighting can manifest when things get so complex.

Unflinching and brazen, Open asks what liberation really looks like and whether the pleasure really is worth the pain.

*****************

When Rachel met Adam, she found herself falling for him hard, and was keen to do everything she could to make him happy, so when she learned that he was looking for a relationship with a committed partner like her, but also wanted to explore the option of non-exclusivity - starting with the possibility of watching her have sex with other men - she gave it some serious thought. Although initially unsure, Rachel was persuaded that this might actually be something worth trying, and she agreed to explore the world of Brooklyn's sex parties with him. Through these parties they becoming intimately involved with the wider swinger and polyamorous community around them.

Open is Rachel's forthright and candid memoir about her experiences on non-monogamous relationships, and it takes you to some uncomfortable places - both figuratively and graphically literally. As a long-married and confirmed monogamist, I was interested to read about a world I know nothing about and I found Krantz's unflinching honesty about the way she was also introduced to a scene that she previously also had no experience of quite fascinating.

Have no doubt that this a memoir that looks frankly at all the 'ins and outs' of the swinging scene, so if this is likely to make you squeamish then this book is not going to be for you. I will admit that I found Krantz's story more than a little disturbing at times - for reasons which I will elaborate on in a moment. But this book is actually a lot more than a string of salacious episodes, which makes it a very interesting read indeed.

What Krantz does here, by writing about the years of her first experiences of non-monogamy, drawing on her intimate encounters and journal entries, is examine a host of themes around open relationships. Obviously much of this looks at exploring sexual freedom and pushing ones boundaries, but for me the most intriguing part is how she delves into the psychology of sexual relationships; the perils that come with polyamory, such as jealousy and lack of trust; whether the freedom a non-monogamous relationship gives is worth it; and curiously, the way porn feeds into stereotypical sexual behaviour - especially for men.

Now we come to the crux of the matter... why this book proved to be rather disturbing for me... It's clear almost from the start that Rachel is entering into a relationship that carries with it a significant dominant/submissive element. Adam is not only dominant, but engages in controlling and abusive behaviour on a staggering scale, and is an expert player in the gaslighting stakes. It takes Rachel a long time to cotton onto this while she is absorbed with her own sexual liberation and I actually found this quite upsetting - although she does end up in a better place at the end.

Although I am not convinced open relationships are quite the solution Krantz believes them to be, because there are too many trade-offs and the potential for abuse is high, I can see why she feels this way based on her own life story, and admire her honesty in writing this memoir. There is no doubt that this is an engaging and thought-provoking read, that sheds light on a sub-culture that largely takes place in the shadows. I've not read anything quite like this before, and it was certainly an eye-opener!

Open is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Octopus Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

When Rachel Krantz met and fell for Adam, he told her that he was looking for a committed partnership - just one that did not include exclusivity.

Excited but a little trepidatious, Rachel set out to see whether love and a serious relationship can coexist beyond the familiar borders of monogamy. This is her open and honest true story.

Now, in her debut memoir, she chronicles her dive into non-monogamy. With fly-on-the-wall detail and extraordinary perceptiveness, Open takes us inside Brooklyn parties and into the wider swinger and polyamory community. Armed with her journalistic instincts, detailed journal entries and interviews with experts and therapists, Krantz also breaks new ground in confronting the unique ways tacit abuse and gaslighting can manifest when things get so complex.

Unflinching and brazen, Open asks what liberation really looks like and whether the pleasure really is worth the pain.

The Man In The Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

 

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 23rd March 2017 by Harper Collins. 

From the cover of the book:

A young woman investigates an accidental death at a London tube station, and finds herself of a ship bound for South Africa…

Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her – and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. 

Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electocuted on the rails.

The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied.

After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: ‘17-122 Kilmorden Castle’?

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This year I am very excited to be taking part in the Official Agatha Christie #ReadChristie2022 challenge, which has started with a stunner of a mystery completely outside out of my cosy Poirot zone - The Man in the Brown Suit, which is a perfect choice for January's prompt of a book 'Inspired by Agatha's travels'.

This is the tale of young Anne Beddingfield, a frustrated heroine, who finds herself caught up in an adventure after witnessing the death of a strange man on the London Underground in 1922. When the police pronounce his death accidental Anne is convinced they are wrong, and she decides to investigate the matter herself.

Armed with a single cryptic clue, Anne finds herself on an ocean liner headed for South Africa and in the company of lots of suspicious characters. Can she bring the guilty to justice?

This is a glorious tale full of intrigue and vivid characters up to no good. It's surprisingly full of humour, especially in the form of Anne's pithy asides, and bold, adventurous storylines, which marks it as quite different from my usual Christie mystery, but it's every bit as complex as I was hoping for with red herrings galore. Interestingly, Colonel Race also pops up in this book who I know from a couple of Poirot mysteries, and I loved the whole shebang!

I alternated reading this one with listening to the excellent audio book narrated by Emilia Fox, whose voice talents had me frequently chuckling away, and I highly recommend it if audio books are your bag.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what February's choice is for a book featuring 'travel and romance'. ❤