Category: ARC August

Blog Tour/Book Review/Guest Post: Smart Moves by Adrian Magson

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Smart Moves Blog Tour

My grateful thanks to Emily at The Dome Press for my advance review copy and for inviting me to join the blog tour to celebrate the publication of Adrian Magson’s latest book, Smart Moves.  I have a two-for-one deal for you today – a guest post from Adrian all about why he decided to write a standalone book, and my review of Smart Moves.

If you want to make your own ‘smart move’ – and why wouldn’t you? – you can find purchase links below.

Smart MovesAbout the Book

International troubleshooter Jake Foreman loses his job, house and wife all in one day. And when an impulsive move lands him in even deeper water – the kind that could lose him his life – he decides it’s time to make some smart decisions.

The trouble is, knowing the right moves and making them is a whole different game. And Jake, who has been happily rubbing along things he always suspected were just a shade away from being dodgy, finds it all too easy to go with the flow.

Now he’s got to start learning new tricks. If he doesn’t, he could end up dead.

Format: Paperback, ebook (288 pp.)    Publisher: The Dome Press
Published: 16th August 2018         Genre: Thriller, adventure, crime

Purchase Links*
Publisher (buy direct for 30% off & free postage) | Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Smart Moves on Goodreads

Guest Post by Adrian Magson: Why A Standalone?

After 22 books and being asked, ‘Is this a series?’, I finally got the urge to say, ‘No – it’s a standalone. And it’s going to be light-hearted.’

At the time I had five series behind me, with lead characters like Riley Gavin, a tough female crime reporter; Harry Tate, a former MI5 officer; Marc Portman, a spy’s best friend in tight situations; Ruth Gonzales, a private security company investigator; and Inspector Lucas Rocco, a French detective in 1960s rural Picardie. Every one serious in tone, albeit with hints of humour here and there. But light-hearted? No.

Was I biting off more than I could chew?

Writing a series was what I liked doing; after each book I could switch to one of the other series or write the next in line. It was familiar writing territory. It didn’t necessarily make the physical task any easier, but I knew what I was dealing with. All I had to do was switch character hats.

But a standalone?  Write a story where there wasn’t going to be a sequel? Moreover, could I write one which was more humorous than my other books?

What the heck, of course I could. It’s what I do. And Smart Moves was what I had in mind.

Most of my main characters are in tough professions – fighting crime or in the spying game – where knowing what they’re doing is essential for survival. Cops and reporters have to tread a fine path between good and bad, while spies and their helpers can’t relax for a moment because there’s always someone watching, and danger is never far away.

But how about a character who wasn’t so controlled, whose job as an international corporate trouble-shooter, rather than the gun-carrying kind, had allowed things to slip out of his grasp, until he suddenly had nothing – no wife, no house, no job… and not much of a glimmer about how it had happened?

Jake Foreman isn’t inept or uncaring; he’s just become so focussed on work that essential things like life, love and smelling the coffee have eased into the background, leaving him adrift.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing Jake’s story. No need to think about a follow-on; tying up ends loosely or otherwise; and having a laugh along the way, instead of keeping it serious.

I hope readers like the change. If they do, who knows, I might try another one someday.
© Adrian Magson

My Review

The title of the book, Smart Moves, is ironic, intentionally so, as initially Jake seems to make nothing but unsmart moves that put him in the bad books of some pretty nasty characters.  His self-confessed ‘three wise monkeys’ approach of asking no questions has, up until now, seen him successfully through a career as a troubleshooter in some distinctly unsavoury situations.  But is it quite so wise in the position in which he finds himself now?

When he finds himself thrown out of his house by his wife, he turns to brother, Marcus, and old friend, Hugo.  Unfortunately, their best-intentioned advice and introductions only land Jake in more hot water.  And soon it’s getting hotter by the minute.    Luckily, he finally encounters someone made of ‘sterner stuff’, someone able – and willing – to help him out.  Together, it turns out they might make a great partnership.

Smart Moves is a lot of fun, largely because Jake is a thoroughly likeable and engaging character with a nice line in self-deprecating humour.  In fact, sardonic humour is a key feature of the book.  A couple of my favourites:

[Jake, encountering his nosy neighbour, Mrs Tree, outside his now empty house] ‘Seeing her reminded me of driving across a patch of the Namib desert and spotting vultures circling over the remains of a dead zebra.  I knew how the zebra must have felt.’

[Jake, on his wife, Susan] ‘One thing I’d learned very early in our relationship was that Susan didn’t do rough. Her idea of an adventure holiday was having to switch on the air con herself.’

The author is clearly a skilled writer because he keeps the story moving along nicely, increasing the pace in the final third of the book to keep the reader turning the pages. He also has a deft touch when it comes to great opening and closing lines of chapters.

Smart Moves has all the characteristics of a great crime caper movie: likeable hero, witty dialogue, well-paced story, a few narrow escapes from the bad guys, a bit of fisticuffs and the occasional romantic encounter for our leading man.   I thoroughly enjoyed it. Given the ending of the book and, despite the declarations to the contrary by Adrian in his guest post above, he has cleverly left things sufficiently open so there could be another outing for Jake Foreman if he so desired…  I think there may be many readers of Smart Moves who will positively demand it.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, The Dome Press, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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Adrian MagsonAbout the Author

Adrian Magson – ‘a classic crime star in the making’ (Daily Mail) – is the author of 22 crime and spy thrillers, a ghost novel and Write On! – a writers’ help book. His latest novels are Rocco and the Nightingale (Oct 2017), the fifth in the Inspector Lucas Rocco series set in 1960s France, and Smart Moves (Aug 2018), a standalone novel. Both are published by The Dome Press. When not writing books, he’s a reviewer for Shots Magazine and writes the ‘Beginners’ and ‘New Author’ pages for Writing Magazine (UK).

Adrian lives in the Forest of Dean and rumours that he is building a nuclear bunker are unfounded. It’s a bird’s table.

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Book Review: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

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The Silence of the GirlsAbout the Book

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war comes a reimagining of the most famous conflict in literature – the legendary Trojan War.

When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis’s old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she’s not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.

The Trojan War is known as a man’s story: a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?

In this magnificent historical novel, Pat Barker charts one woman’s journey through the chaos of the most famous war in history, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.

Format: Hardcover, ebook (336 pp.)    Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
Published: 30th August 2018         Genre: Historical Fiction

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Silence of the Girls on Goodreads

My Review

In The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker sets out to give voice to the women ‘silenced’ in previous versions of the story of the Trojan War.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure she entirely succeeds.  It all starts promisingly as the reader experiences the fall of Lyrnessus to the Greek army, commanded by Agamemnon, through the eyes of Briseis, wife of King Mynes.  The horror of the battle, the dreadful consequences of defeat for the female inhabitants of the city in particular and the aftermath of the battle are evocatively described.

After the fall of the city, Briseis and noble women like her are ‘awarded’ to leading figures in the Greek army in the manner of battle honours or prizes of war.  Because of her status, youth and beauty, Briseis is allocated to the legendary warrior, Achilles, becoming his slave and, effectively, his possession.   Briseis wryly notes that in some cases individual women’s lives are changed for the better following their capture if, that is, they possess youth, beauty and fertility.  ‘One girl, who’d been a slave in Lyrnessus – and a kitchen slave at that, the lowest of the low – was now the concubine of a great lord, while her mistress, a plain, slack-bellied woman near the end of her childbearing years, had to scratch and scrape for food around the fires.’

Surprised and unaccustomed to being on public view and unveiled when serving at Achilles’ table, Briseis eventually realises why he is happy for her to be seen by his comrades. ‘Nobody wins a trophy and hides it at the back of a cupboard. You want it where it can be seen, so that other men will envy you.’  The use of the word ‘it’ is relevant as, throughout the book, the author sheds light on the way the women are treated as objects.

For example, when Agamemnon later demands Briseis be handed over to him, Achilles’ anger is at being deprived of what he believes is rightfully his. ‘She’s his prize, that’s all, his prize of honour, no more, no less.  It’s nothing to do with the actual girl.’  His response to this perceived dishonour will have far-reaching and tragic consequences.  Later Briseis observes, ‘Men carve meaning into women’s faces; messages addressed to other men’. For example, messages that demonstrate their status or their ability to wield power over others.

In parts two and three of the book, however, Briseis’ first hand narrative is interspersed with sections from the point of view of Achilles.  Given his pivotal role in subsequent events and his strange heritage (his father, Peleus, is a mortal but his mother is a sea goddess), I found the power of his unfolding story rather took over the book, especially when it comes to the intense relationship between Achilles and his friend, Patroclus.  Effectively, I felt Briseis was being silenced again.  This was underlined for me when Briseis notes, ‘Once, not so long ago, I tried to walk out of Achilles’ story – and failed. Now, my own story can begin.’  These are the last lines of the book.

The book does assume the reader has some prior knowledge of the story of The Trojan War and its key characters.  I had a little but not enough to recognise all the characters, their relationships or their role in the story.  I think a dramatis personae would be a really helpful addition to the book.   I wanted to love The Silence of the Girls and feel thrilled from beginning to end at witnessing the story of the clever, resourceful and resilient Briseis through her eyes and those of other women.  Instead I found that, although I could admire the skilful writing, I felt slightly disappointed at the end, that my high expectations had not been met.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Hamish Hamilton, and NetGalley, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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Pat BarkerAbout the Author

Pat Barker was born in Yorkshire and began her literary career in her forties, when she took a short writing course taught by Angela Carter. Encouraged by Carter to continue writing and exploring the lives of working class women, she sent her fiction out to publishers. Thirty-five years later, she has published fifteen novels, including her masterful Regeneration Trilogy, been made a CBE for services to literature, and won awards including the Guardian Fiction Prize and the UK’s highest literary honour, the Booker Prize. She lives in Durham and her new novel, The Silence of the Girls, will be published by Hamish Hamilton in August 2018.

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