Tag: 20 Books of Summer

Book Review – Deception by Alan Parks @johnmurrays @AlanJParks #20BOS26

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About the Book

New York, December 1941. Joseph Gunner, former soldier, is off the front lines and on the streets of New York, tasked with helping tip America into the Second World War.

Working for a section of the British Secret Service, Gunner spends his days covertly encouraging pro-war sentiment through planted news stories, radio broadcasts and even blackmail.

But when a honeytrap mission with a prominent US politician goes wrong and the young woman involved is found dead, Gunner realises he has a target on his back. Who silenced her? Who knew their plan? And who has betrayed Gunner?

As he investigates, Gunner is plunged into the secretive world of Nazis in America, the NYPD and the mobs of New York, as the body count quickly stacks up. With world events accelerating, Gunner finds himself in a race against time before he becomes the next victim. Soon, he’ll uncover a conspiracy that goes beyond what he thought was possible.

Format: Hardcover (352 pages) Publisher: John Murray Press
Publication date: 2nd July 2026 Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller

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My Review

Alan Parks is a new-to-me author who I discovered when I happened to see Deception on NetGalley. As an avid reader of historical fiction, the fact it’s set in New York during WW2 really appealed to me. Parks is the author of the Harry McCoy series set in 1970s Glasgow and Deception is the second in a new series featuring former Glasgow detective Joseph Gunner, the first being Gunner which is now on my wishlist.

Wounded whilst serving on the front line in France and often needing to resort to morphine to keep pain at bay, Gunner has found himself in New York engaged in covert work aimed at bringing the United States into the war. Propaganda, false flag operations, whatever it takes. While his boss Nickerson wines and dines influential American figures, Gunner is involved in less salubrious activities designed to counteract pro-German sentiment, a surprising amount of which exists in certain areas of New York, as he discovers.

When several people who worked alongside Gunner in a ‘honeytrap’ operation die in suspicious circumstances, he’s determined to discover the people behind it but finds not everyone is so enthusiastic. His investigation brings him up against some shady and exceptionally ruthless individuals. However, he also finds allies. But is everyone exactly who they profess to be? And do we ever really know what someone is capable of?

I really enjoyed getting to know Gunner. He may be a streetwise Glaswegian but he’s a fish out of water in New York. He never really gets his head around the subway and is introduced to food he’s never heard of or tasted before like salami and spaghetti (yes, really). And the bright lights of New York are a contrast with the dark streets of Glasgow under the nightly blackouts.

There’s an interesting moral ambiguity about events in the book. For example, how do you weigh up the loss of hundreds of lives caused by a pro-German atrocity in the heart of New York against the millions of lives that might be saved if such an act shifts sentiment towards the United States joining the war? Those who know their history will be aware of the significance of the book being set in December 1941.

Deception is an enthralling, fast-paced historical thriller with moments of high drama and walk-on parts for real life figures. I’m hoping there will be more to come in the series.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of John Murray Press via NetGalley. Deception is book 4 of my 20 Books of Summer.

In three words: Gripping, suspenseful, atmospheric
Try something similar: Nemesis by Rory Clements

About the Author

Alan Parks worked in the music industry for over twenty years before turning to crime writing.

His debut Bloody January was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, February’s Son was nominated for an Edgar Award, Bobby March Will Live Forever won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, the Prix Mystère de la critique in the foreign fiction category, and was shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel and The April Dead was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. The fifth Harry McCoy book, May God Forgive, was published in April 2022 and won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2022. It was also shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and longlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The Harry McCoy series is optioned for television.

Alan was born in Scotland and attended The University of Glasgow where he was awarded a M.A. in Moral Philosophy. He still lives and works in the city as well as spending time in London. (Photo/bio: Agent website)

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Book Review – A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie #ccpin #20BOS26

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About the Book

Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his “counting house” when he suffered an agonizing and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals.

Yet, it was the incident in the parlour that confirmed Miss Marple’s suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme….

Format: Hardback (191 pages) Publisher: Collins
Publication date: 1954 Genre: Crime

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My Review

A Pocket Full of Rye was the book chosen for me in the latest Classics Club spin.

As I was reading the book I realised that most of my knowledge of Agatha Christie novels comes from watching TV adaptations. I vaguely remembered some elements of A Pocket Full of Rye but luckily not enough that I was able to work out the culprit, the motive or the way the crime was carried out.

Assigned to investigate the sudden death of businessman Rex Fortescue, Inspector Neele of Scotland Yard soon discovers it was not due to natural causes. But how the crime was carried out eludes him although there is no lack of possible suspects who might have possessed a motive. Fortescue was a rich man but not particularly liked even by members of his own family. Estranged for many years from one of his sons, he had recently remarried a much younger woman. Perhaps the motive was money or, as his elderly sister-in-law hints, perhaps the answers lies with events much longer ago. What really puzzles the Inspector is a curious feature of the crime: that there was rye in the dead man’s pocket.

I don’t think it’s giving too much away when I say there are more crimes to come, just as inexplicable as the first one. The prime suspect, the person who might have benefited most, couldn’t possibly have done it. Or could they?

Miss Marple doesn’t come on the scene for a while but when she does her talent for observation, insight into what makes people tick and ability to coax information from people without them noticing is of immense help to Inspector Neele who, by this point, is rather floundering. He’s interviewed lots of people, gathered what evidence he can, checked backgrounds, established a timeline but still there’s something not quite right. He can’t put his finger on it. Perhaps after all, they’ve got everything the wrong way around.

At one point, a character remarks, ‘The whole thing seems so wildly improbable. Like a detective story.’ But of course that’s the point. The story is improbable but it’s hugely entertaining trying to get anywhere near the right solution. As Christie’s other famous detective would say, it gets the little grey cells working. However in my case it was to limited effect. I think I probably suspected every character of being the culprit at some stage proving the author’s genius for misdirection and red herrings.

Of course, a theory – even one of Miss Marple’s – is just a theory until there’s proof to back it up, which is why the ending is so brilliant.

A Pocket Full of Rye is book 3 of my 20 Books of Summer 2026. I alternated between my lovely secondhand copy and the audiobook superbly narrated by Richard E. Grant.

In three words: Ingenious, entertaining, classic
Try something similar: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

About the Author

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction”, Christie has been called the “Queen of Crime”. She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

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