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My Week In Books

May 14, 2017 whatcathyreadnext2 Comments

New arrivals

Another busy week for incoming review copies – and I’m a sucker for an Amazon deal….

The Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland (paperback, review copy courtesy of Headline)

Riddle me this: I have a price, but it cannot be paid in gold or silver. 1361. Porlock Weir, Exmoor. Thirteen years after the Great Pestilence, plague strikes England for the second time. Sara, a packhorse man’s wife, remembers the horror all too well and fears for safety of her children. Only a dark-haired stranger offers help, but at a price that no one will pay. Fear gives way to hysteria in the village and, when the sickness spreads to her family, Sara finds herself locked away by neighbours she has trusted for years. And, as her husband – and then others – begin to die, the cost no longer seems so unthinkable. The price that I ask, from one willing to pay. A human life.

Did You Whisper Back? by Kate Rigby (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author & Neverland Book Tours)

Set in the nineteen-seventies, Did You Whisper Back? begins with Amanda Court’s longing to be reunited with her estranged twin sister Jo. Following a false lead, Amanda leaves her Merseyside home and family and goes to Devon to work as a chambermaid where she believes Jo now lives. Gradually it emerges that Jo is, seemingly, just a figment of Amanda’s imagination arising from distorted childhood truths. Did You Whisper Back? is a psychological novel about family secrets and a disturbing portrayal of the fragility of the mind.

Perfect Remains by Helen Field (ebook, free)

On a remote Highland mountain, the body of Elaine Buxton is burning. All that will be left to identify the respected lawyer are her teeth and a fragment of clothing. In the concealed back room of a house in Edinburgh, the real Elaine Buxton screams into the darkness. Detective Inspector Luc Callanach has barely set foot in his new office when Elaine’s missing persons case is escalated to a murder investigation. Having left behind a promising career at Interpol, he’s eager to prove himself to his new team. But Edinburgh, he discovers, is a long way from Lyon, and Elaine’s killer has covered his tracks with meticulous care. It’s not long before another successful woman is abducted from her doorstep, and Callanach finds himself in a race against the clock. Or so he believes… The real fate of the women will prove more twisted than he could have ever imagined.

The King’s Jew, Book One by Darius Stransky (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Midnight, Westminster Abbey, Friday, October 27, 1307. Lord Cristian Gilleson keeps a lonely vigil at the tomb of King Edward the First. Death stalks the Abbey as King Edward II, Piers Gaveston and their supporters seek to destroy Cristian before the funeral rites begin. A long night of danger awaits and many will not live to see the dawn. Plot and counterplot in the dark streets of medieval London as Gilleson (known to his enemies as “The King’s Jew”) reflects on a turbulent life with his king. His enemies are many and supporters few yet he will keep his promise to the greatest of England’s monarchs or die in the attempt. Death holds no fears for a man who has walked in the company of kings.

We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (ebook, 99p)

The Mulvaneys are seemingly blessed by everything that makes life sweet. They live together in the picture-perfect High Point Farm, just outside the community of Mt Ephraim, New York, where they are respected and liked by everybody. Yet something happens on Valentine’s Day 1976. An incident involving Marianne Mulvaney, the pretty sixteen-year-old daughter, is hushed up in the town and never discussed within the family. The impact of this event reverberates throughout the lives of the characters. As told by Judd, years later, in an attempt to make sense of his own past reveals the unspoken truths of that night that rends the fabric of the family life with tragic consequences. In ‘We Were the Mulvaneys’, Joyce Carol Oates, the highly acclaimed author of ‘Blonde’, masterfully weaves an unforgettable story of the rise, fall and ultimate redemption of an American family.

Catherine Dickens: Outside the Magic Circle by Heera Datta (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Catherine was Charles Dickens’ wife whom he separated from after twenty-two years of marriage and ten children. Enamoured of a young actress, Charles scripted a fiction about his marriage in which he was the long suffering husband to a woman who was unfit to be wife and mother. He spread this story through his powerful editor friends. Catherine did not, could not, fight him. Even the law gave custody of minor children to fathers, and all her children, except one, were minor. She retreated into dignified silence which seems baffling today. But the strength of her agony is exhibited in her words to her daughter, to whom she gave letters written to her by Charles, and told her to give them to the British Museum, “so that the world may know he loved me once.” Outside the Magic Circle is the story of Catherine and the repressive times she lived in.

The Other Twin by L V Hay (ebook, advance reader copy courtesy of Orenda Books)

When India falls to her death from a bridge over a railway, her sister, Poppy, returns home to Brighton for the first time in years. Unconvinced by official explanations, Poppy begins her own investigation into India’s death. But the deeper she digs, the closer she comes to uncovering deeply buried secrets. Could Matthew Temple, the boyfriend she abandoned, be involved? And what of his powerful and wealthy parents, and his twin sister, Ana? Enter the mysterious and ethereal Jenny: the girl Poppy discovers after hacking into India’s laptop. What is exactly is she hiding, and what did India find out about her? Taking the reader on a breathless ride through the winding lanes of Brighton, into its vibrant party scene and inside the homes of its well- heeled families, The Other Twin is a startling and up-to-the-minute thriller about the social-media world, where resentments and accusations are played out online, where identities are made and remade, and where there is no such thing as truth …

Wolves in the Dark by Gunner Staalesen (ebook, advance reader copy courtesy of Orenda Books)

Reeling from the death of his great love, Karin, Varg Veum’s life has descended into a self-destructive spiral of alcohol, lust, grief and blackouts. When traces of child pornography are found on his computer, he’s accused of being part of a paedophile ring and thrown into a prison cell. There, he struggles to sift through his past to work out who is responsible for planting the material . . . and who is seeking the ultimate revenge. When a chance to escape presents itself, Varg finds himself on the run in his hometown of Bergen. With the clock ticking and the police on his tail, Varg takes on his hardest—and most personal—case yet.

The Illegal Gardener by Sara Alexi (ebook, free)

Driven by a need for some control in her life, Juliet sells up on impulse and buys a rundown farmhouse in a tiny Greek village, leaving her English life behind. Her boys have grown and she has finally divorced her bullying husband. This is her time now. Whilst making her new home habitable, Juliet discovers she needs a sturdy helping hand with the unruly and neglected garden. Unwilling to share her newfound independence with anyone, but unable to do all the work by herself, she reluctantly enlists casual labour. Aaman has travelled to Greece from Pakistan illegally. Desperate to find a way out of poverty, his challenge is to find work and raise money for the harvester his village urgently need to survive. In what begins as an uncomfortable exchange, Juliet hires Aaman to be her gardener, but resents the intrusion even though she needs the help. Aaman needs the work and money but resents the humiliation. In spite of themselves, as the summer progresses, they get to know one another and discover they have something in common. Pieces of their lives they have kept hidden even from themselves are exposed, with each helping the other to face their painful past. Will Juliet and Amaan finally let each other in? And what will be the outcome of this improbable conjoining of two lost souls?

The Last Train by Michael Pronko (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Detective Hiroshi Shimizu investigates white collar crime in Tokyo. He’s lost his girlfriend and still dreams of his time studying in America, but with a stable job, his own office and a half-empty apartment, he’s settled in. When an American businessman turns up dead, his mentor Takamatsu calls him out to the site of a grisly murder. A glimpse from a security camera video suggests the killer was a woman, but in Japan, that seems unlikely. To find her, Hiroshi goes deeper and deeper into Tokyo’s intricate, ominous market for buying and selling the most expensive land in the world. When Takamatsu inexplicably disappears, Hiroshi teams up with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi. They scour Tokyo’s sacred temples, corporate offices and industrial wastelands to find out where Takamatsu went, and why one woman would be driven to murder when she seems to have it all. Hiroshi’s determined to cut through Japan’s ambiguities—and dangers—to find the murdering ex-hostess before she extracts her final revenge—which just might be him.

The Former Chief Executive by Kate Vane (ebook, advance reader copy courtesy of the author)

Without your past, who are you? Deborah was a respected hospital manager until a tragedy destroyed her reputation. She has lost her career, her husband and even her name. Luca wants to stay in the moment. For the first time in his life he has hope and a home. But a fresh start is hard on a zero-hours contract, harder if old voices fill your mind. When a garden share scheme brings them together, Deborah is beguiled by Luca’s youth and grace. He makes her husband’s garden live again. He helps her when she’s at her lowest. But can she trust him? And when the time comes to confront her past, can she find the strength?

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Book Reviews

On Monday I published my review of The King’s Jew: In the Shadow of the King by Darius Stransky, the second book in a planned four part series. Thursday saw the publication of my review of The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain, one of the novels shortlisted for this year’s Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The following day I reviewed A Tapestry of Tears, a collection of Indian short stories by Gita Reddy. Appropriately enough, Sunday say my review of Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift, another of the novels shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Other posts

On Tuesday I took part in a book blitz for Breaker and the Sun by Lauren Nicolle Taylor. The following day my guest on What Cathy Read Next was Timothy Ashby, author of In Shadowland. Timothy kindly answered some questions about his book, its inspiration and his approach to writing. On Saturday I hosted the blog tour stop for Last Witness by Carys Jones. Carys wrote a really interesting guest post on creating characters.

Challenge updates

Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 57 out of 78 books read (3 more than last week)
Classics Club – 2 out of 50 books reviewed (same as last week)
NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2017 (Gold) – 31 ARCs reviewed out of 50 (same as last week)
From Page to Screen – 6 book/film comparisons completed (same as last week)
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist 2017 – 3 out of 7 read (same as last week)

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

Review: The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh
Blog Tour/Review: Crimson & Bone by Marina Fiorato
Review: Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy

Reviews to be added to NetGalley

Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy

How was your Week In Books? Prize-winning literary sensation or charity shop donation?

My Week in Books

May 7, 2017May 7, 2017 whatcathyreadnext9 Comments

New arrivals

A restrained week for purchases but a busy week for incoming review copies…….

Deposed by David Barbaree (hardback, review copy courtesy of Bonnier Zaffre)

In a darkened cell, a brutally deposed dictator lies crippled – deprived of his power, his freedom – and his eyes. On the edge of utter despair, his only companion is the young boy who brings him his meagre rations, a mere child who fears his own shadow. But to one who has held and lost the highest power, one thing alone is crystal clear: even emperors were mere children once. Ten years later, the new ruler’s son watches uneasily over his father’s empire. Wherever he looks rebellion is festering, and those closest to him have turned traitor once before. To this city in crisis comes a hugely wealthy senator from the very edge of the empire, a young and angry ward at his heels. He is witty but inscrutable, generous with his time and money to a leader in desperate need of a friend – and he wears a bandage over his blinded eyes. The fallen emperor’s name is Nero. But this isn’t his story.

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (paperback, Goodreads giveaway prize)

Written in tandem with My Name Is Lucy Barton and drawing on the small-town characters evoked there, these pages reverberate with the themes of love, loss, and hope that have drawn millions of readers to Strout’s work. Here, among others, are the “Pretty Nicely Girls,” now adults: one trades self-respect for a wealthy husband, the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. Tommy, the janitor at the local high school, has his faith tested in an encounter with an emotionally isolated man he has come to help; a Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD discovers unexpected solace in the company of a lonely innkeeper; and Lucy Barton’s sister, Vicky, struggling with feelings of abandonment and jealousy, nonetheless comes to Lucy’s aid, ratifying the deepest bonds of family.

Crimson & Bone by Marina Fiorato (proof copy courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton)

Annie Stride is a beautiful, flame-haired young woman from the East End of London. She is also a whore. On a bleak January night Annie stands on Waterloo Bridge, watching the icy waters of the Thames writhe beneath her as she contemplates throwing herself in. At the last minute she’s rescued by a handsome young man. Her saviour, Francis Maybrick Gill, is a talented artist. He takes Annie as his muse, painting her again and again and transforming her from a fallen woman into society’s darling, taking her far away from her old life. But there is darkness underpinning Annie’s lavish new lifestyle. In London and in Florence, prostitutes are being murdered. There’s someone out there who knows who Annie really is – and they won’t let her forget where she came from…

The Good Father by Simon Wilsher (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

In 1994, nine year old Effie and her twelve year old brother Ajan, endure the horrors of life in the besieged city of Sarajevo after the loss of their parents. Desperate to help preserve their city, Ajan becomes involved with a criminal gang among the makeshift defenders. When Effie is forced to flee alone, she must survive long enough to reach those outside of the city who have come to help. But the influence of those pursuing her is such that not even the soldiers of the UN might be able to save her. Any hope of a future for Effie eventually lies with only one man, Captain Nathan Lane. It is 2017, and an attempt is made on the life of Foreign Secretary, Caroline Hardy. As the Security Services hunt for her attacker, the reality she is only a bit part player in the affair doesn’t occur to anyone. Not until her daughter, Mia goes missing and is implicated in the disappearance of a well-connected lawyer. As the focus switches to Mia, a secret that Caroline has kept hidden for a long time threatens them both, until there becomes only one place she can turn, to the man who shares her secret.

Death at Glacier Lake by Pam Stucky (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

For two decades, the lush, isolated forests of the North Cascades have hidden a secret. Now, twenty years later, a mysterious contest has brought Mindy Harris back to the area she thought she’d left behind forever. A seemingly innocent creative design firm shows up for a company retreat, but all goes awry when one of their own turns up dead. Was it an accident? Murder? And how does the unsolved mystery from twenty years ago play into it all? What are the limits of a human heart? How far will a person go for the ones they love?

The Angolan Clan by Christopher Lowery (ebook, review copy courtesy of Urbane)

1974/5: After the Revolution of the Carnations, Portugal is transformed into a communist state. Capitalists are ruthlessly persecuted and the liberated Portuguese colony of Angola is thrust into one of the bloodiest civil wars in history. The fabled Angolan diamond mines are closed down, but not before a group of refugees escape with a hoard of the precious gems. Their lives promise wealth and success, but a legacy of revenge and greed will eventually find them all, with fatal consequences..

2008: A millionaire businessman drowns in the swimming pool of his mansion in Marbella; a wealthy Frenchman is killed while skiing in the Swiss Alps; and a Portuguese playboy and a prostitute are found murdered together in a seedy New York apartment. The series of seemingly unconnected deaths sets two women Jenny Bishop, a young English widow, and Angolan born Leticia da Costa on a terrifying journey into the past to revisit the Portuguese revolution and the Angolan civil war. Together they begin to unlock a 30 year old mystery that promises to change their lives forever if they survive to reveal the truth. The Angolan Clan takes the reader on a heart-stopping roller coaster ride, from past to present and back again. It is a deadly intercontinental treasure hunt laced with secrets, deceit and murder. The prize is a fortune in Angolan diamonds…or death at the hands of a pathological killer.

And the Birds Kept on Singing by Simon Bourke (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Pregnant at seventeen, Sinéad McLoughlin does the only thing she can; she runs away from home. She will go to England and put her child up for adoption. But when she lays eyes on it for the first time, lays eyes on him, she knows she can never let him go. Just one problem. He’s already been promised to someone else. A tale of love and loss, remorse and redemption, And the Birds Kept on Singing tells two stories, both about the same boy. In one Sinéad keeps her son and returns home to her parents, to nineteen-eighties Ireland and life as a single mother. In the other she gives him away, to the Philliskirks, Malcolm and Margaret, knowing that they can give him the kind of life she never could. As her son progresses through childhood and becomes a young man, Sinéad is forced to face the consequences of her decision. Did she do the right thing? Should she have kept him, or given him away? And will she spend the rest of her life regretting the choices she has made?

Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy (ARC, NetGalley)

AD 98: The bustling army base at Vindolanda lies on the northern frontier of Britannia and the entire Roman world. In twenty years’ time, the Emperor Hadrian will build his famous wall, but for now defences are weak, as tribes rebel against Roman rule, and local druids preach the fiery destruction of the invaders. Flavius Ferox is a Briton and a Roman centurion, given the task of keeping the peace on this wild frontier. But it will take more than just courage to survive life in Roman Britain…

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford (ARC, NetGalley)

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat pitches up at a counting-house door in Golden Hill Street: this is Mr Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion simmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge amount, and he won’t explain why, or where he comes from, or what he can be planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him; maybe even kill him?

The Other Mrs Walker by Mary Paulson-Ellis (ebook, £1.19)

Somehow she’d always known that she would end like this. In a small square room, in a small square flat. In a small square box, perhaps. Cardboard, with a sticker on the outside. And a name… An old lady dies alone and unheeded in a cold Edinburgh flat, on a snowy Christmas night. A faded emerald dress hangs in her wardrobe; a spilt glass of whisky pools on the carpet. A few days later a middle-aged woman arrives back to the city of her birth, her future uncertain, her past in tatters. But what Margaret Penny cannot yet know is that in investigating the death of one friendless old lady, her own life will become enriched beyond measure. The Other Mrs Walker – a detective story with no detective – is a beautiful, beguiling and intensely moving debut.

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Book Reviews

On Wednesday I published my review of These Dividing Walls by Fran Cooper, a 5* read for me that got a lot of interest. The following day saw the publication of my review of Anne Boleyn: The King’s Obsession, the latest in Alison Weir’s historical fiction series on the wives of Henry VIII. On Friday I reviewed a YA dystopian novel, The X-Variant by Rosemary Cole. It’s the first in a planned series.

Other posts

Monday and Tuesday saw book blitzes for The Devil’s Whisper by T. H. Moore and Streets of Glass by Michelle D. Argyle. Later in the week I posted my monthly update, including my book of the month, Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift. A review of this will appear next week. Finally, on Saturday I took part in the blog tour for Deposed by David Barbaree by featuring a guest post from David on his approach to research for this historical thriller set in ancient Rome.

Challenge updates

Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge – 54 out of 78 books read (3 more than last week)
Classics Club – 2 out of 50 books reviewed (same as last week)
NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2017 – 31 ARCs reviewed out of 50 (Gold)
From Page to Screen – 6 book/film comparisons completed (same as last week)
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist 2017 – 3 out of 7 read (same as last week)