Tag: books

My Week in Books – 30th April 2023

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MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

The MonkTuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Favourite Audiobook Narrators.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Friday – I shared my review of crime thriller, The Monk by Tim Sullivan. 

New arrivals

Quite an influx this week as a result of a trip to Winchester for Winchester Books Festival and some NetGalley approvals.

In MemoriamIn Memoriam by Alice Winn (Viking)

It’s 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they’re too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle – an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood – not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt’s German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood.

The front is horrific, of course, and though Gaunt tries to dissuade Ellwood from joining him on the battlefield, Ellwood soon rushes to join him, spurred on by his love of Greek heroes and romantic poetry. Before long, their classmates have followed suit. Once in the trenches, Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, but their friends are all dying, right in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.

The Memory of AnimalsThe Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller (Fig Tree)

Neffy is a young woman running away from grief and guilt and the one big mistake that has derailed her career. When she answers the call to volunteer in a controlled vaccine trial, it offers her a way to pay off her many debts and, perhaps, to make up for the past.

But when the London streets below her window fall silent, and all external communications cease, only Neffy and four other volunteers remain in the unit. With food running out, and a growing sense that the strangers she is with may be holding back secrets, Neffy has questions that no-one can answer. Does safety lie inside or beyond the unit? And who, or what is out there?

While she weighs up her choices, she is introduced to a pioneering and controversial technology which allows her to revisit memories from her life before: a childhood divided between her enigmatic mother and her father in his small hotel in Greece. Intoxicated by the freedom of the past and the chance to reunite with those she loves, she increasingly turns away from her perilous present. But in this new world where survival rests on the bonds between strangers, is she jeopardising any chance of a future?

The Sun Walks DownThe Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane (Sceptre)

In September 1883, a small town in the South Australian outback huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. Six-year-old Denny Wallace has gone missing during a dust storm, and the entire community is caught up in the search for him.

As they scour the desert and mountains for the lost child, the residents of Fairly – newlyweds, landowners, farmers, mothers, artists, Indigenous trackers, cameleers, children, schoolteachers, widows, maids, policemen – confront their relationships with each other and with the ancient landscape they inhabit.

Girl FriendsGirl Friends by Alex Dahl (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

Rules for the girls’ trip:
1) No kids
2) Out-of-office on
3) Keep the drinks flowing
4) DON’T TELL ANYONE WHAT WE’VE DONE

When Charlotte and Bianka meet, they quickly become inseparable. Wanting to bring fresh energy into her life, Charlotte invites Bianka on her annual girl’s trip to Ibiza with her childhood friends. They arrive wanting to break the routine, to escape the monotony of everyday life. To drink too much, to flirt with strangers, to live life dangerously. To take things too far.

No one could have planned for just how far these women were willing to go… Or how spectacularly this trip will ricochet through their lives back home. They say that what happens in Ibiza, stays in Ibiza – if only that were the case…

Banyan MoonBanyan Moon by Thao Thai (eARC, Quercus via NetGalley)

When Ann Tran gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. Ann has built a seemingly perfect life. She lives in a beautiful lake house and has a charming professor boyfriend, but it all crumbles away with one positive pregnancy test.

With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Hu’o’ng. Under the same roof for the first time in years, mother and daughter must face the simmering questions of their past, while trying to rebuild their relationship without the one person who’s always held them together.

Running parallel to this is Minh’s story, as she goes from a lovestruck teenager living in the shadow of the Vietnam War to a determined young mother immigrating to America in search of a better life. And when Ann makes a shocking discovery in the Banyan House’s attic, long-buried secrets come to light as it becomes clear how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life and her family.

The Bookbinder of JerichoThe Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams (ARC, Vintage)

What is lost when knowledge is withheld?

In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of going to Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her.

When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters’ lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.

The Ghost ShipThe Ghost Ship (The Burning Chambers #3) by Kate Mosse (eARC, Mantle via NetGalley)

Piracy. Romance. Revenge. Across the seas of the seventeenth century, two seafarers are forced to fight for their lives

The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water. It is known only as the Ghost Ship. For months it has hunted pirates to liberate those enslaved by corsairs, manned by a courageous crew of mariners from Italy and France, Holland and the Canary Islands.

But the bravest men on board are not who they seem. And the stakes could not be higher. If arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes. Can they survive the journey and escape their fate?

A sweeping and epic love story, ranging from France in 1610 to Amsterdam and the Canary Islands in the 1620s, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling novel of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes and hidden secrets on the high seas.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry 
  • #TopTenTuesday – The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf 
  • Book Review: The Letter Reader by Jan Casey
  • My Five Favourite April 2023 Reads
  • #6Degrees of Separation

#BookReview #Ad The Monk by Tim Sullivan

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The MonkAbout the Book

To find a murderer, you need a motive . . .

THE DETECTIVE
DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he’s used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality.

THE QUESTION
The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic’s past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don’t know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

THE PAST
Discovering who Brother Dominic once was only makes the picture more puzzling. He was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, son – he had no enemies. Or, at least, none that are obvious. But looking into his past reveals that he was a very wealthy man, that he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin after all…

Format: Hardback (384 pages)      Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 27th April 2023 Genre: Crime

Find The Monk on Goodreads

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My Review

The Monk is the fifth book in the author’s series featuring DS George Cross of Avon and Somerset Police. I haven’t read any of the earlier books in the series but the fact I really enjoyed it means it can definitely be read as a standalone. Having said that, I think it would be great to read the series from the beginning to witness the development of Cross’s character and his professional partnership with fellow DS, Josie Ottey.

The quote by Stephen Fry on the front cover describes Cross as ‘the perfect defective’ and in many ways he is. He’s precise, logical, persistent, meticulous and sees patterns in things that others miss. He’s become good at observing individuals’ gestures, patterns of speech and facial expressions in order to determine whether they are telling the truth. ‘He had learned how to read facial expressions in his typically thorough way… For him it was an acquired skill, like a second language.’ But Cross’s blind spot is judging others’ emotions and for this he relies on Ottey.  Theirs is a really successful symbiotic relationship and I liked the mutual understanding that has developed between them. And since George often takes things literally, it provides Ottey with opportunities for some gentle teasing.

The search for a motive is at the forefront of Cross and Ottey’s investigation. It involves piecing together myriad fragments of information about Brother Dominic’s former life in an effort to work out why anyone would want to kill a monk and, just as importantly, why now? The book’s intricate plot meant I suspected just about everyone and was wrong on each occasion. The notes I kept while reading the book is largely a list of characters with the question ‘red herring?’ alongside their name, the answer invariably turning out to be, yes. The author keeps the reader guessing until almost the last page. It probably won’t surprise you that it’s Cross who eventually uncovers the evidence that identifies the culprit and that all important motive, even if it does turn the investigation on its head. It’s that nagging doubt that he just can’t ignore.

Lovers of police procedurals will enjoy the scenes describing the interview of witnesses, the search for forensic evidence and the perusal of CCTV, phone records and social media. Possibly the only unrealistic element is the amount of police resource that seems to be available to deploy to the case, but this is fiction after all.

I have no experience of working or living with a neurodivergent person so it’s difficult for me to judge how well George Cross represents a person on the autistic spectrum but I liked the fact his different way of looking at the world is shown to be fundamental to his success as a detective. It’s a positive not a negative, and I admired that. I also found it touching to see his attempts to ‘train’ himself in the interpersonal skills that do not come as naturally to him as to others. For example, remembering to ask Ottey’s first question when interviewing a witness or suspect, ‘Would you like a drink?’.

The Monk is a skilfully crafted and ingenious crime novel with a really engaging protagonist that will keep you turning the pages. George Cross has a new fan.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Emma Finnigan PR and Head of Zeus.

In three words: Intriguing, clever, compelling

Tim SullivanAbout the Author

Tim Sullivan is a crime writer, screenwriter and director, whose film credits include A Handful of Dust, Jack and Sarah and Cold Feet. His crime series featuring the socially awkward but brilliantly persistent DS George Cross has topped the book charts and been widely acclaimed. Tim lives in North London with his wife Rachel, the Emmy Award-winning producer of The Barefoot Contessa and Pioneer Woman. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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