Tag: NetGalley

#BlogTour #BookReview The Blood of Others by Graham Hurley @AriesFiction @HoZ_Books #TheBloodOfOthers #TuesdayBookBlog

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Welcome to the opening day of the blog tour for The Blood of Others by Graham Hurley which will be published on 6th July 2023. My thanks to Tara and Sophie at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Head of Zeus for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the reviews by my tour buddies for today, Jen at Jen Med’s Book Reviews and Mairéad at Swirl and Thread.

About the Book

Dieppe, August 1942. A catastrophe no headline dared admit.

Plans are underway for the boldest raid yet on Nazi-occupied France. Over six thousand men will storm ashore to take the port of Dieppe. Lives will change in an instant – both on the beaches and in distant capitals.

Annie Wrenne, working at Lord Mountbatten’s cloak-and-dagger Combined Operations headquarters, is privy to the top secret plans for the daring cross-Channel raid.

Young Canadian journalist George Hogan, protegé of influential Lord Beaverbrook, faces a crucial assignment that will test him to breaking point.

And Abwehr intelligence officer Wilhelm Schultz is baiting a trap to lure thousands of Allied troops to their deaths.

Three lives linked by Operation Jubilee: the Dieppe Raid, 19 August 1942. Over six thousand men will storm the heavily defended French beaches. Less than half of them will make it back alive.

Format: eARC (400 pages)            Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 6th July 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Blood of Others on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK 
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My Review

The Blood of Others is the latest book in the author’s ‘Spoils of War’ series. It’s a non-chronological series, meaning books can be read in any order or as standalones, although some characters appear in more than one book. I’ve read quite a few of the books in the series – Finisterre, Last Flight to Stalingrad, Kyiv and Katastrophe (links from the titles will take you to my reviews) – and they all involve a skilfully-crafted blend of fact and fiction, focussing on key events during World War 2. Like previous books in the series, events unfold from the point of view of two main characters.

Wilhelm Schultz, an officer in the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, is a man you don’t want to cross. He has been, and still is, prone to acts of violence, although it has gained him some deadly enemies, allowing the author to incorporate a thriller element into the story and some dramatic scenes. Schultz is ruthless in his determination to ensure a Nazi victory and to make sure that any raid across the Channel by the Allies will end in failure. So whispers of a raid on what he knows to be the well-fortified port of Dieppe is a gift. And such is the desire of some, like Lord Mountbatten, to strike a target in occupied France that they don’t even need Schultz’s misinformation campaign that Dieppe is poorly defended to spur them on. (By the way, If you’ve read Katastrophe, you’ll know how Schultz’s fortunes change towards the end of the war. Divine justice, you might say.)

Much my favourite character was George Hogan. We follow his career from aspiring young journalist to protegé of Lord Beaverbrook. Beaverbrook, publisher of the influential Daily Express newspaper, friend of Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten, was a mover and shaker behind the ‘Second Front Now’ campaign, aimed at drawing German resources away from the Eastern Front. George marvels at the presentation of military setbacks as successes in order to maintain (or should that be to manipulate?) public morale. He reflects that, ‘Two years back, the Germans had chased most of the British Army out of northern France, but by some strange magic the evacuation that followed had become a kind of victory’ yet the newspaper headlines were ‘Miracle at Dunkirk‘ or ‘We Live To Fight Another Day‘. The more George learns about plans for the raid from experienced soldiers and from witnessing the build-up for himself, the more his sense of foreboding increases, and ours with it. For him it’s especially poignant because the troops that will be involved are largely fellow Canadians.

I would have liked more of a role for the female characters other than providing male characters with sexual gratification. In particular, I would have welcomed more from Annie’s point of view given her part in the story.

The book includes some neat walk-on parts by real-life figures, such as Noel Coward whom George meets as Coward’s in the midst of filming – and directing – one of my favourite WW2 films, albeit a film which was so obviously intended to be a wartime morale booster. [Other examples are Went the Day Well? (1942) and Henry V (1944).]

As is only too clear from the blurb, Operation Jubilee was a disaster, and was always going to be. The author concentrates on the how and the why for much of the book, leaving the description of the actual raid to the final chapters. The latter makes for tough reading given the loss of life and the manner in which men died. To put it bluntly, it was a bloodbath.

The Blood of Others is a thrilling read. It’s also an unflinching picture of the chaos, confusion and horror of war, as well as the clearest possible evidence that Operation Jubilee was an act of supreme hubris for which others paid the price.

In three words: Authentic, compelling, powerful

Try something similar: Munich by Robert Harris

About the Author

Graham Hurley is an award-winning TV documentary maker and the author of the acclaimed Faraday and Winter crime novels, two of which have been shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Award for Best Crime Novel. His Second World War thriller Finisterre, part of the critically acclaimed Spoils of War collection, was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.

Connect with Graham
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#BookReview Banyan Moon by Thao Thai @QuercusBooks #BanyanMoon

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About the Book

Ann Tran is already at a crossroads when she gets the call that her beloved grandmother, Minh, has died. 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 her 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, revealing how decisions Minh made in her youth affected the rest of her life.

Format: Hardback (336 pages) Publisher: Quercus
Publication date: 27th June 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Banyan Moon on Goodreads

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My Review

The story is told from the point of view of three Vietnamese American women – Minh, her daughter Hu’o’ng and Hu’o’ng’s daughter, Ann. Ann’s story is set in the present day but Hu’o’ng’s moves back and forth in time between her childhood in Vietnam and her life in America. Minh’s story is told through an unique perspective: from beyond the grave where she exists in a kind of limbo, able to observe Ann and Hu’o’ng’s grief at her death but also to relive memories of her early life in Vietnam before she was forced to flee to America because of the Vietnam War.

The mysterious, rambling and now rather dilapidated Banyan House has played an important part in all three women’s lives. For Minh it was a tangible sign of of her entrepreneurial spirit and determination to provide a secure home for her children. For Hu’o’ng and Ann it has acted at various times as a place of sanctuary. It has also witnessed dramatic events, as the reader will discover.

Minh’s death brings Ann and Hu’o’ng back to Banyan House after a period of estrangement. Initially, their grief is the only thing that seems to connect them. ‘We’re lost without her, our faithful interpreter.’ Gradually the author allows the reader to unpick the complex reasons for their estrangement – feelings of being abandoned, of being displaced or being misunderstood. The process of repairing their relationship is made up of tentative steps: small acts of kindness, unexpected discoveries, reassurance and ultimately a shared stake in the future.

All three women are believable characters, each having endured heartbreak and struggled with the realities of motherhood. None of them are infallible and all have made mistakes, saying things in anger or frustration that can’t be unsaid. What draws one into the story is seeing how they move on from this. I enjoyed Ann’s spiky, sarcastic humour, which you suspect is something of a protective carapace, and her growing determination to make an independent life for herself. Learning more of Hu’o’ng’s back story made me admire her strength, something obviously inherited from her mother who, even when dying, refused to go quietly. The author resists the temptation to make the male characters either wholly good or bad although some definitely tend more towards the latter.

There are subtle references to the prejudice faced by immigrants – for example, Ann being described as ‘exotic’ by her boyfriend’s mother and Hu’o’ng’s experiences on her honeymoon. It’s notable that, in contrast to other family members, Minh, Hu’o’ng and Ann nurture their Vietnamese heritage whether that’s through the food, religious practices or inherited stories of their culture.

Ann and Hu’o’ng’s quiet journey to reconciliation threatens to be derailed by Ann’s discovery of a secret that Minh has kept from her daughter. Should she tell Hu’o’ng, possibly tainting her memories of her mother or keep it to herself? As Minh warns from beyond the grave, secrets are a menace. ‘They will spill from your mouth like angry, writhing eels, or they will fill you up until you combust. There is no escaping them.’

I thoroughly enjoyed this absorbing multi-generational story about love, loss, motherhood and the healing of fractured family relationships. It’s an impressive debut.

My thanks to Patrice at Quercus for my review copy.

In three words: Intimate, insightful, emotional

Try something similar: Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu

About the Author

Thao Thai is a writer living in Ohio with her husband and daughter. Her work engages with tangled family relationships and the intersections of motherhood and identity. She’s been published in Cup of Jo, Eater, Catapult, Sunday Long Read, and more. A recipient of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, she has also been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes and earned fellowships in creative writing. She received her MFA from The Ohio State University and her MA from the University of Chicago.

Connect with Thao
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