Joanna Cannon's previous (and debut) novel was 'The Trouble with Goats and Sheep' which I absolutely loved, so I was looking forward to reading this next book.
Florence (Flo only to her friends) resides in the Cherry Tree retirement complex. She lives alone in a ground floor flat, but she's never lonely as she has her best friend Elsie to keep her company. Elsie also helps Flo through her moments of forgetfulness and confusion. They team up with fellow resident Jack when Flo realises that a new resident is someone from the past she'd thought she'd never see again. With the manager of Cherry Tree threatening to move Flo to 'Greenbanks' - a more suitable home for her needs - Flo and her two friends have a race against time to solve the mystery of the new resident before Flo may be forced to leave.
This quirky second book does not disappoint. It has Joanna's same style of humour mixed with pathos with an underlying serious storyline. All the characters are realistic and rather adorable. But it's also very moving, knowing that most of us will end up being a Florence, frustrated at realising that we're slowly losing our faculties, and there is only one ending for us all.
A delight to read.
Maud Drennen is a plucky, no-nonsense Irish care worker, whose latest client is Cathal Flood, a cantankerous elderly man, widowed and living alone in Bridlemere, a Victorian Grade II listed mansion in West London. Cathal is also a top-notch hoarder, a dealer in curiosities, and a keeper of secrets. Despite Cathal's efforts to frighten away Maud and her attempts to clear up his mess, he begins to soften and open little doorways into his life. But he holds too many secrets and Maud wants to know too much - what happened to his wife Mary and their daughter Maggie? Why is part of the house blocked off? Why won't he let his son Gabriel into the house? As Cathal starts to close up again, Maud finds herself taking on an investigative role, with the help of her transgender landlord, Renata, and Cathal's previous care worker, Sam Hebden. However, is Maud following red herrings, and is everyone telling the truth?
I did enjoy this book, although I found the author seemed to be trying too hard to get some laughs in. Maud is followed around by ghostly Irish saints who keep trying to point her in the right direction, and I'm not sure I like this detail - they got in the way of the story. I've previously come across the use of Irish saints as characters in a children's book (A Boy Called Hope by Lara Williamson), so this was nothing original to me. I found it took me a while to get into the story, the detail getting in the way too much, but once I'd got used to all the characters, I found it readable and enjoyable.
Late evening on Friday 3rd December 1926, Agatha Christie drove from her home in Berkshire and wasn't seen or heard of again for 11 days. Her car was discovered abandoned in Guildford. There were many suggestions as to what had happened to her - she'd committed suicide; she disappeared as part of a publicity stunt; her husband had murdered her.
'A Talent for Murder' is a fiction novel about the incident, but Andrew Wilson uses facts and newspaper articles surrounding her disappearance to create his own imaginings of what took place during those 11 missing days.
I found it a very readable and enjoyable story. It's fast paced and gripping. I don't know whether the actual truth about her disappearance was ever discovered - Agatha Christie never spoke of it - but it was very strange reading the book knowing that something had happened and that one of the most famous crime writers in the world had found herself the center of a crime story herself.
I was very excited about reading this, as I had really enjoyed the first book in the series, The Screaming Staircase. I was not disappointed. It was great to be reunited with Tony, Lucy and George and follow them on to their next case.
There have been strange ghostly sightings at a derelict sanatorium, and at a grave at Kensal Green cemetery. Lockwood & Co are hired to investigate, but to their dismay their greatest business rivals, the Fittes agency, are also hired to work with them. The case turns into a battle of wits as they race each other to solve the case, but more importantly, to try to stay alive. A relic from book one, the titular Whispering Skull, plays a big part in their case - both a help and a hindrance. And what of the strange, secret room in Tony's house which Lucy and George are forbidden to enter?
The story is captivating, the ghostly scenes are full of suspense, but my favourite bits are the really humorous parts when Tony, Lucy and George are talking amongst themselves. There are some great one-liners, and some brilliant put-downs, mostly about poor George. I really hope a new character who appears in this book, Flo, reappears in the next one. She's brillliant. There are two things that I can't get out of my head while I'm reading these books: 1) they are set in modern-day London - I keep visualising Victorian times; 2) Lucy is the narrator - I keep getting Tony's voice in my head!
I finished this far too quickly, which of course just means I'll have even longer to wait for the third in the series!
Lockwood & Co - The Screaming Staircase
by Jonathan Stroud
Ooh, this is a scary one. It's marketed for 9-12s, but I'm not sure I'd give it to my just turned 11-year old yet! But if your child likes to be spooked, then go ahead. The whole book is on a par with the first chapter of Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney (a great series), which I also found quite scary and warn the young ones about (we keep it in our teen section at work).
Saying that, I really enjoyed this book. Lockwood & Co are a group of 3 children who are hired to dispose of ghosts, poltergeists, basically anything paranormal. It's set in modern day London where the 'Problem' (ie, hauntings) is rife. However, it is only children who have strong powers of sensing the paranormal, so they are trained to go out specifically to remove the Problem. The adults hover in safety at the front door.
After a job goes slightly wrong and the media backlash is brutal, Anthony, Lucy and George struggle to keep their business afloat. That is until they are approached by the famous Mr Fairfax, who employs them to get rid of many 'Visitors' from his ancient home. The only thing is, the previous children who've attempted the job have not come out alive. Will the 3 young ghost hunters survive the night's ordeal?
This is the first book in a series, and I look forward to reading the next one!
Bellman & Black
by Diane Setterfield
I spend about 90% of my time reading children's and teen books, and even though I love most of what I read in those age groups (and more adults should read children's books, they're more exciting than you'd imagine - we have more and more grown-ups visiting the young adult section of our bookshop), I do look forward to a change of writing in an adult book. Several years ago I read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and rather enjoyed it, so when I was given the opportunity of reading Bellman & Black, I was quite excited at the prospect. I absolutely loved it. Her writing is just glorious. I could even compare it to Dickens - full of detail, wonderfully descriptive, incredibly atmospheric. I'm a bit of a fan of dark, ghostly stories, and even though this is not a ghost story as such, it leaves you with that same prickly feeling, which you both love and fear at the same time.
When he is 10 years old, William Bellman is out with his friends when he produces a home-made, finely crafted catapult. His friends make him a bet that he can't knock out that rook from that tree way over there. William takes up the challenge, and even though he knows he can do it, when he sees the stone from the catapult arc its way directly towards the rook, he silently wishes the rook would fly away. It does not. It falls dead from the tree. The story then continues with William as a young handsome man, admired by the ladies. He is offered work as an apprentice at his uncle's mill. He is a quick learner and a hard worker, and the business flourishes. His fortune seems to improve over the coming years until accidents and illnesses start to befall those around him he loves, and a strange man in black appears at all the funerals. Something niggles at the back of William's mind. Who is this man and what does he want, and why does he only make appearances at funerals?
Gripping, dark, thrilling, sinister, atmospheric - a memorable and moving story of how one act can pave a way to your downfall. Don't mess with rooks. They remember everything.
If you enjoy this, also try the rather scary Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley. But not in the dark on your own.
Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
by Robin Sloan
I didn't quite know what to make of this. In a way, it was a shame that I read it right after The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, because I loved that book so much it was going be hard to beat. I loved the idea of the story of Mr Penumbra - a bookshop that is open all day and all night, but hardly has any customers. The few customers it has act rather strangely and keep quoting what sounds like a Latin phrase to Clay, the young lad whose job it is to man the bookstore through the night. Using the help of a few of his friends, he discovers that many of the non-mainstream books kept in the shop are written in code. Once this code is broken, the secret to eternal life is revealed. But Clay doesn't want to have to read through all the books to solve the puzzle. One of his friends works at Google and she uses her technological wizardry to solve it the modern way. I think this is where the story lost me slightly. I wanted an oldy-worldy magical story of secrets and books, but instead I get thrown back into the real world of Google search, Kindles and e-books, and Amazon. So good concept, but not quite good enough to hold my excitement.
Rendezvous in Russia
by Lauren St John
This is the third in the Laura Marlin mysteries series (after Dead Man's Cove, Kidnap in the Caribbean, and Kentucky Thriller), which sees Laura, Tariq and Skye caught up in another adventure involving the notorious Straight A's gang. Our three heroes become film stars as they are cast as extras in a movie where a priceless piece of art is stolen from a museum in Russia. However, scenes become more fact than fiction, and Laura finds herself closer to Mr A, the evil boss of the Straight A's, than she ever wished to be.
It's another exciting page turner from Lauren St John - I've loved all her series (The White Giraffe, Laura Marlin, The One Dollar Horse). She has a great ability of drawing you in from the first page so you are instantly hooked. I urge everyone to read all her books!
Picture Me Gone
by Meg Rosoff
Meg Rosoff is one of my many favourite authors. One of her books 'How I Live Now' is soon to be a film (out 27th September 2013). My personal favourites are 'What I Was' and 'Just in Case'. Until now. 'Picture Me Gone' is about 12-yr-old Mila, who sets out on a trip to America with her father to try to find his friend, Matthew, who left the family home one day and didn't return, leaving his wife, baby son, and dog behind. Mila uses her special gift of being able to 'read' people - their thoughts, feelings and memories - to try to solve the mystery. What she uncovers are friendships, secrets, lies, tragedy, and a situation that is just too incomprehensible for a 12-yr-old girl.
I was drawn into this book immediately - I knew by the second chapter that this would be my favourite. I nearly cried when I read how sad Honey the dog was, how she was disliked by Suzanne the wife, how she missed her master - "loneliness flows off her in waves"..."this is not a happy house". Thankfully Mila and her father take Honey with them on the search for Matthew which is a relief for us all.
This is a fantastic book of discovery. Mila is a very mature young girl - perhaps being an only child has helped her understand the intricacies of adult relationships and behaviour, which also helps her piece together the mystery.
Meg has the brilliant ability of capturing and describing every emotion, every subtle bit of body language, every part of a conversation, so you can vividly imagine each and every character she introduces into the story. I loved loved loved it.
Midnight Pirates
by Ally Kennen
Gosh, what a lot of action in this book - jam packed! At first, I thought there was TOO much, it jumped around a bit too much, but it soon settles down into a good adventure. On the plus side too, it's set in Cornwall, so I could put a few towns in the map and knew whereabouts the author was setting the story.
Miranda and her brothers Jackie and Cal (cool surfer dude, with great surf-talk which makes you giggle) live in a hotel which is owned and run by their parents. The hotel is right on a cliff overlooking the beach and the kids just love it. However, the parents run into financial difficulties and have to put the hotel up for sale. They take a break abroad and send the kids to a boarding school for a few weeks while they're away. The kids never make it to the school - they run back to the hotel, phone the agents to tell them the house is off the market, and start to take in holiday-makers to keep the money coming in. Unbeknownst to them, some of the tourists are not who they seem and trouble is lurking on their own doorstep.
A great adventure for 9+. If you like Cornwall based adventure stories, then try Itch by Simon Mayo, Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John, The Whistling Caves by Helen Moss, North of Nowhere by Liz Kessler and Fritha's Summer by Susan Morris.
Kentucky Thriller
by Lauren St John
Another brilliant Laura Marlin mystery. On a par with the first book, Dead Man's Cove, and better than the second, Kidnap in the Caribbean. This one takes Laura and her best friend Tariq to Kentucky and the world famous Kentucky Derby, a huge racehorse event. An attempt has been made to kidnap Gold Rush, aka Goldie, an American racehorse and an attempt to extort ransom money has been made. But Laura thwarts the attempt but is then involved with another mystery concerning another of the racehorse owner's horses, Noble Warrior. Yet again, the infamous gang, The Straight A's, turn out to be involved, and Laura and Tariq try to save the day.
Look out for the next in the series Rendezvous in Russia, published 1st August 2013.
Also check out Lauren St John's other fantastic fiction for children - The White Giraffe series, and The One Dollar Horse series. Lauren is definitely one of my favourite authors.
Itch Rocks
by Simon Mayo
Wow! This was even better than the first, Itch! The adventures and thrills just kept on coming - a 400 page rollercoaster ride! You feel sorry for poor Itch having to go through so much terror - and pain! Loads more chemistry lessons, which is good for me as I was hopeless at it as a schoolchild. Such an original storyline for this series, I think that's why I enjoy it so much - no dystopia, no wizards, no vampires!
In this second instalment (and surely not the last?!) we find Itch, Chloe and Jack under close protection provided by MI5. Itch had buried Element 126 down a well under an old school in Brighton, but there are bad people around who are desperate to know its whereabouts - desperate enough to kidnap or even kill. The return of a couple of salubrious characters, and a moment's worth of slackness in MI5 protection, mean Itch and the gang find themselves yet again in mortal danger.
What I Saw and How I Lied
by Judy Blundell
A post war American romance novel, full of first love, jealousy and a mysterious accidental death. I read it in one sitting and loved it.
Mr Briggs' Hat
by Kate Colquhoun
Having loved Kate Summerscale's The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, I was looking forward to reading this one and it didn't disappoint. Mixing facts of the case with photographs, historical facts about the railways, Victorian society, the judicial system, capital punishment and much more, this book about Britain's first railway murder is trully engrossing. Beware - do not look at the photos and captions in the middle of the book before finishing the story!
The Lifeboat
by Charlotte Rogan
It is 1914, two years after the sinking of the Titanic, and a mystery explosion sinks the cruise liner The Empress Alexandra. Lifeboats are lowered, brimming to over-capacity with survivors. Grace Winter is separated from her husband, Henry, and finds herself in one of the lifeboats. So begins a diary of events told from the viewpoint of Grace in a letter to her solicitor while she is in prison, for a crime we are not fully aware of but can guess from the start. The book explains quite well the huge rollercoaster of emotions one must go through if you're floating at sea with little food or water, wondering if you're ever to be rescued. The physical and mental changes are well described, and you find yourself at one with Grace while she deliberates the meaning of survival, guilt, innocence and justice.
The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse
by Caroline Lawrence
The follow-up to The Case of the Deadly Desperadoes, P.K. Pinkerton has set up a detective agency and his first case is the murder of Sally, one of the 'saloon girls'. P.K. battles with enemies old and new, and has the help of friends old and new to help solve the mystery.
I just love this series set in the Wild West of the 1860s.
Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
This is marketed as a horror book, but in our bookshop it has proved very popular with the teenagers.
Jacob gets on well with his Grandpa, even if he is a bit strange, talking of monsters and children with strange abilities, and an orphanage in Wales. Then Grandpa is savagely killed and Jacob goes to Wales to track down the orphanage and find out the truth of Grandpa's strange life. He uncovers time loops, peculiar children with abilities straight out of old-fashioned circuses, monsters, violent murders - and the truth.
The story starts out well, then loses its appeal slightly at the talk of time loops, and from there slight confusion begins. The author seems very rushed at the end to tie all the loose ends together. A slightly disappointing end to a promising start, but still worth a read.
The Haunting of Tabitha Grey
by Vanessa Curtis
Tabitha's dad has a new job as Keeper of Weston Manor, so Tabitha, her brother Ben, her mum and dad move into the flat in one of the manor's wings. It seems this move should be a 'fresh start' for the family, but we are not immediately told what has happened. Tabitha's mum is on medication and sleeping pills, Ben never speaks (he is five, Tabs is 15), and the Dad is easily distracted by the pretty young receptionist at the manor, Dawn. However, the manor is haunted, but only Tabitha sees the ghosts, and her dad doesn't believe her. Tabitha is all alone in her nightmare until the security guard, Sid, tells her a bit more about the manor and its past inhabitants. He says he too has seen the ghosts. The lady ghost is after something that Tabitha has and she must let it go. We are then told of the tragedy that occurred a year ago in Tabitha's life, and who she must finally set free.
Edgy, keeps you reading, not too scary.
The Name of this Book is Secret
by Pseudonymous Bosch
Cass's 'grandparents' are antique dealers. They are paid a regular visit by Gloria, an estate agent, who comes with boxes of items left in old houses up for sale. One day, the box she brings has intriguing items that used to belong to a magician, now missing, presumed dead. One item is a box containing many vials, named the Symphony of Smells. Thus begins a magical adventure full of drama and suspense for Cass and her schoolfriend Max-Ernest. They find out sinister information about Ms Mauvais and Dr L., and discover that they themselves have something these two baddies desperately want.
With lots of humour, this is a good start of a series for 9-10yr olds.
All The Wrong Questions - Who Could That Be At This Hour?
by Lemony Snicket
This is book 1 in a series, and being Lemony Snicket, it is a bit weird and off-centre, but a great spy adventure for 9+.
Lemony is 13 and is assistant to S.Theodora Markson (she never tells us what the 'S' stands for), who is a secret agent/private detective. Their job is to find a stolen object 'The Bombinating Beast' (a mythical monster) and return it to its rightful owner. However, many people seem to be involved in the 'theft', if it is indeed that, and there are many people not telling the truth. Lemony attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery (without much help from Theodora - as it turns out she is quite a useless private detective), and along the way makes friends with a few unusual, colourful characters. A bizarre, but good, read.
