The Four Streets by Nadine Dorries

Thank you to Head of Zeus and Lovereading for the review copy. Due for publication April 2014

       This is the first book in a trilogy based on the author's life growing up in post-war Liverpool. The Four Streets are where the poor Irish immigrants, who are the cast of the story, live.

I really loved this book. It has a little of everything – love and hate; births, deaths and marriages; fun and laughter; sadness and misery – but above all I found it uplifting, reading how people with no advantages whatsoever rose above their situation to create a close knit family based community. Even families with lots of children of their own still manage to find room to care for children in need.

I grew up in a mixed community of “pre-fabs” in Bath during the same period. Some people were as poor as those in this story, others, like my family, had the advantage of a decent income courtesy the “Admiralty” across the road. On every page I was reminded of my own childhood playing in the streets all day, wandering off to  play in the local woods, running in and out of each other's houses, being fed by whichever mother we called on at mealtimes. Things that never happen today. We were all materially disadvantaged after the war but our lives were rich and we felt safe. Nadine has depicted the times so carefully it reads more as a biography than fiction. I really believed in the characters.

I look forward to Part 2. Anyone who enjoys “Call the Midwife” will love this book.

The Girl from Station X by Elisa Segrave

Thank you to Aurum Press and Lovereading for the review copy.

This is a tale of two women woven together from the memories and diaries of the daughter, Elisa, and those of her mother Anne covering a period of great change in our history. Anne grew up in great privilege which she seems to have taken for granted but also suffered devastating losses leading to alcoholism and then the descent into Alzheimer's. Elisa laments the lack of affection from her mother but she also seems to be unaware of her own privileged upbringing during a time of massive deprivation in post-war Britain.

Unexpectedly my sympathies were at first for Anne. After all what could be worse than the death of one's child. On the other hand she might have found great comfort in her three remaining children if she had not been brought up to consider herself first. Two of my friends have lost children, albeit older, in tragic circumstances and yet they seem to have at least been able to hold their families together and be united in grief rather than divided.

Throughout the book I found my empathy swinging between the two women and even at the end I am not sure who I feel most sorry for. Elisa didn't have her mother's full attention but did have a nanny and other family members around. Both alcoholism and dementia must be very difficult but neither is the fault of the sufferer. I wonder if Anne was actually bi-polar. It would certainly explain her wild changes of mood.

As I read this book I kept thinking that I could write quite a large essay on that school cliché ”compare and contrast...”.

I too was brought up in post-war Britain. What would I have given for the travel and homes Elisa experienced as a child rather than the cramped “pre-fab” I grew up in. Anne alternately delighted in and hated her wartime work. My mother was incredibly clever but as the illegitimate daughter of a servant she had never had the opportunity she would have loved to become a journalist. She had a talent for crosswords especially those devilish cryptic clues. How she would have thrived at Bletchley Park. Elisa feels her father did not achieve his potential being only a Commander. My Uncle always said there was never a chance he would have become a Lieutenant Commander if not for the war. My own father was colour blind and in a reserved occupation so never got to “play his part”.

A book full of fascinating detail of life during WW11, the relationship between mother and daughter and the lives led by wealthy people in the 20^th century.

I am reminded of the play “Plenty” by David Hare.

Cold in the Earth by Aline Templeton

This is the first in a series of eight books (so far) by Aline Templeton about Marjory Fleming a Detective Inspector in Galloway, south-west Scotland. This isn't an area I have visited in spite of a life-long love of Scotland and all things Scottish.

This story takes place during a devastating Foot and Mouth epidemic. Whilst animals are burned and buried, whether or not actively infected, a human corpse is discovered. Laura Harvey is looking for her sister who had disappeared many years before. Add to the mix a dysfunctional farming family, one a policemen, a bleak but beautiful landscape, a sprinkling of regional colloquial terms and plenty of twists and turns and the scene is set for a jolly good yarn.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't guess the culprit too soon and the characters were very believable and well drawn on the whole. I particularly enjoyed Marjory and Laura and I hope Laura appears again. I didn't really get a feel for Marjory's side-kick, Tam MacNee so I'm looking forward to the development of his personality in later books. Although the sense of place was there I would love even more detail even though I recognise crime books are not to be confused with Travelogues! Laura is a psychologist and I had to suspend disbelief a little but this didn't intrude enough to spoil my enjoyment.

I'm pleased to have discovered a writer to turn to when I'm in need of a Scottish Crime Fix. I can't put Ms Templeton up there with Ian Rankin, yet, but she definitely has a permanent place on my list of favoured authors.

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

Here is my review:

I now know why I had avoided this series in spite of many elements that would normally have attracted me. The story is told in the present tense. I really have an aversion for this. I've tried and failed to like it. I simply cannot read anything written by Patricia Cornwell, for example, since she changed tenses. Very rarely have I read a book told in the present tense that I have enjoyed. I know the various arguments for using the present tense such as immediacy, power, intensity. Stories in the present tense feel clumsy, narrow, jumpy, lacking in emotion, thin on description and rather claustrophobic. For me it's like peering at a glorious view through a porthole rather than a picture window. I only persevered with this one as I'd promised myself to review all my reads from now on.

I was around a third of the way through the book before I settled down to enjoy the story without being conscious on every line of that pesky tense!

The story is set amongst the fenland marshes of East Anglia where Forensic Archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway provides her expertise to DCI Harry Nelson, initially to determine the age and gender of the buried bones of a child whom he thinks may be that of a missing schoolgirl.  There are plenty of twists and turns to carry the story along although I guessed the identity of the "bad guy" rather earlier than I would have liked. Perhaps my detective skills are well honed following a lifetime of reading novels in the genre!

By the time I reached the end I had come to believe in the two central characters although Ruth goes on about her weight too much and Harry seems to be a bit of an odd mix even for a policeman! However I finished wanting to know more and keen to read the next in the series which I will be doing soon in spite of the dreaded tense.


A note to publishers:

I really, really hate being given the first chapter(s) of the next book in the series at the end of the one I'm reading. It completely destroys the growing excitement of nearing the climax knowing how much there is still to go. You reach the end quite deflated thinking there was one more twist to come. I keep forgetting to check and in any case this is a bind on the Kindle unless I make an effort to read the contents list if there is one. It's almost enough to put me off reading the sequel.

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths

My next read is "The Crossing Places" by Elly Griffiths, published by Quercus Books and purchased for my Kindle from Amazon.co.uk

This is the first book in a series featuring forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway. I'm amazed I haven't before encountered this series as I read a lot of crime fiction and I'm especially keen on forensic science. I did a subsid' in Archaeology at Bristol University whilst reading for a degree in Botany as a "mature" student. Sadly there were no bones but I did learn an awful lot about beakers! I'll post my review when I've finished.

The Boy That Never Was by Karen Perry due for publication March 2014

John and our grandson, Freddie, on the terrace of our villa in Spain, August 2004

I've started this blog in memory of my dear husband who died on 27th November 2013. We had been happily married for 42 years and I miss him so much. I need to find new meaning in my life. I feel like curling up in a ball and hibernating so as not to face the fact that I shall never see him again for all eternity. I can't do that. He knew he was my rock and would have been devastated to think he'd leave me unable to carry on and enjoy those things which we are so privileged to be able to experience as sentient beings in this glorious universe. I'm going to have to force myself otherwise I might as well have died instead. I'd like to travel and see some of the things we had hoped to see together. My pension limits that possibility. I enjoy photography so I must re-ignite the passion I once had. Above all I have always loved reading. I am insatiable and owning a Kindle has made it easier to buy the books I really want whilst living in Spain.

I've decided to take the first steps into my new life by reviewing all the books I read from now on.

This is my first. Thank you to Penguin and Lovereading (where you can read reviews and buy books) for the pre-publication copy.

The Boy That Never Was by Karen Perry

(due for publication March 2014)

The story is narrated by the separate voices of Harry and Robin. Harry is the father haunted by the loss of his son, Dillon, as a tragic consequence of his own irresponsible action and a brief but devastating earthquake in Tangier. Robin is Dillon's mother trying to build a new life with Harry in Dublin and to deal with the grief of her loss and the need to forgive.

We meet characters from both Tangier and Dublin interacting with Robin and Harry to reveal unexpected lies and deceit, betrayal and consequences, attempts to re-build trust, passion, delusion, redemption and the hope of a fresh start. What does Cozimo know and should he tell. Who is guilty, who can be trusted. Where do our sympathies lie and who can we believe. Where is the boy who never was?

The threads of the story are intricately woven but the overall design is just out of sight until the shocking denouement.

There is something of the flavour of the settings but this is a relationship tale and a thriller with the emphasis on emotion rather than fast pace and description. I had thought that the collaboration of a male and female writer might have provided a greater distinction between the narrative voices, perhaps each taking on their gender roles. That didn't happen so that on the odd occasion I forgot who was talking. However that barely detracted from an original and engaging tale.