Review: The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams

 

Title: The Bookbinder of Jericho

Author: Pip Williams

Published: 28th March 2023, Affirm Press

Status: Read February 2023 courtesy Better Reading Australia

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My Thoughts:

“Your job is to bind books, not read them…”

Pip Williams blends history with imagination, weaving a captivating, poignant tale of desire, duty, grief and love in The Bookbinder of Jericho, a companion novel to her award winning fiction debut, The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set within the bindery of the Oxford University Clarendon Press, we are introduced to Peggy, who, wielding her late mother’s bonefolder, gathers and folds the pages of books she dreams of studying at University, but as a Town, with the added responsibility of her vulnerable twin sister, Maude, such ambition has always seemed impossible. Then World War I breaks out, heralding change that seems to bring the future Peggy wants within her grasp, but war always calls for sacrifice.

Told in five parts, beginning in 1914 and ending in 1918, The Bookbinder of Jericho is well grounded in historical fact, exploring the gatekeeping of education and knowledge, womens suffrage, the horrors of war, post traumatic stress, and the devastating spread of Spanish Flu. It’s also a thought provoking and emotional story, rendering longing, romance, heartache, and loss with sincerity.

Peggy is a complex central figure, intelligent and dutiful but prickly, her resentment of all she is denied, by her gender, her social status, and her responsibilities, is never far from the surface. Though they are identical in looks, Maude’s contented nature and simple needs contrasts sharply with that of her twin. The supporting characters, including family friend Tilda (who appeared in The Dictionary of Lost Words), and Belgian refugees Lotte and Bastiaan, are well drawn and enrich the story.

Evocative prose effortlessly conjures movement and place. I found it easy to visualise the sisters crowded narrowboat lined with books and manuscripts, the balletic grace of the bindery women sweeping pages into their arms, the intimidating architecture of Oxford University, and Maude carefully folding her array of colourful paper stars.

The Bookbinder of Jericho is a rich, lyrical, beautifully crafted novel, I won’t hesitate to recommend.

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Review: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

 

Title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries {Emily Wilde #1}

Author: Heather Fawcett

Published: 19th January 2023, Orbit

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy Hachette Australia

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My Thoughts:

“Herein I intend to provide an honest account of my day-to-day activities in the field as I document an enigmatic species of faerie called “Hidden Ones.””

Offering a delightful blend of mystery, adventure, romance and magic, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is an enchanting historical fantasy from Heather Fawcett.

Emily Wilde, a Cambridge Professor and dryadologist writing an encyclopaedia about the known species of Folk and their lore, arrives in the remote village of Hrafnsvik on an island off the Norwegian coast hoping to learn the secrets of its elusive indigenous fae. Related through Emily’s journal entries, Emily soon encounters her quarry, befriending a brownie she calls Poe, and meeting an unhappy changeling, but it’s after two young women vanish from the village that Emily must confront the regions rather terrifying courtly fae, and finds herself at the mercy of an imprisoned Faerie King.

Though she is uptight and has few people skills to speak of, Emily is an endearing character, who I thought intelligent, earnest and brave. Conditions are tough in Ljosland but content with just her faithful dog, Shadow, for company, Emily is looking forward to months of solitary field work, so she is not pleased by the unexpected arrival of fellow academic, Wendell Brambley.

Wendell is in many way Emily’s opposite. Cheerful and charismatic with uncommonly good sewing skills, he exasperates Emily in a manner no other does. Though Emily pretends otherwise, she recognises there is something special about Wendell. Wendell’s charm does prove to be a boon for Emily, especially in her dealings with the villagers, whom she inadvertently offends, and later in dealing with fae. I enjoyed the pair’s banter, and their friendship that hints at the development of something more.

Though the pacing may seem a little slow to begin, it does improve. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is not all light and whimsy, Fawcett’s world of Folk has its dark side. There are moments of drama, suspense and action that include faery trickery, abduction and sword fights.

I think Fawcett got the tone of the narrative right in that it reflects the formality of the period (the book is set in 1909), and Emily’s own scholarly propriety. The footnotes, which are not too extensive, also fit the style.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is a captivating read, and I’m pleased to know that a second book is expected in early 2024.

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Review: The Real-Life Murder Clubs by Nicola Stow

 

Title: The Real-Life Murder Clubs: Citizens Solving True Crimes

Author: Nicola Stow

Published: 1st February 2023, Ad Lib Publishers

Status: Courtesy Ad Lib/NetgalleyUK

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My Thoughts:

“Have you ever come home from work and thought, Tonight I’ll scour the internet, see if I can identify that decayed head found in a bucket of cement? or worked through the night drawing digital pictures from autopsy photographs of an unidentified teenager found murdered in a field thirty years ago? Has it ever occurred to you to compare lists of unidentified corpses with those of missing people? If not, then welcome to the surprising world of citizen sleuths.”

The Real-Life Murder Clubs by Nicola Stow is an interesting examination of the ordinary individuals who devote their spare time to solving cases involving missing and murdered people.

Drawing from information in the public domain, including databases such as NamUS (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), the DoE Network, and Project EDAN (Everyone Deserves a Name), thousands of volunteer citizens from housewives to retirees to artists to genealogists, spend countless hours combing through social media accounts, maps, newspaper articles and government records, sometimes collaborating in online groups such as websleuths.com, or Facebook.

Their motivation is sometimes personal, as it was for Belinda Lane who was determined to solve her daughter’s murder and bring her killer to justice, and Tricia Griffith, the founder of websleuths.com who had a close encounter with the notorious Ted Bundy. For others it’s simply a sense of empathy, outrage, curiosity or the satisfaction of solving a puzzle. Todd Matthews was a factory worker but nursed an obsession of over 20 years to identity the remains of a woman known only as ‘Tent Girl’, Deanna Thompson was one of the online group members determined to expose the identity of the man who posted two horrific video’s of kittens being suffocated in a vacuum bag, which was the subject of the Netflix documentary Don’t F*ck With Cats. Stow highlights twelve citizens in all and draws on personal interviews, and other sources.

There is some discussion about the pitfalls of citizen involvement in crime solving, including a look at the Boston Bomber case and the Westminster Bridge terror attack, which both led to the false identification of suspects, as well as the personal risks to the amateur sleuth, such as possibly attracting the attention of a killer, and the emotional toll of repeated exposure to trauma.

I found The Real-Life Murder Clubs to be an interesting read, though, as most of the cases have been explored in the media, it doesn’t offer any particularly unique information about the subject. I was slightly disappointed by the exclusive focus on North American cases, persons and communities, especially as the author resides in the UK, and could have explored citizen sleuths as a global phenomenon. Even the list of ‘Useful Resources’ Stow includes are US centric.

I’d recommend The Real-Life Murder Clubs to readers unfamiliar with, and curious about, the activities of citizen sleuths. True crime junkies aren’t likely to learn anything new.

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Review: Queen Bee by Ciara Geraghty

 

Title: Queen Bee

Author: Ciara Geraghty

Published: 2nd February 2023, HarperCollins GB

Status: Read January courtesy HarperCollins/ Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

“I am a menopausal woman, standing here before you all in a lather of sweat, terrified that I might forget a word in the middle of a sentence with the threat of brain fog that looms over me on a daily basis as I sit at my desk and attempt to write to a deadline. I have insomnia, none of my clothes fit me, and there’s a chance I’m more irritable than I used to be.”

Accepting an invitation to join a panel at the Flights of Fancy Writers Festival feels like a gamble for Agatha Doyle who is supposed to be writing her next bestseller, but is instead documenting her menopause symptoms in a diary which her GP insists will be helpful in reducing her stress. Agatha has her doubts. Still, despite brain fog, hot flushes, resentment, and blistered, bloodied stumps, Agatha is holding it all together until a Beardy Man from the author asks the wrong question and Agatha’s ensuing rant goes viral, making her an icon for menopausal women everywhere.

As a woman experiencing the vagaries of the onset of menopause myself, I really enjoyed Queen Bee. Written in the form of a diary, entries often begin a list of symptoms that are all too familiar to me.

Those symptoms, which include (but are not limited to) insomnia, resentment, rage, brain fog, hot flushes and anxiety are bad enough, but add a full house that includes Agatha’s recently widowed father, her father’s girlfriend’s dog, LulaBelle; her heartbroken son Colm; her college drop out son Aiden, who is building a beehive in the backyard; and her husband Luke, plus financial concerns regarding their family business, and it’s new gorgeous waitress, it’s no wonder Agatha is overwhelmed, and stymied by writers block. She is rather bewildered by her new ‘heroine’ status, particularly since she feels like she’s not handling things well at all.

I couldn’t help but empathise with Agatha and found her to be a very appealing character. I enjoyed her sense of humour, which is quite heavy on the sarcasm, and her blunt assessments of everything. Agatha’s ‘conversations’ with her late mother add a layer of poignancy to the story, and her struggle to maintain her equilibrium attracts sympathy.

Witty, smart and ingenuous, Queen Bee is an entertaining, easy read.

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Review: Taken by Dinuka McKenzie

 

Title: Taken {Detective Kate Miles #2}

Author: Dinuka McKenzie

Published: 1st February 2023, HarperCollins Australia

Status: Read 2023 courtesy HarperCollins/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

Taken is the second thrilling book to feature Detective Sergeant Kathryn Miles who was introduced in Dinuka McKenzie’s bestselling debut, Torrent.

Picking up several months after the dramatic final scenes of the previous book, Kate has just returned to work following maternity leave and is eager to return to active duty. A domestic disturbance call gives Kate the opportunity she needs to prove herself ready, and results in her being assigned as co-lead detective in an infant abduction.

Four month old Sienna Ricci, her mother, Ellisa reports, was taken from her home while she showered. As the team investigates, Kate’s partner becomes convinced the baby’s father, Aaron Ricci, is responsible for the abduction and she is taken off the case, even though Kate believes she has a viable alternative suspect in Jason Veliu, a violent man Kate recently had cause to arrest.

With a child’s well-being at stake, the tension is high in Taken. The plot is well thought out with several red herrings, though I found it relatively easy to discern who was responsible early on. The story has good momentum and there is action too as Kate finds herself risking her life in two separate confrontations with desperate people. Sensitive readers should be aware that domestic violence, adultery and postnatal depression are among the issues that are raised in the crimes Kate is investigating.

Kate is under a lot of personal pressure in Taken. While struggling with the effects of PTSD, she is also trying to find a balance between the needs of her husband and children, and the demands of her career. On top of this, the media have picked up on a story involving her father’s late partner’s business activity which could implicate them both in a corruption scandal, amplifying her concerns about the family’s finances. Determined not to be seen as lacking, Kate doesn’t always make sensible decisions, but she acts for the right reason.

Suspenseful, fast paced and gripping, Taken is an excellent read, perfect for fans of Australian crime fiction from authors such as Jane Harper, Chris Hammer and Emma Viskic.

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Review: Love to Loathe You by Ali Hazelwood

 

Title: Love to Loathe You {The STEMinist novellas #1-3}

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Published: 10th January 2023, Sphere

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy Hachette Australia

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My Thoughts:

Having read great things about Ali Hazelwood’s debut, The Love Hypothesis, and her sophomore novel, Love on the Brain, I couldn’t resist the lure of Love to Loathe You, a collection of three novella’s, which have previously been published separately. Each novella works as a standalone, however they are linked in that they each feature one of three best friends, Mara, Sadie and Hannah, who are in regular contact across all of the story’s .

In Under One Roof, Mara, an environmental engineer who has just landed her dream job at the Environmental Protective Agency, inherits half ownership in a Washington DC house from her late mentor, and learns she’ll be sharing it with her mentor’s great nephew, a lawyer for an oil company. Liam isn’t pleased to be sharing his space with a stranger, and the two try to stay out of each other’s way, but their forced proximity soon breaks down the walls between them. Probably my favourite of the three novellas, I particularly enjoyed the well-paced build up of romantic tension between Mara and Liam.

Miscommunication is at the root of the conflict between civil engineer Sadie, and Erik, a partner in a large rival firm, in Stuck With You. The couple meet at a nearby cafe and enjoy a long night together, leaving Sadie excited for future possibilities, until she is told Erik’s firm has poached the important client she had high hopes of signing. Three weeks later the two are trapped in an elevator together and Sadie is ready to tell him exactly what she thinks of him. I liked the dual timeline structure of this story, and the respect Erik showed for Sadie, though I think a steamy elevator scene would have been the icing on the cake.

Below Zero is a second-chance romance featuring Hannah, an ambitious aerospace engineer, and Ian, her boss at NASA. When Hannah learns that her proposed project has been rejected by Ian, despite widespread support from her colleagues, Hannah suspects Ian’s motive is revenge, but when she is left stranded in a crevasse in the Arctic it’s Ian who rescues her, despite the dangers. By sheer coincidence, Bonnie Tyler’s song ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ started playing as I was reading this, and it’s the perfect anthem for this novella (especially the last verse). Hannah, whose cynicism hides her poor self esteem, is the prickliest of the three friends, and I couldn’t help but root for her to take a chance.

Though each novella has its own epilogue, the Bonus Chapter included in Love to Loathe You, which contains a few pages from each of the men’s point of view at a future date, is just that, a charming bonus that I appreciated.

Witty, fun and heated (the sex is reasonably explicit), Love to Loathe You proved to be an excellent escapist read for me, Hazelwood has a new fan and I’m looking forward to reading Love, Theoretically which will be released later this year.

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Review: Headland by John Byrnes

 

Title: Headland

Author: John Byrnes

Published: 10th January 2023, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy Allen & Unwin

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My Thoughts:

Is pulp rural noir fiction a thing? If not perhaps Headland by Australian author John Byrnes is the first of its kind. Dark, lurid, gritty and violent, this debut novel includes elements of both crime fiction subgenres, if you don’t know what to expect, Headland is likely to shock.

Detective Senior Constable Craig Watson is the novel’s compromised protagonist, a drug addict whose poor performance has seen him exiled to a small coastal town hours from Sydney, to relieve a colleague. He’s not a character that endears himself to anyone, seemingly corrupted by his habit, and the slow revelation of a twisted relationship that haunts him, even a shred of redemption seems impossible, at least at the outset.

It’s already been raining for days when Craig arrives in Gloster, but he isn’t given any time to settle in. The town is on flood watch, there’s a missing teenage girl who could be a runaway or the victim of a kidnapping, a recent fatal accident that’s declared not to be an accident, and an assault on a councillor. Even high, Craig quickly recognises that something is off in Gloster, including the behaviour of his station boss, Sergeant Thomas Philby, and begins to unravel a conspiracy of corruption, fraud, sexual exploitation and murder.

The action in the story really gets underway after the river breaks it banks, and Craig, along with his colleagues Constables Ellie Cameron and Larissa Brookes, find they have been left behind in the evacuation. They think they are alone until Ellie vanishes leaving behind a trail of blood, and it becomes clear they are trapped with a desperate killer. The momentum then rarely lets up with daring rescues, furious gun battles, and brutal confrontations fraught with tension. The driving rain creates a close atmosphere, the town Byrnes describes is laid out much like my own, and I almost expected to look up from the book’s pages to see the streets flooding (as they do once or twice a year).

Be aware however, there are several confronting, and even affronting, characters and scenes in Headland. Few in the cast come off well, particularly those who we are usually predisposed to trust, and there are quite graphic descriptions of misogyny, abuse, violence, sex, and sexual assault, all of which is expected from the pulp genre.

Headland may not appeal to everyone but I found it aggressive, fast paced and gripping, I couldn’t put it down.

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Review: The One and Only Dolly Jamieson by Lisa Ireland

Title: The One and Only Dolly Jamieson

Author: Lisa Ireland

Published: 10th January 2023, Michael Joseph

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy Penguin Books Australia

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My Thoughts:

The One and Only Dolly Jamieson is a charming and uplifting novel from Australian author Lisa Ireland.

Once a sought after Broadway/West End performer and television star, seventy-eight year old Dolly Jamieson spends her days in a London library, and her nights in a stranger’s rarely used shed. There’s little danger of her being recognised as no one wishes to look too closely at the homeless, in fact most people choose to ignore her. Dolly tries not to take offence, she knows she doesn’t look, or smell, her best but she misses being seen.

When Jane Leveson stumbles into the library, looking lost and on the verge of tears, Dolly feels compelled to reach out and offer the woman comfort. Jane sees past Dolly’s worn coat and unkempt hair and their conversation sparks a connection that grows as Jane offers to help Dolly turn her scribbled notes into a memoir.

With a dual timeline that shifts smoothly between the past and present, we learn how Dolly, born Margie Ferguson in Geelong, Victoria, overcame hardship and tragedy in her determination to become a star, and the subsequent trajectory of her life. Despite the ills that have befallen her, and the mistakes she has made, Dolly is a delightful character, and admire her optimism.

As she and Jane work together to tell Dolly’s story Ireland reveals more about what is troubling Jane. Dolly’s gentle sympathy and nonjudgmental attitude is a balm to Jane who is struggling under the weight of her own regrets. Ireland stunned me with the reveal of Jane’s whole story, it a was very unexpected and hit hard.

Ireland addresses a number of sensitive issues in the novel including adoption and suicide, but particularly highlights the shocking increase in homelessness amongst women aged 65 and over, and includes a note that outlines the extent of the problem.

Written with warmth, tenderness and humour, The One and Only Dolly Jamieson is a really lovely read.

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Review: The Drift by C.J. Tudor

 

Title: The Drift

Author: C.J. Tudor

Published: 19th January 2023, Michael Joseph

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy PenguinUK/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

 

I read The Drift by C.J. Tudor on a 30 degree day – that’s 30° Celsius, so around 86F, but I was quickly chilled to the core.

“At the start, there is simply relief at being alive.”

Hannah slowly regains consciousness to discover the bus she was travelling in, carrying a dozen or so students from Invicta Academy heading to The Retreat, has careered off the road and rolled part way down a mountainside in the middle of a blizzard. Hannah is trapped in the mangled bus with a handful of survivors, the bus driver is missing, and one of the dead shows signs of a deadly infection.

“As ever in this life, if you wanted to be saved, you had to do it yourself.”

The last thing Meg, an ex police officer and recovering drug addict, remembers is having breakfast in her hotel room, so she’s disoriented when she wakes in a stalled cable car as a snow storm rages outside. She’s not alone, there are four others stirring, all volunteers headed for The Retreat, and the body of a man she once knew.

“You’re either a good guy or you’re a survivor, someone had once told him. The earth is full of dead good guys.”

It’s Carter’s turn to ski down the mountain to stock up on provisions for the residents of The Retreat, a chore he hates given the threat of what lurks in the woods outside of the electric wire fence. On his return he finds the chalet is dark, Julia is dead and Nate is badly injured, but worse, the basement locks have been released.

In a post apocalyptic setting amid falling snow, three storylines eventually converge in an unexpected way in The Drift, telling a story of loss and hope, betrayal and compassion, death and survival.

Suspense wars with horror as each claustrophobic situation poses obvious and hidden dangers to the characters. The dynamics of each group are tense, confused and fascinating. Everyone is suspect, and has an agenda of some kind, assumptions are a mistake. The body count is high.

The complexity of the overarching plot is impressive. Each story thread exposes a new piece of information that often answers the questions others raise, and adds to our understanding of their world, one ravaged by a deadly uncontrollable virus, killing millions. One mystery will appear to resolve, only for another to be triggered. There is a cascade of surprises and shocks with the pacing well balanced between all three storylines.

With a compelling blend of horror and mystery, The Drift is an atmospheric, frightening, and clever novel.

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Review: Saha by Cho Nam-Joo

 

Title: Saha

Author: Cho Nam-Joo {Translated by Jamie Chang}

Published: 30th November 2022, Scribner

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia

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My Thoughts:

Saha is a disquieting dystopian story from Korean author Cho Nam-Joo that explores oppression, privilege, humanity and suffering.

Saha Estate, a decaying block of housing units, is home to a disenfranchised assortment of residents, ‘nobodies’, who eke out an existence on the fringes of an independent, corporate controlled country, ruled by an anonymous board known only as The Council of Ministers, and referred to as ‘Town’.

The narrative begins with Jin-Kyung, a young woman whose younger brother, Do-kyung, survives a suicide pact with his high status girlfriend only to be accused of murdering her.  When he disappears, Jin-Kyung’s anger at yet another injustice festers, and compounds, until she gathers her courage to confront its architects.

A series of character vignettes follows, illustrating the lives of past and current Saha outcasts including Do-kyung and his girlfriend Su, the building’s caretaker simply called “Old man”, long-time resident, Granny Konnim, and her unusual adopted granddaughter, Woomi. I was quite caught up in these heartbreaking tales of bad luck, prejudice, violence and desperation. To me each sketch highlights the ways in which somebody can become nobody, sometimes through no fault of their own.

Though there is death and secrets in Saha, I would not label it as a mystery. The focus of Saha is on exploring themes that echo current social issues, including the inequity of rampant capitalism, the effects of the pandemic, and the struggle of disenfranchised populations, especially immigrants.

Despite some interesting elements, I found Saha to be a generally grim, bleak story. Though only a short novel it is not a quick read, and offered what I felt was little payoff.

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