Hold My Place – Cassondra Windwalker

When librarian Sigrun falls head-over-heels for the sophisticated and very married Edgar Leyward, she never expects to find herself in his bed—or his heart. Nevertheless, when his enigmatic wife Octavia dies from a sudden illness, Sigrun finds herself caught up in a whirlwind romance worthy of the most lurid novels on her bookshelves.

Sigrun soon discovers Octavia wasn’t Edgar’s first lost love, or even his second. Three women Edgar has loved met early deaths. As she delves into her beloved’s past through a trove of discovered letters, the edges of Sigrun identity begin to disappear, fading into the women of the past. Sigrun tells herself it’s impossible for any dark magic to be at play—that the dead can’t possibly inhabit the bodies of the living—but something shadowy stalks the halls of the Leyward house and the lines between the love of the present and the obsessions of the past become increasingly blurred—and bloody.

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

Hold My Place was recommended to me by Jamie at Black Crow PR. It’s been in my TBR for a while but I rembember reading the blurb when it first released and thinking it definately sounded like a story I could get behind. It hardly needs said but Jamie knows her stuff as this punchy wee story was a great read and I really liked the lead character Sigrun.

Nailing the opening of a story is a sure-fire way to grab my attention early and keep me reading. Cassondra Windwalker did just that with a powerful opening to Hold My Place which immediately brought a smile ot my face and ensured I was sticking with this story to see how Sigrun got herself to the place where we first meet her.

It turns out she got to this shocking place by going to a cooking class. Sigrun is a goth, she enjoys not looking like the other women in the cookery class and doesn’t feel like she belongs there either. But all eyes in the class are taking in the chef (and tutor) Edgar. He is extremely easy on the eyes and sets hearts a fluttering round his kitchen all the students want Edgar to linger. Unfortunately Edgar also has a gorgeous and deeply loved wife – his students aren’t getting a look in. Or are they? Sigrun seems to have caught his eye and when invited to join him for a drink after class she isn’t going to say no.

Thus begins a complex and secretive series of meetings and flirtations. Sigrun becomes obsessed and can’t get the thought of Edgar out of her head. Cassondra Windwalker really does a marvellous job layering their blooming relationship and the frustrations Sigrun is experiencing. I was waiting for the darkness to descend and I was getting a love story – but I kept reading as this is compelling reading.

Suddenly the world changes. COVID arrives and any secret meetings are very much not going to happen. What will happen when the world can leave their homes again? What will a house-bound librarian do? What does a restaurant owner do if he can’t open his restaurant? Will love (or lust) find a way and what on earth takes Sigrun to that shocking place which began the story?

The love story does yield to a dark tale with that creepy twist I had been craving. It’s a quick read which delivers on emotional chills and brings some terrifying moments for Sigrun.

Kindle Unlimited readers can pick up Hold My Place as part of their Unlimited membership – otherwise you can grab a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B092BG6WW5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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November 4

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Judith O’Reilly

Welcome back to the Decades Library. It’s an ongoing quest to curate the ultimate collection of “unmissable” books and each week I invite a guest to join me and nominate some of their favouite books to my Decades Library.

The Library came into being back in January 2021 when I challenged debut author Sharon Bairden to put five of her favourite books into my new library. The shelves were bare and she could select ANY five books but she could only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades. Sharon made five brilliant selections (you can make use of the search function on the right of the page to check them out). The Decades Library was up and running. Next up was Dr Heather Martin (author of the definitive biography on Lee Child) who picked her five favourite books from a different five decades than Sharon used. That was 22 months ago and we haven’t looked back.

This week I am delighted to welcome Judith O’Reilly to the Decades Library. I am currently reading Sleep When You’re Dead which is the third in Judith’s excellent Michael North series (written under the name Jude O’Reilly). I have reviewed the first two books here on Grab This Book and you can expect a review of Sleep in due course (mini-spoiler…I am loving it).

Check out all Judith’s books here and if you haven’t encountered the Michael North books yet then you need to get onto Killing State immediately!

Time to pass the Decades Curator Hat to Judith and let her introduce her five recommended reads…

Judith O’Reilly is the author of Wife in the North and A Year of Doing Good (both published by Viking Penguin, 2008 and 2013 respectively). Wife in the North reached number three in the UK bestsellers’ chart and was in the top ten for five weeks. It was also a top ten bestseller in Germany. It sold into ten countries, was serialised by The Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and was based on Judith’s eponymous blog which was named as one of the top 100 blogs in the world by The Sunday Times. Judith’s blog is credited with kicking off the popularity of domestic blogging in the UK.

Wife in the North and A Year of Doing Good were both non-fiction. Killing State is a commercial political thriller and Judith’s first novel. At least the first one she’s allowed to leave the house without her.

Judith is a former political producer with BBC 2’s Newsnight and ITN’s Channel 4 News, and a former education correspondent with The Sunday Times where she also covered politics, undercover reporting and general news. She still occasionally writes for The Sunday Times.

DECADES

1930s

Rebecca (1938) by Daphne Du Maurier

The pull of Rebecca is a strange one I always think. I remember reading it as a teenager waiting desperately to meet the elusive, charismatic and dead Rebecca. And, of course, you never do. Even though the book is named for her. I remember not being able to drag myself away from it, but also the intense frustration as I closed the covers and put it down. It may be the first novel that made me go back and re-read it – questioning exactly what it was I was reading. But that’s part of the genius. We feel the same fascination with this dead wife as our poor narrator. A narrator who doesn’t even get a name, poor dear. (I’m not counting Mrs de Winter. We all know there was only one Mrs de Winter!) It’s a book that’s never been out of print. For a reason. It’s brilliant. Even now when we read it knowing what Maxim did – the murder, what he did with the body, the fact in the long run he got away with it. I mean, what’s that about? A man murders his wife and we’re okay with that because she was a bitch? There is so much wrong with this picture. But nonetheless, we allow ourselves to be swept up in the gothic romance of it all. And such a simple premise – a dead wife, a new wife, a tragic accident that turns out to be a cover for murder. You make the dead wife compelling and the new wife obsessed. You set it an old house by the sea. Which allows for shipwrecks. There’s a costume ball. Mix in a little romance and a lot of guilt and jealousy and the desire for revenge. Ramp up the sinister and set it against a frisson of unspoken desires. Talking of which – enter Mrs Danvers! Even writing about ‘Danny’ makes me question whether I will ever manage to create any character as sinister as the housekeeper from Hell.

1940s

Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell

I always associate Animal Farm with being 11 and in the first year of grammar school. We studied it. We took it apart and looked at it from every angle. It was a revelation for me. That you didn’t just read a book on your own in your bedroom, and enjoy the story. It was more than that. It was magic. Because the book meant something. It didn’t merely entertain you. It educated you. The writer had a purpose in the story telling. A political purpose moreover. Yes, it’s about animals who take over the farm, but it’s also about the Russian revolution and power. It’s a political allegory. It blew my mind. And you know what – I studied politics at university and then became a political correspondent and a political producer with Channel 4 News and Newsnight. I’m still a Labour party member today and track politics as if my life depended on it. (By the way, your life does depend on politics.) Is the book I read at 11 the reason why? I’d say it is undoubtedly part of it.

At 11 then, courtesy of George Orwell, I woke up to the realities of the haves and have nots, of revolution, of the totalitarian regime, of suffering. I wasn’t from a political family. But we listened to the news every day on the radio when my grocer dad came home from work and we sat down to a tea of Findus savoury mince pancakes and chips. I wasn’t from a political family but my dad got made redundant – twice. I wasn’t from a political family, but everything – as Orwell would tell you himself – is political.

1950s

Madame Serpent (1951) by Jean Plaidy

In Madame Serpent, Catherine de Medici is 14 and about to marry Henry of Orleans, second son of the King of France. Her husband however is in love with another woman. Catherine is humiliated and embittered by Henry’s treatment of her in favour of his mistress Diane de Poitiers. The stage is set for revenge.

I didn’t have books in my house aside from the Bible and the odd condensed Readers’ Digest passed on by an aunt. But I did go to the local library every fortnight and the school library. I also bought graphic novels the size of my hand from a kiosk in the bus station, and I bought second hand books from the bookstall in Leeds market which I passed through on my way home from school. For an avid reader who went through her library books faster than she could change them, it was a great system. Every time you brought the book back to the stall, you got half what you paid for it in exchange, which you promptly spent on books, which you’d return and get back half the money, and so it went on. It was this bookstall that introduced me to Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr – all noms de plumes of Eleanor Hibbert. Madame Serpent is the first in a trilogy about Catherine de Medici. All of Plaidy’s works were rigorously researched and introduced the readers to history in an accessible and real way. I’ve always enjoyed history and the Jean Plaidy novels brought it alive. Not least in how they put women at the centre of history in a way I didn’t see reflected in the textbooks I studied at school.

1960s

Master and Commander (1969) Patrick O’Brian

There are two types of people in this world. Those who have read Patrick O’Brian and those who don’t know what they’re missing and should stop what they are doing immediately and go buy a copy. It doesn’t sound like a book that anyone other than a nautical history buff would love, but in Captain Jack Aubrey and ship’s doctor Stephen Maturin, we have one of the best tag teams in literature. Master and Commander is set during the Napoleonic wars and by the time you’ve read your way through the 20-strong series of Aubrey-Maturin books, you too could sale a sloop-of-war into battle against the damnable French. Aubrey is brave, Maturin is brilliant. Both men are honorable to the core and make my cut of guests I would most like to have to an imaginary dinner party (which also includes Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe by the way). Their vividness is due in part to O’Brian’s research into original sources such as official letters and logbooks from the time. Their humanity, intelligence and charm down to O’Brian himself.

1970s

A Woman of Substance (1979) Barbara Taylor Bradford.

I first read this book when I was 15 and was gripped by the grit, resilience and ambition of its feisty Yorkshire heroine. The tale of Emma Harte, a housemaid turned millionaire retail entrepreneur. A wronged woman who refused to be defined and judged by society. Emma Harte told a generation of women it was okay to want something better and to work to get it. The book is sweeping and glorious, and as her own website describes it, is “a triumphant novel of an unforgettable woman.” It’s a multi million pound juggernaut for a reason, involving illegitimacy, betrayal, great love, suicide, money, more betrayal, and revenge. Love it. I had tea with Taylor Bradford years ago in the Dorchester, having bid for the privilege in a literary auction. You know they say never meet your heroes. Totally not true. She was glorious. I said it was lonely being a writer. She corrected me and said it was a ‘solitary’ occupation. She was interested in all of us (I took two mates along) and when she inscribed a book for me wrote: “Judith, wishing you the best of luck with your writing career, Barbara T. Bradford.” I am 100% being buried with it. She’s 89, every now and then she auctions off her jewellery or Hermes handbags, if she ever auctions off her typewriters or pen collection, I am so in.

I have read Judith’s thoughts on Animal Farm three or four times over the last half hour. I loved reading the impact this book had – this is why I want people to read Decades each week. The thought of someone picking up a book they may not have read and having an experience akin to Judith’s is the dream.

I’d like to thank Judith again for taking time to make her selections. Five big, big books which I am delighted to add to the Decades Library shelves for others to enjoy.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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November 3

The Silent Dead – Marnie Riches

She was lying as if asleep on the wooden kitchen floor, beneath the fridge covered with a child’s colourful crayon drawings. But her frozen expression showed she would never wake again…

When Detective Jackie Cooke is called out to the scene, she’s expecting a routine check. The bottle of pills on the kitchen table, next to the note with the single word SORRY written in a shaky hand, make it seem obvious what’s happened. But Jackie is shocked when she recognises her old schoolfriend Claire – and she is convinced Claire would never take her own life.

Determined to dig deeper, Jackie soon discovers evidence that proves her right: a roll of notes has been thrust down the victim’s throat. And when she finds another woman killed in the same way, she realises someone may be targeting lonely single mothers. As Jackie talks to Claire’s distraught children, one of them too young to understand his mummy is never coming home, she vows to find answers.

Both victims were in touch with someone calling himself Nice Guy – could he be the killer? Pursuing every clue, Jackie is sure she’s found a match in dead-eyed Tyler, part of a dark world of men intent on silencing women for daring to reject them. But just as she makes the arrest, another single mother is found dead – a woman who never dated at all.

Forced to re-evaluate every lead she has, with her boss pressuring her to make a case against the obvious suspect, Jackie knows she is running out of time before another innocent woman is murdered. And, as a single mother herself, she cannot help but wonder if she is in the killer’s sights. Can she uncover his true motivation and put an end to his deadly game… or will he find her first?

I received a review copy ahead of the blog tour but I read my own purchased copy. Thanks to Sarah Hardy and Bookouture for the opportunity to take part in the tour for The Silent Dead.

I’m going to cut to the chase – The Silent Dead is terrific. I raced through the story and got totally lost in Jackie Cooke’s life as she finds herself investigating the death of an old school friend.

Readers join the story as a mother drops her young son at nursery for the day. The teary parting from the boy and the heartwrench for his mum will be all too familiar for many parents and it’s an early indication of how Marnie Riches is going to play on our emotions over daily challenges and experiences. Grounding the backdrop to a murder story with elements of daily life, which we can all relate to, made everything seem more personal in The Silent Dead. After leaving her son in the care of his nursery teacher we follow Claire back to her house – it’s the last journey she will make as death awaits her.

When Detective Jackie Cooke responds to the call of a suicide she is shocked to see an old friend from her school days. She finds it hard to believe her friend would take her own life and Jackie has suspicions there may be more to Claire’s death than initially meets the eye. Jackie raises these concerns and finds her combatative boss is less than keen to read too much into matters. The evidence is a single parent with money worries who she left a note to say “sorry”. But Jackie isn’t convinced and wants to dig a little deeper. It turns out she had reason to be suspicious.

The Silent Dead takes Jackie and her colleagues deep into an investigation which will see them bashing heads with objectional ex-husbands, working girls, internet dating sites and facing the problem of the angry incels who live online and seek others who listen to their hateful rantings. Marnie Riches is very good at bringing disturbing and problematic people into her stories and showing the damage they can do when left unchecked. She shines a light on the worst of human nature and weaves compelling crime thrillers around the darker elements many of us choose to ignore (if we even know they are out there).

When not taking on the dark forces Jackie has her work more than cut out for her at home. She is a new mum who also has two older twins causing chaose at home. Returning to work early from her maternity leave, following the sudden breakdown in her marriage, Jackie is juggling work and family commitments. She is stressed, hormonal, frustrated and permanently exhausted – she felt one of the most realistic lead characters I have encountered for some time. Everyday problems ARE problems, not enough hours in the day, missing her kids, unable to get full parental support at parents night – all so relatable to many of us. This recognisable human dynamic of the day to day grind does add to the realism of the story and everyone wants to get behind Jackie and see her pull through and get some respite. If only it were that simple!

As I said at the start of this review – I really enjoyed The Silent Dead. I keep coming back to read more and more of the books Marnie Riches writes as I find them so readable. Pacing is fantastic, characters can be fun, serious and deadly dangerous and the story just flows. More of these will be very welcome.

The Silent Dead is published by Bookouture and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B3DQDSJ4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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November 1

Urgent Matters – Paula Rodriguez

The Yankees are more astute when it comes to matters like these. They say “not guilty”. They don’t say “innocent”. Because as far as innocence goes, no one can make that claim.

A train crashes in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, leaving forty-three people dead. A prayer card of Saint Expeditus, the patron saint of urgent matters, flutters above the wreckage.

Hugo, a criminal on the run for murder, is on the train. He seizes his chance to sneak out of the wreckage unsuspected, abandoning his possessions – and, he hopes, his identity – among bodies mangled beyond all recognition.

As the police descend on the scene, only grizzled Detective Domínguez sees a link between the crash and his murder case. Soon, he’s on Hugo’s tail. But he hasn’t banked on everything from the media to Hugo’s mother-in-law getting in the way.

I received a review copy from the publishers, Pushkin Press, via Netgalley

Urgent Matters opens with a train crash – within the wreckage is Hugo and we get into the story spending time in his company as the considers the carnage around him. Initially trapped within the body of the train there is a period of contemplation and reflection while Hugo waits to be rescued and hauled (through an improbably tight space) back into the Argentinian evening. It’s a fascinating way to begin a story and I was a fan of the way author, Paula Rodriguez, dwelt more on the aftermath of the crash than on the events leading up to the incident.

But Hugo isn’t the only focus for this story and the narrative will flick between him, his mother-in-law (and what a character she is), also Hugo’s partner and their daughter will feature. I used the term “flick” as there is a fast pace to the story and events do rapidly move focus from one player to the next. On one page Hugo may be seen being hauled from a train, then we are with young Evelyn who is trying to hide a mobile phone but next to her mother Marta who is fleeing her home (daughter at her heels) to reunite with the rest of her family while the police want to speak to her about Hugo.

Lots to take in but with a good dose of humour lifting the tension of the respective plights that Marta and Hugo face. While Urgent Matters isn’t the longest book I have read this year it does pack in lots of story and the fast pacing keeps you focused.

The stand out elements of the story was the fabulous character development. All the key players feel like they are pushing their way out of the book into my world. The most fascinating being young Evelyn who is a kid caught up in a frenetic situation which she cannot contribute to. Upsettingly for Evelyn she has her own problems which are causing her a fair amount of distress but she has nobody to confide in and I just wanted someone to take time to help her!

It is always a pleasure to read out of my comfort zone and Urgent Matters took me to new locations and explored different cultures than I am used to reading about. Fascinating and fun in equal measure.

Urgent Matters is published by Pushkin Press and is available in digital and paperback format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFGCSJGW/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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October 31

Desperation in Death – J.D. Robb

The Sunday Times bestselling series is back with a gripping new thriller that pits homicide detective Eve Dallas against a conspiracy of exploitation and evil…

Mina Rose Cabot, age thirteen, disappeared walking home from soccer practice in Devon, Pennsylvania.

Eight months later her body is found in Battery Park, New York, speared through the chest by a three-inch piece of wood.

Lt. Eve Dallas knows that whoever took Mina is responsible for her death. But who took her and where has Mina been for eight long months…?

I received a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley

This is novel fifty five in the Eve Dallas series – there have been short stories and novellas along the way too. I have missed two along the way (they are on a bookshelf in my house waiting for me to get to them). It is safe to say I am a fan of J.D. Robb and I always look forward to each new Eve Dallas novel.

For those not in the know, reading the first fifty four novels are not essential to enjoying this book. After the introduction of the character back in Naked in Death you can pretty much read the books any old way you like. Down the years characters have been introduced, coupled up, had babies, lost loved ones and grown as their backstories get developed. After fifty plus stories the respective backstories are so well developed that the cast of these books feel like old friends to me. I miss them when I am not reading about them.

The books have delighted (mainly) down the years but, as you may expect, some just didn’t quite land for me. Dallas is a murder cop in New York and the stories are set in the future – somewhere around the year 2060. This may put off some readers but this series delivers terrific murder tales with each new book and I love watching Dallas and her team closing in on the bad guys. After so many years of reading I have decided some stories deliver more on developing the characters and throwing big pivotal events into their timeline (with a crime in the background) whereas most books give a solid murder story to enjoy while the characters mainly work their personal lives around the latest investigation. Desperation in Death is very much a story about the crime and not a tale to shake up the characters. That said, this is one of the biggest and most harrowing adventures which Dallas and friends have had to face for quite some time.

The blurb teases the story up really nicely. A young girl is heading home and vanishes. She turns up eight months later – a large piece of wood is sticking out of her chest and she is quite dead. But the girl has only just died, she is well fed, shows evidence of having expensive hair and nail treatments and is wearing expensive clothing. Where has she been for those eight months and why has nobody seen her?

As Eve begins to look into the murder of the young girl she discovers there may have been a second girl in the area at the same time. The reader knows who the second girl was and how both came to be together at a crime scene (which one of them never left). They also know the trauma both girls have endured prior to Eve entering their lives. It’s a compelling build up and once Eve and her colleagues start to piece together the connections between the two girls we are all on a fast paced race-against-time thriller.

The stakes are higher than we have seen for some time and if there is any hope to save dozens of vulnerable children then everything the NYPD do must be done quickly, quietly and there is no room for error. I was hooked.

I knew before I picked up Desperation in Death that I would enjoy the story – I wasn’t prepared for how engrossed I would become in this particular story. Chapters flew by and I finished the whole book in a single day. I love these stories and I’m already waiting for the next one.

Desperation in Death is published by Piatkus and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09Z1R3F7T/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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October 24

Marple: Twelve New Stories

A brand new collection of short stories featuring the Queen of Crime’s legendary detective Jane Marple, penned by twelve remarkable bestselling and acclaimed authors.

The first print run will be a true collector’s edition with a gold foiled design on the cover board

This collection of twelve original short stories, all featuring Jane Marple, will introduce the character to a whole new generation. Each author reimagines Agatha Christie’s Marple through their own unique perspective while staying true to the hallmarks of a traditional mystery.

Naomi Alderman
Leigh Bardugo
Alyssa Cole
Lucy Foley
Elly Griffiths
Natalie Haynes
Jean Kwok
Val McDermid
Karen M. McManus
Dreda Say Mitchell
Kate Mosse
Ruth Ware

Miss Marple was first introduced to readers in a story Christie wrote for The Royal Magazine in 1927 and made her first appearance in a full-length novel in 1930’s The Murder at the Vicarage. It has been 45 years since Agatha Christie’s last Marple novel, Sleeping Murder, was published posthumously in 1976, and this collection of ingenious new stories by twelve Christie devotees will be a timely reminder why Jane Marple remains the most famous fictional female detective of all time.

I received a review copy from the publishers (Harper Collins) via Netgalley

In 1989 Queen released an album called The Miracle. They were the only band I would really listen to at that time in my life and I remember it clearly. At the same time I was on an Agatha Christie reading marathon. I had borrowed an Agatha Christie novel from my favourite aunt and it sparked my love for Poirot, Jane Marple, Tommy and Tuppence and all the other characters that crop up over the dozens of books. I remember those years very fondly.

Spin forward to 2022 and I am listening to a brand new Queen song (which had been left off The Miracle album by the band in 1989) and I am reading twelve new Miss Marple stories. Pinch me – I may be dreaming! Never would I have thought either of these things would have been possible.

As much as I enjoyed the new Queen single, reading Marple was the better of the two experiences.

If there is an Agatha Christie fan in your family then this book is an essential read for them – casts an eye towards Christmas here. I had a good look at the hardback copy before I posted my review and it is absolutely stunning – under the dust jacket are all the signatures of the contributing authors (in gold) which almost makes me want to display that on my shelves rather than the cover depicted above.

I have never found a collection of short stories where I have enjoyed every single story. In this collection of twelve Marple tales there are some contributions I enjoyed more than others and there was only one where was irked by the outcome. That’s a fantastic return for me as I don’t normally enjoy a short story collection. But in the case of Marple the continuity of the central character negated my normal frustration. I find a collection of individual (random) stories being too “bitty” to fully embrace for any length of time.

I’ve no intention to run through each of the stories and break down my thoughts on each – this review would run out of control if I tried that. What I will say is Jane Marple finds herself overseas in the theatres of USA, on a cruise ship and she frequently nips around the UK visiting friends and relatives or dining at University tables. Everywhere she goes those “twinkling blue eyes” see problems, upset and (most importantly) to the truth behind some shocking incidents. This is what we all wanted to see in these stories and fans will not be disappointed.

Not every case involves a murder, I did wonder if that would be the case, and it was pleasing to see not all the authors bumped off a character. Each story gives a good demonstration of the famous Jane Marple observation powers and more than once she will place herself in danger when a murderer realises this seemingly harmless old woman could expose their cleverly concealed criminal activites.

There is fun to be found in Marple – the idea of a second Murder at the Vicarage made me laugh out loud. The determination of Miss Marple and her friends to indulge in many a sherry (why not?) crops up in more than one tale. And there were many mentions of the nephew Raymond who seems to delight or frustrate in equal measure. While I am not sure if Marple would be a great introduction to the character – there are quite a few nods to the source material – for existing fans the opportuinty to read new stories featuring Jane Marple is an unexpected delight and I am extremely grateful to all the contributing authors for making that possible.

Marple is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/marple-twelve-new-stories/agatha-christie/naomi-alderman/9780008467319

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October 21

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Peter Laws

Imagine you are asked to assemble a brand new library. You have dozens of empty bookshelves waiting to be filled and you want to ensure the visitors to your library only have the very best books to choose from. The classics, the most popular, the much loved books but also the books which readers love – the story which made them want to write too, a childhood comfort read or the book which brings them most joy on the darkest days. Where do you start if you have to bring all those titles together in one place?

Well I decided to do just that – I imagined the Decades Library. But I knew I didn’t have the reading knowledge to fill the shelves with all those reading treasures so each week I invite a guest curator to join me here at Grab This Book and I ask them to nominate their recommended reading for my Library shelves.

When I ask my guest to nominate the books they feel should belong in the Ultimate Library (my Decades Library) I ask them to follow two simple rules:

1 – You Can Choose ANY Five Books

2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

Simple. Or so I thought – but I get grumbled at on a fairly regular basis.

No grumbles this week as Peter Laws grasped the challenge and hit me up with five brand new titles which I shall add to the Library shelves.

Peter Laws is an author, journalist and podcaster. He wrote the acclaimed non-fiction book ‘The Frighteners: Why We Love Monsters, Ghosts, Death and Gore’ (Icon Books, 2018). This is a globe-trotting explanation (and defence) of the human morbid streak.

He has also written the Matt Hunter series of scary crime fiction novels (Allison and Busby, 2017 – 2020). He is the writer and host of the popular, scary true stories podcast ‘Frightful’. He is the creator of ‘Creepy Cove Community Church’. A podcast which offers full and immersive church services broadcast from a mysterious haunted fishing town – where all horror movies actually happened. This inventive mix of comedy, horror, music and wellbeing support, has been described as ‘Stephen King meets Songs of Praise.’

Peter is an ordained church minister and has worked in various Churches, though he now focuses on writing and podcasting. He is a popular speaker at festivals and conferences, and he writes a monthly column in the print magazine, ‘The Fortean Times.’ He is also a featured ‘expert’ BBC show, Uncanny, with Danny Robins.

DECADES

1970s: 1978 – The Spiders by Richard Lewis

Whenever I read fiction, my genre of choice is usually horror – and in particular, pulpy horror novels from the 1970s and 1980s. Affectionately known as ‘Paperbacks from Hell’, these mass-produced shockers seemed throwaway at the time. Yet they have a wonderful mix of charm, nostalgia, edgy content and gross-out shock. As an example, I submit Spiders by Richard Lewis. It’s a skin crawling tale of a village attacked by millions of flesh eating spiders. His descriptions of people waking up at night (to find their carpets swamped with spiders) is terrifying, but the grim detail in the death scenes made me want to applaud and vomit, all at the same time. At a mere 153 pages long, Siders is a short, sharp, tightly written hit of really horrible horror. You should probably avoid it if you have arachnophobia. And if you haven’t got it, congratulations. You will by the last page.

1980s: 1987 – Strangers by Taichi Yamada

I stumbled across this book in my thirties, and I’ve never forgotten it. It’s about a recently divorced man call Hideo. He’s a successful TV scriptwriter but he has few friends and no family – his parents were killed in a hit and tun accident, when he was 12. He’s lonely, and it doesn’t help that he lives in a Tokyo office building with a very small number of apartments. It’s so deserted at night that he feels a compulsion to walk back to his childhood neighbourhood to feel connected. While there he’s astonished to meet a couple who look remarkably like his parents. They are ten years younger than he is, so it couldn’t possibly be them…could it? It’s a clever, beautiful, and really quite moving book, with a shivery thread of the supernatural throughout. I loved it.

1990s: 1998 – 99 – Uzumaki by Junji Ito

If Strangers was beautiful, this next book (a graphic novel from Japan) is it’s direct opposite. Sure, the artwork is amazing and rich, but this is absolutely rammed with bizarre, horrific and genuinely frightening images. It’s set in Kurozo-cho, a small foggy town where the locals a starting to be haunted. Not by a ghost or a demon…but by a pattern. They keep seeing spirals everywhere. In the clouds, in seashells, in whirlpools. This spiral madness spreads throughout the town with truly nightmarish results. I read this book last year. I’d dip in a bit just before drifting off to sleep. There were several times when I woke up in the deepest ditch of the night, and I questioned my life choices. Try it.

2000s: 2009 – Shatnerquake by Jeff Burke

I figured there was space for a totally insane and ridiculous self-published book from Jeff Burk. Simply because I thought it was a blast. ‘Shatnerquake’ takes place at Shatnercon: the world’s biggest convention for William Shatner fans. Shatner is there in attendance, but he deeply wishes he wasn’t. That’s because a ‘reality bomb’ gets detonated and it somehow brings every character that Shatner has ever played, to life! Their mission: to hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner. I’m a big William Shatner fan and I do not make any apology for that. So I found the idea of a homicidal Captain Kirk and murderous TJ Hooker trying to kill their creator, to be irresistible. A glance at the opening quote ought to tell you that this book is not officially endorsed by the Shat: ‘How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It’s simple. I drink the blood of young runaways’. – William Shatner.

2010s – 2011: Falling Upward by Fr. Richard Rohr

Finally I offer a non-fiction book with a concept that really touched me. Father Richard Rohr is an intelligent, open-hearted and engaging Franciscan monk, who makes the case that our lives are split into two halves. The first half feels more simplistic, where our opinions and ideas are often clear and in black and white. Yet the second half of life can become confusing or contradictory, where ideas we thought were solid are challenged and where we see a catalogue of our own failures and mistakes building. This loss of foundation and confidence can seem like a disorientating loss, but Rohr persuasively argues that it is an essential gain – a fall, upward. Being a Christian myself, I found Rohr’s open minded faith to be invigorating, and it’s an important reminder that what can feel like spiritual confusion, might actually be spiritual maturity.

Sometimes I share a new selection of recommendations and I am frantically trying to remember if any of the five have featured recently. As I put together Peter’s selections I was quite confident none of his selections have featured in the 21 months of Decades. There have been very few non-fiction selections, fewer graphic novels and horror (beyond Mr King) is scarce too. Shockingly this is also the first mention of William Shatner. Some real variety to get your teeth into – thanks Peter!

DECADES WILL RETURN

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October 18

The Dying Squad – Adam Simcox (audiobook)

WHO BETTER TO SOLVE A MURDER THAN A DEAD DETECTIVE?

When Detective Inspector Joe Lazarus storms a Lincolnshire farmhouse, he expects to bring down a notorious drug gang; instead, he discovers his own dead body and a spirit guide called Daisy-May.

She’s there to enlist him to the Dying Squad, a spectral police force made up of the recently deceased. Joe soon realises there are fates far worse than death. To escape being stuck in purgatory, he must solve his own murder.

Reluctantly partnering with Daisy-May, Joe faces dangers from both the living and the dead in the quest to find his killer – before they kill again.

I am reviewing my bought copy of the audiobook of The Dying Squad

The blurb (above) actually contains spoilers for the first few chapters of the book. Probably just as well as it would be really tricky to try to review The Dying Squad while trying to keep quiet the fact the lead character, Joe Lazarus, is dead. Not that Lazarus knows it immediately. We join him on a stakeout as he prepares to bring down a gang who have been providing drugs to the local community. The property under surveliance is an isolated farmhouse but when Lazarus enters the property he finds two suspects dead in the hallway and – shockingly – his own dead body in an upstairs room.

Throughout this introduction Lazarus is being accompanied by Daisy-May. She strolled over to speak with him while he was watching the farmhouse and then, despite all his warnings, she followed him into the property and was with him when he discovered his body. Daisy-May is dead too. But she has had more experience at being dead and it is her job to guide him into his afterlife and into purgatory.

No rest for Joe Lazarus, he has a job to do for the woman that runs purgatory. She needs Lazarus to return to earth and find his killer. He will have Daisy-May for company and she will help him investigate and to understand what he can and cannot do now that he is dead. Having Lazarus and Daisy-May together for so much of the story means their interactions need to be fun and by God they are. I loved the zippy one-liners, the sass and the sarcasm. Daisy-May is such a strong character and I loved listening to her keeping Lazarus in check.

One element of The Dying Squad which I really enjoyed was the way Adam Simcox built up the real world, the afterlife and how the characters traverse between the two. Then there are the citizens of purgatory – a mass of lost souls or a sinister collective seeking a purpose? I wasn’t sure how they may fit into the story but contrast that to the evil forces (both on this earth and beyond it). There are bad guys in The Dying Squad and there are REALLY bad guys. The author can dispense some particularly nasty punishment to his characters when a fate worse than death is a geninue threat that will keep them focused on their mission.

It’s clever and creative storytelling in The Dying Squad and as all the “normal” rules are suspended I really did not know what may lie ahead for Lazarus and Daisy-May. Adam Simcox does a great job of developing his key characters, I was buying into their stories right from the first pages and the shocks they expereinced were equally shocking to me. Terrific fun to read – or to listen to in my case.

The audiobook is narrated by Sophie Aldred (soon to be seen back on our television screens reprising her role as Ace in Doctor Who). As a long time fan of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio adentures I have listened to Sophie Aldred’s voice on more dog walks than I can count. As such, listening to her reading The Dying Squad was an absolute treat. She captured the feisty nature of Daisy-May superbly and brought the gravitas and drama for Lazarus as he contended with the changes in his life (beginning with his death). I have a short list of favourite audiobook narrators but after hearing The Dying Squad I will need to make that short list a little bit longer.

The Dying Squad comes with lashings of darkness and you’ll need to have an acceptance for fantasy in your crime stories to enjoy this book as much as I did. Personally I couldn’t get enough of this story and because I was a little late to the party in discovering The Dying Squad the sequal, The Generation Killers, has already been released. Reader – I have bought that too.

The Dying Squad is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-dying-squad/adam-simcox/9781473230767

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October 14

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Trevor Wood

Every Friday I welcome a guest to Grab This Book and I ask them to help me add new books to my Decades Library. It’s a project I started back in January 2021 and over the last 20 months my Library has grown beyond my wildest dreams.

If you haven’t encountred by Decades Library in the past then let me quickly explain what’s happening. I imagined a brand new library, a vast space filled with empy book shelves waiting for the books to be added. But which books? If you had to curate a brand new library and only wanted the very best books to be available for readers which books would you choose?

I knew this was not a task I could complete on my own so I invite guests to join me each week and I ask them to nominate five books which they believe should be added to my libary shelves. But why is it a “Decades” Library? Well there are two rules which govern the selections my guests can make:

1 – Pick ANY Five Books
2 – You Can Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

This week I am delighted to welcome CWA Dagger winner Trevor Wood to the Library. Trevor is the third member of the Northern Crime Writing Syndicate who has made their Decades selections (and a fourth syndicate member will soon make an appearance).

But enough explanations, you’re here for Trevor’s choices so it’s time to hand over control of the Library to Mr Wood…

Trevor Wood has lived in Newcastle for 30 years and considers himself an adopted Geordie, though he still can’t speak the language. He’s a successful playwright who has also worked as a journalist and spin-doctor for the City Council. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for 16 years. Trevor holds an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) from UEA.

His first novel The Man on the Street, which is set in his home city and features the homeless protagonist, Jimmy Mullen, won the Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasey New Blood Dagger for best debut and the Crimefest Specsavers Debut Novel of the Year. It was also shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and has been optioned for television by World Productions, the makers of Line of Duty. It was followed by the highly-acclaimed sequel, One Way Street and the final book in the trilogy, Dead End Street was released in January. His next book, You Can Run, a standalone thriller set in rural Northumberland is out in March 2023.

Trevor is one of the founder members of the Northern Crime Syndicate and is a volunteer chef at the People’s Kitchen in Newcastle, a charity that provides hot meals for around 250 people every day.

@TrevorWoodWrite

www.trevorwoodauthor.co.uk

DECADES

Whenever I’m making any kind of list about books that inspired me to want to write I always start with A Clockwork Orange and build around that so the 1960s had to be on my list. I couldn’t leave Dennis Lehane off either so my fifty-year period was almost inevitable. It’s a lot darker than I would have anticipated but I used to be a comedy writer so when I decided to turn myself into a ‘gritty’ crime writer I devoured a ton of dark stuff, especially James Ellroy and David Peace and have clearly developed a taste for it. Though I first read A Clockwork Orange when I was about 14 so maybe it’s always been there!

The River of Adventure Enid Blyton 1955

I know she had her faults but Enid Blyton was my gateway drug into crime fiction. The Secret Seven and The Famous Five were great but my favourites were always the Adventure gang, Jack, Lucy-Ann, Philip, Dinah and Kiki. How could you not love a gang of crime-solving kids with a pet parrot?

A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962

The first ‘grown-up’ book that really spoke to me. Alex was the first cool anti-hero I’d ever come across and the made-up Nadsat language was like a secret code that kept the grown-ups at a distance, a lot of kids at my school started using it to wind up the teachers. It’s a great shame that the terrible Kubrick film concentrated so much on the violence and ultimately led to Burgess dismissing his own work as the book is about much more than that. Dark, challenging and, for me, at times, profound.

The Dice Man 1971 Luke Rhinehart

Another pitch black, cool book, dangerous almost. The bored protagonist, Luke, starts to make all his decisions on the throw of a dice which leads him into some very nihilistic territory. Many thought it was autobiographical when it first came out, probably because the author used a pseudonym and legend has it that a lot of readers copied Luke’s approach in real life.

The Black Dahlia 1987 James Ellroy

No one else does it quite like Ellroy. The Black Dahlia was the first book in an outstanding quartet which also featured, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz. It portrayed a post-war Los Angeles peppered with violence, corruption, and voyeurism and was described by one critic as ‘the most ambitious and accomplished crime fiction in the history of American literature.’ They were spot on.

A Drink Before The War 1990 Dennis Lehane

The first in my favourite crime series, introducing Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, a beautifully realised pair of private detectives whose on-off relationship adds an extra dimension to some brilliant thrillers, including Gone Baby Gone which was made into an equally wonderful film by Ben Affleck. Lehane is a master of his craft – he was also one of the team of writers on the brilliant TV series, The Wire.

Decades always brings gems but sometimes one of my guests brings one of my favouite books to the Decades Library. Trevor has done just that today. Although I have likely read The River of Adventure a dozen times or more I have so much more love for the Kenzie and Gennaro books. A Drink Before the War wasn’t the first story I read in this brilliant series by Dennis Lehane but I remember when I did finally read it – it blew me away.

My thanks to Trevor for five storming selections – all to be added to the Decades Library.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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October 11

Wolf Pack – Will Dean

When there’s a pack on the hunt, nobody’s safe

A closed community

Rose Farm is home to a group of survivalists, completely cut off from the outside world. Until now.

A missing person

A young woman goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. Can Tuva talk her way inside the tight-knit group to find her story?

A frantic search

As Tuva attempts to unmask the culprit, she gains unique access to the residents. But soon she finds herself in danger of the pack turning against her – will she make her way back to safety so she can expose the truth?

Will Dean’s most heart-pounding Tuva Moodyson thriller yet takes Tuva to her absolute limits in exposing a heinous crime, and in her own personal life. Can she, and will she, do the right thing?

My thanks to Point Blank Crime for the review copy of Wolf Pack and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this spot on the Wolf Pack blog tour.

A Tuva Moodyson book from Will Dean means a return to the wilds of Sweden, and stories which are set in a small town which feels lost in a big landscape. Despite the miles and miles of woodland which surround Tuva’s home town Mr Dean always manages to make these stories feel claustrophobic.

If you are new to these stories then you’ve missed some great books and I would highly recommend taking some time to catch up on the earlier titles. But if Wolf Pack is your introduction to Tuva’s world then you can rip straight into this book and not worry too much about what has gone before as the story is a self contained thriller. There is one significant incident in the previous books which casts a long shadow over Tuva’s situation but it is addressed in depth during Wolf Pack so you get all the information you need to follow the story. Beyond that Tuva is a journalist in a small town. She is deaf, tenatious, persistent and one of the best new protagonists to enter crime fiction in the last few years.

The story in Wolf Pack begins with a missing girl: Elsa Nyberg. She is twenty years old and works at Rose Farm which is an isoloated community where visitors are not welcomed and the residents are survivalists with no time or interest for things beyond their walls. Rose Farm has a dark history too which only serves to give the community and their settlement a dark vibe – it’s best avoided. Tuva, however, is not looking to avoid Rose Farm. She has been asked to look out for the Elsa and that will involve going to Rose Farm and asking questions.

As Wolf Pack is such a tight story it is hard to give too much detail about how the story unfolds without getting too far into spoiler territory. Suffice to say Tuva’s questions will start to uncover incidents and events which some people would prefer did not become common knowledge. She will put herself into danger in a pursuit for the truth but as Tuva doesn’t know who presents a danger to her it keeps her (and the reader) in a tense state as events unfold.

Will Dean always delivers with his Tuva Moodyson books and Wolf Pack is no exception. Once you step back into Tuva’s world there is no getting out until the author has told his story – it will shock, thrill and entertain. More of these please, always such fun.

Wolf Pack is available from Point Blank Crime in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09XN8GBBB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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