Doubleday – Grab This Book

A Slow Fire Burning – Paula Hawkins

‘What is wrong with you?’

Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She’s seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous.

Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn’t mean she’s a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace?

Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill.

Look what you started.

I received a review copy from the publishers. My thanks also go to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the tour for A Slow Fire Burning.

A Slow Fire Burning: a book which took a little while to draw me in – the classic slow burn thriller. And that’s exactly what this story was; even though the prologue tells of a young girl fleeing from a man who seems to have harmed her friend and the first chapter introduces us to Laura as she tries to wash blood from her t-shirt. Indeed the first five pages tell of danger, violence and two vulnerable women so you can’t say Paula Hawkins isn’t grabbing your attention from the get-go.

And once the reader gets past those first five pages there is soon a brutal murder to read about local busybody, Miriam, finds a dead man sprawled on the floor of his houseboat. Miriam tries to keep track of all the activity on the houseboats beside her own so she knows the man in question had entertained young Laura a few days earlier and even finds something belonging to Laura by his body but she isn’t going to leave that for the police to find…why not? I wondered.

Once the murder has been discovered, and Miriam has the chance to chat with the police about what she may have seen, Paula Hawkins takes us through the players in this clever drama. This is when the perception of a slow burn may kick in as we learn about the lives and background of those involved.

The murdered man’s aunt is Carla who recently lost her sister too. Carla experienced the ultimate tragedy many years earlier when her son, as a toddler, died while under the care of Carla’s sister. Her son’s death placed too much strain on Carla’s marriage to Theo and the marriage ended but the couple stay just a few streets apart and Carla still spends time with Theo. Theo is a successful novelist with a smash hit in his past, however, there is a suggestion he took inspiration from events in Miriam’s life and there is a history of bad feeling between the pair. Switch back to Laura, a troubled girl who was injured as a child by a hit and run driver leaving her with a damaged leg, a trigger temper and the inability to always think clearly and rationally. Laura earns a few extra quid by collecting shopping for Irene who is now in her 80s and not as mobile as she was. Irene was Angela’s next-door neighbour. Who is Angela? Well that would be Carla’s sister, Theo’s sister-in-law and the woman responsible for looking after Carla’s son the night he died. Angela died just a couple of weeks before events in the story commenced.

Phew, there are a fair few connections in that ensemble and Paula Hawkins establishes each character and covers their background with great care. She is seeding plot threads and throwing out red herrings and it is skillfully done. Okay it does mean the murder is slightly pushed to the background and this may give the impression we are not getting anywhere but we are, everything is leading somewhere and your reward as a reader is to getting to know these people and understanding their lives because nothing is quite what it seems.

You finish reading A Slow Fire Burning and you know you have finished reading a great story. That’s what we want, a book to set up a cast, push them and stretch their emotions to limits they didn’t know they had and stepping back to see how they react. Unpredictably!

A Slow Fire Burning is published by Doubleday and is available in Hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order your copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-slow-fire-burning/paula-hawkins/2928377051112

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October 20

Some Lockdown Reviews

Without being too subtle about 2020 – it has been a really crap year. I have found my reading has really suffered and my reviews more so. Working from home has been a great relief but at the end of my working day I have felt little urge to shut down the work laptop only to remain sitting in the same spot and crank open my own laptop to draft a few reviews.

But that’s selfish behaviour – I have used stories to lift my blue moods and give me the escapism I needed. Maybe someone else would benefit from knowing about the great stories which brought me some respite and the authors and teams behind the stories worked so hard to get their books out there that I cannot simply pass them over without comment. So here are some catch up reviews for books I have read “in lockdown”

Knife Edge – Simon Mayo

You never know where danger may come from…

6.45am. A sweltering London rush hour. And in the last 29 minutes, seven people have been murdered.

In a series of coordinated attacks, seven men and women across London have been targeted. For journalist Famie Madden, the horror unfolds as she arrives for the morning shift.

The victims have one thing in common: they make up the investigations team at the news agency where Famie works. The question everyone’s asking: what were they working on that could prompt such brutal devastation?

As Famie starts to receive mysterious messages, she must find out whether she is being warned of the next attack, or being told that she will be the next victim…

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

I know that Simon Mayo has had a number of successful books which are aimed at younger readers so I was keen to see how the transition to the adult market would be recieved. If Knife Edge is reflection on the excitement and tension he brought to his earlier books then I can see why his previous titles are held in such high regard. This was a highly enjoyable thriller.

Focus is on Famie Madden, she works for one of the top media outlets in the country and on the day we join her story she is in the hot-seat for co-ordinating all the stories which are going to air. However, Famie is soon to find the news is coming far too close to home – a series of murders in London all take place during the start of the morning rush hour. The attacks are clearly linked and must have been conducted by different people as they are spread around the city. As more information starts to come through to Famie and her team they realise that all the victims are their colleagues.

It is a shocking opening to the story and Famie is impacted more than most as she had been in a secret relationship with one of the victims. Naturally Famie wants answers so she begins to look into what story her colleagues may have been working on that brought about their terrible fate.

Knife Edge has all the thrills you need from a high stakes thriller. After a dynamic start the pace does slow a touch but it’s a steady build up back to a corking finale. While there haven’t been many opportunities to post recommendations for a summer beach read – Knife Edge falls into that category. The paperback is out in March 2021 so keep this one in mind when the good weather returns and you are planning some relaxing downtime. If you can’t wait that long then hardback, digital and audio copies are all available now!

Knife Edge is published by Doubleday and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WFS252B/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

The Photographer – Craig Robertson

The sergeant took some from each box and spread them around the floor so they could all see. Dozens upon dozens of them. DI Rachel Narey’s guess was that there were a few hundred in all.

Photographs.

Many of them were in crowd scenes, some just sitting on a park bench or walking a dog or waiting for a bus or working in shops. They seemed to have no idea they’d been photographed.

A dawn raid on the home of a suspected rapist leads to a chilling discovery, a disturbing collection hidden under floorboards. Narey is terrified at the potential scale of what they’ve found and of what brutalities it may signal.
When the photographs are ruled inadmissible as evidence and the man walks free from court, Narey knows she’s let down the victim she’d promised to protect and a monster is back on the streets.
Tony Winter’s young family is under threat from internet trolls and he is determined to protect them whatever the cost. He and Narey are in a race against time to find the unknown victims of the photographer’s lens – before he strikes again.

I was at the launch of The Photographer and Craig Robertson gave a very powerful demonstration of the inherent creepiness behind an element of this story. It made me uncomfortable but made me really want to read The Photographer to see how the author addressed the issue in the book.

I was horrified to realise that a good many months (far, far too many) have passed since that launch event and that a review I thought I had written remained outstanding. The good thing about a good book is that it doesn’t go away and on a recent trip to my local bookshop I saw copies of The Photographer on the shelves waiting to find new readers. Go find it – this is a powerful and brilliantly told story.

Photographs – taken without the consent of the subject, or without the subject even knowing they were being photographed, have been found by DI Rachel Narey while she searched the home of a suspected rapist. What was already a harrowing case has taken an even more sinister turn. Narey is convinced her suspect is guilty of the rape she is investigating but now she wonders what other crimes he may have committed. She will throw herself at this case in the pursit of justice and in doing so will bring danger to her home.

This is an incredibly tense read and it’s another cracking addition to what is already a brilliant series. Craig Robertson knows how to hold his readers attention and I found I lost huge chunks of time engrossed in The Photographer. The scenes of tension and peril are nicely balanced out with lighter moments between Narey and Winter as their relationship further develops and they juggle their time between work and caring for their young daughter.

It is always a reading treat to spend time with one of Craig Robertson’s books – if you haven’t read any of his books before now then there is no time like the present to start!

The Photographer is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XKH76MX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4

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October 14

The Shepherd’s Crown – Terry Pratchett

A SHIVERING OF WORLDS

Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength.

This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad.

As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land.

There will be a reckoning . . .

THE FINAL DISCWORLD NOVEL

So much has already been written about The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett’s final Discworld novel, that it is hard to know where to take this review where I may cover new ground. So this review is a little different..you don’t need me to summarise the plot: it is a Pratchett Witches story. You don’t need me to introduce the characters (it is Tiffany and the Witches). You don’t even need me to tell you if it is a good story: it is the last ever Discworld book written by Terry Pratchett and – having read all the previous books – I am not going to be unhappy with it.

Except it did make me unhappy.

Well I should clarify…it made me sad. It made me so sad that I sat in a café with tears streaming down my face. Proper big wet dripping tears.

I loved the Discworld books. I have invested many hours of my life reading, re-reading and taking about the characters from the Disc. I have my favourites…favourite characters, favourite books and even favourite jokes. Other than my single read of The Shepherd’s Crown I have read each of the Discworld books at least 3/4 times. In the case of Nightwatch that rises to over a dozen times. Let there be no doubt that since I was in High School (and I am now past my 40th birthday) I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett. Reading The Shepherd’s Crown and knowing there were no more titles to follow was harrowing.

My personal reading trauma should not take away from the fact that The Shepherd’s Crown is a GOOD Terry Pratchett story. While previous novels featuring Tiffany Aching have been more aligned to a slightly younger reader this is very much a read with a darker tone. The primary reason of the darker tone is death. Not DEATH (the blue eyed, cat loving skeleton that Pratchett fans love so much) but actual end of life death – the final reckoning. Perhaps it is appropriate that in his final Discworld novel Mr Pratchett casts his attention to death in the way he has previously lampooned trains, the post office and Christmas. Except death is not such a light-hearted topic and the story of The Shepherd’s Crown is more brutal at times than may have previously been the case in earlier books.

Had I considered it, I would not have wanted it to be a Tiffany story which was the last ever Discworld book, I felt that her tale reached a natural conclusion in I Shall Wear Midnight. However, I will confess that Tiffany and the Witches give the series a great send off – the story seemed right as I read it and I feel it brought the Discworld to an acceptable place for us to leave it on its journey. I would have loved one last chance to see the Watch in action, travel with Death to his realm and see Albert and the Death of Rats, have the Luggage stamp through the background and see Rincewind running in the other direction…but it was not to be. But what we do get from The Shepherd’s Crown is a poignant send off from one of the nations most loved authors and a series finale that builds upon the legacy of all the books that came before it.

You would not start reading the Harry Potter books with the 7th title in the collection. Nor should you consider picking up The Shepherd’s Crown as your first introduction to Discworld, this is a story which has been years in the making – the sum of many parts – and for this reason it is a magnificent addition to the collection.

For this reader the Discworld has been a place of escape; a world of dragons and assassins, trolls, dwarves and wizards – it has been an ever present through my adult life and will continue to be my refuge when this world gets too much for me. Thank you Sir Terry.

Now if you will excuse me I think I must have some grit in my eyes….

The Shepherd’s Crown is published by Doubleday and is available in Hardback and digital formats.

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May 8

Deborah Install – A Robot in the Garden Q&A

Today I am delighted to welcome Deborah Install to the blog to discuss the wonderful A Robot In The Garden. We chatted a few days before publication but the good news is that you can pick up the Tang’s adventure now as A Robot In The Garden was published on 23rd April.

I suppose the first question has to be: why a robot?

That’s a good question – and the honest answer that I don’t know! He just came to me like that. The whole premise came out of the name, ‘Acrid Tang’ (off the back of a conversation about nappies!) and that just always sounded like a robot to me. The conversation happened one night, and by the next morning the outline of Ben, Tang and Bollinger were there, as was the journey. I grew up in the heyday of Star Wars and The Terminator, though, so perhaps I was always going to write a robot book, I just never knew it!

In the book robots are commonplace and form part of most households, is the story set at some point in the near future or in an alternate ‘now’?

I was very keen that Ben and Tang’s world should be a recognisable world, where the only real difference was that AI is household, so I guess when I started writing I probably had in mind an alternate reality. Since writing the book though robot technology seems to have leapt ahead and now there is a real possibility that robot carers and the like will be available soon, so as it happens the book could be set in the near future.

Tang is depicted as having a somewhat comical appearance – the robot that other robots look down upon and laugh at (cyber bullying as it were). Why did Tang have to be so different?

I think because I started with Tang and knew exactly what he looked like I sort of retrofitted the androids, making them up to date and shiny and therefore providing a point of antagonism between Ben and Amy, with the latter wanting one of the shiny ones. Tang also parallels Ben, both being broken but in different ways, so there was an opportunity to cement their friendship as they faced a critical world together. When I describe the difference between Tang and the rest of the AI around him I liken them to phones – smartphones are so prevalent now that those without often get gently teased about it. I put in the conversation between Lizzie and Ben about phones to help the allusion. That said, Tang is only like a retro phone on the outside, of course, but other AI don’t seem to see this.

I described Tang in my review as childlike and noted that he could behave like a toddler: many of his conversations certainly exhibit perfect toddler logic. Is Tang a young robot or are his frustrating/endearing traits down to an innocence?

It’s a bit of both, I think. That Tang is like a toddler was a large part to do with injecting humour – a quick look at friends’ facebook posts about their children tells me that toddlers are inherently funny, and it’s a feature of life as a parent that can be identified by many. Weirdly, though, when I wrote the book my own son was a small baby and not talking, but he’s actually got more and more like Tang as time has gone on – he evens hops from foot to foot in excitement. Tang’s personality is also down to his experience – he has a darker edge when it comes to Bollinger. For example Ben has to tell him that it is unkind to leave Bollinger possibly at risk, but I guess that’s a toddler thing too, learning empathy.

Could we see Tang return, perhaps next time mirroring a stroppy teenager?

Absolutely. Though obviously he isn’t subject to the hormones of a teenager, he is subject to some of the experience of one – the wish to exercise independence and the possibility of falling in love. I have plans but whether they are realised depends entirely on whether readers want to see them! 🙂

I loved the book cover – my eyes were drawn to it and I found I wanted to know what the story behind the title was. How much input did you have regarding the cover, in particular how the robot was drawn?

None at all. I am a big believer in people being allowed to do the job they’re hired to do, so I was happy to leave it to the professionals at Transworld and the wonderful Neil Gower to create the cover. I’m not saying I’ll never want input into a cover, but at this stage of my career I’m happy to accept that I don’t know anything!

How long did it take to get Tang from an idea to full publication?

I have been very, very lucky. I started writing Tang in autumn 2012, got my agent in September 2013 and the book was picked up by Transworld in early summer in 2014. I have been told this is pretty fast.

As we are now just days from the official publication date how does it feel?

It’s amazing. It’s only when it got to about six weeks before publication that I started to allow myself to be really excited, though, otherwise I think I’d have burned out. It’s been my ambition since childhood, and 30 years is a long time to incubate a dream so sometimes it almost feels a bit like it’s happening to somebody else. I can’t really describe it, except to say I can’t wait to hold the book in my arms just like you would a newborn baby!

Could you outline A Robot In The Garden in one sentence?
(My initial effort of The Man and Robot Bro-mance Roadtrip is not going to cut it).

Oh, I don’t know, I think that’s a pretty good assessment! My early elevator pitch whilst I was still writing was something like ‘Short Circuit meets Round Ireland with a Fridge’, but the book moved on so far since then that I don’t think that really covers it. So let’s see…how about: broken man finds broken robot and through a series of comedy capers both are fixed? I kinda like that.

In the author notes at the end of A Robot In The Garden you take time to thank the writing groups you have worked with. Had you started working on a novel prior to joining a writing group or did the book stem from the groups?

I had, yes. I’ve been writing fiction since I could pick up a pencil, and attempting novels since my late teens, with a break in my twenties while I gained some life experience! I joined Solihull Writers’ Workshop with a novel that had been shelved for a while with the intention of picking it back up again, and I did, but after a break from the group for a few months while I had my baby I went back with a new little project about a man and a robot…I just felt I wanted to write something lighter and funnier than my previous, which was a serious YA science fantasy.

I grew up in the 80’s and have fond memories of Metal Mickey, K9, Johnny 5 and R2-D2. I now have two kids and cannot immediately think of any robots in their TV or films (though R2 is still kicking around I suppose). Is it time Robots were cool again?

I think so! This year seems very much to be the Year of the Robot, with films like Ex Machina and Chappie both out this quarter, and ARITG, of course. We are so close to integrating the kind of robots we all imagine into society that it makes sense for us to explore our relationship with them at this time. Also, robots aren’t just for boys and sci-fi fans – you’d be amazed at the bias when you mention the word ‘robot’.

I always like to know what other people are reading, what would I see on your bookshelves?

Unsurprisingly I love funny novels, especially where the humour is well-observed. I am a big fan of Alexander McCall-Smith and Nick Hornby. I’m also a bit of a sucker for historical crime, such as C.J. Sansom. Aside that, I’ll give any sort of novel a go, really, you never know when something different will capture your imagination.

Which authors have you found inspiring?

The Handmaid’s Tale made a big impression on me as a teen, and Margaret Atwood has been a great inspiration to me as a woman writing future-set novels. I also can’t let the question go by without mentioning the wonderful late Terry Pratchett, whose legacy is such an incredible inspiration. Lessons in world-building and character creation. J.K. Rowling, similarly. I think she is the Queen of Characters, and I admire her ethos on social politics and what she has chosen to do with her success.

Finally, do you have any new projects underway that you can share?

Indeed! I have already mentioned the possibility of more Tang, but also I’m writing a separate project involving time travel (also comedy), where I hope to do the same with that as I did with robots in this one, i.e. time travel is just a thing that happens, rather than a big deal, as such. Where I focused on friendships and relationships in ARITG this one will look at work and career frustrations.

Many thanks to Deborah.

Deborah Install is on Twitter: @DeborahInstall

A Robot In The Garden is published by Doubleday and can be purchased in physical and digital format : http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0857523023/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_

My Review is here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=478

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March 23

Disclaimer – Renee Knight

What if you realized the book you were reading was all about you?

It is unmistakably you.

Worse, it is about something that you have never told anyone – anyone living that is.

Many thanks to Alison Barrow of Transworld for my review copy.

Catherine Ravenscroft is reading a book. As the story unfolds she realises that she is reading her own story, the character names have been changed but there is no doubt that this is a book about her. Unfortunately for Catherine this is not a flattering tale and her darkest secrets are being revealed and even worse the ending is genuinely terrifying as it portrays Catherine’s death.

How has this book made its way into her home? Who is the author that has been able to recount events that only Catherine can know about? And who else is reading the book?

Disclaimer is one of the books that I cannot discuss too openly in a review. A psychological thriller which you need to read for yourself to appreciate the impact of the twists and revelations. Renee Knight has delivered a tight thriller depicting a woman who is trying to retain a degree of control while all around her the life she has built for her-self is crumbling apart.

My (non-spoiler) thoughts in brief:

Initially it is easy to empathise with Catherine: someone is targeting her and she is scared. Then we meet author of the book and learn that there are two sides to every story and we start to question what we know about Catherine. A nice touch as I had been too trusting that Catherine was all she appeared to be – who is telling the truth?

Renee Knight does a masterful job of depicting Catherine’s descent into a fearful paranoia. Secrets will out but there will be pain and heartbreak before all the facts are known.

An unsettling story but one that will keep you reading late into the night.

Disclaimer is published by Doubleday on 9^th April 2015.

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March 11

James Hannah Q&A (The A-Z of You and Me)

Today I am delighted to welcome James Hannah to the blog as we discuss his powerful novel The A-Z of You and Me.

We so-often hear that writers are advised to ‘Write about what you know.’ Have you drawn upon personal experiences for The A-Z of You and Me?

Indirectly. The point of working with a pre-existing structure – or rather, two of them, the alphabet and the body – was to render personal experiences largely redundant. I simply had a set of questions to answer:

Why would anyone be playing this A to Z game?

Answer: My character wants to occupy his mind with stories.

Why?

Answer: Because he’s anxious.

Why?

Answer: Because he’s dying.

Why?

It was from these and subsequent questions that the story began to tell itself, without having to rely on any personal input from me.

However, I did find that the personal experiences began to accompany and attend to the main plot as I went along. The Amber and Sheila subplots in particular started to encroach on the main plot and see it on its way, and came from experiences I was going through as I was writing the book. But these experiences were by necessity reduced to their essential emotional drivers, which hopefully then makes them universal and relatable: they really could be happening to anyone – as indeed they probably will, to everyone, in some form.

How long did it take to bring The A-Z of You and Me from your original idea to now (the week of publication)?

My first notes were on 20 March 2008, so that’s very nearly seven years. But I’ve done a lot of other things too.

Can you share with us how it feels to see your first novel unleashed into the world?

I suppose I was hoping for positive responses and anxious about negative ones – but I’ve been surprised and moved by the depth of feeling and emotional openness with which some people have responded. Which is stupid of me really, because that’s what I set out to achieve. I feel a great deal of responsibility for working with subjects that have the potential to reactivate some difficult memories for readers.

I am trying to avoid plot spoilers, however, it is fair to say that this is not always a happy carefree story. How hard was it to find a balance against Ivo’s bleak situation and yet retain the “Comedy of Errors” element which lightens the story?

A great many people (a majority of people I know) tend to leaven extreme situations with humour. Humour is rarely far away from even the bleakest situation, because often humour is the very expression by one person to another of how very sad a given situation is. And it’s togetherness that almost inevitably creates opportunities for cheerfulness, even in the most utterly hopeless of circumstances.

Every town’s hospice has its name circulated in doomy whispers: “You don’t want to end up in St Andrew’s or St Leonard’s or St Catherine’s . . .” But when you get there, they can be places of great relief, togetherness and no little humour.

So it was, if not simple, then at least a straightforward task to give this book as much lightness and ease as I could. I used the working title of the book (‘The Body Comedy’) as an aide memoire to keep it funny wherever possible. Of course the end result is not quite comedy (as far as I can tell), but it creates poignancy and relief.

Much of the story is told through flashbacks as Ivo recalls significant events in this life. He does not sugar coat his past and the picture we get is of a man who believes that he has made mistakes. Did you try to make Ivo a flawed character or do you see him as a relatively typical guy who perhaps did not always made the best of the opportunities that arose?

Quite a few people have found Ivo to be immature for a 40 year old, which I find interesting. I see Ivos everywhere, in any friendship group. People in their late teens and twenties do stupid things and don’t look after themselves. There are entire industries founded on this constant. And it’s so common to see older men and women than Ivo sporting the styles they identified with in their teens and twenties.

As far as Ivo is concerned, when you use first-person narrative you see all of your character’s thoughts, good and bad, and so for me a fully-rounded, truthful character is always going to be flawed.

As for Ivo not making the best of the opportunities that arise, that is true, but I would also point out that he has no effective support and no role models.

I keep returning to the adage that you can choose your friends but not your family: I don’t think this is true at all. It can require deep personal resources to actively choose friends – it is far easier to remain inert with the default group of people. Ivo’s greatest challenge is to successfully make that leap of aspiration to Mia’s way of life.

I felt the three characters that brought out the best side of Ivo were Mia, Sheila and Amber – each countering the seemingly negative influence of Ivo’s group of friends. What did you want to be the single most important thing that each of these three women bring to Ivo?

I agree that these three bring out the best in Ivo, but I must admit, I didn’t set out for them to bring any qualities to him; it was when I brought them all together in improvisation that he seemed to drink up their presence, like they were nourishing him with something he desperately needed.

All three women demonstrate active characteristics – whereas Ivo is sunk by a passivity brought about by uncertainty, anxiety and plain circumstance. Ivo has a saving grace in his kindness and gentle perceptiveness; he wants to come out of himself, but he just doesn’t know how. I think Mia in particular sees that and seeks to nurture it. I have a sense that Mia thinks she can save Ivo from himself and his friends.

Was the body A-Z element always to be included or did that arrive during the writing process? Specifically I am keen to know if you started with a list of body parts and built the story around these or if you adapted a draft to include them?

This novel started out as a high-concept attempt to write a Gray’s Anatomy – an anatomical dictionary – in which the body described turned out to have a coherent narrative. So the alphabetical body parts were there from the beginning.

I wanted to let the body parts dictate where the story was going to go, and thereby create a narrative that was hard-wired into every reader’s experience. Everybody, for example, has sat too heavily on their coccyx and wanted to die; everybody has split their earlobe by wrenching off a tight-necked jumper . . . haven’t they? So The A to Z of You and Me started out as my attempt to write everybody’s story. Eventually though, Ivo’s story began to take over, and I let it do so.

I didn’t actually have a list of body parts to begin with, but in certain areas of the alphabet, there are only so many places you can go, so I started there. It’s very easy to break the unspoken bond of trust with the reader; if I had a chapter called ‘xiphoid process’ people wouldn’t see the artifice in what I’m doing, and lose interest.

Which authors do you find inspiring?

It changes. Roddy Doyle. Kurt Vonnegut. Derek Jarman. Bill Watterson. JK Rowling. Samuel Beckett. Stewart Lee. Maya Angelou. Eimear McBride. Dennis Potter. Roald Dahl. Douglas Adams. But some years authors I’ve really admired don’t move me at all. Susan Barker’s ‘The Incarnations’ is the best book I’ve read in recent times.

When writing do you have to set yourself daily word count targets or do you block out time specifically to work on a project?

I’ve really only finished this one novel, and it employed such a spectacularly uneconomical method, and took me such a very long time, I couldn’t present my writing method as anything other than ill-advised. I wrote in the only time I had, which was the last twenty minutes before going to bed, and now that’s the only time I can write in. It’s a problem.

Can you tell us what comes next from James Hannah?

I’m a husband and father, so I’m going to spend a reasonable time just being a husband and father.

My most sincere thanks to James.

The A-Z of You and Me is published by Doubleday and is available from 12th March in Hardback and in digital format.

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March 11

The A-Z of You and Me – James Hannah

Ivo fell for her.

He fell for a girl he can’t get back.

Now he’s hoping for something.

While he waits he plays a game:

He chooses a body part and tells us its link to the past he threw away.

He tells us the story of how she found him, and how he lost her.

But he doesn’t have long.

And he still has one thing left to do …

The A-Z of You and Me is published by Doubleday. My thanks to Alison Barrow of Transworld Books for the opportunity to review this title.

Normally when I read a novel and a character is dying the focus of the book is to have the principle character track down a murderer. However, in James Hannah’s emotive novel The A-Z of You and Me it is the central character that is dying and the story follows his final days.

The central character is Ivo. When we first meet him he is in a hospice and is resigned to the fact he is here to see out the last days of his life. His carer (Sheila) has suggested that he try to identify a part of his body for each letter of the alphabet and asks Ivo can share a story or recollection about each. So beginning with ‘Adams Apple’ we embark on the narrative of Ivo’s life.

Through a series of flashbacks we share Ivo’s memories as he recollects significant events. We get to see how he recalls his interactions with his family and friends and how these friends reacted when Ivo met Mia who would become Ivo’s girlfriend. James Hannah has made Ivo a very real figure and we see how he makes mistakes, gets easily led astray by his friends and frequently how he seems to regret choices he made.

After each memory flashback we rejoin Ivo in the present day. His health deteriorates each time we return and (as we become more caught up within the story) it becomes hard to accept that this character we are travelling with and learning about, is going to die. He has Sheila for company in the hospice and she is a phenomenal character proving care, support and encouragement in Ivo’s dark times.

The strength of the story lies in the characters and how they behave. James Hannah has captured this brilliantly and it is impossible not to laugh through the fun times or despair when Ivo makes a decision that we know is the wrong one.

At one point I had to stop reading. I was on a train and I knew that something was about to happen in the story which I did not want to read – I particularly did not want to read it on a busy train! I waited till I was alone before pressing on and I was as traumatised as I had expected. Wonderful writing.

This may not be a story that everyone will ‘enjoy’ as the subject matter is tough reading. However, this IS as story that will stick with you. Especially the ending.

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January 21

A Robot In The Garden – Deborah Install

A story of the greatest friendship ever assembled.

Ben Chambers wakes up to find something rusty and lost underneath the willow tree in his garden. Refusing to throw it on the skip as his wife Amy advises, he takes it home.

Ben does not want children, or even a job, and now he has found yet another reason for staying in his study and ignoring everyone.

It is only when Amy walks out that Ben realises he has alienated all the human beings in his life. He now has one friend left.

This is the story of a unique relationship, and how one man opens his heart to a past he did not want, and a future he cannot lose.

A Robot In The Garden will be published by Doubleday on 23rd April.

I approached A Robot In The Garden with a completely blank slate. I did not read the plot synopsis in order to allow me to discover the story for myself – I had initially thought the title sounded fun and I really liked the cover art.

At the end of the book I had enjoyed a story which was nothing like the tale I had expected but it was a story which had made me smile as I read it and kept me entertained throughout. Definite positives.

We follow the story of Ben, he seems to be sleepwalking through life and does not realise that his career and his marriage are slipping away from him. One morning he looks out of his window to see A Robot In The Garden. As the story is set in a world where androids and synthetic life forms are a part of daily life a robot is not an un-natural phenomenon, however, this particular robot is boxy, clunky and quite unique.

After Ben fails in his initial attempts to engage with the Robot (named Tang) Ben’s wife, Amy, decides she has had enough and walks out. With only the quirky robot for company Ben resolves to find where Tang came from and, more importantly find how to repair some of Tang’s ailing components.

This is essentially a story of friendship. Ben has to find a way to manage Tang’s unpredictability and socialise him so that he can be trusted in polite company. Tang, for the most part, behaves with the attention span of a toddler and the ‘sleekit’ cunning of a manipulative child. Parents of young children will be able to relate to some of the awkward situations that Ben finds himself in.

In brief: not my normal type of book but an engaging story. I have seen comparisons to the Paddington Movie – a vulnerable character who is amusingly out of his comfort zone. I also found it similar to last year’s Waiting For Doggo, given how well Doggo fared this should bode well for Tang!

Finally Tang is described throughout the book yet in my mind he always looked (and sounded) like Johnny Five from the 1980’s Short Circuit films. I loved those films!

If you happen to find A Robot In The Garden do the right thing and give it a good home.

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November 11

Crooked Heart – Lissa Evans

When Noel Bostock – aged ten, no family – is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he ends up living in St Albans with Vera Sedge – thirty-six and drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she’s unscrupulous about how she gets it.

Noel’s mourning his godmother, Mattie, a former suffragette. Brought up to share her disdain for authority and eclectic approach to education, he has little in common with other children and even less with Vee, who hurtles impulsively from one self-made crisis to the next. The war’s thrown up new opportunities for making money but what Vee needs (and what she’s never had) is a cool head and the ability to make a plan.

On her own, she’s a disaster. With Noel, she’s a team.

Together they cook up an idea. Criss-crossing the bombed suburbs of London, Vee starts to make a profit and Noel begins to regain his interest in life.

But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn’t actually safe at all…

Thanks to Alison Barrow for bringing Crooked Heart to my attention and providing a copy for review.

Sometimes I get the chance to read books I would not normally have considered or that would not have appeared on my radar. After I began blogging I started seeking out new reading experiences, new genre, new authors and plots that don’t always involve solving a murder.

Take Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans: I finished it this morning on my train journey to work. I really enjoyed it and was disappointed when I found that I had reached the end of the last page. It was an enchanting story about people living during the Second World War. The central characters are likeable and quirkily mis-matched. They live under the constant threat of an attack by Hitler’s soldiers yet their daily struggles are much more relevant and worrying.

We follow Noel through the story, we see him lose his Godmother and then be evacuated from London to the country. He is housed with Vee, a struggling mother with a ‘useless’ son and an eccentric mother – Vee is trying to keep her sanity in a household where she has to do everything and is receiving no help from family or neighbours.

Although Noel and Vee are the stars in Crooked Heart there is a brilliantly established supporting cast. We hiss at Vee’s son who is a workshy layabout, gnash our teeth at Noel’s aunt and uncle who are ‘doing their bit’ but don’t want saddled with a difficult 10 year old. Noel’s teacher and classmates are used to highlight Noel’s non-conformity and we have the one ‘true’ villain – an Air Raid warden that considers looting to be a job perk. Real people living out life during the time of the blitz – totally absorbing reading.

Crooked Heart is a story about friendship, families and love – against the backdrop of the Second World War. It has replaced Carrie’s War as the book I will think of when I imagine life for a child during WW2. I loved the story of Noel and Vee, they came across as two misfits, not quite fitting the expectations of those around them and not really caring they are different. The last page was heart breaking and poignant and the journey to that point made it so. Crooked Heart is highly recommended.

Crooked Heart is published in Hardback by Doubleday and is available now. Follow Lissa Evans on Twitter @LissaKEvans

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