Decades: Compiling the Ulitmate Library with R.J. Barker

How quickly Friday comes around these days! It gives me enormous pleasure to bring another Decades Curator to Grab This Book. For those keeping track of the guests who enjoyed making their selections and those who cursed me – this is 100% a cursing week.

If you are new to Decades and have no idea what I am wittering on about then Welcome. In January I set myself the challenge of filling a new library with the very best books. We started with no books on the shelves and each week I invite a new guest to join me and add five of their favourite reads (the books which MUST be represented in any self-respecting library) to my Decades Library.

Why is it a Decades Library? Well guests have just two rules to follow…they can choose ANY five books but their selections must include just one book per decade over any five consecutive decades. Simple I thought. But there has been much cursing of those two rules.

My guest this week won the 2020 British Fantasy Society (BFS) Robert Holdstock award for Best Novel with his fourth novel The Bone Ships. This was after his debut trilogy (collectively known as The Wounded Kingdom) garnered rave reviews from readers and industry press.

Somewhat confusingly he lives somewhere South of here in “The North” in a home he is filling with taxidermy, “odd art” and lots of music. Having decided a music career was not to happen RJ Barker started writing the books we love.

It is a little known fact that RJ has an Evil Twin who writes crime thrillers (A Numbers Game recently released and available now). But we don’t talk about him here. Today it is all about R.J. Barker:

DECADES

CJ Cherryh. Gate of Ivrel (1976)

I’m starting with this cos this list is in date order but I didn’t start with this.

I was absolutely shocked to find out this was Cherryh’s debut when I was looking into the book, as her tale of the interdimensional Sorcerer Morgaine and her companion the barbarian, Vanye, is incredibly accomplished and one of those books that has just stuck with me. The platonic male/female friendship is something I’ve carried through six books now and I put that at the feet of Cherryh. Not only that but also the way she wrote it, it’s not an easy book to approach, the text is very mannered and in her other books she matches text to subject which I love. It also goes places that were totally unexpected. At the time I’d read a lot of the things that are considered ‘classic’ and that owe a clear debt of allegiance to Tolkien but in Gate of Ivrel (and the sequels) Cherryh offered me something new that, for me, had far more depth and surprises in it and was doing it without a massive series.

TL/DR I owe C.J. Cherryh a drink.

IAN M. BANKS Consider Phlebas 1987

Well. The Culture. Few are the things that set my mind alight in the way Iain M Banks work did. In fact, my first professional level novel was turned down for being too Banksish. Which, you know, high compliment, I thought anyway. I’ve chosen Phlebas because it was the first but it could be any of them. And I always read Consider in tandem with Look to Windward as the two books talk to one another. I’m not going to go on at length about Bank’s SF, other people have done that and they have done it with far more depth than I can. But Banks’ work just fills me with joy, at his worlds, at his characters and at the real love of people it contains. It’s sad that I will never get to tell him what a profound influence his books were on me, but I am very happy that with them.

CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO Darker Jewels. 1993

You can, to be quite frank, keep Anne Rice. If you want to read about vampires that struggle with what it is to be human then Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Comte St Germain is where to go. This particular book is set in Russia in the court of Ivan the Terrible, it is dense and dark and as its heart is a creature we are taught to think of as a monster when he is anything but. St Germain is often the most human character within Yarbro’s books, his centuries of existence give him a perspective on the historical events surrounding him the other players lack. His learning and attempts to bring a sense of decency are ultimately doomed when he comes upon people who are fundamentally not decent. Is it magical creatures flying around murdering people and drinking blood? No. Is it darker and more horrific than any other vampire story you’ll come across? For my money, yes.

Dissolution C.J. Sansom 2004

There is so much of this book which I lifted for my own Wounded Kingdom books. That sense of melancholy, an overarching feeling that things are not going to go well for these people no matter what they do. Enter from stage left, Matthew Shardlake, hunchback lawyer in the court of King Henry VIII. I love Sansom’s work and it is that sense of melancholy within them that draws me in. There’s a real sense, as Shardlake becomes more and more entangled in the lethal politics of Henry’s court that the absolute best outcome Shardlake is ever going to be capable of is to simply get out alive and that he knows that. He is a small and unimportant person moving among vast and powerful men who would think nothing of crushing him. These are wonderful books and I adore them.

James Lee Burke Robicheaux. 2018

Now, I actually wanted to write about A Private Cathedral which, although written in 2019 was published in 2020 and fell foul of the rules. But It’s an amazing book where JLB sneaks an urban fantasy novel past the literary establishment as a crime novel. BUT, I can’t, so I will talk about an earlier book in the series, Robicheaux. This is a book I never want to read again. It’s good, don’t get me wrong. It shows just what an outstanding writer JLB is, but my god it is grim. I’m glad I read it but I’m not going back. In fact, if you had told me that just as he started writing this the author was told he had a few months to live I would have believed you. It has that feel to it. All the way through I thought the author was going to end it with this book, that no one would survive. It is an exercise in tension that I hugely enjoyed upon reading, but have no wish to put myself through again.

A Private Cathedral is a stunner though.

Huge thanks to RJ for joining in with my Decades Challenge. He was extremely polite despite my astonishing ability to only contact him at the most inconvenient times and has brought some fabulous new recommendations to my Library. If you haven’t read any of RJ’s books yet then you can find them all here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/RJ-Barker/e/B005LVVCTQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

The Decades Library continues to grow and you can see all the previous selections here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

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June 23

True Crime Story – Joseph Knox

‘What happens to those girls who go missing? What happens to the Zoe Nolans of the world?’

In the early hours of Saturday 17 December 2011, Zoe Nolan, a nineteen-year-old Manchester University student, walked out of a party taking place in the shared accommodation where she had been living for three months.

She was never seen again.

Seven years after her disappearance, struggling writer Evelyn Mitchell finds herself drawn into the mystery. Through interviews with Zoe’s closest friends and family, she begins piecing together what really happened in 2011. But where some versions of events overlap, aligning perfectly with one another, others stand in stark contrast, giving rise to troubling inconsistencies.

Shaken by revelations of Zoe’s secret life, and stalked by a figure from the shadows, Evelyn turns to crime writer Joseph Knox to help make sense of a case where everyone has something to hide.

Zoe Nolan may be missing presumed dead, but her story is only just beginning

My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour. I recieved a review copy from the publishers.

It’s nice to sit down to write a review of a book which you loved. I came in to True Crime Story blind so had no idea what to expect and what I found was a slick story told unconventionally through a series of interview snippets and email correspondence. Initially I wasn’t sure I would enjoy reading the short bursts of contributions from various characters, an edited conversation pieced together after the events in question. However, I quickly found my first hesitancy had been misguided and I found I was really enjoying spending time reading something which shook up the norm.

The story focuses around the disappearance of student Zoe Nolan. Last seen on Saturday December 17th 2011. She vanished from her halls of residence at Manchester University and events around this incident are recounted by a number of people who crossed paths with Zoe and the subsequent investigation into her disappearance. The key players in the story are Zoe’s twin sister Kim, her boyfriend, their flatmates and (subsequently) Zoe and Kim’s parents. Other people phase in and out of the interviews but everything his brought together by Evelyn who is writing a book on Zoe’s continued absence and is sharing her writing and a few other thoughts and problems with her friend Joseph Knox. Yes the same Joseph Knox – it’s a nice twist to the narrative.

Where to start but not do any spoilers? Tricky.

Readers get to understand the relationship Zoe and Kim had with their parents and then see how the twins were very much different people, with different interests and a very different destiny. When Zoe and Kim get to university they form friendships and get thrust into accommodation with strangers, they will all need to adapt to their new surroundings and the new faces around them. Needless to say things do not go smoothly and there are several flashpoint incidents and situations which gives the reader a glimpse into the characters of all the players in this game.

True Crime Story is an emotive story and nobody connected with Zoe Nolan is going to come out of this book unscathed. Joseph Knox captures the claustrophobia of a group living in close proximity and the fractious relationships that this can bring. He brings life to these characters and my investment in their individual stories was sealed very early into the book. The outstanding narrative style works perfectly and gives the young students an authenticity that you do believe you are indeed reading a True Crime Story.

True Crime Story is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08HGMDNP2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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June 18

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Fiona Erskine

Yesterday I reviewed Phosphate Rocks by Fiona Erskine. It is mid June 2021 and Phosphate Rocks is easily the best book I have read so far this year. If you haven’t heard me raving about how much I enjoyed it then I would urge you to read this post then read my review (I shall pop a link at the bottom of the page).

Today Fiona is back and taking on my Decades challenge. Each week I invite a guest to join me and I ask them to help me assemble a Library of the very best books. Each guest has just two rules to follow:

1- Choose ANY five books
2 – You may only choose one book per decade over five consecutive decades.

My aim is, with the assistance of my guests, to get the very best selection of books into a Library which began with zero titles on the shelves. The literary quest began six months ago and on a weekly basis I get feedback from guests (past, present and future) who curse me for imposing those two rules on their selections and the flexing of the rules has been varied and impressive. You are in for a treat today as the most impressive flexing of the rules is about to be revealed…it’s a good job I loved Phosphate Rocks or there may have been a need for a VAR ruling – you will see what I mean

DECADES

I’m Fiona Erskine and I started writing after a skiing accident gave me some unexpected time off from my day job as a professional engineer.

My first novel, The Chemical Detective, introduces explosives expert Dr Jaq Silver, blowing things up to keep people safe as she tracks a criminal gang from the ski-slopes of the Slovenian Alps to the ruins of Chernobyl. My second novel. The Chemical Reaction, opens with Jaq in trouble on a yacht in the Black Sea. When she blows it up to rescue her crewmate, she has to find a way to pay the owner back. Taking a risky job in China, she finds herself fighting for her life the shadow of the infamous Banqiao Dam. My thrillers have been shortlisted for The Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award and The Staunch Prize and I’ve signed a deal with Point Blank to produce at least 2 more in the Jaq Silver series.

My latest book Phosphate Rocks: A Death in Ten Objects is a fictionalised account of my very first graduate job. A body is discovered in the ruins of a defunct fertiliser factory, encased in phosphate rock. The police work with retired shift foreman, John Gibson, to try and identify the deceased from the ten objects found with the mummified corpse.

I’m thrilled to have been invited to contribute to Decades. It’s a totally engaging idea, and one I have had some fun with. As well as some pain.

1950 – 1990

1958 Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene – Cuba

1966 The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott – India

1975 The Periodic Table by Primo Levi – Italy and a German concentration camp

1981 Moonraker by F. Tennyson Jesse – Haiti and the Carribean

1994 Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson – Canada to Japan to Russia

1950

I’ve always loved reading, especially on trains, and my first choice has to be Graham Greene. His books were the perfect length for a journey between Edinburgh (where I was born and went to school) and Cambridge (where I went to university) with a chapter left over for bedtime. Greene was the first author I trusted enough to buy a book based on the writer rather than on the subject matter. I loved the distinctive covers, white with big black letters plus an orange penguin. The books were deceptively slim, but always packed a punch. Aged 17 (and described by a great-aunt as an illiterate alcoholic), I wouldn’t normally have chosen stories about vacuum cleaner salesmen, defrocked priests or lepers but over the next four years I devoured every novel Graham Greene had written. And grew up.

For this (fiendish…shakes first and curses) challenge, Graham Greene also brings the huge advantage that I could have chosen almost any one of his novels written between 1929 and 1990.

Our Man in Havana (1958) by Graham Greene.

Our Man in Havana is the story of a salesman in Cuba who tries to make a bit of money on the side as a spy. There’s a gulf of understanding between those in headquarters and those in the field which James Wormold exploits to his advantage, fabricating information, sketching his own vacuum cleaner nozzles at giant scale as proof of a military installation in the mountains. Credulous M16 take it all at face value and send reinforcements. But lies have a habit of coming back to bite their creator. I must just add that the hapless spy genre is alive and kicking as demonstrated by my favourite book of 2021 so far – Starlings of Bucharest by Sarah Armstrong.

1960

The Jewel in the Crown (1966) by Paul Scott

I recently listened to an audio version of the Raq Quartet series, and it reminded me how much I adored these books first time round. One of my Edinburgh primary school teachers, Mrs Harris, had lived in India in Raj times and told us extraordinary stories, which flooded back as I read these books. I have chosen the first in the series, The Jewel in the Crown. Set in the 1940’s it tells the story of Hari Kumar, returning to northern India after an education at an English public school. He is rejected by both the English rulers and his fellow Indians. When Daphne, an awkward English girl, tries to help Hari, things do not end well. It’s wonderfully perceptive exploration of racism, of control of the many by the few, a theme that recurs in Abir Mukerjee’s recent (and wonderfully nuanced) Wyndham & Banerjee novels which I wholeheartedly recommend.

1970

The Periodic Table (1975) by Primo Levi

If I had to choose a single book that changed my life, then it would be The Periodic Table by Primo Levi. While I was still a student, I spent a summer in Sri Lanka with a group of volunteers. The stated mission was to build a road to connect two villages in the mountains near Kandy. It soon became clear that our real job was to provide entertainment for a group of young people who had been persuaded onto a work experience program to keep villagers away from the big bad cities. The socio-technical project was impossible: the terrain impenetrable, the tools (pickaxes and udeles – a sort of crude right angled shovel) blunt and heavy and the cities exciting. We did a lot of singing and dancing instead, teaching each other our languages with stories and jokes – although everyone found the big white people hilarious even without a punchline. We also shared books which led to my discovery of Primo Levi.

The Periodic Table is a series of interconnected stories, each based on a chemical element. Primo Levi was an Italian industrial chemist who was sent to a German concentration camp during the second world war. His memoir If This Is a Man is a ferociously powerful book about what it means to be human. Levi narrowly survived Auschwitz by working in IG Farben’s synthetic rubber chemistry lab and the stories in The Periodic Table cover his work as an industrial chemist, before during and after the war. In the story Vanadium, Levi identifies one of his German supervisors from Auchwitz after the war by the mistakes he makes in correspondence about some faulty chemicals. Levi writes beautifully about the practical realities of science in a way that is accessible to all. This book is the inspiration for all my writing.

1980

Virago modern classics were a complete revelation for me during my university days. I devoured the green spined books as fast as they arrived.

Moonraker (1981) by F. Tennyson Jesse

I particularly loved Moonraker, a swashbuckling pirate adventure story with a great twist (no spoilers here) and the sideswipe that illuminates the tragic fate of ex-slave and Haitian freedom fighter Toussaint L’Ouverture.

Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse was a fascinating character, a war-correspondent, criminologist, and playwright. Born in 1888, she suffered from rickets as a child and became briefly addicted to morphine after an accident led to the amputation of part of her hand.

I could have chosen The Lacquer Lady or A Pin to see the Peepshow by the same author, or any number of other wonderful Virago published books by other writers, but Moonraker is my stand-out thrilling favourite.

(I confess to cheating slightly here, as Moonraker was first launched in 1927, but it only came to wide attention when Virago republished it in 1981. If you disqualify this one, I’ll be forced to shuffle the others around and name Ian Fleming’s inferior Moonraker (1955) first, as a way to sneak this neglected story into the spotlight.)

1990

Last but not least, the ultimate thriller.

Kolmysky Heights (1994) by Lionel Davidson

I love the long slow build-up of Kolmysky Heights. Linguist Johnny Porter initially rejects the coded challenge and then takes most of the book to reach the Siberian wastes in order to penetrate the mysterious research centre. No sooner in, than he has to get out. Nobody has ever escaped before, but Johnny is an engineer – right up my street!

I could have chosen one of Davidson’s other novels, The Rose of Tibet and Smiths Gazelle are particularly good, but Kolmysky Heights is the stand-out tecno-thriller with the perfect hero.

Looking back at my five choices, I realise two things.

The first is that I have always been a traveller. When I can’t get on a train myself, I travel though books.

The second thing is that I have inadvertently chosen 4 out of 5 books by white men whereas my current reading is much more diverse. I did a check step to see what female authors I had missed. I could have included beloved authors of exquisite prose (Alice Munro, Arundhati Roy), children’s adventure writers (Jan Mark, Joan Aiken), regency romance (Georgette Heyer), science fiction supremo (Ursula Le Guin) or any number of accomplished writers of crime and police procedurals.

But the books that influenced me, that spurred my own writing on, were the science mysteries and adventure thrillers that I read as a young adult. And at that time, most of the books published were written by white men.

Publishing has changed and is much the better for it.

The Chemical Detective and The Chemical Reaction are published by Point Blank, paperback £8.99

Phosphate Rocks is published by Sandstone Press, paperback 8.99.

My thanks again to Fiona for these terrific selections. When I first saw Moonraker I did automatically assume the travelling adventures were heading to space but it wasn’t to be (this time). I promised a link to my Phosphate Rocks review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5371

You can visit The Decades Library here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

Every book my guests have nominated are shown in The Library and you can see all the curators at the end of the list.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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June 17

Phosphate Rocks – Fiona Erskine

As the old chemical works in Leith are demolished a long deceased body encrusted in phosphate rock is discovered. Seated at a card table he has ten objects laid out in front of him. Whose body is it? How did he die and what is the significance of the objects?

I received a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

It doesn’t matter what you may think this book is about. If you read the brief, teasing blurb above that’s only going to scratch the surface of the story in Phosphate Rocks.

As I read the book I tweeted a few times that I had no idea how I was going to review it. That hasn’t changed, I am not sure how to succinctly articulate the utter pleasure I experienced reading Phosphate Rocks. Or the anguish, the horror, the fascination or the fun. This book had it all and, when it was done, I wasn’t. I wanted more. I wanted to keep reading about these remarkable overlooked heroes of their craft.

So what’s it about?

Well there’s a dead body in an old chemical plant in Leith (Edinburgh). The site is no longer active but before everything closed down it seems, somehow, a huge shroud of phosphate rock encased a work hut. Inside that hut was a dead body sat at a table. Laid out on the table in front of the corpse were ten objects which the police hope John Gibson, former shift manager at the site, can use to identify the deceased.

Sitting in a police station, years after his plant had closed down, John identifies each of the ten objects and tells Detective Inspector Rose Irvine the story behind each item. With each passing object the reader gets to know more about the men that worked the site, the work they undertook and how chemicals and materials from around the world would pass under the nose of these Edinburgh workers.

Also filling in the reader with background information is author, Fiona Erskine, who gives each object a quirky and fascinating science lesson. You learn about chemicals, reactions, inventions and discoveries. Reading this book taught me how chemicals move around the world, how they need carefully stored and cared for and how it’s the plant workers that know best how to keep a busy chemical site ticking over – not the managers, chemists or owners. It may not sound like slipping chemistry learning into a crime story could be fun or engaging but it is utterly absorbing (though Fiona will likely correct me on what absorption actually is).

The stories behind each of the objects are wonderful. Although this book is a work of fiction I am 100% convinced that many (if not all) of the stories are entirely anecdotal and based on actual events from the site. Why tie a long string around the neck of a whisky bottle? Who had the best dressed Barbie Doll in Scotland? Why should you not hit a pipe with a hammer and…is that an author cameo we see before us? If many events in the book are indeed based on actual events it may go a long way towards explaining why the book is so engaging. Nothing feels forced, overdone or over-exaggerated. The guys (and in the main it is guys) working on the site all feel utterly real and entirely plausible. I defy you not to warm to them.

The true hero of the piece is John Gibson. He is taken on a journey back through his working life and the stories he tells DI Irvine bring back memories of old colleagues – some more fondly remembered than others. John and DI Irvine are a charming pairing through the story too their conversations, some of which take place away from the police station when Irvine tracks him down to his favourite restaurant, are a cautious but intricate dance. Neither party is willing to overshare but both appear to crave more knowledge about the other.

Phosphate Rocks is a crime story. There is a dead body, there are clues to help the investigators determine his identity and there is a man helping police with their enquries at the police station. But Phosphate Rocks is so much more. It is a story of a life (John Gibson), of many lives, of a plant that no longer dominates its corner of Leith and of the men who for years kept that plant ticking over. Clever men, inventive men, hard men and men with secrets. But I felt Phosphate Rocks is also a love story. I read of a time now gone which is much missed, a love of science and method and process and of low paid staff performing dangerous and skilled work. An affection of the cameraderie, the respect for John Gibson and the responsibility he held for the staff on his shift. It’s funny then it’s tragic and I want you all to read this story too.

Phosphate Rocks, currently my book of the year. It will take something incredible to top this one.

Phosphate Rocks is published by Sandstone Press and is available from today in paperback and digital format. You can get your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08TR21QGZ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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June 10

The Maidens – Alex Michaelides

St Christopher’s College, Cambridge, is a closed world to most.

For Mariana Andros – a group therapist struggling through her private grief – it’s where she met her late husband. For her niece, Zoe, it’s the tragic scene of her best friend’s murder.

As memory and mystery entangle Mariana, she finds a society full of secrets, which has been shocked to its core by the murder of one of its own.

Because behind its idyllic beauty is a web of jealousy and rage which emanates from an exclusive set of students known only as The Maidens. A group under the sinister influence of the enigmatic professor Edward Fosca.

A man who seems to know more than anyone about the murders – and the victims. And the man who will become the prime suspect in Mariana’s investigation – an obsession which will unravel everything…

The Maidens is a story of love, and of grief – of what makes us who we are, and what makes us kill.

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of The Maidens tour. I recieved a review copy from the publishers.

The Maidens: a group of young women who meet their professor in his quarters at Cambridge’s St Christopher’s College. One of their number has been murdered but the group are closing ranks and are not accepting the possibility they are in danger.

Nor are The Maidens willing to consider any suggestions their handsome, charismatic professor is behaving inappropriately. It is no surprise that Mariana (a group therapist) is frustrated by their lack of engagement when she believes she is trying to help and protect them.

Mariana is a tragic character. She fell madly in love with Sebastian and even aftet the couple married they were besotted with each other. Tragedy struck when a much needed holiday to Greece ended with Sebastian’s death, drowned at sea. Mariana remains bereft at the loss and his death overshadows her life.

Mariana is contacted by her niece, Zoe, after one of her friends at college is found dead. Zoe tells Mariana that the dead girl had problems with substance abuse but during a drug Hugh she had confided in Zoe that she was scared for her life. Zoe too is terrified and Mariana steps in to help Zoe and to try to uncover the truth. She is alarmed by the influence Professor Edward Fosca holds over his young students.

The story is mainly set in the college at Cambridge and it is a world I don’t recognise. Porters, bedders, Chambers and lectures where anyone can roll up to listen. The Professor studies classics and Greek Tragedies are very much part of this story. My lack of knowledge in this area didn’t stop me enjoying the story but I did need the author’s helpful explanations to know the characters he was discussing.

Mariana’s investigations are very unofficial but she is allowed some leeway to speak with people close to the murder and it quickly becomes apparent she is putting herself at risk with the questions she is asking. Tension ramps up as the story progresses and as Mariana gets closer to exposing the danger that is Professor Fosca the more you fear for her safety.

The Maidens is a psychological thriller with a murder mystery to be solved. It’s a fun read and the reader can quite easily get caught up in this mysterious, secretive world of academia.

The Maidens is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08R18D45M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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May 21

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Danny Marshall

I never fail to be surprised by the selections made by my Decades guests. Until I recieve the email with their choices they give nothing away about the books which they may choose. However, when I first asked Danny Marshall if he would like to take on my Decades Challenge I had no idea that he would introduce three of fiction’s most famous characters to the Library.

For new readers a quick Decades recap. I am inviting guests to nominate books which they believe should be included in the Ultimate Library. Or to put it another way: if I had to fill a new library with the best books out there, but I was starting with zero books on the shelves, which books should be added? I cannot make these tough choices so my guests are invited to add their favourite books.

There are just two rules governing their choices:

1 – Pick ANY Five Books
2 – You Can Only Choose One Book Per Decade Over Five Consecutive Decades

Now I hand you over to Danny to introduce himself and share his choices

DECADES

I’m D.L. Marshall – better known as Danny (but unfortunately that’s not a very authorly name) – and my debut novel Anthrax Island was published recently. Described by some as Alistair MacLean meets Agatha Christie, it’s a claustrophobic locked-room mystery (in the literal sense) meets adventure thriller.

Anthrax Island is a real place off remote north-western Scotland, having received its sinister moniker in the tabloids when top-secret files were declassified. Its real name is Gruinard, and it was used by the Ministry Of Defence during the second world war to test biological weapons, leaving it a lethally contaminated no-go zone for decades. The government finally (and begrudgingly) cleaned it up in the Eighties, declaring it anthrax-free in the Nineties, though given the extreme hardiness of anthrax spores some people remain unconvinced!

The premise of the novel is that a team of scientists have returned to the island due to a resurgence of bacteria. Their only technician is dead, a victim of anthrax poisoning, and their base has suffered a malfunction. Enter our hero Tyler, a replacement technician flown out to fix the base. He quickly discovers sabotage, and works out his predecessor was murdered. Soon after, another team member is murdered inside a sealed room in the base with Tyler right outside the door – but when he enters seconds later the killer has vanished. Now with a storm closing in, the radios destroyed, and the bodies piling up, it seems they’re trapped on the island with a far more dangerous killer than anthrax…

I’m honoured to take part in decades, having read previous entries with great interest! There have already been some absolute belters already added to the library, so I hope I can do it justice. Though there were some difficult choices – I could talk for hours about the ones I left out – I had great fun picking my entries. I could have chosen any number of crime and espionage thrillers from the mid-to-late Twentieth century, but I decided to take my fifty years a little earlier to encompass some of my very favourite and most re-read novels of all time. They’re also all novels that have influenced my writing a great deal, and all feature in Anthrax island in some way.

1890s

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

Does any other single word in the world of fiction evoke such an emotional response? How many other book titles are so well known? I think you could make a case for it being the most influential book of all time; fiction, films, pop culture, it’s a staggering legacy. Stoker didn’t invent vampires, horror, or gothic fiction, but he did weave them all into a fantastically modern narrative that popularised all the right elements. It’s a story of an ancient evil assaulting the modern world that we’ve loved ever since, from Lovecraft to Carpenter. I only found out fairly recently that it wasn’t a huge success in Stoker’s lifetime – it did okay and was well received (Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a glowing letter to Stoker), but he died poor. It wasn’t until the landmark copycat film Nosferatu in the Twenties – and the subsequent legal dispute – that the book took off, and since the first Hollywood Dracula film a few years later the book has never been out of print.

I’ve just looked at my shelves and I currently own seven copies of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the latest being a graphic novel my partner bought for me to read with my son. The particular reason I love it may be down to my final year of primary school, when we had a week’s residential in Whitby. The teachers wouldn’t take a bunch of ten year olds in ‘The Dracula Experience’ but we spent our money in the gift shop, then sat up at night in our shared room, telling ghost stories while looking out of the window at the ruins of the abbey across the harbour. As a Yorkshireman I love that Whitby section, and the newspaper reports of the wild dog roaming the North Yorkshire moors, but actually my favourite is the opening – Harker’s dangerous voyage through the Carpathian Mountains to meet his mysterious host. The wolves, the warnings from locals, the superstitious coachman, all now absolute staples of horror films. The opening of Anthrax Island was written as a homage. Bonus points if you can spot which character from Anthrax Island is named for something in Dracula…

1900s

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901-1902)

Another of the most famous books ever written! Spoilers (although it’s a century old, where have you been?) When first serialised it brought Holmes back from the dead, since he was killed at the Reichenbach Falls in 1893’s ‘The Final Problem’. Conan Doyle was adamant Holmes wouldn’t return, so when public opinion forced him to write another story he stubbornly set it before his death. However, the success of Baskervilles was such that he finally relented and truly resurrected Holmes.

I have seven copies of Dracula but I have ten copies of The Hound of the Baskervilles! I’ve read it at least once a year since I was a kid. Apart from being my favourite book of all time, it is – in the opinion of Sherlock scholars – the best Holmes novel. I love stories that tread the line between crime and horror, and for me this is the epitome. Ghostly lights on the moor, an ancient creaking hall, and a bloodthirsty spectral hound. Dartmoor is itself also a character, beautifully described in vivid autumnal shades, leaf-strewn deeply rutted lanes, and tumbling streams. But at night the moors take on another character, creeping shadowy figures and drifting lights, bogs that can swallow unwary ponies whole, the howling wind and howling… other things… echoing down through the yews at the back of the hall. I live in the Yorkshire Pennines, minutes from the moors, and can well imagine Sir Charles Baskerville standing at his gate, smoking his cigar and straining his eyes into that blackness. And something looking back.

My favourite scenes are those which show Watson’s journey to the hall and the various soldiers on horseback at crossroads and the railway station, rifles at the ready, on the lookout for the convict escaped from Dartmoor prison. It’s wonderfully echoed in the best Harry Potter film – The Prisoner of Azkaban – a film about a Barghest, a giant dog of legend, featuring Dementors scouring the moors for an escaped convict.

It’s no coincidence I’ve just finished writing a novel set on Dartmoor (which may feature a cameo from Baskerville Hall)!

1910s

John Buchan’s The 39 Steps (1915)

This might be the last one where I share the number of copies I own, as I’ve only got four of this! The 39 Steps set the blueprint for all adventure thrillers, and specifically the device of the everyday innocent man on the run from baddies and the authorities alike, which is now used so regularly we forget that in 1915 it would have blown peoples’ minds. This was a time when the police and authorities were to be trusted implicitly, good and bad was usually fairly black and white, so while the patriotism and sense of derring-do can seem a bit dated, to have a hero on the run from the law must have been pretty exciting at the time. Hitchcock filmed it in 1935 and went on to use the trope several more times, including in one of my favourite films, North By Northwest. However, my favourite film adaptation of The 39 Steps is the ‘70s version that leaves Robert Powell hanging from the hands of Big Ben (Yes I know Big Ben is the bell, don’t @ me).

The MacGuffin is some kind of secret plans for Britain’s entry into the first world war, stolen by German agents operating in England – which is interesting when you remember this was published in 1915, at the start of the first world war. It wasn’t a historical novel, it was really happening at the time! The scene escaping from the train across the moors sticks in mind the most (is there a moors theme developing?).

I was lucky enough to see the four-actor play in London a few years ago. It closed in 2015 but I’d highly recommend seeing it if you ever get the chance somewhere.

1920s

Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair At Styles (1921)

Okay, I’ll admit it – this is not my favourite Agatha Christie novel – but it’s my choice for the Twenties as it warrants its place in the library by virtue of its significance. This is Agatha Christie’s first published novel, and thus it is also the first appearance of one of the most famous detectives of all time, Hercule Poirot. I don’t think I need to explain any more!

It features all the very best elements of a whodunnit – a sprawling, isolated country house filled with an untrustworthy cast, twists and reveals, red herrings, and of course, a dead body with a contested will. Christie set her own template for her future books here, being very fair with readers, providing all the clues you need to solve the crime (though you rarely do).

It’s beautifully fitting that Agatha Christie had Poirot return to Styles in her final novel (before her death, anyway) – Curtain.

Sidenote, if you’re ever in Devon and on Dartmoor, after visiting the infamous prison (hopefully no escaped convicts) and the Princetown visitors’ centre (with its huge Hound of the Baskervilles sculpture) take a trip to Agatha Christie’s house at Greenway, upriver from Dartmouth. And if you’re ever in London, go see The Mousetrap. Great fun.

1930s

John Dickson Carr’s The Hollow Man (1935)

Calling all Jonathan Creek fans, this is nothing whatsoever to do with Kevin Bacon’s updated take on The Invisible Man, it’s another whodunnit that treads the line between horror and crime. But this is also an ingenious howdunnit, a true locked-room murder mystery – the best, in fact, and one of my very favourite books ever.

A mysterious and macabre-looking stranger barges into a room in a house, in full view of witnesses, to kill a man – yet when the door is opened the killer and weapon has vanished, leaving only his dying victim, who claims his brother (long thought dead) was responsible. Minutes later the brother is found dead in the middle of a nearby street, with the gun in question – himself killed impossibly, surrounded by unbroken snow.

The book is considered the finest example of locked-room mystery, and contains a fantastic section in the middle where the narrator breaks the fourth wall and sets off on a monologue to explain every single scenario by which an ‘impossible crime’ can be carried out – and thoroughly debunks each in turn relative to what happened here. It’s a wonderfully bold move. And just like Agatha Christie, Carr plays fair – the reader has all the clues, but I challenge you to work it out.

This book has been a huge influence on me, it’s not a surprise that my own debut – and the sequel out later this year – are at their cores impossible crime locked-room murder mysteries.

I am absolutely delighted Sherlock Holmes has finally landed in my Library. My thanks to Danny for making these wonderful choices. I have Anthrax Island on my Kindle and am going to be scouring every page for the Dracula reference.

If you want to get your hands on Anthrax Island then here is a handy link: https://www.waterstones.com/book/anthrax-island/d-l-marshall/9781800322752

You can see all the previous curators and their selections here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

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May 19

Two From The Archives – MacBride and Herron

The update of reviews to the blog always depends upon time. It’s the same for everyone and all bloggers need to juggle the reading/reviewing balance. I find that I will often hit a reading sweet spot and fly through a number of books in a very short space of time. I don’t hit reviewing sweet spots though and this means the books read outnumber the reviews written.

From time to time I will try a catch-up blitz and do a few shorter reviews in a single blog post. Rather than do my personal summary of the books read I have just moved directly to my thoughts on each book. I never review books on the blog which I didn’t enjoy so I am not bringing together books I didn’t like – I am just trying to catch up and flag up some more great books which are readily available to pick up.

All That’s Dead – Stuart MacBride

One down…
A dark night in the isolated Scottish countryside. Nicholas Wilson, a prominent professor known for his divisive social media rants, leaves the house with his dog, as he does every night. But this time he doesn’t come back…

Two down…
The last thing Inspector Logan McRae wants is to take on such a high-profile case. But when a second man vanishes in similar circumstances, the media turns its merciless gaze on him, and he has no choice.

Who’s next?
Then body parts start arriving in the post. Someone out there is trying to make a point, and they’re making it in blood.

Book twelve in the Logan McRae series and Stuart Macbride is still not pulling any punches when it comes to putting his characters through the wringer. In 2014 Scotland went to the polls to decide if we should become an independent country to say there were strong feelings on both sides is an understatement. After the results were announced the matter was not allowed to rest and strong voices on both sides continue to dominate media platforms.

MacBride taps into this divisive anger and highlights the political tensions which would accompany anger which would surely surface if one of those strong voices were to be murdered (presumably by someone that disagreed with their opinion). It’s a murder story with lots of background politics and you know this will not sit well with McRae and Roberta Steel – a treat for readers awaits.

Another strong entry to the series, I enjoyed this one but did find it uncomforable seeing our political disagreements escalated into a dark tale of murder. The interactions between the characters are always a joy in the McRae books and the humour shines through.

Reading a Stuart MacBride book is never a bad decision, All That’s Dead brought the fun and the thrills and I will be back for more.

Real Tigers – Mick Herron

Catherine Standish knows that chance encounters never happen to spooks.

She’s worked in the Intelligence Service long enough to understand treachery, double-dealing and stabbing in the back.

What she doesn’t know is why anyone would target her: a recovering drunk pushing paper with the other lost causes in Jackson Lamb’s kingdom of exiles at Slough House.

Whoever it is holding her hostage, it can’t be personal. It must be about Slough House. Most likely, it is about Jackson Lamb.

And say what you like about Lamb, he’ll never leave a joe in the lurch.

He might even be someone you could trust with your life . . .

If you aren’t reading the Mick Herron Slough House books yet then you are missing out on one of the very best reading experiences. Jackson Lamb heads up the “Slow Horses” a team of misfits who have worked for the secret security services but have, in some way, failed in their duties and are put out to pasture in Slough House and given mundane and tedious tasks. They are trained agents who all feel their talents are not being used to the best of their abilities. Lamb appears a slovenly dinosaur of a character but returning readers (this is book 3) will know that he is still sharper and more devious than many of the active agents – he is too dangerous to be cut loose but a loose cannon who would not play well with others.

Real Tigers opens with a kidnap of one of Lamb’s team and the dis-united bunch are sparked into action to look out for one of their own. As is typical of a Mick Herron book there are lots of clever sub plots brought into play and sharp eyed reader will still miss lots of the subtle clues and red herrings. The writing almost feels a masterclass of language efficiency (except when Lamb speaks and considerably lowers the tone, but raises the enjoyment).

I read a lot of spy thrillers many years ago then fell out of love with them. The Mick Herron books have brought me back into the fold, these are page-turners of the highest order and each story is a treasure. Real Tigers allows the reader a deeper dig into the characters inhabiting Slough House, they are complicated, angry people but you will root for them and you want them to gain the upper hand over the M16 agents who will cross their paths.

Real Tigers, read the series from the start to get the most enjoyment from Real Tigers but don’t put off discovering the joys of Slough House and its dysfunctional occupants.

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May 17

Come Closer – Sara Gran

There was no reason to assume anything out of the ordinary was going on.

Strange noises in the apartment.

Impulsive behaviour.

Intense dreams.

It wasn’t like everything went wrong all at once.

Shoplifting.

Fighting.

Blackouts.

There must be a reasonable explanation for all this.

I received a review copy through Netgalley from the publisher

This came highly recommended by fellow blogger Liz, at Liz Loves Books, who tweeted that this was genuinely creepy and unsettling. If Liz was unsettled by a book then I wanted to read it. Having zipped through Come Closer in a day (it’s a horror novella) I fully understand why Liz flagged up the unsettling nature of this one, it’s a disturbing tale of demonic possession.

It is Amanda’s story. We first see her handing a piece of work to her boss except the submission contains some personal insults about her boss which most definitely were not in the draft which Amanda prepared. Amanda is horrified that someone would try to prank her in such a mean way and quickly defuses the situation by printing a fresh copy of her report which is insult free. Her boss accepts someone had been mucking about and order is restored but Amanda cannot help but concede to herself that the insults were a good reflection on how she felt about her boss.

First signs of trouble and disharmony are in place and mysterious incidents are going to quickly follow. In their appartment Amanda and her husband Ed hear a tapping noise. It’s irritating, untracable and goes on for weeks. Amanda hears it when she is home alone. Ed didn’t hear it when he was home alone. The noise comes and goes, no pattern and no routine just an irritating tapping.

Amanda begins to have strange dreams. The dreams are intense and vivid and the reader begins to see a lack of focus in Amanda’s daily life. The readers see how Amanda’s grip is starting to slip away from her. Through some fun wee plot devices the author introduces the possibility to Amanda that she may be possessed, but she rejects the notion – initially.

Come Closer is a close-up look at the main character of a story losing everything. As I mentioned, this is a novella, so I flew through the book in a single day – aided by the fact I had more time that usual that day to get some reading done. But once Amanda’s life starts to go off the rails I just wanted to keep reading. Everything happening to her (and the things she was happening to) were compulsive reading and I wanted to know how she was going to get herself out of the mess she was in. Then I began to wonder IF she would get out of the mess she was in. It is slick writing from Sara Gran which keeps you hooked and although it’s not a long book it packs a very effective punch.

Come Closer is published on 1 June 2021 by Faber and Faber. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/come-closer/sara-gran/9780571355556

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May 14

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Helen Fields

The Library is growing and week on week fabulous books are being added to the shelves. If tentative plans pan out there may even soon be a twist which nobody saw coming. I am loving inviting guests to join me and share their reading recommendations. I had hoped this feature would allow some fabulous books to be showcased but the enthusiasm I see each week for the new books my guests discuss has far exceeded my expectations. Thank you all for making each new Decades post the best part of my blogging week.

So what is Decades?

I am curating the Ultimate Library. I started with no books and have been inviting guests to select five books they would like to see added to the Library shelves so we can compile a collection of the best books. There are just two rules my guests must follow:

1 – You can select ANY five books
2 – You can only select one book per decade and you must select from five consecutive decades.

Today I am joined by Helen Fields. Helen is the fourteenth Decades guest and has added five outstanding titles to the Library. To be honest I cannot believe it took fourteen guests before two of her selections made their way into the Library – Iconic. You can try guess which two I had in mind.

I’ll hand over to Helen and allow her to introduce herself (I never like to do the introductions incase I miss something important) and then she will share her five recommended reads.

DECADES

An international best-selling author, Helen is a former criminal and family law barrister. The last book in her detective series, ‘Perfect Kill’ was longlisted for the Crime Writers Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2020, and others have been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, Scottish crime novel of the year. Helen also writes as HS Chandler, and has released legal thriller ‘Degrees of Guilt’. In 2020 Perfect Remains was shortlisted for the Bronze Bat, Dutch debut crime novel of the year. The series has been translated into 18 languages, and also sells in the USA, Canada & Australasia. Her historical thriller ‘These Lost & Broken Things’ came out in May 2020. Her first standalone thriller – The Shadow Man – from HarperColllins was published in 2021. Her next book comes out in February 2022 but she’s not allowed to tell you the title yet!

Helen can be usually be found on Twitter @Helen_Fields. For up to date news and information her website is at www.helenfields.co.uk. For Facebook check out Helen Fields Author.

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (1950)

Honestly, if this book doesn’t make you cry at least once when you’re reading it, then you have no soul. I will die on this hill. It is one of the most affecting books I’ve ever read. I couldn’t read anything else for months after I finished this book.

Papillon by Henri Charrière (1969)

I fell in love with the Steve McQueen (original) movie first which prompted me to read the book, and I’m so grateful that I did. A (mostly) autobiographic story of a man incarcerated on various French colony islands who faces cruelty and hardships beyond belief before his death defying escape. I promise, you will join him in that cell as you read.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson (1971)

More journalism than fiction. An explosively colourful tale of the highs and lows of Vegas. Drugs, sex and rock n roll. It’s seedy, it’s insightful, as well as funny and (in its time) very shocking. Just razor-sharp writing and an unfiltered look at America’s depths.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

Atwood said she didn’t write anything in this book that hadn’t actually happened somewhere in the world, to the extent that calling it dystopian fiction is almost misleading. One of those books that came around again, and maybe we listened more carefully the second time. Atwood’s writing never gets too clever for itself. She does two things brilliantly in their simplicity: character and plot. This is one of the books that will define humanity in the future.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (1994)

Just because I loved it. Stunning escapist fiction with a superlative sense of time and place. For a brief moment in time absolutely everyone was reading this book. Didn’t we all fall just a little bit in love?

Did you spot the iconic book of its era? Yep, could easlily be any of the five. Thanks to Helen for finding time to share her selections. It never stops being a thrill when my most-read authors join me here at Grab This Book.

If you would like to visit my Library and see all the selections which have been made thus far then you just need to click this link: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

DECADES WILL RETURN

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April 10

Last Prophecy of Rome – Iain King

NEW YORK: A delivery van hurtling through Wall Street blows up, showering the sky with a chilling message: America is about to be brought down like the Roman Empire. And there’s only one man who can stop it.

ROME: Maverick military historian Myles Munro is on holiday with girlfriend and journalist Helen Bridle. He’s convinced a bomb is about to be detonated at the American Embassy.

When a US Senator is taken hostage, Myles is caught in a race against time to stop a terrorist from destroying America in the same way ancient Rome was thousands of years ago.

As Myles hurtles from New York to Iraq, Istanbul and Rome, he’s desperate to save the world’s superpower. But can he stop a terrifying threat from becoming reality before it’s too late?

I received a review copy from Bookouture through Netgalley

Last Prophecy of Rome is an action adventure which takes lead character, Myles Munro, across the globe. It’s a grand scale story and sees Munro thrust into the heart of another adventure but it’s not a situation he wants to be in.

America is under threat. A terrorist called Juma plans to bring America to its knees and see it crumble to dust in the way the mighty Roman empire once fell. Munro is an historian and can see parallels between past events and the current threat which America faces. The action commences with an explosion – a delivery van in Wall Street (the heart of New York’s financial might) blows up and causes instant chaos and fear.

Myles Munro is introduced and the quirky protagonist from Secrets of the Last Nazi is soon in the thick of the action once again. In a pacy action thriller it is difficult to review without straying too far into Spoiler Territory. What I can share is that Munro is on top form and that is entirely down to the detailed and informed research Iain King brings to the party. The whole backstory has the feel of “this could happen” the assertions of the terrorists are based upon past events. There are real incidents driving their actions and there are people who have put their faith in a rebalancing of the natural order who want to see America diminished. Munro knows these historical events and he patiently explains to the authorities why they are being targeted. It brings authenticity and tension to the unfolding action.

From high drama “Hollywood Blockbuster” set piece dramas to moments of contemplative reflection and consideration, Iain King keeps Munro front and centre throughout the story. If you enjoy action packed page turners with the endangered but bulletproof hero then this is the book you should be seeking out.

Last Prophecy of Rome is published by Bookouture and is available in digital, audio and paperback format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Prophecy-Rome-action-packed-conspiracy-ebook/dp/B018UWX8V2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1534001439&sr=8-1&keywords=last+prophecy+of+Rome

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