August 26

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Michael J Malone

It has been a busy old time here at Chez Grab and reviews have been scarce. Even more frustrating is that Decades has not been updating each week as I would like. Time to put that to right – a return of Decades and a return to Friday too. But before we get to my guest curator I feel it is time to recap what the Decades Library is all about.

In January 2021 I began a mission. I had a virtual library. Empty shelves and the goal I set myself was to find the very best books to put onto those empty shelves. Where to start?  My limited field of reading meant I was not the best person to decide which books were “the best” so I decided to ask booklovers to help me fill the shelves of my Ultimate Library. Over the last 20 months I have been joined by authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists who have all selected their favourite books which they want to add to my Decades Library.

Why did an Ultimate Library become a Decades Library? That is down to the two rules I ask each of my guests to follow when they make their selections:

1 – Select ANY five books
2 – Each Guest May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

Sounds easy! I am told choosing just five books is tricky – I am also told that narrowing down five books from a fifty year publication span is even more tricky.

Taking on the challenge this week is my friend Michael Malone (with a J). Michael is the reason Grab This Book came into being back in 2014, it was his influence which led me to my first ever author event (the guest speaker was Jenny Colgan) and he also gave me the first opportunity to read a book which wasn’t a shop bought copy – it was actually one of his novels on a CD-ROM if you remember them?

It is with great pleasure that I pass the Decades Curator hat to Michael J Malone…

 

Michael J Malone is the author of over 200 published poems, two poetry collections, four novels, countless articles and one work of non-fiction.

Formerly a Faber and Faber Regional Sales Manager (Scotland and North England), he has judged and critiqued many poetry, short story and novel competitions for a variety of organisations and was the Scottish correspondent for Writers’ Forum.

Michael is an experienced workshop leader/ creative writing lecturer to writers’ groups, schools and colleges as well as a personal coach and mentor. He has a Certificate in Life Coaching and studied as a facilitator with The Pacific Institute.

He is a regular speaker and chair at book festivals throughout the country – including Aye Write, Bloody Scotland, Crimefest and Wigtown.

Michael can found online at: https://mjmink.wordpress.com

and his books can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-J-Malone/e/B009WV9V4Y/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

 

DECADES

 

It’s a near impossible task to pick not only five favourite books, but five from different decades – indeed, on any other day I sat down to compile this I might have chosen another five. What has surprised me as I read over my compilation is the number of historical books I’ve chosen. What doesn’t surprise me is that each of these books affected me deeply as I read them – an impact that has lasted to this day.

 

1970’s – Roots – Alex Haley

I remember walking to school reading this book as I walked: I literally could not put it down. As anyone who was alive during this period can testify, Roots was a social and cultural phenomenon.

It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent, sold into slavery in Africa, and transported to North America; it follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the United States down to Haley, the author. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to it being a sensation in the United States. The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including twenty-two weeks at number one.

Haley acknowledged that the book was a work of “faction” with many of the detailed incidents in the book being works of the imagination, but the main facts of the story were based on his research. An approach I copied when I wrote my 2014 novel The Guillotine Choice.

 

 

1980’s – The Lost Get Back Boogie – James Lee Burke

It was while in the audience listening to John Connolly talk at Harrogate Crime Fiction Festival that I first heard of JLB. Mr Connolly said, talking about the man’s greatness – when James Lee Burke dies, the rest of us move up one.

This is JLB’s fourth published novel – and it was rejected 111 times over a nine year period before going on to be published – only to be subsequently nominated for The Pulitzer. (There’s a morale here for any aspiring authors reading this.)

But the book. Recently paroled from prison, Iry Paret, a young Louisiana blues musician, settles in with fellow ex-convict Buddy Riordan and Riordan’s family on a sprawling Montana ranch and becomes drawn into a tragic conflict involving the family and their neighbours.

No one writes about nature like JLB. And few people write about the darkness in the human heart like him either. There is a layer of melancholy running throughout the narrative – a contemplation on loss – the loss of roots (as Paret moves from Louisiana to Montana), loss of innocence, loss of opportunities and loss of time. The hills of Montana are given the same lush and lyrical treatment that Burke would later provide to the bayous of Louisiana in the Robicheaux series.

 

1990’s The Power of One – Bryce Courteney

Set in South Africa in the 1930s and 40s , The Power of One is a coming-of-age story of “Peekay”, an innocent English boy who very early in his life realizes that there are greater things at stake than the hatred between the Dutch Afrikaners and the English – the Second World War in Europe, the growing racial tensions and the beginning of apartheid will influence his world and challenge his spiritual strength.

Even though the odds are stacked against Peekay from the start, he never loses faith in the goodness of people and following the advice of several memorable mentors, he sets out to work towards his dream of becoming a boxing world champion.

This was one of those “lucky” finds I came across in my local library – a debut novel, by an unknown (to me anyway) and one that I went on to recommend to everyone I met. Chances are if I met you around this time I would have frog-marched you to the nearest bookshop to buy yourself a copy.  I found Peekay to be such an inspirational character that I even read the book in the week preceeding a job interview I was going for – if Peekay could survive everything he faced then I could deal with my nerves over the presentation I had to give for this job. (I didn’t get the job, btw – but I did manage to control my nervousness.)

 

2000’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

Set between the 1930s,and the present, Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is the story of Esme, a woman removed from her family’s history, and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from an asylum, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt no one in the family knew even existed. The mystery that unfolds is the heart-rending tale of two sisters in India and 1930s Edinburgh – of the loneliness that connects them and the rivalries that drive them apart – and towards a terrible betrayal.

Beautiful writing, characters to fall in love with and insight into (recent) historical attitudes towards women this is a book that deeply affected me and made me a huge fan of the author – as soon as her latest book is published it goes to the top of my TBR pile. (Hamnet, for example is A-MAY-ZING.)

 

 

 

 

2010’s The Orenda – Joseph Boyden

I heard the author being interviewed about this book on Radio Scotland while I was travelling between bookshops (I was a sales manager for Faber at the time) and I just had to buy the book from the next bookshop I went into. (You could be forgiven for thinking that my connection with Orenda Books was what made me seek this novel out, but if memory serves it was a few months after this when I heard Karen Sullivan was setting up a new publishing house, and calling it Orenda. Btw – according to the book, this is the name that the Iroquois gave to a spiritual energy that they say connects all living things.)

This historical epic is set in the mid-1600s in Huronia (part of Canada) at a time when the Hurons and the Iroquois are involved in skirmishes – just as the Jesuits arrive and begin their attempts to convert the natives to Christianity. A member of each of these three groups serves as a narrator: Bird is the warrior leader of the Wendat (Huron) nation; Snow Falls is a young Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) girl whom Bird captures and adopts in retaliation for the Iroquois killing his wife and daughters; and Christophe is a priest, whom the Hurons call Crow, who has come to convert the “sauvages” to Catholicism.

What follows is a gripping and at times brutal tale with rich and fascinating detail about the lives of the natives of this ancient land. Boyden has written a balanced narrative between the indigene and the coloniser – no one is guilty, no is innocent – they simply act in accordance with their beliefs and the habits of their people – leaving you, the reader to be the judge (please take note current crop of TV and film writers – let the characters demonstrate the unfairness of a thing rather than wagging your finger at us.)

The times in which this book is set are carefully and convincingly detailed. This is a book of love of family and friends, full of captivating descriptions of the beauty of the natural world they inhabit, acts of kindness and sacrifice, and vivid descriptions of torture and death – all the extremes of human nature are here. It’s a book that portrays the beginning of the end of a way of life, while another form of civilisation works at taking over. It is sobering, and powerful.

 

 

Thanks Michael. Every review on this blog can be traced back to the days we worked in Bellshill and the event in Ayr where your invitation to attend the writing group event opened my eyes to a side of books I had never known. All the books I have been trusted to read by publishers and authors, all the events I attend (and blog or tweet about) and all the opportunities I have been offered to participate in (reading groups, podcast guest, a Nibbies Judge, interviewing authors at their book launch) all thanks to that early support and encouragement. Thank you.

 

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

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August 2

From The Ashes – Deborah Masson

It only takes one spark to reignite an old mystery . . .

DI Eve Hunter and her team are called to the scene of a fire that has destroyed a home for underprivileged children in Aberdeen. No-one knows how the blaze started; all they know is that one person didn’t make it out in time.

Her team have dealt with their fair share of tragedies but this case affects them each deeply – particularly when they start to suspect that everyone at the home, from the residents to the staff, has something to hide. And when a horrific discovery is unearthed in the ruins of the property, the team must ask themselves – did someone have a secret worth killing for?

I recieved a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

 

This is an excellent murder story but at times it can be harrowing too – children in care, victims of desperately sad circumstances or parental neglect or abuse. Very real, very well depicted by Deborah Masson and the plight of some of the youngsters in the story will not be quickly forgotten.

DI Eve Hunter and her colleagues are not immune to the tragedy they are called to investigate. A fire at a children’s residential home is a difficult situation – kids with no stability and very few possessions are forced from the place which should be their haven and all signs are this was arson…they have been targeted. But more upsetting is that one of the children didn’t get out the house in time. Trapped, alone and nobody heard him calling for help.

The death of a child has tensions running high amongst her team and when the press come sniffing Eve knows some of the details of the fire and the young life lost are going to light up newspaper headlines and make her task even more challenging.

Somewhat hindering her investigation is the fact one of her team is not focusing his full attention on the fire. An accident in the centre of Aberdeen has left several damaged cars, one shaken up police officer and an unidentified young man fighting for his life after being hit by the vehicles. Who is the mysterious injured man? Why is he not carrying any identification and what can be done to help him?

But the majority of the story is centred around the residential home for the children. It’s been a home for vulnerable children for many years and as we read deeper into the book we discover the previous owners were not the nicest of folk, the children fearful of their guardians and resorting to sneaking around behind their backs to keep secrets. The story of these former home residents are told in flashback form and it further amplified the desperately sad situation the children in care can sometimes find themselves in.

An arsonist needs to be caught, a killer identified and Deborah Masson juggles this right cast brilliantly. There are secrets to come out and it may destroy some lives if they do – but a child is dead and Eve Hunter is not going to rest until the killer is found.

Emotive, powerful and perfectly paced I really enjoyed this one.

 

From The Ashes is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/from-the-ashes/deborah-masson/9780552178259

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August 1

Where Demons Hide – Douglas Skelton

 

My thanks to ISIS audio for the review copy and to Danielle Louis for the opportunity to host this leg of the audio blog tour.

 

 

Where Demons Hide is the fourth Rebecca Connolly thriller from Douglas Skelton. It builds on events from the three earlier books but is also easily read as a stand-alone title, Skelton deftly brings though the key events which new readers need to know without the reader feeling the past narrative is shoe-horned into the story.

The story largely concerns its-self with events on the island of Stoirm but for much of the story Rebecca is in Inverness which gives some of the supporting characters the chance to shine. Very much in the story spotlight is photographer Chazz Wymark – he is asked (grudgingly) by the police to take photographs of a body which was found in remote moorland on the island. The dead woman is Nuala Flaherty and despite an evidence of insubstantial clothing to be on the moors her body is also found lying inside an occult symbol.

There are no obvious signs of injury to Nuala’s body and the police are initially perplexed. But there are toxicology exams to be run and the potential of exposure (given the sheet-like clothing Nuala was wearing) so the police cannot assume accidental death is not a factor, nor can they rule out foul play. Chazz feels there is more to this death than may meet the eye – not least the symbol cut into the ground – and he alerts Rebecca to his suspicions.

Unfortunately for Chazz the person best placed to give him any more information is is old English teacher as she was acting as landlady for the deceased. The conversations between teacher and former pupil were absoulte highlights of this story for me. I don’t think any good teachers ever really lose the respect of their former pupils and this is wonderfully played out as Chazz tries to to some fact-finding with his mischevious but (almost) co-operative teacher.

Chazz is on Storim with his partner as their wedding looms. Rebecca will be joining them but she has stories to investigate before heading off to the island. Unbeknownst to Rebecca an old grudge against her is still festering and steps are being taken to end Rebecca’s young life before many more days have passed. Returning readers will know an attempt was already made on Rebecca’s life – obviously it was not successful. But this has only stoked the fires of anger and stakes have been raised with an outside contractor engaged to send professional killers after the reporter.

Where Demons Hide Pbk

Word of this danger does get to Rebeccca’s friends in the police and some steps are taken to try to ensure her safety but Rebecca is largely unaware of the danger which she may face. It’s a tense situation and as a reader I loved seeing the danger to Rebecca growing while she was oblivious to the moves being made against her.

Back on Stoirm and there’s more information emerging about Nuala and her connection to a commune on the island. Is it a haven for people who wish to leave the mania of society behind them? Or could there be a hidden danger and a nefarious motive for the community to be sequestered away in teh reomote Scottish Highlands?  There are a few people looking too closely at the sanctuary and this isn’t something which sits well with the commune’s owner.

I make no secret of being a fan of this series, and indeed of the author too. I always enjoy how Douglas Skelton plots his thrillers and the pacing and reveals never fail to keep me reading. Where Demons Hide also makes the transition to audiobook really well too. The team at Isis Audio have done another great job and the narrator, Sarah Barron, is once again nailing this performance. Sarah may be a familiar voice as she has narrated all the previous books in the series and her familiarity with the characters shines through.

The Rebecca Connoly series is one of my current favourites and whether this would be your first encounter with Rebecca or if you are a returning reader I know this book will captivate and entertain. Where Demons Hide is available from today and I urge you to seek it out.

 

Where Demons Hide is available in paperback, digital and (of course) audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Demons-Hide-Rebecca-Connolly/dp/B09ZBJRY1G/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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July 5

The Dark Remains – Ian Rankin and William McIlvanney

In this scorching crime hook-up, number one bestseller Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DI Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.

If the truth’s in the shadows, get out of the light…

Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong type of people. Now he’s dead and it was no accident. He’s left behind his share of enemies, but who dealt the fatal blow?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, Laidlaw needs to find out who got Carter before the whole city explodes.

 

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the tour for The Dark Remains. I am also grateful to Canongate for a review copy.

 

Laidlaw. Is this where it all began? For almost ten years I have been lurking around the fringes of the Bloody Scotland Crime Festival and the names “Laidlaw” and “William McIlvanney” are mentioned at most panels. The McIlvanney Prize is given to the best Scottish crime book of the year. Laidlaw’s shadow looms large over all current writing – that is a legacy to hold in reverence. It is 2022 and a new Laidlaw book is being released to the paperback market. The name McIlvanney is joined by that of Ian Rankin, that duo is a USP beyond measure.

But for many (myself included) Laidlaw is not a character they may have read before now. So does The Dark Remains capture the character of Laidlaw? The book cover states this is Laidlaw’s First Case – will The Dark Remains introduce a new generation of readers to the original books?

I honestly cannot answer either of these questions. Having not read any of McIlvanney’s books I don’t know how well the character of Laidlaw may compare to his original outings. On that front I can say that I adored how he comes across in The Dark Remains. There are quirks in his character, a deep level of thinking and an odd apparent indifference to his family. He commands respect from the low level hoods he meets in Glasgow’s streets and bars and he battles with a boss who clearly hates him. His presence dominates this story and it is magnificent.

Will readers of The Dark Remains pick up the original books?  I will be. For years I have promised myself I will read McIlvanney’s books – after reading The Dark Remains I immediately got myself the other books – holiday reading locked in.

But what of the story its-self? Bobby Carter is found dead in an alley behind a pub. Glasgow is divided up amongst rival gangs, each with their own influencial figurehead controlling his troops. Bobby Carter was found in the “wrong area” so was he killed to send a message or did someone over-step their remit and take action into their own hands?

The police know all the players in the city, who owns pubs and bookies, who the dealers report to and where the trusted members of each “family” can be found. But this time nobody seems to be talking but all the evidence which comes to light suggests it may be one of Bobby’s own who sought to end his life. But can the police trust the evidnece or is someone playing them for fools?

Laidlaw is not inclined to take everything at face value. While his colleagues are chapping on doors and seeking witnesses, Laidlaw is talking to people who knew Bobby Carter and people who saw Bobby in places where he should not have been.

The Dark Remains is a terrific read, Ian Rankin has brought McIlvanney’s unfinished manuscript to a delighful and thoroughly enteretaining completion. I enjoyed the characters, the dry quips and the depiction of Glasgow more than I have any police procedural for some time. It flowed with apparent effortless grace and I did not want to leave the world when the story ended.

The Dark Remins is one of those rare “must read” stories.

 

The Dark Remains is now available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-dark-remains/ian-rankin/william-mcilvanney/9781838858810

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July 5

Hostage – Clare Mackintosh

You can save hundreds of lives.
Or the one that matters most …

The atmosphere on board the inaugural non-stop flight from London to Sydney is electric. Numerous celebrities are rumoured to be among the passengers in business class and journalists will be waiting on the ground to greet the plane.

Mina is one of a hand-picked team of flight attendants chosen for the landmark journey. She’s trying to focus on the task in hand, and not worry about her troubled five-year-old daughter back at home with her husband. Or the cataclysmic problems in her marriage.

But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination. Someone who needs Mina’s assistance and who knows exactly how to make her comply.

It’s twenty hours to landing.
A lot can happen in twenty hours …

 

I received a review copy from the publisher before taking part in the blog tour. I was invited to join the tour by Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours. My thanks to both.

 

As the summer holiday season is upon us many readers will be looking for the books they can stuff into a suitcase or their hand luggage. The smart cookies out there will have an ebook and a reading app on their phone. Nothing says “prepared” like opening the Kindle App when you suddenly find you are in a 3 hour airport queue. The really smart cookies out there will be taking Clare Mackintosh’s Hostage with them on their holiday – though some may find it a bit too intense to read on a flight!

I am keeping a firm eye on the blurb (above) as I try to explain why you must be reading Hostage this summer. The last thing I want to be doing is sprinkling spoilers into my review as this really is a book you want to pick up with as little advance warning of what is about to unfold as it is possible to achieve.

The key character in Hostage is Mina. She is a flight attendant who will be working on a landmark journey: an England to Australia direct flight. Pushing the boundaries of aviation capability means a 20 hour flight with no stops. For the crew it should be a long and demanding trip, the flight will be full of celebs, reporters along with the usual quota of people making the epic journey with their own personal ambitions and aspirations driving them on.

Mina didn’t need to be on the flight – for all the prestige involved in being on board it was deemed a “short straw” by the crew. Yet Mina volunteered to swap with a friend. She has been having a really tough time at home, her marriage seemingly falling apart due to her husband’s unreliable nature. Their five year old daughter is the light of their lives but she is also a lot of work for Mina when Adam (Mina’s husband) isn’t pulling his weight. Mina will get some time away on the round trip and Adam will just need to cope.

Unfortunately for Mina someone has been paying too much attention to her personal situation and with the flight in the air she receives a note which will rock her world to its core. Someone on the flight plans to ensure the hightest profile air trip of a generation will never reach its destination and they need Mina to make that possible.

I really cannot go into too much more detail but I can tell you from the moment Mina’s flight takes to the air this book will have you gripped and you will not want to stop reading. Claire Mackintosh builds up the background so smoothly and weaves important narrative into scenes where the reader may not appreceiate their significance. Aside from Mina and her family there are interludes where she introduces passengers and shares their stories. These passengers will also be caught-up in the drama as if the plane does not reach its destination and knowing what they have at stake is crucial to buying into the tension.

Hostage is the first of Claire Mackintosh’s books I have read. But having been in the audience at events to hear her speak, I already owned a few of her earlier books. Kicking myself for not making time to read those books sooner but a thriller of this quality is not a fluke and I cannot wait to catch up on the titles I missed. Those will be MY summer holiday reads.

 

Hostage is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/hostage/clare-mackintosh/9780751577082

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July 4

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Anne Coates

I am in awe of bloggers who are able to juggle their reading, their personal lives and still keep their blog ticking over. Sometimes that IS me, recently it has NOT been me. Over the last few weeks my day job has become overwheming and has taken far too much of my time; becoming something of a “whole-day” job. Something had to give and unfortunately that was Decades. My apologies to my guests who have been waiting patiently, also to those who have indicated they would like to join in but I have not yet been in contact with them. And my apologies to everyone who as asked me “where is Decades?”

Today Decades is back.

Since January 2021 I have been inviting guests to join me and I ask them to nominate their five favourite books which they would like to see included in the Ultimate Library. This Ultimate Library is my Decades Library, I started with zero books and wanted to curate a library which contained only the very best reads – the ones booklovers read and want everyone else to enjoy too.

Each guest is asked to follow just two rules when nominating their favourite books to the Decades Library:

1 – You May Select ANY Five Books

2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades. Selections are to be made from any fifty-year publication span.

 

It sounds easy but I am often told that nailing down a final five can lead to some frustrating internal soul searching. And cussing.

Today I am delighted to bring Decades back and introduce the wonderful Anne Coates. As Decades is not about me but about my guests I am now taking a step back and leaving you in Anne’s care…

 

It only took one tap dancing class (and some coaching from her mother who had been a dancer) for Anne Coates to realise that she would never be a Ginger Rogers but being a journalist/editor and writing fiction has allowed her to explore all manner of careers and situations with far less embarrassment. Anne has worked as a journalist and editor for newspapers, magazines and publishers and has published seven non-fiction books as well as short stories. Born in Clapham and now living a few miles away in East Dulwich, Anne’s Hannah Weybridge series, amzn.to/38egdOO published by Red Dog press, is set in 1990s London. The first book, ‘Dancers in the Wind’, was inspired by interviews she did for a national newspaper and the latest, ‘Stage Call’ begins and ends in one of the capital’s most iconic theatres, The Old Vic – a favourite with the Coates family.

 

 

 

DECADES

 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (1865)

 

Alice is the book made unforgettable by my mother reading it to me. I adored listening to her as she brought everything alive with different “voices”. I love the sheer madness of these books and although I never sought out rabbit holes, I have certainly spent time staring into mirrors and hoping to be absorbed into another world! I continued the tradition by reading it to my daughter and quoting passages on the walk to school (she was not impressed).

 

 

 

Middlemarch by George Elliot (1871)

 

What a perfect novel! And how irritated I was with Dorothea when I read this as a teenager. Middlemarch followed me from school to my degree and I still have my battered Penguin edition. It encompasses so much social history especially the status of women, issues about marriage and inheritance, beautifully written and plotted. Much later in life I abridged Middlemarch for a compact edition and nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to cut parts of a favourite tome!

 

 

 

 

The Strange Case of Dr Jekell and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

 

From an early age I have been fascinated by the occult and the supernatural (in theory not practice!). Although I wasn’t a fan of Treasure Island or Kidnapped, Stevenson’s Jekell and Hyde captured my imagination with a struggle between good and evil in one character with two lives.

 

 

 

 

 

New Grub Street by George Gissing (1891)

 

A book I have reread since university, about writing and authors, their trials and tribulations. Written well over a century ago, Gissing depicts a society in which literature has become a commodity, which could very much sum up the case in publishing now especially in the snobbism associated with literary as opposed to genre fiction. New Grub Street is a “three volume novel” which one of the main characters, Reardon, struggles to write. It was a book, which resonated with me long before I became a published author.

 

 

 

 

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1901)

 

What’s not to love about Sherlock Holmes stories? Holmes intrigued me and I found his legendary powers of deduction utterly beguiling – the ultimate in detectives. Plus of course there was often the possibility of a supernatural agency at work. Doyle uses a favourite Holmes ruse of being too busy to attend the scene in Dartmoor and sending Dr Watson in his stead. Of course Holmes is there in disguise conducting his own enquiry into the death of Sir Charles Baskerville. Greed as ever was the motivation for the death, which was not the result of a family curse. Perfect reading.

 

 

 

 

My huge thanks to Anne for five wonderful selections. If you knew how much trouble we had behind the scenes to actually get Anne’s book recommendations to my inbox then you would know why I am feeling particularly thrilled to bring these five new Decades books to you today.

To everyone who has enjoyed Decades – thanks for the love and support. To new readers, welcome – I hope you find some new books to love.

I will aim to bring a new Decades post to you every Monday as we go forward. If you feel you have five unmissable books (pubished over five consecutive Decades) then please do get in touch with me @GrabThisBook and together we can hopefully share the booklove and introduce new readers to those titles.

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

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June 13

Cat & Mouse – MJ Arlidge

When you think you’re safe,
When you think you’re all alone,
That’s when he’ll come for you…

A silent killer stalks the city, targeting those home alone at night, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the victims.

As panic spreads, Detective Inspector Helen Grace leads the investigation, but is herself a hunted woman, her every step shadowed by a ruthless psychopath bent on revenge.

As she tracks the murderer, Grace begins to suspect there is a truly shocking home truth that connects these brutal crimes. But what she will find is something more twisted than she could ever suspect…

 

 

My thanks to the publishers, Orion, for a review copy and to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to join the Cat & Mouse blog tour.

 

Sometimes all I want to read is an exciting murder story with short, punchy chapters and some nasty bad guys to make me want to root for the lead character. Thank you MJ Arlidge for Cat & Mouse – I needed you this week!

The lead character in this case is DI  Helen Grace and in the books which came before Cat & Mouse she has had more than a bit of a rough time. She’s disliked by her boss, has a death threat hanging over her, is at odds with a former lover (a colleague) who she now needs to testify against and the local press are out to get her. It probably helps to have read the previous books to get the full story behind her predicament but the author does make sure you will know enough to understand why DI Grace is a woman under intense pressure.

To compound this pressure the book opens with a particularly brutal murder. A woman, home alone as she waited for her husband to return from a late-night training session is restrained and subdued while an intruder steals her jewellery. Before the intruder leaves he pulls out a small axe and buried it in the back of her head.

The victim was a young mother, attractive, successful and prominent on social media. The press are baying for a quick arrest but DI Grace and her team have little to go on. It’s a frustrating case but the victim’s husband knows the killer, his wife had a stalker and he is sure the police should look no further than the guy who had been harassing her. Is a quick outcome going to be possible? Well, if she can prove his guilt then it may be a good outcome for Helen and her team.

I came late to this series. Cat & Mouse is the eleventh Helen Grace novel and I joined around book six or seven (I now have all the books I missed in my TBR). It’s rare for me to get sucked into a series which I haven’t followed from the first book but in this case I have gone out of my way to try to catch up. MJ Arlidge writes gripping and exciting stories, the kind of book which makes you want to keep reading late into the night.

I really enjoyed Cat & Mouse. Once or twice Grace seems to morph from police detective to action hero which didn’t quite seem in keeping with my perception of her character, but the action scenes do make for exciting reading. Lots of red herrings and plenty of plot threads surrounding Helen’s colleagues and also the reporter who is determined to undermine Helen at every opportunity. Highly recommend this series so don’t miss out.

 

 

Cat & Mouse is published by Orion and available now in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/cat-and-mouse/m-j-arlidge/9781409188506

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April 8

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Jamie Mollart

Happy New Year! For all the financial services workers in the UK this week marks the start of a brand new tax year (2022/23 as it turns out). So I thought I’d acknowledge it on the blog for a wee change.

But you’re not here for tax chat, you’re here for the books. Specifically you’re here to see which five books Jamie Mollart has selected when he took on my Decades Challenge.

Quick recap before I hand over to Jamie: Last year I set myself the challenge of filling the shelves of a brand new library with nothing but the very best books represented. I knew I could not take on this epic task alone so each week I invite a guest to select five of their favourite books which they feel should be represented in my new library.  When making their selections there are just two rules my guests must follow:

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

Sounds easy? I am assured it takes a while to settle on five and there are rumours of cursing and heartache as favourites don’t fall within the five consecutive decades rule.

This week it is my abolute pleasure to welcome Jamie Mollart to Grab This Book. Jamie’s latest novel, Kings of the Dead World is my #currentlyreading book and has been commuting with me on my train trips back into the office now that I am not exclusively working from home. It is making the trip to work much more manageable.

Over to Jamie…

I’ve written two novels and am about to send my third to my agent. The Zoo was published in 2015 to some pretty good reviews and press. I was made an Amazon Rising Star for that year and spent 2015/16 at some cool literary festivals. My second novel, Kings of a Dead World came out in 2021, was an Amazon bestseller, has a Waterstones edition with very beautiful sprayed green edges and was longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association best novel award.

I am a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League (https://climate-fiction.org/), Nottingham Writers Studio (https://www.nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk/) , I’m a mentor for Writing East Midlands (https://writingeastmidlands.co.uk/for-writers/mentoring/), I have contributed to the Writers and Artists Yearbook (https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/advice/lessons-i-learned-writing-my-second-novel), and the Bookseller (https://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/cli-fi-time-1262857) and I’m a long standing guest on the webs oldest and most influential writing podcast, Litopia (https://litopia.com/)

If you want to find out more about me the best places are one twitter (@jamiemollart) or on my youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsYzJh4RrSdYkM3e0o2WFOg)

If you want to get a copy of Kings of a Dead World with its lovely green edges you can do so here (https://www.waterstones.com/book/kings-of-a-dead-world/jamie-mollart/9781914518027) there’s also a hardback and audiobook version available here (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kings-Dead-World-Jamie-Mollart/dp/1913207455)

 

DECADES

1970-1979 – JG Ballard – Crash (1973)

I could have chosen any one of several JG Ballard books from the 70’s because they’re all excellent – The Atrocity Exhibition, Concrete Island, or High Rise – but for me Crash is the one which is the best realised. The fact that it was filmed by one of my all-time favourite directors, David Cronenberg, is the icing on the cake. Ballard is all about high concept and Crash is no exception. He always seemed to be able to predict the future in a way which most authors don’t, and Crash is no exception to this. It also demonstrates Ballard’s ability to compress massive concepts into razor sharp narratives.

The narrator, James Ballard, is involved in a car crash which kills the other driver, and when he begins a relationship with the dead man’s wife the boundaries between the mechanical and the erotic become blurred.

When he meets Robert Vaughan, and is drawn into his sphere of influence, Ballard in turn becomes involved in a group who recreate the fatal car crashes of famous people for sexual pleasure.

The book was controversial at the time of release – ‘This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish’ – and still has the power to shock, but in our increasingly Petro-chemical/celebrity obsessed world it seems even more important than when it was written. Not for the feint hearted, but for me essential reading.

 

1980-1989 – Peter Carey – Oscar and Lucinda (1988)

The Booker winner from 1988 is, in my opinion, the most perfect novel ever written. Populated with rich, flawed, and complex characters, this Victorian epic is weird, daring, romantic and challenging all at the same time. It also contains one of the most bravura set pieces I’ve ever read, which I can’t tell you about here because it’s a massive spoiler, but somehow Carey manages to make one act represent the entirety of not only the lead characters relationship, but the whole narrative. Annoyingly the book’s Wikipedia entry manages to blurt it out, so if you intend to read it don’t visit Wikipedia.

Oscar Hopkins is an Anglican Priest, Lucinda Leplastrier is an heiress to a glass factory, they are both gamblers, and when the meet on a ship they both find the other fascinating. It’s a love story that’s more about friendship than passion, while still managing to be incurably romantic. It’s about religion and fanaticism of all kinds, it’s about technology and the allure of it, it’s about how our childhoods affect us and so much more.

Carey loves a misfit character, and both Oscar and Lucinda fall into that category, but they are so lucidly drawn that I struggle not to think of them as real people. It’s one of the few books that I’ve read multiple times, it’s just not something I normally do, but Oscar and Lucinda calls to me regularly and I can’t help but return to it.

Peter Carey is one of the few writers who can turn his hand to anything and succeed every single time.  He’s won the Booker twice and been shortlisted for it 5 times, no mean feat, and utterly deserved. Angela Carter also described Oscar and Lucinda as ‘novel of extraordinary richness, complexity and strength’, so if you don’t believe me, you should definitely believe her.

 

1990- 1999 Bret Easton-Ellis – American Psycho (1991)

The ultimate dissection of 80’s excess and yuppie culture, American Psycho was banned on release in many places, and gained notoriety because of its aestheticized violence. What was largely missed at the time is that the book is clearly a satire and is actually laugh out loud funny in many places.

Patrick Bateman is a slick, vacuous banker on the Wall Street of the eighties. He’s obsessed with his hair, clothes, fancy restaurants, his sculpted body and making sure his business card is whiter and crisper than his colleagues. Oh, and at night he likes to murder people in increasingly depraved and meticulously described ways, whilst extoling the virtues of albums by people like Huey Lewis and The News and Whiteny Houston. As Bateman’s murder spree escalates and his grip on reality becomes more tenuous it becomes more unclear whether what we’re witnessing is actually happening or whether Bateman’s fractured mind is in fact making him the most unreliable of narrators.

American Psycho is probably the most caustic and damning attack on consumerism ever written, unrelenting in its horror show depiction of the American Dream, it is both difficult to read and impossible to put down. On a sentence level Easton-Ellis is second to none (apart from maybe Zadie Smith, who I really wanted to include on this list too), and the whole book reads as a macabre satirical masterpiece.

 

2000-2009 China Mieville – Perdido Street Station (2000)

What. A. Book. This. Is.

I put off reading it for a while because of the sheer size of it, but oh my days is it worth it. China Mieville is one of the cleverest, imaginative, and downright weird writers out there. Every single one of his books reaches for the sky, most of the succeed, but this one absolutely smashes through it.

It’s 1000 pages of steam punk craziness set in the world of Bas-Lag (which he revisits in The Scar and Iron Council), where magic is real and considered a science, and New Crobozon is a sleazy, sexy, corrupt city full of weird and wonderful species such as the Falcon like Garudas, and the Khepri, who have human bodies and insects as heads.

Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is a scientist who is approached by one of the Garuda, who has had his wings removed as punishment, to craft a new pair of wings to enable him to fly again. Isaac sends his team out into New Crobozon to bring back as many species with the ability to fly as possible so he can learn the secret of flight. Unknowingly he is brought back a caterpillar which will end up turning into something nasty enough to endanger the whole of the city.

It’s a whole lot more complicated than that and features a massive cast in a wonderfully vivid city. It won the Arthur C Clarke award (he’s won it a record 3 times in total) amongst many others and the legendary Michael Moorcock described Mieville as ‘a writer with a rare descriptive gift, an unusually observant eye for physical detail, for the sensuality and beauty of the ordinarily human as well as the thoroughly alien.’

Mieville has written some brilliant books after Perdido Street Station, not least the amazing The City and The City, but this is his masterpiece.

 

2010- 2020 – Nobody Told Me – Hollie McNish (2016)

Hollie McNish is so forthright and honest and open and fearless as a writer that she ought to be compulsory reading. Her view of the world is hilarious and disarmingly honest. In this amazing book, which is part diary, part poetry and part essay, she turns her unflinching gaze onto motherhood as she narrates the first year of her daughter’s life.

My wife suffered horrendous post-natal depression with our first daughter, in no small part I believe due to the facile and fake way in which motherhood is portrayed in our modern culture. The awkward, unpleasant bits are whitewashed and hidden from view, and we’re presented with an unrealistic portrayal which is damaging to both mother and child.

Hollie McNish does no whitewashing. With Nobody Told Me she sets out to give an honest, personal, and deeply moving account of what it means to be a new mother, and in doing so goes some way to busting the harmful myths. She covers everything from morning sickness, to what it actually feels like to not sleep properly for months, the first public tantrum, mum guilt, leaky boobs, the changes a woman’s body goes through, but also the amazing gift that is having a child. It’s funny, touching, and profoundly moving.

I love the way Hollie McNish looks at the world and I love the way her words describe it. She’s a rare and genuine talent and should be considered a national treasure.

 

I have mentioned this before but, for me, the perfect five Decades selections are when I know one or two of the books and have read them before and then there are three books which I don’t know. A blend of new and familiar. Jamie has hit that perfect balance this week and I have already been checking out the books which were new to me.

My thanks to Jamie for finding time to make his selections. Decades continues entirely because of the kindness of my guests who all devote some of their precious time towards sharing the booklove.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

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April 1

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with David Monteath

The second quarter of 2022 is upon us. As this latest Decades selection goes live it will be April and Decades will be in its sixteenth month of guests. I am grateful to each and every contributor and to you for returning, week on week, to see the latest books which are being added to my Decades Library.

The Decades Library I hear you ask?  I am compiling a list of the very best books which my guests think would deserve a place in the Ulitmate Library. I started this project in January 2021 with zero books and each week I ask a guest to nominate five new books which they would want to see included in a collection of the finest writing.

When making their selections my guests are asked to follow two rules.

1 – Choose Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

This week I am delighted to be joined my someone who reads my books for me. Or is that to me? David Monteath (@joxvox) will be a familiar voice to many audiobook fans and I am always fascinated to know which books stand out to someone who spends most of his waking hours focused entirely on the written word.

 

One of Scotland’s most popular voiceovers, David Monteath was born in Glasgow and started acting while at high school, he trained as an actor at Webber Douglas in London and has been an actor and voiceover for 25 years.

David’s early life was split between homes on the outskirts of Glasgow and the beautiful Spey Valley in the Highlands of Scotland. He also lived in central Perthshire near the popular tourist destination of Pitlochry with its world-famous Festival Theatre.

While training at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy in London, David met his future wife Lindsay. They have three children and all five of them have worked as voiceovers for clients across Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East.

David has put his voice to good use over the years and has vast experience of most aspects of being a voiceover from advertising for television and radio, ADR and dubbing on film and television, language tapes for learners of English, telephony and on-hold messages, character animation through to narration, commentary and audiobooks.

He has also produced and co-presented a weekly request show on Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio

DECADES

 

Most of my choices are made from books I have read for work, one of the downside of being an audiobook narrator is that I rarely have time now to read for pleasure, so in many ways my reading choices are dictated by my clients.  Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, this work has introduced me to many writers I would never have found otherwise.

 

The High Girders – John Prebble – 1956

 

This is an absolute classic and the first John Prebble I have read.  It follows the story of the building of the Tay Railway bridge and its eventual collapse on 28th December 1879. The story follows in detail the events of the night, and wherever the blame is felt to lie for the errors which caused the disaster and 75 deaths, Prebble’s book is a fascinating account of a terrible night and a compassionate recounting of so many very human losses.

 

 

 

 

The Game of Kings (The Lymond Chronicles) Dorothy Dunnett – 1961

Ok, there is a tale behind this one…where else would tails be?…I was recording a quiet story of a country doctor when the producer asked if I would be interested in narrating another book for him, ‘it’s a bit longer than this one’ he said. ‘Of course I would.’ Now cut forward a few days and I was sent the pdf, most audiobook narrators work from iPads, it makes it much quieter as you don’t hear the dreaded page-turn noises that audio editors hate. Also making notes on character and scene etc are simpler on a screen. So, I opened the pdf and found a place at random a good few pages in. I read a rather lovely scene between our hero Lymond and a very young Mary Queen of Scots, set on an island in the middle of the Lake of Menteith, my area of Scotland…but more importantly where I was married. Of course I was completely drawn in and contacted the producer who said…’Um, this has changed slightly, you might have noticed that the book is a biggie, we think it’ll be around 26 hours when you’ve finished recording. Is that still ok?’. Oh definitely good for me. Then he muttered quietly as the phone was going down…’just one more thing…there are six of them, all pretty much the same length!!’ So, this quiet chat turned into 1.3 million words read, 146 hours of finished audiobooks and over 300 hours recording in my tiny studio during the very hot summer of 2018…it was HUGE…and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

I’m not going to try to precis the book or the series, if you’ve read or listened to them you know why…if you haven’t, the please, please do, you absolutely wont regret it. They are glorious.

 

The General Danced at Dawn – George MacDonald Fraser – 1970

IN the early 1990s, when I was on tour with the Oscar Wilde play ‘A Woman of No Importance’, I shared dressing rooms around the country with an actor called Stuart Hutchison, who was also a regular face on Westward Television in the Plymouth area. Stuart and I spent hours talking about books, art, music and pretty much anything but football which we both dislike. He bought me a copy of The General Danced at Dawn as I’d never read the stories and he wanted someone else to be able to laugh at them and love them as much as he did. I’ve been very fortunte in my career to work with some really kind, generous people and that was Stuart.

 

 

 

 

The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco – 1980 

Hmmm, I’m beginning to sense a bit of a history theme in my reading. This book sort of crosses all of my working genres, history (albeit fictional) and crime.  It’s a complicated disturbing romp through murders in a 16th Century monastry in middle Europe, probably modern day Germany. The descriptions of ecclesiastical life and the conflicts in the church at that time are great, although if you saw the film first, I defy you not to hear Sean Connery every time Brother William speaks.

 

 

 

 

Iain Banks – Complicity – 1993

 

Right then, back to me again…this is a revenge story, brilliantly written by the always brilliant Iain Banks.  Someone once asked me, if given a choice what books would you like to have narrated?  Any of the Iain Banks would have been my choice.  It’s even more annoying that the reader is a friend and a very good reader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worked in a bookshop in the early 1990’s and without exception all these authors were selling in great numbers in Inverness bookshops – I know this as I was selling them. Pure nostalgia for me and I loved these choices.

And not just those choices as David gave me two extras. I have taken an executive decision to move Montrose out of the 1970s and Morningstar out of the 1990s selections.  I don’t mind the fact Montrose was originally written in the 1920s but it would mean dropping George MacDonald Fraser so rather than flex the rules I opted for the clear cut entry.  I am being hard on David Gemmell by moving him to the subs bench but only one book per decade is the rule so I flipped a coin!

But I don’t hide the alternates so here are David’s thoughts:

 

Montrose – John Buchan – 1979 (from 1928)?

This might be a bit of a cheeky one as the book was originally published in 1928, but reissued in 1979.  This was another audiobook project, but one far closer to my heart.  My clan are the Graham from Stirlingshire and this book tells the story of the first James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose.  My father was passionately interested in Scottish history, so this exploration of a turbulent time in Scotland was a particular favourite of his.

 

Morningstar – David Gemmell – 1992

OK, yes, actually I just like a good historical epic, this one was a thumping good read, glorious descriptions and a suitably complicated fantasy world.  Its beautifully written and a great adventure.

A country in desperate need of heroes . . .

Angostin invaders surge through the Highlands, laying waste to everything in their path. Darkness follows in their wake as a mad necromancer resurrects the eons-dead Vampyre Kings.

Only the bandit Jarek Mace, and the magicker and bard Owen Odell, have the courage to fight the Angostins and the undead. Whispers soon spread that Mace is the legendary Morningstar, a saviour who will protect his country in its hour of need. Yet Mace seems nothing more than a thief and a liar.

As the final battle approaches, Odell wonders which of the two Maces will triumph: the self-serving rogue or the saviour of his people, the Morningstar.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

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March 4

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Paul Gadsby

Welcome to March 2022, we are now in the fifteenth month of the Decades Library. Decades is a feature which I expected to run for five or six posts back in January and February 2021 and then believed it would slip into the background maybe to be revisited for another brief outing later in the year.

What actually happened is that Decades became a weekly feature and over 200 books have been recommended by authors, bloggers, journalists and publishers. People look foward to seeing the latest reading recommendations from my guests each week and if I don’t share a new Decades post on a Friday morning then I get letters (OK I get Twitter DMs but the principle is the same).

I also have to find new ways to introduce the Decades Library each week…how I wish I had standardised my introduction.

The Decades Library is my quest to populate a brand new library from the ground up. I started with zero books and I invite guests to nominate five of their favourite reads to be added to the shelves of the Decades Library.  I only want the best books to be represented, books someone loved and would love other people to enjoy too.

Why the Decades Library?  Well although my guests get to choose five favourite books they can only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades.

This week I am delighted to welcome another indy published author to the Decades Library: Paul Gadsby. I have had a sneaky look at the books Paul has selected and damn they sound good. So it’s enough from me for the moment, let me hand you over to Paul.

 

Paul Gadsby is the author of the crime novels ‘Back Door to Hell’ and ‘Turbulence’, both published by Fahrenheit Press, as well as ‘Chasing the Game’. His short stories have appeared in Mystery Tribune, Rock and a Hard Place magazine, Beat to a Pulp, Close to the Bone, and the ‘Noirville’ anthology. Having spent many years working in London as a sports and trade journalist, he is now a copywriter (when he’s not writing fiction) in his native Northamptonshire, where he lives with his wife and young son. His love of reading started with Michael Hardcastle’s football books for children and Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole series, before discovering a passion for crime and noir novels through the works of Ian Rankin, Ted Lewis, Megan Abbott and James Sallis among many others. You can read more about Paul’s work and his articles on literature at his website, paulgadsbyauthor.co.uk, while he can be found on Twitter @PaulJGadsby

 

 

 

DECADES

 

Ripley Under Ground, by Patricia Highsmith (1970)

I often tend to prefer the first book in a series, but this is a fine example of a stunning follow-up. Highsmith’s collection of Tom Ripley psychological thrillers begins with the spellbinding ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’, and ‘Ripley Under Ground’ is the second instalment, set six years later. The titular anti-hero, now in his thirties, is enjoying an affluent lifestyle in rural France, supported by his heiress wife, Héloïse, and the fortune he furtively acquired from Dickie Greenleaf. Naturally drawn to the shadows and all things clandestine, Ripley is also running an art forgery scheme, playing a key sales role within a consortium that is producing and selling fake paintings lauded as works by the now deceased artist Philip Derwatt. But when Bernard Tufts, a gifted young painter who is fabricating the works and who idolised Derwatt, becomes tormented by guilt, the scheme unravels. Ripley is forced to act fast — and not to mention lethally — in order to save his skin and the elevated social status he’s worked so hard to create for himself. Slotting Ripley into a counterfeiting world where, as a natural imitator and con artist, he thrives so compellingly was a masterstroke by Highsmith as she deftly plots this riveting tale.

 

The Eye of the Beholder, by Marc Behm (1980)

This hardboiled and surreal PI novel, later adapted into a film starring Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd, is an eclectic and experimental triumph. The protagonist, known only as ‘The Eye’, is a field operative for a corporate private investigation firm in Virginia. His latest assignment is to keep tabs on college graduate Paul Hugo, whose wealthy parents are concerned about a deviant young woman their son is romantically involved with. The Eye, long separated from his daughter who he only sees in sporadic illusions, is mentally unstable and finds himself fixated with the woman. When he watches her calmly kill Paul one evening, The Eye becomes infatuated. He soon discovers that the woman has plenty of aliases and wigs as she criss-crosses the nation getting her hooks into one well-heeled victim after another – sometimes playing the bride for an inheritance payout, sometimes just helping herself to a quick score. The Eye researches her true identity, Joanna Eris, and uncovers a tragic past that explains her emotional detachment to the murders she carries out with such a callous flair. Despite being a slender book, ‘The Eye of the Beholder’ spans 30 years and covers nearly 100 killings. It’s an extraordinary nihilistic descent into hell; brutal yet tender, rapid yet epic, and viciously bleak. Few books have explored themes of manic desire and sociopathic behaviour with such heartbreaking lyricism and relentless intensity.

 

The Hackman Blues, by Ken Bruen (1997)

I love the verve and vengeance which Irish noir novelist Bruen injects into his prose. Creator of the Jack Taylor series, Bruen’s long-nurtured edgy writing style and black humour lends itself particularly well to his standalone books, with ‘The Hackman Blues’ a personal favourite. Brady, a gay, bipolar junkie, is tasked with finding a girl in Brixton but his objective is complicated by a lethal ex-con and an Irish builder obsessed with Hollywood legend Gene Hackman. A powerful, gritty tale laced with urban blues and psychotic yet genuine characters, this is Bruen at his haunted best. Like most of his novels, the intensity rarely dips with his chapters short, his sentences rapid, and his narratives wonderfully original. Also, his habit of defining his protagonists by their cultural tastes — often declared through listing their favourite music, films, books, clothes or cuisine — wins me over every time.

 

 

The Long Suit, by Philip Davison (2003)

Following a chequered recent past, MI5 operative Harry Fielding is brought in from the cold to investigate the mysterious and complex case of a bullet-ridden corpse found on a Long Island golf course. Never one to fit in with the stiff procedures and hierarchical posturing of the British secret service, Harry struggles with the mental imbalance of returning to the cloak-and-dagger world of intelligence work that he hates so much yet performs so well. Keeping his troublemaker apprentice Johnny in check is difficult enough, let alone interpreting the instructions from head office which don’t appear to make the purpose of his job any clearer. Harry must consider if he is being set up, and to what end. Aside from the intriguing story and Davison’s delightfully polished writing style, what sets this book apart is the vivid and touching interplay that takes place in the visits Harry makes to his ailing father, Cecil, now confined to a retirement home as his amnesia worsens. The unsaid becomes mightily powerful in these passages. When I first read this book, having come across it by accident rather than design, I was captivated by its sharp and intelligent prose; the depth and vision of Davison’s writing compares with the likes of Graham Greene, John le Carré and James Sallis. The character of Harry features in some of Davison’s other books, but this for me is his finest work.

 

Dodgers, by Bill Beverly (2016)

This debut novel seemed to come out of nowhere and blew me — and many others — away. With its slick writing, gripping story and well-drawn characters, the convincing world created in this book overpowers you and stays with you long after the final page. We follow the journey of 15-year-old LA ghetto soldier East in what is both a crime caper road trip and a coming-of-age saga. East works for a drug peddling crew, just like pretty much everyone else he knows on the streets of the bleak African-American suburban landscape he has been raised, where the prospect of a violent death is constant. The crew’s boss, Fin, needs a Wisconsin-based witness killed before the guy can testify against his nephew in an upcoming trial. Fin tasks East, his trigger-happy 13-year-old half-brother Ty, and two other young crew members – the overweight Walter and the cocky Michael – with travelling across America to carry out the hit. Things don’t go to plan. The four of them have to improvise under pressure as things fall apart amidst a backdrop of the Midwest heartland rusting to a slow death. The van is vandalised and spray-painted with a racial slur. The mission flips. East and Michael have a vicious punch-up, and the group splits in stages. These impoverished characters don’t have many choices at their disposal, if any. The plot is taut and tense; there is no need for coincidences or twists. The observations Beverly draws are insightful and relevant, while the images he paints in your mind feel startlingly real.

 

 

And there we go, five books which sound amazing and I have only read one of them this week (Dodgers, don’t you know?).  Thanks to Paul for taking the time to make his choices, it is always very much appreciated when someone takes on the Curator’s Hat for the Decades Library and I know people look forward to finding new books each week.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

 

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