The Late Train to Gypsy Hill – Alan Johnson

Something a little different from me today which I am really excited to share with you. I am usually the last person to hear about new books but I am delighted to bring you an early notification of a forthcoming release which will be hitting our bookshelves in September. The author will be familiar name to many but not (yet) as a crime writer.

Alan Johnson is the former Home Secretary and, more recently, political commentator. Alan currently hosts a brand new Podcast series called How To Change the World, guests will include Caitlin Moran, James Dean Bradfield and Stuart Lee. Alan has a monthly column in Saga Magazine acting as their first ever Agony Uncle, as well as a regular slot on ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’, Steph McGovern’s show on Channel 4.

Due for release on 2 September 2021, The Late Train to Gypsy Hill is Alan’s first crime novel. Alan himself will be along in a moment to tell you about his new novel but first the important details…cover and blurb.

The Late Train to Gypsy Hill

Gary Nelson has a routine for the commute to his rather dull job in the city. Each day, he watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. He’s never dared to strike up a conversation . . . but maybe one day.

Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her. Fiddling with her mascara, she holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words ‘HELP ME’ scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.

With a little bit of internet trickery and the kind support of Vicky at Headline I can also bring you this short video of Alan introducing his first crime novel: The Late Train to Gypsy Hill

You can get your order in early with this handy pre-order link: https://smarturl.it/TheLateTrain

Keep abreast of updates through social media by searching for the hashtag or keeping an eye on the publisher social accounts:

#TheLateTrain

@headlinepg

@CrimeFilesBooks

I love how the cover has the feel of an old railway poster and the teaser blurb had me hooked – that was before the extra detail which Alan shares in the video!

Get your orders in early as I suspect we will be hearing a lot more about this one as September draws near.

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March 27

The Murder House – Michael Wood

They were the perfect family. It was the perfect crime.

It’s the most disturbing crime scene DCI Matilda Darke has ever seen…

The morning after a wedding reception at a beautiful suburban home in Sheffield, the bride’s entire family are stabbed to death – in a frenzied attack more violent than anything DCI Matilda Darke could have imagined.

Forensics point to a burglar on the run across the country. But cracks are starting to appear in Matilda’s team, someone is playing games with the evidence – and the killer might be closer to home than they thought…

I recieved a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

I have been falling behind with my reading. I go through periods where the day job can change a couple of times in a year. When this happens the books I want to read don’t get picked up as quickly as I would like. This is particularly problematic when I am following a series and before I read the newest book I suddenly find there is a new “newest” book and I have slipped back and find myself two books behind where I want to be.

While Matilda Darke has been moving on with her life and getting into new scrapes I was firmly stuck at the end of the magnificent The Hangman’s Hold. I was too far behind and I promised myself I would visit The Murder House without further delay – a good decision! Michael Wood has an unflinching approach to his stories and The Murder House is not pulling any punches. Matilda and her team are called upon to investigate the brutal murders of a family, slain in their home on the day of their daughter’s wedding. The murders appear frenzied, multiple stab wounds and one victim’s head has practically been severed. Not one for the faint hearted.

Despite the carnage the police are able to find evidence which points to a suspect. A known petty thief and burglar who appears to have gone on the run around the time the murders took place. Matilda has her doubts that a small time crook would escalate so suddenly to multiple killer but the evidence cannot be disputed, the suspect had escaped from a jail in Barnsley and vanished. His recapture is imperative. For the reader we get to see the suspect’s flight from Sheffield and his attempt to reach the South Coast. He is fleeing and he wants to make it to mainland Europe, knowing full well that the police are on his tail.

Although Matilda is the star of the show, Michael Wood makes lots of time for the rest of her team too. The brutality of the murder they are investigating is taking its toll and Matilda will need to be the best of all bosses if she is to keep her colleagues focussed. However, one of her most trusted colleagues has had enough and confirms his intention to resign. Matilda is now fighting to save a promising career, keep the core of her team intact and trying to find time to catch a killer. What she really doesn’t need is her past cases to catch up with her – of course that’s exactly what is about to happen.

Returning readers will know that Matilda is plagued by her high profile failure when she botched the handover of a ransom payment when she was meant to recover a kidnapped boy. The boy, Carl, has haunted her since – presumed dead but the constant doubt remains that he may be out there somewhere and desperate to be reunited with his mother and father. Now Carl’s mother has received a telephone call and the voice on the end (she is sure) is Carl’s. There is no new evidence other than a voice on the other end of the phone but Carl’s mother wants someone to help. Matilda has no time but reaches out to an old colleague, now retired, to spend time with Carl’s parents.

These scenes are also traumatic. The feeling of loss and frustration for the boy’s parents are hard to enjoy. Their son is gone and their marriage is in trouble, I could not help but hope they would get some comfort and resolution or even just respite from their worry. No spoilers but the case which has haunted Matilda for five books isn’t going to quiety slip into the background.

I have missed out a lot in my brief overview of The Murder House, there’s lots to enjoy in this book and (as I always do) I enjoyed my return to Matilda Darke’s world. This really is one of the best new ongoing series, five books in and the stories are going from strength to strength. A few nods to past events which may go over the head of new readers but it should not stop anyone picking up The Murder House as a stand-alone thriller and finding themself lost in a pacy page-turner.

The Murder House is published by One More Chapter and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07TNPVC25/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5

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March 26

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Chris McVeigh

Time for a new guest to nominate the five books they want added to my Ultimate Library. Today I am delighted to welcome Chris McVeigh to Grab This Book. Chris is Fahrenheit Press. He runs the show, decides which books they publish and will light up your Twitter feed with his feisty, punkish attitude.

Fahrenheit Press offer noir, thrillers, chillers and even some “spice”. They also do a cracking line in bookish merch. You can visit their website here – http://www.fahrenheit-press.com/ Buy some books and support an indy publisher. If you buy a physical copy of any of their books then Fahrenheit also give you a digital copy to upload to your favourite e-book reader.

What’s the deal with my Ultimate Library? Well for new visitors a quick recap: If a Librarian (me) wanted to fill a brand new Library starting with zero books I wondered which books I should be looking to put on the shelves. I wanted the unmissable, the best, the essential reads. But I knew I could not take on this task alone so I am inviting bookloving guests to help me with this mammoth undertaking – there are two rules which each guest must follow:

Rule 1 – Select Five Books
Rule 2 – They can only select one book per decade over any five consecutive decades

I call this my Decades project. If you are on Twitter search for online conversations using the #Decades hashtag.

Just two rules yet Chris joins previous guest-curator Heather Martin in finding a way to “flex” those rules. I may need to crack down on anthologies in future!

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

Decades

It’s fair to say books have always been a big part of my life.

Professionally I’ve been involved in the publishing industry for the best part of 30 years but my relationship with books stretches back even further to my weekly visits to the local library when I was a kid. Like a lot of working-class households, we didn’t actually own any books of our own. That doesn’t mean we weren’t well-read though. My ma & da came from a background of the self-taught, politically aware, working class that was such a feature of Glasgow life right through the first half of the 20th century. There was very much an attitude of “we might be poor, but we’re not stupid” – the public libraries in Glasgow were the backbone of that philosophy.

I started reading voraciously as soon as I was old enough to get my library ticket and I haven’t really stopped since.

The books on this list are the ones that have endured for me through my own 5 decades – though looking at the list I realise I found most of them in my late 20s & early 30s.

Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell (1936)

Like most people, I’d been aware of George Orwell from school where Animal Farm and 1984 were on the curriculum. I didn’t come across Keep The Aspidistra Flying though until I’d skipped off to London to seek my fortune and picked I up a battered old 23^rd hand copy somewhere on Camden High Street.

I was a cocky little shit – thought I was smarter than I was and was certain I was destined for better things. As far as I could see the only thing that kept getting in my way was a total lack of opportunity and the enduring absence of any funds – nothing to do with me poncing about in dive bars all day, talking about becoming a Rockstar – clearly it was all Thatcher’s fault.

The main protagonist of the book is fella called Gordon Comstock and it was his constant tallying and re-tallying of resources – cigarettes left, booze in hand, booze desired, number of days till payday – that first caught my attention because that was basically my life at the time. I’ll be honest though, the finesse and the fierce deep satire which Orwell throws at almost every character in the book was lost on me until I went back and re-read it in my 30s. Since then I’ve gone back to it time and time again and I always find something new to enjoy.

The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse (1943)

This book, honestly don’t know where to start.

The impact this book has had on my life is frankly ridiculous. I came to it young (too young) when I found a battered copy my hippy older brother had squirrelled away somewhere. It’s probably the book I’ve bought most often – in different editions for myself, or more usually as gifts for the people closest to me – but no matter where I’ve been or what’s happened in my life that very first copy, now battered beyond belief and pretty much spineless, has stayed with me – it’s on the shelf right in front of me now as I’m writing this.

As a precocious 14-year old I didn’t know much more than I liked the cover and the title sounded cool – both those things are still true btw.

The scope of the book is huge and takes in themes ranging from Eastern mysticism, classical music, mathematics, art, power structures, free will, and the challenges faced by individuals when faced with forces of fate that seem so much bigger than any person on their own could hope to overcome.

Obviously at 14 I didn’t have a clue about any of this and I didn’t really get stuck into the meat of the book first time around, it was really just a bedroom prop that made me look a bit smarter and cooler than your average Glasgow Joe (at least that’s what I imagine I thought).

A couple of years later I read an interview with David Bowie where he name-checked The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse and the I Ching – that was it – I was hooked – bought myself some yarrow stalks (okay, a box of toothpicks) and set myself up as part-drunk, part-punk & part mystic. Honestly, I really was a precocious little turd back then. Great cheekbones though.

Anyway, point is that once I stopped using the book as a fashion accessory and actually got stuck into it properly in my late 20s/early 30s it genuinely changed my life. It helped me change the way I looked at the world, it helped me celebrate and make peace with the dozens of different selves that were living in my head at that time. This book was only one part of my journey through some very difficult times, but it was an important one and it’s become a talisman for me because of it.

Oh, and it won Herman Hesse the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946 – so it’s not just me.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

It’d be weird if this wasn’t on my list, right?

Only those closest to me know this because I keep it on the down-low but I’m a total Science Fiction geek. Always have been. When I want some time away from the world, you’ll find me slumped on the sofa working my way through a 20-episode binge of Star Trek, Stargate or BattleStar – not to fussy which – as long as it’s got shiny spaceships and lycra uniforms, I’m totally on board.

Fahrenheit 451 wasn’t the sci-fi book that kicked me off on this lifelong secret pleasure (that was probably Asimov’s Foundation series) but it’s the one I keep going back to.

Its importance in my life isn’t all about the book itself though it’s got a lot to do with the way it’s been re-imagined graphically by so many artists over the years. I must have collected 20+ different editions with different covers over the years.

The imagery of 451 Degrees Fahrenheit being the temperature when paper combusts has always fascinated me and when I set up a digital publishing consultancy it seemed like a no-brainer to call it FourFiftyOne – remember these were the days of 2008/9 when many people thought eBooks would replace paper entirely within a decade. Those who go way back with me will remember that my social media handle for the first ten years social media existed was @4fifty1. When I decided to set up a new publishing company back in 2015 it seemed only natural to continue the brand and that’s how Fahrenheit Press came to named.

The book’s not bad either.

A State Of Denmark by Derek Raymond (1964)

For many people crime writer Derek Raymond is regarded as the founder of British Noir (though mention this in the vicinity of a Ted Lewis fan and they’ll most likely dispose of your body in the trunk of a crushed car). Suffice to say though that if you like your crime fiction gritty you should definitely read Derek Raymond’s Factory Series.

A State Of Denmark though, isn’t part of that series, it was published some twenty years before back in the mid-60s under his original pen-name Robin Cook. Brought back into print by Serpent’s Tail in the mid-80s I first came across it in the early 1990s.

It’s literally a book in 2 parts – the story is split between Italy and the UK – and set in a dystopian near-future where Italy has become a sort of haven for bohemian free-thinkers while back in Britain, Scotland, Ireland & Wales have declared independence and England has sleepwalked itself into a dictatorship where political dissenters are held in internment camps and all non-white immigrants have been deported.

It’s pretty grim stuff in parts to be fair but the writing, particularly about Italy, will raise you up – I first read it on a trip around Sicily and the book and the island have been intertwined for me ever since.

Politics in recent years has thrown this book back into sharp relief and when I re-read it again last year I found it more relevant than ever.

A proper hidden gem which I promise you wont regret hunting out.

The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (1970-1975)

Fifth Business
The Manticore
World of Wonders

Bit of a cheat this one as it’s really 3 books in 1 but as I first read it in a single-volume I’m going to include it anyway.

I didn’t go to university or college, closest I ever got to a qualification was my City & Guilds in Floristry. In almost all the ways that matter, these books were my university.

I was first given a copy of this trilogy in the late 80s by the father of a girlfriend. They were one of those hugely posh, well-off, North London, liberal families. Christ knows what they must have thought when their beloved daughter dragged me back to them – all leather, and make-up, and carrying working-class chips on both shoulders. The romance didn’t last long but against all the odds me and her dad hit it off. He noticed I was smarter than I was pretending to be, and he started lending me a few books he thought I’d like. They weren’t really the sort of books I’d come into contact with before but I’d read them and then we’d chat about them.

The Deptford Trilogy was his ace in the hole – he suggested that whenever I came across a word or anything I didn’t recognise I should go and look it up and see where it took me. There was no internet in the 80s so that meant more trips to the library and that’s exactly what I did. All those years I spent boozing it up in Camden and trying to be a rock-star I was also spending afternoons in the library reading up on Rabelias, Hieronymus Bosch, Bach, Rimbaud and a hundred other subjects that I’d scribbled down in my notebooks while reading The Deptford Trilogy (and subsequently the other two trilogies in the series). Every time I came across anything I didn’t know I looked it up and each time I did my knowledge spread like a spider’s web. The internet definitely makes research quicker, but I’m really pleased it didn’t exist back then because every single book I read sank deep into my brain, it was an effort to find out the stuff I wanted to know and it lodged inside. The whole process set a habit that became a pattern ever since and to this day I still don’t really trust anyone who never asks questions or pretends they know everything.

This probably makes these books by Roberston Davies sound worthy and dry – I promise they’re anything but, the storytelling is better than almost anything else I’ve ever read, they’re funny and joyful and mischievous and wise. I’m always constantly surprised that he isn’t more well known than he is. If you haven’t read them you’re in for a real treat.

Okay, that’s my 5 books from 5 decades, thanks to Gordon for asking me to take part in this – such a belting idea – I’ve really enjoyed the whole thing.

I am extremely grateful to Chris for giving up some of his time to share his selections. He did suggest a bottle of bourbon may be needed to help him remove some of his favourite books from his final five, I hope the decicion making process wasn’t too traumatic.

Decades Will Return

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March 23

The Reacher Guy (Audiobook) – Heather Martin

Jack Reacher is only the second of Jim Grant’s great fictional characters: the first is Lee Child himself. Heather Martin’s biography tells the story of all three.

Lee Child is the enigmatic powerhouse behind the bestselling Jack Reacher novels. With millions of devoted fans across the globe, and over a hundred million copies of his books sold in more than forty languages, he is that rarity, a writer who is lauded by critics and revered by readers. And yet curiously little has been written about the man himself.

The Reacher Guy is a compelling and authoritative portrait of the artist as a young man, refracted through the life of his fictional avatar, Jack Reacher. Through parallels drawn between Child and his literary creation, it tells the story of how a boy from Birmingham with a ferocious appetite for reading grew up to become a high-flying TV executive, before coming full circle and establishing himself as the strongest brand in publishing.

Heather Martin explores Child’s lifelong fascination with America, and shows how the Reacher novels fed and fuelled this obsession, shedding light on the opaque process of publishing a novel along the way. Drawing on her conversations and correspondence with Child over a number of years, as well as interviews with his friends, teachers and colleagues, she forensically pieces together his life, traversing back through the generations to Northern Ireland and County Durham, and following the trajectory of his extraordinary career via New York and Hollywood until the climactic moment when, in 2020, having written a continuous series of twenty-four books, he finally breaks free of his fictional creation.

Having read the book before Christmas I then bought the audiobook through my Audible membership – this is an audiobook review with an explanation as to why I doubled up!

I don’t really read non-fiction. There are a number of reasons behind this but key ones are that I am a speed/skim reader and I really struggle to focus on non-fiction books for any length of time (see also short story anthologies). Secondly, I am TERRIBLE at remembering names so when books dwell on people, as biographies tend to do, I quickly get confused about the players in the chapter and lose interest. Third, I seldom find a person or subject I want to read about in depth. If those issues were not enough to contend with, I have a fiction TBR which is screaming to be read.

Some time ago, when I was a good deal younger than I am today, I picked up a new book called Killing Floor. As many people have since discovered it was a brilliant read and the twenty-three subsequent Lee Child novels were pretty darned fine too. Lee Child has been a regular go-to reading choice in our house and only a new Terry Pratchett Discworld book could rival the anticipation of the next Jack Reacher book.

Over twenty years of Reacher Fandom was a pretty good reason to read The Reacher Guy. I wanted to know more about the man who came up with all those exciting stories, the man who calculates the physics in a fight scene and the man who has a cover quote on quite a few of the books featured in this blog – how can he read so prolifically and still have time to write? The Reacher Guy answered my questions and gave a remarkably frank insight to the character who is Lee Child and the man he was before the books began.

Heather Martin has been extremely thorough when it comes to getting to the core of James Grant. The early chapters of the book focus on his childhood years and the family around him. His grandfathers, his parents who let him down at a young age and the friction which seems to have never abated throughout his life, school friends, old teachers – all are explored and there are examples of how their relationship with the young Mr Grant formed the man he would become and influenced the characters he would create.

The early years and Grant’s background are expanded by the author to take in much of the social history of the time and if Jim Grant lived in Coventry then Heather Martin went to Coventry to see where he lived. It seems to bemuse Lee Child that Dr Martin would visit Jim Grant’s house but that gives you some idea of how this book addresses the relationship between the biographer, the author, his alter-ego and his internationally recongised lead character.

I found the tangents taken in the narrative to be fascinating. One page you are reading about a family photograph taken by a brick wall then the next page could be about men returning from the war and how they were patched up or left to fend for themselves. The book takes many unpredicable turns and the only comparison I could draw (from my limited exposure to non-ficti0n) was the narration style of Bill Bryson who can comfortably steer the reader from a paragraph about an attic to five pages on churchyard burial practices in the 18th century. It is engaging and informative and when you have the story being narrated by the wonderful Juliet Stevenson you don’t really want these narrative deviations to end.

As Jim Grant grows older his experiences change and readers are treated to stories of The Beatles and gigs which the music loving Grant was able to attend. Then comes the meeting with his future-wife and the need to settle and get a job to support a family. He excelled in his professional career too and hearing how he secured a job he loved and then mastered is oddly abosorbing. Who enjoys hearing about someone else’s day job?

What struck me throughout The Reacher Guy was the constant reminder that Lee Child makes up stories for a living. He attends many events and has to answer many questions about his background. The book does make it clear that many tales he tells are likely to have been somewhat embellished down the years. Heather Martin meets old acquintances of Grant/Child and these old friends are quite happy to pop the fictional bubble which has been blown around some of these recollections and clarify some more practical detail. Nevertheless there is no doubting that Jim Grant had a fascinating life before he first took readers to Margrave, Georgia.

The final third of the book is where we leave Jim Grant and join Lee Child. The mentions of Jim are much less frequent as once the writing begins Jim Grant is moved to the background and only Lee Child gets to meet publishers, editors and producers. These are the pages the Reacher fans will be lapping up. Hearing how the books were formed, how characters got named, where hard work and grafting got a substantial manuscript down to a page-turning sensation.

When I read The Reacher Guy I skimmed too much of the detail. I picked up the audiobook as you can’t skim details in audio – you need to let every word be heard. What a great decision that turned out to be. Juliet Stevenson has a wonderful voice and she perfectly captures the mood of each chapter. There are times where Jim Grant does not always come out of a situation looking in the best of lights – Stevenson’s narrative sounds sharp and disapproving almost as though she is not happy with what she is having to relay to us. Yet in times of success and celebration the light congratulatory tones are uplifting.

It’s a weighty book and a lenghty listen but both can be considered time well spent. The paperback will be out later in the year but a savvy shopper can currently pick up the hardback at less than half of the cover price. For a guy that doesn’t read non-fiction, I read the Hell out of this book. Will be recommending this for some time to come.

The Reacher Guy is published by Constable and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086L3VD1T/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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March 22

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Noelle Holten

When I first started blogging I knew I needed people to help me. I could do the reading and I knew what I wanted to say about the books but once you start releasing content into the world you do want to check that the delivery and promotion elements are correct. Also, getting established in the blogging community and Book Twitter needs a wee bit of understanding – I enlisted the help of a few bloggers that I felt were doing what I (one day) wanted to be able to do.

One of these very helpful souls was the CrimeBookJunkie – Noelle Holten. Noelle was supportive, generous with her time and her advice and helped me to shape this blog into the award winning ramble it has become. When I started my Decades project I knew Noelle was one of the booklovers I wanted to have in my team of curators helping to build my Ultimate Library.

A quick recap for new visitors. I am building the Ulitmate Library from a starting point of zero books. I am asking booklovers to help me select the books I should include in the Library. There are just two rules governing their selections…pick any five books…only one book per decade over any five consecutive decades.

Enough from me, you want the books. I will hand over to Noelle and allow her to introduce herself and her work and then she will share her (excellent) selections.

Decades

Hi! My name is Noelle Holten and I live in a small village in North Warwickshire. My author bio states I am an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk and I have won a few awards so I guess that’s true! I am a PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and before this I worked as a Senior Probation Officer (for eighteen years), covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi-agency setting. I have three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice, a Diploma in Probation Studies and a Masters in Criminology. My hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as I can afford and sharing the #booklove via my blog. In 2017 I started writing my first crime novel and in 2019, Dead Inside – my debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK was published and is an international kindle bestseller. It is the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson – Dead Wrong and Dead Perfect followed and Dead Secret is now available for pre order.

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I hear Sharon Bairden set the bar for this, so I hope I can meet those expectations. The fabulous Gordon of Grab this Book asked me to pick five of my favourite books, one from each decade over five decades – WTAF? So simple then, right? It’s a lot harder than you think, especially as I just wrote a piece which some of the same books fall into – but I am going to choose different ones because I love so many. So here goes – My range is the 1970’s through to present day and it was tough – but I focused on books that had memorable characters to me – as characters are what keep me hooked on a book/series!

1970- 1980

(Published 1974) Mystery of The Glowing Eye – Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew Mystery series)

I was a HUGE Nancy Drew fan and this book creeped me right out as I read it on a family trip to our cottage in the summer. I was probably eight or nine, and we had no tv so books were how we entertained ourselves. This book made me slightly afraid of the dark and every time I had to go outside to the loo (no indoor plumbing) I was convinced I saw that damn glowing eye! This book was ahead of it’s time for sure as it touched upon robotics but it is the characters and how they work together that really brings this story and series to life. There was danger, abduction and a good old fashion mystery to solve and I was addicted despite my fear.

1980 – 1990

Pet Sematary – Stephen King (published 1983)

Just thinking of this book sends shivers down my spine. The whole idea of bringing back our loved ones in theory is a nice thought – but what they may return as – well they are better off dead for ebveryone’s sake. I loved the dynamics of the characters in this story – a lovin family find what they think could be their dream home – and then of course…the cemetery for loved pets…a phenomenal read and one of my favourites. As the tagline says: Sometimes dead is better…

1990 – 2000

The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris (Published 1991)

OMFG what can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said. A crime thriller with one of the best serial killers ever created – Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter. I have read this book a zillion times and watched the movie just as many times. The sheer fear I had as I raced through the pages was addictive. I wanted to be Clarice Starling and even looked into what I needed to do to become an FBI agent – no joke. She was living my dream! This book has everything – psychological, crime, horror – really set my heart racing. I had always had a fascination with serial killers and loved how this book almost showed the process in tracking and arresting those elusive killers. The characterisation was everything I could hope for and so much more.

2000 – 2010’s

Fleshmarket Close / Alley by Ian Rankin (published 2008)

Another one of my favourite series – I particularly liked Fleshmarket Close (also known as Flesh Market Alley) because of the setting (the darker side of Edinburgh is brought to life) and how we see a different Rebus and Siobhan to the ones we are first introduced to in earlier books in this series. Issues of racism, illegal immigration, and corruption are all tackled along with so much more. What I love about this book is it is quite complex and the characters complement each other even when conflict arises. If you haven’t met one of the grumpiest, old school detectives going – you really need to as he gets under your skin and you’ll find you will be hooked.

2010 – 2020

Lennox – Craig Russell (published 2010)

I was recommended this series by a friend and fell in love with it immediately. Lennox was born in Glasgow but raised in Canada so when he returns to Glasgow in the 1950’s we see the cultural differences immediately. It’s dark and littered with dry humour and the characters are just amazing. A very raw, gritty, violent and intoxicating read. The author is a master at bringing the reader into the stories – and I’ve been a fan of his work ever since.

My thanks, once again, to Noelle for these marvellous selections. This is the closest I have come to having read all five selections made by one of my guests – I have read four of these books and the fifth is still in my TBR (so close).

You can see all the books which have been added to my Library here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

Decades Will Return

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March 19

The Night Gate – Peter May

In a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree. A week later a famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house. The deaths occurred more than seventy years apart.
Asked by a colleague to inspect the site of the former, forensics expert Enzo Macleod quickly finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the latter. Two extraordinary narratives are set in train – one historical, unfolding in the treacherous wartime years of Occupied France; the other contemporary, set in the autumn of 2020 as France re-enters Covid lockdown.

And Enzo’s investigations reveal an unexpected link between the murders – the Mona Lisa.

Tasked by the exiled General Charles de Gaulle to keep the world’s most famous painting out of Nazi hands after the fall of France in 1940, 28-year-old Georgette Pignal finds herself swept along by the tide of history. Following in the wake of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa as it is moved from château to château by the Louvre, she finds herself just one step ahead of two German art experts sent to steal it for rival patrons – Hitler and Göring.

What none of them know is that the Louvre itself has taken exceptional measures to keep the painting safe, unwittingly setting in train a fatal sequence of events extending over seven decades.

Events that have led to both killings.

The Night Gate spans three generations, taking us from war-torn London, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Berlin and Vichy France, to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020. In his latest novel, Peter May shows why he is one of the great contemporary writers of crime fiction.

My thanks to Sophie at Midas PR for my review copy and for the opportunity to join the blog tour for The Night Gate.

The Night Gate is an Enzo Macleod story. Amazon describes it as “The Enzo Files Book 7” today I describe it as my introduction to Enzo and the books of Peter May. Actually “introduction” is a tad misleading as we own several Peter May books and Mrs Grab has been reading them before me. From her feedback I already knew I would be in for a treat with The Night Gate – as usual Mrs Grab was quite right.

This story felt epic in scale. Not only do events take place around France but the action also moves to Scotland and we get some trips to Nazi Germany too. The narrative has a timeframe of seven decades taking in Europe during the dark days of World War Two and spinning forward to modern day where Europe is contending with a global pandemic. This is one of the first books I have read which has incorporated Covid-19 into the narrative and I very much enjoyed that the author has acknowledged it but not made it a dominating factor in the story. The pandemic is referenced, the requirement to mask up and the inconvenience it causes are noted but that’s it. It’s a thing to be dealt with.

The Night Gate sees Enzo invited to assist the police investigate a brutal and bloody murder. His expertise is recognised and the local police feel his contribution would be beneficial. Readers spend a little time with the vicitm as he approaches his final minutes of life and we understand how the murder ocurred, we just don’t know who was responsible.

Not content with giving Enzo one murder to consider, Peter May has a second dead body waiting to be uncovered. This is not a recent murder, however, as the bones found appear to date back to the 1940’s – the corpse was likely an officer in the German army and he was buried in France with a bullet wound in the side of his head. As the story unfolds and the identidy of the officer becomes clear Enzo realises there may be a connection between the two dead men. What could the connection be? Well it all revolves around the most famous painting in the world…the Mona Lisa.

During the Second World War the French were terrified of the prospect of Paris falling and the Germans getting their hands on the treasures of the Louvre. The jewel of the collection was undoubtably Da Vinci’s masterpiece so the staff at the Louvre arranged for the painting to be shipped out of Paris and hidden in rural France, shipped from place to place to make it harder to find. The principle focus of the wartime scenes is Georgette (George) Pignal. She meets General De Galle in London and he tasks her with the responsibility of keeping the Mona Lisa away from the Germans.

George travels to Scotland where she receives training in the Western Isles to prepare her for life as an undercover operative in occupied France. When she finally returns to her homeland she is soon face to face with two German officers both have also been instructed to find the Mona Lisa but one is working for Hitler and the other for Göring. These three characters are pawns in a bigger game and each serves a powerful master, failure is not an option. The parts of the story which feature George really had me gripped and I loved reading about her – the uncertainty around what may happen to her made her perils seem more vivid. Due to the passage of time between George’s story and Enzo’s the reader knows George will be dead in 2020. Knowing a key character for the story isn’t going to be alive in the modern day scenes raises the tension – George could be killed at any stage and you hope the author makes good use of that freedom. No spoilers though – grab yourself a copy of The Night Gate to learn about George’s fate.

A power struggle for the ownership of the world’s most famous painting was not the story I had been expecting from the opening chapters but Peter May gripped my attention from the outset and I was hooked. As I mentioned at the start of my review, this was my introduction to Peter May’s books. A quick look at the catalogue of his earlier work shows that I have a lot of catching up to do. However, if I enjoy the other books even half as much as I enjoyed The Night Gate then I know I have hours of reading pleasure stretching out in front of me – I can’t wait to get stuck in.

Returning fans will be delighted to be reunited with Enzo Macleod. New readers can be confident of picking up The Night Gate and knowing they can jump straight into the action and still enjoy this clever and exciting thriller.

The Night Gate was published by Riverrun on 18 March 2021 and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B089CGRL5M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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March 18

Vermin – William A Graham

Meet Allan Linton … a detective with a difference.

It’s not exactly L.A. But dead bodies are the same wherever they turn up.

Allan Linton became a private detective by pure chance. He may not follow the rules, but he always gets the job done. Until he’s hired to track down a missing girl.

All he’s got to go on is an old photo and the help – and hindrance – of the city’s biggest drug dealer and his eccentric associate Niddrie.

Linton’s investigation yields no trace of Tina Lamont. He’s ready to throw in the towel – after all, some people want to be missing. But when a dead body turns up in London, it’s clear there’s something sinister going on. And now others are on Tina’s trail …

Tina ran away for a reason – and that reason will stop at nothing to find her.

I received a review copy of Vermin through Netgalley. My thanks to Black & White Publishing.

Vermin was published in July 2018 and is set in Dundee, a city which I feel is under-represented in Scottish crime fiction. Vermin is also a cracking story about a private detective which I really, really enjoyed. Allan Linton is the lead character and he is nicely depicted by the author as Linton comes across as friendly, decent, honourable and focussed. He has a teenage daughter who stays with her mother, an ex-wife who Linton clearly adored but their marriage wasn’t to be sustained. The family squabbles and his relationship with his daughter make Linton an engaging character to follow.

He is approached to find a missing girl called Tina Lamont (this may not be her real name) and although Linton is in Dundee his client is not sure if Tina (maybe Tina) is from Dundee. An old photograph given to Linton to assist in his search shows her in school uniform but the uniform is not one Linton recognises from Dundee or the surrounding area. He will have his work cut out but he will have the assistance of Niddrie (drug dealer and and amusingly oddball character who brightens up every scene he is in).

The investigation is well paced and narrative switches nicely between the crimes Linton is investigating and Linton’s personal life as he juggles daughter, ex-wife and a potential new love interest. As is often the way with Scottish crime fiction there is plenty of dry and wry humour on show and the reading is still fun when the narrative slows between the action scenes.

When a dead body turns up during the course of the investigation Linton and Niddrie realise there are more interested parties trying to locate Tina – stakes are raised and events take an unexpected turn.

Vermin was a book plucked at random from the TBR and I am now calling it an inspired choice – I really enjoyed this one.

Vermin is published by Black and White Publishing and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vermin-Bill-Graham/dp/1785301985/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=vermin+william+graham&qid=1616103026&s=books&sr=1-1

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March 12

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Chris Lloyd

Decades is into its third month and my Library is growing. Library? What Library?

Late last year I pondered the dilemma a librarian may face if they were asked to create a new library. They have absolutely no books, none, a blank slate. Where would you start? From here my challenge began – compile the Ulimate Library, invite guests to join me in selecting the books they feel should be added to the shelves. But we must have rules to govern this venture or we risk anarchy.

Rule 1 – Guests can pick any five books.

Rule 2 – Only one book per decade for any five consecutive decades.

That’s it. Easy! Or seemingly not as when my guests try to make their five choices I am told there can be cussing and indecision.

Today I am thrilled to be joined by Chris Lloyd. When I compiled my favourite Audiobooks of 2020 there was never a doubt in my mind that The Unwanted Dead, published by Orion, would feature. Chris tells me that the paperback of The Unwanted Dead is out on March 18th so I could think of no better guest to invite to participate in my Decades challenge this week. Before I get Chris to introduce himself I would urge you to seek out The Unwanted Dead this week and when you have finished and enjoyed that one here are some of his other books to get your teeth into: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chris-Lloyd/e/B01GQH7Q5C?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1615537791&sr=8-1

Decades

My name’s Chris Lloyd and I have a tendency to go around in circles. I grew up in South Wales, where my parents moved from their native mid-Wales after more than a decade of living abroad, so when it came to my turn, I went and lived in Catalonia for twenty-four years. I lived in Girona and then Barcelona, where I taught English, worked in educational publishing, wrote guide books, almost appeared on TV three times and translated. Interspersed with this, I also lived in Bilbao and Madrid, and I spent six months as a student in Grenoble researching the French Resistance, even though I kept coming back to Catalonia. I told you I went around in circles. As yet more proof of that, I moved back to Wales a few years ago, where I live near enough to the Brecon Beacons to feel the cold, but not so close as to enjoy the scenery. But never mind that as I’m about to move with my wife to my childhood home by the sea, which we’ve been trying to do for years.

I spend part of my day translating academic texts from Catalan and Spanish and another more fun part of the day writing crime fiction. I wrote a trilogy for Canelo set in Girona, featuring Elisenda Domènech, a detective with the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police force, which is about to come out in audiobook.

The result of my lifelong fascination with resistance and collaboration in Occupied France, I now write the Eddie Giral series, set in Paris in World War Two and featuring a Paris police detective forced to come to terms with the Nazi Occupation of the city. Seeking to negotiate a path between the occupier and the occupied, Eddie struggles to retain some semblance of humanity while walking a fine line between resistance and collaboration. The first book in the series, The Unwanted Dead, published by Orion, comes out in paperback on 18 March.

You can come and say hello on Twitter at https://twitter.com/chrislloydbcn or take a look at my website at https://chrislloydauthor.com/

I want to thank Gordon for inviting me to contribute to this brilliant idea, and also for setting me the completely impossible task of finding my favourite book from each decade over five decades – I felt actual pain every time I had to eliminate a book I loved from the list to arrive at the five below. I’ve gone for the 1950s to the 1990s, and even that decision was tough. I hope you like some of my choices.

1950s – The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey This is the perfect crime book, the Lord Reith of crime writing – it informs, educates and entertains. A story of a police detective confined to a hospital bed who decides to investigate the murder of the princes in the tower, it’s a textbook showcase of the limitless possibilities that crime fiction can offer. It not only contributed to the historical debate about the role of villain that history had assigned to Richard III, it’s also a powerful insight into character and, quite simply, a bloody good detective story

1960s – The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John Le Carré

The lesson this book taught us is that heroes can be amoral, unpalatable people, and you don’t have to root for them any the less because of it. Le Carré changed the rules with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and I firmly believe we as readers and writers have been benefiting from it ever since. He made it all right for main characters to be fundamentally flawed and unlikeable – even ordinary – and for the supposed good that they are striving for to be

achieved using methods that are no less morally reprehensible than the supposed evil they are fighting against. It was a sea change in depth and understanding of character and of heroes and villains.

1970s – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

From the very first line with its “unfashionable” end of the galaxy to Marvin the Paranoid Android with a brain the size of a small planet, The Hitchhiker’s Guide taught me that it was perfectly all right for a book to be both very intelligent and delightfully silly. In fact, the silliness is born out of the intelligence and really isn’t that silly anyway when you look close enough. Quite apart from that, it’s also a hymn to playfulness not just with story, but with language. Read this book and your view of the universe will be altered forever – in a good way.

1980s – The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

There are few books that can compare with The Name of the Rose when it comes to creating an unsettling atmosphere. The harshness of the setting and the description of the weather outside the confines of the monastery conjure up a sense of brooding malevolence that is both exacerbated and symbolised by one of the most bizarre casts of characters in any book. Also, I started reading it alone at night in a Spanish castle, which might not have been the best idea, but it certainly helped set the mood.

1990s – Fatherland – Robert Harris

I’m beginning and ending these decades by closing the circle with a celebration of just how far you can go with crime fiction. My favourite ‘What if…’ story, Fatherland takes place in a 1960s Berlin in a world where the Nazis won. A police detective is investigating a case that leads him to suspect a far greater crime, one that we all know with the hindsight of history but that he doesn’t. And that’s the power and brilliance of the book – to be able to take one of the most evil moments in history and reveal it once again with renewed horror as it becomes apparent to the protagonist.

My most sincere thanks to Chris for his excellent selections and for taking time to join my Decades challenge. The Unquiet Dead is released in paperback on 18th March – 1940, a Paris cop investigating murders while his city is taken under Nazi control…I don’t do it justice when I say I found it a brilliant read.

If you want to catch up on which books have already been added to my Library then you can visit it here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

Decades Will Return

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March 7

The Spiral – Iain Ryan

Erma Bridges’ life is far from perfect, but entirely ordinary. So when she is shot twice in a targetted attack by a colleague, her quiet existence is shattered in an instant.

With her would-be murderer dead, no one can give Erma the answers she needs to move on from her trauma. Why her? Why now?

So begins Erma’s quest for the truth – and a dangerous, spiralling journey into the heart of darkness.

With all the inventiveness of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and the raw brutality of Mulholland Drive, THE SPIRAL is a unique crime thriller with killer twists – and 2021’s most jaw-dropping ending.

I recieved a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley

Do you remember the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks which were very much in demand in the late 1980s and early 1990s? Iain Ryan clearly does as they play quite a significant part of the story in The Spiral.

For those that may not have put in the hours of fun playing adventures (I very much did), the story begins on page 1 and at the end of the first few paragraphs the reader is presented with a choice. For example: does your character go left (Turn to page 39) or go right (turn to 311) and so on – your story evolves. There were mulitple paths to naviate the story and most would result in a failure to “complete” the adventure but if you were told to turn to 400 you knew you had “won” the book and often this meant your character survived to fight another day. I loved these books and it is wonderful to know that they are still available 30 years on and that new titles are still being released.

But back to The Spiral. We are taking in Erma’s story and when we first meet her at the university where she works she is facing a disciplinary meeting. There have been allegations she is sleeping with some of her students, it appears the allegations may have subtsance behind them and Erma appears disappointed that some of the men involved would have come forward to support the claims. However, she is determined to fight her corner and is treating the disciplinary meeting with some contempt. It is this difficult introduction to the character which means Erma initially comes across as a confrontational character. Her life is about to be turned on its head though (and not because of the charges against her) as Erma is about to face a near death encounter which will result in her taking an extended leave of absence from her post to recuperate and deal with the trauma.

Interspersed with Erma’s story is a short fantasy adventure. Orcs and warriors and a developing story of a stranger trying to find the meaning behind a tattoo they have. It is a spiral and nobody can give a satisfactory explanation for the reason the spiral has been inked. The adventurer will slay his foes, pursue a quest to uncover the reason for the spiral and will keep the fantasy theme of the story uppermost in the mind of the reader. It works well and isn’t just there for padding – but it took a while to understand why so stick with it.

Erma slowly makes her way back into society, spending lots of her recuperation time practicing martial arts and mentally steeling herself to return to work. Although she cannot know it, the physical and mental recouperation will become invaluable. Erma is caught up in a dangerous story and Iain Ryan took her adventures in a very unexpected direction, the Endgame to The Spiral was proper page-turning drama.

I had seem some cryptic posts asking how the book would work on Kindle. Without any problem is the answer. Kindle can handle, maps, graphics and much much more so there was nothing in The Spiral which detracted from the enjoyment.

Enjoyed this one, nice to get a bit of a switch up in the reading and have a thriller with some different elements to give it a fresh feel.

The Spiral is published by Zaffre and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08CZW8SMG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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March 5

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Ian Patrick Robinson

I am inviting guests to select five books which they feel should be included in my Ultimate Library. When I started this quest back in January all the Library shelves were bare so I recruited some guest curators to add the books – the only rules:

1 – Choose five books

2 – Only one book per decade over any five consecutive decades

I am told it is causing a great deal of soul searching.

So far we have had contributions from Sharon Bairden, Heather Martin and Chris McDonald – all their books are in the Library (here)

Today I am thrilled to be joined by Ian Patrick Robinson. Returning visitors will know that Ian’s books have been firm favourites of mine and How the Wired Weep made it into my Top Ten reads of 2020.

Ian’s Batford books can be bought here: http://fahrenheit-press.com/authors_ian_patrick.html
or through his own website where you can also get the phenomonal How the Wired Weep: https://www.ianpatrick.co.uk/books

His new series (Nash and Moretti) can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ian-Robinson/e/B08V37PGVX?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1614897678&sr=8-1

So I leave you in Ian’s company as he makes his five selections.

DECADES

My name’s Ian Patrick Robinson, a retired DS who now writes fiction. I wrote under the name Ian Patrick for my Batford series: Rubicon, Stoned Love and Fools Gold (Fahrenheit Press) as well as How the Wired Weep, which is a standalone of mine.

I have a new crime series out at the moment under the name Ian Robinson (The Book Folks) that follows DI Pippa Nash and DS Nick Moretti who investigate murder in London. Latent Damage is the first and Cover Blown is out on the 22nd February.

I try to bring authenticity to my work as well as a character driven storyline that draws on the experience of departments I worked within while in the police.

I thought the task of selecting five books across consecutive decades would be easy – I was wrong!

Here are my five choices starting at the latest and ending at the earliest. These aren’t my top five books, but I decided to use books I own as a physical copy. (There’s an anomaly later but I’m certain you’ll forgive me)

Each book explores a flawed character within a unique world. The very aim I try to achieve with my own novels. What this exercise has shown me is the influence literature has had on my own writing experience. Something I’d recognised but hadn’t fully appreciated.

As with all these things it’s subjective and anything I say here is my own opinion and to be taken as such.

Thank you, Gordon, for the invite and I’m very proud to be part of this venture.

2010 – 2020

Drive – James Sallis No Exit Press 2011

I’m using the film tie-in edition for this as it was published in 2011. Like the film of the same name this 191p novel is just superb. I watched the film before picking up the book and, as Rubicon has been optioned by the BBC for six-part TV series, I was interested to see how close they stuck to the book’s central lead. For me the book’s opening lines are incredible. I was drawn into the world of Driver (main lead) within the first paragraph. Trust me when I say it’s a skill to accomplish for any writer and Sallis just continues with this throughout. The tagline – GET IN. GET OUT. GET AWAY, is weaved throughout the book like a charm. It surfaces in Driver’s role as wheelsman for hire and in his personal life. It’s an emotional exploration of what it is to be human and how to survive in an uncertain world.

2000 – 2010

The Road – Cormac McCarthy – Picador 2006

This book blew my mind when I first read it. The setting is as desolate as the writing. McCarthy gets away with not using speech marks throughout the book and yet the story flows so well. The book explores the journey of father and son on a road following an apocalyptic event. McCarthy was asked what the event was, and his reply went something like – What happened doesn’t matter it’s what will they do now that does. To me it’s a masterclass in storytelling. I’ve sent this book to so many people and some get it, and others don’t. That’s the beauty of the prose. The flawed character for me was the father. Although he was doing all he could to protect his son McCarthy lets the reader know that the father is struggling in both mind and body and at some point, he will need to make a choice. Sometimes he will be right other times not so.

1990 – 2000

Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk – Norton 1996

A different writer from the first two but a phenomenal one at that. In Fight Club Palahniuk explores masculinity. It examines our cultures obsession with fame, possessions, violence, recognition, ego, affirmation and mental health. I would hazard a guess it contains some of the most quoted lines from book and film for my generation. Jim Uhls wrote the script for the film and he did an excellent job of bringing Tyler Durden to life using many of the lines Palahniuk had written in the book. This book is probably one of my favourites as I own two signed editions of it. One is a limited edition that could only be purchased in the US and Canada. I begged a relative to get it for me.

The line from the book that has stayed with me is: It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we are free to do anything.

I was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy around 2011 and had to retire from the police in 2015 when it became physically too much for me to manage. I have this quote on my desk and this book got me through some tough times. I’m now writing my ninth novel as a result. Books are powerful tools for hope and change. We should never underestimate a book’s worth at the right time in life.

1980 – 1989

The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro – Faber 1989

What a beautiful tale of unrequited love this book is. Narrated in the first person we’re taken on a journey of discovery through the eyes of Stevens an aging butler at Darlington hall in the fifties. I saw this as an exploration of love, friendship, missed opportunity, class and social conditioning. The setting is unique and in stark contrast to that of Du-Maurier’s Rebecca. I was taken to a time I didn’t know and felt alive within the world Steven’s inhabits. His dynamic with Miss Kenton is inspired and wonderfully told. A loving and sensual book that’s gentle on the mind but has stayed with me for so long. I read this again during the first lockdown for pure escapism.

1970 – 1979

Jaws – Peter Benchley – Bantam 1974

Last but by no means least, Jaws was probably one of the first books I appreciated reading as a youth. A change from Sven Hassell novels and I fell in love with the cover art. What boy wouldn’t fall for a book with the snout and teeth of a huge shark pointing towards a swimmer on the surface of the sea? This was another book I re-read during lockdown and I’m so glad I did. Here’s the thing with the book v the film – it’s not all about the shark! The shark story is secondary to the main tale of Chief Brody’s decaying marriage and how will he hold it all together while his wife has an affair? I found the book to be way better than the film for the human side of the narrative. It’s an exploration of one man’s grip on a life that’s falling apart. Benchley did a great job with this. Here’s the anomaly I mentioned in the beginning that you’ve forgotten if you’ve read this far – I don’t own a physical copy of Jaws only Jaws 2 written by Hank Searls.

Huge thanks to Ian for sharing these wonderful selections. Linking them with the flawed character theme added an extra level of complexity to the challenge – I think if I asked some of my future guests to link their selections it may cause a bit of a backlash!

My personal completion ratio for these selections is just 20% – I read Jaws while I was in my mid-teens and was reading every horror novel I could get my paws on.

All five books will be added to The Library.

Decades Will Return

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