Strange Tricks (Audiobook) – Syd Moore

Secretly Rosie Strange has always thought herself a little bit more interesting than most people – the legacy her family has bequeathed her is definitely so, she’s long believed. But then life takes a peculiar turn when the Strange legacy turns out not just to be the Essex Witch Museum, but perhaps some otherworldly gifts that Rosie finds difficult to fathom.

Meanwhile Sam Stone, Rosie’s curator, is oddly distracted as breadcrumb clues into what happened to his missing younger brother and other abducted boys from the past are poised to lead him and Rosie deep into a dark wood where there lurks something far scarier than Hansel and Gretel’s witch….

My thanks to Danielle at the The Reading Closet for the invitiation to join the Audiobook Blog Tour. Thank you also to Isis Audio for the review copy of Strange Tricks.

Strange Tricks was an interesting audiobook listen over the last couple of weeks. I have been meaning to start reading Syd Moore’s Essex Witch Museum series for a couple of years. The concept had sounded right up my street and then on my sole (brief) visit to the Harrogate book festival in 2019, the lovely Derek Farrell told me that I really must be reading these books. So when I was offered the chance to join the audiobook tour for Strange Tricks I decided this was not an opportunity I wanted to miss out on.

The verdict? I will absolutely be picking up the earlier books and I will be back to the Essex Witch Museum, there was a lot in here I loved. However, not having read the first five novels there was a lot of background character information I did not know and which left me slightly floundering as the story unfolded. No reflection on Strange Tricks – if you jump into a series at book 6 you are going to have missed things. Returning readers will get a lot more from this story and if I enjoyed it without initially appreciating lots of the nuances then the fans of Rosie and Sam will get a real kick from where this story goes.

Syd Moore (and the wonderful narrator, Julia Barrie) lulled me into a false perception of how the story may play out. Initially events felt light, whimiscal and the lead character, Rosie Strange, fluctuated between ditzy and horny. This was fun to listen to, particularly as Julia Barrie nailed tone of the inner dialogue within Rosie’s head – suppressed outrage, mentally slapping down her own coy flirting and second-guessing herself as she chatted to a dish called Dorcus. But the whimsy was left behind and by the end of the book I had a deeper respect for Rosie and I had mentally moved Strange Tricks from “light and entertaining” to “dark and intriguing.”

Although Rosie is our lead character I did feel her colleague, Sam, got his story moved into the spotlight. I will not be sharing plot spoilers but it felt we were getting some background on a formerly unknown part of Sam’s history. It changes the dynamic of the relationship between Rosie and Sam and Rosie seemed put out that her own family history (which is complex and extremely important for her to understand better) was getting pushed out of thought by Sam.

There are plot threads set up in Strange Tricks (or possibly continued through Strange Tricks) which were not addressed in full by the end of the story, more to come on that front. There also also opportunities for Rosie to read back about her late mother through the pages of a journal – those flash-back chapters give some background assistance tied to current events and I felt Rosie’s family background will continue to distract her for time to come too.

The characters seem wonderfully deep and complex. The Essex Witch Museum was not featured as much as I may have liked; Syd Moore made it sound a wonderfully eerie and unexpected building which was hiding more than its fair share of dark secrets. But Strange Tricks was a road trip up North so the museum will need further expoloration when I undertake my catch-up reading.

As mentioned above, narration is wonderfully handled by Julia Barrie. Rosie is an Essex Girl and has a strong Essex accent, some events in the book are set in Northern England so the conversations change and another regional accents dominates your listening. Growing up near Glasgow means I too have a *bit* of an accent so it is always refereshing to listen to an audiobook where regional representation is wonderfully delivered. If you want an old-school classic BBC annunciated accent then this is not the audiobook for you as Strange Tricks gives you locals, comfortable in their corners of England.

In brief: A top production from ISIS Audio, an unsettling story from Syd Moore and a great performance from Julia Barrie. If you know the series I highly recommend listening. If, like me, you are new to the stories there will be spoilers on earlier books and some conversations in Strange Tricks may not fully make sense initially – but by the end of the book you will be more than glad you stayed onboard for the ride. A new series for me to follow – that’s the best outcome.

Strange Tricks releases on 3 June 2021 and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can get your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08LDWCLN7/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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May 28

Decades: Compliling the Ultimate Library with Nicolás Obregón

This is Decades. Each week I invite a guest to select five books which they would want to see included in my Ultimate Library – the aim is to curate a new Library from the starting point of zero books and have the shelves bursting with terrific titles.

My guests are given two rules (which are often very well stretched as you will soon see):

Select ANY five books.
You may only select one book per decade pubished over five consecutive decades.

This is the sixteenth Decades post – all the books which have been selected thus far can be seen here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5113

If you are wondering why my introduction is shorter than usual it is because my guest this week has done all the heavy lifting for me. An utterly absorbing sequence of selections from Nicolás Obregón – I yield the floor.

DECADES

Right, then. Hello. Who am I? Well, I’m Nicolás—pronounced Nico-lass, but everyone just calls me Nic anyway. I’m a British/Spanish dual-national, born in London, and I grew up between the two capitals. (My father is Spanish, my mother is French). In 2016, I moved to Los Angeles and have been grinning up at palm trees and wearing loud shirts ever since. I recently became an American citizen meaning that my passport draw now looks like it belongs to Jason Bourne.

More importantly, I’m the author of the Inspector Iwata series, a trilogy about a lonely Japanese detective—Blue Light Yokohama (2017), Sins As Scarlet (2018), Unknown Male (2019). Jeffery Deaver has called one of my books a masterpiece, while AJ Finn was left awestruck. A short story I wrote, Colibrí, appeared in the anthology BOTH SIDES: Stories from the Border (2020), which was recently nominated for an Anthony Award. Colibrí was labelled by Publishers Weekly as a poignant standout.

As for what I’m working on now, I’m at the business end of a third draft for my fourth (and first non-Iwata) book for Penguin/Michael Joseph, which I can’t talk too much about. I’m also in negotiations re: a true crime podcast that, you guessed it, I can’t say too much about. Finally, seeing as I live in Los Angeles, I plan to embrace the cliché and write a screenplay at the end of the year. But that’s enough about me, on to the good stuff!

Now, initially, I tried to pick favourite books for Decades. But every time I thought I’d whittled my list down to five, I’d suddenly doubt everything—a deer caught in the headlights of all I was overlooking. Instead, I’ve gone for five books that have influenced me. And by that, I mean: books that have shaped me first as a reader, and then as an author. Without them, it’s not that I wouldn’t be half the writer I am today. It’s that I simply wouldn’t be one.

My thanks to Gordon for letting me submit myself to the delicious torture of picking five books across five consecutive decades.

Links to social media:

Twitter @NicObregon

Instagram @Obregonbooks

Facebook @Obregonbooks

www.nicolasobregon.com

2010s—Patria by Fernando Aramburu

As a young child, I remember sleeping next to my father and being woken by a cataclysmic bang. He pulled me under the bed, swearing under his breath in Spanish: sons of bitches, sons of bitches. One of his friends growing up was murdered by ETA, a car bomb intended for the military father. To my dad, every ETA bomb, every gunshot, every death threat or extortion attempt was like a personal affront. His outrage, perhaps, helped him cope with the dread. But this didn’t make him unique.

Growing up in Spain, spending my summers and winters there, it seemed that almost everyone was touched in some way by the decades-long terror campaign—third degree skin burns of separation. This is the backdrop to Aramburu’s 2016 novel that would become both a literary sensation in Spain and throughout Europe, (35^th print run, translated into over 30 languages), as well as the recent well-received HBO adaptation.

Murder, (in the form of a compelling whodunit), friendship, loyalty, grief, ostracism, letting sleeping dogs lie vs staying silent in the face of barbarity—all these things unfurl through the 600+ page Homeric saga that is Patria (Homeland). But Aramburu, who has lived in Germany since the mid 80s, harnesses these broad themes and lion-tames them into two 50s-something women: Bittori and Miren. (Incidentally, their portrayal by Elena Irureta and Ane Gabarain is a work of art, I would urge readers to seek out the HBO series for these two alone). Because while Patria contains terrorists and bombs and gunshots, it’s first and foremost a story about victimhood and the human cost of violence. This is, inexplicably, so often overlooked in fiction, horror and bloodshed favoured over the tricky business of rebuilding lives and trying to exist with trauma. Aramburu’s novel understands that the wounds of this violence are still fresh, and the victims of it were everywhere (alongside ETA’s terror campaign, GAL also operated in Spain and Southern France—a death squad made up of former police officers who are, to this day, officially unofficial).

Now that said, I might have made it sound like Patria is a depressing slog. It’s quite the opposite. The Basque Country is almost a character in its own right, its language and culture showcased beautifully for what it is—one of the most distinctive and unique regions on earth. But like One Hundred Years of Solitude, this novel is also about life itself. There are relationships, betrayals, triumphs, gossiping, and jokes that had me laughing out loud. Milestones in Spanish history are also convincingly overlaid throughout the narrative.

What Aramburu attempts could read like a telenovela on paper. And yet what he pulls is a graceful and heartfelt rendering of the past and the present that, while concerning fictional characters, very much feels like non.

2000s—Le Corbeau (The French Film Guides) by Judith Mayne

This is cheating a little because the book is largely an excuse for me to talk about the film. But the rules do state that any book is acceptable so onward we march. Credit where it’s due, Judith Mayne’s work deftly analyses Le Corbeau’s deeply compelling darknesses and guides the reader through its manifold possible interpretations—the film standing, as it does, as one of the most important pieces in the cinema of paradox.

While nominally about a small French town gripped in the hysteria of a spate of poison pen letters (actually based on a true story in 1920s rural France), Henri-Georges Clouzot is not really examining these events. He is, instead, telling a story about the German occupation of France while exploring the mechanics of informing on your neighbour. It’s particularly fascinating considering he produced the movie for Continental Films, founded by Goebbels himself. After the war, Clouzot would be banned for life from the industry as a Nazi collaborator, though this would be overturned in favour of a two-year interdiction after much campaigning by the likes of Sartre.

This despite the fact Goebbels himself would telegram Clouzot after viewing the film, furious that, while Le Corbeau was a work of genius, it was subversive, and it might make France think for itself. You are paid to make empty films, Goebbels pointedly reminded him.

Upon its release, the Catholics would decry it for its sexual themes and open depiction of abortion, while the Communists would reject Le Corbeau for its unheroic characterisation of France. As Bertrand Tavernier would say in a 2002 interview, Clouzot made a film about the truth. But sometimes, some things are too true. Though banned for decades, its cultural impact remains undeniable. To this day, the French word corbeau—raven—is understood to mean someone who writes anonymous letters with intended malfeasance.

I first saw the film with my French grandmother, whose own mother was a member of the French Resistance throughout the war. On her birthday each year she would receive a letter from the President of the Republic in thanks. (“He won’t bloody leave me alone,” she would always say with a wink). They were both from a tiny village near the Dordogne and the politics and cruelties of small-town gossip are absolutely captured in Le Corbeau.

It’s a sumptuous film, full of hypocrisy, intrigue, and sexuality. Each shot is a charcoal sketch, and each character, no matter how minor, feels like a real person. But the reason this story will always stay with me is because it is, I think, my first memory of the figure of a detective.

As the plot races towards its noir-ish (before noir existed) conclusion and the identity of the true author of the poison pen letters is revealed, two doctors size each other up in an empty classroom (next door to where the local prosecutor is testing the handwriting of the 18 remaining suspects).

Doctor Rémy Germain, smooth-talking and handsome, philosophically clashes with the wily and colourful old psychiatrist, Doctor Michel Vorzet, whose young wife the former is having an affair with.

“Vile beast?” Vorzet smiles enigmatically. “But I see one in the mirror each morning, alongside an angel. You are amazing—you think that people are all good, or all bad. You think that good is the light, and that evil is the darkness…” Vorzet swings the lightbulb in front of his face, like a pendulum. “But where is the darkness? Where is the light…?” he falls into shadow, then back into light as his knowing smile is illuminated. “And do you know which side you’re on?”

This was not the moment I first knew I wanted to write books. But it is certainly the moment that I knew I wanted to write detective stories.

1990s—Out by Natsuo Kirino

Sometimes you love something so much it’s hard to elucidate. For me, Out is one such love. Originally published in 1997, the novel was translated in 2004 and promptly nominated for an Edgar (Kirino would lose out to Rankin’s Resurrection Men). While Rebus has obviously stood the test of time, for me, Out is one of the finest mystery novels—not just of 2004/1997—but of the entire modern canon. (Even the title of the book is a work of economical genius).

Sparse, poetic, kinetic, darkly hilarious, and utterly claustrophobic, it’s a masterclass in the crafting of domestic mystery and how one split second can change lives forever. On paper, it’s about four women working nights at a factory, the murder of an abusive husband in self-defence, and divvying up insurance money in exchange for sworn silence. Taken in isolation, that could sound like an episode of The Bill. But through it, Kirino trains her large magnifying glass on jealousy, loneliness, class structure, lust, misogyny, hatred and, ultimately, the desperation of what it is to be a woman in an empty suburban existence — all of it set against a backdrop of Japan’s economic downturn. Of course, these aren’t small themes. Yet one of Kirino’s many gifts is her ability to effortlessly condense the macro to the micro, entire existences understood in two lines:

“When stones lying warm in the sun were turned over, they exposed the cold, damp earth underneath; and that was where Masako had burrowed deep. There was no trace of warmth in this earth, yet for a bug curled up tight, it was a peaceful and familiar world.”

As a 19-year-old dreaming about my own novel one day, Kirino lit a fire in the dark for me. Not just in terms of her exquisitely realised Tokyo. But her ability to birth characters with secrets and fears—inner worlds that threaten to spill out into the external.

1980s—The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

This entry was a hair’s breadth from being Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith, particularly as a shining exemplar of an author writing outside of their native geography and culture which, later on, would be so important to me.

But in the end, those bloody lambs just won’t shut up. The way I see it, there are crime novels and then there’s the Silence of the Lambs. In Clarice Starling, Harris created one of the most interesting heroes in any genre, with an irresistible character arc that would give rise to a million scriptwriting workshops (and, in the collective psyche, pair liver with a nice Chianti forevermore).

Now, before I go on to glorify the book, I do want to say that I am, of course, aware of the controversy surrounding its depiction of transgenderism. While poorly-equipped to contribute to that conversation, I do feel it’s important Hannibal Lecter explicitly states in the story that Wild Bill is not, in fact, transgender. Still, I absolutely understand that any representation of transgenderism as some kind of vaudevillian freakshow is less than helpful, particularly if platformed by powerful voices. Still, if intent matters at all, I don’t believe Harris ever set out to do such a thing. With all that said, I’m yet to hear of a single detractor of the book for its quality.

It is, simply put, a masterwork. And while this taut, elegant novel spills over with suspense and narrative chicanery, it’s the characters that really set it apart. Unforgettable is an over-used word but the much-loved psychological chess game between Starling and the charming but diabolical archfiend, Hannibal Lecter, will live forever. So gripping is their relationship that it renders the actual antagonist of the story, Buffalo Bill, almost secondary.

As early as page 4, we are being warned about the nightmare to come. After all, Starling first hears of Lecter in the form of a warning:

“…It’s the kind of curiosity that makes a snake look in a bird’s nest… We both know that in interviews you have to back-and-forth a little but tell him no specifics. Starling, you do not want any of your personal facts inside his head.”

And, just like that, we know this is precisely what’s going to happen.

For my money, it should be a staple on creative writing courses everywhere. But as a young aspiring writer, what really illuminated me was the way Harris binds together the steadily rising stakes in the external world, with internal one building inside Clarice also.

1970s—One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Originally published in 1967, Gabo’s magnum opus was translated into English three years later. (I’m aware I’m doing the opposite of what I did with Out—sorry for playing fast and loose with the rules, Gordon!)

Just over a decade on, he’d be receiving the Nobel Prize, firmly established as a living, breathing Latin American Tolstoy or Cervantes. Today, Cien años de soledad stands as The White Album of magical realism, the very paragon of Latin American literature in its entirety, having sold some 45 million copies—almost the entire population of Colombia. Not for nothing does he grace the 50,000-peso bank note.

Studied, adored, and devoured all over the world, so many have written so richly on this magical (wink) book, it almost felt like too obvious a choice. But this being a list of books that influenced me, I simply cannot disregard Cien años. Of course, Gabo’s art for treating the supernatural as mundane is widely-studied but picking this book up at 13 or 14 years of age, I was utterly bewitched. Macondo, no matter what happens there, always feels real and lived in. Omens, curses, prophecies—all of it somehow feels possible in the world García Márquez weaves together. But beyond the what, is the how. Never before had I been so mesmerised by words. His use of language is always elemental, even for a simple background banality. Consider this description of a priest collecting for a new church:

“He went everywhere begging alms with a copper dish. They gave him a large amount, but he wanted more, because the church had to have a bell that would raise up the drowned to the surface of the water. He pleaded so much he lost his voice. His bones began to fill with words.”

It’s been said before but this book is life itself. As William Kennedy put it in a New York Times review: This is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.

I encourage anyone reading this, whatever their stance on magical realism, to throw themselves at this book if they’re yet to experience it. I promise you, by the time you get to the end, you’ll scarcely believe it’s over. But long after it is, the words of Márquez will fill your bones too.

Each of my guests brings something new to the Library but I have been blown away by this contribution. My thanks to Nic for these wonderul selections. Every week I run one of these posts I wonder which books missed out – this week I don’t need to wonder as Nic has also shared some titles which narrowly missed out. These don’t get into the Library this week, maybe they will be selcted by someone else!

Honourable mentions from the cutting room floor:
Richard Yates — Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
Philip K. Dick — Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Truman Capote — In Cold Blood

David Mitchell — number9dream

Martin Cruz Smith — Gorky Park
Juan Pablo Villalobos — Down the Rabbit Hole
Anaïs Nin — Delta of Venus
Carson McCullers — The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Junot Díaz — Drown

Ryu Murakami — In the Miso Soup

Haruki Murakami — Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World

John Hersey — Hiroshima
Donna Tartt — The Secret History

DECADES WILL RETURN

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May 26

Where Crows Land – Paul McCracken

This gripping thriller is set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and chronicles the dramatic events when a former detective, Joseph Carter, sets out to gain redemption from the consequences of an old case that cost him everything.

Carter is still haunted by the murders of his niece and brother-in-law at the hands of a serial killer he was trying to track down. One year on, the killer has returned and Carter, now a disgraced detective gone private, launches a personal vendetta to catch him this time around.

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the blog tour for Where Crows Land. I recieved a review copy ahead of joining the tour.

Joseph Carter has been in the police and was working on a particularly horrific case when his life turned upside-down. A killer had been snatching victims and setting their bodies alight, their burning remains found around Belfast almost like a taunt to the authorities.

Carter discovered that his niece had been snatched and was almost certain to be the next victim. A meet was agreed to pay a ransom but rather than follow procedure and notify his colleagues Carter and his brother in law rushed off to try to secure his niece’s release. It ended badly and Carter was left a bloodied and bruised sole survivor. The killer was never found.

Spinning forward to current days and Carter has had to leave the force after he shouldered full blame for the (potentially) avoidable deaths of his brother in law and niece. He now works as a private investigator but still makes use of a couple of police contacts where he can.

Carter becomes embroiled in a new case but there appears a connection to the events which led to the death of his niece. Not prepared to be bested for a second time Carter throws himself fully into this new case and is adamant he will get justice or retribution for past events.

This felt a relentless read, it’s not a long book but the action comes thick and fast. Paul McCracken keeps Carter spinning from one incident to the next. It felt intense at times, no respite for a driven Investigator who will lose perspective, patience and his self control to get the information he needs from suspects.

The police are aware of Carter’s obsession and determination but there is only so much sympathetic former colleagues can do to keep Carter out of jail as he over-steps the mark I his pursuit of a truth which will give him closure.

Punchy, intense and with a pleasing endgame.

Where Crows Land is available in digital format and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08PFWTLV3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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May 21

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Danny Marshall

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

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

There are just two rules governing their choices:

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

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

DECADES

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

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

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

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

1890s

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

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

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

1900s

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

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

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

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

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

1910s

John Buchan’s The 39 Steps (1915)

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

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

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

1920s

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

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

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

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

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

1930s

John Dickson Carr’s The Hollow Man (1935)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DECADES WILL RETURN

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May 19

Two From The Archives – MacBride and Herron

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

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

All That’s Dead – Stuart MacBride

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Real Tigers – Mick Herron

Catherine Standish knows that chance encounters never happen to spooks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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May 17

Come Closer – Sara Gran

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

Strange noises in the apartment.

Impulsive behaviour.

Intense dreams.

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

Shoplifting.

Fighting.

Blackouts.

There must be a reasonable explanation for all this.

I received a review copy through Netgalley from the publisher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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May 14

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Helen Fields

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

So what is Decades?

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

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

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

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

DECADES

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

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

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute (1950)

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

Papillon by Henri Charrière (1969)

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

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

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

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

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

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

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

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

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

DECADES WILL RETURN

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May 7

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Douglas Skelton

For the first time in the Decades series I have a returning guest. Not someone who has already taken part in Decades but an author who has previously joined me as a guest to chat about books. Before this year I had not hosted any guests at Grab This Book for around three years. In the first four years of blogging I actually hosted many brilliant authors and ran some recurring features which have since been put out to pasture.

One of the features I ran was called Serial Heroes. I love an ongoing series with recurring characters and I invited authors to join me to chat about the ongoing series of books they enjoyed and looked forward to reading. That idea came from hearing today’s guest, Douglas Skelton, chatting to readers as part of the North Lanarkshire Libraries Encounters festival. Douglas told the audience that he had been a big fan of the Ed McBain 87th Precinct stories and my immediate reaction was: YES! I wanted to know which books were read by the authors I was reading. If you want some more fabulous book recommendations then pop “Serial Heroes” into the search box at the top, right of the page.

So I jumped the gun slightly when introducing Douglas Skelton. As a former journalist he will appreciate that I have checked these facts from two different sources:

Douglas Skelton has published twelve non fiction books and eight thrillers (many of which have received glowing reviews on this blog). He has been a bank clerk, tax officer, shelf stacker, meat porter, taxi driver (for two days), wine waiter (for two hours), reporter, investigator and editor.

You can find the Skelton book collection here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Douglas-Skelton/e/B001K7TR10?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1620335880&sr=8-1

If you follow Douglas on Twitter @DouglasSkelton1 you will know he takes some wonderful photographs and some of his favourites are on sale through his online store here.

He is one quarter of the hilarious “Four Blokes in search of a Plot” and visitors to Bloody Scotland cannot fail to have been impressed the year Douglas played a key role in the Scotland vs England football match (he was the pre-match announcer). He also wrote the 2019 sold-out show You The Jury which wowed audiences at the festival when a criminal trial was recreated with audience members invited to become members of the jury to hear the case and decide if the accused was guilty or innocent of the charges.

As is ever the case with Decades I asked Douglas to select five books he wanted to add to my Ultimate Library. He could only select one book per decade and he must make his selections from five consecutive decades.

I hand you now to Douglas Skelton…

DECADES

I have a problem whenever I try to pick favourite books because as soon as I decide on one title, I think of a few more. I once vowed to be more decisive but then I changed my mind.

Anyway, here goes:

The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler (1939)

I am a fan of US detective fiction and thrillers and, as you will see, I have been hugely influenced by both them and their movie counterparts. As anyone who has read the Dominic Queste books knows! I could have selected any one of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe books but went with this rich, complex tale of family deception and murder, told with his customary wit and style, not to mention some plot confusion. Who did kill the chauffeur? Who cares? This is literature masquerading as pulp – or maybe even the other way round – and I love it.

Shane, Jack Schaefer (1946)

This selection will come as no surprise as I constantly name it as one of my favourites. Again, incredibly influential to my work, particularly Davie McCall. It’s a western and the story has become timeless, I can think of at least three movies that rip it off. First published in instalments in 1946 then in expanded book form in 1949, Jack Schaefer’s reluctant gunslinger resonated with me when I read it for the first time as a teenager and has stayed with me ever since.

The Temple of Gold, William Goldman (1957)

I stumbled upon this book as a teenager in a batch given to me by my gran, who we called Nana. I knew the author, William Goldman, from his screenwork, particularly Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (when pressed, that’s my favourite movie. Then, as with books, I think of a dozen more). This was his first novel, a funny, moving rite of passage story which I have read and reread many times – and actually have two copies. One is the original which was in no great state to begin with but is extremely fragile thanks to the many re-reads. The other is a much late reprint.

Fuzz, Ed McBain (1968)

If memory serves, this acted as my introduction to the work of Ed McBain, although I read it in the 70s after seeing the movie version with Burt Reynolds. It spawned in me a deep affection for the 87^th Precinct novels which remains to this day, even though McBain (or Evan Hunter, or Richard Marston or any of the other names he used – his real name was Salvatore Lombino) has left us. I still pick one up at random and have a read whenever the mood takes me.

Marathon Man, William Goldman (1974)

William Goldman again. He was, for me, the master of the reversal. Just when you think the story or a character is one thing, he suddenly twists it and you realise it’s something else entirely. He pulls a few such tricks in the book, most of which could not be replicated in the celebrated movie, although the celebrated – notorious – dentistry scene remains intact. Apart from that, this is a fine paranoid thriller that benefits greatly from Goldman’s use of humour as well as his ability to wrong-foot us! I wish I could write like that. Altogether now – is it safe?

I will add these classics to the Library. My deepest thanks to Douglas for his continued support and for choosing such great books.

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

DECADES WILL RETURN

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May 2

The Family Tree – Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry

The DNA results are back. And there’s a serial killer in her family tree…

Liz Catalano is shocked when an ancestry kit reveals she’s adopted. But she could never have imagined connecting with her unknown family would plunge her into an FBI investigation of a notorious serial killer…

The Tri-State Killer has been abducting pairs of women for forty years, leaving no clues behind – only bodies.

Can Liz figure out who the killer in her new family is? And can she save his newest victims before it’s too late?

I received a review copy of the book from the publisher through Netgalley.

Last year I read a book which had DNA testing as a central theme. A few months later I had been recounting the plot to my wife and we had a conversation about the increase of DNA testing and how the process was now accessible to so many people these days. Many commercial operations have the ability let people know more about their roots than has ever been possible in the past. This can lead to unexpected discoveries, people have been learning the people they believed to be their parents or their siblings are actually an adoptive family and not their natural birth family.

I had never considered the implications of this, however, through her work my wife had become aware of charities who provide support or counselling for people who find out accidentally that their families adopted them. It was literally the next day I began reading The Family Tree and met Liz Catalano – she and her cousin had completed an ancestry test only for Liz to discover she did not share any relatives in common with her cousin. Liz was understandably traumatized by this discovery and my conversations with my wife gave me deeper appreciation around how Liz’s world had been turned upside down.

Liz wants answers, she needs to understand where her roots lie and it puts a real strain upon the relationship she has with the people she believed to be her parents. This part of the story is beautifully represented by Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry as the reader cannot help but feel empathy for the situation Liz finds herself experiencing and the horror and anguish of her parents who lost the ability to share this information with their daughter in the manner of their choosing. The fact they waited and never told Liz of her background is addressed and it’s easy to understand why families put off such a big conversation. Liz and her parents are a family and although Liz does understand this, there is a feeling of betrayal and curiosity of the unknown which will drive her actions through the story in The Family Tree.

Liz uploads her DNA to a national database in a bid to find more familial links and hoping to trace her natural parents. This act of sharing her DNA triggers a whole new problem for Liz. Her DNA is a close match for DNA which the police have been monitoring as it looks like Liz may be related to a killer – the notorious Tri-State Killer who has evaded authorities for over 20 years. The authorities will be knocking on Liz’s door, they want to know more about her but the information they need (Liz’s family history) is something she herself does not know.

The Tri-State Killer has been active for many years and is a notorious and dangerous predator. He abducts two women in one event every couple of years. The women remain missing for many months before, ulitmately, their bodies are discovered dumped and scrubbed clean.

I loved how the authors addressed the Tri-State Killer in the story. We take a jump back into the past to read about the first two women abducted, readers see how their killer managed to gain entrance to their apartment and how he was able to subdue them both. The story then returned to Liz and her endeavours to trace her family – it is progressing and she believes she may have found her grandparents. Then back to the Tri-State Killer and we pick up the narrative on what happens to the abducted girls after the killer has them at this mercy. But this time it isn’t the first two girls who were abducted but the third and fourth! A delightful twist which brought home the impact of the killer’s actions and a pattern which repeats through the book. Each time we return to the story of the killer it is viewed through the eyes of the women he has abducted, a different pair of women each time. The fifth and sixth women, then the seventh and eighth and so on. Each time we return to Liz and her discussions with the family she never knew only to return to two new abductees. We know their fate and we know more women will be abducted – it’s compelling and it’s grim but it makes for great reading.

I flew through The Family Tree in super quick time. The switching narrative between past and present made me want to keep reading. Liz may be related to a killer but she and the investigators cannot know who that killer may be. She continues to meet with members of her new family (despite warnings to be careful) and she puts herself at risk each time. But Liz wants to know the truth about her natural parents and she also wants to help identify a killer – but what if she destroys her new family in the process?

I never tire of finding wonderful gems like The Family Tree to read. I really enjoyed this one and it’s due for release in just a few weeks – highly recommend getting this ordered. It spins an emotive drama around a dark serial killer story and the writing just flows to keep those pages turning.

The Family Tree is published by Avon on 10 June 2021 and will be available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08R6QPT3F/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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