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.

Connect with me on Social Media here:
Subscribe to Newsletter: http://ow.ly/cgww50BkBtt
Twitter: (@nholten40) https://twitter.com/nholten40
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noelleholtenauthor/
Blog FB page: https://www.facebook.com/crimebookjunkie/
Instagram: @author_noelleholten
Website: https://www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk
Bookbub Author page : https://bit.ly/2LkT4LB

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

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

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

Category: Blog Tours | Comments Off

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

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

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

Category: Guests | Comments Off

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

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

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

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

February 23

Chopping Spree – Angela Sylvaine

Eden Hills, Minnesota is famous for one thing—its ’80s inspired Fashion Mall. When high school junior, Penny, lands a job at one of its trendy stores, she notices her teen coworkers all wear a strange symbol they won’t explain. Suspicious but wanting to belong, she agrees to stay after closing for a party in the closed store. Her fun turns to terror when Penny discovers a mortally wounded boy and learns there is a killer loose in the mall. Soon the teens are running for their lives.

I recieved a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley

Despite my claims of being a Crime and Thriller blogger I do enjoy other types of books too. Eagle eyed visitors to the blog will have noticed a few fantasy titles down the years and I am very partial to a good horror story. When you grow up reading Stephen King, James Herbert, Richard Laymon and Shaun Hutson you know there is absolutely zero chance you will allow yourself to miss out on a book called Chopping Spree. And look at that cover – it screams to be read.

Chopping Spree is set in an 80’s themed Mall in Minnesota and the reader follows Penny who (at 16) is still in school but she also has a job in one of the high profile fashion stores. We see her finding her feet in her new job and her nervousness around the highschool heart-throb who also works in the shop. But any teen crush problems are going to fade into insignificance when Penny is confronted in the mall by a man wearing a wolf mask and warning her of danger.

As the mall closes for the evening Penny and her colleagues are locked in after hours with a dangerous would-be killer and that is just the start of Penny’s problems. Why do her colleagues all wear the same strange symbol? Why is there a hidden door inside her shop? And then people start to die.

Chopping Spree is a novella and I made rapid progress through the story. Events are almost entirely concerned with a single evening of Penny’s life (the last evening?) so it suited the novella length and breaking reading during such a tight timeframe felt a bit wrong – I wanted to keep going. In terms of horror it is assuredly a tale of terror and peril but it is light on gore and although I haven’t seen Chopping Spree tagged as being a YA read that’s where I felt it could be presented.

For an 80’s music fan there is a great soundtrack to Chopping Spree. Songs play in the mall and Angela Sylvain blends the songs perfectly with the action on page. There was also a playlist at the end of the book which I plan to add to my digital library. These extra touches for readers are always appreciated.

Fun was had with Chopping Spree. I do enjoy a horror tale which stands up without been too ridiculous and the story worked really well for me. Penny is a likeable lead, the mall is a great setting for a horror tale with events contained with no chance of escape and the actual danger is *redacted* but perfectly in keeping with the background.

Chopping Spree will be published in digial format on 1 April 2021. You can pre-order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08W4R1NGL/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

February 19

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Chris McDonald

As you may be aware, I am inviting guests to join me here at Grab This Book to help me curate the Ultimate Libary. It is a feature I have dubbed Decades, the reason for which will soon become apparent. Each guest gets to nominate five books which they believe should be included in the definitive collection of unmissable reads. Other than limiting my guest to five books (Rule One), I also insist that they only select one book per decade over five consecutive decades (Rule Two).

Simple!

Or apparently not as everyone who starts making a list suddenly finds choosing just five books is HARD. Then choosing only one book per decade is also HARD. But there have to be rules or anarchy ensues.

You can visit the Library HERE.

Today I am thrilled to welcome Chris McDonald. Chris grew up in Northern Ireland before settling in Manchester via Lancaster and London. He is the author of the excellent DI Erika Piper series, A Wash of Black, Whispers In The Dark as well as the forthcoming third – Roses For The Dead. He has also recently dabbled in writing cosy crimes, as a remedy for the darkness. The first in the Stonebridge Mysteries was released in early 2021. He is a full time teacher, husband, father to two beautiful girls and a regular voice on The Blood Brothers Podcast. He is a fan of 5-a-side football, heavy metal and dogs.

You can (and should) visit Chris’s Amazon Page here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chris-McDonald/e/B083VRLYPM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1613758627&sr=8-2

The Archive of Blood Brothers podcasts can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-blood-brothers-podcast/id1504641524

And without futher ado – Chris’s wonderful choices…the first guest to take us up to a 2020 release

DECADES

1987 – Misery – Stephen King

I wasn’t alive when this was published! I only read my first King book last year, and very quickly read more. I’m a scaredy cat, and starting with The Shining was a bad idea! Misery was a masterclass in tension – the action happens in a house but never grows dull. Annie is a terrifying character and does some shocking things! King made it scary, funny, tense and pacy and blew my mind in the process. I ordered The Stand off the back of reading this but was overawed by the sheer size of it!! Maybe this year…

1997 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – JK Rowling

Harry Potter is where my love affair with reading started. I remember the moment I set eyes on the cover – I was passing Easons in Ballymena on my way back from the toilet. I was ten years old and was entranced by the display. I ran back to my mum who gave me the money to go and buy it. I was blown away by this story, as millions were and continue to be. It led to me queuing at midnight outside Waterstones for the latter books, where I would go home with my cherished copy and read until the morning. The world was massive and main characters were frequently in peril. It was eye opening stuff and I truly believe that without this eureka moment, I wouldn’t enjoy books like I do!

2001 – Heavier Than Heaven – Charles R Ross

This is a non-fiction book. It’s a biography of Kirt Cobain and one of the books I re-read regularly. Nirvana were a massive part of my teenage years, and continue to be one of the bands I come back to regularly. Kurt was an extraordinary human being – flawed and talented in equal measure. This book is a warts and all account – it paints him in a very fair light and is a perfect read for any music fan.

2010 – Slow Horses – Mick Herron

Foolishly, I’ve waited 11 years to discover this man’s genius. The Slough House series features MI5 rejects, all of whom have made a massive mistake and ended up as Jackson Lamb’s underling. Again, the characters make this book – the plot is great, but I could easily read 300 pages of the cast having a chat over a cup of coffee! As the series has worn on, Herron has tackled bigger political issues, though the characters have remained as acerbic as ever!

2020 – We Begin At The End – Chris Whitaker

We Begin At The End blew me away. It won our Blood Brothers book of the year award and was my vote. It’s a story set in small town America. The story is wonderful, but the book will be remembered for the characters – Duchess Radley in particular. Chris’s writing is just so, so good and will be fully deserving of all the awards he will inevitably win!

My thanks to Chris for these brilliant selections – I have read three of the five which is my highest personal completion percentage so far! I will add all five books to The Library where they join the ten books selected by Sharon Bairden and Heather Martin.

Decades Will Return

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

February 18

The Decades Library

I have been inviting guests to select five books which should be included within the Ultimate Library.

Each guest may only select one book per decade over five consecutive decades.

At the foot of this Library you can access the original posts to learn more about my guests and why they chose these titles.

Here are the selections

1890s

Bram Stoker, Dracula
Selected by Danny Marshall on 21 May 2021

1900s

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Selected by Danny Marshall on 21 May 2021

1910s

John Buchan, The 39 Steps
Selected by Danny Marshall on 21 May 2021

1920s

Erich Maria Remarque – All Quiet on the Western Front
Selected by Paul Cuddihy on 4 April 2021

Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair At Styles
Selected by Danny Marshall on 21 May 2021

Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Selected by Imogen Church on 30 April 2021

1930s

Federico García Lorca 1898-1936

Three Tragedies: Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba
Selected by Heather Martin on 12 February 2021

George Orwell, Keep The Aspidistra Flying
Selected by Chris McVeigh on 26 March 2021

John Dickson Carr, The Hollow Man
Selected by Danny Marshall on 21 May 2021

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Selected by Paul Cuddihy on 4 April 2021

William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
Selected by Tim Baker on 23 April 2021

Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
Selected by Imogen Church on 30 April 2021

Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Selected by Douglas Skelton on 7 May 2021

1940s

Simone de Beauvoir 1908-1986

The Second Sex
Selected by Heather Martin on 12 February 2021

Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
Selected by Chris McVeigh on 26 March 2021

Daphne du Maurier – The King’s General
Selected by Louise Fairbairn on 10 April 2021

Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
Selected by Tim Baker on 23 April 2021

Jack Schaefer, Shane
Selected by Douglas Skelton on 7 May 2021

John Hersey, Hiroshima
Selected by Paul Cuddihy on 4 April 2021

George Orwell, 1984
Selected by Imogen Church on 30 April 2021

1950s

Nevil Shute, A Town Like Alice
Selected by Helen Fields on 14 May 2021

E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web
Selected by Heather Martin on 12 February 2021

Eric Frank Russell, Wasp
Selected by Imogen Church on 30 April 2021

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Selected by Chris McVeigh on 26 March 2021

Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
Selected by Tim Baker on 23 April 2021

Josephine Tay

Daughter of Time
Selected by Chris Lloyd on 12 March 2021

Alistair MacLean – HMS Ulysses
Selected by Louise Fairbairn on 1o April 2021

Robin Jenkins, The Cone-gatherers
Selected by Paul Cuddihy on 4 April 2021

William Goldman, The Temple of Gold
Selected by Douglas Skelton on 7 May 2021

1960s

Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
Selected by Sharon Bairden on 20 January 2021

Jorge Luis Borges 1899-1986, Labyrinths
Selected by Heather Martin on 12 February 2021

John Le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Selected by Chris Lloyd on 12 March 2021

Muriel Spark – The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie
Selected by Louise Fairbairn on 10 April 2021

Henri Charrière, Papillon
Selected by Helen Fields on 14 May 2021

Derek Raymond, A State Of Denmark
Selected by Chris McVeigh on 26 March 2021

Joseph Heller, Catch 22
Selected by Paul Cuddihy on 4 April 2021 and
Imogen Church on 30 April 2021

Jean Rhys, Wild Sargasso Sea
Selected by Tim Baker on 23 April 2021

Ed McBain, Fuzz
Selected by Douglas Skelton on 7 May 2021

1970s

William Styron 1925-2006, Sophie’s Choice
Selected by Heather Martin on 12 February 2021

Ted Lewis – Get Carter (aka Jack’s Return Home)
Selected by Louise Fairbairn on 10 April 2021

William Goldman, Marathon Man
Selected by Douglas Skelton on 7 May 2021

Stephen King, The Shining
ected by Sharon Bairden on 20 January 2021

Peter Benchley

Jaws
Selected by Ian Patrick Robinson on 5 March 2021

Douglas Adams, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Selected by Chris Lloyd on 12 March 2021

Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy
Selected by Chris McVeigh on 26 March 2021

Carolyn Keene, The Mystery of The Glowing Eye
Selected by Noelle Holten on 22 March 2021

Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, The Abominable Man
Selected by Raven on 16 April 2021

William Gaddis, JR
Selected by Tim Baker on 23 April 2021

Hunter S Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Selected by Helen Fields on 14 May 2021

Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Selected by Nicolas Obregon on 28 May 2021

1980s

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Selected by Helen Fields on 14 May 2021

Stephen King, Misery
Selected by Chris McDonald on 19 February 2021

William Gibson – Neuromancer
Selected by Louise Fairbairn on 1o April 2021

Stephen King, Pet Sematary
Selected by Noelle Holten on 22 March 2021

William McIlvanney, The Papers of Tony Veitch
Selected by Sharon Bairden on 20 January 2021

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
Selected by Ian Patrick Robinson on 5 March 2021

Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose
Selected by Chris Lloyd on 12 March 2021

Mark Timlin, A Good Year For The Roses
Selected by Raven on 16 April 2021

Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs
Selected by Nicolas Obregon on 28 May 2021

1990s

Martina Cole, The Ladykiller
Selected by Sharon Bairden on 20 January 2021

J K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Selected by Chris McDonald on 19 February 2021

Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club
Selected by Ian Patrick Robinson on 5 March 2021

Robert Harris, Fatherland
Selected by Chris Lloyd on 12 March 2021

Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs
Selected by Noelle Holten on 22 March 2021

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
Selected by Raven on 16 April 2021

Louis de Bernieres, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Selected by Helen Fields on 14 May 2021

Natsuo Kirino, Out
Selected by Nicolas Obregon on 28 May 2021

2000s

Lin Anderson, Driftnet
Selected by Sharon Bairden on 20 January 2021

Don Winslow, The Power of the Dog
Selected by Raven on 16 April 2021

Charles R Ross

Heavier Than Heaven
Selected by Chris McDonald on 19 February 2021

Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Selected by Ian Patrick Robinson on 5 March 2021

Ian Rankin, Fleshmarket Close / Alley
Selected by Noelle Holten on 22 March 2021

Judith Mayne, Le Corbeau (The French Film Guides
Selected by Nicolas Obregon on 28 May 2021

2010s

Mick Herron

Slow Horses
Selected by Chris McDonald on 19 February 2021

James Sallis, Drive
Selected by Ian Patrick Robinson on 5 March 2021

Craig Russell, Lennox
Selected by Noelle Holten on 22 March 2021

Antonin Varenne- Retribution Road
Selected by Raven on 16 April 2021

Fernando Aramburu, Patria
Selected by Nicolas Obregon on 28 May 2021

2020s

Chris Whitaker

We Begin at the End
Selected by Chris McDonald on 19 February 2021

The Curators

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

February 17

The Nothing Man – Catherine Ryan Howard

I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man.
Now I am the woman who is going to catch him…

You’ve just read the opening pages of The Nothing Man, the true crime memoir Eve Black has written about her obsessive search for the man who killed her family nearly two decades ago.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle is reading it too, and with each turn of the page his rage grows. Because Jim was – is – the Nothing Man.

The more Jim reads, the more he realises how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first…

My thanks to the publishers for my review copy which I recieved through Netgalley

Eve Black is a survivor. When she was a young girl she was in the house when a killer broke into the family home and killed her parents and younger sister. Eve only survived as she had woken in the night and wasn’t in her bed when the killer looked into her room. Twenty years later Eve writes The Nothing Man. It is her memoir and a true crime book about serial killer The Nothing Man – the man responsible for the death of her family and numerous other murders in Ireland.

Jim Doyle is the security guard at a supermarket. His world is turned upside down when he spots a customer buying a copy of The Nothing Man. Years ago Jim was The Nothing Man. Technically he still is – The Nothing Man was never caught or held to account for the crimes he committed. Why is Eve Black publishing her story now? What could she have to say?

Eve is using her book to announce she is going to identify The Nothing Man. She believes the work she put in when researching his crimes has allowed her to work out the identity of the man that took her family from her. Jim realises that this cannot be allowed to happen. His life is far from ideal but there is no way he is going to allow Eve Black to make him pay for crimes he has managed to get away with for over two decades. The Nothing Man will need to be born again – one more victim is needed.

Rest assured that nothing in this review contains spoilers. The blurb and opening chapters introduce Jim and Eve and readers are made fully aware of their respective backgrounds. What I loved about this new thriller from Catherine Ryan Howard was that we know exactly who the killer is, we see the devastating legacy the killer’s crimes caused and you need to know how the killer reacts when he starts to feel a net closing in on him.

The Nothing Man (Eve’s book) covers the murder of her family. As the reader we don’t just get to read Eve’s written account of events but Catherine Ryan Howard takes us back in time to when the killer was active and committing his crimes. The narrative covers both timeframes (then and now) so we can have a comprehensive picture of the man Jim Doyle was and the man he has become. This is also the case for Eve Black who survived a home invasion and escaped the murderer to grow up in a remote cottage with her grandmother where she was sheltered from the potential of a second attack. Eve is determined to tell her story and she plans to find justice for her family and the other victims.

Reading (partially) like a true crime novel, but with lots of extra content which firmly marks it as a gripping crime fiction read, The Nowhere Man is one of those wonderful bookish delights you always hope to pick up. The characters leap out the pages and are vividly realised, the story is so engaging that you will yourself to read one more chapter as you need to know what’s coming next. As a reader you want to be picking up a book which makes you glad you read it – that’s The Nothing Man. I loved it.

The Nothing Man is published by Corvus and is currently available in Hardback, digtial and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0855N98FH/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off