January 15

The Last Line – Stephen Ronson

May 1940.

With Nazi forces sweeping across France, invasion seems imminent. The English Channel has never felt so narrow.

In rural Sussex, war veteran John Cook has been tasked with preparing the resistance effort, should the worst happen.

But even as the foreign threat looms, it’s rumours of a missing child that are troubling Cook. A twelve-year-old girl was evacuated from London and never seen again, and she’s just the tip of the iceberg – countless evacuees haven’t made it to their host families.

As Cook investigates, he uncovers a dark conspiracy that reaches to the highest ranks of society. He will do whatever it takes to make the culprits pay. There are some lines you just don’t cross.

THE LAST LINE is a blistering action thriller combined with a smart noir mystery, played out expertly against the taut backdrop of the British home front.

 

 

I received a review copy of The Last Line from the publishers.

 

It has been far, far too long since I last opened the laptop to share my thoughts on a book. Time to dust off the cobwebs and get back to doing what I love the most – sharing the booklove and helping readers to find those books I think they really should be reading.  Despite the lack of reviews I have still been reading my way through some wonderful stories and I have some catching up to do – where better to start than with Stephen Ronson’s excellect The Last Line?

This book made its way into my list of Ten Favourite Reads of 2023 – it’s an extremely readable and highly enjoyable historical adventure thriller. The wartime setting gives it a constant foreboding tension as the characters live with the constant threat of German invasion as the enemy troops sweep through France, just across the English Channel from where the events in The Last Line unfold.

The hero of the piece is John Cook. He’s a war vetran who’d seen more than his fair share of action on the front lines in Europe and now he’s home in Sussex and watching the incoming threat of a German army on the march. Unfortunately for Cook there’s more than just the potential threat of a German invasion for him to worry about. The Last Line opens with a dramatic confrontation between two pilots, a Spitfire pilot and a Messerschmitt pilot – the whole event witnessed by Cook. The reason he has such a good view of the confrontation is due to the fact both planes are grounded and the pilots are out of their cockpits.

From the opening exchanges we get a measure of Cook – the confrontation he witnesses, his reaction to the conversation he overhears and how he deals with the subsequent reprecussions help readers define what type of character John Cook will be. It puts us in a good place as it won’t be long before Cook is going to become caught up in a particularly deadly sequence of events and as I reader I enjoyed knowing this was a character I could root for.

What I did enjoy was the clever way Stephen Ronson sets up the mystery at the heart of his story, there’s a big incident very early on – Cook is implicated and the police will come calling. Under a cloud of suspicion and mistrust John Cook will continue with the tasks he set out to do and will face down anyone that may try to stop that. However it is not just the police that will come calling on Cook, as a former soldier he’s not fully off the radar of the army either. With an enemy on their doorstep and a real demand for skilled and trustworthy operatives, the army will seek out anyone they feel could be considered an asset and do whatever is required to acquire that asset. Cook is going to be facing a number of challenges.

There’s one puzzle which will just not go away – a missing evacuee who’s left London but seemingly not arrived in the safety of Sussex. Enquiries into what may have happened to the schoolgirl yield no results and Cook doesn’t even seem able to find many who actually care enough to help him. But as he keeps digging he finds that it isn’t just one girl that’s missing – there are multiple children leaving the city but vanishing before they can be placed with new families. Cook will make his way to Brighton to continue his investigations into the missing children – what he uncovers is a disturbing and vast network of lies and abuse of power.

It’s not all about John Cook doing this solo – he does have a few allies he can rely upon, most notably is Lady Margaret – local landowner and woman of considerable influence. She has her own agenda and is more than happy to enlist Cook’s assistance…when their paths cross there’s more than just a spark of attraction and their friendship and possible relationship is another fun development in the story.

I’ve skirted around a lot of the elements of the story which really made The Last Line shine for me. I really want you to read this book and I really don’t want to drop too many spoilers or flag up key elements of the plot. Suffice to say this book was an absolute gem for me last year. I liked Cook and Lady Margaret and would love to read more of their story, the wartime setting and threat of German attack gave the story a strange claustrophobia which really should not have been a factor in the Sussex fields. There was one scene which actually had me shouting “NO” at a decision Cook took at one of the most tense moments in the story.

If I finally cut to the chase…

I loved this story, it cut through the busy chaos that was the end of 2023, it held my attention when many other books just didn’t even get a second glance and, when I had finished reading, I immediately wanted more with these characters.  Did I mention it was one of my favourite reads last year? Make it one of your favourite reads this year.

 

The Last Line is published by Hodder and Stoughton and is currently available in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-line/stephen-ronson/9781399721233

 

 

 

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May 15

Arrowood – Mick Finlay

ArrowoodLondon Society takes their problems to Sherlock Holmes. Everyone else goes to Arrowood.

1895: London’s scared. A killer haunts the city’s streets. The poor are hungry; crime bosses are taking control; the police force stretched to breaking point.

While the rich turn to Sherlock Holmes, the celebrated private detective rarely visits the densely populated streets of South London, where the crimes are sleazier and the people are poorer.

In a dark corner of Southwark, victims turn to a man who despises Holmes, his wealthy clientele and his showy forensic approach to crime: Arrowood – self-taught psychologist, occasional drunkard and private investigator.

When a man mysteriously disappears and Arrowood’s best lead is viciously stabbed before his eyes, he and his sidekick Barnett face their toughest quest yet: to capture the head of the most notorious gang in London…

 

My thanks to HQ for my review copy which I received through Netgalley

 

This was fun.

Arrowood lives and works in London as an investigator. Unfortunately for him he finds himself competing for work against Mr Sherlock Holmes – a man who Arrowood believes benefits from good reporting but is (in Arrowood’s opinion) not as great as his reputation suggests.

Struggling for money Arrowood is given a fiscal lifeline when a woman tries to engage his services to locate her missing brother. Her seemingly simple request will lead Arrowood and his companion Barnett on a trail around some of the darker sides of Victorian London and will place them in danger on more than one occasion. Through the pubs and inns Arrowood and Barnett will bribe, cajole and intimidate the staff of the finer houses and will dig deeper into the puzzle of the missing man.  But they are not the only ones looking and the stakes will be raised as a potential witness is murdered in front of their eyes.

The author does a great job of bringing Victorian London to life and the characters encountered are frequently rough and ready. Arrowood is not the most heroic of lead characters, frequently deferring the unpleasant tasks to Barnett and hiding until it is safe to emerge. But he is not adverse to breaking the law to achieve a result and this made for entertaining reading.

I don’t read many historical novels but Arrowood was pitched just right and captured the feeling of time and place that allowed the story to flow.

If you have enjoyed Sherlock Holmes stories then this tale of one of his rivals is well worth seeking out.

 

Arrowood is published in Hardback and Digital format by HQ.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arrowood-Mick-Finlay/dp/0008203180/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1494885614&sr=1-1

 

 

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