October 15

Spook Street – Mick Herron

Never outlive your ability to survive a fight.

Twenty years retired, David Cartwright can still spot when the stoats are on his trail. Jackson Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day. He knows better than most that this is no vulnerable old man.

‘Nasty old spook with blood on his hands’ would be a more accurate description.’The old bastard’ has raised his grandson with a head full of guts and glory. But far from joining the myths and legends of Spook Street, Cartwright is consigned to Lamb’s team of pen-pushing no-hopers at Slough House.

So it’s Lamb they call to identify the body when Cartwright’s panic button raises the alarm at Service HQ.

And Lamb who will do whatever he thinks necessary, to protect an agent in peril…

 

 

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley.

 

If you’re not reading Mick Herron then you are missing out on some of the finest storytelling currently being published. These are the spy stories for modern days, the cold war is long behind us and only the dinosaurs in the service remember what it was like when the spooks knew their craft, when missions took them overseas and their lives were in constant peril.

Despite being long retired David Cartwright still keeps his secrets close to his chest but his memory isn’t what it was and he gets so easily confused. His grandson River is also in the service but he blotted his copy book and now resides at Slough House – the dumping ground for agents no longer trusted to work in the field. They are under the supervision of Jackson Lamb – a dinosaur in more ways than one – and Lamb (if you haven’t met him yet) is a dangerous enemy and a terrible human being. He is also hilarous to read about.

David Cartwright is in danger, he is a loose end and someone is tidying house. A killer is sent to end Cartwright’s life but once a spook, always a spook and the dottery old man manages to get one up on his would be assassin. Now River has to find somewhere safe for his grandfather and try to work out what the Old Bastard did in his past which may put his future in peril.

Lamb will protect his team – not through any kind of affection for them – because Lamb would hate the idea of someone other than him making life miserable for any of his Slow Horses. When Lamb is in action nobody will be safe and it isn’t long before some familiar faces find him knocking on their door.

The Slough House books (Spook Street being book 4) will make you reconsider how a spy story should be told. Everyone is playing everyone else and everyone is only looking out for their own interests – except River who is worried about his grandfather. But River is about to discover that his grandfather has been keeping secrets from him too and when old secrets are unearthed it never ends well.

Chase scenes, gun battles, killers and politics – there’s a lot going on in Spook Street and Lamb’s team are right in the thick of it. I had this book waiting on me for quite some time, I am pacing myself with this series as I just don’t want to catch up with the latest releases and find there are no more books to look forward to. The anticipation is great but the enjoyment of reading a new Slough House book is unbeatable.

 

Spook Street is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KXPVEJW/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6

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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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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

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December 10

My Favourite Audiobooks – 2018

End of another year. As this is my blog I have decided that it is time for me to share my thoughts on my favourite audiobooks.  The following ten titles are the stories I enjoyed listening to the most over the last 12 months – they are not shown in any order of preference.

Very few rules on this.  If I listened to the book in the last 12 months it counts. If I started to listen to a story and jumped to a physical book to finish it quicker (this happened a couple of times) then it doesn’t count but those books will almost certainly feature in my Best Books of 2018 list!

On a final note an audiobook doesn’t just qualify on how good the story was but on production and narration too.

 

Hydra – Matt Weslowski

A family massacre. A deluded murderess. Five witnesses. Six stories. Which one is true?

One cold November night in 2014, in a small town in the north west of England, 21-year-old Arla Macleod bludgeoned her mother, father and younger sister to death with a hammer, in an unprovoked attack known as the Macleod Massacre. Now incarcerated at a medium-security mental-health institution, Arla will speak to no one but Scott King, an investigative journalist, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation.
King finds himself immersed in an increasingly complex case, interviewing five witnesses and Arla herself, as he questions whether Arla’s responsibility for the massacre was a diminished as her legal team made out.
As he unpicks the stories, he finds himself thrust into a world of deadly forbidden ‘games’, online trolls, and the mysterious black-eyed kids, whose presence seems to extend far beyond the delusions of a murderess…

 

 

 

The Puppet Show – M.W. Craven

Welcome to the Puppet Show . . .

A serial killer is burning people alive in the Lake District’s prehistoric stone circles. He leaves no clues and the police are helpless.

When his name is found carved into the charred remains of the third victim, disgraced detective Washington Poe is brought back from suspension and into an investigation he wants no part of.

Reluctantly partnered with the brilliant, but socially awkward, civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw, the mismatched pair uncover a trail that only he is meant to see. The elusive killer has a plan and for some reason Poe is part of it.

As the body count rises, Poe discovers he has far more invested in the case than he could have possibly imagined. And in a shocking finale that will shatter everything he’s ever believed about himself, Poe will learn that there are things far worse than being burned alive …

 

 

Come and Find Me – Sarah Hilary

On the surface, Lara Chorley and Ruth Hull have nothing in common, other than their infatuation with Michael Vokey. Each is writing to a sadistic inmate, sharing her secrets, whispering her worst fears, craving his attention.

DI Marnie Rome understands obsession. She’s finding it hard to give up her own addiction to a dangerous man: her foster brother, Stephen Keele. She wasn’t able to save her parents from Stephen. She lives with that guilt every day.

As the hunt for Vokey gathers pace, Marnie fears one of the women may have found him – and is about to pay the ultimate price.

 

 

The Old You – Louise Voss

Lynn Naismith gave up the job she loved when she married Ed, the love of her life, but it was worth it for the happy years they enjoyed together. Now, ten years on, Ed has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, and things start to happen; things more sinister than missing keys and lost words. As some memories are forgotten, others, long buried, begin to surface … and Lynn’s perfect world begins to crumble.But is it Ed’s mind playing tricks, or hers…?

 

 

Slow Horses – Mick Herron

You don’t stop being a spook just because you’re no longer in the game.

Banished to Slough House from the ranks of achievers at Regent’s Park for various crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal, Jackson Lamb’s misfit crew of highly trained joes don’t run ops, they push paper.

But not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a ‘slow horse’.

A boy is kidnapped and held hostage. His beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the net.

And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren’t going to just sit quiet and watch . . .

 

I Am Death – Chris Carter

Seven days after being abducted, the body of a twenty-year-old woman is found on a green patch of grass by the Los Angeles International Airport. She has been left with her limbs stretched out and spread apart, placing her in a five-point human star.

The autopsy reveals that she had been murdered in a most terrible way. But the surprises don’t end there.

Detective Robert Hunter, who leads LAPD’s Special Section, Ultra Violent Unit, is assigned the case. But almost immediately a second body turns up. Hunter knows he has to be quick.

Surrounded by new challenges as every day passes, Detective Hunter finds himself chasing a monster. A predator whose past hides a terrible secret, whose desire to hurt people and thirst for murder can never be quenched – for he is DEATH.

 

 

Rain Dogs – Adrian McKinty

It’s just the same things over and again for Sean Duffy. Riot duty. Heartbreak. Cases he can solve but never get to court. But what detective gets two locked room mysteries in one career?
When journalist Lily Bigelow is found dead in the courtyard of Carrickfergus castle, it looks like a suicide. But there are just a few things that bother Duffy enough to keep the case file open. Which is how he finds out that she was working on a devastating investigation of corruption and abuse at the highest levels of power in the UK and beyond.
And so Duffy has two impossible problems on his desk: who killed Lily Bigelow? And what were they trying to hide?

 

Bloody January – Alan Parks

When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn’t a random act of violence.

With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops.

McCoy’s boss doesn’t want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouchable. But McCoy has other ideas . . .

 

 

Scared To Death – Rachel Amphlett

When the body of a snatched schoolgirl is found in an abandoned biosciences building, the case is first treated as a kidnapping gone wrong.

But Detective Kay Hunter isn’t convinced, especially when a man is found dead with the ransom money still in his possession.

When a second schoolgirl is taken, Kay’s worst fears are realised.

With her career in jeopardy and desperate to conceal a disturbing secret, Kay’s hunt for the killer becomes a race against time before he claims another life.

For the killer, the game has only just begun…

 

 

The Dali Deception – Adam Maxwell

Violet Winters—a professional thief born of a good, honest thief-and-con-artist stock— has been offered the heist of a lifetime. Steal a priceless Salvador Dali from the security-obsessed chairman of the Kilchester Bank and replace it with a forgery.

The fact that the “painting” is a signed, blank canvas doesn’t matter. It’s the challenge that gives Violet that familiar, addicting rush of adrenaline. Her quarry rests in a converted underground Cold War bunker. One way in, one way out. No margin for error.

But the reason Violet fled Kilchester is waiting right where she left him—an ex-lover with a murderous method for dumping a girlfriend. If her heist is to be a success, there will have to be a reckoning, or everything could go spinning out of control.

Her team of talented misfits assembled, Violet sets out to re-stake her claim on her reputation, exorcise some demons, and claim the prize. That is, if her masterpiece of a plan isn’t derailed by a pissed-off crime boss—or betrayal from within her own ranks.

 

 

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December 16

Guest Post – Helen Giltrow: Serial Heroes

It is Day Three of my quest to discover which ongoing crime and thriller series my favourite authors look forward to reading.

Thus far Douglas Skelton has shared his love of the Ed McBain 87th Precinct books  and Angela Marsons told us why she enjoys Val McDermid’s Tony Hill stories.

Today I am delighted to welcome Helen Giltrow back to Grab This Book.  I reviewed Helen’s brilliant thriller The Distance earlier this year and she kindly answered a few of my questions for a Q&A (one of the hardest I have written as The Distance was clever, sophisticated and I was a bit daunted sending questions through to Helen that would not show me up).

When I was planning this week of features I really wanted Helen to take part. Helen attended the Bloody Scotland festival in Stirling earlier this year – she was one of the fabulous Killer Women panel. I managed to catch up with her in the festival bookshop and we traded book recommendations for much longer than most people will talk about books with me! Helen mentioned lots of books and authors that afternoon but one author’s name stood out and her enthusiasm for his books shone through:

 

HELEN GILTROW:

Mick Herron’s Slough House series

Dead LionsI wasn’t going to like Mick Herron’s Slough House books. Forget Slow Horses’ shortlisting for the CWA Steel Dagger, and Dead Lions’ Gold Dagger, Best Crime Novel win. Forget the critical acclaim. Forget even the spy-thriller tag, which given that I was raised on Le Carre’s Smiley novels should at least have piqued my interest. On its original (US) paperback cover, Dead Lions was described as ‘a send-up’ and ‘a romp’. I like my crime fiction dark and serious. I nearly didn’t buy it.

If I hadn’t, this post would have been about another author’s books – Le Carre’s, James Lee Burke’s or Tana French’s. But right now, if there’s one series I would urge you to read – even if you don’t like espionage novels, or consider yourself allergic to books that win awards or get described as romps – it would be Slough House.

Let’s start with the premise. Slough House itself is a dingy central-London office building where the screw-ups of MI5 – men and women the Service no longer wants but can’t afford to sack – are subjected to an unending round of pointless, soul-destroying tasks, in the hope that they’ll resign. Variously alcoholic, addicted, personality-disordered, aggressive, inept, or just plain unlucky, they work under a former field agent, Jackson Lamb, who treats them with spectacular levels of abuse and contempt. But they refuse to leave, hoping that one day, somehow, they’ll get their chance to win their old jobs back …

A different author would simply have used that as the set-up, quickly springing his heroes out of their office prison and into a world that only they can save. Herron doesn’t, instead anchoring his action firmly in Slough House and thus setting out his stall. The international glamour of James Bond, the grimy endurance-test heroics of Jason Bourne? They don’t get a look-in. Here’s a series grounded in a world most of us can recognize – where ordinary, slightly useless, occasionally appalling people work in a horrible office, live in hope … and keep on screwing up.

Of course, there’s still escapist fun to be had, in spades. And great jokes. (The books are properly funny, the sort of funny that’s had me laughing out loud on trains; the dialogue in particular is a joy, packed with one-liners and smarting with noir-ish wit.) There’s gorgeous writing, too – Herron’s prose is lovely – and fiendishly twisty plot construction: some chapters are multiple-viewpoint masterclasses in misdirection and withholding.

And Herron knows his genre. Each book has a strong espionage hook: extremists threatening an innocent with execution in Slow Horses, a mysterious message left by a murdered former agent in Dead Lions, an Intelligence officer held to ransom in the forthcoming Real Tigers. Even so, you can’t help feeling that (as was famously once said of Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor) they’re ‘not really about spying’.

Slow HorsesWhat drives them are the characters. And not just the inmates of Slough House – which include River Cartwright, the series’ idealistic hero; the self-deluding hacker Roderick Ho; the unshakeably vile Lamb, whose cartoonish excesses hide a dark past; and Lamb’s recovering-alcoholic PA, the ‘mad governess’ Catherine Standish … A supporting cast spans the whole hierarchy of espionage, from burnt-out former assets and disgraced spies, through the lower ranks, the fixers and enforcers, to the ‘Second Desk’ of MI5, Diana Taverner – sophisticated, treacherous, and permanently at war with her boss Dame Ingrid Tierney – and her political masters.

The interchanges between the ranks, the jockeyings for advantage at every level, strike sparks that light these books. More than anything else these are stories about people, and the inequalities of power.

I guess that’s why I object to ‘romp’ so much – and ‘send-up’, and ‘caper’ too. For me, those terms imply not just a knowing smugness in the writing but also a frivolousness: it’s all right, it’s just a game. Herron knows its isn’t, especially when lives are at stake, or power is being abused. However fabulously entertaining the Slough House books are, they’re serious too, shot through with quiet tragedy, courage, grief, even tenderness; occasionally, anger. For all the energy, the wit, the stylistic fireworks, there’s a bedrock awareness of real-world issues in these books, a restrained seriousness behind the jokes, an intentness of purpose that I really, really like.

The Slough House series is good, and getting even better. I recommend you read it.

 

Slow Horses and Dead Lions are available in paperback, published by John Murray; they are also part of this month’s (December 2015) Kindle Deals, at 99p each.

The spin-off novel Nobody Walks – shortlisted for this year’s CWA Steel Dagger – has just been published in paperback by Soho Press.

The next Slough House book, Real Tigers, comes out in February 2016.

 

Visit Mick Herron’s Amazon page to see all his books and pick up any which take your fancy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mick-Herron/e/B001JP3TOY/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1450304380&sr=8-2-ent

Orion AuthorsHelen’s Amazon page is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Helen-Giltrow/e/B00J40VGW8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1450304539&sr=8-14

I reviewed Helen’s brilliant thriller The Distance earlier this year and you can read my review: The Distance  Helen also joined me for a Q&A when The Distance was released in paperback.

 

 

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