Seven days seem to fly past so quickly at the moment and already I find I am rolling out the red carpet to welcome a new guest curator to the Decades Library.

Have you visited the Decades Library before? Let me quickly explain what’s happening.

Back in January 2021 I asked myself the question: If I were to build a new library from the ground up which books would I put on the shelves to make sure only the best books were represented?  I quickly realised this was not a question I could answer alone so I have been inviting guests to join me here at Grab This Book and asking them to nominate five of their favourite books which they feel deserve a place in my Decades Library.

Why is it a Decades Library? Well there are two rules governing the choices my guests can make.

1 – Pick ANY five books
2 – You may only select one book per decade from five consecutive decades.

Easy. In theory. But when it comes to making those selections and narrowing down which decades to represent I am told it can get a bit more challenging than you may believe.

Today I am delighted to pass the Curator’s Hat to Margaret Kirk who (before you scroll down) has selected five brilliant books which I will add to the shelves of the Decades Library.

 

Margaret Kirk writes ‘Highland Noir’ Scottish crime fiction with a gothic twist, set in and around her home town of Inverness.

Her debut novel, Shadow Man, won the Good Housekeeping First Novel Competition in 2016. Described as ‘a harrowing and horrific game of consequences’ by Val McDermid, it was published in 2017 by Orion. Book 2 in the DI Lukas Mahler series, What Lies Buried, was published in June 2019. Book 3, In The Blood, is set in Inverness and Orkney and is available from all good book stores.

Margaret is also the writer of several award-winning short stories, including The Seal Singers, which has been published in translation in Germany and Switzerland.

You can find Margaret here:

Website:  https://margaretmortonkirk.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MargaretKirkAuthor/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/HighlandWriter

And Margaret’s books are here:

Amazon: Shadow Man https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Man-Margaret-Kirk-ebook/dp/B06VVS5P1H/ref

What Lies Buried https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Lies-Buried-Margaret-Kirk-ebook/dp/B07N6DRL4K/ref

In The Blood https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Margaret-Kirk-ebook/dp/B07ZK9CMXN/ref

OR

Hive https://www.hive.co.uk/

(supports local independent bookshops)

 

DECADES

 

Thank you for inviting me to contribute to Decades ! I changed my mind several times about which decade would be my starting point – I very nearly picked the 1890s, because I wanted to include a certain iconic horror novel. But how would it be fair to include Dracula and leave out Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s more nuanced and arguably much more disturbing creation of 1818? And then I couldn’t have had one of my great heroes of the classic mystery genre, Dorothy L Sayers.

In the end, I’ve gone all modern, which allows me to genre-hop as I please, something I was also keen to do. My picks are all fairly well-known, but hopefully there’s something for everyone here – and I thoroughly recommend each and every one of them!

 

1970s – ‘Salem’s Lot  (Stephen King)

Very early Stephen King, and no, it’s not his best. It shows its age in places, and his protagonist, Ben Mears, is not a particularly compelling character. But King’s portrayal of small-town American life and attitudes always fascinates me, and this novel was the first I’d read which grabbed vampires by their mouldering, cobwebby capes and chucked them out into the contemporary world. Where, it seems to me, they have the potential to be infinitely more terrifying than confined to their Transylvanian homeland …

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/salems-lot/stephen-king/9781444708141

 

 

 

1980s – Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris)

What can I say about this one that hasn’t been said?  It’s a masterful study in suspense, in drama, in character creation and development – there’s a reason so many books and courses on crime-writing pick this one apart to analyse the brilliance of its construction. (And let’s not forget, spawner of a million internet memes … 😉

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/silence-of-the-lambs/thomas-harris/9780099532927

 

 

 

 

1990s – Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)

The book which my husband and I bonded over, pretty much at our first meeting. I love fantasy, and I love clever, witty writing with a bit of bite. Is there any wonder this is one of my favourite books? (No, not another vampire reference). Pratchett is a huge loss to the writing world, and we’re all the poorer for not having him around to skewer the cruel and the vainglorious and the stupid in his own inimitable way.

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/good-omens/neil-gaiman/terry-pratchett/9780552171892

 

 

 

2000s – On Writing (Stephen King)

Seriously, another Stephen King? Hey, my list, my rules. And this is his brutally honest and hugely influential non-fiction memoir and look back over his writing life. I read it initially just as a huge King fan, but now I think it was what gave me that initial nudge to think maybe I could try my hand at this writing thing (so if you were looking for someone to blame …)

Seriously, it’s one of the best books on writing I’ve read, mainly because it’s so honest and down-to-earth. And the final section on editing, where he actually shows how he does it? So, so good.

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/on-writing/stephen-king/9781444723250

 

 

2010s – Just One Damned Thing After Another (Jodi Taylor)

‘St Mary’s – a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets who hurtle their way around History.’ Yep, that pretty much describes the protagonists of Jodi Taylor’s brilliantly irreverent take on the whole time travel concept (sorry, Dr Bairstow). But beneath the historical mayhem, there’s a subtle but growing darkness that hooked me from the outset. Another firm favourite!

 

https://www.waterstones.com/book/just-one-damned-thing-after-another/jodi-taylor/9781472264268

 

 

 

 

Boom – that’s how you do a Decades selection. King (twice) and Pratchett/Gaimen. Although I have never tried to nail down my personal five selections (I will save that for the very last Decades post) I would bet the farm on Good Omens making it into my five – no book has ever matched it for me. My thanks to Margaret for taking on the Decades Challenge, as ever, my apologies to your TBR.

 

 

DECADES WILL RETURN