Decades: Compiling The Ultimate Library with Jane Isaac

Decades. Every Friday I invite a new guest to join me here at Grab This Book and I ask them to tell me which five unmissable, memorable, remarkable or favourite books I should add to my Decades Library.

The reason we are highlighting five books is to allow me to assemble the Ultimate Library of wonderful books. I started this challenge back in January 2021 and I had no books on the library shelves. I only wanted the very best books to be represented and I knew one person could never possibly hope to remember all the greatest books from down the years so I ask each of my guests to pick their five favourites.

But why Decades? Well just picking five books is far too easy so I ask that each guest only pick one book per decade from five consecutive decades – a fifty year publication span to choose from. This brings double joy – seeing which five books my guests choose and spotting the clever ways they flex the rules.

This week it is my absolute pleasure to welcome Jane Isaac to Grab This Book. Jane has been wonderfully supportive of my blogging down the years and I was utterly thrilled when she agreed to make her Decades choices. I’ve been looking forward to this week so I shall pass over to Jane and stop waffling on…

Jane Isaac is the author of standalone crime novels and three critically acclaimed detective series. Her books have topped the Amazon best-seller charts, been nominated as best mystery in the ‘eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook awards’, selected as ‘Thriller of the Month’ by E-thriller.com, and have been translated into several languages including Italian, German, Swedish and Chinese.

One Fatal Secret, her next domestic thriller and twelfth novel, is scheduled for publication in June 2022.

Jane lives in rural Northamptonshire, UK with her husband, a real-life working detective, and her two Labradors, Bollo and Digity. When she is not writing she can be found reading, trudging over the fields with her dogs, travelling, or spending time with her family.

www.janeisaac.co.uk

DECADES

It’s such an honour to be asked to contribute to Decades on the brilliant Grab This Book blog, not least because I’ve been following it for some time! The utter joy in building a library from scratch feels a bit like being a child in a sweet shop. In reality, the process of narrowing down my favourite reads was quite a daunting prospect because there were so many to choose from! So, I haven’t necessarily picked my absolute favourite reads, but all the books I selected have left a lasting impression on me.

Papillon by Henri Charriere – First published in English in 1970

This auto-biographical tale from bank robber, Henri Charriere, nicknamed Papillon, is prison-escape thriller, and an emotional rollercoaster of a ride. Sent to prison for a murder he didn’t commit, he reflects on the decisions he made that shaped his life, and the penal colony where he is kept is a marked reminder of the best and the worst of humanity.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill – 1983

This gothic ghost story gave me all the creeps when I first read it in the 1990s, so much so that I couldn’t have it in the bedroom when I slept! When young solicitor, Arthur Kipps, is sent to settle the estate of the late Mrs. Alice Drablow, a reclusive widow who lived alone in the desolate Eel Marsh House, he faces the horror of nightmares. Tense, atmospheric and dark, I wouldn’t recommend reading it last thing at night.

Wild Swans by Jung Chang – 1991

I’ve always been fascinated by the Far East and this incredible book is a window into Chinese twentieth century history told through the eyes of three generations of women from the same family. Powerful, moving, and at times harrowing, ultimately the bravery of the women and their endurance shines through.

Tokyo by Mo Hayder (later re-titled The Devil of Nanking) – 2004

The late Mo Hayder possessed the most amazing ability to create evocative characters that pulled you in from the first page, and her stories tackled sometimes difficult issues that stayed with you long after you closed the book. For me, Tokyo was one of her best examples of this. Alone in Tokyo, Grey Hutchins finds herself searching for a piece of film taken during the infamous Nanking massacre of 1937. What follows is a tense, high-octane story where Hutchins faces resistance in her search and struggles to come to terms with the horrors of past events.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – 2018

This story of Kya, abandoned at a young age and forced to raise herself in the Carolina Marshes, took me through all the emotions! Her ability to focus, connect with nature and keep faith in herself, despite what was thrown at her, showed real strength of character; particularly when the police charged her with murder and she was placed on trial, fighting for her life. A beautiful, and ultimately uplifting book in so many ways.

I have fond memories of Wild Swans releasing back in 1991 when I was working in a bookshop. It’s a real doorstep of a book, absolutely huge, and I remember lugging dozens and dozens of copies of it filling the gaps in the shelves as it flew out the door. Good times! It brings back so many happy memories seeing it again and I am delighted to add it to the Decades Library. The Woman in Black creeped the hell out of me but I’ll make room for that too!!!

Huge thanks to Jane for finding time to make these terrific selections and take on the Decades Challenge.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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August 24

Short Stories and Novellas

I don’t often read short stories (though that will be changing soon…more on that later). Recently, however, I have had the opportunity to snatch some quick reading time and have targeted some short stories and novellas which had caught my eye.

First up is The Travelling Bag by Susan Hill

From the foggy streets of Victorian London to the eerie perfection of 1950s suburbia, the everyday is invaded by the evil otherworldly in this unforgettable collection of new ghost stories from the author of The Woman in Black.

In the title story, on a murky evening in a warmly lit club off St James, a bishop listens closely as a paranormal detective recounts his most memorable case, one whose horrifying denouement took place in that very building.

In ‘The Front Room’, a devoutly Christian mother tries to protect her children from the evil influence of their grandmother, both when she is alive and when she is dead.

A lonely boy finds a friend in ‘Boy Number 21’, but years later he is forced to question the nature of that friendship, and to ask whether ghosts can perish in fires.

This is Susan Hill at her best, telling characteristically flesh-creeping and startling tales of thwarted ambition, terrifying revenge and supernatural stirrings that will leave readers wide-awake long into the night.

My thanks to the team at Serpents Tail for the review copy I received through Netgalley

A collection of 4 ghostly tales from Susan Hill. Three stories are outlined in the description above – each took me around half an hour to read and the whole book is around 180 pages in length. I have my favourites, Boy Number 21 and the unmentioned 4^thstory (Alice Baker – a chiller set in an office) were the two which gripped me most.

The Front Room is particularly grim reading but I found it didn’t draw me in quite in the way the other stories had done. I find that Ghost Stories are harder to pitch as a collection – while all the stories can be creepy, different people respond to different types of chills so in any collection there will be elements which impact people in different ways.

I do enjoy a creepy tale and The Travelling Bag was the welcome break from reading crime thrillers that I had hoped it would be. The physical book looks rather nice too but its relatively short length made me think it may be more likely to be given as a gift than one a reader may seek out on their own.

Fans of Susan Hill and readers who soak up ghost stories this is one to seek out.

The Paper Cell – Louise Hutcheson

The first in a new series of distinctive, standalone crime stories, each with a literary bent. In 1950s London, a literary agent finds fame when he secretly steals a young woman’s brilliant novel manuscript and publishes it under his own name, Lewis Carson. Two days after their meeting, the woman is found strangled on Peckham Rye Common: did Lewis purloin the manuscript as an act of callous opportunism, or as the spoils of a calculated murder?

My thanks to Sara at Contraband for my review copy

The Paper Cell is a novella from the new Pocket Crime Selection from Contraband Books. It is a beautifully crafted tale of life in the literary circles of 1950’s London. We begin in the modern day, an author meeting with a journalist after the author grants a rare interview. It becomes clear that there are reasons the author has been reluctant to speak with the press – once we are transported back to recollections of the author’s life as a young man in London the shocking truths start to spill out.

Of the three books covered in this post The Paper Cell was by far the one I enjoyed the most. Louise Hutcheson keeps the story slick, her characters leap off the page and you can easily imagine the smoke filled reading rooms and fussy publishers office meetings.

There is a darkness running through The Paper Cell and the reader gets a fly on the wall view of some terrible behaviours and sinister actions. Yet those dark scenes are in the background as much of the story follows young writers pursing their dreams or and young lovers enjoying their blossoming relationship.

Louise Hutcheson can tell knows how to tell a good story and this had me captivated.

A Rare Book of Cunning Device – Ben Aaronovich

Exclusive to Audio! Somewhere amongst the shadowy stacks and the many basements of the British library, something is very much amiss – and we’re not talking late returns here. Is it a ghost, or something much worse? PC Peter Grant really isn’t looking forward to finding out….

Still working my way through audiobooks and this was my introduction to PC Peter Grant – popular protagonist of the Ben Aaronovich Rivers of London series. At 30 minutes running length this free audiobook is a must listen for fans of the series. I can say this only from the position of a new reader as I have not read Rivers (or any of the other Grant books) but I loved A Rare Book of Cunning Device.

The narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith has a very listenable voice and the feedback on his performance from other readers is extremely positive as fans of the series have expressed their approval at how he handles their beloved characters.

Deep within the British Library, Peter Grant, comes up against the most formidable of opponents – a Librarian. Oh there may also be a poltergeist but Grant knows better…doesn’t he?

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