Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Dominic Nolan

I’ve been looking forward to this week for many, many months. If you follow me on Twitter (aka X) you can’t help but have noticed my continued insistence that people should read Dominic Nolan’s excellent Vine Street.

Vine Street utterly blew me when I listened to the audiobook, it was like no story I had read and it put me through an emotional spin cycle. I described it as a serial killer story which spanned several decades. When I saw Dom at Aye Write and also at Bloody Scotland he described Vine Street as a book about the dance halls of Soho in the 1920s. It’s both those things and so much more.

Why have I been looking forward to this week when Vine Street has been on my mind for the last two years? Simply because this week sees the publication of White City, Dominic’s new book and I am actively avoiding all spoilers so I can read it on release this week. The excitment is real people – this is what I blog for, to share my reading highights.

With White City looming into view I asked Dom if he would take on my Decades challenge and add some new books to my Ultimate Library. I was delighted he agreed and I am really excited to share his selections with you.

Before we get to the books I shall quickly recap the Decades Challenge and why these books are being added to my Decades Library:

I am trying to assemble the best collection of unmissable books. In January 2021 I opened the Library with no books on the virtual shelves. I have invited authors, publishers, bloggers and journalists to add their favourite books to my Library shelves so I can ensure visitors to my Decades Library will only have the very best books to choose from. Why is it a Decades Library?

Two rules govern the selection process:

1 – You May Choose Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Choose One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

It’s a Decades Library as each book which is added to the Library by my guests must be contained wihin a fifty-year publication span. As you will see, this week’s selections begin in the 1960s. It’s time to let Dom take over – brace your TBR, this is going to challenge your book buying willpower…

Dominic Nolan lives in London and is the author of the widely acclaimed VINE STREET, AFTER DARK, and PAST LIFE.

In WHITE CITY, his fourth novel, two broken families, unknowingly connected by the biggest heist in British history, fight to get by in a ruined city blighted by crime, corruption, and the fanning of racial tensions among the working poor. It is out November 7th from Headline.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/White-City-stunning-unforgettable-historical/dp/1035416751

Sometimes he’s on twitter @NolanDom, usually when he’s supposed to be writing.

DECADES

THE LOWLIFE – ALEXANDER BARON (1963)

“I am full of knots that are going to get tighter and tighter unless I put the money on.”

Baron was one of the great London novelists, a bard of the poor and downtrodden. WR Burnett said, “I humanize people that other writers don’t even write about,” which could have been Baron’s epitaph. A born loser, a survivor, a dogtrack player, Harryboy is always on the scheme and always in debt, living through the postwar reconstruction of a Hackney of poverty, crime, and gentrification. A slum picaresque.

Baron wrote other fine novels, but the sequel to The Lowlife, Strip Jack Naked, was not one of them. A preposterous Euro-jaunt where Harryboy trails after a rich woman from Paris to Venice. For a genuine French-flavoured companion to The Lowlife, track down Jean Cayrol’s Foreign Bodies, published in English the same year.

BLUE IN CHICAGO – BETTE HOWLAND (1978)

“Chicago isn’t a city. Just the raw materials for a city.”

Howland’s second book (following 1974’s W-3, a memoir about her attempted suicide and subsequent spell in a psychiatric facility) is a sharply observed collection of autobiographical stories about a working class Jewish family in Chicago. Her world is dilapidated, but not grim; compassionate, but not sentimental; angry, but not cold-hearted. It brims with vitality, and is told in her own off-beat cadence, which might wrongfoot you, but is always honest.

Howland was well-received critically on publication, and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship – the so-called “Genius Grant” – in 1984, a year after her third book, Things to Come and Go, a triptych of long stories. She never published again; praise is nothing in the face of expectation. In recent years she has been rediscovered to some minor fanfare, and Picador have published gorgeous new editions of her books. Buy them, please.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT LOVE – RAYMOND CARVER (1981)

“A man without hands came to the door to sell me a photograph of my house.”

A family friend, a librarian, gifted me my first volume of Carver’s stories for my eighteenth birthday. For the first time, I became consumed not by what a writer was saying, but how they were saying it. Carver’s brief, pared down stories of working class purgatory are elliptical. Precarious. His silences have sharp edges. His characters live in fear and expectation. Of what exactly, on either count, they are unsure, other than the certainty it will be a catastrophe. Marriage, infidelity, financial woes, the lethally quiet domestication of bad intentions; sleights of the human heart by which we change out of our own sight. A gallery of blue collar characters sketched in potent prose you catch just out of the corner of your eye. Plant workers and waitresses haunting depressed towns in the death rattle of industry. Travelling salesmen with no place to go and nothing to sell. Good people, surely, doing the best they can. Like all of us, none of them are getting out alive.

MIDDLE MURPHY – MARK COSTELLO (1991)

“I can neither excuse nor blame my father. I can do nothing, it seems, but resemble him.”

A writer who loved words, who wielded language bizarrely, Costello couched comedy in despair. Seventeen years after his debut, Murphy Stories, he returned with another collection of connected stories about his eponymous working class protagonist from Decatur, Illinois. The tales almost cohere novelistically, are perhaps something more than a collection but not quite a novel. They require the space between them that the shorter form grants. “My aesthetics when it comes to writing are novels that read like short stories, short stories that read like poems, and poems that read like prayers.” I would say he was a writer’s writer, but he’s so woefully underread even by his published peers that he was more like a writer’s writer’s writer. Joy Williams passed Costello’s work to Gary Fisketjon in the 1980s, but the editor showed no interest. Tastemakers often lack requisite taste. Costello remained obscure until his death, and now beyond it. His books have never been reprinted, but old University of Illinois editions can be spotted by eagle-eyed hunters. Go find them.

TREE OF SMOKE – DENIS JOHNSON (2007)

“Ninety percent of what goes through my mind on a daily basis is against the law.”

Given he’s a writer much admired for thin, chiselled classics such as Jesus’ Son and Train Dreams, Denis Johnson really went on safari without a hat when he gave us Tree of Smoke, a 600+ page whacked-out hallucinogenic leviathan that lurches through various mishaps of American intelligence in Vietnam, the land and its invaders drawn in a perpetual state of delusional madness. A big novel in all ways – size, ambition, theme, span – it moves at a pace that belies its tombstone heft.

“I don’t have much interest whether any of my books work or not,” Johnson said, in an interview shortly after Tree of Smoke won the National Book Award. He took risks, he put himself and his writing in the path of hazard, and that’s surely the way to do it. Anyone can do it the other way.

I’ve long hoped that Dom would take on the role of my guest curator as I knew he would recommend some titles I’d not previously encountered. As it turns out he recommended five books I’ve not read and I genuinely want to read all five. But they will have to wait as I am clearing the decks for White City. My sincerest thanks to Mr Nolan for expanding the Decades Library with these wonderful sounding books.

DECADES WILL RETURN

Category: Decades, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

December 29

My Top Ten Favourite Reads of 2022

The end of another year of blogging and I look back on all the books I read this year so I can pick out ten of my favourites. It will be ten books, as I can’t keep adding more and more titles into the end of year wrap-up it becomes unweildy and a nightmare to tag everyone on Twitter.

Behind the scenes here at Grab This Book it has been a tricky 2022. There has been #Decades (which I thank everyone for) but far fewer reviews than I would like. I look forward to 2023 with a vow to do better and share more reviews – I did what I could to champion those unreviewed books on Twitter and Facebook but I would have preferred to caputre that enthusiasm here too.

But you’re here for the books and I want to get to them too. Ten of them. Not in any order for nine of the ten. But one title did stand out for me and I have recommended it to more people than any other book this year so that will be the last book I mention below and that book will be my favourite book of 2022. All the books I detail are the stories I enjoyed the most as I read them. They may not have won awards, you may disagree (we can’t all love the same books) but these ten books stuck with me as the months slipped by. If you read any of these then I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Dark Objects – Simon Toyne

Dark Objects, dark storytelling. The best feeling for a reader is to get drawn into the story and just want to keep those pages turning. This book stands out as one of the best thrillers I read this year and I remember reading it extremely late into the night, reluctant to leave the world which Simon Toyne had spun around me.

My review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6594

Demon – Matt Wesolowski

The Six Stories series is a firm favourite and if you’re ever looking for a terrific audiobook experience then Matt Wesolowski’s books should be your first port of call. All the stories are dark adventures but Demon got into my head more than the previous books – haunting.

My review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6280

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill – Craig Robertson

One of the first books I read in 2022 and, despite my goldfish memory, Grace’s story is not one I will forget in a hurry. I feel guilty for not shouting about this book as much as I should have done at the time but it has quite a few trigger issues which hit close to home. The fact I hold this book in such high regard, despite it putting me through emotional turmoil, is clear indication as to how good it is.

My review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6260

The Junction – Norm Konyu

A graphic novel? Absolutely! This book blew me away when I read it. Norm Konyu’s artwork is absolutely stunning and the story is a thing of beauty – I hadn’t cried at a comicbook since Amazing Spider-Man 400 (Aunt May died) but I came damned close to seeping tears at The Junction.

My Review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6609

Up Close and Fatal – Fergus McNeil

A serial killer road trip? Yes Please!

When I picked up this book I was intrigued by the prospect of a journalist receiving a list of murder victims then being drawn into a race against time to try to catch a killer. But once I started reading I was totally hooked. The words flowed past like miles under the wheels of a car as Fergus McNeil served up one of the most readable thrillers I have read for a long, long time. I had such fun with this book.

My Review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6685

Old Bones Lie – Marion Todd

As a reader with a terrible memory for remembering character names I like nothing more than getting stuck into a series of books where recurring characters return for multiple adventures – I feel I get to know these characters so well and I look forward to seeing what may lie in store for them in the next book. One of the best new series is the Clare Mackay books by Marion Todd – the stories are set in and around St Andrews and in Old Bones Lie there is a cracking opening scenario which grabbed me from the outset. I read this with a huge grin on my face.

My review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6739

The Blood Tide – Neil Lancaster

Keeping the recurring characters and police thriller theme going my next selection is this fabulous new adventure featuring DS Max Cragie. Neil Lancaster has his lead character on the hunt for corruption within Police Scotland and when you know you can’t trust any of the cops in a story how can you not be glued to every interaction? How can you not try to second guess every decision taken by the characters? The story takes the reader all around Scotland and that just makes it even better. Don’t miss these books.

My Review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6509

Truly, Darkly, Deeply – Victoria Selman

Every good list of books (and every list of good books) needs at least one title where you can’t reveal too much about the story as the revelations and discovery as the chapters fly by must be discovered for the first time only when the author deems it necessary. That book in 2022 was Truly, Darkly, Deeply. If you’re in the market for a cracking serial killer story then grab this book and don’t read too much into the plot before you start reading.

My Review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6763

Dead Rich – G W Shaw

Although most of my year finds me reading crime/detective stories, Dead Rich is a book I’d place into the Adventure category. But there’s loads of crime going on between the covers here and G W Shaw delivers an absolutely riproaring thriller which I described as a Hollywood Summer Blockbuster in a novel.

Terror on the high seas and a lead character you cannot help but root for – I read this early in the year and loved seeing other readers discovering how much fun was to be had from Dead Rich as the year unfolded.

My Review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6513

Vine Street – Dominic Nolan

I began 2022 listening to Vine Street on Audible. I was utterly captivated by this story and for the last twelve months I have suggested Vine Street to anyone who is looking for a new book to read. I tried to review it and I don’t think I did it justice. I saw Dominic Nolan at Aye Write and again at Bloody Scotland, each time he shared more detail about writing Vine Street which made me appreciate just how much detail was included in the story. I first described Vine Street as a serial killer story which spanned decades but at Aye Write Mr Nolan said he had wanted to write about the clubs of Soho in the 1920s – I felt had totally missed the purpose of the story but there’s just so much going on that I took in the Soho clubs as I looked for the killer among those dark streets.

My favourite book of 2022 – I wish I could have the chance to read it for the first time all over again.

My Review: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=6479

And that’s a wrap on 2022. Ten books I loved. If you haven’t read all these stories then you may wish to seek them out. If you do (and you enjoy them) then please take a minute to let the author know. You don’t need a blog to share the booklove – leave a wee review on a website (Amazon, Goodreads, Waterstones, Kobo). Just saying “I enjoyed this book” will help the author, may encourage another reader to pick up the book too and it may even give the author the motivation they need to finish just one more chaper of a new novel.

Category: 5* Reviews, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

December 14

My Ten Favourite Audiobooks of 2022

As another year draws to a close I have decided, once again, to pull together a list of my favourite audiobooks that I listened to over the last twelve months. There will be a favourite books of 2022 list to follow this post and (spoiler) at least one of the following ten selections will also appear on that list when I share it.

A brief explanatory introduction then the ten audiobooks shall follow (with a purchase link for each where you can pick up a copy in a number of different formats). I do these lists as I want you – yes YOU – to read or listen to the books too.

The last twelve months have been extremely busy for me and I have not read or reviewed as many books as I wanted to. Lets face it though, I am approaching fifty years of age and I have never had a year where I have managed to read all the books I wanted to read. Despite being busy I still managed to get through more audiobooks than ever before so I have expanded my favourite listens from a traditional short list of five titles to a full list of ten.

These books may not have won awards, may not have topped the charts and not all of them are “new” titles which released in 2022. The selections are the ten stories I enjoyed listening to the most – my blog, my favourites. Oh – and I present them in no particular order.

The Seeker – S G MacLean (narr. Nicholas Camm)

It has been my absolute honour to make a few appearances on the Bloody Scotland Book Club over the last couple of years. Panel members are invited to suggest books to read and discuss and for one of my appearances I selected The Seeker. I don’t read very many historical thrilers but I find I always enjoy them more when I listen to the audiobook and this one was an absolute cracker.

London, 1654. Oliver Cromwell is at the height of his power and has declared himself Lord Protector. Yet he has many enemies, at home and abroad.

London is a teeming warren of spies and merchants, priests and soldiers, exiles and assassins. One of the web’s most fearsome spiders is Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector. No one knows where Seeker comes from, who his family is, or even his real name. All that is known of him for certain is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell, and that nothing can be long hidden from him.

In the city, coffee houses are springing up, fashionable places where men may meet to plot and gossip. Suddenly they are ringing with news of a murder. John Winter, hero of Cromwell’s all-powerful army, is dead, and the lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, found standing over the bleeding body, clutching a knife.

Yet despite the damning evidence, Seeker is not convinced of Ellingworth’s guilt. He will stop at nothing to bring the killer to justice: and Seeker knows better than any man where to search.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00M3ERIA6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

Roll With It – Jay Stringer (Narr: Jennifer Pickens)

This was a summer listen and those bright, warm evening dog walks were just perfect for this tale of bounty hunters, stolen money and stolen kisses.

What is your whole life worth, to the nearest dollar?
A bag of cash. No owner. Do you take it?

Emily Scott was the first girl Chloe Medina ever kissed. Back before she was ready to talk about that kind of thing. Now, two decades later, Chloe is a bounty hunter in Arizona, and a local crime boss hires her track down a criminal who has stolen a bag of cash. The fugitive’s name? Emily Scott.

Emily Scott is a stand-up comedian and one-time bank robber who came into possession of forbidden knowledge that could get her killed. She knows the identity of Big Wheel, an illusive and semi-mythic criminal kingpin who runs the state. When presented with a chance to run away with a bag full of cash, she didn’t hesitate. But now out on the road she’s stuck between two worlds. After spending twenty years getting good at one thing, and building her identity around it, can she abandon all that work and become someone new? And what happens when she finds out Chloe Medina is on her tail, the hot girl who broke her nose at high school after one kiss?

Chloe isn’t the only person chasing Scott down. Deputy U.S. Marshal Treat Tyler is on the case. Scott had been in Tyler’s custody when she escaped, and his reputation is on the line. What self-respecting lawman lets a comedian get away? Tyler has another personal stake in the story. He used to work with Medina, back when she was a Marshal. They were rivals. They had identical test scores and identical success rates. Tyler enjoys wearing the badge just as much as Medina did. He’s obsessed with being the cowboy, and despite the years between, can’t stop wondering if Medina may have been just a bit better at it. Whenever their paths cross, he finds a way to bring conversation round to the idea of a contest—to settle the issue once and for all. Medina always declines. She has nothing to prove. But Tyler does, and finding out that Medina is tracking the same fugitive? Game on. Again. And, of course, Tyler is hiding his own secrets about Big Wheel.

Can Medina get to Emily before Tyler? And before Big Wheel? And if she does…do they need to talk about that kiss?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09THR1HH9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

And Your Enemies Closer – Rob Parker (Narr: Warren Brown)

If my last selection was one from the warm summertime, this choice was a listen for the dark winter nights. It is the second in the Thirty Miles trilogy and I bought this the day it released as I had loved the first book. It may only have been January 6th but it was one of the best book purchases I made all year.

In the North West criminal underworld, a deal goes tragically wrong, resulting in war between the two main organised crime factions in the region. Shockwaves rock the 30-mile gap between Liverpool and Manchester – with retired detective Brendan Foley right in the middle of it all.

For Brendan, six months after his resignation, life is all different. His marriage is a mess, he’s working as a nightclub bouncer, his brother is still missing and he just can’t stop searching for the crime family that destroyed his life. And at last, he’s found them – and he’s got them bang to rights.

Iona Madison, his one-time partner and now successor as a DI in Warrington Police, is tasked with a body pulled from the River Mersey – a teen-age boy that went missing the previous year, which might bring her own conduct into question. Not only that, Brendan is feeding her information whether she likes it or not – and his unsanctioned activities are causing her headaches.

And now, there’s a price on his head. A million pounds, dead or alive.

And Your Enemies Closer is a serpentine race against time as Brendan and Iona must stay one step ahead of criminals at every corner, while trying to bring justice – in whatever form it takes, and whatever loyalties it might burn.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Enemies-Closer-Thirty-Trilogy/dp/B09NC7TCSX/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Rob+Parker&qid=1671054727&s=audible&sr=1-1

The Dying Squad – Adam Simcox (Narr: Sophie Aldred)

I love when someone shakes things up a bit and brings different elements to a crime story. How about the two principle investigators being dead? A policeman solving his own murder? Sign me up for that one – it was brilliant!

Who better to solve a murder than a dead detective?

When Detective Inspector Joe Lazarus storms a Lincolnshire farmhouse, he expects to bring down a notorious drug gang; instead, he discovers his own body and a spirit guide called Daisy-May.

She’s there to enlist him to the Dying Squad, a spectral police force who solve crimes their flesh and blood counterparts cannot.

Lazarus reluctantly accepts and returns to the Lincolnshire Badlands, where he faces dangers from both the living and the dead in his quest to discover the identity of his killer – before they kill again.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dying-Squad/dp/B08T1WBWF5/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Adam+Simcox&qid=1671055145&s=audible&sr=1-2

The Book of Cold Cases – Simone St. James (Narr: Pressley, Potter, Petkoff)

This was atmospheric, wonderfully narrated, delightfully twisty and in Beth Greer a powerful character that I just could not figure out – terrific writing by Simone St James, I was utterly hooked on this one.

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times best-selling author of The Sun Down Motel.

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect – a rich, eccentric 23-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion.

Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases – a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea’s surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth’s mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she’s not looking, and she could swear she’s seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn’t right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Book-of-Cold-Cases/dp/B098YNXGV1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3Q73X04EH227X&keywords=book+of+cold+cases&qid=1671055383&s=audible&sprefix=the+book+of+cold+ca%2Caudible%2C123&sr=1-1

The Dynasty – Jeff Benedict (Narr: Todd Menesses)

I love American Football, have done for years and the weeks from September through to February when I can watch the NFL matches always give me some of the best sport viewing of the year. I don’t follow the New England Patriots – would someone from Scotland cheer for a New England team? Well yes we would, we aren’t all mad racists like certain newspapers may have you believe. Nah, I am a Packers fan and have been for over 20 years but I knew a little about the Patriots, about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick so I thought I would give this a spin. Wow. Wow. Wow. My mind was blown as I discovered how little I knew about the NFL, the team dynamics and these larger than life figures.

From the number-one New York Times best-selling coauthor of Tiger Woods comes the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots – the greatest sports dynasty of the 21st century.

It’s easy to forget that the New England Patriots were once the laughingstock of the NFL, a nearly bankrupt team that had never won a championship and was on the brink of moving to St. Louis. Everything changed in 1994, when Robert Kraft acquired the franchise and soon brought on board Head Coach Bill Belichick and Quarterback Tom Brady. Since then, the Patriots have become a juggernaut, making 10 trips to the Super Bowl, winning six of them, and emerging as one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world.

How was the Patriots dynasty built? And how did it last for two decades? In The Dynasty, acclaimed journalist Jeff Benedict provides richly reported answers in a sweeping account based on exclusive interviews with more than 200 insiders – including team executives, coaches, players, players’ wives, team doctors, lawyers, and more – as well as never-before-seen recordings, documents, and electronic communications.

Through his exhaustive research, Benedict uncovers surprising new details about the inner workings of a team notorious for its secrecy. He puts listeners in the room as Robert Kraft outmaneuvers a legion of lawyers and investors to buy the team. We listen in on the phone call when the greatest trade ever made – Bill Belichick for a first-round draft choice – is negotiated. And we look over the shoulder of 40-year-old Tom Brady as a surgeon operates on his throwing hand on the eve of the AFC Championship Game in 2018.

But the portrait that emerges in The Dynasty is more rewarding than new details alone. By tracing the team’s epic run through the perspectives of Kraft, Belichick, and Brady – each of whom was interviewed for the book – the author provides a wealth of new insight into the complex human beings most responsible for the Patriots’ success. We watch the NFL’s savviest owner treat Brady like a son, empower Belichick to cut and trade beloved players, and spend sleepless nights figuring out diplomatic ways to keep Brady and Belichick together for two decades. We come to understand how a genius head coach keeps his players at an emotional distance and blocks out anything that gets in the way of winning. And we experience the relentless drive, ferocious competitive nature, and emotional sensitivity that allows Brady to continue playing football into his 40s.

The result is an intimate portrait that captures the human drama of the dynasty’s three key characters while also revealing the secrets behind their success. This is perhaps the most compelling and illuminating book that will ever be written about the greatest professional sports team of our time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dynasty/dp/B088MKXN8N/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21WK22IHFA309&keywords=the+dynasty+jeff+benedict&qid=1671056224&s=audible&sprefix=the+dynasty%2C+jeff%2Caudible%2C147&sr=1-1

Sleep – C. L. Taylor (Narr: Clare Corbett)

I was always going to listen to Sleep at some point in 2022. I had heard Cally Taylor talking about the book during the Bloody Scotland festival. The thought of a small group thrown together in a small hotel on a remote Scottish island was too much of a hook for me to pass on. Sleep was one of the stories which saw me taking longer routes on the evening dog walks so I could listen for longer.

Seven guests. Seven secrets. One killer. Do you dare to sleep?

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty….

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests has a secret, but one of them is lying—about who they are and why they’re on the island. There’s a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they’ve set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up….

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleep/dp/B07GFTWK8S/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=C.L.+Taylor&qid=1671056682&s=audible&sr=1-6

Vine Street – Dominic Nolan (Narr: Owen Findlay)

The book I was listening to as 2021 faded into the past and we welcomed 2022 (not that I was listening as the Hogmanay bells were ringing out – you know what I mean). The first audiobook I finished in 2022 and it’s still the book I am recommending everyone to read as we reach mid-December. I haven’t put this list in an order of preference but if I had Vine Street would have been my Number One recommendation.

Soho, 1935.

Sergeant Leon Geats’ Patch.

A snarling, skull-cracking misanthrope, Geats marshals the grimy rabble according to his own elastic moral code.

The narrow alleys are brimming with jazz bars, bookies, black-shirts, ponces and tarts, so when a body is found above the Windmill Club, detectives are content to dismiss the case as just another young woman who topped herself early.

But Geats – a good man prepared to be a bad one if it keeps the worst of them at bay – knows the dark seams of the city.

Working with his former partner, mercenary Flying Squad Sergeant Mark Cassar, Geats obsessively dedicates himself to finding a warped killer – a decision that will reverberate for a lifetime and transform both men in ways they could never expect.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B093Y38WDQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Violent Ends – Neil Broadfoot (Narr: Angus King)

The fifth title in the Connor Fraser series and these are books I always prefer to listen to as Angus King does such a wonderful job of bringing Neil Broadfoot’s characters to life for me. I have been describing Violent Ends as “Line of Duty meets Backdraft.” The clash and grudging cooperation of Police and Fire Services made for a hugely entertaining story. It’s also full on action which just made it damned hard to find a “good” spot to stop listening and rejoin the real world.

Having the wrong client can be murder….

The voice was smooth, cultured, almost tender as it oozed from the phone into Connor Fraser’s ear. ‘I’ve heard about you, Mr Fraser, and I’m very impressed by your work. So I’ve decided to employ you. I am going to kill Father John Donnelly sometime in the next seven days. And you are going to stop me—or die trying. If you check your account, you’ll see I’ve deposited £70,000. And, just to be fair, I’ll give you an hour, starting now, to find Father Donnelly before the games begin. Refuse my offer, and someone you love will die. Good hunting, to both of us.’

The thought it’s a sick joke lasts for as long as it takes Connor to find that £70,000 has been deposited into his PayPal account and for him to receive an email with a picture of his grandmother. With no choice but to make a deal with the devil, Connor races to unmask a killer before he strikes and uncovers a mystery that stretches back decades, threatening the people closest to him.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09STHMXH2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Silverweed Road – Simon Crook (Narr: Karai, Nicholas Camm, Sam Stafford)

It was something of a shock to add The Dynasty (a non-fiction audiobook) to my list of favourite listens – I don’t really read non-fiction. However, if you had told me in January I would be including a collection of short stories in my list of favourites I would have laughed you out of town. I never enjoy short stories. Except now I can’t say that as Silverweed Road was great fun. A collection of quirky, creepy and horrifying tales which all play out in the same housing estate but are all vastly different in the telling. Some characters or events may overlap (bleed?) into more than one story and this just made the whole expereince more absorbing.

A collection of chilling and weird stories all set on one (seemingly) everyday suburban street in the UK…

Behind each door lies something strange and terrifying. Here, the normal is made nightmarish, from howls of were-foxes to satanic car-boot sales. Creepy, terrifying and witty by turn, Silverweed Road deals in love, loss, isolation, loneliness, obsession, greed and revenge. As the screw turns with each story, Crook creates a world of pure imagination, constantly surprising, in a setting that is instantly recognisable but other-worldly at the same time.

This is fun British suburban horror at its best, with nods to M.R. James, Angela Carter, Roald Dahl and echoes of Inside No. 9, Stranger Things and Black Mirror.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09SKJ1HZL/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

And there we have it – ten great books which I enjoyed having someone else read to me.

Many people don’t feel they can enjoy an audiobook. I didn’t enjoy audiobooks until relatively recently but they make long drives more fun, nightly dog walks more varied and the daily commute more tolerable. I am already excited to get started on listening to more books so I can share my favourites in December 2023. If you have any suggestions for books I should try then please tweet me @grabthisbook

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March 29

Vine Street – Dominic Nolan

Soho, 1935. Sergeant Leon Geats’ patch.

A snarling, skull-cracking misanthrope, Geats marshals the grimy rabble according to his own elastic moral code.

The narrow alleys are brimming with jazz bars, bookies, blackshirts, ponces and tarts so when a body is found above the Windmill Club, detectives are content to dismiss the case as just another young woman who topped herself early. But Geats – a good man prepared to be a bad one if it keeps the worst of them at bay – knows the dark seams of the city.

Working with his former partner, mercenary Flying Squad sergeant Mark Cassar, Geats obsessively dedicates himself to finding a warped killer – a decision that will reverberate for a lifetime and transform both men in ways they could never expect.

I recieved a review copy through Netgalley from the publisher but bought the audiobook and listened to Vine Street so my review reflects the audiobook I purchased rather than the written copy I initially recieved.

Had I listened to Vine Street before Christmas then it would have, without a shadow of doubt, been my favourite audiobook of 2021. As it stands it is currently my top audiobook listen of 2022 and the title which other audiobooks need to beat. So shall we proceed on the assumption you know I loved this book?

London in the 1930s is where most of the action in Vine Street takes place, except the story isn’t confided to that period. In fact, the opening scenes are actually set decades later when characters we will come to know well have their quiet retirement disturbed when ghosts from the past will be brought to their door.

But Soho is where much of the action will take place and we meet Leon Geats he is a police officer but he immediately struck me as the cop who doesn’t conform or play by the rules. This first impression was pretty much spot on as Geats is a loose cannon in his team and very much takes life in his own style. Geats is called to a house where a woman has died. She is found with a stocking around her neck but the investigating officer doesn’t want to rule it as murder. She appears to have been a working girl and a foreign national – almost not worth the bother of investigating! But Geats isn’t having it and he will dig and ask questions despite the apathy of his colleagues.

What Geats had not anticpated was the presence of a child at the murder scene. The daughter of the victim and all alone in the world, she takes a shine to Geats but he knows his lifestyle is too chaotic to be able to care for her so he finds one of her relatives to care for her. It’s a sensible and, Geats thinks, the correct thing to do but, as we will see, some decisions have reprecussions.

Vine Street is a huge book and it is impossible for me to do it justice in a brief review, I could wax lyrical for many, many pages. It’s the story of 1930’s Soho, the dancing, the girls, the hardship of the time, the police and some corruption within their ranks. But at heart it is a story about murders and an obsession to catch a killer. You will be drawn back in time and become fully immersed in these London streets. You will know the bar owners, who likes the music and where the dancing happens. But the lighter side of Soho has an opposing dark side. Prejudices are rife, racism, sexism, homophobia are commonplace and it will make for uncomfortable reading at times. Dominic Nolan takes it all and delivers the reader with an experience which will not quickly be forgotten.

I mentioned that I had listened to the audiobook of Vine Street. The narrator is Owen Findlay and he made this story shine. It’s without doubt one of the best narrator/story combinations I have heard for quite some time. The book is cracking and Findlay gave it such energy that I was hanging onto his every word. It’s over fourteen hours of listening and I am not going to lie when I say I wanted more.

There are real emotional highs and lows in Vine Street, some characters left too soon and I missed them badly. Some more than outstayed their welcome and I was glad when their contributions were at an end. The emotional impact all these players had on me is testament to the outstanding work of the author. There are some books I will always be glad I read, Vine Street is on that list.

Vine Street is currently available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. Paperback will be incoming this summer. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/vine-street/dominic-nolan/9781472288851

Category: Audiobook, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off