February 18

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Tina Baker

Having a few days off from the day job has really knocked out my body clock. It’s a good job I remembered Tina Baker is joining me to share her Decades selections, I’d have hated for you to miss out on these cracking recommendations.

A quick explanation about the Decades Library for any new visitors. Imagine having to start a new Library from scratch. You have no books but only want the very best books on the Library shelves so visitors know whatever they choose to read it’s a book someone else loved.

Each week I ask a guest to join me and nominate new books to add to the Library shelves. They must follow two rules when making their choices:

1- Pick Any Five Books
2- You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

It’s as easy as that – five books, five decades. So time to turn over to Tina Baker to get this week’s recommened books…

 

Tina was brought up in a caravan after her mother, a fairground traveller, fell pregnant by a window cleaner. After leaving the bright lights of Coalville, she came to London and worked as a journalist and broadcaster for thirty years. She’s probably best known as a television critic for the BBC and GMTV, but after so many hours watching soaps gave her a widescreen bum, she got off it, lost weight and won Celebrity Fit Club. When not writing she now works as a fitness instructor. She also rescues cats, whether they want to be rescued or not.
Call Me Mummy, Tina’s first novel, partly inspired by her own unsuccessful attempts to have a child, was a Number 1 Kindle bestseller. Its as also sold in Tesco as well as bookshops, which thrilled Tina as she and her family cleaned the floors of supermarkets for many years.
Her second novel, Nasty Little Cuts (be careful how you say it) is published by Viper Books on February 24th. She would be THRILLED if you pre-ordered it from all the usual places because Bertie the Emotional Support Kitten had major surgery just before Christmas. He’s now fine. The bank balance isn’t. Nasty Little Cuts is another psychological thriller in the domestic noir vein. It’s the story of how a marriage can break down to the point where no one might get out alive.
You can order Nasty Little Cuts here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0984N2N8W/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
Or Call Me Mummy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08FNHJB4P/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

DECADES

I’m rubbish at choosing my favourite books. I usually go with whatever I’m reading at the time. But, in a miraculous plot twist, 5 of my actual favourites effortlessly spanned 5 decades, so IT WAS MEANT TO BE!

SHUGGIE BAIN, DOUGLAS STUART, 2020

I adore Shuggie. I wanted to adopt him, but Shuggie loves his alcoholic mammy, so that wouldn’t be fair. I also love Douglas Stuart. It was one of my proudest moments as a newbie author when he followed me back on Twitter.

I knew I wanted to read this book before it was published. When it became a Booker Prize winner I cried, I was so thrilled.

It touched me so deeply. Real, heart-breaking, beautiful and stark. One of the reasons I felt for Shuggie was because I too was a working class kid growing up in a pit town, Coalville, where all the pits closed. I’ve also loved alcoholics.

I’ve put this book on my Top Horror and Top Crime lists even though it’s more literary, because real life horror is scarier to me than vampires, and what Thatcher did to communities like Shuggie’s and mine was a bloody crime.

 

WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES, KAREN JOY FOWLER, 2013

This is an ear wetter of a novel – I sobbed so much in bed that my ears were soaked with tears. I had to have one book about animals on my list. I have had closer relationships with my pets than many people.

This is a gut-wrenching story about love, families, jealousy and what it means to be human.

I’m still loathe to give away the twist (It’s Fingersmith level gobsmacking) but it involves some hideous experiments scientists have done on animals. I love science (yay, vaccines!) and wanted to be one, briefly, until I realised what I’d be required to do to rats.

 

 

 

BLONDE, JOYCE CAROL OATES, 2000

I would read a shipping list written by this author. I love her work. I’ve read this hefty novel several times. It’s a fictionalised version of Marilyn Monroe’s life, and, no spoilers, it does not end well.

Somehow, I felt I was inside Marilyn’s heart and mind, hearing all her inner secrets and vulnerabilities. It’s also a scathing examination of fame and how a person can struggle with being a disposable commodity and an icon others project so much onto, while wrestling their own demons.

 

 

 

 

THE VAN, RODDY DOYLE, 1991

I had to have at least one funny book, although it takes a lot to make me laugh in print. I adore Doyle’s dialogue and his working class characters. Two mates going into business together is often a recipe for disaster, but the warmth here is fabulous.

This was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I’m a bit of a reading snob I suppose.

Unusually for me, I also loved the film, and ditto The Commitments – books are always better than films. Fact.

Another fact, he was born on May 8th, my brother’s birthday.

 

 

 

THE HANDMAID’S TALE, MARGARATE ATWOOD, 1985

This feminist dystopia was actually cited in my first divorce. True story. The ex whined that he’d wanted to see ‘anything’ but’ at the cinema, but I’d ‘made him’ see this. To be honest, the TV series is way better than the film.

I had nightmares about the world of Gilead, where women are treated as brood cows and all their rights taken from them. Look around the world, it’s already happening, has always been happening. It’s chilling.

 

 

 

 

 

Huge thanks to Tina for five storming recommendations. Nobody has turned around their five selections quicker than Tina did – even people who have told me they had given some thought to which books they may select before I had contacted them couldn’t match her speed. Given her five books smoothly fitted into the five decades it also makes it more likely there was less cursing at me than I have experienced in the past.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

 

 

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January 18

The Twyford Code – Janice Hallett

It’s time to solve the murder of the century…

Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Wanting to know more, he took it to his English teacher Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced that the book was the key to solving a puzzle, and that a message in secret code ran through all Twyford’s novels. Then Miss Iles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven has no memory of what happened to her.

Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Iles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today?

Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Iles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn’t the only one trying to solve it…

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the tour. I received a review copy of the book from the publishers through Netgalley.

 

It’s quite a thought to finish The Twyford Code in mid-January and wonder if ANY book this year will come close to matching the intricate planning and devious distractions which Janice Hallett delivers here.

As a child Steven Smith attended an inner city school where he did not shine. Unable to read, school was just a place he attended and it took him away from what seems a troublesome home life.

But one year he had a teacher (for RE) who really seemed to cut through and make a difference in Steven’s life – Miss Iles. Steven and a cluster of his friends seemed to get more from Miss Iles than any other class they attended. One memorable day Steven found a book on a bus, a children’s story by Edith Twyford. Miss Iles has an immediate reaction- it’s a banned book she tells him.

Twyford’s attitudes are very outdated and unpalatable for a modern readership. Of course for a group of adolescents a banned book is instantly more fascinating. But then the bombshell…Miss Iles tells them of a code hidden within the books.

She takes her small class on a trip to Twyford’s cottage down in the English South-West and on that trip Miss Iles disappeared. The kids got home (Steven cannot recall how) and Miss Iles was never seen again.

Years later Steven is newly out of prison (we discover why through the story) and he is looking to find out exactly what happened to Miss Iles on that trip and more importantly he wants to get to the bottom of The Twyford Code – it’s a puzzle which is the focus on dedicated Internet forums and the prize for solving it seems to vary from wealth, health cures and even secrets of extra-terrestrial life.

Steven has learned how to read while in prison and seems to have a natural aptitude for problem solving. Picking up a copy of one of Twyford’s books he sees messages in the words. A return to her cottage suggests a picture clue remains in her study. The hunt is on – who killed Miss Iles, what’s the treasure for solving the code and who are these mysterious strangers who seem to twart their progress at every turn?

The story is excellent. The codes and puzzles which the author uses through the book must have taken an eternity to properly thread into the narrative. I love clever stories and this is fiendishly well done. But this is a spoiler-free zone so I can’t get into the details of what shone through in terms of clever tricks.

One slight rain-cloud hung over The Twyford Code for me. Steven tells the story through audio recordings. That’s to say he turns on a recorder and we see the transcript of his conversation and the responses from others. It’s an interesting quirk and the software on the old iPhone he is using can sometimes make transcript errors – “Miss Iles” becomes “missiles” for the reader. And there are other instances.

Personally I found this narrative style quite tricky to read and it took some of the enjoyment out of the book.  My reading fun became an unusual effort of concentration. The story kept me going to the end though as I did want to see how matters resolved. I suspect many people will have no issue with the narrative style but I think I would have preferred to read this through audiobook.

In brief, a great puzzle adventure which will command your attention.

 

 

The Twyford Cods is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0984VDLWF/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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April 10

The Plague Letters – V.L. Valentine

WHO WOULD MURDER THE DYING…

London, 1665. Hidden within the growing pile of corpses in his churchyard, Rector Symon Patrick discovers a victim of the pestilence unlike any he has seen before: a young woman with a shorn head, covered in burns, and with pieces of twine delicately tied around each wrist and ankle.

Desperate to discover the culprit, Symon joins a society of eccentric medical men who have gathered to find a cure for the plague. Someone is performing terrible experiments upon the dying, hiding their bodies amongst the hundreds that fill the death carts.

Only Penelope – a new and mysterious addition to Symon’s household – may have the skill to find the killer. Far more than what she appears, she is already on the hunt. But the dark presence that enters the houses of the sick will not stop, and has no mercy…

 

My thanks to Fiona Willis at Viper Books for the chance to join the blog tour for The Plague Letters.  I reviewed a Netgalley copy of the book which was provided by the publishers.

 

London is a city in lockdown, it is 1665 and the advice is to restrict movement and stay home. A deadly disease is spreading through the city and there are countless deaths which the medial profession are unable to cure but are frantically trying to find ways to ease suffering. A Plague Society has gained a few notable members but the extent of their success is not apparent and Rector Symon even questions (to himself) what methods they are using to conduct their research.

I mention Symon as he is one of the key players in our tale.  A man of faith and someone that is coming into frequent contact with the dead as the bodies are brought for blessing and burial. In the midst of the bodies arriving at his church there is one girl who has died with her hair cropped off, burns on her body and her hands and ankles bound with twine.

Symon is a man with distractions.  He is being pestered to release some of the corpses which have come to him for burial to the self-proclaimed scientists.  He is also obsessed with a married woman – the Lady Elizabeth.  Her name crops into his sermons and the two have a steady correspondence by letter  Symon travels to visit Elizabeth at her home but finds others also in her company and their relationship seems rather cool in person.

Trying to focus Symon’s attention to the very real problem of missing girls in London is a strange soul – Penelope.  She appears something of an urchin, unkempt, displaced in the city and often subject of sharp comments regarding her appearance.  Yet she manages to make a place for herself in Symon’s household and is doing what she can to make him forget his obsession with Elizabeth and concentrate on the increasing number of bodies which arrive at the church with hair missing and twine binding the hands and ankles.  Penelope is trying to make Symon see that a killer is active in the city but will she have any success in getting him to listen to her warnings?

Through the book the story is punctuated by a wonderful use of city maps which show the spread and devastation of the plague.  This was slighly impacted on my digital copy as the Kindle didn’t reflect the red colouring which grows from map to map showing the increased coverage of the disease.  In a hardback, physical, copy I have no doubt these maps will look glorious. I seldom advocate a perference of physical/digial or audiobook but in this case I make a rare exception and only for aesthetic reasons.

The Plague Letters is a cracking period thriller.  If historical crime is your thing then you absolutely must seek this one out.  As someone who only dabbles with historic stories it took me a little longer than I would have liked to adjust to the narrative style and the (excellent) depiction of 1660’s London life.  Once I was into the rhythm of the language my initial hesitance faded away and I grew into the story as the world built up around me.  I clearly need to read outwith my comfort zone more than I do at present – The Plague Letters was extremely good fun to read with pleasing surprises and more than a few villianous players to raise my suspicions.

 

The Plague Letters is published by Viper Books and is available in Hardback and Digital verisions.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08FNPM7ZC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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May 7

Who We Were – B.M. Carroll

A KILLER TWENTY-YEAR REUNION.
AND YOU’RE INVITED…

Twenty years after they went their separate ways, friends and enemies are coming together for their school reunion. Katy, who is desperate to show that she’s no longer the shy wallflower. Annabel, who ruled the school until a spectacular fall from grace. Zach, popular and cruel, but who says he’s a changed man. And Robbie, always the victim, who never stood a chance.

As the reunion nears, a terrible event that binds the group together will resurface. Because someone is still holding a grudge, and will stop at nothing to reveal their darkest secrets…

 

My thanks to the publishers who kindly provided a review copy of Who We Were through Netgalley.

 

School days. Did you love them? Hate them? Would you want to go back to a 20 year reunion and meet the kids you chummed with now that they have grown up?

In Who We Were BM Carroll poses that very question and gived her readers an intense look into the lives of a core of classmates who are all being invited to attend their 20 year reunion. For most it brings back some unhappy memories from a time they were carefree and less aware of how their actions may be impacting on others. Facing up to those younger versions of themselves will cause unease and disruption to their lives.

The focus is mainly on one group of friends. The cooler kids, the pretty one, the sports star, the class clown but there are also some of the misfits in the mix too…the kid with epilepsy and mental health issues, the nerdy girl who seems too nice to be in the coolest set.

It is Katy, the carrot-haired nerd who is driving the reunion. She is now a popular teacher and still in regular  contact with a few of her school friends. Katy links the different family groups and her enthusiasm to reunite them keeps events rocking along for the first half of the book.

Other characters feature frequently with new chapters looking in on different family dramas. The author has captured all of their secret problems and tribulations really cleverly, enough that we know there are issues but in the main not too dramatic to have those dramas visible for outside parties to see.

The secrecy is important as a mysterious entity is sending spiteful emails to the schoolmates mocking their high school persona and how their lives turned out. They are using these secrets to expose inner fears or past trauma and upset the recipient.

Soon friends are drawing closer together but with a wariness and insecurity which suggests they don’t really trust their old friends. Someone has a grudge and as events unfold it seems the risk of harm is increasing. Notes left on pillows, homes violated and family members threatened…as we get deeper into the lives of these people we become more invested in rooting for their safety and more worried about which of the group may be looking to harm others.

By the time we reached the endgame I had suspected all the characters and I would point the finger of blame at someone new every three or four pages.

Who We Were is an engaging drama which I could easily envisage as a tv adaptation. The characters are well depicted, given a depth and reality which made me want to read more about them. Good fun was had with this book.

 

Who We Were is published by Viper Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B081759L4M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

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