Recommended Reads Blog
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The Beaten Track
The Beaten Track
Louise Mangos
Buy From AmazonToday’s #RecommendedRead is from Louise Mangos. The Beaten Track is a compulsive tale of obsession, and how your past life can continue to follow you, even as you move forward.
It follows the tale of Sandrine, a young woman returning from a backpacking holiday around the world. The trip was a dream for her, yet it turned dark when she picked up a stalker, who eventually killed himself.
Things go from bad to worse when she is jilted by her holiday lover, before finding out she is pregnant. Eventually, she is forced to return home to Switzerland, penniless, pregnant and heartbroken.
Things finally seem to be going her way when she meets Scott. Handsome, wealthy and willing to take care of her and her baby, he seems like a dream come true. But her nightmare is only starting.It’s an old cliche, but writers are often advised to ‘write what they know’, and this is a case study in when that advice really works. Mangos travelled extensively when she was younger, and is currently living in Switzerland. This lends the book a descriptive authenticity that really lifts it.
Cleverly, Mangos sets the book in the late 1980s. Not only does this allow her to confidently use her own experiences and memories, it frees her from some of the constraints of telling a story set in today’s connected world. With near universal mobile phone coverage in even the remotest parts of the world, and modern forensics available to the smallest of police forces, it would be difficult to keep the suspense if the book were set in the 21st century. In the hands of another author, this might feel contrived, but because Mangos is writing in part about her own, vividly remembered, experiences it works really well, and it feels natural and authentic.
A story such as this is crafted to keep the reader guessing. It’s cleverly ambiguous in parts without ever feeling that the writer is being evasive. I made numerous predictions, some of which were right, others which were way off the mark. Because of that, I was eager to reach the end and be rewarded with the complete explanation.I heartily recommend this book.
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Thursday Murder Club Series
The Thursday Murder Club Series.
Richard Osman
Today’s recommended read is plural: the two bestselling novels (so far) in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series.
First let’s deal with the hype, and the elephant in the room. Richard Osman is a popular UK TV presenter and producer. His first attempts at writing a book were snapped up for an eye-watering sum. Not unusual for a celebrity book. The first in the series The Thursday Murder Club justified his publisher’s gamble with record-breaking sales. The follow-up, The Man Who Died Twice, broke records for pre-orders. Doubtless the as-yet-untitled third in the series will do similarly well.
Inevitably that evokes a degree of jealousy, with plenty of people willing to put the boot in solely on that basis. There are even those who go as far to say that “he should stick to his day job and leave writing to ‘proper authors’.“
Newsflash: Most ‘proper authors’ have or had day jobs; his is just a little more high-profile than most.
So why have I recommended them? It’s not like he needs me to bang the drum for him. I recommend these books for the same reason I recommend any book on this blog – I really enjoyed them! Genuinely, they were tremendous fun and very well written. I know a thing or two about writing books, and Osman can hold his head high. Ignoring the numbers and hype, I would have been very happy if I wrote these stories.For those that don’t know, the books centre around a group of elderly folks living in a residential complex of retirement homes. To keep themselves entertained, they spend their Thursday afternoons looking into cold cases – hence the name of the series.
I’ll skip over the plots for the books – you can get that from the jacket blurb. Suffice to say, the books are really fun whodunnits. The stories are contemporary, set in modern times, and lean more towards cosy and fun, rather than gritty and procedural. That’s fine by me, they are a refreshing change from what I typically write and read.
These are good, fun crime stories that stand on their own merits. But what really makes them better than a lot of half-hearted, ghost-written celebrity cash-ins, is that he wrote the books himself (off his own back, without a deal in place) and that he has really put the effort in.
The cast of characters are wonderfully drawn. Each of them has their own story and part to play. In some ways he channels the wonderful joie de vivre of Last Of The Summer Wine, with seniors behaving badly. But he doesn’t veer into farce – there are no elderly men in bathtubs going down a hillside to a canned laughter track. Instead, it is a celebration of people making the most of their last few years.
The book is laugh-out-loud in parts, as one would expect from Osman, and also poignant. He doesn’t steer clear of the fact that these are older people, who are having to face the trials and challenges that brings, including the inexorable loss of companions.
The sequel builds on this strong start, with each of the central cast being given their own chance to star, and an expansion of the secondary characters that return from the first. It also continues to tackle emotive issues, and the emotional and physical impact of a violent attack on one of the heroes is dealt with sensitively and realistically.
Osman uses a couple of different devices to tell his stories. One, using snippets from the diary of one of his characters to fill in narrative gaps works really well, but it isn’t over-used.
The third in the series is due out this year, and I will definitely be buying it.
These books are well-deserved #RecommendedReads.
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The Late Show
The Late Show
(Renee Ballard 1)
Michael Connelly
I admit it, I’m pretty late to the party for this one, pardon the pun.
I first encountered Michael Connelly’s detective Renee Ballard when she crossed paths with the long-established Harry Bosch in Dark Sacred Night.
For some reason, I hadn’t quite twigged that this was her second outing. The Late Show introduces this fascinating new character, and is entirely her own show (pardon another pun).
The premise is somewhat different to his other books. Ballard is a member of the late show – the night shift. The LAPD cops who pick up everything that happens when the regular detectives have ended for the day. They get the ball rolling on investigations, but often hand them over to other divisions, such as Robbery Homicide or burglary. They rarely close cases, or see them through to the end. This suits Ballard’s partner just fine, but frustrates her.
The late show is something of a punishment duty – Ballard was banished to it because of a betrayal that we learn more about over the course of the book.
For those used to a more ‘traditional’ detective story, that opens with the big crime that needs solving and then follows the investigation, the initial pace may seem slow. Stick with it. Connelly is setting the scene as we follow Ballard through her shift, dealing with everything from the theft of a credit card to a brutal assault and a multiple murder. I really enjoyed it for a change, and buried within there are the seeds of the tale that will follow.
The book is ultimately a very satisfying story, with a coherent but slightly unusual structure. More importantly, it introduces us to the character that will, I suspect, one day take the torch from Harry Bosch.
Ballard is based on a real-life LAPD detective that Connelly is keen to acknowledge publicly. Tough and somewhat brittle after her betrayal, she is a fascinating character. Brought up in Hawaii, she lives her life in a camper van bedecked with her beloved paddleboards, and sleeps in a tent on the beach during the day, accompanied by her loyal rescue dog, Lola.
Renee Ballard is a great character who works well with Harry Bosch, but I highly recommend this book as an introduction to her as a fully-fledged individual. Will she one day shoulder Harry’s mantle? Only Michael Connelly knows, but if she does, this book marks her as a worthy successor.
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Dead Ground
Dead Ground
(Washington Poe 4)
M.W. Craven
A few months ago, I recommended M.W. Craven’s third entry in his Washington Poe series, The Curator. I said at the time that the reason I was posting the review so long after it had been published, was because I had forced myself to ration the pleasure – deferred gratification if you will.
This time I managed to force myself to ask for it for Christmas, rather than going out to buy it immediately, but as soon as the jolly, bearded fat bloke delivered it, I succumbed.
In this latest instalment, Sergeant Washington Poe and his brilliantly quirky side-kick, Tilly Bradshaw, are called to look into what appears to be a fairly mundane murder in a brothel. As members of the National Crime Agency specialising in serial murders and more unusual crimes, this doesn’t fit their usual remit. But their presence has been requested especially, by the sort of folks that like to keep things quiet.
Pretty soon it becomes apparent that the case is anything but routine. A highly-vetted victim doing a sensitive job, a strange ceramic rat left at the scene, and links to a peculiar bank heist three years previously all add up to a baffling investigation. For this, Craven draws on his own personal experiences, which lends the writing authenticity and the motives when they are revealed are clearly very important to him.
The mystery at the heart of this story would be a fantastic page-turner regardless, but what garners the books such acclaim is the wonderful relationship between Poe and Tilly, and Craven’s witty and often hilarious prose. This isn’t a comedy caper by any stretch, it’s a serious crime thriller, but one that still makes you laugh out loud.
Fans of the series will be delighted that previous story threads are continued, with ongoing repercussions from events that happened in previous novels, but newcomers will easily slip into the book with no problem. That being said, as I recommended in the review for The Curator, do yourself a favour and start at the beginning with The Puppet Show and Black Summer – the series as a whole is a joy and you won’t regret spending time getting to know the characters from the start of their journey.
This one comes heartily recommended, and was a cracking start to 2022.
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The Blood Tide
The Blood Tide
(DS Max Craigie 2)
Neil Lancaster
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to receive a pre-publication copy of Dead Man’s Grave the first of Neil Lancaster’s new DS Max Craigie series. It was a damn good read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Well, the second in the series, The Blood Tide, is on its way in February 2022 and again I have been sent an early copy.Once again, Craigie is back, along with his team – the brilliant Janie Calver, the foul-mouthed Ross Fraser and reader’s favourite, Nutmeg.
The first book cleverly set up the characters and the premise for the series, but was careful to keep plenty back, and so we learn more about them this time around.
As before, the book is set in some of the most beautiful parts of Scotland, with the action taking place in the remote countryside and coastal regions, rather than the gritty streets of Edinburgh or Glasgow. Indeed it is the isolated, windswept landscape that inspires the central idea. Scotland has hundreds of miles of coastland, but only a couple of patrol boats to try and stop smugglers. It is this lawlessness that provides opportunities for the criminals at the heart of this novel.Lancaster is a former Met detective, and as before his intimate understanding of police procedure adds a note of authenticity to his writing. But he resists the urge to over-inform, keeping the pace brisk and driving the story through plot and characterisation.
Something that I really enjoy about Neil’s writing, is that he fully fleshes out his bad guys and allows the reader to spend time with them, instead of just keeping it centred on Craigie. Because of this, the reader is often privy to details that the police are not. Indeed the book seems to be heading towards a conclusion by its mid-point, with key players already identified by the team. But of course, the fun is that they are just the tip of the iceberg and the pace kicks up another couple of notches, and the stakes are raised still further, as we head towards a very satisfying conclusion, with plenty of surprises along the way.
I really enjoyed this, and look forward to future instalments in what I am certain will be a long and successful series.
I heartily recommend this book.
