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The Botanist

29/5/2022

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The Botanist
(Washington Poe 5)
M.W. Craven

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What a treat! Today's #RecommendedRead is The Botanist, M.W. Craven's latest Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw masterpiece. I've reviewed others in the series (The Curator and Dead Ground), but this time I was fortunate enough to get an early copy.
Yes I am being hyperbolic, but I don't care. I devoured it in 3 days and it is absolutely fantastic.
Washington Poe, former soldier, and now a detective working for the National Crime Agency, specialises in serial killers and the most fiendish of crimes, and in this book he is given a doozy. The Botanist is targeting high-profile victims, and they just can't figure out how the killer is getting to the targets. At the same time, Poe's friend, series-regular, pathologist Professor Estelle Doyle, is arrested for the murder of her father. ALL the evidence points towards her, but Poe and Tilly know that she can't possibly be guilty.
Poe hates locked room mysteries - but here he has two, and the stakes couldn't be higher, both personally and professionally.
Mike Craven has crafted an enviable series that ticks all the boxes. Central to the books is the wonderful pairing of Poe, and gifted analyst, Tilly Bradshaw. The chemistry of this mismatched duo is what sets them apart. Poe is taciturn, rude and technically inept, but he is a brilliant and tenacious detective who's never met a meat dish he doesn't love. Tilly is a technical genius, whose early cloistered upbringing amongst other intellectual giants, has left her with few social skills, and a wide-eyed naivete and forthright manner that is refreshing, toe-curlingly cringeworthy and laugh-out-loud hilarious. Much to Poe's disgust, she's also a vegetarian.
What's great is the way the author's own dry wit comes across in the narrative, and the book is full of quotable lines.
The fact is, that Craven could have given these two any investigation, and the books would have been popular and fun reads. But he hasn't. The investigations here are fiendishly clever, locked room mysteries. And the answers when they come are brilliant, but obvious when you look back and ignore the expertly placed misdirection.
What's especially impressive is the pacing. Despite two complex and detailed investigations, and the need for the series' trademark Tilly and Poe diversions off topic, the book gallops along. You get a huge amount for your money, yet the book feels neither rushed or overly long.
And on a personal note, as the title of the book suggests, the books rely on a degree of scientific expertise. Through the need for Tilly to explain everything to Poe, the readers are also kept in the loop, and it doesn't become burdensome. The science is a little out of my own area of biology, but as best I can tell is accurate and plausible. Craven has wisely taken advice from advisors such as fellow writer Brian Price, who he has credited in the acknowledgments.
All in all, the book is an excellently crafted novel, from a writer at the top of his (and anyone's) game.
If he wasn't such a nice bloke, and I didn't enjoy these books so much, I'd hate him!
The Botanist is out on June 2nd and is sure to be showered with accolades.
Have you had a chance to read The Botanist yet? Is it on your TBR pile? Feel free to comment here, or on social media.
Happy reading!
Paul
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Truly Darkly Deeply

27/5/2022

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Truly, Darkly, Deeply
Victoria Selman

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Today's #RecommendedRead is the latest deliciously dark psychological thriller from Victoria Selman.
The copy I have was a freebee from CrimeFest, (it's not due out until July) and the moment I saw its beautifully designed, black cover, with its sealed, folding flap, I knew it would be my next read. 

Told in two time frames, it's narrated by a twelve-year-old girl, Sophie who moves, with her single mother, from Massachusetts to North London at the beginning of the 1980s. There they meet Matty Melgren, a charismatic Irishman who starts dating Sophie's mother. With no father figure, Sophie finds in Matty someone to fill that void in her life and soon she feels her family is complete.
But there is a serial killer stalking the streets of London, killing young women in a ritualistic manner, and so we see the investigation unfold during the book, and it gets steadily darker and darker.

The second time frame, interleaved with the first, is set twenty years later. Matty is now serving life without parole for the murders - crimes that he swears he is not guilty of. Sophie is wracked with guilt for not seeing him for what he was, yet is still plagued with doubts. What if the man she loved like a father is innocent after all? And then she receives a letter from him. He's dying and he asks to see her in prison...

This book is a masterclass in the slow reveal. The two threads are woven together seamlessly, each retaining their own separate feel and identity. 1980s London is interspersed with life twenty-odd years later. Matty's case remains an obsession to many, with numerous true crime documentaries and websites rehashing events; some believe he's guilty, others are convinced of his innocence.

Usually such books are divided into sections, with each timeline clearly labelled. But Selman hasn't done that here. The short chapters weave between the two times, but she maintains a distinctiveness between each period that means the reader is never in any doubt when the chapter is set. As the book unfolds, the reader is not quite sure if Matty is guilty. The evidence was enough to convict him in 1983, yet there is enough reasonable doubt that you can't be completely certain. 

The skill here is in the writing; the novel is an acutely observed study of uncertainty. We follow Sophie's story as she negotiates her early teenage years; then we see her as a grown woman, haunted by the events of two decades ago. Period details and references to current affairs keep the sections in the 1980s firmly grounded in that time period, whilst the contemporary sections supply a commentary on our modern obsession with serial killers from the past, and 'citizen detectives'.

The book builds to its climax slowly, yet never feels laboured, and you are immersed in the story. By keeping the book firmly in the first person throughout, you are only ever privy to what Sophie knows. But because it's set in two time periods, you find yourself scrutinising the earlier parts of the story with the benefit of hindsight. Fundamentally, the question you find yourself trying to answer, is whether Sophie was hoodwinked or not?

This was a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it.
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Best wishes,
Paul
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The Beaten Track

2/5/2022

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The Beaten Track
Louise Mangos

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Today'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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    Paul's Recommended Reads.

    Welcome to my reccomendations page.

    Here you will only find reviews of books that I have enjoyed, and think others will also.

    If a story doesn't grab me, it won't feature on here.

    The books featured will be a mixture of new releases, old favourites and books that have sat on the 'Too Be Read' pile for longer than they should have.

    I hope you see something that you enjoy, so please do feel free to comment on here or on social media.

    Disclosure: I regard some of the authors featured here as friends. I promise that I only include a book if I genuinely liked it, not because I know the writer!

    All content copyright Paul Gitsham 2020-22

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    Disclosure: I am a member of both the Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliates programs, meaning that I get a small commission every time a book is purchased using links from my site.

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