Book Reviews


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Anthology

The Spy, by Ajay Chowdhury

This is the immediate successor to the previous Detective Karim Rahman story, The Detective, reviewed here, and it has a similarly generic title, but nevertheless, it is another tense and well-paced narrative; if anything, more so than its predecessor. Karim didn’t emerge from his previous escapade exactly covered in glory, as a result of his going slightly off piste in his actions, so he is not much looking forward to another period of grovelling to his superior, merely to justify his existence in the Met; therefore, he is appropriately surprised when he is approached by MI5 to help the spooks uncover a terrorist plot. He is also rather reticent, not least because of the dangers involved; but being convinced of the greater good [and because his citizenship will be recognised soon] plus the likelihood of enhanced status with the Met should he succeed, he decides to participate. Unfortunately, that necessitates a cover story of being sacked as a detective because of misconduct in the earlier investigation, and he knows how difficult this will be for his parents back in India, especially as the secrecy required means he can tell no-one the truth. In addition to the dichotomy in his private life of trying to decide on whom to bestow his affections: his former fiancée, or his erstwhile [but now reinstated] employer, the owner of a restaurant in Brick lane where he also lives; he is also very concerned about the whereabouts of his local imam, who happens to be a longstanding & close friend. In attempting to discover information about the possible terrorist plot, he attends a different mosque, and adopts a more obvious moslem persona. It is hardly surprising that the conspirators are expecting scrutiny from the security services, so Karim has to be very careful how he approaches this endeavour. There is plenty of jeopardy here, and several times Karim finds himself in great danger: this is a very relevant contemporary concern for Britain. The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London [2024, Harvill Secker], ISBN 978-1-5299-3173-0.

Agent Jack, by Robert Hutton

I haven’t been able to find much fiction which has appealed to me recently, and I was getting a bit jaded with detective/spy thrillers, so I thought I’d try a few biographies. This one jumped out at me, mainly because a photo of female British Union of Fascists members saluting with upraised straight arms was incorporated in the cover graphic; the subtitle is The true story of MI5’s secret Nazi hunter. This is of interest to me, because I discovered during the course of research into my grand uncle Wilfred Risdon, the subject of my own biography, Black Shirt and Smoking Beagles, that MI5 had opened a file on him, as a result of his involvement with Oswald Mosley before World War Two. The subject of this book is Eric Roberts, born 1907 in Cornwall, who moved to London in his late teens to escape working in the local mines, and found a job as a clerk with the Westminster Bank. His youthful reading had imbued a sense of Empire patriotism in him, and he was convinced that Communism, which was gaining support in Britain, would be disastrous, so he signed up with the British Fascisti, later to be absorbed into Mosley’s BUF. The British Establishment was predominantly [but by no means exclusively] anti-Commiunist, and a new recruit to the fledgling MI5, Maxwell Knight, who also was of a right-wing political persuasion, persuaded Roberts to work for him covertly as one of his spies, to assess the strength of the fascist sympathies in Britain. What followed for Roberts was a life of excitement, and no little danger, as he skilfully inveigled his way into people’s friendship, helping to actually set up, not just monitor, the so-called Fifth Column, whose members would work on Germany’s behalf, to help it win the war. The author has meticulously researched all the principal participants, making use of sometimes sparse documentary sources, but also interviews, and I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is fascinated by wartime espionage, especially on ‘home turf’. The paperback I read was published in 2019 [2018] by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd, London, ISBN 978-1-4746-0513-7.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami

It’s possible I’m confusing this author with another of the same origin, whose books I have seen in the library, and if that is the case, I apologise by proxy. The title of this book is a slight alteration of a title of a book by another author with whom I am not familiar, Raymond Carver: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. This is a slim volume, and it chronicles the twenty-five years of his life after he sold his jazz bar in Boston, Mass., following his college time, to become a full-time novelist; both of these were unexpected: the former career which was surprisingly successful, and the latter was also a complete change; but he also felt the need to take up running to keep himself fit, alongside his otherwise sedentary activity. The running part of the narrative is of no great interest to me; I did run short distances in mid-life, mostly to accompany my then wife, but I found it somewhat boring, and didn’t feel my physical health improved drastically as a result, my asthma being an inhibiting factor. It is the self-analysis and amateur philosophy the author engages in as he is running, and preparing to run, which I was interested to read. His first major project, within a year of taking up running, is a solo marathon over the original Olympic route, but in the reverse direction, to mitigate the worst of the Greek summer heat. After that, by way of triathlons, he builds up to the New York City marathon, but during that period, he has to contend with the realisation of the gradual reduction in his performance as he gets older, and the disappointment this embodies. Inevitably, the book is written in the USAmerican idiom, and I am curious as to the rôle of his wife, who is mentioned a few times, but only in passing, albeit always supportive. The book is now nearly twenty years old, so I wonder if he is still running? He has a full catalogue of novels, and a couple of non-fiction books. The paperback I read was published in 2019 by Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London [2008, Harvill Secker; 2007, Bungeishunjū Ltd., Tokyo], ISBN 978-0-0995-2615-5.

Greenmantle, by John Buchan

I have to confess that I read this novel more out of a sense of duty than eagerness. If people know the author’s name at all, no doubt it will be for The Thirty-Nine Steps, which narrative precedes this one, which is also set, and quickly published, in the early years of world war one. There is an excellent introduction to the book, which is a recent edition, and in it, Allan Massie describes the author and salient plot points [with astute observations] without revealing too much. However, I think the assessment that the narrative has current resonance [enough to require that a BBC Radio 4 programme dealing with it was “pulled” from the schedule at the time of the infamous July 7 London bombings] is something of an overstatement because, although the possibility of an Islamic “jehad” [sic] is mentioned, the desire on the part of the British government, for which Richard Hannay is working, to avert it, becomes somewhat overlooked in the push to assist the Russians in defeating the Turks in that currently all-consuming disastrous global conflict; war making “strange bedfellows” indeed. The writing is very much of its time, with many unfamiliar words & figures of speech, and the characters are imperialist, chauvinist, and somewhat racist, which I found unattractive; Major Hannay is a career soldier, who is aching to get back to his regiment of real, brave men, in the trenches of France or Belgium, unconcerned about the near inevitability of gruesome [but, of course, noble] death; John S Blenkhorn is a somewhat cardboard US Southern “gentleman” with a troublesome duodenum; Peter Pienaar is a fellow hunter from South Africa; and Sandy Arbuthnot is a Scottish fellow soldier who is a master of disguise & character assumption. As Massie points out, the plot is far-fetched [“Buchan himself called these novels ’shockers’”], but there is a sort of ‘boys’-own’ adventurousness about this story, so if you are prepared to suspend your disbelief sufficiently, and you can ignore the three negative character flaws mentioned above, you might enjoy this in its historical context. The paperback I read was first published in the UK in 2011 by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh, [1916, Hodder & Stoughton] , ISBN 978-1-8469-7197-6.

Book Reviews


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Anthology

Alan Turing, The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges

This compendious doorstop of a book [664 pages, plus Postscript, Author’s Note, Notes, and index] is truly Everything You could Ever Want To Know About Alan Turing: it is “the book that inspired The Imitation Game”. I haven’t seen the film: it stars the always reliable Benedict Cumberbatch [he of the endless amusing name variations] and other excellent British actors; details here; but having read the book, despite knowing the poignant dénouement, I would relish watching it. It could be argued that Germany’s encoded messages, using the eponymous Enigma, among others, could have been deciphered without Turing’s contribution, but I think there is no doubt that this specific contribution ensured that Germany was defeated before Britain’s situation, already parlous, deteriorated to a point beyond which defeat was virtually inevitable. This is also without all of Turing’s other work, both before & after the war,  which went a long way to laying the foundations for today’s multi-million dollar/pound computer industry. The author is also a mathematician so, notwithstanding his intimate knowledge of the disciplines, and his extensive detail [especially given the paucity of material available], his phraseology can occasionally be slightly abstruse; but that is a very minor criticism, because Turing’s whole life, short as it was, regrettably, is very comprehensively covered. Whilst the author doesn’t explicitly throw doubt on the verdict of suicide [a month before my own birth, coincidentally], he does give information which makes this verdict questionable, at the very least. The tragedy of Turing’s life, leading to his early demise, was that he was a homosexual man in a time when this was subject to totally unwarranted condemnation, and despite official acclamation for his work, the questionably protracted secrecy surrounding Bletchley Park meant that his vital wartime contribution couldn’t be used as any sort of character reference or mitigation to support him against the charge of “Gross indecency”; worse because social attitudes towards homosexuality were just starting to change. This is well worth however long it takes to read it. The paperback I read was published in 2014 [1992] by Vintage, London, 1985, Unwin Paperbacks, 1983, Burnett Books Ltd., ISBN 978-1-7847-0008-9.

The Reacher Guy, by Heather Martin

There can’t be many people; albeit perhaps fewer in Britain than in the US; who haven’t heard of Lee Child, or his fictional character Jack Reacher [especially since the Tom Cruise films, of which more below]; hence the biography’s title. The author has delivered a very well researched and comprehensive [arguably overly so; also, arguably, hagiographical] biography, written over a period of several years, of this phenomenally successful thriller writer. He could be described as ‘a one-trick pony’, given that Jack Reacher has been the subject of 24 books, spanning a period from 1997 to 2019 [publication dates]. His success is no accident; because that is what he deliberately set out to be, using his natural intelligence and his home & professional background as impetus. I don’t in any way begrudge him his success, but I do find it somewhat contradictory that someone with his, for me, creditworthy socialist & humanitarian viewpoints, should court success & almost unimaginable wealth in such a dedicated way. It is likely the success [the former attributes still being misunderstood & unwelcome] which has allowed him to assimilate so well in the USA, a country he couldn’t wait to “escape” to, and whose idiom he deliberately adopted for his writing. If I have read any of the Reacher stories, I haven’t reviewed them: whilst I think I would have enjoyed them well enough, knowing what I do about them, I would find any additional stories to be repetitive, and to be avoided; but that [i.e., the predictability] is what makes them so attractive to his legions [as in millions] of fans worldwide. Lee wasn’t surprised by the opposition to Tom Cruise playing the 6’ 5” hulk, but he was pragmatic enough to accept the actor’s box-office appeal. The timeline here stops in 2020; COVID was a coincidental figurative terminator; he had already decided to stop writing personally but, with apologies for cynicism, there is so much money in the franchise that it couldn’t just end, so his younger brother Andrew is now writing stories under Lee’s [aka his birth name James Dover Grant] imprimatur. As biographies go, this is very good. The paperback I read was published in 2021 [2020] by Constable, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, ISBN 978-1-4721-3423-3.

The Detective, by Ajay Chowdhury

This clever police procedural thriller novel is the third in a series by this author featuring Detective Constable Kamil Rahman, until recently a Detective Inspector with the Indian Police Service in Kolkata, which he left under a cloud. He has only been with the Metropolitan Police in London for a short while, but he has been fast-tracked into a detective status, encouraged by a friendly Inspector of a similar origin, but this has caused resentment, and some friction, with his white colleagues. Previous to his elevation to his present position, he was working as a cook in an Indian restaurant in Brick Lane, where he still lives, and the owner, Anjoli, is the subject of his respectably restrained amorous intentions, but she remains capricious & unpredictable; however, she does harbour notions of being an amateur sleuth, which she practised with Kamil in the two previous novels in this series, The Waiter and The Cook: these titles do seem very generic, but that is a minor reservation. This story cleverly weaves the investigation of the dead body of a “tech entrepreneur” on a construction site in east London, with the discovery of three much older skeletons, around a hundred years old, on the same site. The company for which the current murder victim worked ostensibly provides the code for a dating app, but it has also been working on something highly secret, and is on the verge of being sold for billions of pounds. The company comprises executives from both sides of the political divide in the Middle East, and as the story progresses, this element assumes more significance, when there are further murders. Kamil has to work on his own initiative to some extent, including in an ex officio capacity, with Anjoli helping with background research, thereby jeopardising his fledgling career; there is also the not insignificant issue of Kamil’s former fiancée arriving in London in a professional setting, just to complicate matters. I look forward to reading further entries in this series. The paperback I read was published in 2024 by Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London [2023, Harvill Secker], ISBN 978-1-5299-1961-5.

The Second Worst Restaurant in France, by Alexander McCall Smith

I enjoyed reading this novel more than most of the others of his I have read, because it was apparent that he wasn’t deliberately trying to be funny/quirky; despite one of the reviewers, quoted on the back cover, saying “I smiled, I laughed, and enjoyed every moment”: chacun à son goût, I suppose; which is actually apposite, as food, and its appreciation, is a predominant feature of this story. The protagonist is a food writer, Paul Stuart, and having just returned from Tuscany, his latest prospective undertaking is to be entitled The Philosophy of Food. That might sound somewhat esoteric, but initially, Paul is committed to the project. However, when his girlfriend and editor, Gloria, moves into his Edinburgh flat with him, bringing her two adored Siamese cats, whom Paul finds very disruptive, his work schedule suffers. Paul has an older cousin, Chloe, who generally offers sensible advice to him, in part as a result of ostensibly being five-times married. Initially, she lets him use a flat she doesn’t currently need, across the city, but he can’t settle; then she tells him she is leasing a house in France for six months, and why doesn’t he join her there? French-speaking Paul doesn’t need asking twice, and finds the tranquil French location perfectly conducive to his work; but soon he becomes unavoidably involved in local affairs, including the running of the eponymous restaurant, the first visit to which results in food poisoning, courtesy of some badly prepared moules marinières. As these events progress, Paul begins to have doubts about the veracity of Chloe’s backstory, but not sufficient to completely sour his sojourn. However, his love of food does bring about a change of professional direction, and he is even able to repair his rocky relationship with Gloria. I presume this story is a one-off standalone, but notwithstanding, I found it a pleasantly engaging read. The paperback I read was first published in the UK in 2020 [2019] by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh, ISBN 978-1-8469-7547-9.

Book Reviews


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Anthology

The Last Word, by Elly Griffiths

I was beginning to worry that this latest outing for DI Harbinder Kaur, now with the Met police in London, was somewhat pedestrian, given that her involvement is minimal, but the other protagonists, Ukrainian Natalka, and her Sussex detective agency partner, octogenarian Edwin, work well enough together to keep the narrative moving along. Natalka’s live-in boyfriend, the ex-monk Benedict, runs a coffee shack on the seafront, but he also helps out with the cases, where necessary. The latter have been pretty humdrum, until the partners are alerted to the possibility of the murder of a late middle-aged author, because of the suspicions of the woman’s daughters. She had married a much younger man, after the death of the daughters’ father, a few years ago, and had left everything in her will to her new spouse, especially a large house, which greatly displeased the rejected legatees, hence the suspicion of murder, despite the cause of death being registered as natural. The enquiries in this case suggest that a writers’ retreat might provide a connection, and from this, other questionable deaths also come to the investigators’ attention. The possible motives are hard to discern, and the evidence is circumstantial, at best, but one officer in the local CID is prepared to give credibility to the sleuths’ theories, especially when she is made aware that their work in previous cases was helpful to Harbinder, when she worked locally, and for whom the local officer has great respect. There are a couple of close shaves for the protagonists, but they manage to solve the case, albeit not before more deaths occur. Not quite Cosy Crime perhaps, but it is a plausible plot and a decent read. The hardback I read was published in 2024 by Quercus Editions, London, an [sic] Hachette UK company, ISBN 978-1-5294-3343-2.

Bad Boy, by Peter Robinson

This author’s DCI Banks novels are always a good read [and have transferred well to television], so I was pleased to find this one, which is possibly not one of the latest in the series, but still relatively recent. Banks is taking compassionate leave, following an earlier case which had a traumatic outcome; he is enjoying the attractions of California, USA. Unfortunately, this absence has negative repercussions for two families in his home area of Yorkshire. A young woman who is sharing a house with Banks’s daughter Tracy [who has taking to calling herself Francesca, to mask her perceived working class background] has taken a handgun from her boyfriend’s flat after a row, and secreted it in the bedroom of her family home, where she is currently ensconced. The row was caused by an impulsive drunken dancefloor kiss between Tracy and the woman’s boyfriend Jaffar [aka Jaff], who is notoriously promiscuous, but was seen by the woman, Erin Doyle. The gun is found by Erin’s mother, who takes it to the police station, hoping that Alan Banks, an old family friend, would be able to resolve the matter with a minimum of fuss; and, crucially, official involvement and/or legal implications. Alan’s absence and the alternative name means that the connection with his daughter goes unnoticed, his regular subordinate [and erstwhile romantic partner] Annie Cabbot not being told of Tracy’s connection. Because Tracy’s relationship with her father has not been great of late, she has no qualms in informing Jaff of developments, finding his Bad Boy reputation exciting, but very soon, events spiral out of control, and Tracy becomes a powerless, and threatened, passenger in a dangerous sequence. The tension is nicely developed, and another police officer who is attracted to Annie plays a decisive part in the dénouement. The paperback I read was published in 2014 [2010] by Hodder & Stoughton, an [sic] Hachette UK company, ISBN 978-1-4447-5405-6.

The Echoes, by Evie Wyld

I was hoping that this relatively short book was going to give me some enlightenment about the existence of a person’s spirit as a ghost after death; it would be fictional, of course; no definitive evidence of life after physical death, in any form, has been proved, but many believe, either as a result of personal experience, or a belief system, frequently but not exclusively religious, or both, that physical death is not the end of existence. However, the after-death impressions of the protagonist, Max, account for a very small section of this book, sandwiched between the long [and unnecessarily, tediously detailed] backstories of Max’s girlfriend and putative [but not realised] fiancée, her local friends and family back home in Australia. There are also sections of recent events involving both Max & Hannah, which painfully slowly, as a result of the disintegration of their relationship, indicate that marriage might not have been the best outcome for the couple, and how Max died. I confess that I skipped some of the backstory sections, because whilst I could see the relevance up to a point, I couldn’t see the significance of every little nuance of Hannah’s background, which didn’t have any effect on Max’s death, or as a result, explain why, other than understandable emotional attachment, he was apparently doomed to remain within the confines of their London flat; there is some speculation on that, but it just struck me as figurative hand-wringing [although Max does seem to have had some success at small-scale physical manifestation, especially with Hannah’s new cat]. Not my sort of book, I’m afraid. The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London [2024, Jonathan Cape], ISBN 978-1-5299-3169-3.

Being John Lennon, by Ray Connolly

John Lennon was many things: as well as being a twentieth century icon — ironic for an iconoclast — he was a real contradiction in terms, and this very comprehensive biography from the journalist Ray Connolly encapsulates A Restless Life, as the book is subtitled, very well. Connolly has written for several of the heavyweight national Press, but he also wrote screenplays for That’ll be the Day and its sequel, Stardust. He had chance to interview Lennon many times during his music career, but inevitably, the majority of this highly detailed book concerns Lennon’s time with the Beatles, from his creation of the group, moving on to his beloved rock & roll from the fading skiffle of the Quarry Men, to the acrimonious disintegration of the massively successful Liverpool foursome and his subsequent solo[ish] career, one of the prime causes being the catalyst of his relationship with the widely disliked Yoko Ono. It is quite possible that this book, and its subject, would only have any relevance for people born before the new millennium [or possibly even earlier], but I make no apologies for that; neither do I apologise for using Connolly’s summation of Lennon, because in a few lines, it describes Lennon very well, from someone who knew him personally: “Though millions who didn’t know him loved him, sometimes those who knew him well didn’t always like him. A natural leader, who could so easily be led and who saw himself as a chameleon, he was at various times a clever, witty, angry, funny, sharp-tongued, far-sighted, impetuous, talented, guilt-laden, preaching, sardonic, exaggerating, gullible, aggressive, unfaithful, obsessive, self-absorbed, outspoken, jealous, sometimes cruel but often generous man. He was certainly no saint, but, as his friends remember, it was difficult not to like him. Above all, he was absolutely a one-off.”. An excellent and absorbing read for music-lovers. The paperback I read was first published in the UK in 2019 [2018] by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of Orion Books Ltd, London, ISBN 978-1-4746-0682-0.

Book Reviews


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Anthology

The Truth, by Terry Pratchett

I think it’s the case that all of this author’s Discworld novels can be seen as allegories of modern life, but wrapped up in clever, and humorous [if that style of humour appeals to you] fantasy stories about a society which lives on a flat earth-like planet [planetoid?] which is being carried through space on the back of a giant turtle. Fantasy is not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’, I readily concede, but it is a very broad church, so these stories are possibly quite ‘normal’, compared to a lot of other fantasy. Just as much as with fiction series which deal with ‘real life’, and encompass familiar characters, there is always something enjoyable, for me at least, in catching up with the latest exploits of known characters, both likeable & unpleasant. I went through a phase of reading any TP books I could lay hands on, but then the supply in my library dried up, and I moved on, although not with any tangible sense of loss; so it was with a sense of curiosity, at the very least, that I approached this hitherto unread entry in the Discworld canon. I was not to be disappointed, albeit after a slow start. The moral of this story is encapsulated in the title, using the vehicle of the Press, which can either be a force for good, using the corroborable truth, or bad, by means of disinformation, rumour, and supposition. The hero here is the deterministically nominatively named William de Worde, one of the lesser scions of the rich de Worde family in the capital city of Ankh-Morpork, little better than a festering cesspit of trouble, both seen and lurking threateningly beneath the surface of what purports to be society. William takes it upon himself to start a news-sheet, using the radically new and, to some, primarily the Engravers, dangerous mechanism of movable-type printing. In this endeavour, he is assisted by a motley selection of entities, not all of which are human, but TP has developed all these to a fine art. Without revealing the plot, suffice to say that good triumphs in the end so, to coin a phrase: All’s well that ends well! The paperback I read was published in 2023 by Penguin, [2013, 2008, 2001, Corgi], first published in 2000 by Doubleday, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, London , ISBN 978-1-8049-9045-2.

The King of Torts, by John Grisham

John Grisham is best known for his courtroom dramas, and although the courtroom only plays a marginal part in this story, it is a gripping exposition of hubris, and how pride comes before a fall. Many people will be unfamiliar with the legal term Tort, generally only using solicitors [aka lawyers] for conveyancing, probate, and divorce; it is defined as a civil [as opposed to criminal] wrong, one that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, but a fuller definition can be found here. My perception is that this is more prevalent in the litigious USA, but that could be inaccurate; I think there is also an overlap in this story with class actions.  Clay Carter is a young lawyer working in the Washington DC Office of the Public Defender, and he feels it is the honourable thing to do, but he is not optimistic about his prospects for advancement; so when an informed source tells him that there is much more to one of his cases, a young black man who has committed a motiveless murder, than first appears, he is intrigued. His source wants to remain anonymous, but he seems to be reliable, and he promises Clay almost unimaginable riches if he investigates, and proves liability against a pharmaceutical company which has been treating young criminals such as Clay’s client, with identical results for several of them. After initial scepticism, Clay proceeds, and is provided with sufficient capital to enable him to set up an office; the only stipulation being that he can never reveal his source, or the name of the company or medication. Far from that being an inhibition, Clay is successful, and expands his business at a breakneck pace. After more success, the vultures start circling, and Clay realises that he has taken on too much; but will his professional skill and youthful enthusiasm enable him to overcome all the obstacles? If you enjoy legal fiction, you will find this unputdownable, and the moral is, in Clay’s erstwhile fiancée’s words: “…the destructive power of greed.” The paperback I read was published in 2022 by Penguin Books, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies [2003, Arrow Books and Century], ISBN 978-0-0995-3713-7.

My Animals and Other Animals, by Bill Bailey

Bill Bailey is arguably at the peak of his popularity right now, and well deserved it is too. It is hard for me to imagine how any reasonable & sensible person could dislike this native of Keynsham [“That’s K.E.Y.N.S.H.A.M.”, for older readers] who is now happily ensconced in west London with a wife who, endearingly, shares his enthusiasms and “a small menagerie of animals…”. This “memoir of sorts” is his third book [the title being a knowing reference to Gerald Durrell], the previous ones being a Remarkable Guide to British Birds, and his Remarkable Guide to Happiness. I don’t slavishly ‘follow’ so-called Celebrities, but I am always pleased when the opportunity to watch his performances, either as a ‘standup’ [with many accomplished & enjoyable musical interludes], or a member of a panel on a TV quiz game, comes up. His humour, generally quirky, but informed by his obvious intelligence and love of life, shine through; you don’t have to love ballroom dancing, a recent involvement which must have increased his professional exposure greatly, to enjoy his work [as it happens, I’m not a fan of Strictly], but that is only one element of his versatility. This memoir is an unstructured, but incident-filled ramble through his life & career to date, both of which [but the latter somewhat more so] have enabled him to fulfil one of the loves of his life, to encounter animals of all shapes & sizes, in many, some exotic, locations around the world; it is also illustrated by his own accurate drawings [as are the other two books]. Thankfully, many of us are now attuned to the necessity to accommodate & cherish animals wherever they are, rather than expecting them to be subservient and accommodate our needs for land to produce food & housing [and, sadly but too often, as commercial raw materials], as was the case until very recently. If any book could be described as “feelgood”, this is definitely one. The hardback I read was published in 2024 by Quercus Editions, London, an [sic] Hachette UK company, ISBN 978-1-5294-3614-3.

The Askham Accusation, by Rebecca Tope

I always try to avoid giving books negative reviews, but in this case, I had no choice: it was very hard going, like wading through treacle [as was, regrettably, another of hers, Betrayal in the Cotswolds]. The book’s title refers to a real village in Cumbria, and I would like to be able to say that a Google™ map which accompanies an Author’s Note has been placed there helpfully but, apart from Askham itself, nowhere else mentioned in the book can be found on it, so in my humble estimation, it’s as much use as [insert favourite metaphor here]. The accusation in the title follows the discovery of the body of an elderly woman, to whom the protagonist, the floridly named Persimmon Henderson, had been speaking mere hours earlier, in the company of a much younger woman whom Persimmon had also only just met, very near a bleak beauty spot where she had been walking. Persimmon is known in that part of the country for providing useful assistance to the [almost inevitably] plodding local CID in some previous murder cases, but it very quickly comes to the latter’s attention that Persimmon is being accused of despatching the old lady, for reason or reasons unknown; Persimmon’s regular police contact, Inspector Moxon, who seems to be unusually taciturn, compared to his normally easy-going manner, doesn’t reveal the source of the accusation, but Persimmon is astute enough [a rare occurrence in this narrative, unfortunately] to guess that it is the young woman to whom she was talking before the old lady’s death who is the accuser, but she can’t fathom why. This sets a pattern for the rest of the story, despite the rambling & unfocused efforts of her regular collaborators in these situations: we are treated to a succession of guesses & surmises about family relationships which might, or might not provide a motive for the old lady’s demise, and thereby point to the killer. It takes until the last few pages before the resolution is found, by which time I heaved a sigh of relief: not an enjoyable experience. The paperback I read was first published in the UK in 2023 by Allison & Busby Limited, London, ISBN 978-0-7490-2981-4.

Book Reviews

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Anthology

Resolution, by Irvine Welsh

This is not an easy read; this author doesn’t do “Cosy Crime”; his fiction can accurately be described as “gritty”. Ray Lennox is a former Inspector from Edinburgh CID, who has relocated to Brighton; he has previously appeared in two earlier novels from this author: Crime and The Long Knives [I thought I had reviewed at least one of these, as the character seems familiar, but if so, I can’t find it, thanks to WordPress’s Byzantine search facility!] He is plagued by self-doubt, characterised by an inner dialogue in broad [and very profane] Scottish argot, which is in stark contrast to his verbal exchanges with his mostly English contacts; he does lapse into the vernacular in his dealings with his younger brother and some erstwhile colleagues. He is oppressed by memories of a sexual assault on himself and a schoolfriend, which happened when they were wheeling their bicycles through a long tunnel near their homes, and which had a central bend which allowed no light to penetrate: a perfect place for deviants to hide. Is he remembering the event accurately, though? Therapy is helping, but there is still plenty of doubt. He is now a partner with another former police detective, English, in a security company, installing surveillance equipment in homes & businesses. When he encounters a man through his current girlfriend, he is horrified that, for all the man’s well-heeled respectability, the man has to be one of the perpetrators of his childhood assault. Drip-fed into the narrative are two separate streams which appear to throw some light on the incident, but it isn’t clear until the end who the author of one of these streams is. For all his macho background, Lennox is no ‘tough guy’, and he ends up the worse for wear in more than one encounter. Thankfully, there is a satisfactory resolution, as suggested by the title, although most of the information is imparted in an email, rather than exclusively from the action. This is not for the faint-hearted! The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London [2024, Jonathan Cape], ISBN 978-1-5299-1862-5.

The Peepshow, by Kate Summerscale

If it weren’t for the subtitle, which on the copy I read, is central & prominent: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place, the title of this book could be a non sequitur for readers; it is taken from a book, A Pin to see the Peepshow, of which more later. I would guess that no reader under the age of fifty would be familiar with this notorious case; unless they happened to be a connoisseur of classic British films, such as the eponymous 10 Rillington Place, starring Richard Attenborough [the area is now redeveloped, just south of the Westway urban motorway: look for Bartle Road, W11]. There is, understandably given the ghastly nature of the crimes, a plethora of books already written about it, but here, the author examines it in forensic detail. Given that the outcome is known, the enjoyment of reading the book is different from that of a murder mystery thriller: here as many as possible of the characters involved are minutely examined, and it is the why of the case which is significant, much more than the how. Also, there is the perennial matter of the subsequent doubt over whether the two murders, which initially brought the benighted address to public attention, were actually committed by the man who was hanged for one of them, Timothy Evans. The author does posit a plausible solution, but there will always be an element of doubt, because as well as most of the anecdotal evidence being unavailable, the personalities involved are all now dead. That John Reginald Halliday Christie was guilty of the murder for which he was tried, and several others for which he was not, was never in doubt for most people; but what obsessed Harry Procter, the reporter who interviewed Christie in 1949 about the Evans murders, was that he had not ’twigged’ that Christie had lied through his teeth, and when Christie’s crimes came to light in 1953, he was determined to rectify that error. Another character examined in great detail is the author of the aforementioned book, Fryne Tennyson Jesse, and that book was, in turn, based on the 1922 Thompson-Bywaters murder case. This book’s sources are given in copious notes at the back; annoyingly by text reference, not the usual number convention. Other than that minor gripe, I found this a fascinating read, so I would heartily recommend it to lovers of true-crime non-fiction. The paperback I read was published in 2025 [2024], by Bloomsbury Publishing, London, ISBN 978-1-5266-6051-0.

Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson

This is the latest outing for private detective Jackson Brodie, and his often reluctant colleague, Reggie, who is a young police detective constable now working in Yorkshire, although originally from Scotland. This is a ‘slow burn’ thriller, because there is little action, other than interaction of the characters, until well into the narrative, when a murder occurs. Brodie has been engaged to locate both a missing painting, of uncertain provenance, and the alleged social worker who looked after the owner, an elderly widow, and the social worker is suspected of having absconded with the painting; Brodie’s clients are the deceased’s middle-aged children, brother & sister twins. The title refers to the name of a hotel within a rambling [and crumbling] mansion which is set in its own grounds, including a deer park. One of the scions of the mansion owner’s family has come up with the potentially money-making wheeze of arranging ‘Murder Mystery’ weekends in some luxury; but at an eye-wateringly expensive price, of course. During the lead-up to the dramatic event, in the professional sense, Brodie becomes aware of an earlier situation which bears significant similarities with that of his current customers: possibly valuable painting goes missing, coincident with the disappearance of a caring nurse, so naturally, inherently mistrusting coincidences, Jackson wonders how much the two cases overlap. There are plenty of well fleshed-out characters in this story, and the author takes plenty of time to describe them, and work them into the tapestry which resolves itself in the dénouement. Brodie is now older, although not necessarily a great deal wiser: he has splashed out on a brand new Land Rover Defender, of which he is inordinately proud; although, to be fair, it does come in very useful when a thick blanket of snow envelops the landscape surrounding the mansion at which Brodie & Reggie find themselves uninvited, but by no means unwelcome guests…. This is another enjoyable outing for Brodie and Reggie. The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Penguin Books, London [2024, Doubleday, an imprint of Transworld Publishers], ISBN 978-1-8049-9452-8.

Crossfire, by Wilbur Smith

For some reason, I thought this author was known for writing ‘Western’ novels, but it would appear not: the grey cells must obviously be misinformed. The cover of this book features a now [for me] irritatingly common & generic device of showing a character from behind, running; that notwithstanding, this is the fourth entry in the Courtney Series: Assegai Sequence: the African name is a reference to the fact that the main character, Saffron Courtney, was born & brought up, as was the author [although the book was completed after the author’s death by David Churchill], in Africa. It is 1943, and although a female Special Operations Executive [SOE] agent was by no means unusual; in fact, there were many of them; Saffron is one of, if not the best. She has narrowly escaped occupied France with her life after assassinating a high-ranking SS officer, and to keep her out of further danger, while at the same time allowing her to continue to be useful, she has been sent to the USA to convince the wealthy & powerful there that the SOE has a vital rôle to play in the forthcoming invasion of Europe. Unfortunately, her mission is already known to the Germans, but also to another interested party, as a result of an ostensibly ill-advised plain-text message which was sent to the British Embassy in Washington DC; of course, it was intercepted by person or persons unknown. Was this a deliberate ploy, of which Saffron was unaware? As the narrative progresses, her training makes her think that she is under surveillance, but if the ultimate goal is her eradication, perhaps it would be better to embrace that to flush out the possible killers? Inevitably, there is doubt as to who the ‘mole’ in the Allies might be, and Saffron has to be extremely careful not to jump to dangerous conclusions. The tension builds nicely over the course of the story, including a tragic turn of events which sours the operation for Saffron. There is a further novel in this series, and other novels in a separate, but connected, Courtney family series, so I will keep a look out for any of these, to enhance my knowledge of them. The paperback I read was first published in the UK in 2025 by ZAFFRE, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, London, ISBN 978-1-8387-7912-2.

Book Reviews


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Anthology

Ink Ribbon Red, by Alex Pavesi

Perhaps it’s a failing in me; it could be a concomitant of my age [but I don’t want to believe that]; but I generally prefer murder mysteries or thrillers to be written more or less sequentially: I found this story to be difficult to sustain interest in, because of the way it jumps around on the timeline. The focus is the old Whitsun weekend in 1999, and the occasion is a 30th birthday; from the synopsis on the back cover: “May, 1999: six friends gather at a country house for a birthday. The host insists they play a game. Each will write a story about one friend murdering another. Points are given for plausibility. No secret, grudge or affair is off limits. Six stories. Six murders. And now six unexpected motives. Because this game is about to get murderously real…” There is no explanation for the origin of the names of some of the characters, who are all in their late twenties/early thirties: Maya, Anatol, Janika, Marcin — Phoebe seems comparatively traditional [although the author does admit to the television programme Friends being one of his major influences] but they all seem to me like rather self-centred individuals. Perhaps we all are at that age? They have played this game [which I would not agree to play, personally] on a previous occasion, but this time, Anatol, the host, is still ostensibly grieving the death of his father a few weeks ago. What unsettles me about the chronology is that some of the ‘stories’ are seeded into the narrative with no forewarning of their status, so the reader is left to decide if it is actually part of the narrative or a device to wrong-foot him or her. There is a resolution at the end, which is some compensation for me, but I still feel like I had to wade through a chronological jumble to arrive at the dénouement, so it’s only qualified approval from me. The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Penguin Books, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London [2024, Penguin Michael Joseph], ISBN 978-1-4059-4499-1.

Haywire, by Andrew Hindmoor

This is a truly monumental work; the subtitle should prepare the reader for that: A Political History of Britain since 2000. It runs to 540 pages, plus Timeline of Key Events, Notes to 38 chapters plus Conclusion, and Index [bibliographical references are in the notes]: 663 in total. The font is quite small: possibly 10pt, so heaven knows how many words that runs to. However, it is compendious in its scope, so lovers of factual analysis appertaining to politics, especially our own [i.e.: British], will definitely enjoy this. That comes with a caveat from me, inevitably. Notwithstanding that the author’s analysis is astute, I have to assess it against my own partiality. He is right that, whilst Democracy, in its current iteration, is the least worst option available to us, our own version is riddled with disadvantages; the primary of which is the party system, which he calls Partyocracy. It is glaringly obvious why this a problem, but it is one which democratic countries seem doomed to suffer eternally. The book is not set out chronologically, but divided into eight parts, so there is plenty of overlap & backtracking [but that makes its reach comprehensive]: Millennium, Boom, War, Crash, Union, Splintering, Quartered, and Moving On. Those of us British who were born in or before 1990 will be well familiar with the events & issues covered, too many to detail here, but enveloped in the centre of events since the first few years of the century, like a corrosive ingredient running through the sticky outer layer, is Brexit, whose repercussions are still being experienced today. It is interesting that, in the last few chapters, he references a book by Rory Stewart I reviewed recently. My caveat is the proverbial elephant in the room: everything about democratic [and, in truth, most undemocratic] politics is driven by money, and this is an unquestioned given here. My objection isn’t Marxist, per se: it is entirely utilitarian. Not even the most idealistic of political reformers could hope to resolve the conundrum of why democratic politics always fails, without considering how our existential affairs would be so much more equable without the scourge of money; but I’ve fulminated about that before, so enough for now. The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Penguin Books, London [2024, Allen Lane], ISBN 978-1-8020-6359-2.

We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman

This is the first in a promised new series by the legitimately phenomenally successful author/producer/presenter; the first book in his existing series The Thursday Murder Club is currently in production for a limited cinema release on 22 August 2025, and then on Netflix from 28 August 2025 [I have previously reviewed here the third in the series, The Bullet That Missed]. It stars British acting legends Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Celia Imrie.  This one is nicely paced, and the characters are plausible; the two ‘leads’ are father-in-law Steve Wheeler & daughter-in-law Amy Wheeler. Steve is a widower ex-policeman, who is enjoying a quiet, ordered retirement in his small New Forest village [an area I know reasonably well from my youth]; Amy is an adrenaline-junkie, and works in private security: she is currently on a private island protecting a best-selling, but infamous author, Rosie D’Antonio, who believes she is in life-threatening danger from a Russian chemicals Oligarch, Vasily Karpin, because a character in her most recent novel was too clearly based on him. Amy’s boss, Jeff Nolan, is concerned about the deaths of three of his Influencer clients in very quick succession: could this have an impact on Amy and her current client? Soon, this question is answered, and Amy & Rosie need to go on the run; also, Amy must persuade Steve to think bigger than his current, very parochial business, Steve Investigates, and join her away from his comfortably safe home location in, first & foremost, keeping herself and Rosie alive, but also to find out who is killing these Influencers. The key to it all would seem to be the identities of François Loubet, who only communicates via ChatGPT-rewritten emails, and his colleague Joe Blow, who are integrally connected with the murders. The dénouement is not too hard to guess, but that’s fine: I enjoyed this nevertheless, and I will be very happy to read future entries in the series. The hardback I read was published in 2024, by Viking, Penguin Random House UK, ISBN 978-0-2416-0836-4 [paperback ISBN 978-0-2416-0837-1].

Imminent, by Luis Elizondo

The title of this fascinating book refers to the author’s judgment that “Regardless of whether one believes UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena: previously UFO] represent a threat to our [sic] national security or, on the contrary, perhaps UAP represent a new opportunity for our species, we are at the point where the reality of UAP is now upon us.” Before jumping to the conclusion that the author was an inherent believer, it should be made clear that he comes from a fairly traditional [for the US] “patriotic” military background, but specialising in Intelligence & Security so, for him, adherence to the rules and protection of secrets was second nature: until it became very clear to him that the reality of contact with non-human beings and the vehicles in which they travelled was being kept from “the American people”, first & foremost; and, by extension, the world. The secrecy is wrapped up in a convoluted network of different layers of the military and government, each having its own initialism or acronym [not always the latter, as the author thinks], which can very easily [quite possibly intentionally] cause confusion. So this book isn’t just about revealing this epiphany to the world: it is also about stripping away these layers of deliberate obfuscation which, inevitably, emphasises the paranoia, born of fear, at the heart of the US “Military-Industrial Complex”. Elizondo reaches a point beyond which he can no longer persist in protecting a system he considers to be rotten, so at great risk to himself & his family, he goes freelance [albeit with some usefully influential contacts] to publicise as much as possible, while building trust with the Federal Government, and those in the military who are of a like mind. The latest UAP Disclosure Act was signed into law by President Biden in December 2023, but there is still work to be done. Although Elizondo states that “I started to see us heading into an era of renewed creativity and optimism.”, it is worth also mentioning that “The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense [sic] or the US government. The public release clearance of this publication by the Department of Defense does not imply Department of Defense endorsement or factual accuracy of the material.” So: believe what you will. The paperback I read was first published in the UK in 2024 by John Blake Publishing, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, London, ISBN 978-1-7894-6607-2.

Book Reviews


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Anthology

Unfiltered, by Guenther Steiner

This author’s name will, no doubt, be unfamiliar to many who don’t follow motor racing; I freely admit that I didn’t recognise it; but when I started reading the book, for reasons I will clarify next, it all fell into place. Motor racing inspires strong feelings, both for & against, and Formula One is probably the pinnacle of those feelings both ways. As it is, I fall comfortably into the middle camp, which is where I am with the few sports I actively follow: I will watch races, and mostly enjoy them, but I don’t support any team or individual driver, whatever their country of origin; I just enjoy the spectacle. I had been aware of the Haas F1 team since its inception, plus its underdog status, which can be a redeeming feature for me. As far as the author of this book [his second] is concerned, with a name like his, one could make an educated guess that he might hail from Germany, or Austria, like another F1 heavyweight, Toto Wolff; but no: he is Italian, from the Alto Adige region of North Tyrol, albeit with German as his first language; plus, as the book’s title suggests, he rarely minces his words, the F-word being his expletive of choice, albeit subtly altered to sound Dutch, for some odd reason. I don’t think plot spoilers are relevant with non-fiction like this; at the time of writing [or completion, anyway], Spring 2024, he is unemployed but enjoying his freedom with prospects and, for the first time in twelve years, looking forward to the future. In a nutshell, after 2 years working with Niki Lauda in the Jaguar racing team [now Red Bull], in 2014 he set up the first fully US F1 team since 1986 [ignoring the doomed USF1 débâcle] in the name of a mega-rich US machine tool manufacturer, Gene Haas. The odds were very much stacked against the team from the beginning, but with skilled management, it did surprisingly well for a few years. Eventually though, Haas lost interest in throwing money at the enterprise, and declined to renew Steiner’s contract at the end of 2023; however, as far as I can see from Wikipedia, Haas still owns the team. If you like F1, you’ll find this book enthralling! The paperback I read was published in 2025 [2024, Bantam, an imprint of Transworld Publishers], by Penguin Random House UK, London, ISBN 978-1-8049-9485-6.

Politics on the Edge, by Rory Stewart

Despite being a Conservative* and, thereby, espousing opinions & beliefs which I mostly am not able to endorse, nevertheless I do feel a modicum of sympathy for him, after reading this account of his parliamentary career between 2010 & 2019. At 429 pages, this is actually a truncated version of the original draft, which weighed in at 220,000 words [which is impossible for me to visualise: a page count would have been better], so he can also only allude in the briefest terms to his previous career: his Wikipedia page gives a fuller account, and it also mentions his tutorship of both sons of Diana, ‘Princess of Wales’ [which caused some hilarity on Have I Got News for You] and the rumours of his involvement in the British Intelligence Service, neither of which is in this book. He is clearly a bookish but fastidious person, and it is not difficult to see how & why he became disillusioned with the British parliamentary system; although being a Conservative in these years of supercharged self-interest & backstabbing can’t have been easy [*he was a Labour Party member in his teens] as a man of some integrity [the Eton alumnus reportedly attended a single Bullingdon Club meeting before resigning, after witnessing the behaviour of other members], if this seemingly honest account is to be believed. He was regularly and continually surprised & disappointed that his wide and demonstrable experience as a diplomat or traveller in Indonesia, Montenegro, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal, including learning some of the languages, was not put to better use in government. At the end of his career, his aspirations towards a common goal for MPs, the premiership, came up against the brutish & unstoppable combination of Boris Johnson’s disingenuous upward trajectory and the [to me] inexplicable & misguided support of a large proportion of the British public and an inexcusable number of Conservatives. He has now returned to academia, and podcasting, with a previous colleague from the ‘other side’, Alastair Campbell. Notwithstanding the title, politics aside, this is an absorbing read. The paperback I read was published in 2024 by Vintage, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, [2023, Jonathan Cape], ISBN 978-1-5299-2286-8.

Parade, by Rachel Cusk

I was hoping, from the brief synopsis on the back cover, that this book might make interesting reading: unfortunately, I couldn’t fight my way any further than the end of the first chapter [and it’s not a long book — 198 pages, of quite large type, for four chapters], because I found the emotive psychobabble very tiresome. Another irritating feature is that each chapter has several overlapping narratives which include a character called simply G, but it is a different character in each narrative. A lot of the pseudo-philosophical musings of the inner landscape are from women, with which I have no problem whatsoever, but although they might start by sounding quite reasonable & justified, they are extended tediously, becoming aphorisms and non-sequiturs; I could put my finger down almost anywhere in the book and find a piece of pretentious twaddle: “G began to draw her daughter, childlike drawings that the girl herself could easily have bettered. She didn’t look at her daughter while she drew: the drawings came from her hand. The hand was full of clumsiness and simplicity but it seemed to awaken her to the sense of its task. Because G didn’t look at her, the girl didn’t know she was being observed. It was an interior act of pure attention. The observation was not an enquiry, but a confirmation, like the chiming of a bell.” [page 87] One of the 3 reviews on the back cover, from the Washington Post, reads thus: “Cusk’s work … has this power, to disturb and unsettle, to subtly rearrange the space of one’s mind.” I might have relished the latter when I was an adolescent, but in my dotage, I think I’d rather avoid rearranging the space of my mind, thank you very much. For what it’s worth, this author is [a? the?] winner of the Goldsmiths Prize. The paperback I read was published in 2025 [2024], by Faber & Faber Limited, London, ISBN 978-0-5713-7796-1.

The Mystery of Charles Dickens, by A.N. Wilson

The title of this comprehensive & erudite biography of the great 19th century novelist is based on the title of Dickens’s final, unfinished novel: The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and each chapter’s title begins “The Mystery of …”. There are many quotes from Dickens’s fiction canon, as well as opinions & quotes from other Dickens biographers, upon whose work Wilson has drawn here. In many ways, Dickens was a man of his time, but in addition to listing his many foibles & peccadilloes, Wilson describes how Dickens was, despite his relish for public performance, a secretive man, who had very good reason to be; and yet, Wilson shows how it is possible to construct Dickens’s own background from the fiction he wrote: so he was hiding in his novels his earlier life in plain sight [although one very significant aspect of his later life was always secret: the private cruelty to his wife, while enjoying an affair with a mistress many years his junior]. He was also a surprising [but inevitably human] combination of contradictory attributes: he was a philanthropist who urged for societal change, and yet his prescription for the treatment of even petty criminals was quite harsh. Towards the end of the book, Wilson opens up with a [to me] quite astonishing honesty about his own background: “Certainly when I look at my own childhood, which had moments of abject terror and hopelessness, I realize [sic] that Dickens not only helped me through those moments — walled up, aged seven to thirteen, in an establishment that made the existence of the pupils at Dotheboys seem actually enviable — but also helped me in my horror-stricken recollection of those times. He performed, as Gwen Watkins says, the function of the tragedian, if that is to provide katharsis through fear and pity.” I could give many more quotes from this fascinating book, but I will end this review with a quote which only begins to encapsulate Dickens’s legacy to the post-19th century world: “If Dickens remains immortal, it is, among other reasons, for his profound understanding of the inner child who remains with all of us until we die. Clearly, however, he had a special status in his own times, different in kind from that enjoyed by any other writer, however popular. Even at the time, those who considered themselves grown-up were inclined to patronize [sic] his achievement.” The paperback I read was published in 2021 by Atlantic Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd, London, ISBN 978-1-7864-9793-2.

Book Reviews


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Anthology

The Private Life of Spies, by Alexander McCall Smith

I appreciate that this author’s writing style is not to everyone’s taste, and I have reviewed some of his other series books, but as this is a standalone book, I thought it would be worth a try [should it be Private Lives, as it deals with specific spies? Not sure]. It’s a relatively slim volume, containing only 5 stories, and an author’s note at the beginning does a lot of my work for me: “These stories are part fiction and part non-fiction. In Nuns and Spies, one of the common myths of World War II — that German spies were dropped into England dressed as nuns — is explored. … Donald and Yevgeni is based on the life of several historical characters, including Archie Clark Kerr, a British ambassador, and Donald Maclean, a British spy [Kerr was given an unlikely valet at the end of his posting to Moscow by Stalin, a dwarf named Yevgeni Yost, who dressed as a Cossack].” From the order of presentation, the author has omitted Syphax and Omar (Algiers, 1924), an amusing story about two spies who brought the activity of avoiding work, while openly following each other through the streets of Algiers for many years, to an art form. Ferry Timetable describes how first one, and then another Russian spy [who was sent to locate the first] went AWOL in Scotland in 1984; in both cases, because they were not fully committed to their line of work, and were tempted by the freedom of Scotland. Finally, Filioque, the most recent of the stories, set in 2022, uses the abstruse subject of a hotly contested point of Christian doctrine to bring to light, to a minimal extent, the activities of the Vatican Secret Service. Apparently, “There is an immense literature on the filioque controversy.”; I’d never heard of it, but given my lack of religious affiliation, that’s hardly surprising. This is a very easy read, but there is enough credible truth in these stories to engage both fiction and non-fiction aficionados. The paperback I read was published in 2024 [2023], by Abacus, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, ISBN 978-1-4087-1837-7.

The Family Experiment, by John Marrs

It’s some years since I watched an episode of Black Mirror, since it transferred to a streaming platform which I am not able to receive, but it’s a reference which many people will understand, and this book is readily compared to the former presentation of potentially frightening developments in technology & society. What makes this book a contender for such a ready comparison is that it is frighteningly plausible, if not actually currently feasible, although advances in the AI technology which is at the heart of this story are no doubt being driven by the potential financial rewards, which all technology is. The story shows one of the worst aspects of current British society, which is only likely to accelerate IMHO, and that is our obsession with living vicariously the lives of ‘celebrities’ and royalty, seeing their lifestyles as something we should aspire to; plus the mob mentality of social media, which is all too ready to condemn people [rarely praise for extended periods], those considered to have transgressed their own narrow set of rules. A company called Awakening Entertainment creates a ‘reality’ TV show, the title of this book, in which selected contestants will very publicly raise an avatar MetaChild from birth to 18, in a condensed contiguous nine-month period; the prize will be the right to keep the virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby. This is set against overpopulation, a privatised NHS, and desperate parents selling their children to be sent to Europe, in an ironic reversal of the current immigrant ‘crisis’. We are allowed to review each set of contestants, which includes one male single parent, every month, as they contend with the changes wrought by their virtual child’s rapid development. As this unfolds, we are made aware that each set or individual has a past which could easily disqualify him or them, and many of them are shown to be unlikeable, or even criminal; but all this is ‘grist to the mill’, as far as the programme’s producers are concerned, because it makes for good ratings, despite there being darkness at the heart of the project. The dénouement is quite satisfying, and no loose ends are left but nevertheless, the warning in the story should be heeded: if we can bear to tear ourselves away from our screens… The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Pan Books, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, London, [2024, Macmillan], ISBN 978-1-5290-7123-8.

Prose & Cons: The English Language in Just a Minute, by Gyles Brandreth

I can’t endorse this author’s political affiliations, but I do share his love & respect for the English language. The premise of this book, over & above the aforementioned attributes, is a series of meanderings & meditations in an alphabetical sequence, but each one being circumscribed by the parameters of the predominantly radio [but minimally also television] entertainment programme whose name is in the subtitle of this book. I’ve never listened to it, not because I have anything against it, but because I prefer to listen to music on a regular basis. I acknowledge the mental dexterity necessary to be proficient in this exercise, and I know I would fail miserably, were I to be required to attempt it. I did find the necessity to avoid repetition [or deviation, or hesitation] somewhat tiresome, given the requirement to employ sometimes obscure synonyms, but that is a minor gripe: Brandreth’s erudition shines through; I have made a note of some of the more unusual & sometimes amusing words for possible future use. Given the foregoing, I was surprised to find an egregious tautology more than once: to repeat again, when repeat [or say again] would be correct. I also feel that TGIF is not an acronym, as he maintains: it’s not a recognisable word, but an initialism [as confirmed by my Reader’s Digest Universal Dictionary]. He starts one monologue with “Until less than 500 years ago…”: here, I would argue that 500 [as printed] is not an amount, but a number, so “fewer than” should be used. Aside from these few reservations, this is an enjoyable romp, including a set of so-called tongue-twisters, which I might find useful as an actor; but also, I wish it could be made required reading in schools, because it might help to reverse the poor command of the language evident in much social media output, and the abominable diction displayed by many presenters & continuity announcers on radio & television: admittedly, I have reached a certain age when I compare today’s standards unfavourably with those of my youth, and I know language is always evolving, but I lament how standards are falling, and the lazy adoption of spelling & neologisms imported from a country now not known for its linguistic excellence. The paperback I read was published in 2025 [2024], by BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, London, part of the Penguin Random House Group of companies, ISBN 978-1-7859-4683-7.

Nobody Walks, by Mick Herron

I’m always ready to read a Mick Herron novel, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It is of the Slough House world, but not about it; although he is a secondary character, it is the origin story of one of the later Slough House denizens, JK Coe. I remember reading about something which had happened in his previous experience before he was demoted there, and this novel fills in the details. Tom Bettany was a field agent for MI5, but now is no longer: he is working in a meat processing plant in France, and keeping his head down. One day, he gets a voicemail message telling him his estranged 26-year-old son has died: apparently, he fell from the balcony of his London flat while he was high from smoking a new, very strong strain of cannabis. Tom is driven to investigate this, for a variety of reasons; the primary one being guilt for allowing the estrangement to happen & fester; but he can’t just accept the official story, so he goes back to England, and starts annoying people in the course of his enquiries. Liam was working for a computer games developer; not necessarily because he was super-qualified, but because he was the first to crack the secret of the company’s hugely popular, and very lucrative first game. Tom’s reappearance is also of interest to his former employer, and the “First Desk” no less, Dame Ingrid Tearney, assigns JK Coe to Bettany, to steer him in the right direction; that is: the right direction for the Security Service. Unfortunately for Bettany, he worked undercover previously, and was instrumental in securing the conviction of a pair of London gangster brothers, and when they learn of this new development, they are very keen to find Bettany and arrange some overdue payback. Bettany is clearly a conflicted character, and not the nicest of people, but compared to nearly everyone else he has dealings with, he is almost a saint, so it’s not difficult to root for him. Along the way, what he learns causes him to reassess his objective, but he never loses sight of his goal to achieve some justice for his son. A worthy entry in this canon. The paperback I read was published in 2022 by Baskerville, an imprint of John Murray (Publishers); [2016, John Murray (Publishers)]; [2015, Soho Press, Inc.], ISBN 978-1-4736-4712-1.

Book Reviews


Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash

Anthology

Infinity Gate, by M. R. Carey

If you’re not a fan of Science Fiction in general, and you find the concept of the multiverse specifically completely unfeasible, then this novel won’t be for you. As for me, I’ve always considered it a very exciting concept, which the ongoing research into quantum states might just find some scientific basis for eventually; I always enjoyed the US TV series Sliders, which was shown in Britain, 1995-2000: it was just enough jeopardy in a convenient 1-hour package to keep the audience hungry for more. It must be difficult for authors in this genre to keep coming up with original terminology & nomenclature, and some of the science presented must have at least some basis in reality. Here, we have three main categories of universes: the Pandominion, which is somewhat analogous to the Empire in the Star Wars series; the machine hegemony, in which machines are AI-driven, and no organic lifeforms appear to have ever existed; and a third category, the Unvisited, in which a fictitious, near-future version of our Earth is found. Climate collapse is well under way, and in Nigeria, a scientist named Hadiz Tambuwal is one of a rapidly diminishing group which is looking for solutions. Her discovery of inter-dimensional travel seems to offer a solution, but it brings her into contact with the Pandominion, just at the same time as the machine hegemony is discovered, in the course of the Pandominion’s regular sideways expeditions, which are primarily intended to neutralise any possible threat to its massive, but not total, multiverse dominance. During her acquisition of knowledge & experience, Hadiz encounters a local young man, who has had a wretched childhood, but is prepared to offer Hadiz physical comforts, primarily with an eye on his own self-advancement; their paths are destined to divert, though, with Essien going over to ‘the Dark Side’, in a manner of speaking. I was disappointed when this ended on a cliffhanger, when it was just reaching an apparent conclusion, but it is Book One: I hope Book Two, Echo of Worlds, is as well-written as this one: it will detail the conclusion of the war between these two inconceivably large power structures. The paperback I read was published in 2023, by Orbit, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, ISBN 978-0-3565-1804-6.

Evil Under the Sun, by Agatha Christie

I must have seen more than one version of this classic story, and each director and/or screenwriter seems to want to find a new slant to put on it, instead of relying solely on the source text. As opposed to the Miss Marple stories I have read, in which she appears some time after the initial crime, and mostly just offers advice, rather than doing much in the way of  actual ‘sleuthing’, here Poirot is in the action right from the beginning, given that he is taking a rare holiday, in Devon, a county the author knew well; also, for the avoidance of any doubt, the book’s cover design features the name Poirot, capitalised, under the classic Agatha Christie signature, this motif above the book’s title. This story has all of the usual Christie red herrings & false leads, and the identity of the perpetrator only begins to reveal itself, to Poirot and, consequently, to the reader, quite near the end of the story. Arlena Marshall, a captivatingly attractive [to most of the men she encounters] but vacuous ex-actress, is murdered on the beach of a small cove in a small island off the coast of Devon, where the hotel in which Poirot is also staying is situated. Poirot, whose assistance is gratefully accepted by the local constabulary, in the form of an Inspector and a Chief Constable, no less, discovers that a few of the guests had previous connections, and possible motives for killing the victim, so they become obvious suspects. As usual, Poirot’s approach is unorthodox, in the view of the ‘by the book’ police officers, choosing to examine character to suggest a motivation, but as usual, because of his reputation, he is indulged. This novel must have been in preparation some time before the beginning of world war two, because there is no mention of any disruption to the normal leisure activities of the British [and American, in this story] middle & upper classes: so for contemporary readers, it would have been welcome escapism, but for us now, it’s another nostalgic, but fiendishly crafted murder mystery and, as usual, it is a satisfying read. The paperback I read was published in 2019 by HarperCollinsPublishers, London, [1941, Collins, The Crime Club], ISBN 978-0-0075-2757-1.

The Elegant Lie, by Sam Eastland

This author, “…an Anglo-American writer, who is the grandson of a London police detective”, has already written twenty books, under the pen-name Sam Eastland, seven of which are listed on a flyleaf, all of these including the adjective red in their title; presumably concerning Communism. This novel might be the beginning of a new series, although there is some ambiguity in the ending of this one. Nathan Carter has progressed from an undercover cop in wartime New Jersey, USA, to a CIA field operative in Köln [Cologne], Germany, in 1949. He has been tasked with infiltrating a highly successful black-market operation, in order to supply enough information for the network to be smashed: despite most local people suffering to varying degrees from the depredations of the recent war and, consequently, being forced to use the black market primarily for survival, this is bad for business, as far as the US & fledgling West German government are concerned, and such criminality must be eradicated. On his release from prison, having served six months of a sentence for a spurious charge, to support his cover story, Carter is picked up by the local crime Kingpin, Hanno Dasch, and made an offer he can’t refuse. Despite a background of professional [and life-preserving] dispassionate objectivity, Carter finds himself falling, somewhat predictably, for Dasch’s daughter, once he has punctured her aggressive demeanour, and after gaining Dasch’s trust. Dasch has been very successful in presenting an ostensibly legitimate business image, but Carter is amazed to discover that Dasch owns an ex-military aeroplane; the intention being to send a consignment of illicit goods into Communist eastern Europe. When Carter finds some Russian currency hidden in one of the crates which is accidentally damaged, it transpires that Russian intelligence is involved; Carter’s situation, and anxiety level, is also not helped by his uncertainty over whom he can trust in the local CIA network. This is a well-paced story, and if it is, indeed, the first of a new series, I look forward to reading further instalments. The paperback I read was published in 2019, by Faber & Faber Ltd., London [2019, USA], ISBN 978-0-5713-3569-5.

The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

This is the first novel by a British woman of Cambodian heritage, which explains her unusual given name. I was attracted by the subject, of course, and it is a very articulate story [although the phraseology is a bit odd, to my eyes, occasionally] about a fictitious near-future Britain in which the Ministry of Defence has access to a form of time travel, which is controlled by the eponymous Ministry. It is narrated by the protagonist, whose name we don’t discover until very near the end, as a result of a twist which I absolutely cannot reveal! This story has an overlap with the sad truth discovered belatedly about the Franklin Expedition to discover the fabled Northwest Passage, about which, among others, Michael Palin wrote in Erebus, which I have reviewed here. The woman is assigned to one of several ‘expats’ from different periods in British history [so the plot is arguably somewhat insular, in that respect] as a ‘bridge’; in other words, a liaison to assist the expat to assimilate into 21st century life, although there is also the hidden agenda of using them as ‘guinea pigs’ to assess how safe this form of time travel is. The rationale for selecting the expats is that they would have died, imminently, so their removal shouldn’t effectively alter the course of history. The expat who is assigned to the protagonist is Commander Graham Gore, who is a comparatively minor character in the sad saga of Erebus and Terror, so a certain amount of fabrication, albeit presumably researched where possible, of his backstory must have been required. The expats’ progress seems to be successful, and their interactions are quite amusing, until problems start arising and their security looks to be in jeopardy, and our bridge begins to doubt whom she can trust in her management chain. Near the end we start getting into the uncertainty of consequences of time travel, and this section is a bit rushed, unfortunately, but for me, anyway, that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the plot, and the dénouement is hopeful, even if there could have been more detail [thanks again to my need for neat completions]. The paperback I read was published in 2025 [2024] by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton Limited, ISBN 978-1-3997-2636-8.