Tag Archives: Tension

January 7, 2013

The Beauty of Murder by A. K. Benedict

By bibliomouse

beauty of murder

Publisher: Orion

ISBN: 978-1409144519 

Publication date: 14th February 2013

A K Benedict’s debut is a thriller set in Cambridge which combines murder with time-travel.

Stephen Killigan, a young lecturer just arrived at Cambridge, finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation when he drunkenly stumbles over the dead body of a beauty queen who disappeared a year earlier. The police look for the body and find no sign of it, and Killigan is suspected of either being a hoaxer or a madman. When the body of a young choir boy is found the day after he goes missing but looking as if he has been dead for a year, Killigan is upgraded from a hoaxer to a murder suspect.

Cambridge is a city with enough idiosyncrasies and history to make it an effective setting for a thriller like this, and the author’s knowledge of the city means that the level of local detail is impressive and adds to the atmosphere of the novel. The villain, Jackamore Grass, is well drawn – arrogant and intelligent, he has been waiting for a worthy opponent and, in Killigan, he thinks he’s found him. The use of the different voices throughout the novel keeps the narrative interesting and the plot zips along a good speed.

There were some niggles though – the occasional anachronism grates, especially as most of the novel was well-researched. Some of the characters seem a little flat and underdeveloped – the police inspector, Jane Horne, is a good example of this. There are some attempts to make her a more rounded character by giving her concerns beyond her job, but it feels a little perfunctory. The dialogue is sometimes forced and Killigan himself crosses the line between witty academic and pretentious twit more than once.

It is a largely well-written, easy to read and compelling thriller which would make a good introduction to a series, but isn’t quite as clever as it thinks it is.

3/5

I was sent a review copy by http://www.lovereading.co.uk in return for an honest review. A shortened version of this review also appears on that site.

5 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Reviews

July 12, 2012

The Pure in Heart by Susan Hill

By bibliomouse

Publisher: Chatto and Windus

ISBN: 978-0701178949

Publication date: 2nd June 2005 (paperback)

The second in Hill’s crime series featuring Chief Detective Inspector Simon Serrailler, The Pure in Heart is another assured piece of sensitive and absorbing writing. Called back from a holiday in Venice when his severely disabled youngest sister, Martha, contracts pneumonia, Simon finds himself heading up the investigation into the disappearance of a nine year old boy, David Angus, who has vanished without a trace. Glad to have something to distract him from the feelings that last year’s shocking murder stirred up, Simon throws himself into the case with the help of Nathan Coates, newly promoted to Detective Sergeant.

As with The Various Haunts of Men, this novel concentrates more on the community of Lafferton and its reaction to the crime than actual police work. Simon himself is far more present in this novel than the first in the series, and he reveals himself to be highly contradictory. He can be generous, lively and amusing but also cold, distant and intensely private, which causes problems when Diana, a woman with whom he had a casual affair in past years, develops possessive tendencies despite his indifference and, indeed, disgust.

Cat Deerbon, Simon’s sister, is the heart of the novel. Pregnant with her third child, she finds herself deeply upset by David’s disappearance, especially in addition to her family’s own situation with Martha. The disintegration of David’s family is also profoundly affecting. The portrait of a grieving family is shown in such intimate detail that it feels almost voyeuristic. Details such as his mother adding cold water because she shouldn’t be allowed the luxury of a hot bubble bath whilst her son is missing are brilliantly and sensitively observed.

As readers might have gathered, it’s not a cheerful book and although I didn’t personally find it as upsetting as The Various Haunts of Men, I can imagine that anyone with children might find the descriptions of David’s captivity and his mother’s grief highly emotive. However, the quality of Hill’s writing prevents the depiction of such naked emotions from feeling gratuitous. There are many loose ends remaining at the end of the novel and this might be frustrating to some readers; for me, it just made me hanker for the next book  (which, luckily, was waiting for me on the bookcase). The Pure at Heart wasn’t as satisfying as Serrailler’s first outing but, as one in a series, it’s a excellent read.

4/5

This review was originally written for New Books Magazine September/October.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Recommended, Relationships, Reviews

July 9, 2012

The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill

By bibliomouse

Publisher: Chatto and Windus

ISBN: 978-1856197144

Publication date: 3rd June 2004 (hardback)

I recently agreed to review the second in Susan Hill’s Simon Serrailler series for a feature in New Books Magazine, with a really tight deadline, thinking that I’d read the first book already. It turns out that this was completely imagined and the 560 pages of The Various Haunts of Men were still to be tackled. I have to admit that I was a little daunted at the prospect – I’ve read so many crime novels recently that the idea of reading two more in a fortnight wasn’t exactly appealing. However, I prefer to read series in order so I picked up Simon Serrailler’s first outing and got on with it.

As so often happens, I’m really pleased that I did. Much like Ruth Rendell, who is quoted on the front cover, I loved this book. I should have known that it would be excellent as the other two books by Hill that I’ve read have both been brilliant. The Woman in Black was a novel thrust upon me when I was about 12 as a set text at school and I liked it then; I’ve read it since and picked up so much more atmosphere and detail than the first time around.  Similarly, Strange Meeting was a text on a World War I module for my BA and, despite it being one of several novels that we had to read, it was the one which I’ve since re-read for pleasure. Hill’s writing is always a joy to read and often belies the horror of her subject matter.

Set in the fictional cathedral town of Lafferton, The Various Haunts of Men is ostensibly about the disappearence of a middle-aged woman who vanishes one foggy evening. There are few leads as Angela, the missing woman, lived alone and kept very much to herself. Once these leads dry up, the case is downgraded in priority and only Detective Sergeant Freya Graffham thinks that there is more to the case than meets the eye. She is proved right when there are more disappearences, although the missing persons have nothing to connect them other than vanishing whilst up on The Hill. D.S. Graffham, along with her Detective Constable, Nathan Coates, is determined to find out whether Lafferton has its first serial killer.

I’ve read reviews of this novel which criticise it for the slow pacing and, whilst I recognise that this isn’t the most rip-roaring of novels, I do think that those reviewers are missing the joy of Hill’s writing and plotting. Although the crime aspect kept me interested, the real point of the seems to be the way that the reader gets to know the town and its inhabitants, many of whom will be featured throughout the series.

There’s Angela Randell, who lives alone but is in love with a mystery man for whom she buys expensive and, potentially, inappropriate gifts; Debbie Parker, a depressed young woman who seeks answers in the alternative therapies on offer in nearby Starly, and her flatmate Sandy who worries about her friend being taken in by charletans. Karin McCafferty, a professional gardener, discovers she has cancer but refuses her doctor’s advice and also turns to  alternative medicine, and Dr. Cat Deerbon who has to find the line between being Karin’s doctor and her supportive friend, as well as dealing with tensions surrounding the increase in  Cat’s mother Muriel, herself a retired doctor, is heavily involved in local activities and it is through the choir that she meets Freya Graffham, recently moved from London after a messy divorce. Freya discovers that she already knows Muriel’s son, Simon Serrailler – he’s her D.C.I., and she is also, inconveniently, in love with him. All of these characters are vividly brought to life and, although some are featured more heavily than others, none feel redundant or superfluous.

It’s the strength of Hill’s characterisation and the sense of community that it invokes which makes the crimes in the novel so affecting. And they are emotional, from the disappearances of characters that the reader has come to care about to the shock ending. Ah, that ending. If anyone remembers the first ever episode of Spooks they might know what I mean when I say that the denouement of this novel was shocking. I think it’s fair to say that I was a wreck by the end of the novel, and Mr. Mouse had serious reservations about me reading any more of the series. To be fair, even thinking about Bambi makes me teary, so I’m not the best measure of  the emotional power of anything, but I’d definitely advise you to have tissues to hand when approaching the ending.

I don’t really have anything bad to say about The Various Haunts of Men, which is slightly dull – sorry! As mentioned in my post about my favourite books of the first 6 months of 2012, I promised myself that I’d finishing writing this review before reading The Risk of Darkness, the third in the series. That didn’t happen, mainly because I just couldn’t not read it once it was on the bookcase. Bearing in mind the size of my TBR pile, this says a lot about this series. One word of warning – I would strongly recommend reading these in the correct order as I think the emotional heft would be lessened otherwise.

Go! Read!

4.5/5

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Relationships, Reviews

May 28, 2012

In Her Blood by Annie Hauxwell

By bibliomouse

Publisher: William Heineman

ISBN: 978-0434021802

Publication Date: 24th May 2012 (paperback)

In Her Blood is the debut novel from Annie Hauxwell. The first in a series of books featuring Catherine Berlin, it is a gritty crime novel which opens with a body being found about 3 minutes from where I used to live in London, which was a bit of a shock. Much in the same way as with The Murder Wall, which is set in my current location of Newcastle, I found myself trying to see how many of the places I recognised. There were quite a few, but luckily I’ve never seen a dead body in any of them…

Catherine Berlin is an investigator with the Financial Services Agency who, rather predictably, refuses to play by the rules. Following the death of her informant, ‘Juliet Bravo’, her investigation into Juliet’s information is closed down and she is suspended for failure to follow the correct procedure. She knows that the death is linked to the activities of notorious loan shark who is well-known to the Agency, but when she finds out that her father knew Doyle’s father, things start looking more personal. It gets worse when her GP is murdered and his stock of legal heroin is stolen. Berlin is a long-term addict, and Dr. Lazenby was one of the only doctors who would still prescribe heroin rather than methadone. Berlin manages to get 7 vials via some stolen prescriptions, giving her a week to solve the murders and find another doctor before withdrawal begins.

It did take me a little while to get into In Her Blood, perhaps due to the fact that I’ve been reading a lot of YA books recently and wasn’t quite prepared for the change in tone. However, when I did get into the swing of the novel, I rather enjoyed it. Berlin is a strong character – very much in the vein of the glut of dour cops, but still original. Yes, she has her predictable moments, such as refusing to share information which would save her a beating, but she has an edge of instability which makes her an entertaining character.

Other characters are well-handled, with crooked cops, East-End gangsters, victims of money-lenders and bent City bankers all represented. Hauxwell is also good at inserting relevant references to the political and financial climate without sounding preachy. Cuts to the policing budget and the subsequent downturn in efficiency are shown to be to blame for at least one of the book’s many murders, as well as the presence of corrupt officials and policemen.

It was a welcome surprise to me that the novel had a good ending, with the numerous plot strands all tied up, although not too neatly. Although not necessarily the kind of book that I would buy for myself on first glance, I’m grateful to have been sent it and I look forward to the next novel in the series.

3.5/5

This was sent to be by the publisher, but I was not paid for the review and all views are my own.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in British, Detective/Crime, Reviews

March 30, 2012

Every Vow You Break – Julia Crouch

By bibliomouse

Following the success of Cuckoo, Julia Crouch has written another psychological thriller that is sure to be equally well-received. Crouch is one of those writers who have the kind of writing style which make her books recognisable without them being ‘samey’, much in the same way as Sophie Hannah, a writer whose work I love (and must review at some point!).

When the Wayland family decamp to upstate New York for the summer to allow Marcus to perform in a community production of Macbeth, Lara and her kids – Olly, Bella and Jack – don’t know what to expect. What they get is a dirty and dusty house in a tiny town, with only a library and a pool for excitement, excepting the theatre, which is much smaller than they were led to believe. They are met by theatre company’s director, James and his wife Betty, who have arranged a surprise for the family, one which Lara in particular isn’t expecting. Stephen Molloy, one of Marcus’ old friends, now a Hollywood star, is in the area, recovering from a breakdown caused by a stalker in LA. He and Lara were also once in love, having an affair not long after Lara’s marriage to Marcus. The meeting at James and Betty’s reawakens feelings which Lara thought that she had hidden away forever, and throws her attempts at rekindling her marriage into total disarray. Soon Stephen and Lara are getting increasingly close again, but Lara is playing with fire and doesn’t seem to realise that she could get burnt…

In addition to Lara and Stephen’s story, there is a subplot involving Lara and Marcus’ eldest children, Bella and Olly. They are 16 year old twins who, at first, seem to have normal teenaged-sibling relationship, bickering and teasing. However, it is soon implied that there is more to it than that. Bella is obviously scared of Olly, and he frequently threatens her with something. When you find out what that something is, the book takes a more sinister turn.

There is a real sense of impending danger swirling around the novel. From the strange woman who seems to be following Lara, trying to run her over and making gestures, and the louts that Olly finds to hang out with, to the discoveries that Lara makes within the house, no chapter goes by without Crouch ratcheting up the tension, which goes some way to explain the slow pace of the first half of the novel.

Crouch has a skill for writing about place. In Cuckoo this was shown in the vivid descriptions of the West Country countryside, and in this novel it is the evocation of the hot New York summer. The filthy rental house, dusty deserted streets and the close, overheated atmosphere of the small town are well-matched to the slowly building tension and the boredom of  seemingly endless days, and  Stephen’s mansion in the woods offers a refuge from both the grimy heat and her failing relationship for Lara.

Once again, Crouch has written a well-crafted and tense novel. I felt that Bella and Olly’s subplot was a little forced, but it tied in well with the overall narrative at the end. My main criticism is one that I also had about Cuckoo, and that is the denouement feels rushed. Crouch builds the tension and the atmosphere so well throughout the majority of the novel that the ending feels a little anti-climactic, especially the epilogue. I enjoyed this more than Cuckoo, and only the slightly abrupt ending, and irritating epilogue, stops it being a 4 out of 5.
 
 
3.5/5
 
 
This book was provided for review purposes by http://www.welovethisbook.com.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Psychological, Relationships, Reviews

January 13, 2012

Before I Go To Sleep – SJ Watson

By bibliomouse

SJ Watson has had the kind of 12 months that most aspiring authors dream of. He was working as an NHS audiologist when he was accepted onto a writing course at the Faber Academy in 2009, where he wrote Before I Sleep. Since then it has been published in over 30 countries, Watson has won the 2011 Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, and Ridley Scott has picked up the film rights. All this and it was only published at the end of April 2011. It’s a novel which I’ve been meaning to read since it was published, but I was trying to reduce by to-be-read pile before buying lots of new books. That went as well as you can imagine, but I did resist this one until yesterday. As you can see, it didn’t take long for me to tear through- in fact, I would have finished it last night if I hadn’t been busy in the evening.

Christine Lucas wakes up one morning to find herself in bed with a man who she doesn’t recognise. Thinking that she’s had a drunken one-night stand, she creeps into the bathroom, looks in the mirror and finds that she also doesn’t recognise the woman who looks back at her. In her mind she is 27, but the woman in the mirror is middle-aged. The man in the bed wakes and explains that he is her husband, she has had an accident and now wakes every morning with no memory of her life since. It’s an intriguing premise, and one which lends itself well to a thriller. Christine has been an amnesiac for about twenty years when the novel opens, with every day being the same, until she gets a call from Dr. Nash, who tells her that he has been helping her with her memory, and that she has been writing a journal for a month. Reading this diary is the only way in which she can build a picture of more than a day at a time, and it is this that leads her to question what she is being told about her past.

It’s a hard book to review, as I don’t want to give away too much of the story (apologies if I have), but I can say that it is brilliant. Written in the first person, Watson captures the ragged nature of Christine’s memories fabulously with lots of repetition and uncertainty. It only has three characters for the main part, but I didn’t feel that this was a handicap, but rather that it added to the claustrophobic nature of Christine’s day-to-day life, where she depends on Ben, her husband, and Dr. Nash for everything. The flashbacks, where her memory comes back momentarily, feel realistic, and her anguish at not being able to remember more is sometimes painful to read. If I had a criticism, it would be that the last chapter feels a little rushed and contrived, but this was partly due to the constraints of the concept, and it in no way distracts from the tense narrative.

I can’t wait to see what Watson comes up with next, and I think that Before I Go To Sleep will make a fantastic film if handled sensitively and not made too ‘Hollywood’.

4.5/5

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Detective/Crime, Psychological, Recommended, Reviews

November 25, 2011

Cuckoo – Julia Crouch

By bibliomouse

The second of my reviews for www.welovethisbook.com, Cuckoo, the first novel by playwright Julia Crouch, is a psychological thriller that tells of how a house-guest can very quickly become unwelcome…

Rose, a stay-at-home mother, lives with her artist husband and her two perfect daughters, and invites her recently widowed friend to stay. Polly arrives, bringing her two wild young sons, and sets about making herself at home in The Lodge, Rose’s lovingly restored house. A former rock star, she soon has the village’s men wrapped around her little finger, although Rose’s female friends are slower to warm to the newcomer. Rose’s perfect world starts to become feel increasingly insecure as Polly and her sons take over every aspect of life at The Lodge. 

There is much to recommend Cuckoo; Crouch is good at building tension and there is a real sense of creeping disquiet that pervades the novel. Although it is told in the third person, it is nevertheless Rose’s story, and it is pleasingly difficult to know for sure whether or not it is her imagination or if there is really something sinister about Polly’s intentions. Although the conclusion isn’t really a twist, it is nicely unexpected in its details, and isn’t a traditional happy-ending, continuing the sense of unease that saturates the rest of the story.
 
There are annoyances: barely a paragraph goes by without mention of Rose’s Barbour jacket, Touche Éclat or the family’s Galaxy, which became wearing after 300 pages. The characterisation of Rose was also a problem. She is meant to be an intelligent woman and yet her situation by the end of the novel is absurd. So much of the book revolves around her that it would have been more enjoyable had she been a more sympathetic character. With her predilection for kinky sex and her laissez-faire attitude towards raising her children, Polly is a more interesting character, and it’s a shame that we don’t learn more about her.
 
Despite this, if you can suspend slight disbelief, Cuckoo is a good, if undemanding, read for a cold afternoon. It might be best avoided if you have house guests though…
 
3/5
 
This book was provided for review purposes by www.welovethisbook.com.
 

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Psychological, Relationships, Reviews

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