#BookReview ‘The Pinnacle’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #thriller #India

6 Replies

‘This was India. They did democracy different here.’ The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee starts at a fast pace and races to the last page. Having just finished a long detailed historical novel, this speed made me feel as if I’d overdosed on caffeine. But I stuck with it because I’m a big fan of Mukherjee’s Raj-era crime series. The Pinnacle is set now in Mumbai, it’s a million miles from 1919 Calcutta. Two wealthy actors, American husband and Bollywood star wife, live a beautiful life in a luxury apartment with soaring views across the city. But reality is different from the image. George Abercrombie wakes on the sofa after a drunken night out to find his wife Sweety Sahota dead in their bed. His servant Amit isn’t answering his phone, their maid wants to make breakfast for her mistress and Sweety’s American PA will arrive at any moment. George panics. What follows is like the Winston Wolf scene in Pulp Fiction.
The Pinnacle is a rollercoaster puzzle ride of politicians, gangsters, blackmail, extreme wealth, extreme poverty and misogyny. We see the action from three viewpoints, George, manservant Amit and PA Gemma. But who do we believe, are we seeing the truth or a curated reality. George and Sweety, after all, are actors. Who killed Sweety? Who is the blackmailer and why? Where is Sweety’s jewellery and laptop? Who did she visit earlier in the evening of her death? Who has most to lose, and who is the boss of the boss of the boss? I guessed quite early and then doubted my first instinct.
In the Wyndham & Banerjee books, Mukherjee focusses on the hypocrisy and arrogance of India’s colonial occupiers, in The Pinnacle the same behaviour is seen amongst the rich. None of the characters are likeable but perhaps my favourite – simply for her name and her zebra sofas – is Roxanne Bunglewalla, daughter of the Pinnacle’s owner. When George enters Roxanne’s penthouse for the first time, he thinks, ‘Roxanne Bunglewalla’s place was best viewed through sunglasses, ideally with the lights off, seeing as it was decked out in more gold than the US Olympics team and Jay-Z put together. It was like King Midas had come to Mumbai, got hammered with Louis XIV and then both of them decided to enter the interior design business for a bet.’ Mukherjee is a master of the funny one-liners.
Fast-paced, good fun. At times the pace was so quick I lost track of things, but Mukherjee is in control of the story throughout and I soon picked up the thread again. I read it quickly in two days.

Here are my reviews of the Raj-era Wyndham & Banerjee crime series, also by Abir Mukherjee:-
A RISING MAN #1WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
A NECESSARY EVIL #2WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
SMOKE AND ASHES #3WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
DEATH IN THE EAST #4WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
THE SHADOWS OF MEN #5WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
THE BURNING GROUNDS #6WYNDHAM&BANERJEE

If you like this, try:-
‘Before the Fall’ by Noah Hawley
‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn
‘Beautiful Ugly’ by Alice Feeney

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PINNACLE by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9Vq via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘Evil in High Places’ by Rory Clements #crime #thriller

9 Replies

I always eagerly anticipate sinking into the second novel of a new series. While the first one introduces characters, sets the scene and context, the second is about action. Evil in High Places is second in the 1930s German thriller series by Rory Clements featuring maverick police detective Sebastian Wolff. And it’s brilliant. Munich 1936. The Winter Olympics are coming to town and a famous actress inconveniently disappears. Wolff is told to find her and be quick about it because Elena Lang is not just a beautiful actress, she’s also the mistress of Hitler’s right-hand man. When a body is found, Wolff is told to make it go away and keep it absolutely secret until after the Olympics are over. Wolff’s job is complicated by the company that Elena keeps; Bavarian aristocrats, senior SS officers, Unity Mitford and assorted foreign hangers-on who like to party. Their sense of entitlement, the wealth, their arrogance is overwhelming and threatening. Wolff, an outsider who struggles to give a convincing Heil Hitler salute, persists in asking awkward questions of powerful people. Another complication is the second case that lands on Wolff’s desk. A local SS officer has been found shot in a local forest. This also must be kept secret during the Olympics. Wolff, who believes in the law, finds himself keeping secrets and hiding bodies. He keeps his suspicions to himself, they could get him killed.
The sub-plots power along nicely too. Will Wolff and his girlfriend Hexie ever get married? How will Wolff’s son Jurgen react when a letter arrives from Berlin. Jurgen’s mother Ulrike, who left Seb when Jurgen was a baby, is coming to Munich and would like to meet up. And why does Wolff’s sergeant Hans Winter volunteer for a difficult dangerous undercover job in Dachau prison camp? All the action takes place in Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, location of the Olympic events and a film shoot, so the the book is populated with film stars and famous athletes.
This is a dramatic, twisty, exciting thriller with a likeable, decent hero operating amongst wolves. Rory Clements is a favourite author for me; he writes reliably unpredictable, exciting, well-researched thrillers, steeped in wartime Germany.
Next in the series is Invitation from a Dictator.

Read my review of MUNICH WOLF, first in the Sebastian Wolff series.

And here are my reviews of the Tom Wilde WW2 thriller series, also by Rory Clements:-
CORPUS #1TOMWILDE
NUCLEUS #2TOMWILDE
NEMESIS #3TOMWILDE
HITLER’S SECRET #4TOMWILDE
A PRINCE AND A SPY #5TOMWILDE
THE MAN IN THE BUNKER #6TOMWILDE
THE ENGLISH FUHRER #7TOMWILDE
A COLD WIND FROM MOSCOW #8TOMWILDE

If you like this, try:-
‘Waiting for Sunrise’ by William Boyd
‘Blow Your House Down’ by Pat Barker
‘Wolf Winter’ by Cecilia Ekback

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview EVIL IN HIGH PLACES by Rory Clements https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-92L via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Queen’s Painter’ by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden #historical #AnneBoleyn #Tudor

2 Replies

Wendy Holden has found a fresh take on the familiar Anne Boleyn story in The Queen’s Painter and it’s an absorbing, entertaining and fun read. Basically it’s revenge drama as three of Anne’s supporters seek a way to make Thomas Cromwell pay for organising her death. Young German painter Hans Holbein arrives at the English court hoping to make his fortune as an artist and also to see again the teenage girl he met in France. That girl is now Queen Anne, her husband Henry VIII. What follows is an inventive plot organised by poet and diplomat Thomas Wyatt, Holbein and Anne’s serving woman Jennet to bring about the downfall of Cromwell. Cromwell, however, proves almost indestructable. Observations of the Tudor court are familiar from the novels of Philippa Gregory, CJ Sansom etc, as are many of the real characters, but what makes this novel so unusual is the voice of Hans Holbein. At heart, this is the story of Holbein’s life, some of it told in flashback, and of his profession as an artist negotiating the difficulties and subtleties of court diplomacy. Painting techniques, completed works, subjects, rival artists and his works portraying the royal court. Holbein was famed for painting true portraits of his subjects and Holden takes this fact and has enormous fun with it. Don’t miss the author’s ‘Acknowledgements’ at the end where she explains her lifelong fascination with Tudor life and Holbein’s portraits.
So this is a novel portraying a historically famous period in British history featuring possibly our most famous, or infamous, queen. It is a revenge mystery, and is also funny and clever. Hans’ fascination with Anne Boleyn takes on a supernatural element as her ghost pops up every now and then with pertinent, wry and witty comments that add colour to the scene and spur Hans on towards revenge.
Once I finished reading, I revisited Holbein’s paintings and particularly ‘The Ambassadors’ which features at the beginning of the novel as Holbein’s portrait-that-was-not-a-portrait of Anne.
Thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve read Wendy Holden since her first romantic comedy in 1999, Simply Divine, and have never since been disappointed.

Read my reviews of these other novels by Wendy Holden:-
THE DUCHESS
THE PRINCESS

If you like this, try:-
‘Dissolution’ by CJ Sansom #1SHARDLAKE
‘The House of Seymour’ by Joanna Hickson
‘The Royal Rebel’ by Elizabeth Chadwick#1JEANETTEOFKENT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE QUEEN’S PAINTER by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9WS via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘Murder in Manhattan’ by Verity Bright @BrightVerity #cosymystery #crime

10 Replies

1920s New York City. Yellow taxi cabs. Gangsters. Broadway. Prohibition. And Lady Eleanor Swift. What can possibly go wrong? In Murder in Manhattan by Verity Bright there are two murders and lots of suspects set in the twenty-four hour noise and bustle that is Manhattan. Following on directly from the action at the end of Death on Deck, Ellie, butler Clifford and her household staff are staying in a luxurious apartment; Detective Chief Inspector Hugh Seldon, Ellie’s new fiancé, has returned to England. New York is not quite what Ellie expected. There’s an irascible old lady who insults them in the lift, people seem to speak a different language and the food in the diners is greasy. But there are compensations; for example Marty, the welcoming doorman at their apartment block, and Iver Driver, the chatty cab driver. And, thanks to newspaper coverage of her trans-Atlantic investigations aboard the Celestiana, Eleanor has received invitations to lots of swanky parties.
When Marty is killed in a hit-and-run accident, Eleanor begins to investigate. Except no-one else is interested. The straight-talking New Yorkers shrug their shoulders and are bemused that a titled English lady should care about a dead man she hardly knew. Hard-nosed beat cop Officer Balowski tells her, ‘Forget the whole thing, lady. I know you don’t like it, but in this city, no one cares about one more dead doorman.’ Never one to take ‘no’ for an answer, Ellie’s team of two – herself and Clifford – go downstairs to the basement accommodation of Marty’s mother Mrs Morales and his brother Earl. There they make a discovery that suggests Marty may have had something to hide.
As in preceding novels – The French for Murder, Murder in an Irish Castle and Death on Deck – Ellie is away from home, far from her comfort zone with a background cast of familiar characters. Each of these books has a different tone and this one particularly has a dangerous edge. Eleanor doesn’t hesitate to defend the underdogs and doesn’t care a fig for what people think of her. But when she stands up to bullies, she meets her match. As the investigation progresses Ellie’s team expands in number until there is a second most unexpected murder. Yes I guessed the identity of the murderer but mostly on a hunch and an instinctive dislike rather than evidence. Bright as usual balances the mixture of murder investigation with mystery, tension, humour and food.
A fun read that made me pick up the book at every available moment. I do miss Hugh, though.

If you like this, try:-
‘Death and the Brewery Queen’ by Frances Brody #12KATESHACKLETON
‘The Seaside Murders’ by Helena Dixon #2SECRETDETECTIVEAGENCY
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #2DEATHINPARADISE

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview MURDER IN MANHATTAN by Verity Bright @BrightVerity https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8tg via SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Lost Garden’ by Angela Petch #WW2 #Italy

4 Replies

A World War Two journey from innocence to experience in the harshest and cruellest of conditions. The Lost Garden by Angela Petch tells the story of Contessina Ernestina di Montesecco, better known as Tina, as war comes to the picturesque village of Sant’Agnese in Romagna and brings with it a canker to the heart of Tina’s beautiful home. Angela Petch is a talented storyteller using Italy, a country she knows well and loves, as the complex setting for her novels. The Lost Garden is no exception. The beauty of the village and countryside is juxtaposed with the rottenness of life in Mussolini’s Italy. There is wealth and poverty, fascism and communism, profiteering and charity. Divisions are fostered, mistrust is everywhere, secrets are kept close and no one is trusted.
An intriguing Prologue gives us a glimpse of the novel’s ending. In 1946 in the Castle of Montesecco, a woman is making plans. The war has ended but the resentments, mistrust, revenge and hatred continue. And then the main story begins in 1939. The first half of the novel is slow-moving as the character and background of Tina is established. Following the death of her mother in childbirth, Tina’s difficult relationship with her father is counter-balanced by the support from housekeeper Allegra and from the circle of friends Tina has grown up with. No one is untouched by the war, each detail of their life is affected. Tina’s father continues to treat her as a child though she is now a young woman. He employs an Austrian woman as her governess, sells her beloved horse Baffi and introduces her to a succession of eligible men from his fascist circle.
As the hardship of war worsens, the ties that bind Tina and her friends together become fractured. As her father’s links to the Nazis become brazen, some villagers shun Tina in the assumption that she supports her father. This is when Tina’s rebellious nature begins to dominate, encouraged by her pharmacist friend Luisa and partisans Olivio and Sergio. Central to the story is a secret garden within the castle walls. Made by her mother as a place of comfort and safety, it has been hidden away by Tina’s father. Finding her mother’s gardening notebook, Tina secretly begins to restore the garden to its glory, taking risks, and in so doing matures into a brave young woman unafraid to challenge the wrongs around her.
An interesting but slow story that finally packs a punch towards the end. I admit I struggled to maintain concentration in the first half but the pace, danger, brutality and risk speed up substantially after the halfway point. The ghostly voice of Tina’s mother floats in and out, adding context to Tina and the family. The garden is central to Tina’s life, a symbol of her mother’s rebellion in an unhappy marriage and of Tina’s own rebellion against her autocratic fascist father. She knows she must choose a side in the war and the garden is symbolic of this. Not only is it a space of respite for Tina it also becomes a haven for the partisans.
A sad story of the effects of war on close communities driven apart by diverging political affiliations, the deprivations of poverty and the things people must do to survive, followed by the swingeing judgement that follows when peace finally arrives.

Here are my reviews of other novels also by Angela Petch:-
THE GIRL WHO ESCAPED
THE POSTCARD FROM ITALY
THE SICILIAN SECRET
THE TUSCAN SECRET

If you like this, try:-
‘Akin’ by Emma Donoghue
‘The Secret Shore’ by Liz Fenwick
‘The Silence in Between’ by Josie Ferguson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LOST GARDEN by Angela Petch https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9Wd via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Burning Grounds’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

6 Replies

It is three years since The Shadows of Men when Suren Banerjee fled Calcutta for Europe. In The Burning Grounds, fifth in the Wyndham & Banerjee series by Abir Mukherjee, Suren returns to the city and to his former colleague Captain Sam Wyndham. Both are facing difficult cases, each needs the other’s help but is reluctant to ask. A man is found dead in the burning ghats of Calcutta. Wyndham, out of favour at the Imperial Police Force and trusted only with the most menial of cases, is sent to deal with the body. Except the corpse isn’t just anyone. He’s one of the city’s wealthiest businessmen, a patron of the arts, producer of a film being shot in Calcutta at this moment. He is admired wherever he goes. And now his throat has been cut.
Suren, who has returned home to India after his relationship in Paris with a French woman faltered, is drifting without a job, without authority. Then his cousin Dolly, a photographer, goes missing. Suren, desperate to find her, goes cap in hand to Wyndham. The reunion is awkward, both blame the other for the cause of Suren’s flight abroad. Begrudgingly, day by day, they work together, sniping, squabbling, resentful. Both are changed men and Calcutta is changing too. Dolly’s studio has been ransacked, no-one has seen her and Suren is frantic with worry. Meanwhile at a party a million miles away from the burning grounds, Sam meets a glamorous woman. Estelle Morgan is the Australian actress whose face is on the front pages of newspapers. They both enjoy a mild flirtation and Sam begins to wonder if there is a life for him beyond the grief for his dead wife and his more recent regrets at the failure of his on-off relationship with Annie Grant. But when he is charged with investigating the death of JP Mulllick, he must travel to Bishnupore to interview the film crew, he sees Estelle Morgan again. Suren goes too. More people die, none of them Dolly, but when the two cases, oh so different, are linked, Sam and Suren must learn to work together again.
Set against the last decades of the Raj, the success of these books is the laser focus on the relationship of two men who were born thousands of miles distant from each other. Intellectually they are on a level, in religious and cultural terms they are poles apart, but they find common ground in their belief in the triumph of right over wrong, the pursuit of criminality and along the way wrestle with cultural dilemmas, shames, beliefs and behaviours on both Anglo and Indian sides. As the country inches towards independence, the balance of power in the two men’s relationship adjusts too.
Excellent. This is a fine series of historical crime fiction.

Here are my reviews of the first five books in the Wyndham & Banerjee series:-
A RISING MAN #1WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
A NECESSARY EVIL #2WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
SMOKE AND ASHES #3WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
DEATH IN THE EAST #4WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
THE SHADOWS OF MEN #5WYNDHAM&BANERJEE

And a standalone contemporary thriller:-
THE PINNACLE

If you like this, try:-
‘My Name is Yip’ by Paddy Crewe
‘Leeward’ by Katie Daysh #1NIGHTINGALE&COURTNEY
‘The Silver Bone’ by Andrey Kurkov #1KYIVMYSTERIES

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE BURNING GROUNDS by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-91l via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

Great Opening Paragraph 145… ‘According to Queeney’ by Beryl Bainbridge #amreading #FirstPara

#BookReview ‘The Rose Field’ by Philip Pullman @PhilipPullman #BookofDust #Lyra #fantasy

2 Replies

Oh my goodness, once I started I didn’t want to put it down. The Rose Field by Philip Pullman, third in the Book of Dust trilogy, is the last story about Lyra Silvertongue. I’ve loved these books ever since 1995 when the first, Northern Lights, was published. They’re highly recommended but please don’t start with this one, read Northern Lights first. The six books are a collective masterpiece, as two trilogies they have separate identities. Fantasy, yes, but never fairy stories, the scope is huge. Philosophy. Religion. Myth. Science. Legend. Politics. Economics. War. Emotions. Love, hate, fear and betrayal.
Lyra and her daemon Pan are still separated but independently alive, travelling from Oxford drawn eastwards towards a red building in the desert where mythical roses bloom that may or may not be something to do with dust. The red building is simultaneously frightening and irresistible. The Magisterium is doing what it has done in other books, what all dictatorships do: it aims for total domination via brutality, oppression doctrine and arrogance.
On their parallel journeys, Lyra and Pan each meet new accomplices, humans and creatures; some they trust despite being unsure about their companions’ motivations, others are enemies disguised as friends, some are intimidating but ultimately loyal. There are more witches from the Far North, more scientists, merchants and spies plus magnificent griffons. Pan is searching for Lyra’s lost imagination, Lyra is following Pan and in their wake comes Professor Malcolm Polstead, the same Malcolm who as a boy in La Belle Sauvage, the first of this trilogy, saved baby Lyra and Pan in the Great Flood.
The impetus running throughout this book is the reunion of these characters. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect but what happened was nowhere near what I previously considered. Reading Pullman is challenging, there are no easy answers or happy endings, favourite characters die, hateful ones escape. Pullman’s world-building is impressive, complex, confusing and inspiring. He explores the world that surrounds us, that which we can see and touch, of commerce, politics, law, religion and family, and also the hidden spiritual world, the Secret Commonwealth of myth and ghosts, spirits and fairies. He encourages us to be open-minded about facing the new, the threatening, the unexplored, the different. Lyra must overcome her fears, of dangers on the ground that she can see and touch but also admit new truths that contradict long-held beliefs. It takes courage to admit to yourself that you were wrong, mistaken, cruel, lazy but continue moving forward despite everything. Lyra is physically weaker than we’ve seen her before, the harrowing dangerous journey and separation from Pan are taking a toll, but she’s just as determined, stubborn and inspiring. The alethiometer is gone but she is as inventive as ever, putting the needle to new use.
Once I realised this is Lyra’s story of redemption set within a big picture epic about the world, I settled into the rhythmn of the book. This trilogy is darker, more adult and complex than His Dark Materials. Lyra is a young adult now who, after a damaged childhood, needs to truly know herself before she can begin to live the rest of her life. The ending is enigmatic, there are no easy answers or ideal conclusions, and this is not my favourite book of this trilogy. That’s La Belle Sauvage.
The Rose Field is a huge book about stories. Some are factual, some are imagined, some are based on folklore and myth. Some are lies. For Pullman, and Lyra, stories are about making things up.
Unputdownable. One to read and think about, then read again and again. These books have many levels of understanding, just as the alethiometer has many layers of meanings.

Here are my reviews of the first two books in the Book of Dust trilogy:-
LA BELLE SAUVAGE #1THEBOOKOFDUST
THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH #2THEBOOKOFDUST

If you like this, try these:-
‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi #1LEGACYOFORISHA
‘The Girl in the Tower’ by Katherine Arden #2WINTERNIGHT
‘Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane’ by Suzanne Colllins #2UNDERLANDCHRONICLES

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE ROSE FIELD by Philip Pullman @PhilipPullman https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-92l via @Sandra Danby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Monogram Murders’ by Sophie Hannah @sophiehannahCB1 #crime #mystery #Poirot

2 Replies

1920s London. A certain Belgian detective is drinking his beverage at Pleasant’s Coffee House when he becomes intrigued by a distressed customer. She is in fear for her life and confides to him, ‘Once I am dead, justice will be done.’ The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah is the first of her official Agatha Christie Poirot continuation novels. Poirot, who is taking a mini-holiday not far from home – in order to refresh his little grey cells – later discusses this strange conversation with a fellow guest at Mrs Blanche Unsworth’s boarding house. Scotland Yard detective Edward Catchpool is 32 years old and somewhat in awe of his new friend. When a murder occurs, it is not Jennie Hobbs from the coffee shop who is dead but three strangers in the fashionable Bloxham Hotel. There is a florid Italian hotel manager, a coffee shop assistant who sees everything, and a glamorous portrait artist who paints glamorous people. The investigation leads the unlikely duo to a village in Devon, home of the three victims, where the puzzle becomes even more puzzling and more potential villains are identified. There is bitterness and revenge, jealousy and moral certitude, love and obsession.
I enjoyed watching the growing relationship, professional and practical, between the finickety Belgian and the cautious, quiet Englishman, and their differing ways of unlocking the same puzzle. Catchpool, who is fond of crosswords, is a literal kind of man and often struggles to see the clues that seem so obvious to Poirot. Poirot, always attuned to emotions, despairs of Catchpool’s lack of imagination.
I’ve loved Agatha Christie’s Marple and Poirot books all my life, including the films and audiobooks, and so was unsure about reading a continuation novel. The Monogram Murders was a little slow to get moving but from halfway through I stopped making comparisons with Christie and just enjoyed the story. This is a complex plot with a tangled history, talented liars and closed room murders.
The next book in the series is Closed Casket.

And here are my reviews of other Poirot books by Sophie Hannah:-
THE MYSTERY OF THREE QUARTERS #3POIROT
THE KILLINGS AT KINGFISHER HILL #4POIROT

If you like this, try:-
‘A Very English Murder’ by Verity Bright #1LADYELEANORSWIFT
‘Murder at the Dolphin Hotel’ by Helena Dixon #1MISSUNDERHAY
‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood #1PENTECOST&PARKER

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MONOGRAM MURDERS by Sophie Hannah @sophiehannahCB1 https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Xf via @Sandra Danby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Wanton Road’ by JC Harvey @JCollissHarvey #historical #EnglishCivilWar

4 Replies

1637 Picardy, France. A husband is widowed and must find a way to continue with life, for the sake of five-year old Ned and newborn James. The Wanton Road, fourth in the Jack Fiskardo series by JC Harvey, begins with the heartbreak of grief, a description of loss so deep it is immobilising. Fiskardo is a soldier and he does go on, as readers of the previous three books know he will. Harvey has told Jack’s story from childhood. Now he is a widower, a single father, and all he knows is fighting so he sets off on his loyal horse M’sieu in search of employment. He heads for the much-contested Dutch town of Breda intending to offer his services as a discoverer, a scout, where he stumbles upon not only his old comrades the Dead Men but also his oldest enemy Carlo Fantom and a potential new love. Pris Holland is an intriguing heroine, feisty, brave, resourceful, she has her own shadows and pain to bear.
After a detour back to Picardy to collect his children, Jack heads for London where there is talk of war coming and possible employment. With the Thirty Years War coming to a stuttering close, it seems fitting that Harvey brings Fiskardo to England eventually to fight with the King against Parliament. This is a doomed task, as we know from the history books. Threads and characters from the previous books are woven together with the history of the period, entangled, twisted and re-imagined. The pages turn quickly without me noticing how absorbed I am in the story, whether it is the speed of battle or the slower intrigue of politics and love. Pris returns to London to her family, inn owners, brothel keepers, smugglers, and at occasional war with rivals the Skinner family. These enmities and loyalties bob in and out of the novel, bringing threat, rescue, safety, betrayal. Fiskardo, his soldiers and French servants find a new home at Varney, a country house near Oxford. There they feel secure, both boys grow and particularly James, premature, underweight, mis-shapen, thrives. But how long can this peace, and love, last before war returns again?
There are so many plot twists and turns it is difficult to describe the story and do it justice. Jack and Pris meet, they part, they’re together, they’re separated by war, they grieve. Just surrender yourself to the rollercoaster. The ending is magnificent; a fast-paced rush as Jack, who must finally confront his lifelong enemy if he is ever to live in peace, is chased from one safe haven to another.
Magnificent 5*.

Here are my reviews of the Jack Fiskardo series:-
THE SILVER WOLF #1FISKARDO’SWAR
THE DEAD MEN #2FISKARDO’SWAR
PEACE AND LOVE #3FISKARDO’SWAR

If you like this, try:-
‘Orphans of the Carnival’ by Carol Birch
‘Broken Faith’ by Toby Clements #2KINGMAKER
‘The Armour of Light’ by Ken Follett #4KINGSBRIDGE

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE WANTON ROAD by JC Harvey @JCollissHarvey https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9UM via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

	#BookReview ‘Snow Wh… on #BookReview ‘The Killing of Po…
	#BookReview ‘Snow Wh… on #BookReview ‘Cover Her Face’ b…
	#BookReview ‘Snow Wh… on #Bookreview ‘Eeny Meeny’ by @m…
	#BookReview ‘The Bur… on #BookReview ‘The Pinnacle…
	#BookReview ‘The Sha… on #BookReview ‘The Pinnacle…

SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

#BookReview ‘The Pinnacle’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #thriller #India

#BookReview ‘Evil in High Places’ by Rory Clements #crime #thriller

#BookReview ‘The Queen’s Painter’ by Wendy Holden @Wendy_Holden #historical #AnneBoleyn #Tudor

#BookReview ‘Murder in Manhattan’ by Verity Bright @BrightVerity #cosymystery #crime

#BookReview ‘The Lost Garden’ by Angela Petch #WW2 #Italy

#BookReview ‘The Burning Grounds’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

Great Opening Paragraph 145… ‘According to Queeney’ by Beryl Bainbridge #amreading #FirstPara

#BookReview ‘The Rose Field’ by Philip Pullman @PhilipPullman #BookofDust #Lyra #fantasy

#BookReview ‘The Monogram Murders’ by Sophie Hannah @sophiehannahCB1 #crime #mystery #Poirot

#BookReview ‘The Wanton Road’ by JC Harvey @JCollissHarvey #historical #EnglishCivilWar

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: