Reading in March

 Here we are - March's books.

Reyna Favis, Soul Scent: A return to this intriguing supernatural series, with Fia and Zackie trying to help souls to a peaceful afterlife, and encountering murders on the way, some more recent than others. The final scenes are weird but wonderful. Favis has created a whole logical world of the hereafter and how we might deal with it.

William McIlvanney, Laidlaw: I’ve come to McIlvanney very late, I know, and I think it’s because I saw it as the darker side of Taggart, which I still think it is. Laidlaw is a remarkably depressing and depressive character, but redeemed by his desire to do things right and make the world a better place in the face of what he sees as ruin and corruption. The prose is almost overwritten for a police procedural of this time, but beautifully done. It’s just a bit unrelenting. What’s extraordinary is that writing of this quality is seen as the father of all Tartan Noir – not all of its children are of anywhere near this quality. Just occasionally it tips into being overdone, but mostly it’s a delight, despite the dark setting and tragic events.

Wendy H. Jones, Killer’s Cross: A breezy, pacy police procedural without too much of the technological detail and a good deal of banter. Strong-willed Shona is battling multiple murder once again as someone leaves bodies dressed in clerical gear arranged around Dundee. Full of energy and action!

Jodi Taylor, White Silence (Elizabeth Cage series): I had to stop reading this several times just to go away and recover. Exciting, traumatic, funny, alarming, full of suspense and ‘whom can she trust now?’ thrill. I went off to the next one as soon as I could deal with my seesawing emotions! I’ve devoured three of these in a row, and am delighted to hear that a fourth one is on its way. They are thrillers and mysteries, and if they sometimes seem episodic it all has a purpose – hang on in there! And the relationship between Jones and Cage is wonderfully drawn. Read everything Taylor has written, but definitely read these.

J.D. Kirk, One for the Ages: We’ve a new and dreadful character here, Tammi-Jo, who would be almost unbearable if it were not for the compassion with which she’s drawn. She and Tyler together would drive anyone to drink. But this book as usual manages a happy marriage between the excruciatingly funny and the tremendously touching, via all kinds of action, violence and upset. I hope we haven’t seen the last of the team.

Laura Lippman, Baltimore Blues: This is a good read: the heroine is an out of work journalist, pretending to herself that she’s getting on with her life, when her friend and fellow rower is accused of murdering someone who was apparently having an affair with his girlfriend. I wouldn't sympathise with all the main character does, and you couldn’t call this a love song to Baltimore, but the setting works well and the plot skips along with some interesting characters along the way – almost nothing is as it seems. 

Douglas Skelton, An Honourable Thief: I’d been looking forward to this as I like the author’s contemporary work, but I wondered if this was a bit of jumping on the historical crime bandwagon. I found this a bit overdone at the start, though there was plenty of excitement and suspense to draw the reader in and maybe no need for the ‘I’ve done all this research and you’re darn well going to see it even if you don’t make it beyond the second chapter’ feel. Quite a generous and bloody body count by ten percent in, too. Slightly surprised that Flynt is such a successful card player when everyone seems to read his slightest expression. Wonderful portrayal of the Edinburgh mob and how they might come about. Some rather anachronistic expressions, particularly when Flynt’s father comes over all supportive, or the City Guard sergeant tells his men they have ‘something of a situation’. I had to struggle to read to the end, but maybe it was me: I just couldn’t find any of the characters that engaging. It won't stop me going back to his contemporary fiction, though.

Femi Kayode, Lightseekers: I saw this author speak at Granite Noir in, I think, 2021, bought the book, then for some reason the cover put me off. I finally started it and was drawn straight in – my only qualm was the present tense and, occasionally, how events in the past were handled grammatically. Picky picky! The setting is fascinating – the huge country of Nigeria, and a necklace killing in a university town where students and locals have been on edgy terms for several generations. Reading this alongside Skelton’s An Honourable Thief provides a bit of insight into crowd violence, as well as some contemporary thoughts as to whether or not, or up to what point, a university has a duty of care to its legally adult students. Going to have to go and read more about the Biafran War now, though. A complex plot, with some very odd characters – and a potential set-up for a sequel. Interesting read.

Angela Thirkell, Cheerfulness Breaks In: A book with its humour so tongue in cheek it’s a wonder the words come out at all. Wonderfully long meandering sentences accompany the account of the wedding of Rose, spoilt rotten and quite horrible though beautiful, with Lieutenant Fairweather, who seems the only person likely to be able to deal with her. It’s hard to tell what the actual plot is for we wander from character to character, but there is always someone to like and the style is so pleasantly gossipy that we don’t mind that we can’t remember the significance of someone’s brother-in-law being married to the Dean’s second daughter. I don’t think it really matters. But it’s very funny and of its time, the outbreak of the Second World War. The ending is abrupt, and has sent me scurrying for a sequel, though I think I would have read more anyway.

Hippolyta VII, A Day for Death, is about 4/5 drafted and is going horribly! However, A Vengeful Harvest, first in the Second World War Alec Cattanach series, is now out for preorder, which I hope is some consolation ...

A Vengeful Harvest - preorder now!

 Here we are!

Two serious road accidents, a fire in the wrong place, and a declaration of war on Germany: Alec Cattanach, of the Aberdeen City Police, has had better weeks. But it will only grow worse – a woman goes missing. The answers seem to be in her past – but who can tell him what that past was? Someone has lit a touchpaper, and now all Cattanach can do is wait for the explosion.

Preorder here!

Mailing list

 Oops, forgot to say that the newsletter came out on Friday (I was running to catch up!), so if you didn't get it and the accompanying short story, and were expecting to, let us know at contact@kellascatpress.co.uk!

Preorder link for the first Alec Cattanach book coming very soon!

February's books - not quite as late as usual!

Just the one month's reading this time, and as usual a bit of a hotchpotch - some of it stimulated by a reading challenge!

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Kath Middleton, Old Haunts: Another lovely read from Middleton – emotion, suspense, laughter, kindness, characters you want to spend time with and memories that haunt you. A delight.

Carl Ashmore, The Time Huntersand the Box of Eternity: This is a book for about twelve to fourteen year olds (very roughly) but it’s very entertaining for anyone to read. Becky and Joe have an uncle, Percy, who travels in time, along with a bunch of his cronies, and when the children go to stay with him they become involved in his adventures. The over-arching plot is that the villain has been instrumental, apparently, in 'losing’ their father somewhere in time, and uncle and his friends are trying to find him and rescue him. Pirates, parrots and zombie sharks, and a guest appearance by Al Capone – why not?

Quentin Bates, Cold Steal: This is the second I’ve read in this series, and they have a sort of sensible, unsensational tone as Gunna, the detective, just gets on with life and the random things it throws at her – like murders, office rivalries, and unplanned grandchildren. In crime fiction terms they’re what I would call trad, neither cosy nor noir. This maybe doesn’t sound like a great advert but there’s something very real and solid about them that I like a great deal.

Marco Vichi, Death in Florence (trans. Steven Sartarelli): Written in the 1960s this is quite dated in some ways (attitudes to forensics, women, smoking and litter, for example), and focuses on the violent death of a young boy, so there’ll be many who won’t want to read this anyway. The main character is constantly struck by memories of the war in which he served, and by waves of depression and loneliness, and this is the Florence of the locals, not the tourists. However, there is a great description of the great 1966 flood breaking the banks of the Arno and its aftermath, and like pretty much every crime novel I’ve read set in Italy there are reflections on the state of the nation and its addiction to corruption. The crime is a particularly nasty one. This seems to be the last in this short series – not sure if I would go back and read the others or not.

Rhys Dylan, The Engine House: I was disappointed to find that this was mostly in the present tense. However, the story starts well even if there’s that fairly common theme of ‘guess what’s wrong with the policeman’ that’s happening these days. Two bodies turn up on a Welsh coastal path, dragging a retired policeman back into a cold case that he always hoped he would solve. The plot is unexpected and very good, and I’ll probably read on in the series.

Denzil Meyrick, For Any Other Truth: I’d slightly lost track of this series, not sure why, but it was easy to slip back in with sarky Scott and ancient Hamish and the others in Kinloch. The boss’s past is trying to catch up on her again and a very odd aeronautical accident is keeping the police busy when someone they’re all very fond of disappears.

Louise Penny, The Brutal Telling: It’s hard, I think, to describe these books without making them sound cosy, but they’re really not. Yes, the setting is usually a beautiful, charming village called Three Pines, full of wonderful food, delightful scenery and barking eccentrics. Yes, the main detective is happily married. But there is an extraordinary depth to the stories and the characters, and you find yourself coming back to the series again and again to see another layer peeled gently away, to find another pain, another tragedy, another secret, and to learn from it and feel that you and the characters grow in strength and wisdom together. But Penny is not above humour, either – or indeed a nice Shakespearean allusion – a couple who moved to the village and had a son called Havoc. ‘And once there, they’d created Havoc. ‘Havoc!’ his mother cried, letting the dogs slip out as she called into the woods.’

I've  been very busy finishing A Vengeful Harvest, the first in the Alec Cattanach series set in Second World War Aberdeen, and getting back into Hippolyta VII, A Day for Death, which is now almost half-written. Cover reveals coming soon!

Books in December and January

 It's not my intention to keep doubling up months! Those of you who follow me on Facebook will know I've been busy - more below on that topic, but here's my reading for December and January.

Cecilia Peartree, Pamela Prendergast and the Fatal Accident: the latest from an author I love, but the first in what I believe is to be a new series. This is not quite as whimsical as her Pitkirtly series but it does start with a recently widowed woman being presented by a stranger with two dogs, just as she is moving house to Cramond. The setting plays quite a part in the book and the plot is constantly intriguing. It might be borderline cosy, I suppose. Pamela is an interesting character, quite resourceful, and her new friends are equally appealing.

Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance: It’s a long time since I read one of this series, and a long time since this was written, back in the time of the Great Depression in the 1920s. Perhaps some of the attitudes of the characters are a little dated, but it’s a clever tale with its own excitements and amusements, and the narrator, Archie Goodwin, is entertaining particularly in his relationship with the lead detective, Nero Wolfe.

Neil Lancaster, The Blood Tide: I was distracted from a good plot by the number of typos, mostly missing speech marks, but another riproaring plot and great action, with a touch of humour for one’s sanity.

Vaseem Khan, The Dying Day: ‘She hesitated. Should she trust him? He was a writer, and in her experience writers could rarely be relied upon for their discretion. Any number of them had wandered through the Wadia Book Emporium over the years: novice writers seeking inspiration, failed writers in their cups, and renowned authors launching their latest bestsellers. On the whole, she liked them, but trust – that was a different matter.’ What an excellent book – a proper puzzle in the tradition of the great detective writers, but with such a good setting in 1950s Bombay. And how lovely to see a redemption of the swastika symbol that the Nazis took and spoiled, or at least a lament for its passing. Persis Wadia is a wonderful heroine, and her relations with the misfits in her office, and in her home, are wonderfully portrayed. I like this series more and more.

Peter Boland, The Charity Shop Detective Agency: Thoroughly cosy, this is great fun but the plot is tight and clever, too. I haven’t worked in a charity shop but have friends who do and this rings quite true. Full of eccentrics but sympathetic and entertaining.

Elly Griffiths, Bleeding Heart Yard: Once again I forgive the author for writing in the present tense. I have to with hers – they’re so good, so resoundingly human, and witty and observant. I love this new series, and while I had slight misgivings about Harbinder moving to London I’m enjoying seeing it through her eyes.

Sharon Penman, Dragon’s Lair: This starts off with the same promise as the others, even if there’s a touch too much switching of points of view for my sanity. But the scenes in Wales are well done, and the plot works well for me. I bought these three books as a box set, and though it has taken me a while to get through them, each time I settle down to read I enjoy them very much.

Carol McKay, White Spirit: I didn’t much warm to the main character, even though he was a useful example of someone being diagnosed with Addison’s. This is an interesting police procedural though it didn’t have much of a Scottish feel – could have been set anywhere, for the most part. But it was published in a good cause, and the story was sound.

Mark Richards, Salt in the Wounds: There’s a slightly muddly style to this, nipping back and forth from past to present and also into possible present, and I spent quite a bit of time rereading pages trying to work out what had actually happened. The setting is good, as the detective (an ex-copper) has come home to Whitby with his teenage daughter after the death of his wife. Whitby is fine but I felt I’d met the ex-copper a few times recently, one way and another. Still, his local connexions make for some interesting relationships, including with his loathsome brother-in-law, the actual cop investigating the death of his old friend and determined to put the blame on the best friend’s lovely wife.

  

Trevor Wood: One Way Street and Dead End Street: The second and third in this trilogy - it's rare for me to go straight on to a sequel after reading a book, but these are so strongly written and the characters so engaging that I had to. I think the author is wise to leave it as a trilogy, but what a trilogy - really good.

Alison O'Leary, Christmas Cat Blues: Ah, these lovely cats and this lovely family! A treat for Christmas, and a decent length, too - but not so Christmassy you can't read it any other time of the year.

Lesley Kelly, Songs by Dead Girls: The second in this extraordinary series about peri-pandemic Edinburgh, written before the pandemic. It's clever and funny and a very convincing world - if you haven't read these, you really should!

Dick Francis, Slay Ride: I haven't read a Dick Francis in years so I went looking for a cheap ebook of one I haven't read, and was pleased to find Slay Ride, set mostly in Norway. I love Norway so this was a bonus, and the mixture was much the same as before - horse racing, crime, learning some new things, some slightly dated romantic encounters. When I read ebooks I tend to read several at once, 10% of each of them. I was amused to find that I read this one just as I would have read a paperback Dick Francis years ago - straight through. Quick and entertaining, though not as many horses as usual.

Nikki Copleston, The Price of Silence: A prequel to other books in the series, this is an excellent mystery where no one is quite what they seem. It's a good series, police procedural with sound characters and plenty of interest.

Dale H. Lehman, The Fibonacci Murders: Clever plot, interesting characters that could carry a series well, maybe a touch short but a good read.

Right, well, I was about a quarter of the way through the seventh book in the Hippolyta series when I was interrupted, and ended up instead writing A Vengeful Harvest. The first draft was finished yesterday, so now for the edit! 

It's set in Aberdeen just at the outbreak of the Second World War, and the detective is the quiet and thoughtful Inspector Alec Cattanach, sorting out the puzzles of two nasty lorry crashes. More information to follow!

Reading in - oh my! September to November!

Oh, dear, with all the preorders and things I haven't posted any reviews for ages! No wonder I seem to have a backlog on my review file ...

Anyway, here we go: no pictures this month as I'm pressed for time, but just click on the links!

Anna Penrose, The Body in the Wall: I liked the older main character and the setting very much, enhanced by the fact that the author lives in a similar place and runs a bookshop just like the main character. And we’re tantalised by the main character’s criminal record – something for which she was jailed but which she would do again! As the plot builds and the police inspector grows ever more annoying, the main character is more and more sympathetic and the story more enjoyable. And who could not love a book with a swimming cat called Mackerel?

Ben Aaronovitch, Tales from the Folly: A collection of short stories that smacks of being all the bits he had lying around unpublished, but nonetheless fun. As he has carefully pinpointed where they belong in the series – or outside it – it was good to revisit those parts of the over-arching narrative, and for some reason it really highlighted the foxes, which I shall enjoy going back to. Clever things, foxes.

Chris Longmuir, Web of Deceit: I enjoy this author’s historical mysteries, too, but really enjoy her contemporary police procedurals set in Dundee, with their closely woven over-arching plot concerning Teasers Nightclub. This one is a lovely portrayal of people over-confident on the outside and terrified inside, and the misunderstandings that occur when people assume they are the centre of attention. Lovely.

Sharon Penman, The Queen’s Man: It took a few goes for me to get into this but I think this was probably my fault, not the book’s, for this time it gripped me very nicely. I liked the portrayal of the aging Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the story sits fairly easily in its historical setting with just a few anachronisms and a good atmosphere. The hero becomes likeable quite quickly and his social discomforts were sympathetically portrayed. There are heaps of fascinating historical details and some good action – and a very endearing dog, which all helps!

Sharon Penman, Cruel as the Grave: It would be wise, I think, to read these from the start, but the over-arching plot of Justin doing his bit for Queen Eleanor has a counterpoint here in an investigation of the death of a young woman assaulted in a churchyard. Justin’s new friends in Cheapside assume he will help them and indeed he does, bringing his expert colleagues in to sort out the mystery. There are very occasional modern clunks here: mostly the plot runs smoothly and one can abandon oneself to the twelfth century very convincingly.

Andrew Raymond, The Bonnie Dead: Rather grim start – a serial killer has been abducting children. He has vanished for a while, and now seems to have reappeared, and the police officer who devoted his career to catching him is brought back from Ultima Thule (or Paisley) to help with the case. Not many laughs here to relieve the tension, but it does build well and the final scenes are very exciting, with a satisfying ending. Glasgow is subtly portrayed and nicely done. This is a new writer to me and I might well go for another one.

JD Kirk, Here Lie the Dead: While I like the Hoon books I sort of wish he had not barged his way back into this series: he’s just a bit too much of a loose cannon amongst the delicate balance of Dave, Hamza, Tyler, Sinead and Ben. Setting him aside, the case is an interesting one and of course I enjoyed the ghastly wedding party, almost too easy to loathe.

Alex Scarrow, Old Bones, New Bones: I meant to come back to this series earlier, having enjoyed the first one in both setting (Hastings) and character (bereaved but not too traumatised Boyd and his nice daughter and dog, and the team). There’s a reality to the injuries, if you know what I mean – even in book 2 he’s still remembering his ear injury from book 1. The plot here was good, too, a serial killer mystery, and if the ending was not altogether a surprise it was still very well done, with a nice little postscripty bit that just gave the flourish to the book.

S.G. McLean, The Bookseller of Inverness: It’s very difficult not to picture Leakey’s bookshop as I read this. It took me just a little while to get into it (my fault, I fear), then we were off, in a very realistic 18^th century Inverness with all kinds of interesting characters. A really excellent book, full of pace and action and sense of history.

Alex Walters, Human Assets: I’ve got to the stage where I preorder Alex Walters’ books even if I don’t know which series they belong to – and this turned out to be a standalone, which pulled me in straight away with a death on an allotment (always a risk). With the follow-up apparent suicide of a Cambridge student, only son of an angry police officer, we suddenly fall into the world of espionage and mystery, and it’s not clear who, if anyone, is on the side of the angels and who is just unbearably naive.

Olga Wojtas, Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Weird Sisters: This has to be the best of the series yet – a take-off of the Scottish Play with some really hilarious jokes – I did like the witch with the hair, which made me think of the crime author in question before her name was even mentioned. Frank is one of those characters that has the reader shouting ‘Oi! Pay attention!’ to our heroine – and makes a lovely cat.

Cecilia Peartree, It’s a Long Way from Pitkirtly: I was made slightly anxious by the title, as I love Pitkirtly, but I need not have feared – in short order most of the gang are settling in by Loch Rannoch, and chaos follows. ‘Was his inner monologue starting to sound like Amaryllis? He fervently hoped not.’ Loved it as always.

M.J. Lee, Where the Dead Fall: Well plotted and a good read, but he needs to take more care of his health and his family! The whole opening set-up is excellent and is followed through very well.

M.J. Lee, The Irish Inheritance: It’s difficult, to start with, to like anyone much in this – they all seem uncharitable. But the mystery is intriguing. How does a man come to appear on a child’s birth certificate seven years after his own death? I think this is an older book than some of this author’s, and the writing is not as crisp and accurate as the later series, but it does draw one in.

Jason Vail, Bag of Bones: I do enjoy this series set in and around Brother Cadfael’s books, as it were – the right historical period and close geographically, but never actually touching. Here I was a bit thrown by Simon de Montfort being referred to as Montfort, rather than the more usual de Montfort, but the rest was sound and great fun.

David Gatward, Corpse Road: Marks for ‘disorientated’ instead of ‘disoriented’! I was quite upset by the murder, because I felt so sorry for the victim, but the setting and plot are as engaging as ever, and the team are growing together. Jim is excellent, and Fly is of course wonderful. Looking forward to the next one.

J.D. Kirk, Southpaw: violent start, but where’s the surprise in that? This one is brutal, though, and the follow-up, Westward, is just the same, with a continuation of the over-arching plot. Southpaw has a satisfying conclusion, though, despite the carry-over into Westward. Full marks for mentioning Queen Camel – I’ve spent a lot of time in Somerset and that’s one of the places that pings memories for me. Then up to Westward proper, and a good rural landscape, and we have elements of Skyfall, with some more laughs.

Alison O’Leary, Summer CatBlues: There was more time away from the cats in this one but plenty spent with Carlos and his adopted family, and enough menace from the baddies to chill a bit. I love this series, which is not as cute as the titles would imply – a hefty helping of reality for an apparently cosy book.

And here? Well, I'd started the next Hippolyta, then had to stop to do the first 10,000 of something else that I was going to start in January anyway, and now probably won't be able to start till April, so once I've finished the Hippolyta I might have start what I was going to start in April ... or I'll just go and have a cup of tea and sit in the corner for a bit and consider the world ...