Review ~ The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

Friday Recommended Read

Penguin Group Viking

30 May 2013

The Bookman’s Tale opens in 1995, and introduces us to antiquarian book expert Peter Byerly, who has recently relocated from America to the English countryside after the untimely death of his wife, Amanda.  In an antiquarian book shop in Hay-on-Wye, Peter stumbles across a rare book about forgeries; he is bewildered when a watercolour portrait hidden in the book seems to resemble his dead wife. What then follows is the story of how Peter’s search to discover more about the mysterious Victorian watercolour leads him into the bewildering world of William Shakespeare’s lost works.

The mystery at the heart of the story is cunningly manipulated and the twists and turns in the plot are cleverly contrived. However, the real attraction is that this is a book for book lovers, as the description of the conservation and love of books as desirable objects of beauty really comes shining through, and makes you realise the aesthetic value of rare literary masterpieces. The narrative switches effortlessly between three time frames; 1995 and Peter’s search for the truth, 1985 and his courtship and early marriage to his beloved Amanda, and even further back to the Elizabethan world of William Shakespeare.

Beautifully written from start to finish, this is one of those stories that deserves to do really well. I really enjoyed it.

More about Charlie Lovett

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for my digital copy of this book to review.

Review ~ Toby's Room by Pat Barker

Penguin (7 Feb 2013)

The story opens in 1912, and in the idyllic setting of the English countryside Elinor and Toby Brooke share a dark secret.Their intense brother and sister relationship is made all the more poignant five years later when Toby is declared missing believed killed in WW1.

Using her contacts at the Slade School of Art, Elinor is determined to find out the truth behind Toby's disappearance. Her search will take her from the battlefields of northern France, to the pioneering work of the surgeons who strive to repair shattered faces in the aftermath of devastating injuries.

Whilst Toby's Room can be read an a standalone story , my view is that it is beneficial to read Life Class first, as the characters do overlap, and the dénouement makes more sense if you have proper knowledge of the characters.

Pat Barker obviously knows and loves this period and writes with such conviction, that the characters live on in your imagination, even after the last page is turned.

2007

Author Spotlight ~ Bee Ridgway

Photo by kind permission of the author

Bee Ridgway

Author of

The River of No Return

Published by Michael Joseph
23 May 2013

1812: On a lonely battlefield in Spain, twenty-two year old Lord Nicholas Falcott is about to die . . . run through by a French Dragoon. But, the next moment, he inexplicably jumps forward in time, nearly two hundred years - very much alive. Taken under the wing of a mysterious organisation, The Guild, he receives everything he could ever need under the following conditions: 

He can’t go back. He can’t go home. He must tell no one.

Resigned to his fate, Nicholas rebuilds his life in the twenty-first century, until ten years later, when an exquisite wax sealed envelope brings a summons from The Guild. It seems for a select few the rules can be broken and Nicholas is forced to return to and confront his nineteenth century past . . .

Back in 1815, Julia Percy’s world has fallen apart. Her enigmatic grandfather, the Earl of Darchester, has died and left her with a closely guarded secret, one she is only now discovering - the manipulation of time.

Hiding dark secrets and facing danger from unknown enemies, Julia and Nicholas are drawn to each other, as together they start to realise how little Julia knew about her beloved grandfather and to understand his ominous last words . . .

‘Pretend.’

Bee was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a parsonage made from three stuck-together old cottages. She then attended Oberlin College, worked for a year in features at Elle Magazine, and went on to Cornell for a doctoral degree in English literature. After several years spent chasing research materials and true love around the UK, she settled down to teach American literature at Bryn Mawr College. Bee lives with her partner in Philadelphia. The River of No Return is her first novel.

Bee - welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions.

Where did you get the inspiration for The River of No Return? 

I’ve always been fascinated by time travel, and I loved the children’s time travel books I read. THE DARK IS RISING series is incredible, and still haunts my imagination. A WRINKLE IN TIME, of course, and TOM’S MIDNIGHT GARDEN, to name just a few. When I was in graduate school I became addicted to Georgette Heyer, and across the years that I lived in the UK I used to haunt the charity shops (this was before the new rule where they’ll only sell newish books, confound them). I collected fabulous PAN paperbacks of all of her regencies. So time travel and Regency capers go together for me in terms of the kinds of literature I enjoy when I want to just drift away with a great book! But for this particular novel, the idea really just came to me like a bolt from the blue. I was in Vermont, in the house where I imagine Nick waking up from the bad dream in the first chapter of the novel. I was looking out the window on a moonlit winter night, down the hill and across the driveway to a beaver pond that was glowing in the moonlight. And suddenly there the idea for the book was. Or rather, there Nick was. It really was as if he walked in to my house, shook my hand, and said, “Hello, I am a time-traveling aristocrat and I’m in a pickle. I need you to help me figure it out, so if you don’t mind terribly much, let’s get to work!”


Where did your research for the book take you? 

Everywhere. I’m an academic and my field is 19th century literature, so I already had a background in the material I was engaging. But fiction making is a very different beast than scholarship. I found myself looking at endless images of the places I was describing, of the clothing, the hairstyles. I also read through piles of primary documents pertaining to the political kerfuffle that catches up my main character. But the most fun research I did was in working out how to weave in the dozens of fragments of writing from other authors that I worked into my own prose. I wanted the writing itself to have a sense of time travel in it – so I buried citations throughout the book. I don’t want the reader to notice them, but I’d like my reader to have a somewhat uncanny sense of the depth and strangeness of time as she reads. I hoped that weaving these other voices from the past throughout the book might achieve that.


Time slip novels must be tricky to write - how did you control the narrative, or did the narrative ever control you? 

I wrote the novel in three major stages. In the first stage, the time travel was fairly simple. The idea of traveling on streams of emotion was there, but it wasn’t fully developed. Then, once I was working with an agent (the immortal and fabulous Alexandra Machinist), I went in and really turned up the volume on the problem of the Guild, the brotherhood that controls time travel. I had to do quite a bit of development on the idea of how time travel works. Then, when the novel sold and I had editors (one for the US and one for the UK), I cracked the into several pieces and rebuilt it from the inside out. At that point the problem of the future entered the story, and the novel gained the ominous character named Mr. Mibbs. It was then that I had to really map out the idea and make sure that it worked all the way through. In other words, the idea got more and more complicated with every revision. By the end I felt that I had really invented a new fictional world. It was very satisfying. 

What makes you want to write historical fiction? 

My teaching and my research keeps me in the 18th and 19th centuries. For all that I live in the present and lead a very contemporary life (I would never want to live in the past that I study), I feel drawn to the past not in a nostalgic way, but as a sort of looking glass. My novel is historical fiction, but it is also time travel fiction. It is set then . . . and now. My main character, Nick, must negotiate the huge differences between his 21st century self and his 19th century self. The past is a means for him to come to know himself, to make choices about what kind of man he wants to be. And the past should work that way for all of us, I think, even though we can’t actually go there, like Nick can.



And Finally a fun Question – at which event in history would you like to be a fly on the wall and why? 

That’s an incredibly difficult question! There are so many. Obviously if someone said “I can bring you back and show you the Trojan Horse, or Joan of Arc riding into battle, or I can show you the funeral procession for Princess Charlotte,” I would jump at the chance! But I think that rather than events I would want to see places and experience cultures that have been destroyed, or have simply changed beyond recognition. I would like to visit Mexico before the Spanish conquest. The Spanish who first saw it described Tenochtitlan as greater than Rome, greater than any European city they knew or could imagine. In general I would like to see the Americas before the arrival of Europeans.

Listen to Bee talking about The River of No Return

Bee - thank you so much for visiting Jaffareadstoo.

We wish you continued success with your writing career.

http://www.beeridgway.com/  https://www.facebook.com/Bee.Ridgway.Author?ref=ts&fref=ts

https://twitter.com/BeeRidgway / @BeeRidgway

I reviewed an ARC of The River of No Return in February 2013

My review is here 

For Sophie King Fans..

There are now updated editions of Sophie King's books

Photo by kind permission of the author

The School Run,  now contains four extra bonus short stories and ten bonus chapters from two other Sophie King novels; Falling in Love Again (previously published as Divorce for Beginners)

 and 

Love is a Secret (previously published as Mums@Home).

Corazon Books

**

Divorce for Beginners,  now has a new cover and the new title of Falling in Love Again, but it is the same great story as before.

Corazon Books

**

There is a new edition of Sophie's much loved novel Mums@Home. It is a revised and updated edition for 2013, and is now called Love is a Secret.

Corazon Books

**

All are now available on Amazon.co.uk

Happy Reading !

Author spotlight ~ Rachel Abbott

I am delighted

 to welcome

Rachel Abbott

Author 

of

The Back Road

Rachel - thank you for visiting Jaffareadstoo and for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions about your book The Back Road.

Where did you get the idea for The Back Road?




It started off as a novel called “The Catalyst” - a story of (mostly) ordinary people with average secrets and insecurities. I wanted to explore what could happen to a small community and group of friends that might result in their lives being blown apart – exposing the weaknesses, the deceptions and the hidden evil lurking behind a mask of normality.

I had all the ideas for the main characters – the people that you and I might very well know and love (or not). All that I had to work out was the catalyst that would be outside of their control, but which would have maximum impact on the stability of their lives.  That was the tricky part.

In the end I came up with the idea of a young girl, knocked over and left for dead at the side of the road in the middle of the night. Why was she out so late, and where are her shoes? The reader knows that the girl was being pursued, but the police and the villagers have no idea what happened, and a web of lies is created as each character strives to protect their own secrets.

What came first the plot, or the people?


It’s difficult to separate the two in a story like The Back Road. I needed to have characters with flaws, but those flaws were intrinsic to the plot. I suppose I thought of the character flaws and then created the personality that would be likely to make the mistakes that I had allocated to them. Only then could I weave those characters and their mistakes into a plot that would work.

Before I started to piece the plot together though I created very detailed character sheets. I have a page for each of them, which includes an image, details such as their date of birth, what they like to drink, their idea of a good night out, etc – everything that makes each of them a complete person in my head. And then I consider their good points and bad points, plus their secrets, present and past. And of course, each of them has to have a defined role within the story – a plot ‘goal’.

How long did it take you to write the story?


The planning takes a long time. I know that some writers produce two or three books a year – but the plotting of my books can take a couple of months alone. Many years ago I was a systems analyst, and I still can’t do anything as complex as write a thriller without some form of flowchart. I need to know when information is released, and how it all ties in with other plot points.

What I want to avoid at all costs is writing one of those books in which the reader gets to the end and the bad guy is revealed, but there hasn't been a single clue to point to him or her throughout the whole story. I need to write my stories so there is enough evidence for people to think they know what’s going on, but never be quite sure.

Once the planning is complete, I start to write. My books are fairly long – 130,000 words or more. But I write very quickly, because by this point the idea is firmly in my head. I set myself a target of 5000 words a day. Given the speed at which I type, that’s not very many and on a good day I can easily beat that. But I would estimate that the first draft will be finished within two months of starting the actual writing.

The editing goes through several phases – from a first critical pass by my agent, which ultimately results in a couple of weeks of rewrites – to two or three passes with an editor.

From first idea to completed book is about eight months, and will stay that way unless I simplify my plots!

If The Back Road was optioned for a TV drama , who would you like to see play the main roles?


I did a poll on Facebook to ask my readers who they thought should play Tom Douglas. I gave them a range of choices, including Daniel Craig (very low vote), Andrew Lincoln, and Rupert Penry-Jones – amongst others. The winner was Rupert by quite a margin. However, it would have to be the Rupert Penry-Jones of Spooks – a real tough guy with a softer side – rather than the OCD character he displays in Whitechapel.

Minnie Driver would make a perfect Ellie – she has the right sort of voluptuous face (although she’d have to put a bit of weight on).

Leo is really hard to cast. Maybe your readers can help? Leo is slim, long dark hair, and appears distant, arrogant and self-assured (she’s none of those things really). A young Kristen Scott-Thomas without the posh voice would possibly work.

Sean is a younger Sean Bean, and Max is a smiley, British version of Ben Affleck.

Do you write stories for yourself, or other people?


I’m not sure that I know the answer to this question! I write because I want to and I love to. But I am delighted when other people read my books and enjoy them.

My stories are always based around relationships, and are more about the ‘why’ of murder than the ‘who, when and where’. When I write, I always hope that people reading my books will get some insight into the characters, and possibly be able to understand people’s human inadequacies better.

When I wrote my first book, Only the Innocent, it sold amazingly well. It was a tale of an abusive relationship, and I got mad when the odd person commented, “no woman would allow herself to be treated in this way”. I wanted to suggest to the reviewer that they go and work for Samaritans for a month or two, and see if they come back with the same idea. Some people walk around with their eyes shut, and never contemplate how others are feeling. I hope my books make people slightly more aware of what might go on beneath the surface, and why sometimes people might do terrible things for what seem to be the right reasons.


Can you tell us what are you writing next?


It’s quite difficult to say without giving too much away. It’s a story about the lengths people will go to in order to get what they want, and the gradual realisation that somebody that they believe they know well is not who they thought they were.

The protagonist in my next story has to go to extreme lengths to secure a safe future for themselves and their family.

I haven’t written the back cover blurb yet – so anything that I say above this might just act as a spoiler!

Finally for fun....


What books are on your beside table?

I’ve just finished Now You See Me by S J Bolton – great book, and the relationship that is brewing between the two protagonists is so well done - sexual tension without any overt references. It’s very clever.

I’ve just started Little Face by Sophie Hannah. I am very intrigued by the story so far, and really can’t wait to see what’s going to happen. It’s one of those books that, if I wasn’t careful, I would just sit and read from end to end because I so want to know what is going on!

 Only the Innocent and The Back Road. 

 Both books are available on kindle and will be at the amazing price of 99p until the end of May.

http://www.rachel-abbott.com/

It's been a real pleasure to have Rachel in our author spotlight.

Jaffa and I wish you much success with your writing career and can't wait to see what you come up with next.

My Review

This well written and highly addictive psychological thriller opens with a very disturbing scenario, which quickly sets the scene for a dark and sinister story about the evil that lurks in the unexpected.

In the small English village of Little Melham, the main protagonist, Ellie is living with her husband Max and their young children in the idyllic setting of Ellie’s newly converted childhood home. On the surface Ellie has everything she needs, and yet cracks are beginning to appear in her relationships, not just with her husband, but also with her friends. Into the mix comes Leo, Ellie’s damaged half sister, who has her own set of personal demons and whose fear of relationships has made her vulnerable. As a group of friends from the village gather for a dinner party at Ellie’s house, the main topic of conversation is the horror of a recent hit and run accident, which has left a teenager, Abbie, fighting for her life in hospital.

What then follows is a thrilling story of false leads and unexpected twists, as the search for the truth behind Abbie’s accident is gradually revealed, and as neighbour begins to suspect neighbour, the elements of distrust are very often disguised under a blanket of friendliness. The mystery at the heart of the story is cleverly and expertly contrived and the added inclusion of former DCI Tom Douglas from the author’s previous book, Only the Innocent, adds a nice touch of continuity. The pace throughout the book is fast and thrilling and many times throughout the story I thought that I had the perpetrator sussed out, only to be pulled in another direction entirely.

Without doubt Rachel Abbott has written an accomplished and engrossing psychological thriller which I have no hesitation in recommending as a very good read indeed.

5*****

Review - A Murder at Rosamund's Gate by Susanna Calkins

St Martin's Press
23 April 2013

In seventeenth century England, and particularly in Restoration London, life for a chambermaid was one of repetitive drudgery, whilst Lucy Campion accepts this way of life without question, tragedy in the shape of an unexplained murder jolts the household, and Lucy, into a world of suspicion and mistrust. When Lucy starts to become curious and investigates the murder, she is drawn into the disturbing world of the English justice system, which during the restoration period was largely open to conjecture. The accused were nearly always treated as guilty until proven innocent and were left to languish in the direst of prison circumstances.

On the whole, I thought that the novel was well written, there is historical authenticity to the narrative, and the inclusion of the plague and the Great Fire of London into the story, firmly dates the novel into 1665 and 1666. The murder mystery blends well alongside the historical feel of the story, and as Lucy Campion is a feisty heroine there is always something to maintain the reader’s attention.

With impeccable research, Susanna Calkins successfully conveys the sights, sounds and smells of the foul and pestilential streets of Restoration London, a place where cut-throats and street pads rub shoulders with the gentry, and where danger is never very far away.

The final strands of the story are pulled together nicely into a satisfactory conclusion, and there is the tantalising promise of further murder / mystery adventures for Lucy Campion in a continuation of the series. 

4****

My thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an ecopy of this book. 

Review ~ The Offering by Angela Hunt

May 14th 2013 by Howard Books

To maintain financial security for her family, Amanda takes the momentous decision to carry a child for a childless couple in return for money. The decision to become a surrogacy is not taken lightly, and the emotional conflict is all too easy to imagine, as Amanda loves children, and would like a larger family of her own. As the pregnancy progresses, predictably the surrogacy comes with emotional baggage, and Amanda, struggling with devastating personal tragedy, has to make some tough choices.



Whilst the emotive subject matter of the story is interesting enough, I found that I was a little bored with the writing style and despite a certain amount of sympathy for the main characters , I didn’t fully engage with the story as much as I would have liked. It’s not that the writing is bad or the story unsettling, it’s just that I was indifferent to the outcome and didn’t really care enough about the conclusion.



But that’s just my own personal opinion, and I’m sure that the author’s fans will find much to enjoy in the book.

3***

Thanks to NetGalley and Howard Books for the opportunity to read an ecopy of this book.