📖 Book Review ~ Rachel's Story by Leigh Russell

Bloodhound Books
April 2021

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book

In a world where food is scarce, the government rules, and ordinary people only exist to serve, can there ever be happiness?

As a child, living in a post-apocalyptic world, the only person Rachel can rely on is her mother. But when her mother is killed, Rachel is initiated into The Programme where selected young girls are medicated to make them fertile.

Fearing for her future, Rachel escapes. But freedom comes at a price and Rachel must navigate through a terrifying landscape of persecution to survive.

What is on the other side of the city wall? Will the repressive government hunt her down? One thing is certain. Rachel’s world will never be the same again..

My thoughts..

After a World Famine, Rachel's Story takes us into a post-apocalyptic world, where Guardians roam the streets and to be found without your food card is tantamount to a death sentence, for food is scarce in this new world and the pills, which maintain a healthy weight, are only given if you can show you have the right credentials. Being part of a mass underclass, Rachel and her mother eke out a meagre existence, but life is never safe, and when tragedy strikes, Rachel is moved into a facility known as The Programme, a sinister place where young females are medically reared to be fertile, in a world where fertility is compromised.

What then follows is a well written dystopian story which cleverly weaves two worlds together, that of the sinister world of The Guardians, and that of the shadowy exiles who follow a more clandestine existence. Rachel finds herself going from one world, to another, and it is this transition which the author explores in interesting detail. Creating a dystopian world isn't easy but I think the author has succeeded in bringing this strange place to life, and with Rachel as her lead protagonist we can travel alongside her as she strives to survive in a cruel world.

Dystopian fiction is a real change of direction for this talented author, who we are more used to seeing as the author of crime fiction, however, I think she has succeeded in creating a believable post-apocalyptic world,  and over time, as the series continues, I am sure we will see it go from strength to strength.

About the Author

Leigh Russell has written twenty-four novels so far, and her Geraldine Steel crime series has sold over a million copies. In addition to her crime series featuring detective Geraldine Steel, Leigh has written two trilogies and two stand alone psychological thrillers. Rachel’s Story is her first dystopian novel. Leigh chairs the judging panel for the Crime Writers Association’s prestigious Debut Dagger Award, and is a Consultant Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund.

Click here to read an interview with Leigh Russell as she talks about Rachel's story.

Twitter @LeighRussell

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Amazon

Author Guest Post ~ Leigh Russell

 

I am delighted to welcome Leigh Russell to the blog to share her guest post

about writing her latest novel, Rachel's Story

 WHY WE WRITE

What on earth could prompt a crime writer to turn her hand to dystopian fiction? That’s the question readers have been asking me since the publication of RACHEL’S STORY, my twenty-fourth book and my first dystopian novel. It’s a question I struggle to answer. After my debut crime novel CUT SHORT was published, I recall being asked why I had written a crime novel, and I struggled to explain my motivation for writing about a murderer.

For me, ‘wanting to write’ was never an issue. The stories just worked themselves into my imagination and I wrote them down, with no idea where they came from. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tells Scout that the only way to understand another person is to ‘climb into his skin and walk around in it’. As authors we do this all the time with our characters, but I prefer not to try and analyse my ability to ‘climb into the skin’ of so many killers. All I can say is that my debut crime novel must have been written when I was feeling angry.

Whatever drove me to start writing, like many writers I didn’t set out to look for a story to write; our stories find us. So I never intended to write a dystopian novel, just as I never planned to be a crime writer. In fact, I had no serious ambitions to be a published author until I started to write. And it all began with a story.

My detective, Geraldine Steel, continues investigating murder cases in the fictional world she inhabits, just as my life has continued in the real world. But a little over a year ago all of our lives changed as we were struck down by covid. There was some discussion among writers and readers about how much the real world situation would impact on our stories. Many authors felt unable to dismiss what was happening, but I made a decision straight away to ignore the pandemic in my books. For me, fiction offers an escape from the anxieties, the challenges, and the chores of real life. Not only did I decide not to focus on the pandemic, I didn’t even want to think about it while I was writing. So Geraldine Steel continues to conduct her murder investigations in the world we once knew as normal. Hopefully we will return to that normality very soon.

But our experiences and our inner lives creep into our writing in unexpected ways, and while I continued ignoring the pandemic in my crime novels, I found myself writing a dystopian novel. The darkness in the world where Rachel lives is perhaps a reflection of our communal experience, as we struggled to adapt and survive through lockdown with our lives more or less intact. Many people lost loved ones, many lost their livelihoods. We will come through this global crisis battle scarred and bereft.

One effect of lockdown on my own life was that it gave me more time to read. Genre has never defined my reading. I read widely, irrespective of genre or period, through romance to fantasy, crime to saga, historical novels and those books which defy categorisation. I’ve never considered myself a fan of dystopian fiction. Yet many books which have made a lasting impression on me fall into that category. Authors who spring to mind include George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Aldous Huxley, Nevil Shute, John Wyndham, Ray Bradbury, PD James, Anthony Burgess, HG Wells, RC Sheriff... I could go on.

Dystopian fiction is, above all, fiction of ideas. In creating dystopian worlds, writers invite us to speculate about ourselves and our own world. So in 1984 Orwell is not just creating a fantasy about the future, and in his novel On the Beach, Nevil Shute is not merely speculating about a world after a nuclear holocaust. The best dystopian fiction writers explore where dangers inherent in society in the real world could lead us. They might have been writing at almost any point during the past hundred years, but many of the dangers they foresaw continue to threaten us today. Some, have even explored the effects of a pandemic.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that I wrote my first dystopian novel as we were living in lockdown. I never planned to become a crime writer. Now, thanks to Rachel, I am also a dystopian novelist.

Bloodhound Books
6 April 2021

In a world where food is scarce, the government rules and ordinary people only exist to serve, can there ever be happiness?

As a child, living in a post-apocalyptic world, Rachel is initiated into The Programme where selected young girls are medicated to make them fertile.

Fearing for her future, Rachel escapes. But freedom comes at a price, as she learns when she joins the outcasts struggling to survive beyond the city walls.

Amazon UK

The Geraldine Steel series is published by No Exit Press.

More about Leigh 

Leigh Russell has written twenty-four novels so far, and her Geraldine Steel crime series has sold over a million copies. In addition to her crime series featuring detective Geraldine Steel, Leigh has written two trilogies and two stand alone psychological thrillers. Rachel’s Story is her first dystopian novel. Leigh chairs the judging panel for the Crime Writers Association’s prestigious Debut Dagger Award, and is a Consultant Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund.

Twitter @LeighRussell

Website

Facebook

Review ~ Killer Plan by Leigh Russell

No Exit Press
May 2015

When Caroline Robinson accidentally bumps into an old school acquaintance in the local park, both she and Brian share confidences about their respective partners which really they have no business sharing. Inevitably, one thing leads to another and before too long both Caroline and Brian are involved in a tragedy of epic proportions. For DI Geraldine Steel, the murder mystery at the heart of the novel comes a-calling rather too close to home and the eventual outcome tests, not just, Geraldine's skill as a police officer, but also calls into question her professional judgement, which could, all too easily, have developed into an unmitigated disaster.

I found the idea of the story interesting and felt that it could have been quite riveting were it not for the fact that I found the writing to be irritatingly disjointed in places. As the story progresses the plot seems to become increasingly implausible and, if I'm brutally honest, more than a little farcical in places. And yet, I actually rather liked the premise of the story and wanted to read on to find how the story would eventually pan out.

I do rather enjoy the Geraldine Steel Mystery series and have now read several. Each story stands on its own merits and it’s easy to pick up the back story should you come across a book in the middle of the series run. However, I'm not convinced that this is the best one I've read, but it’s hugely entertaining, just as long as you don’t want anything too complex or gritty.

My thanks to No Exit Press and Real Readers for my review copy of this book to read in advance of its May publication.

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Review ~ Race to Death by Leigh Russell

Paperback to be published
24 September 2014
No Exit Press
Available now on Kindle

Race to Death, begins with a suspicious death at York Racecourse, which, for newly promoted DI Ian Peterson, starts a convoluted crime search. For Peterson, lately transferred to York CID, not only has to cope with a new detective team, but also with a crime scene which offers little in the way of clues or explanation. What then follows is a convoluted and complicated crime story which uses the initial crime scene as a starting block for other more complicated deaths. For Peterson and his team, there seems little correlation between the crimes but gradually truths are exposed and strands start to come together.

I enjoyed the story, it’s an easy read and yet the twist and turns are complex and well crafted and there are more than enough red herrings to keep you guessing until the end. The characterisation is particularly well done and I liked the way story started to piece together with just enough tension to keep the momentum alive. The ending of the story left everything nicely wrapped up but with the added promise of more to come from DI Peterson.

There is no doubt that the author is an accomplished crime writer, she has already had a successful run with her Geraldine Steel series of crime novels. It is interesting, now, to see her turn her attention to Ian Peterson who for so long worked in Steel’s shadow as her detective sergeant. In this, his own series, DI Peterson is newly promoted and transferred from London to York. His wife Bev, also gets more of a starring role, and as she learns to cope with living in a new town  we get more of her personality, and start to piece together the dynamics of them as a couple.

This is the second book in the DI Ian Peterson series, and whilst it is more enjoyable to start the series at the beginning, it is by no means essential as the author provides enough clues to able to pick up the finer points of the back story.

My thanks to Real Readers and No Exit Press for my review copy of Race to Death.

About the Author

Book 1 ~ Cold Sacrifice
available on Amazon.co.uk 




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