📖 Book Review~ The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill

 

Vintage
2015

Simon Serrailler #8

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book 

The cathedral town of Lafferton seems idyllic, but in many ways it is just like any other place. As part of the same rapidly changing world, it shares the same hopes and fears, and the same kinds of crime, as any number of towns up and down the land.

When one day DC Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton’s new Chief Constable, Kieron Bright, he is met by four plainclothes officers. He is asked to take the lead role in a complex, potentially dangerous undercover operation and must leave town immediately, without telling anyone – not even his girlfriend Rachel, who has only just moved in with him.

Meanwhile, Simon’s sister Cat is facing difficult choices at work that will test her dedication to the NHS. But an urgent call about her and Simon’s father, Richard, soon presents her with a far greater challenge much closer to home.

To complete his special op, Simon must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal. As the op unfolds, Lafferton is dragged into the sort of case every town dreads. And Simon faces the fight of his life.

📖My Review..

When DC Simon Serrailler is approached by a group of plain clothes officers and asked to take part in an undercover operation to infiltrate a paedophile gang, Serrailler fears that this will be his most challenging case yet, however, he is determined to bring to justice the perpetrators of some truly heinous crimes. With his undercover persona established Serrailler enters into the minds of these deadly criminals whilst at the same time cutting off all contacts with his family thus placing his life in grave danger. With Serrailler away from the family it leaves his sister Cat to deal with some difficult family challenges both in her personal and professional life.

The Soul of Discretion is the eighth book in the Simon Serrailler series and whilst the books may be read out of order, as I have done, it is better to start at the beginning in order to appreciate the character progression. I’m beginning to get to know Simon Serrailler well and enjoy observing how this enigmatic detective sets out to rid the streets of his home town of Lafferton of criminals. Whilst each story is undoubtedly a well plotted crime novel, it is never gratuitously violent and I enjoy how much is explained without too much gory detail.  I also enjoy spending time with the Serrailler family and in this novel we get to learn a little more about Simon’s father whose difficult personality is so often at the root of family problems.

Of all the Serrailler novels I have read to date I think  that The Soul of Discretion has been my favourite and as the story ends with a rather dramatic cliffhanger I look forward to seeing what happens next in book number nine.

🍺Best read with…a glass of strong beer

About the Author

SUSAN HILL has been a professional writer for over fifty years. Her books have won awards and prizes including the Whitbread, the John Llewellyn Rhys and a Somerset Maugham, and have been shortlisted for the Booker. Her novels include Strange Meeting, I'm the King of the Castle, In the Springtime of the Year and The Mist in the Mirror. She has also published autobiographical works and collections of short stories as well as the Simon Serrailler series of crime novels. The play of her ghost story The Woman in Black is one of the longest running in the history of London's West End. In 2020 she was awarded a damehood (DBE) for services to literature. She has two adult daughters and lives in North Norfolk.

Twitter #SusanHill

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📖 Book Review ~ Free Love by Tessa Hadley

 

Vintage
6 January 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

1967. While London comes alive with the new youth revolution, the suburban Fischer family seems to belong to an older world of conventional stability: pretty, dutiful homemaker Phyllis is married to Roger, a devoted father with a career in the Foreign Office. Their children are Colette, a bookish teenager, and Hugh, the golden boy.

But when the twenty-something son of an old friend pays the Fischers a visit one hot summer evening, and kisses Phyllis in the dark garden after dinner, something in her catches fire. Newly awake to the world, Phyllis makes a choice that defies all expectations of her as a wife and a mother. Nothing in these ordinary lives is so ordinary after all, it turns out, as the family's upheaval mirrors the dramatic transformation of the society around them.

📖 My Review ..

Set initially in a quiet, leafy suburb of London we meet the Fischer family, Roger, Phyllis, Colette and Hugh who live a conventional, and unremarkable, life together, that is until homemaker, Phyllis becomes hopelessly infatuated with the son of a family friend. Nick Knight is twenty years her junior and his louche lifestyle is far removed from the middle class respectability which has stifled Phyllis's natural exuberance for far too long.

The setting is reminiscent of a bygone era and the ambiguous sexual morality of the 1960s is juxtaposed alongside the conventionality of middle class suburbia. The country was undergoing great changes, both socially and economically and it was, most certainly, a time of discovery and unconventionality, the old order was gone and a new 'free loving' generation was going forward.

Each of the central characters are superbly flawed, and, it must be said, rather difficult to like, so all credit to the author for creating a set of people who, despite their many faults, start to become more credible as the story unfolds. Clever, sophisticated, entirely absorbing, Free Love is Tessa Hadley writing at her absolute best.

Best Read with...a slice of pork terrine, and a glass or two of Mateus Rosé

About the Author

Tess Hadley is a British author who writes novels, short stories and non-fiction. She lives in Cardiff and teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, her special interests including Jane Austen, Henry James, Jean Rhys and Elizabeth Bowen.

Twitter #TessaHadley #FreeLove

@VintageBooks

📖 Publication Day Review ~ Pandora by Susan Stokes -Chapman

 

Vintage Books

27 January 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

London, 1799. Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist who lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents' famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle's suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar. Edward sees the ancient vase as key to unlocking his academic future. Dora sees it as a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle.

But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth she starts to realise that some mysteries are buried, and some doors are locked, for a reason.

📖 My Review ...

Pandora Blake lives with her uncle Hezekiah above the family's antique business. During the time her parents traded in antiquities the business was successful, and honourable, however, their untimely demise brought the business, and Dora, into the guardianship of Hezekiah. Realising that her uncle is less than scrupulous in his business dealings, Dora enlists the help of a young book binder, Edward Lawrence, whose own interest in antiquities is exactly what Dora needs to help her to restore the family business to its former glory.

What then follows is an atmospheric and beautifully detailed historical novel which opens up the world of Greek mythology and the dreaded secrets of Pandora's Box. The Georgian world of 1799 comes alive, from the mean dispirited streets of London, to the gloomy shop basement filled with boxes of precious antiquities, there is never a moment when we are not fully in the moment with Dora and Edward as they go about setting right the terrible wrongs which have been done, and of the sinister evil which lurks within the world they uncover.

Beautifully written and impeccably researched, Pandora not only brings to life a worthy heroine in Dora, and not forgetting then glorious, Hermes, but it also paints a wonderful picture of Georgian England with all its colourful eccentricities. Pandora is a commendable debut by a talented new writer of historical fiction.

Best read with...a decanter of rich, red claret and an open mind

About the Author

Susan Stokes-Chapman was born in 1985 and grew up in the historic Georgian city of Lichfield, Staffordshire. She studied for four years at Aberystwyth University, graduating with a BA in Education & English Literature and an MA in Creative Writing. Her debut novel, PANDORA, was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction prize 2020 as well as longlisted for the Bath Novel Award that same year.

Twitter @SStokesChapman #Pandora

Website

@vintagebooks

📖 Book Review ~ Don't Turn Around by Jessica Barry

 

Vintage
15 April 2021

My thanks to the publishers and to Graeme Williams Marketing for my ecopy of this book

Two strangers, Cait and Rebecca, are driving across America.

Cait's job is to transport women to safety. Out of respect, she never asks any questions. Like most of the women, Rebecca is trying to escape something.

But what if Rebecca's secrets put them both in danger? There's a reason Cait chooses to keep on the road, helping strangers. She has a past of her own, and knows what it's like to be followed.

And there is someone right behind them, watching their every move...

 📖 My Thoughts...

Two women, both of them strangers to each other, set off on a hazardous 322 mile journey across America, from Texas to New Mexico. One of them is in danger whilst the other is part of the Sisters of Service a clandestine organisation which helps to remove women from dangerous situations and take them to a place where they won't be found. 

Cait Monaghan never asks questions, she merely waits, and once she has her passenger safely installed in her beloved old Jeep she drives the long and lonely stretches of highway until the feeling of being followed goes away. However, when she picks up Rebecca McCrae, Cait discovers that this journey is going to be like no other, neither women have much in common, and both of them have their own good reasons for being in each other's company at this time.

The journey is filled with tension and the long creepy drive towards a future destination is filled with both danger and trepidation. This adds an altogether different dimension to the story as both Cait and Rebecca guard their secrets well. Cait more than most knows what its like to be looking over your shoulder, and Rebecca, both wary and distrustful, keeps her story locked away inside.

This cleverly put together psychological thriller takes a little bit of adjustment as the story moves between different time frames, and whilst they help us to understand just what has happened to bring Cait and Rebecca together at this particular moment in time, it can make the narrative seem a little disjointed at times. Having said that, the short and snappy chapters work really well and I particularly enjoyed the countdown to each destination which made me feel like I was a back seat passenger in the Jeep as it went on its long, lonely and decidedly, dangerous journey.

Don't Turn Around is a timely piece of writing which has more than a hint towards #MeToo issues.

About the Author

Jessica Barry is a pseudonym for an American author who grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and was raised on a steady diet of library books and PBS.

She attended Boston University, where she majored in English and Art History, before moving to London in 2004 to pursue an MA from University College London.

She lives with her husband, Simon, and their two cats, Roger Livesey and BoJack Horseman

Twitter @jessbarryauthor #DontTurnAround

@VintageBooks

Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

On Hist Fic Saturday


Lets go back to Georgian England...1785

Vintage
January 2019

One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.

As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This chance meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, a journey on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost…

What will be the cost of their ambitions? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess?

My thoughts...

Middle aged widower, Jonah Hancock is awakened early one morning to the news that one of his merchant ships has been lost at sea and in place of his livelihood the captain of his fleet has returned with, of all things, a mermaid. Jonah is both dismayed and intrigued by this turn of events and more than a little alarmed at being the owner of such an unusual curiosity.

With the need to recoup his losses, Jonah allows the public a tantalising glimpse of this creature and his mermaid exhibition causes a furore in London, with the great, and the not so good, queuing to see it. Against his better judgement Jonah comes into contact with Mrs Chappell, a notorious brothel keeper, who has her own more risqué ideas on how to enhance the mermaid’s effect. However, Jonah’s uneasy association with the brothel keeper brings him into contact with Angelica Neal, a famed courtesan, who is the most beautiful woman Jonah Hancock has ever seen.

This is a really intriguing story about love, greed and obsession and is a real journey through Georgian London, with its fascination for curiosities and its ambiguous morality. The characters are a fascinating bunch, from the rather staid atmosphere of Jonah Hancock’s merchant’s house, to the bawdy illumination of Mrs Chappell’s establishment, there is never a moment when the story doesn’t draw you in. Angelica Neal takes some getting used to, she’s brash and lively, petulant and greedy and yet, by the end of the story I really liked her spirit and determination.

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, is really a story of two definite halves; with, I think, the second half of the story being stronger than the first, but throughout it all is a real sense of time and place, and Georgian London with all its pettiness, squabbles and obsession with society is brought to life in quite a vivid way.

I listened to The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock as an Audible recording, which was beautifully narrated by Juliet Stevenson. ( 17 hours and 19 minutes)

About the Author

Imogen Hermes Gowar studied Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History before going on to work in museums. She began to write fiction inspired by the artefacts she worked with, and in 2013 won the Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Scholarship to study for an MA in Creative Writing at UEA. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock was a finalist in the MsLexia First Novel Competition and shortlisted for the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers’ Award.

Blog Tour ~ The Woolgrower's Companion by Joy Rhoades

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on The Woolgrower's Companion Blog Tour

Vintage
28 June 2018
My thanks to the author and her publisher for my copy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

Australia 1945. Until now Kate Dowd has led a sheltered life on Amiens, her family's sprawling sheep station in northern New South Wales. The horrors of war have for the most part left her untouched. But with her father succumbing to wounds he's borne since the Great War, the management of the farm is increasingly falling on Kate's shoulders.

With only the sheep-rearing book The Woolgrower's Companion to guide her, Kate rises to the challenge. However the arrival of two Italian POW labourers unsettles not only the other workers, but Kate too -- especially when she finds herself drawn to the enigmatic Luca Canali.

Then she receives devastating news. The farm is near bankrupt and the bank is set to repossess. Given just eight weeks to pay the debt, Kate is now in a race to save everything she holds dear.

What did I think about it.,

Kate Dowd calls Amiens, the sprawling sheep station in New South Wales, home but with her husband away in the war and her father's failing health, life on the station is anything but settled. The arrival of two Italian Prisoners of War help to ease the load a little but with the threat of bankruptcy not far away, Kate soon finds that her life is about to change forever.

The Woolgrower's Companion is set in 1945 and both the era and the place is captured so beautifully that I was quickly immersed in life at Amiens, which is named because of Kate's father's experience at the Battle of Amiens during the Great War. And whilst the Australian outback is somewhere I am never likely to visit, nevertheless, the author's glorious descriptions of this remote place with its big skies and drought riven watering holes comes to life, so realistically, that I felt as if I was in the kitchen garden alongside Kate, feeding the chooks and watching the colourful lorikeets swoop and fly.

In many ways this is a complex and multifaceted story which demonstrates just how complicated life was for women during this time and even though Kate was the only person holding the farm together, the ignorance and prejudices of the men in her world only seemed to make her circumstances more complicated. The story touches on several other injustices especially in the way that Daisy, the aboriginal house maid is treated, however, the author touches on these prejudices with a sensitive and compassionate air but still gets the message across that this was a different time with complicated social morality. 

The Woolgrower’s Companion is about so much more than social injustice. It's also a wonderfully sensitive love story between two people who are from very different worlds, and yet who find shared companionship in extraordinary circumstances. It's also an inspiring story of survival when the odds are stacked against you and it’s about the strength of this woman, Kate Dowd, who sets out to get the job done when, as a woman, everyone thinks that she wouldn’t be able to function in a man’s world. 

Inspired by the story of the author’s grandmother who lived on the family’s sheep farm in New South Wales, The Woolgrower’s Companion is a beautifully written and stunning debut novel which sits really comfortably within its time frame and which brings this forgotten, but beautiful, place to life in such a wonderful way.

About the Author

Joy Rhoades was born in a small town in the bush in Queensland, Australia, with an early memory of flat country and a broad sky. Growing up she loved two things best: reading and the bush, often climbing a tree to sit with a book. Her family would visit her grandmother, a fifth generation grazier and a gentle teller of stories of her life on her family's sheep farm. She now lives in London with her French husband and their two young children, but she misses the Australian sky. The Woolgrower's Companion is her first book 

Twitter @JoyRhoades1

@vintagebooks

The Summer Six ~ Review ~ Giveaway ~ In A Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Dead Good Books launches it's Summer Reading Campaign with the Summer Six

Six books that they're recommending as fab page turners and real holiday suitcase space worthy!

You can join in with the fun on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram from 25th July using the hashtag #SummerSix

Tweet  @DeadGoodBooks which of the books you’d recommend to a friend using #SummerSix or snap a written version of your recommendation on Instagram with the hashtag and you’ll automatically be entered into a draw to win a set of all six books and an additional set to gift on to a friend.

Running out of space in your suitcase? Never fear – Dead Good Books are also giving you the chance to win a Kindle Paperwhite too so you can take loads of wonderful books with you!

Find out more on the Dead Good Books Website

For your delectation

~** Here are the Summer Six**~

  

  

I was lucky to be invited to be one of the bloggers given the chance to read one of the books 
In A Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware.


 Here are my thoughts plus the chance to win a copy of the book in my UK only giveaway.

The Blurb

In a dark, dark wood

Nora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back. 

There was a dark, dark house

Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her

And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room

But something goes wrong. Very wrong.

And in the dark, dark room...

. 

Some things can’t stay secret for ever

My thoughts about In a Dark Dark Wood

If you go down to the woods tonight be sure not to go alone otherwise you may get tangled in this very cleverly controlled story of revenge and retribution.  What starts off as a group of alleged friends gathering in a secluded house in the woods for a hen party, rapidly becomes something far more sinister, and as old secrets come to the surface, so the fickle finger of fate starts to intervene with disastrous consequences.

Leonora Shaw has been invited to the hen party of a friend she hasn't seen in over ten years, she is puzzled as to why she has been contacted after such a long time but, as with all things, just sometimes, against your better judgement, you go along with an event even though you know that deep down it just feels wrong to do so.

I read the book quickly over the space of a few hours and I found the first person narrative, the story is told from Leonora's point of view, quite compelling.  There is much to take in and the pace is really fast and even though there were times when I questioned whether the characters would act the way they did, I couldn't stop myself from powering through the book at top speed in order to find out just what was going on with this disparate gathering of odd bods.

In a dark dark wood is a complex and multi-layered psychological suspense story which gives rise to the notion that we never really know what makes our friends tick and the old adage of keep your enemies close couldn't be truer. The author writes with great conviction and keeps control of a complicated plot whilst at the same time cranking up the tension. The added bonus of putting so many unstable narrators into one place makes it a real challenge to know who is telling the truth and why they are acting in the way they did but I enjoyed rising to that challenge. Throughout the story there is a real sense that this hen party is not going to end well, of course whether it does or not, you'll have to find out for yourselves.

Written with a fine eye for detail, In a dark dark wood is deliciously sinister, with more than a hint of ice cold terror, it’s a perfect holiday read and I loved it.

Best Read with …Pepperoni pizzas and ice cold tequila slammers.

Leave us a lovely comment after this blog post to be in with a chance of winning a copy of  In A Dark Dark Wood and of course, leave us a contact email or we won't be able to find you again and that would be disastrous if you're the winner.
UK addresses only.

I'll put all the entries into Jaffa's hat and pick a winner by Sunday 31st ..so go...go

**Good Luck**

Vintage
2015

 Happy Summer Reading

~***~



**~~ And the Winner is~~**

Ali 

Well done