Wolf

Wolf by Mo Hayder

Published by Bantam Press

24th April 2014

Paperback Edition

                       

I believe, from what I can hear, that either my daughter or my wife has just been attacked. I don't know the outcome. The house is silent.

Fourteen years ago two teenage lovers were brutally murdered in a patch of remote woodland. The prime suspect confessed to the crimes and was imprisoned.

Now, one family is still trying to put the memory of the killings behind them. But at their isolated hilltop house . . . the nightmare is about to return.

So on the recurring animal theme for this week, not deliberate I assure you, is Mo Hayder's Wolf.  Similarly to Jodi Picoult, I haven't read a book by Mo Hayder is absolutely ages, but I do have two to review - this one and Poppet.  Thinking that this one came first, I started with this, only at the end to realise that I should really have read Poppet beforehand!  That said, her books are stand-alone novels, it is just that the main character (Jack Caffery) who is principally consistent throughout.

Wolf begins with a family returning to their holiday home.  Mr Anchor-Ferrers has just had a heart transplant and needs to rest, only fate has deemed that this is not to be the case.  This is a book where it could be so easy to put a spoiler in, whilst trying to write about the story itself, so this review won't be too detailed as I detest plot giveaways!  What you do already know is that fourteen years prior to the present day, a young couple were brutally murdered in woodland surrounding this house.  The killer though is safely behind bars - or is he?!

Mo Hayder writes a gripping thriller.  This is a total page-turner and I couldn't put it down.  There is a twist at the end that I wasn't expecting either which I really liked.  The books are written with shades of light and dark to them.  It's not just gritty drama that you are faced with, but real people, and emotions and I have to say that the characters in these books are certainly not two-dimensional.  You do see them as human beings, particularly Jack Caffery .  I'm looking forward to reading Poppet now!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapter x

Leaving Time

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

4th November 2014

Hardback Edition

 

Jenna Metcalf was with her mother the night she disappeared in tragic and mysterious circumstances, but she remembers nothing.

Over ten years have passed, and still Jenna reads and rereads her mother's journals, hoping to find some clue hidden there, in the meticulous recording of her scientific research with elephants.

Desperate for answers, Jenna uses all her savings to recruit the aid of a private detective - and a psychic.

Jenna knows her mother loved her. She knows she would not leave her. And she will not rest until she finds out what happened that night. In her most gripping mystery since House Rules, Jodi Picoult brings us a powerful story of a young girl's determination to uncover the truth, however shocking and life-changing it might be.

It's been a few years since I last read a Jodi Picoult book.  I have everything she has written; I just haven't actually read them all - yet!  Anyway, last month saw the release of another novel, and I thought, this time I'm not just going to buy it, but read it too!  And so I did!

Leaving Time is principally about elephants.  There is a story about people in amongst the pages too, but elephants dominate this book.  There were times when I sort of thought that Jodi Picoult was trying to make sure she mentioned everything about elephants that she had researched but stick with it, and the elephants then become the background when you get to the final chapters.

If you have never read a Jodi Picoult book before (and if you haven't, I recommend starting with My Sister's Keeper - the book, not the film) you won't be aware that there is always a twist to her stories.  I won't put spoilers out here, but you get to the final few chapters, and wham, bam, she puts in a twist that you didn't see and you are like, "Oh my goodness, what just happened here".  The same is for Leaving Time.  I knew there was a twist even before I got the book, because Twitter was going crazy and everyone was saying "I didn't see that coming", so on reading I thought, I know what it's going to be... and then, bam, it was all revealed and I was left thinking "nope, didn't see that coming!"

The story is thus, Jenna's mother disappeared when she was three years old.  She hasn't been seen or heard from in ten years.  Her father suffered a breakdown and is now in an institution, so Jenna lives with her grandmother, and the story of her mother's disappearance is strictly taboo.  However, Jenna has been saving up, and is determined to find out the truth, whatever it might be.  She hires Serenity, a once-famous psychic to find out more about the day her mother disappeared.  Alongside this, she tracks down the former detective who worked on the case, a now sad and lonely alcoholic.  But can a teenage girl, drunk detective and a psychic who has lost her abilities honestly find out what happened to Alice Metcalf?

If you can wade through the bits on elephant relationships, (which don't get me wrong are interesting, just drawn out), then this is a great read.  It had me hooked, and I read it in a couple of days.  In my opinion, Jodi Picoult hasn't lost her touch.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapter x

Waiting for Doggo

Waiting for Doggo by Mark Mills

            Published by Headline Review

20th November 2014

Hardback Edition

 

No-one ever called Dan a pushover. But then no-one ever called him fast-track either. He likes driving slowly, playing Sudoku on his iPhone, swapping one scruffy jumper for another. He's been with Clara for four years and he's been perfectly happy; but now she's left him, leaving nothing but a long letter filled with incriminations and a small, white, almost hairless dog, named Doggo.

So now Dan is single, a man without any kind of partner whether working or in love. He's just one reluctant dog owner. Find a new home for him, that's the plan. Come on...everyone knows the old adage about the best laid plans and besides, Doggo is one special kind of a four legged friend...and an inspiration.

 

Take one ugly dog (sorry Doggo) and one newly single male and you have the ingredients for this new novel by Mark Mills.  Dan has been dumped out of the blue by his girlfriend Clara.  Only she's taken all of her stuff, and gone away to a mysterious location, which sort of takes some planning, so maybe it wasn't out of the blue for her?  What she has left behind is Doggo, her dog, rescued from Battersea dogs home.  Dan is a working man, high up in the world of advertising, he doesn't have time to take care of a dog, therefore the only available option is to take him back to where they got him from.  Unfortunately for Dan (or fortunately if you are Doggo), Battersea will only take Doggo back when he has been castrated so now Dan is stuck with him unless he can bring himself to take Doggo to the vets - which he can't.  There is nothing for it but to take Doggo into work with him - causing issues all of it's own.  Add to the mix, Clara's flirty younger sister  and Dan's stunning colleague Edie, and you have all you need for Dan's life to suddenly become a lot more interesting.

Having previously written crime novels, this is a change of direction for Mark Mills which I think firmly puts him into the Nick Hornby genre.  Waiting for Doggo isn't a long book, it's not a taxing book, but it is an enjoyable read about man's best friend and the bonds he can create with those around him.  I read it in one afternoon, and it was very pleasurable too!

Happy Reading

 

Miss Chapter x

The Downtown Abbey Rules for Household Staff

The Downtown Abbey Rules for Household Staff by Mr Carson

Published by Headline

9th October 2014

Hardback Edition

 



The household staff of Downton Abbey carry out their duties with effortless dignity, finesse and pride. Yet how do they know how exactly to lay the table, when to leave the room to give Lord and Lady Grantham their privacy, how to care for Lady Mary's furs and which uniform to wear when? This recently recovered and fascinating staff handbook answers all of these questions and more.

Covering all the main positions of the Downton household - footman, lady's maid, housekeeper, groundsman and more - and with a general introduction for new members of staff from Carson the Butler, this book tells you everything you need to know about working below stairs in the grand estate of Downton Abbey.

Carson, the esteemed butler of Downtown Abbey has written an indispensable guide to running your household with his book Rules for Household Staff.  Fans of the television show will love this fabulous companion to the programme which not only explains the roles that each member of staff should play, but also vital information such as how to clean your silver, the best way to store wine in your cellar.

This is a short book, but full of in-depth information that I found fascinating to learn. The complexity of who does what, and when, and why and how is immense.

If you are thinking of buying a stately home, or just want your household to run better, then turn to Carson and heed his advice.  The running of your household could not be in better hands.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapter x

The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit and other stories

The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit and other stories by Slyvia Plath

Published by Faber & Faber

6th November 2014

Paperback Edition

Better known for her writings for adults, Plath’s timeless collection of stories for younger children is filled with joy an wit.

In the eponymous The It-Doesn't-Matter Suit, little Max Nix is on a quest to find the perfect suit he can go ice-fishing, cow-milking and town-walking in. Everyone else in his family thinks they want the suit, but they can’t help thinking of places they can’t wear the suit. There's magic and chaos afoot in Mrs Cherry's Kitchen as the kitchen utensils beg the resident elves to let them swap duties for the day. Finally, The Bed Book is a beautifully paced poem taking children through all the exciting alternatives to the bed they currently own.

Simple, sweet, and with illustrations from David Roberts, The It-Doesn’t-Matter Suit and Other Stories is a perfect choice for emerging readers of 5 years and up.

So first impressions of this book would be, really, Sylvia Plath for children?! Having read much of her other works I was curious to see if she could indeed pull it off.  Written by Plath in 1959 before she had her own children, the title story wasn't published until 1996 when it was discovered in a manuscript of her work.  It tells the story of Max, the youngest of a family of boys who dreams of finding the perfect suit to wear for all manner of activities.  One day such a suit arrives, but everyone else in the family wants to try it first, before finding it unsuitable for them - but not for Max!  Mrs Cherry's Kitchen sees the kitchen utensils swap jobs as they all think they can do what each other does.  After trying it out, only then do they realise that the job they actually do, is the best thing for everyone.  My favourite was The Bed Book poem which describes just what you could go to sleep on instead of a bed!

There are lots of repeated sentences in The It-doesn't-matter Suit that young children will catch onto and be able to take part in the story, and Mrs Cherry's Kitchen will provide many smiles.  I think this book would make a fantastic stocking filler this Christmas, for readers young and old.  Sylvia Plath for children - this parent and reviewer says a resounding yes!

 

Happy Reading

Miss Chapter x

Station Eleven

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

Published by Picador

12th September 2014

Hardback Edition

DAY ONE

The Georgia Flu explodes over the surface of the earth like a neutron bomb.

News reports put the mortality rate at over 99%.

WEEK TWO

Civilization has crumbled.

YEAR TWENTY

A band of actors and musicians called the Travelling Symphony move through their territories performing concerts and Shakespeare to the settlements that have grown up there. Twenty years after the pandemic, life feels relatively safe.

But now a new danger looms, and he threatens the hopeful world every survivor has tried to rebuild.

STATION ELEVEN

Moving backwards and forwards in time, from the glittering years just before the collapse to the strange and altered world that exists twenty years after, Station Eleven charts the unexpected twists of fate that connect six people: famous actor Arthur Leander; Jeevan - warned about the flu just in time; Arthur's first wife Miranda; Arthur's oldest friend Clark; Kirsten, a young actress with the Travelling Symphony; and the mysterious and self-proclaimed 'prophet'.

Thrilling, unique and deeply moving, Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven is a beautiful novel that asks questions about art and fame and about the relationships that sustain us through anything - even the end of the world.

Let's be honest here, I am not a lover of science fiction.  However, I have to admit that it was purely word of mouth that persuaded me to pick up and read a copy of Station Eleven and actually, it's not a bad read.  I managed to read the whole book on a train journey to London and back, and not once was I bored or tempted to stop reading.  I think, for me, the reason why this book works is because it is set in the present day, and then moves forward in time, but not too far forward that things change, ie cars can fly etc, but that what people can do remains the same, it's just that America, as we know it now, is suddenly very different.

The story begins with a famous actor, Arthur Leadner, dying on stage.  A trainee doctor in the audience helps him in his last moments, watched by a young girl also taking part in that final production of King Lear.  What seems an awful, but relatively normal turn of events, leaves hospitals becoming full and people dying within days of something called Georgia Flu.  There are relatively few survivors, and one such group of these, are called the Travelling Symphony who move around America performing plays by Shakespeare at the towns they encounter.  Their lives are relatively simple, until they reach once such town, and the man who calls himself 'the prophet'.

The story moves back and forth, from before the pandemic, to the current day, but it is, of course, all intransically linked together.  The question is how and why.  Emily St John Mandel manages to tie all the threads together, building to a climax where you go 'of course' when you finally assemble the puzzle together. 

I really did enjoy this book.  I wouldn't necessarily bill this as a crime novel per se but I liked the way that it was written, and the different worlds that the main characters encompass.  If you were gripped by Justin Cronin's books The Passage and The Twelve, then I think Station Eleven will be right up your street!

 

Happy Reading

 

Miss Chapter x

In Conversation With Suzanne Palmieri

Today I am in conversation with Suzanne Palmieri, author of among other books The Witch of Little Italy (my review of which is here) and The Witch of Belladonna Bay.

The Witch of Little Italy and The Witch of Belladonna Bay focus on magic - is there a lost witch in us all?

I truly think there is. But maybe not lost... wandering? I think, as we grow, we absorb so much of the chaos and the invisibility the world hands out, and take it on as our own truth. So, in that case, we are all somewhat lost inside ourselves. Magic is what happens when we let go and accept the fact that there is this amazing world all around us. Magic is everywhere.
 

 

You previously wrote novels under the name Suzanne Hayes - what prompted the change of direction to what you currently write, or do you think that there is still a link to your previous work?

Actually, I wrote the novels at the same time! The Palmieri books and the Hayes books published side by side in 2013 and 2014. I've always felt that my characters take the same sort of journey from lost to found in books by both names. The only real difference is that the Palmieri novels have "magic" in them and the "Hayes" books don't. Unless, of course, you think history and romance and family are magical (I do!) in which case there really is no difference! My witch books are under contract at Saint Martin's press and so there will be a book out each year. My Hayes novels will come out less frequently but I'm still writing those too. Always writing.
 

Any advice to anyone dreaming of becoming an author?

YES! Write for you. Write for the joy of it... the sheer fun of it. Then, when you have something you can't stand to let sit on your computer, you send it into the world fearlessly. Be patient, professional, persistent, and there is no end to what you can accomplish in this industry.
 

Where do you get your writing inspiration from?

Every. single. Moment. Of the day. People, places, car rides. Conversations, arguments, a late blooming rose. Everything.
 

 

What are you working on next?

The Witch of Bourbon Street will be on shelves in late May 2015. And the following year another "witch" book (currently titled Untitled Number 4) will be released. Right now I'm working on a Suzanne Hayes project about New England, Orchards, history, and a lovely woman named Marie St. John. It's completely consumed me!
 

If, heaven forbid, there was a fire, what possession would you grab first to save?

The wool blanket my mother gave me. Ugly and old.... it is my very favorite thing. I don't attach myself to possessions much. When you spend time having no real possessions, you learn how to let go of many, many things.
 

What five people, living or dead, would you choose to invite to a dinner party?

Abigail Adams, Sophia Loren, Jimmy Carter, Paul Newman and my grandmother Suzanne Hayes Cooper. (I never met her, she died young, but I'd love a hug)
 

Suzanne Palmieir is the author of The Witch of Belladonna Bay (out May 13th 2014) and The Witch of Little Italy and also the co-author of The Empire Girls (out May 27th 2014) and I'll be Seeing You (writing as Suzanne Hayes).   You can find out more about Suzanne by going to her website right here.

"I'm a Lost Witch. Are you a Lost Witch Too?"

 

Happy Reading

 

Miss Chapter x

The Woman who Stole my Life

The Woman who Stole my Life by Marian Keyes

Published by Michael Joseph

6th November 2014

Hardback Edition

 

One day, sitting in traffic, married Dublin mum Stella Sweeney attempts a good deed. The resulting car crash changes her life.

For she meets a man who wants her telephone number (for the insurance, it turns out). That's okay. She doesn't really like him much anyway (his Range Rover totally banjaxed her car).

But in this meeting is born the seed of something which will take Stella thousands of miles from her old life, turning an ordinary woman into a superstar, and, along the way, wrenching her whole family apart.

Is this all because of one ill-advised act of goodwill? Was meeting Mr Range Rover destiny or karma? Should she be grateful or hopping mad?

For the first time real, honest-to-goodness happiness is just within her reach. But is Stella Sweeney, Dublin housewife, ready to grasp it?

 

Marian Keyes is back with her newest book, and in my opinion, it's as fabulous as all of the others.  I discovered Marian's writing many moons ago with the publication of Lucy Sullivan is getting married which was the second of her books to be published, and for some unknown reason, the one least likely ever to be mentioned out of all of her publications.  Anyway, I loved that, instantly bought Watermelon, and have been buying them all immediately ever since.  The best bit about this book though, is the fact that for the first time in 5 years, Marian Keyes has agreed to step back into the limelight, beginning with an author session at Waterstones Piccadilly on November 5th - and I got a ticket to go along and see her!

If you haven't read any of her previous work, then I would recommend doing so.  Initially billed as 'chick-lit' when the term was first banded about in the '90s, Marian Keyes is much more than that.  Her books deal with some pretty hard issues, for example depression, alcoholism and domestic violence.  They are not just 'boy meets girl' books.  They are also incredibly witty, as is Marian herself.  One minute you can be crying, and the next laughing uncontrollably at what she has written, and as India Knight said when I saw them last week, Marian has a way of writing that continues to grow with you.  I loved her books twenty years ago, and they are still as relevant today. 

 

Her new novel The Woman who Stole my Life is about Stella, an ordinary Irish mother and wife.  One day she feels ill, which very quickly leads to her developing locked-in syndrome which leaves her only able to blink her eyes.  Finding herself in hospital, she develops a bond between her dishy, but married, neurologist Mannix.  Once she recovers, she writes a book about her experience and it becomes a best-seller, resulting in a move to America to conquer the market over there (and after reading that, you will never fancy becoming an author and experiencing an American book tour ever again)!

A year later, estranged husband Ryan, a bathroom designer to the stars, discovers he is not as famous as his former wife, and goes on a quest for fame himself, by giving away all of his possessions whilst recording it all online.  Stella's two children aren't wildly impressed with either of them, and then Mannix enters the scene again.  What exactly went on in America, and why has Stella had to return home?

For me, this is the most honest of  Keyes' work.  You can hear her voice throughout this book, and I think she is writing what she wants to write, rather than writing what the market thinks you should read.  Yes, this book is darker than some of the earlier works but it's fabulous nonetheless.  Stella's family are a barmy Irish bunch of characters, and the scenes where she goes home are terribly funny.  I love Marian Keyes, and I love The Woman who Stole my Life!

 

Happy Reading

 

Miss Chapter x

Strange Girls and Ordinary Women Blog Tour

Welcome to my part in the Morgan McCarthy blog tour for the fabulous Strange Girls and Ordinary Women.  If you missed my review of it, you can find it here.

Where I Write

 I don't have a defined study or workspace at home - I have a laptop and I've written on the sofa, in the garden on sunny days, or in bed on lazy ones. Usually, though, I write at the table in the breakfast room. There are two main benefits to this. Firstly, I'm close to the fridge, which is very important. Secondly, the room has french windows overlooking the garden, and so I remember to actually look up from the screen and break the long periods of shortened eye focus. For this reason I always put out food for the birds, which keep me entertained. If I'm stuck or procrastinating, however, I find myself getting over-involved with their lives: keeping an eye on one that seems a bit lost and scraggy, or getting frustrated with the robin's relentless bullying. 

 Indoors, I like things to be visually harmonious, especially while I'm working. I don't like to write in a messy or cluttered space; I can't settle down as easily. (Though my need to tidy everything before I start could equally be more procrastination). For the same reason I don't listen to music as I write; either it itches away at my ears and makes everything too busy, or as soon as I become absorbed in my work I tune it out completely.

Happy Reading


Miss Chapter x

The Tilted World

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly

Published by Pan

31st July 2014

Paperback Edition 

 

 April 1927. After months of rain, the Mississippi River has reached dangerous levels and the little town of Hobnob is at threat. Residents fear the levee will either explode under the pressure of the water or be blown by saboteurs from New Orleans, who wish to save their own city.

But when an orphaned baby is found, the lives of Ingersoll, a blues-playing prohibition agent, and Dixie Clay, a bootlegger who is guarding a terrible secret, collide. They can little imagine how events are about to change them - and the great South - forever.

For in the dead of night, after thick, illusory fog, the levee will break . .

 

This is another book featured in the ITV Specsavers Crime Thriller Club.  Now I have to admit, if I'd seen this on a shelf in a book store I would probably have passed it by, but after watching the programme, everyone seemed so enthusiastic and positive about it, that I thought I ought to give it a go, and I'm glad that I did.

Having read it, I wouldn't put it into the crime genre myself, I think there is more to it then just 'crime'.  There is a criminal element to it, as at the start of the book, we discover that two prohibition agents have gone missing, and partners Ham and Ingersoll have been sent by Herbert Hoover to find out what happened to them.  What we then get, are two dead agents, and an abandoned baby who needs a new home.  Ingersoll is charged with taking the baby to the orphanage, but along the way, in the town of Hobnob, he encounters Dixie Clay who has recently buried her baby son.  He presents her with the baby to bring up as her own, little knowing at the time that her husband Jesse is the man they need to bring in, and that Dixie Clay is the one making the moonshine.

Alongside the twists and turns of good and bad, right and wrong, you also have the story of the floods of 1927, when the Mississippi River burst it's banks on Good Friday and caused a wall of water one hundred feet high and with twice the force of Niagara Falls to come searing down across the South.  As an American Studies student myself, this is an event that I didn't know about, but it played an important part in the history of the southern states, and dramatically altered the lives and landscape of those who experienced it.  The continuing rain throughout the story, alongside the growing tension that the river banks will overflow, adds a dramatic element to the story itself.  You can feel the rain and the worry of the inhabitants of Hobnob, and all through the book you are waiting for that moment when you know the river is going to burst it's banks.

I think the best way to sum up this book is by actually quoting from the very end of the book:

This story is a story with murder and moonshine, sandbagging and saboteurs, dynamite and deluge.  A ruthless husband, a troubled uncle, a dangerous flapper, a loyal partner. A woman, married to the wrong husband, who died a little every day.  A man who felt invisible.

     But most of all, this is a love story....

Happy Reading

 

Miss Chapter x