Clown House by Mick Herron

 

 I don’t know if it’s just the delight I’m feeling at the appearance of a new Slough House novel, but this one seems to me to be the best  Mick Herron book ever! Jackson Lamb is back in all his disgusting, repulsive glory, duct taping his socks together,  chain smoking (when he can find a lighter), taunting Catherine with a glass of whiskey, emitting all kinds of horrible sounds and odours from his squalid eyrie, and all the while knowing all, seeing all and watching over his joes with a weirdly  protective eye.

River and Sid are recovering from their horrific injuries, and River is still hoping to get back to the Park one day. Diana Taverner is still ruthlessly holding on to her position as First Desk, and Peter Judd is still smugly confident, with his “…Honey-Monster-meets-Vlad-the-Impaler schtick”. Roddy Ho still exists in his own mind as a super hero kind of macho babe magnet.

The plot involves the existence of a cassette tape which could prove extremely harmful to a high ranking official of the present government. Taverner and Judd both need to be in possession of the tape, and the expendable slow horses are once again placed in danger. 

This is a brilliant, tense, edge-of-your-seat spy story, and at the same time filled with Mick Herron’s laugh-out-loud, eminently quotable gems of humour. I do hope he is working on a follow-up, and you’ll see why when you read it!

Highly recommended.

Published by Baskerville

A Slowly Dying Cause by Elizabeth George

 A new, large, fully immersible Lynley and Havers novel! Although Inspector Lynley and Sergeant Havers don’t appear until almost a quarter of the way through, Elizabeth George introduces a lot of characters before then and they all keep the intrigue simmering nicely.

The setting is Poldark country, although the new fortunes to be made come not from tin but from the lithium to be extracted from water under the granite in some tin producing areas (please forgive my unscientific interpretation). Michael Lobb was being pursued by Cornwall Eco Mining to sell them the property which had been in his family for over a century and from which he made his living creating tin and pewter artefacts and jewellery; however, as the book begins Michael has been found murdered, and several suspects emerge.

Police officers and suspects each have their own back stories and they are all interesting and consequently never make for confusing reading. One thing I liked very much was the murdered man’s own story being told through the pages of his diary. I haven’t seen this done before and, while he is discussing people close to him, he is, of course, shedding light on his own character. What an interesting way to write a murder mystery!

Lynley and Havers’ lives are brought up to date, and Barbara (Havers) for once gets to see how the other half lives. If they’re thinking of bringing back The Inspector Lynley Mysteries series, this story would make a smashing episode. I’m ashamed to say I had previously lost my enthusiasm for Lynley and Havers for a while, but A Slowly Dying Cause has awakened it but good. Highly recommended!

Published by Pan Macmillan

The Midnight Estate by Kelly Rimmer

 

The Midnight Estate is Kelly Rimmer’s latest thoughtful, powerful, straight-to-the-heart novel. When Fiona, a successful Sydney architect, suddenly finds her world turned upside down, she decides to move back into the home where she was born and raised. Wurrimbirra is a huge old mansion on a property outside of Forbes, a town in the central west of New South Wales.

While cleaning out the old house in an attempt to make it liveable again Fiona finds a book, written by her late, beloved uncle Tad, an internationally successful author who had shared Fiona’s upbringing with her mother, Ginny. Fiona becomes engrossed in the book which is set just one generation ago.

Kelly Rimmer digs deep into the thoughts and feelings of her characters and how they relate to events in their lives. Here she returns to domestic violence, specifically coercive control, a much watered down form of which is these days being called ‘gaslighting’, referencing the old Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer movie, Gaslight. Physical or psychological, it is still domestic violence and can still lead to disastrous consequences. I live near Forbes, and a recent horrific tragedy there highlighted not only domestic violence but also our criminally inadequate bail laws. It is a crime which is at last being acknowledged but that acknowledgment still has a long way to go.

This compulsively readable book contains danger, suspense, tragedy, but also love and hopefulness. It is a story within a story and as such explains the past much more convincingly than face to face conversations ever could have.

And animals (in this case, cats) always make a good story perfect, of course.

Published by Hachette Australia 

One Small Mistake by Dandy Smith

This book is a stunner! When the book opens. Elodie Fray is a young woman who has given up her successful career in marketing, is working shifts in a cafe and living in low rent digs in order to concentrate on trying to get her first novel published. 

Without even fully realising it, Elodie tells a lie, the repercussions from which spread and grow out of her control. When she turns to Jack, her oldest and dearest friend, Jack comes up with a plan to get her out of the mess she has gotten herself into. Elodie agrees to go along with Jack’s plan, completely unaware that she is about to get into a hugely bigger mess, of danger and terror she couldn’t have imagined. This is absolutely heart stopping stuff that kept me up all night.

While Elodie is telling her story, her sister Ada tells hers, in every alternating chapter. The two sisters have been virtually estranged, but Elodie is missing, and while Ada is torturing herself with fears of what might have happened to Elodie, she examines the relationship between the two of them and how her life has reached its present state. Ada’s chapters are all letters she is writing to Elodie, in the hope that Elodie will get to read them. Dandy Smith’s writing of this is nothing short of brilliant.

While not wanting to give too much away, I hope I’ve given away enough to encourage lots of people to read this terrific book. Thank you NetGalley for my ARC.

Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.

A Mother’s Confession by Kelly Rimmer

 

Of all of Kelly Rimmer’s books I have read, A Mother’s Confession has been the most powerful.

I usually think I know which way a book is going and I can guess how it is going to end. This one, however, has a built in mystery right from the start. The story is being told in present time, in alternating chapters, by Olivia and her mother-in-law, Ivy.  Kelly’s psychological analysis of Ivy is masterful. Olivia is married to Ivy’s son, David, and she and Ivy tell their separate stories of how their lives have reached the point they have come to now.

Because a version of the ending is revealed at the start of the book, it can only be read with a feeling of mounting dread but it is impossible to put the book down until the full story is revealed. Okay, I was quite able to continue with that, until towards the end the goose bumps started creeping up my spine, followed by actual shivering and finally unstoppable tears. Kelly Rimmer is a literary genius. She has knowledge, compassion and insight into the human condition and is able to express it all in her writing.

The worst aspect of domestic violence is the hold, like an invisible chain, the perpetrator has on the victim which outsiders are unable to understand, or, in many cases, break. I’ve only been an outsider looking in to someone’s suffering from mental, not physical abuse but just as seemingly inescapable.

Just brilliant, Kelly.

Published by Bookouture.

Die By The Sword by Tony Park

 

Die By The Sword, Tony Park’s twenty-third novel, is a sweeping, dual timeline story, from the battle fields of the Anglo-Zulu war, to present day KwaZulu-Natal. It’s an absolutely ripping yarn, with masses of fast moving action, historical facts, a touch of romance and, as always, a strong emphasis on the importance of animal conservation.

1880: Former Captain Peter Gregory of the British Army, second son of an aristocratic British family and veteran of the ferocious battle of Isandlwana, Zululand the previous year is attempting without much success to farm in the Natal Midlands, and working as a member of the Natal Mounted Police. Peter has been ordered to escort an American woman to meet up with the Empress Eugenie who is travelling to the memorial site where her son, the Prince Imperial of France, lost his life fighting with the British army in the Anglo-Zulu war. Peter is also tasked with tracking down the sword the prince carried into battle, which had belonged to his great-uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte.

The present day: Adam, who is now Professor Kruger, is working with two of his young students, researching sea turtles at the beach at Bhanga Nek. Adam’s partner, Lieutenant Colonel Sannie van Rensburg, is in the KZN hinterland, having taken temporary charge of the Hawks’ Stock Theft and Endangered Species unit. Sannie and Warrant Officer Marilyn Msani are investigating a case of cattle theft as well as the alleged slaughter of sixteen rhinos.

Adam and his students make an astonishing find which  leads them into dangerous territory; meanwhile, Sannie and Marilyn become involved in their own dangerous discoveries. On the personal side, Sannie is starting to wonder if her relationship with Adam is going to survive his single minded devotion to his new career.

Someone once remarked to me that Tony writes in the style of James A Michener, in equal parts informative and entertaining. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Thank you Pan Macmillan, for my ARC.

The Stranger at the Table by Cassie Hamer

 

 I’m on a roll! I keep discovering brilliant Australian women writers, and here is another: Cassie Hamer. The Stranger at the Table is completely different to any other book I’ve read in a long time. It is a sensitive, insightful exploration into the lives of a family and how they are affected by the withholding of secrets. There’s a fine line between hurting someone “for your own good” and self preservation.

My children are way into adulthood but whenever I read about  parents’ actions causing unintentional consequences for following generations I think: (a) I wish I could go back and be a perfect mother; or (b) I’ve dodged several bullets there! 

Marianne, the main character in Stranger at the Table, is trying to integrate back into a stable life with her husband and her two precious daughters. She has had to be brave and strong and to trust and rely on the love and support of her husband, mother and sister; however, nothing is as it seems in this absolutely riveting story, and there are many twists and turns to come.

I’ve been deliberately obscure in this precis, but if there is anyone out there who hasn’t already read The Stranger at the Table, this is an attempt to whet your appetite without giving anything away and thereby ruining the absolute pleasure of getting stuck into an unforgettable book. If you are a fan of Liane Moriarty, Cassie Hamer is your woman!

Published by Harper Collins