London Rules by Mick Herron

 

This is number five in Mick Herron’s masterful Jackson Lamb spy thriller series. Slough House is still sitting there in all its seedy glory, its inhabitants, the slow horses, the drop-outs from MI 5, still reigned over by the ever-reliably repugnant Jackson Lamb.

Over at Regent’s Park, First Desk Claude Whelan is dealing with the problems of a prime minister losing his popularity in a post-Brexit world with at least two MPs plotting to take his place, the usual planning and scheming of Second Desk ‘Lady’ Di Taverner and, oh yes, the UK is being hit by a barrage of terrorist attacks.

Back at Slough House resident geek Roddy Ho is in all sorts of trouble, Shirley Dander is attending mandated anger management sessions and the creepily enigmatic JK Coe is starting to speak. River, Catherine and Louisa are whiling away the hours performing mind-numbingly boring tasks and holding in reserve their repressed talents.

Through all of this Mick Herron’s brilliant, occasionally laugh-out-loud, wit shines through. There is action aplenty and nail-biting suspense leading to a terrific conclusion. 

This is spy fiction as art. A huge 5 out of 5!

Published by John Murray (Publishers) an Hachette UK company.

You Had it Coming by BM Carroll

 

I had to force myself to get out of bed this morning; this book had me hooked! Animals, house cleaning and man (though not necessarily in that order) would just have to wait until I got to the end of the next chapter and then the chapter after that and so on. In other words, I loved this story. The three female protagonists all have interesting occupations: Bridget is a detective sergeant; Megan is a paramedic ambulance officer and Jess is an ex-boxing champ turned trainer. The story is mostly located on Sydney’s north shore and reaches from a crime committed twelve years earlier to the present day.

The characterisations are perfect: everyone has a relevant back story and I got to know and care for them all. Megan and Jess have been through a horrifying experience which has shaped their lives for twelve years since they were teenagers; Bridget, a policewoman, is also a mother of teenage children soon to embark on the process of emerging into the world, post-school years. Everyone involved in the lives of these three is also a fully realised, beautifully drawn character.

A murder is committed and Bridget finds the list of suspects keeps growing. BM Carroll is absolutely brilliant at keeping the reader guessing. All of the suspects have logical reasons for at least wishing the victim harm. The eventual unravelling of the mystery is totally satisfying. This is an intelligent, insightful book and I hope BM Carroll is busy at work on another.

I guess in summary this is a look into our justice system and how it can be manipulated by people who are prepared to get the outcome they want, no matter who is hurt along the way. A big 5 out of 5.

Published by Viper

Spook Street by Mick Herron

 

This is perfection in a spy novel! I am reading my way through the Jackson Lamb series and Spook Street is the fourth and the absolute best so far. They have all been superb so that is saying something.

In the prologue disaster strikes London but it is in the early stages of Part 1 that the reader is really hit with a right proper wallop from which it takes a while to recover. The story is complicated but never convoluted and the wonderful characters all stay true to form. Jackson Lamb, the old toad, is as fabulously repulsive as ever, still presiding over the Slough House losers. They are in Slough House rather than at The Park through the commission of various misdemeanours but underneath the general air of negativity they are all possessed of sharp minds and exceptional, though for the most part hidden, talents.

The dialogue is as witty as ever and I can’t help showing you a tiny sample: Catherine to Lamb and Chapman, two old spooks trying to out-quip each other: “‘You two’, she said. ‘It’s like watching dinosaurs having foreplay. Or Top Gear.’ The action is riveting, the humour at times laugh-out-loud and the ending totally satisfying. There is a shock loss from which I still haven’t recovered (I’m still in my pyjamas at 1.30 pm and have just been served a nice lunch by a worried husband trying to help me through this moment).

I have it on good authority that London Rules, the next book in the series, is even better than Spook Street. I’m going to follow my pattern of pacing myself by reading a few different books now, all the while knowing there is something magical in store.

Spook Street is highly intelligent, witty, masterful story telling by Mick Herron. He is a genius! 10 out of 5 at least.

John Murray (Publishers) an Hachette UK Company

Returning to Carthage by Ben Sharafski

 

This book! It’s too early in the day for a glass of wine so I will go and get another cup of coffee while I compose myself.

It is a collection of related short stories telling of one man’s progression through his emotional life but it is also more than that. Ben Sharafski’s writing reminds me of Alex Miller’s: intellectual, informative and at the same time intensely personal.  He writes of the travels and romantic relationships of a young, single man; a wedding which brings together two different cultures and the dramatic histories behind the two now linked families; and the true, pure love of a man for his children and his parents. As a mother of two children, now grown men, I was profoundly affected by Ben’s powerful words.

The stories range through Sydney, Laos, Japan and Israel and, historically, Manchuria and Russia and are richly atmospheric and deeply emotional. I can’t recommend this book highly enough and I hope I will see more of Ben Sharafski. 5 out of 5, obviously!

In summary: richly atmospheric and deeply emotional stories from a man’s life.

Published by Lewis & Greene

Off the Charts by Georgie Carroll

 

Georgie Carroll is a very funny but more importantly a very good person. This is my verdict after reading her memoir, Off the Charts. Georgie has been a nurse in England and Australia since 1990 and she is the nurse you would want looking after you if you were in hospital. Her warmth, empathy and brilliant sense of humour couldn’t help but make even the sickest patient feel a little bit better just seeing her appear in the ward!

Georgie’s adventures, both in her job and in her life away from nursing, are related in a way that had me laughing out loud a lot of the time. She can extract humour from just about any situation and I have just recommended the book to a nurse friend who is going to get much delight from reading it.

I don’t like spoilers but as an illustration of Georgie’s clear, fair minded outlook on life here is just one quote from one of  her beautifully insightful observations on puberty: “Many teenagers become disillusioned by their adults and believe them to be idiots. The more self aware adults have known they are idiots for a while and are relieved that the cat is out of the bag. Conversely, the teenager believes they know everything while being deliciously dumb.” She is seeing both sides in this as she does always in her kind, non-judgmental way. Her mother,  children and husband must love her madly; I know I do and I have never even met her!

In summary: this is a sweet, kind, raunchy, hilarious book whose overriding message is, in the words of Georgie’s former countrymen: all you need is love.

5 out of 5, no question.

Published in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd.

Loving Lizzie March by Susannah Hardy

 

I loved this book! Lizzie March is single, thirty years old and hoping to find the love of her life: The One. She is, in fact, a bit of a stalker and her prey as the book opens is Jake, the impossibly handsome, motor bike riding supervisor at her place of work, a call centre where it is Lizzie’s job to sell lots of wine on line.

 Susannah Hardy is very clever at making Lizzie’s misadventures in the pursuit of love hilariously funny and at the same time unbearably sad. There is so much wonderful writing here that I do not wish to spoil anyone’s enjoyment of reading it by revealing any part of the story. Lizzie is so vibrant and so real that she practically jumps out of the pages inviting the reader to follow along and pick her up whenever she falls or, as in my case, take her home and tuck her into bed and tell her to stay there while I go and sort her life out for her.

This is what rom com means: romantic comedy at its finest!  Lizzy finds herself in disastrous situations of her own making but her eternal optimism keeps her going just that little step too far until she falls into the next metaphorical pothole. The supporting characters in the story are all easy to picture, as are the Sydney locations.

In my opinion Susannah Hardy is Australia’s answer to Marian Keyes!

5 out of 5.

Published in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd

A Kind of Drowning by Robert Craven

 

This is an Irish crime novel: one of my favourite genres. It started out slowly and a little bit awkwardly but soon developed into a thoughtful, deeply moving story filled with atmosphere and vivid pictures of a small Irish coastal village. The main character is Pius John (PJ or John) Crowe, an untidily attired, lumbering, suspended policeman with anger management issues and a heavy reliance on nicotine and alcohol. Crowe is trying to pull himself together after losing his job and the breakup of his marriage.

After getting a job in a cafe Crowe meets a sweet little teenage girl, Thea. He quickly loses his job but Thea goes on liking her “Mr Grumpy” as she calls him and he feels very protective towards her.

Crowe becomes suspicious of goings on on the island of Inishcarrig which is visible from the village. He can’t help but put his detecting skills to use even though he is under suspension.

As usual, I am not going to give away any spoilers but this is a super yarn, deep and dark with flashes of humour and well worth reading. I would recommend Robert Craven to anyone looking for an absorbing crime story set in a bleak but beautiful part of Ireland. On behalf of my Irish ancestors ( I am Australian, after all!) I congratulate Mr Craven on a story well written.

In summary: tragedy hits a remote Irish village but there is one man looking below the surface for what really happened.

5 out of 5 for this story.

Real Tigers by Mick Herron

 

How could you not love Jackson Lamb? He’s rude, crude, disgusting, boorish, couldn’t give a stuff what anyone thinks and has a mind like a steel trap, and he’s back!

Real tigers is another superb spy novel written by Mick Herron. Jackson Lamb is still reigning supreme over his band of losers who will never make it back to The Park, yet together they once again show they are capable of dealing with whatever is thrown at them. In Diana Taverner’s rush to de-throne Ingrid Tearney and take the First Desk for herself she cooks up a plot which eventuates in the slow horses putting to use their collective skills and makes for a brilliant story with a fast paced, action filled nail biter of a conclusion.

This is the third book in the Jackson Lamb series and I am trying to pace myself as I read through them. I think I appreciate them more when I alternate them with other books, although I did buy them all in one big bundle from the bookshop.

If you like spy novels and clever English wit you will love Mick Herron! He is a master story teller and great entertainer and I am very happy that I found him. I will be back with book number four after a short interval of R and R from the gritty corridors of Slough House.

5 out of 5 with a bullet (from a Service revolver, of course).

John Murray (Publishers), an Hachette UK company.

Survivor, Life in the SAS, by Mark Wales

'Self deprecation' is a concept that anyone considering writing an autobiography should understand and embrace.

Mark Wales is a ruggedly handsome bloke from a good, honest family, who fulfils his ambition to join Australia's elite Special Air Service Regiment and serve in combat.  After leaving the army he attends an Ivy League business school, becomes a corporate high flyer, starts a fashion label, meets lots of pretty girls and stars in a TV show.

As a result, this could have been an incredibly boring book.

On the face of it, Mark has lived a life - several lives in fact - that many people could only dream of.  The strength of this book, however, is not in his successes, but in his failures and the raw, honest, insightful and often funny way in which he tells them.

There are some beautifully-written, if cringeworthy, scenes in which we learn of his first fumblings with sex, monumental cock-ups during officer training, and 'F' after 'F' as he tries to pursue higher education after the army. At one point during the combat deployments he has strived for we see him crying in front of his commanding officer - I think I'm safe in saying that's a first for an SAS memoir.

The book opens with a scene that choked me up, a serious incident which profoundly affected his later life.  His depictions of the reality of combat are confronting in the deliberately casual way in which the aftermath of airstrikes and gun battles is relayed, and he expertly uses the writer's trick of 'showing' these, rather than 'telling' them, through a deft use of dialogue.

Likewise he shows us, through descriptions of alcohol abuse, anger and despair, the effects of repeated exposure to trauma on the body and soul and the crushing anti-climax many people experience in life after operational service.

We see in Survivor a man who has fought for everything he has attained, and learned from the many mistakes he - like all of us - has made in life. 

The only time I found myself losing sympathy for our flawed hero was in his depictions of his relationships with women, but (spoiler alert coming) if you, too, feel that way, stick with him... you're in for a surprise. 

When people ask me how to write a non fiction book I say to them, "write it like a novel". The novelist uses not only narrative (I did this, I did that...), but also description and dialogue to put the reader in the scene, alongside the protagonist, and a dramatic arc - a storyline that takes a reader on journey of highs and lows to an ending of some sort.  Survivor is a text book example of this.

I suspect Mark Wales has applied himself to the business of writing in the same way he has achieved all his other goals in life - through single-minded determination, bloody hard work, and by staying grounded with a good, healthy dose of self-deprecation.

He can now add 'author' to his already impressive list of hard-won achievements.

This book made me laugh and cry.  Bravo Zulu (well done).

5 out of 5

Published by Pan Macmillan Australia

Tony Park

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