Freeing Grace by Charity Norman

 

Yet another, earlier, book by Charity Norman! Freeing Grace is a beautifully realised story which has at its heart the adoption of a baby girl. Both sides involved in the adoption are vividly portrayed: the family into which the baby has been born; and the couple who are fervently wishing to adopt the baby to create and complete their own family.

Every person in the story is sketched in fine detail. It was terribly satisfying getting to know all of them like that and understanding their reactions to what was happening as the story unfolded. An aspect I loved was moving the story to different locations: from England to Africa to New Zealand. As in Charity Norman’s other novels, there are a number of characters and a quite complex plot which, however, never becomes confusing. One character’s chapters which relate to the birth parent’s family are told in the first person and that works well because he is not related to them but has an important role in their lives.

All of Charity Norman’s books which I have read so far are stand-alone stories, bearing no relation to each other. They have all been clever and thoughtful and this one has a Joanna Trollope feel. I can’t pick a favourite so far because they have all been brilliant!

This beautiful book gets 5 stars from me.

Published by Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd

Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins

 This novel is well named. It is, indeed, a deliciously dark story with twists and turns around every  corner.

Piper Holden and Julianne Hillier have been best friends since childhood. One morning Julianne calls at Piper’s house to go on their usual run but Piper is not there and, in fact, the entire Holden family, Piper, her husband and two children, has disappeared. This is where the mystery begins as the story unravels over different time periods, all in relation to the day the Holdens disappeared: the day before, the day after, the week before and so on.

There is a sub-plot involving a detective, Saul Anguish, who while harbouring strange and mysterious secrets of his own, is brilliant at looking past the obvious and coming up with his own theories. He is intrigued by the beautiful Blue, a forensic linguist, who comes up with some brilliant conclusions of her own.

Secrets and lies abound and make this an entertaining read for lovers of good mystery/crime fiction. There are lots of characters and lots of new avenues opening up but the story never becomes confusing or hard to follow and will keep readers interested until the final page. I would love to see a follow-on series about Saul and Blue, if that should ever eventuate.  Their part in this story tips it over into a 5 star rating!

Published by Macmillan

The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman

 

This is one of the most emotionally powerful books I have ever read. Charity Norman takes a group of people from vastly differing backgrounds and puts them together in a tense, potentially dangerous situation. It is such a good, well written story and its characters are so believable that it held me in its thrall from the first line to the last.

The word, ‘gaslighting’ is being used a lot these days. A long time ago I saw the movie, Gaslight, which starred Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, and which was pretty old even then. It made a lasting impression on me because it showed how quickly and easily one person can gain control of another person’s mind. There are perfect examples of gaslighting in this book and also in Sally Hepworth’s The Younger Wife, another terrific read. 

But, back to Charity Norman who is an absolutely brilliant story teller. Charity was born in Uganda and she has included, with heartfelt authenticity, a refugee as an important  player in her story. Each of her characters contributes to the story of a man laying siege to a cafe, his hostages and a police negotiator. All of these people become real and the highly dramatic story becomes one of compassion, sadness, happiness  and hope.

Charity Norman has become my newest favourite author and I am so pleased that I haven’t yet read all of her books. What a treat is in store for me! This book obviously rates five out of five stars.

Published by Allen & Unwin 

Let Sleeping Bodies Lie by Anthony English

 

The word ‘collection’ isn’t right here. This is, rather, a treasure trove of short stories. Within the first few lines of each one I was into the atmosphere of the story, in the same way as I remember, from a long time ago, being captivated by John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row books. 

I don’t quite know how to describe the stories without any spoilers. Picture if you will, and if you are old enough, a youngish Trevor Howard slowly going troppo after being banished for inappropriate behaviour from a very nice post in the dying days of the British Colonial Service in Tanganyka (now Tanzania) to a position as district officer in a hot, steamy, storm ravaged outer island in the Pacific Ocean. That is a tiny peek at the first story. 

The rest of the stories feature men living and working in and adapting to different cultures. They range from Surabaya to Bali, from Papua New Guinea to Sydney to Japan. The Sydney story, while not featuring a man living in a foreign country, nevertheless is of a man caught in the midst of an alien culture. That story will have an impact on readers with its brave and quite neat solution to an abhorrent problem.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Anthony English is a master story teller and obviously uses his lived experiences as the basis for his marvellous stories.

I humbly offer my 5 star rating.

Published by Kindle for Valla House.

Then and Now by R J Gould

This is a book about three people: one woman, Sandy, and two men, Jonathan and Michael, who meet up at their fifty-year university reunion. They had been close friends at university but had had a falling out in their third year and hadn’t been in communication with each other since then.

The lives of the three proponents are looked at separately, through alternating chapters: ‘then’ as free living, rather uninhibited university students, and ‘now’ as retirees in their sixties, looking to find purpose and meaning in this next stage of their lives. As well as this they decide that they must face up to and talk about the cause of their estrangement from each other all those years ago. 

 How many people wish they could have the chance to revisit a certain time in their lives to right wrongs or re-establish relationships? It is always fascinating to see perfect solutions through fiction. This is a favourite theme of mine as well as the ‘sliding doors’ idea. Fiction is at its best when it is thought provoking and when the characters in a story live on in the reader’s thoughts once the book is read. I think we all have moments when we wish we could just travel back in time and apply hindsight to at least one outcome on our lives. 

 As I got to know Sandy, Jonathan and Michael the story became more and more interesting until at round about half way through the book it entered into the un-put-downable stage. I always like depth of characterisation to the extent that I feel I know and care about what happens to the people in a story, which definitely happened here. 

 This is the third book I have read by R J Gould and I think I would maybe compare him to Nick Hornby. Another 5 out of 5! After all, I only post reviews of books I have thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to other readers.

Remember Me by Charity Norman

 

This book by the New Zealand writer, Charity Norman, is quite simply a superb read. Emily has come home to New Zealand from England to spend some time with her father who has Alzheimer’s disease.  From that point on an utterly engrossing story evolves of the different relationships within families; between friends and neighbours, and the feeling of belonging to a childhood home.

Emily has always seen her father as remote and vaguely disinterested in his children but in helping him cope with the onset of dementia she discovers his softer, more loving side. She has also returned to the ongoing mystery of the disappearance twenty-five years ago of Leah, the brilliant, beautiful daughter of neighbour and close friend, Raewyn. Despite years of searching there is still no trace of Leah and no clues about what happened to her.

It’s a wonderfully intriguing, atmospheric story with the Ruahine mountains always as a backdrop, the setting the stunning Hawkes Bay area of New Zealand; the characters are very real and knowable; the tension surrounding the mystery of Leah’s disappearance is always there, always  ready to break.

Charity Norman grabs the reader’s attention and holds it, in the manner of a Jane Harper, a Liane Moriarty or a Madeleine Eskedahl. I loved this book from the first page. A 5 star read absolutely!

Published by Allen & Unwin