Shooting Reality by Rozzi Bazzani

 

Shooting Reality is the third book in the DS Bec Harpin series.  Bec is hoping to rid herself of the word ‘acting’ before her position’s title as she takes on the investigation of the murder of Shelley Goodwin, a high-profile producer of a popular reality television cooking show.

While Bec and her team are hard at work looking into all of Shelley’s known associates, including her husband, Chad Goodwin, pressure is coming from not only Chad Goodwin’s influential friend, the Arts Minister, for Bec to keep away from Goodwin, but also from Bec’s own superiors to prove she is capable of not allowing demands on her personal life to encroach on her work. That last bit is never easy for Bec because it seems there is always a friend asking her, just this once, for help away from her job.

There is nothing simple about this case, even though what appears to be incriminating evidence is found quickly. Shelley’s friends all have stories to tell, and a podcaster is sure she is going to be able to solve the murder with her own investigation. Meanwhile Bec is finding time away from work, whenever she can, with Josh between their mountain home and Josh’s restaurant.

Another death, more suspects, and a nicely complex story emerges, and I think this is Rozzi Bazzani’s best Bec Halpin book so far. 

Published by S & B

Before She Met Me by Julian Barnes

 

Before She Met Me was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape but I’ve only just found it.  My problem with Julian Barnes is that I can’t pace myself through his books. He is so clever, so witty, so badly behaved, sometimes, that I plough through them and get to the end long before I meant to. This one was a perfect example of that.

Graham is plodding away as a college lecturer, married not particularly unhappily, with one daughter, when he meets, and falls in love with, Ann. When he eventually leaves his marriage, his embittered wife, Barbara, comes up with a rather ingenious way to scupper Grahame’s happy-ever-after. There follows the story of a man who finds that bits of his brain of which he was previously unaware until he was advised about them by his friend, Jack, have taken over his thinking, and therefore his life.

Brilliant characters, superb writing, and that’s all you need to know. I loved discovering this ‘old’ book although to me 1982 was last week.

Published by Penguin Books Australia 

Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan

 

Dervla McTiernan’s Three Reasons for Revenge is a master class in crime fiction writing. It’s an intriguing story with a main character who is definitely not your average, run-of-the-mill police detective. Judith Lee prefers black jeans and tee shirts, rides a motor bike and is totally committed to her job. When Alexis Turner comes into the police station and asks to see Judith to report a sexual assault, Judith agrees to investigate although she works homicides these days, having left sex crimes eight years ago.

I loved not being able to see the twist in the story until only a few pages before it was revealed. I also love a book which has me yelling (inside my head) for a character to go back and take another look at this or that detail and stop mucking around. This is a good, complicated plot where it’s up to Judith, when she finds she is investigating a murder after all, to stay clear-eyed and objective while at the same time coping with a major, unrelated development in her working life.

Having read this terrific book into the small hours I hope my brain has woken up enough to do it justice. I’ve always liked Dervla McTiernan’s books but I think this one is her best. I would urge lovers of good crime fiction to get hold of it, find a secluded space and settle in for a treat!

Published by Harper Collins

Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason

 

I read first Meg Mason’s You be Mother, a deep, beautiful story about vulnerability, and optimism against the odds, after which I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Sorrow and Bliss, and then when I did I  thought I had found perfection in a book; but now I’ve found it again in Sophie Standing There!

Sophie is one of the most loveable protagonists I’ve found, ever. Meg Mason takes us, in stages, into Sophie’s background. Sophie’s life  has been shaped by her unusual childhood, her  close relationship with her brother, and her compassionate response to her brother-in-law, in relation to which her ex-husband’s behaviour is almost excusable, in light of their shared experiences, is my reluctant guess.

Sophie pours her love, in her mind, into Lilac, a movie star/turned author. This is a fascinating part of the story and, ultimately, although she doesn’t realise it, Sophie’s survival mechanism. Lilac actually sums Sophie up perfectly with her inscription:

I’ve never met anyone who tried so hard to be happy by being kind.

When I got to the end of  Sophie, Standing There, I felt overwhelmed by my emotions, in exactly the same way as I had been by Sorrow and Bliss. The word that keeps popping into my mind about all three of Meg Mason’s books that I’ve read is: exquisite.

Published by Harper Collins.

Opening Night by Sara Baume

 

When the writer and sculptor, Sara Baume, first met her, the artist Mollie Douthit was living alone in a cabin in the west of Cork and preparing a series of paintings from her life for an exhibition in Dublin. Sarah had undertaken to write a book about Molly’s life, and she spent the following two years in Molly’s company, recording in minute detail Molly’s way of life.

Opening Night is filled with descriptions of Molly’s paintings as well as reproducing many of them on its pages. I read the book online as an ARC, thanks to NetGalley, but I think a paper copy would be something to treasure, for the paintings.

Sara and Mollie had a lot in common; Sara also lived a rather pared down existence in the west of Cork, although with her partner, Mark, and her beloved dogs; and Molly’s circumstances did change somewhat over time. 

Sara records meticulously not only Molly’s paintings, but the clothes she wears and the food she cooks, and to complete the picture Sara describes her own clothes and meals. The two women had much in common, but, Sara wondered: ‘I was her friend of course, but she was also my material. I was beginning to find it difficult to discern whether my attachment to Mollie came from sincere affection and concern, or from the crazed desire to make good art.’

Opening Night is an intense read, with biographer and subject each equally devoted to her own art. 

Published by Farrar, Straus and Girraux

The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall

 

Tessa and Theo are twins living a happy, privileged life with their French mother and English father in England at the start of World War Two, and sharing a strong, loving bond. While Theo becomes a RAF pilot, Tessa, his equally strong spirited and brave sister, is dismayed at the prospect of the typing pool, or the FANYS (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). When Tessa is recruited to spy with the French resistance she joins up gladly.

I didn’t know until I read The Shock of the Light that English women who were captured in France while spying did not have the protection of being treated as prisoners of war because they did not wear uniforms. Lori Inglis Hall has brought a staggering reality to the fear of not knowing who to trust while at the same time being under the same suspicion. It’s hard to imagine someone growing up in a safe home suddenly facing a brutal, non-discriminating enemy, and the prospect of capture, physical cruelty and even death every day.

I remember reading Martha Hall Kelly’s The Lilac Girls and finding out for the first time about Ravensbrook, the unbelievably sadistic women’s concentration camp. I do hope schools these days are teaching children how they came to inherit the freedoms of the world they are living in, and how precious those freedoms are.

Theo has his own story line and he is a memorable, beautiful character. Reading this book is an intense, emotional experience. It covers the full spectrum of happiness and heartbreak; strengths and weaknesses; love and betrayal; and I am very happy to add this bit: the calming, healing influence of cats on human’s lives.

Published by The Borough Press

A World of Silence by Jo Skinner

 In her novel, A World of Silence, Jo Skinner has written about partner abuse, following the thread from traumatic childhood to dysfunctional adulthood. Jo has also raised the part animals play in providing comfort in times of despair, and the horrifically cruel way in which an animal is sometimes treated by a perpetrator as an ultimate act of control. In the area where I live a man who has confessed to the murder of his former partner is in jail awaiting sentencing; one of the charges against him was animal cruelty.

This riveting book tells the story of people who are, on the surface, educated, attractive, successful, and even famous; but domestic violence and partner abuse don’t discriminate, do they? It’s all too real, and all too sad.

Published by Hawkeye Publishing

King of Beasts by Tony Park

 

Disclaimer: Tony Park is my son; that being said, however, Tony has come up with an absolute belter in King of Beasts.

As in some of Tony’s previous books the prologue is from the point of view of an animal, in this case Nhena, a rare white lion. Nhena is coming to the end of his days, he is old and battle-scarred, and eligible to be hunted legally if he strays on to a Reserve whose owners have offered a licence to kill to prospective trophy hunters. Sonja Kurtz is back, this time trying, with limited success, to curb her wilder instincts while assisting her partner, Hudson Brand, in the running of the adjoining Reserve;  Sonja’s daughters, Emma And Fiona, are in trouble in Ukraine; Mike Williams is in South Africa attempting to rebuild his business after the Covid devastation, and Sarah Thatcher is working for the BBC out of England. 

Vasilly Orlov, another character from the past, has been released from prison in South Africa and has various scores to settle.

The story centres on drones, their amazing capabilities and deadly as well as benevolent uses; that is, on top of questions into the moral and ethical justifications behind trophy hunting; industrial espionage; a kidnap; a vendetta, and a rekindled romance or two. The South African bush, as ever in Tony’s books, is so real you could touch it, smell it, breathe it in and lose yourself in it (if you are that way inclined). The final chapters hurtle along in a heart-stopping race towards the finish. Well done, Tony!

Published by Pan Macmillan

Kill the Thing You Love by M R Collings

 Kill the Thing You Love is a dark, mysterious, psychological drama. 

Finn is a psychiatrist who lives with his closest friend and confidante, Sigmund, a Flemish Giant rabbit. Finn’s main interest is in patients who present with wanting to get rid of a tormenter who may or may not still be in their lives. Finn has many dark secrets and problems of his own.

Ethan lost Fawn, the love of his life, who died when they were both eighteen. Now, eighteen years later, she seems to have reappeared.

Gillian is Ethan’s wife, the one who saved him by helping him overcome the heartbreak and trauma of Fawn’s death.

Faith is ??

I found this book fascinating, gripping and hard to put down because I needed to keep up with all the twists and turns along the way. It deals with two time lines, Then and Now, which fit into the story very neatly. And it has a  punch-packing ending, keeping the darkness and mystery alive right up to the finish.

Now I want a Flemish Giant rabbit.

Published by Thomas and Mercer.

 I love memoirs, I love Africa, and I love true heroes. School for Life by Annabelle Chauncey is all three rolled into one. At twenty one Annabelle, together with her friend, Jessie, left Sydney for Kenya as part of a volunteer programme, intending to teach English to African school students. Finding they had arrived in time for the annual two months school holiday shut down, Annabelle and Jessie decided to leave Kenya after four weeks to travel to Uganda with Dave Everett, a fellow Australian volunteer, and his mate, Luke.

So began Annabelle Chauncey’s remarkable career. She had been shocked by the poverty and degradation of the land of Uganda and its people and what she saw as a hopeless future for its children; but I’m sure I’m not the only one who has read Annabelle’s story and remembered Bobby Kennedy’s quote: “There are those that look at things the way they are and ask why: I dream of things that never were and ask why not?”.

 It is truly inspirational to follow Annabelle’s story, starting with her stated aim of teaching English as a second language to children; to building schools; bringing water and electricity to villages, and to improving the lives of children and their families as well. There are some beautiful photographs in the book which illustrate how much Annabelle and the people around her have achieved in an amazingly short time. 

Annabelle’s parents must be bursting with pride for their beautiful daughter. I am, and I have never met her! Annabelle’s has been a life well lived so far, and with many, many years ahead of her.

Published by Pan Macmillan 

Storm in a B-Cup by Lindy Dale

 

Storm in a B-Cup is a novel, but obviously based on the author’s true life experiences, which was confirmed in Lindy Dale’s acknowledgments at the end of the book. 

Sophie, the narrator, tells her story from discovering she had breast cancer, through to the various successful and failed treatments; the ways in which her son, Rory, and her partner, Brendan were affected, and the reactions of her family and friends. Finding out who loves her    and who doesn’t makes her stronger in surprising ways. She has to jump over some pretty high hurdles!

Lindy Dale’s gentle touches of humour in some of Sophie’s most difficult moments are almost unbearably poignant. It’s a good story which balances the bad moments with the good, and with some lovely and loveable characters along the way.

Lindy Dale is a survivor, fortunately one of many, and I’m sure Storm in a B-Cup has been inspirational to a lot of people.

Robert B Parker’s Buried Secrets by Christopher Farnsworth

  

I used to love Robert B Parker’s Jesse Stone novels, as well as watching the movie series with Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone. Buried Secrets is the first Jesse Stone I’ve tried by a substitute author since Robert B Parker’s death, and I have to say I liked it very much.

A man is found dead inside his house in Paradise, surrounded by stacks of old newspapers and a heap of photographs, all of dead people, most with bullet wounds in their heads. So begins a new case for Jesse, Suit, Molly and Gabe.

This was a read-in-one-day book, in true Robert B Parker tradition. There is nothing like a good cops-and-robbers story on a cold winter’s day to get you going.

Published by Bedford Square Publishers UK.

Red Lake by Jason Summers

 

Just a moment please, while I recover from the powerful, dramatic and ultimately heart wrenching conclusion to Red Lake, a brilliant new Australian crime novel by Jason Summers. 

The town of Koorinda in the Riverina district of New South Wales skirts Lake Koorinda, or Red Lake as it is known because the red brown earth and red clay loam of the area make the water in the lake look red. The town’s big attraction is a water park, with dips and slides and especially one huge slide which tests the bravery of the local children. It is there, one day in 1989, that Harper goes with her little brother, Nick, to the top of the tower while their parents wait below for them to emerge from the slide. 

So begins a story which has consequences that are still being felt thirty seven years later, by which time Harper and her husband, Darren, are the parents of an eighteen-year-old son, Will. Harper had been a well respected detective in Sydney before she decided to come back to Koorinda with Darren and Will. She is happy with her job as a sergeant with the local police, Darren is doing well as a builder and Will is in his last year at high school. Will has a 19-year-old girlfriend, Camilla, who is a junior reporter at the local newspaper. When a murder is discovered at Red Lake Harper is considered too close to the case and is asked to step back and make way for detectives from Sydney.

I love murder mysteries and Red Lake is a stunning addition to the genre. Momentum builds slowly and by the end of the book I was emotionally engaged, to say the least. But wait: that wasn’t quite the end of the book, and by the real end my emotions (tears) came spilling out and, as I said at the start of this review, I had to take some time out to recover.

 It really is that good.

Published by Pan Macmillan 

Whistler by Ann Patchett

 

The themes of Ann Patchett’s books over the years have been many and varied. I started with Bel Canto, which I loved, and I think I’ve read most of them since then, favouring, naturally, some more than others. Whistler goes in the highly favoured column.

Daphne and her husband, Jonathan, are walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York when Jonathan notices an older man who appears to be following them. This is the beginning of the story of Daphne’s reunion with Eddie, her beloved former stepfather.

Through Ann Patchett’s magic all the characters in Whistler in no time became heartbreakingly real to me. It’s just a lovely book!

Published by Bloomsbury.

The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese

 

In his second memoir Abraham Verghese writes about living in El Paso; the deterioration of his marriage; his work as an internal medicine specialist and mentor of medical students at Texas Tech School of Medicine, and, central to all of this, his friendship with David Smith, his tennis partner.

David was an Australian who went to America straight from high school on a university tennis scholarship, later joining the junior pro tennis circuit.  By the time Abraham met him David had left the pro circuit and was an ‘extern’, which was the term  for fourth-year medical students who were given almost as much responsibility as interns. Tennis had been a passion of Abraham’s since childhood and he was thrilled when David agreed to playing a few games after work.

Abraham Verghese’s memoirs are as beautifully literary and soulful as his novels. He was a kind, compassionate, loving friend to David and he writes about him with his usual clear-eyed, non-judgmental intensity. While Abraham’s main concern was keeping his two little sons happy when he and his wife separated, he could only stand by, watch and hope as David tried to work through his own life’s struggles.

The Tennis Partner is a deeply moving, sensitive memoir from a uniquely gifted writer.  No pressure, Dr Verghese, but is there another masterpiece in the works, after Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water?

Published by Vintage

Rain on a Hot Tin Roof by Stella Quinn

 

Stella Quinn writes believable characters in iconic Australian settings: Rain on a Hot Tin Roof is set in the Clarence River area, a scene of particular nostalgia to me and, therefore, a particularly enjoyable read.

Felicity is attempting to restart her life after fleeing from a relationship in which she was a victim of coercive control, an all too present evil in our world in which someone’s confidence and feelings of self-worth can be destroyed in a surprisingly short time. Felicity has come back to Clarence, her home town, and is teaching at the local high school.

Luke has brought his son, Jace, to Clarence to live on the property Luke co-owns with his much older sister, Sal. He is a mining engineer working on a FIFO basis at a gold mine in Queensland, and Sal is looking forward to being a substitute parent to sixteen-year old Jace for two weeks of every fortnight while Luke is away. Luke has problems of his own, holding himself responsible for an accident in which Jace’s skull was fractured, leading Luke to give up his job and live on his savings for twelve months while he took care of Jace’s lengthy rehabilitation.

It’s a dramatic backdrop but there is light and laughter and the beautiful countryside of northern New South Wales as well as, of course, romantic tension, all written in Stella Quinn’s recognisably beautiful style. I loved it!

Published by Harper Collins

The Secret Garden Club by Wendy Lynn Newton

 

One morning three weeks before spring, Hilary Toohey found her beloved husband, George, lying dead in the garden, George having slipped on the wet paving and hit his head, dying instantly.  This is the sad beginning to the sweet, funny, whimsical story of how Hilary came to meet the members of the Secret Garden Club.

Wendy Lynn Newton writes the best dialogue. Hilary and her daughter, Bernie, have great rapport, and Hilary’s interactions with everyone she meets are all gems. There is a misunderstanding  with Hilary getting hold of the wrong end of the stick and causing herself a lot of unnecessary grief while she is already struggling to come to terms with losing George,  as well as trying to help Bernie sort out her life. The Secret Garden Club meanwhile all feel obliged to become part of Hilary’s life, to honour their obligations to George’s memory.

Passages from the writings of Henry David Thoreau through the book are all part of the general feel for love of nature, gardens and gardening. In my imaginary screen adaptation I have cast Asher Keddie as Hilary; I can see Asher delivering those cute, offbeat lines perfectly!

Published by Pan Macmillan.

My Own Country by Abraham Verghese

 

I’ve read Abraham Verghese’s stunning novels, Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water, and now I’ve finally gotten to his memoir, My Own Country, about his time in Tennessee, working as a doctor/researcher/infectious diseases specialist in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

Dr Verghese has written about his research into the HIV infection which was spreading out rapidly from the big American cities to the country. He was non-judgmental towards his patients and became involved in their personal lives, showing great compassion. There was a lot of fear of the unknown about AIDS, even among medical professionals, and Abraham worked hard to make sure his patients got the best treatment available. He spent a lot of time with them and their families, and sometimes unwound by having a game of tennis or long, solitary walks after work; this dedication to his work sometimes meant he wasn’t able to give his wife and two little boys the time and attention he should have, which by the end of the book appeared to be leading to troubles with his marriage.

There are a lot of  graphic descriptions of patients’ symptoms and medical procedures, but there is also so much of Abraham’s heart and soul poured into this memoir, it all makes for an unforgettable, beautifully literary read.

I’ve just spent some of my Mother’s Day present money on ordering The Tennis Partner, which I will now eagerly await.

Published by Vintage Books

Storybook Soul by Sarah Todman

 

This is a little book of poetry from the beautiful mind of Sarah Todman. Its contents are: ‘heart stories’, ‘head stories’, and ‘stories’.

I loved every one of these poems, as will everyone who reads them. If, in baring her soul, Sarah was able to reach so deeply into mine, I know she will find her way into anyone else’s who is lucky enough to read this exquisite collection.

I want to talk about individual poems but then again I want everyone to have the experience of reading them for the first time. I will though just mention one story: ‘if you hit the red dirt’. This is perfection in a poem.

Thank you so much for sharing your poetry, Sarah. I’m going back now to read it all again.

Billie King by Shannon Kelly-White

 

Stirring! Heartbreaking! Fair dinkum! Beautiful! I’ve run out of adjectives; it’s a bit hard to think, smiling through my tears. My parents were children of Depression-era Australia, and if they were still around today I think they would say Shannon Kelly-White has nailed it. 

Heroes come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and there are some true heroes in this story. Billie King lives with her broken down, alcoholic father, Ken. She knows Ken loves her but he is unable to provide adequately for her, and she goes to school wearing ragged clothes which makes her an object of derision for the kids at school. As well, she is beaten by the judgmental, sadistic Sister Claire; so school isn’t where Billie wants to be. Billie has a burning need to find her mother, Anna, who disappeared when Billie was a baby.

This is the story of Billie’s search for Anna. The story is written in the Australian vernacular which it makes it even more poignant, somehow. There are some shining, beautiful souls out there in the bush, from the lady bushranger to the carnival boxer. I was taken back to my childhood when we were given a half day off to go to the Brookvale show; the scary drumbeat, the skinny young fellas in their robes standing up on the platform, inviting the punters to come up and have a go at knocking one of them out.

Shannon Kelly-White writes about animals with the kind of sensitivity which would have made the late Jilly Cooper proud. Billie King belongs with Cloud Street and Boy Swallows Universe as an Australian classic. I feel privileged to have read it; I congratulate Shannon Kelly-White and I thank NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.

Published by Harper Collins