The Diplomat by Chris Womersley

 Edward, the narrator of this story, is like a reincarnation of Modigliani minus the masterpieces.

Edward despises his fellow Australians; they are overweight, badly dressed, insensitive and culturally unaware although he makes exceptions for his and his wife’s parents, which is rather sweet. He and his supremely talented wife, Gertrude, escape to Europe where they hope to live a fulfilling, artistic life.

Chris Womersley has created a very real and quite heart-breaking character. Edward is self-destructive but also self-aware. He is completely honest in acknowledging his faults and his mistakes, of which there have been many.  He hates conservatism but doesn’t pretend to have lived up to his belief in his own superiority in following his alternative path. He is sad and kind and overwhelmed by grief and guilt but is still able to come up with wryly amusing and touching comments on his attempts to survive the life he has created.

I took this book to bed with me and had to stop reading for a while in order to get some sleep and then picked it up next morning and didn’t put it down again until I had finished reading it. It was utterly compelling, and brilliantly written. It is a 5 star plus read.

Published by Picador, Pan Macmillan Australia.

A Remarkable Woman by Jules Van Mil

 

Avril Montdidier is a heroine in every sense of the word. As a young girl she basked in the love of her mother, Yvette, and her friend, Guy, in the beautiful French countryside around Tours, until the Second World War and its aftermath turned her world upside down. 

Avril’s bravery and strength of character led her to look for a new life in Australia, backed by her experience working for Christian Dior in Paris and the practical knowledge and skills she had both inherited and learned from her mother.

In A Remarkable Woman Jules Van Mill has created a memorable, loveable, compassionate character with Avril Montdidier; she brings Australia to life from inner city Melbourne to the western slopes of the Darling Downs and fills them with real people, most good, some bad, as should be expected.

Anyone who remembers the books of Judith Krantz will call to mind the strong, beautiful women, the fashions and the boutiques in her stories. I got a similar appreciation of those subjects from A Remarkable Woman. There are also quite a few male characters in the cast and they are all three-dimensional and recognisable and, in a couple of cases, rather dishy.

This very well rounded story has all the elements of happiness and sadness, comedy and drama, city life and country life of an excellent work of contemporary fiction. I was very sorry to come to the end. I could have gone on reading for a lot longer!

Published by Macmillan.

The Replacement Wife by Darby Kane

 

The Replacement Wife is suspense fiction at its absolute best. The characterisations are scarily real: Elisa, her husband, Harris, and his brother, Josh, have always had a harmonious relationship, with Elisa and Harris being protective and comforting of Josh through his troubled life. Something happens which has Elisa questioning their situation and thus begins a nail biting, suspenseful, utterly compelling story.

Darby Kane is a brilliant writer. I am not always a fan of this genre; sometimes a book or, especially, a movie like this can have me yelling things at the characters like: ‘Can’t you see what is happening? Just listen to her!’ and so on, but this story is told smoothly and perfectly and had me turning the pages at a furious pace, eager to see where it was going, but at the same time not wanting to come to the end of such a very enjoyable read.

I am going to look for more Darby Kane books now. I found this one by chance at Libby, the on line library.

Very highly recommended!

Published by William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor

 

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor is another story of crime in a small Australian country town. Hayley Scrivenor has absolutely nailed it! Hayley has created the town of Durton, nicknamed Dirt Town by its inhabitants, seven hours west of Sydney and populated with interrelated families and others who have lived there either their entire lives or for many years. 

When a young girl goes missing DS Sarah Michaels and DC Wayne Smith who were on their way back to Sydney from another job are called in to investigate. Although Sarah is still suffering from the break up of a personal relationship she is able to channel her energy into the new assignment and she and DC Smith begin a thorough investigation into little Evelyn’s disappearance.

The plotting is superb with events over a four day period being shown from different points of view. I liked that something that was happening to one character at one time was then presented as happening to another character at the same time. Sarah Michaels keeps an open mind and has a notebook in which she draws triangles looking for relevancies in all the different pieces of information she is amassing.

Sarah also has an acute sense of smell which seems to help her, I guess, when she is building profiles. I completely identified with her reaction to car freshener, by the way.

Crime fiction is one of my favourite genres, and outback Australian crime fiction keeps getting better with each new voice. How lucky we are to have so many talented writers in our lives!

I highly recommend Dirt Town and, hopefully, Hayley Scrivenor will be following it up with lots more terrific books.

Published by Macmillan

The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley

 

Before reading this book make sure you find yourself a time and place where you will not be disturbed. It is a completely satisfying, utterly absorbing murder mystery set against the background of a private boarding school in Rural Norfolk.

Detective Inspector Jazz Hunter has escaped London intent on leaving the police force and living the quiet life, renovating her newly acquired cottage and indulging her passion for painting. Jazz’s new plan is ticking along nicely until she is asked to look into a suspicious death at Fleat House in St Stephen’s school and she suddenly finds herself back with her colleague DS Miles attempting to unravel a mystery which involves past happenings at the school and their links to the present. 

Jazz is trying to leave her own unhappy past behind and her personal story adds to the enjoyment of reading this book. It has everything you need in a top class murder mystery including brilliant character development in all the side stories. There is even a little teaser in there, hinting at a possible change in Jazz’s future. It could have been the start of a terrific series.

Very sadly, Lucinda Riley died in June 2021 before this novel was published. Her eldest son, Harry Whitaker, has written a loving foreword in which he says he is sure Lucinda would have wanted to edit and update the manuscript, having written it in 2006 when Harry was just thirteen,  but he took the decision to leave it as it was, wanting to preserve her voice. It is an outstanding crime novel and, along with all of her other best selling books, leaves a proud and wonderful legacy for her family.

Published by Macmillan 

Jack and Jill Went Downhill by R J Gould

 

Jack and Jill Went Downhill is an exploration of the relationship between two people from their initial meeting as university students,  tracking their lives over the ensuing years and giving great insight into the development of their individual personalities and characters along the way.

Jack and Jill have a lot of highs counterbalanced by a lot of lows, and R J Gould delves, skilfully and sensitively, into the question of the effects of heredity and environment by introducing both sets of parents and their family homes. Once the rose coloured glasses come off and they see each other as ordinary, flawed human beings, Jack and Jill are faced with the challenges of day to day living and whether they can see their future together. A lot happens to them, individually and as a couple, and they each have to find their own ways to live their best possible lives.

This is a highly entertaining, compulsively readable book written with RJ Gould’s usual warmth, wit and deep understanding of the human condition. I loved it!

Bad Actors by Mick Herron

 

Any fears I had been having that I might have had my fill of Slough House soon disappeared with the first chapter of Bad Actors. River Cartwright is missing in action but the remaining dogs are perfectly capable of grabbing the reader’s attention and running with it.

Diana Taverner’s position as First Desk is under threat from a nasty little man by the name of Anthony Sparrow, and the plot evolves from that point. There is a sweet new character, John Bachelor, “the milkman”;  however, there is still nothing sweet about our old friend, the disgusting Jackson Lamb, grottier than ever and being as horrible as only he knows how while seeing and knowing all and, in a strange way, taking care of his underlings. They might be losers but they’re his losers.

Mick Herron is a brilliant writer and I can’t resist at least one quote: “Early sixties by a mortal calendar, but managing to exude the impression that he’d overseen the Siege of Mafeking”. Bad Actors is equally as clever, witty and exciting as its seven predecessors.

Mick Herron is the master of spy fiction for our times!

Baskerville: an imprint of John Murray