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Guest Review - by Tony Park

Mark Wales' 2021 biography, 'Survivor' soundly proved this multi-talented Australian could add 'author' to his action-filled and varied resumé which has so far included Special Air Service officer, Afghanistan veteran, reality TV and movie star, MBA graduate and fashion entrepreneur.

'Outrider' promises a new career path for Wales as a successful novelist. Set in the near future with China invading and occupying half of Australia (Victoria was the first state to capitulate...) the story sees Special Forces veteran Jack Dunne having to link up with a female CIA agent who will bring much-needed fire-support to a beleaguered outpost of Australian resistance fighters.

Wales is an actor in the new Mad Max movie and that series' inspiration is clear in the story which is full of high speed pursuits as Jack and his son, and their American charge, scream across Australia in a succession of running-and-gunning battles.

But it's not just an action shoot-em-up. Jack's recently widowed and his grief, guilt, love for his son, and the promise of a new love are deftly handled by Wales. I'm a slow reader, but I devoured 'Outrider' in double time. 

Wales' personal experience of war makes this a gritty and chillingly believable thriller. An absolute page-turner. Hopefully he's working on his next novel.

Five from five!!!

 

Finding Hannah by Fiona McCallum

 

I’m so happy I found Fiona McCallum! Finding Hannah is an earlier one of hers from the  wonderful Borrow Box.

Hannah is a young Melbourne woman who suffers a devastating loss when her husband and parents are killed in a car crash. I don’t like giving away any part of a story but that bit was necessary in order to say that this book is a beautiful, serious and inspirational study of grief and its consequences for one person. 

There is no quick-fix for Hannah as she navigates her way through the uncharted territory of her new life. She has to hold herself back from rushing into new situations and I admired her determination to deal with the tragedy at her own pace, while accepting the help her friends were offering, knowing they had her best interests at heart.

The sweetest and best part of this story is that it tells of the redemptive powers of the love of, and for, animals. This is not a maudlin book. It is warm and real and I think fans of Anne Tyler would love it.

Published by Harlequin Books.

Looking Out by Fiona McCallum

Mitchell has given up his previous career as an accountant to work from home as a trader on the stock market. He enjoys cooking all the meals for his family: wife, Natasha and school-age daughters, Lara and Willow, while Natasha, a decorator, is working hard to make a success of her homewares store. They have a beautiful home, two upmarket cars and a dog called Angel.

All is not well, however. Mitchell is in all kinds of trouble with his trading, and the pressure of keeping their financial situation from Natasha is becoming overwhelming. Natasha is focused on her own business and trusts Mitchell to manage the family’s finances. She loves  Mitchell and she’s sure he still loves her but because he is trading on international markets at all hours of the night and day she is seeing him less and less and even when she attempts to rekindle their former intimacy he turns away from her.

Enter Jesse, a good looking man making no secret of his interest in Natasha. Can a once peaceful, harmonious life be resurrected for Mitchell, Natasha and their daughters if a new dynamic is introduced, as long as there is total honesty about it? Does human nature work that way?

Looking out is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It deals with a lot of serious issues in a world where ‘having it all’, financially, emotionally, physically, is the standard expectation.

Fiona McCallum has written a very clever, utterly absorbing book, not like anything I’ve read before. I couldn’t get out of bed this morning because I couldn’t put it down, even though my poor little dogs were looking trustingly at me, waiting for me to make a move, the cats having long jumped down from the bed and gone to see their dad. 

I can sum up Looking Out in three words: wow, just wow!

Published by Harper Collins

Love From Scratch by Amy Hutton

 

Love From Scratch is crying out to be made into a bright, sparkling romcom movie. The setting is Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, the hero is a Hemsworthian hunk, the heroine is almost as gorgeous as the hero, and it’s all topped off with an adorable cat and dog.

Ethan is a movie star best known for his looks. He is well aware that that is what gets him starring roles and he is quite matter-of-fact about maintaining his appearance. He is, however, a very nice, genuine man with a great appreciation for the success that has come his way so far.

Hazel is a chef whose confidence has been shattered by a particularly horrible customer. She has, sadly, lost her passion for cooking beautiful food, and she takes a job as a dog minder for Ethan’s Jack Russell while Ethan is filming.

This is not my usual kind of book; however, Amy Sutton’s writing about the cat and dog was tender, sweet and real which absolutely won me over;  and another point I would like to make is that Amy knows how to write a sex scene, a skill a lot of authors aspire to but not many do really well. The movie which I hope will eventuate will be a winner if it is filmed on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Sydney’s Northern Beaches: heaven on earth!

Published by Simon & Schuster

The Serpent Rising by Mary Garden

 

I decided to read The Serpent Rising after reading My Father’s Suitcase in which Mary Garden talks about the violent physical abuse inflicted on her by her younger sister, Anna. 

Mary was a brilliant student but having been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder she was finding it hard to cope with life. She stumbled on Eastern mysticism at an Ashram in New Zealand, after which she decided to travel to India in a search of enlightenment. 

The Serpent Rising is an absolutely fascinating story about a vulnerable young woman who needed help in recovering from a childhood of not being heard while an enormous, far reaching problem was unfolding within her own family. Unfortunately, Mary’s vulnerability was soon seized upon by an unscrupulous guru (and there were plenty of those around) and she relates her extraordinary tale with stunning clarity. I could see India in technicolor as I read, with the mighty Ganges flowing down from the mountains and the profusion of flowers and shrubs all around, as well as the dirt and the dust of the crowded cities.

This is a memoir like no other I’ve read. It is sad, moving, powerful and, ultimately, hopeful.

Published by Justitia Books

The Seven Good Years by Etgar Keret

 

The illustration on the cover of  Etgar Keret’s The Seven Good Years, a memoir of the first seven years of his son’s life, is perfect. Although it was first published in 2006 it could have been written today.

I laughed out loud through much of this book, and when I came to the end I put it down and cried. Etgar Keret’s stories of life in Tel Aviv are filled with brilliant wit, kindness, generosity of spirit and utter good heartedness.

It was a profound experience for me to read this book, given to me as a present by my beautiful friends in Israel. 

Shalom achi!

The Story Thief by Kyra Geddes

 The Story Thief is an Australian saga which follows Lillian Taylor from her birth in 1892 in outer western New South Wales up to her present life in 1954 in suburban Sydney. Tragic circumstances saw Lillian leave Bourke as a young girl and, through the generosity of a benefactor, become a boarder at Kincoppal Sacred Heart college in Rose Bay, Sydney. 

One day Lillian chanced upon a copy of While The Billy Boils, a collection of Henry Lawson’s short stories. [Reviewer’s note: I was given a copy of this book as a prize in my own convent school days, many years ago, (although not as long ago as Lillian’s, of course).  Sadly, it was destroyed in a flood in 2022.]. Lillian was struck by the story, The Drover’s Wife, and she can’t help wondering if Henry Lawson had met her family and based his story on her mother. In her determination to find out the truth, and whether he was a ‘story thief’, she wrote a letter to Henry Lawson. I won’t be putting any spoilers in here on that thread.

The twentieth century moves on as Lillian’s story unfolds through to the years of the Second World War and their aftermath. Her life is shaped by all the people who come into it, bringing happiness and, inevitably, sadness. 

Kyra Geddes’ elegant prose is perfect for invoking the magnitude of the changes in Australia’s, and the world’s, history from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Lillian is a deep and complicated character whose intelligence and strength, together with the kindnesses and friendships she encounters along the way, get her past her unbearably tragic beginnings and help prepare her, as far as possible, for everything her future holds. 

This book was absolutely unputdownable. Congratulations Kyra Geddes. Brilliant!

Published by Affirm Press.