Claire Douglas – Local Girl Missing

review by showhost oct 2016

Author of ‘The sisters’.  If you liked the Ice Cream Girls, I think you will like this one.  It has a similar theme – 2 girls who are school friends grow up in a small seaside town.  Both have secrets & tragedy that they know and  share about each other.

Franki & Sophie were childhood friends but Sophie disappeared one night and wasn’t seen again, she was presumed dead but no body was found.  Out of the blue one day Sophies brother rings Franki, who now has a successful career in London.

He needs Franki to come back to help him solve the mystery of his sisters murder, as now a body part has been found.

Franki befriends Sophie when her family come to the town.  Franki is from a wealthy family who run a local hotel.  Sophies family is just her mum and her brother and struggle to make ends meet.  Franki is idolised by her dad but envies the warmth that Sophie has from her family unit.

Franki attracts all the boys with her looks and buxom figure whereas Sophie is considered the ugly duckling.  Franki goes to boarding school at 16, Sophie goes to university but 3 years later they meet up again in their home town and Sophie has changed from the ugly duckling to a beautiful swan.  Franki becomes jealous.

Back to the present and someone is sending Franki letters threatening to expose her secret.  Sophie and Franki knew what happened when a boy was killed when they were 16 but did Sophie tell anyone before she died?  Franki begins to have sightings of her dead friend and hears a baby crying at night when there is only an old lady sharing the building.  Someone is playing with her mind.

A lot of the story was predictable, although a slight twist at the end.  It kept me reading but I’m not sure if I’d rush to read another of this author.

Tom Winship – The Opposite of Mercy

review by showhost oct 2016

VAL McDermid describes it as an intense, gripping, scary, thriller.

Hmm, I would say thriller yes.  if you like Tom Wood you will like this.

The story is set in England, present day.  Ex soldier Paul Curtis is approached by an old friend’s father who asks him to be an undercover bodyguard for his son, Chris. He wants Paul to discreetly organise a chance meeting which would renew their friendship.  The fathers involvement has to remain secret as the father and son are estranged.  In return Paul would be paid handsomely and housed in a nice pad in Camden.  Chris, lives in Camden with his Asian girlfriend Lara, who is also known to Paul as the three of them were childhood friends.  What Paul isn’t told is that Lara’s brother, Pasha Durrani is involved in organised crime who have links with a terrorist network in Pakistan.  Pasha has an arranged marriage organised for Lara, which she was unaware of, and he wants Chris out of her life.

Andy Mc call works for the London special branch, they have been following Pasha and bugged his house and car. They want him for drug dealing and property laundering, they know he is linked with the terrorist group.  They are unaware of Paul becoming involved but they are aware of the mounting anger happening between brother and sister, once Pasha has told Lara of his plans, and escalating violence.  Pasha needs the marriage to happen to get his property deal done, his life is at stake.

I had to re-read the first few pages to begin with as it wasn’t capturing my attention but once in I got going there were chapters which gripped.  But for me the ending spoilt it. Fight scenes don't read very well for me, especially over 50 pages of it at the end with lots of steps and a boat house which was at the top of a cliff..... How do you get a boat up there?  The writer should be setting the scene with words for you to imagine and a boat house, to me, conjures up a place nearly level with the sea so to suddenly have the villains and heroes running up and down cliff steps didn’t fit my image.  I think it deserves to be read if you like thrillers/action books based in UK.

BA Paris - Behind Closed Doors

review by showhost

I really can’t make up my mind about this book.  Although it was a kind of psychological thriller it was really frustrating, I really wanted Grace to do something more & stop being so pathetic – take them down to the basement. I may be being really harsh but thought there was some other way of dealing with it.

Also the ending was a little weak bearing in mind the excellent forensic work that can be done would find hairs etc from Grace & her paintings.  Too many but & whys for the end.

Grace is in what appears to be a perfect marriage with Jack.  They seem to adore each other, Jack is a perfect husband – too perfect.  He never leaves her side, she never has coffee with her friends unless Jack is there.  She gives up her job and stays at home.  Getting the picture?  Yes a controlling abusive husband.

Grace also has a sister with mental problems, Millie.  Millie is in a home being paid for by Jack.  Millie is due to join Grace in their new home when she is 18.  Jack has prepared a room for Millie but not the kind of room she was hoping for.

Grace needs to do something before this time, she can’t have Millie put in that sort of danger.  But she is foiled by Jack everytime she tries to shout for help.  He has told people she is mentally unstable and sent her parents to New Zealand.

I don’t get why he chose her anyway? It was all too simple and contrite – nowhere near as good as Claire Mackintosh (or even Girl on a Train). 

Sabine Durrant - Lie With Me

review by showhost  oct 2016

I couldn’t decide which category to put this book in so I looked up the meaning of some genres:

Suspense Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. NO def not suspense or excitement

Psychological Thriller is a thriller story which emphasizes the abnormal psychological states of its characters.  Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of and overlap with mystery, drama, action, and horror. FORGET THE ACTION AND HORROR

ANOTHER DEFINITION: a suspenseful movie or book emphasizing the psychology of its characters rather than the plot; this sub-genre of thriller movie or book. In a psychological thriller, the characters are exposed to danger on a mental level rather than a physical one.

So think Psychological genre:  mystery, drama, characters are exposed to danger on a mental level rather than a physical one.

The main character is Paul and you won’t like him but then you aren’t supposed to.  He is self-centred, egotistical, sponging womaniser, with shallow feelings.  He is a failed author who thinks his next book is round the corner.  He sold one book when he was at uni, 20 odd years ago (not many copies though) and lived off the claim ever since.  He has bummed off his friends ever since.  In fact as the story begins he is living in a flat belonging to a friend who has gone travelling for a year plus.  He meets an old student friend Alex, quite by chance, in a bookstore.  They chat and Alex  invites him to dinner.  Paul goes because he will get a free meal and drink all night (even though he didn’t like Alex very much).

At the meal Paul is introduced to Alice, who’s husband died a year or two ago and Alex’s family.  Alice isn’t Pauls usual type and especially as she has 2 teenage children with normal teenage attitudes who Paul doesn’t like. But Alice flirts with him a little.

Paul gets in touch with her a week or so later and is invited to dinner with her.  Her house is decent enough and Paul imagines if he plays his cards right may get invited to come and stay.  She talks a lot about the final holiday she, Alex and family will make to a Greek island where they have had a leased holiday home for years. But things are changing as the land has been sold to developers.  Whilst out there they will carry on with their ‘help find Jasmine’ campaign.  Jasmine went missing when they were out there 10 years ago.  They often meet up with her parents on the anniversary of her disappearance.  In fact Paul was out there too about 10 years ago but he was too drunk to remember it.

Paul decides he would like to be invited as it would be a cheap holiday and may give him the chance to finally win Alice over with his charms. Paul has to look for cheap travel, due to his shortage of money, but can’t tell Alice as he feels he has to impress her and Alex’s family. So starts his improvisation of the truth and his demise.

It isn’t an action packed, roller coasting twisting plot.  More a slow simmer, which slowly bubbles as time goes on with some predictable paths.  The family, in the beginning, reminded me a little of the Durrells, once the plot went to Greece.  I would say if you liked Girl on the Train you would like this one, it’s got the same pace of plot with an undercurrent of tension and sense of growing unease.  I did find myself thinking ‘but would these events have all fell neatly into place in the real world’, was it too contrived?

I enjoyed the novel and have recommended it to others who I know like slowly unfolding books, not those who like fast paced thrillers.

Belinda Bauer The Shut Eye

review by showhost oct 2016

This is another psychological thriller genre book. It kept me reading and the idea was good.

Anna and her husband James live in a flat next to the garage where James works, with a couple of illegal immigrants and a tight fisted, unlikeable boss. 

Most mornings Anna could be seen cleaning the 5 footprints of her young son which are the last sign of him since his disappearance a few weeks ago. James had left the door open on his way to work and little Daniel had gone out and walked in the freshly poured cement of the garage next door where her husband works  .  Anna has gone into melt down and just spend her days polishing those foot prints.  Plus everything in her house is scrubbed clean of germs.  Gone is the loving, happy, carefree woman James married.

Abrasvie cop DI John marvel had been working on the case of a missing 12 yr old girl Edie and they had even paid for the help of a local psychic (even though he totally dissed the concept of being able to talk to the dead) but she still hasn't been found, just her bike.  The fact that he can’t solve the case haunts him.

Anna, crazy lady as people call her, goes to the local church to listen to a psychic session, to ask if he could find Daniel.  The psychic tells Anna he can't help her.  At the hall she meets Sandra who is looking for her missing dog, and hands Anna one of the photos she's handing round of her dog. 

But when Anna gets home and she looks at the picture she starts to see and feel things.

DI Marvel is asked by his boss to help his wife find their missing dog, much to his disgust, but does on proviso he can open up the Edie case.

The narrative is also broken by Edie as we slowly find out what happened to her and where she is and her thoughts as she is kept prisoner.

It's an interesting concept and all the characters are well drawn (the parents of the missing children, the police, the psychic, the perp, the police). The only thing I was a little disappointed with was the ending, I found it a little confusing and left questions.

I would read another by this author.

I

Gordon John Thomson - Gotha

review written and read live on bookshow 13th Oct 2016 by Brian Lowen

Another great story from GJT that covers the two world wars.

The title refers to a large bomber built by the Germans in WW1 that was going to terrorise Londoners by bringing the first blitz to the great city. It could fly higher than the British fighters and carry several high explosive bombs.

We have to remember that this was back in the time when aircraft were still in their infancy and this biplane bomber could only fly at 75 mph but was still a great threat to the poorly defended people of England.  I had never heard of this aircraft so had to look it up but it did exist and did bomb London and other cities in the south east during the first world war.
Our hero though is Captain James Buckingham who is recuperating after being severely injured in the battle of Delville wood. The Minister of Munitions, Winston Churchill, hears of Buckingham’s expertise in aircraft design from his work before the war and brings him into his office to advise on this new threat and how England could be protected against it.
However, the story starts off in 1940, in the midst of the blitz in London when a young WAAF officer is trapped in a street near St Pauls as fire bombs rain down. She is rescued by a strange enigmatic man called Max who drags her into a cellar, but they become trapped in there by falling masonry.
The story then oscillates from war to war and we gradually learn of the strange connection between the two events.  Meanwhile, back in 1917, James Buckingham meets and falls in love with Daisy Skellern who is a beautiful music hall entertainer. When she is brutally murdered he is accused of her murder and has to hide away with the help of Daisy’s young dresser, Amy, until he can work out who was the murderer. He gets involved with a German spy ring operating in London and has some narrow escapes with his life, but Amy proves a great help to him in his search for justice.
During all that is going on in 1917 we keep going forward to see how our trapped pair are faring and this is when we gradually realise the connection between the two events, one in each war. GJT shows his great skill as a story teller as he gradually reveals the secrets of the two couples.
A great page turner this, full of interest and excitement, that keeps you enthralled the whole way through.

Robert Galbraith - Career of Evil

review written and read live on bookshow 13th Oct 2016 by Brian Lowen

This is the third novel by the creator of the Harry Potter books, J K Rowling, writing under her new pseudonym and it is another great story featuring the erasable Private Detective,

Cormoran Strike and his beautiful young sidekick, Robin Ellacott.

Strike has a certain reputation having already solved two high profile murders before the Police could, This means that he is not given much help from the police in his cases but his work load has increased as his reputation grew.

This is all about to change though when a mysterious parcel is delivered to Robin at their office. When Robin opens it she is horrified to find that it contains the severed leg of a young woman. Strike takes care of Robin while he phones the police. It is obvious to him that someone is trying to ruin him by attacking his Secretary cum Partner thereby dissuading clients from giving him work.

He realises that Robin is in danger and tries to stop her working but she is insistent in continuing as his partner, as she has now been called by Strike. Her staid Fiancé, Matthew, whom she is about to marry in a few weeks, has rows with her about the dangerous work she is involved in, and tries to persuade her, unsuccessfully, to change her job for a safer occupation.

And so Strike and Robin try to narrow down the suspects who might have sent the leg as the police do not seem to be making much progress. Robin makes a mistake in making an investigation that they have been warned against by the police who have instructed Strike to keep out of their investigation. Strike is so annoyed with Robin that he sacks her.

Like the previous two books in this series the tension builds up to a thrilling climax, just before Robin’s wedding, and we are wondering if she gets her job back or not.

I do hope there are more books in this series (available from the Library) as I really enjoy them and being involved in the changing relationship between Strike and Robin.

Colin Bateman - Shooting Sean

review written and read live on the bookshow by Ro Bennett 13th Oct 2016

This is the first Colin Bateman story I have actually read. All the others have been audio books on the library One Click Audio service read by the excellent narrator Stephen Armstrong who has a lovely soft Irish accent which is a pleasure to listen to. A good narrator makes all the difference. 

This book is called Shooting Sean and is the fourth Dan Starkey book.

Maverick movie star Sean O'Toole is a type cast action hero who has left the glamour of Hollywood to direct a film based on an infamous IRA member, a gangster named the Colonel. Local journalist Dan Starkey, has been employed to write his biography. It's a job that plunges Dan into the murky underbelly of the movie business, and from the backstreets of Belfast to the fleshpots of Amsterdam and the glitz of the Cannes Film Festival. Along the way a smouldering romance threatens the frequently rocky balance of his marriage to Patricia while he battles his way through kidnap, extortion and murder, and all of it liberally sprinkled with Hollywood gold dust.

This was another compelling read - a tense thriller full of twists and turns. It has all the elements that I tend to avoid - as well as the murder and kidnap element there is drowning, torture, drugs, explosions and the psychotic, cold, vicious cruelty of the Colonel. In many of  his books, Bateman emphasises with contempt, the mindless violence and ruthlessness of the paramilitary organisations.  Getting involved with the actor and the film soon lead to Starkey once again struggling to both protect his wife Patricia and her child Little Stevie. However despite the suspense there is also the cleverness and wit of Dan Starkey which kept me guessing and laughing out loud right to the end. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Colin Bateman’s books. His heroes are so flawed. The unnamed man who is the private eye in the Mystery Man series was totally neurotic and hilariously dysfunctional, his girl friend Alison’s patience stretched to the limit.  And in this series, Dan Starkey also tends to blunder about making bad situations worse and is equally rubbish in his relationship with Patricia and her son - I kept thinking, ‘You are so useless Dan!’ but it kept me chuckling. At other times I was almost holding my breath wondering how on earth a situation could be resolved and hoping that it would not go horribly wrong. 

I really recommend his books - both the audible and the hard copy. I thoroughly enjoy them - but I never read them at bedtime - far too scary! 

Denise McLeod - The Dog Behaviourst’s Diary

 review written and read live on the bookshow by Ro Bennett 13th Oct 2016

I’m not a dog owner now, although I enjoy dog sitting occasionally, however my childhood home was rather a menagerie with assorted animals and a variety of dogs - Spaniels, a  Border Collie, a Boxer. When I had my own family we had mainly German Shepherd dogs - My favourites being long haired Sabre and especially Zak who was huge, black and magnificent. 

Consequently I am always fascinated by programmes like the Dog Whisperer and have read many books on dog handling, some better than others. Some have been  heavy going. This book was a delight to read.  I enjoyed every single page and I learnt so much from it. 

The book is a collection of case studies and aspects of dog behaviour and each one was interesting. I was gripped from the very first story - especially since the dog was called Zak! It was a very dramatic and traumatic introduction to the book which deals with topics like dogs which bite people and dogs which are aggressive with other dogs, dogs which suddenly start to behave erratically or seem unhappy.  Like life it is a mixture of the tragic, sad and humorous. The author is very honest about mistakes she has made and problems she has encountered. 

The author has a good writing style so I felt emotionally involved in the stories. She seems an extremely warm and caring person and she is also very frank about her personal life and the affect it had on her own dogs. She obviously adores dogs and is passionate about their welfare and helping dogs and owners to have happy, rewarding relationships and interactions. I think every dog owner would learn something from this book, but it would appeal to even those who do not have a dog, because the stories are so interesting. There are some lovely photos as well. I found it a real page turner and thoroughly recommend it. I was so impressed with it that I not only bought my won copy to refer to again, but also bought a copy for my daughters.

Lucie whitehouse Bed I Made

review by showhost

It kept me reading but always slightly predictable, another one of those psychological thrillers.

Kate lives in London as has a good job but she is not in a relationship and neither is her best friend Helen.  They attract two men one night when they are out drinking and Katie does something out of character – she has a one night stand with Ricahrd.

Her friend Helen doesn’t like or trust Richard but 18 months later Katie is still with him.

However it turns out that Richard is a power-hungry psychopath intent on controlling Katie's every move.

When the story begins Katie has moved to the Isle of Wight for 6 months to get away from her relationship.  It is her first week there when the island is rocked by the tragic news of Alice who has gone missing in her boat.  Katie was only talking to her the day before.  Alice’s husband Peter seems to affect Katie in an unnerving way.  And even though she thinks he may have had something to do with his wifes death, eventually falls for him (Doh!).

The story stays on Isle of Wight  but it goes back to London to the relationship with Richard and what caused Katie to run away. As we catch up Richard is stalking Katie & sending emails & txts.  You are just waiting For Richard to catch up with her and just know that when he does her new boyfriend will come to her rescue.

It did keep me turning the pages (faster sometimes when she was babbling), even though I knew what was coming and thought Kate was a silly mare.  However the author sets the scene of IOW well.

Simon Becket - Where There’s Smoke by

review written by Brian Lowen and read live on bookshow 8th Sept 2016
 

  

Kate Powell owns a marketing agency and employs three staff.

She has just won a contract from a large firm to arrange their marketing, but she is not as happy as she should be. The reason being is that she is a single, independent person who does not want to enter into a relationship with a man but is desperate for a baby, especially as she often spends time with her friend Lucy and her happy family with young children.

She confides in Lucy that she wants a baby and is thinking of going to a clinic for artificial insemination. Lucy is horrified and points out all the problems of bringing up a baby on your own. But Kate is very strong willed and finds an agency where she can choose her donor. She prefers it this way and advertises for a suitable donor in some of the professional type magazines.

She only gets one reply to her advert and when she eventually meets this man she finds that he would be an excellent donor for her baby and so starts the ball rolling with the clinic.

Things are progressing nicely, but after several meetings with her donor she realises that she is falling in love with him. This leads to them spending a night together but then things start to go horribly wrong as she finds out that he is not the man she thought he was. 

This is an unusual subject for a story but it is dealt with very well and although, as a man, I thought this was not a book for me, I did get hooked on the story as the thriller starts to develop until finally reaching a dramatic conclusion.

A great book and a good read as have been all the other books by Simon Becket that I have read.

Gordon John Thomson - In Winter’s Grip

review written by Brian Lowen and read live on bookshow 8th Sept 2016

This is an historical thriller sent in the period after the Second World War in the terrible winter of 1947 when Britain was suffering from the after effects of the war and life was hard going in those days. 

The story is centred on Newcastle – on – Tyne where a beautiful young German girl is on trial for murder. Jack Raisbeck, the owner of a struggling shipyard, where Elsa worked, is convinced that she is innocent but finds himself helpless as he is unable to prove her innocence.

Jack is physically scarred facially following the torpedoing of his destroyer during the war, but he has fallen in love with Elsa. He must, however, rely on Elsa’s barrister to prove her not guilty.

Alexander Galbraith, her defence lawyer is doing his best, having been funded by Jack, but has problems of his own as his wife Virginia has found out that he is having a homosexual relationship with his young assistant.

Jack also has problems as the murdered Dutch victim was designing a new type of dredger that Jack’s shipyard is building for a wealthy Dutch shipping magnate and the project is behind on its completion due to the terrible winter which is causing the delays. 

The story is set over the period of the trial and we get flashbacks that tell us Elsa’s previous life and the hard times she suffered before getting to England.

A good story with scenic descriptions of the awful weather conditions and what it was like living in those times. I enjoyed the book but was not too happy with the ending as I always like to see a happy ending!

Jojo Moyes - the Horse Dancer

 review written and read live on the bookshow by Ro Bennett Aug 2016.

I started to listen to this book on the library One click audio but ended up buying it as well. For me it was a gripping and emotional story. I felt really involved with all the characters and their heartaches, struggles and successes. 

At first the reader is introduced to Henri Lachappelle who was a highly talented horseman who trained at Le Cadre Noir, an exclusive French riding school, dedicated to the finest horsemanship. I Googled Le Cadre Noir and watched some Youtube videos of horses performing there and it is amazing. Henri is a grand father now and caring for his grand daughter Sarah. They are living in a rather deprived London council estate and in an effort to protect his granddaughter from the crime that surrounds them, Henri has bought a horse for Sarah. Not any old pony, but a fantastic Selle Francaise called Boo. He is teaching her all the skills he acquired fifty years previously. Sarah shares his love for horses and has inherited his talent. As the story unfolds the reader learns just why Henri is living in poverty so far from home and as sole carer of his grand daughter. Then disaster strikes and fourteen-year-old Sarah is left to fend for herself…

Enter successful lawyer Natasha Macauley who is in the process of divorcing her husband Mac. The situation is strained as they are still having to share a house.  Fate throws  Natasha and Sarah together, but a brittle, tense woman and a lonely, hurt, confused and angry teenager don’t make for a harmonious relationship. Especially since Sarah appears to be a delinquent who skives off school, lies, steals and puts herself in hazardous situations in order to protect a carefully guarded secret. 

I was drawn into the emotions of this book. My heart was in my mouth as Sarah was drawn deeper and deeper into a web of petty crime, deception and danger. It looked more and more unlikely that she would be able to extricate herself without lasting damage and harm and I was longing for her to tell Natasha what was going on and ask for help. But Sarah didn’t trust anyone, least of all exasperated Natasha. 

I could empathise with Natasha’s sense of betrayal and anger and hurt and her feeling of being completely out of her depth, not knowing what to do for the best and feeling totally inadequate and a complete failure despite her best efforts. The situation looked increasingly hopeless as the wedge between them kept growing. 

The book was full of suspense but wasn’t all gloom and doom. There were heart warming aspects which balanced it and kept me turning the pages. This is the sort of book that I will remember. Excellent book, highly recommended!

Geraldine Brooks - The Book Reader

 review written and read live on the bookshow by Ro Bennett Aug 2016.

This is another book I listened to, but this time from the library Borrow Box Audio service. I bought this book as well. Sometimes the books are light and easy to listen to but sometimes, as in this case they are more meaty and I like the printed version to refer to at times. 

Mentioning listening, the only problem I frequently have with audio books are the dire accents and this book was no exception. The woman’s reading voice was fine but each time she attempted different accents for different characters it was so dire I found it intensely irritating and off putting. On more than one occasion I was tempted to abandon listening and just read the book, but I do like to listen to something as I do my chores. 

Having had my moan - despite this, it was a good book, the subject was interesting and it was very well researched. 

When Hanna Heath gets a call in the middle of the night in her Sydney home about a precious medieval manuscript which has been recovered from the smouldering ruins of war torn Sarajevo, she knows she is on the brink of the experience of a lifetime. A renowned book conservator, she must now make her way to Bosnia to start work on restoring The Sarajevo Haggadah to discover its secrets and piece together the story of its miraculous survival.

The Sarajevo Haggadah really exists. The Haggadah is the story of the escape of the Children of Israel from Egypt and is read at the Jewish Passover Seder every year. This actual illuminated manuscript was produced in Spain in the 14th century. It is handwritten on bleached calfskin and illuminated in copper and gold. It opens with 34 pages of illustrations of key scenes in the Bible, from Creation through to the death of Moses. 

There is much information about it, as well as reproductions of the pictures, on Google.

The Sarajevo Haggadah has survived many close calls with destruction. Historians believe that it was taken out of Spain by Spanish Jews who were all expelled by the Alhambra Decree in 1492. Notes in the margins of the Haggadah indicate that it surfaced in Italy in the 16th century. It was sold to the National Museum in Sarajevo in 1894 by a man named Joseph Kohen.

During World War II, the manuscript was hidden from the Nazis by the Museum's chief librarian, who at risk to his own life, smuggled the Haggadah out of Sarajevo. He gave it to a Muslim cleric who hid it under the floorboards of either a mosque or a Muslim home. In 1992 during the Bosnian War the Haggadah manuscript survived a museum break-in and it was discovered on the floor during the police investigation by a local Inspector, with many other items thieves believed were not valuable. Then it survived in an underground bank vault during the siege of Sarajevo by Serb forces. To quell rumours that the government had sold the Haggadah in order to buy weapons, the president of Bosnia presented the manuscript at a Jewish community Seder in 1995.

This is an amazing story in itself and obviously fired the imagination of the author. The history of Derviš Korkut, who saved the book from the Nazis, was told in an article by Geraldine Brooks in The New Yorker magazine. The article also sets out the story of the young Jewish girl, Mira Papo, whom Korkut and his wife hid from the Nazis as they were acting to save the Haggadah. In a twist of fate, as an elderly woman in Israel, Mira Papo secured the safety of Korkut's daughter during the Bosnian war in the 1990s. Altogether the whole thing is fascinating.  

Geraldine Brooks, was a newspaper correspondent in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war and was fortunate enough to have witnessed the uncovering of the book in Sarajevo. She has also done meticulous research on the art of book conservation, and on what can be deduced about a book's history from microscopic examination, not only of the parchment and the colours, but also from tiny foreign bodies that have been trapped in the book. 

In the story an insect’s wing, a white hair, wine and salt stains were discovered. Like a detective Hanna proceeds to try and trace the book's earlier history, moving backwards from the present. What was the significance of these clues? Which part of the world did the insect come from, and was the white hair human? Was it cut or plucked? what happened to the silver clasps which were missing, and why was the Haggadah so lavishly illuminated at a time when Jewish belief was firmly against illustrations of any kind?  

The chapters alternate between Hanna's present day life with all its current dramas, and historical fiction, taking us back through time and concentrating on each era’s affect on the Haggadah. So it explores the persecution of the Jews in recent times and back to the Spanish Inquisition, times of terrible turmoil and upheaval. I could have done without the gory details of the cruelty and barbarity, but I suppose that is an integral part of the history.  

At the front of the book there is a map which traces the imagined global journey of the Haggadah. At the back there is an afterword about the author. In Hebrew you would say ‘Kol haKavod’ - ‘all the honour’. She has written a magnificent book, a lot of hard work went into researching it and the result is excellent. A copy of the Sarajevo Haggadah was given to former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair by the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric during the awards ceremony for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation's Faith Shorts competition in December 2011. The Grand Mufti presented it as a symbol of interfaith cooperation and respect, while recounting the protection of the Jewish book by Muslims on two occasions in history.

David Baldacci - The Winner

review written and read live on bookshow by Brian Lowen Aug 2016 

LuAnn Tyler is living in abject poverty in an old caravan in Charlottesville in the US with a young baby and a drunken husband who is out of work.

She works as a waitress in a truck stop café, keeping her baby under the counter.

She is seen here by the mysterious Mr Jackson who later makes her an offer she finds hard to believe. He says that he can make her win the national lottery which this month has reached $100 million. She is undecided what to do but then when she comes back home to find her husband has been murdered and the murderer is still in the caravan, a fight ensues and she ends up killing him.

She is now on the run from the police and phones Jackson to accept his offer. She buys a lottery ticket and gives the numbers to Jackson. Then she travels to New York with her baby, Lisa, all at Jackson’s expense where she wins the lottery. The conditions that Jackson imposed is that he banks the money and just pays her a substantial amount each month.

He will invest the money over a period of ten years and then pay her the capital back at the end of that time.

As she is on the run from the police, Jackson gets her out of the country and sends her on a world tour with Lisa and also Charlie, who was originally appointed by Jackson to look after her in New

York. Jackson tells her that she must never return to the States but after ten years continual travelling she is homesick and comes back home, which is when her troubles really start.

A canny reporter, Donovan, has been investigating the National Lottery and wants to speak to her, but luckily she has found a local builder, who was working for her, falls in love with her, and who decides to help her through her problems. Matthew Riggs is an ex FBI man also with a troubled past and they both work together to thwart Jackson who is furious that LuAnn has come back to the States.

Another great story from David Baldacci that really grips you and holds your attention right through the book until it reaches its thrilling climax.

Well recommended.

Simon Beckett - Stone Bruises

review written and read live on bookshow by Brian Lowen Aug 2016

Sean is on the run. We don’t know why or who he is running from but we do gradually learn this in flashbacks throughout the story.

We meet him as he is abandoning his battered, blood stained car in the depths of rural France in the height of the summer heat.

He takes to the road and starts walking, hitch hiking lifts, but when he stops for a rest in a cool wood he steps on a vicious animal trap and cannot move. He calls for help as he cannot move and feels he is going to die. He sinks into unconsciousness but then is rescued by the two daughters who live on the farm wherein the wood is situated. He is taken down to the farm buildings and kept in a dilapidated barn where he is restored to health, although still having to use a crutch, because of his crushed leg.

When their Father, the surly farmer Ahmed finds out he is being kept there he is furious and demands that Sean do some work to pay for his keep. As Sean struggles to help on the farm he explores this remote place with its locked gates, run down vineyard and brooding lake  and so his adventures begin as he discovers the horrific secrets of this chilling place.

A great story which I thoroughly enjoyed. The atmosphere of the place is well portrayed as are the characters on the farm. You

feel nothing much is happening but it is still a gripping story. Well recommended.

Gregory David Roberts - The Mountain shadow

review by showhost, sept 2016.

If you loved Shantaram you will like this one (my opinion - not as good as Shantaram).  It is a massive tome with over 800 pages and in hardback so no easy read when you are reading in bed.  It was lovely to meet up with old friends like Didier, Abdullah, Karla and of course Shantaram himself.

Shantaram, for those who never read it, was based on a true story of an Australian who broke out of prison and ran to Bombay to hide.  He ended up working and living in the slums and became a non qualified doctor to those slum dwellers & friend.  They call him Lin.  He made his money forging passports working for the mafia (the company).  He had so many risky adventures, police brutality and gang violence plus a stint in Afghanistan that I was amazed he survived.  He also sat in council with the very wise Khaderbhai.

In this sequel, Lin/Shantaram comes back from a stint away to find things have changed in the company which was Khaderbhai’s and not all to his liking, nor is the new leader Sanjay.  Shantaram is living with Lisa but still in love with Karla whom he has not seen for 2 years.  Karla has married Ranjit.  The company is not being run with the same wisdom or fairmess of play.  When a girl and her drug addicted boyfriend, who are travellers in India, buy some bad drugs, the boyfriend dies. Sharantam traces the bad stuff back to the company he works for and it starts to question his believe in what he is doing.  There are also people being brought into the company who are not good people – one of them a big Irishman Concannon who puts a 24 hour contract out on Shantaram.

Karla comes back into his life through her husband who is worried for her safety because of his dodgy business dealings.  He wants Shantaram to protect her from his enemies due to his shifty dealings with money.

Shantaram is sent away to Sri Lanka on a business deal.  On his return his girlfriend Lisa is dead – verdict is overdose.  Shantaram and those close to him do not believe it and they vow to find who was with her in his flat before she dies.

Hope starts to glimmer for Shantaram and Karla but it is a very tentative relationship.  Karla wants him to give up his dodgy illegal business and join her in her ligit PI for lost loves business.  Their paths continually cross and unwind.

There is an awful lot of ‘musing’ of gurus and wise men which pads out the book.  I enjoyed these in the first book as there weren’t that many and I understood them but felt there was way too much in this sequel plus most of them I didn’t understand especially the pages on the spiritual talk with Idriss.  But that aside (in fact I skipped some of these pages and didn’t miss a beat with the story) I really enjoyed the book when things/action happened and also enjoyed catching up with old characters again and meeting some new ones.  You must read Shantaram first to appreciate this sequel

Jenny Blackhurst – How I Lost You

review by showhost

Well she certainly lost me!!  Alex Marwood said ‘fast-moving and unputdownable’ – sorry but I don’t agree.  Mid to end of the story I was totally confused as to who was who and actually couldn’t care less by then, I just wanted it to end.  Characters had nicknames which were sometimes used and sometimes not, the main character Susan or was it Emma was so pathetic you wanted to slap her. 

Susan Webster was convicted of killing her twelve week old son, Dylan, the verdict was post natal depression.  After serving only three years in a psychiatric hospital she is out on parole having given herself a new name - Emma Cartwright (which is hardly referred to in the book).  Her best friend is Cassie, also a murderer, who befriended her whilst she was in prison/hospital and saved her from suicidal tendencies.. Emma/Susan lives in a small town in Shropshire. with a relatively small population, in which to hide.
Four weeks after her release, certain events have Susan beginning to believe that Dylan is, in fact, still alive (starts off with a photo of a four year old boy and on the back the name and dob of her supposed dead baby). A journalist turns up at her door out of the blue – how did he know where she lives with this new identity (I’d be worried straight away).  She immediately trusts this journalist Nick, (handsome with muscles of course)  Cassie doesn’t trust the journalist and becomes a little jealous.  But other items of Dylan start to turn up – like his blanket which her dad had, so Susan thought.  Her dad whom she hadn’t spoke to since going in prison.  She obviously turns to Nick and not Cassie for support and help.  She goes to see the solicitor who represented her during her trial as they find evidence which wasn’t brought up during the trial.  Some of the witnesses are gone.  Her solicitor isn’t now the friendly person she was but on the way out she meets one of the associates of the firm and imagines going on a date with him....( example of M&B adjectives: "He smells expensive, tailored Armani suit well built, and his face has been chiselled by a steady hand").  Her house is trashed so she goes to live in Nicks house.  When his house is broken into they go to live in a Travelodge.

How did neither her or her husband at the time, take one last look at their deceased baby child.  Your baby is dead – you smothered him.  Oh ok then.  I don’t remember doing it but if you say so.  There was too many unbelievable events and the sheer volume of names & nicknames, especially when it goes back in time to the 90’s was totally confusing.  I definitely won’t read another by this author.

Judith Cook - To Brave Every Danger

review written and read live on bookshow by Ro Bennett, 11/8/2016

This is a biography about a woman called Mary Broad who was born into a fishing family in Fowey in 1765. Life was very tough in Cornwall so she left home to seek work in Plymouth where she became involved in petty thievery. After being arrested for highway robbery of a silk bonnet, jewellery, and a few coins, she was committed by the Mayor of Plymouth, to gaol and then was sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia. 

In May 1787, when she was only 22 years old, Mary was sent as a prisoner aboard the ship Charlotte to New South Wales. Mary gave birth on the journey to a baby, whom she called Charlotte. When she arrived in Australia, she married William Bryant who was also from Cornwall. Bryant, who had worked as a fisherman, was a convicted smuggler. He was also on the Charlotte with Mary and they later had a son, Emanuel, born on 6 May 1790.

On 28 March 1791, William and Mary Bryant with the children and six other fellow prisoners stole the Governor’s six-oared cutter. After a voyage of sixty-six days, the group reached Kupang on the island of Timor, a journey of 5,000 kilometres. Timor was then under the control of the Dutch. The Bryants and their crew claimed to be shipwreck survivors. They were later discovered to be British convicts, apparently after William became drunk and confessed in the process of bragging. To avoid an international incident they were sent back to Britain to stand trial. The punishment for escaping from transportation was generally death and Mary was sent to Newgate jail. I won’t reveal any more details of the journey back to England or what happened once the prisoners arrived there because not knowing anything about Mary’s story made the book an absolute page turner for me. 

This was an excellent account, informative and very well researched. Apparently other fictional books have been written about Mary Bryant as well as a TV movie, plays and a musical. I can understand that as her story is certainly fascinating and stirs the imagination. This book is factual but extremely interesting and easy to read. It describes life in Cornwall at the time, the multiple reasons for the widespread grinding poverty of the rapidly increasing underclass - a half starved population living, quote “cheek-by-jowel with conspicuous wealth. 

It describes in depth the horrendous prison conditions, the even worse conditions on board ship and the unbelievable deprivation suffered by the convicts as they struggled to survive while building everything from scratch - the houses which they made from wattle and daub collapsed in the strong winds and rain, the cereal crops rotted, the vegetables failed to thrive while disease and lack of food decimated the animals. The rations of old salted meat, weevily flour and dried peas had to be cut. Clothes were becoming ragged. Ships bringing new supplies were wrecked and there was no way to get news of their plight back to England. Major Ross the Vice Governor who hated the country, the natives, the marines, the convicts and most of all his staff was loathed by everyone in return. Discipline was harsh and disease rampant. It was an absolutely wretched existence and it was no wonder that the Bryants planned an escape, especially after William had been been punished with a hundred lashes which nearly killed him. 

It is an excellent book brimming with information and suspense - absolutely gripping and unforgettable. 

John Ironmonger - Not Forgetting the Whale

review written and read live on bookshow by Ro Bennett, 11/8/2016

This was for me a very unusual and clever novel, a real page turner. 

The story begins with the residents of St Piran, a fictional Cornish village, who collectively remember and celebrate an event that occurred fifty years ago.

At that time a naked young man was washed up on the back of a whale and deposited on the beach. He was quickly rescued by the villagers. From the retired village doctor and the beachcomber, to the priest's flirtatious wife and the romantic novelist, they take this lost soul into their midst. 

But what the villagers don't know is that Joe Haak is a city analyst who has fled London, fearing he may - inadvertently - have caused a global financial collapse. Joe is so talented on the share trading floor, that he has managed to invent Cassie, a computer programme which will predict the rise and fall of the market. By combing through every piece of financial journalism, every scrap of knowledge of every last supply chain, and every piece of economic activity in recorded history, Cassie can anticipate market movements, and forecast share prices. This of course should be invaluable to his company. However it is after being led by Cassie into a spectacularly disastrous trade, that a terrified Joe flees to the remote Cornish fishing village. 

Then, just as he begins to settle down and find some peace, Cassie starts predicting the end of the world. A global flu pandemic will wreak havoc. Oil supplies will be cut off and Law and order will break down, millions will die and civilisation will be back in the Stone Age within a week.

Joe advises the villagers to save themselves and seal the village off from the rest of the world before it is too late.

The narrative weaves between the past and present, London and Cornwall and this helps build up the tension and suspense as Cassie’s prediction proves to be accurate. 

As far fetched as the story might seem, this concept is actually rooted in reality which is rather scary! Ironmonger consulted Diamond, the scientist whose book Collapse (2005) examined the rapid decline of civilisations such as that on Easter Island. 

Based on this information, John Ironmonger’s description of the intricate mesh of supply networks on which we all rely is really thought provoking. Just think about the implications of a world-wide outbreak of severe flu, with billions of people incapacitated and unable to work and the impact that would have as power stations closed and produce wasn’t harvested or delivered and petrol stations had to close and supermarkets ran out of essentials etc. Imagine god forfend that the Gry didn’t come for weeks!!! 

The book however doesn’t focus on the gory details of such an event but upon the more heartwarming side of human nature - self-sacrifice for the good of many as opposed to the savage fight for survival of the fittest. As such,  it’s a gentle, uplifting book with warm engaging characters who demonstrate the inherent goodness and generosity of spirit in us all.

This is a book which will stay with me for a long time.