Susan Hill - THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN

 reviewed live on bookshow by Corinna Christopher 25th July 2013 

This is a departure from the usual books of Susan Hill being a thriller.  It has a plethora of different characters but all are relevant and necessary for the build-up of the storyline.

The tale is set in the fictional English town of Lafferton where a few people seem to have disappeared. There is Angela Randall a shy and ordinary lady who vanishes whilst out on a 3 mile run at the local scenic hill, also Debbie a young single girl a bit depressed who also disappears on the same hill.  In addition a young boy cyclist has gone missing in the past and recently even a beloved dog has vanished into thin air .

Into the town comes Freya a young detective who has the task of unravelling the mysterious disappearances.   Her superior officer is Simon Serrailer a rather dishy enigmatic single man.  His sister Cat Deerbon is the local G.P. and very much involved with the community.  She befriends Freya and introduces her into the local social life where her parents live and where Freya is welcomed into the choral society.

As part of the story some of the characters consult alternative therapists in a neighbouring village.  Some of the persons are rather dodgy and are naturally a bit suspect.

Interspersed in the book are the thoughts and tapes of the  voice of the killer.  These are tantalising but it is not until 84% of the book is read that the reader is given the first real clue and the ending is a  shocking surprise.  The murderer kills only to satisfy his pathological interests.

I thought this was a chilling good read and a clever plot.  I specially liked the two main characters of Freya and Cat who were thoughtfully depicted.  In spite of some negative reviews I would like to very much  read some more of Simon Serrailer stories although he does not appear a great deal in this  particular novel .

Susan Hill - The Woman in Black

Reviewed by Neil Middleton on the show 9th Sept 2010.
When Arthur Kidd is sent to Crythin Gifford to deal with the funeral of Mrs Drablow and her affairs, little did he realise it would turn to a life changing experience.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill is a book of intrigue and tension. Set at about the 1920's or 30's (there is no specific date so it is how you interpret the time scale) it relives the traditional ghost stories of old. I was first introduced to this tale when, as a gift, I was taken to the Fortune theatre in London to see a play based on the book, for which i might add is very true to the story. After the experience, very unique and captivating to my mind, I just had to get the book to read.

This is just a short story and you could read it in a day, which I did, it was so well written that I just couldn't put it down. The description of the atmosphere and the smells was so precise I was there and for most of the story I was Arthur Kidd struggling to understand what was happening and who this woman was and why she put the fear of god into every cell.

It may not be everybody's cup of tea but if you enjoy stories by M R James, Edgar Allen Poe, Edith Nesbitt and such like I'm sure this will give you equal pleasure.
review by Neil

show 9th Sept 2010

Fun show today which was recorded on Saturday whilst having a leaisurely coffee on the sun roof of the Atlantic Hotel, on a glorious sunny morning.
I thought I would have a 'harem' of ladies but only ended up with two and a Sultan!
Babs Simpson, Di Peat and Neil Middleton were the unsuspecting guests this week.
I posed the question 'What is your favourite book on your bookshelf and why?
We had Rose Tremain 'The Colour'
Diana Gabaldon 'Cross Stitch'
Neville Shute 'Town Like Alice'
JRR Tolkien 'The Ring'
Daphne Du Maurier
Susan HIll 'The Woman in Black' elequently reviewed by Neil.
Wind in the Willows (given to him by his beloved Gran)
The Shack by Paul Young.

Plus we talked about the audio version of the Karma Sutra! What would happen if the tape stuck in a delicate spot or you fast forwarded by mistake...!

Trivia: September and back to school ….did you know that: while marking exam papers one day in September a teacher named J R R Tolkien scribbled down, "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit." - the first line of what was to become one of the most popular books of all time.
Fun thought:
If you think nobody cares whether you're alive or dead, try missing a couple of mortgage payments!

23rd April 09

Yep St Georges Day to-day but no red rose in buttonhole. One of the things I will enjoy doing, out of the 6 suggested by Boris Johnson, is to go on a pub crawl & support the English pubs which are under a threat from closure.
Anyway, my guests this week are Lydia Birch & Corinna christopher.
Lydia is reviewing Barbara Erskine - Midnight is a Lonely Place, a historical novel with a twist of the supernatural.
Cloud Garden by Tom Hart Dyke - a true story about a botanist who went looking for Orchids in central America against all advice from places like 'Lonely Planet'. He & his mate were taken hostage for 9 months by terrorists. Lydia did not like this book.
Corinna reviewed Man in the Picture by Susan Hill ( most reviewers considered this not as good as 'The Woman In Black')& The Return by Victoria Hislop (many reviewers preferred the Island, her first book, and were disappointed in this her second).

Susan Hill - The Beacon

Review by showhost 8th Oct 2009
I just didn’t get it! Even the ending I didn’t get!

So, its about a family who live in a desolate, North Country, farmhouse, called The Beacon, which had belonged to their grandparents and probably those before them, generations of family having lived and reared their children there.

The story is mainly about May Prime. At the beginning of the story May is living with her ailing mother at the farmhouse. Her father had died years previously, her brother Colin had moved on and got married, her sister Berenice had also moved on and got married, the youngest child, her brother Frank had married and lived in London but they don’t talk about him.

The farmhouse wasn’t a working farm anymore as when her father passed away there was no-one to oversee the running of it so eventually, the animals went and the labour force moved on.

May, herself, had moved once – she was a clever girl. She had passed her school/college exams with ease then went to study at a university in London. But May wasn’t a very sociable person, she was alone a lot, she didn’t like the ‘halls of residence’. Then the terrors began, she began to see things to imagine a stream of traffic as a ‘thunderous army menacing her and the people walking past as hostile enemies with staring eyes…’ Or ‘woke in the middle of the night convinced that large ants were crawling over her body and eating the skin away’. On the day of the end of year exams May got up and walked out of the hall and walked back home to The Beacon. Her mother, Bertha, had been right all along, May was not fit to be away. From that day on, until he died, she would spend most of her days with her father working on the farm. The terrors never followed her back home.

Out of the blue, years later and after their fathers death, Frank devastated the family when he wrote a supposedly, biographical book ‘The Cupboard Under the Stairs’. The book claimed that Frank was beaten, abused and locked in a cupboard and blamed all his family for having inflicted these atrocities on him. Overnight Frank found fame and fortune, the rest of the family were shunned by society.

May, Colin & Berenice didn't contact Frank or challenge him about the book, they thought it would run its course and people would forget. They knew it wasn’t true that it was all fabricated and they assumed that people would realize that, especially the people who knew them, but they didn’t.

On the death of their mother, Frank turns up at the farmhouse for the funeral. Although the mother was still alive when the book came out the other siblings didn’t tell her about it. Who inherits the farmhouse, will they all fight then make up, will May move on, will they speak to Frank, was it all true in the book, who knows....?


‘Subtle & profoundly moving’ ‘beautiful & evocative’ ‘authentically chilling’ ‘magnificently eerie’. These were some of the quotes on the back of the book, I am afraid to say I didn’t feel any of these emotions.

Funny how I had thought the Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin)book really hard going at times but this I thought, maybe in comparison, maybe because I read it straight after ‘Kevin..’ was too easy, there was nothing really going on. Not my style of book at all.

show 8th Oct 2009

on show this week are Corinna Christopher & Lesley Jones. Books being reviewed are books which we have read through the local library’s bookgroup. These are:

Journey by Jae Watson, Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zavin, The Beacon by Susan Hill, Gilded Seal by James Twining and We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

If anybody would like to add their reviews on any of these books they could email the studio: chris@radioscilly.com & he could pass them on to me.

New Years Eve show 2009

What was your favourite book of 2009 and least favourite? That was the question I put to my guests (Maggie Perkovic, Ro Bennett & Babs Simpson) and the listeners. Also visitors & possibly a local or two, logged their favourites throughout the year. So here's what my guests had to say:
Ro's favourite: Janet Evanovitch - Finger Lickin 15. Ro loves the humour of her books and looks forward to the next year when the follow on comes along.
Ro's least favourite: Susan Hill - The Beacon. The story was boring, the characters easily forgetable and the plot? It left Ro wondering what was that about?

Masggie's favourite: The Great Lover by Jill Dawson: Maggie loves this era early 1900's, and really enjoyed reading about Rupert Brooke, who was held up as a glamorous romantic poet,(see her review on this blog).
Maggie's least favourite: Jacky Trevane - Invisible women: Maggie enjoyed the first book 'Fatwa' but didn't enjoy this one as she felt it was just cashing in on other peoples tales.

Bab's favourite: Markus Zusak - The Book Thief: Death is a brilliant character in this very unusual book. It is beautifully written and set in the WW2 era which Babs loves. But on a par was 'Guernsey Potato Peel Pie and Literary Society' written by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer. Again set in 1940's during WW2 it told of the German Occupation of Guernsey through letters.
Bab's least favourite: Victoria Hislop - The Return: Babs loved the Island (based on a Cretan leper colony) but this book set during the Spanish civil war was a disappointment. I felt that I was reading an article from an encyclopaedia and the story around it was dull and predictable. I had to agree with Babs on this one!
Some listeners comments:
Steve Watt: Best Book - undoubtedly 'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel A brilliant historical novel but I have to put a word in for Cormac McArthy's 'Border Trilogy' (see reviews in this blog). As for the worst I only managed the first three pages of 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown - admirably and accurately described by the Guardian as 'a steaming pile of clunk.'

Ellie: best & worst both by same author Stephanie Meyer. Best, 'Eclipse', because it had a lot of action and bit of gore. Worst, 'New Moon',because nothing much happened in it.
Win Grant: Best book Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Toby (St Martins Bakery): Jose Saramago - Blindness

Here's what the visitors said:
BOOK, AUTHOR & COMMENTS

Paul Torday - Salmon fishing in the Yemen: excellent read, unusual, reminds me of tv series 'yes misister'

Dodie Smith - I capture the Castle: My favourite book ever! Especially the bit with the escaped bear on the train

Jo Verity - Sweets From Morocco:I wrote it!

Edwar Cummings - Ghosts of Rosevear: Very interesting - and a good read too based on an island off St Agnes

Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime: About autisitic boy sometimes amusing & shocking, a real insight

Thomas Bloor - Worm in the Blood: Wonderful love story that shouldn't work but really does make me cry

Tom Rob-Smith - child 44: Gripping crime novel set in Stalinist Russia. Realistic and ultimately haunting

Ian Sansom - The Case of the Missing Books: Quicrky & humourus novel about a Jewish librarian who takes up a job in Ireland only to find all the books missing

John Connelly - Bad Men: Spooky crime thriller set on an island off the coast of Maine USA

Sue Monk Kidd - The Secret Life of Bees A wonderful story out of nowhere which sends you on a roller coaster of emotions but end up feel good. Set at the start of the 1960's civil rights movement.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 100 years of Solitude a complex & involving story of one family in South America. It slowly tells a potted history of the continent as seen through eccentric eyes.

Terry Pratchett - Unseen Academicals: Brilliant!

Stephanie Meyer - Twilight Saga: NEVER a fan of romance, but enjoyed Twilight! Currently curbing my obsession!

My favourite? Chris Cleave 'The Other Hand', it really made me stop and think differently about some of the plights of immigrants held in detention centres.
Worst: Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst: boring & dull and I didn't care what happened to the characters (who were they anyway?).
Happy New Year to all! (definition of a hangover: Wrath of Grapes!)