F's ENJOYED, F's UNREAD

Week 6 and the F's are up for scrutiny in our Crime Fiction Alphabet journey, hosted by Kerrie over at her Mysteries in Paradise blog. Take a trip over there to see what fellow crime fiction bloggers have posted for their contribution.

Ford, Freedman, Ferrigno........enjoyed,

G.M. Ford – Fury, 

Ford wrote an earlier series of books featuring Leo Waterman, which were enjoyable, I think I've read 3 from 7, but I always preferred Corso as a character, despite only having read this first book in another series of 6. From memory, I'd have read this back in the mid-2000's.

The author of the highly acclaimed Leo Waterman mysteries launches a crackling new series, creating a Harry Bosch of the Pacific Northwest. Frank Corso was a rising New York Times journalist until a libel suit ended his career. These days he's covering stories for the third-rate Seattle Sun. He owes the owner, Natalie Van Der Hove, and now she's calling in her marker.

A killer on death row might be innocent. If that's the truth, Natalie wants the story-before the guy fries in six days. Corso won't stop until he's got all the facts. And when he goes to press, Seattle's going to rumble with fury.

 

J. F. Freedman – Against The Wind

Another book to conjure up happy memories. Read it back in the early 90's - what's it about, err I can't really remember, but I can vaguely recall it knocked me over at the time. The author has written about 10 books total, but I've read nothing else by him. I'll have to re-read this sometime.

Will Alexander, a brilliant lawyer thrown out of his partnership due to excessive drinking and womanizing, has only one case to defend - a gang of bikers accused of rape and murder. He begins by fighting himself and ends by taking on a prejudiced town and corrupt legal system.

 

 

Robert Ferrigno – Flinch

I absolutely loved this author, I read about 10 books by him, pretty much all of them absolute crackers. I kind of drifted away from him, after his first Assassin book which was a futuristic thriller set in 2040 US of A, where the nation has split in two - part-Islamist state, part Christian South. I still wanted him writing about Californian crime in the present day. I would recommend reading any of his pre-Assassin books to be honest.

A nightmare killer is loose in the land of dreams...A murder/robbery on a stretch of beach just south of Laguna. A gang killing in Santa Ana. A young woman gunned down taking out the garbage. A high school track star shot during a dawn workout. A cook killed after work. A computer salesman found dead in a parking lot. A half dozen murders in the last month - unnoticed and unsolved. Like the note said.An anonymous note to investigative reporter Jimmy Gage from someone calling himself 'The Eggman' claiming the killings and threatening to come after Jimmy.Is it a hoaxer? The police think so, apart from Detective Jane Holt - assigned to the case but pulled off it.But Jimmy is driven to discover the identity of the serial killer no matter where the search takes him and it takes him right into the heart of danger.

 

 Fante, Freemantle, Franklin........unread, I could have selected many books for this section of my post.....Alan Furst, Ian Fleming, Dick Francis, Vince Flynn, Dan Fesperman ...... but hey you've got to draw the line somewhere! 

 

Dan Fante – Point Doom

Confession time - I don't actually have this book yet, but it is pre-ordered from Amazon and it's due out at the end of the month, so I'll consider it on my pile of TBR's. I read and enjoyed his short stories - Corksucker last year and have his set of four semi-autobiographical in tone, Bruno Dante books to read yet.

From Dan Fante, the son of novelist John Fante, comes a gritty detective novel featuring JD Fiorella, an ex-private investigator who's bent on avenging his friend's murder.

Failed private investigator JD Fiorella was a pro at finding trouble. Mixing it up with the wrong people in New York, he escaped to L.A. - only to hit rock-bottom after too many nightmares and too much booze.

Now forty-six and sober, JD is working hard to get it together. Living in Malibu at his mother's house in Point Dume, he's got a new job selling used cars with his friend Woody and a new girlfriend. But just as things are looking up, JD discovers a gruesome murder. Now the ex-private detective has to make a choice.

Determined to exact vengeance, he follows a twisting trail of clues that leads him to unexpected truths about himself and his new life - and to a psychopathic killer with an eerie connection to his past. And, as JD soon learns, this time there's no easy way out.

Brian Freemantle – Charlie Muffin

Since opening my eyes to the thrills available by reading in the spy genre, I've had Charlie Muffin on my radar. Freemantle wrote this first book in the 16 book long series in 1978, the last 3 have only been published in the past 4 years. On pile TBR for maybe 6 years.

A cagey British spy fights enemies from without and within

Charlie Muffin is an anachronism. He came into the intelligence service in the early 1950s, when the government, desperate for foot soldiers in the impending Cold War, dipped into the middle class for the first time. Despite a lack of upper-class bearing, Charlie survived twenty-five years on the espionage battle's front line: Berlin. But times have changed: The boys from Oxford and Cambridge are running the shop again, and they want to get rid of the middle-class spy who's a thorn in their side. They have decided that it's time for Charlie to be sacrificed.

But Charlie Muffin didn't survive two decades in Berlin by being a pushover. He intends to go on protecting the realm, and won't let anyone from his own organization get in his way.

 

Tom Franklin – Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Unread about 2 years now, winner of the 2011 CWA Gold Dagger Award, I think.....one of these days I'll crack the spine on it.

In a small Mississippi town, two men are torn apart by circumstance and reunited by tragedy in this resonant new novel from the award-winning author of the critically-acclaimed Hell at the Breech.

Larry Ott and Silas ''32'' Jones were unlikely boyhood friends. Larry was the child of lower middle-class white parents, Silas the son of a poor, single, black mother -- their worlds as different as night and day. Yet a special bond developed between them in Chabot, Mississippi. But within a few years, tragedy struck. In high school, a girl who lived up the road from Larry had gone to the drive-in movie with him and nobody had seen her again. Her stepfather tried to have Larry arrested but no body was found and Larry never confessed. The incident shook up the town, including Silas, and the bond the boys shared was irrevocably broken.

Almost thirty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence in Chabot, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion, the looks of blame that have shadowed him. Silas left home to play college baseball, but now he's Chabot's constable. The men have few reasons to cross paths, and they rarely do -- until fate intervenes again.

Another teenaged girl has disappeared, causing rumors to swirl once again. Now, two men who once called each other friend are finally forced to confront the painful past they've buried for too many years.

 

 Hopefully back next week with some G's!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEPHEN KING - DARK TOWER 1 - THE GUNSLINGER (1982)

Synopsis/blurb.....

In this first novel in his epic fantasy masterpiece, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey into good and evil, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own.

In his first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower, Roland encounters an alluring woman named Alice, begins a friendship with Jake, a kid from New York, and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black.

Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, THE GUNSLINGER leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

And the Tower is closer...

Well, I’m tracking my 18 year old son’s reads as well as my wife’s and this was one of the books he devoured recently. I have read the original probably 30–odd years ago when Mr King was top of the tree as far as my teenage self was concerned.

Picking up the new and improved version, as apparently King updated it in the intervening period, wasn’t a particularly pleasurable trip down memory lane, one filled with nostalgia and a yearning to instantly re-read about possessed cars, rabid dogs or scary clowns appearing out of road-side drains.

I enjoyed the tale, as far as it went. Book 1 of 7, isn’t going to finish with a neat resolution or conclusion. I was re-introduced to Roland the Gunslinger and found out about his apprenticeship and passage into manhood. We joined with him in his pursuit of the elusive man in black (not Johnny Cash, apparently) and along the way we killed a few people, ok a lot of people. This particular part of the journey or quest ends at the sea, with a link in to the second book in this 7 or 8 books series.

King who could probably write his shopping list and have a host of people queuing up to buy and read it, is very skilled at crafting a story and making you want to turn the page to read more about a character that you are growing to care about......usually.

I haven’t yet reached that stage with Roland and I’m not having sleepless nights, anxious to read the next thrilling instalment.

My son has a couple more of the books in the series, if he opens one up sometime soon I’ll get to this after him no doubt. I reckon I may have read the second book in my earlier life as a slimmer, leaner, fitter, brown-haired, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young man anyway. He has commented that the next couple are somewhat longer in length than this volume. King has a tendency to use 50 words on occasions where 1 or 2 would do, so I ‘m not pushing him to crack the spine just yet.

FYI – I have just checked paperback length on volumes 2 to 7 plus the last published book, which sits between books 4 and 5. They are as follows; 406, 624, 896, 816, 480, 736 and a rather paltry 384 pages long.

Overall, 3 stars from 5.

I borrowed this one from my son, and I’m unsure where he picked it up from.    

TOM ROBBINS - B IS FOR BEER (2009)

Synopsis/blurb.......

Have you ever wondered why your daddy likes beer so much? Have you wondered, before you fall asleep at night, why he sometimes acts kind of "funny" after he's been drinking beer? Maybe you've even wondered where beer comes from, because you're pretty sure it isn't from a cow. Well, Gracie Perkel wondered those same things.
So begins bestselling author Tom Robbins' first fiction in five years (and perhaps his most audacious ever), B Is for Beer explores various aspects of beer culture - ancient, modern, and otherworldly; brutal, infantile and divine - and dramatizes the surprising things that happen when the life of a feisty nursery school kid named Gracie Perkel intersects with each.
Billed by Robbins as 'the first children's book about beer,' this inspired work taps into the barrel of life's existential mysteries and is, of course, truly meant to sit proudly with his other novels in the grown-up literature section.

Show More Show Less Review

'One of the wildest and most entertaining writers in the world' --Financial Times

'Tom Robbins has a grasp on things that dazzles the brain' --Thomas Pynchon

'Impossibly imaginative' --Vanity Fair

'One of the bravest writers in America.' --Chicago Tribune

'whimsical, absurdist' --Billy Heller, New York Post

About the Author

Tom Robbins has been called "a vital natural resource" by The Portland Oregonian, "one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world" by the FT, and "the most dangerous writer in the world today" by Fernanda Pivano of Italy's Corriere della Sera. A Southerner by birth, Robbins has lived in and around Seattle since 1962. His novels include Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, Jitterbug Perfume, Still Life With Woodpecker, Skinny Legs And All and Half Asleep In Frog Pyjamas and Beer.

I like to step outside the crime fiction genre fairly frequently, just to keep my reading fresh. Tom Robbins is an author I’ve never read before, though I do have a couple of his books laying around somewhere, acquired in the belief that from what I’ve read about him they may well be quirky enough to tickle my fancy.

Well whilst struggling through Amis’s Lionel Asbo, I picked up this book in the hope of a short, light, entertaining diversion.

Short – ü

Light – ü

Entertaining - û

I just didn’t understand the whole raison d’être for the book, styled as a “Grown-up book for Children” and a “Children’s book for Grown-ups.”  Stunned that this ever got into print as it was in my opinion a massive indulgence on the author’s behalf.

We have a young girl, Gracie living with her parents and feeling the effects of their failing marriage. Her only confidant is her uncle, who lets her down and moves away with his latest girlfriend. Gracie has a slight obsession with beer, somewhat bizarrely. She gets in trouble at Sunday school when she mentions it. She has a drink, gets drunk, gets sick and is visited by the beer fairy...........do I need to go on? I’d rather have a drink.

On the basis that it was short and light, we’ll go 2 from 5

I’m not ripping up trees to get to my copy of Villa Incognito or Still Life With Woodpecker.

Acquired second- hand from a charity shop in the charming city of St Albans, so at least someone should benefit from my purchase.

E's ENJOYED, E ENDURED, E's UNREAD

Week 5 on the Crime Alphabet Journey hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. It's the turn of the E's, enjoyed, endured and unread........                                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

Ellroy, Ellis........enjoyed                                                                                                                         

 

James Ellroy – The Black Dahlia

When I read this for the first time back in the early 90’s I thought wow. I can recall re-reading chunks of it because I just enjoyed it soooooo much. He subsequently wrote another 3 books in his LA Quartet – The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz which were equally as memorable, if not better. Ellroy helped seal the deal for me as far as reading and crime fiction was concerned. I’ve not enjoyed his recent books as much and will probably give his next one a miss.

The murder of a beautiful young woman in 1947 Los Angeles sparks a great investigation in which Bucky Bleichert, Lee Blanchard, L.A.P.D. Warrants Squad cops, ex-boxers, friends, and adversaries become obsessed by the case.

Warren Ellis – Crooked Little Vein

Enjoyable, but not especially memorable. I think Ellis is more regarded for his graphic work and comic story career. I probably won’t be too fussed if I don’t cross paths with him again. The blurb made it sound better than it was. Comparable to a dodgy film where they put all the best bits in the trailer and hope you go and see it.  

Burned-out private detective and self-styled shit magnet Michael McGill needed a wake-up call to jump-start his dead career. What he got was a virtual cattle prod to the crotch, in the form of an impossible assignment delivered directly from the president's heroin-addict chief of staff. It seems the Constitution of the United States has some skeletons in its closet: the Founding Fathers doubted that the document would be able to stave off human nature indefinitely, so they devised a backup Constitution to deploy at the first sign of crisis. In the government's eyes, that time is now, as America is overgrown with perverts who spend more time surfing the Web for fetish porn than they do reading a newspaper. They want to use this "Secret Constitution" to drive the country back to a time when civility, God, and mom's homemade apple pie were all that mattered.

The only problem is, no one can seem to find it . . .

So who better to track it down than a private dick who's so down-and-out that he's coming up the other side, a shamus whose only skill is stumbling into every depraved situation imaginable?

With no lead to speak of, and no knowledge of the underground world in which the Constitution has travelled, McGill embarks on a cross-country odyssey of America's darkest, dankest underbelly. Along the way, his white-bread sensibilities are treated to a smorgasbord of depravity that runs the gamut of human imagination. The filth mounts; it is clear that this isn't the kind of life, liberty, or happiness that Thomas Jefferson thought Americans would enjoy in the twenty-first century.

But what McGill learns as he closes in on the real Constitution is that freedom takes many forms, the most important of which may be the fight against the "good old days." Like Vonnegut, Orwell, and Huxley before him, Warren Ellis deftly exposes the hypocrisy of the "moral majority" by giving us a glimpse at the monstrous outcome that their overzealous policies would achieve.

 Ellis..........endured!

Brett Easton Ellis – American Psycho

Probably not a crime fiction book, but this one was a real struggle for me. I think it’s joint-tied with Kerouac’s Lonesome Traveller for my all-time worst book ever read. Many times I could have given it up when I was reading it, but manfully struggled on, refusing to be cowed by the author’s desire to overwhelm my will to live through his prose. Many people love the book and there was a successful film adaptation from it, which I have never seen, but if I never get to read another book by this author, I’ll probably die a happy man. I’d love to hear from someone who liked this. Perhaps they could explain to me what I missed.

In a black satire of the eighties, a decade of naked greed and unparalleled callousness, a successful Wall Street yuppie cannot get enough of anything--including murder.

 

Eggers, Elton, Engel..........unread,

Dave Eggers – Zeitoun

Not a crime fiction book, but a crime nonetheless; this is a fascinating non-fiction account of what happened to Zeitoun, an American Muslim in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when he crossed paths with the authorities and homeland security. Disturbing times we live in, I must get to this soon.  

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared. Eggers's riveting nonfiction book, three years in the making, explores Zeitoun's roots in Syria, his marriage to Kathy - an American who converted to Islam - and their children, and the surreal atmosphere (in New Orleans and the United States generally) in which what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun was possible. Like What Is the What, Zeitoun was written in close collaboration with its subjects and involved vast research - in this case, in the United States, Spain, and Syria.

 

Ben Elton – Popcorn

He acts, he does stand-up and he writes – don’t you just hate multi-talented people? Err, not really. I will get to this and one or more of his other “thrillers” one day, probably unread for 4 or 5 years now. Probably one to miss if you don't like your fiction infused with humour, but if you do.....

Bruce shoots movies. Wayne and Scout shoot to kill. In a single night they find out the hard way what's real and what's not, who's the hero and the villain. A nation watches in awe as Bruce and Wayne resolve the serious questions. Does art imitate life? And does Bruce use erection cream?

Howard Engel – The Suicide Murders

A recent acquisition and only unread for a week or two. Purchased after reading a great review from Tracy at her informative Bitter Tea and Mystery blog. Looking forward to it and hopefully I can squeeze it in before the summer is done. Part of me hopes I don’t enjoy it too much, as I’ll be chasing my tail with another 12 book series to follow!

She was cool, attractive—a real society lady—and she was in trouble. Benny Cooperman, a private eye with a hard head and a tender heart, was ready to help her in any way he could. But when her husband commits suicide the day Benny begins his investigation, the detective realizes he’s no longer dealing with a simple “family affair.”

 

 

 

 

MARTIN AMIS - LIONEL ASBO (2012)

Synopsis/blurb.....

Lionel Asbo - a very violent but not very successful young criminal - is going about his morning duties in a London prison when he learns that he has just won £139,999,999.50 on the National Lottery. This is not necessarily good news for his ward and nephew, the orphaned Des Pepperdine, who still has reason to fear his uncle's implacable vengeance.

Savage, funny, and mysteriously poignant, Lionel Asbo is a modern fairytale from one of the world's great writers.

Well May’s reading started with a bit of a damp squib. Having previously struggled valiantly with House of Meetings, been subsequently less tortured when reading The Pregnant Widow, albeit falling short of rapturous admiration for Amis, I had higher hopes for this one.

Not the worst book I have ever read, but when I’m long into my dotage, probably a couple of weeks or so from now, I reckon I will have banished this long from the memory. It wasn’t that it was “bad”, in the sense that it was awful, it was just fairly uninteresting. When you can’t empathise with a character, you don’t particularly care how he behaves and what the consequences of such behaviour are. I was bored and irritable when reading it, so bored I had to down tools halfway through and start another book, which by the way was only slightly less boring.

Back to Mr Asbo; an unsuccessful career criminal, from a deprived family, in a deprived area where everyone hates everything and everyone, and expresses the hate through violence and feckless sex and alcohol and drugs. Lionel’s unmarried mother had her first child at 12 years of age and Lionel her 5^th or 6^th at..........zzzzzzz.

Oops sorry I dozed off there for a minute...............that’s it in a nutshell.

I bored myself reading it, and I’m bored trying to write about it!

Highlights, at less than 300 pages long, I could have been more bored if he had dragged things out. Plus, I borrowed it from the library, so apart from the time wasted I didn’t part with any cash for it. 2 minor plusses, and I’m grateful for small mercies.

On the basis that I didn’t feel like sticking pins in my eyes when reading it, so it can’t qualify as the worst ever book I have had the misfortune to read I will give it a 2 from 5.    

APRIL 2013 - READING LIST

A decent month's reading with 14 books in total read during the month. They were as follows; with my unscientific rating displayed in brackets after the title.

Michael Connelly - The Drop (2011) (5)

Dick Francis - Forfeit (1968) (4)

Harlan Coben - Play Dead (1990) (2)

Bill Pronzini - The Vanished (1973) (5)

Leif G. W. Persson - Between Summer's Longing And Winter's End (2010) (4)

Gerard Brennan - Other Stories And Nothing But Time (2012) (4)

Roger Smith - Ishmael Toffee (2012) (4)

Max Allan Collins -  Blood Money (1973) (3)

James Crumley - The Last Good Kiss (1979) (4)

Robert Crais - Free Fall (1993) (4)

Lawrence Block - A Stab In The Dark (1981) (4)

John D. MacDonald - A Purple Place For Dying (3)

Randy Wayne White - The Heat Islands (1992) (3)

Camilla Lackberg - The Stranger (2011) (2)

I met all my reading challenges for the month, plus I managed to stay afloat with my continuing commitment to having 6 series of books on the go at once. One thing that did become apparent to me was the fact that I could have been a wee bit more considered in my choice of series to follow.
Block/Scudder - PI (in all but name)
Crais/Cole - PI
Pronzini/Nameless - PI
MacDonald/McGee - salvage expert with investigative traits - amateur PI
White/Doc Ford - marine biologist with an amateurish sleuthy bent - oh a sort of PI then?
Collins/Nolan - heistman/professional thief.

Why not select a police procedural series to follow? I've plenty of Rankin/Rebus or Robinson/Banks I could have selected, just to mention a couple of unread series on my shelves. Still in the words of Magnus Magnusson, "I've started so I'll finish!"

There were some decent books read in the month, no non-fiction again, 1 by a female author, 9 set in the US of A, 1 in the UK, 1 in Ireland (short stories), 1 in South Africa and 2 in Sweden.

Leif G. W. Persson was enjoyable if overlong, Block was quality as were Roger Smith, Robert Crais and Gerard Brennan. Most of the others were enjoyable if not memorable.

Only 2 that were below average, but I won't dwell on them.

Top books in the month Pronzini's The Vanished and Connelly's The Drop.
On the basis that Pronzini was my book of the month last month, I'm going to spread the love and vote for Michael Connelly's The Drop as my April Book of the month.

Kerrie's excellent blog collates together the crime blogging communitites monthly round-ups over at Mysteries in Paradise, check it out.

D's ENJOYED, D ENDURED, D's UNREAD

The D's are up this week in 2013's Crime Fiction Alphabet hosted by Kerrie at her Mysteries In Paradise blog.

Duns, Doolittle........2 enjoyed,

Jeremy Duns - Free Agent

I read this relatively recently - June 2012. It was the first in a 3 book series (so far), more spy than crime, but we won't split hairs. Enjoyable and gripping, I'll be back for more.

For fans of John le Carré, a riveting spy thriller that spans two continents and probes the limits of loyalty and love

Jeremy Duns's lightning-paced debut introduces a morally complex and unforgettable agent named Paul Dark into the canon of espionage literature. In June 1945, Dark joins his father in a top-secret mission to hunt down and unofficially execute Nazi war criminals. Almost twenty-five years later, Dark is a seasoned agent for MI6 when a KGB officer turns up in Nigeria during the Biafran civil war wanting to defect. He claims to have details of a British double agent recruited by the Russians in Germany in 1945.

Knowing he's the chief suspect and now on the run from both MI6 and the KGB, Paul Dark heads toward Africa to find, confront, and, if necessary, kill the only woman he has ever loved, whom he has thought dead for the past twenty-four years. Free Agent is the spectacular story of one man's fight for survival and search for the truth about his father's death and his lover's betrayal.

Sean Doolittle - Dirt

I must have read this back in the mid-2000's, absolutely loved it. Hard to believe this was a debut novel. I have read 3 or 4 more by Doolittle, but not his latest Lake Country. I'd recommend any of his books to be honest.

On a clear autumn L.A. morning, sitting in the front row of his best friend's funeral, professional loafer Quince Bishop can't think of anything more depressing than watching yet another loved one being lowered into the ground--until a band of guerilla environmentalists crash the ceremony to deliver a lecture on the high cost of dying in America. One violent impulse later, Quince finds himself up to his waist in dirt ... and he hasn't even begun to dig himself a hole. With the help of beautiful funeral-rights advocate Maria Casteneda--not to mention the complicated ambitions of reporter and perennial ex-girlfriend Melanie Roth--Quince learns just how an unscrupulous funeral director can turn death into a high-class living. Unable to let buried skeletons lie, Quince Bishop unwittingly sets himself on a collision course with two entrepreneurial ex-cons who are hatching a burial plot of their own. Chaos, confusion, and double-dealing are on the program, and only one thing is certain: all paths lead to the cemetery.

Donoghue...........1 endured,

Emma Donoghue - Room

My wife read this and loathed it, I read it after her and loathed it also.(March, 2011) I just didn't buy into it, complete and utter twaddle and 12  to 15 hours of my life I will never get back. It's funny how differently people feel about the same book, see the blurbs below. If you read it and enjoyed it - good luck to you. Not my cup of tea by a long way.

It's Jack's birthday, and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real - only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there's a world outside . . . Told in Jack's voice, Room is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

Unsentimental and sometimes funny, devastating yet uplifting, Room is a novel like no other. 'Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days' Audrey Niffenegger

'Room is one of the most profoundly affecting books I've read in a long time. Jack moved me greatly. His voice, his story, his innocence, his love for Ma combine to create something very unusual and, I think, something very important . . . Room deserves to reach the widest possible audience' John Boyne

'I loved Room. Such incredible imagination, and dazzling use of language. And with all this, an entirely credible, endearing little boy. It's unlike anything I've ever read before' Anita Shreve

Dexter, Duffy, Davidsen...........3 unread,

Pete Dexter - Train

Might struggle to find this in the crime fiction section, but so what? Unread for a couple of years now, along with a few of his other books, God's Pocket, The Paperboy (also a recent film.)
One of these days!

Lionel Walk, better known as Train, is a young black caddy at an elite Los Angeles golf course, where he comes to know a police detective he calls 'The Mile-Away Man'.

Norah Still is unwillingly at the center of the criminal investigation, as the only survivor of an attempted boat hijacking gone violently wrong. Sergeant Miller Packer - Train's 'Mile-Away Man' - is in charge of the case and he finds himself drawn to the beautiful widow.

Miller's interest in Norah and Train soon moves beyond his professional obligations. He tries to shield Norah from the events on the boat, fighting her need to hold on to the past and becomes a kind of manager as Train competes as a golfer on a lucrative underground gambling circuit. Miller's oddly personal concern binds the three of them together in an uneasy triangle.

Pete Dexter's remarkable new novel brings to life the most violent and tender impulses of his characters as they struggle to come to terms with the difference between a gift and a passion, between their abilities and their desires.

Stella Duffy - Fresh Flesh

I bought this as much because of the publisher as for the author herself - Serpent's Tail. They published a lot of quality crime fiction back in the 90's that was extremely eye-catching. Both author and publisher are still going strong. 

Patrick Freeman, celebrity chef, with the legendary bad temper and the obligatory wild child wife... Chris Marquand, adopted son of wealthy parents, a successful doctor, father-to-be... Georgina Leyton, high powered lawyer and a beautiful bitch who's as cool as they come.... Matthew Godwin, owner of the hottest South London bar and a talent for scaring the life out of people with his mad rages. Four virtual strangers, unwittingly bound together by a dark secret from the past. And, after all these years, it's about to blow up in their faces.

Leif Davidsen - Lime's Photograph

Only unread for a couple of months, this recent acquisition was purchased for a couple of reasons. Firstly to expand my Scandinavian crime reading author base and secondly because it was the winner of the prestigious 1999 Glass Key Award.
 

In this dramatic political thriller from one of Denmark's finest crime writers, Lime sets out to discover a motive when fire destroys his home, and finds himself drawn into the complex and terrifying web of international terrorism.