The Cyclist by Anthony Neil Smith

Judd is a failed Navy SEAL now working in a dead-end job in banking. He was busted out of the SEALs after a training accident where he gunned down his training sergeant, a legendary SEAL who somehow survived the shooting only to now be pensioned off due to his injuries. Needless to say, Cleaver, the former training sergeant, holds Judd responsible for the premature end to his stellar career. Cleaver has moved to be near Judd and torments him, despite this, the two are kind of friends having weird and dysfunctional relationship. Judd has met Catriona, a Scottish girl, online. They speak everyday by video link, though they’ve yet to meet in the flesh. They share a love of cycling, something Judd has taken to fanatically to work through his guilt. When Catriona invites him to Scotland, he has little hesitation in abandoning his job and flying half-way around the world. But is everything all that it seems? Certainly, when Cleaver finds out he doesn’t think so and thus decides to follow Judd on his journey.

I don’t want to give too many spoilers, but this a chilling read. I’m not a fan generally of serial killer fiction, but if you know anything of the famous British case of the Moors Murders then this will bring you out in chills. The author is American and so I don’t know if he’s done much research into Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, but from what I’ve read, the psychology he describes in The Cyclist matches those two exactly. Judd on the other hand is an appealing protagonist and one who suits the story perfectly. He’s not some super hero commando, the likes of which populate many a thriller, rather despite his military background, he’s vulnerable and not a little naiive. That said, when the chips are down, his military training holds him in good stead and he has just enough of the right stuff to see him through. It’s a balancing act that the author performs with some panache and the result is a believable protagonist. 

Anthony Neil Smith is to my mind an underrated writer. I’ve read some of his stuff before and it’s always been very good. Yet for some reason not many people I know are aware of him. I hope the cyclist helps him gain the success he well and truly deserves, for like previous books of his I’ve read, The Cyclist is a riveting read.

5 out of 5 stars 

  

Blog Tour! - Judge Walden Back In Session by Peter Murphy - Blog Tour!

This is the second in the series of Judge Walden books to be penned by Peter Murphy, himself a retired judge. Prior to that, he wrote another series featuring Ben Schroeder, a barrister (I think that’s right, I haven’t read any of those novels). If I’m not mistaken, the Ben Schroeder novels are a bit harder hitting and serious. Judge Walden on the other hand is very much in the vein of Rumpole of the Bailey, and if you like that kind of thing, you’ll certainly like this. Don’t worry either if you haven’t read the first of the Judge Walden books, these are very much self-contained tales, indeed, the book is split into four sections, each dealing with a separate case, and constitute in effect four short stories with very little crossover between them.

The Judge Walden stories are nice little vignettes, these are light tales of the denizens that populate the Bermondsey crown court. The author pokes fun at Walden’s fellow judges, the barristers and solicitors who make representations before him, their clients. Not forgetting the Grey Smoothies – the civil servants who pop by to enforce cost savings. Another reviewer has commented that when turning his attention to the clients (defendants) – invariably drawn from the more deprived sections of the populace - this can all be a little condescending. It’s a fair comment but only to a point, certainly I’ve read worse. Rather, I feel Judge Walden means well, is paternalistic, caring for all those who appear before him. Is that patronising? Perhaps, but he gives them a fair crack at the whip which is more than can be said for some, I’m sure.

More troubling for me was that I came to this book shortly after reading a non-fiction title: Stories of the Law and How it is Broken, by the Secret Barrister. In those pages, the eponymous Secret Barrister, outlines in forensic detail how decades of cuts and ill-thought out reform have reduced the British Criminal Legal System to a shadow of its former self. According to that title and other testimony, the system is on its knees, guilty people walking free and innocents almost certainly being convicted. 

In light of that title, Judge Walden felt quaint and self-congratulatory. Yes, the author does deal with the cost cutting and the civil service’s illogical diktats, yes, he does address people having to represent themselves, unable to secure legal aid and yet unable to afford to pay for representation for themselves. But it’s all done in that light, amusing and self-satisfied tone that permeates the rest of the novel and thus doesn’t do the subject justice. Of course, the author might well have retired prior to things getting truly bad, and Judge Walden is fiction; the author has set out to write a light-hearted comedic slice of judicial life, and as they say: the title does what it says on the tin.

Overall, this is a good book. While not my usual read - I tend to go for the grittier, noir side of crime fiction myself – this is a relaxing, pleasant book that’s perfect for reading on a summer’s day. In fact, the weather was nice when I read it, out in the garden in the sun, and it complemented the ambience perfectly. Not too taxing and certainly entertaining, this would be a perfect book to read on the beach   

3 out of 5 stars

Blog Tour! - Kid To Killer - Blog Tour!

I have to admit to being a sucker for vigilante fiction. I grew up watching The Equaliser - the original Edward Woodward series, obviously, not the films with Denzel Washington - my dad letting me stay up as long as I had finished my homework. Similarly, what is the appeal of the Marvel Universe and superhero’s more broadly, if it isn’t to see the champion of the little guy, righting the wrongs that the bureaucratic and disinterested state has little interest in doing.

That said, I’m also aware of how troubling such fiction can be. Recently I reviewed Death Wish, the original novel by Brian Garfield and inspiration for the film franchise.  I was unimpressed by Garfield’s novel which in my mind, like the films they spawned, sum up all that’s problematic in this genre: simplistic answers to complex problems, a tendency to dehumanise - the villains tend to the one-dimensional, “scum” that “deserve” to be executed - disdain for the rule of law; quite frankly, vigilante fiction can tend towards photo-fascism.

So where does Kid To Killer fit into this broad milieu? Has it the subtlety of The Equaliser, which while on occasion drifting to simplistic violence, tended to steer clear of the baser elements of the genre, or is it closer to the Charles Bronson film franchise? Happily it’s the former, the author producing here a more complex tale. Kid To Killer tells the story of Paul McGraw a fifteen year old boy who takes it upon himself to clean Edinburgh of those who prey on the innocent. 

Kid To Killer is written in first person. Like the protagonist, the author was born in Edinburgh and is also called Paul, so I found this a little problematic. It was like reading a biography rather than a work of fiction. I’m not for a moment suggesting that the author is a vigilante killer, but I was left wondering what supporting elements of the story were taken from his own life. Of course, all authors incorporate their own experiences into their novels to some extent, how could they possibly not, but the way this novel was written made it noticeable and a little distracting.

A problem vigilante fiction has more broadly is explaining how the character comes to do the things he or she does (historically it’s been a he, though interestingly this is starting to change). With some like The Equaliser, some of the superhero franchises, the protagonist already has a past that explains this, but in many, such as Death Wish and Kid To Killer, they don’t. Even where the character does have a past, there transition still needs adequate explaining. A number of academic studies down the years have shown that even most soldiers hesitate to fire their weapon in combat; most famously Lt Col David Grossman (US Army, Ret) wrote in his seminal title, On Killing, that the majority of servicemen in World War 2 either did not fire, or fired to miss (based on his research, training was changed so that by the Vietnam War, 90% fired). The point of this is that a vigilante thriller, unless the hero has had such training or is a psychopath, has to adequately explain how and why they have overcome the natural resistance to killing. I have to say that I didn’t feel the author adequately got this across. I just wasn’t convinced the character had sufficient motivation and his background didn’t make him “hard” enough to carry it off.

To be clear, there’s much to like about this novel. It’s been edited nicely, containing none of the obvious grammatical errors that blight so many self-published titles (by all means not all, many self-published authors invest in an editor). All in all this was an enjoyable enough read and an interesting addition to the vigilante thriller canon.

3 out of 5 stars 

The Truants by Lee Markham

I have to confess to reading this novel on something of a whim. I request books from a variety of sources, including nb magazine and nudge-book.com. While perusing their selection I saw this title, read its blurb and thought I would give it a go. I’m incredibly grateful that I did.

I can do the plot of this novel no better justice than to quote the blurb directly: “Following his lover’s suicide, the last of the ‘old-ones’ – ancient immortal beings, as clever as they are ruthless, and unable to withstand the light of the sun – has had enough and decides to end his existence. Yet as he waits for the burning dawn on a bench near a council estate, he is held up by knifepoint by a youth and stabbed. While the old-one’s body turns to ash as the sun rises, his assailant scurries back into the estates feral underbelly with the knife in his pocket. The old-one’s blood is still seared into its sharpened blade, and as the knife does its menacing rounds his consciousness is awakened in the city’s children from the depths of the afterlife. Determined to die, he must find and destroy the knife to regain control of his soul.”

If this story sounds as intriguing to you as it did to me, then you’re unlikely to be disappointed. This is a brilliant novel, told with a real adeptness of touch. As the knife is used again and again, wounding multiple people, the old-one is awakened in each of them, splitting his consciousness amongst their number. The story is thus told from multiple perspectives, each chapter from a different character’s perspective. In a writer of less talent this might prove confusing, the various characters insubstantial cut-outs. Yet despite this being a relatively short novel – just 282 pages – the author avoids such pitfalls. The multiple strands complement each other to weave a rich tapestry, while the characters are three-dimensional.  

This is a novel that’s equal parts horror, crime thriller and social commentary. As with many cities, London is a patchwork quilt, where wealth and prosperity lie side by side with real deprivation. The estates plagued by poverty are all too often riven by drugs and gangs, virtual no go areas to those who live elsewhere. The Truants touches on this hidden and shameful underbelly of our cities, how violence that would be unthinkable in more salubrious neighbourhoods is tolerated and ignored when it afflicts the residents of such sink estates. Would I be reading too much into the narrative to consider that the vampirism that takes holds, that finally pulses out to spread terror throughout the wider city, is an allegory for how the problems we as a society allow to fester in such neglected communities will eventually affect us all? Perhaps. 

The horror element, the vampirism, feels fresh. As with zombies and werewolves, there are innumerable books, films and television shows that feature vampires. As with the other two pillars of this hellish triptych, it’s often tempting to dismiss the vampire genre as done to death (excuse the pun). But just like the other two, vampire fiction stubbornly refuses to die (I know, I know, I’m laying it on a bit thick here). Occasionally something will come along that breathes new life into the genre (Sigh! I know, right? Three puns in just one paragraph!) and The Truants might just be that book.

This is a really good take on the vampire story and is a brilliantly written, entertaining read. There are parts which will have your hair standing on end, parts which are brutally violent, and then there are moments of touching poignancy. In short, this is something special and I can’t wait to see what the author writes next.

A thoroughly recommended 5 Stars

The Lady From Zagreb by Philip Kerr

Philip Kerr was such a giant of crime fiction, his protagonist Bernie Gunther such a celebrated character, that it is with some shame that I make this confession: until now, I had never read a Bernie Gunther novel, or any work by Philip Kerr for that matter. I’m not a massive historical fiction reader, generally preferring work set in a contemporary setting; that said, I do love history and have read many non-fiction accounts of the Second World War, and with the Bernie Gunther series set in this period, and winning such consistent plaudits, really I have little excuse. 

The Gunther series starts in the pre-war period, the first book, March Violets, set in 1936. The final and thirteenth book in the series, published just after Philip Kerr tragically passed away, is titled Greeks Bearing Gifts, and is set in Munich in 1956. It is important to note however that the books are not strictly in chronological order and there is some jumping around of timelines, both within individual titles, and within the series as a whole. That said, this is a remarkable series that straddles the whole turbulent period, pre-war to post-war, and thus has it’s backdrop arguably in the most turbulent events of recent history.

The Lady From Zagreb is the tenth book in the series and is set in 1942. Bernie is now working for the NAZI regime - not by any real choice or affection for them, I hasten to add, in fact quite the reverse - and is taking orders from Goebbels himself.  Goebbels wants him to persuade Dalia Dresner, a rising star of German cinema, to star in a movie. She’s resisting, in part because Goebbels has fallen in love with her and she guesses he has ulterior motives. Unfortunately for Bernie, he finds Dalia’s charms equally irresistible and soon he’s in bed with her. This is obviously extremely dangerous for him: if Goebbels discovers their tryst, Bernie’s likely to end up dead, or worse. A ruse Dalia is using to not work for Goebbels is that her father is missing. Goebbels thus orders Bernie to travel to Yugoslavia to find him. 

It is on arrival in Yugoslavia where this novel takes a decidedly dark turn. Philip Kerr was known for his meticulous research, indeed some have said that readers can learn the history of the period from reading his series, for although fiction, they are very firmly based in fact. The Yugoslavia section of this novel deals in horrifying detail with the brutality of the war there, a vicious conflict within a conflict that sowed the seeds that would sprout into the ethnic cleansing of the 1990’s. Like the conflicts of the 90’s, the Second World War in Yugoslavia was characterised by ethnic strife where Croats and Serbs butchered each other with abandon. There was genocide,  industrial slaughter, and concentration camps to rival anything the Nazi’s carried out elsewhere.

The Lady From Zagreb is at times a difficult book to read, Kerr doesn’t hold back on the sheer horror his hero, Bernie Gunther, encounters in Yugoslavia. nor should he of course and the book in that sense is educational, bringing a little known theatre of the war to a wider readership’s attention. This is also a difficult book to read plotwise. As well as the main thread I’ve outlined in this review, there are innumerable other threads and storylines weaving their way through this novel and sometimes it can all get a  little convoluted. That said, Kerr is such a gifted writer that the reader never loses their grasp of what’s going on, though you will need to concentrate. 

It’s not all doom and gloom and one thing Kerr does to lighten the load is gift Gunther with a repertoire of sharp, observational wise cracks. These can be quite witty and certainly help you warm to the character. In Bernie Gunther, Philip Kerr has basically given us Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlow in the Second World War. This is a crude and not entirely accurate analogy and in my opinion Gunther is a more nuanced and complex character, but the two certainly share stark characteristics - witty repertoire, bachelors who engage in unwise and torrid affairs - etc. 

If you like historical fiction, if you like complex and labyrinthine plots, if you like old school pulp private eyes, then The Lady From Zagreb is well worth a read. While the tenth book in the series, as mentioned the books are not set in strict chronological order and are self-contained; certainly, having not read one of these titles before, I found no difficulty in submerging myself in this novel. All in all this this is a great read and highly recommended, though at some points you will need a strong stomach, and you certainly need to pay attention to all the twists and turns.

4 out of 5 stars

Blogger! - A Mind Polluted by Martin Geraghty - Blog Tour!

Today is my stop on the A Mind Polluted blog tour and I’m lucky enough to have secured a Q&A with the novel’s author, Martin Geraghty. As an aspiring writer myself, I focus my Q&A’s on the writing process. I hope this will be of interest to both writers and readers alike. So, without further ado, take it away, Martin:

Where did you get the idea behind A Mind Polluted?

When Jo Cox was murdered something resonated within me. I began to investigate what happened in Thomas Mair’s childhood and past, then I began to write.

How do you get your ideas? What’s the process and how do they go from vague inspiration to fully fleshed out notions?

My ideas almost always stem from human beings. Something significant that they have experienced and how they reacted to that experience is what intrigues me. For instance, I watched a documentary recently and was really moved by it. I contacted the person involved and I’m now in the early stages of writing their story. When a story grips me, I normally have the idea in my mind of where it will go.

Tell me about the research that goes into your writing?

My day job as a Private Investigator was a great help for some aspects of A Mind Polluted. There wasn’t much research required.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

Most definitely a plotter

How do you go about plotting your stories? 

For, A Mind Polluted, I had the central theme, that of an individual who allows a childhood incident to have a significant impact on their life. My first job was to create an incident in my mind that my character would allow to cause him great distress. From there, I began to create events that would highlight his behaviour, slowly but surely, becoming increasingly out of control and bewildering for his parents.

Tell me about your writing, do you write full time?

No, unfortunately not. Writing is job number two. When writing, A Mind Polluted, my routine was to write from 9pm until as late as possible.

When is your most productive period of the day?

Anytime that I have the freedom to write, no noise or distractions.

A Mind Polluted has an amazing sense of place, situated firmly in the City of Glasgow. I note you hail from the same area. Is any part of it biographical?

Not biographical, however, what I did use for Part One was a real sense of the place I was brought up in from the age of two until I was twenty. I used memories of the kind of families we encountered and their bizarre ways of life. For example, a family had a boat in their back garden, in the middle of a concrete jungle of a housing estate. The boat never moved and was used by the family as somewhere they would sit and eat fish suppers together!

What other writing projects are you working on? Will any of the characters from A Mind Polluted feature in future novel’s?

I wouldn’t imagine any of the characters in, A Mind Polluted, would ever appear in any other novel. I am currently working on the piece of non-fiction that I spoke about briefly in an earlier question. When I am ready, I plan on writing an altogether different novel to A Mind Polluted.

Finally, I’m going to shamelessly poach two questions the author Mark Hill (author of His First Lie and It Was Her) used to put to writers on his blog. Like me, Mark was a book blogger before he became a successful author and I like to think that the answers to these questions helped him glean valuable help for his own writing. Certainly, reading them on his blog is helping me. So here goes:

What’s the hardest lesson you ever had to learn about writing?

It is imperative for a novice, like myself, to have a strong, experienced editor.

Give me some advice about writing?

Immerse yourself in writing groups and spoken word events where you can learn from other writers. Read your work at these events. Listen to feedback. Be a sponge. 

Blog Tour! - Kill the Angel by Sandrone Dazieri - Blog Tour!

I have to confess to having missed Sandrone Dazieri’s previous work; his debut, Kill the Father, was a Richard & Judy book club choice of 2017 and there was a lot of buzz around the title. For various reasons I never got around to reading it, but after reading this, the second in his series of novels to feature Deputy Police Commissioner Colomba Caselli and her sidekick, the troubled Dante Torre, I’ll be making it my priority.

Kill the Angel begins with a seeming ISIS terror attack on a train. Cyanide gas is pumped into the first-class carriage killing all the passengers within. There’s the usual videoed claim of responsibility and it appears to be yet another in the long litany of ISIS inspired attacks to afflict the continent. Of course, Caselli and Torre don’t believe this narrative and begin to investigate.

There’s much to like about this novel, the Italian setting is extremely well done (of course, the author being Italian), not just the geography but the feel of the place. I loved the way everyone guzzled espresso at every moment! The plot twists and turns. The characters are believable and likeable: I took to both Caselli and Torre, but other characters too, like Caselli’s police underlings, the so-called Three Amigos.

What I most liked about this book however was its conspiracism. In real life I shun conspiracy theories; I’ve never bought into the ludicrous theories around 9/11, 7/7, the moon landings. Personally, I believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter. Conspiracy theories are a way of consoling ourselves: we want to believe that the world is controlled by the freemasons, the Bilderberg Group, the Illuminati, because otherwise we have to face the frightening reality that it’s all random and shit happens. But this isn’t real life, it’s fiction and I’ve always enjoyed a good conspiracy thriller. Whether it be the classic movies of the 70’s (The Parralex View, anyone?) or the novels of James Elroy that posit that the CIA whacked Kennedy, conspiracy fiction is just so much fun! And if anywhere conspiracies did happen it’s Italy. Anyone familiar with Italian history will know of the “Years of Lead”, a period which spanned the 1960’s to 1980’s where the country was riven by both left-wing and right-wing terror. Many a historian – of the reputable variety, not the tinfoil hat brigade – has pointed to evidence that much of this was sponsored by either of the big powers, the Soviets or Americans, and that Italy really was the playground upon which conspiracies played out.

Kill the Angel is an unashamed conspiracy thriller. While it’s set in the present day, Italy’s past as a place where spies and agent provocateurs wreaked havoc gives it a certain realism which otherwise it might lack. Aside from that, it’s incredibly well-written stuff that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. So, if you like conspiracy thrillers as much as I do, this might well be the book for you.

5 out of 5 stars.       

Blog Tour! - The Louisiana Republic by Maxim Jakubowski - Blog Tour!

This is a helluva of a good novel. Another reviewer has categorised it as “speculative noir” and I have to agree. These days speculative dystopian fiction tends to be Young Adult (The Hunger Games, etc) and it was refreshing to read something squarely aimed at a more mature audience; I could be wrong of course, some YA is distinctly mature, but I don’t think so, The Louisiana Republic is treacly noir.

This dystopian world is set against an unexplained global catastrophe in the past, referred to as “The Dark”; an event that deprived the world of technology. The written word – as in physically written, for of course digital media is no more – has once again become the main source of information. Meanwhile, the United States has failed as a state, the city of New Orleans having seceded from the rest of America in the aftermath of The Dark.

The protagonist of this novel is a reluctant private eye, recruited by the elder sister of the daughter of a gangster who is missing. The case soon becomes more complicated than he imagined, and he has to travel to New Orleans for answers.

The Louisiana Republic in some ways walks familiar tropes: it’s both a PI novel (complete with femme fatale hiring him for a job) and a road trip novel, familiar territory to many a reader of crime fiction. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with familiar tropes, especially if they’re written with panache. The author, Maxim Jakubowski, achieves this, but he goes further. The setting of this novel, the atmosphere that he conjures, is really something special and elevates this novel beyond what might be expected.

In conclusion, The Louisiana Republic is really worth a read. If you like crime fiction, dystopian fiction, noir, this might well be the novel for you.

5 out of 5 stars

Blog Tour! - Salt Lane by William Shaw - Blog Tour!

This is the second novel of William Shaw’s that I’ve read and while it’s the start of a new series, it follows on somewhat from the previous novel of his that I read, The Birdwatcher. In that novel DS Alexander Cupidi was a secondary character, but here she steps centre stage. When the body of a woman is found in a body of water in the titular marshland of Salt Lane, the Kent police are somewhat stumped. She doesn’t appear to have drowned and nor does the body have any obvious injuries that might account for her death. When a second body, that of an illegal immigrant is found in a cesspit, they are at first unsure whether the cases are linked. Cupidi and her team investigate and are soon drawn into the twilight world of illegal immigration, gangmasters, and exploitation.

Salt Lane is both a police procedural and a slice of social commentary. The procedural element works well, the author avoiding the mistake of some writers who have their protagonist do all the work and solve the crime alone. Murder investigations, in the UK at any rate, are team efforts and this is depicted well. While DS Cupidi has a touch of that well-trodden trope – the maverick who finds it hard to play by the rules – this isn’t overly done. Rather she’s a believable character, likeable and committed. 

The police procedure element of the novel is also handled adeptly; it didn’t surprise me to learn when reading the acknowledgments at the back that the author consulted Graham Bartlett in the course of researching the novel, Bartlett being a former police officer in Brighton who has long advised the author Peter James. This then made it all the more galling when in the narrative a female officer is referred to as a WPC. The use of the term WPC (Woman Police Constable) is archaic and has long been consigned to the dustbin. All officers are now just PCs (unless they’re in the detective branch of course, when the P is swapped for a D for detective). While this only occurs twice and on the same page, the use of such an antiquated term, especially when the novel has been so thoroughly researched, did stick in my craw somewhat.

As mentioned, Salt Lane has a strong element of social commentary. Once again, the author has researched this thoroughly, as I can attest to from my career researching current affairs documentaries for Channel 4. Many a film I worked on looked at immigration and the twilight world of illegal immigrants who prop up the economy, often doing the hard, hazardous and underpaid work that other workers balk at. Salt Lane depicts this world powerfully. Whole swathes of the UK’s agricultural sector operate on the sweat of these workers and it is doubtful we would enjoy the cheap food that stocks our supermarket shelves without them.

Salt Lane is an excellent start to a new series. This is a long novel, running at 464 pages, which allows Shaw to weave through various sub-plots and flesh out Cupidi’s complicated family life, which I’m sure will develop further in future outings. While I enjoyed the novel, I have to confess to be a little jaded by police procedurals and preferring something a little more to the noir end of crime fiction. That said, this is an enjoyable novel and I will certainly read the next volume in the series when it hits the bookshelves.

4 out 5 stars