Turncoat by Anthony J Quin

 

Northern Ireland, 1994, and it’s the tail-end of the Troubles, the long conflict winding down. But that doesn’t mean the violence is over and Detective Desmond Maguire is the sole survivor of a squad of police ambushed after a botched sting. The sting was set up on the word of an informant, known as Ruby, but Ruby has now disappeared. Knowing he’s under suspicion, Maguire goes in search of the informant, a pursuit that leads him to the island of Lough Derg and the community of pilgrims who call it home.

 

I really enjoy books set in Ireland during the Troubles as it’s a historical conflict that interests me. My family come from Ireland and as a current affairs journalist I worked on many stories that covered aspects of the conflict. A number of writers have set stories in the period, not least Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series, Stuart Neville’s various titles, Anna Burns’ Milkman, David Keenan’s For The Good Times and Michael Hughes’ Country.

 

Turncoat doesn’t disappoint and is set to join the canon of really good novels that explore this conflict and its legacy. Like Adrian McKinty’s character Sean Duffy, the protagonist in this tale, Detective Desmond Maguire, is a Catholic in a still predominantly Protestant police force. Sectarianism remains an ugly fact of life in Northern Ireland (though not nearly as bad as in the past) and this is a factor that complicates Maguire’s efforts to prove his innocence.

 

Much of the novel takes place on Lough Derg and in some ways this novel reminded me of stories like The Wicker Man. Though this novel doesn’t deal with pagan sacrifices and other such supernatural phenomena, Maguire is an outsider in an isolated setting and amongst a community of believers.

 

This is a really good novel, very atmospheric, and highly recommended.

 

4 out of 5 stars

Play The Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics

Vietnam, 1963, a female Viet Cong assassin is gunning down US servicemen on the streets of Saigon. Firing from a moving scooter and at some distance, she demonstrates remarkable skill and accuracy with a pistol and has disappeared into traffic before anyone has any chance to react. Tasked with hunting the Red Queen down and bringing her string of killings to an end are Ellsworth Miser and Clovis Robeson, two US army investigators.

 

The Vietnam War is a conflict that has produced a large canon of literature and movies. I chanced upon a previous novel by the author, Juris Jurjevics, completely by chance and loved it. Red Flags told the story of a US army investigator who happened upon corruption amongst Green Berets advising Montagnards and South Vietnamese government officials and it was a brilliant book, so I couldn’t wait to read this. 

 

Once again, corruption is the real villain in this novel, and as Miser and Robeson investigate the Red Queen murders they discover just how venal the South Vietnamese state really is. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the author himself served in the Vietnam War and was a US Army investigator, and as corruption is the focus of both his Vietnam novels (he also wrote one non-Vietnam novel) I can only assume that this was something he discovered in real life.

 

I really wanted to like Play The Red Queen, because as I say, I loved Red Flags. Alas, while this title was good, I didn’t feel it had the magic of the previous title. Red Flags explored a little told story – the Green Beret units who mentored ethnic Montagnard soldiers and were stationed in remote outposts – and it had a real atmosphere, and the stakes were high. While Play The Red Queen does a good job with its Saigon setting it just can’t compete with the author’s previous title.

 

That said, this remains a strong title and is well worth a read.

 

3 out of 5 stars 

 

Baghdad Central by Elliott Colla

Baghdad, September 2003 and the city, and Iraq itself, is in a mess. The US occupation is incompetent and in the grip of self-delusion, and having abolished the Iraqi army, facing a growing insurgency. Inspector Muhsin al-Khafaji is a mid-level police officer who deserted his post after the invasion. After he’s picked up by US forces who mistake him for a wanted Baathist, the coalition authorities learn of his real identity and his skill with archives and data analysis. 

On that basis, he’s hired to help recruit a new police force, his task to go through the personnel files of the old Iraqi police forces and decide who can be trusted by the Americans and might be willing to work for them. In return, his daughter who has a kidney condition, is offered treatment. While going about his tasks, al-Khafaji learns that a number of female interpreters have gone missing, including his niece. This leads him to investigate and discover a disturbing plot. 

I really wanted to like this book, having heard so much about it and seen that there was a highly regarded television adaptation (which I’m yet to see). And there is much to like about this novel, but equally there’s much to be infuriated by, though this could just be my perspective. 

Where this novel is strongest is in the general atmosphere it portrays and how it perfectly encapsulates the utter ludicrousness of the occupation. I've never been to Iraq, but during the war I worked in current affairs journalism. While I never went to Iraq myself, I knew, and spoke with, many journalists who did. Everything I’ve been told leads me to believe that this novel is spot on, and that the situation was tragically farcical. 

But this is a meandering novel and the plot never really goes anywhere. Even the main story of the female interpreters who go missing is vague and the author’s heart doesn’t really appear to be in telling it. This is a pity, because at heart the plot had strong potential. The protagonist loves poetry, and poems and poetry appear throughout the text, but to me this just further slowed things down. 

All in all, this is a good novel. Inspector Muhsin al-Khafaji is an interesting character, as are many of the supporting cast, particularly some of the clueless Americans. The portrayal of Baghdad and the occupation is excellent. But the plot really should have been tighter.

3 out of 5 stars

Ghoster by Jason Arnopp

 

I recently signed with a literary agent for my own writing, and after reading my submission, my agent told me my writing style reminded her of this book. I had heard of this novel and seen the buzz surrounding it but had yet to read it. Seeing as my agent brought it up, I thought I ought to read it.

 

Ghosting, where someone ceases all communication with somebody, stops replying to their messages, perhaps even deletes them or blocks them on social media, and all without any explanation, is a product of the social media age. Kate Collins has been ghosted. She’s met Scott Palmer, seemingly the man of her dreams, and after a whirlwind romance she’s agreed to move in with him. But he ghosts her and right before she’s due to move in. 

 

Kate drives down from Leeds to Brighton anyway but finds his flat completely empty, stripped of all furniture and belongings, the only thing being his phone. When she manages to figure out his password and get access to the phone, she finds all manner of disturbing content and disconcerting messages. Then there are the strange whispering phone calls from numbers and people she doesn’t know. And just what is causing the gouges on the inside of the front door?

 

Ghoster is a supernatural chiller for the modern age. This s a brilliant novel, fantastically plotted and written. Kate is a sympathetic and compelling character, while the supporting cast is strong too. This is the first novel by the author that I’ve read, but it won’t be the last and I’m going to have to dig out his back catalogue. 

 

As said at the outset of this review, I read this title after my literary agent mentioned him. I just hope that I can write as well as him because he’s set a high benchmark!

 

5 out of 5 stars

The Last Resort by Susi Holliday

 

A new luxury retreat operated by Timeo, a mysterious tech company, invites a group of strangers for an all-expenses paid trip to try it out. They’re a disparate bunch, each seemingly selected for a different purpose (a social media influencer, a games designer, etc) and they’ve each been lured by an email that demonstrates the company knows a lot about them and promises them great things, though they’ve been forbidden from telling each other what exactly they’ve been promised.

 

Amelia, the main protagonist, is the odd one out. An aid worker, it’s not clear what she brings to the table. Similarly, when they’re all fitted with devices attached to their skulls which tap into their brainwaves, hers won’t work and she has to wear a less effective bio-sensor that’s worn around the wrist like a watch.

 

The head attched devices are the cause of trouble, for they soon start projecting the wearer’s deepest secrets for all the group to see. It soon transpires that each member of the party has a shameful past and the disgusted reaction each feels towards the others sows division. Amelia also falls under suspicion, for how come she got out of wearing one?

 

There are a number of books coming to market at the moment where a group of friends or strangers find themselves marooned or isolated somewhere and discover they have secrets. Susi Holliday’s novel is part of this trend, though it has a unique spin, being a genre crossover between speculative sci-fi and crime. The Last Resort is a kind of Black Mirror-esque tale where the implications of real-world tech that is in development (bio-sensors and efforts to read brainwaves are being worked on) is imagined and given a dystopian treatment. 

 

Holliday has written a really good thriller here that’s very readable and a real page-turner. It’s well plotted and despite their pasts and the things they’ve done, I found the characters relatable, the author making even those that had done the most appalling things all too human. 

 

5 out of 5 stars

The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton

I’m not a massive horror reader, preferring the crime and thriller genre, but I dip my reading toe in every now and again. Graham Masterton is a prolific author whose name I’ve seen a lot, he’s written a lot of books, but who I’ve never read. I decided to give this one a go, quite on a whim, and I have to say I’ve not been disappointed.

 

Allhallows Hall, a rambling Tudor mansion on the edge of Dartmoor, is owned by Herbert Russell, the retired governor of Dartmoor Prison. After he’s murdered, his estranged children and their partners return for the will reading. They soon learn that the house has been left in trust to young Timmy, Herbert Russell’s grandson (and the son of his least favourite son), and the only child present. This obviously causes friction with Herbert’s other children. 

 

When Timmy goes missing this is just the first in a long line of events that soon reveals the house not to be what they thought, and that Herbert’s death was not a simple murder. Strange whisperings, the characters pushed and shoved by invisible people is just the start, soon other’s in their party go missing, and even people trying to assist them.

 

A House of a Hundred Whispers is not a gory or violent novel, well apart from two very gory scenes towards the end, which are also incredibly imaginative in how the victims meet their ends. From what I understand, Masterton can do blood and gore with the best of them (as he demonstrates with the two examples mentioned), but this is much more a supernatural chiller than a gore-fest. I wouldn’t even say it’s particularly frightening. But that shouldn’t put readers off, because it’s a supernatural tale well told which compels you to turn the pages and handles it’s competing elements well. And there’s a lot of elements here: ghosts, witches, demons, spells and lots of local folklore.

 

4 out of 5 stars

Voodoo Heart by John Everson

 

All across New Orleans, on one night each month, people are being snatched from their beds, their hearts left on their bloody sheets. Their family and loved ones are at a loss to explain how it happened right under their noses; even partners sleeping next to the victims aren’t woken when the victims are stolen away into the night.  Detective Lawrence Ribaud’s wife is one such victim and this makes the investigation very personal to him.

 

It soon transpires that the disappearances are occurring on the night of the full moon and that voodoo, or at least a belief in voodoo, is in play. Ribaud is a cynic and doesn’t believe in the power of voodoo, but many of the people he interacts with do and as the investigation unfolds, he finds his scepticism challenged.

 

Voodoo Heart is an excellent book. It has a great sense of place and while I’ve never been to New Orleans myself, the author appears to know the city well; I really enjoyed how he took us behind the touristy kitsch that most visitors will only see. It is also full of a creepy atmosphere and is not for the feint hearted. Ribaud comes across some horrific things in this novel and there’s a lot of blood and guts.

 

If I have one criticism of Voodoo Heart, it’s that Ribaud’s police colleagues never mention his wife. This is a man whose wife is a victim of these horrific crimes, yet none of his colleagues, nor his boss, ask once about his wellbeing. No one asks how he’s holding up. And would he even be allowed to work the case, seeing as he’s so personally invested and thus maybe not thinking straight? Again, this is never addressed.

 

That said, this is a really good slice of Southern Gothic horror and is well worth a read.

4 out of 5 stars