The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor

 

Rev Jack Brooks and her teenage daughter, Flo, move to the small village of Chapel Croft in Sussex from Nottingham, after a scandal has forced Brooks from her last diocese. She's only the temporary vicar in Chapel Croft but it will take a few months for the church to assign a new vicar and for now she's the stand in. Chapel Croft is a small, close knot community, and central to community life is that five hundred years a number of villagers were burnt at the stake in Queen Mary's persecution of Protestants. Ever since this has been commemorated by the burning of small effigies fashioned out of sticks and these are left at a monument outside the church.

Soon after arriving at the village, Jack discovers the local community, and the local church establishment, is a hive of secrets. Two young women disappeared from the village thirty years before and have never been seen since. One of the girls' families disappeared not soon after. The vicar before Jack arrived committed suicide, while someone keeps sending her threatening messages and even an exorcist kit.

The Burning Girls is the author's fourth novel, and it doesn't disappoint. All of C.J. Tudor's novels have been strong, and this continues The Burning Girls. When her debut novel, The Chalk Man, was released, Tudor was compared to Stephen King. The comparison is apt, but the truth is she's carved out her own niche now for supernatural crime thrillers set in small English communities.

This is a fantastic novel and having read all of C.J. Tudor's work, I look forward to book 5.

4 out of 5 stars

The Actuality by Paul Braddon

Evie is a near-perfect bio-engineered human. She's the pinnacle of artificial intelligence, what scientists call "true AI'. This is the Holy Grail of artificial intelligence - the ability to exhibit behaviour as skilful and flexible as humans, artificial consciousness, awareness of external objects, of ideas and self. Some believe such a thing is impossible, other's that it's closer than we think.

In The Actuality, Evie's "husband", Matthew, hides her away from prying eyes, and we learn this is because the government has banned her kind. AI bio-engineered beings were rolled out, but several disasters caused widespread panic and people came to fear they might be a danger to humankind. Now all but the most basic of service model is illegal. 

Evie and Matthew live in an apartment with Matthew's servant, Daniels. She's closer to Daniels and has a better relationship with him than she does with Matthew. She has memories based on those of Matthew's wife, who passed away years before, and she has consciousness which Daniels acknowledges. Matthew disagrees and denies she is true AI, which she finds hurtful. As the novel progresses we learn she wasn’t truly conscious when she came to the household. She was as close to it as possible, but not fully conscious. 

While only mentioned in passing in the text, this is a key debate in AI research: how to tell when something is truly conscious and not a clever imitation. The Turing Test, named after the mathematician and computer scientist, Alan Turing, is used to debate when something should be considered conscious. Because it's easy for an algorithm to appear conscious when it isn’t; bots on social media show this all the time, and many accounts are nothing more than clever code. Matthews believes Evie is nothing more than a clever bot, but Daniels knows the truth, which is somewhere along the line she developed consciousness, and is true AI.

When disaster strikes and Evie has to leave the sanctuary of the apartment, we learn Britain is an impoverished country, battered by economic decline and the ecological disaster threatening the globe. It's become an insular and bitter nation, and suspicious of outsiders and strangers.

The Actuality is a great novel, it's a speculative sci-fi story of Evie's search for a home and a sense of belonging, but it also grapples with some big ideas, and ones which have a real urgency. The environmental crisis and Britain's place in the world is often discussed - and the author's portrayal of a country turning in on itself reflects many people's fears over Brexit. But it's his consideration of AI which is to the forefront. This isn’t as far off in the future as we might think, indeed it's likely society will need to discuss the issues the author raises about autonomy sooner rather than later.

At heart The Actuality is about unforeseen consequences. Because humans are terrible at predicting the future. The climate crisis has crept up on us, and so will the consequences of AI if we're not careful. Indeed, they already are. Not too long ago I worked on a documentary about the war in Afghanistan. I was researching the drone programme. Drones, and to a lesser extent night raids by special forces, are a central plank to the US counterinsurgency strategy. Sophisticated computer algorithms are used to select targets. But in a guerrilla insurgency, how might US forces choose targets? It appalled me to learn one method was meta-data. Simply put, US forces harvest the phone contacts of insurgents. If an Afghan has called the phone of an insurgent, or the insurgent called their phone, the algorithm might well list them as a legitimate target. So "efficient" is this system, US forces kill people whose names they don't even know. Sometimes they know nothing more than a phone linkage.

The algorithms the Americans use are a form of dumb AI, but AI they are. Already the US and others are working on more autonomous killing machines. AI is also being developed for civilian life. To be clear, AI is not intrinsically a bad thing, far from it, it has many positive applications; to believe otherwise would be Luddite. But as the drone programme shows, the consequences, if not considered, can be disastrous. The Actuality grapples with this, and Evie is the personification of an unintended consequence. Invented as the plaything for the rich, she is now conscious and therefore surely has rights. But in a world where human life is devalued, what chance does she have?

5 out of 5 stars

Red Corona by Tim Glister

 

Set primarily in London in 1961, this is an old-school spy novel reminiscent of classic John le Carré.

Richard Knox is a senior MI5 officer under a cloud of suspicion. He doesn't have the traditional public school background of most of the service at the time (MI5 recruit more broadly now and things have reputedly changed), and is the protégé of James Holland, the Director General. He's long suspected a mole within the service, and has his suspicions who it might be. But when Holland ends up in a coma, his wife having discovered him unconscious and unresponsive at home, he's hung out to dry.

When two Italians of interest to MI5 are murdered in their London home, the new acting DG, Gordon Manning, and his right-hand man, Nicholas Peterson, set Knox investigating their deaths. Manning is well aware Knox suspects him of being the traitor, and so from the outset Knox is wary the DG is setting him up to fail.

The plot of Red Corona revolves around two pieces of technology, an innovative MI5 bugging technology which they fear the Russians have got hold of, and American spy satellites. MI5 wants to keep their surveillance technology out of the hands of both the Russians and the Americans (the latter, because if the Americans have it, the British will have no information to trade with in return for US information) while the American satellite technology they are unaware of until late in the story. The Italians had details of the British technology in their possession when they died, which causes Knox to fear the worst, and his investigations lead him to discover a conspiracy far more perilous than the one he imagined.

Both technologies that are at the heart of the plot are harbingers of the global surveillance technology in use today, and reading this book it's quaint to see what technology was in use and how far things have come. It's also frightening to realise how intrusive the abilities of the modern agencies are. Indeed, Knox can see the portents of the future, and worries in particular about the US satellite system once he learns of it.

Red Corona is a claustrophobic cold war spy thriller which captures the age period well. It's tightly plotted and engaging. This is a novel originally set for publication in 2020, but like many titles, its publishers delayed its release because of the pandemic. Indeed, I've had an advance copy for almost a year now, (as I'm sure have other reviewers). This is a great novel which deserves to sell well, and now it's finally hitting the bookshelves, I can highly recommend it.

4 out of 5 stars

The Spiral by Iain Ryan

 

Erma Bridges is an academic in Brisbane in the Centre for Creative Writing and Cultural Understanding. She's interested in Choose Your Own Adventure stories, having read the books as a child, and is writing a book for an academic publisher on the subject. For this reason she employed a research assistant, Jenny Wasserman, to contact a reclusive writer, Archibald Moder, who’s a founder of the genre. But Jenny is unreliable and prickly, and just when Erma is at the end of her tether, she goes missing. One night Jenny turns up, but she's agitated and distressed, and in Erma's house armed with a gun. After trying to murder Erma, but injuring her gravely, Jenny kills herself.

When the hospital discharges Erma after a long convalescence, she travels to Thailand to recuperate, where she indulges in her passion for Muay Thai. But eventually she has to come home to Australia to pick up her career. When she does, she looks into the circumstances of Jenny's breakdown. This she does while trying to pick up the research Jenny had been working on, not least by finding a dictaphone she used to record interviews, including with Archibald Moder.

Throughout the novel there are alternating chapters told from Erma's point of view and that of Sero, a barbarian from a Choose Your Own Adventure story. For a good half of the book, the two threads are separate. 

This is a brave and innovative novel. The publishers put a big marketing campaign behind it prior to publication, with viral marketing on social media and emailed clues; they billed it as like nothing the reader would have experienced before and a brilliant novel. Now I've read it, I have to confess to being in two minds. For the first half of the novel, I enjoyed the Erma chapters but found the Sero chapters an irritating distraction. I'm not a massive fantasy reader myself and thought this might be why.

But then, around the halfway mark, the Sero chapters intertwined with Erma's storyline and took on a much greater significance. There's one part of the book which the author writes entirely from Sero's perspective and as a Choose Your Own adventure, complete with the reader deciding what Sero will do. I've read some reviewers who found this off-putting, but I enjoyed it, and the author didn't keep it going for too long before switching back to a traditional narrative.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was experimental and a little out there, but it worked and kept my interest. I congratulate the publisher for taking a risk on this title and backing it to the extent they did, because it's not every day you read something like this. I found the first half took a while to get into and the fantasy element didn’t always work, but this is an intriguing novel and well worth a read.

3 out of 5 stars

Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende

 

Hapless Diego is a small time con who was persuaded to kidnap someone. His partner ran off, leaving him in the lurch, and he was arrested and sent to prison. He is about to be released though, as the victims spoke up in his favour. Diego has found prison tough, not least because of the psychopathic criminal, nicknamed the Hobo, who he’s been in hock to. When slippery lawyer Antinucci  arrives to get Diego out of prison, he’s willing to agree to do absolutely anything, and the Hobo and Antinucci have plans for him.

The two - lawyer and psychopath - intend to rob an armoured truck and demand Diego take part. Meanwhile Ursula Lopez, a woman with a troubled past, becomes embroiled in the story and crosses paths with Diego and the Hobo. While Captain Leonida Lima of the Montevideo Police is soon hot on the case.

This is a Uruguayan crime novel, the first I’ve ever read, and I know little about the country. It’s a quick read, more a novella than a full-length novel, and is described as a comedy caper like Fargo. While there is some dark humour, I didn’t really find it had the satirical bite of the Fargo films or TV series. That said, the comparison is apt in that the characters in Crocodile Tears are all incompetent to one degree or another; I’m not divulging spoilers when I reveal things will not go according to plan.

This is a good little novel that packs a punch. The characters are well drawn, and it’s well plotted. It's seamlessly translated too and wasn’t clunky in the way some translations can be.

This is definitely worth a read, and as the author is well established in her home country, I look forward to reading future translations of her other work.

4 out of 5 stars 

There’s Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross

 

Danny Garvey is a former football prodigy who’s fallen on hard times. He’s a man who failed to live up to his early promise because of injury and things in his past dragging him down. Now he’s teaching junior football for no hope teams. One day Higgy, a man who was, and is, in unrequited love with Danny’s mother, turns up and asks him to return to his hometown of Barshaw to coach the junior team there. Danny is reluctant; he’s estranged from both his mother who’s dying, and his brother, Raymond, who currently languishes in prison. And there are dark secrets in his past which might awaken. Reluctantly he agrees to Higgy’s request. While things go well for a while, it isn’t long before the cracks show and the secrets from the past claw their way to the surface.

This is a book with a real heart. It’s a brilliant book and one which is brilliantly told, so much so I loved it. Which is a surprise. Why?

Well, this is a book about football, and set in the world of junior football. It’s not all about football, there’s a lot which isn’t football related, there’s a lot which deals with Danny’s relationship with his family and the dark secrets in the town, but there’s a lot relating to football.

Ok, warning here, I’m about to annoy some people.

I hate football. Really, I do, I hate it. I hate the game; I hate the fans; I hate the players; I hate the commentary and how everyone goes nuts about what is, in fact, a silly little game. I hate the societal pressure to like it, how when if England are doing well in the World Cup, if you’re not cheering them on people think there’s something wrong with you (while this book is set in Scotland, I imagine it’s the same for people like me with the Scottish team north of the border, too).

The point is, this is a book I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed. But I did. And the reason is, as I say, it’s written with a real heart. The reader can’t help but be pulled in to Danny’s story. Yes, you’re drawn in to all the stuff about his family and the dark secrets in the town of Barshaw, but you even begin to care about the football. I became invested in Danny’s team, and wanted them to rise through the league and achieve success, and believe me, it takes a skilled writer to make me show any interest in a football team.

I won’t give away spoilers, but this is a bitter-sweet tragedy of a novel which will stay with you. There are some books where when you close the page you can’t help but think of the characters and how they might fare after the story has ended. This is one of those books.

A poignant tale which is well told, this is highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars 

The Last Thing To Burn by Will Dean

 

Thanh Dao is a Vietnamese woman living in an isolated farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It's a bleak, flat landscape of fenland and salt marshes. She lives with Len and he’s given her the name Jane. She may not use her actual name, and she’s not allowed to speak Vietnamese. In fact, we soon learn that there’s nothing normal about this relationship at all. 

Thanh Dao/Jane is an illegal immigrant, smuggled into the Britain in the back of a trailer. People came to her village and promised her and her sister the world - good jobs and money to send back to their family. In reality, they found themselves in bonded servitude, first on a large farm with other migrants and then separated, Jane sold to Len as a forced wife, her sister, to work in a nail bar.

Very quickly we suspect things are worse still.  Len forces Thanh Dao/Jane to live like his mother, using her old things rather than purchase anything new.  Len locks the phone away at all times, and the television. When she “misbehaves” Len burns her few remaining possessions until she has literally nothing left of her own. And what happened to Len’s first wife?

This is a harrowing novel that builds with creeping horror. It’s a slow-burning story, there is no action or particularly violent scenes, instead there is woman broken by slavery and brutality and her efforts to keep her identity and her sanity. It’s also all too horrifically likely, and that marks the pages with added dread. At the time of reading, a trial was ongoing for the men who smuggled 39 Vietnamese migrants into the UK, all of whom suffocated in the back of the lorry trailer. It was a horrific incident and one which brought to the fore the people trafficking route from Vietnam into Britain.  Modern slavery is a real blight, and countless illegal immigrants disappear all the time. Many will be in the black economy and not slaves (though they are still at risk of abuse), but others will be preyed upon and forced into slavery, and some perhaps will even suffer to the horrific extent Thanh Dao/Jane is.

The Last Thing To Burn is a brilliantly plotted and written novel. I read this novel is two sittings. It’s compelling and horrific. It’s a difficult reading, concerned as it is with a woman’s domestic torture. But it’s an important novel and one that will stay with me for a long time.

5 out of 5 stars