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Review: The Scent of Death

15/10/2020

THE SCENT OF DEATH
by Andrew Taylor

NEW FAVOURITE AUTHOR
I know I am late to the party (again) - Andrew Taylor has been writing award-winning historical mysteries for decades - but I've only just discovered his incredible novels!
I really enjoyed The Scent of Death and have happily ignored everything else on my TBR pile to go straight into the sequel, The Silent Boy.
Americans may find The Scent of Death particularly fascinating as it is set in 1778 in the besieged loyalist stronghold of New York in the middle of the War of Independence against Britain. I had a bit of a personal connection. Some of our Charlton ancestors left Northern England, emigrated to the Colony and farmed around New York at this time. When the Yankee rebels won the war, like many loyal to the Crown, they emigrated again to Canada. Having now read Taylor's vivid description of what life was like at the time, I can understand why they fled.
The Silent Boy is set ten years later in the aftermath of the French Revolution.
Both novels are highly recommended.

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Researching The 'Golden Age' of Crime Fiction

23/5/2020

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The Murder AT The Vicarage

Why Agatha Christie Was So Popular

As part of my research for my new series set in York in WW2, I’m currently reading dozens of novels and short stories written by British ‘Golden Age’ crime writers. Detective crime fiction is an inspiration for my two new lady sleuths, Gemma James and Roberta ‘Bobbie’ Baker. I needed to find out what books they might have enjoyed.

York in the 1940s

I've also trawled hundreds of old newspapers to gain some historical perspective and I was shocked to read about a bitter argument in York in 1940 between a women’s group and the local police. The latter had refused to recruit female officers even though a quarter of their men had signed up to fight and left.
Prejudice against women was rife in British society and the police force at this time. It doesn’t seem to have crossed anyone’s mind that women were as capable as men at solving crimes.
This attitude is reflected in the 'Golden Age' crime fiction. Most of these detective stories are narrated by very clever men, who tell other very clever men how they – or one of their very clever male friends – solved the murder. This style of narration - made famous by Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes Mysteries - was copied relentlessly in the first half of the 20th Century.

A brilliant fictional female detective had yet to be created. This huge gap in the market was eventually filled by Agatha Christie with the elderly spinster, Miss Jane Marple, a character whose crime-solving mind is sharper than her knitting needles. No wonder she was so popular.
I have just re-read Murder in the Vicarage and – when put into context against the output of Christie’s contemporaries – it was a breath of fresh air. No wonder she was so popular.
Christie’s plots are always a devilish brain-tease and this one is no exception. But to have a female character solving a crime that baffled the police was a radical and ground-breaking development.
Christie never commented on politics or involved herself in political campaigns and I’m sure she would have hated to be called a ‘feminist’. But the creation of Jane Marple was a subtle and brave contribution towards changing society’s attitude and lifting the ignorant prejudice against female sleuths and detectives.

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Book Reviews: 'Thirteen' & 'Snap'

6/4/2020

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Book Recommendations

I don't know if this will help in these troubled times, but I thought I'd recommend two contemporary crime fiction writers whose novels I've recently enjoyed. Steve Cavanagh and Belinda Bauer both reached the short-list of the 2019 CWA Crime Novel of the Year and last summer I watched them talk about their novels during the awards ceremony at the Harrogate Crime Conference.
Now I've read the books, I can confirm they were both worthy finalists in the UK's most prestigious crime competition.

THIRTEEN by Steve Cavanagh
THIRTEEN won the CWA award for the best novel of the year and although I don’t usually enjoy books where the murderer shares the narration with the sleuth, I have to confess this one is an exception.
Primarily a courtroom drama, it has an original premise in that an innocent man stands trial in the dock – while the murderer sits on the jury. Our hero is defence lawyer, Eddie Flynn, who slowly comes to realise that someone on the jury is manipulating the trial and has a hidden agenda. Even reading back those sentences sends a shiver down my spine.
Fast paced and written with wit and punchy dialogue, 'Thirteen' is a roller coaster of a story and utterly compelling reading.

SNAP by Belinda Bauer
SNAP is an intriguing book - and different. Unlike many police procedural novelists, Bauer has an amazing ability to create characters about whom the reader really cares.
Fourteen-year-old burglar, Jack, is full of rage, and makes questionable choices in his bid to provide for his two little sisters. But Bauer handles this uncomfortable subject matter with elegance and empathy.
As Jack’s quest to reveal the truth about his mother’s murderer intensifies, danger threatens the three children and the reader is left desperate to find out what happens to them.
It’s a wonderful plot with amazing twists and turns, tension and humour – and a thoroughly satisfying ending.

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Review: Sarah Dunant

18/11/2019

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LOving the Books of Sarah Dunant

I'm a prolific reader of crime and historical fiction. Not surprisingly perhaps, my favourite genre is historical mystery. I'm often asked by readers for recommendations so I occasionally use this blog to recommend books I've enjoyed.

Today I'm featuring just one of my favourite historical fiction writers: Sarah Dunant, whom I met at the Glasgow Historical Novel Society Conference in 2018. (See photo below).

Sarah is that rare thing - an award-winning, best-selling author who can seamlessly jump from one genre to another, taking her fans with her. She's also a brilliant keynote speaker for conferences and dazzles and inspires from the podium in equal measure.

Meeting Sarah Dunant at Glasgow HNS 2018

Sarah first hit the literary scene in the 1990s with a a trilogy of crime thrillers featuring feisty, British female private eye, Hannah Wolfe. In 1994 she won a CWA silver dagger for 'Fatlands'. All her thrillers are very enjoyable and have avoided becoming 'dated' by spotlighting issues like surrogacy, cosmetic surgery, animal rights, and violence to women which are still pertinent today. The first of these thrillers is 'Birth Marks'.

In 2000, on an extended visit to Florence Sarah's old passion for history was reignited, and she started to research the impact of the Renaissance on the city in the 1490s. The result was the best-selling 'The Birth of Venus', the first of a trilogy of novels about women’s lives in the Italian Renaissance. I am steadily reading through these novels and thoroughly recommend them to lovers of historical fiction.

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Review: Winston Graham's Suspense Novels

1/4/2019

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Winston Graham, the creator of Poldark:
Was He Any Good As a suspense Writer?

The Poldark series, the story of Ross and Demelza Poldark and Ross’ nemesis, George Warleggan, are my all-time favourite historical novels. I’ve read and re-read these thirteen books repeatedly over the last forty years. I’m also a huge fan of the TV Series and it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me, that my children are called Ross and Elizabeth.

Until recently, I was only vaguely aware that this prolific author wrote another thirty books, mostly suspense novels. Several of them were turned into films and one of them, The Little Walls, won him a prestigious Dagger Award from the Crime Writers’ Association in 1955. I’d never read any of them until last year when, out of sheer curiosity, I started to download them onto my kindle. Worried in case I missed a gem – but also warily conscious that these were written for my grandparent’s generation – I systematically worked my way through them in order of publication.

Winston Graham

Winston Graham was first published in 1934, aged twenty-six, and to be honest, by our standards, his first few novels were very average, dated and a bit awkward. But by the time I reached The Forgotten Story (1945) – published the same year as the first novel in the Poldark series – and Take My Life (1947) I realised that my favourite story-teller had finally got into his stride, perfected his style and honed his trademark ability to depict realistic, humorous and coldly chilling characters from all sections of society.

Take my Life is a superb London-based thriller and courtroom drama about an intelligent and confident young woman determined to clear her husband’s name when he’s accused of murdering his former girlfriend. Meanwhile, The Forgotten Story is a historical novel set in the maritime world of Graham’s beloved Cornwall. It’s a gripping tale of murder, deceit and lost love with a full cast of heavy-drinking seafaring secondary characters and a strangely unsettling murderer who would give most of the protagonists of modern psychological thrillers a good run for their money.

Both books are rippling with tension and pace. The Forgotten Story contains a terrifying shipwreck and Take My Life includes a dramatic steam train dash from Edinburgh to London.

But the best bit about them for me is that despite their antiquity, they both feature clever, independent young female characters who ignore the restrictions of their era and are determined to control their own destinies. This modern attitude gives these seventy-year-old novels a contemporary feel which I appreciate. I probably should have expected this from the man who created Demelza Poldark. Winston Graham rivals Shakespeare with his vivid depiction of lively, confident and memorable women.

Anyway, I thoroughly recommend both these novels and commend them to your readers.

As for me, that’s eleven down with just another nineteen to go. I’m looking forward to the journey. See you on the other side.

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Review: Excellent Historical Fiction

11/11/2017

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'Song Hereafter'

by
Jean Gill

This is the concluding novel in Jean Gill’s fascinating series about the glittering and scheming world of French court life in the twelfth century but there’s an added bonus in this book when Dragonetz and Estela travel to mysterious Wales in the Isles of Albion. They soon find themselves caught up in the political intrigue of the Welsh Principality.
Gill is a excellent writer who sweeps you along into her world, and Wales is her world. Her descriptive prose of the misty valleys of her homeland is amazing and has poetry in its imagery; she describes it like a spell-bound lover.
As usual, it’s the strong characters of Dragonetz and Estela who shine in the novel but even the personalities of the minor characters leap off the page with wiliness and humour.
I'm sad to say 'goodbye', but ‘Song Hereafter’ is an excellent conclusion to a great series. It can easily stand-alone for new readers.
Thoroughly recommended.

Buy on Amazon

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Review: The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup

9/7/2016

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Master Story-Teller

If you like novels that transport you to an unfamiliar geographical and social landscape and enjoy a ripping good yarn at the same time, then Vikas Swarup could be the best discovery you make this year. He was for me. This is the second Swarup novel I have enjoyed and I will read more.

Swarup is a master story-teller with impressive plotting skills; he brings India alive. He sweeps you along to the dramatic finale of this book, introducing you to an array of likeable and colourful characters and providing an informative satire on Indian society, politics and values as he goes. ‘The Accidental Apprentice’ is full of the bright colours, heat and smells of India, spiced with corruption, warmth, tragedy, hope and humour.

Thoroughly recommended.

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Article & Book Review

29/3/2016

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Revisiting The Widowhood

I don’t often mention my late husband, Chris, or his untimely death from cancer. And I try very hard not to moan.

Three years ago, I mentioned it a lot. To anyone who would listen. In fact, I didn’t just mention it – I screamed my anguish from the rooftops. Many of my friends and family received late-night, alcohol-induced phone calls and emails in which I railed against the cruelty and injustice of his terminal diagnosis and my fear of a future without him. After he died, I sobbed on the shoulder of anyone who would hold me. In the street. In a café. Or in the pub.

So why the change? Why did I stop discussing Chris and showing my grief? Have I ‘got over it?’ Moved on? Or have I simply changed?

May 22nd, 1993

No, we don't get over the loss of our lovers and soul-mates – ever. We can move on, yes, but the loss changes us too and only those who have walked in our shoes can really empathise. Fortunately, very few people experience the untimely death of their relatively young spouse. This is great for the wider world in general but not so good for those young widows or widowers who are left rattling around in an empty and exclusive club that no-one wants to join and very few people really understand. As one of my closest friends pointed out, I was the first in our friendship group to bury their partner. Even my parents still have each other.

And the other devastating discovery made by youngish widows is that there is no handbook on the shelves of W.H. Smiths to tell you how to cope and survive your tragedy, the ensuing loneliness or the survivor’s guilt. Counsellors, family and friends do what they can to help, and are brilliant at dealing with practicalities, but ultimately you are on your own with your insomnia, the nightmares and the angst at 3 am in the morning. You have to work through it by yourself.

As the uniqueness of my isolated position dawned on me, I started to feel like a freak. A very damaged freak. I made a conscious effort to stop talking about Chris and my bereavement and to deal with my heartache in private. Whether this was a good or a psychologically damaging thing to do to myself, I have no idea. Only time will tell if the pressure will eventually erupt in some form of mental breakdown. But I also had my heart-broken, teenage children to consider and they didn’t need a wailing, sobbing mother parading her grief in public. They needed a calm role model to help them get through the loss of their amazing father.

With Chris, Beth and Ross on Beth's 18th Birthday

Besides which, I didn’t want to be defined by my widowhood even though I know I will always be one. There is far more to Karen Charlton than just a ‘grieving widow.’ With the love and help of close friends and family; a great counsellor; a bottle of pills and copious amounts of alcohol, I sought solace in writing my cosy mysteries and did the ‘moving on’ thing.

However, there have been many times when the isolation of my situation has led me to reach out to others in a similar situation. For a while I was a member of the ‘widdahud,’ an online forum for widows and I was a very needy member, too. I did get some support, for which I am eternally grateful, but I found myself unable to give it back. Chris’ death left me blank, numb and sometimes downright crass when faced with the misery and despair of strangers. Embarrassed by my own lack of empathy and uncomfortable with just being a ‘taker’ rather than a positive contributor to the discussion boards, I abandoned the forum.

In addition to this, the widows’ forum lacked humour. This seems a strange thing to write, I know, but occasional flashes of ghoulish humour and irony make an untenable situation slightly more bearable. Sometimes these tiny moments of light are the only things around to help drag ourselves through another miserable day; we would go mad without them. Death and grief are an ugly business and the very antithesis of romance. A flash of bizarre humour helps with the healing.

It was the humorous title that eventually attracted me to a self-help book for widows by the American author, Catherine Tidd. I had never read a true-life ‘misery memoir’ before and normally shunned the genre as depressing but I couldn’t resist The Confessions of a Mediocre Widow. It brilliantly summed up how I saw myself three years ago – and how I still see myself today. I am that Mediocre Widow. I enjoyed (is that the right word?) Catherine Tidd’s account of her husband’s sudden death and how she survived (again, is that the right word?) and stumbled through the aftermath. I especially appreciated the gentle humour that lifted the pages of this book and made the despair bearable.

And this week I discovered another gem in the same ilk: ‘Life After You’ by Lucie Brownlee. Lucie is a young widow from my own area of North East England. Her book was an Autumn Read for the Richard & Judy Book Club. And what a stunning book it is. It’s a must-read for anyone struggling to cope with the sudden or untimely death of someone they love. Her honesty, anger and humour took my breath away and kept me reading late into the night. It’s a warts-and-all account of the sudden death of her husband, Mark, yet somehow it ends with hope and never becomes ugly (as I fear my own memoir might become.) Her insight, bitterness and humour resonated strongly with me. I loved her powerful language and imagery. She doesn’t waste a word and portrays the full range of human emotion experienced by young widows in a way I can only envy.

Like me, Lucie is determined not to be defined by her widowhood and has branched out into mainstream fiction. I sincerely wish her the best and look forward to reading more from this very talented author.

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Review: 'Night Eyes' by Claire Stibbe

25/3/2016

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Superb novel, fast-paced and thrilling

This is a superb novel, fast-paced and thrilling. Claire Stibbe knows how to write from the point of view of a child and skilfully draws the reader into emphasising with the villain. She never missed a beat while tenderly developing the relationship between Adam and Ramsey. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what the increasingly-likeable Ramsey had planned for the child and why. I felt quite tearful by the end of the book. This is a novel that will stay with you and the dark, brooding forests of New Mexico are now also etched into my sub-conscious; they are a character in their own right. ‘Night Eyes’ is very cinematic and would make a brilliant film. Claire Stibbe is emerging as a fabulous thriller writer.

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Review: 'The Tea Planter's Wife'

19/3/2016

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The Tea Planter's Wife
Dinah Jefferies

I really enjoyed this book.

Dinah Jefferies' brilliant novel explores one of the darker issues of Britain’s colonial past in this tender and romantic story. An idealistic young woman is whisked away by an enigmatic and secretive widower to a tea plantation in Ceylon. Jefferies brilliantly evokes the exotic colours, scents and sounds of the landscape. You can almost feel the oppressive humidity of the rainy season and smell the cinnamon and lemon in Gwen’s unfamiliar new world. Jefferies sensitively explores the central issue of the novel which places a heart-broken and confused, young mother at odds with the rigid code of the elite and privileged ruling class to which she belongs. There are echoes of Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ in this story.

The central character of Gwen is particularly well-depicted and despite her heart-breaking tragedy, Gwen grows in strength and confidence as each chapter unfolds. I cried with her but also felt her elation in the love scenes with Laurence.

I was able to guess the outcome but I thoroughly recommend this book.

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<<Previous

Review: The Scent of Death

THE SCENT OF DEATH
by Andrew Taylor

Researching The 'Golden Age' of Crime Fiction

The Murder AT The Vicarage

Book Reviews: 'Thirteen' & 'Snap'

Book Recommendations

Review: Sarah Dunant

LOving the Books of Sarah Dunant

Review: Winston Graham's Suspense Novels

Winston Graham, the creator of Poldark:
Was He Any Good As a suspense Writer?

Review: Excellent Historical Fiction

'Song Hereafter'

Review: The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup

Master Story-Teller

Article & Book Review

Revisiting The Widowhood

Review: 'Night Eyes' by Claire Stibbe

Superb novel, fast-paced and thrilling

Review: 'The Tea Planter's Wife'

The Tea Planter's Wife
Dinah Jefferies

Archives

Categories

THE SCENT OF DEATHby Andrew Taylor

The Murder AT The Vicarage

Book Recommendations

LOving the Books of Sarah Dunant

Winston Graham, the creator of Poldark: Was He Any Good As a suspense Writer?

'Song Hereafter'

Master Story-Teller

Revisiting The Widowhood

Superb novel, fast-paced and thrilling

The Tea Planter's WifeDinah Jefferies

Archives

Categories

THE SCENT OF DEATH
by Andrew Taylor

Winston Graham, the creator of Poldark:
Was He Any Good As a suspense Writer?

The Tea Planter's Wife
Dinah Jefferies