2009 in Review

Alex – Last year I aimed to make my way through some of my unread backlog, read my mother's favourite novels, the twelve-part Anthony Powell creation A Dance to the Music of Time, and tackle Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy (huge, but apparently worth it). I was also going to review each book as I finished it.
Sadly, once again my resolutions were for naught. At the time of writing I'm just finishing writing up the dozen books read but unreviewed over the course of 2009. I read neither the Powell nor the Seth works, and my own unread book piles were added to rather than diminished even though I took a dozen or so overseas with me (and left them there). This year I will read a Powell book each month, and both Lynn and I have decided to alternate our own books with those from other sources like the library.
I did read marginally fewer books this year - of the 254 books I reviewed, 222 were fiction and only 32 non-fiction (and yet another year with no poetry, except by accident). I've been interested to see that the strength of the last part of the year has coloured my perception of the year as a whole, and I'd completely blanked out the odd run of books I hated or abandoned. Starting there we have:

Most disappointing novel: Dakota Cassidy's The Accidental Werewolf just didn't do it for me, particularly as it's one of only two books I recommended my library purchase. I thought Anton Strout's Dead to Me had more promise than it delivered, but did like the author's comment, which acknowledged that it wasn't for me without taking this on board as a vituperative attack on his very personhood (thank you, Anton).

Least rewarding non-fiction book: in a year where I put more books aside than ever before, the stand out of disappointment was probably Vera Brittain's autobiography Testament of Youth, mostly because I had quite high expectations which fell wholly flat.

Most disliked read: the Twilight series - I pushed myself until I just couldn't read any more of it.

Greatest achievement: an overseas trip forced me, by virtue of taking them with me and refusing to buy any other until they were read, to finally tackle half a dozen long unread members of my To Read pile. The three longest lingerers were John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (perhaps 15 years), Richard Adam's The Girl in a Swing (almost 30 years), and Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, (some 20 years after buying it). Completing Eco's work is without question the triumph of my recreational reading year!

Favourite novel: No question the most compelling novel I read this year was Lionel Shriver's We Have to Talk About Kevin, a book so gripping it inspired me to start a book group (we meet for the first time next month and so far feedback's been mixed).
Favourite non-fiction book: I'm torn between the really compelling The Faith Club (by far my longest review this year), all of Danny Wallace's adventures, the always readable Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, and the Milton Erickson tribute My Voice Will Go With You. But the winner has to be The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge.
Favourite newly encountered author: I thoroughly enjoyed Kylie Chan's Dark Heavens trilogy, Linwood Barclay's atmospheric mysteries, and my belated discovery of the almost-Bagleyesque quality of Dick Francis's racing mysteries. Simon Kernick certainly warrants a follow up, as do Olive Etchells, CS Harris, Perri Klass and SM Stirling. But I think the winner is Carolyn Parkhurst, whose two, extremely different, novels were resonant reads that stayed with me long after they were finished and which I've recommended indiscriminately.
Interestingly, I realised writing this that I haven't read a single novel by Elizabeth Berg, my favourite author of 2008, but have recommended her to several people and sent my sister three of her books for Christmas.
Reviewing the year has reminded me of several authors I want to chase up in the year ahead, particularly CS Harris, Aimée and David Thurlo, Sean Doolittle, Ben Bova, Olive Etschells and Simon Kernick. As always the good news is that there are always great books being written and released, faster than I can read them. The bad news, of course, is that there are great books being written and released faster than I can read them - Alex

Lynn: My 2009 reading list has proved to be a rather uninspired one. With a couple of notable exceptions my book selections this year have been mediocre to poor. This has left me spoilt for choice when it comes to naming a worst book of the year.
My biggest disappointment would have to be Sandom’s The God Machine. I had such high hopes for this one but I found it to be a complete dud-a view not changed by the passionate arguments in support of it made here by the author (or author’s best friend, biggest fan, whatever).
But I feel it would be unfair to award this one the status of worst book read in 2009 because as a ‘did not finish’ I can’t claim to have actually read it.
So in a very closely run race the worst book I read in 2009 goes to The Eight by Katherine Neville. The sheer pointlessness of her work means she edges out Mary Gentle’s 1610: A Sundial in a Grave, which at least made some sense.
Strangely enough, choosing a best book I read in 2009 was not as easy as I thought it would be. Sure I could fall back on the tried and true Rickman or Greenwood, both of whom are consistently great but how could I choose between them. Take it as said that they rate right up there and with those two out of contention the very level playing field left meant that many could vie for the title. So for its warped and twisted fun I’m naming Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore my best read of 2009.
My favourite newly discovered (by me) writer for 2009 is a three way of historical romance authors. I was delighted to discover Pam Rosenthal, Jo Goodman and Joanna Bourne may their backlists be long and their careers longer.-Lynn

James Herbert: The Magic Cottage

When a young couple out to escape life in the fast lane find a cottage in the country it seems it was meant for them. Not only does the money required for the purchase seem to fall into their laps but the place turns out not to need the extensive, and expensive, renovations they originally thought. The garden seems to be in constant bloom and even the local wild life is tame. The change in lifestyle does them no end of good. His music and her art develop a depth that has hitherto escaped them; even their relationship reaches new, unexpected heights. They truly believe they have found a slice of paradise.
But such happiness can not last indefinitely and trouble arrives in the form of seemingly friendly neighbours. Actually a magical cult, the neighbours want their house. They were willing to kill the house’s pervious owner-reputedly a witch whose power was linked to the land the cottage is built on-in order to get it and are not happy at having their plans thwarted.
They attempt plan B and almost succeed in indoctrinating the young woman but her partner sees the signs of her defection in the slow disintegration of their cottage and extricates her at the last minute leading the cult to stage a full magical onslaught.
This they fight off but at a high cost to all involved.
I’ve long enjoyed James Herbert’s particular brand of horror but I don’t feel that this book is one of his best.
The main problem I had was one of pacing. For a good two-thirds of the book very little happens. The stage is well set, the characters established and the foreshadowing heavy but very little of interest takes place.
When the action does pick up, it picks up quickly and comes across as rushed. There is no gradual increase in tension, no time to savour the scare. There are a couple of surprise twists near the end but they are all but lost in the frenzy of the story’s culmination and so don’t have the impact that they might have.
This one is strictly for the fans-Lynn

Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House

A researcher and three volunteers form a house party at a known ‘haunted’ house in the hope of documenting paranormal occurrences there. It isn’t long before the house obliges and strange things start to manifest, particularly around the most vulnerable member of the group-a young woman of questionable mental and emotional stability.
As time goes by and the paranormal activity becomes dangerously focussed on the woman the other occupants of the house insist that she depart for her own safety. But she has embraced her connection to the house and refuses to leave. When her companions try to force her to go, the house itself steps in to ensure she stays with it forever.
Acclaimed as a classic of the genre I had high hopes for this novel, perhaps too high, for the work dismally failed to impress.
I found none of the characters to be sympathetic in the least. They behave in an entirely unbelievable manner right from the start and the dialogue often straddles the boarder between just plain silly and outright ridiculous.
There is a decided lack of atmosphere-eerie or otherwise. On the few occasions when things looked to be taking a turn for the spooky the author backs off leaving the reader wondering why the characters are so scared.
Supposedly groundbreaking at the time of its publication not only has it failed to age well but I found it compares poorly to earlier works of horror. For creepy atmosphere the reader would be better off with almost anything by Henry James. Or if psychological decay is where terror is to be found then Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s tale The Yellow Wallpaper is infinitely superior.
The best I can say for this story is that it was a great concept poorly executed.-Lynn

Michael Baigent: The Jesus Papers

From the back of the book:

• What if everything we have been told about the origins of Christianity is a lie?

  What if a small group had always known the truth and had kept it hidden…until now?

  What if there is incontrovertible proof that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion?

  What were the most influential social and political events of Jesus’ day?

  Who could have aided and abetted Jesus and why?

  Where could Jesus have gone after the crucifixion?

  What is the truth behind the creation of the New Testament?

  Who is working to keep the truth buried and why?

This is another offering from the best-selling co-author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail-first published over twenty years ago and used as a source for Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code (just thought I’d get that fact in nice and early-not that the introduction labours the point or anything).
I’ve always loved a conspiracy theory and a well presented, well argued and well supported religious conspiracy theory is not to be passed by. My memories of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, distant though they are, are for the main part positive so I went into this book with expectations of finding reasonable speculation with a possible, if unsubstantiated, logical base.
And it is there in the claim that (mysteriously disappeared) documentation exists strongly suggestive of Jesus’ survival, but in nowhere near the detail I had hoped to find it.
Much of this book is devoted to chronicling the known history of the period-interesting enough in itself but by no means necessary for even a casual scholar of the period. There is also some rehashing of old arguments about whether Jesus was really a victim of the Jews or the Romans (for the sake of this argument there is no question of his existence in appropriate place and time). Nothing revolutionary here. A nod is given to the creation of the New Testament by the church and mention made of much that was left out. Again, hardly a new, or controversial, idea.
The bulk of the book focuses on Egyptian mystery cults and the possibility that Jesus was an initiate. And while it is an interesting theory, evidence is thin on the ground and discussion is predominantly about the cults, not about Jesus’ possible association with them.
Certainly I didn’t see any incontrovertible proof that Jesus survived the crucifixion, any indication of who may have aided and abetted him or where he might have spent the rest of his life.
Part way through the book the author does go off on an unexpected tangent about his travels in Baia. I am yet to see how this relates to Jesus in any way.
Reading the above you could be forgiven for thinking I didn’t particularly like this book. The truth is, it’s not that bad. I just felt that it didn’t fulfil the promises it made by way of answering the questions it posed on the jacket. For a newcomer to Christian conspiracy theory it’s a good enough place to start. But, honestly, there’s little here that hasn’t been seen before. -Lynn

Evelyn Vaughn: Seventh Key

When the wife and daughter of one of the wealthiest men alive are kidnapped, the ransom requested is not money. The abductors want the woman’s expert knowledge of ancient artefacts and are holding her daughter, along with several other children, hostage. If she complies with their demands to deliver the Black Madonna mosaic they will use its power to destroy the world, if she doesn’t her child will die.
With the help of her husband, and a small group of hereditary priestesses, she has just days to find the key to the mosaic’s power and use it to save, not only her child, but the world as we know it.
This is the final in the seven book Madonna Key series and to be perfectly honest, it was less than I had hoped for.
My disappointment isn’t with the writing which was fast paced. Nor was it with the plot, which while not entirely to my taste (I don’t like the presence of children, particularly young children in a romantic adventure setting), was action-packed and tied up the series nicely. It was with the characters and their relationships to each other.
Having read the entire series I was familiar with all the major players and their behaviour didn’t seem consistent with the personalities presented in earlier works. In addition there was obviously a negative history between at least two of the characters that was not explained and their interpersonal issues seemed to be overcome with relative ease.
If not for the fact that Alex had recently read a book by this author from another series, a book I read quite some time ago, and was able to refresh my memory about these women and their past conflict I would have been completely confused as to what was going on between them.
I’m all for recycling characters and cross referencing series, it’s always nice to find out what old friends are up to, but in this case it simply didn’t work and left me confused for much of the story.
I really liked the idea of this series. The quality of individual instalments was variable and I am a bit disappointed that the series didn’t finish with the same bang that it started with. Overall not a bad series but not one I’d be quick to recommend or reread.-Lynn

Nancy Warren: By The Book

A woman’s fantasies about her hot neighbour are doused when she discovers he’s got a ‘how-to’ manual about pleasing women. When he asks her to assist with the couples exercises she reluctantly agrees. Little does she know that he wrote the book and intends to investigate its validity using her as a test subject. The two hit it off, in every sense of the word, and end up falling in love.
This book from Harlequin’s Blaze imprint is pretty much what you’d expect-sexually detailed without becoming too explicit.
The storyline is reasonably believable, the characters have some personality and the sex is plentiful, if not particularly imaginative.
More romantica than erotica it focuses on the developing relationship between the partners and the sex scenes are threaded with emotion rather than just a vivid description of the physical act.
While this is not the best example of its genre that I’ve ever read, neither is it the worst. It’s an inoffensive love story with a mild erotic element. I’m not completely sold on the Blaze line but I would try another if the storyline appealed.-Lynn

Jim Butcher: Grave Peril

When ghosts suddenly become restless and start causing trouble it is up to the only professional wizard in the phone book to discover why and put a stop to it before anybody else gets hurt. Assisted by a Christian warrior and hindered by his godmother (a fairy of the traditional kind-untrustworthy with a cruel bent), he tracks down the source of the problem and deals with it. Though he saves the day it is not easy and results in great personal loss.
This is the third book in the Dresden Files series and I can’t decide whether I liked it or not.
The fantasy element was stronger than in the previous book, as was the Christian message, though both were done well and neither seemed misplaced. There’s plenty of the action and humour that I enjoyed so much in the previous story and the world building-this time expanding upon vampires-goes from strength to strength.
So far, so good: so what bothered me? Two things.
Firstly, the trouble upon trouble that was piled onto the hero went just that little bit too far. He frequently taps himself out, both physically and magically and simply has no more to give and then the situation intensifies and, will you look at that, he does have just that little bit more he needs to get out. Once or twice this would be okay but at almost every turn it become less and less believable-a sin even in fantasy novels.
Secondly, as I read I kept feeling as though I’d skipped a book and was behind on the story. This is definitely the third book in the series, I actually went and checked to be sure, but it seems to draw on events that I don’t remember from previous books. Admittedly it has been nearly two years since I read the first book in the series and some of the events may have occurred there and I simply don’t remember them (the first book didn’t leave me with much of an impression). But there was an irritating sense of not knowing something I should right through the story. Perhaps there were some short stories with these characters that I missed or something along those lines.
Anyway, apart from these two quibbles I continue to enjoy the series concept and the writing isn’t bad so I’ll give the next title a go. Hopefully it will be a return to the unquestionable good form of the second book.-Lynn

Greenberg and Davis (eds): If I were an Evil Overlord

From the back of the book-

The fourteen original tales in this volume run the gamut from humorous to serious, fantasy to science fiction. These are stories for anyone who has ever played the role of an Evil Overlord, or has defeated an Evil Overlord, or would like to become an Evil Overlord. After all, isn’t it more fun to be the “bad guy?”

It has taken me the better part of a year to get through this collection of short stories, which says more about their appeal to me than any words could. It’s not that I didn’t like them, for the most part I did. I found the humorous additions funny and some of the more serious efforts thought provoking but I simply didn’t find the collection particularly compelling. The book was very easy to put down and equally as easy to overlook. Though I could probably remember plot points of the individual stories no single story stands out in my memory in either a positive or a negative way. This anthology wasn’t bad as much as unremarkable. -Lynn

For Alex's review of If I Were an Evil Overlord, click here

Susan Krinard: Lord of Legends

A young bride, abandoned on her wedding night and blamed by her mother-in-law for her husband’s absence, is left at her husband’s country estate. While wandering the grounds she discovers a man imprisoned in a folly. Seemingly insane, she takes pity on him and her kindness is rewarded when the man proves to be merely suffering from amnesia rather than insanity.
Unfortunately when he finally remembers who and what he is, he also remembers why he was imprisoned in the first place. He is king of the unicorns cursed to live as a man in the mortal world until he can lure his young carer into the clutches of an evil Fane Lord.
As he works to gain her trust he finds himself falling in love with the pretty virgin and unable to condemn her to a life of virtual imprisonment.
Eventually he explains all to her and once the questions of each other’s sanity are answered they band together to thwart the Fane Lord, break his curse and live happily ever after.
It’s been a while since I read a fantasy novel and I thought this one by an author I’ve enjoyed in the past would be a good one to slip back into the genre with, however this book was not what I expected. While there is undoubtedly a fantasy element to the story, it very much takes a back seat. I would class this book as first and foremost an historical romance with full fantasy elements only making an appearance in the last two chapters.
As a romance it didn’t rate particularly highly for me. Evidence of the hero’s supposed love of the heroine was thin on the ground and the heroine came off as just a little bland. It also suffered from the, unfathomable to me, American transplanted heroine syndrome. A great deal is made of the heroine’s American heritage and a rather convoluted explanation is given as to how and why her family ended up in America. Then another unlikely set of circumstances occurs for her to end up back on the English estate where the bulk of the story takes place. The plot is saved by a fascinating cast of secondary characters.
Though the story isn’t bad I had hoped for more from this author given how much I’ve enjoyed her other works. I finish it just a little disappointed but with hopes for the sequel (starring the more interesting secondary characters) high.-Lynn

Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book

A sleepless toddler escapes from his family home and thus survives the murder of his entire family. He is tracked to a nearby cemetery by the murderer but saved from the rest of his family’s fate by its ghostly inhabitants. They agree to raise the boy to adulthood in the relative safety of the graveyard.
And so begins a series of outlandish adventures, unusual friendships and exceptional bravery.
Inevitably he must face and defeat the assassin who still wants him dead in order to go out into the world and live amongst the living.
Strongly reminiscent of the books of my childhood, both in presentation and theme, I found this book utterly charming. Though dark at times, it never degenerates into gore. The natures of the creatures in the graveyard are implied but never spoken of, a subtlety that is threaded throughout the story. Scary, funny and serious by turns this books teaches lessons about love, loss and the importance of listening to your elders in an exceptionally entertaining manner.
I would have loved this book as a child, I certainly enjoyed it as an adult.-Lynn

Amanda Quick: Affair

A young lady left near penniless after the murder of her hated stepfather must find a way to support herself and her young sister. The usual occupations of women in her position (governess, paid companion) are unsuitable-both because they are unappealing and will not allow her to keep her sister by her side. Inspired by her mother’s disastrous second marriage, she starts a business that makes discreet inquires into the character of gentlemen offering for the hand of wealthy women so that they can make an informed choice whether or not to wed. When one of her clients is murdered she is determined to discover if the culprit was one of the suitors she was investigating. Little does she realise that her new man of business is investigating her on suspicion of the same murder. The two eventually team up and using an affair as cover embark on an investigation that leads them into a shady world of alchemy and malign hypnotic suggestion.
They uncover the murderer and thwart his evil schemes, falling in love along the way.
It has been quite some time since I last read any Amanda Quick and I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoy her writing. The historical setting is vivid, the heroine is strong and intelligent, the secondary plots complex. It all adds up to an easy and satisfying read.
I continue to enjoy her portrayal of heroines that are neither young, nor particularly beautiful, by the standards of the age. And I quite liked that this heroine was the only person who thought the hero attractive and interesting-she was obviously seeing him through the eyes of love right from the start.
Contradictory as it seems this is fluff with substance.-Lynn

M.K. Hume: King Arthur-Dragon's Child

Fostered by the noble Lord Ector, Arthur, a young boy of unknown parentage, lives in the no man’s land between servant and master until one day three strangers visit and change the course of his life. On their insistence the young Arthur is trained in the arts of the warrior, the scholar and the courtier. This suggests to both Arthur and his foster family that he comes from a noble background but neither guess at the truth of his pedigree.
Grown to manhood Arthur becomes Lord Ector’s steward, marries, fathers a daughter and settles contentedly into his life. But fate has greater plans for him and the strangers return. They are shocked to find him married with a young family and have a hard time convincing him to travel with them to the High King’s court.
But this he does, believing he owes them for his education, and so sets off a train of events that lead to the war with the Saxons and eventually his crowning as High King of Britain.
This was an interesting take on the old tales focussing on the little explored area of Arthur’s childhood. Hume deftly walks the tightrope between keeping within the confines of accepted mythology and creating that mythology anew, presenting a totally believable history for the young Arthur.
The setting is a plausible mish mash of decaying Roman society and rising Celtic tribes which avoids the magical elements of more traditional tales, replacing them with common superstitions and witchcraft of the time.
The main characters are all present in their traditional roles, and while their character traits are not strictly inline with those generally accepted, they are not so different as to be unrecognisable.
Arthurian legend is a particular interest of mine, and while I am open to new interpretations of old stories, I’m always wary of what’s on offer. It doesn’t take a large leap away from cannon for a book to become a wallbanger for me. Hume’s approach was fresh enough to maintain interest while traditional enough to satisfy.
A great book. I can’t wait to read the rest of the trilogy.-Lynn

Emma Holly: The Demon's Daugher

A society very similar to Victorian England has made a pact with a race of Demons. The outcasts of demon society are free to live amongst humans in exchange for the use of their advanced technology. But the deal has a dark side. Demons can, and do, feed from human energy, though supposedly only with the consent of the humans in question. Both governments turn a blind eye to the practice but secretly acknowledge the power differential by the employment of police officers, who have been enhanced with demon technology to give them greater strength and speed required to keep rowdy demons under control.
When the bastard daughter of a renowned courtesan is discovered to be half demon-a situation thought to be impossible-both governments want her for their own nefarious purposes. It is up to the prototype enhanced police officer and her demon father to save her from a terrible fate.
This they manage to do, all while avoiding diplomatic disaster, learning to accept themselves and each other and of course, discovering the many meanings of love.
Emma Holly is best known for her erotic romances and this story does have more than its fair share of erotic scenes, many of which do not further plot or character development. Having said that, they are for the most part, well written and varied, and not used as the only attraction between the main couple, making them welcome additions to the story-something other authors have not managed to carry off with anywhere near this level success.
I quite like steampunk when it’s done well and here the world building is excellent. So subtle that much of the mores of both societies must be inferred from background information and behaviour, yet detailed enough to make that inference easy and believable. The extracts from various texts presented as quotes at the beginning of each chapter serve both to assist with world building and to add a touch of humour to the story. I enjoyed many of these asides almost as much as the main story.
Romance, erotica, fantasy and intrigue: The Demon’s Daughter works on a number of levels. I am delighted to have discovered this book and pleased that Ms Holly has set at least two other stories in this fascinating universe.-Lynn

Jenna Mills: Veiled Legacy

Two years ago a pregnant MI-6 agent went into hiding after escaping a dangerous affair. But she knows she can’t hide forever, and when she sees that a woman who could be her twin has been murdered in the same town that was her last known location she decides that attack might very well be the best form of defence.
She returns undercover to confront her ex-lover and his powerful family. In the process she discovers a remarkable secret to which she is heir. A secret people have died to protect. A secret her daughter’s father may have killed to unearth.
She weaves her way through a tangled web, learning to trust again along the way and fitting her piece into an ever growing and dangerous puzzle.
This is the sixth book in the Madonna Key series, and I thought, a return to form.
There is action aplenty, of course, and the return of characters from earlier episodes. But unlike in book five, this time the characters feel better integrated into the story. The main character shows herself to be intelligent in a street smart kind of way-she behaves much as one would expect an agent, or in this case an ex-agent to-but vulnerable when it comes to personal relationships.
The affair with a married man was an unusual twist and it took me a while to come around to him as a love interest. Not because he was married but because in previous books he has behaved in a manner that is ambiguous at best and outright ruthless more often. In fact, it is his acceptance by more established characters that is the one element of this book that I found hard to believe.
There is only one book left in this series and I am quite looking forward to the final. - Lynn

Phil Rickman: The Prayer of the Night Shepherd

A deteriorating old house, now hotel, hopes to make its name by exploiting the rumour that the idea for The Hound of the Baskervilles originated within its walls. Certainly there is a hint of sinister in the air that has the young Jane Watkins intrigued and her mother, diocese exorcist Merrily Watkins, worried. And local tales of hereditary evil aren’t easing her mind any. Neither is her unwanted and growing reputation as a faith healer helping.
Navigating through long standing family grudges, attempted suicides, documentary crews and a police murder inquiry would be hard enough on its own but throw in an impenetrable snow storm and an impromptu exorcism and this is one hell of a week.
This is the sixth Merrily Watkins mystery and the focus is more on her daughter than it is on the priest herself. While the storyline remains as intriguing and convoluted as ever and the eeriness that Rickman does so well is once again present, I am not convinced that the shift in character primacy worked well for me. While the teenaged character is well developed I don’t think she had quite enough depth to carry off the story more or less on her own. The lack of maturity on the part of the main character is something that isn’t really a problem as such; it just didn’t quite work for me.
Having said that this is still a great read, the series shows no sign of slowing down.-Lynn

Sarah Water: The Little Stranger

When a doctor is called to attend one of the servants at the local manor house he is surprised to find not the glamorous Georgian mansion of his childhood memories but a dilapidated post war residence inhabited by a family not quite coping with changing society.
As his acquaintance with the family grows he becomes privy to their dark secrets. The war-wounded son, reluctant lord of the manor, claims to be plagued by a ‘presence’ in the night. The elderly mother is tormented, mentally and physically, by the memory of her first-born’s tragic childhood death. The servants complain about ghostly goings on. Even the solid and dependable daughter thinks there might be more to the house than meets the eye.
But the doctor is a man of science and logic. He simply can’t believe all that the family are telling him. And yet, he can’t completely dismiss it either.
And here I can not be more explicit without spoilers.
Set in early post world war II Britain, on the surface this is a story of a once proud and powerful family now in decline. The story unfolds at a leisurely pace, almost a little too slowly at times. The individual ‘spooky’ elements are not particularly scary but cumulatively they give a not-quite-right feeling that is far more effective in creating creepiness in this context than more overt horror would have been. I would have liked to see more made of this aspect of the story. In many ways the decision not to expand upon the haunting elements was an opportunity missed.
The characters felt true to the time. So much so that I found myself actively disliking them on some occasions, while pitying them on others but I never really connected to any of them. I think the back story of the main characters would have added an interesting dimension to the book and made it easier to identify with them.
The twist ending was at once both disappointing and intriguing.
This book has the feel of a traditional Victorian gothic while maintaining a distinct literary flavour. While it is far from the best I have read, it is the first book in many years that has me thinking about the central themes and wanting to dissect the story in order to find out what really went on. Speculation abounds-Lynn

Joe Hill: Heart Shaped Box

An aging rock star, with a collection of the macabre, buys a supposedly haunted suit from an internet auction. His purchase arrives in a black heart-shaped box and as advertised comes complete with a ghost. But unlike the gentle spectre he thought he’d bought, the entity he now owns is pure malevolence.
He soon discovers the ghost is the revenge seeking step-father of an old girlfriend who supposedly suicided in the wake of their break up. He’d been somehow tricked into accepting the haunting by his ex’s sister (the whys and wherefores of which are never satisfactorily explained). He immediately tries to return the spirit to her and so begins the ghost’s murderous rampage against him and those closest to him.
He runs with his current girlfriend but there is no place where they can hide and their efforts to exorcise the ghost uncover his ex’s perverted family history and its murderous secrets.
I can give no more detail without spoilers so suffice to say the guy comes out alive-though only just.
This story starts off well. I can’t say I particularly liked the main characters, who felt a little too clichéd at times, but I overlooked that since the writing has an appropriately dark feel to it and there is a definite creepiness present.
But as the story progressed the piling of trouble upon trouble for the main characters became quite repetitive and tiring. They never convincingly try to save themselves and the only defences they have against the spirit are discovered accidentally. By about two thirds of the way through, the story starts reading like the script of a second rate horror movie.
It does have a satisfactory ending with all the loose ends neatly tied in believable bows but somehow that doesn’t quite make up for the sagging middle.
Overall, a reasonably spooky book but lacking scare factor and substance.-Lynn

Nick Gadd: Ghost Lines

When a disgraced investigative journalist, reduced to belting out filler stories for a local rag, is sent to cover a level crossing accident he expects nothing more than a routine tragic death story. But events conspire to drag him into a dark world of art theft, dodgy business dealings, political corruption and murder. With his health failing and his personal life in tatters the last thing he needs is to get involved but the story takes on a life of its own and no matter how hard he tries to drop it the only escape for him might very well be his death.
This is a mystery story with real depth. A number of seemingly disparate elements all weave together to form a bigger picture that is more than the sum of its parts. The main character is beautifully drawn and believably flawed. The plot is complex enough to keep the reader guessing all the way without resorting to an excess of red herrings or with held information.
There was a very slight supernatural element (that I can’t go into without spoilers) which I don’t think the story really needed. To my eye it didn’t add anything particular but neither did it detract from the story either. So while it didn’t work for me, it wasn’t a deal breaker and I’m sure the author had his reasons for adding it in.
The ending resolved all the subplots in a neat package and the local setting was a novelty I enjoyed.
For a first novel this was a fine effort and I hope to see more of Gadd in the future.-Lynn

Jeaniene Frost: Halfway to the Grave

Twenty-two years ago a vampire raped a young woman resulting in the birth of a daughter who has grown up with a lot of the vampire’s abilities and all of her mother’s hate for the race. Now she’s out to stake anyone without a pulse in the hopes that one of her victims will be the louse who fathered her.
A routine hunt goes terribly wrong and she is captured by a vampire bounty hunter. To save her life she makes a deal with him: she’ll act as bait so that he can catch an elusive master vampire and in return he’ll train her to use her abilities and help her track down her dad.
Working with him she soon begins to question her hatred of all things undead. As their relationship takes a turn for the romantic she learns to accept what she is and that not all vampires are bad.
But their relationship is doomed from the start with her family’s resistance, a master vampire out to use her to get to her new lover and a covert government department determined to recruit her and kill him.
This book is the first in a series and the one thing about it that really stuck out to me was the hero. Anybody who has ever seen the TV series Buffy would recognize the hero as a version of the vampire Spike. Not only did his physical description bring the TV character to mind, he was also English (reflected by tragic inclusions in dialogue that make me think the author has never actually spoken to an Englishman) and has a single word name. At least the heroine here is nothing like her Buffy counterpart.
But if you can see past the heroic homage and the average writing, the story itself is fast paced, multilayered and includes some hot love scenes.
For me this book is the literary equivalent to kraft macaroni cheese (you know the stuff in the blue box). You know it’s rubbish and you shouldn’t eat it but you do and you love it anyway. It’s a shameful indulgence that you don’t want to give up because sometimes it just hits the spot. That’s this book, and maybe even this series, for me. We’ll see.-Lynn

Joanna Bourne: The Spymaster's Lady

A British spymaster must enter France and bring back a brilliant, dangerous and elusive French spy who knows the details of Napoleon’s plans to invade England.
When the two of them end up in the same dungeon they form an uneasy alliance in order to escape the French secret police. Once they achieve freedom the French spy wants to go her own way but the British spymaster is determined to bring her in.
The pair is hunted through France and the French spy manages to escape both her British captor and her murderous countrymen. But her freedom is short lived. She is recaptured and finds herself in Britain where the two rivals become lovers while she plans her escape.
She soon learns that the British are not the only ones interested in what she knows and that the French have issued an order for her death.
She is torn between loyalty to France and the safe haven offered by her lover for the price of Napoleon’s plans. Making the only decision she can live with she escapes the British and presents herself to the French bargaining for her life by naming traitors to the French cause.
Her lover finds her at the French spy safe house and convinces his French counterpart to release her into his custody claiming, falsely, that she has been a British plant the entire time. Deals are done.
She is free to choose her own future. Naturally it will include her British spymaster.
This story is what happens when a great plot meets fantastic characterisation and good research. I loved it.
The heroine was intelligent, competent, talented and determined. The hero was pure alpha but believably vulnerable. There was a little bit of the victor’s version of history (the British spies didn’t use indiscriminate torture like the French spies) but not so much as to be completely unbelievable of the period.
There are a number of surprise twists that are unexpected but not unbelievable. And the ending got the heroine neatly out of a seemingly impossible moral dilemma.
This is historical romance as it should be written.-Lynn