The Taxidermist's Daughter, book review. (Kate Mosse)

Atmosphere.

If you like a book with atmosphere, whether you're on the moors with Cathy and Heathcliff, crossing the causeway to Eel Marsh House, running from the ruins of Manderley, or walking the rain soaked alleyways of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona, if you like your books with atmosphere look no further than Kate Mosse's, The Taxidermist's Daughter.

A hundred years ago in the small fishing village of Fishbourne on the south coast of England, there was a terrible storm, a storm that caused the tide to surge and breach the sea defences, a storm that brought death and destruction but also a cleansing, because before that storm there was rot in Fishbourne, unholy activity, secrets that Connie Gifford has long forgotten, and a killing of a different almost animalistic kind, a kind that exposed the depravity of man . . . before the storm.

Having finished the author's Langudock series last year I felt a little deflated (I loved Labyrinth and Sepulchre but really didn't get on with book three, Citadel) so I'd left this one on the shelf collecting dust, which was one hell of a mistake.

From page one, and I'm not embellishing here, from page one I was hooked, and who wouldn't be when it starts with a rain-soaked funeral attended by strangers with a certain familiarity and the murder of a young woman?

For Connie Gifford her past is a blank, her first ten years are missing. She lost her memory when she had a fall, or was it a shock, or was she . . . But why can't she remember? Did she really just trip and fall down the stairs, hit her head like her father told her, or was there more to it than that?

A few days after the funeral a young woman's body is found in a stream by Connie's house and Connie thinks she recognises her, but does she? Could it just be that the coat is familiar? The coat she saw someone wearing at the funeral, and so begins the unravelling of the mystery.

There's the strange disappearance of her alcoholic father - no-one seems to know where he is - the arrival of a stranger, Harry Woolston, who professes to be the son of the local doctor, but is he and can he be trusted? And where is his father? Why did he leave for the specialist hospital so quickly and not come back?

There's the ever present threat of the storm as it builds momentum through the book, the inquisitive local bobby (policeman) making his enquires and casting his aspersions, the sudden occupation of Themis Cottage by an unknown single woman (this is 1912 remember) and the continuous and horrific slaughter of the town's menfolk, all as the storm makes land, the tide rises and the solitary blinking light from that cottage pulls Connie, Harry, the policeman and many more besides likes moths in the dark, and makes for one hell of a climax.

You'll have to read the book to find out what happens of course but believe me, it is very well worth your time.

Chilling, spooky, rain soaked town on the south coast of England in the midst of a murder spree in the early 1900's with beautifully written characters, great plot, plenty of blood and intrigue; what's not to like?

Four and a half stars and one of my favourites so far this year, and with winter approaching, what better time to immerse yourselves in the pages of a book like this.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books to see if I have read them yet and if I have not, why not message me with your recommendations.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, book review. (Stuart Turton)

Oh No!

Have I found my book of the year 2020 already?

Well . . . Maybe!

Confusing, fast-paced, witty, horrific intriguing and I'll-be-damned-if-I'm-putting-this-book-down-it's-only-half-past-one-in-the-morning-and-I-really-really-really-need-to-know-who-the-murderer-is, oh, shit it’s . . .!

If you like murder mystery, crime, romance, character lead drama, family sagas, a good old punch up, some serious skulduggery and subterfuge, then you are simply going to love this book.

Set in the eloquent but scratch-beneath-the-surface-and-you'll-see-the-peeling-paint-mansion that is home to the Hardcastle family and has been for generations, we find our main protagonist (Aiden Bishop) trapped in the body of a man he does not recognise, a man who feels utterly alien to him in both body and mind, and it all kicks off like a slap in the face.

Aiden Bishop will have eight hosts throughout the book, each reliving the day of Evelyn Hardcastle's death (which at first appears to be a suicide) from different perspectives and it reads like Agatha Christie does Cluedo.

Aiden Bishop is assisted by Anna, whose name is the only thing he remembers when he first wakes as the cowardly drug peddling Sebastian Bell, deep in the woods, but as the days pass he morphs into a butler, a morbidly obese Lord, a rapist and a cad, an aging solicitor, a gambler, all before becomes a policeman and finally, an artist, who help, but in some cases hinder, in his search for the truth, and it'll be all for nothing if he can't solve the murder before the end of the eighth day, for that's when the cycle will reset, his memory will be wiped and everything will start afresh, taking him back to the very beginning, where it will continue to loop, for however long it takes him to not only find out who the perpetrator of Evelyn's murder is, but the reason why they want her dead in the first place.

I love the way this book is written, how Aiden battles inside each of his hosts: disgusted by the Lord's obesity, the solicitor's contempt, the gambler's cunning, the rapist's despicable mind and more.

With each character helping to reveal more about what may or may not have happened and the delicate intricacies between them as they try to gain favour and information - some becoming incapacitated and popping up randomly through the book, others making their bid for freedom - Aiden is gradually left with fewer and fewer friends and even fewer option. So should he trust the not so trustworthy Anna? The man in the death mask? Should he trust anything he's learnt over the last eight days? And where the hell is their host, Evelyn's mother, Mrs Hardcastle, who no one's seen all day?

Simply put, this book is brilliant. It’s original, has superb characters and just keeps going until the very end. Highly recommended.

Four and a half stars then and don't be surprised if you see this book making an appearance in December when I decide on my book of the year.

The Vanishing, book review. (Tim Krabbe)

This book is a tiny thin sliver of excellence.

Told in the third person but from just two perspectives - the victim's boyfriend’s and the perpetrator’s - it is simple, short, but shocking in equal measure.

I haven't seen the film or films - apparently there are two - so I didn't have any spoilers to deal with, and whizzed through it in just a few hours; yes, it is that short.

I've read quite a few books by European authors recently, and have liked them all, Tim Krabbe's being no exception, but ultimately, this book is too short; a novella really.

The story starts with Rex and Saskia driving through France, they are going on holiday, but before they reach their destination, they decide to stop for fuel and sustenance.

Before continuing their journey, Saskia returns to the shop for drinks and vanishes.

Cut to Frenchman, Raymond Lemorne, a married high school teacher, who dives into a canal and saves a young girl from drowning, and then, after his act of valour, he wonders: is he's capable of doing something equally vicious?

He'd saved the life of a random stranger, but can he now take one, and in the cruellest possible way?

Skip forward eight years: Rex has sort of moved on, but he still thinks about Saskia everyday, and then, out of nowhere, a stranger leaves him a message.
Raymond has found him and admit that it was he, that took Saskia, but before he will tell Rex what happened, he must agree to go through what Saskia went through; he must drink from the cup he is offered, and only then will Raymond reveal all.

Will Rex take the bait? Is it a trick? What became of Saskia? 

I won't spoil it for anyone here, you'll have to read the book, it is after all, only a hundred pages or so, so no excuses, but what I will tell you, is that it's definitely worth finding out.
Could have been a five star book this one, but it's just too short, so four stars.

The Thirteenth Tale, book review. (Diane Setterfield)

I thought this book would be good before I turned the first page, it just had that certain something about it; I wasn't wrong.

Diane Setterfield's, The Thirteenth Tale, is a book about redemption, death, and a great deception.

A letter, hand written, by the world renown author, Vida Winter, summonses little known biographer, Margaret Lea, to take her deposition, her thirteenth tale. A tale of incest, madness, and feral children, of a dark family past, and the long kept secrets of her days as a child, growing up at Angelfield house, a house now lost to nature after fire tore through it.

The book is spooky in places - when Margaret takes a sneaky look around the now derelict Angelfield house, she encounters a man living in the squalid remains, and we feel her heart racing, as she attempts her escape.

As her relationship develops with Vida Winter - who is very ill - there is an atmosphere and suspense, that I liken to Kate Mosse's Languedoc series, and Carlos Ruiz Zafon's, Shadow of the Wind trilogy, and is something I actively seek out in books now.

The novel is told in the first person by both Margaret Lea and Vida Winter, and Vida isn't the only one who has something to hide!

As Margaret deposes more and more of her notes, and the interviews with Vida continue, it brings into question things in her past; things that have remained buried for years, and Diane Setterfield's clever prose, drip feed you just enough information to keep you intrigued, guessing, and reading to the end.

Great atmosphere then, well written, absorbing characters and a great twist. Four and a half well deserved stars.

The Angel's Game, book review. (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

I've been having a foreign affair (evidence to the left), and what a ride.

It goes to show just how important it is for books to be translated and shared around the world, because these three are great.

This post is about my favourite one though, Carlos Ruiz Zafon's, The Angel's Game.

Where do I start with this book? It's one of the few books I've read that doesn't fit into a given genre. It is thrilling, sexy, frightening and spooky, in equal measure. It is pacey, has excellent and very memorable characters; there is love and loss, and all wrapped up in the atmospheric backdrop of early twentieth century Barcelona.

So, where better to read a book that is set in the fair city of Barcelona, than Barcelona!

No I didn't arrange my summer holiday around my reading habits, (I'm not that sad), but I did wait for Barcelona before I started the book, and it added to the experience.

The novel follows the life the loves, the ups and downs, of the main character, David Martin, as he fights his way out of poverty, start to write under a pseudonym, fall desperately ill, only to be saved by the mysterious Senor Corelli, with a book deal to end all book deals: One hundred thousand Francs, for a single book to be written over a twelve month period. (I'm still waiting for my letter, Senor Corelli).

The deal is struck and Martin's illness wanes, but there is skulduggery abound. His previous employers are killed in an arson attack, his beloved Cristina, is betrothed to another, (his benefactor) only to be driven to despair and . . . (no spoilers here I'm afraid). His muse, a young girl by the name of Isabella, is thrust upon him one night, and I couldn't tell whether she was going to be a distraction, a love interest, or fill his world with further anguish!!

A shockingly good read then, and all the better I think for being the middle book in a three book series, that was so good as a stand-alone novel, that I didn't realise it had a prequel and a sequel, until after I'd read it.  

As near to a five star book as I've got this year and I feel certain that it will be in my top five books of 2016.

Highly recommended