Number 10- Wretch- Eric LaRocca

 

I was sent a review copy of this in exchange for a fair review.

Last year I read Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and thought it was one of the most exciting new talents I'd read in years. This is my second of LaRocca's books and I was intrigued as to whether it would be to the same standards.  particularly since this is a full length novel and Things etc is a novella and some shorts.

I'm glad to report that this book has not lowered my opinions in the slightest.

Simeon Link is recently widowed from his husband and is not coping well at all. To say that he is wallowing in self pity would be to understate the situation. This is a descent into misery starting from an already miserable beginning. I use the word miserable as a compliment here...

He is invited to join a group who call themselves the wretches who believe they can see their deceased loved ones in photographs of random objects. He also becomes entwined with the mysterious character of Porcelain Khaw.

This is not as fast or as easy a read as Things etc. This is a downbeat, slow burn of a novel.  There is a lot of self reflection from Simeon (who is our first person narrator) and a lot of contemplation of grief and the meaning of life and relationships. There are some images every bit as disturbing as the sequences in Things etc. and the ending pretty much blew me away. 

It's a very well written literary horror with a serious side order of introspection.  Simeon is a selfish prick to be honest, but that doesn't make him any less fascinating. Even he doesn't deserve the depression which has taken over his life and especially not the fate that eventually befalls him.

There is a mix of media used in the storytelling. Text message exchanges, email conversations, extracts from websites, as well as the first person narration from Simeon. The side characters are not particularly well drawn, but that is as much down to the almost narcissistic viewpoint telling the story, a distinct symptom of his self absorption.  

It's not a perfect novel. The navel gazing was sometimes a little repetitive. I could easily understand people who like fast paced novels putting this down fairly early on, but that would be their loss.

I'm excited to get on to another of his books in the near future. The ending of this really messed with my head. There are very few authors who have that effect on me.

Number 9- Number 9 Dream- David Mitchell

 

It was complete coincidence that this was the 9th book I read this year, but I do think I might finally pick up Catch 22 in 13 more books time. It seems like a fun little mini theme to run through the year.

Eiji is a 19 year old man looking for his father in Tokyo. His problem is that he has no idea who his father is. This leads him into a series of weird and wonderful encounters with a whole variety of Tokyo life, including getting involved in what may be a horrifically violent feud between rival Yakuza gangs, or possibly his overactive imagination.

Rarely has the "is it real or not" card been played quite this skillfully. 

The opening chapter is very weird indeed and put a few people in the book group I read this for to give up very early on.  However, the style does settle down rapidly and Eiji becomes a sympathetic and relatable narrator.

Each chapter is written in a different style to all the others. The linking theme in the way they're written is that they jump around a lot. They mostly start halfway through or at the end of the narrative for that chapter and intercut the end or middle with the continuing narrative. One chapter (which was also contentious in the book group) has extremely surreal extracts from a book Eiji is reading intercut with his own story with no explanation as to what's happening until late in the chapter.  

This is a book where you have to place your trust in the author to explain what the bleeding hell is happening now on a regular basis.

Mitchell's prose is beautiful throughout.  I found it by turns deeply sad and laugh out loud funny. This is a real rollercoaster of a book, almost impossible to second guess. I'm not sure if it's my favourite of his books so far, but it's definitely in the top 3.

Number 8 - Monumental- Adam Nevill

 

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2026 and it didn't disappoint.  I'm using the picture from the back cover here.  Everyone is posting the feathered creature pictured on the front, but I think this lovely looking guy needs some love too.

A group of kayakers in Devon make the mistake of tackling a trip up a private valley off the coast, they find themselves facing the worst day of their lives. The valley is home to creatures rising from the depths of time. Creatures that time wanted to forget. Creatures that should never have seen the daylight again.

Over the next twelve hours the six of them will face dangers that they could never have dreamed about.

As ever, Adam's prose is rich and atmospheric. The monsters he describes are truly the stuff of nightmare. This may well be his most brutal book to date. 

What sets this apart from so many similar stories is that none of the characters are even remotely capable of dealing with the situation they find themselves in. These are everymen.  They don't come ready equipped with the fighting prowess of a superhero. Whether any of them can or will survive the challenges about to befall them is not even certain with only two pages to go till the end. And if they do survive, to borrow an old move tagline, what will be left of them?

The characters are not the most likeable bunch, but they don't deserve what's happening. Likeability in a character is overrated imho.  I much prefer interesting people, and that's what Adam gives us here. They all have their flaws. This is a dysfunctional group of almost friends. The friction between them is well portrayed and mostly adds to the tension building around them. 

Apart from one "Why are you trying to do this now?" incident involving personal issues between two of the characters (which was dealt with fairly rapidly to be fair), this is an almost flawless horror novel. From the moment the scream rings out across the valley in the first chapter, the horrors barely let up. 

I think Adam Nevill is one of the few writers who has never written a bad book.  And this is one of his strongest. I especially like how he has managed to tie in several of his other folk horror novels with this book, creating a shared universe that I am so so glad I don't have to live in.

As ever, I recommend this to anyone who likes a densely atmospheric slice of pure horror.

Number 7- The Rise- Alan Baxter

 

This is my second Baxter review in a couple of weeks, but this one has slightly more point to it since there are more than 24 copies in the wild.  This is due for a mainstream release on Friday 13th of this month. 

There are several scary towns out there in fiction, places where the top horror writers will set their tales. King has Derry and Castle Rock. Charlie Grant had Oxrun Station, Josh Malerman has Goblin. And Alan Baxter has Gulpepper, aka the Gulp as it has a habit of swallowing people.

This is the third set of novellas set in the town and there's no noticeable dip in quality yet. The previous volumes are The Gulp and The Fall. After the Fall, we can only have the Rise.

Now that a real continuity seems to be building, this one isn't quite as self contained as the other two volumes, but not so much that a brand new reader would struggle. (Although they would have a lot of spoilers for the previous books).

Strange Leaves- the first story- this follows a pair of dope dealers who've just accidentally killed their supplier and the repercussions. The title takes on multiple meanings in the course of the story which is always good. A solid start to the collection.

Sunlight on Clear Water- this is my favourite story in the collection and introduces possibly the most nightmarish creature so far in the Gulp mythos. When a young man, new to the Gulp, goes for a bit of free swimming with his beautiful new girlfriend, he finds himself in the middle of a web of deceit. It transpires that her family have been in the Gulp a very long time and are far from the normal people he thinks.

This is easily the scariest entry of the book.

Vitulinum- This is another solid entry.  A teenage boy from an abusive family finds himself faced with an impossible choice at the hands of a longstanding villainous presence around the Gulp.

The Gulpepper Institute for Health and Wellbeing- This is my next favourite entry.  When global megastar Eevie takes a break at the new Institute in the town to relieve her stresses, she finds the brochure might have missed a few details. This is Gulpepper after all. Her stresses are about to do the complete opposite of fade. The tension that builds in this one is great. The masterful slow reveal of what's going on leads to a violent conclusion. 

The Rise- this is what all the linking factors in the last 4 have been building to. Things are about to hit cosmic proportions and Baxter handles this as well as he did the more personal pains in the other stories.

This is easily on a par with the previous two volumes and demonstrates yet again why Baxter is a name to watch on the scene.

He has a very easy style which is capable of portraying deeply intimate horrors or horror on a cosmic scale.  Poor Gulpepper- that place just can't seem to catch a break.  

Number 6- Glorious Exploits- Ferdia Lennon

 

This is the debut novel by half Libyan, half Irish writer Ferdia Lennon. It tells the story of two poor Greek unemployed potters in ancient Syracuse who decide to put on a performance of Medea and the new play by Euripedes  using the Athenian prisoners of war held in the local quarries.

The two potters Lampo and Gelon are a brilliant double act at the centre of this alternately rollicking, heartwarming, and tragic story of art versus reality.

The book is narrated by Lampo in a very modern style of speech. This did cause some consternation at the book group I read this for, but I loved it.  It simultaneously makes the point that people now are the same as people then, and solves the issue of learning ancient Greek to have to read the book.

Lampo is a common as muck potter, short on intelligence and permanently down on his luck. This is brilliantly portrayed through his narration. Even through the frequent coarseness of language, there are some great turns of phrase and he is frequently laugh out loud funny.

The side characters are maybe not all fleshed out as well as they could be, but that's the nature of  a first person narrative. We get to know the others as much as they wander into the narrator's path. We know who is important to Lampo, whether that's for material or emotional reasons.  

I loved the build up towards the big production, the progress and the pitfalls, and then the production itself is gloriously rendered.

Certain events were somewhat inevitable, in a book about Greek Tragedies, but still managed to take me by surprise. The epilogue is a lovely touch, reminding us that good did come out of the mad venture.

This is a definite contender for best book of the year. It's a glorious read.

Number 5- Let the Great World Spin- Colum McCann

 

In 1974- during the building of the World Trade Centre in New York City, a man managed to string a tightrope between the two towers, several hundred feet in the air.  He then spent a good amount of time walking between the towers and performing tricks. 

This stunt is the central event in this novel that ties together the lives of a selection of characters who witness or are affected by it.

We have an Irish monk called Corrigan who lives in the Bronx and tries to help the street walkers.  We have a selection of the girls he helps. Then there's a judge and his wife, still mourning their son who died overseas, an artist, and a photographer.

We follow all their lives, in some cases, just on the day of the sky walk, others we get to know from birth onwards.

I loved this book.  The characters are all beautifully drawn, and the narrative voice shifts in each chapter depending on whose story we're following.  Even the punctuation changes, some characters narrate their section with traditional quotes for speech marks, and other characters have speech on separate lines, indicated with a hyphen.

The prose is uniformly good throughout, regardless of which character is speaking. The insights into the lives of all segments of New York society all seem entirely convincing.

This is an easy first contender for book of the year. It's my first Colum McCann and probably won't be my last.

Number 4 - Appeasement of the Fiends- Alan Baxter

 

This review might be one of the most pointless I've posted.  There are only 24 physical copies of this book in existence.  Mine is number 6. 

This is a selection of short stories by Alan Baxter- an author that my regular readers will know I hold in high regard.

These stories are every bit as good as anything else I've read by him.

The best story for me is Click- a first person narrative from a competitive game of Russian Roulette, gradually whittling down from 6 competitors to one. The tension he creates in this story is off the scales.

Changes is a story that pulls out a whole different set of feelings. Told in short, almost impersonal, paragraphs each leaping forward in time, a boy undergoing an unusual change during his formative years, is subjected to cruelty and bullying. It's a desperately sad tale.  In a few short pages, this generated more genuine emotion than a lot of novels I could point you at.

Two Crows was a fun fantasy/crime crossover. Alan manages this genre crossover exceptionally well every time he uses it. 

Old High Hills, the closing story, is a nightmarish tale of two people stuck on a mountainside when an unexpected blizzard rolls in, and then stays.  Something is out there, and it's hungry. This is probably the most scary story in the book for me.

Those were the highlight although all the stories are good.  There's not a dud in this collection. I'd say to go out and buy it and see for yourself, but that could be difficult.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

Number 3- The Blue Hour- Paula Hawkins

 

My first full length novel of the year. I finished it last week, hopefully I will be more prompt for the rest of the year. I'd love to say it's an early contender for book of the year but it isn't. 

It's a solid little thriller with not really that much thrilling.

Grace is the ex-best friend of Vanessa, a successful artist, and executor of her will. She lives in Vanessa's old house on an island just off the coast, accessible only by a causeway which is covered by the tide for 12 hours a day.

She's locked in a protracted legal argument with the family who inherited all of Vanessa's art. They believe she still has works on the island that should have been handed over.

When someone notices that one of the found item sculptures that has been handed over contains a human rib, Grace's solitude on the island is about to be disturbed.

The secrets of the island are drip-fed through the narrative, along with some (quite a lot of) unrelated bits of drama with the family who own the artworks in question.

It's impossible to say what my biggest complaint about this book is without giving a huge spoiler, so apologies in advance. I will leave that to the very end. 

The story takes a long while to get going.  I can't say I was ever bored reading it, but I was never particularly enthralled either.  Becker and Grace are a good pair of central characters. Hawkins' prose is nothing if not fluid and easily readable.  The side plots with the Lennox family never really seem to add up to much and could be entirely excised from the narrative.

There was one of the plot twists that did take me completely by surprise, although, in retrospect all the clues were there, so kudos to Hawkins for that.

It was a solid no nonsense read. I probably will read another of her books, and hope that the story is a bit more engrossing.

Spoiler

Yet another example of the "she's fat and ugly, therefore she's the killer" trope.

2026- books 1&2 - Monstress Vols 9 & 10- Liu & Tadeka

 

I probably should have reread volume 8 at least before I read these two.

The plot is getting very convoluted now but a time jump of a year since they were last in the "real" world has reset various parts of the storyline.  War has been raging and fragile alliances sought. 

All parties seem to be seeking Maika and her friends.  Maika's inner demon (old God) is now hosted by her father which has had a disastrous impact on his opposition in the war. 

However, a breakout from the prison world that housed many more of the old Gods is set to cause even more problems.

When I read the end of volume 9, I was so glad I'd also been gifted volume 10 at Christmas as I had to move straight onto it. Unfortunately, volume 10 ends on almost as much of a cliffhanger and I have no idea when volume 11 is due.

I hate to say it but I kind of hope that the end is in sight now and Liu has an endgame planned.  These are gorgeously illustrated and well plotted, but there seems an element of same old same old creeping in. 

The plotting is becoming labyrinthine and I seriously need to reread the full series to remind myself who is on whose side. Complexity of plot seems to be turning into a downside with months between each entry.

Intelligent magical cats are always a bonus though. It would be a real shame to see the end of this, but it can't go on forever.

The Annual Marc awards!

 So 2025 has been a mixed year.  I managed 79 books- even managed to finish my NYE read on NYE so as to not complicate the count from year to year. There were  a couple of disappointments and two DNFs.

In the order that I read them, my top reads of 2025 were

1- The Constant rabbit - Jasper Fforde

This is a few years old, but my first time reading it. In a world where rabbits have gained sentience and grown to human size, is there any way that humans and Lupus can coexist?

This was a brilliantly funny way to discuss some hard hitting real life themes of xenophobia and acceptance.

2- A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World- CA Fletcher

Again, this book has been around for a few years, but it was my first time.

In a post apocalypse world where basically humanity faces extinction due to 98% infertility rates in men and women, mankind has separated into far distant communes. When the narrator's dog is stolen by a visitor to their island, they set out in pursuit to get their dog back, leading to a trek across a desolate future British Isles.

The imagination on display here is formidable and the writing is fantastic.  I felt every emotion the lead character felt. One of my favourite post apocs.

3- Thornhedge- T. Kingfisher

The story of Sleeping Beauty from the POV of the fairy with the sleeping princess as the villain in a humane cage.

This was just beautifully written and told. Toadling is such a great character I didn't want the book to end.

4-Miss Benson's beetle - Rachel Joyce

This probably looks like an odd choice in between all the post apocalyptic mayhem and high fantasy concepts but it charmed me completely.  I loved the characters and was totally caught up in their quest to find the beetle, and themselves. Gorgeous gorgeous book.

5- A song for Quiet- Cassandra Khaw

A mindblowing story about a musician who can change worlds with his music, and the eldritch detective chasing him to stop it happening. All told in Khaw's incomparable prose.

6- Grace - AM Shine

The latest book by the author of The Watchers. This totally caught me from left field with some of the plot turns. And they were all earned.  the clues had been there from the start.  Add to that, Shine's deeply atmospheric prose and this was a definite highlight.

7- King Sorrow - Joe Hill

King's son proves once again that he's just as good as his daddy.  This epic story feels like its a half of its 900 page bulk.  The eponymous dragon is probably the best villain of the year. There were plot turns in this that made my jaw hit the floor.  Again, they were all earned.

8- Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke- Eric LaRocca

My first LaRocca book but certainly not my last.  This drove the chill bone deep in the title story. Probably the most psychologically twisted thing I've read in years.

It's definitely my favourite title of the year too.

9- Boys in The Valley- Phillip Fracassi

Another new writer to me. and another where I've gone out to find everything I can that he's written. Everything about this book is perfect.  The claustrophobia of the setting, the depiction of the characters, the steady increase of threat until the final 200 page outburst of violence where it's unclear who, if anyone might survive the night.

10- Watching Evil Dead- Josh Malerman

A brilliant dissection of the horror genre and the nature of creativity through the lens of one night introducing his now wife to the classic film series that is The Evil Dead. I wasn't holding out much hope before I started this, but, as you can tell from its placement here, it well and truly won me over.

10- Good Boy- Neil McRobert

The eagle eyed amongst my readers might spot something strange here, but this was too good to leave off the list.

Honourable mentions go to Grady Hendrix's Final Girl Support Group, Guy Kay's Written on the Dark, Sonny Morraine's Your Shadow Half Remains, and Charles Lambert's Little Monsters.  It was close but I already had 11 in my top 10.

My DNFs were intermezzo by Sally Rooney- where I felt huge sections written by Yoda they were, I really just don't get on with her writing- and Satantango by Lazlo longnameIcantbebotheredwith- This dragged for me.  I'm not into sentencs that go on for two pages.  It felt as dry as one of Ghandhi's flip flops to me.

The worst books that I actually finished were When the Moon Hatched by Sara A Parker- dreadful faery porn with occasional dragons- A Cruel Fate by Lindsey Davies- this was a real shame because I liked the last of her books I read but luckily this was very short- and Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Arnfield- there's a good idea or 6 floating around in that book, but I thought the execution was just dull as a vey dull thing.

Number 79- Good Boy- Neil McRobert

 

This isn't connected to the recent film of the same name (which is a good thing tbh) but is one more in the series of short books set in the North West of England.

A week after the disappearance of a young boy in a playing field near her house, Margie Jones witnesses a man digging in the spot where the boy was last seen. She goes out to confront him and finds that he is burying his pet dog.

When she takes him back to her house to rest and warm up, he tells her an incredible story of the field, the dog, and the thing that lives in the field.

I raced through this on New Year's Eve and it's actually a contender for best book of the year.

This book hit nearly every emotional spot with pinpoint aim. It features a genuinely scary monster, and also a moving story of a boy and his dog, laced with gentle humour and heartbreak.

I really can't praise this book too highly. Neil McRobert is a new name to me, but I will be seeking out more of his work for absolute certain. He has the deft easy touch with his writing that drags you in and makes you care for his characters, which makes it all the more upsetting when bad things happen to them.

There are 6 books so far in this series of novellas.  The three I've read have been very good, and this one excellent. The people at Wild Hunt Books really know what they're doing.

Number 78- A Christmas Ghost Story- Kim Newman

 

I read this during Twixtmas- those couple of "what the heck" days that happen between Christmas and new Year when it's beginning to feel notably less like Christmas.

The set up is simple initially.  Angie and Rust (don't call him Russel- he doesn't like it) live in an isolated house set just outside one of the most haunted villages in England. It's December and they've started with their unusual Christmas traditions. On the first of the month, an anonymous card arrives addressed to Rust. It contains a strange and vaguely threatening message.

Every day another card arrives, each with a threatening message. All this is mixed in with Angie's clear memories of a scary show she watched as a child, but which did not exist.

As the book moves on, things get weirder and weirder and the final section of this book might be one of the strangest things I've read this year.

Rust was a great protagonist, relatable and capable of genuinely funny humour that didn't detract from the escalating threat.

The prose is polished and easily readable.  I had good fun with this.  I've read a few of Kim Newman's books in the distant past and he's always a solid reliable read.  Check out his work as Harry Adam Knight as well, especially The Fungus. 

Number 77- The Off Season- Jodie Robins

 

I'm playing catch up on the books I read over Christmas.  This short novella was my Christmas/Boxing day read. It's one of a series of horror novellas set in the North of England and published by Wild Hunt Books.  I read one earlier last year - This House Isn't haunted But We Are- and it was very good indeed.

Tommy's marriage has broken down and he's returned to his native Blackpool somewhat against his will for a friend's funeral and to watch his recently widowed father.  It's fair to say his life is not going well.  It's the off season and the whole place is depressing. The story starts with him in a small café with his dad and a small group of friends.

A group of performers show up outside despite the dismal weather and set up their stalls. The café empties steadily as all those inside are almost bewitched by their presence.  Tommy and his Dad find themselves inside the throng of revellers. Old truths come to the surface and an old wish of his Dad's is discovered.

This is a well written book that builds the atmosphere steadily.  The last half definitely worked better for me than the first half. Once the story started moving I found this was a weird and wonderful piece of writing.  I did think it took a good chunk of the book to get going though.

It's well worth reading for those who like character and family studies dealing with grief and loss and eventual hope woven in with their wyrd tales. Fortunately, I am one of those people.

Number 76- The Society of Blood- Mark Morris

 

I left it far too long to pick up book two in this trilogy, because I could not remember what was going on or who most of the characters were at the start of this one.

Luckily there are some good recaps built in so I caught up fairly rapidly. It would have been nice to have a "previously" chapter at the start of the book though.

At the end of the previous book, Alex Locke was trapped in Victorian London without the magical Obsidian Heart and therefore no way to get home to the 21st century. He has a pair of capable assistants set there with him by a future version of himself and is struggling to care for a girl he rescued from a mad doctor at the end of the first book.

Can he retrieve the heart and return to modern Britain to rescue his captured daughter?

Morris manages to create a fantastic atmosphere through his writing.  the description of the London Smogs was so detailed I cold almost taste it.  

Alex is a good narrator, never making any horror novel choices, opting for the sensible choices uless circumstances dictated otherwise.

I thought there was a little bit of an issue with pacing.  There is an awful lot of contemplation on the nature of paradoxes and what might happen to his future if he changes the past etc. There were times when I wanted him to make a decision without a half a page of what-ifs. That's a minor point though and in general the book kept me wanting to know the answers. 

The final scene of the book definitely left me wanting to read the next book sooner rather than later. He didn't fall foul of the trap of just stopping randomly either.  Several book 2s of trilogies don't bother to close any storylines and just stop. The ending of this was damned good indeed and a fitting cap to the rest of the book.

Highly recommended, but you will definitely need to read the first book first.  This is not a jump in at any point story.

Number 75- The Final Girl Support Group- Grady Hendrix

 

Now this is an absolute blast from start to finish.

Lynette Turkington is a survivor. She's a Final Girl. She survived a serial killer - twice- in her youth. Now, a couple of decades later, her life is ruled by terror that it could happen again. 

Along with 5 other Final Girls, she's part of a support group of similar survivors. When the original Final Girl dies in violent circumstances, and all their lives are targeted, it seems like Lynette's fears are being realised.

This is a fantastic piece of writing.  Hendrix manages to simultaneously satirize the whole slasher genre whilst giving us a genuinely exciting and twisty turny slasher of his own.

There are a lot of Easter eggs for fans of the slasher genre.  All of the women in the support group are named after the actresses who played the Final Girls in the specific franchises that are referenced. 

It would be brilliant to see a movie of this book with the various actresses playing "themselves" so to speak.

There are red herrings and distractions galore. I'm normally good at spotting reveals well in advance but Grady got me with this one on a few occasions. 

I blazed through this book in two days although a two hour coach trip to Leeds followed by the return leg later in the day did give me a clear 4 hours uninterrupted reading time over the weekend. This is an insanely easy read, and even without knowing the films he's mocking/homageing, it will still be an exciting roller coaster of an adventure.

An easy contender for my book of the year.

Number 74- Before Your memory fades- Toshikazu Kawaguchi

 

Book three in this series gives us four more stories set in a café where you can travel in time to see your loved ones with very strict limits.

They can't leave the chair they're sat in, so they can only meet people who have visited the café. Nothing they do will change their present day. And they must leave before their coffee gets cold.

This time around, they're in a different café with the same type of ghost and time travel. I'm not really sure why they switched the location to Tokyo because the central cast are the same, watching over the premises for the owner while she's away, and every story beat is pretty much exactly as per the eight stories we've seen in the previous volumes. 

In the last volume, we discovered that travel is possible in both directions and the one thing that happens differently in this one is that, in at least one of the stories, there is a visitor from the past as well as the new supporting cast travelling backwards.

All the morals to the stories and life lessons learned seem to be much of a muchness.

It's all very nice and genteel and the translation is pleasant on the brain. Just, three volumes in, it's feeling a little bit samey. That won't stop me reading volume 4 when I'm in the mood for something totally unchallenging next year.

Number 71- Wolf- Mo Hayder

 

This is sadly the last of the Jack Caffery novels because of the death of Mo Hayder. And I know I've managed to do these write ups slightly out of order.

A family is taken hostage in their isolated home on the outskirts of a small village. One of the family manages to attach a cry for help on the collar of their pet dog and release it, but the message is compromised and the address details are lost.

Jack Caffery, through entirely unconvincing means, is given the dog and tasked with finding the source of the message. Can he track down the ownership of the dog and rescue the family before anyone dies? Will he be able to rid himself of his own personal demons?  This is a Mo Hayder novel so the answer to that last one is "probably not" even before the book starts.

Thankfully Flea Marley doesn't feature at all in this book past a brief mention early on. 

This is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some truly disturbing sequences. She manages to build serious levels of tension. However, Caffery takes the crown from Flea Marley as the least convincing cop in crime fiction in this book. The supernatural overtones with the Walking Man character spoil the narrative for me. The book is otherwise based in a very gritty reality and they really don't fit in.

Some of Mo Hayder's books have relied very heavily on coincidence and character stupidity for the plots to work.  I thought for a good third of this that she was doing it again, but she pulled off a quite shocking reveal that suddenly upped the stakes quite intensely.

This isn't up there with Birdman and The Treatment for me, but it is nonetheless a brutal and effective thriller even with the flaws.  Now I've finished this book, I can finally get around to watching the TV adaptation.

Numbers 72/73- Face in the Crowd/The Longest December- King & O'Nan/Chizmar

 

A bit of a cheat with 2 books in one but I need to get the numbers up before the end of the year.

Whilst watching the baseball, Dean Evers spots the face of an old acquaintance in the crowd.  The problem is, he knows that they have been dead for decades. This keeps happening and things get stranger.

This is a fairly slight story with a predictable ending but it's a fun and very quick read.  Dean is a nice old codger to spend an hour or so with. As per usual with King, he feels like an old friend by the end of the story.

It's never particularly scary, but it's a nice weird tale.

Bob and Katy Howard are your typical all American couple. They trundle through life with no real worries.  They're best friends with their next door neighbour.  He's even godson to their son. When the neighbour's face is all over the news as a serial killer, their lives change overnight.

This is a cracking little story that manages to ratchet up the tension effortlessly.  Told in first person from Bob's POV, we're treated to a very real feeling of what this type of news would feel like.

The guilt by association that the other neighbours throw at the family is almost palpable.  Chizmar keeps his cards close to his chest initially about whether James actually committed the crimes he's accused of, adding a whole next level of paranoia into the escalating tension.

This was my favourite of the two stories here by quite a distance. The fact that it's so grounded nd feels so plausible gives it the edge. It's a disturbing story expanded from a previously published novella (that I've never read before) called The Long December.

This double volume was a really good buy and well worth seeking out.

Number 70- A Man Called Ove- Fredrik Backman

 

Whoops, I'm playing catch up again

This is a knockabout comedy about a grumpy old man trying to die but the universe keeps stopping him.

Ove is an elderly curmudgeon who's decided that he's had enough. Un/fortunately for him, all his efforts are thwarted by fate, or his neighbours needing help and he is slowly but surely dragged back into a life worth living.

The opening chapters are a masterclass in the steady reveal of information. There are some lovely misdirections and reveals that grabbed my interest very effectively.

The translation on this is a little ropey in places but nothing unforgivable. Ove is an engaging character and the use of chapter titles starting "A Man Called Ove" or "A man who was Ove" to denote flashback chapters is a lovely touch.

The supporting cast is not as well drawn and does include a couple of broad stereotypes but Ove is our focus and by the end of the book, I realised I was quite emotionally attached to the old sod. 

I didn't find it laugh out loud funny very often but I did have a big smile on my face for most of it- and was suitably moved by the emotional bits.

This is the first book I've read by Backman and I would certainly not be averse to reading any of his other works.

Number 69- A Cruel Fate- Lindsey Davis

 

You can see from the front cover why I picked this up.  I was looking for a quick read, and i have read one of Davis's Didio Falco book and really enjoyed it, so this looked like a great choice.

However- I'm going there sorry- its A Cruel Fate indeed if someone makes you read this book.

I am grateful for having read it because I now understand what people mean when they make the "show don't tell" criticism.

It tells the story of a captured bookseller in the English Civil War and his time interred in a dungeon in Oxford Castle.  This is mixed in with the story of a woman looking for her brother, a captured soldier, also held in the Castle.

I know Lindsey Davis CAN write, and she can do it well. I have no idea why she doesn't here. This is told in the simplest terms possible.  There isn't a single simile or metaphor in the entire book. There's no imagery, there's no style to the writing.  

It's as if the writers of  Peter and Jane (or Janet and John depending on which country you read your preschool books) got together to tell a story about a torturer in the English Civil War being mean to his prisoners.  

The present tense narration makes it feel worse. I never realised how much prose is improved by comparisons and slightly more complex language than the Tiger Who Came to Tea. In fact The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a much better book than this since the writing has a rhythm to it which this book doesn't.

The editing on this book s sorely lacking too.  How else could writing as poor as this sneak through?

Given power, Provost Marshal Smith uses it with no restraint. Why should he? He behaves like this because nobody stops him.

For that "Why should he? to make the point the author wants to make, the previous sentence should say "Given power, Provost Marshal Smith makes no effort to show restraint." or words to that effect. 

Instead of showing us how letters were sneaked out of the prison, she tells us that "Somehow letters were delivered".  It strikes me that there might have been an interesting chapter regarding getting hold of writing materials and smuggling the letter etc. but instead we get one line to TELL us it happened. The whole book is like this.

I know that this book was written for a cheap giveaway, but she could have put some effort into it. If I'd never read anything else by this writer, I would assume she just couldn't write.  

This will be dropped straight back in the charity box I picked it up from a few weeks back.