Numbers 9 & 10- The Niche & Jack Squat - Charles lambert

It says "two books in one" so I'm scoring 2 for it.

Another new writer for me who I'd never heard of so this was another impulse buy. I'm doing well with these impulse buys, because I thought this book was excellent. 

Billy Lender is the victim of extreme bullying at school. When he finds a small space behind a cupboard to hide in, he starts hearing a voice which promises to help him get revenge on his bullies.

It's very short so any more than that about the plot would be moving into spoiler territory.

Billy is a brilliantly drawn character who I felt full sympathy with throughout. Alongside the bullying he's also dealing with puberty and a burgeoning sexual awakening. This is all dealt with subtly and sensitively whilst building the tension about what the voice and the space behind the cupboard actually is.

A good enough introduction to his writing that I ordered three more of his books while I was reading this story. 

A gay couple living in Italy start selling houses to ex-pats to raise some finances. The first house they sell has very strange architecture.  There are 4 entrances into separate rooms but no joining doors inside, just stairs. 

The house has a dark history- as they all do in this type of story. Soon, the influence of the house is creeping into their everyday lives.

This wasn't as successful for me as the other story, but is still extremely well written. Omar and Gordon feel real as a couple and the escalating sense of dread is masterfully done. 

There's no big monster attacks in these two stories, no gore or extreme violence. Not even any real overt scares. Just characters who feel genuine having their lives invaded and destroyed steadily by strange forces that are never fully explained. 

I guess the lack of explanation will alienate some readers, but I liked it.  It leaves the reader to figure things out rather than handing the answers to us on  a plate.

The lack of in your face horror will not be to some readers' taste either, but fans of the slow burn subtle fright will love these stories.

As I said, before I'd finished the first of these, I loved it so much I was already seeking out his back catalogue. If you like your horror subtle and psychological, this could well be the book/s for you.

Number 8- Dead Body Road- Jordan + Scallera + Dinisio

Another slice of graphic novel goodness.

This one is self-contained and not part of an ongoing series which makes a change. 

When a bank heist goes wrong, ex-cop Gabe Orson's girlfriend is murdered, setting off a chain of violence in his quest for vengeance

This is a fast paced, thrill ride with car chases and shootouts and lots of death and gore.

 The artwork by Matteo Scalera easily matches up to the harsh violence of Justin Jordan's script.  The colouring work by Moreno Dinisio deserves a mention too, adding extra depth and vividness to the already good looking artwork.

There's nothing subtle about this, but some days I'm not looking for that finely crafted bon mot and something like this hits the spot quite nicely indeed.

The supporting characters struggle to move past one dimension, but Orson and Rachel- the kick ass woman who joins him on his rampage- are well drawn (in all senses) and have some depth to them.  

The plot has some nice twists and unexpected turns too.

It's a damned fine piece of entertainment and would make a great movie. A good way to kill an hour of your day.

Number 7- Open Throat- Henry Hoke

This was an impulse buy late last year due to that intriguing cover. that and the blurb saying it was from the POV of a mountain lion living underneath the Hollywood sign.

I love that weird stuff like this is considered mainstream enough to land on the "Look At These New Books" shelves in my local Waterstones.

Basic story- a cougar/mountain lion is living in the hills above L.A (Ellay) and underneath the Hollywood sign. When a fire forces him down from the mountain, he ends up in Ellay itself. To say any more would be spoilers.

It's written in short snappy sentences. The only punctuation in the entire narrative is the capitalised "I" that the narrator uses to refer to himself. Otherwise there are no commas, no full stops, no capital letters or quotation marks.  When reporting things said by the human characters, the text is italicised.

It's a very quick and easy read. I'm not sure the lion's POV is completely convincing all the way through- in particular, a dream sequence we're told about shows knowledge it couldn't possibly have, but other than that it seems feasible.  

In the small subgenre of "narrated by animals", this is a worthy addition. Good to see something other than a dog telling the story.

Number 6- Coyotes Volume 1- Sean Lewis & Caitlin Yarsky

 

Women keep disappearing in the City of lost Girls.  You can't help thinking that's the most appropriately named town in fiction.

They're being picked off by werewolves (nicknamed coyotes) and new cop in town, Frank Coffey, finds himself forced to team up with Red, a thirteen year old girl with a katana who's life purpose it is to destroy the creatures.

The coyotes are the menfolk of the town given pelts cut from a great beast.  When they wear the pelts, they transform and hunt. Red is part of a group of magical warrior women and they are on their own hunt for the men creating the werewolf pelts.

There's some social commentary going on in this comic about misogyny and violence. 

The best thing about this is the interesting new way to create the wolves. The rest of it all seems quite generic werewolf fodder with a bit of conspiracy theory thrown in.

I'm not a huge fan of the artwork overall. At first glance I found it quite striking, but there are pages that simply don't work, where none of the characters look even remotely human (when they're supposed to) and the pages are just ugly. The first panel where the great beast appears, it looks like a giant rat rather than a huge wolf beast.

I bought volume 2 at the same time as this, so I will read it- after all as a graphic novel, it doesn't take long.  However, I wasn't taken with the storytelling or the artwork in this one. and I'm hoping things improve in Vol 2. 

The cover spreads are awesome though.

Number 5- Trespasses- Louise Kennedy

 

As I might have mentioned before, romance novels are not my bag.  It’s one genre I don’t get on with.

Therefore, this book, a romance set in the Irish troubles in the mid-70s is almost by definition a book group read.

However, despite the genre I really quite enjoyed this book.

Cushla is a young Catholic teacher in a primary school in Northern Ireland. She has an alcoholic mother.  She works part time at the pub her brother runs where the English soldiers frequently drink and sexually harass her. She has a soft spot a mile wide for Davey, a disadvantaged child in her class.  She also has an illicit lover in the form of Michael, a prominent protestant lawyer nearly twice her age.

That’s pretty much it as far as the plot goes. What makes this book special and kept me reading throughout was the depiction of simply trying to live as a Catholic in Northern Ireland during the troubles. That’s not to say it’s a pro-catholic book, it’s not.  The local priest is one of the nastiest characters in the story.

The struggles the characters face in their day-to-day living are presented in a matter-of-fact way that makes them feel worse than if the book was a melodrama.  Her escape into the arms of a man she knows deep in her heart is no good for her is almost understandable.

Her relationship with young Davey and his family provides a warmth to her character that is missing elsewhere. Cushla’s relationship with her mother is so well described, the sense of frustration over her mother’s drinking is palpable.

It’s not flawless by any stretch of the imagination. Michael doesn’t have much personality. That may be because we only see him through the infatuated eyes of Cushla, so we have to piece together any other details about him, in which case it’s a skilful piece of writing, but still frustrating.

The ending was more than a little bit predictable. I guessed what was going to happen a good 100 pages before it did.  It did confirm one of my prejudices against romance novels and the lack of alternative endings.

The other thing that makes this book as good as it is, is the writing.  It’s beautifully written.  I would read a shopping list for pleasure if it was written as prettily as this. I found my internal voice turned broad Irish for much of the book, although not the Ardal O’Hanlon broad Irish who narrates in my head when I read Patrick McCabe books.

Even with the lack of plot and the predictable nature of what was there, I found myself sucked into Cushla’s world.  It was compelling storytelling and I felt for all the characters I was meant to feel for. The cruelty of the society provided the emotional core for me, rather than the infatuation she had for Michael.

I scored it 7.5 out of 10 at the book group last night, but I think that might be a bit mean in retrospect and think it probably deserves at least an extra half a point.

 

Number 4- Wakulla Springs- Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages

This book quite controversially won the World Fantasy Award for best novella back in 2014.

Controversially because it's not a fantasy story. It's the story of a family in Florida, three generations of it, living in and around the location of Wakulla Springs. 

The eponymous springs are real.  They're where at least one Tarzan movie was filmed (the water segments at least_ and also the Creature From the Black Lagoon. And that's the link to the genre.  

Despite there being no genre elements in the story, it's a love letter to those films.  It's rooted in a love of the genre and that shines through on every page.

The story is in 4 parts, each part linking in with a different member of the family.  In part one, Mayola bags herself a job at the hotel by the springs whilst a Tarzan film is shooting. It's not long until she meets Johnny Weissmuller himself.  In part two, her 11 year old son Levi makes friends with the creature from the Black Lagoon himself - or at least the actor inside the costume. In part 3, we meet the adult Levi in LA, and in part 4, Levi's daughter returns to Wakulla Springs on a visit.

It's magnificently well written.  I could hear the southern accents singing from the page. Despite the lack of any real incident, this is never less than an enthralling read.  I could almost smell the locations and the feel of the waters as young Levi swam through them. 

It touches on the Jim Crow laws that were still in place in the timeline at the start of the book, and highlights the unfairness without ever coming across as preachy.  It also manages to touch on environmental concerns in the same subtle manner. It gets its points over without making a song and dance about it, and is all the more effective for it.

I loved this book and think it deserved to win the fantasy award. It was also nominated for best novella in the Hugos and the Nebulas. Well deserved across the board. I loved this book in case you can't tell.  It should still be available from PS publishing if you want to try it for yourself.

This edition is a signed ltd edition but the standard version is also out there. 

Number 3 - The Pale House Devil - Richard Kadrey

Returning to New Year, New writer for me- This was an impulse buy on Saturday, and I read the whole book in two sittings on Sunday (would have been one but life intervened).

Ford and Neuland are a pair of mercenaries. Except that Neuland just happens to be a Marcheur, (aka a zombie or a dodo as they’re rudely referred to in this book) and their specialty is to deal with the weird stuff. Their bag of tricks includes a lot more than guns and bullets.

After they dispatch a client rather than the mark he set them against, they understandably have to leave town when they can’t get jobs. But word has spread across the USA and they have to take whatever work they can get.  In this case, it’s to remove a demon from Pale House on behalf of a cranky old millionaire- but at least the pay is going to be good.

If they survive the encounter that is.

To write a story in genre A but in the style of genre B is quite a talent to pull off successfully.  This is a horror novel firmly in the style of the pulp noir crime novels of the 50s and it does both genres brilliantly.

There are plenty of occult detectives out there, but this book nails the hard-boiled style perfectly. IMHO even Jim Butcher’s Dresden files don’t quite do that.  The ones I’ve read have read as if they’re about a wizard who happens to be a detective rather than a detective who happens to be a wizard if you get what I mean.  There is a distinction. In this book, we definitely have your classic pair of hard cases, they just happen to be… somewhat different to usual.

The characters are great.  I loved the interplay between them. The villains are suitably villainous and the monster in the house is a highly original creation.

As I said, I devoured this book in as close to one sitting as my existence would allow. It’s fast paced, exciting, occasionally laugh out loud funny, and manages to nail two genres flawlessly and simultaneously.

I’m hugely excited to learn that Kadrey has co-authored with Cassandra Khaw.  That book has gone straight to the top of my To Buy List when I get paid next week. I will also be checking out the rest of Kadrey’s other work, and hoping that he’s going to return to these characters.  I need more of them in my life. 

This is an effortlessly entertaining and brilliant read.  Also very short.

 

Number 2- Imperatrix - SP Somtow

 

The follow up to Delicatus that I read in June last year.

This continues the story of the now ex-slave boy Sporus, and the Emperor Nero in ancient Rome.

The year is not long after 30 AD (by our reckoning- Pontius Pilate has popped up a couple of times as a character and an annoying new sect of religious fanatics and monotheists called the Chrestianoi are making nuisances of themselves when not being fed to lions or doused in pitch and set alight to illuminate the banquets at the Emperor's palace) and Nero has fixated on the young Sporus, who is an almost exact double of his wife the Empress Poppaea. She's pregnant at the moment and he needs to slake his desires somewhere. He's not picky with his women, but Sporus is his special toy.

This, the second volume of a trilogy, chronicles the fate of the pregnant empress and Sporus's attempts to navigate the politics of Rome as a freeman and to divert Nero's attention away from himself.  It's no spoiler to mention that Nero historically made Sporus his empress, so we know his plans are doomed to failure.

I thought in places that Somtow was going overboard with his depiction of Nero's madness and the extreme behaviour, and I googled some of the more extravagant stories only to find that I was wrong to doubt the author.  Poppaea's fate in the book does indeed match her reported fate in the history books. the incident with the vestal virgin is absolutely accurate.  And the framing device, with empress Sporus telling the story in flashback whilst awaiting his fate in the games matches what is known of his fate too. If anything, the depiction of Nero might not go far enough.

This is an absolutely fascinating glimpse into Roman history that makes no attempt to apply modern day sensibilities to any character's actions. It feels like an almost wholly accurate depiction of life in Roman society. 

There is a lot of (thankfully not explicit considering that Sporus has only just hit puberty in this book) sex going on in this book so, if that's a trigger for you, consider yourself warned. Nero was famously oversexed and perverse, and this book does not shy away from it.  Sporus suffers as much in this book as a free man of Rome as he did as a slave in book one. The ending of this is particularly cruel (but real) and there's only more suffering to come in volume 3 when it's released.

Somtow's prose is as good as ever and Sporus is a great narrator. I love the framing device with the discussion between him and his make up artist preparing him for his public execution. It's so cleverly done and keeps a constant quiet air of tension. There are some funny moments in the book too, i laughed out loud a few times.

This is a worthy second volume, and I suspect I will be most upset by the final part. I know poor Sporus does not have the happiest times to look forward to.

2024 - Book 1 - Muscle - Alan Trotter

 

New year- new author for me and damn! that is a weird one.

Alex Trotter is a brand new writer for me.  I found this reduced in the Waterstones sale a few weeks ago and thought it sounded interesting.

Box and _________ (that’s his name in the book- a blank space underlined) are muscle for hire, walking the streets of an unnamed city, looking for hands to break and debts to collect. When not breaking hands and other assorted body parts, they play poker with a motley crew of supporting cast, including an aspiring writer and a private detective and his crippled sidekick. At some point in the story, things turn weird, Box gets a crush on a target they’ve been given, bodies start piling up, and things get even weirder.

It’s all very literary even though it plays with all the tropes of noir fiction.  There’s the femme fatales, the hired goons, the private eyes, and plenty of killing.  There’s even suggestions of genre hopping. 

I’ll be honest and say I’m not entirely certain if I understood what the hell was going on by the end of it, but I had fun reading it, and that’s the primary objective of a fiction novel IMHO.

One of the reviews on the back says it’s written in a sinuous style, and I can’t think of a better word so I’ll go with that.  The style of writing is really what sets this novel apart.  It appears simple but slithers around the plot and you have to hunt for what’s really happening.

I don't think I've read anything quite like this recently, more for the style than the content. If i see another novel by the man, will I pick it up?  Probably.  As I said, I enjoyed this a lot even if I'm not 100% certain what actually happened. The writing is excellent, the apparently simple prose playing peekaboo with multiple layers of storytelling.

A solid start to the year by all metrics that matter to me. 

2023 Picks of the year

85 books this year. All these books were reviewed in full at the time of reading and the full reviews are a simple scroll away. 

There were a couple of minor disappointments - the Whitley Strieber and the FW Armstrong were not great. However, the worst book of the year by a considerable margin was...

This pile of junk- Cat's Cradle by William Johnstone. which is a real shame because that is an amazing cover

  

In no particular order. the best books of the year were these.  Don't ask me to pick an individual best book.  I honestly can't choose.  that's why there's 11 in my top 10.

 

The most emotional book of the year. I was sobbing for most of the second half of the book

Max Porter pulled off an amazing story here.  He really made me feel for a main character with very few redeeming qualities except for his basic humanity.

This was beautifully written, stylish, shocking, brutal and surreal in equal measures.  

By far the funniest thing I read all year.  

6 great novellas by Josh Malerman. A great mix of horror, sci fi and just plain weirdness.  

The follow up to Mordew was just as good. Literary writers trying to write fantasy is normally a recipe for disaster, but this series is phenomenal.

It's almost unbelievable that this is a debut novel. despite me having slight qualms over the final chapter of the book, this remains one of the most memorable books I've read this year.  Creepy and paranoid.

This set a whole new benchmark for me for body horror. Well written, good characters and truly brutal. Made me squirm several times 

A journey into a mans psyche as he has a breakdown of sorts. 

Just an astonishing book. I would never have thought a book written in first person from the POV of Hitler would be this funny. Audacious doesn't begin to describe it.  My jaw was on the floor for most of it. 

A modern day take on Animal farm that provides a deep evisceration of modern politics in the UK.  Hilarious and frightening in equal parts
 

Number 85- the Christmas Killer - Alex Pine

 

I started this book on Christmas day, whilst staying at my sister's house in a tiny village in deepest darkest Cumbria.

appropriately enough, this is a Christmas themed murder mystery set in a tiny village in deepest darkest Cumbria.

The basic story- a London copper, James Walker,  after being threatened by a local crime lord he sent down who has just been released early, moves to the village his wife grew up in in the depths of the Cumbrian countryside. They've barely settled in when he receives a parcel delivered to his front door with  a message threatening that 12 people are going to die, one for each of the days of Christmas, and they'll all deserve it.

He treats it like a hoax until people start dying. 

It's a promising set up for a story and the whole thing is a nice little unchallenging ripping yarn.

I call it unchallenging because I spotted the killer within a page of his first appearance. I didn't think any of the red herrings were convincing enough to dissuade me for even a second from my guess at the killer's identity. 

The writing is basic and occasionally quite repetitive.  He must have quoted the initial threatening message at least a dozen times in the opening chapters. Information is frequently restated in consecutive chapters in case the reader has forgotten what was written on the page before last.

Slight spoilers ahead. 

As a detective story goes, I have to say I wouldn't want this guy investigating any crimes I reported. He doesn't seem to do that much detective work and pretty much solves it by accident at the end by walking ion on the killer as they're tooling up for that night's kill. As a police procedural it seems unconvincing.  Surely this would be a situation that called for a curfew as soon as they realised it was a genuine spree killer in the village. But they're more concerned with trying not to panic people than actually doing something to keep them safe.

There are some dangling plot threads concerning the London villain they fled from, and I'm guessing he'll appear in one of the three sequels. From a quick google search, it seems that this village will be visited by serial killers over the festive period at least three more times. That could stretch credulity more than slightly.  A village of 700 people with 4 separate Christmas themed killers in 4 years? 

It's all lightweight enough that I was happy to suspend the disbelief this time around and I quite enjoyed it, even though it's far from the best thing I've read this year. I might even splash out on book two to see if his detective skills have improved. 

If you just want an easy read and a fun story and you don't want any kind of challenge, there's no reason not to read this.  You'll have fun with it. Not every book needs to be a stone cold classic.  this is the literary equivalent of a big mac compared to an expensive steak at a quality restaurant. It does the job well enough even though it's not the greatest thing you've ever had.