The Not So New 2024 50 Books a Year - Thread 2

Book 111, A Winter Promise, by Rosie Goodwin.

33 Between Two Worlds - Olivier Norek

This book has been translated from French, Olivier Norek was for 18 years a former police officer in the Seine-St Denis-District of Paris and drawn on those experiences to become a top French crime writer, he was also one of the writers on my favourite French Police/Legal drama series, Spiral.

This book is hard hitting and shocking. It opens in Damascus, with Adam Sarkis a Captain in Syrian dictator Assad's military police, although covertly a member of the Free Syrian Army, fearing he is about to be exposed he knows he has to leave Syria, but not before, arranging for his wife and daughter to also be spirited away, the only option open to them is through Lebanon and then on to Libya and the perils of crossing the Mediterranean via a traffickers boat.

Meanwhile Adam travelling after their departure, reaches The Jungle refugee camp of Calais, where he has arranged to meet his family, a family never to arrive. Police Lieutenant Bastien Miller has been seconded from the Parisian Banlieues to Calais and it is here that their paths cross when Adam saves a young African boy from ongoing sexual abuse at the hands of Afghan men when he accompanies the young injured boy to a local hospital. Bastien approaches Adam in the hope he will pass on vital information from the camp.

Adam is a man of honour who takes the Sudanese child under his protection, a boy who has escaped the horrors of seeing his family murdered before his eyes and then being forced into an army to fight and kill for a cause of which he has no idea of their aims. The narrative of why people flee is told through the experiences of both Adam and the young boy and encompassed in the camps are the best and the very worst of humanity, disparate and unconnected vying for space and supremacy but mainly with an overwhelming desire to eventually reach the "Yukai" a land of milk and honey allegedly!

The book pulls no punches of life inside the encampment, overlords, traffickers, sexual groomers, paedophiles and murderers are all there and the main components that drive the story along. As is the desperation of the refugees and how they are exploited by others in the same position. Also apparent is the ongoing discontent of the people of Calais seeing their homes invaded and lose value. Meanwhile, truckers are running the gauntlet of migrants trying to covertly board their lorries as they approach Calais and the preventative measures of the police trying to stop them. There are several unforeseen twists before the book reaches it's conclusion. It was mooted as a crime book like no other and I think that's a fair assessment. I imagine Olivier Norek's previous career gave him an insight into the horrors of a parallel world. A very sobering read.

I had a bit of a poor run with

26. Girl, Missing, Dreda Say Mitchell & Ryan Carter

and

27. The Satsuma Complex, Bob Mortimer.

The first was another free Prime book. Mother of missing girl comes back to her hometown years later to see if she can shed light on her disappearance. The reviews were good, but I found it muddled and very improbable from the start, with an English state primary called Princess Isabel, and its parents protesting outside about housing estate children joining it (the horror! ). Anyway, most other readers seemed to enjoy the book, and it certainly had a lot going on.

I’m afraid I gave up on the second one. I really like Bob Mortimer’s humour and recently enjoyed his autobiography, but I couldn’t get into this. The humour just seemed too forced.

Perhaps I should have persevered, as I originally gave up on my next one,

28. A Terrible Kindness, Jo Browning Wroe

and shouldn’t have done.

I found it too upsetting when I started it last year, but picked it up again a few days ago and am glad I did. The book’s main character has just trained as an embalmer, when he heeds the call to help out at Aberfan after the disaster. The section about his time there is sensitively written, as are the later chapters about his earlier experiences as a young chorister, and his complicated relationship with his family. I found some of the writing style a little old-fashioned somehow, but it’s a very good book which I’d certainly recommend.

Sparklefizz

Book 46 The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thank you so much to the person who mentioned it further back on this thread.

The book switches back and forth from the 1600s in the Netherlands to 1950s New York.

In the 1600s Sara de Vos, a mother and painter, loses her daughter suddenly to the plague. In her terrible grief she secretly begins painting a wintry landscape of a girl watching an ice-skater from the edge of a wood.

In 1950s New York, Marty de Groot has "At the Edge of the Wood" hanging above his bed. He's very fond of the painting and when it is stolen, he's bereft.

In Brooklyn struggling art student, Ellie, accepts a commission to paint an intricate forgery of de Vos' sole surviving work, not realising that she will come to regret this for the rest of her life.

This is a book that I won't forget.... full of wonderful detail about Holland's Golden Age and very evocative and atmospheric.

I am glad you loved it as much as I did.

I am reading my first Sue Gee at the moment (Coming Home) as a result of all the recommendations here.

Book 112, A Wife`s Courage, by Kitty Neale. Set during WW2, one of my lighter reads, but I enjoyed it.

#53. Her Dying Mind by Jack Cartwright.

AliBeeee I am reading my first Sue Gee at the moment (Coming Home) as a result of all the recommendations here.

I hope you enjoy it. My personal favourite Sue Gee book is The Hours of the Night closely followed by Reading in Bed.

Would you recommend any other Dominic Smith books? (author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos)

Sparklefizz I haven’t read any others by Dominic Smith. I found that one in a charity book sale while on holiday in Hawaii, but apparently he’s Australian. I will be looking out for others.

Book 113, Circle of Death, by James Patterson and Brian Sitts. It`s unusual for James Patterson, as it`s very futuristic, set in 2088 but going back and forth between years. I wasn`t really keen, but was determined to finish it.

Book 33: Medieval Cuisine by Food Fare
Book 34:The Royal Baths Murder by J.R. Ellis

I`ve wondered about trying those J R Ellis books Nonny. What are they like?

Hellogirl. They are ok. They are a bit formulaic but the Yorkshire setting is interesting. I have read four of the books and found the plots quite complex and intriguing and the characters quite well drawn. I find some extra details about what characters had to eat and drink a bit unecessary.
I am a bit of a sucker for murder mysteries. I do like ones set in past times. (Although I really enjoy non fiction history) One series I have enjoyed are The Mad Max series by M. J. Trow about a teacher in a secondary school who is a history buff who murder seems to follow around. They are very amusing. Unfortunately some of the series are difficult to get hold of. I am waiting to see if "Maxwells Retirement" is re -released!

#54. Last Fling by Sue Gee.

Thanks Nonny, I`ll think about giving them a go. At the moment I have quite a few books here waiting to be read.

29. 1979, Val McDermid
This got off to a bit of a slow start with two journalists uncovering a story about what was for me a rather boring fraud case. The pace certainly picked up, though, when they moved on to infiltrating a would-be terrorist cell connected to Scottish nationalists. I really enjoyed the background of the 1970s, unabashed sexism, chain smoking and all - it was very evocative.

48-Seasons of Love-Anna Jacobs- Really enjoyed this; set in 1835, an innocent vicar's daughter is seduced by a travelling actor and forced to marry him when she is pregnant. The following years have more downs than ups, but Helen is a strong character and survives .
Well written so you grow to admire the leading lady. Worth a read.

49-Death of an addict-M.C.Beaton- Another Hamish Macbeth investigation-trying to catch a drug cartel. Hamish gets to go to Amsterdam and even has a romantic episode or two, which is unusual. Having read several of this series I always feel sorry for him, so it's good to see him enjoy himself.
These books are probably not for the serious readers amongst you, but I find they are an amusing interlude between the more gritty novels.

In 2018 DH and I were lucky enough to have afternoon tea with M C Beaton at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival in Stirling, as part of a Gransnet competition prize (those were the days!). She was fascinating, a real grande dame with lots of tales to tell from her interesting life. We realised straightaway that she didn’t suffer fools gladly, so we actually felt quite honoured when she described us on her website afterwards as an intelligent and well-travelled couple. Phew!

Oh, and we rubbed shoulders with Val McDermid and Ian Rankin too (literally, in a queue for an event).

#45 Coming Home by Sue Gee. This was my first Sue Gee, chosen after all the recommendations here. Perhaps I expected too much from it. I found Flo self centred and obsessive, thinking of no one but herself. I enjoyed the writing though, and the characters of Bea and Fred, so I will definitely read some of the others that have been recommended. 7/10

AliBeeee Try Sue Gee's Reading in Bed - you might prefer that.

Just finished No. 47 Dead Man's Creek by Chris Hammer and think that this book is not one of his best. In fact I have read several of his books after thoroughly enjoying Scrublands and none of them have measured up.

Dead Man's Creek has a number of characters who are inter-related, making them quite hard to remember their particular relationships (well, hard to me anyway), especially as sometimes a character might be called by his first name, or a nickname or Grandpa until I was becoming confused. But what made it worse was that the relationships changed mid-book because people who thought someone was their parent discovered they had been adopted or actually conceived by someone different.

And finally ..... the book kept changing time frame from past to present.

Plus I really don't like it when a book's storyline is complex and so the author decides to have a character explain what has happened to someone else (and who's related to whom/who's killed whom,etc) at the end. It always feels like a lazy way out.

So yes, you guessed .... I didn't rate this book. However, someone else might really like it.

Book 114, Killer Moon, by Jo Nesbo. Very good, but certain bits not for the squeamish.

Book 33
All the Wicked Girls - Chris Whitaker
Not my favourite of his books, but nevertheless, a good read.
He is so good at atmosphere, a cloud settles over the town off Grace, a physical cloud with a border between dark and light, cool and scorching heat.
In this small town, Summer Ryan goes missing, four girls were taken the year before, good girls, church girls.
The characters are all flawed, but well meaning, from Summers twin Raine, to the local police chief, Black , they are all damaged.
There are a few red herrings along the way, but he builds a whole community, and you really care what happens.

Book 115, Yesterday`s Shadows, by Rosie Goodwin. I usually look upon Rosie Goodwin`s books as a bit of light relief, but this one has it`s darker side as well, I really enjoyed it.

The River's End and Temple River series of books by Phillipa Nefri Clark, all set in and around a small town on the Great Ocean coast in Australia. Each book is about a different person but the characters from each one are brought into the stories as cameos in the others.
Very enjoyable.

The Wakes a debut novel by Dianne Yarwood. Again set in Australia, Sydney this time although it could have been anywhere.
It was described as hilarious and heartbreaking but I did not find it in the least bit hilarious. Obviously the stories revolved around death. Oddly, I'm sure I read a couple of negative reviews on Amazon but they seem to have disappeared. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or not but it was quite a short novel.