50 Books a Year - The 2025 Challenge

51 The Names Florence Knapp

Such a clever debut novel by this writer, it had shades of Life After Life, in a "what if " kind of way which was the main theme of Kate Atkinson's outstanding novel. Similarities, the central character goes down separate routes in her life, 3 to be precise and by extension simultaneously 3 different options to how her future pans out hinging on the choices of names for her newborn son.

We first meet Cora in 1987, trapped in an abusive marriage with an absolute horror of a husband. The opening setting is the great storm of that year, Cora is off to register her newborn son accompanied by her 9 year old daughter Maia. Her husband Gordon, without any consensus has decided that their son will also be called Gordon a family name passed down his male line. Her reluctant thoughts make her veer away from bestowing on her baby, a name that has all the associations of male dominance. Cora's preference is for Julian which from her research means "sky father" and as she registers him as that she is rather hoping that Gordon will take it as a deference to his fatherly status. Meanwhile daughter Maia , has her own vision of her brother, she sees him as Bear, encompassing both soft and cuddly qualities but also brave and strong. Needless to say Cora lights Gordon's touch paper for further abuse when she disregards his directive in the second and third options of names that don't accord with him.

The story unfolds in three separate narratives as it spans the next 35 years. Cora and Gordon's son grows up as 3 distinct characters, As Gordon the son where Cora has acceded to her husband's choice of name, Julian the name she likes and finally Maia's suggestion of Bear. In each one he is to have well defined but diverse personality traits which lead him down different paths with varying outcomes but also for Cora and Maia where the supporting characters and relationships that enter their orbit also differ. In particular depending on the son's identity, which Cora is a satellite to, either standing up for herself and eventually leaving her superficially virtuous doctor husband concealing the violent monster within, or to remain cowed, brutalised and deceived by him.

Clever and recommended for those who enjoyed Life After Life.

On my list TerriBull, I haven’t read it, but I’ve definitely read about it somewhere, good to get a recommendation.
I loved Life after Life

The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish. My goodness, this author can come up with some cracking plots.

Book 33: Some by Fire by Stuart Pawson
Book 34: The Destroying Angel by S.G. McLean
Book 35: The Bear Pit by S.G .McLean - both of these books are in the excellent Seeker series set in the later years of Oliver Cromwell. They are exciting historical thrillers.
Book 36: The Chill Factor by Stuart Pawson. Good reads in the Charlie Priest detective series.

Parsley3

The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish. My goodness, this author can come up with some cracking plots.

I enjoyed that too.

Louise Candlish alert She has a brand new one just out "A Neighbour's Guide to Murder" I 've just ordered it from my library.

TerriBull

Louise Candlish alert She has a brand new one just out "A Neighbour's Guide to Murder" I 've just ordered it from my library.

Thanks for that.

Have just ordered it from my library, 19th in queue.

Calendargirl

TerriBull

Louise Candlish alert She has a brand new one just out "A Neighbour's Guide to Murder" I 've just ordered it from my library.

Thanks for that.

Have just ordered it from my library, 19th in queue.

I'm no. 24 in the queue
Thanks TerriBull for the tip off.

Book 40 Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss.
Continuing my run of Sarah Moss's books (this is my 3rd) and I have yet to fault her!

Bodies of Light is not a cheerful book - it's uncomfortable in places, it's profound and deeply moving, it's unsettling and it's thought-provoking and illuminating.

The story starts in 1856. Ally Moberley has a difficult childhood with a cruel disapproving mother. Her father is an artist who is becoming better known and she has a younger sister.

Ally works incredibly hard, and leaves her home in Manchester for London where she wants to train as one of the first generation of female doctors at a time when all the odds are against her.

This is a book that will stay with me and will be a very hard book to follow. Having finished it, I feel bereft. 10/10

80-All that remains-Patricia Cornwell
This is one of her early ones. When bodies of young courting couples start turning up in remote woodland areas, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is called on to find out the cause of death.

81-The Almost Moon-Alice Sebold
I was so looking forward to reading this as I loved her previous book 'Lovely Bones'.
But oh dear, I found this seriously disturbing and a complete muddle of various timelines. I tried to continue well past halfway through, as I thought I might feel some sympathy for the main character, Helen, but instead I just disliked her more with each page turned.
What a disappointment!

#44 Mr Mac and Me by Esther Freud.
Set on the Suffolk coast around the outbreak of WWI. Thomas Maggs is the crippled son of the local publican, he longs to go to sea, but his crippled foot means he can’t. Mr Mac is Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who comes to stay in the village with his wife. CRM arouses gossip and suspicion due to his long solitary walks on the beaches and his constant use of binoculars. Thomas is a budding artist and he develops a friendship with the Mackintoshes, who call him “our boy”.
This was an interesting tale, based on CRM staying in Suffolk for a time, but I didn’t find many of the characters very well developed and I found the ending very rushed. 7/10

Book 39
Scrublands - Chris Hammer

A book I knew I was going to enjoy from the first page, I wasn’t disappointed, this book is hard to put down.

Set in Australia, in a small town called Riversend, ravaged by drought.

Journalist Martin Scarsden, is sent to do a piece on how the town is coping after a tragedy the year before, when the town priest opens fire, and shoots five residents outside of the church, he in turn is shot dead by the young policeman Robbie Haus-Jones, the two young men were friends.

But Martin can’t just tell the tale, he starts picking, and gradually, not one, but several stories start to unfold, all brutal, all tragic.

The setting is bleak, and you can feel the heat in every page, this is a town full of secrets, some of the characters are very likeable, but can anyone be trusted?

I’m sad to have reached the end of, would definitely recommend, especially for any of you who enjoy Australian literature.

I do, and have it downloaded on my Kindle but keep hesitating and choosing something less grim to read!

#45 Midwinter Break by Bernard McLaverty
Retired couple, Stella and Gerry, fly to Amsterdam for a midwinter break. Amongst the wintry streets and icy canals their relationship shows the fractures underneath the surface. Current discontent combined with old emotional trauma combine to threaten their ability to carry on together.
This is a short book, 240 pages, but it was a bit of a slow burn and I didn’t really get into it until the second half, after which I enjoyed it. It has well drawn characters and a realistic feeling of Amsterdam in the winter. 7/10

Sarah1954 I agree, Scrublands is excellent, I read it a few years ago.

I enjoyed Scrublands too, Sara1954 and it was made into a tv series which I think is still available. I've read several of Chris Hammer's books since, which are also good.

#67. The Bones Beneath by Mark Billingham.

82-Agatha and the Deadly Dance-M C Beaton
Another light-hearted murder mystery. Agatha decides to open her own private detective agency, but does she get more than she bargained for?

52 Where They Lie Claire Coughlan

The setting is Dublin 1968, when the bones of Julia Bridges, an actress from the 1940s discovered in a back garden. Junior reporter, Irish/Italian, Nicoletta Sarto digs deep to investigate the life of the dead woman and the possibilities of how she ended up buried in a suburban garden. Not only does she uncover a theatrical bygone past, but also one of of illegal abortions. Nicoletta has a troublesome relationship with her mother and a complicated love affair going on with a colleague who is still married. Into that mix from her investigations she is to find links to buried familial secrets that relate to her own early life. Quite good, I was rushing to finish it because........

100 pages in, as with many of Lisa Jewell's it's cracking along and riveting!

I do enjoy the SG McLean novels. Loved the 'Bookseller of Inverness' about post jacobite rebellion Scotland,
Am I allowed to join in mid year?
Just finished a novella, at least a very short novel, by Val McDermid called Queen Macbeth, her take on the historical characters.
Will have to read through this thread from the start, to get reading suggestions.

Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin. Rebus is back and as dodgy as ever. Love him.

43. Dead Ringer, Nicola Martin

This has an intriguing premise. Using face recognition technology and user votes, an online company will pair you up with your closest doppelganger. Jemima, a totally unlikeable bombastic London socialite, finds Ella, a quiet working class girl from Cumbria, and they meet up. The resemblance is remarkable, and with the help of a bit of voice coaching and changes of outfit and makeup, they manage to fool everyone, including their close families (I’m not altogether convinced on this bit, but hey ho 😊). And then everything takes a dark and sinister turn, as drug dealers, mental health issues and murky pasts come into play…

It’s a good read, and I’d recommend it. But I nearly gave up on it several times because the constant and totally unnecessary top level crude and foul language really annoyed me (and I’m not a prude). If you can get past that, it’s a page turner.

#68. Dying To Sin by Stephen Booth.