Author Archives: bernadetteinoz

Review: HUNTING BLIND by Paddy Richardson

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HuntingBlindRichardsonPa20150_fFourteen year old Stephanie is at the annual school picnic in her small New Zealand town. She’d rather be off with her friends but she’s been forced to come along with her mum, Minna, so she can help look after her two younger brothers and the baby of the family, four year old Gemma, while their dad is at work even though it’s a Saturday. The atmosphere is lazy and relaxed as the day is filled with kids’ races, a barbecue lunch for all, the arrival of an amphibious plane on the lake, a game of cricket and ice cream. But when it’s time to go home Gemma is missing. There is initial optimism that she has just wandered off and will be quickly found but hours…then days of searching and months of investigation fail to find a trace of her. Nearly 20 years later when Stephanie is in the last period of her training as a psychiatrist she meets someone who leads her to believe she might finally be able to find the answer to what happened to Gemma.

Some novels grab you from the opening lines and don’t let go until the last page has been turned. HUNTING BLIND is one of them. Partly it’s due to the use of the present tense to tell the story which is the kind of literary device I often don’t like because it feels forced but Richardson is clearly a talented writer who wields this particular tool with perfection, ensuring we endure the emotions of the characters as they move from unease to urgency then despair  Being immediately drawn into the novel is helped along by the (falsely) comforting familiarity of the opening scene. Who hasn’t been to some big event where everyone keeps a loose eye on everyone else’s kids but no one really worries because you all know each other and it’s a beautiful day and the thought of something bad happening doesn’t even cross your mind? Somewhere in the middle of the novel it becomes clear what probably happened to Gemma but even this doesn’t diminish the suspense of the book at all.

Stephanie is the person we grow to know best and she is a well drawn and compelling character. We feel her anguish and guilt at losing her little sister and see the long term impacts it has on her personality. This is contrasted by the impact of the disappearance on others in the family, particularly Minna who does not react in the ways society – or her other children – expect which makes her a less sympathetic character, though not a less compelling one.

In addition to being a fantastically written novel of psychological suspense and tension HUNTING BLIND even offers a terrific sense of its South Island setting and some genuine insight into the problems inherent in modern mental health systems. It’s a very accomplished book which has made me extremely keen to read more by Paddy Richardson.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Publisher Penguin [2011]
ISBN 9780143203643
Length 305 pages
Format paperback
Book Series standalone

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Review: ALL YOURS by Claudia Pineiro

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AllYoursPineiroClaudia3134_fI thoroughly enjoyed Claudia Piñeiro’s tale of Argentinian affluence gone awry so I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get around to reading her second book. Perhaps my subconscious somehow knew that it wouldn’t, for me, be the same kind of reading experience.

It is a deliciously short book which once again takes us into the world of the wealthier inhabitants of Buenos Aries. It is told mostly from the point of view of Inés whose persona is derived from her status as the long-term wife of a successful businessman. When her marriage, and by extension her entire life, looks to be under threat from Ernesto’s behaviour she becomes a woman of action: attempting to put to rights what has gone wrong in her world in a most unconventional way.

My friend Maxine described this as book as a “perfectly pitched black comedy” and it saddens me anew that she is no longer with us and I won’t be able to discuss my very different reaction to the book. I did enjoy sharing thoughts about the books we both loved with Maxine but I also enjoyed those times when we disagreed: intelligent debate without a hint of aggression or derision on either side is not that easy to find these days.

Though I could see some humour in Inés’ logical but flawed thinking I didn’t really find ALL YOURS terribly funny. I’m much more inclined to agree with another crime reading buddy’s assessment of this as book as much less perceptive and thought-provoking than its predecessor. I admit that all three of the characters – Inés, Ernesto and their teenage daughter Lali whose own trauma is relayed via short chapters of dialogue – are beautifully crafted which is a credit to the author given how little of them there actually is in this novella length story. But their level of narcissism and shallowness did not make them the kind of people I want to spend time with.

The structure of the book is interesting and mostly successful though I’m not convinced of the need for the few chapters which purported to be extracts from forensic texts discovered in Inés’ custody. But the narration by Inés, displaying her increasingly bizarre thought processes and behaviour is well done and the chapters of dialogue that Lali has with her best friend and others manage to say a lot with very few words.

I’m now at the end of the review and realise I’ve described more good things than bad about the book yet still I feel as if I didn’t really like it. At least not as much as I expected I would. Perhaps in the end I’ve not been able to separate my intense dislike for the two main characters and their shallow existence from my feelings about the book as a whole. Which is a little troubling because I often claim not to need to like characters in order to like a book.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Translator Miranda France
Publisher Bitter Lemon Press [this translation 2011, original edition 2006]
ISBN 9781904738800
Length 172 pages
Format paperback
Book Series standalone

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Review: THE MISSING FILE by D.A. Mishani

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TheMissingFileMishaniD20281_fInspector Avi Avraham is on duty at the Holon police station when Hannah Sharabi reports her teenage son, Ofer, missing. He’s a little blasé about it though as it’s only been a couple of hours since the boy should have been home from school and anyway, he explains, the reason they don’t produce crime novels like Christie or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in Israel is

“…we don’t have crimes like that. We don’t have serial killers; we don’t have kidnappings; and there aren’t many rapists out there attacking women on the streets. Here, when a crime is committed, it’s usually the neighbor, the uncle, the grandfather, and there’s no need for a complex investigation to find the criminal and clear up the mystery.”

But after convincing her to go home and wait for her son Avraham is worried that he ought to have done more…at least instigated some kind of search…and definitely not shared his theory about Israel’s lack of detective stories. So when Mrs Sharabi returns the next morning with her husband’s brother (her husband is away for his work) to report Ofer’s continued absence Avraham is quick to set the gears in motion to start looking for a missing person, though he will be haunted for some time by the fear that his lack of immediate action has led to the difficulties in solving the case.

I almost held my breath at the beginning of the novel because I was a little fearful that Avraham would be a bundle of genre clichés but I needn’t have worried and I soon started to enjoy the process of getting to know this rarity in crime fiction – an Israeli policeman. He has his 38th birthday during the story, is a bit of a loner, has lived and worked in a fairly small area for his whole life, has a somewhat awkward relationship with his parents and is a dedicated cop though not a terribly confident one.

The other character we come to know well is Ze’ev. He teaches English and lives in the same apartment block as the Sharabi family and through him we see the missing persons investigation from another perspective. But it is not clear what perspective he is offering – was he involved in the disappearance? Does he know something more than he is letting on? He certainly tries to insert himself into things at first by making sure the police know he tutored Ofer for some months and then by undertaking some bizarre, and possibly sinister, actions.

I really loved the way the plot developed in this novel. Partly I think that was because of this dual structure which allowed some events to only be seen from one perspective and other events to be seen from two points of view which added just the right amount of uncertainty to my thinking about what might have transpired. The investigation smacks of realism: things happen in real time rather than ‘tv crime fiction time’, when the key players do not reveal all they know about a thing it is believable, and there is a real sense of Avraham’s frustration and worry that he is not doing enough or the right things. Happily the book even has a cracking, if disturbing, ending.

As Israel is one of my favourite places to have visited and I’ve long wanted to find some crime fiction set there my only disappointment in the book is that it really doesn’t have much sense of its setting (aside from a few place names dropped during a bit of tourism towards the end of the book). However, I can’t really hold this against the author as he’s done a great job of depicting a realistic modern police investigation, versions of which might take place just about anywhere in the world.

I bought this book as soon as I saw it was set in Israel and knew nothing else about it and am happy to report it was a most enjoyable read. I’m not the only one who thinks so either as last weekend it was shortlisted for this year’s International Dagger Award for translated crime fiction. I can’t promise you a particularly Israeli-feeling book if you decide to give it a go but if you’re looking for a first rate missing persons story that deftly unpicks the layers of secrets people carry with them then I highly recommend it.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Translator Steven Cohen
Publisher Quercus [this edition 2013, original Hebrew edition 2011]
ISBN/ASIN 9781780876504
Length 404 pages
Format eBook (kindle)
Book Series #1? in the Avi Avraham series

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Books of the Month – May 2013

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It would have been impossible to keep up the pace of April’s reading for too long but I am happy to have finished 14 books in May, especially as I also threw two books against a wall unfinished as well (one of which I’d ploughed a good way through before admitting defeat). What did suffer in May though was my reviewing as several completed books have already faded too much from my memory for me to review even semi-intelligently.

TheHolidayMurdersGottMy book of the month has to be Robert Gott’s THE HOLIDAY MURDERS which is an Australian historical mystery set towards the end of World War Two. The police are represented three very different characters all helping to form the fledgling Homicide squad in Victoria and they investigate a series of brutal murders that seem to involve fascists operating in Australia. For me this one had it all – authentic historical feel, interesting characters and a ripper yarn.

Among the other books I finished (in order) were:

  • Stuart Littlemore’s HARRY CURRY: THE MURDER BOOK: a series of cases overseen by a Sydney lawyer which I thought offered some interesting insights into Australia’s legal system
  • Romy Ash’s FLOUNDERING had a great sense of place and an authentic narrative voice but in the end it’s point of view didn’t do enough for me
  • Patrick Holland’s THE DARKEST LITTLE ROOM had a great sense of place but its complete objectification of women and meandering plot ultimately left me cold
  • Bronwyn Parry’s DEAD HEAT offered a great depiction of life as an Australian national parks ranger and had a solid mystery
  • Malla Nunn’s SILENT VALLEY is one of the ones I wish I’d reviewed when I read it – another great instalment of her 1950′s South African series
  • Ross Collier’s TUG OF WAR is a romp of a tale of spying set in Australia the middle of World War 2 and shows the American and Australian intelligence sections jarring with each other a little
  • Stav Sherez’ ELEVEN DAYS is another atmospheric tale showing an underbelly of modern London as this time Jack Carrigan and Geneva Miller investigate a fire at a convent which killed 10 nuns and an eleventh unidentified person.
  • B Michael Radburn’s BLACKWATER MOON was more coming of age yarn than crime fiction but had a compelling central character and some genuine surprises. A great book to suggest to guys who don’t read much or don’t read much fiction as it’s very accessible but thought provoking too.
  • Jarad Henry’s PINK TIDE is another solid offering from this author though I do think he’s given his central character, Ruebens McCauley, one too many of life’s troubles to overcome
  • Wiley CASH’s A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME is a terrific audio book – seems almost to have been written for that particular medium to the point that I’m not quite sure I’d feel the same about reading a print version.
  • Chris Grabenstein’s FREE FALL was another delightful offering featuring Jersey Shore good guys John Ceepak and Danny Boyle solving the murder of an elderly man and fending off threats from Ceepak’s degenerate father. So many times in fiction people who’ve had abusive childhoods – like John Ceepak – end up doing terrible things as adults so it’s somehow comforting to see a character who can overcome a rotten start in life to be a genuine hero.

The book which shall not be named

As part of the judging panel I’m on I also had to read a self-published novel that I won’t name (though I am sorely tempted, I actually plotted my own murder as I read this awful tosh) which the author should be ashamed to have submitted. It was literally full to the brim of basic proofreading and editing errors (a cat’s name changes from one chapter to the next, one person’s name changes within the space of a few lines, multiple lines are repeated several times over – as if the author had copied and pasted them from one spot to another rather than cut and pasted – and so on). I could have excused the lightweight story but to submit something it was clear even the close family mentioned in the acknowledgements hadn’t bothered to look at thoroughly made a mockery of the process and has done this author’s fellow self-published authors no good in their collective fight to be treated equally. At least by me.

Progress towards my book-ish goals

  • Eleven of the 14 books I finished in May were by Australian authors bringing my total for the year to 27 (nearly half of all the books I’ve read). I’ve got to be happy with this total as it’s the number I read for the whole of 2012 so it shouldn’t be too hard for me to do better this year :) I am however jonesing for some translated fiction so have stocked up thanks to my local library
  • Only 4 of May’s Aussie author books were by women though, bringing my total for the year to 10. I intend to remedy that in the coming months.
  • My book acquisition goal went well again in May with the only books bought from overseas being my drug of choice (audio books which are not available locally). I did buy two physical books (bringing my total for the year to 3!) but I bought them at  my local indie store.

Snippets

I really didn’t do much of anything else blog-wise, except ponder who would win the inaugural Petrona Award for Scandi crime. I’d have been happy with any of the four contenders taking out the prize but it is particularly fitting that the first award given in Maxine Clarke’s honour went to Liza Marklund.

Was May a good reading month for you?  Did you have a favourite book or three for the month? If you are a blogger (or keeper of good records) how to you balance reading time with reviewing time? Does one sometimes win out over the other as it did for me in May?

Review: A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME by Wiley Cash

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ALandMoreKindThanHomeI first came upon American author Wiley Cash’s début novel A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME being discussed as something a little bit special in audio book circles. Given that the plain old print version of the book won the UK Crime Writers Association’s 2012 award for best début novel and that it is in part concerned with one of my favourite themes (the depiction of religion in fiction) I decided it was worth a read (or a listen to be more precise).

If you like accents or dialects the audio book is indeed a real treat with three equally superb narrative performances, one for each of the Appalachian residents who collectively tell this story set in a small town in rural North Carolina. Adelaide Lyle was the town’s midwife for many years and when we meet her is in charge of her Church’s Sunday school sessions. Jess Hall is the younger brother of 13-year old Christopher (universally known as Stump), a mute boy whose mother is never quite resigned to his disability and who looks to her Church, and its charismatic Pastor, for guidance. Clem Barfield is the area’s Sheriff and a man with his own painful past. Each of them brings their own memories and perspective to the sad events which take place over a few days.

The choice of people to tell this story is an interesting one because although each of them plays an important role in the events which unfold, none of them is at the dead centre of the action. Although at times it seems as this might cause the reader to miss something vital because you’re only seeing things through an observer’s eyes, it soon becomes clear that this choice does allow all the facts to be revealed in a more reliable way than those at the real centre of things might allow. The combination of perspectives also allows the events to be revealed in a very deliberate and suspenseful manner. It is almost an agony at some points when a key piece of personal or town history is about to be revealed and Cash switches narrator so that a slightly different perspective can be seen, but the pay-off for riding out this drawn-out tension is well worth it as between them our three story tellers do know everything important. The ending has the kind of inevitability about it that would seem trite or forced but for the fact that the reader has been allowed to develop such a deep understanding of the story’s participants that we accept the ending as…natural. Dreadfully, dreadfully sad, but the only way things could ever have turned out knowing what we know.

This is not a story for those dedicated to speed and I must admit at the beginning I was a little frustrated by the pace. Often there is but one or two sentences about the current events at the heart of the book and then a half-dozen pages of flashback to some seemingly minor happening from the narrator (or town’s) past. But it was worth adjusting myself to the pace and becoming lost in the minutiae of lives very foreign to my own (seriously I’d be hard pressed to place North Carolina on a map and small town life of any sort always has an other worldly feel to me) and in the end I don’t think there was a single reflection or memory that wasn’t relevant in some way or another.

I’ve been deliberately vague about the plot of this book as I think it’s one of those cases where the less you know going in the more enjoyable your reading experience will be. If you are willing to let an author set a pace that suits the story in return for an image-rich setting and deftly teased out characterisations that are almost all heart-breaking I’d recommend A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME. If you are even vaguely interested in audio books I’d thoroughly recommend this group narration: it’s an absolute treat.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Narrators Nick Sullivan; Lorna Rayer; Mark Bramhall
Publisher Whole Story Audiobooks [2012]
ISBN/ASIN B009L8EQEI
Length 8 hours 56 minutes
Format audio (mp3)
Book Series standalone novel

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Can there be four winners?

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As someone who was loudly sceptical of the recent trend in children’s sport to not have winners and losers (just competitors) I am about to be something of a hypocrite but at least I recognise the fact. At next week’s CrimeFest the winner of the inaugural Petrona Award, named in honour of Maxine Clarke, will be announced. I think the award is a great idea but in a way I will be sad to hear the winner announced…I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each of the books on the shortlist and would be just as happy if they all got a trophy.

The shortlist is made up of

There are two polls still open for another few days at Euro Crime (check out the right hand side-bar) and after much thought and many changes of mind I voted for

Which book do you want to win: At the moment my personal favourite of the four is ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER LIFE which I enjoyed immensely despite the fact it broke many of my personal rules for what makes good fiction. I loved its breadth and structure and the delicate way it showed the changes in Swedish society over time. So, edging out the other three books by the tiniest of margins, this is the book I shall barrack for (though it will be a half-hearted kind of barracking as I genuinely think all the others are equally worthy winners).

Which book do you think should win: I think Norman Price is probably right in thinking it would be particularly fitting if LAST WILL were to win the award given Liza Marklund was one of the Scandinavian writers Maxine championed early on and that this novel concerns another of her keen interests: the depiction of science in fiction. And it is a bloody good read.

But even if one of the others wins I really will be just as happy and so it simply remains to say good luck to all the authors and translators and thank you for many hours of great reading between you.

Pierced - Enger, Thomas15785fBlackSkiesIndridasonLastWillMarklundLiza15232_fAnother Time, Another Life - P19960f

 

Review: FLOUNDERING by Romy Ash

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FlounderingAshRomy18489_fThere’s no getting away from the fact that Romy Ash’s début novel FLOUNDERING has garnered a lot of attention on the Australian literary scene. It was shortlisted for last year’s Vogel Award (for unpublished manuscripts) and this year as a published novel appeared on the shortlists for the inaugural Stella Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and now the first-ever all-female Miles Franklin Award shortlist. So the fact that I am underwhelmed by it won’t matter a jot. Which is as it should be.

Whereas last year my foray back into the literary end of the writing pool was very successful, forcing me to reconsider my “I’m done with literary fiction” stance, FLOUNDERING reminded me of all the reasons I gave up on it in the first place.

It starts with a woman picking up the two sons she abandoned a year or so earlier as they walk home from school. Loretta (she won’t be called mum), Jordy (13) and Tom (11) then travel across the country in the half of the novel that is reminiscent of the classic American road trip experience, though with a distinctly Australian flavour. Although the trip has seemed directionless it turns out Loretta’s aim was to reach a run down beach side caravan her parents have probably forgotten they own. In an event that was only surprising in terms of the length of time it took to happen, Loretta disappears again and, largely due to Jordy’s fierce fear of being fostered, the boys try to fend for themselves. There is, of course, an unsavoury neighbour to contend with on top of being young boys alone in the world.

I know it marks me as a literary lightweight but I want something to happen in the books that I read. Preferably several somethings, at least some of which aren’t predictable from page five. FLOUNDERING really doesn’t have much of a plot and what does exist is inevitable from the outset. There were no genuine surprises for me which made the book drag, a pretty astonishing feat given it’s only 202 pages long. This kind of meandering nothingness is what I remember most from slogging through literary fiction in the past and my tolerance for it has, if anything, shrunk as I’ve gotten older. I can appreciate some aspects of the book: the vivid sense of place, some individual moments of beautifully understated heartache and even the authentic nature of the narrator’s voice (though that came with its own problems). But I wanted a story too. More, really, than any of these other things.

FLOUNDERING is told from Tom’s perspective. The innocent, naive sensibility this allows for grew thin especially as it does, by necessity, leave a lot out. I found myself more interested in the book that Ash didn’t write. This is probably wildly unfair of me but I can’t help that I found the child’s point of view very limiting. His world view is, legitimately, narrow and consists of being in a hot car, not having enough food, taking lonely beach walks and going to the toilet. His inner life really isn’t that much more compelling. I would rather, for example, have known what Loretta was thinking as she drove off on a supposedly short errand that left her children alone in a new place and without food or water for a long, hot summer’s day but instead we spent (another) day viewed from the point of view of a kid whose time was largely spent sitting on a step outside his caravan.

Many reviews make particular and generally glowing mention of the fact that this book raises the issue of children at risk. It does, but only in a descriptive sense. That is it says “look, here are some children in danger” and then describes their particular version of danger for 200 pages. It doesn’t offer different perspectives on those dangers nor any insights into how they might be averted. It didn’t even touch on the vexing question of how a 13 year old has learned only bad things about the welfare/foster system in his young life.

After reading the book I listened to an interview with Romy Ash in which she said she wanted to write a book with no bad guys and I’ve been pondering this for a few days. I think it probably explains a lot. Ash has been gentle with everyone, even the people you might expect to dislike and while this is admirable in a “golly let’s all be totally non-judgemental of our fellow human beings” kind of way, ultimately it led to a very passive novel. To me it was just a handful of people doing a few not very interesting things for a while. And then they stopped.

There are however a gazillion glowing reviews of FLOUNDERING to be found so read a few of those before taking my word on anything. And if you do decide to read it make sure you’ve a large supply of drinking water to hand: I defy anyone to read it for long without becoming intensely thirsty.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

awwbadge_2013FLOUNDERING is the 8th book I’ve read as part of my participation in this year’s Australian Women Writers Challenge, though only the first that sits outside my reading comfort zone of crime fiction.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Publisher Text Publishing [2012]
ISBN 9781921922084
Length 202 pages
Format paperback
Book Series standalone

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Books of the Month – April 2013

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It seems I got serious about my reading in April, completing 17 books which is the same total I read for the previous two months combined. Most of what I read was really good which is particularly pleasing as I tried a swag of new authors (12) during the month and two of these have tied for my pick of the month. Paradoxically the month also contained the worst book I can remember finishing (ever) but such, as the say, is life.

TheEarthHumsInBFlatStrachanTHE EARTH HUMS IN F FLAT by Mari Strachan was the first reader-submitted book featured on Petrona Remembered, the website a group of us have established in memory of Maxine Clarke which aims to tell the world about great crime fiction. Laura Root’s passionate review of a book I’d never heard of was exactly the kind of thing I hoped the site would attract and so I hunted down a copy of the book in my local library. It is everything Laura promised and then some, an absolute treat of a story about a 12 year old girl in 1950′s Wales whose simplistic take on the disappearance of a local man is compelling.

TheHealerTuomainenAntti18476_fAntti Tuomainen’s THE HEALER could not, in some ways be more different. It’s set in the near future in Finland and the ravages of climate change have altered the environment and the people. Johanna Lehtinen is a journalist on the trail of the person responsible for a number of brutal killings when she disappears. Her husband Tapani, unable to get the resource-strapped authorities interested in investigating Johanna’s disappearance, takes on the job of finding her. In signs I may be getting soft in my old age I liked this book so very much because, to me anyway, it’s not really a crime story but rather one about a man who loves his wife and isn’t prepared to give up on her. Even though the environment is a grim one THE HEALER is definitely not the kind of dark and depressing novel people think of when they think Scandinavian crime.

Happily most of the rest of my reading for the month was almost as good as this and included (in reading order, with Aussie authors in green)

  • John M Green‘s THE TRUSTED – an audacious, fast-paced environmental thriller
  • Sean Doolittle’s LAKE COUNTRY – blackly comic noir fiction with a genuine sensitivity for life’s outsiders
  • Sue Williams‘ MURDER WITH THE LOT – a zany, cosy kind of mystery set in small-town Australia
  • Paul Dorion’s THE POACHER’S SON – exploring a difficult father/son relationship in the woods of Maine – very atmospheric
  • Felicity Young‘s ANTIDOTE TO MURDER – a female doctor must clear her name when she is accused of performing an illegal abortion leading to a woman’s death in Edwardian England
  • Parker Bilal’s DOGSTAR RISING – a Sudanese refugee works as a PI in Cairo during a time of religious tension and social unrest
  • Bateman’s THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSElL – crime satire bordering on the absurd but hugely funny if you like that kind of thing
  • Leif G.W. Persson’s ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER LIFE – a perfectly named and surprisingly compelling tale about a crime with origins and a resolution 25 years apart
  • Maggie Groff’s GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS – an investigative journalist looks into the case of a man who was reported dead 25 years ago but has been seen recently
  • Lyndsay Faye’s THE GODS OF GOTHAM – a highly atmospheric, if somewhat confronting tale that starts with a child’s death in New York in 1845
  • Gianrico Carofiglio’s TEMPORARY PERFECTIONS – an Italian lawyer turns PI in an uneven but sometimes insightful novel (review to come).

Because life doesn’t (and shouldn’t) consist of only good things I read another three forgettable books on top of the worst book ever. But let’s say no more about them eh?

Progress towards my book-ish goals

  • I’m pleased that 6 of the books I read for the month were by Australian authors (including the worst book ever) but only 2 of them were by women. I’m relying more on the library this year and books don’t always arrive in a statistically neat order but I’m sure things will round themselves out on this front by the end of the year.
  • My goal regarding book acquisition  is to buy less but buy local (audio books excluded) and is going quite well. Audiobooks aside I have only bought 1 book in April this year (though I did receive a few freebies in the form of books for the judging panel I am on).

Snippets

I posted another roundup of the crime category for the Australian Women Writers Challenge, where a début novel called FRACTURED by Dawn Barker received two positive reviews..

I had a grizzle about not being able to find a good replacement for Google Reader and other first world problems.

Was April a good reading month for you? Do you sometimes feel like you’re on a ‘reading roll’ like I did during April? Did you have a favourite book or three for the month? 

2013-04

Review: THE GODS OF GOTHAM by Lyndsay Faye

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TheGodsOfGothamI am quite desperate to know what cover options were ditched in favour of this cover for Lyndsay Faye’s THE GODS OF GOTHAM. Not only would I never have picked this book up if I’d seen it on a shelf somewhere without knowing anything about it, but it was so bad I almost didn’t bother reading it even after I’d ordered it from the library especially because I figured the boringness of the cover would have seeped into the pages. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve grown to trust recommendations from this reader I’d have never read a page of what looks to me like something Arthur Hailey rejected in the 60′s.

Happily the story inside is a different kettle of fish all together.

It takes place in New York in 1845 when the city is literally bursting with refugees from the Irish famine and tensions between the foreigners and Americans are high as people scrabble for jobs, homes and food, none of which are in plentiful supply. Everyone, even children, must do whatever it takes to survive. The story’s action centres on Timothy Wilde, a young man with a grim personal history who finds himself an unwilling recruit to the city’s first police force established, against strong resistance from some sectors of the community, by the dominant political players of the day which include Wilde’s older brother Valentine. When he’s not been in the job more than a few weeks Timothy encounters a girl, not yet a teenager, who has escaped from a brothel with a harrowing tale. Timothy and the fledgling police force are drawn into an investigation which threatens to turn the religious resentments which already exist between the Protestant Americans and Catholic Irish foreigners into an all-out war.

I know absolutely nothing about this time or place in history and so have no clue if Faye’s version of New York is even vaguely accurate but she made me believe in it from the outset. She makes superb use of language, including a local rouge’s slang known as flash (for which there is a handy dictionary of terms included), and has an enveloping, three-dimensional way of describing the locations. In fact the sense of place is so vividly depicted that I find it difficult to believe I haven’t travelled in a time machine and seen it all for myself. Not that I’d have wanted to spend a lot of time there if such magical travel were possible as Faye has not offered the kind of ‘genteel picture of a different age’ that some historical fiction offers. The squalor, poverty and harsh grind it takes just to survive this environment are palpable.

I suspect all of that would make for grim reading on its own but the lighter aspect of the novel is provided in the characters. Not that they’re lightweight by any stretch of the imagination but there’s a resilience and spirit in most of them that balances out the darker elements of the environment. Timothy is not at first all together likeable, a bit self-righteous for me, but Faye develops him nicely and allows him to grow and react to to the things he experiences which is a far better (and I imagine more difficult) achievement than having him fully formed before we meet him. His relationship with his brother, who is something of a scoundrel, is tormented but very believable and the resolution of their discord is very well done. I found the relationship with his love interest, Mercy Underhill, less compelling though it didn’t put me off. Mercy is the daughter of a local Protestant reverend is heavily involved in charity work that no one else will touch (such as ministering to the Catholic population) and Timothy has been in love with her since he was a boy. Towards the end of the novel Mercy comes into her own as a character, displaying the deep frustration of a woman who wants to be something other than what society will allow.

The book is not perfect. Faye’s extensive research occasionally spills observably onto the page, though at least this is in the form of unnecessary plot sidetracks which I find easier to cope with than clunky exposition which hardly makes an appearance here, and it does feel a little bit too much like it’s setting up future instalments rather than allowing the novel to stand on its own. But these are minor quibbles in the scheme of things and I was thoroughly swept along by this fast-paced and very atmospheric tale. I even loved the different meanings that the book’s title could be interpreted as having as it progresses. Highly recommended to the historical fiction lovers of strong constitution.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Publisher Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam [2012]
ISBN 9780399158377
Length 414 pages
Format hardcover
Book Series #1 in the Timothy Wilde series?

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Readerpocolypse, GRamazon and other first world problems

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Several shakeups in the world that surrounds my reading have taken place lately, and in each case I’ve completely failed to predict how I would handle them.

Readerpocolypse

RSSWhen Google announced last month it would be turning off its RSS Reader at the end of June this year I didn’t worry. I do use the product daily to keep track of the 150-odd blogs I follow (about 3/4 of which are book-ish blogs of one sort or another) but I figured I’d simply switch to another product, even a paid one, and not even notice a bump in my blog consumption practices.

I started trialling the various options being talked about in the techosphere almost straight away and now, a month or so later, I am worried. None of the alternatives have taken my fancy, primarily because none of them have an iOS presence to save themselves (whereas there are a gazillion third party apps which hook into Google Reader and I had found just the one to suit me). I’ve tried Feedly (which is awful as it installs background clunk on the desktop and has an iOS app that is determined to present itself as a magazine rather than my preferred list, refusing to retain my settings each time I close it) and Netvibes (which is better but has to be used via a browser on the iPad and I do prefer a dedicated app on my mobile device) and Newsblur (which I found clunky wherever I used it). I am sick of them all demanding I be more social and /or recommending feeds in which I have zero interest and the entire exercise has made me extremely cranky.

So, apologies if I have not visited or commented at your blog in a while…it’s not a lack of interest but a lack of a good road to get me there. Anyone tried any other Google Reader alternatives they like that work well on both a windows desktop and in the iOS environment?

GRamazon

goodreadsamazonI reacted to Amazon’s purchase of Goodreads by deleting my Goodreads account which, I thought I would miss quite a lot. Turns out, I don’t miss it at all and quickly realised I hadn’t been getting a lot out of the site anyway. I’ve had a terrific month reading-wise but my best recommendations came from the same great places they always have (like Laura and Barbara and Sarah, thanks ladies), any bookish chatting I’ve had time for has taken place at the Friend Feed Crime and Mystery Fiction room (a truly delightful group) and I did reactivate (and pay for) my Library Thing account to have an alternative place to catalogue my reading (other than this blog and my Collectorz database). Even though they’re not handily all in one place these avenues serve my purposes much better than Goodreads ever has and the fact that none of them are plastered with ads or covert Amazonification makes them that much more valuable to me.

Another first world problem

eReaderAbout 2 and a half years ago I bought an eReader in the hope that I would be able to rid myself of the problem of having too many books (and yes I do know how utterly pretentious that sounds). But with limited storage space, a voracious consumption speed and a need to be increasingly creative in the ways I get rid of my physical books I was serious about wanting to make a total switch within five years.

I know now I’m not going to make it.

While I’m perfectly happy to read in the format I just don’t find myself doing it all that much. In my pointless but determined struggle not to be owned by Amazon I didn’t buy a kindle and so it’s generally more of a pain for me to buy eBooks than it ought to be (thanks Adobe, you’re almost as annoying as Amazon) (you did after all have to be shamed by our Government into reconsidering your years-long practice of charging Australians more than double the price Americans pay for the same products but that’s a whole different story) and they’re often not much (or at all) cheaper than their physical counterparts. While I can, now, understand the pricing (a book’s value is not in its physical form, it’s in its content) I do baulk at paying $20+ to rent something that could disappear in a flash and that I can’t loan or donate or leave on a bus for some weary traveller. It’s not uncommon for mainstream published eBooks to cost that much or more here and I am aiming to do all my book shopping within Australia this year which has really added to the slow down of my eBook consumption.

I really thought I would make the switch to eBooks with ease but, so far anyway, it has proven a pricklier problem than anticipated. Though a recent Big Ideas lecture offered the startling prediction that within 7 years 70% of books published in the UK would be published digitally only. If that does prove even vaguely accurate I suppose I’ll have to work on this one.

What about you? Have you found an alternative to Google Reader that works for you? Do you have a Good Reads account? Have you noticed any changes since they ‘joined the Amazon family’? How about eBooks? Have you made the switch? Not interested?