Category Archives: S J Bolton

Books of the Month – October 2011

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I didn’t manage a lot of reviewing in October but was lucky enough to have a couple of 5-star reads which means Book of the month is a difficult choice so I’m not going to make it. Tom Franklin‘s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is an absorbing tale about two boys who grown into men, set in rural Mississippi it captures the languid pace of the location beautifully. Although in many ways it is a book that concerns itself with race and racism it isn’t consumed by those issues in the way that a polemic would be. My second 5-star read was Alice LaPlante‘s Turn of Mind which is about Jennifer White, a surgeon who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and is also suspected of the murder of her friend and neighbour. The crime element takes second place to the exploration of the progression of the disease and Jennifer’s attempts to maintain some semblance of control.

Other recommended reads from the month are:

Arnaldur Indriðason‘s Outrage starts out as the investigation of the murder of a young man but ends up as something quite different. It’s one of those storylines you can imagine happening in your own world (unlike the serial killers making suits of human skin variety of book), 4 stars

Barry Maitland‘s Chelsea Mansions is a very tightly plotted police procedural which investigates the murder of an elderly American tourist in London. It’s full of plot twists, interesting characters and fascinating details about an intriguing part of London . 3.5 stars.

The Gallows Bird by Camilla Läckberg is another enjoyable instalment in the adventures of Patrick Hedstrom, his soon to be wife and the slightly incompetent police force of a small town in south west Sweden. I like the combination of humour, personal lives and good old-fashioned policing. 3.5 stars.

Carolyn Morwood‘s Death and the Spanish Lady is the start of a new series set in Australia after the end of World War One. Melbourne is in the grip of a deadly flu pandemic but when one hospital patient is murdered nurse Eleanor Jones is determined to uncover the truth. The historical fiction aspects of this novel are excellent and the characters are enjoyable to meet, the crime is a little bit simple to solve but overall this is a very enjoyable novel. 3.5 stars.

Dan Waddell‘s Blood Atonement is the second book to feature genealogist Nigel Barnes who helps the English police solve a series of crimes that appear to have something to do with one particular family lineage. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable book with a nice mix of sweet moments and hard policing for the professional investigators. 3.5 stars.

Denise Mina’s The End of the Wasp Season was a bit of a mixed bag for me as I thought the story’s structure and individual characterisations were terrific but there was a bit of a stereotypical feel to ‘rich people are awful, poor people are good-hearted’ tone of the book. 3 stars.

John Lawton‘s Second Violin is a sweeping epic set across the leadup to the Second World War and the first couple of years of the conflict. I did find it insightful about some issues, particularly the daft internment camps though I thought it a bit too ambitious in its scope. I’d have preferred it to focus on a few events in more depth whereas it seemed to me to cram all the major events and an example of every kind of war time experience into one novel. 3 stars.

Jussi Adler-Olsson‘s Mercy is a Danish novel telling the story of a difficult cop and his almost reluctant hunt for a woman who has been missing for 5 years. The book is funny and moving (sometimes at the same moment) and very compelling. 4.5 stars

The Man Who Went up in Smoke by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. The Martin Beck books are considered modern classics of crime fiction and I’m slowly reading them in order. This is number two and sees the main character travel from his native Sweden to locate a journalist who went missing in Hungary. 3.5 stars.

Nicole Watson‘s The Boundary tells the story of the aftermath of an unsuccessful native title claim made by the Corrowa people of Brisbane. Hours after handing down his judgment with respect to the claim the Judge who presided over the case is murdered and it’s not long before Police focus on the people involved with the claim as suspects. It is a fine addition to the growing library of contemporary Australian crime fiction which examines our society intelligently and realistically while telling a ripping yarn. 4 stars

Ruth Rendell‘s The Vault uses a fairly unbelievable premise to get now retired Reg Wexford, formerly of Kingsmarkham police, back into an investigation but that aside it’s a nicely complex story which has something of a love affair with the city of London. 3.5 stars

S J Bolton‘s Now You See Me is a bit of a departure for this author, being her first police procedural. It’s major storyline involved someone copying the crimes of Jack the Ripper which left me a little cold I admit but it’s full of suspense as always with Bolton. 3 stars

I thought for a minute that Ashes to Dust by Yrsa Sigurdardottir had become mixed up with a Monty Python sketch when it started talking about the Cod War of the 1970′s but it was a real thing between Britain and Iceland. And people say crime fiction doesn’t teach you anything about the human condition. The book is funny and clever and it has a volcano. 3.5 stars.

Other happenings at the blog

Things were a bit quiet other than this, though I didn’t review Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca which generated a good discussion and I didn’t review Booker Prize shortlisted Snowdrops either. This one generated the nastiest (and most bizarre) email I’ve had since starting the blog. The silver lining to that cloud may be that I’ve learned a good Russian curse word but I want to check it out with a colleague who speaks fluent Russian before I start using it in impolite conversation.

My lone contribution to the SinC25 challenge was a post about genre busting female crime (or not) writers. Sorry Barbara, I’ll try to do better in November.

My review of reading apps available on the iPad is quite handy if I do say so myself, though I think there might need to be a part two in a couple of months.

What about you…was October a good reading month? Did you have a favourite book? Or did you acquire anything you’re itching to read? Any issue you need to get off your chest?

Maximum reading: minimum reviewing

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The main prompt for me to start this blog was to write down my thoughts about the books I read so that my future self would be a little less ignorant about my reading than I had been in the pre-blog days. Sadly this only works when I actually go to the bother of writing a review, something I have abjectly failed to do over the past week and a bit. I have read a rather astonishing 9 books since October 21 (the upside to insomnia) but only managed to review 2 of them. If I don’t at least write a few words about the rest my future self will be able to read them again as entirely new in a few short months so here are some mini reviews.

Outrage by Arnaldur Indriðason (translated by Anna Yates)

The 7th (in English anyway) of what must now be called the Reykjavik mysteries (due to the potentially sinister absence of its regular protagonist from this instalment) is a good old-fashioned police procedural in which one of Erlunder’s colleagues, gourmet cook Elinborg, investigates the murder of a young man in his Reykjavik apartment. Despite the fact the investigation is a slow one, featuring many frustrating dead ends, it makes for compelling reading as it uncovers the hidden layers of the victim’s life and, ultimately, leads the reader to ponder what they might do in the circumstances described in the book. There is a very authentic feel to both the crime and its solution. There’s also a rather nice depiction of Elinborg’s personal life which is one of highs and lows.  For me it’s not quite as hauntingly memorable as last year’s Hypothermia but still an excellent contribution to the series and the genre. Rating 4 stars.

Now You See Me by S J Bolton

Bolton’s fourth book tells the story of young DC Lacey Flint who finds a dying woman leaning on her car one evening and then becomes embroiled in the hunt for a killer whose gimmick is to recreate, at least partially, the crimes of Jack the Ripper. I’ve really loved Bolton’s first 2 books (and have the third here ready to read but was happy to read out of order when my library got this one in as the novels are all standalones) but did not enjoy this one quite as much. Partly this is because I think the theme of Jack the Ripper’s crimes being repeated is overdone and it bores the pants off me and I therefore found the folklore in the first half of the book more than a little tedious. I also was never entirely convinced that young Lacey’s role in the investigation was terribly realistic. I think crime writers have more license to be creative when they use ‘amateur sleuths’ as Bolton has done in the two other books I’ve read but in police procedurals things like a copper’s rank and relative experience have to ring vaguely true and here it just seemed bizarre that someone so new to the job would be given such status in the investigative team. There’s still suspense a-plenty though and the book actually got better as it went along (as the ‘Ripperology’ reduced). Rating 3 stars.

The Gallows Bird by Camilla Läckberg (translated by Steven T Murray, narrated by Eamonn Riley)

The fourth instalment of this semi-cosy series set in a small community in south-west Sweden is another solidly entertaining contribution. As always there is a strong element of the personal lives of the investigators as senior policeman Patrick Hedstrom prepares (or rather fails to prepare) for his wedding to Erica, his colleague Martin has some good news of his own and their newest colleague Hanna Kruse seems to have a rather dark secret. The story itself surrounds the death of a local shopkeeper in what is first thought to be a suicide and the subsequent linking of this to a series of other deaths around the country. There’s also a reality TV show being shot in the town and this too provides its own dramas as well as a dead body. As always the crime could be solved a bit more quickly by a bit brighter police force (and surely the poor old boss of the station deserves to have a change of luck with the ladies soon) but this does not detract from the naturally entertaining story full of humour and engaging people. I must admit I was thrilled when I learned my pre-order of the paper version of this book was not going to be issued because I thoroughly enjoy Eamonn Riley’s narration of the stories and am happy to see that volume 5 is already available via audible. Rating 3.5 stars

The Man Who Went up in Smoke by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (translated by Joan Tate)

The second of 10 books featuring Martin Beck sees the protagonist called back from his summer holiday (after only 1 day) to head off to Budapest on the search for a journalist who has disappeared. In an attempt to avoid an international incident of any kind the investigation is an unofficial one though Beck does interact with both the Swedish embassy and the Hungarian police.  As something of a late starter to this series (first published 40 years ago) I am slowly reading them in order and finding them quite a treat, especially these editions from Harper Perennial which have forwards by modern-day crime writers (here it’s Val McDermid) and lots of interesting titbits at the end (interviews and wotnot). The story itself is tautly written, full of a dry humour (for which both the authors and the translator must be particularly congratulated) and makes compelling reading. I loved the sense of location (much of the story takes place in Hungary) and the period which somehow manages to convey the differences to today’s world without making it feel dated. Rating 3.5 stars.

Ashes to Dust by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Philip Roughton)

Reading the the third tale to feature Reykjavik lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir felt a lot like visiting the home of a good friend who you don’t see often enough. Three (and a quarter) bodies are discovered in the basement of a house on an Icelandic island which, along with its neighbours, was abandoned during the 1973 eruption of the island’s volcano. Although people have returned to live on the island this particular stretch of houses was covered by lava and ash and is only now being incorporated into an archaeological project. Thóra’s client Markus wants to rescue some items from his home before the project takes over but he is not expecting the bodies. When he becomes a suspect in the crime that led to their burial Thóra takes it upon herself to investigate the decades-old secrets being kept by various islanders. I love the combination of humour, domestic life and somewhat haphazard investigative style that are the hallmarks of this series though do have to admit that a bit of editing could have helped this instalment along (it’s 450+ pages for what is ultimately a fairly simple story). Still I did find the history of the island and its volcanic eruption very engaging and the starring role of Thóra’s secretary was a real treat in this outing. Rating 3.5 stars

Halfway Down the Stairs

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OK the title really doesn’t have any relevance as this is a post about being half way through the reading year and reflecting on my favourite books so far. But I never think of the word halfway without remembering my favourite A A Milne poem. As I wrote about way back in the early days of this blog one of my very favourite bookish presents was a copy of When We Were Very Young and Halfway Down is my favourite poem from it (other people can recite Keats and Wordsworth by heart, I can do A A Milne).

Anyway, on to the favourites. Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is collating people’s thoughts on this very topic so do stop by her blog and tell her your favourite reads so far this year. Given the overall improvement in the quality of my reading these days I could easily list a top 30 or 40 books but I suspect that is not the spirit of things so I’ve whittled it down to a favourite ten. I’ll be curious to see how many of them survive to appear in my favourite books for the year. Could I possibly read ten better books than this in the remaining 6 months of Twenty Ten?

Review: Awakening by S J Bolton

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I picked up Awakening a couple of nights ago and planned to read for 10 minutes before heading to bed. Before I knew it I was on page 162, had a crick in my neck from sitting so still and was semi-seriously pondering whether I could call in sick the next day. I’m not (quite) that irresponsible but I did stay up way too late the next night because I simply had  to  know. It’s been a while since a book hooked me like this and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Awakening is set in a small English village. One morning, Clara Benning, a wildlife vet who lives in the village, receives a desperate plea for help from a neighbour who reports a snake has made its way into her baby’s cot. Unfortunately, incidents involving snakes only increase and become more dangerous and Clara gets caught up in events in a quite terrifying way.  I’m not going to reveal any more of the plot because one of the things that made the book so gripping for me was that I didn’t know anything about what to expect next and if you should choose to read the book you should have the same chance. All I’ll say is that it was full of suspense and unexpected turns and it’s one of very, very few of the many 500+ page books I’ve read recently that I haven’t mentally edited as I read.

Another  aspect of the book that hooked me was Clara, from whose perspective the story is told. She’s clever and brave but a bit of a curmudgeon (though a young one) which would all be good enough but there’s an additional element provided by her badly scarred face.  Bolton has done a terrific job of depicting how the presence of the scarring has influenced Clara’s development and behaviour and choices in life and I found myself interested in Clara for her own sake as well as for her contribution to plot development.

There are some other good characters, including the local Assistant Superintendent and a Steve Irwin-style reptile expert and documentary maker but the other ‘character’ that really stands out is the village itself. It’s people as a collective and a dark event in its history play a key role in the story which is yet another reminder that rural life isn’t always as idyllic as the postcards would have us city girls believe.

I enjoyed S J Bolton’s first book, Sacrifice, but found Awakening even better. Once again Bolton has created a credible picture of a remote setting, filled it with interesting people and has elevated her storytelling abilities to an even better art form.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating 5/5

Publisher: Transworld [2009]; ISBN: 9780552156141; Length 538  pages; Setting: England, present-day.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Awakening has also been reviewed at Euro Crime and at D J’s Krimiblog where Dorte explains how she experienced a credibility issue with the book that spoiled it a bit for her.

Review: Sacrifice by S J Bolton

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Title: Sacrifice

Author: S J Bolton

Publisher: Bantam Press [2008]

ISBN: 978-0-593-05912-8

Tora Hamilton is an obstetric surgeon who moves to the Shetland Isles with her husband Duncan, a native of the Isles who hasn’t been home for twenty years. As she’s digging a hole to bury her horse on her farm she finds the body of a young woman buried in the peat. It wouldn’t be a mystery novel if this were a straightforward discovery of course and a series of increasingly sinister events follows as Tora and a local police woman try to find out who the woman is and how she cam to be buried there.

I’m a city girl. In my 20′s I spent three years living in a semi-rural location but, although there were aspects of the lifestyle I appreciated, I never felt at home there like I do with the hum, pace and capacity for anonymity of urban life. Despite my preference, or possibly because of it, I am a sucker for the unfamiliarity of stories set in isolated places which is why I grabbed a copy of Sacrifice based on nothing but the setting. And the book delivers: depicting a sense of the isolation, darkness and hard-to-penetrate community that I have always imagined exists in such places. It’s one of the most evocative books I’ve read in a long time.

It’s also a pretty good yarn: full of twists and suspense and that page-turning ‘pull’ of a good story. The complex plot is a little too convoluted in a couple of spots but overall it hangs together well and is credible within the context of the environment that Bolton has created. The traditional folklore elements of the story are well researched and integrated nicely with the modern thriller which is a rare thing and quite remarkable for a debut novel.

As far as characters go Tora is quite typical of the genre in that she’s an ordinary woman who keeps going despite the many nasty things that are done to and around her. However she’s more credible than many in these fictional situations. She doesn’t develop sudden abilities to fight like a ninja as happens so often and her decisions are within the boundaries of what the average human might choose to do in the circumstances. Her changing reflections on whether or not she could trust the people around her were a good device for advancing the plot and there are some real insights about Tora’s relationships with other women that really rang true for me. Dana Tulloch, the Detective Sergeant who investigates the case, is the other character who holds the novel together and she too grows as the story unfolds and is someone I found myself wondering about when I wasn’t reading the book. The male characters are not as well developed which is partly due to their lesser roles but even with that proviso there was room for them to be a little more than the two dimensional good guys or bad guys they were portrayed as.

I thoroughly enjoyed being transported off to the windswept and mysterious Shetland Isles and will be actively looking for Bolton’s next book.

My rating 4/5

Other stuff

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