Author: Alexandra

Slow Week

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I’m having a slow week, this week. That’s to be expected given the weather seems to be alternate days of drizzle or rain, broken up by the odd afternoon, or morning of dry. We haven’t really seen the sun(shine) since the weekend and, according to the weather report last night, we won’t see it again for another 6 days.

Yes, six more days of drizzle/rain is forecast. Joy of joys. So, what’s a girl to do? 

Why, create a new project that’s been brewing for a bit and, of course, go take time out on the couch to finish that book I started last Saturday. 

At least everything is looking greener out there.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

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I do love me a thoroughly twisted and suspenseful mystery and The Last Thing He Told Me is exactly that. Laura Dave throws Hannah, step-mum to Bailey, right in at the deep end of the ocean and, I might add, us along with them. We’re left peering over Hannah’s shoulder the whole way, as she desperately tries to figure out what’s going on and, just who the hell her new husband is, before all is lost.

This is as much a character study of Bailey and Hannah as it is a mystery, and Laura Dave does a great job of slowly unraveling said mystery one breadcrumb at a time, leaving the reader in the dark as much as Hannah and Bailey. I had my suspicions and, just when I thought I knew what was happening, the author adds a whole new set of wrinkles. And that’s when you realise you have no idea who Hannah’s husband Owen is anymore than Hannah does.

The tensions throughout are never over played, and there’s just enough going on by way of mystery to keep us guessing as to who Owen actually is, and why he’s vanished at the start of the novel. And boy, when you find out, how the past stitches into the present, and just where or, I should say, what the future holds, it’s totally not what you’re expecting. The twists are so damn clever. All of which I can’t talk about here, in this review least I spoilt the surprises. You will just have to find out for yourself. And let me tell you, they were well worth the subtle build up.

We have a small supporting cast who are all well delineated and play their parts well. But the story is, at its heart, not just a mystery but a story of a woman and teenager bonding and coming together in the face of a dawning revelation.

It’s about how Dave takes these characters, throws them off a cliff, and then, shows us how they not only survive, but help one another in the face of uncertainty and mounting adversity.

The Last Thing He Told Me is tightly written, taut and suspenseful, and a thoroughly absorbing mystery that doesn’t let up until the last page. So if, like me, you love slow-burning cleverly-written thrillers, then this one is a definite must.

Simply put, this is an excellent read.

The Windsor Knot by SJ Bennett

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This debut novel from the imaginative and decidedly twisted mind of S J Bennett is one of the best reads I’ve had this year, and that’s saying something given the quality of reads I’ve had of late. But what Bennett has done is capture the essence of Her Majesty, QEII, and turned her into a veritable royal Miss Marple in this lovely homage to Agatha Christie. Our much beloved sovereign is on top form in THE WIDSOR KNOT, sleuthing her way quietly through her ninetieth birthday celebrations, at Windsor Castle, during the spring of 2016.

For me, Bennett really captures both the best of a Christie novel, with an MC second to none. Updating for a modern sensibilities, complete with multiple murders, a clever, layered mystery, and political intrigue that is spot on—with a ‘hot button’ topic and issue ripped directly from today’s headlines. Throw in a great supporting cast of characters not least of which, aiding and abetting Her Majesty is Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, who’s the perfect foil to QEII. And you have a smart, elegant, clever murder mystery that delivers on so many levels.

With sneak peeks into life as we might imagine it, within the walls of Windsor castle, and the daily life of a long-serving Queen. Not to mention, the involvement of the Met Police and MI5 who are left high and dry when you have the resource to hand that the Queen does. Razor sharp observations, droll and as dry as the Sahara, our erstwhile sleuth, Her Majesty the Queen of England, is one of the most unusual characters to pop up solving crime in, well, a long time. And some of the throw away scenes between her and Philip are, well, priceless.

“Last thing you want is to be discovered in a royal palace with your goolies out.” “Philip!” “No, I mean it. No wonder everyone’s keeping it hush-hush. That, and protecting your fragile nerves.” The Queen threw him a look. “They forget. I’ve lived through a world war, that Ferguson girl, and you in the navy.”

I can still hear the Queen’s quiet, lilting voice echoing in my head along with that of Rozie, the Queen’s accomplice in crime-solving. Two wonderfully written characters, piecing together a series of nasty murders that all lead back to … well, that I cannot tell you, it would spoil the fun. Just go pick up your own copy and find out for yourself just who did what, to whom and why. The Windsor Knot has all the hallmark signs of being a long-running, best-selling cosy-mystery series that I, for one, am going to thoroughly enjoy reading.

Long may you reign, Lilibet!

Mini Movie Reviews

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In the spirit of the Mini Book Review trending about the web, I thought to write my own (rather sarcastic, or it that, scathing?) mini movie reviews. You’ve been warned, there are …

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Murder on the Orient Express — A movie in which twelve suspects of varying social status have three minutes of screen time to convince Kenneth Branagh—er, I mean, Poirot—that they are not the killer of Johnny Depp’s despicable character and the obvious bad guy.

With a waveringly bad accent, the heroic Hercule Poirot confronts the suspects—who are artfully arranged at a table in the mouth of the train tunnel to look like Da Vinci’s Last Super—and recounts a series of events in flashback to solve the mystery.

And … they all did it.

3 Billboards outside Ebbings, Missouri — A foul-mouth red-neck woman hurls abuse at the town’s Sheriff and his inept, racist department for not finding her daughter’s killer. In a last ditch effort to get the dying Sheriff to find a clue, she rents three billboards to get her message across. More swearing and ultra violence ensues before the Sheriff blows his brains out, and a disgraced deputy miraculously over-hears someone bragging in a bar of his rape conquest.

Disgraced deputy and foul-mouthed woman team up, and go on a road-trip to murder the bragging rapist.

Lady Bird — A dull, coming of-age movie in which the two central characters of a mother and daughter hurl derogatory abuse at one another. Where the character of Christine ‘Lady Bird,’ a senior at Catholic high school about to graduate and go to college, acts like a self-centred spoilt child in a series of lack-lustre vignettes. The two best of which are wasted in the trailer for the movie to make you think this is a comedy. It isn’t.

Dunkirk — A long, slow, and violent look at the evacuation of 400,000 Allied troops from the beaches at Dunkirk, via three interwoven threads, confusingly mixed at random. With a total lack of regard to any continuity, we see disturbing images of men drowning, men being blown up, men running along a beach. Men waiting in long lines out in the open, waiting to be shot at by the enemy. Men screaming and jumping off sinking ships, and drowning in long drawn out sequences to heroic, and very jarring music.

There is little or no credible dialogue, as there are few speaking parts. One of which is Kenneth Branagh as a Naval Officer stood on a pier looking heroically out to sea, or to the sky, for deliverance. There is none … for him, or for us.

And there you have it, of course, this is all just my opinion. No popcorn was harm in the writing of these scathing reviews.

We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson

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WE RIDE THE STORM by Devin Madson has definitely been a wild ride of murder, mayhem, and enough twists and turns to make a reader dizzy! Madson is not averse to throwing in a good blindside. So that, just when you think you know what’s going on, she sucker punches you in the gut with a twist you never saw coming.

Well, for me at least, there were some really delicious twists I never saw coming. And let me tell you, that’s a rare achievement in and of itself.

It is this gift, along with the narrative and telling the story through the eyes of not one, but three main protagonist, and, in the first person no less, that seals the deal. Making WE RIDE THE STORM one of the best reads I’ve had, well, since Chakraborty’s DAEVABAD series of books. Madson has created three outstanding threads and then, has woven them into a fast emotional cohesive roller coaster read that meant I was page turning at a faster rate than I’m normally use to.

The choice of showing us this world through three sets of eyes is, for me, a clever way to tell a story that is much larger in scope than just a single individual protagonist might show us. Thus giving us a better foundation of the factions and players involved in an escalating war between nations.

I really enjoyed how Madson approached this aspect of her world building, in creating the set up, the battles, the politics and the repercussions of decisions and actions taken. It makes for a rich, satisfying read without the usual info dumps fantasy is want to throw at us. The author gives us just enough to make up our own minds about the central factions involved: the Roman-inspired Chiltae in the north, the horse-loving Levanti of the dry plains, and, in the southern region, the Japanese-styled Kisia Empire where politics and protocol rule the day.

This sets us up to enjoy three very different styled cultures, their politics, religion, and daily lives, which are all in stark contrast to one another.

The other aspect of reading three individual threads, and in the first person, gives us a chance to really connect with the characters on different level and see not only their thoughts, but feel the depth of their emotions too. How they react to difficult event and respond to the drama forced upon them makes it gut-wrenching and painfully personal. The pain and the brutality they suffer, the confusion, the doubt, plus the small moments of triumph mixed in with the dreadful realisation that despite their best efforts to the contrary, they might not change the course of the war, survive unscathed, or even come out of the war alive.

All makes for a compelling, page turning read.

Of the three characters, while I thoroughly enjoyed Miko’s personal war in her fight to save Kisia from an invading Chiltae army, it was Cassandra who captured my attention the most.

Here is a woman forced by strange circumstances into a life where she’s not only become a whore, in order to live, but one of the best, and highest paid assassins Chiltae has ever known. But that’s not all. Cassandra has a whole other set of daemons. Real or imagined? You’ll find out. From the strange voice in her head: Her. Who is also able—in times of great stress—to take over Cassandra’s body. To the the fact she hears the dead singing and calling out where ever she goes, you wonder how this woman has not only managed to survive, but hasn’t gone quite mad in the meantime. I am so looking forward to learning more about her as this series progresses.

The least exciting of the three, for me personally, was the straight arrow, Rah e’Torin, of the Levanti. While it was interesting to learn more about him, his people, and his battle of wits and strength against not only his Chiltae capturers, but one of his own, Herd Master Gideon. I felt he never really had as much of an impact as did Miko or Cassandra. Others may say differently. That’s the delight of a book like WE RIDE THE STORM. There’s something for everyone in here. Oh, and did I mention, ritual beheading? Yeah … that’s what I thought too.

From some deliciously witty dialogue, to political intrigue at its best, to devious machinations and betrayal on a brutal scale, we are delivered a thoroughly immersive read where the action is visceral, the characters compelling, and an over-arching story that will leave you, I hope, like me, wanting more!