Category: Fiction

‘The Nothing Man’ – Catherine Ryan Howard

Thank you Catherine Ryan Howard for giving me such a read for my final book of 2022. A book about a serial killer might seem an unusual choice to rate so highly, but this was clever…and once I’d started I really didn’t want to put it down.

The story focuses on a decades-old series of crimes committed by the killer dubbed the Nothing Man. Though he seems to have got away with his crimes, Eve Black survived the attack on her family. She was twelve when The Nothing Man broke into her home, killed her younger sister, raped her mother and left her father dead at the bottom of the stairs. Eve has taken years to feel comfortable talking about her experience, and has now written a book that examines what happened.

Eve’s book has become something of a runaway hit, and it has everyone in Cork talking about this killer. No traces of him were ever found at the scenes of his crimes, and nobody linked to the attacks is seemingly able to offer any details that could help to catch him. But Eve maintains that her book will help in the ongoing pursuit of this killer.

Alongside the fictional book that has generated such interest, we are given the character of Jim. Never has a title felt more fitting as Jim was – is – The Nothing Man. Now in his early sixties, and a security guard in a local shopping centre, Jim’s viewpoint focuses on him learning about the book and his desperate attempts to find out exactly what Eve recalls of that night…and how he can stop her before she reveals what she knows.

From start to finish this was a compelling read. While the details given about the crimes were sparse, enough was given to help us understand the horror of such scenes. I was strangely absorbed by the character of Jim and the insight into his mind, though the real hit was the decision to let the story unfold through the pages of this fictional book.

A clever read, which was paced perfectly, and which I’m surprised not to have heard more about. It’s certainly one that I’d recommend.

 

‘The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels’ – Janice Hallett

It’s fitting that at around the same time last year I was reading The Twyford Code, since ending the year’s reading with the latest offering from Janice Hallett could quite easily become a part of my Christmas routine. Another great example of a story where nothing is quite as it seems, where the characters know a lot more than they realise and where we are privy to the secrets before we quite understand their significance.

With the mention of a key to a safety deposit box holding the only copies of research by author Amanda Bailey at the start, I was immediately intrigued. The research was focused on the case of the Alperton Angels and Amanda’s quest to find the right angle to hinge her upcoming book on.

While the premise of the book drew me in, it took a while for me to fully engage with the intricacies of the story. The relationship between Amanda and her former associate Oliver was a puzzling one, and the vast array of characters and material being discussed made it quite tricky to keep track of the key events. Certain anomalies in the story stuck out, but were not drawn attention to…at least, that is how it seemed.

Everything centres on the case of the Alperton Angels, a group of people who believed they were angels on earth. Three of the group were found in a deserted basement, their throats cut and evidence of satanic rituals. The purported leader of the group is in prison for the murder of a young restaurant worker, and many believe him to be responsible for the other deaths. A young girl and boy were rescued at the scene, and the baby at the centre of the case was adopted afterwards and their current identity is unknown. Almost eighteen years after the event interest is high, and Amanda is keen to learn the identity of the baby and hopes to discover exactly what happened.

Unfortunately, anyone who has investigated this case has a nasty habit of meeting an untimely death. Supernatural forces at play, or a more mundane attempt by those involved to cover up the truth of what happened? As Amanda and Oliver race to find their truth, each gets drawn into the story in ways they could not have foreseen. Shadowy figures and things that are not recalled clearly by witnesses make this a frustrating case to examine…but once we know the truth (or what seems to be the truth) it’s hard not to be impressed by what Hallett offers.

Again, thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this before publication, and thanks to Viper books for spotting another great story.

‘All the Dangerous Things’ – Stacy Willingham

I’m pleased to report to have been wildly off the mark with my guesses about what happened here, and that really is testimony to the plotting and execution of the story.

Isabelle Drake is a woman struggling. One year ago her toddler son disappeared from his bedroom. There has been no trace of him, and Isabelle is convinced that in some corners she is blamed for what happened. Her marriage has broken up and she is having difficulty sleeping. After talking at a true crime convention Isabelle meets with someone involved in a podcast. She wants to tell her story, though she fears telling it might incriminate her in some way.

As we become more immersed in Isabelle’s story we learn details of her past that lead us to believe she might have been involved. She has memories of events in her past that strongly implicate her.

From the moment we start to learn more about Isabelle and her history, it was hard to gauge where this was going. There were snippets that would hint at the story going one way, and then we’d shift into an alternate place. It was genuinely hard to pinpoint quite which details were pertinent and how we were being manipulated.

I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this prior to publication (scheduled for January 2023). A truly satisfying thriller.

 

 

‘The Kind Worth Killing’ – Peter Swanson

I only wish I’d found this sooner…such a good read!

When Ted meets Lily as he’s waiting for his plane he is struck by her beauty. Over a couple of drinks they get talking, and during the flight play a bizarre game of truth. Ted admits that he thinks his wife is having an affair and he discusses killing her.

A seemingly crazy scheme is hatched and we get caught up in a series of events that appear to have been set in motion many years previously. Neither Lily nor Ted is quite what they claim to be, so then to factor in Ted’s wife and her scheming I really did half think they deserved each other!

This was a book that had to be read carefully to ensure links were not missed. The machinations unfolding in front of us made me very worried for the human race but thankful that some of the best villains can be painted in words.
By the time we got to the end a small part of me really wanted them to get their come-uppance, while also applauding the ingenuity that allowed them to get away with what they did.

I understand there is a second in the series and wonder what will happen. Definitely one to try and get my hands on!

 

‘All Systems Red’ – Martha Wells

All Systems Red is one of my final 2022 Popsugar prompts, and this Hugo Award winner is an intriguing start to a series.
Our main character (for want of a better word) is a security android that has – because it fears for the safety of the humans it is tasked with protecting – amended its system so that it does not have to follow commands. It protects its crew because it chooses to, but this means it does not behave as it’s expected to. Murderbot, as it likes to be called, is something of an anomaly.
When it is sent with its crew to try and find out what happened to a neighbouring team, we soon realise that somebody is interfering with this planetary exploration. We don’t know why, or for what reason, but it certainly indicates that something big is in the offing.
I enjoyed the fact that we see events through the eyes of someone who doesn’t quite understand the world they’re in. The internal monologue of Murderbot offers a unique perspective on events, and although I didn’t feel like many (in fact, most) of my questions were answered it was the kind of book that hinted at something very interesting taking place.

 

‘Deacon King Kong’ – James McBride

Set in 1969, the book begins in dramatic fashion with the shooting of a young drug dealer by the elderly man who used to teach him to play baseball. Known as Sportcoat, though he commits a crime in front of many witnesses, people seem to look after their own and nobody says anything. The dealer, Deems, survives but it marks the onset of a curious turn of events.

While the opening was immediately captivating, it took me a while to settle into the rhythm of the book. I found myself wondering exactly what I was reading as we’re introduced to a colourful cast of characters that I found it hard to warm to.

At times I found myself laughing at the darkly comic way in which McBride writes about their tribulations, then I wondered if this was insensitive. Was I missing something? I’m still not sure.

As we follow the events that ripple out from the shooting of Deems it was clear that we were being given the opportunity to see a community in transition. The growing issue of drug abuse and the threat it poses to the previously manageable way of life was interesting. The stories interlinking the characters felt a little contrived on occasion, but believable in this context.

Deacon King Kong is not a book that I would necessarily have chosen to read if it weren’t for the 2022 Pop Sugar Challenge. It is certainly a book I would read again, and an author I would be keen to try more of.

 

‘The Sharp Edge of Silence’ – Cameron Kelly Rosenblum

The Sharp Edge of Silence examines toxic masculinity and its impact from the perspectives of those it affects.

Set in the privileged Lycroft School, students are accustomed to being asked who they want to be. Their alumni take up powerful positions in society, which makes this a read that you can’t help but notice.

Our story focuses on a number of students, among them Quinn who has returned to school having been raped by one of the star athletes at the end of the previous year. We also experience life at school through the eyes of her roommate, girlfriend of one of the rowers implicated, a scholarship student inducted into the rowing team and his best friend. There are also snippets on interactions between key staff which allows us to examine this culture from a number of positions.

Although we know from early on that Quinn was raped, the book opens by focusing on her unusual behaviour upon returning to school. You’d think people would notice and they do, eventually, but my goodness is she put through the wringer before things start to get done.

Having read the synopsis of this book I was under the impression that the focus would be firmly rooted on the reaction to the event. It is, but in a much more drawn-out way than you might think. This is not a bad thing, just quite different to what I predicted, which took a while to adjust to.

Once we move into the closing stages of the book, we see more than one or two students examining their assumptions. The way the lid is blown on this sordid experience is nothing short of spectacular. Though there are repercussions for the key player involved it frustrated me no end that we never gain any insight into his mind after the truth comes out. While this might be the grim reality, part of me wants more hope from our fictional explorations of such behaviours.

I’m hugely grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this before publication, and I can’t wait to see how it’s received upon publication next year.

 

‘When Our Worlds Collided’ – Danielle Jawando

When Our Worlds Collided is a story that will rile you, dismay you but still leave you with the vague sense that there is hope.

The book began in a way that I found a little jarring, with our introduction to year 11 student Jackson who is out in Manchester on a date with the girl he’s fancied for ages. The dialogue between them felt a little unnatural on occasion, but you could put this down to awkwardness at the situation. There are occasional glimpses of a boy in a red puffa jacket, and we know this will be significant – and it isn’t long before we realise just how important. When Jackson and his date head outside they sense a shift in the mood – and then they become aware of chaos on the street. A boy has been stabbed.

While Jackson is worried about what he has seen – as a black teenager he is acutely conscious of how he is perceived – he feels compelled to try and offer assistance to the young girl doing her best to get help and stop the bleeding. The boy on the floor is the boy in the red puffa jacket. He is not known to Jackson, but 14 year old Shaq becomes a significant character for the three teenagers who stop to offer assistance.

We then follow the viewpoints of Jackson, Chantelle and Marc as they navigate their first real experience of something that they are aware of as a threat. Their reaction to Shaq’s stabbing was very believable, and I liked the fact that Jawando doesn’t shy away from some unpalatable truths about the media and how certain crimes are reported, or the evident upset felt by the two male characters.

From the moment Jackson – someone who offers assistance to a person in need – is checked out by the police because of his skin colour, it’s hard to ignore the underlying tension caused by racism. As a teacher I found myself riled up by the character of Mrs Edwards, and it made me desperately sad that in so many ways society is still determined to place unnecessary barriers in the way of others.

What happens to these three teens felt harsh, and this was more upsetting by the knowledge that this is the reality for so many people. Yet they find support from each other, and the lovely Eileen sticking with Marc when he’s not used to adults treating him with respect made me far more emotional than it should have.

While this made no difference to my enjoyment of the story, I found myself infuriated by the mistakes made in regards to grading in schools. On numerous occasions the students refer to getting grade 10s…there is no such thing! I also felt that once Jackson’s story develops it became rather lacking in credibility – perhaps if there’d been some link to Shaq’s story it might have felt credible, but everything felt rather rushed by the end – and included to make a point rather than as a realistic development of the story that had been started.

Nominated for the Yoto Carnegie 2023 Awards, I’m sensing a definite push with these nominations towards books that explore themes of identity and belonging and which have a clear focus on exploring social issues. This is certainly important, but I don’t want to lose sight of the value of just being able to recommend a book because it has a great plot or because it says something to you.

 

‘My Policeman’ – Bethan Roberts

Started again in November having read none of it last month, and this is a definite case of rounding up my review though there’s many elements of it that frustrated me.

The Policeman is a book that I only heard about when looking for a book to fulfil a PopSugar2022 category, and it tells the story of Marion and her husband, Tom, and the third wheel to their relationship, Patrick.

Our setting is 1950s Brighton. This period was evoked well, and the claustrophobic nature of the setting was necessary to highlight the key focus of the story. Marion becomes best friends with Tom’s sister and has a crush on him, she waits for him to return from National Service and engineers ways to spend time with him. Though this might seem rather forward for the time, it’s clear from the outset that Tom isn’t going to get her into the expected trouble as he is gay.

Given the time, this can’t be named. The secrecy surrounding people trying to express their feelings is something I find hard to accept, though I do think the writer presents this well. The knowing looks and euphemisms highlight just how brave someone who lived their life as they wanted to really was, but the situations that are referenced throughout emphasise just what a risk was being taken.

The book begins with Marion’s view and takes us through the beginnings of her relationship with Tom. We see them enter marriage, and when the narrative shifts to Patrick’s diary it is evident that this is not going to end well.

Through Patrick’s eyes we see his pursuit of Tom and their subsequent relationship. I felt desperately sad that these men could not be honest about their feelings for one another and that the selfishness of each of the characters led to this very messy situation.

As the book draws to its end we learn that Patrick has had a stroke and is being cared for by Marion. This is no selfless act, rather a need to atone for something she thinks she set in motion by writing a letter to Patrick’s employer. This act – though we are never sure – leads to Patrick being imprisoned for indecency, and though his charm gets him a long way we know he is beaten for being gay.

In spite of the setting and general story being presented so well, I found it difficult to understand the motivation of any of the characters. For seemingly progressive people, they were quite restricted in their thinking. I was frustrated by the fact that we never hear Tom’s view and he is only seen through the eyes of others. The hero-worship was never justified for me. The structuring of the book began well, but things moved so quickly at the end and it seems a shame that for what was clearly such a major event in Patrick’s life, so little focus was paid to what followed. Perhaps there was a reason for this – others have commented that Tom’s silence and his absence from Patrick’s life may be intentional – but it niggled. I also found myself increasingly frustrated by the fact that each of the characters was so determined to pursue their course of action in spite of it making them so bloody miserable! Was it worth it?

 

‘Never Ever Getting Back Together’ – Sophie Gonzales

Never Ever Getting Back Together was a story that I really didn’t know what to expect from…but it was so much more fun than I could have hoped for.

We are given the premise of a reality TV show (think Love Island meets The Selection) all about second chances. Even though it was two years ago, Maya still remembers how upset she was when her boyfriend of the time cheated on her. He maintains he did nothing wrong, and now he is in the public eye he is firmly in control of the narrative of their break-up. When he rings Maya and asks her to take part in this show – where he spends time in a remote location with a number of exes as he tries to work out which one he would like a second chance with – Maya, quite rightly in my view, is stunned at his audacity. However, then she takes it upon herself to see this as an opportunity to set the record straight and get her revenge.

What Maya didn’t bank on was the involvement of the other girl involved in her particular triangle, Skye. The two girls do not get off on the right foot, and while it is clear that drama between the two girls was being banked on for ratings what comes next is even more entertaining.

Over the course of their attempts to sabotage Jordy’s show, Skye and Maya end up realising they have a lot more in common than they first thought. Their relationship was far more engaging than the fake ones put in place for the show, and I could not wait to see exactly how things panned out. This was a relationship that it was hard not to root for.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this before its expected publication in November 2022.