Book Review: The Last Line by Stephen Ronson

 The Last Line

by

Stephen Ronson

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton

Publication date: 16th November 2023

Genre: Historical Fiction / Crime

Pages: 341

Price: $16.99AU (kindle edition)

Will be out in paperback in Australia on 13/2/2024

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley

 

Review: The Last Line

I have to say I love to read any stories set during WWII. I have read many and they have all been diverse in the area of the war the stories are centred on.

 

The Last Line is set in country England on the outskirts of the war zone but the citizens are still very much aware that the Germans could arrive at any minute.

 

The protagonist John Cook is a farmer but he has fought in WWI and Afghanistan. He is a trained killer.

When a young woman is found murdered on his land he is the prime suspect to a lazy police force. Knowing the murder won't be investigated further, John turns vigilante and starts his own reconnaissance work, never expecting the level of corruption he will become embroiled in.

The Last Line is a fast-paced mystery thriller written in a crime noir style narration. It is hard not to barrack for John, he is a marvelous anti-hero. There is a lot of violence throughout the novel and the main subject is quite confronting. However, I loved all the intrigue and the character of John was very believable. He made mistakes and took them badly.

The setting is fabulous - distanced from the war yet right there amongst it with children being evacuated from London and billeted to country families, whilst underground groups are setting up defence tactics if the Germans reach them.

The Last Line is a great read! I'm looking forward to another John Cook novel and wondering where he will go from here.

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Stephen Ronson grew up in Sussex, and spent a large part of his childhood exploring the woods and fields around Uckfield, many of which were still dotted with reminders of WW2 - pill boxes, tank traps, nissen huts, and graffiti left by soldiers awaiting D-Day.

He is a passionate student of local history, and when he learnt about Auxiliary Units - groups of men who were instructed to lay low during the predicted nazi invasion and lead the fight back, he knew he had to write about a Sussex farmer, one with a love of the land, and a natural desire and ability to get the job done.

Many of the locations and characters in the John Cook series are inspired by real places and real people. In particular, Stephen was inspired by his grandparents, Eric, Bessie, Peter and Vera, each of whom did their bit on the home front.

Book Review: After the Flood by Dave Warner

After the Flood

by

Dave Warner 

 

Publisher: Fremantle Press

 

Publication date: 2nd August 2022

 

Series: Dan Clement #3

Genre: Crime Fiction

 

Pages: 264 

 

RRP: $32.99AUD

 

Format read: Paperback 

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of After the Flood

 

In After the Flood Dave Warner explores the concept of past trauma shaping a person's outlook which could lead to psychopathic thoughts and deadly actions.

After the Flood delves into the urge for vengeance or revenge and the misguided belief that someone must pay for the losses suffered.

 

DI Dan Clement, troubled by his own past mistakes, is after a juicy case to get his mind off his ex-wife. The protesters at the abattoirs and the Health Clinic break-in by an anti-vaxxer aren't keeping him that busy but these cases are put on the backburner when a seemingly ritualistic murder is discovered on a remote cattle station. Is this a drug deal gone wrong or is a psychopath on the loose?

 

I really enjoyed this intriguing police procedural set in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The writing is laid back, a superb example of Aussie noir.

It was fascinating to read along as Clement and his team piece together what seem like inconsequential pieces of information to solve the puzzle and how one piece of information connects with another as the team kept digging away with the little clues that they had.

 

The story starts at a steady pace as information is gathered and the case seem to be going nowhere. Then the pace accelerates as we are taken on an adrenaline fuelled ride to the end.

 

After the Flood is superbly plotted crime fiction with an authentic Aussie flavour. It reads well as a stand alone.

 

My rating 5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

 

About the author

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

Dave Warner is an author, musician and screenwriter. After the Flood is his eleventh novel, with previous novels winning the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Fiction, and the Ned Kelly Award for best Australian crime fiction. After the Flood is the third in the Dan Clement series set in Broome in Australia's North-West. Dave first came to national prominence in 1978 with his gold album Mug's Game and his band Dave Warner's from the Suburbs. In 2017 he released his tenth album, When. He has been named a Western Australian State Living Treasure and has been inducted into the WAMi Rock'n'Roll of Renown.

 

Book Review: The Spiral by Iain Ryan

The Spiral

by

Iain Ryan 

 

Publisher:  Echo Publishing

Publication date: 2nd February 2021

Genre: Crime / Thriller

Pages: 336

RRP: $29.99AUD

Format read: Paperback 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty & Lace Book Club

 

About the book

 

Erma Bridges' life is far from perfect, but entirely ordinary. So when she is shot twice in a targetted attack by a colleague, her quiet existence is shattered in an instant.

With her would-be murderer dead, no one can give Erma the answers she needs to move on from her trauma. Why her? Why now?

So begins Erma's quest for the truth - and a dangerous, spiralling journey into the heart of darkness.

 

My review

 

The story is set around the University of Queensland, Fortitude Valley and the surrounding area. It opens with Erma called for a disciplinary meeting. A lot of names are thrown around but the reader is left in the dark as to what it is all about. Erma is sure her friend and colleague Jenny is behind the complaint. Out of the blue Jenny shoots Erma and then fatally shoots herself leaving Erma with a massive, why.
Erma’s life then spirals into dark dreams and relentlessly pursuing Jenny’s last movements.

Iain Ryan explores the concept of the choose your own adventure and gameplay novels as Erma is doing research to write a book on the history of these books. I remember my sons reading these although they weren’t quite as complex as the books referred to here. You the reader were in charge of the plot. Your decisions had consequences and you never knew ahead what they might be. Ryan draws parallels between these books and Erma’s life decisions, actions and consequences.

The plot is complex, running multiple plot lines, and like a jigsaw puzzle you have to piece together snippets of information each seemingly inconsequential and unrelated until you put them together and reveal the final picture.
When I started the book I was totally confused and I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it. Well my fears were soon allayed! The story was tense and gripping and I read the book in one day, on the edge of my seat through the second half as Ryan smashes out the twists one after the other.

In this genre mixing novel a Fantasy thread is introduced with Sero the Barbarian searching to regain his lost memory. This is told through Erma’s nightmares and often linked to Erma’s actual life events and hidden fears.
Erma’s character was hard to connect with. Her penchant for violence brought about by teenage trauma and exacerbated by a case of PSTD seemed more akin to a gangland member than a University supervisor. However, even though she wasn’t totally likeable I still felt I wanted her to come through each situation and hopefully heal herself mentally.

I love noir fiction and I love fantasy so I enjoyed both genres within the book. I think the mixing of genres could have been a risky move but worked well for this reader.

The Spiral will appeal to readers who like dark and gritty Noir Fiction.

 

4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This review was originally on the Beauty and Lace website and you can read it here 

 

About the author

 

Credit: Goodreads

Iain Ryan grew up in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. He predominantly writes in the hardboiled/noir genre and his work has been previously published by Akashic Books (New York), Crime Factory (Melbourne) and Broken River Books (Portland). His most recent novel 'The Student' is available now via Echo Publishing/Bonnier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenges entered: Aussie author challenge #AussieAuthor21

                                 Cloak & Dagger challenge 

 

Book Review: Blood Will Have Blood by Thomas H Carry

 Blood Will Have Blood

by

Thomas H. Carry

Publisher: Bad Alley Books

Publication date:  19th January 2021

Genre: Crime

Pages: 223

Format read: eBook

Source: Courtesy of Smith Publicity Services

 

About the book

 

Seven years in New York, and that big break has yet to materialize for struggling actor and inveterate pothead Scott Russo. Performing in terrible, barely attended Off-Off Broadway productions, hopping from one soul-crushing job to the next, Scott slacks away in a pot-fueled haze and contemplates throwing in the towel on his anemic career. The only thing that keeps him going is the humiliation of returning home to Baltimore. That and his current theatrical gig: an idiotically bad production of Macbeth.

Broke and out of a job, Scott jumps at his friend’s offer to work for a pot delivery service, only to get caught in a web of brutal Irish gangsters, a charismatic psychopath, ruthless prosecutors, and clueless actors. As his theatrical and criminal worlds collide in mayhem, murder, and betrayal, Scott finds himself morphing into a bumbling and blood-stained Macbeth, on stage and off.

If he can just make it to opening night…  

My review

I really enjoyed this gritty crime novel. My first book by Thomas H Carry.

Scott is a down and out actor, doped up on pot, wondering where his life is going but not having the motivation to really care. Scott has a disdain for the scrabble for big money. Basically he was lazy! However when friend and pot delivery guy Freddie suggests he join the postmen, a pot delivery service, Scott’s disdain for big money soon diminishes as he sees this as an easy way to make himself some big money.
 

Carry’s writing style is edgy with plenty of dark humour and the setting of New York City with its seedy underworld of territorial crime bosses and the grab for power was easily imagined.
 

What at first looks like easy money soon sees Scott complicit to murder and by the time he realises he needs to get out of this, everything conspires against him to wedge him deeper and deeper into the deadly game.
 

The story had me on the edge of my seat and had me eagerly reading with no idea where the plot would go or how Scott could possibly get out of this situation.

There is plenty of violence and it’s a bit gruesome but I feel it wasn’t overdone.
 

I enjoyed the connection between Scott’s real life dramas and his acting part as Macbeth and how the more his life unravelled the better his acting became.
 

Blood Will Have Blood is a cleverly plotted, gritty noir crime which will appeal to fans of Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block and Lou Berney.

 

5/5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Meet the author

 

Thomas H. Carry's debut novel, Privilege (Koehler Books, 2020), was an Amazon bestseller in satire fiction and named one of the best 100 indie novels of 2020 by Kirkus Review. Carry holds a doctorate in literature and has worked as a professional actor, educator, consultant, and bouncer. He lives in Manhattan with his wife.

 

 

 

 

Challenges entered: Cloak and Dagger challenge

 

 

Book Club Book Review: Death in the Ladies' Goddess Club by Julian Leatherdale

Death in the Ladies' Goddess Club

by

Julian Leatherdale

Publisher: Allen & Unwin 
Publication date: 3rd March 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction / Mystery
Pages: 400
RRP: $29.99AUD
Format read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty & Lace Book Club 

 

 In the murky world of Kings Cross in 1932, aspiring crime writer Joan Linderman and her friend and flatmate Bernice Becker live the wild bohemian life, a carnival of parties and fancy-dress artists' balls.

One Saturday night, Joan is thrown headfirst into a real crime when she finds Ellie, her neighbour, murdered. To prove her worth as a crime writer and bring Ellie's killer to justice, Joan secretly investigates the case in the footsteps of Sergeant Lillian Armfield.

But as Joan digs deeper, her list of suspects grows from the luxury apartment blocks of Sydney's rich to the brothels and nightclubs of the Cross's underclass.
Death in the Ladies' Goddess Club is a riveting noir crime thriller with more surprises than even novelist Joan bargained for: blackmail, kidnapping, drug-peddling, a pagan sex cult, undercover cops, and a shocking confession.

After reading the blurb I really thought I would love this story of 1930’s Kings Cross. The Cross had such an eclectic mix of people in its community in the 30’s. Living as neighbours were showgirls, prostitutes, the well to do, those down on their luck, artists, gays, transvestites and the bohemian set. This mix gives for some great story telling.

Julian Leatherdale centres his story on the ideals and philosophies of the bohemian artist groups of the time. Although a purely fictional tale there are mentions of some of the greats of the era and a few historical events of note at that time.

Joan Linderman, a journalist and wannabe crime writer, falls in with the bohemians and their drugs, sex and alcohol parties via flamboyant flatmate Bernice, a successful novelist and poet.

When a tenant at their boarding house is found murdered, Joan decides to start her own investigation and at the same time collect ideas for her crime novel.

Death in the Ladies’ Goddess Club is largely a character driven story and I felt the murder mystery played second fiddle to the politics of the time and the sex, drugs, partying and dark underbelly of the cross.

I felt the end wrapped up too neatly and the twist was so left field it left me dazed.

Death in the Ladies’ Goddess Club will appeal to Historical Fiction readers who enjoy the true historical side of the genre.

⭐⭐⭐

Photo credit: Goodreads

 Julian Leatherdale’s first love was the theatre. On graduation from a theatre studies degree at the University of NSW, he wrote lyrics for four satirical cabarets and a two-act musical. He discovered a passion for popular history as a staff writer, researcher and photo editor for Time-Life’s Australians At War series. He later researched and co-wrote two Film Australia-ABC documentaries Return to Sandakan and The Forgotten Force shown on the ABC and overseas. He was an image researcher at the State Library of NSW before joining the NSW Cabinet Office writing policy briefs for the Premier. For some years he was the public relations manager for an international hotel school in the Blue Mountain. 
Julian sadly passed away on 22nd April 2020 after a short illness.

This review is from the Beauty & Lace Book Club 

@beautyandlacemag #beautyandlacebookclub 

and part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

#AussieAuthor20

 

Book Review: I Will Miss You Tomorrow by Heine Bakkeid #BRPreview

I Will Miss You Tomorrow

by

Heine Bakkeid

Translated from Norwegian by  Anne Bruce

Publisher: Bloomsbury Australia 
Imprint: Raven Books 
Publication date: 14th November 2019
Series: Thorkild Aske #1
Genre: Crime / Thriller
Pages: 416
RRP: $29.99
Format read: Uncorrected proof paperback 
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading

The first in a new Norwegian crime series featuring disgraced ex-Chief Inspector Thorkild Aske, a damaged man with a complicated past

Fresh out of prison and a stint in a psychiatric hospital, disgraced ex-policeman Thorkild Aske only wants to lose himself in drugged dreams of his beloved Frei. Wild, unknowable Frei. The woman he loved. The woman he has lost forever.
 
Yet when Frei's young cousin goes missing off the Norwegian coast and Thorkild is called in by the family to help find him, dead or alive, Thorkild cannot refuse. He owes them this.
 
Tormented by his past, Thorkild soon finds himself deep in treacherous waters. He's lost his reputation – will he now lose his life? 

Thorkild Aske, former police interrogator, has recently been released from prison when he is asked by an acquaintance to look into the disappearance of his son. Thorkild is not keen but decides to take the job hoping it will take his mind off his own pain following the death of a young woman he was dating. His search takes him to an abandoned lighthouse where his mind starts to spiral into depression.

Told in the first person by Thorkild the reader is left questioning what is real and what is in his head. It is hard work following Thorkild’s mind as he is sporadic and a little unstable living on a cocktail of drugs. I Will Miss You Tomorrow has a complex plot and with a few red herrings thrown in, the perpetrator and the reason came as a complete surprise.

There are parts of the story where you will need to suspend believe. Thorkild manages to get into, and out of, many life and death situations.

Thorkild was hard to connect with although I did enjoy his dry sense of humour and I am looking forward to the next book in the series hoping that our protagonist has gotten over his drug dependency and his suicidal tendencies.

I Will Miss You Tomorrow is eerie, tense and atmospheric with a little paranormal element. Nordic Noir with a good dose of disquiet. 

                           🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My rating 3.5 upped to 4/5 because it's a debut and I like to cut debut authors a bit of slack.

 

 Heine Bakkeid grew up in the rugged landscape of northern Norway. I Will Miss You Tomorrow is Bakkeid's first venture into crime fiction, and has earned him in his home country the critics' recognition as a virtuoso of darkly atmospheric suspense.

                               About the translator 

Anne Bruce has degrees in Norwegian and English from Glasgow University. She lives in Scotland.

Book Review: A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson

A Nearly Normal Family

by

M. T. Edvardsson

translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Aus
Publication date: 25th June 2019
Pages: 480
RRP: $29.99AUD
Format read: paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher 

Nineteen-year-old Stella stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost fifteen years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him?

Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect. Told in an unusual three-part structure, A Nearly Normal Family asks the questions: How well do you know your own children? How far would you go to protect them?

A Nearly Normal Family is a twisty tale of deception and lies. Set in Lund, Sweden it is a gripping legal drama written in the Nordic Noir tradition.

Stella Sandell is accused of murder and as she sits in a cell awaiting trial her parents fumble, lie, take matters into their own hands, quarrel and fall apart. But mostly they question themselves. Did their parenting lead to this day?

The story is told in three parts giving the point of view of the father, a pastor, the mother, a defense attorney and the daughter, Stella.

The father: he will do anything to save his daughter, maybe even lie. Throughout he questions himself. Was he a good father? Did he do enough for Stella? Did he do too much?

I found the father’s narration a bit long and slow. He was so deeply concerned with what people would think and how he’d failed. He was worn down by cares and moral dilemmas.

Stella: Stella’s story is told in alternating present tense, in jail, and past tense, what led up to her arrest. Stella had such a commanding voice in the story and I really became to feel for her and understand her. She had a compulsion for action that she couldn’t control.

The mother: we don’t get much insight into the mother before this and she comes across as bitter and distant. Her part of the story is mainly the court case which is very intense and dramatic.

Edvardsson has used some very clever plotting feeding out small, disjointed pieces of information causing the reader to make their own assumptions by filling in the gaps. This had me changing my opinion again and again. The mystery kept me enthralled and I never guessed the twists upon twists. I was quite shocked by the ending.

Recommended for readers of family dramas and legal dramas.

A special mention to Rachel Willson-Broyles for such a smooth, faultless translation. 

                          🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 My rating    4.5/5

Content: Minimal coarse  language
                 mentions of rape

Photo credit: Goodreads

M. T. Edvardsson is a writer and teacher from Trelleborg, Sweden.

He is the author of three previous novels and two books for young readers. Edvardsson lives with his family in Löddeköpinge, Sweden.