Monday 30 January 2017

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz


X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon
First published by Candlewick Press in America in January 2015. Candlewick on Brilliance Audio edition, narrated by Dion Graham, published in January 2015.
Winner of the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teens.

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy from independent booksellers via Alibris
Buy the audiobook from Audible via Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk
Buy the hardback from The Book Depository

How I got this book:
Downloaded from AudioSYNC

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am Malcolm.
I am my father's son.
But to be my father's son means that they will always come for me.
They will always come for me, and I will always succumb.
Malcolm Little's parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's nothing but a pack of lies - after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There's no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm's efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory when what starts as some small-time hustling quickly spins out of control. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he's found is only an illusion - and that he can't run forever.
X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

Co-written by his daughter, X is a fictionised biography of American Civil Rights activist Malcolm X, however it interested me because the book tells the story of his formative years from school age until his early twenties. I knew nothing about this time for him and little about life for black people in 1940s Boston and Harlem.

X is intended as a YA novel so there is significant repetition of key scenes and phrases, but the writing doesn't shy away from violent realities and copious drug use. I liked how we see the young Malcolm believing himself to always be 'on the up' even as his physical and mental health are really sliding downhill and his character is both believable and compelling. Short factual essays following the novel give further insights into Malcolm's America and how the novel differs in small details from true life. It is frightening that such vicious discrimination was commonplace until so recently and campaigns such as #BlackLivesMatter show such outdated attitudes have still not truly disappeared.


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Books by Ilyasah Shabazz / Historical fiction / Books from America

Sunday 29 January 2017

The Ninth Life by Rose Montague


The Ninth Life by Rose Montague
Self published in America on the 31st October 2015.

I have chosen to reblog this review from Stephanie Jane today to promote Our Books Are Not Free, a Facebook event organised by Rose Montague. This four day event will run from the 11th to the 15th February, but there is already lots happening on the Facebook page so do take a look! Our Books Are Not Free features more than 150 indie authors from all over the world coming together to actually sell their books - rather than giving them away! Click Through Now to discover your next great indie read!

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Downloaded during a 2015 Halloween Facebook party, All Hallows Reads

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A cat familiar on her last life searches for that purrfect witch. The only problem is the one she finds doesn't know she's a witch. A cute, witchy short story!

At just twenty pages, The Ninth Life is a nice introduction to Montague's writing style and could also be a novel prequel although I understand that novel does not yet exist - hopefully I will find out if/when it does! We meet a cat who hasn't been born yet and a young woman with unrealised witchy powers, and their meeting up makes for a cute tale. I especially liked reading from the cat's perspective. The Ninth Life's short duration did not allow much space for digression so I appreciated Montague's talent for scene setting and concise description. She has certainly piqued my interest towards reading her full length novels.


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Books by Rose Montague / Fantasy fiction / Books from America

Saturday 28 January 2017

The Other One by Colette


The Other One by Colette
First published in French in France in 1922. English language translation by Elizabeth Tait and Roger Senhouse.

One of my WorldReads from France
I registered my copy of this book at BookCrossing

How I got this book:
Swapped for at a French campsite book exchange

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jane is Farou's secretary and mistress, as well as the admirer and constant companion of his wife. Colette exposes the subtle torments of living with infidelity, the capacity for suffering and the ruthlessness of women in love. The novel's emotional intensity makes a poignant twist at the end.

Despite being set several decades and a few thousand miles apart, I saw similarities between Kate Chopin's The Awakening and this read, Colette's The Other One. Colette's heroine, Fanny Farou, is trapped within the same societal structure of well-to-do wives being expected to have no other function than that of an accessory to their husbands. In this novella, Fanny's husband, known solely as Farou, is a playwright whose fashionable fame keeps him away from his family for weeks at a time, periods Fanny bemoans as 'we are so dull without him'.

Most shocking, for me, is Fanny's complete acceptance that Farou will be unfaithful to her while he is away. She reassures herself that her position as favourite is secure and as long as Farou's liaisons remain casual and distant, she can live with them. Conflicting emotions arise however when Fanny realises that Farou is also sleeping with his secretary, Jane, a woman who considers herself Fanny's friend although, interestingly, Fanny does not think of Jane in the same light.

Colette cleverly illustrates the relationship between the two women through brief conversations and observations of their behaviour. Jane, assuaging guilt perhaps, is always busy, running errands for Fanny and Farou and attempting to establish an indispensable position in the household. Fanny on the other hand is lethargic and lazy, reminding me a little of Caroline in Andrea Levy's The Long Song. I was intrigued by her indecision, whether she would choose her husband and her companion and how the drama would unfold. The Other One is a small book, both in actual size and in its mostly domestic setting, but powerful emotions are examined and understood through the triangles that Colette establishes.

Etsy Find!
by Omniscient Narrator in
New York, USA

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Books by Colette / Women's fiction / Books from France

Friday 27 January 2017

Since The Sirens by E E Isherwood + #FreeBook


Since The Sirens by E E Isherwood
Self published in December 2015.

How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Banished by bad decisions to spend the summer with his great-grandmother, Liam Peters thinks his life is over. After all, Marty Peters is a tough woman to be around. Maybe she wouldn’t be so bad if she'd just take an interest in the modern technology he loves. Sure, she has some insight to her … but the woman is practically “pushing daisies.” Not surprisingly, as tornado sirens announce a city-wide emergency, Liam discovers why that term should be avoided … well … like the plague.
When Grandma Marty tries to send him on his way, refusing to abandon her home, Liam sees his situation in a new light. Something deep inside awakens—and he chafes at the thought of leaving his 104-year-old grandmother to die. Armed with two tiny pistols and an arsenal of knowledge from his overwhelming zombie book collection, Liam realizes he could be the hero and accomplish the impossible: rescue her.
With the interstate gridlocked, opportunist criminals looking to take what they can get, law enforcement desperate to keep the peace, and the military declaring St. Louis a war-zone, Liam and Marty find themselves wrapped up in a world of chaos and panic. But when the zombies begin to overshadow everything else, Liam comes to appreciate why there are no atheists in foxholes.


YA horror fiction isn't a genre I usually choose to read, but Since The Sirens caught my attention with its 104 year old great-grandmother, Marty, as one of the lead characters. Together with her 15 year old great-grandson, Liam, she must try to escape zombie apocalypsed St Louis city. Isherwood does a good job of presenting the realities of such an ordeal and I would have liked more scenes of the reality from Marty's unique point of view as we get at the beginning of the book. Unfortunately she is then mostly relegated to hallucinating about a weirdly-spoken angel while attention focuses on the agonies of indecision and self-doubt experienced by Liam.

Since The Sirens isn't a particularly long book, but is slowly paced without much in the way of variation in speed. I often found myself willing Liam especially to just Get On With It! Isherwood has obviously spent time researching his St Louis settings, but I thought too much of this information was divulged in scenes that should have been snappier to maintain my excitement. Otherwise Since The Sirens has a good story arc and, despite being the first of a series, I was delighted to encounter A Proper Ending! There is plenty of scope for the further novels - five at the time of writing - but, as a reader, I appreciated not being abandoned mid cliffhanger.

Etsy Find!
by Print Crafted in
Barrow, England

Click pic to visit Etsy Shop


Search Literary Flits for more:
Books by E E Isherwood / Horror fiction / Books from America

Saturday 21 January 2017

Mark Of The Loon by Molly Greene + Free book


Mark Of The Loon by Molly Greene
Self published in 2012.

Where to buy this book:
Download the ebook free from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Received as a reward for signing up to the Death Lies and Duct Tape newsletter.

Death Lies and Duct Tape is a collaboration between fourteen thriller authors across both sides of the Atlantic and another of the athors involved, Ian Sutherland, told me more about it: "We came together because we are all students of Mark Dawson’s courses on Advertising for Authors. We decided that a collaborating on this box set would allow us to pool our resources and slowly build up to launching the boxset with a loud crescendo in May 2017. At 99c/99p, the box set gives readers a great opportunity to sample our books and hopefully discover at least one (hopefully fourteen!) new authors to follow going forward. We’re all incredibly excited about the project and are loving how each of us brings different skills to the project. It really has been a team effort."

You can find out more about Death Lies and Duct Tape on their website and everyone who signs up for the newsletter will be sent one of the fourteen books, chosen at random, as a thank you.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Madison Boone is keen to buy a fabulous stone cottage in the country, and she nixes her budding relationship with Coleman Welles to do it. But once the renovation begins, the property's long-buried secret threatens to derail everything. Can her friends help solve the mystery?
Mark of the Loon, the first of the Gen Delacourt mystery series, is the skillful combination of history, mystery, and romance in a novel that explores choices, taking risks, dealing with loss, deep, satisfying, unconditional friendships - and introduces Genevieve Delacourt as an impressive amateur sleuth!

Mark Of The Loon is a novel of female friendship and sisterhood and I thoroughly enjoyed joining its four friends, Madison, Genny, Gabi and Anna for a time. Madison buys a new house so there is lots of interior decor chat as well as a very real sense of strong relationships between the friends. Romantic relationships also have a part to play and I liked the depiction of a burgeoning romance between Madison and a college professor she meets, Cole. It's all sweet and chaste which fits with the novel's cosy vibe.

Our mystery revolves around the house itself and Greene sets up the suspense slowly so Mark Of The Loon could initially just be women's fiction, however subtle disturbances and odd occurrences are dripped in to unsettle the reader. The house is a fascinating setting and I wouldn't mind living there myself! I did find the ultimate unveiling to be far-fetched and overly rushed so, to me, it came across as disappointingly silly, but the episode is so brief that, although I suppose it should be the highlight, I found myself thinking of it merely as an aberration before we returned to the 'real' storyline!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Molly Greene / Women's fiction / Books from America

Friday 20 January 2017

The Terrorists by Sjowall and Wahloo


The Terrorists by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahloo
First published in Swedish as Terroristerna in Sweden by Norstedts Forlag in 1975. English language translation by Joan Tate published in 1975.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the book from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from Speedyhen
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository
Buy the paperback from Waterstones

How I got this book:
Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An American senator is visiting Stockholm and Martin Beck must lead a team to protect him from an international gang of terrorists. However, in the midst of the fervor created by the diplomatic visit, a young, peace-loving woman is accused of robbing a bank. Beck is determined to prove her innocence, but gets trapped in the maze of police bureaucracy. To complicate matters a millionaire pornographer has been bludgeoned to death in his own bathtub. Filled with the twists and turns and the pulse pounding excitement that are the hallmarks of the Martin Beck novels, The Terrorists is the stunning conclusion to the incredible series that changed crime fiction forever.

The Terrorists is the tenth and final novel in the Martin Beck series and is suitably ambitious in its scope. A global gang of highly trained terrorists are believed poised to strike in Sweden and Beck is charged with heading up the team that must outwit them. Despite being written just over forty years ago, other than the lack of technological advances much of The Terrorists could be a present day thriller. It is interesting to think that as many (or even more) terrorist groups were murderously active throughout the 1960s and 1970s and I think the only major difference is that then they encompassed a wide variety of political stances and ideologies, whereas now popular Western belief singularly demonises hardline Islamic groups.

I found the story slow to start because its disparate narrative lines meandered around each other and I couldn't see which was going to take off. I did like that Gunvald Larsson has a central role again. His abrasive attitude and language makes him a fun character to read. I loved the 'commando section' idea too. Once up to speed, The Terrorists is as exciting and tense as previous books in the series and it is easy to see how together the ten became the template for much of the Scandinavian crime fiction that has followed. Strong believable characters, interesting detail and social commentary, and tightly plotted storylines make for pretty perfect crime fiction and The Terrorists certainly stands the test of time.


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Books by Sjowall and Wahloo / Crime fiction / Books from Sweden

Sunday 15 January 2017

Miami by Joan Didion


Miami by Joan Didion
First published by Simon And Schuster in America in October 1987.

My 1980s read for the 2015-16 Goodreads / Bookcrossing Decade Challenge.

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy the book from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk
Buy the paperback from The Book Depository

How I got this book:
Borrowed from my OH

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a surprising portrait of the pastel city, a masterly study of Cuban immigration and exile, and a sly account of vile moments in the Cold War. Miami may be the sunniest place in America but this is Didion's darkest book, in which she explores American efforts to overthrow the Castro regime, Miami's civic corruption and racist treatment of its large black community.

Having learned a lot about California and its history from my previous Joan Didion book, Where I Was From, I hoped for similar enlightenment by reading Miami. This book looks at twenty years in the Florida city, from the 1960s to the 1980s, but instead of the wide-ranging information imparted about California, Didion seems to concentrate almost entirely on the political in Miami. I do now have a basic grasp of what the Bay Of Pigs was all about and my overall understanding of the Cuban exile population's predicament in Miami has improved a little. However, I struggled to keep up with all the subterfuge and double-speak, and the sheer number revolutionary and counter-revolutionary organisations that Didion namechecks is bewildering. Her writing is insightful throughout, but this definitely isn't the best book for a beginner to Central American politics of the late twentieth century!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Joan Didion / Reportage / Books from America

Wednesday 11 January 2017

The Book Of Memory by Petina Gappah


The Book Of Memory by Petina Gappah
First published in the UK by Faber And Faber in 2015.

One of my WorldReads from Zimbabwe

How I got this book:
My OH bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:


The Book Depository : from £7.99 (PB)
Wordery : from £6.15 (PB)
Waterstones : from £7.99 (PB)
Amazon : from £1.38 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

The story you have asked me to tell begins not with the ignominious ugliness of Lloyd's death but on a long-ago day in April when the sun seared my blistered face and I was nine years old and my father and mother sold me to a strange man. I say my father and my mother, but really it was just my mother.
Memory, the narrator of The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder. As part of her appeal her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?
Moving between the townships of the poor and the suburbs of the rich, and between the past and the present, Memory weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate and the treachery of memory.


Having seen Amnesty International appeals recently to help albino people at risk of being murdered for their 'magical' body parts, I had it in mind that The Book Of Memory would be a litany of violence and abuse. It isn't. Instead we read an albino woman's own tale of the events in her life that led her to be imprisoned for murder. Memory is both the woman's name and the theme of her story.

I was particularly moved by Memory's melancholy recollections of her early childhood. As an albino she was excluded from street games by her skin's reaction to the sun and also by her peers' reaction to her difference. She knows all the children's songs not because she sang them herself, but because she could hear them sung day after day from her window. Gappah paints a striking picture of isolation. Memory herself is a fascinating woman to spend time with and I liked other characters including Synodia with her fabulous hair! It was interesting that Memory's family are less defined as people - less well remembered - than the vibrant women Memory now sees everyday, and our perception of Lloyd changes as Memory grows up and understands more about him and his hidden difference.

Memory is ostensibly writing her reminiscences to an American journalist, Melinda, who may be able to help her quash her sentence. I didn't like this device and thought that some of the direct comments to Melinda jarred with the otherwise sensitive prose. I did appreciate however the notion that our memories cannot always be trusted. We might see something so apparently clearly that it could not possibly be mistaken, yet still be unaware of the real truth. Gappah presents a number of scenarios in which memories are unreliable both on a personal level for our imprisoned narrator and as part of the national history of Zimbabwe. I loved her descriptions of Zimbabwean life and culture. The deprivation and degradation of the prison contrasts starkly with the richness of the nation outside its walls. For a novel set in prison, The Book Of Memory isn't overwhelmingly depressing so don't let that put you off reading it. Overall I would say it is a measured, thoughtful book that does finish with a note of hope.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Petina Gappah / Contemporary fiction / Books from Zimbabwe

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Eyes Of A Boy, Lips Of A Man by Nii Ayikwei Parkes


Eyes Of A Boy, Lips Of A Man by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
First published in Ghana in 1999.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

eyes of a boy, lips of a man is Nii Ayikwei Parkes' first poetry publication – a chapbook that contains now-renowned poems like Ghana By Air, The Bite and Tin Roof, which was chosen for London's Poems on the Underground in 2007, making him one of the youngest living writers to be featured. Since the release of eyes of a boy, lips of a man in Ghana in 1999, Nii has gone on to be awarded the ACRAG Award for Poetry and Literary Advocacy and his debut novel, Tail of the Blue Bird was shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

With twenty poems in this collection I think my only complaint about eyes of a boy, lips of a man is that the book is too short. I was comfortably into the poetry's atmosphere and reached the end far too soon. This was easily remedied though - by reading through again!

I was impressed by Parkes' deceptively simple presentation of rich Ghanaian imagery and I love the sensuality of poems such as The Bite. I will never just casually eat a mango again! Rendezvous With Death I think we can all identify with and Father resonated clearly with my own life experience, albeit for my mother. There are several lines that deserve to be widely quoted, but I will content myself with just one here. My favourite first line of these poems (and perhaps any poem I have yet read) is from Going Going Going.
"The battered lice were being shallow fried
with heat from above
in the remnants of oil in her hair"
What an amazing picture!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Nii Ayikwei Parkes / Poetry / Books from Ghana

Sunday 8 January 2017

The Narrowboat Lad by Daniel Mark Brown


The Narrowboat Lad by Daniel Mark Brown
Self published in 2013

One of my Top Ten Books for Indie Pride Day 2016.

Where to buy this book:
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Narrowboat Lad tells the true story of author Daniel Mark Brown's first steps into the world of living on a boat. At the age of 25 during the summer of 2012 Dan found his ideal home, the fact that it was nearly 100 miles of canal away from his workplace, friends and family gave him a rough and ready introduction to what it meant to own a boat as his first task was to travel the slow way home... in his home.
Dan recounts the first trip day by day, the highs of being a homeowner where every room has a view that can change daily, the lows of having steam burst from below deck and an overheating engine and everything in between from the perfect natural surrounds to the long hard days of lock working. After the long trip home we are then given a view of his first year onboard as Tilly the narrowboat is transformed into a full time home and the seasons bring their own tint to boat life, particularly a winter that won't soon be forgotten.
Written with honesty and humour Dan gives readers an insight into living on a boat, his own life and personality and why people in his local area instantly know who someone is referring to when they say "The Narrowboat Lad".

Dave and I toyed with the idea of a narrowboat as a permanent home in the past and even got to the online advert browsing stage, but were never quite tempted enough to splash out (pun intended!). Indeed, I haven't even yet stepped onto one. However I followed narrowboating author @sort_of_dan on twitter which alerted me to a limited time sale on his first book, The Narrowboat Lad. That promotion is no longer running, but this memoir is well worth the £1.99 full price!

A chance comment started Brown on his 'alternative lifestyle' and in The Narrowboat Lad he talks about how it all came about, purchasing his boat called Tilly, and his first year on the water. I liked that he includes the downs as well as the ups of river living. The isolation certainly wouldn't be ideal for everyone, but being so free within nature and already just at the start of a good walk really got my attention. Brown gives a fair amount of information about the boat itself and the intricacies of canal sailing which was interesting to learn.

While wearing my book reviewer hat, perhaps the less polished writing style should have only warranted a three star rating. However, what shines through Brown's writing is his enthusiasm and joy and this so appealed to me that I happily read the whole book in practically a single sitting (it is quite short) and immediately started telling Dave all about it - always the sign of a good book!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Daniel Mark Brown / Biography and memoir / Books from England

Saturday 7 January 2017

The Man With The Golden Mind by Tom Vater


The Man With The Golden Mind by Tom Vater
First published by Exhibit A in March 2014. Republished by Crime Wave Press in September 2016.

One of my WorldReads from Germany

Where to buy this book:
Buy from independent booksellers via Abebooks
Buy from independent booksellers via Alibris
Buy the ebook from Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Julia Rendel asks Maier to investigate the twenty-five year old murder of her father, an East German cultural attaché who was killed near a fabled CIA airbase in central Laos in 1976. But before the detective can set off, his client is kidnapped right out of his arms. Maier follows Julia’s trail to the Laotian capital Vientiane, where he learns different parties, including his missing client are searching for a legendary CIA file crammed with Cold War secrets. But the real prize is the file’s author, a man codenamed Weltmeister, a former US and Vietnamese spy and assassin no one has seen for a quarter century.

I am again impressed with a Crime Wave Press offering, this one being a Cold War aftermath spy thriller set in a country about which I knew very little: Laos. Tom Vater sets up an intricate and complicated plot which I found it a joy to get lost in and also introduces interesting and believable characters, both male and female. The women in this novel aren't just eye candy! I was a little concerned that I hadn't already read the first in what is becoming the Detective Maier series, but that turned out not to matter at all. This is a self-contained tale, admittedly with nods to its predecessor, but I enjoyed the read without any prior knowledge of our lead character.

Laos provides a fascinating backdrop to the story and I loved seeing glimpses into a completely different culture and way of life. I hadn't realised just how comprehensively the nation was bombed as a result of the Vietnam War, or that its people are still being killed and maimed by that war's bombs and landmines. Vater manages to include such education without losing the pace of his thriller. I did occasionally lose track of peripheral characters as there is quite a large cast to keep track of, but the twists, turns and double-crosses make for compelling reading and I particularly loved Mikhail. What a fabulous creation!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Tom Vater / Thrillers / Books from Germany

Wednesday 4 January 2017

Thin Men, Paper Suits by Tin Larrick + Free book


Thin Men, Paper Suits by Tin Larrick
Self published in January 2014.

Where to buy this book:
Download the ebook for free from Smashwords

How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook from Smashwords

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"A huge police search operation for a missing child, a suicidal mortuary attendant, a hapless band of bottom-feeding dope smugglers, a displaced Cold War spy with a yearning for the old days and a house with unspeakable secrets – just some of the stories you’ll find in THIN MEN, PAPER SUITS, an eBook collection of 9 short stories by Sussex maniac Tin Larrick.
Darkly humorous (well, in parts), more than a little profane, largely criminal and peppered with twists, THIN MEN, PAPER SUITS is ideal for the commute, the dentist’s waiting room, the rainy Sunday or the interminable hours spent waiting in the car for teenage offspring."

As with Tin Larrick's previous novel, Devil's Chimney, I particularly enjoy spotting the local references as I used to live in the same town, Eastbourne. The tales all have interesting unexpected twists although I did find a few to be stretching plausibility a little too far and, as the stories are so short, the characters are obviously not as rounded as they would be in a full novel. My favourite story was the intricately plotted Taylor's Dummy, and I also particularly enjoyed the title story, Thin Men Paper Suits and the poignancy of Detective At The Door. It is probably advisable not to read Hell's Teeth too close to bedtime, and Mr Solitaire is definitely an 'adult' story!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Tin Larrick / Short stories / Books from England

Tuesday 3 January 2017

The Jacq Of Spades by Patricia Loufbourrow


The Jacq Of Spades by Patricia Loufbourrow
Published in America by Red Dog Press in November 2015.

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the author

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

The Book Depository : from £11.89 (PB)
Direct from the author : from $14.99 (signed PB)
Smashwords : from : $2.99 (ebook)
Amazon : from £5.99 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Kidnapping. Murder. Betrayal. Would you put your life at risk for a child you barely know?
In a far future US, the once-beautiful domed neo-Victorian city of Bridges is now split between four crime families in an uneasy cease-fire. Social disparity increasing and its steam-driven infrastructure failing, a new faction is on the rise: the Red Dogs.
22 year old Jacqueline Spadros was kidnapped from her mother's brothel and sold to the Spadros syndicate ten years ago. The murder of her best friend Air as he tried to save her from them haunts her nightmares. Now unwillingly married to one of the city's biggest drug lords, she finds moments of freedom in a small-time private eye business, which she hides in fear of her sadistic father-in-law.
Air's little brother disappears off his back porch and the Red Dogs are framed for it. With the help of a mysterious gentleman investigator hired by the Red Dogs to learn the truth, Jacqui pushes her abilities to their limits in hope of rescuing the child before the kidnapper disposes of him.

I spotted this steampunk mystery advertised as a limited time free book offer via one of Katherine Hayton's newsletters and was tempted to give it a try. Anita Carroll's noir artwork on the cover is great! The Jacq Of Spades is the first in what is intended to be a thirteen book series and I liked that the characters and city are imagined around a playing cards theme. We have four ruling families - Harts, Clubbs, Diamonds and Spadros - and our lead character, in this book at least, is Jacqueline - our Jacq Of Spades. A brief history of the city is given at the end of the story and I wish I had known earlier because I think I would have read it first. Loufbourrow plunges her readers straight into the story which is great for the mystery, but left me often confused as to relationships and world-building.

As the first of a lengthy series, The Jacq Of Spades does need to spend time setting up the world which Loufbourrow does well. By the end I had a pretty good idea what was going on and why! There isn't much in the way of steampunk elements yet though so I found that a little disappointing. I understand that the city's power source will provide steampunk engineering and inventiveness in further installments, but Jacqueline's baffling kidnap mystery takes centre stage in this novel. She does tend to jump to conclusions without explanation for the reader, so I wasn't convinced by Jacqui as an investigator although her position with the Spadros family is very interesting. Flashbacks are intriguing and I hope are more thoroughly explained as we go on.

I am pleased to have discovered The Jacq Of Spades and think the series will grow well as it progresses. Loufbourrow has set up complicated characters in an unusual world and I think I will enjoy seeing how their lives pan out in future stories.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Patricia Loufbourrow / Steampunk / Books from America