Saturday 27 January 2018

The Light Of Falling Stars by J Robert Lennon


The Light Of Falling Stars by J Robert Lennon
Published in America by Riverhead Books in August 1997.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Aeroplanes

Where to buy this book:



How I got this book:
Bought at The Childrens Society charity shop in Garstang

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story of a small town rocked by the tragedy of a plane crash, the arrival of a stranger who claims to be the lone survivor of the crash, and a marriage about to crumble offers a richly textured portrait of change, compassion, and tenuous connections. A first novel.


Described as a novel of loss, grief and survivor guilt, The Light Of Falling Stars is set in a small American town, Marshall, which has the incredible misfortune to be the site of a plane crash. Many of the victims are local people so practically everyone is personally affected. Lennon divides his tale into three Parts with the first introducing us to selected relatives waiting at the airport, and the couple, Paul and Anita, whose house was partly destroyed by a falling engine. Part One is undoubtedly the strongest. Heavily emotional, but without being mawkish or overly sentimental, there are excellent character studies and Lennon seems to have an real understanding of the agony of waiting. Even cameo appearances such as the airport staff and chaplain are perfectly crafted.

Unfortunately, after this promising start, the novel loses its way and veers off to focus on the collapsing marriage of Paul and Anita. Their storyline has the potential to be an interesting novel in its own right, but I didn't like the way it took over The Light Of Falling Stars at the expense of the ensemble piece for which we had been set up. Other characters do still get a look in and their tales are neatly concluded in Part Three, but after the wandering style of the middle section, I felt that their emotional impact had been lost. And the final scene is embarrassingly schmaltzy.


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Books by J Robert Lennon / Contemporary fiction / Books from America

Friday 26 January 2018

Dilemma by Baheya Zeitoun + Free Book


Dilemma by Baheya Zeitoun
Self published in November 2015.

D for my 2018 Alphabet Soup Challenge

Where to buy this book:

How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook from Smashwords

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

She is caught in the middle of a love triangle for the first time in her life, but only desires one man. As he grows distant, she seeks comfort in the unlikeliest places. All the while, trying to manage her uncertain financial situation and her career. It is a contemporary tale about a young writer and the struggles of independence in a 21st century metropolis.

Dilemma is an experimental literature novella that describes the life of a young everywoman in everycity over the period of a year. Created by Zeitoun from her own diaries, she tells her story in a third person perspective and has anonymised the both the characters and the city itself. I have seen this anonymity device come unstuck in other novels, but I thought here it worked well. The pared down cast and narrative line meant I was never confused as to who was the focus of the writing and the city, while being an important element in its own right, could be pretty much in any country. Zeitoun's novella is, of course, completely personal to her experiences, but at the same time manages to accurately illustrate the coming of age of thousands of women across the globe.

I appreciated witnessing She's personal growth from the first naive chapters where she defines her identity more by her potential partner than by her own self. Later She talks about transition and I felt that concept was the crux of this book. She cannot be comfortable as her own person until she learns what and who she really wants to be.

Dilemma is a gentle story and a quick read which was appealing in its simplicity. There is a smattering of proofreading errors which distracted me a little, but not overly so, and I enjoyed reading this story.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Baheya Zeitoun / Women's fiction / Books from Egypt

Sunday 21 January 2018

The Trial by John Mayer


The Trial (The Parliament House Books #1) by John Mayer
Self published in January 2015.

Where to buy this book:


Add The Trial to your Goodreads

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

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Glaswegian Brogan McLane completes many years of university education and legal training he crosses that great divide from Glasgow to Edinburgh. 'Called' to the Bar of the Scottish Supreme Court, he becomes a member of the most prestigious club in Scotland; The Faculty of Advocates in Parliament House.

When High Court Judge, Lord Aldounhill, is found dead after a transvestite party in his sumptuous home, those who know the killer close ranks and need a scapegoat – who better than 'outsider' Brogan McLane?

Out on bail with his career on hold, McLane and his band of blood brothers in the Calton Bar in Glasgow need to get ahead of their enemies or McLane will go down for life after Trial. But every time they discover a piece of evidence, it seems there is a mirror image to contradict it.

Through the murky world of Russian controlled transvestite hotels and with some unexpected police and judicial help, McLane battles against 'Low Life in High Places in the Old Town' until the killer is found.

But well protected and knowing all the tricks, will the killer ever stand trial in Parliament House?


I loved the way John Mayer contrasts the two great Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow in The Trial. Having briefly visited both during a rail tour of the country some years ago I could recognise their characteristics and, in this novel, we really get to see behind the scenes of the entitled aristocratic Edinburgh set and the rough working-class Glasgow community. It is interesting that some of their cultural lynchpins of loyalty and honour are the same! Mayer's descriptions of the physical places allowed me to imagine every detail. I particularly appreciated the implied menace within the Calton Bar and the claustrophobia of McLane's prison cell.

The Trial is a pretty fast paced thriller so, other than Brogan McLane himself, I didn't feel we got bogged down in really getting to know the other characters. Rather I had impressions of a type with enough hints of individuality to mostly identify everyone as we met them again. I did find it easier to remember the Glaswegians than the Edinburgh Advocates and Judges. Perhaps that's just me! At times I would have liked more explanation of just how certain things occurred - who found a particular piece of evidence and how? McLane's clever legal arguments are fun to unravel and, overall, this is a tense and very enjoyable thriller. I am glad to already have a copy of its sequel awaiting me!

Meet The Author

John Mayer was born in Glasgow, Scotland, a war-zone where violence and poverty reigned. In 1963 when he heard The Beatles on Radio Caroline, he decided to change his life. Aged 14 he left school because, in his opinion, he wasn't being taught. For the next year, in all weathers, he cycled 9 miles to and 9 miles from the Mitchell Library in central Glasgow where he devoured books of all kinds and began to understand what more the world had to offer. He became an Apprentice engineer, and soon was teaching men twice his age. In the early 1970s his love of music led him to set up as a Record Producer. He built his own record company trading in 14 countries. After a disheartening court battle with global giants, he left the business world and went back into further education at the University of Edinburgh, becoming an Advocate in the Supreme Courts of Scotland. There he acted for the downtrodden and desperate as well as Greenpeace International. His specialism was in fighting international child abduction.

John has written non-fiction, legal texts and articles; broadcast to tens of millions of people on US and UK radio, appeared on TV and in print media. Since retiring from the Law, John has enjoyed using his years of very colourful experience to create The Parliament House Books series.

The Trial is the first full length novel in this series. Set in Edinburgh and Glasgow, it is more than a nod to Franz Kafka's book of the same title. The Trial sees crusading Scottish Advocate, Brogan McLane, fight injustices so casually delivered by Low Life in High Places in the Old Town.

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads


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Books by John Mayer / Crime fiction / Books from Scotland

Thursday 18 January 2018

Elza: The Girl by Sergio Rodrigues


Elza: The Girl by Sergio Rodrigues
First published as Elza: A Garota in Portuguese in Brazil by Editora Nova Fronteira in 2008. English language translation by Zoe Perry published by AmazonCrossing in 2014.

E for my 2018 Alphabet Soup Challenge
One of my WorldReads from Brazil

Where to buy this book:



How I got this book:
Bought the ebook from Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Xerxes, a ninety-something survivor of the extinct Brazilian Communist Party, hires an unemployed journalist to write his life story, and most importantly explain his 1935 tragic love affair with comrade Elza Fernandes, code-named The Girl. 

Elza’s tale is one of the most bizarre true stories in Brazilian history: as a beautiful sixteen year old, she was suspected of betraying the Party and, although the charge could not be proved, was sentenced to death by Luiz Carlos Prestes himself. Prestes, the most eminent Latin American communist leader in the romantic era prior to the Cuban revolution, had arrived undercover in Rio from Moscow with a mission of overthrowing the Vargas government.

A strikingly contemporary, post-utopian narrative, Elza: The Girl blends the pace of a thriller with the insightfulness and thorough research of a historical novel, introducing the reader to a world in which emotional, political, and even artistic truths must be reappraised in order to understand our shifting present.

I'll admit I bought Elza: The Girl on a whim. I had an Amazon gift card to spend, the ebook was only £1, and I needed a 5th Brazilian book to make up that country's WorldReads quintet! I was also intrigued by the range of review ratings and comments. This seemed to be a real Marmite book (love it or hate it) and I wanted to find out why. Personally, I liked it!

Elza: The Girl is an oddity by crime genre standards and I think a lot of the poor reviews are caused by inappropriate marketing on the part of the publisher, for the English language edition anyway. The cover art and font, the use of the words 'The Girl' in the title: I thought I had a pretty good idea what to expect, but this book is absolutely nothing like that bandwagon genre at all. Instead, it is partly fictionalised true crime, it's slowly paced, and much of the intrigue is due to 1930s political manoeuvring. If you like true crime reportage, you'll probably like this book. If you're hoping to read something like Gone Girl, you'll hate it!

Rodrigues is an investigative journalist by trade and half the chapters recount the information he uncovered in researching this iconic tale. Court records, newspapers and other publications, he really does seem to have left no stone unturned and I appreciated the thoroughness of his work. Elza's murder is one of those stories everyone (in Brazil at least) thinks they know, but I was amazed how much had been invented or at least warped to suit what important men wanted the public to believe. The murder victim herself is almost irrelevant!

I understand why Rodrigues has fictional characters woven around the factual tale. Large sections of the story can be inferred, but aren't proven so this device allows him to offer opinions and possibilities in an engaging way. I liked the interaction between Xerxes and Molina and the conclusion of their relationship was interesting although, I thought, unnecessarily over-complicated. I do now feel as though I have a much stronger understanding on 1930s political Brazil, how the communism against fascism struggle that swept the globe particularly affected this country, and that set up the Brazilian political landscape for the terrible years to follow.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Sergio Rodrigues / Crime fiction / Books from Brazil

Tuesday 9 January 2018

The Case Of The Purloined Pyramid by Sean McLachlan


The Case Of The Purloined Pyramid by Sean McLachlan
Published by Kindle Press today, the 9th January 2018.

Where to buy this book:



How I got this book:
Received an ebook copy as a reward for my successful Kindle Scout nomination

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sir Augustus Wall, a horribly mutilated veteran of the Great War, has left Europe behind to open an antiquities shop in Cairo. But Europe’s troubles follow him as a priceless inscription is stolen and those who know its secrets start turning up dead. Teaming up with Egyptology expert Moustafa Ghani, and Faisal, an irritating street urchin he just can't shake, Sir Wall must unravel an ancient secret and face his own dark past.


The Case Of The Purloined Pyramid is the first novel in McLachlan's new historical mystery series, The Masked Man Of Cairo. The eponymous Masked Man is aloof Englishman Sir Augustus Wall, a character who unfortunately is so insular that we don't really get to know him although I imagine this will change in future books as he does begin to open up in the latter stages of this one. Surrounding Augustus however is a diverse cast of locals and expats, many of whom profess to want to help, but usually cause more trouble than they save. Street urchin Faisal is endearing and entertaining, and I appreciated Moustafa's predicament of working hard to educate himself yet being frequently dismissed purely because of his race.

Forgers, spies and power-hungry fanatics all cross paths in this well paced mystery tale. I didn't get such a strong sense of place as with McLachlan's previous novel, The Last Hotel Room, but the 1920s era is atmospherically evoked. The mystery itself was different enough from the genre norm to keep me intrigued and, on the whole, The Case Of The Purloined Pyramid is a satisfying read.


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Sean McLachlan / Crime fiction / Books from America

Tuesday 2 January 2018

Quatre Moi En Mer by Said + Free Book


Quatre Moi En Mer by Said
Self published in April 2014.

Q for my 2018 Alphabet Soup Challenge, featured in WorldReads: Belgium, and a Book in French

Where to buy this book:


How I got this book:
Downloaded from Smashwords

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loïc Shultz voulait partir loin, abandonner la réalité. 
Mais c'est la réalité qui l'abandonna, le jour où il apprit que sa vie était un film.

Loic Schultz wants to go far away, abandoning reality. But it is reality that abandons him on the day he learns that his life is a film.

This short story is the first in Said's Coffee Series of short stories. At just twelve pages long it could be read during a coffee break by a fluent French speaker. I was proud that my dictionary and I completed the task in under two hours! I loved the dark imagery throughout this story. Scenes are atmospherically described so I could clearly envisage what was happening, then they twist, cleverly becoming something quite different, and different again.

From a practicing French point of view, Quatre Moi En Mer is perfect. There is a strong narrative line to follow and most sentences aren't overly convoluted. There is a mix of verb tenses, direct speech and descriptive prose, plus a sprinkling of colloquialisms to baffle the unwary. I'm already looking forward to reading more Said short stories!


Search Lit Flits for more:
Books by Said / Short stories / Books from Belgium