COLD IN THE EARTH by Thorne Moore @ThorneMoore #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: Cold case crime solving, mostly non-police

I'm not a fan of crime fiction, but I AM a fan of Thorne Moore's writing, so I chose this from the review team list without hesitation.  It's not a police procedural, as the main person doing the detective work is Rosanna Quillan, an ex-DC who is persuaded by a friend to do some digging.

Six young girls went missing in the early - mid 1990s, but the perpetrator was only ever charged with two of the murders; the other cases remained open but went cold.  The grieving families must wait another twenty-five years for truths and physical remains to be revealed.

The most interesting character in this book was, for me, Margaret Gittings, mother of the murderer; I'd have loved to have read her whole story from her own point of view!  Then there is 11-year-old Lolly, with whom the story opens. Clever, clever, Thorne Moore - Lolly's first chapter is brief and without resolution, which meant, of course, that I eagerly read the whole book within two days so I could find out what happened to her!  I also liked Malcolm, the retired officer who dealt with the case initially, after it was bungled by a less than diligent colleague.

The story zips along so convincingly, perfectly paced, and I very much liked that, although a fledgling romantic interest for Rosanna was present, Ms Moore did not feel the need to wrap it all up with hearts and flowers.  It's good.  And there's a lovely little twist at the end, even after the remainder of Lolly's story (which was worth waiting for) is revealed.

THE TOWN HOUSE and THE HOUSE AT OLD VINE by Norah Lofts

 5 GOLD stars (or possibly 10!)

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: the series is an all-time favourite of mine and I haven't read it for years - during a short hospital stay the time was right to return to it!

In a Nutshell: Family saga and chronicle of social change over 6 centuries.

This wonderful trilogy starts with the tale of Martin Reed, born the son of a serf in 1381, the year of the Peasants' Revolt.  Freed from his bonds, circumstances take him and his beloved, Kate, to the Suffolk town of Baildon, where they live in dire poverty and squalor.  In time, Martin builds a house.  This is the story of that house, and Reed's descendants, each new chapter told by one character further down the line.

Throughout the books, ghosts appear in the form of family characteristics (though sometimes in actual manifestations, too).  Cold fingers on the neck of the old man who hears his grandson saying that he longs to be a travelling musician, while knowing nothing of his ancestry.  The cunning trickery of a small girl is mirrored two centuries later.  The beauty, of course, is that we know more than the characters, which means that their innocent statements are often more pertinent than they realise.

I have several favourite characters in these first two books (I'm still re-reading #3); one which interests me a great deal is that of Ethelreda, a young girl who survived the flooding of the Fens during the land reclamation of the 17th Century.  All she knew, until she was found near death in her boat, was her life on a little island with her father.  Nothing else existed.  Every chapter is an utter gem, though.  I recommend this trilogy with every molecule of my reading brain!!!

LIVE AND LET by Judith Barrow @judithbarrow77

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I know the author, saw this advertised on Twitter

In a Nutshell: A short memoir, mostly to do with holiday lets.

I loved this, thoroughly enjoyed reading it!  The main part of the book is a collection of the author's experiences with some of the people who've rented her holiday flat over the years - very funny, often so strange (and unexpected!) that if they were fiction you'd say they were too far-fetched.  But there's nowt as queer as folk, as I am sure Judith and her husband would agree (and yes, my guess is that Party Guy wasn't actually a vicar at all...).

To give the book more context, Judith has written a short autobiography, that explains why and how they came to live in Pembrokeshire and turn part of their house into a holiday let.  Then there are the strange comments left in the visitor's book, the poignant tale of Auntie Olive, and a short story with a most effective and unexpected end.

This is a lovely little book to which I was glued all the way through, immersed in Judith's world - it took me one and a half hours to read, and is currently on sale at just 99p/$1.25.  Worth under a quid of anyone's money!

THE DRAU RIVER FLOWS TO SIBERIA: The Victims of Victory by Marina Osipova

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: The story of two people who survived Stalin's Siberian gulags, and the fate of the Cossacks under the care of the Allies in WWII.

I feel quite exhausted having just finished this book, a lengthy novel in which I was engrossed throughout.  It centres around what happened to anti-Soviet Russian nationals at the end of WWII - mostly the Cossacks of Ukraine and other 'enemies' of the Allies - at the hands of the victors: the British and Americans as well as Stalin's Red Army, who also assured Germans that they would remain in the hands of the Western Powers.  All in the name of 'repatriation'. 

Anna and Zakhary, finally set free from incarceration under the most brutal of regimes, are strangers who meet by chance on an isolated peninsula of the Ob River, in 1955.  While waiting many hours for a boat, they tell each other their stories, immediately taking the reader back to the end of the war and the unforeseen dangers that lay along the paths they were about to walk.  

Zakhary was a German national whose Cossack father had taken his family to live in Germany.  Anna found herself separated from her family when the Wehrmacht occupied her town, and was offered the chance to work in Germany; sadly, she believed lies about what a good move this would be.  At the end of the war, though, she finds that nothing she experienced in the last few years has prepared her for what is to come.

The slippery hand of fate takes both of them to the Siberian Gulags; although this is fiction, you cannot help but be aware, throughout, that everything Anna and Zakhary went through was experienced by hundreds of thousands, many of whom would never see freedom again.

This isn't just about the evils of Communism, or of war, but man's inhumanity to man.  My only (tiny!) complaint is the occasional use of American English.  Words like 'normalcy' 'cookies' and 'fall' (rather than autumn) never sit right with me when the book is about European or Eurasian people.  But I doubt anyone will mind that as much as I do, if at all, and this really is a terrific book.

Here is an article about the Lienz massacre in Austria, in which the Cossacks were betrayed by the British army, and another one HERE.  Below, a short video.