WHAT WAS ONCE HOME by B K Bass @B_K_Bass #RBRT #TuesdayBookBlog

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:  Post-apocalyptic, alien invasion, set in southern USA.

Jace Cox is a young teenager when the 'twigs' invade - and after one August day in 2034 his life will never been the same.  Fast forward a few years and he's part of the militia fighting against them.  A few more years, and the town of Lewisburg has been reclaimed by its inhabitants, with Jace as its the sheriff - but the troubles are far from over.

Although I'm first in line when it comes to a post apocalyptic book, I wasn't sure I'd like one about an alien invasion, thinking it might be too comic book-like.  But this isn't.  B K Bass has made the subject totally convincing, and I really enjoyed it.  It's got a great structure that kept my attention throughout - although the main story is told from Jace's third person point of view in the early 2040s, there are occasional flashbacks to earlier, and also excerpts from the autobiography he wrote as an old man.  Aside from this, I loved the 'interludes' - sections told from other points of view in other areas, for a wider look at the situation.  These diversions from the main story were perfectly placed, and I could see how well thought-out the whole book is.

Bass has an easy writing style, creating good dramatic tension with a feeling of foreboding.  Every aspect of the book feels feasible, from the people who take charge in the new Lewisburg, those who want to be guided and given instructions, the fighting force, to the independent who want to do their own thing outside the walls - and, of course, the opportunity for the power-hungry to take over.

One small aspect I appreciated was how Jace, having been so young when the twigs arrived, knew little about life outside his immediate environment.  At one point an older person referred to a settlement as a 'hippie commune', and Jace didn't know what he meant.  I loved that!

This book gives food for thought about war versus murder, what is 'right' when it comes to defending your home and your people, what it takes to live in harmony alongside those who are different from you, and leaves a couple of unanswered questions, which made me think that another book, perhaps after Jace's time, would be most welcome.  I'd most certainly recommend What Was Once Home as a fine example of the post-apocalyptic genre.

THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin #TuesdayBookBlog

 4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Recommended to me by Twitter writer friends John F Leonard and ST Campitelli.

In a Nutshell: Post Apocalyptic Epic

Doing something a little odd here - reviewing a book of which I have only read 60%.  The reason is that this is a LONG book and I have temporarily abandoned it so I can catch up with some other reading.  

What it's about:

IT HAPPENED FAST.

THIRTY-TWO MINUTES FOR ONE WORLD TO DIE, ANOTHER TO BE BORN.

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—toward the time an place where she must finish what should never have begun.

I loved the first part, the character of Brad Wolgast, and death row inmate Carter chosen for the military experiment.  I was 100% into the setting up of the story, reading about Jeanette, a single mother who tries to do the best for her daughter, Amy - the central character.  The thirty-two minutes mentioned in the blurb are gripping, as the speed in which the world falls.  I especially liked a section from the POV of Ida, a young girl sent away by her parents to live in a new, safe colony.  

Then I arrived at the world two or three generations along, when most detail about the 'Time Before' has been forgotten, with only Ida left from that era; she is an old, old woman now, whose mind falters.  I enjoyed it very much at first and was particularly interested in the threat that none of them are aware of - that the power will run out.  However, as it went on I found myself skip-reading a little, because there are so many characters in this new colony, and only a few of them (Peter, Martin, Alicia) stood out with much of a personality - I got confused trying to remember who was who and how the relationships all fitted together.  I still wanted to know what was going to happen, but it seemed a bit too drawn out.  My interest was piqued once more when Amy reappeared, but because I no longer found it as 'must read' as I had at first, I decided to put it aside, or I will still be reading it this time next month.

To sum up: it's a rather stunning book, a great achievement, and if I was on holiday or ill in bed I might even have finished it.

LATER by Stephen King

 4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads 

How I discovered this book: Amazon browse

In a Nutshell:

I love some Stephen King (The Stand, Misery, Thinner, IT before the bit at the end with the daft spider), but am not a massive fan, finding some of them unnecessarily long with too many daft spiders, etc, but that fabulous cover made me look twice.

Jamie Conklin can see dead people.  As he explains, not like in the Bruce Willis film; he sees them just after they die, for a short period of time until they fade away.  During this time he can talk to them - and once dead, they never lie.

Jamie lives in New York with his mother Tia, a literary agent.  He was a young child when he first discovered he could see the dead; terrified of this at first, he learns to live with it.  The story takes a darker turn when others want to exploit his gift for their own ends.

Of course Mr King is a master storyteller and this had me pretty much glued to the page all the way through; it's gripping, funny, sinister and relatable, all at once, and coasts along nicely, always with the hint that something much, much worse is going to happen.  I enjoyed the whole New York vibe, though I was disappointed by the ending - it just sort of stops.  Like King couldn't think of a really good way to end it, so he wrote the last big action scary bit then wrapped it up.  There's a bit of a twist at the end, but it doesn't have that much bearing on the story.  It's a good length for a quick, couple of days read - about 230 pages - and a book I looked forward to getting back to each time.  If it'd had a worthy ending, I'd have given it 5*.

FIREFLIES & CHOCOLATE by Ailish Sinclair #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

On BookBub

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

In A Nutshell: historical and romantic fiction set in mid-18th century Scotland and Pennsylvania.

I very much liked Ailish Sinclair's debut novel, The Mermaid and the Bear, so was looking forward to this, and I was pleased to see it's about the same family, a couple of generations on - this time the main character is Elizabeth Manteith, whose family is going through difficult times.  Her father is caught up with the Jacobite rebellion, and Beth spends most of her time with the servants.

A ghastly accident of circumstance leads to her being imprisoned on an Aberdeen slave ship, taking children and young people to the tobacco plantations of North America.  A round of applause to Ms Sinclair for using fiction to highlight little-known history - I knew nothing about this.  Once in America Beth's life remains hard, though not as hard as one might have feared for her.  She longs for word from home, and strives to find out the location of Peter, a boy she became close to on the ship.

Beth is an engaging character, as is Michael, in whose house she works.  I'm not a romance reader (not least of all because I always know exactly who is going to end up with whom, as soon as they meet!), but in this book the romance aspect is subtly threaded through the main story, an undercurrent rather than centre stage.  I loved reading about life in the mid 18th century; it's a very 'easy read', just flows along, while being quite a page-turner.  I enjoyed the whole book; the pace is just right and there were no boring bits!

Ms Sinclair has chosen to write Beth's first-person narrative in Scottish dialect.  Normally this would drive me nuts, but the way she has executed this is perfect for the book, absolutely right.  She concentrates on the Scottish words Beth would use ('dinna' rather than 'didn't', 'fit' rather than 'what', for instance) rather than trying to write dialogue in a Scottish accent, which would have been tedious in extreme - from the beginning, I found myself reading it in Beth's voice. 

I was most interested to read, in the Author's Notes at the back, that not only was it based on a true occurrence, but some of the characters are based on real people.  This always adds a pleasing dimension to a story. 

It's a well-researched and delightful book, as was the last one.  The only reason I've given it 4.5 rather than 5* is that I tend to like books that are a bit darker than this, but that's only personal preference, not a criticism.  It's a story to curl up and escape with.  A definite recommendation, and I look forward to the next.

BLACK IRISH BLUES by Andrew Cotto @AndrewCotto #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
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: Crime novella set mostly in New Jersey

Black Irish Blues is a long novella (or possibly a short novel) featuring Caesar Stiles, a man whose childhood was spent in a rough area of a small town in industrial New Jersey.  His father left the family when Caesar was thirteen, and his two brothers are now dead; he loved the older one who died in a tragic accident, whereas the middle brother was a vicious thug. Caesar spent most of his life travelling all over the country, but returned when his mother died, moving into the family home and buying the local inn.

The story centres around blasts from the past, friends reunited, mysterious disappearances and the local gangsters.  Written in the first person, much of the narrative details Caesar's observations about small town life and his impressions of the town and people in which and with whom he grew up.

The plot is perfectly paced and structured, and fits well into the shorter length; although the story itself is fairly standard, I loved Caesar, the writing itself is as good as that of any classic American novel, and the characterisation is outstanding, making it a real page turner.  All the side characters are beautifully observed, the dialogue is spot on, and the atmosphere is vivid and so well described without ever being wordy.  I could tell by reading this that the author really knows his subject, along with the place, time and people about whom he has written.  I'll definitely read something else by him, probably the book before, which I've already had a look at.  Highly recommended.

GORGE by Katherine Carlson

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book:  Amazon browse, downloaded on Kindle Unlimited.  Couldn't decide if the cover/title combo was inspired or ghastly, but it intrigued me enough to see what it was about, so it did its job!

In A Nutshell: Unhappy, overweight woman survives near death in the Montana wilderness; thriller, with dark humour.

Enjoyed this a lot, an unusual story indeed.  Southern girl Marty Clawson is morbidly obese and unhappily married to a man who has lost interest in her.  She is desperate to beat her cravings for food, and comes up with the idea of being stranded alone in the state park, with no access to fast food joints and cake shops.  When her marriage falls apart and she gets in touch with an old friend in Montana, she has no idea that her survival fantasies will become real—and a matter of life and death.

Most of the first half of the book is taken up with Marty's depressing life, in which she is trapped inside her mounds of excess flesh and inability to stop comfort-eating; we later find out why and when it began.  This part of the story is tragic but funny, and Marty is most likeable.  When she sets off for Montana, neither she nor the reader has any idea about the danger that awaits her.  

Without giving the plot away (because you really should read it yourself!), the nine days of Marty's ordeal are frightening, realistic (in that she doesn't suddenly become a survival expert), tragic, though still darkly humourous in places; it's a real page turner.

The only negative element about the book was that the author has used 'en' dashes instead of 'em' dashes throughout: instead of—this to set off a clause or add emphasis—, she has used this–without a space at either side, which I kept–mistaking–for–a hyphen.  Many times I had to go back and read the sentence twice, because I thought I'd read a hyphenated word.  But aside from this irritant, it's great.  I'm glad I clicked on that strange bright green cover that stood out in the list of of 'also boughts' on Amazon.  I shall seek out another book by her, some time.

 

If anyone is not sure of the difference between the en dash and the em dash and when each of them should be used, I have found this article which explains it clearly and concisely

 

THE USURPER KING by Zeb Haradon #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

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

Genre: Alternative history, dark humour, Scifi, crime, fantasy, adventure....

I chose this book from the review team submissions list because I liked the idea: an alternative present, in which the crimes of Ted Bundy have not been discovered, and he is now running for president, as a Republican.  Senator Bundy is facist, sexist, you-name-it-ist, and pro-guns; in this alternative reality, active shooters (who number amongst his supporters) are a force to be reckoned with on a day-to-day basis, rather than an occasional horror. 

Zeb Haradon is a terrific writer with a real story-telling spark that's superbly dry, and his humour is absolutely up my street.  The book is clever, unusual, touching, funny and in parts made me laugh out loud, a rare occurrence; I was heard to mutter 'Brilliant!' in a couple of places.  I read it in 48 hours.

The Usurper King is told from the first person point of view of Jim Galesh, a 40 year old who has always struggled to find his place in the world.  He has a broken marriage, a drink problem, and suffers from a disease called TAP: Technologically Acquired Progeria.  This was acquired via 'some sociopathic prankster who decided to write the first hybrid biological/computer virus'.  Basically, he is ageing much more quickly than he should be (and the stuff about his time working in computer journalism, where he got this disease, is hilarious).   

Jim is on the way to winning big money when he stars on the game show Guts!, on which contestants practice extispicy - predicting the future by studying animal entrails.  Via the show he meets super-intelligent hillbilly Nick, who introduces him to the idea that Bundy is a serial killer, and that many of the murders attributed to the Green River Killer were actually committed by Bundy.

One of the high spots was discovering, half way through, the identity of 'JW', Bundy's Democratic rival, which explained some things like Chicago's high murder rate - it was dropped in so smoothly.  Elsewhere, some of the parts I loved best were those about Jim's family: his son Reg, who he adores, and neurotic ex-wife Agatha and her control freak family.  There are a wonderful few pages about his in-laws:

"Do you remember Clippy?  That's the cartoon paper clip in Microsoft from the late 1990s.  You would open a new document and start writing and it would just up and force its fucking self into your writing and say "it looks like you're writing a letter" and try to offer these unhelpful writing tips while you look for the X button to shut it down.. I think they call it Office Assistant.... anyway, Agatha's mother was like a cross between Clippy and Nurse Ratched... then there was her father.  As you might imagine, the years with Clippy Ratched have left him a shell of a human."

Often, it was just the day-to-day observations that I loved the most, or odd sentences; I highlighted so many.

"They had the kind of faces you see in an illustrated dictionary next to the definition of the word 'loser'." 

"Some other dork trying to look like a thug came in carrying a baseball bat.  'I understand you don't want to co-operate.  I'm the guy they bring in to help people co-operate.  They call me Mr Co-operation'."

Nick:  "You got a phone?  I mean one of them fancy ones with the internet on."

Jim goes to a doctor to try and get more of the medicine that helps him cut down drinking, the doctor is reluctant to give it, and tries to steer him, instead, towards the Twelve Steps.  Jim: "The only criticism of it I read came from these AA lunkheads and websites for rehabs who stood to lose a bundle if people found something that actually worked."

I'm giving this 4.5* because there are a fair few proofreading errors (missing vocative commas, argh!), particularly in one section around the middle that wasn't as well put together as the rest of the book (it's when Jim is trying to get Bundy looked into), to the extent that I wondered if it had been written in a hurry, an afterthought, but I'll still round that 4.5* up to 5* on Amazon, because it really is a great book.  Another proofread, a bit of a tidying up in places, and it would be outstanding.  I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who likes clever observational humour of the dry American kind.  The end is totally, totally unexpected, by the way.

Whether or not some of it is a comment on the current political situation in the US, I really couldn't say.

"...like the old British class system, where mediocre people get special privileges because they were born into wealth.  But it does seem there is a natural aristocracy - one which comes from intelligence, acquired ability, self-education, a natural curiosity about the world, an independence of thought, or maybe just a vigor for life - and which cleaves society into the winners and the losers.  The losers, finding themselves impotent in mastering the art of life, are naturally going to be envious and bitter, and voting for Bundy was their revenge against the world."

THE LAST MERIDIAN by Joe Hefferon @HefferonJoe

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon.co.uk
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

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

'The past is a stone - you can carry it around with you, or you can step up on it to see what's coming over the next hill'.

The Last Meridian is a crime novel set in the 1960s, in the 'noir' sub-genre; it's not one I've explored before, and somewhere near the beginning I realised I should read it out loud, leaning against a lamp-lit wall down a dark alley, wearing a fedora and smoking a French cigarette.  I imagined this; it really did make the dialogue work! 

In the first chapter in 1948, a girl drives away from Illinois, along Route 66, heading for LA.  We don't know why, but Lynn becomes Nina, and starts a new career as an interior designer for the stars. Meanwhile, back in 1965, a man associated with the underworld is murdered, and the murder is witnessed by the teenage son of the victim's girlfriend.  Nina's involvement in this is one I didn't guess at all, and, as the mother of the boy tries to save her son, a private detective called CS and a journalist/writer called Jimmy are brought in, centre stage.

The book took a short while to gel for me as there are a lot of characters to remember, at the beginning, but before 10% I'd settled into the back-and-forth-in-time structure, and begun to really enjoy it.  Mr Hefferon is masterful at creating atmosphere, and I loved the cynical, seedy crime/Hollywood characters.  I especially liked some of the short backstories; that of CS, and mother Larissa, in particular.  The character I found the most interesting was Jimmy, and I liked the extracts from his manuscript, and his philosophical pondering... 'in some cross-layered way, each of us is the supporting cast for all of us ... how do we arrive at the places where our lives mesh with the people we need for our own narrative?'.  

...I liked the observations about the people, fashions and culture: 'Beards, shaggy hair and abraded clothing were just becoming the craze of the anti-establishment, yet this juvenile bandito remained stuck in 1958, unconcerned with change.  He had chosen his look ... he would wear it proudly until time and prison sucked the black from his mane'.

...about the locations: 'No one with any style lives in Bakersfield ... it's all money and no pizazz.  What kind of claim is 'Halfway to Fresno'?'

....and about Nina's dysfunctional marriage: 'In a lovers' paradox, they found each other attractive at different times, but never at the same time... it was a marriage of inconvenience'.

Joe Hefferon is an intelligent and talented writer, and I hope he is as proud of this clever and delightfully atmospheric novel as he should be.

The novel ends at around 90%, after which there is an author's note, acknowledgements, and an excerpt from another novel from the same publishing company.

HOLLYWOOD SHAKEDOWN by Mark Barry

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE 

I can't believe this is only 99p!  It's a bumper blockbuster of a book, a slightly tongue-in-cheek crime/gangster thriller that races from Los Angeles to Chicago, to London and back again.  It reminded me in some ways of a Jackie Collins, and certainly of the weighty and multi-faceted popular fiction heavyweights of the 1980s.

Buddy Chinn is a lazy, alcoholic, not very successful writer, passionately in love with the wayward Monique.  His trial starts when he meets dastardly rare manuscript collector Mortimer Saxon, who sets him a task ~ to uncover a lost series of correspondence between Buddy's father Henry (a much more successful writer) and a famous chess champion.  The prize will be $100,000.  Failure to complete the task will mean almost certain death. 

This is the fifth Mark Barry I've read, and it follows some of the traits of his other books: the sensitive loser with a hundred negative personality traits who you somehow can't help loving, who's hopelessly addicted to a woman who, the reader suspects, is less keen.  The difference with this book is that we get to see Monique's point of view too - and very surprising it is!  All the characters in this page turner are sharply drawn with humour and intricate detail, as always, and the plot is unpredictable and so well thought out.  One of the main triumphs, for me, is that an English writer living in England has successfully written about Americans living in the US; only now and again did I feel the dialogue/narrative was a little self-conscious, and that's only because I'm a bit picky!

It's really a book to settle in and snuggle down with, as I've enjoyed doing over the last few days.  Mark Barry is a terrifically talented writer, and I'd recommend anything written by him.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE CITY OF CRIMINALS by Mark Barry is reviewed HERE, with links to reviews for THE NIGHT PORTER, CARLA, and ULTRA VIOLENCE.