Review - Aubrey MALONE - "Literary Trivia"

Year Published: - 2004
Where the book was from:- Helen's (Helen originally got it from me - I recognised the pencil marks in it!)
ISBN: - 1 85375 474 9
Pages: - 304pp
Genre: - Trivia, literature
Location: - -
How I came across it: - Meandering around Helen's bookshelves
Rating: - ***** *****
One sentence summary:- An excellent book of literary trivia and the weird and wonderful behaviour of the world's wordsmiths.

General comments:- Having commented about poor indices in other trivia books the first point I should make is that this has an excellent one.

There are lists of every type imaginable and some that you could never have imagined!

An ideal book for both dipping into or reading from cover to cover.

AUTHOR Notes:- Aubrey Malone has published a number of humorous volumes including The Cynic’s Dictionary.

Review:- Vivian COOK - "Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary"

Year Published: - 2004
Where the book was from:- Helen's
ISBN: - 1 86197 623 2
Pages: - pp
Genre: - Orthography
Location: - British and American English
How I came across it: - Browsing Helen and Ian's bookshelves
Rating: - ***** ****
One sentence summary:- A great book for those who want to learn to spell better or who think they already know how (and may be proved wrong).

General comments:- A book that can either be dipped into or read cover to cover. As well as covering many of the rules of spelling, the differences between American and British English and word games this book has a wide variety of miscellaneous trivia related to spelling.
Annoyingly there is no index. What is it about these dip-into, trivia type books that they are either not indexed or poorly indexed. They are just the sort of book one wants to check things in.

Quotes:-
"It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word."
US President Andrew Jackson

AUTHOR Notes:- Vivian Cook is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Newcastle University.

Review:- James McClintock - "The Stonehenge Companion"

Year Published: - 2006
Where the book was from:- Helen's
ISBN: - 10 1 90562 408 5
Pages: - 157pp
Genre: - Non-fiction; Antiquities; Miscellanea and trivia
Location: - Stonehnge
How I came across it: - Browsing Helen and Ian's bookshelves
Rating: - ***** ****
One sentence summary:- A miscellany of myths, theories, trivia and facts about Stonehenge and other antiquities.

General comments:- The index is annoyingly poor but that apart this is a great book to dip into or browse through at leisure.

AUTHOR Notes:- -

Review:- Lin ANDERSON – “Final Cut”

Year Published: - 2009
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978 0 340 92244 6
Pages: - 344pp
Genre: - Crime
Location:- Glasgow and surrounding area
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** **
One sentence summary:- Lost in a snow storm after her mother’s car crashed, a young girl is found in woods clutching a skull; thereby distracting forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod from investigating a body in a burned skip.

General comments:- This is the sixth Rhona MacLeod book.

I don't like the cover - which shows a damaged doll. A skull would have been acceptable but the damaged doll makes it seem like a horror story - it nearly put me off reading it.

AUTHOR Notes:- Lin Anderson was born in Greenock of Scottish and Irish parents. A graduate of both Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, she has lived in many different parts of Scotland and also spent five years working in the African bush. A teacher of Mathematics and Computing, she began her writing career four years ago. Her first film, Small Love, which was broadcast on STV, was nominated for TAPS writer of the year award 2001. Her African short stories have been published in the 10th Anniversary Macallan collection and broadcast on BBC Radio Four.

Review:- David ARMSTRONG – “A Kind of Acquaintance”

Year Published: - 2007
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978-0-7278-6579-3
Pages: - 214pp
Genre: - Cosy Crime
Location:- English Midlands
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *
One sentence summary:- D I Frank Kavanagh and his girlfriend DC Jane Salt hunt for the killer of an author who lived on a houseboat on the canal and in so doing find themselves involved in the decades old disappearance of a paper boy.

General comments:- This is the fourth Kavanagh and Salt novel.

AUTHOR Notes:- David ARMSTRONG, born 1946, held various jobs before going back to college and reading English at university. He then taught English in Shropshire where he still lives.

Review:- Craig RUSSELL – “Blood Eagle”

Year Published: - 2005
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 0 09 180014 5
Pages: - 405pp
Genre: - Crime
Location:- Hamburg
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *
One sentence summary:- A rather complex German police drama.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- A serial killer with a horrific trademark is active in Hamburg but when Erster Kriminialhauptkommisar Fabel begins to investigate he finds that various other branches of the police and security forces are involved, making him question who are the good guys and who are the baddies.

General comments:- The various branches of the police and security forces are confusing for a non-German and the plot itself gets a bit difficult in its later stages. Nevertheless, the writing and the characterization make it a worthwhile read.

This is the first of five Jan Fabel novels.

AUTHOR Notes:- Craig Russell was born in Scotland in 1956.

Review: - Paul ADAM – “Knife Edge”

Year Published: - 2008
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978-0-95572777-0-2
Pages: - 428pp
Genre: - Crime
Location:- London, East Anglia
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *****
One sentence summary:- Excellent thriller with some remarkable – and horrifying – insights into the fearful and impoverished lifestyles of illegal immigrants, the use of what is effectively slave labour in the food industry, and the fight to cut costs in the supermarket chains.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- Following the death of an illegal immigrant, an investigative reporter goes undercover and gets himself smuggled into the UK and poses as an Albanian migrant worker. The book delves deeply into the cutthroat, cut-price food and agri-industries. What we pay for cheap food comes at a price.

General comments:- An exhilarating mix of high precision plotting, gripping action and thought-provoking social realism, Knife Edge affirms Paul Adam’s reputation as one of the masters of the contemporary thriller.

AUTHOR Notes:- Paul Adam, born 1958, is a journalist . Paul Adam has written eleven critically-acclaimed thrillers for adults. His books have sold widely around the world and have been translated into several foreign languages. He has recently returned to the city of his birth (which is what??) after spending several years in Nottingham.

Review:- Jane A ADAMS – “Heatwave”

Year Published: - 2004
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 0-7278-6141-7
Pages: - 204pp
Genre: - Crime
Location:- England
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *
One sentence summary:- Ex-policewoman Naomi Blake – blinded in a car accident – is caught up in a bank robbery that goes wrong adn ends up with the staff and customers being held hostages.

General comments:- Easy-going crime novel of no great shakes but a pleasant enough read.

AUTHOR Notes:- Jane A Adams was born in Leicestershire where she still lives. She has a degree in sociology and has held a variety of jobs including lead vocalist inb a folk-rock band. Her first book, The Greenway, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Award in 1995 and for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award.

Review:- Terry JONES – “Medieval Lives”

Year Published: - 2004
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 1 4056 4800 7
Pages: - 296pp (Large Print)
Genre: - Non-fiction - History
Location:- Britain
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** ****
One sentence summary:- A very funny, intriguing and educational guide to some of the lesser known facts about the Middle Ages and life therein.

General comments:- Sid you know that England once had a King Louis, that no pone in the middle ages really believed the world was flat or that monks didn’t wear underpants? Just a few of the fascinating things that emerge when you read this book which was the basis of a TV series (or vice versa).

AUTHOR Notes:- Terry Jones - Terence Graham Parry Jones (born 1 February 1942) is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team.

Review:- Clare CURZON – “Last to Leave”

Year Published: - 2004
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 1-84395-722-1
Pages: - 394pp (large Print)
Genre: - Cosy Thriller
Location:- London and Venice
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *
One sentence summary:- An eightieth birthday party turns out to be more of an event than expected when the house where the family are gathered burns down around them.

General comments:- A fairly typical family intrigue story with the added bonus of a murder, an assault, a kidnapping and a few other things thrown in. Spt Mike Yeadings of the Thames Valley police gets involved. At first it was a credible story but sadly it got less credible as it went on. Quite enjoyable but I prefer even my cosy crime / thrillers to be a bit more believable.

AUTHOR Notes:- Clare CURZON began writing in the 1960s and has published more than forty novels under a variety of pseudonyms. She studied French and psychology at King’s College, London and much of her work is concerned with the dynamics of close-knit communities. A grandmother to seven she also enjoys painting. Last to Leave is the tenth in the Mike Yeadings series.

Review:- Martin EDWARDS – “The Arsenic Labyrinth”

Year Published: - 2007
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 0 7490 8111 2
Pages: - 380pp
Genre: - Cosy crime
Location:- Lake District, England
How I came across it: - Continuing to read this author’s works
Rating: - ***** **
One sentence summary:- ‘Cold case’ investigator, DCI Hannah Scarlett examines the disappearance of a woman ten years earlier only to find the case is linked with both older and newer crimes.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- After a newspaper does an article about the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of Emma Bestwick the cold case team are told to investigate it. Their findings are not what anyone expected.

General comments:- A particularly good plot and this being the third Hannah Scarlett book I’ve read i quite like the various characters who are in each one.

AUTHOR Notes:- Martin Edwards – see The Coffin Trail

Benjamin HOFF – “The Tao of Pooh”

Benjamin HOFF – “The Tao of Pooh”
illustrated by E. H. Shepard; Methuen 1982.

This is an extract from a review I wrote many years ago:-

A remarkable book – so clever in capturing two concepts – the innocent ramblings of Pooh Bear and the depth of the Tao te ching. It is wise in its conclusions.

You can own a book – as I do this one. but occasionally there comes along a book which owns you. It cries out to be treated in some special way. One wants to publicise its brilliance and help it to stand out amongst its fellows with signs saying “Read Me” and “I’m Special”. The Tao of Pooh is just such a book.

Review:- Ann GRANGER – “A Better Quality of murder”

Year Published: - 2010
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978 0 7553 4908 1
Pages: - 312pp
Genre: - Historical Crime
Location:- Victorian London, 1867
How I came across it: - Reading through this author’s works.
Rating: - ***** ***
One sentence summary:- This is the third Lizzie Martin and Inspector Ben Ross crime story.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
A spooky creature known as The River Wraith is frightening prostitues alongside the Thames but is he responsible for the murder of a woman in London’s Green Park. As Ben begins to investigate his wife Lizzie gets herself involved.

AUTHOR Notes:- see A Rare Interest in Corpses

Review:- Jeffrey ASHFORD – “Fair Exchange is Robbery”

Year Published: - 2003
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 0-7278-7390-3
Pages: - 304pp (Large print)
Genre: - Crime
Location:- England
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** **
One sentence summary:- A cleverly crafted crime story.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
A bank’s computer whizz-kid is kidnapped on his way home from work but when the kidnapper’s hit a pedestrian and change their plans. The result for the innocent kidnap victim is devastating.

AUTHOR Notes:- Jeffrey ASHFORD has published over 130 books under various pseudonyms. His Inspector Alvarez series is one of his most popular ones and is published under his real name, Roderic Jeffries. RODERIC JEFFRIES was born in London in 1926 and was educated at Southampton's School of Navigation. In 1943 he went to sea with the New Zealand Shipping Company and returned to England in 1949 where he was subsequently called to the Bar. He practiced law for a brief period before starting to write full time.

Review:- Martin EDWARDS – “The Serpent Pool”

Year Published: - 2010
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978-0-7490-0789-8
Pages: - 350pp
Genre: - Crime
Location:- Lake District
How I came across it: - Continuing to read his books
Rating: - ***** ***
One sentence summary:- A good modern day crime novel set in a fictional but credible valley among my childhood haunts.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:-
Hannah Scarlett, the Lake District’s cold case specialist once again becomes personally involved as she investigates a case which was at the time considered to be a possible suicide. In the meantime her partnership with bookseller Marc Amos comes under threat as they both meet folk who incite unexpected feelings.

General comments:- A thoroughly enjoyable cosy crime with the added advantage of being set in the Lake District (though surely the Serpent Pool should have been called Snake Tarn!)

Quotations:-
De Quincey:- “If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.”

AUTHOR Notes:- See The Coffin Trail