The Murder After The Night Before by Katy Brent - Review

I read How To Kill Men and Get Away With It last summer and liked it, so when I saw that Katy Brent had a new book out I was intrigued to read it. I bought this on Kindle for a couple of quid and picked it up in the middle of July. I had a quiet weekend with a lot of reading and made my way through this book. I found it compulsive reading, but... I think it's like a jam doughnut - it tastes really good at the time but it's not that good for you and you shouldn't eat nothing but jam doughnuts. I found it compelling but for odd reasons, I think. 

So, Molly Monroe is a journalist on a magazine called Girl Chat where she basically writes fluff pieces for pre teens about unicorns and stuff. She lives with her best friend, Posey Porter, (ridiculous names) in London. Posey is a serious journalist, working for The Post. Molly wakes up one morning, the day after her work Christmas party, and finds a strange man in her bed. He introduces himself as Jack. He says they didn't have sex but she has no recollection of what happened the night before or how she met him. She heads off to work. She's late and she's only there like twenty minutes when she realises that she has gone viral on social media. She was filmed the night before giving a blow job to a random man on a street and now everyone is slut shaming her and so on. Her boss isn't impressed and sends her home. Ordinarily she would talk to Posey, but Posey isn't home. She did email Molly the night before detailing that they had rowed and that they needed to talk it over, but Molly doesn't remember what the row was about. 

And then Molly finds Posey's body in the bath of her en suite. The police quickly shrug off the death as accidental - despite bruises on Posey's body, which is one of the plot holes that really bothered me - but Molly starts to dig around. It turns out that Posey was working on a story about the disappearance of a teenager called Lulu Lawrence (another ridiculous name). She was sixteen and reported missing a year before, but then her parents said she had gone to stay with a relative and the story died down. Posey was certain that there was more to it, and she has left a trail of breadcrumbs for Molly to follow to uncover the truth. 

I did find the mystery compelling, but I thought some of the reasons Molly had for either doing something or not doing something were stupid at times and just for plot reasons. I thought things worked out maybe a bit too pat at times, some things were just a little bit convenient for me. I am also not really sure how Posey and Molly were affording to live in this part of London, but there we are. Molly is mostly likeable but a bit insufferable at times. I also found her ability to remember things she had had conversations about months ago really annoying and unrealistic. 

There are some plot holes which I did find annoying. And there's a couple of glaring mistakes - for instance once around the timing of Lulu's disappearance, which I really felt someone should have picked up on - which frustrated me. For that reason I'm having to rate this lower than Katy's previous book. So it's a three out of five from me. I will probably read her next book too, though... everyone likes jam doughnuts once in a while!

The Distant Echo by Val McDermid - Review

 

I picked this book up in The Bookish Type in Leeds at their sale which I went to in the summer of 2023 I think. I got tons of books there and I'm trying to get through them! I think this was in the sale section for just a pound, which is a bargain! I always enjoy Val McDermid and I'm glad that the queer bookshop sells her stuff! 

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book, and I also read that it's the first book concerning the detective Karen Pirie (as you can see on the cover). I thought it would have more Karen in it but she's barely there - which I actually quite liked and I think it really worked for the narrative. 

It's a book in two parts. The first part takes place in 1978. Four friends - the Laddies fi' Kirkcaldy - are are university in St Andrews and they've been to a house party and are walking back to their shared house when one of them, Alex Gilbey, trips over the body of a woman they kind of know. She's a barmaid in one of the pubs they like to visit, and Alex has had a bit of a crush on her. She's alive, but barely. One of the boys tries to save her while Alex goes off to find the police. When he gets back with a local patrol officer, James Lawson, the girl, Rosie, has died. 

The four boys do have something to hide, as they nicked the car belonging to one of their housemates, but they didn't kill Rosie. But suspicions fall upon them and it's hard to shake these accusations off. The four lads have been friends since high school and have a strong bond. 

There's Sigmund, aka Ziggy. He's gay, but only Alex knows it. There's Alex, who asked Rosie to the house party that evening. There's Weird, who likes taking mind altering drugs. And there's Mondo, who did take the car out for a while at the party. Alex isn't sure whether to suspect any of his friends or not. He doesn't want to, but the police investigation peters out. All the boys go through some big stuff. They are threatened by Rosie's brothers, Brian and Colin, until the police warn them off. 

Then it's 2003, twenty five years later. Alex and his wife are expecting their first baby. Ziggy is living in America with his husband, Paul. I won't spoil what Weird is up to. Mondo has kind of drifted up from the others. Rosie's case is reopened by a cold case team, and Karen Pirie is heading up the investigation. But most of the evidence has gone missing, meaning that new forensic methods can't be used to try to finally get the killer. Then Ziggy dies in odd circumstances, and it's all back open for Alex and the others.

I really liked the book. The first half in 1978 felt very modern. I did think there were a couple of anachronisms, but I could mostly forgive them because the writing is just so good. The second half, weirdly, feels further away from now. Things like the fact that not everyone was carrying their mobile phone at all times and they still used landlines. It just seemed so weird when realy 2003 doesn't feel that long ago. That's when the book was written, by the way, it's not a more modern one that Val has placed completely in the past. 

I would read more in the Karen Pirie series, especially if they're not 'typical' detective novels like this one isn't. I'm giving it five out of five. 

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway - Review

Just a little quick review from me for this - it really isn't long at all. I listened to it on audio book while I was driving somewhere recently and it's only a few pages long. But I am counting it so it's here. 

This is a series of vignettes including two which are about Hemingway's most famous character, apparently. They are a lot about war and bull fighting, and I did quite like the juxtaposition between the two. But overall I didn't love the style or the themes so this is just a three out of five for me. 

Earthly Possessions by Anne Tyler - Review

I've read a couple of other books by Anne Tyler and liked them, so when I saw this in a charity shop I bought it for just a couple of quid. It hasn't been on my shelves for very long before I got round to it. I say shelves, what I really mean is the five piles of books under my mirror in my bedroom. I ought to stop buying books but..... that won't happen. 

I love Anne Tyler because her books are short but perfectly formed. They're really understated, I think. She usually has a current time narrative which is very contained to within an area or a time frame, and then she keeps going back in time to explain how the main character to got to this point in their life. This book is no different. 

Charlotte is in her forties, I would say, and she is in the queue at the bank one day. She is planning to leave her husband, Saul, so she is collecting all her savings in order to be able to leave. But there's a fracas and a man is trying to hold up the bank and he ends up taking Charlotte hostage. He gets some money but not loads. He has a gun and he forces Charlotte to the bus station, where they get on a bus and then hotwire a car to head south to Florida. They don't have a lot of cash between them. And although Charlotte is a bit frightened, she's not frightened for her life. She realises Jake is just a bit of a chancer and besides, this is kind of getting her out of the monotony of her life. 

She still lives in the house she grew up in. She was the only child of older parents and she wasn't exactly a welcome addition to their lives. Her mother very often didn't leave the house. Her father was a photographer who had a studio in the house so all kinds of people used to drop by. Charlotte was a neglected and odd child. Some of her neighbours were the Emorys. They had four sons and the wife, Alberta, used to be friends with Charlotte's mother. However she then took off with her father in law, and one by one the sons dropped off. 

Saul joined the military but when Charlotte is around twenty or something he comes back. They start a relationship but then Saul becomes a preacher and Charlotte has a baby. By the time she has finally made up her mind to leave him, all his brothers and some other waifs and strays are living in Charlotte's house, and she just feels like life is whirling past her. 

It's a fab book and I really recommend it. I'm giving it five out of five. 

The Herd by Emily Edwards - Review

Lynn in my book club chose this book for this year, and by coincidence I had already bought it on Kindle when it was only 99p. So I was excited to get to it and read it at the beginning of July. I read it really quickly because it really captured me. I'm not surprised that it was a Richard and Judy book club book because it's just got that vibe to it. It'll be interesting to see what we make of it at book club!

The book is about two families, the Chamberlains and the Kholis. They live on the same street in a place called Farley, which appears to be fairly close to London and has a beach, so maybe like Brighton or something.  Elizabeth and Jack Chamberlain have three children - Max, who's nearly twelve, Charlie, who's about ten, and Clemmie, who is seven. Elizabeth and Bryony have been friends for like twenty years, since they met at uni, and they're extremely close. Bry is married to Ash, and they have a little girl, Alba, who is four. They have a lot of money because Ash sold his businesses. Elizabeth and Jack clearly do have money, but Jack is struggling to keep things going and also really clearly hates his job in the City. 

Clemmie had seizures when she was little so she has not been vaccinated. Elizabeth truly believes in vaccines, and to begin with would check who was hanging out with Clemmie, but she's sort of forgotten about that recently. But there's a bunch of stuff coming up at the end of the school term, so she sends out an email asking for the vaccination status of every child who is coming to Clemmie's party, and asks that if they're not vaccinated, they don't come. 

But Alba is not vaccinated. You see, Bry's older brother Matty is autistic and non verbal, and lives in a home. Their parents are convinced that he became autistic after some of his vaccinations, so they are truly against them. Sara has in front done some protesting and stuff like that. Bryony has spent her whole life with the 'burden' of Matty's existence on her. Her family life has clearly been hard, so she didn't want Alba to be vaccinated. Her younger sister Jessie has just had a baby, Coco, and Bry knows all her mum's arguments as to why Coco shouldn't be vaccinated either.

But she has to lie to her oldest friend. And she does. But then measles breaks out. 

Right from the beginning of the book the reader knows that there is a court case going on, but it's not immediately clear what has happened and who is involved. There are small points of view of a few people who are attending the court case, including reporters, online trolls, and more. 

I generally did like the book and found it very readable and an interesting story. It's easy to sympathise with both Bry and Elizabeth, for different reasons, over different parts of the book. I liked the supporting characters in the street, too. I liked the microcosm of life. I did find everyone insufferably middle class and this is something I would like to discuss in book club because I think it would be different if it wasn't set in such a well to do, affluent street. 

In all I'm giving it four out of five. It was written mostly before the Covid lockdowns, but it is interesting to read it in the light of what we've been through in the last four years, and through the scary rise of antivaxxers both here and in the rest of the world. 

Terra Electrica The Guardians of the North by Antonia Maxwell - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for Terra Electrica The Guardians of the North by Antonia Maxwell! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do have a click around and read some of my other posts. 

I love good midde grade so I signed up for this tour straight away, and I'm glad to say that it was so worth it because I really liked the book. It felt like it really fitted into the sort of epic storytelling that we all remember from our childhoods. But it's also a really modern story with issues like climate change at its forefront, which I liked too. I think kids from around aged ten would like it. 

So the protagonist of the story is Mani. She's twelve. She lives in the Arctic I think, only this is in the future where all the ice caps have melted. Her mother has died. She and her dad were living in a cave but her dad went out to find food. He was an elder in their community, but now everyone else is dead. They had some kind of sickness caused by electricity and died. The cave was safe, but they needed food, so Mani's dad set out. He said he would be back in eight days, but now it's been twenty nine days and Mani is starving. 

So she heads to the research station not too far away and there she meets Leo. He is a scientist and he gives Mani food. He has the sickness too - she can tell by the flashes of electricity in his eyes. He wants them to set out to The Ark, which is the company that he works for. He is certain that they will have a cure for the sickness, and he tells Mani that her dad is probably there too. So they set off together on an epic adventure. 

It is like a Hobbit adventure for sure, it has all the hallmarks and I really liked it. I liked what happened along the way. Mani also has a mask that lived above her bed, but she wasn't old enough to be told about it. But now she has started to use it, and she explores magical worlds within it. 

I'm giving this four out of five and I would definitely be interested in reading the next in the series. 

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi! It is a pleasure to welcome you here. Please do click around and read some of my other reviews. I was intrigued by the premise of this book and am glad I signed up for the tour because I really liked it. 

The novel has three protagonists: Zohaib, his younger sister Misha, and Nadia. Zohaib and Misha grew up in relative wealth in Lahore, and Nadia was the daughter of one of their maids. She is between the two of them in age, and while they're friendly and while Misha and she often act like sisters, obviously there is a class difference between them and always will be. 

Misha's parts are in the past, when she was just a little girl of about eight. She is a spoilt child, but loved by her parents and family. Hers is a mostly easy childhood, coddled by her family. 

In the present time, Zohaib and Nadia are living lives literally and metaphorically thousands of miles apart. Zohaib is living in London. He has a friend, Talha, and a therapist that he sees often. He's about twenty six at this point I think. Talha is often worried about him and asks him to go trekking in Peru with him. Zohaib has mental health problems and clearly has a lot of past trauma. He is no longer close to his parents, who are now divorced, but both still in Pakistan. 

Nadia, also known as Nono, is living in poverty. She has an office job that she loves, but her husband is a drug addict and is out of work. She's pregnant and is sexually harassed by men in her office. She fears for the future and eventually heads back to her childhood home. 

It was obvious something bad had happened but I didn't guess what, which I did like, although I didn't guess exactly what. I really liked the setting of the book and could imagine the family home perfectly. I really liked Nadia as a character and wanted her to do really well. In all i'm giving this four out of five and am glad I joined in the tour for it!

Little Baby Nothings by Manic Street Preachers and Valerie Phillips - Review

Alright, so it's not technically a 'book' because it doesn't have words. It's just photos. But I liked it, so I'm going to write a little bit about it here. 

You might know that I was a big fan of the Manic Street Preachers back in the 90s. I have the words 'cheap tarnished glitter' tattooed on my left wrist. I haven't really liked much of their output since like 2003, but I do sort of keep an eye on them. I would have loved to see them with Suede round about now actually, but the logistics of it just didn't work out for me. 

So I saw the band advertising this new photo book and I was intrigued, so I bought it. The first hundred or something were signed copies, and as you can see, I was lucky to get one of those! It arrived really quickly and I was really pleased. The photos are from 1991, way back when the Manics were touring songs from Generation Terrorists. They were supported by the Wildhearts, who I also really like, so it was cute to see that. T shirts cost just £7! There are plenty of photos of the tour, including some photos of the band in tacky bed and breakfast hotels which ended up on the front of the Motorcycle Emptiness single. There are also a number of photos in James' old house, showing the band in his and Sean's bedroom (they're cousins and Sean lived with the Bradfields for quite a while as a teenager) on their bunk beds. There's some beautiful photos of Richey - who has been missing since 1995 - including some of him in leather pants which I don't think I've ever seen before. There are just so many beautiful photos and lots which were poignant and lots which made me laugh, too. I read this really quickly one evening waiting for tea and I'm glad I bought it.

Also see below for the most beautiful end papers ever! 

The Anarchists' Club by Alex Reeve - Review

I read The House on Half Moon Street in June 2023 and reading back my review of it, it seems like I didn't like it very much! But I was reminded of the series and decided to request the second one from the library, and when it arrived I picked it up really quickly. I really enjoyed it, way more than the first one. I think the author has settled into writing a bit, which helps. There's a lot less detail and less description, meaning that the writing flowed so much better. I really fell in love with Leo a lot more, and I now want to read the next two books in the series quite soon. I hope this book is a sign of things to come!

As a reminder, Leo is a trans man, but because the book is set in the 1880s, he doesn't have that terminology to refer to himself. But we would now, so I'm going to. He used to be known as Lottie Pritchard, the well to do daughter of a vicar, but he always knew he wasn't a girl, and finally, aged fifteen, her left the family home and made his way to London. He now lives in a chemist with Alfie, his landlord, and Alfie's daughter, Constance, who is twelve. 

So the book is set about a year after Maria died in the first book. Leo is working as a porter in the hospital, but actually there's way less of that which I liked because it just wasn't relevant to the story. He's working in the chemist one afternoon when a woman arrives with two children, aged ten and six ish. She buys some bromide and leaves. Leo wouldn't think anything of it except that a few days later the police arrive at Leo's door. The woman has been found in a shallow grave and in her pockets was a piece of paper with Leo's name and address. Leo is baffled as he only met her very briefly and has no idea who she is. 

He goes with the police to a confusing courtyard and warren of rooms where Dora has been found. The kids, Aiden and Ciara, soon turn up, and Leo comes to be very fond of them. The rooms where Dora lived are part of an anarchists club. There, Leo meets a man from his past - someone who knew him before - who wants an alibi for Dora's murder and who blackmails Leo, threatening to expose him if he doesn't provide the alibi. Maybe John is the murderer, but there are so many confusing things about that case. Leo also has to get back in touch with his family, which is difficult. 

There's Rosie, too, who we met in the first book as her husband was murdered. Constance wants her and Leo to be friends, but it's difficult between them. 

I loved the mystery here and the setting. I really think the author just settled into the world a lot more. I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Book of Queer Prophets Edited by Ruth Hunt - Review

My next book for Pride Month was this non fiction book. I've had it a few years; it was a present from my friend Leanne for Christmas one year. I've been meaning to pick it up for ages and I finally got round to it and I'm really glad I did. 

I am really interested in faiths of all kind. My undergraduate degree was in Theology and Religious Studies and it's something I've kept up with throughout the years. I work for a faith based charity even though I'm not religious myself. I had some religious trauma growing up so I don't worship, but I find all faiths and none absolutely fascinating. So this book was right in my interest zone! 

I knew some of the names listed so I was really interested to read things by them. These included Amrou Al-Kadhi, Jeanette Winterson, Dustin Lance Black, Jay Hulme, Juno Dawson and of course Kate Bottley, who writes the afterword. I really enjoyed these pieces, especially Dustin Lance Black, whose history I had no idea about but it was fascinating to read. I liked Kate's afterword, too - she is straight and she talks about coming to a place of needing to fight for queer people within her faith. It's a really honest piece and I appreciate it. I also really liked Juno Dawson's - she no longer has a faith so that was interesting to read too. 

The pieces are mostly written by Christian people or people who used to be Christians but are no longer. Amrou is Muslim but I think they were the only Muslim represented. There are a couple of Jewish people which I also really liked reading as Reform Judaism seems to really accept LGBTQ+ people and want them in the faith. Most of the Christians are still practicing and a lot have gone into ministry, which is really interesting to read about even if it's not something I would be interested in myself. I like hearing people's testimonies and this is basically what this book is in one way or another. 

I also liked to read about people's anger with their faith, whether they had gone back to it or not. There has been so much crap slung at queer people within all faiths, and I am so glad that these people were so honest about their walks with god or indeed not. 

I'm giving this five out of five and am wondering who I can pass it on to!