West Yorkshire Queer Stories - Review

First of all let me share a couple of photos of books! Doesn't everyone love a book haul? Then I'll get into this review.  

First of all these are the books I got for Christmas. The top three were from a swap I did run by Gwen and Janet, I've joined in with this swap a zillion times and always enjoy it. This year my swapper turned out to by my friend Sarah Beth, so I had fun choosing some books that I thought they would like and vice versa. Shy Radicals is totally me, I'm looking forward to this. My friend Stacey says What you are looking for is in the library is great, so I'm looking forward to that, too. The third one is a queer romance which isn't always my thing, but I'm willing to take Sarah Beth's word that it is good!  

Lee bought me We Fell Apart and Bog Queen because I asked for both of them. We Fell Apart is the third in this series and I can't wait to read it. I can't remember why I chose Bog Queen but it sounds great. Girls to the Front was from my Secret Santa in Lee's family, which turns out to be my sister in law Libby. She's also really into books and this sounds really up my street. 

Next is this pile of books which I got at the beginning of January from Waterstones. My friend Jac gave me a gift voucher so when my mum and I went to Meadowhall I went and browsed. I love Lucy Foley so picked that one up as I've been seeing reviews of it. I had seen someone rave about All Fours so I thought I would give that a go. This Val McDermid is non fiction so that'll be interesting, and the other two just looked interesting (and were on the buy one get one half price which is always good). 

I DO have a lot of books, yep. I love them. 

And now to my review. I've had this book absolutely forever. I'm from West Yorkshire so I was obviously intrigued by this. I think I backed it or something, like the crowdfunding? I really can't remember, but I've had it a while. And I finally got round to it! It's joyful to read. There was a whole project to capture the stories of tons of queer people living in the region. This book is colourful and pretty but also has some really deep stories in it, from elders who have lived through decades of queer history, to people newly out. I loved it, I'm giving it five out of five and I would recommend it if you need a bit of queer joy. 

The Magickal Summer of Evie Edelman by Harriet de Mesquita - Review

I was offered some book to review by UCLAN Publishing, because I'm on their list, so I chose this and another, and I was so excited to receive them! So thank you very much to UCLAN Publishing for gifting me this copy of this book. I was provided with a copy for review purposes but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

I didn't like this book much at all and I feel really bad about saying that, because I really thought it sounded like my kind of thing. But it just wasn't. It also took me nine days to read it, which was partly because I was away for the weekend with not much time to read, but also because I just couldn't get engrossed in the prose. It is a shame because I wanted to like it! 

The book is set in 1982 and is written as the diary of Evie herself, so it comes off a bit like Adrian Mole in parts, which may or may not be intentional. As it is historical fiction I do think it is broadly of the time, but there were a couple of things that were anachronistic which kind of annoyed me. I also think the language skews more modern, but maybe that doesn't matter. 

So anyway, Evie is twenty two and she lives in Leeds with her parents, Dad and Lizzie. Her elder brother, Joe, is married to a woman called Val and they have a one year old baby, Tom. The family is Jewish, but not particularly religious, I think. They attend synagogue but it seems like it's more for the gossip that anything else! They live in a community of Jewish people with a lot of women called Susan and Sarah, which I get was a joke, but it was also a bit difficult to keep everyone straight in my head. Evie used to have a thing with a young man called Alex Ishkowitz but they broke things off, and he is now married to one of the Susans. 

Evie visits a psychotherapist and is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. It feels like everyone in her life already knew this and has been kind of blaming her for it? I also strongly suspect her dad is autistic too (since that is the term we use these days). So she starts a diary. 

Evie's auntie Miriam dies very suddenly one day, and in her will, she leaves Evie nearly all of her quite sizable fortune. There is a distinct feeling that this is a stupid dea and she won't know what to do with it. Evie is trying to be a witch and as part of this she buys a small cottage in a village near Barnsley and moves there. She goes there because of a picture of a mill in that village that her parents have in the house. 

Now it must be that this village is close to where I live because it is four miles from Scissett, and I live about eight miles away from Scissett. Scissett is misspelt as Scisset, which I found incredibly annoying, because it's not that hard to google. In fact the book needed a better edit/proof read because there were a few mistakes like this that I picked up. In fact, Edelman is spelt wrongly on the spine of the book! 

Anyway Evie moves there in to a tiny somewhat delapidated cottage and makes friends with some of the locals, but she doesn't entirely fit in. She still practises her magick and she is awkward at times. She sometimes have visions but these aren't really explained enough. I just sort of didn't get the point of the book? I liked Evie enough but just couldn't get into the story. 

Two out of five. Sorry. 

Pity by Andrew McMillan - Review

Oh my god, this book! I found it on a trip to The Bookish Type in March. I had vouchers to spend and I bought three books and this was one of them. I bought it because it's set in Barnsley, where I live, and it is queer, and it reflects on the Miners' Strike, which I like to read about. It is only a short book, a novella really, and it is told in little vignettes, which I also really liked. 

There are four main characters to the book. First of all, in the present time, there is Simon. He is a youngish man; he works in a call centre in Barnsley taking bets. He also does drag in the evenings, usually in Sheffield, but he has been asked to do a show in Barnsley in the club that he and his family frequent. He is gay and has started seeing a lad, Ryan, who works as security in the Alhambra shopping centre. Ryan is more straight acting than Simon and at times this causes conflict between them. Simon also does Only Fans, making a bit of money on the side. He lives with his dad, Alex, an ex miner. His mum left when he was younger. Simon is a great character - he's proud of who he is and where he's come from. 

Alex and Brian are the next characters. They are brothers. They lost their dad in a pit accident when they were just teenagers and lived with their mum after that. Brian has got involved with some researchers who are looking at the effects of the Miners' Strike - maybe 40 years after it happened - and who are very much outsiders looking in. Brian is attending some sessions to help them but he's quite taciturn. He was a miner himself through the strike, as a young man, but he remembers so much more. 

Alex was also a miner, in the exact pit that his dad died in. Alex has a complicated life and I don't want to ruin the story so I won't, but I really felt for him and his life. I would have loved more of his story but I utterly understand how it was more effective to not write too much about him. 

The fourth character is Alex and Brian's dad. He isn't exactly a full character - he's a ghost. All his parts are repetitive. He gets up, he goes to work, on the walk to the pit he catches up with his coworkers, he gets in the cage and goes down to the coal face, he works, he works, he works. These bits are almost poetic and they're so amazing, I loved them. It was such an effective way of telling his story. 

I also liked the shout out to Maurice Dobson and his partner Fred, who lived in Barnsley and ran a shop, at a time when homosexuality was illegal. We have so much to be proud of in this little town. 

I'm giving this five out of five and I now want everyone I know to read this book! I love it. 

Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell - Review

I kept hearing about this book - which is a telling of the life of Emily Bronte - last year and the year before, and bought it when I had a voucher some time last year. Then I kept it for December, feeling it would be an atmospheric read in the colder months. And I was right, it was. It also made me really want to go to Haworth again. It's where the Brontes lived and worked, and where Emily died and is buried. Charlotte and Branwell are buried there too, but Anne is in Scarborough. I saw her grave there about ten years ago. I have been to Haworth, of course, and gone round the parsonage where the family lived, but not for ages. So Lee and I decided to go to Haworth for new year, and we had a lovely time. I was really glad to have read this so close to our trip. We also drove up Penistone Hill to look at the moors where Emily loved to walk and which she used in Wuthering Heights. As I'm disabled it would be difficult for me to walk all the way to Top Withens - which Emily used as the base for where Heathcliff lived - but I did enjoy standing on the moors on New Year's Eve letting the cobwebs blow away. 

I already know quite a lot about Emily's life, having read a biography about her fairly recently and really, having grown up in Yorkshire and having visited the parsonage before, but I really did like this retelling. I liked the focus on her very early life and her first experiences of school. Her elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth were ill and so they and Emily and Charlotte were pulled out and taken home, where the elder girls died. I liked the imagining of Emily at this time, and later, as a young woman, when she was in Brussels with Charlotte. These were parts of her life which may actually be lacking in real detail, but which the author here has imagined beautifully. 

There isn't a lot of detail about Emily's writing, especially until later in the book, but I didn't mind this. I also thought that the lack of detail about Branwell was a good thing. He was a bit of a wrong un and ended up addicted to laudunum or something and was often drunk in the town's pubs and had to be brought home. He died just before Emily did. Dramatisations of the Brontes' lives often focus on Branwell and what his sisters had to sacrifice for him, but this didn't, which I was glad for. Emily is dutiful and cares for her brother and their father, especially when her sisters are away, but there's not much sympathy for Branwell. There is a lot of Charlotte's ranting about how he gets everything handed to him because he's a man and how she and her sisters have to fight so hard, which I did appreciate.

I also think there are hints of Emily being depressed. At times she can't write at all and that distresses her. She finds solace in her dog and in walking across the moors. When she writes, she is all consumed with it. I really liked this version of Emily (who is the best Bronte, for real). 

Obviously I know that Emily died aged just 30, and I wondered how the book would deal with that. I absolutely loved the end and thought it was perfect. I am giving this four out of five. 

The Canal Murders by J R Ellis - Review

As you know, I love this series of books by J R Ellis, and have read all of them. I was eagerly awaiting this one and have had it on preorder since like last November or something. It arrived on my Kindle at the very end of April and I started reading it just a few days later. My mum was excited about it too, so when she's read it I will have to see what she thought. I didn't love it, though. I liked the story but I thought the writing was just a bit terrible. It felt very much like J R Ellis is just churning them out. I've always thought that his writing a slightly terrible - he relies too much on adverbs, and he uses other words when he can just say 'said', and if I had to read about Oldroyd and Andy 'munching' on biscuits one more time I was going to scream. But this time it really felt like the dialogue especially was just rubbish. There were people pontificating all over the place, and a lot of 'telling' involved in the speeches people made, too. 

All of this is a real shame, because I love these books. I probably will read the next one, yeah, but it feels a bit like cheesy chips from a takeaway - you know it tastes good at the time but you also know you couldn't read nothing but this type of stuff because it wouldn't be good for you in the long run. 

So, the story. Steph and Andy are on a canal boat holiday from near Leeds somewhere, and they're in Saltaire near Bradford, staying overnight. They go into a pub nearby and witness a woman having a go at a woman in a group of people at the folk night there. The next morning, Steph is up early when she sees a boat coming downstream, and then she realises the woman at the tiller is slumped over, dead. Steph and Andy secure the boat and call the police. Javed Iqbal, who used to work with them in Harrogate, is the detective on scene. He soon realises it's a strange case - there is no sign of anyone being on the boat with Annie Shipton, the victim. He asks Steph and Andy to help (of course), and then asks if they can get Oldroyd to come along and help (also of course). 

Annie Shipton was one of a group of friends who lived on the canal. The others are Bridget, Bob, and Liz. Her ex, Ben (there were way too many people with names starting with B in this book), now lives near Haworth, and Liz's husband Roger is dead. But all six of them used to be in a folk band together, called Rowan. They split up and fell out a bit over copyright issues and money, but then Annie had persuaded them all to buy canalboats near each other. They all, middle class hippy types, seemed to think of themselves as a bit above everyone else. Annie had written a blog about people she didn't think belonged on the canal, and one of these people, Laura, was the woman who had a go at her in the pub the night before her death. Then there's mysterious loner Len, who speaks of the spirits who live on the canal. 

No shortage of suspects already, for sure, but then we add in people from Salts Mill nearby. The CEO there has grand plans to expand the mill, but Annie has been at the forefront of a petition against it. Then there's Sam, a young lad who got into an altercation with Annie over his cycling down the towpath. He's not a bad lad really but he's a worry to his mum, and he's also a suspect. 

There are far too many suspects I think in this book, which ended up a little bit confusing. I liked the setting, as always, for sure, but I just felt the story left me a bit cold. In all I'm given this three out of five. It's really a 7 out of ten, haha. 

The Silence of Herondale by Joan Aiken - Review

I bought this book for Lee a couple of years ago because he likes gothic novels and I thought he'd enjoy this short book. He read it ages ago and did like it, and then I forgot about it until we were sorting out some books and he said I should read it, so I did. It took me longer than I thought because it's quite dense. But I did like it.

I read Joan Aiken when I was little and absolutely loved her, but I didn't know she had written any books for adults. I had a book of short stories by her called The Last Slice of Rainbow that I read over and over again, and in fact I've just bought it on eBay because I'd love to read it again as an adult. I must have seen this on my travels somewhere online and bought it for Lee. It's nice to revisit her as an author!

So, the book's main character is Deborah Lindsay. She's in her twenties and is an orphan after her parents were killed in a car accident. She is Canadian but living in Britain and in desperate need of a job. She applies to be the governess for a thirteen year old, Carreen Gilmartin. Carreen's aunt, Mrs Morne, is looking for a governess for her, but Carreen is no ordinary thirteen year old. Instead she is an illustrated playwright and is a prodigy, and has made quite a lot of money. Mrs Morne gives Deborah the job, and then gets to go shopping for Carreen. Deborah is then accused of shoplifting, but Mrs Morne saves her, something which comes back to bite Deborah later. 

Then Carreen goes missing, before Deborah can even meet her. It is thought that she has gone to the ancestral family home in Herondale in Yorkshire, to see her uncle John, Mrs Morne's brother. He lives in a huge hall on the edge of Herondale village but he is in ailing health and about to die. Deborah leaves immediately, hoping to find Carreen there. 

In the village she finds mostly silence and suspicion. The caretaker type person, Mr Bridie, and the housekeeper, Mrs Lewthwaite, have both left the house as John has been taken into hospital. Deborah opens up the house and finds that John's bedroom is wet, a window having been left open. She finds his gun and keeps it close. She notices a few other odd things. Carreen does indeed arrive, alongside her new found cousin, Jeremy, who belongs to another of Mrs Morne's brothers. Deborah is immediately suspicious of him, especially when the gun goes missing and a heavy weight on the pump is cut and could have injured someone.

All this is exacerbated by the breaking out of prison of a murderer known as the Slipper Killer. Jock Nash comes from Herondale and is expected to make his way back there. He murdered a man for digging up a rare orchid on the moors nearby. Police turn up in the village to search for him, but there is still a veil of silence. 

In all I did like the book and found it a good story, but I didn't think it quite hit the mark of being truly creepy or frightening. The setting - remote Yorkshire village, lots of snow etc - is brilliant, but it wasn't quite used to its full potential. I liked Deborah a lot and wanted her to succeed. I did like some of the twists towards the end. In all I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Brewery Murders by J R Ellis - Review

You know I love J R Ellis and have read everything his written. He writes a series focussing on DCI Jim Oldroyd and his two sergeants, Andy and Steph. Oldroyd is now living with a woman, Deborah, in Harrogate, and Andy and Steph are a couple and live together in Leeds. I love the series because of its North Yorkshire setting, which is a place very dear to me, and I love to read about it. This is the ninth book in the series, and takes place in lower Wensleydale which I visited recently! It's a lovely part of the world. 

So in this book there's a beer festival to begin with and there are two breweries present who both brew in Markham and who are rivals. The older, traditional one is run by Richard Foster, who took over from his father. His father made a beer called Wensley Glory back in the nineties which won many awards, but the recipe was lost upon his death and so Richard can't remake it. The other brewery is run by Richard's sister, Emily, and she employs mainly women. Her partner Janice works there too. The women's brewery is subjected to a lot of abuse and harassment from Richard's brewery, mainly because a lot of the men who work there don't think women should be brewing beer. A man called Brendan Scholes turns up to talk to both Richard and Emily. He used to work at Richard's brewery and his dad Wilf was the only other person who knew the missing recipe other than Foster Sr. He has recently died and Brendan says he has a copy of the recipe. He wants either Richard or Emily to pay him for it. 

However, he is then found dead in a vat of beer in the older brewery. There are any number of people who might have wanted Brendan dead, including of course Richard and Emily, who may have both wanted the recipe, if it exists, the husband of a woman that Brendan had an affair with, and any number of people who just disliked him. Oldroyd and Andy are put on the case and are helped by a young and enthusiastic DC who I think we'll see more of in future books. One of my only criticisms of this book is that there's very little Steph in it and I like her, I always want to see more of her! 

I did guess one of the major twists before Oldroyd got there, which pleased me. I found the mystery a good one and in all I'm giving it four out of five. 

Jiddy Vardy by Ruth Estevez - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my stop on the tour for Jiddy Vardy by Ruth Estevez. My post was supposed to go up yesterday but unfortunately something happened in my personal life and I didn't get round to it. I'm very sorry, but I really did enjoy this book and am glad to be on the tour!

The book is sat in the late 1700s and starts on a ship where a baby has just been born, to Maria, who is only sixteen herself. Pirates board the ship and the baby is put in a cupboard to hide her, and the captain, Captain Pinkney, takes over the ship. Maria is terrified, of course... 

Then we meet up with the baby, Jiddy, first of all when she is eight years old, when she is bullied by some other girls for being different, and then when she is sixteen. She was adopted by Mary and her husband, who are poor people who live in Robin Hood's Bay on the north coast of Yorkshire. They are also involved in the local smuggling ring, and Jiddy gets involved too. She is darker skinned and haired than everyone else in Robin Hood's Bay and is bullied for that, especially by one local girl, Nellie. She gets the chance to work for the local lady of the manor and has to go up against Nellie for the chance. 

She knows smuggling is wrong but she also resents the local military who are trying to stop it. They are preventives (I don't know a lot of the military history but it was interesting) but then they get replaced by dragoons who, it seems, are meaner, nastier, and just a lot worse. But Jiddy's life crashes up against one in particular... 

She has been half in love with a local farm boy, Jonas, since she was very little, but the two start getting a lot closer over the course of the book. 

I liked the story a lot. I liked Jiddy and how full of life she was. I loved the setting as I know Robin Hood's Bay and think it's a beautiful part of the world. My only critique is that a LOT happened in the pages, but I do get it. I am giving this four out of five and really recommend it!

The third book in this series came out on the 2nd of December, and I would utterly recommend it. Here's the blurb for it:

When the sea can’t be put on trial for murder, who must pay the price?

 

A smuggler with a conscience, the defiant and contradictory Jiddy Vardy sets out to find choices and freedom for local girls worn thin by poverty.

 

Caught in the net that is Robin Hood’s Bay, Jiddy looks to majestic York, little realising that even loved ones can cage you when they think they are offering the chance of a lifetime.

Head inland to the promise of work, out to sea to the unknown, or stay in a close-knit community of smugglers and familiar faces?

What’s it to be for our endlessly curious, yet ultimately open-hearted Jiddy Vardy?

A Month in the Country by J L Carr - Review

When I was in Leeds at the beginning of July I was looking at a table in Waterstones which had a bunch of small novella books on it. I picked up quite a few but couldn't really afford any. One of the books on the table was Heatwave by Victor Jestin, which I read and enjoyed earlier in the year. So I turned to the library, of course, and requested three. They all arrived together so I picked up A Month in the Country first. It clearly hasn't been checked out of the library in forever; it had been in stacks stored somewhere. The first few pages had fallen out and been sellotaped back in. I love this! I love the history of a book and I like the fact that I gave it an airing for the first time in nearly two decades! This also has to be one of the oldest books I've read this year; it was published in 1980. 

The book is set in 1920. Tom Birkin is an art restorer, hired to uncover a mural in an Anglican church in North Yorkshire (somewhere near Ripon). The money to do so has been left by a local woman. Tom's skills are in decline in both availability and demand and he knows it; he was trained by someone else who has just given up. He will be paid twenty five guineas and expects the work to last around a month. 

Tom has served in the trenches in World War One (including fighting at Passchendaele) and has been left with PTSD from the experience, and a nervous tic in his left cheek. He has been married but she hast left him and he has drifted into this line of work. He arrives one day at the local station and makes his way to the church. 

At the church he meets the Revd Keach, who is hard to get to know as a character. Perhaps that's just the divide that exists between Tom and a reverend, in terms of their class, age, and life experiences. Perhaps it's the fact that Keach is uncomfortable with Tom's disability (he always looks over Tom's left shoulder). Tom is to sleep in the belfry, where he will only be disturbed by Mossop, the verger. He meets Moon, who has also served in the trenches, and who has been hired to search for a grave just outside of the churchyard walls, the money also left by the same woman. Tom and Moon stirke up a friendship, sharing their meagre food and having some deep conversations. 

The Revd's wife, Alice, visits Tom. He has a crush on her; she's much younger than the reverend and very pretty, and has a lovely laugh. She doesn't appear to want much from him, though. He visits the huge vicarage nearby at one point. He is also visited in his work by Kathy, the station master's daughter. She is only a teenager. She invites him for tea and then he is invited to chapel, where the station master is a travelling minister. Tom gets quite involved with the life of the chapel in his month in the village. I really liked the depiction of the difference between the (Anglican) church and the (Wesleyan/Methodist) chapel. I grew up in a community like that myself so could really understand it. 

Tom is a likeable character; he sometimes comes off a little passive, but I did like him. He has no religious leanings himself but he does like the work of uncovering the mural and wondering about the painter - something which becomes clear at the end and which serves as a really satisfying end to the book. I really liked it and am giving it four out of five. 

The Railway Murders by J R Ellis - Review

You know I love J R Ellis' series focussing on DCI Oldroyd, based in Harrogate, but which take place all over North Yorkshire. You can read my previous reviews here. I like crime fiction anyway, and I especially like these as they're set in places I know and love. I've read all the previous books so I had this one on pre-order on Kindle, meaning it arrived on my device the moment it was released! Perfect! My mum really likes this series and she reckons she liked this one as one of the best of the series. I enjoyed it enough. 

So the book takes places in Skipton, on a heritage railway a bit like the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway that exists in real life. It is being used for the filming of a film, and on the day of the murder, a heritage engine and train reverses up the track for around a mile, then comes back down the track, passing through a tunnel, so that it can be filmed arriving at the station. Daniel Hayward, one of the stars of the film, will then get out of the train compartment to greet his family on the platform. The film is Edwardian, so everyone is dressed up in period costume. The train goes up the track, pauses in the tunnel, and the crew start filming for it coming back. They are waiting for Daniel to get off the train, but when he doesn't, the crew realise that he has been murdered in the compartment. Thanks to the set up of the train, there's little chance that someone could have got in or out of the compartment while the train was moving, meaning it's a bit of a locked room mystery. 

The officer in charge in Skipton, Bob Craven, calls Oldroyd over from Harrogate to help him with the case. Most of the actors are staying in a posh hotel, with a spa and outdoor pool, so Oldroyd decides to stay there too and take his girlfriend Deborah with him. That way they can have food together in the evenings and he'll have someone to talk to. However, this may end up putting Deborah in danger...!

I liked the book, although there was less of Oldroyd's underlings Steph and Andy than I'd have liked. I did feel like the end came a bit quickly, but all in all this kept me reading. I'm giving it four out of five. 

The Royal Baths Murder by J R Eliis - Review

As you know, I've enjoyed three of J R Ellis' DCI Oldroyd books previously, and knew I had two more to get to. I needed an easier book to read recently so started this. I find crime novels easy to read, especially if I know the main characters already. Plus you know I love a bit of Yorkshire in my novels!

This one is set in Harrogate. The local Crime Fiction festival is on (based on the real one) and at one event, a famous author called Damien Penrose comes up against some other writers. No one much likes him, and there's a group of writers who think he's plagiarised them and stolen plots from them. The confrontation carries on in the bar after the event, but then everyone settles down and goes to bed.

However, early the next morning Damien goes to the Royal Baths to swim and use the steam rooms, and he is then found dead in the hot room, strangled. The police are quickly called and they secure the area. The masseur and the receptionist are adamant that no one has come past them, but there's no way out of the baths below. Carter and Oldroyd start to investigate, finding that Damien had no shortage of enemies, including two ex wives and all the aforementioned authors. But it seems like while everyone had a motive, everyone also had an alibi. 

Oldroyd does his typical thing of spending a lot of time thinking about the case. He is also encouraged by his daughter to try online dating, and he ends up meeting a woman called Deborah. The two get on really well, but Oldroyd does then find himself in the middle of live crime scenes while she's about. 

Meanwhile, Stephanie Johnson, Oldroyd's other protege, is seconded to work under a DCI Fenton. She knows him of old, and his underlings, known as Cock and Bull. Fenton has a fondness for trying it on with women and it take him no time to try it on with Johnson. The two of them are sent to investigate an allegation of corruption within the local council, but Fenton quickly shuts down the investigation. Johnson is determined to find out why... 

I really liked this book, I read it really quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it and the mystery. For that, I'm giving it five out of five. 

The Murder at Redmire Hall by J R Ellis - Review

I got round to reading the third in the DCI Oldroyd series at the beginning of September, I have previously read the first two and another one in the series and enjoyed them, and I really liked the premise of this book. It's a typical 'locked room' mystery and I thought it sounded really interesting. However, it didn't live up to my expectations. Not a lot happens, which I found annoying. There's a lot of annoying conversations between suspects which don't really further the story and which just lead to all the suspects suspecting each other. And it's overwritten - there's quite a lot of pompous language that I haven't noticed in the other books. So, maybe it's a blip. But those are my thoughts, so I'll write them down. But they do explain why I haven't given this as high a rating as the other books in the series. 

So, at the beginning, Oldroyd is invited to Redmire Hall to see the current Lord Redmire, Freddy, perform a magic trick that was previously performed by his father, Vivian, to great acclaim, in 1980 I think. Oldroyd asks Stephanie along. When they get there, there's a live TV crew there and many other people, including all of Freddy's family and close friends, including an ex business partner and an ex mistress. The trick involves a locked room - everyone is invited to examine it to make sure there's no way out of it, and then Freddy is locked in. The curtain is drawn back - and Freddy has disappeared! The idea then is that Freddy will reappear after the curtain is closed and opened again, but when he does, he is dead. He has been stabbed in the back.

Shortly after, an ex employee of the estate, Harry Robinson, is murdered in his cottage. Oldroyd and Stephanie immediately jump into action, forbidding the family and friends from leaving and starting their investigation. They can't work out the locked room trick, although they try hard to. All the family seem to have a motive for killing Freddy. He inherited the estate but has gambling debts and had been planning to sell off part of the estate. His son Alistair will inherit and become the new Lord. Freddy's daughter Poppy has had a lot of money out of her dad, and her boyfriend Tristram has gambling debts too - but would they have killed him? His brother Dominic has always been jealous that Freddy inherited the estate from their father, and his own business is not doing too well. Freddy was unfaithful to his wife Antonia, including with Alex, who is also present. Are either of them angry enough to kill Freddy? Alex's partner James was ripped off by Freddy in their business, so has he finally got his revenge? And what about all the estate staff? What did Harry Robinson know about the trick that led to his murder? 

I really liked the mystery but my criticisms are as above - there just wasn't enough depth in it for me. No mind, I will read the other and see what I think about them. But I'm giving this three out of five. 

A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris - Review

I've written before that I'm a huge fan of Joanne's first few books and have reread quite a few of them. I've liked her books for about twenty years now and one of my favourite books, Five Quarters of the Orange is by Joanne. However, I've not kept up with her last few books; I don't like her mythology stuff that much. But then my friend Laura told me this book was coming out, and as I loved the previous two books so much, I ordered it straight away. Then, when it arrived, I picked it up almost straight away too. 

It's the third in a series of books about St Oswald's School, a grammar school for boys somewhere in Yorkshire. The first two are Gentlemen and Players, which again is one of my favourite books and which came out in 2005, and Different Class, which came out in 2016 and about which I don't remember much. There is also a book called Blueeyedboy which is set in the same town and has some of the same characters, but isn't set in the school. I didn't like Blueeyedboy and found it quite disturbing. 

So, we're back at St Oswald's with Roy Straitley, the Latin teacher who the boys call Quasimodo and who inhabits the Bell Tower. The New Head is La Buckfast, who was part of the previous Crisis Intervention Team. She is an ambitious woman, although slightly cold. She has admitted girls to the school, in an attempt to get more cash for the School after its catastrophic year. She also has a muddled and tragic history which is linked to both St Oswald's and King Henry's, their rival boys school also in the town. 

There's a new sports hall being built, and on the day before the first day of term, Straitley's Brodie Boys turn up and tell him that they think they've found a body in the foundations of the new building. Straitley goes to investigate and does indeed see what looks like bones and a bundle of rags and, crucially, a King Henry's Prefect badge. Straitley takes it to Ms Buckfast. He assumes the body is that of Conrad Price.

Ms Buckfast starts to tell him the story of what happened in her younger years. When she was five, her fourteen year old brother Conrad went missing. He was a pupil at King Henry's and was supposed to pick her up from school, but when he didn't arrive she walked along to King Henry's and waited for him in the locker room. She was found there some hours later, talking about a green door and "Mr Smallface". Conrad was never found and Becky never understood what she meant by either of those things. 

She then grew up in a loveless household where her parents spoke about Conrad as if he had merely popped out. They refuse to get rid of any of his things and are taken in by conmen over the years posing as Conrad. Becky had a baby at sixteen, Emily, whose father was in Different Class but I've forgotten entirely what happened to him. 

We then meet Becky again in 1989, when she is twenty-three and has qualified as a teacher. She worked atr Sunnybank (also in the same town) and met Dominic there, a teacher a decade older than her. But then she gets a job at King Henry's. Dominic doesn't want her to work there, claiming that they're all stuff snobs, but she takes a supply job. On her first day, Eric Scoones, Straitley's friend, who was found out as an abuser of boys in previous books, mistakes her for one of the boys. It's an inauspicious start and later the same day Becky sees a boy with a Prefect badge who looks just like Conrad. His disappears, though, and a few more spooky things like that happen. She makes friends with Carrie, the hippy drama teacher, and doesn't tell Dominic about the bad things. However, Emily then starts talking about Conrad and "Mr Smallface". 

Meanwhile, back in 2006, Straitley is struggling to cope with the changes in School and his health is worsening... 

I did like the book, and I liked Becky even though she's quite difficult to like. I love Straitley and always have throughout the other books. I can imagine his classroom so well, I really like it. I found some of the going backwards and forwards in time from 1971 when Conrad disappeared to 1989 and to the "present" time of 2006 quite confusing. I also think there were genuinely a couple of mistakes - the character Scoones moved between the schools as a teacher but I think there was a mistake as to where he was when at least once - but I tried to not let that detract from my enjoyment of the book. I'm giving this four out of five and the book is now destined to be lent to my mum who I hope will enjoy it too!

The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor - Review

 

I had heard good things about this book and then on a recent trip to Saltburn, I went into an independent book shop there. I googled and saw it was there, and I'm really glad we went in because it was a cute little shop and I'm sure they appreciated the custom just as things were opening up. I bought a book about selkies and other sea myths for my friend Lucinda. It was an absolutely beautiful edition and it just spoke to me, so I spent the money and sent it as a present for no reason to her.

And I bought this for me. I had seen a couple of friends read it and I liked the premise, so I bought it. Then I picked it up only a few days later - partly because it was at the top of the pile of books next to the bed, and partly because I wanted to read it.

I have to say that it didn't altogether live up to my expectations. It felt a lot like something I'd read before, it felt quite formulaic, and I guessed quite a few of the twists. The end did save itself for me slightly, but it's really only a 3.5 for me. 

So, it's 1962 and Evie is sixteen and has just finished her O levels. She isn't sure what she wants to do with her life, or what kind of Woman she will be. Although she is sure she won't be the same type of woman as Christine. Evie lives with her dad Arthur, who was widowed when Evie was a very small baby. Christine is their housekeeper. She's only 8 years older than Evie. She's been moving in to the farmhouse where Evie and Arthur live for quite a while, and she has Plans. She and Arthur get engaged and all her focus shifts to the wedding and to getting what she wants out of life. She and Evie don't get along, and she is determined to get Evie to get a job in the local salon and get her out of the farmhouse for good. She is aided in this endeavour by her mother, Vera, who is always around, and Mrs Swithenbank, a friend of Vera's who has problems with her bowels.  

Evie is somewhat of a dreamer and a loner. She spends a lot of time at her neighbour's house, Mrs Scott-Pym. Mrs Scott-Pym knew her mother, which is a nice part of the book, and spends a lot of time baking. The two of them decide to do some Yorkshire magic on Christine, and Mrs Scott-Pym also tells Evie about her daughter, Caroline, from whom she is semi-estranged. 

I didn't have a problem with any of this stuff, but I did feel like the story was a bit hackneyed and overdone. Evie is obsessed with Adam Faith, but later hears "four nice boys from Liverpool", which seems a bit of a trite storyline for something set in 1962. There was also some language use that I didn't feel Yorkshire people would have used in 1962 - I'm from Yorkshire myself and even as a little girl in the 80s people thought 'okay' was too much of an Americanism and said 'alright' or similar instead. I feel like a better copy edit here - from someone older who was from Yorkshire - would have helped. 

I was going to give this three out of five, but I do feel like the ending saved it slightly. But, I didn't love the book and I wouldn't read something else by the author.