I’ve been trying to keep my reading as varied as possible and have tried to add a light touch, and I couldn’t resist this book. You’ll see why.
Master of the Art of Detection: Sherlock Holmes Mystery Short Story Collection by Liese Sherwood-Fabre
Master of the Art of Detection: Sherlock Holmes Mystery Short Story Collection by Liese Sherwood-Fabre
Decipher. Deduce. Deliver.
Sherlock Holmes, the most cerebral of detectives, finds his deductive powers put to the test in this intriguing collection of cases. Each adventure presents a web of secrets, clues, and deceptions. Only his highly honed observational skills lead him to the truth.
In a locked-room murder, did the victim succumb to “The Curse of Kisin?” And how had the daughter of Squire Northridge disappeared from her own locked bedroom? Can Holmes, an ocean away, determine if a missing treasure hunter ran off with Jean Lafitte’s fabled buried plunder? The disappearance of a beloved dog is an adventure filled with whimsy and humor, as are the return of Lady Frances Carfax and the howling dog of Baker Street.
Holmes’ unrivaled deductive powers rise to the test with each case. He shines as the consummate master of the art of detection and will captivate from beginning to end.
About the author:
Liese Sherwood-Fabre has won awards for her thrillers, romance, and literary short stories, and NYT bestselling author Steve Berry describes her writing as “gimmick-free, old-fashioned storytelling.”
In the second grade, she knew she was destined to write when she got an A+ for her story about Dick, Jane, and Sally’s ruined picnic. After obtaining her PhD from Indiana University, she joined the federal government and had the opportunity to work and live internationally for more than fifteen years. She draws upon these experiences to endow her characters with deep conflicts and emotions.
I thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for providing me with an ARC copy of this book which I freely chose to review.
I am not an expert on Sherlock Holmes, although I enjoy his adventures, and I have not read one of his cases for a long time. I think the last one I had read before I came across this volume was a translation into Spanish, and that means I am not in the best of positions to compare these stories to the originals. Nonetheless, I can say that I enjoyed all the stories and I had a great time reading them.
The author is a well-known expert in the area and has written quite a few collections and novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and Watson, and if I am to judge by this collection of stories, they will delight those who enjoy his stories and would like to have access to more.
I particularly liked the way each story is prefaced by an explanation about that particular type of story or a reference to one of the original stories by Conan-Doyle, which are a joy to read and show the author’s depth of knowledge. Although most of the stories are originals, there are a couple of times when she includes one of the original Holmes stories and connects them to her own story. (Those are, The Disappearance of Lord Boatswain, and The Adventure of the Empty House, this last one fairly well-known as it brought us Holmes back after his apparent death). The stories are fairly different, and apart from the last one, narrated in the typical style we are accustomed to, with Watson writing the story of one of Holmes’s adventures, some time after the fact. The last story, The Curious Incident of the Howling Dog on Baker Street is told from a pretty unusual point of view (and one that will delight pet owners) and is pretty funny.
I am not going to choose any favourites among the stories: some are more serious, and some are very light in tone, but all are entertaining and remain true to the characters and their interactions. (OK, if I were forced to, I would choose The Most Winning Woman, because it can be read as an interesting commentary about the lot of women in the society of the era apart from being an intriguing mystery). They are not too heavy on descriptions other than the details about the cases, and in that aspect, they are very close to the originals. I did not spot any anachronisms or evident mistakes in language that took me out of the story and ruined it for me, although I am not an expert in Victorian literature.
The actual book ends around the 90% mark, and the rest includes information about the author, some of her other books on the subject, and also a sample of one of her books on young Sherlock Holmes (which got me very intrigued, I must admit).
This is a book I recommend to readers of short stories, especially those who enjoy Sherlock Holmes and Victorian mysteries, and it is ideal for people who don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to their reading and prefer to read shorter pieces that can be easily picked up and put down, are easy to follow, and brief enough to be read in one sitting. I’ve discovered an author I will keep my eyes on and will try to catch up with more of her stories in the future, and I am sure I won’t be the only one.
And, I must share a wonderful promotional post the multi-talented author, visual artist, singer, and more, Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene, has shared on her blog. It features Sarah Mallery, an author I have followed for quite a while and whose books are a delight, especially if you love historical fiction, (and it also features me, sorry), so, make sure to visit Teagan’s post, and to also check what she is up to. You can find her post, here.
Thanks very much to Teagan, for her wonderful post, to Sarah, for keeping me company, to BooksGoSocial, NetGalley and to Liese Sherwood-Fabre for her highly entertaining book, and, most of all, thanks to all of you for your support, following, reading, and always being there. Keep smiling!
I usually only share reviews here, and I warned you at the beginning of the summer, that I would close comments and might not be sharing as much content as usual, at least for the summer.
There were several reasons for that. First, I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been doing.
Some of you know that I volunteer at a local radio station here in Barcelona (Spain). It is called Sants 3 Ràdio (the neighbourhood where my mother lives is called Sants, although the radio station covers the district of Sants-Montjuïc, much larger with several neighbourhoods in it), and it started over 25 years ago (we’ll celebrate the 28th anniversary soon). Incredibly enough, a few kids (they were teens and were going to school together) started the project, which has grown and grown since. This local radio is very involved in everything that goes on in the district, and apart from a few paid staff (I think only 4 or 5, who work there daily, look after the sound system, and deal with all the paperwork, permits, and all), all the rest of us (about 150 people, on and off) are volunteers. We participate in many things that go on: local fairs, parades, cultural events, sports… You name it, we’ll be involved in one way or another. And we also publish a news portal,El 3, where some of the reports included in the newsprogramme are written up with photos, so that people can also “see” what is happening.
One of the big things is the local festival, la festa major (the radio broadcasts in Catalan, by the way), and during that week, live programmes are being broadcast the whole week, with visits to the streets that are decorated for the festival and reports about the events taking place. I thought I’d share links to an article about the Festa Major and also some videos the editor, Pau, put together including some of the stuff happening and what we’d been doing. I hope you enjoy it.
This is a collection of photographs of the streets of the neighbourhood of Sants (el barri de Sants) of Barcelona, where I live, showing the decorations for the annual festival (la Festa Major) in honour of their patron saint, Sant Bartholomew (Sant Bartomeu), whose day is celebrated on the 24th of August. This year the festival lasted from the 24th of August to the 1st of September.
There are also full articles (in Catalan) in El3, the newsportal, about the festival, with plenty of pics, but I think that is the one that gives a good sense of how the streets looked like. There was a full programme of activities in each street and some that were organised jointly in other spaces (children’s games, popular meals [paellas, botifarrades, hot chocolate for the kids, meals where the neighbours brought and shared their dishes…), dancing, concerts, movies, treasure hunts…)
Tweets from Pau (the editor of the radio station, whom I’ve been working with for a while now) including summary videos of the activities every day of the festival. They are fun and worth watching! (And if you’re bored or want to see more pics of what we were up, if you check his Tweet feed, there is plenty more, and, I appear in many of them. Not a pretty sight, though, but you’ve been warned!)
Day 1
🎥 Aquí teniu un vídeo resum del primer dia de la Festa Major de Sants a Sants 3 Ràdio! 🎉
👀 El pregó, l'ofrena floral, la cercavila, entrevistes…
🎥 Ja tenim el vídeo resum del segon dia de la Festa Major de Sants 2024 a Sants 3 Ràdio! Ha estat una jornada plena de música, tradicions i aniversaris que hem viscut amb vosaltres 📻
🥳 El tercer dia de la Festa Major de Sants 2024 ha estat espectacular, amb moments únics, com l'entrega de premis del concurs de guarniment de carrers! 🏆
🎥 Aquí us deixem el vídeo resum del "Dia 3" viscut des de Sants 3 Ràdio! (Gràcies @ancormesa pels vídeos de l'entrega🔝) pic.twitter.com/aDIjnx0lTF
👉🏽 Hem gaudit del vermut mariner al Mercat de Sants, i hem entrevistat comissions de festes, a Set de Rumba, o al president del Parlament de Catalunya, Josep Rull.
🎥 Ja tenim el vídeo resum del cinquè dia de la Festa Major de Sants 2024!
Hem gaudit de la paella popular a Alcolea de Baix, una tarda de castells, moltes entrevistes, o els concerts de Miquel del Roig i Pirat's Sound Sistema 🎶
🎥 Ja tenim el vídeo resum del 6è dia de la Festa Major de Sants 2024!
👉🏽 La xocolatada al carrer Finlàndia, l'Obert Internacional d'Escacs, el tast de síndria i meló amb els Castellers de Sants, la visita de Míriam Nogueras o el Kop de Foc de la FM Alternativa 🎉
🎥 Tanquem el 7è dia de la Festa Major de Sants amb una jornada espectacular! Quin equipàs de Sants 3 Ràdio! 🎉
🗓 Demà us esperem a tothom al carrer Valladolid a les 12:00h per l'entrega popular de premis dels carrers guarnits de Sants 3 Ràdio. No hi falteu! 📻🏆 #FMSants2024pic.twitter.com/uDbIXcjVET
📻 Tanquem l'últim dia de Festa Major a Sants 3 Ràdio amb el vídeo resum del dia! 🎥 No et perdis els millors moments, especialment l'entrega de premis populars i la diada castellera dels Castellers de Sants. 🎉
So, there you go. You have some idea about what I’ve been up to, at least some of the time.
The other big thing has to do with my mother’s health, and it will be something long-term. It is difficult to know how quickly things might evolve, but depending on how things are, I might not be able to share so much content and might close comments if I feel I might not be able to answer in a timely manner. Do not worry if you see that happening. Life is as it is.
I have one request, though. I know about Alzheimer’s disease from a medical point-of-view (I am a medical doctor and worked as a psychiatrist, including some periods working in old-age psychiatry, some time ago), but I am more interested in information from the point of view of carers. I know you are all readers and you read about a large variety of topics. I don’t mind reading personal accounts, non-fiction, fictionalised narrations… I have started reading some books (books in Spanish would work for me as well), and I have plenty of articles and reports to catch up on, but I would be grateful if you could recommend anything about Alzheimer or related to it that you have read personally and found useful, or somebody you know has recommended.
Many thanks for reading, for following, for always being there, and remember to keep reading, keep smiling, and always, take care.
I bring you a new novel by an author whose magical and romantic novels set in Greece are great reads any time of the year when we need a bit of sun and cheer.
The Song of Youth by Effrosyni Moschoudi
The Song of Youth by Effrosyni Moschoudi
Emilia wished to be young again… and then, it happened.
Emilia Paschos is feeling distraught on her 45th birthday. Believing that she’s lost out on life, she makes a wish to be young again. And then, a mysterious gypsy called Esmera offers her the chance to become younger at will, simply by singing a song. Soon, unexpected news sweeps Emilia off to the island of Milos with an opportunity to start her life anew.
A nosy neighbor, a flirtatious ex, and an obnoxious cousin cause trouble, but then two strange girls, Elise and Chloe, turn up and begin to help in miraculous ways, being just as magical as Esmera. They are all angels, except Emilia has no idea…
Being young again whenever she wishes it makes Emilia feel exuberant, but it pales in comparison to the way Andreas, a handsome widower and newly established restauranteur on the island, makes her feel. Together, they rescue a puppy, and now she feels like she is being rescued too.
Because Andreas, who is in his 50s, has eyes only for the real her, not for her younger self. The only problem is, her angelic gift keeps expiring in the most awkward moments!
How much longer can she keep her secret? And, what will she choose? The exhilarating gift of youth… or the sweetness of love?
Order now this hilarious supernatural romantic comedy and get ready for a fun romantic escape on a Greek island paradise… but keep the hankies at the ready. And, whatever you do, do not read when hungry. You have been warned!
About the author:
Effrosyni Moschoudi was born and raised in Athens, Greece. As a child, she loved to sit alone in her garden scribbling rhymes about flowers, butterflies and ants. Today, she writes books for the romantic at heart. She lives in a quaint seaside town near Athens with a British husband, two naughty cats, and a staggering amount of books and DVDs. Her little town is heavenly enough, yet her mind forever drifts to her beloved island of Corfu.
The Ebb, her new adult romance that was inspired from her summers in Corfu in the 1980s, is an ABNA Q-Finalist. Her debut novel, The Necklace of Goddess Athena, won a silver medal in the 2017 book awards of Readers’ Favorite. Her ghost romance novella, The Boy on the Bridge, was a Top 10 winner in the “50 Best Indie Books” awards of Readfree.ly in 2021.
Effrosyni’s books are sweet romances (low heat and no sex scenes). Running Haunted, My Corfu Love Story, and The Necklace of Goddess Athena are clean & wholesome. All the books are Amazon bestsellers, having hit #1 several times, and are available in kindle and paperback format.
Visit her website for her travel guide to Corfu, delicious Greek recipes, and a plethora of blog posts about her life in Greece: http://www.effrosyniwrites.com
I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed) and thank her and the author for this opportunity.
I have read several novels by this author and have come to look forward to the magic, the light, and the wonderful landscapes she peppers her stories with. And this novel is no different.
We have a protagonist, Emilia, who has reached 45, has spent her youth looking after others, and feels she is far too old now to have a chance at love and happiness. If she were only twenty years younger, all of her problems would disappear and she could be happy!
This being a novel by Effrosyni Moschoudi, a fairy godmother (well, Esmera, a mysterious gipsy woman who has otherworldly powers and qualities) comes and gives her the chance to try out what it would be like to be younger again, and see if that life suits her better than her current one. But “the gift” that allows her to go back in time comes with some conditions and provisos. And, to make matters a bit more complicated, Emilia’s dear aunt dies in the island of Milos, a place full of good memories for her, and her passing gives her an unexpected opportunity. It also means that Emilia has to interact with some people she isn’t that fond of, and her experience of being young again gets more and more complicated. One thing is to become young again in a place where nobody knows you, and quite a different one is to do it where people know you and remember you as a young woman. How will she manage to pull that off, and what will happen when she finally meets somebody who might be the right one?
I am not going to reveal all that happens, as you can probably imagine that there will be romantic events, more than one close call, and complications galore. Emilia is accompanied by some collaborators of Esmera (a young woman with an old-fashioned hairstyle and a young child), but even with their guidance, things aren’t easy.
This novel, told in the third person, mostly from Emilia’s point of view, but also from Esmera´s and her two helpers, has all the elements one could wish for in a romantic comedy: misunderstandings, handsome strangers (Andreas is a wonderful character, even though he comes with some baggage), a puppy, wonderful food, a beautiful island… and it reminded me of farces, where there are people pretending to be somebody they are not, wearing disguises, hiding and disappearing in the last minute, a lot of close calls, enemies and their machinations (in this case, Emilia’s nasty cousin and a former boyfriend who cheated on her with said cousin), plenty of coincidences, and some hurdles. Because, as we all know, true love never does run smooth. Emilia has to face some hard truths and heartaches; there are lessons to be learned, not only by her, but by some of the other characters too. And there are plenty of hilarious moments as well. I particularly enjoyed the epilogue, where some characters get their more-than-deserved comeuppance. (And a couple of owls play an important part, so, of course, I loved it!)
Even readers who don’t have much in common with Emilia will warm to her, because she has endured some terrible losses, and she’s a very relatable and understandable character. Who wouldn’t want to get a new chance at life if they’d gone through what she did? I loved the “magical” characters as well. A bit like Greek gods, they aren’t beyond playing pranks or making mistakes, and thanks to Chloe, we get to understand how they gain their knowledge and learn the ropes. We even see her undertake another mission, one that will take us back to our school days and will make us smile.
The book is full of delightful descriptions of the island, its people, its food, its smells… and the writing vividly captures the atmosphere and the landscapes of the Greek islands, transporting the reader there. This is a gentle romance, with no explicit sex, and despite the main character’s age, I think it is suited to all young and older readers. Anybody who has ever wondered what they would do if given a second chance at life, lovers of romance and stories with a magical twist will enjoy this novel and are likely to start thinking about spending their future holidays in Greece and its islands.
Oh, do read the author’s note at the end. I found it very moving, and it reminds us of the healing power of writing and stories.
Thanks to Rosie and all the members of her team for their support, thanks to the author for the opportunity, and thanks to all of you for your patience, for reading, writing, liking, sharing, and for being always there. Keep smiling!
I bring you the review of a book by an author whose novels (well, a couple of them) I’ve reviewed before and loved them. And this time, it is no different.
The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase
The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase
Read the new novel from Eve Chase, author of The Glass House and The Birdcage
— Notting Hill, London. One May evening, seventeen-year-old Maggie Parker’s mother walks out of their front door and doesn’t return . . .
With her little brother in tow, desperate to find her mother, Maggie is drawn into a labyrinthine world of antiques and shadowy figures. There she befriends someone else living on their wits. But can he help solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance?
Twenty-one years later, in a Parisian apartment, Maggie’s phone rings and her hard-won grown-up life shatters. While in London, the new owner of the Parker’s old house is excavating the basement, unaware of what might lie beneath.
Sweeping from bustling London streets, the boulevards of Paris to an old English country house, The Midnight Hour is a thrilling, richly woven story about a golden family with a hidden past – and a woman trying to turn back the hands of time before it’s too late.
About the author:
Eve Chase is an internationally bestselling British novelist who writes rich, layered and suspenseful novels, thick with secrets, unforgettable characters and settings. Her latest novel, The Midnight Hour – ‘Her best yet…I loved every word’ – Claire Douglas – publishes June ’24, in the UK. Other novels include, The Birdcage, The Glass House (The Daughters of Foxcote Manor, US) a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and Richard and Judy Book Club pick, The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde (The Wildling Sisters, US) which was longlisted for the HWA Gold Crown Award, and Black Rabbit Hall, winner of Paris’ Saint-Maur en Poche prize for Best Foreign Fiction. She works in the Writer’s Shed at the bottom of her garden, usually with Harry, her golden retriever.
Say hello @evepollychase on Instagram, X, and Facebook
My review:
I thank NetGalley and Michael Joseph/Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel, which I freely chose to review.
This is the third novel by Eve Chase I have read, and they have all been wonderful experiences.
As was the case with the previous two novels, the story is set in two different time-frames (although not so far from each other this time): the first takes place mostly in London (Notting Hill, and the filming of the movie of the same name keeps popping up) 1998, and the second, in 2019, in a variety of locations (London, Paris, a wonderful farmhouse in The Chilterns…). Two of the protagonists tell the story, a brother and a sister: Maggie, who has become a writer of historical romance and lives in Paris, and her younger brother, Kit, who is an antique dealer and lives in London. Despite the distance, they are very close to each other, and we discover why through the novel, we also uncover many more secrets and mysteries, although in some cases the protagonists are as surprised (if not more) as we are.
Apart from the two different dates, the narration is told from different perspectives (person and time-wise). We hear from Maggie in the first person when she narrates (in the past tense) what happened to her family in 1998. Her mother was a famous model, and when we meet her and the rest of the family, the father had recently died; they had had to leave their house and move to London, where their mother was more likely to find modelling jobs. The chapters from the past are interspersed with chapters told in the third-person and present tense from both, Maggie and Kit’s points of view, and it becomes evident that although they both remember the same events, Maggie knows much more than Kit does, and her attempts at protecting her brother and others from learning the (disturbing) truth of what happened get more and more difficult as the action advances and secrets are slowly revealed.
Chase has a penchant for depicting complex family relationships, full of lies, secrets, mysteries, and even false identities. And she is also wonderful at capturing places and eras and making readers feel as if they were there. Notting Hill becomes a protagonist in the story, and we get to meet some colourful characters and pretty menacing ones. Other locations are also important to the novel, but not to the same extent.
I don’t want to spoil the story for future readers, but as is the case in her previous novels, there is a mystery (more than one) at the heart of the book, an unsolved crime, although this is no standard mystery novel and the intrigue builds up slowly (yes, there are red herrings and twists and turns galore); there is a wonderful love story that ends up in a separation in difficult circumstances; there are adopted children; there are mothers that decide to give up their children; fathers looking for their sons; authors suffering writers’ block; a mysterious man everybody is trying to find; there are lies and lies to cover other lies…
In some ways, this is a coming-of-age story, as we witness Maggie having to step up and take her mother’s place, but she isn’t the only one who has to grow up and accept her responsibilities. It is also a story about families, identities, and who and what makes us who we are. It is a story about forgiveness and about learning to accept the limitations of others and our own. And it is a novel about a bunch of people who slowly realise they have more in common than they knew.
Eve Chase writes beautifully about people, places, and emotions, and there are so many quotable lines that it is impossible not to highlight large parts of the book as one reads. Although this is not my favourite of her novels, I love the ending, and regarding the mystery… Most readers will get an inkling of what is being hidden, but what I particularly liked was how each new revelation was followed by an “a-ha” moment as one realised that every little detail fitted together and everything that seemed puzzling as one was reading ended up making perfect sense. This is a novel beautifully written and beautifully constructed, and I recommend it to all fans of Eve Chase, readers who enjoy lyrical and superb writing and aren’t looking for fast and frantic action, but enjoy a slow build-up and having time to get to know the characters and what makes them tick.
And here, just a couple of quotes from the novel, to give you a sense of the writing and the powers of observation of the author:
‘…that their little family is different from others. Like a three-legged stool, it requires a deft distribution of weight not to tip over – and it is currently lying on its side.’
‘Maggie also knows, first-hand, that grief doesn’t disappear. Like a spill of glitter, you keep finding little bits everywhere, for ever, and in the oddest places.’
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for another wonderful novel, thanks to all of you for visiting, liking, sharing, and remember to keep smiling and enjoying your summer (or winter, depending on where you are)!
I bring you two stories (well, one story, two books) by an author and blogger I met many years back (shortly after I started blogging) whose stories, imagination, and creative process (not limited to writing either) have always fascinated me. She is multitalented, and I was lucky enough to get an illustrated copy of these two books, although, unfortunately, due to restrictions on images and confusion about Amazon rules on the use of AI the final version doesn’t contain the images the author worked so hard to create. The story is wonderful nonetheless, and I recommend both books wholeheartedly.
First, a bit about the author:
Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene is certain that the pen is in your hand. After a life shaped by the tragedy of losing a sibling to Mµnchaµsen Syndrome by Proxy, along with the abuse she herself survived, Teagan took that metaphorical pen into her hand. She wrote her way to a new chapter of life with a successful career authoring and editing technical documentation. With another revision that pen took her to the next chapter, working alongside highly placed Federal executives to compose their communications. However, Teagan wasn’t finished. The pen was still in her hand. In her latest chapter she is an acclaimed multi-genre author, living in a high desert town in the Southwest of the USA. Rescue cats, the §coobies — Velma and Daphne, offer unsolicited advice on all stories, as well as the book covers Teagan designs.
This author’s stories range from paranormal to high fantasy and urban fantasy, to various steampunk (and other types of punk), to mysteries with historic settings. In addition to fiction, she has created the Author Tool Chest series of non-fiction works as resources for writers and anyone who loves language. In free time she enjoys conversations with friends, singing karaoke, and playing her piano.
See her book trailer videos at Youtube.
You can find her blog with plenty of information here
And now, the books:
The Delta Pearl. A Steampunk Riverboat. Book 1 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene
The Delta Pearl. A Steampunk Riverboat. Book 1 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene
Unbridled whimsy for all ages. The Delta Pearl is a shining, opulent take on the often dark steampunk genre. It’s also the coming-of-age story of a young woman with a painful past, in an era of change. However, adventure takes centerstage. . The magical riverboat has a full complement of crew, all of whom have gemstone names, but they also use their positions as names, like the Captain, the Cook, and the Dealer. Then there’s the Delta Pearl — the riverboat herself, who is the most mysterious of all. . Rescued and brought aboard the riverboat as a young child, Émeraude now approaches her sixteenth birthday, but she is uncertain where she fits in that hierarchy. . The riverboat has taken on an array of intriguing passengers. Émeraude has taken a fancy to a particular young inventor. As for the rest, any and all of them spell trouble. Mystery and danger flow with each turn of the paddlewheel.
My review:
I thank the publisher for providing me with an early ARC copy of the book (one with illustrations that could not be included in the final version) which I freely chose to review.
I discovered Riordáin Geneviene through her blog many years back. I was impressed by her ability to create serials based on the suggestions of her followers. She created the three-thing method, whereby she would ask her readers to post three things (sometimes within a certain category or belonging to a time, others totally free), that she would later use to create her stories. It was always amazing to see how she incorporated the elements suggested while moving the story forward, creating characters readers cared for and plots full of imagination, whimsy, and more than a bit of magic. Her talent left me awestruck, and I have since read her novels, novellas, short stories, and most of what she has published. And that includes her non-fiction work, the fruit of her research into language, habits, and usages of past historical eras, which provides a truly useful resource to readers, students, and creatives interested in those topics.
After a lot of her readers asked her to turn some of her serials into books, she has been doing that, and that allows new readers to discover the joys of these stories, whilst those of us who might have read the originals as they were published can revisit and marvel at how well it all fits together. It is always a joy to visit again the settings and meet the characters of this author, because by the end of the serial they have become close companions and friends, and we sorely miss them.
I find it difficult to choose a favourite among her serials, as there are always things or characters that are special to me in all of them, but I must say the Delta Pearl is one of those where everything seems to have come together, steampunk at its best and most imaginative. The setting is magical and enchanting: a very “special” steamboat in the Mississippi, where we meet Émeraude, a young woman about to celebrate her sweet sixteenth birthday, and the rest of the crew. They all have names featuring precious gemstones, and their connection to the Delta Pearl goes well beyond just working there. The Delta Pearl “chooses” or “adopts” people, and it can react to different circumstances that might destabilize it.
Apart from the crew, we meet some wonderful creatures that live there as well, and I am a big fan of Onyx and Amethyst, and no, I won’t tell you who (or what)) they are. You’ll have to find out when you read it.
And, then there are the passengers. Some are hiding things, some are trying to learn things, some are inventors and might have more than a passing connection with the Delta Pearl, and some might have dark designs.
There are plenty of adventures, mysteries (there is a portrait that looks suspiciously familiar to Émeraude, a cameo whose story she knows little about, a huge diamond that goes missing, and a strange, and a menacing black cloud that seems to have a mind of its own), threats, secrets, fabulous contraptions, automatons, and many other things you cannot even imagine. Yes, a little bit of romance as well, of course!
The story is told in the first-person from Émeraude’s point of view, and despite all I’ve said, don’t be mistaken. It is not all fun and games. There is a depth to the characters and, Émeraude in particular, has a difficult past to contend with, and there are other dark things at work.
Anybody who thinks the era of the big paddleboats is interesting, enjoys adventures and mysteries, and likes mixed-genres of the steam-punk variety, should read this book. We have superb female characters (the males aren’t bad either), all sorts of intriguing and dangerous goings-ons, machines and contraptions to whet anybody’s appetite and much more. My only warning is that this volume doesn’t tell the whole story, so make sure to get the two volumes, because you are likely to read through it very quickly and want to move on to the second and last volume straight on. A fun and exciting reading experience.
The Geostrophic Pearl. The Delta Pearl. Book 2 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene
The Geostrophic Pearl. The Delta Pearl. Book 2 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene
Unbridled whimsy for all ages. The Geostrophic Pearl picks up immediately after The Delta Pearl. Émeraude is safe (for now) from the still unseen foe, but dangers escalate as she becomes determined to unravel the mystery of The Delta Pearl, and save the rapidly deteriorating Blue John Boulton. . The magical riverboat shifts into a time rift and her entire world is in danger. Then the danger that stayed hidden in Book-1 comes to the forefront. Émeraude, Victor, and the clockworks must work with an unexpected person to heal more than the First Mate if Émeraude is to meet her destiny. A character prepares to make a huge sacrifice.
My review:
I thank the publisher for providing me with an early ARC copy of the book (one with illustrations that could not be included in the final version) which I freely chose to review.
Before I say anything else, if anybody got to this book without realising it is the second in a short series, The Delta Pearl, you should go and read The Delta Pearl: A Steampunk Riverboat, first, because the author has built a wonderfully detailed universe, adapting her own successful blog serial, and these two books tell a complete story and cannot be read independently or out of order.
Now that is established, let me tell you that all of you who got here after reading part 1 are in for a treat. If you enjoyed the adventures of Émeraude, the crew of the Delta Pearl (all of them with gemstone names and all of them connected to the riverboat in ways that go beyond simple employees), and the passengers (some of them who fitted into its adventures extremely and uncannily well), you will be happy to know that there is much more wonder and magic to come. And if, like me, you loved the clockwork creatures that dotted the pages of the Delta Pearl, you have seen nothing yet!
We learn about what was behind the dark mysterious dark cloud that kept following the riverboat and had dark designs on Émeraude, and we get to understand the meaning behind the painting whose resemblance to Émeraude had entranced her and kept her guessing. In this part of the story, the motif of the double (Doppelgänger) takes on a lot of importance, and although it is possible to think about dark halves and opposites as we read the book, things are not as clear-cut as they might appear.
Romance blossoms, experiments, and inventions are developed and tried, voodoo and potions play a part, and all the characters are put to the test, especially Émeraude, who grows in determination, confidence, and strength thanks to help from unexpected quarters. She initially bulks at her destiny/inheritance —which she does not think she is ready for— but by the end of the story she has a firm grip on her future and her happiness.
I loved the new characters we discover (some that had been referred to before): people and creatures and everything in between (and you’ll have to read the whole story to know what I mean), and I loved the ending and how it leaves us with a question or several.
I am sure I am not the only one who’d be happy to read more adventures set in this universe, and all its readers will be sorry to abandon this world of wonder and magic.
Recommended to anybody who enjoys steampunk, fantasy, magic, has an imagination, and likes to leave reality behind for a while and travel to worlds beyond ours, where the usual rules don’t apply. Although most readers will feel compelled to read it as fast as possible, this is a book that also works very well for those who don’t have a lot of time to read and might read in short bursts, as its chapters are short and, as is typical with mysteries, there are moments where the characters gather the evidence and clues and events are explained, so it is very easy to follow the story and not get lost, no matter how much time one has or at what pace they can read. No excuses not to read this story and discover this multitalented author if you haven’t yet.
And I leave you with a powerful and inspiring quote from the story:
When you find inner strength which you never knew you possessed, this is when you save yourself.
Thanks to the author for this wonderful series, thanks to all of you for reading, and remember to like, share, comment, click, and above all, keep smiling. Have fun!
I bring you the review of a book by an author I discovered through Rosie’s team. He is quite an original writer who doesn’t follow fashionable trends and goes his own way. He writes exquisitely, but he is not for everyone. (Is anybody for everyone?)
The Means of Keeping by Rich Marcello
The Means of Keeping by Rich Marcello
The Means of Keeping is a profound exploration of grief, friendship, and the indelible impact of climate change on personal and global scales. Set in a near-future America, the novel follows Tereza Allard and David Luca, two lifelong friends in their forties shattered by a climate crisis-induced tragedy that claims the lives of their families. The evolving dynamics between these characters against the pressing issue of climate change provide a rich narrative ground, exploring the intersections of personal loss, love, renewal, environmental activism, and the search for meaning in a world on the brink of unrepairable catastrophe.
With a narrative style that blends the introspective depth of Kazuo Ishiguro’s works with the environmental consciousness of Barbara Kingsolver, The Means of Keeping is aimed at readers who appreciate books that not only tell a compelling story but also reflect on the larger issues facing humanity today. With haunting prose and evocative imagery, the novel challenges us to imagine a future where love, resilience, community, and the fervent desire to protect our planet become the means to reclaim our shared humanity. May our children inherit not only a healthier planet but also an indomitable spirit to prevail against all odds.
In the year 2032, Tereza and David, lifelong friends in their forties, are shattered by the catastrophic climate crisis storm that robs them of everything they hold dear. Determined to find solace and redemption, they abandon their Maine home and set out on an extraordinary odyssey. Their destination: The Ashami Institute, a secluded mountain sanctuary nestled in upstate New York, where a vibrant community of artists, philosophers, scientists, and intuitives beckons. Within the once-hallowed ground of the Institute, they propose something radical—the transformation of Ashami into a sustainable haven that embodies the delicate symbiosis between humanity and the planet. They call it Keeping.
But as the world hurtles toward chaos at an alarming pace, the grand vision of Keeping is threatened from within and without. Tereza and David find themselves entangled in a struggle to confront their traumatic pasts and realize the dream of Keeping. Can they reconcile their personal pain with the larger existential crisis facing Humanity? Will the power of their love be enough to lead Keeping through its most difficult challenge? And what profound questions arise when the planet’s very survival hangs in the balance?
With haunting prose and evocative imagery, The Means of Keeping challenges us to imagine a future where love, resilience, community, and the fervent desire to protect our planet become the means to reclaim our shared humanity. May our children inherit not only a healthier planet but also an indomitable spirit to prevail against all odds.
About the author:
Rich is the author of six novels, The Color of Home, The Big Wide Calm, The Beauty of the Fall, The Latecomers, Cenotaphs, and The Means of Keeping, and the poetry collection, The Long Body That Connects Us All. He is also president of Seven Bridges’ Writer Collaborative, where he teaches a number of fiction classes, and a contributor to The Harvard Press, where he writes a column on the climate crisis. Previously, he enjoyed a successful career as a technology executive, managing several multi-billion dollar businesses for Fortune 500 companies.
As anyone who has read Rich’s work can tell you, his books deal with life’s big questions: love, loss, creativity, community, self-discovery and forgiveness. His novels are rich with characters and ideas, crafted by a natural storyteller, with the eye and the ear of a poet. For Rich, writing and art making is about connection, or as he says, about making a difference to a least one other person in the world, something he has clearly achieved many times over, both as an artist, a mentor, and a teacher.
Rich lives in Massachusetts with his wife. He is currently working on his seventh and eighth novels, The Connection in Everything and In the Seat of the Eddas, a follow-on to The Latecomers.
My review:
I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (authors, if you are looking for reviews, check here), and I freely chose to review an ARC copy of this novel.
This is the fourth novel by Rich Marcello I’ve read, and they all share some elements in common: beautiful language, gorgeous descriptions, a spiritual dimension, a search for personal truth, and some strange events, which might be ghosts, memories, dreams, or a combination of all. The narratives also tend to stray away from a simple linear structure, and although in this case the story is told chronologically, things don’t simply ‘happen’. The protagonists reflect upon what happens, and the characters’ train of thought is often disrupted by memories, flashbacks, and outside intrusions. Readers learn about what is happening ‘now’ and, in time, they get to discover the details of how the protagonists got there and learn a lot about them, their motivations, and their journeys.
There are big themes contained within the pages of this book: friendship and a love stronger than life itself, grief, second chances, mental illness, education, climate change and the way to revert it or at least control it, individualism versus community values, a variety of definitions of family, truths, lies, and betrayals, changing priorities, writing and art, trauma, growing older, what safety and security mean in a world of uncertainty and what they are worth…
This novel is divided into four parts and a prelude that sets up the stage by talking about climate change and how little the big developed countries did (or are doing) to put a remedy to it. Part one starts in 2032, and the near future depicted is all too real. Although set firmly in the USA (most of the comments about the extremes of weather, people’s migration to areas further north and better protected from the worst of the changes brought on by global warming all refer to areas of the USA), the ideas and the “projections” of what new weather disasters might hit us in the future feel very familiar and all too real in the whole of the world.
This theme, climate change and possible ways to fight against it is exemplified and intertwined with the events that affect the two protagonists, David and Tereza. They have known each other since they were young, they were a couple before university despite their different upbringings and family backgrounds, and although things changed and they ended up married to other people, they always remained close to each other and so did their families, to the point where Tereza’s son was the boyfriend of David’s daughter. And then, something terrible happened and both their lives were destroyed. They lost their families and seemed to lose their connection to each other, at least for a time.
Each one of the characters chooses a completely different path to deal with their grief and loss: while David holds on to his past, and refuses to allow any new person in (he regularly ‘sees’ his wife and daughter and talks to them), Tereza tries a more standard approach, using anything to ameliorate the pain and try to forget her feelings of guilt (sex, drugs, alcohol…). But they finally come together, and after a cleansing of sorts, they decide to go to the Ashemi Institute, a community where they both were supposed to study for a year before university, but due to a terrible event, David couldn’t go, and while Tereza was there, she met Luke, her husband to be. David is entranced by Ashemi, but Tereza is quite disappointed. The community has changed and has fallen on hard times, and she has also changed and thinks that the focus of the institute on individualism and exceptionalism was misguided and has not achieved the results they expected. They didn’t manage to create leaders who went on to change the world but rather made individuals who focused on personal achievement rather than the global good.
Notwithstanding Tereza’s disappointment, David manages to connect with a woman there, Emma, and he gets a second chance at life. Despite some reluctance from Tereza, somehow all of them end up staying at Ashemi and creating a new community, Keeping, which tries to exemplify some of the things they think should happen in the world at large to try and revert climate change. I don’t want to spoil the novel for you, so I won’t go into much more detail, but let’s say that the experiment works quite well for a while, but there are major obstacles in the way, and the two protagonists have to deal with more loss. Interestingly enough, they seem to have swapped places, and while Tereza decides to give herself a second chance with somebody creative, David gets stuck in the past, starts drinking heavily, and doesn’t seem to be able to move on.
Literary fiction is not for everybody, and it is also a category that encompasses many different books on a variety of topics, and diverse styles. This is a novel of ideas, and there is a fair amount of telling, especially when discussing the way the community is run, the rules, and the philosophy it follows, and a lot of information is provided on ways to fight climate change. Therefore, readers looking for a fast read or a book full of gripping adventures and with larger-than-life characters are bound to feel disappointed. As for the characters, that depends on readers’ taste. The protagonists aren’t the standard heroes of novels, and the secondary characters aren’t either. They are thinkers, and artists, and sometimes make terrible mistakes, they can be indecisive, not necessarily familiar, recognisable, or always likeable. It is true to say, though, that their relationships are always interesting, and make one think.
I am not sure I warmed to either of the protagonists (I liked Jane, although she appears later in the novel and we don’t get to know her as well, and Joanna intrigued me, but she only makes some brief appearances). I found them interesting, sometimes annoying, at others I agreed with them, but, in my case I didn’t truly connect with them. I would have happily attended a conference they organised, but I don’t think we would have become friends at first sight, not that such a thing is a requirement to enjoy this or any other novel. I am sure other readers will feel differently about it, and I wasn’t in my best frame of mind when I read it.
This is a novel unlikely to leave people indifferent, and the author offers book clubs access to a set of questions to discuss following its reading. Marcello also includes links to different sources on climate change for those interested to find out more.
Before I forget, I mentioned at the beginning the beauty of Marcello’s writing, and it is evident when reading this novel or any of his other ones, that he is a poet as well. His descriptions of places, events, art pieces, feelings and thoughts are lyrical and nuanced. The book is also interspersed with quotations, snippets from Tereza’s diary, and other pieces of writing and poems, which add texture and variety to the third-person narrative that tells the story alternating the point of view of the two characters.
A novel for those who like to go deep into character’s emotions and are interested in climate change and some innovative (and possibly doable) solutions to prevent it from getting any worse. It is speculative, but it balances optimism with realism, and it makes very valuable points. Do check the style of writing and if you like it, you are in for a treat.
A small sample of the writing:
He’d forgotten how their love had once before caught them at the bottom of a fall, at the edge of a cliff, and had wisely guided them back to each other. He didn’t yet understand it had done so again.
We are bound, not by the roles we’ve played —lovers, colleagues, friends, brother, sister—but by living lace. We are a couple of lacemakers, our whole lives spent spinning our intricate connections, deepening and strengthening them for the transitions to new, the rebirths and recharges, the healings, the work no one else can do.
Thanks to Rosie and the author for this opportunity, to Rosie’s team for their support, and, especially, thanks to all of you for always being there. I hope you all have a nice summer (or winter, depending on where you are), take care, keep reading, take each day as it comes, and always keep smiling.
I bring you a book by a very well-known author. I’ve read it ahead of its publication, which was due out in June, but it seems there has been a change and it is now being published in September, so sorry because you’ll have to wait a bit if you fancy it. Also, the seem to be using different covers in different countries, so don’t worry if it looks different.
The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier
Description
FROM THE GLOBALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
‘A triumph… a brilliant idea carried out with confidence and brio and a deep love of an extraordinary city. The ingenuity of the time-skipping is beyond admiration’ PHILIP PULLMAN
‘Spellbinding…. Chevalier at her fabulous best. A rich, vivid and gently enchanting novel’ ELIF SHAFAK
Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here – like the glass the island’s maestros spend their lives learning to handle.
Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime.
Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss.
The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna – but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her?
Tracy Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is vivid, inventive, spellbinding: a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.
About the author:
Tracy is the author of 10 novels, including the international bestseller GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, which has sold over 5 million copies and been made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. American by birth, British by geography, she lives in London with her husband and son. Her latest novel, A SINGLE THREAD, tells the story of an English woman between the Wars who forges an independent life in Winchester. Tracy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has honorary doctorates from her alma maters Oberlin College and the University of East Anglia. Her website http://www.tchevalier.com will tell you more about her and her books.
My review:
I thank Net Galley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for providing me with an ARC copy of this book which I freely chose to review.
I have read and enjoyed other novels by Tracy Chevalier, and most people will be familiar with some of the titles of her books, or perhaps a popular movie adaptation of one of her books.
One of the things she excels at, judging by the books I’ve read so far, is recreating not only a historical period, but also a particular craft, vocation, or endeavour, using as a guide for the readers a gifted individual (sometimes well-known in its circle and based on a real character, sometimes anonymous and fictitious) whom we accompany in their discoveries, skill development, and craftsmanship. I am always surprised at becoming enthralled by the adventures of a protagonist who spends a lot of time doing something I’d never considered interesting before (or I might have enjoyed the finished product but never given a second thought to how it is made).
Here, Chevalier uses an interesting device to cover a very long period in the history of glassmaking in Murano, a small island very close to Venice, where the population specialised in glassmaking for centuries (and to a far lesser extent, still does). She introduces us to the Rosso family, a Murano glass-making family, in 1486, and we meet Orsola, the nine-year-old daughter of the family. Rather than follow the many generations of her family up to the present, the author uses what she calls “Venetian time, alla Veneziana” and asks readers to imagine it as the skipping of a stone over the surface of the water, but, rather than water it is time we skip over. What this means is that we follow the story of this family through the centuries, but although they age (and yes, some of them die as well), they do so at a much slower pace than the rest of the world, and so do those they are in contact with. The bigger world around them moves with the times, though, but the young girl we meet at the beginning of the novel, in the XV century, is now, in the XXI century, only in her late sixties, so you can work out the speed of time for her. The author explains how this works at the beginning, and if you think you can accept that and go along with the device, I assure you that you will enjoy the novel. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it, at first, but I didn’t find it as jarring as I imagined, I became accustomed to it pretty soon, and I loved the book.
Using this framework means that we can see how things evolved without having to meet a huge number of characters (of course, the family gets bigger, and new generations appear, but it is much more manageable than it would have been otherwise), and we also have more time to get to truly know the characters (especially Orsola), and see the way the historical changes impacted on them, a family of artisans, skilled but not the most famous or best regarded. This is not history told from the point of view of the rich and powerful, of kings and politicians. More importantly, Orsola’s perspective is quite different from that of her brother (the “maestro” of the family), and readers get to learn much about a woman’s lot in life then, her limited choices, and the way some of them got to create a niche for themselves (like Orsola, who learns to make glass beads) even if their efforts were dismissed by the men in the family.
We see glimpses of History at large: some events take a big toll on the Rosso family and their neighbours and competitors (the plague, the arrival of Napoleon, the period of Austrian Rule, the floods in Venice, WWI and II, COVID), while others have little impact on their fairly isolated lives. Some true historical figures make a fleeting appearance as well (Josephine Bonaparte, although we don’t meet her in person; Casanova, and a very interesting marchioness) but their lives, like those of the many tourists that come and visit, play no important role in the story when all is said and done. The author includes a section of acknowledgements with a bibliography (basic and in more detail) for readers interested in learning more, and she also details some of her research process, as well as mentions the real characters that make it into the story (and those who are inventions), and the sources of inspiration for some of the others, including Domenego, a slave gondolier who becomes good friends with Orsola and Antonio (Orsola’s love interest, but I don’t want to go into too much detail. Read the story if you want to know more).
The love most of the characters feel for glassmaking seems intertwined with their love for Murano. Some of the funniest (and most moving) scenes were those in which we see Orsola visiting Venice for the first time or going to Terra Ferma (the world beyond Venice, not a place where you could move by gondola or a water vessel of some sort). Let’s say she’s less than enamoured with horses and their manure on her first visit.
The story is told in the third person and, as mentioned, this is Orsola’s story, and her family’s, because she can’t imagine a life without them, without Murano, and glass. She is a wonderful character, full of energy and determination, but not a woman who strays away from her role. She does not like many aspects of it, and she struggles against what she perceives as the unfairness of her situation (she craves the admiration of her older brother, Marco, who ends up being the man of the family and the maestro of the glass factory, but they are always fighting, and he dismisses her efforts), but she mostly defers to tradition or tries to get her way by allying herself with other women in the family: Laura, the wonderful mother of the family; Monica, her brother’s second wife (and one of my favourite characters); women from other glass families (like Maria Barovier and her cousin, who guide and teach Orsola how to make beads); Luciana, a Venetian woman who always speaks her mind and is disliked for it; the daughter of the German merchant they make business with, Klara, and many more. The characters are well-defined, feel true, and become almost a part of our family by the end of the novel. Readers get to know better the older generation, but that is as it should be, I am sure I’ll miss Orsola and the family Rosso and I’ll have them on my thoughts for a long time.
I’ve already said I enjoyed the novel. In case you are worried, I liked the ending as well. We spend most of the story wondering if something will happen or not. Of course, I won’t tell you what happened, but I think the ending fits the novel well, and it made me smile. As warnings go, there are sad events in the story, of course, although nothing beyond what would be expected from a historical novel covering such a big stretch of time. There are swear words galore (it seems gondoliers, in the past at least, used choice language with their kind, and they had quite an imagination!), but those are in Italian/Venetian. There are also plenty of words in Italian (and some in the Venetian dialect); most of them are easy to work out from the context, and in other cases, they tend to be explained within the text, at least the first time they appear. There is also a Glossary at the end for those who prefer to know exactly what every word means. I only had access to an ARC copy, so I am unsure if there might be a direct link to the definitions of the terms in the glossary for those who access the final version. Be prewarned, though: insults are also translated, so be careful what you check if you prefer to avoid that kind of language.
This is a great historical novel, though it requires readers to engage in the way the author has chosen to adapt the passing of time, and it is a beautiful book about Murano, glassmaking, and what life has been like for women living in that region and for glassmaking families from Murano and Venice over the years. It is an ambitious book, and it covers over five centuries, but it remains focused on a woman and her family, and that is what makes it so engaging and enjoyable. Totally recommended.
I have never been to Venice (yet), but this paragraph made me smile because it fits in with what I’ve heard, and I guess people living in many places with a big influx of tourists can identify with, at the very least, some of it:
Venetians complained about their city becoming a theme park, but Orsola knew that as long as Venice´s canals stank of sewage, its rooms were dark and damp, its people melancholy and sardonic, it would maintain its true natures, which was so seductive. A pearl needs grit to be beautiful; beauty comes from the scar on the lip, the gap int he teeth, the crooked eyebrow.
Thanks to the author, to NetGalley, and to the publisher for the book, thanks to all of you for reading and always being there, and remember to keep liking, sharing, smiling, and enjoying every minute. ♥
I have closed comments, and I will do the same for the rest of the summer, or a bit longer. I hope you all have a lovely summer, have fun, take care, and I’ll keep you posted. ♥
I bring you a book from Rosie’s Book Review Team written by an author I’d met there before already. I love the cover!
Conditions Are Different After Dark by Owen W. Knight
Conditions Are Different After Dark by Owen W. Knight
In 1660, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. While awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They learn that their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected?
Faith and James fear that their choice of a new home is no coincidence. Unexplained events hint at threats or warnings to leave, including the slaughter of their hens, an attic break-in and other menacing incidents. They become convinced the village continues to live under the curse despite denials from their new friends. Who can they trust, and who are potential enemies?
About the author:
Owen W. Knight writes contemporary and speculative fiction.
He creates worlds based on documented myths, with elements of dystopia, mystery and science fiction to highlight the use and abuse of power and the conflicts associated with maintaining ethical values.
His works include Conditions Are Different After Dark, which combines contemporary horror with alternative history, The Visitors, a grounded sci-fi ‘first contact’ novel, Another Life, a retelling of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ for the 21st Century’ and The Invisible College Trilogy, an apocalyptic dystopian conspiracy tale for young adults, described as ‘1984 Meets the Book of Revelation’.
Owen lives in Essex, England, close to the countryside that inspires his writing.
My review:
I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed) and thank her and the author for this opportunity.
This is the second book I’ve read by the author, and I was intrigued because it promised to be quite different from the previous one. And it sure delivered.
As seen in his biography, the author describes this novel’s genre as ‘contemporary horror with alternative history’ and that suits it well. It brought to my mind The Wicker Man, Midsommar (which the author mentions in his note at the end of the book), and Village of the Damned, although it is also quite different from all of those. But if you enjoyed those, you might want to check this one out.
The novel starts with a prologue (after a note on the sources, that works well with the author’s note at the end to ensure people who want to find out more about the historical background can do so easily) set in April 1662, where Captain George Massey is executed, and he utters a curse. Any readers will quickly suspect this will be related to what happens in the rest of the novel, which is set in contemporary times (although more about that later).
A well-off couple who live in London, James and Faith, have been looking to move to the countryside. He works as a financial advisor and can work remotely, and his wife has a business selling luxury items (mostly watches) online, so they can both move anywhere and continue to run their businesses. They are thinking about starting a family and are trying to find the right place for it. Eventually, an estate agent contacts Faith on social media, and they find the perfect property in the perfect village. They are both very conscientious and determined to make the right impression. They want to rely on local businesses as much as they can, avoid being seen as strangers trying to impose their ways, and go out of their way to ensure they won’t be disturbed by people from their previous life. They are a couple who seem to rely mostly on their own company, and although Faith is friendlier and connects with people easily, that is not the case with James. (I will resist the temptation of coming up with a diagnosis for him, but he is extremely focused on facts, doesn’t mix too well, and although he does not dislike company, he is quite happy concentrating on work and not socialising more than is necessary, so you can reach your own conclusions).
The house seems idyllic as is the village, but some strange things start happening soon, and, Faith especially, worries at what seem to be strange comments and warnings. She starts playing the violin again and makes friends with a school teacher, Katherine, who plays with a quartet. Katherine has been researching the history of the village and has a lot of information about the events that took place there during the English Civil War. Faith also meets the priest, who has some interesting comments as well, as does their gardener. James and Faith meet the most influential family in the village, who live in the Manor (previously castle), Grey and Anne. They talk to them about local traditions and history, and they become friendly with them, exchanging invitations. Despite all that, Faith, who gets pregnant, becomes increasingly concerned about events and comments she hears, although James keeps trying to reassure her. Something seems to be at work there, despite the reassurances they get from all quarters, but what?
Of course, I’m not going to reveal what happens, but the author excels at creating an atmosphere that starts quite pleasant and bucolic and it becomes increasingly dark and menacing. Anybody who has lived in a small village might be familiar with the way old events and family feuds can influence everyday life, so the initial scenario is not far-fetched, making it so effective.
I also liked the historical background and how this is introduced in the novel. There is a fair amount of telling (because both characters are trying to find out information about the place and the different neighbours they talk to offer different versions and parts of the story), but I did not find it intrusive, as it is quite interesting, especially for readers not too familiar with that period of English history. Because the couple are trying to reassure each other and find out information separately, there is some overlap at times, although that might work well for readers who don’t have long periods to read, as it is easy to reacquaint oneself with the facts of the story if there are gaps in one’s reading.
The novel is set in contemporary times, narrated in the third person from Faith and James’s points of view (mostly Faith’s), but there is something old-fashioned about it. There is mention of social media, and both of the main characters work remotely and rely on their Wi-Fi and internet connection, but the village seems to live in some sort of alternative/parallel time, isolated from the outside world and modernity. The relationship between James and Faith is quite old-fashioned, and they treat each other very formally, in a way that seems more appropriate for a novel set in the 1930s or the 1950s, rather than now. They care for each other and are very careful not to upset the other, trying to protect each other from bad news or worries, but it all seems very deliberate and similar to the way they plan how to interact with the rest of the people in the village. Faith appears a bit more spontaneous but James doesn’t, and that is one of the main issues other reviewers have also commented upon, the lack of realism in the relationship between the couple.
There are twists, turns, and surprises (I suspected what might be behind the mystery early on, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story and the ending, which works well), and the rhythm and the menace of the book increase as we get along. I would recommend the novel to people who have enjoyed the movies I mentioned earlier and who are intrigued by the historical period of the English Civil War. It might not work too well for readers looking for very realistic characters and relationships that closely resemble real life, but those who appreciate a dark and menacing atmosphere and who enjoy getting hooked on a dark plot will enjoy it.
As a bonus for those who enjoy history, the author’s note at the end elaborates more on the real information that has been incorporated into the fiction, and it adds to the interest of the story.
Thanks to the author, to Rosie and all the members of her team for their support, and thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, liking, sharing, and always being there. Remember to keep smiling!
I bring you a book recommended (and gifted) by Susana, a friend from Sussex University. We were both completing our PhDs in American Literature, and she now lives in Portugal and teaches at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal. During a recent visit we ended up talking about this book, and she kindly sent it to me. It was a great discovery.
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
In early 2006, Chuck Ramkissoon is found dead at the bottom of a New York canal.
In London, a Dutch banker named Hans van den Broek hears the news, and remembers his unlikely friendship with Chuck and the off-kilter New York in which it flourished: the New York of 9/11, the powercut and the Iraq war. Those years were difficult for Hans – his English wife Rachel left with their son after the attack, as if that event revealed the cracks and silences in their marriage, and he spent two strange years in New York’s Chelsea Hotel, passing stranger evenings with the eccentric residents.
Lost in a country he’d regarded as his new home, Hans sought comfort in a most alien place – the thriving but almost invisible world of New York cricket, in which immigrants from Asia and the West Indies play a beautiful, mystifying game on the city’s most marginal parks. It was during these games that Hans befriends Chuck Ramkissoon, who dreamed of establishing the city’s first proper cricket field. Over the course of a summer, Hans grew to share Chuck’s dream and Chuck’s sense of American possibility – until he began to glimpse the darker meaning of his new friend’s activities and ambitions.
‘Netherland’ is a novel of belonging and not belonging, and the uneasy state in between. It is a novel of a marriage foundering and recuperating, and of the shallows and depths of male friendship. With it, Joseph O’Neill has taken the anxieties and uncertainties of our new century and fashioned a work of extraordinary beauty and brilliance.
About the author:
Joseph O’Neill has written five novels, most recently Godwin (June 2024), The Dog (2014), and Netherland (2008). He is also the author of a family history, Blood-Dark Track (2001), and the short-story collection Good Trouble (2018). O’Neill’s short stories appear regularly in the New Yorker. His essays appear in the New York Review of Books and the Guardian.
Netherland won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Kerry Fiction Prize, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. The Dog was longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Wodehouse Prize.
Joseph O’Neill was born in Ireland and grew up in Mozambique, Iran, and The Netherlands. He worked as a barrister in London for more than a decade, then in 1998 moved to New York. He lives in Brooklyn and teaches at Bard College.
My review:
This book was a gift from a university friend of mine. We met again during a visit to my city with her family, and we ended up chatting about cricket. She told me I should read this book, and sent it to me, and she was right. This is a great book, and it is about cricket, among many other things.
This is a new author to me, so other than knowing the novel had something to do with cricket, I had no expectations.
This is a book where the plot appears to be quite incidental to the experience of reading it. Hans, the protagonist, remembers a period of life when he had moved with his wife and his young son to New York, for work reasons, and somehow the move changed many things. His wife became anxious after the 9/11 attacks and insisted on going back to London, telling him that they needed some time apart from each other. He ended up flying to the UK to visit his family every other week, and not knowing what to do with himself in his spare time in New York, he met a varied group of people (from Asia and the West Indies mostly) who played cricket, a minority sport in the States. Hans is originally Dutch, but had grown up playing cricket and had spent time in the UK, and he holds on to the rules and the traditions of the sport, although they don’t work so well here.
The novel meanders through Hans’s memories, which go backward and forward in time, and he recalls several losses (the crisis of his marriage, his mother’s death, the emptiness of his life, issues of belonging or not to anywhere), and seemingly random events (trying to get his driving license; his encounters with a true character, Chuck Ramkissoon, a friend who might have a hidden dark side; work-related experiences; holidays with his wife and son…) and New York as a character, both familiar and foreign, that welcomes and alienates.
The book is written in the first-person, and in an interview at the end of the book (conducted by Travis Elborough), they talk about the importance of the voice in this novel, and O’Neill acknowledges that. He explains that he started writing the novel in a completely different way and soon realised it wasn’t working. It is not a story about the plot (there is plot, but it is not what drives the story forward, or not the most important element), but about the voice of the character, the way the memories flow, and the beauty of the writing. Hans is a character who doesn’t seem very good at conversing with his wife (at least judging by the way he relates their conversations and her concerns), but he is great at observing everything and everybody around him, and drawing comparisons and similarities, often in expressive and lyrical ways.
Those who don’t like or understand cricket, or both (yes, I’m in that group), don’t need to worry. This novel is about cricket but, like the best novels featuring sports (and I agree with the comments in the interview where they highlight the many great American novels and films about sports or with sports at their centre), although you might enjoy it even more if you’re a follower or a fan of said sport, you can enjoy it nonetheless.
I’ve mentioned the interview at the end of the novel. There is also a brief selection of questions the author answers about his writing, and I think both of these features would make the book particularly suited for a discussion at a book club.
I recommend this novel to people who enjoy beautiful writing and are interested in issues of identity, belonging, and yes, cricket. This book is not for those looking for a plot full of adventures that keeps you turning the pages until the small hours. But those who love the sheer pleasure and delight of reading gorgeous paragraphs and sentences full of breathtaking images and reflections that will make them pause to think should try it out. The writer’s sensitivity is finely attuned to the experience of being from everywhere and nowhere, and he deserves his many awards, at least in my opinion.
Here, the author’s answers to a couple of the questions on writing:
How do you start a book? As inadvertently as possible. Then I continue as accidentally as possible.
What’s your guilty reading pleasure or favourite trashy read?
I don’t ever feel guilty reading.
Good for him.
Thanks to my friend, Susana, for her gift, thanks to all of you for reading, liking, sharing, commenting, and for all your support. Take care and always keep smiling.
I bring you the review for a book by a very well-known author. Although there are some long books one feels sorry to see the end of, this wasn’t the case for me. I didn’t hate it, and I enjoyed some of it, but it didn’t work as it seems to have for some people. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time for it, at least for me.
My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes
My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes
THE HILARIOUS AND HEARTWARMING SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER MUST-READ OF THE SUMMER
Anna has just lost her taste for the Big Apple…
She has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn’t want all that? Anna, it turns out.
Trading a minor midlife crisis for a major life event, she switches the skyscrapers of Manhattan for the tiny Irish town of Maumtully (population 1,217), helping old friends Brigit and Colm set up a luxury coastal retreat.
Tougher than it sounds. Newflash: the locals hate the idea. So much so, there have been threats – and violence.
Anna, however, worked in the beauty industry. There’s no ugliness she hasn’t seen. No wrinkle she can’t smooth over.
There’s just one fly in the ointment – old flame Joey Armstrong.
He’s going to be her wingman. Never mind their chequered history. Never mind what might have been.
Because no matter how far you go, your mistakes will still be waiting for you . . .
About the author:
Marian Keyes is the international bestselling author of Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel’s Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners, Angels, The Other Side of the Story, Anybody Out There, This Charming Man, The Brightest Star in the Sky, The Mystery of Mercy Close, The Woman Who Stole My Life, The Break and her latest Number One bestseller, Grown Ups. Her two collections of journalism, Making it up as I Go Along and Under the Duvet: Deluxe Edition are also available from Penguin.
My review:
I thank NetGalley and Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House UK) for providing me with an ARC copy of this book, which I freely chose to review.
I’m not a big follower of Marian Keyes. I’ve only ever read one of her novels previously, not long ago, and was curious to check another, but when I started reading this one, I didn’t realise it was book number 8 in The Walsh Family series. Not that it matters, though. I can reassure readers that one doesn’t need to have read the rest of the books to be able to follow and enjoy the adventures of Anna Walsh, the main character in this one. (I wondered if the opposite might be true, because there is a lot of information readers gather about the character’s life while reading this lengthy novel, and I wasn’t sure if people who had read the rest reasonably recently might not be a bit put off by being reminded of a lot of what they already know. But, of course, I might be wrong and it might be that some of it is new to all readers, and I imagine that people who’ve read the previous stories some time ago will be grateful for the reminder).
In brief, the Walshs are an Irish family with five daughters and their widowed mother, and each one of the first five books covered the life and circumstances of one of the sisters when they were in their late 20s. Book 6 seems to be a guide to the family penned by the mother, firmly tongue-in-cheek, book 7 revisits one of the sisters 25 years later, and this novel does something similar with another one. Anna, who has been living in New York and works as a successful PR for the beauty industry, shortly after COVID suffers something akin to a mid-life crisis. She decides she cannot cope with the stress of her job anymore, her age and her pre-menopausal symptoms are taking a toll, and following what she feels is a sign from the long-ago dead husband, she leaves her job (in theory for a year with the possibility of going back) and New York (renting out, not selling, her apartment) and goes back to Ireland. There, she discovers that life can be complicated when you are trying to reinvent yourself in your very late forties in a new(old) country, and fitting back into her large family and renewing her old friendships can prove challenging as well. Then, she gets offered a temporary job in a small coastal town, helping some friends of the family who are going through a health crisis, and she is put to the test in more ways than one.
The book is narrated in the first person, which might be an issue for some readers. It also relies on people liking (or at least enjoying) the character’s way of expressing herself. I found her amusing, to begin with. I do enjoy books with older female protagonists, and Anna has a funny turn of phrase and is quite witty. She has no children, is self-deprecating, and although she tries to remain positive, she has a penchant for paranoia and for being suspicious (often rightly so) about other people’s motives and intentions. There is a fair amount of baggage she carries with her, and we soon discover there was something that happened with one of the people she is forced to work with now (although we don’t find out what that thing was until very late) which puts a spanner in the works. And some bridges need to be rebuilt with her best friend.
The book deals with quite a variety of topics: bereavement, regret, love, guilt, friendship, family relationships, growing up, biological clocks, getting old (there is much talk about menopause), old families, new families, and new models of families, traditional life versus modern life, art, fame, the price to pay for developing tourism in small places, moving back home later in life and adapting to life at a different pace (from New York to rural Ireland), and what does it take to forgive, be forgiven, and give somebody a second chance, to name only some.
I’ve already said that this is a long book, and not all the topics are given equal weight. Anna’s whole family descends on the town where she’s working (Maumtully) a few times and they’re a force of nature, but although amusing, there isn’t enough time given to each one of them for those who haven’t read the other books to know them well. (I guess the answer might be reading the rest of the books). There is a bit of a mystery surrounding the development being built, as there has been damage done to it, but I found this part of the story disappointing and there were no big surprises or reveals to keep the story moving. There was much more emphasis placed on the will-they/won’t-they part of the story between Anna and Joey, an almost old flame, but I personally found it dragged on a fair bit, and I was more interested in some of the other characters from the town who played a smaller part, and in the relationship with her best friend, Jacqui. I didn’t find it too confusing, but people who enjoy a story being told in strict chronological order will be disappointed here, because, although the present is told in the right order, Anna keeps remembering things that happened before, and those memories can go back and forth sometimes, from the time she first met somebody, to her school days, to living in New York, back to Ireland… Eventually, we get a pretty full picture, but it is not straightforward.
Oh, and for those who mind (and I do as well), there was some erotic content in the book. Most of it is not too explicit (or rather, mostly deals with the erotic powers of imagination), and some readers will think it was more than due, but I wouldn’t have missed it if it wasn’t there. Quite the opposite. (But I know that is me).
The ending is as it would be expected in a book that could be defined as an adult coming of older age story or a second chance romance or both. So, I imagine fans of the series will be happy with it. I wasn’t surprised.
For me, the book could have been shorter without losing much of what I enjoyed about it, but people who’ve been following the series might feel different.
If you are a fan of Marian Keyes, you should give it a go, especially if you have read and enjoyed other books in the series. If not… Well, you can check a sample and see if it suits you.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity, thanks to all of you for reading, sharing, liking, and commenting, and remember to always keep smiling and having fun. ♥
Just Olga 