Dog Blood - David Moody

Rating: 3 Sandwiches out of 5

'Dog Blood' by David Moody is a bleak post-apocalyptic book where humanity has been changed forever, dividing people so they are either the 'Unchanged' or the changed 'Haters'.  I have to say I didn't even realise this was the second book in a series until I saw the first listed on Amazon, so it reads well as a stand alone book and there is enough explanation of the back story to keep you from getting confused.

The hero, if you can call him that, of 'Dog Blood' is a Hater called Danny McCoyne. In a twist on the more traditional zombie novel, like so many others when Danny changed he viciously attacked and killed a family member before fleeing the house dazed and confused.  His world suddenly became a maelstrom of violence as he felt a burning need to kill any 'Unchanged' he came across and was soon joining other Haters in hunting down and destroying any he came across.  Like someone with an addiction, the 'Hate' would rise up within him as soon as he sensed there was an 'Unchanged' anywhere near him, sending him into a killing frenzy that could never be sated, being further fuelled with every kill he made.

Danny McCoyne fully agrees with his fellow 'Haters' that the world must be cleansed of every single 'Unchanged' who survived, but unlike most of his comrades he also had another mission he was driven to take on.  Because Danny's five year old daughter Ellis, whom he had left behind when he fled his home was a 'Hater' just like him and he wanted nothing more than to find her, protect her and have her fighting alongside him.

So Danny sets off on a perilous journey to find his missing child that takes him back to his old family home and ultimately deep into the heart of the city where the 'Unchanged' have flocked to find protection and wait to be rescued.  But there will be many twists on Danny's journey and some of the people he encounters are not all they seem.  In a world where you can trust nobody and where our hero wants nothing more than to let go and lose himself in the slaughter, will he ever find his daughter?

This is a book which offers little hope for humanity.  The 'Haters' want to kill all the 'Unchanged' and the 'Unchanged' as well as trying to destroy as many 'Haters' as they can are also fighting among themselves.  I got the distinct impression the author had more than a sneaking preference for the 'Haters'  as in their world view they are decisive, strong, and fearless, whereas the 'Unchanged' are weak and apathetic.

It questions what it is to be human; which of our characteristics are worthy and admirable and which are not. Do you keeping loving your husband or children even if all they want to do is kill you?  Or do you abandon them or even kill them first?  However, I couldn't help wondering what the 'Haters' planned to do with their burning need to kill once they had slaughtered all the 'Unchanged.'  Is it possible for humanity to survive in any form in a world filled with hate and violence?

Not my favourite book of the year as it is very dark and doesn't seem to point to any light at the end of the tunnel (yes, I am a sucker for a happy ending or at least the potential for one!), but it was intriguing enough to keep me turning the pages to see what happened at the end.  It is also, perhaps not surprisingly, very violent and bloody, so maybe not suitable for those gentle readers with a delicate constitution!

You would have to have a pretty strong stomach to be reading this over lunch, although you may need a double brandy at the end, but I award it three sandwiches for being an original take on a heavily written topic and an interesting story.

An Interview with Mary Gottschalk - Author of the Memoir 'Sailing Down the Moonbeam'

The Lunchtime Book Review was recently lucky enough to interview the very talented Mary Gottschalk, who is the author of the memoir 'Sailing Down the Moonbeam.'.

Sailing Down the Moonbeam - Mary Gottschalk

Q: Mary, how did you and your husband decide to go on your trip?  Was there a triggering event or did the idea evolve over time?

A: Tom and I were experienced sailors and loved working with nature to get where we wanted to go, and we intended to circumnavigate the world when we retired.  However, the decision to do it in 1985 was spur-of-the-moment: we first discussed it in late January and sailed out of New York Harbor only 7 months later.

At the time, we were very successful in our Wall Street careers, but at age 40, the decision seemed like a huge risk.  We felt the opportunity to see more of the world while we were still young and healthy was worth it.  It was the right decision. When we eventually went back to work, we both ended up in jobs in which we were much happier and probably more successful than we would have been if we hadn’t taken the trip.

Q: Your book ‘Sailing Down the Moonbeam’ is the story of the amazing sailing trip you took around the world.  Did you plan to write this book before you went on your voyage, or was it something that you decided later?

A: I had no plans to do a memoir when we left, although I did keep a journal from the first day.

It took nearly two decades for me to appreciate that sailing is a metaphor for life: nothing ever works out as planned and you often end up someplace very different than you intended to go.  But if you make the most of every moment — instead of trying to control the outcome — you will enjoy the trip a lot more.  When you apply that to everyday life, you’ll be much happier if you do what you love rather than trying to meet the expectations of others. 

Q: It is an intensely personal memoir, so what was it like to open up your private thoughts and emotions to the world?

A: Moonbeam wasn’t cathartic in the traditional sense, as I had made peace with both my mother and my ex-husband long before I started the draft in 2002. 

That said, one of the extraordinary benefits of Moonbeam was learning how many people had unpleasant or embarrassing experiences that I thought were unique to me. I learned this from my original writing group, but it became even more apparent from the responses readers after it was published. 

Q: How long did it take to write the book?

A: It was six years from the time I first put pen to paper until I had a printed copy in my hand.

Q: Did you hit any writing obstacles along the way?

A: For sure.  The writing process broke into three phases:

• Trying to figure out what from my 400 pages of journals was relevant to a story of personal growth.  For example, we spent six wonderful weeks in the Dominican Republic, but nothing happened there that influenced the way I changed or the way Tom and I thought about our trip. So it doesn’t appear in Moonbeam.
• Creating 3-dimensional characters on the page.  While I was an accomplished business writer, I had little experience with the kinds of physical and emotional details that make for appealing and intriguing characters.
• Keeping the reader turning the pages. I knew that dialogue was key, but my journal did not include any, so I put words into people’s mouths, words that reflected both the emotional content of the scene and the way that individual tended to talk.  But this can be dangerous territory in a memoir.

When it was all done, I sent it to Tom (we’d been separated for more than decade) and said that if he found inaccuracies, I would change them.  He told me not to change a thing.

Q: Looking back on your experience of writing the book, is there anything you wish you had done differently?

A: I loved learning the craft of creative writing … developing intimate relationships with the other women in my writing group … and of course, gaining additional insight into myself along the way.

The hardest part was marketing.  As a run-of-the-mill introvert, I dislike drawing attention to myself.  I accomplished far more than I ever imagined I could, in terms of reaching out to bookstores, book clubs, and libraries, but I left a lot of good soil untilled. I' m approaching it quite differently for the novel that will come out in the spring.

Q: Why did you choose to go down the route of self-publishing?

A: I had two main reasons.

• As a first time author writing about sailing story from landlocked Iowa, I thought getting an agent and publisher would be almost impossible.
• I’d heard so many horror stories about losing control of your book … the cover, the editing, the price, and the timing.  Having gone to the trouble of writing it, I didn’t want someone to make changes I didn’t agree with.

Q: In your opinion, what are some of the pros and cons of self-publishing?

A: The pros are easy.  You can control pretty much everything, except the marketing.  And if you have both print and e-book versions, you make a lot more money on the e-book that you would if you go with a traditional publisher.

The con is the marketing and distribution, as many bookstores and libraries are reluctant to stock self-published books.  You can get around this if you have personal contacts and/ or can get someone to confirm the quality of your book.  But it takes a lot of legwork. 

Q: From writing a memoir, you moved into writing fiction with your novel ‘A Fitting Place’.  What attracted you to writing fiction?

A: There were two factors.  One is that I really enjoyed the experience of creating characters and dialogue.

The second was that I really believe that there are huge personal and/or professional benefits to stepping out of your comfort zone.  The memoir was based stepping out from a geographical perspective.  By contrast, the protagonist in my novel never strays far from her home, but is hurled outside of her emotional comfort by circumstances.

Q: Could you give us a short extract from your current project?

A: A very short section from Part III

'As she put her toothbrush in the holder, the light caught the stones in her pendant and cast two small red discs on either side of a single white one on the bathroom wall. She stared at them, fascinated by the myriad ways in which light could come alive, but they disappeared the moment she raised her hand to touch them.

She rubbed the pendant between her fingers as she continued to stare at the now blank spot on the wall. Although this tiny piece of jewelry was the repository of some of her most treasured memories, it had been years since she thought consciously about why she always wore it.

   

But now, she couldn’t avoid thinking about the day Ted gave it to her, the day Zoey was born. He’d had it made by their neighborhood jeweler in Sydney. A ruby for each of the July-born women he loved, and a diamond for himself, an April Fools baby.

She’d worn that pendant for nearly twelve years, rarely taking it off. For many of those years, as they lay in bed at night, he’d run his fingers along the chain around her neck, and tell her that she was more valuable than any jewel he could ever hope to buy.

When had he stopped doing that?

 

Turning to observe herself in the mirror, she reached up and opened the clasp at the back of her neck. She held her hands there for several moments, then slowly lowered them, and dropped the chain and pendant into the top drawer of bathroom vanity.

The diamond in her life was gone, and she could no longer pretend it would return.'

About Mary Gottschalk

Mary has made a career out of changing careers.  After finishing her MBA, she spent nearly thirty years in the financial markets, working as an economist, a banker and a financial consultant to major corporations.  She has worked in New York, New Zealand, Australia, Central America, Europe, and amazingly, Des Moines, Iowa. 

Along the way, she dropped out several times.  In the mid-1980’s, Mary and her husband Tom embarked on the multi-year sailing voyage that is the subject of her memoir, Sailing Down the Moonbeam.  Twice, she left finance to provide financial and strategic planning services to the nonprofit community, first in New York and later in Des Moines.

In her latest incarnation, she defines herself as a writer.  She is working on her first novel, writes for The Iowan magazine, and lectures on the subject of personal risk-taking.

Mary is on several non-profit boards, including the Des Moines A.M. Rotary

Links to books and social media sites

http://marycgottschalk.com

www.Sailingdownthemoonbeam.com

http://twitter.com/marycgottschalk

http://www.facebook.com/mary.gottschalk.9

http://www.facebook.com/MaryGottschalkWriter

http://www.linkedin.com/in/marygottschalk/

            https://plus.google.com/u/0/105973496280247274228/posts 

Worthless Men - Andrew Cowan

How would you feel if you returned home one day to find that none of your family or friends could see, hear or touch you?  In Worthless Men by Andrew Cowan, Walter Barley finds out exactly how it feels as he drifts into his home town one hot summer day.  It is market day, so the town is bustling with people and traffic, as farmers try to get their beasts to market, housewives go out to shop at the market stalls and the town's pubs and tea rooms are full to bursting.

Although it might look, sound and smell like the market days Walter remembers from his childhood, the big changes that have taken place in the outside world have found their way even to this very ordinary market town in England.  Changes that will leave a devastating and lasting scar across the lives of everyone who lives in the town and the surrounding countryside. His first visit is to his family home, where the women of his family are now employed in the barbed wire factory owned by the Beckwith family, because most of the town's men are now away fighting in the trenches on the Western Front or have already been killed.  Walter's mother alone has been deprived of a husband and adult sons and has to work even harder to keep her younger children fed and clothed.

But Walter has really returned to find the girl he fell in love with, the pretty and innocent Gertie Dobson, daughter of the local pharmacist.  But as he roams the hot streets, unseen and unnoticed by anyone except the others who are like him, he realises that the girl he loves is being drawn into the web of the Beckwith's son and heir who has returned from the Western Front broken in mind and body.

What secrets do Walter Barley and Montague Beckwith share?  What does Walter know that would make him want to keep his beloved away from the injured officer?  Montague Beckwith also has history with Gertie's pharmacist father, as they shared an interest before the war in stock breeding and eugenics, trading opinions on how to best improve the human race and standards in society.  But Mr Dobson also has secrets that he wouldn't like to get out, secrets that closely concern Gertie and could affect her future.

So as the blisteringly hot day builds towards a mighty thunderstorm, will Walter be able to find his lost love and avert further tragedy?  Or have events been set in motion that are now unstoppable?  A series of events, coincidences and decisions that will culminate in the scenes that play out over a few short minutes in the wind and pouring rain, changing things forever.

Worthless Men is a very descriptive book that really brings alive the sounds, noises and smells of a busy market town during the Great War.  It depicts a time of change, where women are going to work out of the home in greater numbers, because they need to earn a wage to support their families and because of the shortage of male labour.  It also describes very vividly the grinding poverty that many of the town's families still lived in with few of the amenities that we now take for granted, such as running water, inside toilets and enough bedrooms for the family.

The relationship between Mr Dobson the pharmacist and Montague Beckwith is also interesting, as we tend to forget these days just how accepted the idea of eugenics and controlling who could have children was. The idea of somehow improving the human race, just as farmers sought to develop their livestock breeding programmes, was openly discussed in meetings, pamphlets and journals across the whole of Europe.

But Worthless Men is a slow book to get into.  If you prefer action and excitement to lengthy description, then this is probably not the book for you.  The slaughter of livestock in the local abattoir is especially well described, providing a metaphor for the carnage that was being wreaked on the men who were enduring life in the trenches, so perhaps also a book to avoid if blood and gore is not your thing.

I award this book three sandwiches, mainly for evoking so well the spirit and essence of a busy English market town on a hot summer day.  One to read with a roast beef sandwich and horseradish sauce and a pint of beer or pie and mash.  Any dish that is typically English and transports you back to an earlier time.

Star Island - Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen books are an acquired taste, but if you have a bit of a twisted sense of humour you will find them original and laugh out loud funny. Star Island is no exception and is a tale of good and evil set in the steamy, tropical heat of Miami and the Florida Keys. Low life paparazzi Claude 'Bang' Abbott has few work ethics, no morals and a realistic view of his attractiveness to the female race.  He spends his life taking pictures of celebrities in compromising situations and, as he views any star as just a way to make a quick buck, no one is more surprised than him when he becomes dangerously obsessed with a wild young starlet called Cherry Pye, who has more than a few unhealthy habits that are spiralling out of control. And after all, how often does a guy like Bang get his first taste of the mile high club in a private jet with said hot, blonde pop singer?

But the course of true obsession is not destined to run smoothly for poor Bang, as unbeknownst to him the wayward Cherry Pye has a body double, an unknown actress called Ann DaLusia, who takes her place at public engagements when Cherry's wild lifestyle puts her out of action.  Bang makes one of the worst mistakes of his life when he kidnaps the wrong Cherry Pye and finds that he has no famous starlet and one very unamused Ann DaLusia on his hands, setting off a chain of unfortunate events that leads to the loss of his prized cameras and blackberry, damage to several of his body parts and  his dreams and aspirations plunging into a terminally downward spiral.

For Ann DaLusia proves to be not your average kidnap victim, giving Bang more than a run for his money.  Also he is blissfully unaware that after a crash on a dark, lonely road in the Keys, that Ann has acquired a most unusual knight in shining armour, who will stop at nothing to rescue her and keep her safe, even taking to the ocean waves and braving the crowded streets of Miami, which he hates, on her behalf.

Star Island is a very funny book, set in the murky underbelly of Florida society and the tawdry celebrity scene.  Hiaasen has a knack for making his character's outrageous behaviour seem normal, and getting you to believe that it is an everyday occurrence to meet someone with a weed strimmer for an arm prosthesis  or an ex state governor living in a camp in the swamps and living off road kill.  It is a cleverly wrought story of plots, manipulation and counter-plots, where many of the characters are more than happy to lie, cheat and even kill to further their own plans.  But somehow right manages to triumph over evil and many of the characters in Star Island end up finding out the hard way that crime does not pay and that karma always catches up with you in the end.

Star Island brings back some of Carl Hiaasen's most memorable characters such as Skink, aka Clint Tyree, the former Governor of Florida who takes Ann DaLusia under his wing and Chemo, former bent mortgage adviser and prison inmate turned celebrity bodyguard who wields his strimmer prosthesis to great effect.

The great thing about Hiaasen's characters and plots is that they are so implausibly over the top that they become believable and you very quickly fall into his wacky world of tarnished celebrities, corrupt politicians and petty criminals. Hiaasen's universe is a twisted but seductive place where the best laid plans and the highest of intentions are always going astray.  And I promise that you will never look at a sea urchin in the same way again!

To go with Star Island's tropical theme, I suggest that you mix yourself a pitcher of frozen margaritas and chuck some jumbo prawns on the barbie, as this is a great book to chuckle through as you are sunning yourself on a lounger by the pool.

As I now have a new rating system, I award Star island 4 sandwiches out of five for being such a ridiculously funny, off the wall read.

The Deceit – Tom Knox

Rating:  Three Sandwiches out of five

I was very wary of picking up another Tom Knox title after ‘The Genesis Secret’.  This was not because I didn’t enjoy the novel; it was more to do with the fact that some of the violence and ritualistic murders were very gruesome and graphically described.  But the plot of ‘The Deceit’ sounded interesting, so I thought I would have another try.

‘The Deceit’ is a thriller set in Egypt and Cornwall where in two seemingly separate stories Egyptologist Ryan Harper joins the search for some priceless, ancient papyri known as the ‘Sokar documents’ and DI Karen Trevithick investigates an incident where cats are burned in a grisly, ancient ritual. The documents Ryan Harper is seeking were found on the corpse of his old tutor Victor Sassoon after he had deliberately walked out into the desert and hid in a cave until he died.  Dating from the time of the earliest Christians in Egypt, The Copts, what secrets did the documents contain that Sassoon felt were so important they remain hidden that he was prepared to die rather than they be found?

After recovering some of the documents, Harper finds himself on the run in Egypt with the attractive German filmmaker Helen Fassbinder, desperately trying to translate the obscure Coptic script in order to solve the mystery they contain. As he deciphers the clues, what is revealed leads them to Bubastis and the ancient underground necropolis of the mummified cats.  Violence soon erupts however, and they are taken prisoner by a small band of what appear to be mercenary soldiers.  But are they really there to save them and protect them as they say or do they really have more sinister motives?  Their quest takes them next to Luxor and then down to Aswan and the temple of Philae. But everywhere they turn they are faced with more attempts on their life and a mysterious illness.

Back in Cornwall the hideous ritual of the sacrifice of the cats is followed by the discovery of a body at the bottom of an old mine shaft.  CCTV footage shows that the young man apparently committed suicide, but what drove him to such a deed?  For DI Trevithick a disturbing encounter with a young woman who seemingly had been driven to psychosis by her exposure to these rituals puts her on the trail of a frightening young man, who is experimenting with dangerous ritual magic to achieve his ends.  But just how far will he go?

While the two stories are being told separately, the book is an interesting read, very fast paced and full of action.  The stories are intriguing and I found I wanted to read on to find out what would happen.  Also, importantly for me, although fairly gory, it was not nearly as bad as the ‘Genesis Secret’.  But  I found the huge secret that Victor Sassoon was prepared to die for rather than unleash on the world a bit of a damp squib; not something most religious folks would get that riled up about to be quite honest.  The book then changes tack bringing the two stories together back in Cornwall in rather an unbelievable way.  For me the ending was a disappointment and a bit fuzzy around the edges.

As most book review sites have a ratings system, I’ve decided to introduce the sandwich rating and from now on will rate books from one (awful book) to five (awesome book) sandwiches.  I’m going to award ‘The Deceit’ by Tom Knox Three Sandwiches.  It was an interesting, thrilling read, but it petered out a bit in the last third and I thought that the ending was a bit lame and unbelievable. I know that in this type of novel nothing is ever really believable, but the really good thrillers can carry you away and let you suspend your belief as you get immersed in the story.  This book, however, is not one of those, but is still worth having a read of.

The Secrets of Pain - Phil Rickman

‘The Secrets of Pain’ is part of Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series, books that tell the story of a single mother who retrains to become a vicar in village close to the border with Wales. As well as having to break into a tight knit rural community and dealing with the prejudices and opinions about women priests, she is also then appointed as diocese Deliverance Consultant (that's Exorcist to you and me!).

The books are paranormal thrillers telling the stories of Merrily’s encounters with the paranormal and the evil that can be found woven into the fabric of daily living.  The books also tend to draw on the ancient past and traditions of the area and ‘The Secrets of Pain’ is no exception.

The book starts as the village of Ledwardine is preparing for Easter.  The spring is slow coming that year and the weather is bitter.  Murders are committed that at first seem to have no connection to each other.  A prosperous local farmer is found savagely slaughtered and covered in blood in his own field, while two young migrant workers are found dead in the city.  DI Frannie Bliss has to work his way through a tangled web of crime and local rivalries to find the connection, only to discover that his own private life has been compromised and it has become personal.

Merrily is drawn into this web through an old acquaintance that seems to be hiding a dark secret that he cannot talk about but is obviously weighing him down.  He is the chaplain at the nearby SAS base and is found dead a few days later on a steep path on the hillside. Did he die of natural causes or was this suicide?  If so, what terrible knowledge drove him to his death?  Merrily discovers that some of his SAS colleagues may have embraced an old cult from Roman times that celebrated being a warrior and perhaps were even performing the ancient rites.

Merrily’s daughter Jane became involved when she got mixed up with a sleazy banker from the city who was staying at the new resort that catered for townies who wanted to become part of the hunting, shooting and fishing crowd.  But her discovery of a dead cock that he had dumped in a rubbish bin triggers suspicions that somebody in the district has revived the cruel sport of cock fighting.  As she tries to find out where this is taking place and who is behind it, will she find that her new acquaintance is actually involved in something much darker and much older?

The story takes us into the ancient Roman past of the area and the more recent history of the SAS. One of the major themes of the book is blood sacrifice as Merrily prepares for a Good Friday meditation based on the writings of Julian of Norwich about the crucifixion.  But had some of these hard bitten SAS men taken up rituals involving a very different form of blood sacrifice? Had the beliefs of the ancient Mithras cult permeated the closed, secretive ranks of the SAS? 

As Easter grows closer can Merrily unravel the tangled trail behind the deaths that have taken place before someone else gets killed? Or will someone close to her pay a heavy price for their investigations and  interference?

'The Secrets of Pain' is a long book that is heavy on detail and description, which at times feels a bit ponderous and sometimes as I was reading I wished that he would just get on with the story. The book is, however, beautifully written with a lot of interesting historical detail. However, I found that the tension didn't build was well as it could because of the length and detail and I would have preferred a little more action as they say.

The book does work as a standalone read, but if you haven’t read any of the earlier Merrily Watkins books then you might enjoy it more if you start reading from the beginning of the series, as you will get to know the characters and the background.  And surely by now Jane should know not to get into cars with strange men that she doesn't trust?

You will need quite a few lunches to get through this one, so stock up the fridge or book a seat in your local sandwich bar and ask them to keep your coffee mug topped up.

The Radleys - Matt Haig

How well do you know your neighbours?  Well, as it would turn out, none of the Radley's neighbours knew the people along the street as well as they thought they did.  Tell tale clues, such as family dogs howling in distress whenever one of the Radley children tried to pet them, closed curtains on a sunny day, unnaturally pale skin and a diet high in rare meat., were missed.  True the Radley boy, Rowan was stigmatised as a freak  at school, but then that was likely to happen to anybody who was a little bit different.

But however much Peter and Helen Radley tried to follow the rules laid out in the Abstainer's Handbook, tension was always simmering just below the surface of family life and the pressures of not letting the kids know who or what they really are were steadily building towards boiling point.  This fragile balance was bound to be broken at some point and when daughter Clara was overwhelmed by adolescent hormonal rage when she was attacked by a boy from her school at a teenage party all hell was let loose. Literally.

Helen and Peter's pretence that they are a normal family was finally blown wide open and Peter had to act decisively to save his daughter.  But now the explanations had to begin and the truth faced, they were vampires not humans, and their children had to be told.for their own protection.  But there were more secrets  lurking in the background than the fact that they were a family of vampires, and when desperation leads to Peter's non-abstaining, hard living brother Will Radley being asked to help them, there is even more at stake than being revealed as blood sucking monsters.

Little do they know that Will has stirred up so much trouble and talk that he has lost the protection of the vampire community and is now a legitimate target for the secret police unit that hunts down and eliminates renegade vampires.  Little do they know that Eve, the girl at school that Rowan Radley has fallen head over heels for, lost her mother to a vampire attack and that the killer was none other than Will Radley.

So while Peter and Helen try to do everything they can to protect their precious daughter from the consequences of her blood-fuelled outburst, they are unaware that there are other dangers closing in on them.  Will Eve's frightened, grief-stricken father succeed in his plans to destroy Will Radley and the vampire family?  Will the police take reprisals against the family in the quest to take out Will Radley?

The explosive that threatens the very foundation of Peter and Helen's marriage will have to be faced before they can move forward and build a new future.  But who will survive?  How will the kid's take the news that they really are freaks? And will there be any happy ever afters?

After all the Hollywoodesque American vampire novels it was very interesting to read a British vampire horror and one that is set in suburbia.  This is no florid Gothic horror, but a tale of a family trying to fit in and be ordinary in an average British town.  But to thrive we all need to acknowledge our own natures and honour them, or eventually we will rebel. And as the Radleys find out, this can lead to tragedy and upheaval.

So The Radleys by Matt Haig is one to read while drinking a glass of deep, ruby red wine.  Put some extra garlic in your spaghetti bolognese if you are frightened and nail a crucifix of two to the wall.

Lola's Secret - Monica McInerney

If you are looking for an easy, good feeling read and you like Christmas, then why not try reading Lola's Secret by Monica McInerney.  It is a sequel to her previous book 'The Alphabet Sisters', but you don't need to have read it first, as this works as a stand alone book.  Lola Quinlan is a sprightly old lady in her eighties, who dresses somewhat eccentrically and has very strong opinions on most things, especially anything that concerns her family.

Her home is a rural motel in the beautiful wine growing Clare Valley of South Australia, where she lives with her son Jim and daughter Geraldine, whom she has never seen eye to eye with.  Lola has run motels for decades, but is now mostly retired and spends a lot of her time helping to run the local charity shop with her group of friends. Lola also likes to keep up with modern technology and has enthusiastically embraced the internet, sending emails and mobile phones.

As Christmas approaches she wants to encourage her relatives to take some time out and go off on their own holidays, without feeling that they have to stay for her sake.  But although the thought of a peaceful Christmas spent alone calls to her, she comes up with the plan of inviting a group of strangers to the motel for the festive break and creating a wonderful experience for them.  She uses her new skills on the internet to invite people, using the lure of a free stay to get a small group of people to sign up.  But does Lola know what she has let herself in for?  Because unbeknownst to her, all of the visitors she is expecting for Christmas have their own reasons for trying to escape their homes and lives for the holidays, and bringing them all together could create a very combustible mix of drama and tragedy.

Meanwhile, there are problems in her own family that need sorting and wounds that need healing.  The death of her granddaughter Anna at the motel several years previously has left a huge hole in the family, and any closeness that her death had initially engendered in the family felt long gone.  Anna's two sisters were once more at each others throats, as difficulties in their marriages and family lives cause them to go back into competition with each other and revisit old disputes that they had thought they had left behind.  And Ellen, Anna's young daughter, was also facing heart ache of her own many miles away in Hong Kong, as she takes a rebellious stance when her father starts a new relationship, feeling that she is being pushed out and that her mother is being replaced.

Even Lola's home at the motel is under threat as Jim and Geraldine decide that they want to buy a smaller business in a different part of Australia, and Geraldine makes it clear that Lola is not included in their plans for the future.  So as she tries to sort out and help her family, create a wonderful Christmas experience for a bunch of strangers and keep things running smoothly in the charity shop, will Lola take any time to look into her own heart and acknowledge some of her own needs?

But Lola is going to be surprised this festive season by things from the past that she thought were long gone and lost forever, giving her another chance to put something right that went awry so many years ago.  Can this redoubtable old lady pull her family together again, help ease their pain and steer them onto a brighter path for the future?  Will her disparate group of invited guests have a Christmas they will never forget? And most importantly, will Lola discover a new direction for her own life and perhaps even find new love for herself?

Lola's Secret is a pleasant read, especially if you enjoy delving into human relationships and the tangles and predicaments that we create for ourselves. It is a book to take into the garden on a hot summer afternoon and let the hours slip by, or to cuddle up with by the fire on a cold, snowy winter afternoon.  As it is set in the 40c heat of a South Australian summer, sip an ice cold glass of Australian white wine while you are reading and have some tasty savoury nibbles to dip into.  My one niggle regards the cover of the UK edition, which is a picture of a young girl running through a lush bluebell wood.  It is an attractive image, but to me says nothing about the dry, dusty heat of an Australian summer in a wine growing region.  Probably me being too literal, but I would prefer to see a cover that was a closer reflection of what is contained within the pages.

The Darkening - Stephen Irwin

At the start of 'The Darkening' by Stephen Irwin, Nicholas Close is a happily married man living in London, when his wife dies in tragic circumstances, leaving him with an unwanted and distressing ability to see the spirits of the dead continually reliving the moment that led up to their demise.  Unable to carry on any longer he returns to Australia and the dreary suburb of Tallong where he had grown up with his mother and sister.  But as soon as he is back he becomes aware of the brooding presence of the local woods, which brings back memories of the brutal murder during his childhood of his best friend Tristram.

He soon realises that any hopes that he may have had of leaving the past behind are futile as another horrific murder of a child in the woods leads to long repressed memories flooding back about what happened on that fateful day when he and Tristram went playing among the densely packed trees and undergrowth and only one of them came back.  Especially when he discovers that it was really supposed to be him who died. As Nick starts to investigate, he finds out that there have in fact been a string of murders in those woods, stretching back over a hundred years, where the victims have all been children.

As he himself comes under suspicion from the police as another child goes missing, he has to try and unravel an ancient web of evil that seems to lead back to the local shops and one old lady who who used to do sewing and alterations and also inexorably back to the woods.  But how long can one person really live and what are they prepared to do to carry on living?

Nick has to dig deep into himself and find the courage to return to the woods to try and defeat the malignant evil that lies at its heart, before any more children have to die to keep it alive.  But is he strong enough to fight the dark magic that is sent against him? And how much does his mother and other residents of the suburb really know and how was his dead father involved?

This is a book that combines horror with magic and the supernatural, with several clever twists in the plot. It is a real page turner, and one that I read very fast.  Probably not one for readers with arachnophobia as spiders feature pretty heavily, and one of my few criticisms of the 'The Darkening' is that I found one aspect of the spider plot a bit ridiculous - but no spoilers!

Genuinely creepy in places, this is one to read under the bed covers with a torch, so make sure that you have lots of chocolate and crisps and big mug of steaming cocoa to help stop your shivering with fear.

Ghosts and Other Really Big Surprises - Cynthia Marsh

Now this is not a book review as, gentle readers, this is the Lunch Time Book Review's very own collection of short stories.  Yes this is my very own first foray into self publishing that I humbly present to you.

So I cannot review 'Ghosts and Other Really Big Surprises', but I can tell you something about it.  It is a collection of short stories that all have a ghostly or spooky theme.  So you will find tales of vengeful ghosts and helpful ghosts, vegetables that grow considerably larger than they should, a really sinister first date, a future Britain plagued by a strange disease, an ancient Egyptian queen who potentially still has the power to destroy the world and a young girl faced with the most difficult decision of her short life.

As they are scary stories, you may need some hot cocoa and plenty of chocolate to keep you going as you are reading and you may just need to keep the light on as you sleep.  After all is that just the wind howling through the trees in the garden.........?


And 'Ghosts and Other Really Big Surprises' is available on Amazon in the USA and the UK



 

The Chosen Seed - Sarah Pinborough

When I picked up The Chosen Seed by Sarah Pinborough, I should have been more careful as it is actually the final book in a trilogy. But it didn't really matter when I was reading it, as it is a book that stands alone and can be read without knowing the back story, which is well explained as you go along.  Cass Jones is a renegade detective trying to avoid arrest in a London that is living in fear from being infected with a disease called Strain II, that has been spreading among the homeless and drug users of London.  He is being hunted for a murder that he did not commit, and has gone into hiding after being rescued after he was shot in the shoulder by a mysterious couple.

But a very dangerous man has made it his mission to spread a new, even more lethal strain of Strain II and is targeting the more affluent, working population of the city, spreading terror in busy streets, pubs and transport hubs of the capital.  So is there a link between this elusive serial killer handing out terrifying doses of death in the London night and a sinister group called the Network and an institution called The Bank, that now effectively controls the country's finances and economy?

As Cass Jones recuperates from his wound he has just one goal, which is to find his missing nephew and clear his name.  But all the evidence seems to point back to a secretive character called Mr Bright, and Cass Jones soon realises that he has to discover the secrets surrounding Mr Bright if he is ever to find his missing nephew Luke.  So who is this mysterious man who seems to have had so much influence in Jones's family history, leaving only tantalising clues about the depth of his involvement and his manipulation of events from the shadows?

The disgraced detective has become a pariah at his station, where most of his ex-colleagues seem convinced of his guilt, but two of his former work associates, Detectives Hask and Ramsey, are beginning to have doubts and start discretely investigating Cass Jones's links to the murders, trying to determine once and for all his innocence or guilt. But even within the force itself, they cannot uncover any information about Mr Bright and find to their dismay that any investigations they make into his background and activities are blocked at the highest level.

But neither Cass Jones nor the human friends working to clear his name have any idea of the magnitude and importance of what game they have really stumbled into, and how it could be so very nearly the end of the world for them all.  Jones will have to learn and accept the truth about his family and what he really is before he can be instrumental in averting the coming Armageddon and save his nephew and the rest of humanity from destruction.  Loyalties will be questioned and allegiances shifted, before he can really get to the bottom of the enigma that is Mr Bright.

I would have a big juicy hamburger and a big bowl of chips with plenty of ketchup to go along with this one, as you will need the carbs to keep up with the cracking pace.  As Cass Jones has his eyes opened to the true nature of the world around him and how nothing is as it looks on the surface, he has hard decisions to make, decisions that can affect the fate of all mankind.  So will he find his nephew in time to save him?  Will he solve the puzzle of the mysterious 'glow' and find a way to penetrate the secrets of Mr Bright?  And will Ramsey and Hask catch the killer who is so callously infecting the population of London with the lethal infection Strain II, and discover the truth about the innocence of their former colleague and friend Cass Jones in doing so?  And will any of them be able to penetrate the secrets of the shadowy Network and The Bank in time?

The Passage - Justin Cronin

I have to say that for some reason all the publicity and hype about 'The Passage' by Justin Cronin managed to pass me by and I only became aware of the book when I found it on the shelves of the Horror section of my local library.  Cronin had started to write his epic novel telling the story of a virus induced vampire apocalypse in 2007 and says that he put together the story on afternoon jogs around his local streets with his young daughter Iris on her bicycle.  What happened after that is every author's dream, as when his agent started touting the novel around publishers, it triggered a frenzied, intense bidding war. The rights to publish 'The Passage' were eventually secured by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, for $3.75 along with two other books to complete the trilogy and the film rights were bought for $1.75.  Wow!

So one of the first things to be aware of before you dive into 'The Passage' is that it is a long book, the paperback copy I have is 963 pages long, so not one that even the fastest of readers is going to be able to gulp down in an afternoon.  But it would be the perfect book for long, lazy afternoons on that sun lounger or to while away the hours on a long haul flight.  It is also, to my mind, a book that invites comparisons, the most immediate being on to Stephen King's incomparable 'The Stand'.  It follows the same story line of the build up to the break down and end of the world as we know it and then the story of some of the survivors, albeit in 'The Passage' the story picks up after a hundred year break from when the apocalypse hit. It also reminded me a bit of the 2002 film 'Reign of Fire' where the world is terrorised from the skies by fire-breathing dragons, especially the scenes involving teaching the children and keeping them safe.

So what was the momentous, tragic event that all but destroys human civilisation in 'The Passage'?  Again it follows a relatively common theme, there is a top secret government experiment being conducted in the USA where prisoners who had been condemned to death were being injected with a virus that had been discovered in South America.  Ironically, the experiment was designed to find a way for humans to stay alive forever, and the virus changed the men into a type of preternaturally strong and quick vampire-like creature that never died. The experiment starts to fall apart when they introduce a strange six year old girl called Amy into the programme; the test subjects, who are known as virals or dracos, start infiltrating the dreams and minds of their captors and break free.  The devastation is immediate and catastrophic and in a few short months the fabric of American society has totally crumbled and the dark hours of the night are no longer safe.

We are then taken to the Colony, which comprises of a small band of humans that has managed to survive and scrape out a living for a hundred years after the advent of the virals.  They survive because they have have powerful lights that protect them during the hours of darkness, but they lead a very precarious existence.  The one thing that most of them do not know is that one day the lights will go out, as the batteries that feed them power deteriorate.  The tight-knit community of the Colony is thrown into disarray when one of its young watchers, Theo Jaxon, is taken by the virals and a strange young girl appears out of nowhere.

The inhabitants of the Colony do not know it at the time, but this young girl who causes them so much unease and is the trigger for quarrels and violence, is the key to their salvation and is the same Amy that was held in the secret government bunker a hundred years ago.  So it falls on young Peter, Theo's brother, to lead a small group out into the dangerous outside world that they had never before explored, to find the key to the mysterious Amy, to find some other humans to help them with their batteries and assuage Peter's nagging feeling that his brother was still alive out there somewhere.

So will the small band of brave humans be able to survive the dark nights out in the open, when the powerful virals range freely hunting for blood?  And will they find that they are not alone and that other groups of humans have survived?  And most importantly, will finding out the truth about Amy, give them the key to destroying the virals and reclaiming their world once again?

It's a long book so you will need more than lunch to keep you going.  It is the kind of book where you get really involved in the characters and you will probably pick your favourites and root for them to survive.  There are some very sad bits however, so chocolate and lashings of tea are called for.  It really seems to be a book about how you keep going and keep the human spirit alive, when it seems that you are up against impossible odds. A book about how you maintain hope in the future in a world of diminishing resources and increasing dangers.  A book that shows that we all need someone or something to follow or believe in; and in 'The Passage' that something is a strange young girl called Amy and an unsure, struggling young man called Peter.

The next instalment of the trilogy 'The Twelve' is due out on 18th December 2012 - a book about the apocalypse published so close to the date of 21st December that some say will be the end of the world? Marketing or synchronicity I wonder?

Ghost Song - Sarah Rayne

Do you like secrets?  Well, if you are a fan of secrets, then you will love Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne as it is a book much more about the secrets people keep and how they can shape and corrode people's lives than it is a ghost story. Set both in the present day and in the feverish weeks that led up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Ghost Story is set around a mysterious old music hall and theatre called the Tarleton.  The Tarleton has been closed down since the first days of the Great War, and is bound by a strange trust that ensures that it will not be opened again until fifty years after the death of the last owner.

But although the Tarleton is shut, it is still a building that intrigues people and makes them want to discover its secrets.  Robert Fallon was a pragmatic, down to earth surveyor until he undertakes a routine inspection of the old music hall to ensure that it is still structurally sound.  Teaming up with Hilary Bryant, who undertakes research into Victorian and Edwardian theatre for the Harlequin Society who administer the Tarleton, Robert discovers that the Tarleton holds some disturbing secrets.  Why was a wall built to section off part of the cellar and the trapdoor on the stage nailed down so that there was no way of accessing it?  And who was the mysterious figure who was sometimes glimpsed muffled up in an old hat and great coat, softly singing old music hall tunes?

As Robert and Hilary begin to uncover some of the Tarleton's history, we are taken back to 1914 where Toby Chance runs the Tarleton and writes and performs popular songs with his partner, Frank Douglas.  It is an unusually hot spring, the theatre is buzzing, but the clouds of war are beginning to build on the horizon. Toby is introduced to a shadowy organisation called Tranz by a lover, and is drawn in so thoroughly that he agrees to travel to far off Sarajevo to form part of a protest against Hapsburg imperialism.  He was at first fascinated and then repelled by the movement's charismatic leader Petrovnic, and is unaware of Petrovnic's dark past and the role that he had played in Toby's parents lives.

So as Toby heads into trouble in 1914, so do Robert and Hilary as they continue their investigation.  Hilary's boss Shona Seymour has her own secrets to hide and her own reasons for being fearful of the Tarleton being opened up again, and why is Caley Merrick so obsessed by the theatre's history and the players who once performed there?

Not a book for those who are afraid to go into dark rooms alone, as Ghost Song descends into some very dark places indeed.  Will Toby be able to escape the danger that he is in and see through the smoke and mirrors before it is too late?  Will the discoveries that he makes in the Tarleton threaten Robert's career and is Hilary in more danger from someone she trusts than she could ever imagine?

One to read eating a hearty Edwardian meal such as pie and mash or bangers and mash, or even jellied eels if you can stomach them.  Wash them down with a few glasses of beer, as the secrets come tumbling out and the story of the Tarleton is told.  This is a book rich in historical details, and lovingly recreates the world of the Edwardian Music Hall, which was glamorous and colourful on the surface, and slightly tawdry and earthy underneath.

Author Interview With Maria Hardy

Well, we have a little something for you today that is a bit different – we have our very first Lunchtime Book Review author interview!

So I want you to put your hands together as I introduce you to Maria Hardy who is the talented author of the charming children’s story ‘Tina the Snowflake’.

As some of you may know, I have written a few articles on a site called HubPages and one of the other hubbers that I follow and greatly admire is known as Hello, hello.  As you may have guessed Hello, hello is none other than Maria Hardy, who has graciously agreed to answer my questions today.

So Maria, what led you to start writing?

I worked in offices all my life and loved writing - in those days by hand and typewriter. I am also a bookworm. When I retired I started writing. To begin with it the results were not great but the more that I wrote and read, paying attention to phrasing and the lay-out of stories and novels, the more I improved. I know that I have got so many stories in my head and would love to get them all down.

What was your inspiration for Tina the Snowflake?

I love snow and it somehow started to materialize. I also love writing children’s stories because I am still a great dreamer. I first saw that snowflake sitting up there and then I had to give it some personality. From there I thought about the stars above. So I made Tina dream of getting up there. To me getting a story together is like a jigsaw puzzle. I have one thing and I have to think of either what to do with it or how to follow on.

How long did it take to write Tina the Snowflake and were there any obstacles that you had to overcome along the way?

I had the story in my head for a long time and sort off jiggled about with it. With my children’s story of Tina, published under the author name Eva Brooks, I realized that I had to write short and plain sentences. I found it a bit hard because when you start writing you get carried away. To write it took me about a few days because it isn't very long but I had it sitting on my computer for almost two years and sometimes went back to re-write some parts of it.

Did you find it difficult to decide where to publish?

Regarding publishing, I would have gone with any good publisher but I had so many rejections that I gave up. What annoyed me the most and put a final stop to approaching a publisher again was that I found out they have agencies that do nothing but send out rejection letters. I am sure that these agencies don't even look at the stories, let alone read them. Publishers only take you on when you have a famous name or if your self-published book was a great success. It is disgusting the way they treat writers.

How difficult was it to put an ebook together?

It was not at all difficult with Lulu. Everybody talks about Smashwords and I thought that while Tina sits there going nowhere that I would give it a try since it was free. I am not a great computer guru and even after reading the instructions I couldn't manage to format the document to their requirements. It was rejected three times because of my 'false programming'. You have to programme it with Microsoft Word and then supposedly upload it for them to convert into various computer languages. I got annoyed because I didn’t have enough formatting experience to get it done. I uploaded the same document on Lulu and they accepted it the first time. Lulu seems to work check the document all the time because the other day they sent me an email stating I have to put the heading as well on top of the story in such and such way. As I said before, I am not a computer guru and when I asked them something, they came back straightaway with an easily understandable answer. I can only give their service and programme the highest praise.

Lulu also publish books free of charge and when somebody downloads it or buys a book they take a percentage. When they publish a book there is also no limit on how many can be printed.

Where else do you write and what are your writing plans for the future?


I write articles on Triond, Bukisa and Flixya. I also write some news reports for TEK Journalism UK. I have a number of children’s stories and three novels in various stages. The children’s stories I will upload to Lulu sooner rather than later. At the moment I have already another story uploaded called 'Peter Pine' which is the story of his life growing up in the forest, going to the forest school and then growing into a beautiful pine tree. He, his brothers and sisters are chosen to be Christmas trees but with their roots planted in the ground.

So for all you budding authors out there, Maria is giving us all a lot of inspiration to keep on writing and that we can still get our work out there if we are rejected by the traditional publishers.

I would like to thank Maria for joining us today and as it is a celebration of her launching her ebook publishing career I think that a glass of bubbly would be in order!  Cheers Maria and I hope that you enjoy great success with ‘Tina and the Snowflake.


Find Tina the Snowflake  published under the author name of Eva Brooks on Lulu for a great Christmas read!

Firefly Rain - Richard Dansky

Jacob Logan left his home in the town of Maryfield in rural Carolina many years ago to build a new life in the big city, hardening his heart to his parent's pleas to come back and make his life in the old place.  It was only now that his parent's were dead that he found himself drawn back there after his business collapsed.  The old house looked very much the same, but was it welcoming him back or trying to drive him away?

The furniture van than was transporting his stuff was in a bad accident, destroying all his possessions and then his car was stolen from the drive and vanished without trace.  Left all alone on the property, Jacob was had no means of leaving and had to rely on food parcels brought by the old caretaker of the property, the uncommunicative, surly Carl.  Strange things start to happen around his new home, with doors opening of their own accord and a box of toy soldiers appearing mysteriously appearing on the porch.  But the thing that really made Jacob's skin crawl was that the fireflies seemed to be totally avoiding his land, and the beautiful, incandescent light of these little beetles stopped abruptly at his boundaries.

Jacob eventually makes it in to town after he is picked up by a good Samaritan called Sam and his dog Asa on a pick-up truck , where he finds himself going head to head with Hanratty, the officer investigating the theft of his car.  He also makes contact with other people from his past such as Mr Hilliard the pharmacist who sold the vanilla cokes he still dreamed of from his childhood, and Reverend Trotter the local preacher.

But as Jacob keeps spotting his car being driven through his property and almost dies after chasing it in the rain, he starts to wonder if Carl or someone is messing with his mind, or is there something supernatural going on.  Determined to find out more about Officer Hanratty, Jacob visits the local library to look through the newspaper archives, only to have a terrifying experience down in the basement.

Is it his parents?  Do they want him to promise to stay in the old house and lead his life as they had?  Was pretty librarian Adrienne a lure and a reward to keep him there?  And why was a sinister dog attacking the house every night, frantically trying to get in and attack him?

As the town crowds in on him, and Jacob starts to feel overwhelmed by their suspicion and disapproval, the only ray of light for him is his no-nonsense friend from the city Jenna, who comes to stay because she is so worried about him.  But after his apparently driver-less car is driven into the side of Adrienne's apartment forcing her to seek refuge with Jacob at the farmhouse, events spiral out of control and Jacob is confronted with the truth about his destiny.  Will he be able to save himself and the two women he is trying to protect in his house, and will somebody or something have to die to set him free?

Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky is a good horror story that keeps you turning the pages to find out how it will unfold.  It makes you want to know if Jacob is going out of his mind, if he is being used by human forces for their own sinister purposes or if the ghosts of his parents are controlling him and compelling him to stay.

Have a big bacon and egg fried sandwich with this one, and a coke float like the ones Jacob used to enjoy as a kid, as you try and work out why the fireflies avoid Jacob's land and what it is that they want him to do.