Review Archive for author's that start with ... H

Reviewed on this page: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon), A Spot of Bother (Mark Haddon), The Spirit Caller (Jean Hager), Mortal Allies (Brian Haig), The Apricot Colonel (Marion Halligcan), Lost Girls & Love Hotels (Catherine Hanrahan),  Farewell My Ovaries (Wendy Harmer), Love and Punishment (Wendy Harmer), Really, Really Pearlie and Pearlie and Sapphire (Wendy Harmer), When Gods Die (C S Harris),  Sleep, Pale Sister (Joanne Harris), The Ghost (Robert Harris), Letter to a Christian Nation  (Sam Harris), Afterburn (Colin Harrison), The Havana Room (Colin Harrison), The Finder (Colin Harrison),The Mask of Atreus (A J Hartley), Flesh And Blood (John Harvey), Ash And Bone (John Harvey), Cold In Hand (John Harvey), The Ghost Writer (John Harwood), Interview with John Harwood, The Seance (John Harwood), The Treatment (Mo Hayder), Tokyo (Mo Hayder), Pig Island (Mo Hayder), Ritual (Mo Hayder), Precious Blood (Jonathan Hayes), Detecting Women  (Willetta L. Heising), Pretty Boy  (Lauren Henderson), Blood Sunset (Jarad Henry), Prelude to Dune : House Corrino(Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson), The Secret of Crickley Hall (James Herbert), The Maggody Militia (Joan Hess), The Villa Of Mysteries (David Hewson), The Lizard's Bite ( David Hewson), The Seventh Sacrament (David Hewson), The Promised Land (David Hewson), Sick Puppy (Carl  Hiaasen), Skinny Dip (Carl Hiaasen), Toyboy (Holly Hill), Grievous Angel (Jane Hill),  The Murder Ballad (Jane Hill),On Beulah Height (Reginald Hill),  The Death of Dalziel (Reginald Hill), The Man in the Picture  (Susan Hill), Angels of the Flood (Joanna Hines), The Murder Bird (Joanna Hines), One Dangerous Lady (Jane Stanton Hitchcock), Lucky's Lady (Tami Hoag), The Tami Hoag Omnibus (Tami Hoag), Ashes to Ashes (Tami Hoag) , Dust to Dust (Tami Hoag), Dark Horse (Tami Hoag), Kill The Messenger (Tami Hoag), Dead Sky (Tami Hoag), The Bad Policeman (Helen Hodgman), The Quiet Girl (Peter Høeg), The River King  (Alice Hoffman),The Probable Future (Alice Hoffman),The Narcissist's Daughter (Craig Holden),A Child's Book Of True Crime(Chloe Hooper), The Restless Sleep (Stacy Horn), The Killing Joke (Anthony Horowitz), A Jarful of Angels (Babs Horton), Wildcat Moon (Babs Horton), Recipes For Cherubs(Babs Horton), Dark Hearts of Chicago (Horwood and Rappaport), Orpheus Lost (Janette Turner Hospital), The Magdalene Cipher (Jim Hougan), Frantic (Katherine Howell), The Darkest Hour (Katherine Howell), Full Speed (Evanovich & Hughes), Soapsuds (Finola Hughes and Digby Diehl), Candyland (Evan Hunter/ Ed McBain), The Abortionist's Daughter (Elisabeth Hyde),
                                           THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE
                                                  DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME
                                                        by Mark Haddon
                                                           ISBN 0099456761
                                                                 272 pages
                                                                 Definitions
                                                                 May 3 2004
                                                                     $21.95
                                                 reviewed by Denise Wels Pickles
                                                                March 26 2004
 

Author, screenwriter, artist and sometime worker with people with physical and mental disabilities, Mark Haddon has added to his impressive list of books with his first title for adults. Or is it yet another book for children? Although Haddon had intended the work for older readers it certainly has an intense appeal for children who can read it on an entirely different level from adults. Haddon has added to his BAFTA winning career by chalking up the Whitbread Book Of The Year with this immensely entertaining work.

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time is told in the first person by fifteen year-old Christopher Boone. Christopher attends a special needs school where he excels at Maths and Science. He is to be the first student from his school to sit for the exam for Maths A Level. If the reader is to label Christopher, it is safe to say the label would read 'Autistic', or perhaps 'Asperger's'. An example of the way the boy thinks is that he has numbered the chapters in order of prime numbers, not cardinal numbers; thus, we find the first chapter is actually Chapter Two.

Christopher loves Sherlock Holmes stories. He lives with his father and sometimes  leaves his house in the middle of the night to walk around  the neighbourhood. On one of these excursions he finds the corpse of the dog, Wellington. Wellington belongs to one of Christopher's neighbours. Christopher likes Wellington and is disturbed to find him dead. He is suspected of the dog's killing but decides he will emulate his hero, Sherlock Holmes, and uncover the murderer. His beset father forbids him to pursue his detecting activities but is very angry when he discovers that Christopher, without breaking his literal word, has continued his investigation and detailed the results in a book he enjoys writing. The father confiscates the book, apparently throwing it away, but Christopher discovers where his father has hidden this literary masterpiece. In the hiding place, he also finds letters that will throw unexpected light on his own life and that of his father.

Christopher's thought processes are entirely logical - hence his success with maths and science. Unfortunately, he doesn't think as other people do. It is easy to see why children love the tale as Christopher finds himself in amazing situations - not the least being when he clobbers a policeman. In pursuit of happiness, Christopher decides that the only thing he can usefully do is to travel, by himself, to London. He overcomes his fears in remarkable ways and finds the place he set out to find in a logical way which would seem, to other people, to be by a circuitous and strange path.

The book could best be described as 'poignant'. Christopher proceeds on his exceedingly rational and reasonable path, creating havoc in his wake and upsetting the lives of all around him. In so doing, the book Mark Haddon has written about Christopher's adventures provides a wonderful entertainment for both children and adults although the individual reactions are likely to be different in the extreme.
                                             A SPOT OF BOTHER
                                               by Mark Haddon
                                                      390 pages
                                               ISBN 0224080466
                                                JONATHAN CAPE
                                                October 2 2006
                                                          $45.00
                                         reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                October 30 2006
 

Mark Haddon's first novel for adults, THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME met with almost unprecedented success, garnering for the author many awards; it goes without saying, therefore, that readers will have an expectation of a high standard of writing for this, his second book to be aimed at a mature audience. This reviewer's opinion is that the targeted audience is unlikely to be disappointed.

George Hall is an aging, retired,  family man. He is predisposed to hypochondria so that when he discovers a lesion on his hip while he is trying on a suit to wear to a funeral, he is convinced he is suffering from cancer. Despite being reassured by his family GP that his problem is the far from lethal eczema, he knows his malady is nothing of the sort. He leaves home intending to spend some time with his brother and Nature  but fails to arrive, having decided to cancel his excursion (but not bothering to inform his family of his decision.) He returns home to discover his wife in flagrante with a former colleague of his. He does not confront his guilty spouse but departs and indulges in an alcoholic evening. The shock is sufficient to deal a mortal blow to his sanity.

Jean Hall, George's wife, shares some of the problems that beset George; not his hypochondria (at least that is something not attributed to her in the book) but the worry of their divorced daughter's imminent nuptials to Ray, a man whom they see as 'not one of us' despite his attributes of wealth and a big house as well as confusion about their son. Jamie Hall, their son, is gay. His parents are not comfortable with this but invite him to bring 'someone' to the wedding with him. That 'someone' is Jamie's partner Tony but Jamie is strangely reluctant to parade his partner at a function which would comprise largely disapproving guests. Tony is hurt and informs Jamie that he doesn't wish their liaison to continue.

Katie, the bride-to-be, has coffee with her former husband in an almost clandestine meeting. This results in a one-sided decision that the wedding not go ahead.

The crumbling happiness of the entire family is depicted from the various points of view of the individual players. George becomes an amateur surgeon, with near fatal results, as every member of his family seems bent on self destruction. The date of the wedding draws near but the ceremony itself is in doubt as the familial disintegration proceeds.

Despite the apparently gloomy themes of the novel, this is an extremely funny work. The characterisations, other than some peripheral people who tend to be caricatures, are extremely well done. Some middleaged readers may get a kind of 'there but for the grace of God' feeling but can scarcely be blamed for that, given the number of human problems tackled by the intrepid author.

It will be interesting to see if Haddon adds to his impressive number of awards with this novel. It will also  be interesting to see if he is able to maintain the high standard of his writing in the future.
 
 

Prolific author Marion Halligan has, with this excursion, dangled her keyboard in considerable gore as she attempts to confine herself within the rules governing the genre of suspense and crime.

Cassandra Travers is an editor on her way to visit a prospective client when she has a flat tyre. In common with so many of us women drivers, she is unable to change a wheel so is very grateful when a male pulls up and changes it for her. She is not sufficiently grateful to give him the recompense he requests, however, but manages to flee before he can force payment from her. She proceeds to the home of Colonel Marriott, a Gulf War veteran who wants her to edit his memoirs. Cassandra is somewhat put off from the job on discovering the Colonel, contrary to what he previously told  her, has no wife so she would be staying, unchaperoned, in his house while the work proceeds.

When Cassandra returns to Canberra, she learns that a woman she knew, one who was to hire her services, has been murdered and the editor feels that her actions may have been a precipitating factor in the killing. Not long thereafter, another woman, one whom Cassandra does not know, is murdered in a similar fashion to the first. Should she go to the police with her suspicions? She takes the colonel into her confidence and he follows various clues.

Along the way Halligan paints a splendid portrait of her adopted home town. She also has a few words to say on the subject of tense in writing. Her protagonist states her dislike for unbroken use of the present tense in a novel and recommends that a bit of the present tense is good. Thus, the readers of this book may become a little unsettled as the author jumps from present tense to past and back again. I was unable to decide what prompted the frequent changes but no doubt Halligan has her reasons. After all, she is an award winning writer so her work must be good.

The action in the work is not terribly fast paced until the climax is reached. It ambles along, plentifully besprinkled with reflections and opinions. For those who may be interested in Cassandra's sexual proclivities, she doesn't appear too sure of her own polarity. She does, however, admit that she takes pleasure where she can find it.

Just how self destructive can a woman get? While there may be depths Margaret and Ines have not plumbed, there can't be much beyond where they find themselves. They are Canadian women, roommates in Tokyo. Ines' residence there is not quite pukka; Margaret is, at least, legal. They both imbibe large quantities of alcohol and snort cocaine.

"How much farther to rock bottom?" Margaret asks Ines. "You think too much." is Ines' reply. It seems they have both got as far down as it is possible to go.

Ines has sex with men for money; Margaret has sex with men because she wants sex. Not being legally in Tokyo, there are not many ways Ines can sustain herself. Margaret, at least, has a job, teaching  cabin-crew  and airline-interview English. Margaret earnestly wishes that Air-Pro Stewardess Training Institute would fire her and eventually manages to sever herself from the job and its twittering trainees.

Meanwhile, Margaret has taken up with one of Ines' discards, a shaven headed, dangerous criminal by the name of Kazu. Astonishingly, she falls in love with the man, despite being warned that he has a very jealous wife.

In tandem with the present day tale, snippets of the past lives of Margaret and her brother Frank are told. In that history, Frank's descent into schizophrenia and their parents' marriage breakup are detailed. It becomes obvious why Margaret fled Canada, leaving both brother and mother behind.

The novel really is quite powerful -- especially given that it is a debut work. The inevitability of Margaret's progression into what one trusts is the nadir of her life (surely it couldn't get worse after what happens in Tokyo) is told with both brutality and tenderness. Always, in the background, there are references to a missing Western girl, a woman who is, Kazu assures the Canadian, dead. The reader almost feels that Mags will be the next victim, although the fact that this is a first person narrative makes that fate unlikely (despite other authors having managed such a feat, albeit clumsily.)

The characterisations of the two women are fully developed and completely real. The character of Kazu is, I feel, not quite so convincing. Perhaps Hanrahan is not as accomplished at depicting males as she is females or perhaps it is just that Japanese gentlemen (or gangsters) are a trifle less scrutable.

The themed love hotels, automated, complete with kitsch accessories (bondage rooms, for goodness' sake!) are an interesting addition to the mix. Mind, I am assured by a friend who resides in Tokyo that even married couples use them -- houses have paper thin walls and children have eager ears.

It seems as though this author may have interesting potential.

                                        FAREWELL MY OVARIES
                                              by Wendy Harmer
                                               ISBN 1741146658
                                                        312 pages
                                                    Allen & Unwin
                                                    March 3 2006
                                                           $21.95
                                        reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                     April 17 2006

Given that the impressively multi-talented humourist Wendy Harmer is now in her fifties it is a safe bet to assume that her own experiences have inspired her to write her first adult novel, FAREWELL  MY OVARIES. The mother of two has a list of children's books to her credit but this outing has certainly directed her beautifully honed writing talents in a different direction.

Claire Sellwyn-Wallace is mother  (well, stepmother actually -- too young to be the mother) of the bride at the wedding reception. She manages to excise herself from the conga line and, somewhat tired and emotional, looks forward to a relaxing puff on a cigarette in solitary pleasure as she speculates on the likelihood of the bride and groom having sex that evening. She is denied that solitude as she encounters Connor, a guest at a different wedding, and is swept by him into the men's toilets where he plies her with cocaine and sets about seducing her to the accompaniment of gentle bites on her most  vulnerable spot, her neck. She manages to avoid the paradox of having sex while the bride and groom probably can't, but is unable to banish the thought of the young, dangerously sexy, male who almost makes her break her wedding vows.

A visit to her gynecologist sees Claire learn that she is perimenopausal. She foresees a drab future, sexually, for herself and decides she will have a farewell party for her ovaries. Developing the notion, she ruminates on the ideal party and how it may be achieved with the most perfect night of sex -- not with husband, radio announcer Charlie,  but instead with the overpoweringly alluring Connor. She wants only the one night with him but learns that since he is about to be married, he will not trouble her with unwanted attentions beyond the single night.

This is  an irresistibly funny, sexy romp. All women of a certain age must have felt similar thoughts and impulses to the gonadically challenged chanteuse and be able to appreciate the temptations and desires confronting Claire. She has no wish to put her marriage at risk yet feels one last fling is her right. Harmer has provided Claire with a perfect foil in best friend Meg, the woman to whom she confides all, a woman who would, even if she wished, be unable to contemplate with desire the magnificent Connor since she is pregnant, yet is able to provide suitable warnings to her friend. Meanwhile, Claire daydreams as she builds suitably sensual scenarios concerning Connor while he is absent from her for a fortnight. Claire is no innocent, having slept with three quarters of her backing quartet in her single past, so has a firm foundation on which to construct her castles of the erotic, drawing on past experiences.

This is certainly not just a light, frothy not-quite-so young chickenish literate fantasy wish fulfillment . Harmer deals with several all too real problems that plague women of all ages and situations. Without a doubt it will have the reader doubled over with laughter combined with various other  pleasurable pangs.
                                    LOVE AND PUNISHMENT
                                                  by Wendy Harmer
                                                             342 pages
                                                     ALLEN & UNWIN
                                                  November 3 2006
                                                              $29.95
                                               reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                     October 31 2006

Wendy Harmer has written a new novel, an occasion for rejoicing, indeed. With her keen eye, acerbic wit and wry humour, the author cannot fail to delight her readers.

Francie McKenzie is seeing a therapist. Perhaps the therapist isn't quite the one for her since Francie realises she is smarter than Faith and in any case, Faith doesn't seem to be making her feel better about herself, but Francie is desperate. Her boyfriend, Nick, has dumped her and taken up with a woman, an accomplished actress, who is eleven years Francie's senior. Francie needs help.

Francie is a journalist writing an agony column for a Sunday paper; an ironical situation given her present condition. Nonetheless, she struggles along attempting to bring surcease to the hearts of others while enduring her own broken heart.

Gabby, the editor imported and placed in authority over her,  attempts to help Francie and she is bullied into leaving the house she called home when her boyfriend lived there with her. Her new domicile,  Elysium,  a Victorian mansion, is shared with a television comedian, Jessie, Dave, a gorgeous hunk who specialises in one night stands and Robbie, a gay musician. The four tenants have the fact that they are currently single (and seemingly doomed to remain so) in common.

Wherever Francie goes she is haunted by reminders of Nick and his new love Poppy. The journalist is driven to sharing a one night stand with Dave, who seems unwelcomingly inclined to prolong the experience.

Francie's mother was deserted by her father when she and her brother Joel were children. Now Francie seems to be doomed to living out her mother's fate. To add to her distress, she is haunted by strange dreams.

Despite being not in the slightest reluctant to share the story of Nick's shameful desertion with all and sundry, Francie is concealing a secret, one which, in the fullness of time, is told, by courtesy of Jessie and Poppy, on national television. Francie feels humiliated, especially when Poppy appears ready to vanquish all the shreds remaining to Francie of self respect, but then a strange phenomenon occurs.

Harmer has a wonderfully sharp eye and the ability to capture what she sees in devastatingly funny prose. The emotions Francie experiences have surely been felt by most women and so most women should be able to laugh at their former heartbreak when the author reflects their subtly distorted ruin in the cruelly necessary mirror of mockery.

The heartrending tale of Francie's misery, her revenge and her attempt at recovery is most entertaining and acutely if somewhat wryly entertaining. Harmer's characters are the sort of people one meets every day (if one moves in such circles) and Francie's revenge something which no doubt most jilted women would delight in perpetrating.

Chick lit? Perhaps it could be so categorised but Harmer's wit and characterisation lifts it out of that rather frothy classification.
REALLY, REALLY PEARLIE
          by Wendy Harmer
 illustrated by Mike Zarb and Gypsy Taylor
       ISBN 9781741662351
                    143 pages
RANDOM HOUSE AUSTRALIA
            October 1 2007
                    $19.95
  PEARLIE AND SAPPHIRE
           by Wendy Harmer
illustrated by Mike Zarb and Gypsy Taylor
       ISBN 97681741661378
                     50 pages
RANDOM HOUSE AUSTRALIA
        November 1 2007
                   $14.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
           February 25 2008
 

Sometimes it's good to take a break from all the malevolence of adult crime fiction and, instead, dip into a children's book or four, just for a change. It's been a while since Wendy Harmer put out a new book for adults and, as my son was born quite some time before Ms Harmer began writing her fiction for littlies, so I was unfamiliar with this aspect of her writing, I thought I might just dip into some juvenilia to try to assuage my Harmer craving.

Pearlie the Park Fairy lives in Jubilee Park. She is a good fairy, intent on doing good deeds, but sometimes things go wrong. In PEARLIE AND THE LOST HANDBAG, a kind old lady loses her handbag and Pearlie is called upon to restore it to her despite its having been appropriated by Jubilee Park's equivalent of the criminal underworld, Scrag and Mr. Flea, a pair of rats indeed.

In PEARLIE AND JASPER, Pearlie helps a lost little elf find a new home, although Scrag and Mr. Flea attempt to hoodwink him.

PEARLIE AND THE CHRISTMAS ANGEL sees Pearlie and Jasper rescuing Carols by Candlelight from possible disaster when the Christmas Angel meets with a nasty accident.

PEARLIE AND SAPPHIRE makes the point that even good fairies may have wicked cousins, when Pearlie is eagerly anticipating the Fairy Twilight Fair. Pearlie, however, is always the innocent optimist and hopes that she and Sapphire might some day be best friends.

These are wonderful books for littlies. They contain plenty of adventure and the possibility of dastardly deeds succeeding so that not even the most blasé of tinies will find the plots other than entertaining. The books themselves are bright and colourful, certain to attract and hold the attention of small children as they listen to Pearlie's adventures, and only the most sophisticated of tiny tots (corrupted, of course, by adult television) are likely to find anything to be too mild in the plots.
WHEN GODS DIE
by CÝSÝHarris
ISBN 9781741753646
ALLEN & UNWIN
379 pages
April 1 2008
$22.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 8 2008

I quite enjoy Regency novels, most especially those written by the inimitable Georgette Heyer. She, too, used to indulge in mysteries and sometimes also in straight historical books. Based on the combination of themes, I was very much looking forward to reading CÝSÝHarrisí work, even though she claims Mary Stuart, daughter of Prince James, as an ancestress.

The tale begins dramatically enough with the Prince Regent mistaking a still malleable corpse for a malleable married woman. The woman is present in his private apartment and things could have proved nasty indeed for the heir presumptive (or should that be ìheir apparentî?) to the British throne had  Sebastian St Cyr not been invited to investigate. He, oddly enough, discounts the popular theory that the lady hsd committed suicide by stabbing herself in the back. Unfortunately for Prinny, the dagger employed in the apparent slaughter came from his own collection. Distressingly for Viscount Devlin, a familiar pendant is with the corpse-- a pendant that had belonged to his own mother, but which had disappeared with her when he was a prepubescent lad. His mother was reputed to have drowned, but the pendant shows no sign of having been left underwater for decades. His interest piqued, St Cyr agrees to investigate.

The dead woman is the Countess of Anglessy. She  is pregnant, into the bargain. Since her husband is known to have been desperate for an heir in order to thwart a relative with designs on the title and accompanying estate, that worthy becomes, briefly, a suspect, as does the new heir.

It doesnít take Sebastian long to realise the dagger is not the instrument of death but that the unfortunate woman has been poisoned. It would have been advantageous to those who wish to rid England of the Hanoverian king in order to replace him with a Stuart, to frame the Prince Regent, but it is obvious that Prinny hasnít taken revenge on a noncompliant subject by murdering the lady.

The authorís Ph D is in History. A shame she hadnít studied English literature, specifically Jane Austen, as well. Austenís comedies of manners are delicious. They give the reader a view of society of the time as well as an insight into the form  of speech. If Harris (or Dr Proctor, as she is in life) found Austenís works too much like hard work (but they are a true delight!) then she might have tried indulging in Georgette Heyerís Regency novels, for that author captured the period perfectly.
 

The author makes various errors, apart from the grossest of not attempting the contemporary idiom. For example, she speaks of
a collie dog in the throes of whelping as perspiring from the shoulders. Either dog evolution has undergone a remarkably swift change or the author hasnít bothered to find out that dogs perspire from their tongue. Thatís just one of the faults.

As to the characters, I didnít find any of them springing to life from the page (though I must admit that had one done so, literally, I would probably have been the next corpse). I didnít even think Tom, the Tiger, was especially attractive and Sebastian certainly wasnít.

The solution to the mystery is quite good although rather a circuitous path is taken to try to justify it.

I wonder if Dr. Proctor could possibly be prevailed upon to familiarise herself with the idiom of the day. While her knowledge of history impresses, her lack of use of contemporary speech doesnít.
 
 
 
 

                                                         SLEEP, PALE SISTERÝ
                                                                    by Joanne Harris
                                                                  ISBN 0552771783
                                                                       388 pages
                                                                    Black Swan
                                                                September 1 2004
                                                                        $22.95
                                                        reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                                August 21 2004

What a story-teller is Joanne Harris! The famed author of CHOCOLAT resurrects (appropriately) a Gothic tale originally released in 1994. In a foreword, the author explains just why she thought to revivify the cooling body of the old manuscript, tweaking it here and there for a new audience, one accustomed to more joyous fare from this writer.

The narrative is told in a series of first person voiced chapters ranging from that of Henry Paul Chester, through his child bride, Effie Chester, Effie's seducer, Moses Harper and Fanny Miller, madam and mother of the dead Marta, the darker sister to Effie's pale spiritual sibling.

Artist Henry Chester explains how he happens upon the ten year-old Effie and becomes obsessed with her. He discards all his previous models and concentrates on the blonde waif, transforming her into all kinds of figures from a beggar maid to the sleeping beauty. Inevitably, he decides he must marry her so the teenaged model becomes his bride, much to the disapproval of her aunt, the only character in the book, apart from the housekeeper, who seems to have the girl's welfare at heart.

While in church, Effie discovers she can dissociate her mind from her body - a very useful talent. She is kept sedated on laudanum by Chester, especially after the death of their child. The drug seems to make it easier for Effie to escape the bonds of her body and in the disembodied state she hears a woman calling out the name 'Marta'.

Moses Harper, another artist, glimpses the beautiful bride of Chester, whom he despises both for his art and his character, and makes up his mind to seduce Effie. The innocent Effie, whose burgeoning passion had been stifled by Chester who saw it as something unclean, turns guilelessly to Mose and believes he loves her and will marry her when she is released from the loveless union with Chester.

Fanny Miller meets Effie when Harper takes the girl to a fair. There, disguised as a gypsy, Fanny is able to see Effie's abilities and is also able to capture once more the spirit of her dead daughter Marta - the child who had been murdered when she was ten years old. Fanny uses the Tarot and the voice of her daughter to discover the identity of the murderer and plots, together with Marta, Effie and Harper, how to avenge the killing.

Chester, despite being the apparent epitome of strict Victorian morality, has some secrets of his own. The son of a straitlaced minister and a wealthy, beautiful woman, Henry, at the age of twelve, developed a less than filial passion for his mother. He is horrified at the evil he perceives in himself and when he takes Effie under his protection he attempts to see her brought up without any stain of similar sinful passions. Imagine, then, the horror of his wedding night to discover Effie's perfectly natural carnal appetites.

The tale is redolent of the dark, from the black winter afternoons through the ebony darkness of a cemetery vault and the dark secrets of the characters. The writing is gloriously evocative and the narrative eerily goosebump raising. If the reader would like something to consume on a dark night in an empty, creaking house (perhaps while  consuming dark chocolate) this is the best choice that could be made!
                                   THE GHOST
                                      by Robert Harris
                                    ISBN 9780091796259
                                               310 pages
                                             Hutchinson
                                         October 1 2007
                                                  $32.95
                             reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                          October 29 2007
 

Apparently this novel has been seen as a roman a clef, given that the author was formerly close to an eminent politician and, certainly, there are lots of references to happenings that occurred during Blair's premiership. I felt a degree of frustration, whilst reading the book, that, despite my dual citizenship, I am not more au fait with British politics and the people who dabble in them. Regardless, the key to this particular lock does not seem to be terribly complex, certainly not on a par with, say, the key to a deadlock.

Appropriately, given the nature of his profession, the ghostwriter, who pens his work in the first person, is not given a name, being addressed only as "darling" by his girlfriend and "man" by the former Prime Minister, Adam Lang, whose memoirs he is writing.

The author is not the first choice for the work. That man, McAra, met a messy end whilst travelling on the ferry to Martha's Vineyard, where Lang is currently domiciled. McAra was a member of Lang's staff and, as such had unparalleled access to the man and any secrets. It is only  when things start threatening the ghost that he begins to suspect that his predecessor might have been murdered.

The ghost travels to Martha's Vineyard and, initially, is lodged in public accommodation but that circumstance changes not too far into the narrative.

As a thriller, the book works well. The nameless horror that stalks the ghost is beautifully evoked before being more or less identified. The ghost himself is very well drawn and I couldn't help but wonder if he, too, was a mirror for someone in Real Life.

Harris doesn't seem to like the people who run the publishing scene any more than he appreciates conniving politicians or the CIA, given the way he portrays their Important People.

The author is a columnist who has had, over the years, privileged access to politicians. It's not astonishing, then, that the novel is both well written and intelligent. The author has certainly had every opportunity to familiarise himself with the underbelly of politics.

The plot is well constructed although, to be fair, a lot of it could  be seen almost to have built itself.

Although Harris has been careful not to name the party to which Lang belongs, I would think it reasonable to assume that if ever the author becomes close to a member of a party in the future, the chosen politician won't belong to Labour.
 
 
 

                                LETTER TO A CHRISTIAN NATION
                                         A Challenge to Faith
                                                by Sam Harris
                                       ISBN 9780593058978
                                                       96 pages
                                               BANTAM PRESS
                                                        $32.95
                                              February 1 2007
                                  reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                              February 1 2007

I rarely review non-fiction. I've never before reviewed anything giving off the faintest whiff of religion and I guess what I am saying now won't really be an informed commentary. Please bear in mind that I am no theologian.

This very slim volume arrived, unannounced, on my doorstep yesterday and I was somewhat bemused to find it. I guess the mystery (I am primarily a reviewer of crime fiction, after all) is "Why me?" although I suppose religion is, of its very nature, mysterious.

I read the text with some trepidation. It is, apparently, aimed at the fundamentalists of religious America and (I hope) bears little relevance to Australia. Regardless, I was somewhat disconcerted, throughout the text, to be told "You believe.." thus and so, when clearly I don't. According to Harris one may not "cherry pick" in Christianity but either accept the Bible in its entirety or not at all. I have great difficulty with that notion!

Harris makes no bones about being an atheist so the committed Christian must be aware they will likely have their little toes mauled should they read the exercise.

Harris writes clearly but I would take issue with some of his notions. I shan't however, since this is supposed to deal with the writing rather than the theism.

If you had sufficient self control to deny yourself the pleasure of reading Colin Harrison's THE HAVANA ROOM  on its first, more expensive, release , you need delay no longer. Here, in small paperback format, is a modestly priced book worth far more than its cost in interest and suspense.

Harrison has, in previous tales, demonstrated his devotion to detail. He has certainly not deviated from that delight in this narrative. Successful lawyer, Bill Wyeth, returns home unexpectedly early in order to surprise his loving family. His son, Timothy, was having a birthday party with his friends sleeping over. Judith, Bill's wife, has methodically set out everything she needs to know about each child but the household is quiet, with all asleep, on Bill's return. All, that is, but one child, Wilson, who requests a glass of milk from Timothy's dad. Bill, his hands smeared with oil from his Thai meal, pours the glass and hands it to the child, who goes back to bed and dies.

Wilson's father is a powerful man and accomplishes Bill's downfall. Despite being a partner in a law firm, Bill is easily ejected from that comfortable berth. Judith leaves him, taking their son and Bill is left with a little money on which to exist and a lot of time in which to explore Manhattan.

People tend to take up habits - a special route to work, set nights for getting together with friends and so on. Bill discovers a steak house and returns there day after day, invariably sitting at the same table each visit. He becomes interested in the restaurant's manager, Allison Sparks. Allison strikes up a friendship with the man. He learns of her serial boyfriends who usually last for only one night. He also learns of the underground bar, the Havana Room, within the steak house and determines that at some time he should be invited into it and discover just what arcane practices are manifest there.

When Bill's opportunity arrives, it involves his temporarily resuming his profession of lawyer in order to oblige one of Allison's boyfriends, the reclusive and secretive  Jay Rainey. Bill is reluctant but accedes to Allison's wishes and her promise that he will soon be initiated into the secrets of the Havana Room. The lawyer's association with Rainey precipitates both of them into a strange and horrifying chain of adventures.

Harrison lives in Manhattan. It is obvious that he loves the area. He draws wonderful word pictures of the place and makes the reader feel a strange familiarity with the location. The author's attention to detail, both in his characterisation of family life, his city and his protagonist is marvelously rewarding. Mind, his detail of injuries inflicted and torture performed could perhaps be a little less loving but I have to admit that Harrison does not dwell on these less savoury particulars quite so much as in some of his earlier works. The book is wonderfully engaging: it would be a strangely callous reader who is immune to the sufferings of the characters in the story-line. While the narrative seems to amble it is, nonetheless, gripping and contains convincing action. It has left this reviewer, for one, very anxious to read Colin Harrison's forthcoming works.
THE FINDER
by Colin Harrison
ISBN 9780747595434
325 pages
BLOOMSBURY
June 6 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
June 3 2008

I have, in previous reviews of Colin Harrisonís books, remarked upon his attention to detail. I must say I was very pleased, when reading this opus, that he did not give a breath by breath description of the fate of two Mexican girls. I am not quite sure if they are drowned or suffocated -- or perhaps it is a combination of the two. The top of the vehicle in which they are travelling is broken into and a pipe is introduced into the breathing space. A further introduction comes gurgling into the vehicle and one trusts the demise of the two girls is swift, as the agent of death is human excrement. Appropriately enough, the girlsí boss, Jin Li, is saved from the same fate as suffered by the Mexicans because she has left the car and is obeying a call of nature.

Jin Li is the local boss of a company that shreds sensitive documents. Of course, the companies that employ her company would be less than pleased if they realised that the documents are inspected prior to their supposed destruction and that an unspecified number are saved.

Tom Reilly is Senior Executive Vice-President of Good Pharma, a drug company. His duties include impressing possible investors and relieving them of as much money as possible by any means possible. This includes taking them to baseball games where they are placed in the best possible seats. Unfortunately for him, something occurs at a game that wrecks his own game of persuading people to part with their money to invest in his company.

Ray Grant is a former New York fireman. His peace of mind was, like so many others, ruined  when the Twin Towers came down. He has since indulged in adventurous activities but his fatherís soon-to-be fatal illness calls him back to New York. As he is taking care of his fatherís interests, he mixes business with a trifle of pleasure and whilst he is about this, he is kidnapped by some large, intimidating Chinese men, who take him to meet Chen, the brother of Rayís former girlfriend, who happens to be Jin Li. He is instructed to find the woman, and both his safety and that of his dying father hang in the balance.

Harrison writes a mean action thriller. His attention to detail always imbues his work with a tremendous sense of reality (which is the reason for my rejoicing at his not having subjected the reader to too  detailed a description of the death of the Mexican women.)

The characterisation is splendid in this work. Not only do the main people spring to seemingly effortless life, but so do the ancillary characters-- such as a particularly nasty Russian bloke who attempts to persuade a fugitive Jin Li of the delights possible congress with him would hold.

I doubt that the author will resurrect these particular characters in future works, which is a shame as I was rather taken with Grant. Not to worry. Harrison always seems to invent interesting and plausible people.

                                           THE MASK OF ATREUS
                                                       by A J Hartley
                                                   ISBN 1863255222
                                                            387 pages
                                                            BANTAM
                                                           May 1 2006
                                                                 $19.95
                                             reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                            April 19 2006

British born academic A J Hartley has combined scholarship with fiction in order to produce his debut novel, a tale with danger lurking at almost every z-bend for protagonist Deborah Miller, curator of a small Atlanta, Georgia museum. Hartley developed an interest in archaeology when a child and now puts his writing skills to use to bring to life archaeological treasures and theories for the interested reader.

Deborah is overseeing a gathering which she and her mentor, founder, chief collector and benefactor of the museum where she works, Richard Dixon, hope will see much needed funds pumped into the museum's coffers. She goes home, weary, but returns to  the museum after receiving a phone call urging her to prevent the removal of 'the body.' Once there, she is horrified to discover the corpse of her employer as well as a hidden compartment in which reposes a cache of apparently Mycenaean art treasures which could date back to the Bronze Age.

A pair of rather unpleasant law enforcement officers, the bona fides of one of whom seem to Deborah to be dubious, are in charge of the case. They tell her about the murder of a homeless Russian man she had seen near the museum but insist there is no connection with Richard's killing.

Deborah decides to investigate both the murder and the magnificent hidden collection -- where  could Richard have acquired it and importantly, who has removed what must have been the central object of the collection and why? In order to discover these things, she goes to Greece, thereby fleeing danger that threatens her in the US.

In Greece, she discovers she is in no less danger than she was in Georgia. She forms several alliances, some less likely than others but returns to the US with the case still unsolved. Then she finds she must pursue her investigations to Russia.

The main attraction of this novel is the wealth of archaeological knowledge the author imparts. He provides vivid descriptions of Greece where Heinrich Schliemann, the perhaps less than totally honest archaeologist, plied his trade. Hartley has not stinted on his research and credits his sources in an afterword in which he adjures his readers to seek further illumination.

The tale itself is, perhaps, a little flimsy. It is very much action driven with not much spared on characterisation. Deborah herself is far from convincing and although she is portrayed as a social misfit could have had more insight given into her past life and motivations. Similarly, the other main female character, the maid Tonya, might have benefited from a bit more back story.

The twists in the story are quite interesting but are conceivably a little too far fetched for a credible plot. For all that, the book is well worth reading and one trusts Hartley will not stop at one novel.

                     FLESH AND BLOOD
                               by John Harvey
                              ISBN 0099466228
                                    453 pages
                                 Arrow Books
                             February 1 2005
                                      $21.95
                      reviewed by Denise Pickles
                           February 28 2005

Teacher, editor, poet, John Harvey is now best known for his crime fiction. His writing has received many nominations and several awards. Radio and television scripts have proven well within the capabilities of this talented writer. Charlie Resnick  may be the better known of Harvey's two series protagonists but it would not take much crystal gazing to predict that retired Detective Inspector Frank Elder may soon, if not overtake, then equal Resnick in popularity.

The book opens with Elder dreaming. The unsettling nightmare features savage cats and an equally savage enlivened corpse of a girl. When Elder's daughter, Katherine, comes to stay the dreams do not abate and she is worried about his state of mind. Her parents had separated several years previously as a result of Joanne's infidelity with the man with whom she is now living. Elder is haunted both by the ghosts of his marriage and of past cases that have gone unsolved.

Susan Blacklock disappeared, presumed murdered, fourteen years previously, during the same period that Shane Donald and his mentor Alan McKeirnan were plying a murderous trade. At the time it was assumed that McKeirnan and Donald were responsible for Blacklock's disappearance but nothing was ever proved. For years now, Helen, Susan's mother, has mourned her daughter but not really come to terms with the disappearance. When Elder visits Helen, she is pleased that he is attempting to fulfil his earlier promise to find her daughter and the two embark upon a warmer relationship.

Shane Donald is out on parole. Harvey paints a not unsympathetic picture of the man. Donald had suffered greatly at the hands of his older brothers. Withdrawn and lonely, it was understandable that he fall under McKeirnan's influence and go along with what his friend considered normal behaviour. Now, however, he is without a role model and must learn to obey the dictates of society. Instead, a reprise of earlier torments forces him to violate his licence and abscond. Then another girl is kidnapped and murdered and media and police attention is focused on the  fugitive.

Readers who are offended by accounts of brutal torture visited upon young girls should be warned that they must be prepared to skim parts of this book. It would be a pity to deny a reader pleasure simply because of the gory bits. The character studies of the major participants in the drama are well done. At times, almost more of the reader's sympathy could be lavished on the miscreant than on his victim. Indeed, the lonely former policeman may sometimes glean less understanding than the murderer he pursues.

Quite apart from the stark realities of human (and inhuman) nature portrayed here, the locations of the action are well drawn. For example, the beauty of Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby are well depicted and aspects that may have slipped from a visitor's memory be brought back to life.

This novel provides an engrossing read for even the jaded palate of a blasé reader.
                              ASH AND BONE
                                by John Harvey
                            ISBN 0434012246
                                   375 pages
                WILLIAM HEINEMANN: LONDON
                                April 15 2005
                                     $37.95
                  reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                April 1 2005

Readers who enjoyed FLESH AND BLOOD, the 2004 CWA Silver Dagger Award winner, which featured retired policeman Frank Elder, will not be disappointed if they invest the modest asking price for ASH AND BONE, the next adventure for the former Detective Inspector.

Detective Sergeant Maddy Birch, attached to Serious and Organised Crime, is in at the kill, quite literally, when a large team takes out an important criminal. The police team is armed - as is the crook - and a young constable, newly arrived in London, is shot and killed, as is the subject of the operation.

Maddy is interrogated in a subsequent enquiry. She is also told there is a likelihood she may be reinterviewed by the investigative team. Superintendent Mallory, he who shot the fatal bullet, is intent on being sure that Maddy saw a completely correct operation, despite the fatalities.

Frank Elder hears distressing news of the death of a former colleague. Reluctantly he is drawn into the investigation but he has issues in his family life. His daughter Katherine, a kidnap and rape victim a year previously, is now seventeen and running wild. Elder's ex-wife begs his help for a problem that is even more difficult for him to resolve than the official murder investigation.

Harvey always seeks to inject a degree of realism into his work. It is unfortunate that his plots mirror real life to the extent that the corruption in the one is also present in the other. He depicts racism, sexism, ageism and whatever other 'isms' take his fancy - or earn his censure. He weaves an excellent plot based on the two prongs of the investigative dilemma in which he finds himself. The family problems are dealt with sensitively while the hard work of detection is led down various paths - not excluding some false roads. Those fans of Charlie Resnick will no doubt be pleased to see him make rather longer appearances in this narrative than in FLESH AND BLOOD.

Crime, of course, will never end so no doubt there are more baffling adventures in store for both Frank and Charlie in times to come. Katherine and her mother will probably both continue to strew difficulties in Elder's way, to the entertainment of the crime fiction audience. So long as Harvey never loses the deft touch he has already displayed, we are in for a sanguine future.
COLD IN HAND
by John Harvey
ISBN 9780434016952
     405 page
WILLIAM HEINEMANN: LONDON
April 1 2008
   $32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
February 11 2008

DI Lynn Kellogg stops off at an incident, on her way home. A group of about fifteen youths is fighting. Lynn seeks to intervene between two female combatants and grabs one of them. She turns briefly, wrenching the girl she is holding around with her, but at that moment, someone fires a gun, killing the girl she is holding and injuring Lynn. Fortunately, Lynn is wearing  a bullet-proof  vest or she, too, might have been killed, but the perception of the dead girl's parents-as well as some of the friends -- is that Lynn used  Kelly Brent as a shield in order to save her own life.

Lynn recovers and goes back to work. Charlie Resnick, with whom Lynn lives, finds himself the Number Two in the investigation of Kelly Brent's murder. Meanwhile, Lynn receives a large bunch of roses from a SOCA officer named Stuart Daines, a slimy, self confident man who thinks he can interest her in his smarmy self.

The investigation leads on to an inquiry into the importation of illegal guns. There are several more deaths - including that of a police officer.

Detective Chief Inspector Karen Shields, together with the officer assisting her, Mike Ramsden, are called onto the case, which has expanded to include Eastern European women who have been imported into England for the purposes of prostitution.

This is a beautifully constructed novel but it is terribly pessimistic, for all (most of) the baddies get caught. It presents a reflection of an England (or Nottingham, at least) with which the reader would rather not become too familiar. The face of gang youth, whatever the colour, is not a pretty one and Harvey has quite a lot to say about the crime ridden streets that make ordinary citizens afraid to walk down them as gang violence takes its toll.

The characters are very well drawn. Charlie Resnick, approaching retirement age, is a man determined to track down those responsible for crimes he finds almost unbelievable. Always the thought of his own career coming to an end hangs over him and not even his jazz records and the voice of Bessie Smith can ease his mind for long.

I like the way Harvey's people are just so human. Lynn Kellogg, called upon to exercise her skills as a hostage negotiator is no superwoman, confident in her own abilities to sort out every situation with which she is confronted but is, instead, uncertain in her own mind. Charlie himself is very human, troubled by the thought of retirement and deeply moved by death.

Be warned, the reader will be confronted with shocks in this work.
 
 
 

                                                                    THE GHOST WRITER
                                                                                 by John Harwood
                                                                                ISBN 0224071130
                                                                                  Jonathan Cape
                                                                                       London
                                                                                    374 pages
                                                                                  March 1 2004
                                                                                       $32.95
                                                                       reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                                              February 18 2004

Reputedly a brilliant lecturer (this from a former student, and aren't students the harshest of an academic's critics?) John Harwood is no stranger to writing. Despite having produced biography, poetry and short  (hitherto unpublished) stories, Harwood's The Ghost Writer  is  his first sally into longer fiction. Now domiciled in South Australia, the Tasmanian born, Cambridge educated, author spends large chunks of time in Britain and uses his knowledge of both locales to good advantage in this impressive debut novel.

Pre-teen Gerard Freeman, an only child, lives an isolated sort of life in the fictional South Australian town of Mawson. His English mother tells him tales of her childhood in England where she lived in the wonderful mansion called Staplefield with her grandmother Viola. Gerard lives for these stories until the day he is caught by his mother rummaging through a  drawer which she keep locked. Gerard finds a manuscript as well as a photograph of an astonishingly beautiful woman in the dress of a former time. Not only is Gerard, who is usually the most cossetted of children, beaten for this offence, the tales of Staplefield, of which he could never hear enough, cease.

Some time after this, when Gerard is thirteen and a half, he begins a pen-friendship with an English girl named Alice Jessel. Despite Phyllis Freeman's wishes to the contrary, Gerard corresponds constantly with his 'invisible friend'. A withdrawn child, Gerard finds himself even more alienated from his contemporaries and his mother whom he gladly relinquishes in favour of his paraplegic penfriend. As he grows up, Gerard decides he must travel to England to meet Alice, although she demurs at this, saying she does not wish him to see her as a cripple but she tells him that if ever she regains the power to walk, she wishes him to come to her.

Lovelorn, Gerard disregards Alice's wishes  and saves his money in order to travel to London. He is unable to meet Alice who does not answer his letters or e-mails but Gerard  finds further stories of his great grandmother, Viola Hatherley, in the British Library.

Disappointed and ill, Gerard returns to Australia but is still determined to find the location of Staplefield and solve the mystery of his mother's family. With Alice's help, he is able to cast more light on his mysterious family and the woman who wrote ghost stories which, alarmingly, have parallels in the history of his relatives .

After the death of his mother, Gerard travels once more to London. This time he locates the woman to whom the house he thought of as Staplefield has been left. She requests his help in locating Anne Hatherley, the older and unacknowledged sister of his mother Phyllis.ÝGerard agrees to help and is given the keys to the old house where he attempts to solve the enigma of his antecedents. He is shocked, at the same time, to discover that his love, Alice Jessel, may not be as she has portrayed herself.

The style of writing of this book can only be described as beautiful. John Harwood acknowledges his debt to Victorian literature, a form which has more depth and beauty than that of today's authors. While his protagonist is, ostensibly, Gerard Freeman, Viola Hatherley and her writing provide the true foundation for the book. The work of Victorian painters is also acknowledged in Mr. Harwood's tale although he admits most of the paintings he mentions are as fictional as the story. The conundrum is intricate and the story at times nicely calculated to send shivers of terror rippling down one's spine  The character of Gerard is completely convincing . The stories within the novel are very involving and, well, haunting.

American readers, do not despair. Although The Ghost Writer  is so far only released in the UK and Australia , it will be published in the U.S. in July. The author also disclosed that his next novel The Seance, should be completed by the end of 2004. While it is not a direct sequel to The Ghost Writer, it is recognisably of the same ilk and, set in Victorian times, employs the same idiom and wonderful language.
                        John Harwood interviewed by Denise Pickles

ìMy mother was Gwen Harwood who was one of Australiaís most well known poets. I was a poet for many years. Iíve been writing for a long time.î

Tasmanian-born John Harwood tells me in answer to my question as to the inspiration for  his obvious love of language.

Harwoodís debut novel, The Ghost Writer, published by Jonathan Cape, London,  has just been released by Random House. It is the story of a man who has been caught up in the mystery of what happened to his motherís family. Harwoodís protagonist, Gerard Freeman, devotes his life from when he was a small child, to discovering why his mother ceased talking about her early life in England. When he is thirteen Gerard acquires an English girl penfriend of his own age. As time passes, Gerard falls in love with Alice, his paraplegic friend and the two attempt to trace Gerardís antecedents.

An integral part of the novel is the hidden treasure of short stories written by his great-grandmother, Viola Hatherley that Gerard discovers throughout the narrative,.

ìI wrote a biography of a woman, a novelist, called Olivia Shakespeare, who wrote six novels but is remembered for her love affair with the poet W.B. Yeats. ì says John Harwood ìThen about six years ago an old friend of mine and I were in the British Library and we had this idea for doing an anthology of great undiscovered  ghost stories and we spent a lot of time trawling through the works of many nineteenth century  authors. We came to the conclusion that there were  no great undiscovered ghost stories.I said, facetiously ëWhy donít we invent an author.  Weíll write some stories ourselves in the voice of the period and maybe get a bit of paper and leave  it out in the sun and pour tea on it and introduce another author into the cadre.í We didnít do this, of course, but the idea must have been in the back of my mind because a year or so later I was writing a novel and the idea came into my mind of writing another novel based on the life of Olivia Shakespeare. I thought ëWhy not make her a writer of ghost stories?í and at that point a new character, Viola Hatherley appeared and Olivia Shakespeare disappeared. I found the freedom, writing in that late Victorian idiomî he goes on ì that I had not found inside myself as myselfî.

John tells me that he wrote the Victorian stories first, then he became Violaís great-grandson, Gerard Freeman and  began to write in that characterís voice. The author then built the novel, The Ghost Writer , around the skeleton of the Hatherley tales.

ìI love the voices of Conan Doyle, M R James, Henry James etc. so itís natural for me to slip into those idioms and rhythms. I read a lot of nineteenth century letters in my biographical work. They have a much richer language for the subtleties of emotion and feeling.î

Harwood is thoughtful when I ask how he would categorise his novel

ìI donít think it fits entirely comfortably into any one of the boxes. It is a suspense novel, it is a mystery, but it is also a literary novel, as people say, a general fiction. ì He assents when I suggest it contains a touch of horror but hastens to add it is not in the horror genre.

The story is written in the first person and John agrees when I enquire if this is done to increase the tension since there is no omniscient third person narrator aware of exactly what is happening.

A story of Violaís (notice that her name is almost a perfect anagram of Olivia, Harwoodís biographical subject) The Revenant  becomes  a template for the ëreal lifeí characters of Gerard Freemanís family. As Gerard reads the tale both he and his elusive ëinvisible loverí Alice, feel they are near to solving the enigma of the Hatherley women.

I am anxious to locate an anthology of Harwoodís short stories but

ìI wrote a few short stories but this is my first published work of fiction. I have other unpublished novels in various states and Iím working seriously on another book recognisably from the same stable: The Seance, set in the late nineteenth century.î

Harwood answers a question about the genesis of the book and its intriguing themes, one of which is intense sibling rivalry.

ìThere is nothing autobiographical about Gerard. He is entirely invented. Sibling rivalry is one of the staples of fiction and is one of the staples of Victorian fiction. This book has its roots in Victorian Gothic. ì

The novel is set in an entirely fictitious South Australian town, Mawson.

ìI created Mawson in order to be free of the restrictions inherent in using an existing town. I wanted to emphasise the isolation and claustrophobic nature of Gerardís upbringing.î
 

The other locale for the story is London and Harwood adds
ìLondon is very different. London exists inside the world of fiction and I wanted to move from there, a very carefully evoked London containing bits of both Victorian and present day London. So thatís why London is so much more vivid than Mawson.î

Alice Jessel, the penfriend, does not send the boy photographs of herself, so Gerard peruses paintings in an effort to find something close to Aliceís description of herself. Says Harwood

ìVictorian painting plays quite a large part in the book  and I spent a lot of time with big Christopher Wood anthologies looking at pictures. Most of the pictures in my book are invented but there are real ones scattered or concealed among the inventions.î

This author is obviously a perfectionist

ì I took three years to write the book  Three years full time. starting at 8 in the morning and finishing at 5.î and ìThatís one of the advantages I have, starting as a novelist later in life,  that Iíve got a lot of writing experience in other forms.There are things that young writers can do that I canít do or wouldn't try to do but I can do voices and I can do different voices and different times and inhabit them. I love doing it.î

The love this novice yet experienced writer has is very evident in his debut fiction. I ask about possible forthcoming works.

 ìI have not yet finished my next novel, The Seance. I would love to have it finished by the end of this year in which case it will be released possibly late next year or early the year after but you can never tell with books. They take however long they take. Iím interested in getting them right and Iím anxious about mistakes.î He adds ìThereís a whole novella by Viola that never made its way into the finished book, a 40,000 word story There are other Viola stories that wouldnít fit into the finished thing quite apart from what Iím doing now.î

Perhaps readers who, like me, are enchanted by this wonderfully written book will eventually be able to read an anthology of short stories by Viola Hatherley. In the meantime, eager readers may await with some certainty the release of The Seance.
THE SEANCE
by John Harwood
ISBN 9780224081870
294 pages
JONATHAN CAPE
April 1 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
March 28 2008
 

That charming man and talented author, John Harwood, has returned to our bookshelves four years after the appearance of his first novel,  THE GHOST WRITER. While it is a long time between drinks, so to speak. I would suggest Mr Harwood has been devoting his time to achieving the certain perfection to detail which characterises his work.

Before the main text begins, Harwood has included an extract from REVELATIONS OF A SPIRIT MEDIUM, in which he details certain methods used by the spiritualist charlatans of the day, in order to convince their victims of their authenticity. Very useful for the reader unaccustomed to reading about such frauds!

Constance Langtonís narrative, set in 1889, details the effect on the household where she lives, of the death of her baby sister, Alma. Unforgivably,  Constanceís mother sinks into a deep depression and refuses to come out of it to try to bring Constance up in a manner to which she is entitled. Constance, in an effort to make her mother happy, accompanies that woman to seances. Unfortunately, these visits do not promote any feeling of cheer in the older woman. Even the unveiling of a charlatan by the Society for Psychical Research does nothing to deter Constanceís zeal to bring comfort to her mother.
 

Constance learns she is the heir to Wraxford Hall, but at the same time, receives a packet of papers from John Montague, yet another stranger.

Montagueís narrative begins in 1870 and details his knowledge of the events at Wraxford Hall. Thus, the reader is introduced to Magnus Wraxford, the then owner of Wraxford Hall, and is told the tragic story of what happened to Constanceís predecessors in that decayed mansion.

Eleanor (Nell) Unwin  is likewise introduced to the reader. She, unfortunately, is beset by ìvisitationsî from people who have died. She, therefore,becomes cursed with the reputation of being a reluctant medium. The story of the purported haunting of Wraxford Hall enchants her and she requests that she be taken to see the pile.

The author constructs a wonderfully engaging plot, with a dastardly villain and heartbroken heroine. His ability to evoke creepy atmosphere is astonishing while his attention to detail, as previously mentioned, is wonderful. His ancillary characters, too, are nicely developed -- although I wish he had given us a bit more of a glimpse of the Society for Psychical Research people.

I would like to say something about the authorís resolution of the mystery, but unfortunately, canít very well include any ìspoilersî in my review. Suffice it that an eerie atmosphere is not the only kind well supplied by Mr Harwood.

I canít help but wonder if the author has any other work in mind to delight us at some later stage. If so, I am torn between wanting it NOW not later, NOW, and realising that the perfection of the text relies on the time taken to produce the work.
 
 
 

                                                               THE TREATMENT
                                                                             by Mo Hayder
                                                                              Bantam Press
                                                                       ISBN 0-593-04773-7
                                                                                $29.95
                                                                            June 1 2001
                                                                     reviewed by Denise Wels

                Mo Hayder, incredible though it may seem from the high quality of her prose, left school at the age of fifteen. She rebelled against her academic family, leaving home at sixteen. It was not until she was twenty-five that she put herself through the remainder of high school then went on to gain an M.A. Her widely varying jobs included employment  as a barmaid, as a security guard and also as a film maker. She even taught English as a second language. She worked for a time in Japan . Unlike most of us, she came in contact with the victims of two murders which turned her thoughts to wondering why people would perpetrate such crimes. When Hayder's first novel, Birdman, was released it became an immediate bestseller, finding success in several countries, especially in Germany.

              The main protagonist of the first novel, Jack Caffery of AMIP (the Met's murder squad) reappears in The Treatment. His obsession with the disappearance of his brother, Ewan, when the two were children continues, to the dismay of his girlfriend Rebecca. In this narrative, the reader discovers just what happened to Ewan Caffery.

                Mo Hayder researched her books meticulously. It makes this reviewer, at least, very uncomfortable to think that the sort of crimes portrayed in Hayder's books actually take place. The theme of The Treatment is paedophillia.... and just what happens to those victims who do survive to grow up.

              The book begins in Brockwell Park, South London, where Carmel and Alek Peach have been kept prisoner in their house, together with their son Rory. The parents are rescued, but their nine year-old son has disappeared. Jack Caffery feels the resonance with his own childhood when his brother Ewan was kidnapped and knows he really should not be investigating the case but feels (erroneously) that his colleagues do not know of his personal history so does not ask to be removed from the investigation.

              Caffery has been maintaining an enmity with his neighbour, Penderecki,  whom he is convinced was responsible for the disappearance of Ewan. Caffery also feels that Penderecki knows something about the kidnapping of Rory Peach. Rory is eventually discovered and the forensic evidence points to a man, known to the child, as the incredible perpetrator.

             The children of Brixton know the villain is a creature that has achieved mythical status in the neighbourhood : the troll.

              Rebecca, Caffery's girlfriend, who was a victim of the Birdman of the previous investigation although she survived his attentions, is increasingly resentful of the detective's fixation on his brother's disappearance. Caffery finds his relationship with Rebecca is deteriorating along with his investigation, especially when he encounters people involved in child pornography.

               This is an extremely unsettling novel. It explores the most dreadful fears and horrors of parenthood as well as examining the probable feelings of people taken prisoner and exposed to extreme abuse. To increase the  horror is the knowledge that the author has researched her facts so well and has based some of her characters on people she has met. Hayder has been quoted as saying her next novel may be set in Japan and will not feature Jack Caffery.
 

                                                                     TOKYO
                                                                         by Mo Hayder
                                                                      ISBN 0593049705
                                                                            363 pages
                                                                         Bantam Press
                                                                          May 3 2004
                                                                             $32.95
                                                              reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                                         April 19 2004
 

The author of Birdman  and The Treatment has produced yet another gruesome masterpiece in Tokyo. Although admitting to coming from an academic family, Hayder left  school at the age of fifteen. Unlikely though it may have seemed at the time, this amazing author now teaches creative writing, having earned her M.A. in the meantime. Mo Hayder uses her knowledge of the Tokyo bar scene in her latest opus - she worked as a bar girl during her non-academic years - so one can only assume that what she portrays in this book carries th