Review Archive for author's that start with ... N
Review Archive for author's that start with ... N
Arabesk (Barbara Nadel), Disturbed Earth (Reggie Nadelson), Red Hook (Reggie Nadelson), Fresh Kills (Reggie Nadelson), When She WasBad (Jonathan Nasaw),The Redbreast (Jo Nesbo), The Return (Håkan Nesser), The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffennegger),Twisted Minds (Hilary Norman),:Pacific (Judy Nunn), A Beautiful Place to Die (Malla Nunn),
ARABESK
by Barbara Nadel
Headline
ISBN 0-7472-6219-5
$17.95
October 11 2001
reviewed by Denise Wels
Arabesk is Barbara Nadel's third novel, following her 1999 success with Belshazzar's Daughter, the first of the Inspector Cetin Ikmen (my keyboard flatly refuses to attempt the correct accents for the names of Nadel's protagonists) series. Her second novel A Chemical Prison, another in the series, furthered her reputation and there is no reason to suppose Arabesk will do other than enhance her standing in the crime fiction community.
Nadel, who was trained as an actress, is a Psychology graduate and has worked in that area which no doubt accounts for her convincing portrayal of the psychological intricacies of the characters in her latest novel. The psychiatrist , Dr. Zelfa Halman, sometime lover of Inspector Mehmet Suleyman, no doubt owes her credibility to Nadel's professional life. The author's personal life has been taking her to Turkey, where she has relatives, for over twenty years. Her fascination with the country has provided her with plenty of background detail for her complex novels.
In this episode in the life of Cetin Ikmen, the Inspector is suffering from multiple duodenal ulcers and has been forced to take sick leave (presumably Istanbul medics have not progressed to using the modern treatments employed to combat helicobacter pylori). When the wife, whose existence has been kept secret from his many teenage fans, of heartthrob Arabesk singer, Erol Urfa, is found murdered, Ikmen's protégé, newly promoted Inspector Suleyman is in charge of the investigation. Ikmen is forced to watch the progress from the sidelines despite playing a pivotal role in the unmaskng of the killer.
Not only has his wife been murdered but Erol's baby daughter has been kidnapped. Suspicion falls on a Down's Syndrome sufferer, Cengis Temiz, who has an indecency conviction from decades previously on his record. Despite this, Erol Urfa's lover, Tansu Hanim, 'Turkey's Sweetheart', another Arabesk star, is viewed as a possible suspect since she was wildly jealous of the wife of her much, much younger paramour.
Nadel has been described as 'the Donna Leon of Istanbul'. I would not go so far as to say that. although there is a certain surface similarity between the works of the two writers. Neither Suleyman nor Ikmen is as charming and likable as Guido Brunetti. They are both, however, comparatively enlightened as they seek to introduce a more humane note to the brutal Istanbul police mentality which considers it normal practice to beat a confession from a suspect.
The author's
characterisation is excellent, her language is evocative (I was gasping
for breath in the face of her characters' smoking habits!) Her depiction
of the races, religions and classes to be found in Istanbul is fascinating,
as is her portrait of the geographical areas of the city. The reader may
have initial problems with remembering just who is who in the story simply
because of the foreignness of the names but this difficulty soon resolves.
The plot is good and maintains a steady pace. The reader will be left anxious
to read more of the work of this promising writer.
DISTURBED EARTH
by Reggie Nadelson
ISBN 0434011916
341 pages
William Heinemann
London
July 1 2004
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
June 28 2004
Despite being a native New Yorker and a woman, Reggie Nadelson writes in the first person as a male Russian immigrant to New York. She admits to having begun Artie Cohen's career by accident - she originally planned her protagonist to be Artie's now former lover, Lily Hanes, but changed her mind to give Artie top billing. Just how successful the author has been it is up to the individual reader to decide but to my mind she has made a very good fist of it.
Artie, after a stint as a private detective, is back with the police department. His immediate superior is Sonny Lippert whom Artie doesn't altogether trust. Lippert sends Cohen to investigate blood stained clothing that has been found by a young Russian girl as she was traversing her normal jogging route. Artie feels the young girl, Ivana Galitzine, is not being completely honest with him yet fails to uncover her secrets until the closing chapters of the narrative.
The story takes place after the terrible events of September the Eleventh and New Yorkers are increasingly paranoid and more than a little psychologically disturbed by events of which they are reminded daily by the hole in the ground where the twin towers stood. Artie is entitled to a double dose of paranoia since he has the innate fears instilled in him by his Russian heritage, despite his earnest desire to shuck all such baggage from his psyche. Nonetheless, he feels that the bloodstained clothing reported by Ivana has to belong to his godson, Billy Farone.
There seems to be an epidemic of child snatching and child murder rampant in New York. A young girl, May Luca, has disappeared and Billy Farone has also. Another young girl is missing from the Tribeca area. Artie's current love interest, Maxine, is almost as paranoid as Artie himself as she attempts to protect her own two daughters from the nebulous kidnappers.
Artie is seemingly bound to the investigation through ties more intimate than his simple knowledge of the Russian language and orders from his police superiors. His relatives and friends are on the wrong side of the investigation yet he feels that no one is being completely honest with him. He learns to distrust those people to whom he is closest. All the time he feels the absence of his former lover, Lily.
The tale is claustrophobic with its insistence on examining and doubting all Artie's relationships and friendships. The close-knit yet self doubting Russian community at once attracts and repels both Artie and the reader. Artie spends a good deal of the time physically ill, a condition that does not aid his investigations. The denouement of the piece is both unexpected and shocking.
The concept for this narrative is a good one yet the action of the tale seems to me to have been slower than would have been more effective. Somehow the thought of moving through molasses sprang to my mind. Perhaps I am being unfair in thinking there is too much concentration on Artie's past and his feeling of 'foreignness' as well as the establishing of a general air of paranoia.
Nadelson has left a hook for another Artie Cohen novel for those who
may be brave enough to dare a subsequent read.
RED HOOK
by Reggie Nadelson
ISBN 0434011924
330 pages
William Heinemann: London
May 2 2005
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
May 2 2005
Artie Cohen, Reggie Nadelson's series character, is once more trotted out for a soul-searching adventure in this episode of the drama, set in New York amongst the Russian community. Nadelson, a native New Yorker, spent time in the former Soviet Union so feels an understanding of the Russian soul and just what makes her characters tick. Once a journalist, she seeks to do research sufficient to base Cohen's perils in a realistic setting.
The narrative opens on Artie Cohen's wedding day. He is not marrying long time love, Lily Hanes (a fact which puzzles a portion of the guest list for the celebration) but to friend Maxine Crabbe.
Sid McKay, a black journalist, has been attempting to contact Artie. He insists Artie goes to Red Hook, a place where Sid has a pied a terre. When Artie arrives, it is to the news that Sid has found the corpse of a black man who has been 'stalking' him. But who is the murderer? Why does Artie feel that Sid knows more than he discloses?
The reader is reintroduced to people from earlier novels; Tolya Sverdloff, for example, who had been so grievously wounded in Nadelson's previous book DISTURBED EARTH, and Artie's half sister Genia and her family.
This novel displays Artie's lack of faith in his fellows despite his previous knowledge of their reliability and friendship. His own shifting emotions - will he be faithful to Maxie or revert to his love for Lily? - form a pivot for the tale.
Nadelson assumes that the reader is familiar with Artie's previous adventures
- either that or she wishes to dissuade her audience from reading those
books as she gives away a solution to one of the mysteries of DISTURBED
EARTH. Why bother reading the book if one understands a large part
of what happened in it prior to reading the novel? The plot is convoluted
and, to my mind at least, the characters other than Artie, in this outing,
are less than convincing. On the other hand, New York itself is brought
to vivid life at her hands.
FRESH KILLS
by Reggie Nadelson
343 pages
ISBN 0434011932
WILLIAM HEINEMANN: LONDON
July 3 2006
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
July 17 2006
FRESH KILLS is the seventh outing for journalist Reggie Nadelson's protagonist, Russian American Artie Cohen. This is the third of Nadelson's books that I have read, DISTURBED EARTH and RED HOOK being the two previous, and, to my mind at least, it has the edge on the other two.
Billy Farone, the son of Artie's half sister Genia, is now fourteen. He has been locked up in Florida, in a centre for disturbed juvenile offenders, for two years but has been released into Artie's care for a fortnight's holiday. Artie speaks to a psychiatrist involved in the treatment of Billy and the doctor assures him that Billy is 'cured' of the malady that caused him to commit murder in a previous book. Encouraged, Cohen brings Billy back to New York, the city the boy regards as home and for which he has longed.
Maxine, Artie's wife, is, together with her two daughters, away from the connubial apartment and Artie takes the opportunity to install Billy there temporarily. He takes Billy back to visit the Farone house, which Genia and Johnny, her husband, have left in order to spend some time in London, this just prior to the bombing of July 7 2005. Billy is horrified to discover his belongings have been consigned to the garage and his aquarium emptied of his beloved fish. Then Artie receives a telephone call from a relative of the man slaughtered by Billy, warning him to remove the killer from the city or other people will take matters into their own hands.
Sonny Lippert, Artie's boss, seeks the detective's help with a case involving a child. Artie is not enthusiastic about helping but reluctantly becomes involved.
Artie introduces Billy to Tolya Sverdloff, the big Russian former rock star, and Tolya's daughter Valentina in turn introduces the boy to Luda, a little Russian girl brought temporarily (and illegally) into the country. Billy is invited to Luda's birthday party, where Artie makes the acquaintance of items which, puzzlingly, turn up at a further crime scene.
Once again, Nadelson has produced a disturbing book. Her characterisation of Artie is excellent. He appears all too human with his devotion to his nephew, whom he feels about as he would a son, as well as his unstable emotions which, while he is determined to remain faithful to his wife Maxine, waver at the return of his former lover, Lily Hanes. Billy's character is a different matter altogether. The boy feels rejected on all sides yet his devotion to and faith in Artie remains unwavering. Tolya, familiar to readers from previous books, is his usual generous, overwhelming self but once more displays a certain chilling ruthlessness.
Undeniably, there is a lot more that can be told in future works by Nadelson. The author leaves the impression that she will develop the relationship between Artie and Tolya as well as the detective's emotional life as it is battered between his various loves.
The action itself, once it gets going, captures the reader's interest but it should be noted that the beginning is rather slow. Perhaps it is designed to demonstrate Billy's reaction to other people's dangers and demonstrate his capacity for empathy. Fortunately, it picks up pace as it goes along.
The author states that she concentrates on facts as she would in a journalistic story. This provides a certain feeling of realism to the work.
Nadelson is a novelist worth watching as she continues to improve.
WHEN SHE WAS BAD
by Jonathan Nasaw
ISBN 9781847370358
292 pages
SIMON & SCHUSTER
December 1 2007
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
January 2 2008
The prologue opens with three portraits of Lily, the first being of the loving granddaughter, shocked at the news of her grandparents' death in a car accident. Then comes Lilah, Lily's sexually voracious alter. Finally, Lilith achieves consciousness during a biker gang bang, but she leaves her current rapist with a permanent reminder of her.
Lyssy, the acceptable face of Ulysses Maxwell, is confined in a psychiatric institution. He is the patient of Dr. Alan Corder, a formerly British psychiatrist. Corder is convinced that he has destroyed Ulysses' previous personase violent Max and murderous Kinch. Not for Corder the aim of integrating all the personalities of a patient: he prefers destruction of the obnoxious leaving only the sweet (nauseatingly so, in fact) Lyssy. As the surviving personality, though, Lyssy is the one who will have to face court and will also have to endure the punishment for multiple rapes and murders committed by his less amiable selves.
It is, of course, inevitable that Lyssy and Lily wind up in the same institute. It is also inevitable that their alters should take possession of their bodies. This happens prior to a party being, inadvisedly, held for Lyssy at Dr Corder's house. Corder's family comprises himself, his wife and their attractive teenaged daughter. Naturally, Max is in his element in such an environment and he --or, possibly, Kinch-- wastes no time in plying his trade and leaving no witnesses.
Lilith, meanwhile, is lumbered with Lyssy as she makes her escape. Whoever she and Maxwell might be at the time, they take refuge with a biker moll of her acquaintance.
Dr Irene Cogan, a psychiatrist, and former FBI agent Pender are, inadvertently, teamed up together. Not that they are able to stay together for too long as they seek to tackle the fragmented personalities that control the bodies of Lily de Vries and Ulysses Maxwell.
The story is quite an engaging one. Just how valid the basic premise, on which the tale is balanced, is another matter. It's not for me to pass judgment on that, so let the experts handle it should they so wish. Any faults in the characterisation are, by the very nature of the characters, forgiven. Suffice it that Lily and Lyssy are not the most attractive people in the world and I doubt I'd enjoy going down to the local for a pint or two in their company.
Regardless of the fairly obvious faults of this novel, it is quite adequate in providing reasonable entertainment for an afternoon.
THE REDBREAST
by Jo Nesbo
translated by Don Bartlett
521 pages
ISBN 184343217X
Harvill Secker
September 1 2006
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
September 19 2006
It has become such a common device in modern literature to have the narratives set in (at least) two time frames, that when this doesn't happen, the reader is likely to feel cheated. Jo Nesbo doesn't deprive readers of a time fix in THE REDBREAST. The novel is set in the modern day as well as the war years, from 1942 on.
In the modern day, Detective Harry Hole and his partner , Ellen Gjelten, are on security duty for the US President's visit to Norway. Because of inadequate communication between security details representing the hosts and the visitors, Harry perpetrates a blunder that could well escalate into an international incident if handled badly. As a consequence, in order to cover up what happened, Harry is promoted to Inspector and is whisked from the immediate view of the media.
Hole and Gjelten are greatly upset when the case they have built against a Neo-Nazi, Sverre Olsen comes apart in court on a technicality. Thus, the dangerous, though dim, Olsen is released into the general community once more, free to take up profitable commissions such as assassinations.
In 1942, conditions for Norwegian soldiers on the Eastern Front are about as appalling as any produced by wartime can be. Charismatic young Daniel Gudeson kills a Russian soldier but, on New Year's Eve, is shot and killed by the Russians. There is disquiet amongst the remaining men, two of whom decide to defect to the Russian side. Perhaps the enemy feeds their men more and better food than that given to the Norwegians on the other side.
The group of soldiers finds its ranks reduced by the end of the war but just who are the survivors?
Back in the present day, Harry, not knowing of his cover-up promotion, has relapsed into the alcoholism that had formerly owned him. The news of his new rank, aided by Ellen's enthusiasm, sees Harry's return to both work and sobriety.
An old man accosts Sverre Olsen in a cafe and asks him to facilitate the purchase of a Märklin gun, a very high powered object. Olsen consults his mysterious mentor, the Prince, who promises to obtain the weapon.
It seems inevitable that novels set in the frigid north will have a heavy and pessimistic air and THE REDBREAST could scarcely be termed an exception to the rule. Despite this, the book is a very attractive work. The characterisations are well done indeed, with Harry maintaining the reader's sympathy at all times.
Harry and Ellen are not the only two characters to have beautifully coloured portraits. Other people do not fare as well at the pointy end of the author's nib. The Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Bernt Brandhaug, is the subject of a sparkling, diabolically painted miniature. An amazingly confident womaniser, Brandhaug uses his position to entice or coerce women into his hotel bed, despite the fact that he is married. One woman, at least, fights back by drinking enough alcohol to numb her feelings before obeying his orders to surrender her chastity to him. The subsequent scene is delicately drawn and may well delight any woman who has been the subject of similar coercion.
Nesbo is an excellent author. He has a real talent for creating people
with the ability to elicit the reader's sympathies. His construction of
crimes and the mysteries in which they are shrouded as well as their unravelling
is beautifully written and he has the happy knack of leaving the reader
wanting to learn more about his protagonists.
THE RETURN
by Håkan Nesser
translated by Laurie Thompson
ISBN 9780230015289
322 pages
MACMILLAN
June 3 2007
$29.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
June 4 2007
Now here's a pleasant surprise: a Swedish novel that is neither pessimistic nor depressing. From all reports, Nesser is popular amongst his peers, so that puts paid to my burgeoning theory that Swedish writers must exhibit depression and pessimism in order to become popular with theircountrymen. Nesser manages to inject a lot of humour into this work, which is a very pleasant surprise to this reviewer, who has become accustomed to a rich mine of negative emotions in Swedish work.
That is not to say that all is sweetness and light in this outing. A party of fourteen children aged between three and six sees the noisy group turned loose in a forest. Unfortunately, one of the children finds a mysterious carpet wrapped package in a ditch, hauls it out of the ditch then unwraps it and discloses a headless, handless and footless male body. Later examination by the authorities divulges the information, something which eventually permits the body's identification, that the unfortunate man is also minus a testicle.
The reader has already made the acquaintance of the owner of the body, in the prologue, when he is discharged from prison. Leopold Verhaven was, before his twenty-four year incarceration, a star athlete. Unfortunately he was accused, found guilty and subsequently imprisoned for two stretches of twelve years, for the sequential murder of two girlfriends. He never admitted to guilt.
Inspector Van Veeteren is in charge of the investigation. Unfortunately, he is about to go under the scalpel to have a small bowel cancer removed and there is an amusing sequence wherein the policeman worries about the operation (but wouldn't we all?) Subsequent to the operation (which, needless to say, Van Veeteren survives), he manages the investigation from his hospital bed.
The characterisations within the work are very well done. The identity of the miscreant is sufficiently obscure until Van Veeteren unmasks the villain.
I am in two minds about the conclusion of the novel. Unfortunately, it is not a subject I can well discuss in a review but I did find it a trifle unsettling.
The location of the action is made deliberately obscure, apparently. I assumed it was Sweden, initially, but the characters' names made me wonder, given that they seemed to come from a variety of countries. The length of Verhaven's sentences, too, provided some confusion: twelve years for a murder? The second sentence, for a second murder, equal to the first? What country would be likely to impose such lenient punishments? On the whole, perhaps it is best not to try to solve that particular mystery, especially since the humour would also serve to obscure the location.
The success of translated novels often depend on the translator. Whilst
the odd hiccough occurs within the text, on the whole Thompson has made
an acceptable job if it.
THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE
by Audrey Niffenegger
ISBN 0099464462
518 pages
Vintage
October 1 2004
$22.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
September 16 2004
Wow! It is now several hours since I finished reading THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE and I am still unable to stop thinking about it. It is Audrey Niffenegger's debut novel. One can only hope that if she writes further novels they will be of the same standard as this extraordinary work. Niffenegger lectures at Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts (which explains the detail she uses in describing the procedures employed by Clare, the novel's female protagonist, in constructing paper art) in, amongst other things, writing. If this author can impart to her students even a fraction of her own talent, then the reading public is due for some real treats in future years as the students mature and exhibit their own art.
The novel is, essentially, an unlikely love story. In 1991, when he is twenty-eight, Henry meets the twenty year-old Clare for the first time - yet Clare has known Henry (at times intimately) since she was six years old. Henry, however, is thirty-six when he first meets the six year-old Clare. Henry has a genetic condition akin to epilepsy and schizophrenia, which propels him in random directions throughout time. At least, the directions appear to be random yet there are places and times to which his subconscious seems to be directing him over and over - for example, the scene of his mother's tragic death, where he is able to help his younger self.
In 1991, prior to his meeting with Clare, Henry is in the throes of a mutually destructive relationship with Ingrid, whom he drops as soon as he takes up with Clare, who has loved him deeply for many years, not the least because she knows she will one day marry Henry.
Henry has something of a reputation amongst his peers. The mild mannered librarian is reputed to be seen irregularly cavorting naked in unlikely locations. When Henry travels in time, he arrives unencumbered by clothing, which is left in a neat little pile at his point of departure. This makes it rather awkward for him when he arrives as he must then find clothing - he is an expert at picking locks but resents the late century development of motion detectors. One poignant scene has Henry instructing a CD (chrono-displaced) child in the fine art of lock picking.
Henry feels that there must be a drug solution to his problem, thus, he studies medical literature when he is on one of his trips to the future in order to try to locate a promising drug - but then he must, in his present, convince a doctor to treat him.
This is an astonishing first novel. Obviously, the author has had to
do a great deal of research in order to make such a work of art convincing
in every detail (this reviewer, always sensitive to discrepancies, was
only brought up short by one small slip - short sighted people do not wear
corrective lenses that magnify the eyes.) She manages to find the reader's
deepest emotions - love for a mate, love for one's child, the fear of uncertainty
in a relationship, the wish to know one's partner in his/her youth, the
insecurity of the future as well as the fear of knowing the future. The
author is obviously a determinist - what Henry experiences in the future
MUST come to pass no matter what he does to try to alter it. She presents
so much of interest in the book - not the least the vibrant picture of
Chicago and its people as well as art and music - and her writing is of
such high quality that I defy any reader not to enjoy such a magnificent
work.
TWISTED MINDS
by Hilary Norman
ISBN 0-7499-0605-7
439 pages
Piatkus
January 6 2003
$18.95
reviewed by Denise Wels
Hilary Norman had her first novel published in 1986. While initially writing in the romance genre she channeled her later output into suspense leavened with love, her If I Should Die carrying the pseudonym Alexandra Henry . Others of her very popular titles are Blind Fear, Laura ,Susanna, The Pact, Too Close, In love and Friendship. Chateau Ella, Shattered Stars, Fascination. Spellbound Deadly Games and Mind Games. Relinquishing an earlier ambition to become an actress the author swapped sides of the footlights to work with a television production company.
This is the first of Norman's works to have come to my attention but from what I have read of her other titles she seems to delight in psychological suspense. This book proves she has a good insight into disturbed (twisted?) minds.
Matthew Gardner. a young, divorced, American architect currently based in Berlin, is on a skiing holiday when he comes a cropper in the snow. Beautiful Caroline Walters, mother of two teenage and one pre-teen daughters as blonde and beautiful as their mother, goes to his aid. Despite having been widowed only three years after her husband, artist Richard, suffered a series of strokes, Caroline falls in love with Matthew and they marry. Matthew requests a transfer to his firm's London office since Caroline and her three daughters have a house there. He finds he is resented by the London head of the firm and, more seriously, by two of his three stepdaughters. Felicity, or Flic, as she prefers to be called, the eldest daughter and Imogen, the middle girl, seek to rid their mother and themselves of the intruder, to the dismay of Chloë, the youngest child, who likes Matthew. After failing to get Matthew, literally, lost, the young women conspire to make it appear to the world that Matthew is a dishonest villain. Caroline initially defends her daughters against Matthew's reluctant accusations, allowing mother love to overcome good sense. Matthew is distressed to learn from her that Imogen suffered severe depression following Richard's death then later he is even more disturbed to be told that Caroline, too, had been similarly afflicted, both being treated by Caroline's psychotherapist friend Susanna.
Matthew finds his only ally in his mother-in-law, Sylvie. While she would prefer not to believe her granddaughters capable of malicious acts such as had been directed against Matthew, her faith in the girls is not as unwavering as that of her daughter. Then the first death occurs, followed by other incidents that could well be murder and attempted murder.
At first I was tempted to dismiss the book as melodrama - it really seemed over the top to imagine a plot based on the resentment of children against their stepfather magnified to such a degree. Then I remembered instances recounted to me by acquaintances who had been widowed or divorced then entered into another relationship or marriage. Suddenly the plot seemed considerably more plausible.
I feel the author has gauged nicely the sort of additional factor that might push otherwise reasonable albeit mildly jealous children towards such extreme actions. As the jacket of the book implies, some families do harbour very dark secrets, secrets, indeed, held by, perhaps, only one member of the family which may darken every aspect of that person's life. The story begins lightly and happily enough with the love-almost-at-first-sight theme but rapidly darkens with each malicious act and its repercussions prompted by seriously disturbed psyches pushing the whole almost into the horror genre. So far as my initial evaluation of melodrama goes, while that was dispelled, I was tempted to resurrect ithat judgment at the finale of the narrative. The fact that I am still not quite decided redounds to the author's credit rather than to her discredit.
A thoroughly engrossing read, to be sure, but perhaps not one for anyone
contemplating marriage with a partner who already has children.
PACIFIC
by Judy Nunn
ISBN 1740513045
661 pages
Random House Australia
March 1 2004
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Wels Pickles
March 24 2004
Judy Nunn burst upon the small screen years ago - probably more years ago than she cares to count. She has, in latter years, turned her talents to writing fiction. The Glitter Game, Centre Stage and Araluen are some of her titles, books which, like Pacific, draw upon her intimate knowledge of acting and actors. Eye In The Storm and Eye In The City display her versatility, as they are children's fiction.
If one relies on simple wordage, Pacific, at 661 pages, is very good value indeed! The quality of the writing is pretty good value, too. Spanning, as it does, more than half a century, it could almost be described as having epic proportions.
The tale begins with a prologue detailing the rescue of doctor/priest Martin Thackeray from Dunkirk. It then switches to the modern day and Samantha Lindsay, a young Australian (of course) actress. Sam had fallen in love with Chisolm House in Fareham, England, the house in which she had stayed when she got her first 'big break'. Sam's life becomes inextricably linked with those of two women who had been girls in the house many years previously: Phoebe Chisolm and Jane Miller. Sam is able to buy the house and is enchanted to find the portrait of Phoebe as well as family photographs, returned to the property.
Sam finds herself dreaming of incidents that happened to Phoebe and Jane during their adolescence and young adulthood. She, quite literally, experiences what they experienced. Then she is selected to star in a movie, Torpedo Junction, which is set in Vanuatu. As the filming progresses, Sam finds herself increasingly obsessed with her role, which is based on the real-life Mamma Tack.
The book darts about from decade to decade with a goodly portion devoted to the adventures of Jane Thackeray in war-time Vanuatu. There is an uncanny similarity in the writing of the fictional Mamma Black to that which befell Jane Thackeray, something which Sam finds unaccountable.
Nunn has written an impressive tome. It contains several pleasing romances
and the ends are all neatly tied at the conclusion. Perhaps the action
could have been made faster paced by more heavy editing but on the whole
the book is a good, if lengthy, read.
A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE
by Malla Nunn
ISBN 9781405038775
MACMILLAN
$32,99
August 27 2008
reviewed by Denise Pickles
August 29 2008
What a beautiful setting in which to locate a murder! A fictional one, of course. South Africa in 1952 was still in a very mixed up condition, for the population, both black and white. The Immorality Act placed a huge burden on the shoulders of the people of South Africa while law enforcement was desperate to locate and convict Communists . It forbade sexual congress between blacks and coloureds and white people. In the days predating DNA identification, it would take more than the colour of peopleís skin to decide if anyone were guilty of that crime but while the blacks and coloureds were permitted a ėlittle wifeî, the same privilege was not, lawfully, permitted a member of the white race, especially if the woman were of a different ethnic mix.
Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is called to a murder scene. Who would dare to kill a white police captain? Captain Pretorius, father of five strapping boys, has been found dead by a river and there is no immediate black suspect to be found. Constable Samuel Shabalala helps the Detective Sergeant but it is a difficult task for him. The dead captain and he were brought up together so, naturally, there is some kind of bond between them.
The local police, comprising the Security Branch, do not wish to cede authority to Cooper so they attempt to sideline him by insisting he investigate a past case, one that seems to them to have nothing to do with the current murder investigation, but somehow, the best laid plans of heavyweight bullies tend to gang agley and the Detective Sergeant determines that the case is multilayered and certainly connected to the murder..
Before too long, Cooper discovers valuable, albeit unofficial yet expert, assistance from someone who would rather not brag about his expertise.
This really is an extremely powerful tale. The author has a gift for the language, as well as for plotting. I must say that I never saw the punch in the plot approaching me with bare knuckles. I suppose people brighter than I (of whom there is no shortage) may have seen it coming but it certainly took me by surprise.
The characterisation in this piece is excellent. The horrors of the time are made very apparent in the attitudes displayed by the Pretorius brothers. The strange obedience of the people to the unspoken rule of ėDo as IÝsay, not as I doî is easily seen as well as the more credible ėMight is right.î
As previously averred, this is an extraordinarily powerful novel, both
as a mystery and also as a commentary of the South Africa of the time.
I trust Malla Nunn intends producing more mysteries for the crime fiction
audience, and that right soon.