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

For all that Martyn Waites considers his latest thriller, THE MERCY SEAT, to be 'quite light in a way', I must say that I found it, in the violent world of hardboiled crime fiction, extremely violent. GeordieWaites writes about the city he loves and themes which engage him such as abused children and those whose lives have been stunted. The actor turned writer has had plenty of encounters with both convicted criminals and deprived and abused children as he has twice been writer-in-residence in a prison and also taught drama to young former offenders. He calls upon his experience to good effect in this novel, the first of a series to feature investigative journalist  Joe Donovan.

The prologue depicts a scene of violence and torture, wherein the reader is introduced to some very nasty characters indeed. The name of Joe Donovan is given to the torturers as someone who might be of interest to them since he has taken it upon himself to investigate the men who call themselves Mephisto, Faustus and Hammer.

Fourteen year-old Jamal is a black teenage hustler. He steals a minidisk and is pursued by someone who seems intent not only on recovering the disk but removing Jamal from life. Jamal, in an effort to escape, boards a train bound for Newcastle and is befriended (if that is the word) by a man travelling north. Jamal listens to the minidisc and decides it is his path to fortune if used correctly. The lad bargains with the Herald, offering to sell them the minidisk but insists he will deal only with Joe Donovan.

Donovan is a damaged man. His six year-old son disappeared two years previously and since then he has fallen to pieces, becoming suicidal. His friend Maria, now editor of the paper, accompanied by Francis Sharkey, the paper's lawyer, seek him out, telling him that his replacement has disappeared and that his help is needed to obtain the minidisc and possibly help locate Gary  Myers, the journalist. As bait, Sharkey implies he has information on Donovan's son.

To say the novel is dark is a great understatement. It is brimful of corruption, violence, danger and death. Waites artfully introduces various threads, increasing suspense by not disclosing how they are plaited. All of his characters seem damaged and flawed in many ways. He manages, at one stage, to find excuses for one of his chief villains so that the reader might begin to understand what drives him. Others are left, mercifully, unexplained.

Waites brings to life the seedy side of Liverpool. The reader speeds through the streets seeing what might be familiar places in a wholly new light. Unpleasant characters manipulate their helpless victims although sometimes one of those unfortunates fights back. One particularly loathsome villain (about whom I trust I do not have nightmares) is one who could be seen as a natural inheritor of Fagin's mantle in a modern setting, a man who, in the guise of a benefactor, lures and corrupts runaway children.

Altogether, despite the repulsive aspects of the tale (which, after all, may be skimmed) the reader will find THE MERCY SEAT a fascinating read and will doubtless be left wondering what next will happen in the life of Joe Donovan.
                                             WHITE RIOT
                                         by Martyn Waites
                                      ISBN 9781847390585
                                              452 pages
                                            pocket books
                                            March 1 2008
                                                 $19.95
                                  reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                           December 5 2008

Martyn Waites doesnít believe in sparing the gore. To offset that, he is very good at engaging the readerís interest and writes about topics that are contemporary. WHITE RIOT deals with the unpleasant --but all too possible -- subject of racial discrimination and racial violence in the northern English city of Newcastle.

The tale begins with a kidnapping and murder. A victim is taunted with the Muslim beliefs of his parents. He, perhaps, is not as convinced of the validity of the numerous virgins that await him in the imminent paradise that he is about to enter -- or not.

Kevís mate Jason is scheduled  for slaughter by a ruthless group, at first unknown by the reader. Jason has been dubbed The Butcher Boy, a reflection of his job but it seems as though someone else intends butchering him.

Peta Knight, associate of former journalist Joe Donovan is hired by one Trevor Whitman. Whitman has written a tell all book detailing his time with a right wing group calling itself The Hollow Men. He has been receiving threatening phone calls which he wishes Peta to investigate.

Joe Donovan, meanwhile,  is still trying to investigate the kidnapping of his son. Years later, he seems finally to have located the boyís whereabouts but the people who have the boy in their care and have adopted him, hold him close and Joe seems to no nearer to being reunited with his son -- and his relationship with his wife and daughter is fractured. All Joe wants is to retrieve David and to have a family once more.

Waites is truly a master at building tension. He also has no scruples when it comes to subjecting his characters to violence and, indeed, death. He constructs a plot that is at once horrific yet believable. Not the least of the horrors is the concept of people coldbloodedly manipulating True Believers into actions they probably would not contemplate, were they privy to the machinations of their leaders. The portraits of his characters are well drawn and, alas, convincing.

The author seems to delight in cliffhangers. Somehow, I wish he wouldnít. When his next book in the series is released, no doubt Iíll have to reread at least part of this one. Perhaps I need to take a memory course.
 

                             OLD MONEY
                         by David Walks-As-Bear
                            ISBN 9781411681729
                                     405 pages
                           THE WILDLAND PRESS
                                    March   2006
                         reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                  May 16 2006

David Walks-As-Bear prides himself on taking an historical puzzle and providing a fictional but reasonable solution. OLD MONEY is spiced with lots of action, tons of violence, several beautiful women and the current most popular villains, both in fiction and real life, rogue Muslims. In this outing, Ely Stone from the Pukaskwa Nation solves a Civil War mystery involving confederate ships and just what they may have been carrying.

Ely is sent to Hawaii to investigate land acquired by his tribe. Before Stone leaves his home he is told by Nettie Cole, his sometime sweetheart, that she is revolted by his ability to kill, even though the person killed was, at the time, threatening  them. Ely therefore sees himself free of any constraints that might prevent him from sampling the delights offered by other women.

Meanwhile, antiques dealer  Stan Stevens, heavily in debt to importunate crooks, is certain of his ability to extricate himself from his troubles when he discovers a journal written by Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) which gives details of the location of an unimaginable treasure in Hawaii.

Ely is subject to dreams in which he is shuttled between ancestors and subjected to their experiences as well as brief sojourns in his own past adventures. Unsettling, to say the least, especially since his head is continually being assaulted.

In Hawaii, Ely teams up with Stan Stevens and learns about the treasure. Then he becomes a suspect in various killings but becomes involved with Secret Service agents.

This is a very difficult book to review. While the essential story is promising, the drama is considerably lessened in the face of the multitude of misused words which cause unintended hilarity at the most inappropriate of times. Mental images conjured by the constant use of 'scull' rather than 'skull' project pictures of light craft  balanced on shoulders rather than Ely's occiput. Wild 'bores' being executed seem to be suffering an unusually harsh punishment for inflicting tedium-- especially if they are eaten into the bargain. People are 'exacerbated' rather than 'exasperated' and consistently 'complemented' rather than 'complimented'. And one man ruminates on the delights of macadamia 'cookies' well before Australia exported macadamia seeds, let alone the nuts. Many books contain one or two errors, typographical or other, which scarcely cause a stumble in the flow of the narrative but there are so many in this text that the reader's attention is constantly snagged on the fouls to the detriment of the story.

The fantasy aspect of the novel, incorporating, as it does, Indian mysticism, to cast light on modern day events, is attractive. Ely's being tossed from one willing, beautiful girl to the next is no doubt someone's wish fulfilment dream as the women are saved from incredible danger by the doughty hero. The historical slant with its solution to the Civil War conundrum is interesting as is the incorporation of Sam Clemens' possible activities during an unrecorded period of his life.

In summary, David Walks-As-Bear shows promise as a writer if he can get a decent proofreader. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the sustained and hilarity provoking errors should mar what could have been an excellent tale.
                                             MAGGIE'S TREE
                                                by Julie Walters
                                              ISBN 0297851047
                                           Weidenfeld & Nicolson
                                              November 3 2006
                                                         $29.95
                                       reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                              November 9 2006

MAGGIE'S TREE is Julie Walters' debut novel and deals with the misadventures of three actors and the singer husband of one of them. What ever would Mrs. Weasley make of it? Perhaps she would just wave her wand so it could truthfully  be described as 'her new bestseller'.

Less than an hour after Luke, Cissie and Maggie arrive in New York, Maggie disappears. The quartet are supposedly close friends but somehow Luke's wife Helena Cassidy (or Helen Cake, as she was in what Luke remembers as much happier days) decides that the moment of her American success as an actress should be hers alone and to hell with finding their friend. Regardless, Luke and Cissie make the attempt.

Maggie, now suffering from whatever psychological malady assails her at inconvenient intervals, has made her way into a bar and from there is taken home --  his home -- by asthmatic photographer Michael. Michael's son has recently died and the father is devastated, continually haunted by the shade of the young boy.

Maggie becomes physically, as well as mentally, damaged and Michael takes her to the hospital where some of the funniest scenes of the book are set.

Cissie, the author tells us, is a lesbian whose relationship with lover Jenny has only just become public knowledge. This is partly the reason for Cissie's visit to Helena as she has fled England, leaving Jenny to bear the world's scrutiny on their raw relationship, and Cissie's family to learn with a shock the hitherto unsuspected secret.

Of all the actors in the book, only haunted Michael appears to possess any humanity. Dominic, his son, is a continuing, heartrending presence throughout the narrative and it is obvious that Michael will be grieving for a long time to come.

The cold and storms of New York accurately reflect the turmoil going on within the characters populating the novel. The reader is left wondering why, since it is implied that attacks of insanity visited upon poor, tragic Maggie are not uncommon, she is unmedicated at the time of her disappearance. Certainly, her perceived symptoms must have merited some treatment in her past.

The present tense narrative leaves the reader in breathless anticipation of the next mishap to befall the hapless dramatis personae. They all display a strange vulnerability but all are callous to some degree.

The humour is certainly there but it is of a very dark hue. About the only funny incidents devoid of a sly cruelty are those that occur in the sleazy hotel in which Cissie takes refuge and even then they are somewhat maliciously based on the befuddled understanding of the Eastern European receptionist.

The author has a habit, too, which I, for one found a tad annoying: many of the chapters begin with the concluding words of the previous chapter. To my mind, that doesn't enhance the quality of the prose.

For all the rough edges on some of its facets, this little gem is a promising beginning for the budding author. Should she ever abandon her career in portraying fictional characters, no doubt Julie Walters has the capacity for creating her own.

                                                          The Shape of Snakes
                                                             by Minette Walters
                                                                Allen & Unwin
                                                           ISBN 1-86508-334-8
                                                                     $27.95
                                                             November 3 2000
                                                        reviewed by Denise Wels

           It is not often I can find a book so compelling it can reduce me to tears...although I freely admit the work of the late Paul Gallico had that capacity, even on a second and third re-reading... but the final page of text in this powerful novel found me sobbing, a  ghastly admission for a hard-bitten reviewer.

         Minette Walters (The Ice House, The Sculptress, The Scold's Bridle,The Dark Room, The Echo, The Breaker ) seems incapable of writing a book of less than top quality. People to whom I have spoken who do criticise her work invariably admit they have not read it, only 'watched the mini-series'. I am sorry I have not sampled these delights, being primarily a book person, so I cannot make a valid comment on that head, but a first rate writer Walters is indeed.

      The Shape of Snakes  is set in London, with the crime being enacted  in  1978. This was, in Walters' words, 'the winter of discontent'. Strikes were abundant and turmoil rife, as was racism. The death of one black woman (albeit one who was begot by a white father) would have been brushed aside were it not for the obsession of one woman, M Ranelagh and her insistence on uncovering the truth. The reader is not made privy to Mrs. Ranelagh's given name and I was left pondering as to the significance of the single letter, M : Minette? Mary? Marguerite? An oblique tribute to the work of Agatha Christie?

    M discovers Mad Annie Butts as she sits, hunched in the gutter, brutalised and dying. M looks into Ann's eyes and receives an almost telepathic message of confusion and despair, which compels M to track the ultimate killer, even after more than two decades have elapsed. The conclusive clue to M's obsession is only given on the last page of text.

    The collective guilt of the residents of Graham Road is initially hinted at, but the individual killer is unknown. Schoolteacher M, in her turn, is brutalised and betrayed as she seeks justice. Her husband Sam, in an apparent attempt to save their marriage, takes employment abroad in Hong Kong, then Australia and finally South Africa, until his coronary forces them to return to England where M is free to unmask the killer after having painstakingly researched the case over twenty-one years. At the beginning of the book M states that she never knew if Ann was murdered because she was mad or because she was black. Actually, Ann was not insane, but suffered from a  genetic compulsive disorder known as Tourette's Syndrome ( from which the great lexicographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson, also suffered). The tics which she exhibited made her a figure of fun while her colour instilled loathing in the other residents of Graham Road. The fact that Ann Butts had more moral claim to live in Graham Road than many others of the residents did not signify to them: she was anathema and had to be got rid of.

   Walters' characters are no hasty and flimsy constructs but well drawn and horridly believable.  The wonderful Wendy Stanhope, the vicar's wife with fantasies of being a lap dancer, who goes to a cliff top to scream in order to dissipate her frustrations and feelings of impotence, was one of my favourites. The appearance of the book is dramatic with apparent photocopies of handwritten documents and photographs adding verisimilitude to the painstaking text. I found it interesting that the anonymity of M was preserved further than her unknown name by having no feature visible at all in the one photograph containing her image. The action of the plot is not rushed, but neither does it flag, as it builds inexorably to its resolution. Family relationships and dynamics are closely examined and the burden of villainy shifts as apparent innocence and victim status are revealed instead as guilt.

                                                   Mystery buffs, go out and buy this book!
                                                                  ACID ROW
                                                            by Minette Walters
                                                                Allen & Unwin
                                                             ISBN 1-86508-628-2
                                                                      $27.95
                                                              November 2 2001
                                                       reviewed by Denise Wels

                Minette Walters (The Ice House, The Sculptress, The Scold's Bridle, The Dark Room, The Echo, The Breaker, The Shape of Snakes) is one of the most powerful and accomplished British writers of crime fiction of today. Although her novels are not yet as numerous, their literacy,  perception of human psychology and darkness must surely make comparisons with another British author, Ruth Rendell, inescapable. Both have a deep knowledge of the  psyche, both normal and abnormal and the workings of relationships and both are able to construct brilliantly believable yet unnerving plots.

               Walters' previous book, The Shape of Snakes  was told in the first person; Acid Row sees the form revert to a third person narrative. The story is told from the viewpoints of several different characters which enables the protagonists to be left in cliffhanger situations while the action returns to another person in dire peril. Minette Walters obviously spends a great deal of time in thinking out complex  chains of events, what sort of single action could initiate a sequence of results, yet how  seemingly unbelievable outcomes could manifest  logically.

                Like the street in The Shape of Snakes, Acid Row, a slum housing development, is seen as a virtual entity in itself, threatening and inimical to outsiders. One person who is able to differentiate between the individual inhabitants and see the good within the individuals, is Dr. Sophie Morrison. Unlike the old and embittered health visitor, Fay Baldwin, Sophie can see the virtue in some of the single mothers' methods of bringing up their children. The ordered chaos of Acid Row is rendered disorderly by a careless, spiteful remark from the health visitor and a riot results. A ten year-old girl has gone missing, apparently abducted, from a nearby neighbourhood and the heath visitor has let it be known that there is a paedophile in Acid Row.

                 Walters has calculated to perfection the sort of catalyst that would be required to precipitate the grand riot of the book. Concerned mothers react to the presence of someone who might regard their children as legitimate prey  and stage what is planned to be a peaceful march. Because there are drugged up and edgy adolescents in the crowd it soon becomes a mob and unforeseen dangers escalate. The reactions of the mothers of threatened children, both the submissively desperate mother of the abducted Amy and the valorous and indomitable Melanie and her own mother Gaynor who wish to save their children from the unintended violence of the mob are shown in stark contrast.

              The characters, from the unlikely hero, black criminal Jimmy James to the twisted Pole Franek, are very skillfully drawn with a minimum of the author's dwelling on the thoughts that must be going through their heads. Sparse brush strokes still serve to produce complex portaits. The actions of both police and villains of every hue are credible. The tempo of the adventure is hectic and the combination of characterisation and plot
produces a marvellously absorbing and frightening tale.
                                                                THE BREAKER
                                                                  by Minette Walters
                                                                ISBN 1-74114-046-3
                                                                       445 pages
                                                                  Allen & Unwin
                                                                        $17.95
                                                                  January 10 2003
                                                              reviewed by Denise Wels

                        Minette Walters (The Ice House, The Sculptress, The Scold's Bridle, The Dark Room, The Echo, The Shape of Snakes, Acid Row, Fox Evil )must be resigned to being compared with another British writer, Ruth Rendell. Both are enormously popular authors and both have attracted wide reading audiences in their particular genre, Walters having done so in far smaller a time frame than Rendell. Both have, of course, seen their work made into television entertainment but Rendell's fame is based on her series characters while Walters' books, so far at least, are stand alone narratives. One excellent result of both authors having had their work adapted for television means that they have been responsible for a portion of the viewing audience turning to books to expand their knowledge of the work they have seen on the small screen.

            The Breaker was first published in 1998. Now it has been reissued in small paperback format including the short work The Tinder Box. There are those of us who have perhaps found trade paperback novels fall outside our budget or others of us who somehow simply missed the first release of the novel. Whatever - this new edition is a boon.

                         Unlike the first person voice which told the story in The Shape of Snakes, this narrative is in the third person. Walters again uses tools employed in others of her books - maps, photographs, reports from various authorities- all of which lend an air of authenticity to the tales. The Breaker  opens unpleasantly enough with a soon-to-be corpse floating and tossing on the waves reflecting in amazement on the brutality of the man who not only raped her but also broke her fingers. Later, the body washes up on the shore and is found by two small boys who in turn are helped by  the too handsome sometime actor, sometime male pornography model, Steven Harding.

                         The body is eventually identified as that of Kate Sumner, her three year-old daughter having been found walking purposefully but entirely unaccompanied, along a road . Police investigation discovers numerous irregularities in the life of Kate and Hannah including the fact that a small child who is apparently unable to talk still has a familiar knowledge of aspects of sex. Steven is aggrieved that as a result of his good turn he is investigated by the po;lice and his friends are inconvenienced and discomfited by the too close investigation.

                          The author is expert at portraying human characters, both 'normal' and psychologically damaged masquerading as normal, in her books. Who of us, after reading a Walters novel, can not look at our fellow man and wonder what horrors may lie beneath a pleasant exterior. Walters doles out drops of information in small squirts as she reveals the whole of her involving plots. Personalities that the reader thinks they know reveal unexpected facets as the owners are suddenly changed beyond recognition by use of a few words. I don't think a single character in this book is seen to be entirely pleasant as the investigation proceeds.

            The Tinder Box , the story found as a bonus after the conclusion of The Breaker , is another tale based on perceptions.  Perhaps a better title for it may have been Pride and Prejudice  or perhaps not - that name somehow has a familiar ring. The story involves a poor Irish family the son of which has been arrested for the brutal murder of two elderly local English women. The English community looks down on the family while the Irish wife of a businessman recently moved to the village finds herself in sympathy with the family of the accused almost because of their commonality of race. The feeling in the local populace has reached tinderbox explosiveness - as has the house of the Irish family, then one night both ignite.

                            This story, again garnished with reports, is told logically but not chronologically, leaping around in time as it discloses the hirtory of the murders. Walters again excels in portraying convincing characters as she does in producing intricate yet believable plots. The solution to the mystery is unpleasant and surprising.

                           Minette Walters has not yet, to my knowledge, written a bad book. Perhaps The Breaker is not as good as others numbered in her bibliography but I would be hard put to it to say just where, unless it is in plotting or perhaps in not featuring a great deal of a strong femals character, it falls short of her usual standards. Regardless, were it by a lesser author I would give it full marks. As it is, I would have no hesitation in recommending this modestly priced book to all mystery aficionados.
 
 

                                                                      FOX EVIL
                                                                      by Minette Walters
                                                                   ISBN  1-86508-904-4
                                                                            415 pages
                                                                       Allen & Unwin
                                                                       November 1 2002
                                                                              $29.95
                                                                  reviewed by Denise Wels

              Minette Walters was an unawakened hence an undiscovered treasure for many years. Her first crime novel, The Ice House was published in 1992, a scant ten years ago. it won the John Creasey Award for Best First Novel. A well deserved award, indeed. Since then she has written The Sculptress ,Scold's Bridle, The Dark Room, The Echo, The Breaker, Shape of Snakes, Acid Row and now Fox Evil. Along the way she has picked up the Edgar Award and The Gold Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association.

              I have never read any of her  work previous to her crime fiction but Walters formerly wrote - and edited - short stories and romance fiction. I would be very interested to read some of her romance fiction, a genre for which I do not ordinarily care. I would assume that, like the work of the eminently readable historical romance writer, Georgette Heyer, Walters would have made a superb job of that type of writing. In her rebirth as a suspense writer, however, romance plays a minimal role.

              Minette Walters picks up much grist for her fiction producing mill from her pastime of prison visiting. She has been reported as saying she enjoys this side of her career immensely. I have not found any references saying that she ever formally studied psychology but psychologists have been quoted as paying tribute to Ms. Walters characterisations of people suffering abnormal conditions, saying that she has depicted sufferers in accurate detail.

             This author rejoices in writing only stand alone novels. She has never returned, nor even made reference to, any of her previous fictional worlds. This new work maintains that tradition. She manages to incorporate the social change she observes around her yet is never didactic and would appear to find it impossible to bore her readers with the fast paced stories she produces.

            Fox Evil , like Walters' other books, has a strong heroine, Captain Nancy Smith of the Royal Engineers. Nancy was adopted as a baby and was brought up by a loving, sensible family, one which so contributed to her sense of self worth and idea of family that she never wished to discover anything about her biological antecedents. She is contacted by the solicitor of her natural grandfather who has expressed a wish to get in touch with her. Nancy takes an instant dislike to the solicitor, Mark Ankerton. Although Ankerton's pleas are unavailing, Nancy is touched when she receives letters containing mysterious 'fables' from her grandfather, James Lockyer-Fox and, to the immense surprise of both Ankerton and Lockyer-Fox, she arrives at the Shenstead house during Christmas.

            Nancy is not the only visitor to the Dorset village, which is normally nearly deserted, having only five permanent families living there. A group of Travellers, or gypsies, led by the appropriately self-nicknamed Fox Evil arrives with the express intent of taking over some land, hitherto without provable ownership, for a permanent settlement for themselves and their families. There is more to it than that, however, since Fox Evil is obviously somehow involved with the Lockyer-Foxes and is working to his own benefit rather than for the Travellers'.

              James' wife, Ailsa, has died in strange circumstances some time previously. Since then James has been harassed by telephone calls accusing him of the murder of his wife - this despite a coroner's findings to the contrary - of incest with his daughter that produced the baby Nancy and of other awful deeds. The innocent man is undermined by these calls which come both day and night but he refuses to deny the charges despite the harassment undermining his health.. In addition to the calls, he is appalled by the systematic torture and killing of animals for which his wife cared. The Lockyer-Fox children, a ne'er-do-well pair, Elizabeth and Leo. are suspected of involvement in the persecution of their father, with a large inheritance seen as their object. Yet where does the malign influence of Fox Evil come in?

              Fox Evil is accompanied by a young child, Wolfie, reputed to be his son,  yet the mother, Vixen and young brother, Cub have disappeared. Wolfie is terrified of his father, yet even more terrified of the police and social workers. His character is a wonderful invention and one which lends a great deal of interest to the book.

             Walters has produced her customary gripping narrative. It is solidly based and enthrals the reader from beginning to end. The awful tendencies of the baddies of the tale are all too believable yet the reader must surely follow the horrors through to the ultimate unveiling of the  villain and the solution of the various mysteries.

               Minette Walters has found for herself a faithful following to which this book can only add.

The release of a new book by Minette Walters is always an occasion for rejoicing, the more so with the appearance of THE DEVIL'S FEATHER since it is two years since DISORDERED MINDS was published. Walters always displays an uncanny knowledge of practical psychology in formulating her characters and this facility has not deserted her in her latest outing.

Connie Burns is a journalist working for Reuters. When in Sierra Leone, she feels injustice has been perpetrated  when three teenagers are convicted of raping and murdering five women. She has noticed a Scot calling himself 'John Harwood' in Freetown but had seen him previously using a different name in Kinshasa. When Connie is on secondment to Baghdad in 2004, she notices the same man, previously identified as Keith MacKenzie but now known as Kenneth O'Connell, training Iraqis to handle dogs. Connie feels there is a definite link between the man, who is known to be violent, and murders exhibiting the same modus operandi committed in the various places where he has served. When similar murders are perpetrated in Baghdad, Connie writes to an investigator of the Freetown murders who is now stationed in Manchester but no help is forthcoming. On her way to the Baghdad International Airport, prior to departing for England, Connie is abducted and retained by her captor for three days.

The journalist, fleeing publicity, adopts her mother's maiden name and rents Barton House, a huge but decrepit mansion in the West Country. She is befriended by the reclusive Jess Derbyshire who introduces her to the local GP, Peter Coleman. Both Connie and Jess have their own traumas to overcome but somehow further trouble follows them and invades their private retreat.

Walters works her customary magic with the characters in this book. Connie and Jess are  intriguing people, each with her own very distinct voice. The author has constructed a horribly believable unsanitary male villain, too. Perhaps the most credible baddie is one the like of whom it is all too possible to see in the real world these days -- but to say more would give away too much of the plot.

As to the plot itself, while it is certainly topical, given the atrocities being committed daily in Baghdad, I had the feeling it did not display the author's usual skill in its construction. The entire tale did not have quite the expected amount of bite. In places Walters defuses tense situations instead of heightening perceived danger. Unusually for this author, some instances of this could even be described as bathos.

Despite this criticism, Minette Walters would find it impossible to produce anything other than a first rate tale and THE DEVIL'S FEATHER while perhaps not reaching the same standard as earlier books, is still an excellent read.

                                        CHICKENFEED
                                            by Minette Walters
                                               ISBN 1741149193
                                                     107 pages
                                                ALLEN&UNWIN
                                                    April 7 2006
                                                           $7.95
                                        Reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                    April 3 2006

CHICKENFEED was one of the books produced for the Quick Reads initiative, along with other short works by best selling authors such as Ruth Rendell and Joanna Trollope. Essentially, they are intended to lure people who don't have  the time (or perhaps the inclination) to sample other than delicious, bite sized literary delicacies. One can only hope that CHICKENFEED, based on the 1924 East Sussex Chicken Farm Murder, will lure reluctant readers into consuming popular authors' longer works.

Elsie Cameron has fallen in love with Norman Thorne, despite his being her junior by four years. She manages to persuade him to think of marrying her. On Elsie's suggestion, Norman borrows £100 from his father in order to set up a chicken farm in East Sussex, a bad move made in haste and without research.

The senior Camerons waste no time in exerting pressure on both Elsie and Norman; Norman feels (perhaps correctly) that they wish to be rid of their, at times unreasonable, daughter and see him as a handy means of getting her out of their home. Elsie becomes reckless and irrational in her treatment of Norman and, not unpredictably, he soon falls victim to the charms of a younger local girl.

When Elsie disappears, the police are called in to investigate and Norman is arrested and found guilty, despite protestations of his innocence. Walters makes an excellent case for the man's innocence and offers very good evidence to support her case. A pity it comes more than eighty years after it could have been of benefit!

This is excellent bait with which to set a literary hook. In this day and age when readership appears to be in decline, it would be a Good Thing indeed if the Quick Reads initiative can garner for itself a new audience for well appreciated authors.
                                               THE CHAMELEON'S SHADOW
                                                         by Minette Walters
                                                       ISBN 9781741752298
                                                                      385 pages
                                                                ALLEN & UNWIN
                                                               October 5 2006
                                                                           $32.95
                                                    reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                           September 26 2007

It's a pleasure to see Minette Walters on booksellers' shelves once more, with a full length novel. She is, to my mind, one of the more competent and intriguing British authors of our time, elegant in both prose and person.

The novel opens in November 2006 with a newspaper clipping detailing  the murder of a one time soldier, a murder for which the police are appealing to the gay community of London for help with its solution.

The action resumes in Iraq, with a Muslim cameraman capturing on camera an explosion which blows up part of a convoy of trucks, causing a British Scimitar to become airborne and all but one of its crew to be killed. The survivor is twenty-six year old Lieutenant Charles  Acland but his injuries are horrific. He is repatriated to England but his recovery in hospital is slow. He has no memory of the events surrounding his wounding, he is intolerant (for good reason) of his parents' visits and seems especially inimical to women. Of course, the fact that his fiancée, Jen, has severed their relationship might provide some small reason for that although it would scarcely seem likely that he would take against the entire sex because of the actions of one of their number.  Still, Jen doesn't seem to make a permanently good impression on anyone who meets her in the hospital environment.

Charles takes up life in London but discovers just how violent his post-injury self has become. He attacks a Pakistani in a London pub but is cared for by the part owner of the pub, a  woman doctor  named Jackson. He comes to the notice of the police who, despite his alibi for crucial times, seem to think there is a possibility he is the gay killer. For a short time he lives on the street, being befriended by an old soldier who also takes an interest in a teenaged boy recently diagnosed as a Type One diabetic, a lad who manages to go into a diabetic (as opposed to hypoglycaemic) coma.

There are, of course, further murders and naturally Charles seems an ideal suspect. He doesn't seem particularly interested in self preservation but then, he doesn't seem to resent Jackson overmuch, despite her gender.

The characterisation in this tale doesn't seem quite as strong as is Walters' usual wont. Jackson, the butch woman doctor, is very well done but other characters are not as vivid. The mystery, too , doesn't seem quite so well camouflaged. Undeniably, the author has done a competent job, one which would be admired in any other author,  but she isn't any other author. Readers have come to expect spectacularly brilliant work from Walters and I fear this outing does not quite measure up to her usual standard. Nevertheless, I shall look forward with great enthusiasm to when her next title is released and hope wholeheartedly that she returns to her more usual form.
 

THE EYE OF JADE
by Diane Wei Liang
ISBN 9780330424035
361 pages
PAN
March 3 2008
$19.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 4 2008

Mei Wang has left her old job at the Ministry. She could have remained there, but at the price of prostituting herself, which she declined to do. Instead, she has set herself up as a private investigator-- but since that activity is illegal, she has registered herself as an ìinformation consultancyî (whatever that means!)

Mei is approached by a friend of the family, Uncle Chen. He tells Mei that a ceremonial bowl, a very valuable antique, has been sold in Hong Kong. The Luoyang museum had previously owned it, but the museum burned down and Chen feels that other items, especially one very valuable piece, might also turn up in Hong Kong, and he wants Mei to investigate, to be sure the jade seal does not leave Chinese soil.

Mei is the elder sister in her family. Despite this, her younger sister, Lu, is favoured by their mother, the artist Ling Bai. Lu is glamorous and a TV star. She has married well and is the wife of a wealthy, successful businessman. The girls have no father, as he was placed in a labour camp, where he eventually died.

As Mei attempts to investigate, but meets with a wall of studied ignorance, her pursuit is disrupted by a near tragic event. Her mother is felled by a stroke. Despite Mei proving beyond all doubt that the welfare of her mother is more important than anything in her own life, Lu continues to be the favoured child.

As Meiís knowledge of the past increases,  she seems also to draw closer to a solution of the mystery of the missing antiques.

This is a delightful tale. Just as Donna Leonís Venice becomes remarkably familiar to her readers, so does Diane Wei Liangís Beijing become far less foreign to her readers. The city takes on a life of its own -- as does the historical aspect of both the Long March and the Cultural Revolution.

The authorís prose is charming. It lacks the savagery of a lot of contemporary Western literature. The story of Meiís  absorption in family matters is equally as interesting as the mystery of the missing antiques.

The characterisations in the tale are excellent. The reader may well come to feel that Oriental inscrutability is, perhaps, a trifle more scrutable, by the conclusion of the story.

The author really shines in her descriptions. I found myself salivating at her frequent mentions of Chinese food, to the extent that I had to ask my husband to accompany me to a local Chinese eatery, after I finished the book.

For anyone ignorant of the history of China, this book is a valuable aid to understanding. The mention of Chinese antiques, too, is very interesting and could well prove a guide to any ignorant Westerner seeking to collect something well worth having.
PAPER BUTTERFLY
by  Diane Wei Lang
ISBN 9780330423564
248 pages
MACMILLAN
March 1 2008
$19.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
April 5 2008

The prologue is set in a labour camp in 1989. Lin, formerly a college student, has not got used to the ways of imprisonment and the fact that a guard can single him out and perform any cruelty he chooses upon the prisonerís person. The ideals of the Chinese bureaucrats are such that a mother is charged the price of the bullet used to execute her son.

Part One sees Mei, her mother Ling Bai and her sister Lu watching the preparations for Chinese New Year. Mei, having discovered the truth about the death of her father, is now emotionally estranged from her mother.

Mei is hired by Mr Peng, the entrepreneur. Kaili, their newest star, has disappeared and her employer wants to hire Mei to find her.

Mei begins her investigations and searches through Kailiís dressing room for clues, since it was from there that Kaili had disappeared four days previously. When Mei is about to investigate Kailiís apartment, she encounterís Mr Pengís assistant emerging from there. Ostensibly, she had been in the place to look for threatening, anonymous letters that she herself, being jealous, had sent the actress. Mei discovers that the letters the woman carries are, instead, love letters sent to Kaili by someone signing himself ìLî. Mei, of course, has not yet heard of Lin, but he is the mysterious lover of Kaili who had once been a fellow student. In a scrapbook in the apartment, Mei finds the first of the beautifully wrought paper butterflies.

Not long after this, Kailiís body is found and Mei is enmeshed in a murder investigation.

As I said of the previous work, this is a nice, gentle mystery. Mind, some of the topics are very hard to take. From what I have read, in other sources, of the labour camps, they were atrocious places which people were very fortunate to survive. The author herself,as a child, was confined to one so no doubt she witnessed atrocities comparable to what she describes in her book.

The tale is constructed very well, with the climax being virtually inevitable.

The characterisations are carefully drawn. Mei is held somewhat in contempt by her sister and her mother, yet her success rests solely on the fact of her hard work, not because she, like her television star sister, is beautiful. She has a compassion that seems lacking, too, in her sister. She certainly breaks through the normal boundaries, as well. There she is, a woman running a (illegal) detective agency and having a male assistant, to boot.

As in  the previous mystery, the city of Beijing is the real protagonist of the tale. The attitudes of the people, so different from Westernersí values, are well depicted and the individual characters come to life as one reads.

Certainly, the descriptions of food the people eat have again made me very hungry!
CRIME
by Irvine Welsh
ISBN 9780224080538
344 pages
JONATHAN CAPE
LONDON
August 1 2008
$34.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
July 14 2008

I suppose the stark, single word title of this novel says it all: CRIME. It is about paedophilia, and what greater crime than this-- even murder-- can be found? Crimes against children must surely be completely inexcusable and, from newspaper reports, it appears even hardened criminals take umbrage at the crimes committed by their fellow gaolbirds to the extent that paedophiles have to be separated from the general prison population, for their own protection. Thus, the main crime in this book is hugely distasteful to readers, by its very nature.

The prologue of the book is frightening. A young girl is begging her mother not to go out. She knows that if her mother goes out (and, of course, the child will be left by herself) something dreadful will happen at the end of the evening. And when she hears her mother return, she must brace herself for what is to come.

Ray Lennox is on stress leave from the Edinburgh police. Mind, flying at 32,000 feet is not free of its own set of stresses,  but at least the time spent at such altitude is only relatively brief. He and his girlfriend Trudi want to plan their wedding and their overseas holiday is to be spent deciding on the best ways for the organisation of the occasion-- which might in and of itself mean Ray might need rather more stress leave after this set is finished.

Ray is haunted by a case on which he had been working, that of a murdered child. He has been warned not to think of the little girl, but itís hard to let go, even though the perpetrator has been found.

Lennox and Trudi have decided on Miami for their holiday. Trudi, who seems to be a very slow reader, is engrossed in a bridal magazine, but once they land, Lennox is separated, by friends, from his fiancée. Despite his attempts to get off both drugs and booze, Ray visits a bar where he meets two women, Robyn and Starry-- and eventually winds up at their flat surrounded by drugs. There he also meets the little girl, Robynís daughter Tianna.

Lennox is put in a position where he must rescue Tianna from a paedophile, but in order to do so, must remove her from her motherís house and drive her to a purported ìuncleî.

For all the main thread of this book is so unpleasant, it is an engrossing read. The characterisation is, unfortunately, all too convincing with the damaged Edinburgh cop having to try to rescue himself from addiction as well as the child from abuse.

There is, for all the misery, an optimistic note to the whole-- the possibility that an adult former victim of child abuse may be able to save children from being abused in  situations similar to the awful things that happened to them in their own childhoods.

 Alas that fictionally, paedophilia seems to be the favoured crime of the season.

                                                                    Troubled Waters
                                                                    by Carolyn Wheat
                                                                   Berkley Prime Crime
                                                                       copyright 1997

                The bio notes that Carolyn Wheat is a former defence attorney so I was expecting a book full of legal fireworks which did not eventuate despite part of the book being narrated in the first person by a lawyer, Cassandra Jameson.

                The story is told in three time frames : 1969, 1982 and the present. It concerns a group of people,  student revolutionaries in '69, and chronicles what befalls them in '82 and culminates now in the first person narrative by Cassie Jameson. In the present, Cass has to leave a court in Brooklyn where she is defending a sixty something black man (one of the loose ends of the tale) to go to Toledo, Ohio to defend her brother Ron. Jan Gebhardt, Ron's former girlfriend, has surrendered to authorities on a murder charge she has avoided since 1982. Charges against Ron, as co-defendant, were suspended until Jan could be found The murder was of a law enforcement officer and the events surrounding it, beginning in 1969, are told in the third person.

              Carolyn Wheat can write, but she does not, to my mind, waste time in making her characters appealing. To me they seem a thoroughly nasty bunch,taking drugs and drinking to excess. I suppose all young people experiment to some extent, but the experimentation of these people is depicted as something beyond the curiosity of neophytes. In 1969 they are portrayed as having ideals but go about implementing them through violence. They are always shown as having sympathy for the downtrodden, yet manage to victimise Jan's young cousin Kenny, the youngest of the group. The reader is allowed to see that when Kenny dies, he has been murdered but the students believe his death to be suicide, all but his cousin Jan who insists his death had to have been suspicious.

              Ron, Cassie's brother, was, in 1969, a conscientious objector but he lost that status because of his arrest with the group in commissioning a violent act. He therefore had to serve in Vietnam where his injuries resulted in his becoming a quadraplegic.

             In 1982 the protagonists are shown as still forwarding their ideals of protecting the disadvantaged. There is an extra element, though, in that one of them is, while smuggling  into the country Spanish speakers from the south, also transporting drugs and an even grimmer cargo as well.It is at this time that the law enforcement officer is killed, but by whom? And in what circumstances?

            In the present the mysteries are resolved. The former adolescents are shown in all their unpleasant adulthood. The tedious and flawed idealists are proved to be idealistic, the villains are fully unmasked.

            I shan't be seeking to read another work by this author in the near future, but since two of her books been nominated for the Edgar Award I think I am in a minority.
                                                            THE SUMMONS
                                                            by David Whish-Wilson
                                                              ISBN  1740513886
                                                                        275 pages
                                                                         Vintage
                                                                January 2 2006
                                                                          $23.95
                                                          reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                                  January 4 2006

Academic David Whish-Wilson has broken out of the bonds of short story writing to pen his first novel. THE SUMMONS is set in Germany between the world wars. Hitler is just edging into horrible power  accompanied by his seizing on the prejudices of the people in order to reinforce his popularity. Jews, homosexuals, intellectuals, those not meeting certain genetic perfections stipulated by the Führer are falling victim to the new order, perceived by some to be the beginning of the new thousand year Reich.

Paul Mobius is an historian. A soldier in the first world war, Mobius suffered immense psychological damage because of his part in the conflict and has only recently (the year being 1934) been released from a veterans' home where he was being treated. Now he lives happily with his neighbours Gustav, a builder, and Gustav's 'simple' grandson Carl. Intruding on Mobius' relatively pleasant although impoverished existence, Flade, the man responsible in their shared youth for the first of Mobius' great psychological setbacks, enters the near pauper's life, reminding him of a new academic debt and old financial ones. He needs his former friend's help in order to impress and aid his superior, Levin, an officer in the SS. Flade is able to warn Mobius that Gustav must flee from the city in order to preserve the life of Carl.

Established in the town of S, Gustav's sister Hannelore successfully matchmakes the historian with her friend Monika, a woman who is to have immense significance in Mobius' life. Mobius feels safe in the town until Flade reenters his life, demanding and patronising at the same time. Mobius' research on the witch persecutions and the life of Johannes Kepler, himself the son of an accused witch, is to be of use to Levin.

The broad outline of the novel is founded in  fact,  blending historical figures with the fictional. The looming shadow of war emphasises the danger of those ignorant of history being condemned to repeat it. Man bumbles his way through our present age as he did seventy years ago at the time of the action of the book, scarcely more enlightened in his acts now than he was then and seemingly unable to distort the cyclical nature of history.

It is no surprise that someone who lectured in Creative Writing should produce masterly prose. One thing I found distracting, in a minor sort of way, was the absence of umlauts in many familiar words but this is a minor criticism. Verging on the poetic, the prose paints vivid word pictures of both characters and places. At times, perhaps, a single word may strike a wrong note but on the whole, the author has produced an easily comprehended tale of the depriving of liberty and brutalisation of the German people of the time.
                                       EQUINOX
                                       by Michael White
                                              312 pages
                                      ISBN 1921215011
                                                SCRIBE
                                        October 3 2006
                                                 $32.95
                                reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                       November 21 2006

Michael White is not exactly unknown as an author. He has penned a multiplicity of non-fiction, but EQUINOX is his first published foray into fiction. White had already written a biography of Isaac Newton before casting that eminent scientist as a cast member in EQUINOX so it must have been supremely satisfying to be able to call on  research he had already performed in order to write this fable, the novel performing the function of a literary Philosopher's Stone transmuting raw knowledge into the gold of fiction. The author had lectured in Oxford so his descriptions of the city are authentic as he subjects his characters to perils in the city of 'dreaming spires' (Matthew Arnold has a lot to answer for with that description!)

The tale begins with spouting gore in the present day. Someone, later identified as 'the Acolyte', carves up a young female student, adhering to a strict timetable.

American writer Laura Niven has returned to Oxford more than twenty years after studying there. She is staying with her former lover and father of their daughter, Philip Bainbridge, but is due to return to the US the following day. Philip, a crime scene photographer, is called to the location of the corpse that the reader has already met and, because Laura is with him when the call comes through, she accompanies him then strives to carve a place for herself in the investigation.

In Cambridge, in 1689, scientist Isaac Newton seeks out an aspect of truth, one for which he is not renowned in history. He is an alchemist who ponders the mysteries of the universe, anxious to locate the Philosopher's Stone and the ultimate truths governing all of creation. While he doesn't  find that artefact, he does locate the magical Ruby Sphere (an invention of the author's mind  rather than an alchemical device.)

Back in the present day, there are further murders and Laura has a remarkable insight linking the outrages with astrology enabling her to predict accurately the times and forms of more killings. Her ideas are spurned by the official investigators so she and Philip conduct clandestine researches, calling on her contacts for help.

Michael White is an impressive debutante (or should that be 'debutant'?) His credentials give him a firm basis for future fame and already his book has been snapped up by publishers around the world. He provides extremely interesting notes at the back of the novel, explaining at length his historical references as well as a coy  allusion to the biography of Newton written by one "Liam Ethwiche".

While the mystery of the identity of the murderer may not be terribly enigmatic, the methods by which the author formulated that mystery are purely delightful. For the ardent crime fiction aficionado, the gallons of gore with the associated bloodlust will not be awfully off-putting -- savagery, sadism and algolagnia are, after all, everyday fare for the true addict -- but the finished product will no doubt exert a magical attraction on the reader who will, of course, maintain a suitable gravity following the adventures both historical and modern.
THE MEDICI SECRET
by Michael White
ISBN 9781863256162
295 pages
BANTAM
March 3 2008
$32.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
March 12 2008

The action begins in Florence in 1966, when the city is engulfed in flood. Mario Sporani, the warden of the Medici Chapel hastens to check his charge and, while there, rescues a mysterious something from the turbulent waters threatening to engulf the site.

In the present day, Edie Granger is a scientist working with her uncle, Carlin MacKenzie, on the contents of the Medici Chapel despite the remonstrations of a group of protestors. Interestingly enough, Edie and her uncle have found evidence of bad relations (so to speak) within the Medici family, including proof positive of poisoning that had occurred  half a millennium or so previously. It appears that all bad dealings can't be confined to history when Carlin dies. Before doing so, however, he leaves a message describing writing that has appeared on what has previously appeared to be a plain tablet. As is always the case, however, the memory of the telephone on which Carlin leaves the message truncates the message before it can be finished.

Jeff Martin is also in Venice. He is a friend of Visconte Roberto Armatovani, who admires the historian as well as his fourteen year-old daughter Rose. The two men are enjoying the evening when they are approached by Mario Sporani who wishes to add his voice to that of the protestors in requesting the work on the Medici Chapel be stopped. Sporani is deeply concerned for the safety of the team working on the Medici Chapel.

The action then retreats to 1410 and Cosimo de Medici. That worthy is not terribly happy to be told by his father that he is expected to embark on a tour of the family's banks. The instruction marks, virtually, the end of Cosimo's time as a carefree youth. Meanwhile, Cosimo decides he must embark on another, altogether different path.

And yes, the two stories do manage to marry up. I am having great difficulty in expressing this without including a spoiler or six! Suffice it that the reader is made privy to the Secret of the Medicis. Readers may well be extremely surprised - I know I was.

The author, in a lengthy afterword entitled ìThe Facts Behind The Fictionî presents the reader with a grab bag of items, including paragraphs about actual, historical figures whom he has employed within the novel. It is an interesting addendum and one which I felt was of equal or even greater import than the novel itself.

Obviously, this book is for those readers who have an interest in things historical and does succeed in giving one to think.
 
 
 
 

                                           THE SULTAN'S SEAL
                                               by Jenny White
                                             ISBN 0297852574
                                                     351 pages
                                         Weidenfeld & Nicolson
                                                    May 5 2006
                                                          $29.95
                                      reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                                     May 4 2006

Anthropologist Jenny White, Associate Professor of Anthropology at  Boston University lived and studied in Turkey. She has written two non fiction books prior to this, her debut in fiction. She is already working on the sequel to THE SULTAN'S SEAL, another mystery featuring her protagonist, Magistrate Kamil Pasha.

The year is 1886 and Kamil Pasha is awakened in the middle of the night to the news that the body of a woman, who is later identified as a British governess to the Sultan's harem, stripped of all clothing except items of jewellery, has been washed up by the Middle Village Mosque. Kamil summons his friend, Michel Sevy,  the police surgeon, to assist him. Together, they examine a pendant the woman is wearing, a pendant that bears the Sultan's Seal as well as inscriptions later identified as a Chinese poem.

The investigation leads Kamil to Sybil, the daughter of the British Ambassador. She tentatively identifies the victim as Mary Dixon. Feeling a strange attraction to Kamil, Sibyl decides to help him in the investigation. After all, as a man, he has no possibility of interviewing members of the harem, a restriction that does not apply to Sibyl.

Eight years previously the body of another woman, Hannah Simmons was also found in the water. She, too, had been a governess employed by the harem. Could there be a link? Certainly Jaanan Hanoum was involved in the discovery of both bodies.

The political situation in the Ottoman Empire at the time is precarious. The Sultan himself fears people plotting to overthrow him so employs secret police to spy on the populace. The people fear to speak their minds to anyone lest the recipient of the confidences be a spy. The populace is uneasy, which does not facilitate Kamil's investigation.

Aided by Sybil's cousin, American Bernie, a self described 'itinerant scholar', Kamil follows his investigation along perilous paths . The narrative treads the route of 1886 as well as that of the earlier murder and charts the life of Jaanan who is mysteriously connected to both women.

It is evident that Jenny White is an expert on the history of Turkey. Her expertise is obvious in the way she places her protagonist and his fellows in the life of the times. She evokes the era with rich prose that does not always advance the action of the mystery but provides interesting glimpses into the lives of the well to do. As the story proceeds. the author spends less time on providing a detailed picture of the contemporary scene and rather more on the puzzle itself. The relationships between Jaanan and her cousin Hamza and Sybil and Kamil are developed against the unravelling of the mystery of who killed the two governesses.

Although the author admits that her manuscript was subject to severe editing, it is possible that more could have been done to increase the suspense and believability of the characters. This having been said, the novel is a first attempt at fiction and a promising one. It will no doubt be rewarding to read her next effort.
                                  HUNTERS IN THE SEA
                                             by Robin White
                                           ISBN 0752866648
                                                    371 pages
                                                      Orion
                                            October 6 2006
                                                        $32.95
                                   reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                           December 7 2006
 
 

Robin White has taken two topics with which I  am distinctly uncomfortable on this outing: submarines and smallpox. The tale has no clear single protagonist but numerous characters in several locations and an uncomfortably claustrophobic atmosphere.

Dr. Aslan Makayev works in a facility formerly used by Soviet Russia to prepare biological nasties for potential warfare against the West. Since the decay of the USSR, Makayev has taken advantage of the downturn in the site's fortunes to turn it into a moneymaking venture: the production of vodka. Makayev sees an offer by a foreign power, Saudi Arabia, as an opportunity for him to leave the place where only bad things have happened to him, so he carefully packs four vials of smallpox virus to be given to his new employers. He has no qualms about their possession of the biological weapon since he has been told it is to be used only as a deterrent.

Meanwhile, the USS Portland has an intimidating comms officer: a woman, Lieutenant Rose Scavullo, a Russian speaker trained as a spy. Such a person is feared by all right thinking submariners. They know that a woman aboard a submarine brings bad luck, and Scavullo has already, to the minds of some of the crew, proven the truth of the legend.

The Cristi is a rusty old freighter. Makayev and his associates board the tub which will transport them most of the way to Saudi Arabia. They set out from a Black Sea port for an eventful voyage. The Cristi, however, soon has a name change which renders it the Nova Spirit while another, similar craft is renamed the Cristi. Skullduggery at work!

The K-335 Gepard is a super quiet Russian submarine. The captain of the vessel knows it is completely undetectable. He can get an American vessel in his sights, train his weapons on it, then withdraw without firing and without having been noticed.

The Portland is sent on a rescue mission but, to the horror of its commander, is diverted and has to take some SEALS on board, SEALS under the command of an arrogant young Lieutenant Jameson.

Soon the Cristi becomes the object of everyone's search; but which one?

As before mentioned, the undersea adventures are noticeably claustrophobic, although suitably violent and chase-riddled. The smallpox virus with its threat both potential and realised, provides a nasty counterpoint. The superstitious submariners supply thrills of a different kind, directed at Scavullo.

The characterisations are not a major feature of the book although one does get inside the heads of some of the major characters. The emphasis is certainly on action and the author provides that in spades. Since White  lived in Russia for a time, one can only accept at face value that he has provided the reader with a series of words that would make accurate sense to a Russian.

I found the detail of submarine life (although one trusts it is usually devoid of threats to people's lives) interesting and the adventures suitably hair raising. Contemplating the mayhem that could be inflicted on the world by religious fanatics determined to rid the earth of wicked Westerners, then, presumably, the rest of humankind, is something that might well make anyone's skin crawl.

This is an energetic read for anyone with an interest in sub-surface shenanigans.

                                                                        AMONG THE DEAD
                                                                                 by Kevin Wignall
                                                                             ISBN 0-340-79369-4
                                                                                     232 pages
                                                                                        Flame
                                                                              Hodder & Stoughton
                                                                                  July 11 2002
                                                                                        $29.95
                                                                           reviewed by Denise Wels

                  Belgian born Kevin Wignall, who lives in the west of England, studied at Lancaster University. He taught English as a Second Language before becoming a full time writer. His first novel, People Die, achieved some success and no doubt he hopes his second book, Among The Dead, will reach an even wider audience.

                 It is difficult to categorise Among The Dead. In a brief Q&A on his website, the author denies it is a thriller. It also lacks the humour of his first novel, concentrating deeply on character, human reaction and mistaken loyalties.

                The book opens with a group of five friends returning to college (a thinly disguised Lancaster University) after a party. The five have been a very close knit group since the beginning of their university careers. Suddenly, a girl whom the reader later discovers to be student Emily Barratt, runs out in front of the car and is tossed quite a long way, presumably to her death. Medical student Alex gets out of the car to investigate the girl's fate and comes back to tell his friends she is dead. Then their quandary begins - what do they do about it? Because they feel their own futures will suffer, they decide not to report the accident to the police. The death goes down in the annals as just another unsolved hit and run.

              The outline of the beginning of the plot is, as the author acknowledges, vaguely reminiscent of the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. The treatment, however, is different. The friendship of the five is examined and it is easy to see the cracks developing right from the beginning. Two of the male students turn to outside friends. something they would never previously have done, and one, despite the vow of secrecy they have taken, divulges to a girl that the group was involved in the accident.

               Ten years on, Alex is now a doctor involved in sleep research. He is subject to freakish nightmares in which the shade of a woman whom he presumes to be Emily  Barratt, appears to him. He is horrified to learn of the death of one of his former friends who had turned to drugs to escape his past but has fallen prey to a drug overdose. Despite considerable doubt being thrown on the method of the killing and the implication it could well be murder, the police refuse to investigate. Alex attempts to track down the remaining trio of friends but is appalled to hear of further deaths.

               The narrative shifts points of view in the earlier part but in the latter part, ten years on, is told from the point of view of Alex. It is rather a claustrophobic tale but extremely well told with excellent characterisation and coherent writing. Perhaps the introspection was a little overdone but on the whole the story is absorbing. Some strange loose ends are left floating - for example, the mystery of why Emily Barratt was running from the party in the first place, so lost to the world that she flung herself into the path of the car, is never solved. When the author is queried on this point in the brief Q&A he replies 'I don't know. I wasn't there.' Despite the inconclusiveness, the story really works and should be recommended to readers of crime fiction.
                     SUNDOWN CROSSING
                            by Lynne Wilding
                             ISBN 0732283019
                                     436 pages
                          HarperCollins Publishers
                                  May 15 2006
                                         $19.95
                          reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                   May 22 2006
 

Lynne Wilding, like her protagonist Carla Hunter, is  nothing if not tenacious. Having decided to be a writer, she continued sending off manuscripts despite constant rejections. Fortunately, having decided that one more rejection would see her relinquish her ambition, The Sheikh was accepted for publication in 1991 and since then her career has taken off.

Carla Hunter is devastated by the death of her father Rolfe. To her astonishment, when given the journal he kept as a young man, she discovers she has family in South Australia's Barossa Valley, the wealthy and influential winemaking Stenmarks. Her father, a winemaker, confesses that he was seduced by Marta, fiancée of his older brother Kurt. Disbelieving, he is spurned by Marta when he declares his love and is disowned by his father Carl and ordered to leave his fledgling winery, Krugerhoff, and the Barossa Valley. He changes his name and establishes a successful winery in New Zealand.

Carla wishes to take possession of Krugerhoff and meet her family so, with Rolfe's lover  Angie, a talented winemaker, she moves to the Barossa and changes the name of Krugerhoff to Sundown Crossing. She and Angie, aided by architect and neighbour Paul van Leeson, attempt to overcome the Stenmark inspired hostility of the folk of the Barossa.

The Vietnamese Loong family, occasional workers in the Valley, have been squatting on Krugerhoff and have made a temporary home there. They are upset when Carla, her five year-old son Sam and Angie move in. Kim, the oldest of the family of three, approaches Carla, telling her that they are willing to work and disclosing the home they have made there. Carla gratefully accepts Kim's offer and sets the trio up in a mobile home on the property.

Forces within the Stenmark empire are determined to see Carla's enterprise fail. Her aunt Lisel and grandfather Carl are especially hostile and set out to undermine Carla's efforts but Carla establishes a  friendship with her aunt Greta and hopes that eventually her grandfather will soften his attitude toward her.

This is a pleasant tale of wine and passions of various kinds. It should delight all aficionados of the romance genre. The goodies are very good and the baddies a crazy hue of black.

It is a shame that the author concentrated on her story to the exclusion of describing the Barossa Valley, the beauties of which deserve more attention than simply being the location of the winemaking tale. Still, there is no doubt that Sundown Crossing is an entertaining read.
 

                     THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE
                                PINK CARNATION
                                      by Lauren Willig
                                     ISBN 1863254781
                                            388 pages
                                              Bantam
                                        April 1 2005
                                               $29.95
                             reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                       March 29 2005

Lauren Willig, so the publishers inform us, is a graduate of Yale and a law student and Ph.D. candidate in history at Harvard. One trusts that this, her first novel, can help her with her living expenses until she comp