Review: THE TILT, Chris Hammer

• 
  This edition (trade paperback)  published by Allen & Unwin October 2022
  
• ISBN:9781761067419
• 496 pages
• Awards: Longlisted, Best Fiction, Indie Book Awards, 2023, AU

Synopsis (publisher) 

A man runs for his life in a forest.

A woman plans sabotage.

A body is unearthed.

Newly-minted homicide detective Nell Buchanan returns to her home town, annoyed at being assigned a decades-old murder - a 'file and forget'.

But this is no ordinary cold case, as the discovery of more bodies triggers a chain of escalating events in the present day. As Nell starts to join the pieces together, she begins to question how well she truly knows those closest to her. Could her own family be implicated in the crimes?

The nearer Nell comes to uncovering the secrets of the past, the more dangerous the present becomes for her, as she battles shadowy assailants and sinister forces. Can she survive this harrowing investigation and what price will she have to pay for the truth?

Gripping and atmospheric, The Tilt is a stunning multi-layered novel by the acclaimed and award-winning author of the international bestsellers Scrublands, Silver, Trust and Treasure & Dirt.

My Take

From my point of view, this really is Chris Hammer's best novel so far. Multi-layered, it has a bit of everything: current political issues, current ecological issues, police procedural, cold cases, mystery, puzzles, linkings between the past and the present, history, and a family saga.

When you read this book, look for the geneaological table in the last pages of the book. I found this so useful that I photocopied it for quick reference.

The last thing that Nell Buchanan expects is for her family to be involved in the unknown skeleton unearthed near the river which is the cold case she is assigned to investigate.

The story also gives an overview of how Australia history from the First World War onwards has affected a small rural town.

I was interested too that some of the current issues that Hammer thinks are impacting on rural Australia coincide with those that Garry Disher referred to in DAY'S END which I read recently. 

And finally, for South Australian readers, you will learn more about the history of the River Murray, very relevant today with the current flooding of the river.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

• 4.7, SCRUBLANDS
• 4.4, SILVER
• 4.6, TREASURE & DIRT 

Review: THE KILLING CODE, Ellie Marney

•  this book made available by my local library through Libby
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 20, 2022)
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 031633958X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316339582
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 years and up
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 9 and up

Synopsis (Amazon)

A historical mystery about a girl who risks everything to track down a vicious serial killer, for fans of The Enigma Game and Last Night at the Telegraph Club.

Virginia, 1943: World War II is raging in Europe and on the Pacific front when Kit Sutherland is recruited to help the war effort as a codebreaker at Arlington Hall, a former girls’ college now serving as the site of a secret US Signal Intelligence facility. But Kit is soon involved in another kind of fight: government girls are being brutally murdered in Washington DC, and when Kit stumbles onto a bloody homicide scene, she is drawn into the hunt for the killer.
 
To find the man responsible for the gruesome murders and bring him to justice, Kit joins forces with other female codebreakers at Arlington Hall—gossip queen Dottie Crockford, sharp-tongued intelligence maven Moya Kershaw, and cleverly resourceful Violet DuLac from the segregated codebreaking unit. But as the girls begin to work together and develop friendships—and romance—that they never expected, two things begin to come clear: the murderer they’re hunting is closing in on them…and Kit is hiding a dangerous secret. 

My Take

Aimed at a young adult audience, this story combines historical detail with a thriller/mystery. At times the fact that it has a YA audience peeks through, but in general the story is plausible and well-told. 

Two girls employed by the government have recently been murdered and group of four decide to try to track down the murderer. They use their skills as code breakers working in a secret US facility to develop a profile of the murderer and liaise with a journalist from the Washington Post to entrap him.

Running in the background are a couple of other strands: Kit Sutherland's hidden background, the role of girls in codebreaking, and the treatment of black girls despite the role they are playing.

Rating: 4.4 

About the Author
Ellie Marney is an New York Times bestselling author of crime thrillers. Her titles include the Aurealis-winning None Shall Sleep, White Night, the Every series and the companion novel No Limits, and the Circus Hearts series. Her books are published in ten countries, and have been optioned for television. She’s spent a lifetime researching in mortuaries, talking to autopsy specialists, and asking former spies about how to make explosives from household items, and now she lives quite sedately in southeastern Australia with her family. Her latest book is The Killing Code, an intense mystery about female codebreakers hunting a serial killer against a backdrop of 1940s wartime Washington DC. You can find out more about Ellie and her books at www.elliemarney.com or online @elliemarney.

Review: A SPOONFUL OF MURDER, Robin Stevens

• 
  this edition made available on Libby by my local library
  
• Published: 2 April 2018
• ISBN: 9780141373782
• #6 Murder Most Unladylike series.
• Imprint: Puffin
• Pages: 384

Synopsis (Penguin)

The gripping new mystery in the award-winning, bestselling Murder Most Unladylike series.

When Hazel Wong's beloved grandfather passes away, Daisy Wells is all too happy to accompany her friend (and Detective Society Vice President) to Hazel's family estate in beautiful, bustling Hong Kong.

But when they arrive they discover something they didn't expect: there's a new member of the Wong family. Daisy and Hazel think baby Teddy is enough to deal with, but as always the girls are never far from a mystery. Tragedy strikes very close to home, and this time Hazel isn't just the detective. She's been framed for murder!

The girls must work together like never before, confronting dangerous gangs, mysterious suspects and sinister private detectives to solve the murder and clear Hazel's name - before it's too late . . . 

My Take

As I said in my earlier post, the "chooser" in our monthly book group has set a challenge. We are reading 3 cozies that all share the same title. I reviewed the first here, here is the second, and the last  will shortly follow.

The year is 1936 (we know because as Hazel and Daisy are sailing to Hong Kong via the Suez Canal the news comes that King George V has died), and so the time frame is almost 80 years ago. It is therefore before World War II and Hong Kong then is very different to the Hong Kong of today.

The voyage from England to Hong Kong takes 30 days, and when Hazel arrives she finds it isn't just the absence of her grandfather that is different. She now has a little brother whom nobody has told her about, and the maid who used to look after her is now her brother's nursemaid. In addition, her baby brother now has her old room.

A few days after her arrival, Hazel's baby brother is kidnapped and held for ransom, and Hazel and Daisy begin trying to work out who has taken him. 

This is essentially a book for a young adolescent reader, part of a series that presumably he/she is already hooked on. The author tries valiantly to introduce the reader to the culture of Hong Kong. We are also told the back story of the Detective Society which Hazel and Daisy have founded, and which has already successfully pursued five investigations.

It occurs to me that one of the questions I should have posed in my review of the previous book was the significance of the title. To be quite honest, I can't see any relevance in the case of this book, and only remotely in the case of the previous one. There are two murders in this one, one by stabbing, and one by gunshot, so I think the title is a bit random.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Here are ten absolutely true things about me:

1. I am a woman. I really am! I do get a lot of letters addressed to ‘Mr Stevens’, though.
2. I have a pet bearded dragon named Watson, and she is a girl too.
3. I was born in California, and I moved to England when I was three. This means that I have two passports (like a spy), and that I could be the President of the USA and the Prime Minister at the same time if I wanted to be. If this writing thing doesn’t work out, I might consider it.
4. I grew up in Oxford, across the road from Alice in Wonderland. If she hadn’t been Victorian and fictional, I think we could have been friends.
5. When I was little, I wanted to own a zoo and write books about it. I also wanted to be married to Gerald Durrell. I dreamed big.
6. Colin Dexter once sent me a fan letter. I met him when I was twelve and told him that when I grew up I was going to write murder mysteries. I must have been really insistent, because he believed me.
7. I really did go to an English boarding school, Cheltenham Ladies College. And I really did sleep in a dorm, and learn Latin, and have school on Saturday mornings. I never detected a murder, though, which was a bit of a disappointment.
8. I’ve been on University Challenge! I was the Captain of the Warwick University team. We didn’t win, unfortunately, but I did get to meet Jeremy Paxman.
9. When I was at university, I did my MA on crime fiction. So I really do have a degree in murder.
10. I used to work as an editor, helping other authors get their books published, but today I’m lucky enough to be a full-time author!

Review: THE ONE HUNDRED YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED, Jonas Jonasson

• 
  first published in Swedish in 2009
  
• translated into English by Rod Bradbury in 2012
• ISBN 978-1-74331-127-1
• 384 pages
• author website 

Synopsis (publisher)

After a long and eventful life Allan Karlsson is moved to a nursing home to await the inevitable. But his health refuses to fail and as his 100th birthday looms a huge party is planned. Allan wants no part of it and decides to climb out the window...

Charming and funny; a European publishing phenomenon.

Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he doesn't want to begin. His one-hundredth birthday party to be precise. The Mayor will be there. The press will be there. But, as it turns out, Allan will not . . .

Escaping (in his slippers) through his bedroom window, into the flowerbed, Allan makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving a suitcase full of cash, a few thugs, a very friendly hot-dog stand operator, a few deaths, an elephant and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, Allan's earlier life is revealed. A life in which - remarkably - he played a key role behind the scenes in some of the momentous events of the twentieth century.

The One Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is a charming, warm and funny novel, beautifully woven with history and politics. 

My Take

Surprisingly Allan Karlsson has featured in nearly every important political milestone of the twentieth century world since 1929. He has been helpful to almost every one of the world's most important political leaders among them Truman, Churchill, Mao Tse tung, Nixon and others.

Karlsson's true talent is explosives including THE Bomb.
So while it is a black comedy, the story of Allan Karlsson's life presents a kaleidoscope of history, how one man has played East against West and vice versa.
His escape from the nursing home on the morning of his 100th birthday leads to him being on the run, wanted for murder by the police, and surviving for another month before he is recaptured.

Recollections of the main events of his life are set against this struggle for survival and Karlsson's philosophy about the important things in life.

This novel reminds me a little of a Mad Comic, episodic, not meant to be taken at face value, but at the same time full of little wisdoms.
I have to say that I did get a little tired of the seemingly endless list of adventures and escapades in Allan Karlsson's life, at the same time wanting to know how it all ended. 

My rating: 4.5

About the author
In 2007, I sold everything I owned, packed my bag and placed myself under a palm tree by Lake Lugano, laptop in lap.
Exactly twelve months later, I finished the manuscript. The one I had been carrying around in my mind for so long. Lovingly, it rips the twentieth century of all its glory and righteousness. And yet it embraces life. How could it not? How could we not? The alternative must be boring beyond everything!
Anyway, I sent the manuscript to six different publishing companies. Five of them turned it down, the sixths called me and said yes before they finished reading. Success was in the making, they said. They got bold and printed seven thousand copies in the first go. "Seven thousand? Are you sure?"
"You can never be sure", they said.
It sold ten million. Encouraging enough to give it another try.

Review: MEDICUS, Ruth Downie

• 
  this edition from Amazon on Kindle
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07B659FYD
  
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 1, 2018
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 418 pages 
• #1 in the Medicus series
• Formerly published as RUSO AND THE DISAPPEARING DANCING GIRLS 

Synopsis (Kindle)

Welcome to the most remote part of the Roman Empire. Britannia, AD117 – primitive, cold, damp and very muddy.

The Gods are not smiling on army doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso in his new posting in Britannia. He has vast debts, a slave girl who is much more trouble than she is worth and an overbearing hospital administrator to deal with . . . not to mention a serial killer stalking the local streets.

Barmaids’ bodies are being washed up with the tide and no one else seems to care. It’s up to Ruso to summon all his skills to investigate, even though the breakthroughs in forensic science lie centuries in the future, and the murderer may be hunting him down too.

If only the locals would just stop killing each other and If only it were possible to find a decent glass of wine, and a slave who can cook, Ruso’s prospects would be a whole lot sunnier . . .

The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Gaius Petreius Ruso series. With a gift for comic timing and historic detail, Ruth Downie has conjured an ancient world as raucous and real as our own. Perfect for fans of Lindsey Davis and Steven Saylor. 

My Take

Gaius Petreius Ruso is a career soldier in the Roman army and has recently transferred to the 20th Legion in Deva (modern day Chester) from Africa. Things are very different in Britannia. Not only is the weather dismal but the locals are rebellious and they speak British. Ruso is recovering from a divorce and the death of his father in Gaul. His father has left ruinous debts and so Ruso is constantly trying to send money to his brother who is looking after the family farm in Gaul.

His money seems to be going the wrong way. His lodgings are near the hospital but are filthy, and due to be demolished. He desperately needs someone to cook and clean, but instead ends up rescuing a British slave at a price he can ill afford, and she has a broken arm.

Girls from a local cafe/bordello keep turning up dead, and Ruso becomes a reluctant detective as he tries to work out what is happening. And then his new slave Tilla runs away and Ruso finds he has got used to having her around.

Much of this introduction to life on the frontier of the Roman Empire is seen from the point of view of the conquered rather than the conquerors. We see at first hand the impact of slave trafficking as well as the way in which the conquerors try to impose the "Roman way" onto the locals. The author has created sufficiently likeable central characters in Ruso and Tilla for me to investigate where things go in the second book in the series.

My rating: 4.4

There are 8 titles in the series
MEDICUS (the first story, AKA 'Medicus/Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls')
TERRA INCOGNITA ('Ruso and the Demented Doctor')
PERSONA NON GRATA ('Ruso and the Root of All Evils')
CAVEAT EMPTOR ('Ruso and the River of Darkness')
SEMPER FIDELIS
TABULA RASA
VITA BREVIS
MEMENTO MORI

About the author
Ruth (RS) Downie left university with an English degree and a plan to get married and live happily ever after. She is still working on it.
Ruth lives in North Devon with a husband, a fine view and too many cats. She is not the same person as the RS Downie who writes real medical textbooks. Absolutely none of the medical advice in the Ruso books should be followed. Roman and Greek doctors were very wise about many things but they were also known to prescribe donkey dung and boiled cockroaches.

Find out more at www.ruthdownie.com

Review: THE INVITATION, Lucy Foley

• 
  This edition published 2016 by Harper Collins Publishers 
• ISBN: 9780007575381
  
• ISBN 10: 0007575386
• Pages: 432

Synopsis (publisher)

It’s 1951. In Europe’s post-war wreckage, the glittering Italian Riviera draws an eclectic cast of characters; lured by the glamour but seeking an escape.

Amongst them, two outcasts: Hal, an English journalist who’s living on his charm; and Stella, an enigmatic society beauty, bound to a profiteering husband. When Hal receives a mysterious invitation from a wealthy Contessa, he finds himself aboard a yacht headed for Cannes film festival.

Scratch the beautiful surface, and the post-war scars of his new companions are quick to show. Then there’s Stella, whose secrets run deeper than anyone’s — stretching back into the violence of Franco’s Spain. And as Hal gets drawn closer, a love affair begins that will endanger everyone…

The Invitation is an epic love story that will transport you from the glamour of the Italian Riviera, to the darkness of war-torn Spain. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Victoria Hislop.

My take

For my blog followers, I should first of all tell you, that this is not crime fiction, my usual fare. 

This book tells its story through a number of time frames, which makes it a challenging read.  In addition there are two main plot lines: the current story, and that of an old hand written journal. The author uses different type face too, presumably to help the reader decide which story you are reading.

Hal's initial invitation to a party being held by the Contessa comes from a friend who cannot go. The Contessa is throwing a party for her rich friends, trying to attract investment for a film based on part of her family history. Hal is a journalist who has been living in Rome since the end of the war. He manages by writing small pieces for a magazine but is in desperate need of work. At the party the Contessa takes a liking to him and promises to be in touch later. At the party he also meets Stella, who comes back to his flat with him - a one-night stand. 

Fifteen months later the Contessa contacts him. The Film is made, she has funding, it is being released at Cannes, and she needs a captive journalist. And so the Hal-Stella story begins.

The blurb says this is an "epic love story". It is also about infatuation, possession, and the impact of events in Europe, in particular Spain since the mid 1930s, on the lives of families and individuals.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read 

4.6, THE HUNTING PARTY
4.7, THE GUEST LIST