Book Review: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

ISBN: 978-0-7528-8167-6
Publisher: Orion Books Ltd
Website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
Copyright © Diane Setterfield 2006
456 Pages, Paperback

I started reading and immediately liked Margaret Lea the narrator. There was something in her quiet manner that reached out through the pages of the book, took my hand and gently lead me through the history of Angelfield House and the story of Vida Winter.

Vida is an author coming to the end of her life and wishes to have her biography written. She wants to “tell the truth” as she puts it. Margaret is her biographer. As the tale unfolds you are drawn into the dark places and secrets of Vida’s childhood and consequent to those revelations, you are entrusted with Margaret’s own secrets and fears.

The prose was magical to me, quite beautiful, and put me in mind of a modern day Jane Austen. Descriptions and characters were so well written that I can still see them now.

My opinion - A ghost story. A mystery. A love story. Whatever you choose to call it, this was a book that was recommended to me by quite a few people, well they were all dead right. A great story and a wonderful experience.

Book Review: Veil of Darkness by Gillian White

ISBN: 0-7531-6617-8
Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd
Website: www.isis-publishing.co.uk
Copyright © Gillian White 1999
408 Pages, Paperback

Three “damaged” women meet at a Cornish Hotel where they have all gone for one reason or another to work, or more honestly, to escape. Whilst there, they find an old book, long forgotten, and are captivated and fixated by it. The story is how that book changes their lives. Changes for the better or are they really for worse?

Now when I was reading I had real difficulty in liking any of the three main characters. They didn’t really have my support though under the circumstances sympathy and support should have been there. I can only presume that it was the way the characters were written, compassion seemed to have been left out, and unfortunately I began to dislike and be irritated by them.

The story was a surprise, and it was based on a very good idea, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it. I especially didn’t enjoy the last two pages which seemed to me as if they’d been hurriedly written to finish off a story that didn’t need finishing. I believe the book would have benefited without it.

So my opinion - a surprising storyline that did keep you guessing, but not a good read.

Book Review for Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sánchez Piñol

ISBN: 978 1 84195 815 6
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Website: www.canongate.net
Copyright © Albert Sánchez Piñol 2005
Translation Copyright © Mara Faye Lethem 2008
Pages 441, Hardcover

(An Early Reviewer Book sent to me by Canongate Books through LibraryThing for my review).

A story in two parts. In fact a story about writing a story, and the actual story. Firstly, the narrative of Tommy Thomson, his life in London as a fledgling ghost writer, the people in his life and his dreams of writing "a great book", and secondly the adventure written from Thomson’s prison visits with Marcus Garvey, a man awaiting trial for double murder.

The plot twists and turns, WWI happens (almost as a slight annoyance), and then the story continues to its not entirely unforeseen climax. Piñol moves the reader seamlessly between Thomson and Garvey’s stories, from London to the Congo, then back again and also through time, without the pause for thought that can sometimes happen with this strategy.

There is a flavour of Jules Verne or Edgar Rice Burroughs to the writing especially those sections relating to the journey through the Congo, which in my opinion is intentional by the author, possibly with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. It worked for me.

I enjoyed this book enormously. It was humorous, puzzling and downright sinister in places, I shall most certainly be buying Piñol’s previous book and probably his next one too.

Book Review for The Shakespeare Secret by J L Carrell

ISBN: 978 0 7515 4035 2
Publisher: Sphere An Imprint of Little Brown Book Group
Website: www.littlebrown.co.uk
Copyright © Jennifer Lee Carrell 2007
Author Website: www.jenniferleecarrell.com
480 Pages, Paperback

Sometimes the wealth of Shakespeare law is a little overpowering. Though the trick Carrell uses of Kate Stanley knowing virtually all there is to know about the Bard and explaining it in layman’s terms to Ben Pearl, the British security expert, is a good plot continuation. It also explains it all to us as we’re running to keep up with the characters when they jump from country to country and back again, trying to keep one step ahead of a serial killer, the FBI and the British Police.

Unfortunately for me though, the characters are not fleshed out enough, their histories, feelings etc., I wish there had been more background on them to compensate for the in-depth information on Shakespeare. Because of this the book felt a little uneven, though it is still a good read. I would describe it as an exciting whodunit with a Shakespeare lecture thrown in.

I learned a lot about Shakespeare that I wasn’t aware of and a little about the old west and how popular Shakespeare was in the mining camps and western towns; definitely something that I’d like to find out more about.

Book Review for San Andreas by Alistair MacLean

ISBN: 0 00 222830 0
Publisher: William Collins Sons & Co Ltd
Website: www.harpercollins.co.uk
Copyright © Alistair MacLean 1984
286 Pages, Hardcover

Set on a hospital ship in Norwegian waters, with a British Merchant Navy crew and a collection of doctors, nurses and orderlies, hunted by German planes and U-boats and not knowing the reason for the pursuit, a saboteur loose, wreaking havoc with the electrical systems, fuel lines, heating and medical supplies.

As soon as I began to read I was hooked. This is a World War II adventure thriller that had me jumping from one crew member to another looking for the bad hat, and being proved wrong, usually when another act of sabotage took place. I wasn’t alone, even the main characters were baffled.

The feeling of suspense was masterly, and the description of a badly damaged ship in hostile weather conditions was enough to have me shivering for real. But to my mind the dialogue between the characters coupled with the understated humour in the face of the towering odds against them is what turned the whole story into a masterpiece.