Ahenny Books

LJ Ross has given me a problem with the first of her Northumbrian set DCI Ryan mysteries.  I’ve already mentioned elsewhere on here that I don’t really do series of novels based around a central police character.  Lawyers, reporters or special agents seem to offer much more scope for variety.  It also features a sensationalist plot element that I’m reluctant to buy-in to as a continuing theme and a body count higher than I’m willing to accept as plausible.   So, despite having enjoyed it, I’d normally not bother to read any more of the series.  But here’s my problem - I loved these characters.  Ryan and academic consultant Anna Taylor spark on the page, and although there’s a case to be made that the professional boundaries being crossed are more than questionable, given the suspension of disbelief required for the plot as a whole it wasn’t an issue for me.   I don’t think there’s any intention here to provide a particularly accurate portrayal of polic...

Although I’ve got a couple of thriller series I follow from Steve Cavanagh and Tony Kent, my preference more generally is for standalone books. I often find the “hook” of a book part way through the series is the one that grabs my attention leaving me to determine if I should then go back and read from the start. But occasionally I’ll read a one-off and be left wishing for more of the same. "Hunted" is very much one of those. San Francisco police officer Jake Ellis finds his girlfriend’s daughter Molly banging on his door just as he receives and text alert for a missing child - Molly - naming him as the suspected abductor. Realising he’s being set up, we are treated to an adrenaline fuelled race around the SF area as he tries to prove his innocence and find out who shot his girlfriend. Knight throws in a few twists along the way, but essential this is one long chase sequence, so for it to succeed it has to rely heavily on the quality of the characters and the writing. H...

 If there is a writer around at the moment who more consistently delivers a satisfying final few pages to a book than Louise Candlish, I haven’t found them yet. I’m not talking about game-changing, rug-pulling twists that change how you look at everything that’s gone before or leave you feeling cheated by a ridiculous revelation.  I’m thinking more in a “One more thing…” kind of way.  Not a Columbo “One more thing”, more of a Steve Jobs “One more thing”.  A gentle reminder of some of the information you’ve really had along but forgotten to put together, but which result in a logical - and almost inevitable - conclusion that’s bound to leave you with a wry smile.  They are almost akin to the mid credit scenes in a Marvel movie. And so it is with “The Other Passenger”.   Two couples - Jamie & Clare, Kit & Melia - find their lives entangled when work colleagues Clare & Melia introduce their partners - resulting in Jamie and Kit becoming “waterbus b...

Steve Cavanagh’s series based around New York conman turned lawyer Eddie Flynn is pretty much what kickstarted my reading habit.  I’d always enjoyed a good book - but it was never a priority to make time for one.  Reading was something done lying in the sun on holiday, or in my sick bed fighting off a stinking cold.  I’d read 4 books a year across those two weeks and not pick up another book for months.   I jumped into the series with “Thirteen” as a last minute pick-up at the airport.  You know the hook on the cover is successful when you and your wife (who have very different reading habits) both independently buy a copy at the airport.  Much confusion ensued in the holiday villa before we realised we each had a copy.  After enjoying it, I picked up the later “Fifty Fifty” and then worked my way forwards from the beginning.  And after discovering the joys of (slightly) large print on the Kindle app I’m pretty much now working through two bo...

Louise Candlish’s tale of unravelling domestic perfection is a masterpiece.   Situations all too recognisable spiral out of control despite the best intentions of (most) of those involved.   Even the character responsible for precipitating all this isn't entirely unsympathetic. I’m never impressed by twists that rely on coincidences, hidden pasts or that render a character’s previous actions inconsistent, but here Candlish delivers something so much more effective.   Not a “No way!” - more of an “Of course” as the implications of those final pages sink in.   The structure can feel a little frustrating from time to time, but it’s more than worth it for the pay-offs of several revelations along the way and that final kick in the gut.   I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever read a better ending to a book.    I’ve really enjoyed several of her books and "The Swimming Pool" and "The Other Passenger" are also top notch, but “Our House” is the pick of the bunch. ...

I’m not sure there has been a more compelling “What would you do?” since Indecent Proposal hit cinemas back in 1993.   After foiling a kidnap attempt that she stumbles into, Sarah finds herself being made an offer by a grateful father - give him a name and that person will disappear without a trace and with no comeback on you.   What follows is simply sublime.  Logan keeps us guessing all along the way - not so much in a twisty kind of way - more an increasing level anxiety as to what price may have to be paid by our heroine.   I’ve not read anything that’s ratcheted up the tension the way this did - resulting in me absolutely having to read-to-the-finish at 3am!   I defy you to find a better plausible every(wo)man thriller than this. I think this may  have been the first of Logan's books I read and having read it, I assumed that he was a she.  In part, I guess due to the #MeToo elements of the plot, but I think he just made Sarah feel so absolutely au...

I stumbled upon Tony Kent’s writing via tweets from the legendary Phil Williams (now at Times Radio).   His late night book segments in his time at 5Live were all too rare shining examples of quality interviewing.   Liking his banter on twitter, I followed Tony and had a look at the books in his Bio.   They sounded like my kind of thing and were on offer at the time.   I picked up all 3 and raced through them.   Pretty sure I finished them in a week. “Killer Intent” introduces us to London based lawyer Michael Devlin and US agent Joe Dempsey as they find themselves at the heart of an assassination attempt.  It’s a clever split of the two main characters and enables Kent to maintain each as believable in their role and avoids having to create a backstory for his lawyer that lets him fulfil a full-on action hero role.  Devlin’s background ensures he can more than handle himself, but within realistic parameters.  The following books feature a varied...

Without intending any disrespect to the other books and authors commented on here, “I Know Was I Saw” is a very different kind of book from pretty much everything else.   I intensely dislike the idea of categorising things as “genre” or “commercial” fiction in a disparaging manner, but there’s no doubt in my mind that many reading Imran Mahmood’s latest would recognise that it transcends any such boundaries and sits comfortably in the realm of (more-worthy-to-some) literary fiction.   Mahmood’s tale of Xander Shute and his broken mind evokes James Hogg’s classic “Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner” and deserves to regarded with similar esteem.  I'm usually very much a read-it-and-move-on kind of reader, but I found this hard to leave behind.  Two books later and it was still this one that was churning over in my mind.  And I think that's largely down to Mahmood's brave decision to have Xander's flaws visible from the outset, but still manage t...

This one is *everywhere* right now and it's easy to see why.  A compelling, simple but original premise and an equally intriguing background of a debut author.  Add a full court press of marketing and publicity and it's clear that this book is going to be HUGE. In fact it would be tempting to dismiss this as a "manufactured" best seller, but that would be immensely unfair to the book and the author.  While there's an element of your-mileage-may-very, I've come to the realisation that whatever alchemy Newman has got going on here, it's a very special kind of book - for me at any rate. I'm what I'd describe as a "disconnected" reader and am always conscious that I'm reading words on paper that someone has crafted.  I could never get "lost" in a book the way some people can, and my imagination isn't very visual, but this felt like a film to me.  Not like reading a screenplay, but like watching it in the cinema.  Even that d...

This feels like a guilty pleasure. It really shouldn't. It looks and feels like a throwaway summer novel to be read on a sunlounger and then not quite make the cut when you're packing the suitcase for the trip home.  But there's something about it that elevated it way past that for me.  Yes, ok, it's not something I'm going to re-read - but I can count on one hand the books I've ever re-read.  What it is, is fun.  And smart. Twists and revelations for me tend to fall into two camps.  Those that are entirely predictable, and those that are so left field the only thing I can think is "Well, that's just *&@$#% ridiculous".  Of course the perfect one is the one that hits me with "How did I not see that coming?".  "The Cousins" hit the mark at least twice - which is pretty rare in my experience. Ok, the concept isn't groundbreaking - the new generation searching the past for family secrets - but the set up is done well, our l...

Many of the books I read are selected based on writers-recommending-writers on their social media.  I love that they are so generous with their praise for others who may be considered their competition in some respects.  Although, there are also times I'm wondering if these quotes are simply exchanged quid pro quo without the books ever being read.   But that's not how I came to read "Last One at the Party".  That can definitely be chalked down as a win for Hodder & Stoughton's marketing team.  How could I not instantly buy a book which was recommended in an email with the subject -" A dystopian Bridget Jones meets Shaun of the Dead..."?   And that does pretty well encapsulate Clift's book.  Fun and horrific in equal measure as our heroine makes her way through a fairly standard post apocalyptic landscape.  Albeit one that by  February  2021 most of us we contemplating much more than we would like.  Given the obvious parallels b...