Release Date: 07/08/14
Publisher: Atlantic Books
SYNOPSIS:
"How much of our lives is real and how much is an illusion? The world's gaze is focussed on the feats and daring of the amazing Harry Houdini, while not a soul is aware of down-and-out Martin Strauss. However, Strauss' fate is inextricably linked with the magician's, and as Houdini continues to rise, and Strauss continues to fall, their lives will converge in spectacular and devastating fashion...At once entertaining and suspenseful, historically rich and cleverly told, The Confabulist is an novel of magic and memory, truth and illusion, and the ways that love, hope, grief, and imagination can - for better or for worse - alter what we perceive and what we believe."
REVIEW:
OK, I know a little about Harry Houdini and whilst the story has been manipulated factually, as a reader I prefer the story to carry itself over accuracy and that’s what Steven Galloway has done well in this book. The story has an almost magical feel about it, the prose is sharp and when added to the culmination of rounded characters all round gave me a book that I had a lot of fun with and had a hard time putting down, which for me is the sign of cracking writing. Magical.
Release Date: 04/02/14
Publisher: Atlantic Books
SYNOPSIS:
When a nine-year-old boy is left to die inside a burning car on a sink estate in Peckham, DCI David Rosen is drafted in to investigate. The young boy has been severely burned, and is now fighting for his life. As Rosen and his team begin to scour the crime scene for forensic evidence, they discover something chilling; a graffiti image of a sinister eye, drawn in exquisite detail above the site of the wreckage - and behind it, a series of mysterious markings, etched into the wall. Could the markings represent a secret code left by the killer - a code that will hold the key to the investigation?
REVIEW:
OK, so for me, Mark’s first book The Sixth Soul was essentially a middle of the road book that whilst not outstanding, was solid enough to put Mark on my TBR list. The prose was good, the concept within believable and with cracking dialogue alongside proper crime solving generated a story that I felt was a lot better than the original.
Add to this some solid sleight of hand from the author backed up with an author who has clearly learned from what has gone before demonstrates that he’s a name to watch.
Release Date: 02/01/14
Publisher: Atlantic Books
SYNOPSIS:
Alexander the Great rests in Babylon as he decides which should be his next world to conquer. A war elephant, Colossus, disturbs the peace of the camp when he is provoked to a killing rampage. Only one young mahout has the courage to stop Colossus. And when Alexander notices his bravery, Gajendra begins a meteoric climb through the ranks of the Macedonian army. Gajendra is fiercely loyal to Alexander, the great General who plucked him from obscurity. But as he rises to become Captain of the Elephants, Gajendra sees how Alexander is being corrupted by luxury and power. Forced to choose between keeping faith with Alexander or with his comrades, Gajendra must find the strength to make the right decision as Alexander's army approaches the gates of Rome.
REVIEW:
There are times as a reader when as a reader you'd love to sit back and ponder the "What if" question and whilst a lot of books take the reader into the fantasy realm, this title brings one of History's Greatest General's to the fore, into a story that could have happened had he not died so young.
Here in this case, the reader is asked the question of "What if Alexander the Great had invaded Carthage?" And to be honest, it generates not only a fascinating story but gives the reader a tale that has not only fascinating ponderings but generates believable battle sequences that goes to show a war thats all or nothing.
Its a cracking read and with Alexander giving me as a reader just the right blend of action, some great machinations of personal and political asides and when added to a writing style thats easy to get on with all round gave me a tale that was hard to put down. Great Stuff.
Release Date: 11/11/13
Publisher: Atlantic Books
SYNOPSIS:
It is 1861, and Angel Woolsack is a Confederate about to breathe his last, as the Union forces make their inexorable approach. Rejected by his wife, his wealth no longer useful to him, he sets about recording his testament. His story is that of a preacher's son, who flees the hardscrabble life of his itinerant father and falls in with a charismatic highwayman. The novel moves from the bordellos of Natchez to the Mississippi plantations, and finally to the back rooms of New Orleans where would-be revolutionaries are plotting to break away from the young United States. The Blood of Heaven is a remarkable portrait of a young man seizing his place in a violent new world.
REVIEW:
I love a debut book as you’re never sure what you’re going to get, so after hearing from other readers that this was a top notch title, I couldn’t wait for a copy to land so that I could get on with it. It seemed like a cracking concept, the blurb spoke volumes and of course when you set it up with what sounds like a joke (a Preachers son and a Highwayman) takes the reader into Southern America in the world of the 19th Century.
So having done some basic homework, I settled down to be amazed and started reading.
What unfurled within was a story that I had a hell of a time to get through. I hated the characters, I couldn’t associate with them, I disliked the lack of any real description for the landscape and all round felt rather cheated especially when I could see the sheer talent behind the piece with some great prose and some solid turn of phrases. All round, whilst it will appeal to a fair few, I found that this book just wasn’t for me especially when you really don’t care about the characters survival. All round a disappointment for me.
Release Date: 04/06/13
Publisher: Atlantic Books
SYNOPSIS:
It is 1870. When amateur archaeologist Adam Carver and his loyal but obdurate retainer Quint are visited in their lodgings in London's Doughty Street by an attractive young woman, their landlady is not pleased. The visitor's arrival pitches Carver and Quint headlong into an elaborate mystery which comes to centre on the existence (or not) of a lost text in Ancient Greek, one that may reveal the whereabouts of the treasure hoard of Philip II of Macedonia. Two deaths soon ensue as master and manservant follow what clues they can grasp in the roughest and most genteel parts of the teeming metropolis, with the whiff of cordite and blackmail never far from their nostrils. The scene shifts to Athens and the wilder fastness of a Greece gripped by political unrest as Carver and Quint join forces with Adam's former Cambridge tutor in an attempt to track down the elusive text. But nothing is quite what it seems, and no one involved is prepared for the final, shocking denouement amidst the extraordinary hilltop monasteries of Meteora...
REVIEW:
Now this was a book that I picked up on a whim. After all I love a story that takes me on a journey, I love spending time in Victorian London, I love having a build-up where action meets brains and of course I love a story that takes me on a break neck pace as matters of importance take the principle player is thrown into a historical mystery all round makes this something that I’ve really been looking forward to.
However upon starting this, I had two major problems, firstly I didn’t like the principle character and secondly the pace was dragged down so much by detailing that it slowed to a crawl. It didn’t grip me as it should have done and all round when I lose interest due to disappointments the book is a real struggle to get through. On the whole it was OK but sadly all round not enough to save me,
Release Date: 01/05/13
Publisher: Atlantic Books
SYNOPSIS:
Glastonbury, legendary resting place of the Holy Grail, is a mysterious and haunting town. But when plump, dizzy Diane Ffitch returns home, it's with a sense of deep unease - and not only about her aristocratic family's reaction to her broken engagement and her New Age companions. Plans for a new motorway have intensified the old bitterness between the local people and the 'pilgrims', so already the sacred air is soured. And, as the town becomes increasingly split by violence and death, Diane, local bookseller Juanita Carey and the writer Joe Powys must now face up to the worst of all possibilities: the existence of an anti-Grail - the dark chalice.
REVIEW:
I love a supernatural title that not only draws me in but gives me solid characters, an unusual twist and of course wraps it all up in a page turning storyline, so whilst I have heard of Phil’s work before I hadn’t had the experience until now.
Whilst this book was released by Macmillan in 1998, it’s the newest incarnation by Corvus that I sat down to read, it not only gave me one hell of a read but also gave me top notch prose, some wonderfully delightful twists and backed it all up with an eerie feeling that accumulates in your neck hairs. Add to this that it was late night reading and to be honest with you I didn’t want to put it down and sleep, so much so that I finished it in the early hours of the morning and as with any tale of darkness those first rays of light can be a real help to relax you enough to sleep. All round a great book and one I was pleased I took the time to sit back and enjoy. Great stuff.
Release Date: 01/02/13
SYNOPSIS:
Six women. Six abductions. Six souls in peril...London is in the grip of a barbaric serial killer, dubbed Herod by the tabloid press. Four pregnant women have been abducted in quick succession, their bodies mutilated and dumped. When a fifth pregnant woman, Julia Caton, is taken from her home in the dead of night, DCI David Rosen knows that time is running out to save her...Then Rosen gets a mysterious phone call from Father Sebastian Flint, an enigmatic priest who seems to know rather too much about the abductions. When it emerges that Father Flint was once the Vatican's leading expert on the occult, the investigation takes an increasingly disturbing turn. But it isn't until Rosen discovers the existence of an ancient text - said to be the devil's answer to the bible - that the true horror of Herod's plan begins to unfold. Rosen is drawn inexorably to the killer's lair, where he will discover a terrible truth - that Herod's retribution is absolute, and that there are far worse things than death...
REVIEW:
I love a debut from a new author as it’s a giant leap into the unknown and perhaps no genre is better suited to that fearful leap than crime. What Mark Roberts presents to the reader is a story of murder, intrigue and of course the hunting of a sadistic killer named Herod by the tabloids.
Whilst not a novel that is a blockbuster it is a solid enough book among the many and when you take into consideration that it’s a debut you really have to make note of this as an author tends to get better with each successive release. All in if you want a reasonable paced Crime Thriller, with solid prose alongside some sleight of hand thrown in then you may well enjoy this book.
Release Date: 01/08/12
SYNOPSIS:
Ready or not, here he comes...He plays the oldest children's game in the world, hide and seek. Only the Eye Collector plays it to death. It's the same each time. A woman's body is found with a ticking stopwatch clutched in her dead hand. A distraught father must find his child before the boy suffocates - and the killer takes his left eye. Alexander Zorbach, a washed-up cop turned journalist has reported all three of the Eye Collector's murders. But this is different. His wallet has been found next to the corpse and now he's a suspect. The Eye Collector wants Zorbach to play. Zorbach has exactly forty-five hours, seven minutes to save a little boy's life. And the countdown has started...
REVIEW:
I love a crime story that is a little different so when you add high octane action, fast paced prose and of course a hero that you’ve your own doubts about, you know that its going to be one hell of a ride. That and more is what I got from this translated title brought to the British market by Corvus.
Add to this some cracking twists and whilst in places a little predictable the whole title works quite well. My only real grumble is that I do wonder if part of the thing that let it down were problems with the translation as in places I could think of several words that would have fit better. Even so, a great story and one I was pleased I took the time to enjoy.
Release Date: 03/01/13
SYNOPSIS:
Vespasian is serving as a military officer on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, suppressing local troubles and defending the Roman way. But political events in Rome - Tiberius's increasingly insane debauchery, the escalating grain crisis - draw him back to the city. When Caligula becomes Emperor, Vespasian believes that things will improve. Instead, he watches the young emperor deteriorate from Rome's shining star to a blood-crazed, incestuous, all-powerful, profligate madman. Lavish building projects, endless games, public displays of his relationship with his sister, Drusilla, and a terrified senate are nothing to Caligula's most ambitious plan: to bridge the bay of Neapolis and ride over it wearing Alexander's breastplate. And it falls to Vespasian to travel to Alexandria and fetch it from Alexander's mausoleum. Vespasian's mission will lead to violence, mayhem and theft - and in the end, to an act of ultimate betrayal."
REVIEW:
Death, murder, deceit and double dealing with all of them being done before breakfast in ancient Rome as the principle characters story continues to unwind for the modern reader in an imaginative and thought provoking series by Robert Fabbri.
It’s definitely a series that has taken the Historical Fiction world by storm and when you add this to the facts that this remarkable man started out so low and rose to the highest position possible it really is a tale that needs to be told. Throw into the mix the wonderful prose alongside writing style of Robert that makes this engaging as well as the wonderful quips and foresightedness of the principle hero in one of the Empires darkest time which when the reader is introduced to the vileness of Little Boots himself will all round not only make you appreciate our hero but one that will force you to answer questions within your own mind. A wonderful read for the start of the year and to be honest if the quality all round maintains this high, we’re in for one hell of a ride.
Release Date: 09/08/12
SYNOPSIS:
1205AD: Philip of Vercy sails away from the roasting wasteland where he has passed the last year. As a Knight of the Realm, he has fought the infidel in the Holy Land. Now, after twelve months of savage, bloody warfare in the scorching sun, he is finally coming home to his castle, to peace, and to his beloved wife. But France offers neither comfort or peace. His wife has died in childbirth, his young son is dying of a wasting disease, and, in the south, his Cathar countrymen are being brutally persecuted. When Philip hears rumours of a healer in the Languedoc, a young woman blessed by God and marked with Christ's Stigmata, he rides out on a desperate quest to save his son. His journey takes him into a vision of hell that outstrips even what he saw in Outremer. Disgusted by the senseless slaughter, Philip gradually becomes embroiled in the Cathar cause. And then he finds his miracle: Fabrisse Berenger, the beautiful, loving daughter of Cathar parents. She is bewildered by her strange wounds, but Philip is fascinated by them...and more fascinated by the serene goodness of Fabricia herself. Together, the pair must flee persecution under cover of darkness - but they cannot hold off the Pope's soldiers forever. Their destiny will be decided in the snows of the Black Mountains where Fabricia and Philip must make choices not just to save their lives, but their souls.
REVIEW:
Colin Falconer is one of those historical fiction authors that takes a subject and not only researches it thoroughly but also has the talent to take you to the heart of the matter whilst making you feel that you’re seeing history being made at the time of the events. As with his other work the story has a cracking pace, the lead character Philip of Vercy believable and when blended with religious heresy alongside crusade, makes for an edge of your seat read.
Add to this top notch prose a wonderfully almost cinematic feel to the story and of course a lead character that you can really get behind and all in it’s a wonderful read. Great stuff.
Release Date: 09/08/12
SYNOPSIS:
VIN COOPER IS HUNTING FOR A KIDNAP VICTIM. THE CIA IS HUNTING FOR A MISSING NUCLEAR BOMB. Special Agent Vin Cooper has just returned from an off-books mission in the Congo. Now he's caught up in something even more dangerous. An ex-airforce colleague has been kidnapped. His severed hand, buried in a KFC bucket with a demand for five million dollars, has found its way to Cooper's door - and he has just 21 days to pay. Tracking the missing man's movements from a topless revue in Vegas, to the shark-infested Pacific, the favelas of Brazil and finally to the pirate-patrolled waters off Somalia, Cooper discovers his ex-colleague is now an undercover agent working with a vicious Colombian arms dealer. Meanwhile, the CIA are searching for a stolen thermonuclear device. Suddenly, Cooper's quest to find his friend becomes a journey to the heart of a chilling conspiracy. A journey that Cooper might not survive...
REVIEW:
If you love high octane thrillers, then the odds are you’ve probably already read one of David Rollin’s previous Vin Cooper titles. Here, in the fifth outing for our hero is a story of Nazi’s. nuclear threat and of course a seemingly unrelated case that brings our lead character to the case. It’s definitely quirky and one that I really enjoyed with its no holds barred attitude and no nonsense attitude keeping to the story.
Finally throw into the mix huge action sequences and you know that its pretty much going to hit the spot. My only concern is that for me I felt that the sex within was not required as I felt that it detracted from the story. All in a good bit of fun and definitely an author I’ll spend more time with again.
Release Date: 08/05/12
SYNOPSIS:
As Sandro gets to grips with the dispiriting realities of life as a private detective, touting for business among old contacts and following errant teenagers, an old case comes back to haunt him...
Once the subject of a routine investigation back in Sandro's early days as an investigator, Loni Meadows - the glamorous, charming and ruthless director of an artistic Trust based in a castle in the hills outside Florence - is found dead in circumstances Sandro cannot convince himself are accidental. However inconvenient his suspicions might be, both to Sandro - whose marriage appears to be disintegrating - and to Meadows's erstwhile employers at the Trust, he presses ahead with the case. And as Sandro attempts to uncover the truth of Loni Meadows's violent and lonely death, he finds himself drawn into the lives of the castle's highly strung community and the closed world they inhabit in the Casentino's isolated hills.
REVIEW:
Prior to this book I haven’t read any of Christobel’s work but having two of her works on my TBR pile I thought that I’d best get on with it. What this crime author presents to the reader is a tale that deals more with the nitty gritty than wasting time with descriptive prose which allows you to devote your time to the key matters here.
The writing is crisp, if not a little too sharp in places, the prose reasonable and when you get right into it, the supporting cast feel more like shadows that anything else, although that said, the key players, whilst vague have their emotional aspects out there which, for my money, allows the reader to see themselves in their place. Its quirky, its definitely a marmite type of writing and for me it was a story that I had a lot of fun with working out the clues. All in a decent crime story and one I found worth my time reading.
Release Date: 08/05/12
SYNOPSIS:
Florence is deserted. The sluggish Arno and the Ponte Vecchio shimmer in the summer haze. A corpse lies on the roadside, waiting for discovery...
Every August, Florence shimmers in the summer heat. But this year the heatwave is fiercer than usual, and the city's inhabitants have fled to the cool of the hills and beaches of the surrounding countryside. So it is no surprise that amidst the shrubbery of a normally busy roundabout, a corpse lies unnoticed, bloating in the humid air.
Sandro Cellini will not be joining the crowds of holidaymakers this year. The former policeman turned private detective has a case: a man who seems to have vanished into thin air - leaving his pregnant young wife alone in the city. Meanwhile, bankteller Roxana Delfino is also stuck in the city for the season, with nothing to do but worry for her aging mother and puzzle over the disappearance of one her regular clients.
As all Florence sweats it out, Cellini attempts as best he can to grapple with his case and the complications it throws up. And when the weather finally breaks, it brings with it a shocking revelation...
REVIEW:
Having just read Christobel’s last title in this series I couldn’t wait to get hold of this next tale, after all I felt that I had a good grip on the characters concerned and of course, thought that I might have a better insight into the authors mind so that I could see where it was all going.
What Christobel does well for me is present a story that requires some thought, misdirecting the reader where required and also presents it in a way that you can quite easily see yourself within the scene without going overly flowery on the language. Its no nonsense writing and whilst some may not be fully enamoured of this style it allows the full attention to be spent upon the solving of the case. It is a tale that has multiple twists, some cracking deductions and of course exposes the seedy underbelly that may leave you feeling a little uncomfortable. Magic.
Release Date: 01/05/12
SYNOPSIS:
Thracia, AD30: Even after four years military service at the edge of the Roman world, Vespasian can't escape the tumultuous politics of an Empire on the brink of disintegration. His patrons in Rome have charged him with the clandestine extraction of an old enemy from a fortress on the banks of the Danube before it falls to the Roman legion besieging it. Vespasian's mission is the key move in a deadly struggle for the right to rule the Roman Empire. The man he has been ordered to seize could be the witness that will destroy Sejanus, commander of the Praetorian Guard and ruler of the Empire in all but name. Before he completes his mission, Vespasian will face ambush in snowbound mountains, pirates on the high seas, and Sejanus's spies all around him. But by far the greatest danger lies at the rotten heart of the Empire, at the nightmarish court of Tiberius, Emperor of Rome and debauched, paranoid madman.
REVIEW:
Having fallen for Robert’s writing style last year with his debut I was interested to see what would happen with the second title based on the life of one of Rome’s fascinating characters that was one of the earliest recorded self-made men. It’s addictive, it is hard to put down and when you add solid prose, great pace as well as a lead character that is charming, knows how to play the system of politics alongside the battlefield and this book is a real triumph.
Finally add to the whole mix, an addictive series that just goes from good to better, it really announces him as one of the historical fiction authors to not only watch but get in early. Magic.
