Book Review: Midnight Comes at Noon

Prolific author Daniel Easterman starts this novel with a very unusual and intriguing premise of a whole village of people being replaced by a mysterious group of counterparts a short time before the visit of the President of The United States of America. A dramatic and bloody shootout follows in which the President is kidnapped along with his wife and a young girl in their care whose father is the main literary focus while he attempts to rescue the kidnappers victims.

This exciting and original beginning then develops into a typical story of pursuit which takes the protagonists around the world before the concluding scenes. As interesting as the first few chapters are, this take starts to lose its originality by halfway through and becomes rather predictable and unoriginal for its second half.

Book Review: The Sound of Falling by Scott D. Brillon

In The Sound of Falling author Scott D. Brillon takes the reader into the world of high-school student Bayard Bitter during a particularly difficult time in his and his friend's lives. Bayard is forced into dealing with the persistent bullying of his best friend and the downward spiral of drug abuse and lack of self-respect by the girl he has feelings for he gets into a series of fights and loses his way in his studies. An inappropriate girlfriend and being witness to a liaison between a teacher and student make matters worse and as the situation spirals out of control his friend confides in him a terrible secret.

This story expertly captures the drama that can complicate the lives of teenagers and makes the reader feel like they are witnessing the events for themselves and creating a wonderful sense of intrigue about how these events will conclude.

Book Review: The Religion by Tim Willocks

The Religion, by author Tim Willocks, is set upon the island of Malta in 1565 and follows the exploits of Mathias Tannhauser, an adventurer and mercenary who embarks on a mission to locate a Maltese Noblewoman's estranged son. This quest is set during the time and true events of the great siege of Malta, which pitched the Knight's Hospitaller and people of Malta against the combined forces of the Ottoman Empire and its allies, one of the last great crusader battles.

The Religion is an extremely well-researched and equally well-written novel but whilst large parts of the book are devoted to battle scenes, the prose does not adopt a descriptive, repetitive or hackneyed style; in fact the descriptions of combat are brutal, gory, poetic and written in a gripping style full of suspense with larger than life heroes and villains as the combatants.

Book Review: The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

It is interesting to note that Victor Hugo never wrote a novel called "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", this is an English translation of the original title which would better be named "Notre Dame of Paris". This title far better introduces the reader to the content of the book which focuses on a narrative around the cathedral rather than Quasimodo, the hunchback; in essence the book is driven by the location, not by the characters.

This, then, highlights the main drawback, for me, of this famous work of fiction, in that it dwells far too long upon creating the atmosphere of the cathedral and its surroundings in neglect of the plot of the book. It will have been said that this is a masterpiece of literature in the way it paints a portrait of life in this part of Paris at that point in its history but in my opinion the author takes far, far too long to get to the point and becomes very boring, a chore to read rather than a pleasure, a literary battle to even get to the point at which the Hunchback is introduced.

Book Review: Slam by Nick Hornby

"Slam" is an amusing insight into the life of a teenager who is cruising through life, happy with his lot, until a small mistake changes his life forever. Nick Hornby is well-known for his books in which he writes about the feelings and emotions of the characters dealing with the type of situations that effect every day people and in Slam he does an incredible job of writing in the narrative of a teenager obsessed with skate-boarding.

This story is about how the main character, Sam, has to deal with the consequences of his actions as he is dealt with the problems of a man while still a teenager - the increasingly familiar issue of teenage pregnancy. What is interesting in this book is how Sam's perception of living with the consequences of his actions contrast with an alternative version of what could happen and how Sam, in the absence of a father figure, turns for life advice to the unlikely guru-like figure of the skater Tony Hawk.

Book Review: Whatever Loves Means by David Baddiel

Author, David Baddiel, sets his novel, "Whatever Love Means", during the hysteria surrounding the death of Princess Diana, in 1997, where a difference of opinion on how this historical event affects people's everyday lives drives the initial wedge between a married couple that begins a process in which, ultimately, several close relationships are utterly destroyed.

Played out to the backdrop of a national event in which many people try their best to turn into their own personal tragedy, a real rupture occurs in the life of Joe and his family as his wife dies in mysterious circumstances leaving him with their small child to look after. Not prepared to accept the official account of the circumstances of his wife's death Joe delves further into the tragedy only to find that he has been terribly let down by all of those who were closest to him.

Book Review: Martyr by Rory Clements

Rory Clements' first novel, Martyr, is an intriguing crime thriller set in Elizabethan England. John Shakespeare is one of Francis Walsingham's Intelligencers, charged with tracking down Catholics and protecting Sir Francis Drake as England approaches war with Spain. In this novel Shakespeare investigates the mysterious death of one of the Queen's relatives and this drags him into the murky underworld of London and pits him against another of the Queen's powerful agents.

I have been a fan of detective novels since reading Sherlock Holmes as a teenager but have grown slightly tired of the standard crime novel recently so this mystery with an Elizabethan twist was a nice change. In this period there are no need for arrest warrants, information can be extracted through torture and threats while suspects can go missing without trace in the squalid prison system. The reader will find no subtle and scientific inquiry methods here, just rudimentary investigative skills, brutality and corruption; a wonderful change from jaded cops and high-tech forensic experts.

Book Review: Siege by Jack Hight

Siege is author, Jack Hight's, first novel, a fictional dramatization of the real-life siege and consequent fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. In this novel historical characters are portrayed in the years preceding the battle of Constantinople and ultimately in the battle for the city itself as well as the aftermath.

This book tells this historical tale from several years before the events of the battle and the author builds the political intrigue in a manner full of suspense. The opening chapters of the book also introduce a set of characters that the reader can believe in, as well as care about, on both the Christian and Islamic factions that are a part of these events. Even though the events preceding the battle perhaps occupy a little too much of this book, this part of the novel is well-written and the reader becomes engrossed in the small events that shape the lives of the main protagonists.

Book Review: Beatrice & Virgil by Yann Martel

In Beatrice and Virgil author, Yann Martel, introduces the reader to a writer who has become famous for a novel that is about animals but finds producing his follow-up book too much of a challenge for him, particularly as his plans are for a novel that takes an original perspective on the holocaust. After rejection from his publisher Henry decides to move his family to another city for a fresh start and it is there that, as unlikely as it may seem, he meets another writer who is struggling to write his own allegorical representation of the holocaust using animals in the form of a play.

I am a great fan of Yann Martel's most famous book, The Life of Pi, so with that in mind I was looking forward to enjoying another piece of masterful storytelling from this author, particularly given the original and unlikely premise; unfortunately I read Beatrice and Virgil instead.

Book Review: The First Casualty by Ben Elton

Ben Elton is best known for his comedy and humorous novels but in The First Casualty the author delivers a murder mystery set amidst the worst fighting of the First World War. Detective Kingsley goes to prison for refusing to fight in a war he considers unjust but finds himself in the trenches anyway, investigating the murder of poet and hero Viscount Abercrombie who had been suffering from shell-shock. The murder investigation proceeds slowly whilst the many distressing situations of the war are dramatized.

One of the strengths of this book is that it contains Ben Elton's typically anti-establishment attitude in the way he portrays the way that World War I is conducted and the politics of Britain at the time; this is hardly surprising considering the way that this period of time is widely regarded in modern times. In fact The First Casualty seems largely to be a vehicle for portraying the hardships of the time, touching on subjects such as the treatment of conscientious objectors, suffragettes, police brutality and the working classes, whilst taking a very long time to actually tell a story.

Book Review: The Missing by Jane Casey

The Missing is author Jane Casey's first novel; a mystery surrounding the disappearance of a young girl who is a student in the class of teacher, and main character, Sarah Finch. The body of this student is found by Sarah herself, while she out exercising, and the case takes her back to the unsolved disappearance of her older brother when she was a girl which also makes her a suspect in the two crimes. These two events are related in parallel story-lines which inevitably come together at the end of the book.

Those who like to read thrillers will not be disappointed with the way that the story takes a number of twists and surprises. Beginning with a slow pace the story gradually builds and culminates in a grand ending that draws the reader into an apparently predictable situation but then provides an unexpected twist.

Book Review: Baking Cakes In Kigali by Gaile Parkin

In Baking Cakes in Kigali author Gaile Parkin takes readers into a community of locals and immigrants all of whom interact with the central character of the story, Angel Tungaraza, who is a mother, independent businesswoman and pillar-of-the-community in post genocidal Kigali, Rwanda.

The strength of this book is the moral and emotional fortitude shown by Angel and the large number of supporting characters who are all revealed through their interactions with her; the large majority being meetings with her whilst they are ordering cakes for special events in their lives. It quickly transpires that Angel is most aptly named as she provides many visitors with a friendly ear and gently pushes them towards making decisions that will improve their lives; this is a book about people, their lives and their feelings, trying to get life back to normal after the brutal, historic events of the civil war.

Book Review: When the Sax Man Plays: Part 1 - Making It by Yvonne Marrs

When the Sax Man Plays, by Yvonne Marrs, is a story about a young music tutor, Jason Bottelli, who finds himself obliged to put together a band in order to compete in a talent contest. A group of very unlikely characters put themselves forward as candidates and as the band is assembled they surprise themselves to find out that they can perform surprisingly well together.

The strength of this book is its readability, written in a flowing style with always enough hinting as to what is to come ensuring that the reader quickly progresses through the book. There are episodic levels of suspense associated with the band going through the rounds which leads to a constant temptation to take a quick peek at the last page to see what will happen to the group.

Book Review: Married Lovers by Jackie Collins

Cameron Paradise escapes a violent marriage, but not a cliched name, and heads to Los Angeles where she finds a job in an exclusive fitness club and rubs shoulders with rich, powerful and attractive people. Falling for a rich, married movie mogul there ensues lust, sex and adultery leading to murder.

As with all of Jackie Collins's books one should not expect the literary style of the classics but she makes up for this with a high level of readability, and Married Lovers turns out to be something of a page-turner, perhaps not of plot-driven enthusiasm but for pages packed with smut. In fact it is well known that this author prides herself in giving her readers huge mounds of sex with knobs on, and whilst the story is rather predictable and not particularly memorable, she certainly provides well for her fan base.

Book Review: The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories by Rudyard Kipling

The Man Who Would be King, by Rudyard Kipling, is a short tale of two rogues who decide to head into a legendary country, "Kafiristan" and seduce the indigenous population into accepting them as Kings. The story is very well told and conjures up a vivid picture of the hostility of the lands entered by "Peachy" Carnehan and Daniel Dravot and the characters they meet along the way.

The Man Who Would be King contains some intriguing references to the Masonic order, and indeed it is the local people's familiarity with the rituals of this sect that give the two main characters a foot in their palatial door, but which also ultimately seals their dreadful fate. This is an excellent short story which was made into a superb movie starring Michael Caine and Sean Connery.

Book Review: The Great Gatzby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is widely recognized as one the of the finest pieces of American literature. It is a narrative about high-living people in the "Roaring Twenties" and in particular it is the tale of a rich man, Jay Gatsby, obsessed with another man's wife and his pursuit of her just because he is able to and has more money than he knows what to do with.

The way this novel is written is similar to "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad in that it is one man's narrative about another man, one who is mysterious and draws others towards him and one who has a rather dark aspect to his personality. Gatsby and all the other characters are rather wasteful, idle people who continually gather for meaningless parties and other social meetings, none of whom, it turns out, are real friends.

Book Review: The Story of Zahra by Hanan Al-Shaykh

The Story of Zahra is Hanan Al-Shaykh's novel about the life of a young woman dealing with her madness in war-torn Lebanon. She is sent to visit a relative in Africa as a rest cure but after electro-shock therapy she is worse than ever and returns to Beirut in the peak of the fighting.

Some interesting themes are touched upon in this book particularly how people deal with living in a war zone but the central theme of mental illness is rather poorly dealt with in my opinion. The subplot of madness seems to have been created to excuse the writer's inability to write in anything other than a disjointed style and many of the portrayals of madness appeared very cliched to me. In the Story of Zahra, none of the other characters are developed to any degree and this makes it bewildering as to why Zahra reacts to them in the way she does and what exactly fuels her mental state.

Book Review: Overtaken by Alexei Sayle

Overtaken, by Alexei Sayle, is a tale of the events that happen to Kelvin immediately before, during and after a road accident that kills his entire group of friends. Fighting with emptiness and depression he decides to create a "memorial" to them in the most unusual fashion - a story that contains a strange twist at the end which although it was not completely unexpected, was only anticipated, by this reader, in the final few pages preceding the ending.

With a few moments of humour, this is not the comedy novel one might expect from an author who is a well-known comedian but instead an unusually calculating story of revenge which does not work out quite in the way the reader or the main character expects or hopes for, and a few things about Kelvin's personality and ways of thinking are fairly thought-provoking.

Book Review: Salt by Jeremy Page

Salt is a rather strange title for a strange novel. Set on the saltmarshes of Norfolk and the fens of Lincolnshire this is a wistful and wandering recollection of a boy's story, starting from the meeting of his grandparents and describing the litany of miseries of his childhood. It is rather difficult to say what this novel is about as it is certainly not plot-driven, but it seems to attempt to deal with the slight madness that living in such isolated places can bring upon people and as such is quite depressing. Quite overdescriptive and reliant on "wordbites" to set the tone of the Norfolk landscape, I would imagine that most of this book would be lost on anyone not familiar with the location.

Through much of the book the author attempts to paint a landscape using words and this is to the detriment of the story. This is a shame as at times the reader suddenly discovers a fairly interesting story, with some unusual characters, but every time it seems like something profound will come, the author gets wrapped up in painting his picture of words -"terns call, wind blows, I see the samphire tremble", which becomes quite boring and repetitive.

Rather than dealing with madness or landscapes this novel, to me, was more about neglect - neglect of children, neglect of women, neglect of oneself and finally, by the author, neglect of any ending worthy of the reader's efforts; throughout the book there was just enough intrigue for it to have been saved by an excellent ending, but once again the author lapses into a dreamlike prose which finishes nowhere.

Salt is a book I acquired from my mother as she lost interest in it, and this tells you a lot about its quality. Readers who are in love with the Norfolk landscape and like wordiness may love this book equally, but for those who don't know the area or like a good story, this is a book to avoid.

Score: 3/10

Book Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo is a classic tale of wrongful imprisonment, escape and retribution. Edmond Dantes is thrown into prison (the notorious Chateaux D'If) on spurious charges of treason and left to rot. After years of solitude he makes contact with another prisoner and eventually escapes and vows to use his freedom for revenge after discovering a hoard of treasure. After restyling himself as the Count of Monte Cristo he sets his plans into action.

The first part of this book is a gripping and harrowing tale of imprisonment in inhuman conditions, coupled with brutal treatment and near starvation and madness. How Edmond makes contact with another prisoner who teaches him in a multitude of disciplines, learns of a hidden treasure and escapes makes for compulsive reading and this ection of the novel on its own would have made a complete book; and perhaps a better one than the result.

After discovering the treasure the Count of Monte Cristo becomes a somewhat sluggish story, dragging on for chapters upon chapters where a dozen or so would have sufficed. This novel was orignially a serialisation and this is evident as the reader slogs through a massive book which introduces so many characters, it at times becomes confusing.

After slowly reading through a huge amount of very slow action and dialogue and meeting new characters all the way through the book, the reader could be forgiven for forgetting which book they had started and the manner in which the revenge is executed is hugely disappointing. Largely, The Count's revenge is in the form of embarrassing his former persecutors and robbing them of their good standing in society, something that in today's society seems quite irrelevant and hardly a proper revenge for the suffering the main character endured.

Despite a superb start, The Count of Monte Cristo becomes a very slow and dull book and I found getting to the final page was similar to seeing the finish line of a marathon. Although many people class this as their favourite novel I would suggest that this is a rare occasion where the movie is better than the book.

Score: 5/10