In love and war

Inside the Whale by Jennie Rooney

Chatto & Windus 2008, 272 pages

1939 on London’s Old Kent Road. Stevie (Stephanie) and Michael are in love but are soon separated when Michael is sent to Africa with the Royal Corps of Signals. Fifty years on, a widowed Stevie is living with her daughter and granddaughter, but what is the secret she is keeping from them and why is she unable to mourn her late husband? Michael also has a story to tell but cancer has taken his voice. As he lies terminally ill in hospital, he writes it down with the help of a young nursing assistant.

This book gets my vote simply because one of the main characters is a regular visitor to their local library! With a perfectly balanced narrative, Stevie and Michael tell their story in alternating chapters; there is wonderful attention to detail, making the time and setting strikingly vivid. A gentle and accomplished novel that fully deserves its place on the Costa 2008 first novel shortlist.

Man’s best friend

Lorelei’s Secret by Carolyn Parkhurst

Sceptre 2004, 288 pages

Linguist Paul Iverson arrives home one day to find that his wife, Lexy, has fallen to her death from an apple tree in their garden. The only witness to the incident was their dog Lorelei, but in the house are a number of strange clues that could only have been left by Lexy. Did she fall or had she in fact taken her own life? In order to understand what happened, Paul attempts to teach the dog to talk.

Here’s one which somehow slipped under my radar and so I’m very grateful to Reading Matters for bringing to my attention a book which I consider near perfect. If you are thinking it sounds like a load of old tosh, believe me this is worth reading for the inventiveness of the story alone. Essentially a love story, there is also a mystery to solve and all the clues are contained within the pages. Being a bit of a folkie (no beard yet), I have long held a copy of Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief and “Tam Lin” is one of my favourtite tracks, but the full meaning of the song has always eluded me, not any more – “You are my finest knight” – read it and be prepared to shed a tear.

Library books don’t always get treated with the respect they deserve and this copy is looking a bit tired. In the top corner of the cover I noticed some little indentations, the sort of marks which are made by teeth and I wondered could they have been made by a dog……

Legacy’s burden

Master of the Delta by Thomas H. Cook

Quercus 2008, 336 pages

Jack Branch has returned to his home town of Lakeland, Mississippi, to teach history at the local high school. In addition to his regular class he offers a specialist course on the history of evil, in which he sets his students an assignment: they must each write a paper about a historic perpetrator of evil. One of Jack’s students is the son of a muderer: Luther Ray Miller (aka the Coed Killer). With Jack’s help and encouragement Eddie Miller makes his father the subject of his study, unaware of where the investigation will ultimately lead.

Relayed through a series of flashbacks to the 1950’s and beyond, what begins as a little book of horrors slowly develops into an atmospheric Southern Gothic mystery. As the tension builds, the story line twists and turns its way to a totally unexpected conclusion. Thomas H. Cook has a backlist of twenty one novels and I can’t for the life of me think why I haven’t read one before.

Shadow of doubt

The Beacon by Susan Hill

Chatto & Windus 2008, 160 pages

Colin, Frank, May and Berenice Prime have grown up on a farm called The Beacon, children of hard- working and respected parents. It is presumed Colin will take over the farm, while May wins a scholarship to university only to return a year later and remain at home. Berenice marries, living locally, and Frank goes down to London, where he rapidly becomes a successful journalist; he also writes a best seller: a misery memoir called The Cupboard Under the Stairs.

I’m often envious of people who are able to read novels in one sitting, especially when they are several hundred pages long. One night last week, with footy on the box (again), I made my excuses and was all tucked up by eight o’clock. A couple of hours later, having read The Beacon in its entirety, I turned off the light thinking I was ready to sleep. But as I lay there mulling over what I had just read, my feelings of certainty about what had happened slowly began to evaporate. This is (another) excellent story by Susan Hill, but if a sound night’s sleep is what you have in mind, don’t read it at bedtime.

Death warmed up

Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper

The Bodley Head 2008, 320 pages

Cromwellian England, 1650. Anne Green, a young serving maid, gives birth to a stillborn illegitimate baby and is accused of infanticide. She is hung and her body taken to be dissected for the advancement of medical science. But as her body lies cold on the table before the assembled physicians, a rattle is heard in her throat and her eyelids are seen to flicker – is she still alive?

A dual narrative tells us the story of Anne’s experience and that of Robert Matthews, an Oxford scholar present to observe the dissection of her body. You cannot come away from this one without feeling a deep sympathy for Anne, taken in as she was by the empty promises of her employer’s Grandson, frightened and alone. After her revival, Anne’s fame was spread through the publication of pamphlets – a tale such as hers, one of fornication and murder, would be a best seller. Over three hundred years later not much has changed! A truly fascinating read from an established children’s author.