It’s not all crime and murders you know! Leading my preferences this month are two outstanding speculative thrillers by American authors which are both highly distinctive but with eerie similarities or parallels. Add a spicy return to patriotic thuggery for James Bond, an old favourite hitman now working under duress for MI5, Shakespeare and Anne Marlowe on the historical prowl, an Atlanta-set social epic, a Nigerian detective facing UK mores, Ken Bruen’s final novel in his beloved Galway, etc… Something for all tastes.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Chloe Benjamin/UNDER STORY (Tinder Press)
US author Chloe Benjamin’s previous novel THE IMMORTALISTS was a moving family saga with a fascinating speculative overtone about a trio of kids who are given the opportunity to know the time when they will die, and can elect to know or not, and how over a lengthy period it affects the way they live and love in subtle ways. UNDERSTORY is equally heart-wrenching, positing the existence of an antiworld in which all the characters possess not only their opposites but life unfolds in reverse. A book about loss, physics, botany, the beauty of apple orchards, but overall about the terrible bond between parents and children, as the fates of botanist Laurel and physicist Eli is shattered by the loss of their 8-year old son Silas by drowning, and although the couple fall apart as a result out of guilt and grief, they reunite accidentally at a research facility in Antarctica where a mysterious portal has temporarily appeared and locate a passage beneath the ice to the underworld where they have theorised the young boy might still be saved. This is just the kernel of a complex plot, that brings to vivid life an unforgettable set of characters, scientists, parents, friends, seekers and a variety of intense discourses about neutrinos, mushrooms, plant electricity, the meaning and the tapestry of life, as part of a vast panorama shouldered by an intense reliance of scientific theory, though never neglecting the human factor and its frailties. An terribly powerful love story, an intellectual challenge, replete with absolutely beautiful descriptions of nature and its wonders, and with ideas and scenes that will blow your mind, as you puzzle out a world where people age in reverse and undertakers are now overtakers, and your parents become your children. A truly towering achievement, both a tearjerker and a breathless thriller about science and human nature, with a set of characters who will linger in the reader’s mind for a long time.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Emily St. John Mandel/EXIT PARTY (Picador)
Although they have all been reissued following the international success of STATION ELEVEN, the majority of readers are unaware that her previous books sat clearly in the crime and mystery field, rather than the futurist thrillers that followed. Her first novel, the sublime LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL happens to be in my top 20 mystery novels of all time, alongside Marc Behm’s EYE OF THE BEHOLDER with which it shares an undefinable aura. Another powerful book was THE SINGER’S GUN and one of its characters returns in EXIT CITY albeit in a very different context as Mandel continues to explore the meanders of time and space. Coincidentally, EXIT PARTY also shares a duality with Chloe Benjamin’s UNDERSTORY (reviewed above) as it involves two parallel worlds, both of which are in subtle ways one angle in space different from ours. The plot is triggered by what appears at first to be a failed scientific experiment in one version of the future United States with a disturbing social panorama in part inspired by current events, through which a couple of characters migrate helplessly into a mirror world and even encounter their doubles. It’s a complex but precisely engineered plot where the human factor prevails ver the SF elements though and offers a set of fascinating characters in search of their self, the truth and salvation. Not an easy plot to unveil without spoilers but it reads smoothly, is engrossing and touching, a tale of crimes, love attained and lost, unmistakably Mandel prime territory in all its daring, wildly imaginative and questioning, full of bruised, damaged characters you can identify with and support as their journey endures against all odds. Challenging, fascinating, near perfect storytelling.
Chris Humphreys/ONE BERLIN DAY (Allison & Busby)
Humphreys’ earlier novel to feature hitman Mr Phipps, ONE LONDON DAY was self-published and the only such novel to become my Book of the Month when it was originally issued a few years back. It was a breathless thriller, ever on the edge of satire and featuring a veritable gallery of outrageous characters. It eventually found a British home, although I understand the final chapters were rewritten. The sequel sees the ex-army hitman on a murderous mission again, this time in the German capital, with his rough edges somewhat cleaned up which I found a pity. Reluctantly working again with Ellerby, a black female MI5 operative with a prickly temperament and anything but his friend, he is despatched to Berlin to eliminate an ex-Stasi agent who is now at the centre of a ring smuggling illegal immigrants into the UK, but has to do so behind the back of the German secret services who have been kept in the dark. Of the fact that a British operative has been set loose in their jurisdiction. Phipps and Ellerby’s covert mission is closely connected to the interestingly named Sadiq Khan, seemingly the only survivor of the sinister Shadows Group which they almost brought to its knees in the opening volume. Add a right-wing group of football hooligans on a mission to disrupt proceedings, which is also being used as a cover for a major drug deal, and the mayhem that ensures will end up with broken bones and all sorts of carnage. The action never ceases and although the background black humour from ONE LONDON DAY isn’t quite as pungent, this does prove a rewarding, witty read with a propulsive plot and strong characterisation to spare.
Ken Bruen/GALWAY’S EDGE (Head of Zeus)
Published in the USA over a year ago, the 18th and final instalment of the Jack Taylor series now reaches our UK shores, following Ken Bruen’s death. A fascinating anti-hero who also inspired a short-lived TV series, featuring Ian Glen as the former Garda investigator turned private eye regularly faced with compelling cases of crime and corruption, with the deep roots of much evil lying in the subterranean strands of Irish church and society, the small screen version had it virtues but didn’t always tally with Bruen’s unique, idiosyncratic pacing and style. On this occasion Taylor comes up against a secretive vigilante group called the Edge, intent on cleansing Galway of its criminals and abusers, comprising many members from the top ranks of society and now targeted by a killer, whose initial victim is a priest, Father Kevin Whelan, whose activities have caught the attention of the Vatican and is found hanged in his garden shortly after his meeting with the hard-drinking Taylor, who has been spending time at the bedside of a man he put into a coma and taking care of his dog Trip. As with all Bruen novels the novel develops like a maze, full of digressions, poetic references and a particularly laconic narrative that sometimes can prove annoying before it catches you by surprise and becomes the fabric of the actual novel. Sad to know there will be no more Jack Taylor or Ken Buren novels again.
T. Geronimo Johnson/THE OCCIDENTAL BOOK OF THE DEAD (Abacus)
A massive state of the Nation-like doorstep of a novel by an esteemed American literary journalist follows the travails of a black Atlanta policeman. A searing examination of the fabled American dream tears apart many preconceived assumptions about America’s perspective on race using a mystery thriller map to ask necessary questions about the systemic flaws at the heart of US society as the protagonist, challengingly-named George Washington Johnson begins his career in the military before aspiring to higher status in the police force, acquiring both a white redneck forces mentor and wife, harbouring a deep-seated desire to fully integrate into a unwelcome community where colour still predetermines one’s fate and status. Johnson (the character) sits uncomfortably between two stools and inevitably stumbles into a maelstrom of conflicts, torn between two worlds after a lone gunshot tears his dreams apart. The ambition and the intentions can’t be faulted, although the pace and the somewhat one-sided characterisations do hold matters back. Moving between fever pitch and a slow meditative mood, the take leisurely unfolds over a couple of decades. This is clearly a novel with a message and a heart in the right place. Whether it works or actually, and regrettably, has new things to say will depend on your perspective or existing view on the faultlines of America. I admired it and its intentions but was unable to stretch my feelings to loving it wholesale.
Peter Swanson/DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? (Faber & Faber)
Even though it’s only September, here is the first of the Xmas mystery books for this year and it’s a gem as would one expect from Peter Swanson who already treated us with the devilishly clever THE CHRISTMAS GUEST a couple of years back. Already tough competition for my own MERRY MURDERS ON BEDFORD SQUARE appearing in October (which I obviously will not be reviewing here due to the conflict of interest but indulge me in merely giving it a mention!). Nicholas Child’s career as a crime writer is most assuredly in the doldrums when he is thrown a safety net by his agent with an invitation to visit bestselling author Marco Tavares at Grey Gables, his splendid Cape Cod mansion on the beach as the great man, actually a not very likeable person, is struggling to write his new novel and might require assistance. All the proper tropes for a seasonal murder mystery are in place, with an haphazard panoply of motley guests, Tavares’ wife Nora, a woman with a plethora of ulterior motives and unclear status, the wind raging outside as the weather closes in, nods to Daphne Du Maurier and more, but once again Swanson, at his most mischievous, orchestrates three acts that confound the reader’s expectations and regularly makes him reassess where this witty classic mystery is heading towards, albeit with a visible great affection for the genre and its conventions. No prizes for guessing who will be the first body but what follows is twisty as hell. A mysterious box of comforting delights!
Charlie Higson/KING ZERO (Michael Joseph)
Charlie Higson is no newcomer to the James Bond 007 world, with the young Bond series and a more recent novella to his credit, but KING ZERO, his debut adult adventure in the official franchise is in a league of its own, harking back to some of the tropes and decidedly non-woke attitudes of both Ian Fleming’s oeuvre but also the early Sean Connery movies. Even though KING ZERO takes place in a contemporary environment, with an AI entity with limitless power and up-to-date politics incorporating the Ukraine war and Middle-East politics, Bond is back to his rogue-ish self, seducing women a go-go, many of which don’t survive much beyond being bedded by our incorrigible hero. In addition, the novel offers a rapid succession of both vivid chase and action sequences, and wonderfully caricatured villains straight out of the movies canon playbook. This is definitely a novel for old-time Bond fans and damn the political correctness even if Higson does provide his protagonist with much earnest reflection in a bid to humanise the old spy rascal before he inevitably concludes that the end justifies the means. Triggered by the assassination by remote surgery of another MI5 agent who had been left for dead in the Saudi Arabian desert, 007 is set to investigate and is soon working alongside a local agent who is rather full of himself and a slinky female technician who might well be a nerd in her work but is also something of an enigmatic beauty, for Bond to begin suspecting there is a mole in the house and that many of his colleagues might have mixed loyalties. The women are fodder for James, the villains are outrageously over the top and the plot is as topical , involving modern day physics and drone warfare. Enormous fun.
Jiro Akagawa/A GAME OF CAT AND KILLER (Maclehose Press)
I can’t count the number of English-speaking sleuthing duos that have involved cats and must confess it is a genre that I have often scorned, not aided by the fact that I am no feline fan, so I came to this uncommon Japanese iteration, translated by Haydn Trowell, with some amount of reserve and knitted eyebrows. Hailed as Japan’s answer to Agatha Christie and with a nod to Conan Doyle as the cat in question is called Mikeneko Holmes, the series has sold over 300 million copies in Japan and features a hapless, bumbling young investigator, Detective Yashitaro Katayama who is far from heroic and prone to countless mistakes, only to be redeemed by his wise cat companion who is actually the hero or master sleuth, an amusing combination but one that soon becomes repetitive and something of a joke. Katayama is presented with the case of a female murdered student and assigned to visit her college as part of the investigation and confronted with a clever variation on the locked room mystery trope. Naturally, that is not the end of the murders with the evil culprit always a step ahead of the game but thank god for the subtle calico cat who will save the day and embarrassment. It’s lightweight fare but breezy and enjoyable and will no doubt delight English-reading cozy readers and we will inevitably be rewarded by the countless other volumes in the series being translated but, sorry, just not my cup of tea, although I don’t begrudge readers the guilty pleasures of comfort reading on offer with these casebooks of Mikeneko Holmes.
Guy Jenkin/THE FATAL BELLMAN (The Book Social)
The sequel to his promising Wodehouse Prize-nominated debut MURDER MOST FOUL by a well-known British scriptwriter of TV comedy modern classics, THE FATAL BELLMAN sees the return of the jolly Elizabethan-set historical sleuthing duo of playwright Will Shakespeare and Anne, the sister of Christopher Marlowe. Turning well-known historical figures into detectives is a not uncommon ploy, if a bit over-used by now, but Jenkin has a wonderful gift for witty dialogue and banter that brings the characters to effervescent life and provides them with an aura of jokey camaraderie amongst the essentially cozy murder and mayhem. It’s the year 1605 and Anne’s mother has died; on her way to visit the undertaker to make the necessary arrangements, she is assaulted and flees Canterbury for the haven of London’s Globe Theatre where Shakespeare reigns in all his glory, and is at the height of his popularity. Together, they find themselves again caught up in a web of most devious conspiracies and possible instances of witchcraft involving the King, the Court, the two-faced but always dangerous Lord Cecil plotting behind the scenes. The stakes are high and the pace seldom falters as our involuntary heroes strive to save the day and the dialogue races along with the inside jokes as ever entertaining. Minor but enjoyable and just the thing for a grey autumn evening.
Leye Adenle/FALL FROM GRACE (Simon & Schuster)
This is the opening volume in a new series by a British author whose star has been steadily rising and proves rewarding and original. Bobby Fatokun has worked as a policeman in Nigeria and then in the UK but has officially left the force and now acts as a sort of redemption coach for crooked or troubled cops, when he is lured back to the investigative beat in a complex tale which leads him to the heart of British society and its shadowy Establishment. Called by an ex-client he arrives too late at Marylebone station to find Roger dead and the murky trail leading to an offshoot of the church and its questionable pastor with a strong interest in the Rapture, and Bobby is drawn in against his better judgment. Bobby is soon immersed in a shadowy world of corruption, spying, instances of brainwashing and even possible royal connections where the truth hints at a frightening level of deep-seated fault lines. His own backstory emerges as his quest progresses and it is far from exemplary adding depth to his character and motivations. A complex multi-threaded plot moves at a fast and furious pace with some surprising twists along the road and firmly retains the reader’s attention , while Bobby proves more than your routine investigator, and stands out as a genuine original sleuth whose talents and attraction will no doubt grow as the series continues and his dark side and detecting against the odds and stamina are put to further tests.
