Michael Jecks's Blog, page 2

REVIEW: MALICE AFORETHOUGHT by Francis Iles

Published by Macmillan Collectors Library 

ISBN: 978 1509 889 365 price £9.99

Of all the writers of the golden age one of those who appeals to me most of all is the fellow I like to think of his ABC, his real name was Anthony Berkeley Cox. He wrote under the name Anthony Berkeley and various other names, including Francis Iles. 

Why do I like him? He was one of the early “golden age” mystery writers, and not only one of the first members of the Detection Club when that wonderful organisation was created in the 1930s, but was practically the creator of it. ABC was noted at the time for his skill with stories, especially those involving apparently insignificant men who are suddenly thrust into the limelight – often with disastrous results. He had a lot of interest in new ideas for stories, rather than straight detective fiction. Obviously we all know that Agatha Christie was a trail-blazer with her ideas about telling stories from different perspectives, or using new narrative schemes, such as that of Murder on the Orient Express, or The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but Anthony Berkeley Cox was one of those writers who was constantly creative, constantly looking at new ideas for how to tell a story, and he also wrote with a wicked sense of humour.

Malice Aforethought is being re-published by Macmillan, under a special imprint that they have created called Macmillan Collectors Library. This is an absolutely wonderful little collection of books. I say “little” because this copy is only 10 cm x 16 ( which is roughly 4″ x 6 1/4 inches, in English ). It comes in hardback, with its own little dust cover. Underneath the book covers have a rather delightful motif embossed. The writing on the spine is in gold blocking, which is rather nice, and what is really very attractive is that all the pages are edged in gold. To finish, the book has a ribbon bookmark.

These books are a delight. They are pocket-sized, and in this format bring to memory books as they used to be published back in the 1930s and 40s. I could continue to rave about them for quite some time! I think it’s beautiful.

So let’s get down to the meat of this: what is the story? Well, the story follows the life of Dr Edmund Bickleigh. He is married to a rather insufferable wife, Julia. The book really begins when he and Julia are hosting a tennis party where gossip rivals tennis as the most interesting sport. The seemingly genteel doctor is unable to tolerate his incessant henpecking and this leads to rather dramatic consequences. A new lady appears in the area, young Madeline Cranmere, and the good doctor is soon utterly besotted with her. The first sentence gives away the thrust of the story: 

“It was not until several weeks after he had decided to murder his wife that Dr Bickleigh took any active steps in the matter. Murder is a serious business. The slightest slip may be disastrous. Dr Bickleigh had no intention of risking disaster.”

On the cover it says, “Francis Iles’s classic crime novel is one of the earliest and finest examples of the inverted detective story – we know who committed the crime. The question is, will he get away with it? Set in stuffy 1920s England, and told from the perspective of the devious Dr Bickleigh, himself, Malice Aforethought, is impeccably plotted, and darkly comic.

I can’t really improve on that. It’s an absolutely superb story, brilliantly conceived and superbly well told. It’s just a joy. In fact it’s such a joy. I was up at 3:30 this morning still reading it – which is not good for the work I’ve got to do today. I love this author, I’ve recently read another one of his books and I have a couple more of his to collect. The British library has its own selection of titles which they are also re-publishing and I have recently acquired Till Death Do Us Part, which was a superb story, and also Murder in the Basement. These are both by ABC under the name Anthony Berkeley.

So what have I got to say about this book? First of all it is darkly comic. It’s an absolute delight. ABC wrote with a slightly cynical look at British culture and British society, and this story is frankly delightful. I doubt it would get published today because of the misogyny – I can easily imagine many people would find it rather hard to swallow, but I don’t care. As a piece of literary history, it’s just fabulous. I can’t recommend this story highly enough: not only because it’s a great study of a murderer; not only because it’s a great study of motivation; it also has a fabulous twist at the end which is really well worth reading just for that. 

It’s not a long book – 320 odd pages. What is nice is that, at the back of it, there’s an afterword by Barry Forshaw, one of the foremost critics of crime writing today. 

What I must add is, if you’re interested in the golden age of crime writing, and especially in the history of the detection club, you really need to get hold of a copy of the Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards, published by HarperCollins. This is an absolutely fascinating book which gives the interesting backgrounds of the Detection Club members in the thirties: Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie, Anthony Barkley Cox and all of the others. It’s a brilliant book, mainly because it’s superbly well researched and Martin has managed to turn it into a detective story of its own. It’s well worth having a look at, especially if you want to find out more about ABC Anthony Berkeley Cox.

So there you go Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles is a fantastic read. It’s a superbly written book and it is packaged in the most gorgeous fashion at a price, £9.99, which is only £1 more than a cheap paperback – vastly worth than that additional pound investment. All I can say now is that I’m going to go away and see how many other books I can buy from the Macmillan collectors library.

Summary: highly recommended.

REVIEW: OFFENSIVE CYBER OPERATIONS by Daniel Moore

Published by Hurst Publications, ISBN 978-1-78738-561-0, £35 hardback

It is not often that I get really fascinating books like this to review, and I am very grateful to Hurst Publications for this copy. 

I have a vested interest in all forms of warfare, from the use of rifles and cannon, all the way up to electronic and cyber warfare. It is a fascinating subject, and clearly now, with the appalling humanitarian disaster wrought by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a matter of interest to all the world. 

One point that has not been taken up, as far as I can see, by the media generally, is the idea of cyber warfare. Yes, there were attacks – both on Ukraine and their government early in the war, but also on Lithuania in June this year – and yet although some news services speculated that this could lead to NATO joining the war, because this was an attack on a NATO state, nothing was seen to happen afterwards. Perhaps partly because it was a deniable attack by a separate Russian-supporting group, Killnet, rather than the Russian state itself – rather as it’s been said that Wagner troops are not directly responsible to the Russian government.

And that, at first, was what grabbed me about this book. It was in the subtitle: Understanding Intangible Warfare – before you can look at and consider cyber operations, you need to define exactly what you mean, because so much of the efforts that go into the realm of digital warfare are precisely that: intangible.

The first chapter takes the reader through what cyber-warfare involves, and explains the main principles. The writer discusses the difference between cyber-warfare and cyberwar – there are aspects of warfare that can be fought in the cyber world, but an actual cyberwar? Not very likely, as he explains.

From there, he goes on to talk about intangible warfare – how can it be defined, how can it be evaluated in terms of risk and opportunity? – before looking at networks and how to target them, and what cyber strategies should be used. After that he goes into aspects of American cyber projects (mainly because, as he points out, many of them are in the public domain now, thanks to the Snowdon leaks), then Russian, Chinese and Iranian efforts. Finally he looks at cyber more generally before reaching a series of conclusions. 

I did not expect to find this as fascinating a read as it turned out to be. There is a lot of information in this book. Cyber security and offensive cyber operations are mostly, for a layman like me, not immediately comprehensible – and here I speak from experience, having looked at many research books in my time – but Moore writes with a clarity and simplicity that is engaging and compelling. It is clear that he really understands his subject and he has the fortunate gift of being able to communicate it in straightforward language. 

For my purposes, a book like this is a godsend. I am reviewing various themes for my next modern day thriller, and this book has provided several plot directions. I have no idea whether any one of them will actually be used in my next book, but it’s quite likely that one of them will. 

In the meantime, this is a timely investigation of the current status of cyber operations. Not only because it goes through the history of such attacks – and demonstrates with a historian’s eye for detail how cyber operations developed from signals intelligence and electronic warfare to the present, and explains cyber operations today based on government reports, case studies and explains military strategy. In the final chapter he gives his view on how they will develop in the future. 

It explains why the attack against Lithuania did not reach the level of aggression necessary to trigger a NATO response. It explains the success of various attacks, from Stuxnet onwards, and looks at the future of such operations. In particular it explains more generally that cyber-warfare is only an additional means of warfare. It is not a fighting system in its own right, only a separate arm that can be used, much as ground troops, or ships or air forces can be used in an overall battle strategy.

Just now, as I said, it seems particularly well-timed. 

A fascinating read, full of detail that is communicated effectively for non-cyber professionals as well as those involved in cyber operations. Highly recommended for those with an interest in warfare generally or specifically in cyber-warfare. Basically, it’s a must buy for anyone with an interest in cyber-warfare and in understanding how the major attacks have been conducted, as well as how the responses have been calibrated.

Highly recommended.

REVIEW: THE SNIPER by Simon Conway

Published by Hodder and Stoughton for £20

ISBN hardback: 978 1 529 33434 0

Okay, I have waxed lyrical about Simon’s books before. The first of his I read, RAGE, had me entirely engrossed. The next I read was A LOYAL SPY, which cemented his position as a top-flight thriller writer in my view. But then he began this trilogy, with THE STRANGER, THE SABOTEUR, and now THE SURVIVOR, and I was blown away. 

These are seriously good books. In Jude Lyon Conway has created an entirely believable character who is a modern-day Bond mixed with Jason Bourne. There are no fancy gadgets, no leaps of imagination – only rock-hard plotting based on brilliantly conceived and portrayed characters thrown into tumultuous events way beyond their control. 

And now, of course, I hit a slight issue as I have to talk a bit about this book and its storyline. It would be a great deal easier if this were only a stand-alone book. However, it is the latest in a series, so I can’t help mentioning what happened at the end of the previous title – for those of a nervous disposition, or who don’t want to know too much, please look away now – but I’ll only tell you what’s on the dust jacket – no more than that.

At the end of THE SABOTEUR, Britain was reeling after an appalling terrorist attack. As a result, we are introduced to a new political leader who becomes Prime Minister in the wake of the tragedy. The public is seeking answers, and police, military and secret agencies are desperately searching for the culprits. But it’s not an easy task – some are in Russia, and the others have gone to ground. But it’s clear that there is an urgent need to track down the group responsible. There is a risk that more attacks could soon be launched.

Jude Lyon knows who the ringleader is. The question is, can he catch the man before the next attack?

Okay, so in bald terms this is good against evil – but the story is much more than that. Simon Conway is a former British army officer, and since then has become involved in charitable work. He was Co-Chair of the campaign to outlaw cluster bombs (not that the Russians agreed, as we can see now in Ukraine). More recently he has worked with the HALO Trust, teaching munitions disposal and helping clear mines and other hazardous material in countries worldwide. His experience means he has a strong understanding of the way that governments and security services work, and he puts this knowledge to great use, giving his stories a credibility that I haven’t felt since reading Frederick Forsythe’s early works. When I read THE DAY OF THE JACKAL and THE DOGS OF WAR, it was obvious that Forsythe knew what he was writing about. His training as an investigative reporter lent believability to all his fiction writing. 

Simon Conway has the same depth of understanding. His stories show not only an inventiveness and attention to detail, but give the reader the feeling that they are right there, in the thick of the action. He writes with a clarity and perception that is sadly rare in modern thrillers, but still gives plenty of bangs for the reader’s buck. 

This is a highly recommended book. In fact, no – don’t go out and buy this. Go and buy all three books in this series. They are superb. There. That is your Christmas present list sorted for any thriller reader.

I have to admit, I suggested the first of the series to a friend of mine. I wasn’t absolutely sure it would be right for him, but wanted to give him the chance of reading it. I thought he might enjoy it. He consumed THE STRANGER faster than I had anticipated. I lent him THE SABOTEUR, and he read that much more slowly. When I asked why, I was told he was making it last until THE SURVIVOR came out so that he could go straight on. 

I was given this book as a review copy, and my thanks go to Hodder and Stoughton and Simon Conway for this copy. However, now I have to buy a fresh copy (hopefully signed) for my friend. That is how good the series is. As a reviewer, I have to go and buy copies now!

Seriously, this is a mind-blowing finale to the best trilogy I’ve read in a very long time. 

Go buy it!

Got to like the back cover, too:

Review: BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER by Roger Bax

Published by Arcturus Crime Classics; ISBN: 978 1 84858 080 0

I have recently discovered more of the golden age crime writers, and although this is a little late to be a true golden age novel (it was first published in 1948), it was written by one of the founders of the Crime Writers’ Association, which gives it a certain interest. Roger Bax was the pseudonym of Paul Winterton, an author and journalist who wrote some 40 novels in various genres including “mystery, detection, thriller, espionage and romance.”

This is labelled “An Inspector James Mystery” – which seems more than a little unreasonable. After all, I expect a crime novel or “mystery” to stick to certain conventions. First and foremost, I expect there to be some kind of mystery from the outset. This is one of those books that defies standard conventions, though. As a brief example, I can happily tell you that Arthur Cross was the murderer. That’s not exactly a spoiler, since the author tells you that on about the first page in the preface. 

In reality this book is not a whodunit, but a “howdunit” because the entire story is, as the title suggests, a blueprint on how Cross is going to murder his uncle, Charles Collison, in order to inherit his fortune. 

There are obstacles to his ambition, naturally. This being written at a time when capital punishment was the standard deterrent, he rather wanted to escape suspicion or capture. Thus, he decided that he had to create the perfect alibi, a matter which led to him finding witnesses to his own location and convincing them that they were with him far from the murder when it happened. To do that he must fake locations, cheat people, and hope that someone else might get the blame – his cousin, Geoffrey, the son of the victim. 

In terms of the good Inspector James – well this is not a Sherlock Holmes lookalike. He is a fairly bumbling character, who appears to depend on luck and his own character assessment to find the perpetrator. In fact James hardly appears in the book. He doesn’t turn up until page 86, and then is gone by page 133, not returning until the last pages, 252/3. From 133 onwards, there is no detection, and in fact he admits to his superiors that he cannot find an angle to make an accusation, far less an arrest.

So the book starts with an outline of how to commit a crime, and then runs through the pitfalls in the plan: how things might go wrong, how a murderer could give himself away, and then how his supposedly bullet-proof alibi can be shot to pieces.

It is really rather good. I didn’t find the inspector particularly interesting. He smoked a pipe and was moderately polite – and that really is about all the impression I got of him. As a detective, he displayed absolutely no flair whatsoever. If you’re hoping for Lord Peter Wimsey, forget it. My impression is that this is a story which intended to be modern, and much more true to life than the true golden age detective novels. So we have a series of unfortunate incidents that lead to the uncovering of the criminal.

That being said, it was a satisfying read, but not brilliant. It is probably fairly realistic for its time, and the characterisation was quite strong – although the motivation of the murderer was a little flakey – at least to my mind. Again, it’s not giving anything away to say that the murderer was an orphan from an early age, and was brought up by his uncle with uncommon generosity. His uncle Charles was a wealthy business owner, who settled good incomes on his son and nephew when they returned from the war and made it clear that they would inherit all his wealth. Cross was already set up for life by someone who was very much his friend and ally. Yet he decided to kill the man, and hoped to leave the blame on his childhood friend, Geoffrey. There is a bit of the nature vs nurture debate here, and it’s made clear that Arthur had a very unpleasant war, which led to his becoming a collaborator in a concentration camp – clearly Bax was trying to set up a justification for his premise that Arthur Cross could turn so violently against his adoptive family – but it doesn’t ring true to me. Why would a POW be installed in a concentration camp? More, why would he be treated as a “trusty” prisoner and take part in murders? I’m not aware of any allegations that British POWs were ever installed in concentration camps. Commandos were murdered out of hand on capture after Hitler’s infamous laws against irregular forces, but I’m not aware of any being transported to the execution camps, and even if one or two had, I seriously doubt that such trusties would be allowed to have access to firearms and permitted to become second class German guards, as seems to be implied here. 

So there is a bit of a hole in the story. There’s also a love story included, which is … well, it was written in the 1940s, so you have to cut the guy some slack, but let’s just say that the dialogue and progression of the affair is hardly scintillating!

However, this is a very interesting book. It is a story of its time, but the writing is very accomplished generally. If you can suspend a degree of disbelief, it unrolls as a very engaging and absorbing tale, showing how a man who is methodical and competent, and without compassion, could plot and plan a murder. All those sections were fascinating and well depicted.

So not, perhaps, a perfect read, but one well worth the investment. 

Recommended.

Review: THE LIQUIDATOR by John Gardner

Review: THE LIQUIDATOR by John Gardner

Published by Corgi – before ISBNs!

Okay, I have a confession to make. I adore these books. 

It was a long, long time ago that I was introduced to the Boysie Oakes series by the fortunate accident of birth that meant I was youngest of three brothers and therefore got access to a wide variety of reading material that I probably shouldn’t have. These books – THE LIQUIDATOR, UNDERSTRIKE, AMBER NINE and MADRIGAL – have been a massive influence on me and my writing, and they still work their magic on me today. In fact my Blackjack/Bloody Mary series is in large part due to them.

What is the series about? Ah, well once upon a time there was a special operations officer, Mostyn, who was being set upon in a back alley off the Boulevard Magenta. It was August 1944, and his assailants were German agents, determined to kill the spy. By good fortune, Mostyn saw a sergeant from a tank crew and called for help. The two Germans saw their danger and tried to flee, but the sergeant killed them with shots from his Colt automatic.

Mostyn looked into his eyes: 

“It was the eyes that made Mostyn catch his breath, sending the short hairs tingling on the nape of his neck: ice blue, cold as freezing point, looking down at the bodies with immense satisfaction.

“Mostyn prided himself that he could read the truth in other men’s eyes. These told the story all too plainly. This man, a perfect technician in death, had enjoyed shooting to kill. He was, thought Mostyn, a born assassin, a professional who would blow a man’s life from him as easily, and with as little emotion, as he would blow his own nose.”

If he ever needed an assassin, thought Mostyn, this would be the man for the job.

But of course first impressions are not always quite perfect. And so, when Mostyn discovered a requirement to … remove certain pieces of grit from the machinery of government or diplomacy, and recruited Boysie Oakes, he was still convinced that he had the ideal killing machine. He was not to know that Boysie was not eyeing the two corpses with satisfaction, but with horror. He had not intended to shoot anyone, only scare them away; it was pure misfortune that his aim was so poor.

Still, his wife had left him, his business had collapsed, and when Mostyn approached him to offer a job with an expensive flat in London, a sports car, and the potential of many exciting and morally questionable young ladies, who was Boysie to argue? And so he took the job, signed the Official Secrets Act, and prayed that he would never have to actually kill anyone. 

The delight of all of the Boysie Oakes books is that John Gardner set out writing them in the early sixties. James Bond rules in those days, and Gardner said he had “an idea for a comic situation, a desire to send up a particular genre at a particular time.” (Introduction to the Boysie Oakes books, by John Gardner in UNDERSTRIKE). It was at the height of the Cold War, and Gardner decided there were two ways to write about spies and espionage. A writer could “play it straight, or one could be satirical.” He chose the latter route, and only afterwards realised he had written a richly comic novel mingled with a fair amount of suspense.

I love this series. I think it displays Gardner’s skills as a writer, but also his wonderful ability with humour. In Boysie Oakes he has created one of the best comic characters, certainly of the last half of the twentieth century: a coward, who is constantly trying to avoid being called to perform the tasks for which he is employed; a womaniser whose exploits invariably get him into trouble; and as an espionage agent, a man of astonishing skill at getting things wrong. 

Not that Mostyn, for all his pride and arrogance, is much better. 

There is a brilliant cast of characters in these books. There is the agent with the sudden shooting pains in his knee when he senses Mostyn is sending him into danger; the sub-contractor murderer hired by Oakes to carry out his more onerous tasks; the alcoholic naval officer who runs Mostyn’s department, and who steadfastly refuses to accept any responsibility whatever for “L”. 

And the greatest indication, surely, of how good Gardner truly is as a writer of this kind of fiction is the fact that Ian Fleming Publishing contracted him to carry on the James Bond series, a task which he undertook for many years with enormous success. 

And so to me. Well, as I said, I adore these books. They are charming, witty, hilarious in places, but still thrillers with superb plots. One of the saddest days for me was a few years ago when I heard that John Gardner had died. He was a member of the Crime Writers’ Association, and I was a member too – and never managed to meet him. I would have liked to have been able to have a chat with him and talk about his books.

If you haven’t read any of his books yet, I implore you to try them. And of course, you have to start with THE LIQUIDATOR.

Highly recommended.

Review: MIRACULOUS MYSTERIES edited by Martin Edwards

Published by British Library; ISBN 978 0 7123 5673 2

Rather too many years to think of, when I first created Medieval Murderers, and later, when we decided to collaborate on a novel, one of the very first decisions we made was, that no matter how things went, we would avoid a collection of short stories. Publishers tend to hate them, because there is a perception that readers aren’t keen. 

I think there is a lot of sense in that. After all, the quality of writing and the style will change radically from one writer to another. Reading a collection is rather like hurdling: as soon as your body is used to the level, flat course, it’s time to take a leap into the unknown again. Some short story writers can be very concise and give a wonderful story in only a few pages (the best example of this, to my mind, was the editor of this collection, Martin Edwards, with his brilliant short “InDex”, which was to my mind one of the most inventive short stories I’ve ever read – in ID: CRIMES OF IDENTITY published by Comma Press). Others use more space, but are masters of collecting characters on the page. But my point is, the variation in style can jar. 

In this collection there are some occasions when the stories are … well, less than perfect. But it was the golden age of crime writing, and the delight of the book is that there are so many of the great names: GK Chesterton, Dorothy L Sayers, Marjorie Allingham amongst them. Of them all, my favourite is Marjorie Allingham’s THE VILLA MARIE CELESTE, as the perfect example of a story which sets up expectations – only to then blow them away. On the other hand, Father Brown’s outing in GK Chesterton’s THE MIRACLE OF MOON CRESCENT was, for me at least, a hugely satisfying tale.

Because the main point of these stories is that they are all “impossible”. Locked rooms, disappearing weapons, or murders that could not have happened, all abound in this tome, and it’s great fun to pit the wits of the reader against the imagination of the authors.

This is a pleasant collection, with every author given a short introduction by Martin Edwards, who is one of the world’s experts on crime writers of the golden age. 

If, like me, a series of short stories gives you a perfect, short read at bedtime, this collection may be just perfect for you!

Review: THE LAST EMPEROR OF MEXICO by Edward Shawcross

Published by Faber & Faber – ISBN: 978-0-571-36057-4

@faberbooks

Apologies for such a long period of silence – work has been keeping me from blogging for a while.

Today I have to review a book which has held me completely spellbound for the last week. This book, subtitled “A Disaster in the New World” tells a story so – well, far-fetched, really – as to beggar belief. After all, who would believe that in the 1860s a member of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial family would cross the sea to go to Mexico, convinced that he would be welcomed by that republic with open arms? Who would think that he would have been persuaded to do so by a French Emperor (Napoleon III) in order to help Mexico pay back debts to the French exchequer? Or that France would advance money and an army to support the new emperor to subdue the lands? 

All this only a short time after the USA had stolen vast tracts of northern Mexico, annexing Texas, then fighting an entirely unjustified war and stealing “all or parts of (Alta) California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.” Mexico was in tatters, and her past greatness was a source of pride – but her politics were a mess. Conservatives wanted a return to a royal family ruling the state and the aristocracy taking control, with the Catholic Church reinvigorated; the opposing forces of liberalism wanted nothing to do with monarchy, but instead demanded democracy, a break with the Church, and an end to colonial institutions.

In 1855 the liberals won and Mexican society was reformed. The Church saw vast tracts of her lands confiscated and nationalised – the archbishop threatened excommunication to any who supported the new constitution. The disputes led to a coup d’etat and three years of civil war, with the US supporting the republicans with weapons and warships. It was an unequal fight, and as the president, Juarez, took over control, many of the conservatives fled to Europe, where they started to lobby for money and arms to return and retake their country.

One of the first acts of the new Mexican congress was to halt all foreign debt repayments. Significant sums were owed to Britain and France. 

At the same time, the US lost interest for a time. A few months after the end of the Mexican civil war, America began her own, and European nations saw an opportunity. They conceived the Convention of London, agreeing to send a force to Mexico to recover the debts. And many of the Mexican conservatives who had fled to Europe saw their chance. They petitioned the French Emperor, and he saw an opportunity for gaining control of Mexico and its riches. But who could he install to take over responsibility for it? He needed a compliant candidate, and in Maximilian of Austria, he found the perfect man. An aristocratic gentleman, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, good-natured, “affable and charismatic” but also a dreamer, who dreamt of “a time when Spain, under the wings of the eagle [the Habsburg emblem], was on the highest pinnacle of power, and the greatest empire of the world …”

When Napoleon III offered to help him win and hold the Mexican throne, it must have seemed that his dreams were to come true.

This book reads superbly – Shawcross is one of those blessed historians who has the instincts of a thriller writer. That is in no way a negative criticism. His knowledge of his subject is clearly enormous. He has a feel for the people involved, and after intensive research into private letters and official documents, has brought the terrible events of the period to life. 

As a book about Mexican troubled history, as a book about the Habsburgs, as a book about American imperial expansion, and about French declining authority, this is a book that really cannot be beaten. I was enthralled and fascinated by the book and by the period Shawcross explains so succinctly and with wonderful clarity. I have not read any of his other books – yet – but I will. I will!

A brilliant book, and very highly recommended.

Michael Jecks

North Dartmoor

Review: THE FIELDS by Erin Young, published by Hodder & Stoughton April 28th 2022

Review: THE FIELDS by Erin Young, published by Hodder & Stoughton April 28th 2022

ISBN: 978 1529 39755 0

My last review was about a couple of modern day thrillers written by a master of historical Roman warfare. Yet he managed to make the transition seamlessly, and now two superb modern titles by him confirm his ranking as a thriller and adventure writer … this time I have a book written by a woman who is probably one of the most successful writers of historical adventure (under the pseudonym Robyn Young; her brethren series about the Knights Templar are superb – you should read them) who has now attempted to write modern day crime. Did she succeed?

First, I have to apologise to Hodder & Stoughton. They sent me this book an embarrassingly long time ago, and I have tried to read it faster so that I could get my name on the cover (Ha! That worked, didn’t it?) but a steady flow of new books appearing, my own latest novel (it’ll be out soon, and you wouldn’t want to miss that), and then a surprisingly unpleasant medical diagnosis, followed by a pile of 31 (currently) books to review. It doesn’t include the other books I’ve already reviewed this year – that’s just the outstanding number. So trying to keep up with review copies has not been easy. Especially since there are other books I need to read for my own research purposes.

But that’s enough of the excuses. 

The blurb reads: “A young woman found dead in an Iowa cornfield, on one of the new family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Agriculture.

“For Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations at the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, an already horrific crime takes on a personal edge when she discovers that the victim is an old friend, from a dark past she thought she had left behind.

“Rumour travels fast in small towns, while sweltering heat and state-wide elections only add to the pressure-cooker atmosphere. When another body is found, Riley is in danger of being engulfed by the fear and the frenzy. Something deeply disturbing is out there – and it reaches far beyond Black Hawk County.”

Well, yes, it’s blurb, and you’d expect it to put the best gloss on a book, wouldn’t you? It’s the promotional material the editor thinks is most likely to appeal to readers. 

Still, it gives the beginning to the story. A woman is found, and she’s been horrifically treated. Naturally the police go to check on her husband, and then start spreading their net a little wider – but when a new victim is found in an old works, the investigation starts to take a new direction. And it isn’t the end of the bodies.

Okay, I’ll stop keeping you in suspense. The fact is, when I first picked up a Michael Connelly book (it was ANGEL’S FLIGHT), I knew I was in the hands of a real master of crime writing. The prose was so precise and yet involving that I felt I was watching the action play out on a screen. I could see the characters, I could smell the warm soil, I could hear the cries and screams. I wasn’t just reading, I was there, in the middle of it all. 

Erin Young has achieved the same with THE FIELDS. This book grips from the very first page. How do you make the flatlands of Iowa fascinating? She does! Her characters are believable, wonderfully presented, and utterly compelling – whether good or bad. The plot is seamless (so often the failing of writers thinking they can make a fast buck out of writing a quick crime thriller – after all, it’s easy, isn’t it? Anyone can write crime – yeah. Right), and has some superb twists. I was left guessing until about the last fifteen pages – as a crime writer I usually guess correctly about the perpetrators in the first twenty pages – so this was a great relief.

And then we come to the book’s atmosphere. 

Rarely since ANGEL’S FLIGHT have I come across a more beautifully depicted environment of fear, suspicion and growing horror. Erin Young has created a world in which the rules of science and logic exist but side-by-side with age-old terrors and superstitions. And the joy at the end was seeing how she had woven her bestial and atavistic themes so perfectly into her story.

This is a book you cannot dip into and out of. You have to allocate time, because you will want to keep on reading without stopping. It is a real thriller, a story that any crime reader would absorb in one sitting, and most crime writers will be intensely jealous of. “Why didn’t I think of that?” they will mutter while downing another large vodka. 

Because you weren’t bright enough, is the short answer.

If you don’t read another crime book this year, make sure you get a copy of THE FIELDS. You won’t be disappointed.

Highly Recommended. Easily the best crime book of my year so far.

Review: TARGET ZERO by Tony Riches, published by Head of Zeus

I have just finished TARGET ZERO, which is the second in the superb The Protector series by Tony Riches. 

Please check my last post for a review of NEMESIS, the first in this series.

In this second book, Michael Bale, now no longer a policeman, has returned from a year-long escape to Thailand. He lost his job at the end of NEMESIS, and at the same time lost his wife and home. He is a free agent now, and wondering what to do with the rest of his life. 

An old friend from the Met bullies him into getting himself a job, and he finds himself taking on a close protection posting with a very wealthy man. I don’t know whether Tony has a crystal ball when he starts plotting his books, but let’s just say that the client is Russian, and has some very dodgy friends.

The story begins with mind-blowing action when a van-load of Jihadi terrorists are stopped by armed police on their way to commit an atrocity in London. But as the police move closer to arrest the men, one detonates a bomb – and not an ordinary bomb. This is a “sunburn”, a type used in Russian warheads. Like fuel air explosive, it goes off like several kilotons of dynamite. 

A contact of Bale’s has moved into the secret service, and he briefs Bale. The bomb is, the service believes, only one of several that have been smuggled into the UK. Russia is determined to repay the UK for its antagonism in recent years. The UK is at the cutting edge of sanctions against Russia since the invasion of the Crimea, and especially since the attempted murder of Skripal, the ex-Russian spy. So Russian has brought these bombs into the UK and have groomed terrorists to set them off and cause maximum devastation in London and elsewhere. 

Tony Riches is a writer who can bring men of action to life better than any modern author. He is also a superb at characterisation of others caught up in the mayhem. His plots are superb – convincing, fabulously plotted, and with a cast of characters who are invariably brilliantly depicted. I was glad to see that this time the crime gangs of London returned to create some dangerous tension for Bale as he goes about his duties – both as a close protection officer and spy.

This is one of those books that make you want to buy the next in the series as soon as you put it down. I defy you to put it down!

Highly recommended!

Review: NEMESIS by Tony Riches, Published by Head of Zeus

I have found over the years that there are several authors who basically give me big problems. Some I will never look at again – because they put safety catches on a revolver, or on a Glock, for example, which drives me potty. Others because … well, think of Terry Pratchett. Every time he wrote a new book, and like me he used to write two a year, well, that would put paid to my work for a day or two. 

It was the same with Iain Banks. A brilliant writer, whose first book which I read gripped me so badly, I was stuck up all through to five in the morning of the following day because, to use that very tired old phrase, I couldn’t put the damn thing down.

Well, now I’m older and wiser. I don’t stay up all night as I did when I was in my thirties. I can’t cope. Just as I can’t cope with the same whisky intake, curries, fish and chips or steak and kidney puddings from the Duke of Yorks at Iddesleigh (which were superb, but my digestion is not what it was). 

But one thing I do still like is a writer who can invent brilliant characters and runaway plots. 

I read NEMESIS with a high degree of nervousness. I know Tony’s books. I have most of them. And as far as I’m concerned, if I’m going to read about ancient Rome, the politics, the deviousness, the cruelty and viciousness, I’ll pick up one of Tony’s books before anyone else’s. He is a master of the soldier’s story. He can put his readers into the middle of battles and make them smell the blood and filth. Not many authors can make you feel you’ve been through a fight as well as Tony. 

So, hearing that he had written a modern book, I was … well, anxious. 

I need not have been. 

NEMESIS follows the work of a police close protection officer, Michael Bale. A happily married man to a wonderful wife, Roz, his life looks perfect. But he has a problem. He lost his sister when a drug dealer mixed up her order, and gave her a slow-acting hit instead of the fast one she expected. When she felt nothing, she took a second pop, which meant she overdosed and died. 

Which is why, in the very first chapter, we see Bale going through the preparation and execution of a murder. He borrows a gun and visits the dealer at his sales corner. And leaves. He has a fairly solid alibi, and he is fairly well-positioned within the Met police, so he thinks he ought to be safe enough. 

But this is not the only act of revenge. Bale knows that the dealer was only the bottom end of the food chain in this gang of drug dealers. And Bale is determined to bring that gang down – especially the kingpin of the drug gang, Joe Castagna, the son of an Italian immigrant who had set up his own business with prostitution, drugs and anything else that would make him money. Joe had inherited the business, and now rules his part of London with the brutality of a Nero.

That is the task Bale has set himself. To destroy Joe Castagna. 

It’s not giving away much to say all this, since this is the setup in the first few pages of the book. And you will read it all very quickly. If you like Lee Child and Fred Forsyth you are in for a real treat. This book has been well-researched, and Tony writes with such effortless conviction that I defy you not to read the whole story at one sitting.

A brilliant, fast-paced action thriller that will keep you gripped to the very last page. 

Highly Recommended!