Paterson Loarn's Blog: Paterson Loarn on Goodreads, page 2

The Wonder Drug by Susanna Beard

The Wonder Drug takes the reader into a convincing underworld of international crime driven by callous, greedy billionaires. Michelle is a relatable character who finds herself drawn into a nightmare situation as the result of a chance encounter with whistleblower Lars. She knows she ought to walk away to save herself, but her desire to do the right thing leads her to become involved in a life-or-death struggle against the corrupt aspects of big pharma. Her sufferings are heart-rending, especially when her brave actions affect her son, but she wins through in the end. The dramatic landscape of Iceland is a wonderful backdrop to Michelle’s adventures. A cracking read. The Wonder Drug

The Re-Write by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Thank you NetGalley for sending me an ARC of The Re-Write by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn.
I loved the multi-generational humour in Blackburn’s debut Yinka Where Is Your Huzband. I was delighted to be asked to review The Re-Write, but as an old White person who has never watched Love Island I am not the novel’s ideal audience. Temi is not over her ex-boyfriend Wale, and her writing career is flagging. I sympathised with Temi’s emotions when her agent fails to sell her debut novel. I related to her feelings of guilt about her privileged upbringing and education. I understood why she wove a tissue of lies about her work in progress. But when the action moved to the world of reality television I began to lose the drift. How does a person get dragged on social media? Why does everyone take Wale’s flirtations with his TV castmates Taleesha and Kelechi so seriously? What are the differences between a bad boy, an F-boy and a party boy? I could have done with a glossary. However, I was gradually drawn in by Blackburn’s very clever plot. When Temi accepts a commission to ghost-write Wale’s memoir of his experiences on Love Villa, she becomes entangled in a double bluff. She and Wale are growing close again – but if she wants to fulfil her dream of being a published author, she must write a negative and hurtful exposé of his personality. Temi is faced with a nightmare decision. Should she break her heart, or destroy her career? I was shocked by Temi’s behaviour, described in first person, but she made me laugh and gave me plenty to think about.
The Re-Write

A Recipe for Christmas by Jo Thomas

Clara Mackenzie’s idea of fun is to compete with her friends to see who can stuff most Lindor truffles into their mouth at once. When redundancy at thirty-nine turns her cosy but unfulfilling world upside down, her relationship with chocolate becomes more sophisticated. She moves to Switzerland with her new lover and enrols in a training course for chocolatiers.
From the beginning Clara and Daniel have problems. She is bored by his corporate colleagues, and he does not take her course seriously. He is unable to grasp that after 23 years with the same firm, she wants to try something different. However, they persevere at trying to make things work, even after Clara moves out of their flat and into the hostel where other students on her course are staying.
As soon as Clara meets scary Madame Pichon, the manager of the prestigious Auclair chocolate school, she realises she is out of her depth. All the other participants already know the basics of chocolate making. Some of them give her a hard time, but Clara faces up to the challenge. While she works to improve her skills, unexpected support from moody top chocolatier Gabriel lifts her flagging spirits.
Author Jo Thomas writes authoritatively about friendship and romance. Her speciality is bringing the customs of different nations to life on the page by describing their landscape and cuisine. Her stories are also enlightening about the difficulties experienced by small businesses. In Countdown to Christmas she wrote engagingly about Canada and in A Recipe for Christmas she does the same for Switzerland. I recommend A Recipe for Christmas to everyone who enjoys a well written, amusing seasonal story which deals with real issues and has a feel-good conclusion.
I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
A Recipe for Christmas

The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley

Jewellery designer Freya suffers a devastating bereavement, shortly after her ex-husband stole her designs. Penniless and in mourning, she begins to sort out her late mother’s belongings. Among them she discovers an attractive miniature portrait of a young woman in Victorian clothes. The brushwork has identifying features, but no signature or documentation. Wondering if the subject of the miniature was her ancestor, Freya takes it to a famous museum in London for valuation. As a result, she is enticed into a shadowy world of intrigue and exploitation.
At the museum Freya meets Ralph Merrick, an urbane and charming art expert who is keen for her to attend his cultural salons. Against the advice of her more worldly friend Brooke, on the appointed date she goes to Merrick’s house. She was afraid she might be overdressed in her best long frock, but the other guests have taken dressing up to a whole new level. Each of them has adopted a persona from a group of famous English artists who were active in the 1880s. They dress for the period and interact as their chosen characters. To Freya’s surprise everyone greets her as Emily Meadowcroft. In her given role as Emily, Freya meets and falls for Jack, an aspiring artist. Jack appears to return her feelings – but who is he in real life? When the group holds a séance, it dawns on Freya that Brooke was right. She is in danger. Merrick is not what he seems, and his salons are a front for something much less wholesome than historical role play.
If the smile of a girl in a painting has ever made you long to know more about her, and you are fascinated by the bohemian lifestyle of Victorian artists, The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley is for you.

Mrs Sidhu's Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu

The lively personality of Mrs. Sidhu sets the tone for this entertaining novel. For reasons beyond her control, the widow's one-woman catering service is sidelined by her usual clients, so she is forced to seek business where she can. This takes her into an unfamiliar world of alternative therapies, where her talent for solving crimes comes into force. The plot opens with the shocking murder of a psychotherapist and takes the reader through the historic influence of a mysterious cult. En route to an unexpected conclusion, Mrs. Sidhu has to cope with a troublesome family member who visits from India, as well as the behaviour of her lazy, unreliable young adult son. I enjoyed it very much.
Mrs Sidhu’s ‘Dead and Scone’

The Girl on the Beach by Susanna Beard

Anna is a successful businesswoman with an independent lifestyle. She has no-one but herself to worry about - until the discovery of a dead body on a Lithuanian beach turns her world upside down. An encounter with a charismatic journalist reveals a terrifying landscape of exploitation, manipulation and violence. Meanwhile, Anna is beginning a traumatic journey into her own past. Can she come to terms with her emotions in time to defeat the evildoers? All is revealed in the thrilling conclusion. I highly recommend this beautifully written book.
The Girl on the Beach

Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain by Joachim B. Schmidt

Seismic events occur in Raufarhöfn, a fishing village on the Icelandic coast, when Kalmann returns home after a visit to the USA. He has been deported because he innocently followed his American birth father to the assault on the Capitol on 6th January 2021. Fortunately, Kalmann is not facing criminal charges, because a sympathetic FBI officer realised he has learning difficulties. However, during the investigation he found out that his Icelandic grandfather was suspected of spying for the Russians. This sparks off a strong reaction in Kalmann, who has appointed himself Sheriff of his home village. Previously he suspected his grandfather was murdered. Now he is sure of it.
Kalmann is an engaging character who is occasionally overwhelmed by his emotions, and does not always understand the effect of his actions on others. For example, he takes a pocketful of rotting shark meat to his grandfather’s care home, hoping the disgusting smell will revive the old man, and is surprised when a nurse confiscates it. But Kalmann is aware of his weaknesses and tries hard to manage them. He has a mantra, ‘no reason to worry,’ which he applies to all kinds of situations.
Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain is packed full of lively and interesting characters, described from the point of view of a young man with a kindly but eccentric view of the world. Joachim B. Schmidt sets Kalmann’s adventures against a background of historic international events, of which he is blissfully unaware. The conclusion of his hunt for his grandfather’s supposed murderer is both stunning and totally believable. Schmidt’s love of the dramatic Icelandic landscape informs his storytelling. I am looking forward to reading Kalmann, the first book in the series.
I was given a copy of Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain in return for an honest review. I can honestly say I enjoyed it very much.
Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain

Death at Chelsea by Anna Sayburn Black

It is the run-up to the 1923 Chelsea Flower Show, and the final touches are being put to the show gardens. Gold and silver medals will be awarded by the committee, and King George V and Queen Mary will inspect the entries, so not a leaf or stone can be out of place. Also, huge amounts of money can be made by the winners of the competition, as keen gardeners will rush to purchase plants which received awards at Chelsea. At Hawkshill Manor, garden designer Constance Hall (who appears to be modelled on Vita Sackville West) is obsessing over a key element of her Chelsea garden. In her greenhouse she is raising a spectacular new strain of blue lily brought back from the Himalyas by plant hunters. When some of these lilies are deliberately overwatered, Constance is ready to search heaven and earth to find the perpetrator. However, she may not have to look too far, because she is convinced her neighbour and Chelsea competitor Norman Alperton is the guilty party. Enter society sleuth Mrs. Jameson and her secretary, former shop girl Marjorie Swallow, who soon find themselves investigating not only horticultural sabotage, but a murder.
Anna Sayburn Lane is the author of a series of murder mysteries set in 1920s London. Death at Chelsea is the third, but it works very well as a stand-alone. The characters are well drawn and the background to the stories is carefully researched. Some characters, like Constance Hall, are based on real people, and historical figures are sometimes included. I liked Mrs. Jameson - an older woman who is secretive about her past - very much, and young Marjorie Swallow makes a funny, relatable narrator. The two plant hunters and their wives add spice to the mystery, as the plot takes the reader to Tibet and back. Highly recommended.
I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Death At Chelsea: A 1920s murder mystery

Darkness Falls in Jakarta by Louise Soraya Black

Darkness Falls in Jakarta by Louise Soraya Black is an exploration of parenthood. The deaths of Claire’s parents trigger in her a sense of guilt rooted in events which took place during an expatriate childhood spent in Indonesia. At the same time, she is feeling guilty and ashamed because she has failed to protect her son James from being bullied at his fee-paying school in Surrey, England. A combination of these two factors leads her to travel to Jakarta with James and her husband David, in search of forgiveness.
I found it difficult to understand some of Claire’s choices. Because she is struggling with James’ isolation and the competitiveness of other parents at his school, she convinces David to try IVF in the hope of giving James a sibling. Claire is an only child herself, and she hopes having a brother or sister will give James confidence. The descriptions of the physical and emotional suffering Claire goes through in her attempt to become pregnant again are harrowing. It is easier to empathise with the teenage Claire who appears in flashbacks. This Claire is so charmed by her new schoolfriend Melissa that she forgets all her former loyalties.
The sights, smells and tastes of Jakarta are evoked, and the reader gets a strong sense of the nature of expatriate society there during the 1980s. The daily life of native Indonesians is only shown in relation to the lives of their wealthy foreign employers. I liked the way Black uses vivid childhood memories to bring her story to life. For example, when little Claire narrowly avoids being stung by a scorpion in her shoe, the family chauffeur tells her she is watchful, like an Indonesian girl. TDarkness Falls in JakartaDarkness Falls in Jakartahis gave an illuminating insight into the relationship between the two communities.
I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Darkness Falls in Jakarta

The Surprise Party by Julia Crouch

All of Julia Crouch's novels are incredibly twisty, but this one beats the lot. The Surprise Party is set on a tiny Greek island where Will, a habitually unfaithful husband, is treating his wife Eve to a luxurious trip in honour of her fiftieth birthday. The holiday will also be a welcome opportunity for the two of them to reconnect and renew their marriage - at least, that's what Eve hopes. But Will has an unwelcome surprise for her up his sleeve. He has secretly invited all of their nearest and dearest to share their second honeymoon - Eve's mother, her sister, her best friend and her husband, their two adult children and their troubled foster-child. The moment she sees her tribe arriving at the hotel, Eve knows all hope of getting her romantic relationship with Will back on track has vanished. Meanwhile, Eve and Will are being watched by Poppy, a young doctor who is spending her holiday on the island. The novel is narrated from two points of view, Poppy's and Eve's. Poppy, whose mother is Greek, speaks the language fluently. When the dead body of one of the party is found on the beach, Poppy is able to assist the local police with her medical and language skills. From that point on, the lies and secrets the family has been concealing are revealed. When another corpse is found, Poppy believes she knows the whole truth - until Eve learns more than she ever wished to know about her own family. I recommend The Surprise Party to fans of domestic noir and twisty, thought-provoking crime stories. Thank you Bookoture for giving me a copy in return for an honest review.