Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 20
June 3, 2020
Book Review: Babes in the Wood by Graham Bartlett
Babes in the Wood: Two girls murdered. A guilty man walks free. Can the police get justice? by Graham BartlettMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
What I like most about this book is that it is written by a retired police officer who lived through the entire period from before the horrific murders up until the eventual conviction of Bishop, yet was, as he put it, on the periphery. He has a deep understanding of the facts and knows, and had access to, all the people who were ever involved, so that makes him an authority. This makes the account even better than an account by somebody who was deeply involved.
Graham Bartlett was well-supported in the creation of this account by many people, not least prolific crime fiction writer, Peter James, who Graham has supported in the writing of his own novels with correct police procedural consultancy.
When the horrific murders of two nine-year-olds, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway, occurred in Brighton in October 1986, Graham was a police constable stationed at London Gatwick airport. By the time the perpetrator of these evil crimes was finally brought to justice, thirty-two years later, he had risen through the ranks of West Sussex police to the top level.
This is a very detailed account from the day of the murders to the eventual conviction and sentencing of local man, Russell Bishop.
The strongest thread that I picked up on throughout the book is that the procedures and technology in those days were almost prehistoric compared to today and that the author, and everybody associated with the case in any way, feel that there could have been very different outcomes if ‘back then’ could be ‘these days.’
Quote: Had the science and technology we all now take for granted been available, then things might have been very different.
The author is not shy in relating the strengths and weaknesses, and even the failings, of the investigations over the years. Things were missed that would not have been overlooked today. Those missing links could have brought Bishop to justice within days rather than decades.
The frustrations of police and family members are also brought to the fore. One which often frustrates and angers me, is that the lawyers involved in serious cases often treat them as a game between prosecution and defence. Even though the defence team know full well that their defendant is guilty, they will try their best to find a weakness in the prosecution case to get their man or woman off the hook. The rules of their game are clear. It is the job of the prosecution to prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the person in the dock is guilty of the crimes, as charged. The defence team merely have to introduce enough doubt into the minds of the jurors to sway them to a not guilty verdict.
Quote from the second trial: The judge had had enough and reminded the experienced barristers, ‘This is a very serious trial. It is very nice to have games between the two of you, but don’t.’
The police, who have worked so hard and diligently to bring a criminal to trial are always nervous about the unpredictability of the jury, who, to be fair, are no experts.
The author has obviously learned from other authors, not least Peter James, that it is a good tactic to conclude a chapter with a “don’t turn off the light” moment. What I mean is that many bedtime readers say to themselves that they will get to the end of the chapter, turn off the light, roll over and go to sleep. If the author can finish on a sentence that compels that reader to turn the page to the next chapter, they have scored a victory. Graham comes up with two superb examples.
The first real drama came on day five.
It was all about to come crashing down.
I often skim through the acknowledgements at the end of a book, but I read every word of them at the end of this one. They were all obviously well-deserved. One hero of the whole piece, whom I had already identified as a person who deserved massive credit for locking Bishop away, is Jeff Riley. From the moment he was involved, his was diligent and on top of every minute detail, eliminating the risk of anything that could go wrong before it even had the chance to go slightly wrong.
In Graham’s words:
Special thanks and a huge well-done goes to Detective Superintendent Jeff Riley who not only led the successful investigation, but was a huge support in fact-checking and guiding us on what was appropriate for the public domain.
It is very rare that I award five stars to a book but this one really does deserve top rating.
It is exceptional!
View all my reviews
June 2, 2020
I got it from Agnes
A friend reminded me of this most topical song from the brilliant Tom Lehrer.
It’s a lesson that anybody can catch it and you can catch it from anybody.
Follow this link to listen to Tom Lehrer’s performance of his song on YouTube. You can read the lyrics below.
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I Got It From Agnes
Tom Lehrer
I love my friends and they love me
We’re just as close as we can be
And just because we really care
Whatever we get, we share!
I got it from Agnes
She got it from Jim
We all agree it must have been
Louise who gave it to him.
Now, she got it from Harry
Who got it from Marie
And everybody knows that Marie
Got it from me.
Giles got it from Daphne
She got it from Joan
Who picked it up in County Cork
A-kissin’ the Blarney Stone.
Pierre gave it to Sheila
Who must have brought it there
He got it from Francois and Jacques
A-ha! Lucky Pierre!
Max got it from Edith
Who gets it every spring
She got it from her Daddy
Who just gives her everything?
She then gave it to Daniel
Whose spaniel has it now
Our dentist even got it
And we’re still wondering how.
Ah, but I got it from Agnes
Or maybe it was Sue
Or Millie or Billie or Gillie or Willie
It doesn’t matter who.
It might have been at the club
Or at the pub, or in the loo
And if you will be my friend
Then I might . . . (Mind you, I said “might”)
Give it to you!
Book Review: Arise by Kristen Wolf
ARISE by Kristen Wolf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Having read The Way: A Girl Who Dared to Rise, I was very keen to read another book by the same author, Kristen Wolf.
I was not at all disappointed.
The concept that forms the basis for this story is very clever although I am not sure that it is entirely original. As anything? I can’t really reveal anything more about that idea without giving too much away, but the book is worth reading just to find out what I mean.
She also employs an unusual style of writing: incomplete sentences and unexpected capitalisation. This is obviously intentional and soon became familiar as I began to understand that it is appropriate for this story.
Domy is the experienced Groundskeeper on the Estate which is ruled by Her Sovereign who is feared by all. He is the boss of all the Workers and is served by the Housekeeper and Flora, the laundress.
Domy knows every detail of the Estate, down to the position of every plant and the expected behaviours of the wildlife. He becomes alarmed when he notices unusual changes around the Estate and fears humiliation in front of the Workers and, worse, a summons from Her Sovereign.
Those unusual changes get worse and spell disaster.
With memories of his mother and things that she said to him towards the end of her life, he seeks solutions. Domy engages the support of Flora in his quest. The tension builds towards a rather tense and scary climax.
This is a great read and I thoroughly recommend it. I came very close to awarding five stars and probably would have done had the memory of the brilliant The Way: A Girl Who Dared to Rise not been lingering in my mind.
Book Review: Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten
Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
As literary genres go, historical fiction was my first love. This one is up there with the best.
Even in my early school days, I was in trouble with my history teacher for questioning the dry facts that he presented to us. He happened to also be our current affairs teacher and, in those classes, he hammered home that we should verify and validate and cross-check the sources. When it came to history lessons, we were expected to believe everything that the historians had written without question. When I pointed out the conflict, his cane swished painfully across my hands or backside.
My view was that the historical fiction that I read COULD be very close to the truth and it certainly brought history to life much more than his crusty books. Again, the cane was his answer.
I haven’t changed!
Amongst my favourites are Rosemary Sutcliff, Nigel Tranter, John Prebble, Conn Iggulden and George MacDonald Fraser.
Ellen Alpsten, with her debut novel is definitely added to my list.
Tsarina is narrated in the voice of an illiterate peasant girl from the village of Livonia in what is now Latvia. She is sold into servitude by her father and goes through periods of terrible abuse throughout her lifetime, even after she has found the favour of the Tsar, Peter the Great. He renames her, Catherine Alexeyevna. He marries her and she becomes the Tsarina.
There are many interesting characters in this book, not least the great Russian General Shermetev who gives her advice and guidance that steers her through the rest of her precarious life. Her calculated cunning, combined with huge determination to be her own woman and a great deal of luck see her through many very dangerous situation.
She soon realises who she can trust and who she cannot and that it is often better to be ruthless in your dealings with those around you than to fall the victim of their ruthlessness. Everyone in that world, in that time, is trampling on those around them to gain their own advantage. Woe betide those who dare to cross either the Tsar or the Tsarina.
The time-linear narrative is occasionally interrupted with a flash forward into the time around the death of Tsar Peter. As you read, you can feel Catherine’s fear as she comes to terms with the fate that could befall her if she fails to gain the support of those who will hold her up as Empress of Russia.
I really enjoyed riding the emotional roller-coaster with Marta/Catherine as she told me her life story. This is tremendous historical fiction and I recommend it to all and I have no hesitation in awarding it five well-deserved stars.
May 29, 2020
My Latest Book – Launch Date Coming Soon…
I am sure that this announcement from Esther Chilton will excite a lot of my writer friends; me included.
Next week I’ll be announcing the launch date for my latest book, Publication Guaranteed (well, almost!). Here’s an extract from the beginning of the chapter on writing competitions:
Is it a dream of yours to win a writing competition? To have your writing truly recognised? To know your story was the best? As a winner of several writing competitions, I know first-hand how special writing competitions are. Doing well in a competition changes how you think about your writing. It gives it authority, whether you’re shortlisted or a winner. It’s something to put at the top of your writing CV and it can lead to other work. Succeeding in competitions made me realise I could write and if my writing was good enough to win such well-known competitions, it was good enough to send out to editors.
Another attraction of writing competitions is they’re great fun to enter. Many…
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Let There Be Light – Phase One
After nine years of campaigning, work has finally started on the streetlighting and pathway outside our house. The campaign was run on the grounds of the safety of pedestrians, including single parents, who are forced to walk up the middle of the road in the pitch black of night.
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Today, the SSE turned up and planted the lamp posts. They told me that the lanterns would be placed atop the pole “in the next couple of days” and that the power main would be buried and connected “during the next week.” It will only take a couple of hours to remove the old lamp posts when they return with a crane “sometime very soon.”
That sounds like we have the first four phases covered.
The local council inform me that work will start on replacing the kerb stones and surfacing the footpath at the beginning of July.
That’ll be phase five.
Of course, the scheduling of this work will be dependent upon government COVID-19 guidelines and observance of social distancing.
I am delighted that the years of campaigning have culminated in some action at long last. I promise to share photographs of the completed work by the middle of July.
Yes! I am an optimist!
May 26, 2020
Book Review: Drowning With Others by Linda Keir
Drowning With Others by Linda Keir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is an onion of mystery and intrigue. Initially, it looks fairly simple and perfectly formed but as each layer is peeled back, more defects and flaws are revealed.
Andi and Ian were childhood sweethearts at Glenlake academy when a high profile, unconventional English teacher disappears without trace. Twenty years on, their daughter, Cassidy, is in her senior year at the same school when the skeleton of the missing teacher is discovered in his missing car at the bottom of the lake in the school grounds.
Cassidy is in the investigative journalism class who endeavour to get to the truth of mystery.
The characters from both generations and their interactions and relationships are developed well as the book moves on at, mostly, a good pace. I say ‘mostly,’ because there are periods of unnecessary filler which could easily be skipped without any negative impact on the story.
The special privilege that Andi and Ian enjoy because of Ian’s family’s historic patronage and investment in the school, further complicate matters. There are police officers getting upset by the interference by the students. There are conflicts between teachers and pupils, past and present, and between family members.
It all comes together in the end and in some unexpected ways. There are some great twists.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to fans of crime thrillers and mysteries.
May 20, 2020
Book Review: The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The ideas behind this story are great. The crimes in the book are closely tied to a ghost story which was written by an author who lived in the old part of the school at which Clare Cassidy teaches. She is also studying that author, RM Holland, and using his life and work in her English classes. The first murder is of her close friend, Ella, who is also a teacher at the school.
I liked the development and interactions of the three main characters in the book, who take it in turns to narrate the story. They are Clare, her daughter, Georgie, and the leading investigating officer, DS Harbinder Kaur, who also attended the same school but suffered some discrimination during her time there.
My favourite character, by far, was Harbinder. She is down to earth and doesn’t hold back on anything that she says or does.
The conclusion of the story seemed a bit rushed and weak to me, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Had it not been for a small number of typos, a continuity error or two and what I perceived as a slight slip in forensic investigation, I would have considered awarding The Strange Diaries a rare five stars. It deserves a four-star rating a strong recommendation and I can’t wait to read more from this author. My hope is that I shall soon meet DS Kaur again in another investigation.
Stay Alert?
[image error]Whilst I understood the clear government instruction to “STAY AT HOME,” and agree with its sense, I am struggling to understand the new message, “STAY ALERT.” How does that “CONTROL THE VIRUS” and “SAVE LIVES”?
My understanding of staying alert is to heighten my awareness of my five senses and to increase my preparedness to react to any alarms that my senses raise for me.
[image error]Can I see the virus? No!
Can I hear the virus? No!
Can I smell the virus? No!
Can I taste the virus? No!
Can I touch and feel the virus? No!
So, what should I expect to see, hear, smell, taste or feel to alert me to the imminent personal danger of a Covid-19 attack.
I shall remain vigilant and exercise caution in all of my activities and my interactions with others. My belief is that this approach will limit the threat to both myself and my friends, family and all of those people that I encounter in my daily activities.
What do you think?
May 19, 2020
Tasmania’s Wild Creatures~
My eyes almost exploded with wonder when I saw these amazing photographs, especially the echidna.
‘Wonderful’ is the only word for them, unless I resort to a simple ‘Wow!’
Dolerite Columns rise up to 980 feet from the sea in Cape Raoul Tasmania.
Dolphins fish,
and fly,
off the eastern coast.
Echidna encountered on the trail. Echidnas, like platypus, are the world’s only egg laying mammals or monotremes.
He buries his face in the ground to hide from us!
Endangered Tasmanian Devil stares at the camera lens at Bonorong Wildlife Rescue, Hospital & Sanctuary, in Brighton Tasmania.
Tasmanian Devils are carnivorous marsupials once endemic in Australia, but now wild only in Tasmania.
Sleepy wombat at Bonorong. Wombats are herbivorous marsupials native to Australia and Tasmania. They are one of the rarest land mammals in the world.
Cheers to you from stunning Tasmania and her wild creatures~
For more about Bonorong and the work they do, check out: https://www.bonorong.com.au/
