Three Great Indie Books Reviewed
The Super Spud Trilogy by Michael Diack
I did not know Colin the Super Spud yesterday, but today I feel he is my friend.
Life isn’t easy for Super Spuds and from the day they are born to the day they are eaten, their short life is fraught with danger. One Super Spud fills a packet of crisps and the moment his packet is sealed, his life begins. It is a little world of magic that the author, Michael Diack, kindly allows you to enter.
I studied Colin carefully and, through the author, was privy to knowledge not shared by the rest of the human race. For instance, I know that as soon as his packet is sealed, he develops eyes, ears, a nose and a mouth. This is never spotted because Super Spuds act dead as soon as a human is in sight, and dead means they just look like a crisp packet – without the features. If a Super Spud can survive beyond the sell by date, his arms and legs develop and he is free to live forever – away from humans obviously. So it’s a bit of a lottery really. The likelihood, certainly in my house, is that they’d be munched to eternity pretty soon after the shopping trolley was unloaded. But for the lucky ones, including my mate, Colin, they’ll be free to explore the wonderful big world that they were genetically engineered into.
And survival gives Michael Diack a plot. A plot in which Colin and his mates set out to reach the rubbish tip, a sort of promised land. Many problems are encountered and dealt with along the way, but reaching the tip does not herald the end of the story. The tip effectively emulates a major city as far as Super Spuds are concerned, and a whole new stack of adventures begin. The equivalent of inner city riots, Olympics, even a Grand Prix (complete with the potato equivalent of Murray Walker, in other words Murray Walker).
But all this excitement is not enough for our Super Spuds. Oh no. They take the heroic decision to go to Mexico on holiday. Now I won’t spoil things by explaining how they managed to catch a plane and fly away, so I’ll leave it to you to buy the book and follow their exploits.
And buy the book you should. Michael Diack has very cleverly created a humorous, dangerous world and filled it with little characters that touch your heart. Not an easy task when you think that the little characters are packets of crisps. But he succeeds. They fall in love, they fight, they compete, they break rules, they go to prison, yes Crisp Prison, and the reader is involved every step of the way. Good on yer Michael. Can’t wait for more.
Rogue of Rouxville by Adam Yamey
Reading Adam Yamey’s novel is reminiscent of reading some of the great classic literature of our time. His writing style is timeless, very descriptive and his characters exude deepness, which is not readily accessible. Indeed, his main character Jakob Klein is built up in layers so that you get to know him slowly and are continually left wanting to know more about him. A very clever writing technique.
I have rarely read such evocative descriptions. For instance, he describes two workmen thus; ‘As they moved the tool back and forth rhythmically, the beads of perspiration on their dark skins glistened in a beam of light that was shining through the dusty air from a glass window high above them.’ I don’t know about you, but I’m standing in that shed with them.
Adam’s use of dialogue is superlative, and the South African accent is captured brilliantly. As are snippets of American and, even Irish.
The plot could be described as lacking pace, but to do so would be a mistake. It ambles along comfortably and I enjoyed every moment of it. It is not an easy book to put down.
The story encapsulates a snapshot of southern Africa in the mid 1800s as effectively as a time capsule.
Jacob Klein is a complex character with many flaws, and there are numerous sides to him. He clearly has ideas above his station and is not content to scratch around in poverty, in what is an incredibly hard and cruel place for anyone without means. He relies upon a natural charm and copious amounts of guile to hoist him above his station. But several factors within his complex personality conspire to impede him. He has a drink problem, his business ethics are highly questionable and he does not cover his tracks well enough. As a consequence, rather than ascend to a higher plane, he sinks to the bottom of the world he inhabits like a stone. One’s natural reaction would be to shrug and dismiss his situation as being brought on by himself. But the way Adam Yamey has cleverly forged his character, leads to the reader really caring about him. He slowly climbs from the quagmire he is in, and the reader is cheering him on every inch of the way.
A dramatic tale well told. As with all well-written historic novels, it provides a welcome escape from the frenetic, fast moving world in which we live.
The House on Cliffside by CM Spencer
Catherine Spencer wrote this delightful short story in preparation for a cozy mystery novel, Road Kill, which is set in the foothills of Alberta.
The House on Cliffside is in fact set on the cliff tops of Cornwall, so the link to Alberta in Canada is quite a tenuous one, clearly best known to Catherine.
What this short story will do is give confidence to anyone thinking of buying the soon to be released novel. It carries shades of Agatha Christie, and certainly shares the same time frame, with Doris Day crooning in the background and a retired army colonel photographing kittiwakes in their nest halfway up a cliff. I know there’s nothing period about bird photography but there is when you use a film camera and then spend hours in your dark room, developing the results.
The plot of this little mystery revolves around four characters: the aforementioned Colonel Booth; his writer wife, Judith; her secretary Phyllis Hawthorne; a handsome young G.P.,Laurence Scott.
I don’t want to give too much away, but one of these characters dies naturally, one is murdered and the other two marry. All this is revealed in a very tight twist at the end. A twist which I never saw coming. The sign of a good storyteller. If you buy and read short stories, I would definitely give The House on Cliffside a go.
