June reading ... King, Ellory, Chaouki, Miller, Finder

I'm slipping up - only read 5 books this month. My excuse? The World Cup. Great, innit.

Anywho, here's what I read last month ...

Mr Mercedes – Stephen King

I just love me some Stephen King and yet again the man kept me enthralled while I was inside the pages of his mind. Here, he switches genre and we have a crime novel with a hugely engaging cast of (among others) a retired cop and his misfit friends.

Societal misfits are a strong part of the book and by having such character types at either side of the good versus evil divide, King provides a fascinating counterpoint.

And extra kudos to a man who has had such an extraordinarily successful and long career that he can reference his own work within the pages of a new novel. Yup. Loved it.

Carnival of Shadows by R J Ellory

The blurb goes  … It’s Kansas, 1959. A travelling carnival appears overnight in the small town of Seneca Falls, intriguing the townsfolk with acts of inexplicable magic and illusion. But when a man's body is discovered beneath the carousel, with no clue as to his identity, FBI Special Agent Michael Travis is sent to investigate.

And the scene is set for a book that tickles the intellect as well as your emotions. Again, a fascinating mix of oddball characters with a strong sense of time and place that Ellory combines with themes of trust, belief and the common man versus governmental forces to wonderful effect. 

The Star of Algiers by Aziz Chouaki

Moussa Massy dreams of being a star. A Kabyle singer in 1990s Algiers, Massy engages his audiences with a fusion of Arab and African melodies with American pop music. At 36, he desperately wants to marry his long-term fiancée and escape from the tiny apartment he shares with thirteen other members of his family.

He's signed by one of the hottest nightclubs in town and his dreams appear to be coming true. But this is short-lived: when the fundamentalist Islamic group FIS is elected to power, the city is enflamed with corruption and violence. As he fights to save his dreams in a society steeped in fanaticism, Massy’s passion for music turns to rage.

In animated, clipped prose, The Star of Algiers portrays the difficult truths of a country in persistent turmoil and vividly shows the aptitude for despair and loathing of those who have nothing left to lose. 

Powerful and thought-provoking, particularly when given that this book was published 12 years ago, and when daily news bulletins remind us that little has changed – and we see the rise and rise of fundamentalism.

Suspicion – Joseph Finder

Danny's teenage daughter Abby is the light of his life. Her mother died last year, and he is desperate to keep everything as normal as possible. But the situation is bad. Danny can't afford the private school Abby adores, and he can't bear to tell his daughter he has failed her.

By a stroke of luck, Danny meets Thomas Galvin, the father of his daughter's best friend and one of the richest men in Boston. But when Danny accepts a loan from him, the authorities turn up at his door. Now he has a choice. Face prison, or become part of a sting operation to bring down his new best friend – and one of the most dangerous men in the country.

A rollercoaster (excuse the cliché) wrapped up in the form of a book – this is a great ride – an ordinary guy in an impossible situation which has you constantly asking – what would I do? Perfect holiday reading

The Falcon Throne – Karen Miller (release date 9 September ’14)

I do love me some epic fantasy and as a long-time fan of Karen Miller I was keen to see what she would be up to next and boy has she come up with another cracker.

Want warring families, loveable, but flawed heroes and villains you will love to hate? Enjoy a plot with more twists and turns than a Tour De France stage? (Sorry. It’s on the TV as I write this.) Form an orderly queue here.

My only quibble is that there was some skimming, but this was a proof and hopefully will be tightened up before publication. Nonetheless, that didn’t distract from what was  essentially great fun and a cracking read.

That's what I read this month - what have you been reading? 

Looking forward...

I know I’m getting ahead of myself but I thought it would be fun to have a look at the releases I’m looking forward to in the coming months.

The Dead Women of Juarez – Sam Hawken (p. Jan 2011)

Sticking my neck out here – and it is only January - but if there’s a better debut novel in 2011 then I’m going to eat my hair. (Someone will have to shave my back first).

Set in the Mexican border country, this novel is told against the background of the disturbing fact that in the last twenty years 3000 women have disappeared from Ciudad Juarez.

Kelly Courter is a washed up boxer from Texas happy to earn a crust as a punchbag for some up and coming Mexican fighters. He gets sucked into the underworld of organised crime and is soon over his head.

Rafael Sevilla is a detective coming to the end of his career, who takes an interest in Kelly and is drawn into another world, but one that is every bit as corrupt.

As a reviewer I have strange reading habits. It is not unusual that a pile of books arrive at the same time and I dip in and out of each of them until one pushes itself from the To Be Read pile onto the Must Read Now section. The Dead Women of Juarez circumvented this process by grabbing my attention from the very first line. This is a remarkable debut novel that heralds an exciting new talent to hit the crime writing scene. For just over 300 pages of gripping storytelling it barely puts a foot wrong.

Satori – Don Winslow

A marriage made in thriller fiction heaven. The acclaimed Don Winslow takes on the character of Nicholai Hel from the equally acclaimed Trevanian. If this name means nothing to you (you young pup) Trevanian was the pen name for one of the most successful thriller writers of the 1970’s. Nicholai Hel made his one and only appearance in Shibumi and lit up in my mind like a Catherine wheel. Hel is part Russian, part Japanese. He is a linguist, scholar and an assassin who makes James Bond seem like a heavy-handed buffoon.

My review will appear over at crimesquad.com in due course. A wee hint: I loved it.

Bad Signs – RJ Ellory (p. June 2012)

This blurb is straight from the horse’s mouth –  thanks, Roger.

Orphaned by an act of senseless violence that took their mother from them, half-brothers Clarence Luckman and Elliott Danziger start life with two strikes against them.  Raised in state institutions, unaware of any world beyond the confines of rules and regulation, their lives take a sudden turn when they are seized as hostages by a convicted killer en route to his execution. 

Earl Sheridan, psychopathic murderer, could be their salvation or their downfall.

A road trip ensues – Sheridan and the two brothers on the run from the law through California and Texas, but as the journey continues the two brothers must come to terms with the ever-growing tide of violence that follows in their wake, a tide of violence that forces them to make a choice about their lives, and their relationship to one another.

Will the brothers manage to elude the dark star that has hung over them since their mother’s death, or will they succumb to the pull of Earl Sheridan’s terrifying, but exhilarating vision of the world?

Set in the mid 1960s, reminiscent of the atmosphere so evocatively conjured in the international bestseller, A Quiet Belief In Angels, this latest work by multi award-winning author, R J Ellory, is a tale of the darkness within Man, the inherent hope for redemption, and the ultimate consequences of evil.   

Ooooooo. Sounds good, Roger. Be sure to see that them nice people at Orion get me an advance copy.

A few other honourable mentions:

Truth Lies Bleeding – Tony Black  Feb 2011

The Opposite of Amber – Gillian Philip, April 2011

The End of the Wasp Season – Denise Mina, May 2011

Proof of Life – Karen Campbell, June 2011

Jings, and they’re all Scottish. How good are we?

The book that’s going to have me skipping most with excitement (like a wee girl, quite frankly) is The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

His Name of the Wind which I read in 2007 was one of the outstanding fantasy books of that or any year. And to think this was his debut. Awesome. It had EVERYTHING you could ask of a book.

This is me rubbing my hand in anticipation and screaming, hurry up already.

An honourable mention also for Peter V. Brett and the third in his demon series, The Daylight War.  Cracking stuff. Amazon have the release date as March. I’ll keep you posted, me hearties.

Oh, and then I’m hoping Gillian Philip will have out the follow up to Firebrand.

Oh, and then...

Calm down, Mikey. We have a whole year of books.

Yaaaaaay.