The Lunch Time Book Review

Ghost Song - Sarah Rayne

2012-01-07T13:02:00.000Z

Do you like secrets? Well, if you are a fan of secrets, then you will love Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne as it is a book much more about the secrets people keep and how they can shape and corrode people's lives than it is a ghost story. Set both in the present day and in the feverish weeks that led up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Ghost Story is set around a mysterious old music hall and theatre called the Tarleton. The Tarleton has been closed down since the first days of the Great War, and is bound by a strange trust that ensures that it will not be opened again until fifty years after the death of the last owner.

But although the Tarleton is shut, it is still a building that intrigues people and makes them want to discover its secrets. Robert Fallon was a pragmatic, down to earth surveyor until he undertakes a routine inspection of the old music hall to ensure that it is still structurally sound. Teaming up with Hilary Bryant, who undertakes research into Victorian and Edwardian theatre for the Harlequin Society who administer the Tarleton, Robert discovers that the Tarleton holds some disturbing secrets. Why was a wall built to section off part of the cellar and the trapdoor on the stage nailed down so that there was no way of accessing it? And who was the mysterious figure who was sometimes glimpsed muffled up in an old hat and great coat, softly singing old music hall tunes?

As Robert and Hilary begin to uncover some of the Tarleton's history, we are taken back to 1914 where Toby Chance runs the Tarleton and writes and performs popular songs with his partner, Frank Douglas. It is an unusually hot spring, the theatre is buzzing, but the clouds of war are beginning to build on the horizon. Toby is introduced to a shadowy organisation called Tranz by a lover, and is drawn in so thoroughly that he agrees to travel to far off Sarajevo to form part of a protest against Hapsburg imperialism. He was at first fascinated and then repelled by the movement's charismatic leader Petrovnic, and is unaware of Petrovnic's dark past and the role that he had played in Toby's parents lives.

So as Toby heads into trouble in 1914, so do Robert and Hilary as they continue their investigation. Hilary's boss Shona Seymour has her own secrets to hide and her own reasons for being fearful of the Tarleton being opened up again, and why is Caley Merrick so obsessed by the theatre's history and the players who once performed there?

Not a book for those who are afraid to go into dark rooms alone, as Ghost Song descends into some very dark places indeed. Will Toby be able to escape the danger that he is in and see through the smoke and mirrors before it is too late? Will the discoveries that he makes in the Tarleton threaten Robert's career and is Hilary in more danger from someone she trusts than she could ever imagine?

One to read eating a hearty Edwardian meal such as pie and mash or bangers and mash, or even jellied eels if you can stomach them. Wash them down with a few glasses of beer, as the secrets come tumbling out and the story of the Tarleton is told. This is a book rich in historical details, and lovingly recreates the world of the Edwardian Music Hall, which was glamorous and colourful on the surface, and slightly tawdry and earthy underneath.

Author Interview With Maria Hardy

2011-12-04T17:41:00.001Z

Well, we have a little something for you today that is a bit different – we have our very first Lunchtime Book Review author interview!

So I want you to put your hands together as I introduce you to Maria Hardy who is the talented author of the charming children’s story ‘Tina the Snowflake’.

As some of you may know, I have written a few articles on a site called HubPages and one of the other hubbers that I follow and greatly admire is known as Hello, hello. As you may have guessed Hello, hello is none other than Maria Hardy, who has graciously agreed to answer my questions today.

So Maria, what led you to start writing?

I worked in offices all my life and loved writing - in those days by hand and typewriter. I am also a bookworm. When I retired I started writing. To begin with it the results were not great but the more that I wrote and read, paying attention to phrasing and the lay-out of stories and novels, the more I improved. I know that I have got so many stories in my head and would love to get them all down.

What was your inspiration for Tina the Snowflake?

I love snow and it somehow started to materialize. I also love writing children’s stories because I am still a great dreamer. I first saw that snowflake sitting up there and then I had to give it some personality. From there I thought about the stars above. So I made Tina dream of getting up there. To me getting a story together is like a jigsaw puzzle. I have one thing and I have to think of either what to do with it or how to follow on.

How long did it take to write Tina the Snowflake and were there any obstacles that you had to overcome along the way?

I had the story in my head for a long time and sort off jiggled about with it. With my children’s story of Tina, published under the author name Eva Brooks, I realized that I had to write short and plain sentences. I found it a bit hard because when you start writing you get carried away. To write it took me about a few days because it isn't very long but I had it sitting on my computer for almost two years and sometimes went back to re-write some parts of it.

Did you find it difficult to decide where to publish?

Regarding publishing, I would have gone with any good publisher but I had so many rejections that I gave up. What annoyed me the most and put a final stop to approaching a publisher again was that I found out they have agencies that do nothing but send out rejection letters. I am sure that these agencies don't even look at the stories, let alone read them. Publishers only take you on when you have a famous name or if your self-published book was a great success. It is disgusting the way they treat writers.

How difficult was it to put an ebook together?

It was not at all difficult with Lulu. Everybody talks about Smashwords and I thought that while Tina sits there going nowhere that I would give it a try since it was free. I am not a great computer guru and even after reading the instructions I couldn't manage to format the document to their requirements. It was rejected three times because of my 'false programming'. You have to programme it with Microsoft Word and then supposedly upload it for them to convert into various computer languages. I got annoyed because I didn’t have enough formatting experience to get it done. I uploaded the same document on Lulu and they accepted it the first time. Lulu seems to work check the document all the time because the other day they sent me an email stating I have to put the heading as well on top of the story in such and such way. As I said before, I am not a computer guru and when I asked them something, they came back straightaway with an easily understandable answer. I can only give their service and programme the highest praise.

Lulu also publish books free of charge and when somebody downloads it or buys a book they take a percentage. When they publish a book there is also no limit on how many can be printed.

Where else do you write and what are your writing plans for the future?

I write articles on Triond, Bukisa and Flixya. I also write some news reports for TEK Journalism UK. I have a number of children’s stories and three novels in various stages. The children’s stories I will upload to Lulu sooner rather than later. At the moment I have already another story uploaded called 'Peter Pine' which is the story of his life growing up in the forest, going to the forest school and then growing into a beautiful pine tree. He, his brothers and sisters are chosen to be Christmas trees but with their roots planted in the ground.

So for all you budding authors out there, Maria is giving us all a lot of inspiration to keep on writing and that we can still get our work out there if we are rejected by the traditional publishers.

I would like to thank Maria for joining us today and as it is a celebration of her launching her ebook publishing career I think that a glass of bubbly would be in order! Cheers Maria and I hope that you enjoy great success with ‘Tina and the Snowflake.

Find Tina the Snowflake published under the author name of Eva Brooks on Lulu for a great Christmas read!

Firefly Rain - Richard Dansky

2011-11-26T13:56:00.001Z

Jacob Logan left his home in the town of Maryfield in rural Carolina many years ago to build a new life in the big city, hardening his heart to his parent's pleas to come back and make his life in the old place. It was only now that his parent's were dead that he found himself drawn back there after his business collapsed. The old house looked very much the same, but was it welcoming him back or trying to drive him away?

The furniture van than was transporting his stuff was in a bad accident, destroying all his possessions and then his car was stolen from the drive and vanished without trace. Left all alone on the property, Jacob was had no means of leaving and had to rely on food parcels brought by the old caretaker of the property, the uncommunicative, surly Carl. Strange things start to happen around his new home, with doors opening of their own accord and a box of toy soldiers appearing mysteriously appearing on the porch. But the thing that really made Jacob's skin crawl was that the fireflies seemed to be totally avoiding his land, and the beautiful, incandescent light of these little beetles stopped abruptly at his boundaries.

Jacob eventually makes it in to town after he is picked up by a good Samaritan called Sam and his dog Asa on a pick-up truck , where he finds himself going head to head with Hanratty, the officer investigating the theft of his car. He also makes contact with other people from his past such as Mr Hilliard the pharmacist who sold the vanilla cokes he still dreamed of from his childhood, and Reverend Trotter the local preacher.

But as Jacob keeps spotting his car being driven through his property and almost dies after chasing it in the rain, he starts to wonder if Carl or someone is messing with his mind, or is there something supernatural going on. Determined to find out more about Officer Hanratty, Jacob visits the local library to look through the newspaper archives, only to have a terrifying experience down in the basement.

Is it his parents? Do they want him to promise to stay in the old house and lead his life as they had? Was pretty librarian Adrienne a lure and a reward to keep him there? And why was a sinister dog attacking the house every night, frantically trying to get in and attack him?

As the town crowds in on him, and Jacob starts to feel overwhelmed by their suspicion and disapproval, the only ray of light for him is his no-nonsense friend from the city Jenna, who comes to stay because she is so worried about him. But after his apparently driver-less car is driven into the side of Adrienne's apartment forcing her to seek refuge with Jacob at the farmhouse, events spiral out of control and Jacob is confronted with the truth about his destiny. Will he be able to save himself and the two women he is trying to protect in his house, and will somebody or something have to die to set him free?

Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky is a good horror story that keeps you turning the pages to find out how it will unfold. It makes you want to know if Jacob is going out of his mind, if he is being used by human forces for their own sinister purposes or if the ghosts of his parents are controlling him and compelling him to stay.

Have a big bacon and egg fried sandwich with this one, and a coke float like the ones Jacob used to enjoy as a kid, as you try and work out why the fireflies avoid Jacob's land and what it is that they want him to do.

Under The Dome - Stephen King

2011-11-26T11:06:00.001Z

I have just crawled out from under the dome! One of the great qualities of Stephen King's epic novels is that you really find yourself living in the world that he has created, and in the case of 'Under The Dome' it is a claustrophobic world that gets smaller and smaller as the book progresses. Another great talent of King's is his ability to describe in minute detail a perfectly ordinary day, with people going around their business, and to then bring that day crashing down with the sure knowledge that nothing will ever be the same again.

'Under the Dome' is set in Stephen King's familiar stamping ground of Maine, and Chester's Mill is a small town that is not too far from Castle Rock and TR-90. One beautiful autumn morning of blue skies and sunshine, Dale Barbara is fleeing this small American town following a slight difference of opinion with some local youths in car park. He is just about to hitch a lift when his world changes forever. Something has dropped down, seemingly from nowhere, and cuts Chester's Mill off from the rest of the world. There are some immediate bad consequences such as a flying lesson that is abruptly terminated in the worst possible way, a severed arm and scores of dead birds. But as the locals explore this new barrier that now stands between them and the rest of the world, they are still mercifully unaware of what tragedy it will bring.

Such challenging circumstances can either bring out the best or the worst in people, but unfortunately for Chester's Mill their second selectman, Jim Rennie is already a bad 'un, who has been running a drug factory at the back of the local church for years and laundering the profits. He has also been quietly appropriating the town's money and resources, such as propane gas, leaving the population even more vulnerable than they believed. Jim Rennie is also perhaps the only person in town who sees the Dome as an opportunity - an opportunity to take full control and run Chester's Mill like his own private fiefdom. He uses his influence to start expanding the local police force, filling it with untrained youngsters who are only too happy to tout guns and bully the locals.

Dale Barbara, known as 'Barbie' to his friends, is forced to return to the town he was so desperately trying to leave, where he teams up with local newspaper woman Julia Shumway to try and find out what the Dome is, who created it and how they could destroy it. But Barbie is also a man of secrets, a veteran of the conflict in Iraq, and one of the youths who attacked him is the only son of Jim Rennie, a disturbed teenager who is unknowingly suffering from a brain tumour that is sending his behaviour out of control. Their destinies will collide when the White House appoints Dale Barbara as their man to take control of Chester's Mill and Jim Rennie and Junior start a campaign to destroy Barbie's reputation so that they can hold onto power and the town.

So can Dale Barbara stay out of prison or even alive long enough to save the good people of Chester's Mill? With time running out, a small band of people come together in secret to try and find a way to save themselves and their town. But can a physician's assistant, a department store owner and three determined teenagers find out the truth? Are the terrifying dreams of exploding pumpkins and pink stars experienced by the town's children portending some dreadful future or just the product of frightened young minds? How many of the town's residents will allow the horror of their situation let them become puppets of Jim Rennie and his crew, and how many will be able to dig deep within themselves to stand up for what is right and maintain their courage and humanity? And what exactly is the Chef cooking up at the back of the church, and what are his plans for the town?

This is not so much a lunchtime book as a ten course banquet book, and you will need plenty of supplies to keep you going. Red wine, lots of chocolate and popcorn to help you through the book's terrifying and tragic climax, as you learn whether or not Dale Barbara can save Chester's Mill and the lives of those he cares about and what it will take to destroy the Dome. The building sense of disaster and impending doom make this one of Stephen King's best long reads, especially the truly horrifying ending. But although it has been compared to 'The Stand', for me 'The Stand' will always be King's best book. Hand me another glass of red someone!

Awakening - S J Bolton

2011-11-01T10:42:00.000Z

This is not a book to read if you have a snake phobia! In Awakening by S J Bolton, Clara Benning is a young woman who has always sought to hide herself away from people after a tragic childhood accident left one side of her face badly scarred. She moved to a remote cottage in an isolated, rural English village to be on her own as much as possible, working as a vet at the local animal rescue hospital.

Not much happens in this sleepy village, aside from a group of rowdy teenagers making noise late at night and indulging in some petty vandalism. So the village is shocked when one of the elderly residents is taken into hospital after being bitten by an adder, and Clara is then taken by surprise when she is called out one night to assist in removing snakes that have suddenly appeared in one of the local houses. She initially thought that finding an adder in the cradle of a newborn baby was the worst horror she would have to sort out, but the discovery of a deadly taipan, one of the most venomous snakes in the world dramatically changes the stakes.

Clara takes the deadly snake to renowned young herpetologist Sean North for positive identification, and on finding out that the elderly gentleman who had been bitten had far too high a concentration of snake venom in his bloodstream for a single adder to have been responsible, they have to start considering whether this was actually a murder.

So what part does the creepy old Witcher house have to play? It is supposedly empty, but dark, shadowy figures have been seen at the windows, and Clara starts to believe that her old acquaintance, Albert Witcher, is not really dead after all. Then there is the mystery of the church that was burned out in 1958, killing several of the villagers. Why were the emergency services not called for several hours after the blaze started and why will no one talk about it?

As more elderly village folk get killed and there are more terrifying incidents with snakes, Clara is trapped in a desperate game to find information on what is really going on in the village before more people get killed. Most of the villagers are not talking, and several of the shadowy Witcher family have supposedly moved away and dropped out of view. The village is built in an area where there are many natural watercourses, old mine workings and secret tunnels, which our intrepid heroine Clara runs around in the dark of the night, trying to find the evidence she needs. But all the clues seem to point back to the creepy old Witcher house, and Clara will have to brave the dark and the decay of the old building to find out what is really going on

As the finger of suspicion is pointed firmly at Clara as the murder suspect, she finds support in Matt, a local detective, and from Sean North, the charismatic TV reptile specialist. But as Clara finds out more about what really happened in the Church, and the torture of an innocent man, the noose begins to tighten and her very life is in danger. Can she clear her name and save the life of Matt, the first man that she has ever been attracted to?

Very creepy and detailed horror story and you will learn more about snakes, strange Roman execution customs and American charismatic religious leaders, than you perhaps want to know! After reading this you might want to change your locks before you find a taipan in your bed! Definitely a book to be read under the bedclothes with a torch and a large supply chocolate!

House of Echoes - Barbara Erskine

2011-10-27T13:36:00.000+01:00

If you love books that are a bit scary, have a historical twist and throw in a bit of romance too, then Barbara Erskine is the writer for you. House of Echoes introduces us to Joss Grant, her husband Luke and their toddler son Tom. Their lives have just been nearly destroyed by the dirty dealings of Luke's business partner, when fate throws them a curve ball as Joss discovers she has inherited a large, dilapidated house called Belheddon Hall from a mother that she had never met. Joss had always known that she had been adopted, but knew nothing about her family history, or why her mother had given her away as an infant.

The Grants are forced to sell their London home, so inheriting Belheddon Hall is a lifeline for them, allowing Luke to start a car restoration business in the old stables and giving Joss the chance to start renovating the old building and start writing a novel. But while all old buildings have their shadows and legends attached to them, Belheddon Hall seems to have more than its share of mysteries. Almost as soon as they move in, Joss can sense someone watching her and sees shadowy forms out of the corner of her eye. She also hears children laughing and calling to each other in the house and gardens, which at first she writes off as village children having a lark, but becomes more spooked when she discovers that the names being called are those of her two dead brothers that before she had never known existed.

The stress starts telling on Joss when baby Tom starts having nightmares and talks about being scared of the 'tin man' and then her fear builds when strange things start happening to Tom's cot in the night, and they start to find bruises on his body. Joss also discovers that she is once pregnant once more and that she is carrying a baby boy. But as she starts to research her family history with the help of a friend from London, she is dismayed to find that all the male children in her family seemed to die prematurely and the house has always been passed down through the female line.

As Joss's fears for her two young sons and husband mount, can she convince her sceptical family who are starting to think that she herself is causing the accidents to Tom and the new baby Ned, that there is really danger lurking in Belheddon Hall? And how does the Yorkist King Edward IV fit in to the legend? Does Edward still haunt the Hall looking for his lost love the Lady Katherine; harming all male children out of revenge towards the boy baby that took his lover's life away when she gave birth? Or is there something infinitely more sinister at work, that threatens to drag them all down into the darkness?

This is a fascinating book, with lots of twists and turn, and quite a few scares. As it is set in the very English countryside, have a nice hotpot or shepherd's pie for your lunch while reading and wash it down with a half of real ale. This is a good page-turning read, which will have you wondering if tragedy will finally overtake Joss's loved ones, or whether she can find a way to stem the tide of evil before it is too late.

Lost Souls - Lisa Jackson

2011-10-15T12:53:00.002+01:00

Kristi Bentz is the daughter of a homicide cop in New Orleans and is a rather unfortunate young woman, as she has already survived vicious encounters with two serial killers. You would think that this would have bred a bit of caution into the girl but no, after her convalescence from her last adventure she heads off to to study at All Saints College in Baton Rouge, a campus where four young girls has disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the past year.

Kristi wants to solve the case and write a book about it so, instead of being totally freaked out and heading for the hills like most of us, she happily settles into an apartment that was previously lived in by one of the missing girls. Although she changes all the locks, she bizarrely leaves a window open day and night to allow a stray cat to come in and out, even though she feels 'watched' all the time. She settles into life at College, determined to discover the fate of the missing students, and soon hears rumours of a mysterious cult on campus centred on vampires and blood letting. All of the missing girls were signed up to the same English major courses, including one on 'Vampyrism' led by the mysterious Dr Grotto, so Kristi duly signs up for the same courses and tries to make friends with the other students. She is soon confronted with mysteries to solve such as why do some of the girls wear vials of blood around their necks, what goes on in the creepy old Wagner House and why does she feel as though she is constantly being watched and followed.

One of the legacies of her traumatic experiences at the hands of psychopaths is that Kristi now sees colour leeching out of people as she is watching them, that she believes is predicting injury or death for them in the near future. She tragically experienced this while saying goodbye to her father, and also while interacting with some of the other students on the All Saints campus, convincing her that they will be the next to disappear.

Another complication for Kristi is that her ex-boyfriend, Jay McKnight, is now one of her professors on a forensics course. Will Kristi be able to face him again in class, or will she be plunged back once more into the maelstrom of her feelings for him? Also what is the significance of the Morality plays staged at the College, how does the mysterious Dr Grotto fit in, and what are the other nervous students hiding?

As events start moving towards a climax, Kristi has to keep her wits about her or she too will become a victim, and suffer the same terrifying fate as the other missing girls. Set in the atmospheric misty winter of historic Baton Rouge this should be a tense, fast moving thriller, but instead it is a ponderous, even tedious read, that I had trouble wading through to the end.

Lost Souls doesn't seem to know whether it is a thriller, a horror or a cheesy romance, and so tries to be all three, which doesn't really work. It is interesting that Lisa Jackson refers to herself as a romance writer on her website and that Lost Souls is under a category of 'romantic suspense' which might explain it. Kristi is one of those heroines who is supposedly ultra sexy, athletic, brave and very smart and yet does some incredibly stupid things to move the plot along. I found it really hard to have any empathy for her and at the book's climax was not really bothered whether she survived the horrors inflicted on her or not. I like books with a supernatural theme and vampires, but this one just just came off as improbable and far fetched, especially when a couple of the characters have started calling themselves 'Vlad' and 'Elizabeth Bathory'. There is also no building of tension or suspense in the writing, and it just plods on and on for way too many pages, so there is none of the sense of having to turn the next page or reading far into the night to see what happens that you get with the best books that you read.

If you do choose to read this book, I hope that you enjoy it, but you may need a very large bag of chocolate buttons to keep up your dopamine levels and a stiff gin or two to keep you going!

The Return of Captain John Emmett - Elizabeth Speller

2011-08-15T14:59:00.000+01:00

That Captain John Emmett had been one of the few young men lucky enough to return from the carnage of the Great War only made it even more incomprehensible to his family and friends that he had apparently taken his own life. Although her brother had returned from the fighting of World War I mentally fragile and suffering from shell shock and was placed in a nursing home to recover, he had seemed to be slowly improving in the weeks before his lifeless body was shockingly discovered lying in a lonely wood.

His sister Mary could not reconcile herself to the idea that her beloved brother could have committed suicide, so enlists the help of one of Captain Emmett's former school friends to investigate her his sudden death. But Laurence Bartram has ghosts of his own to contend with, as he too had fought in this 'War to end all Wars' and while he was in France he had lost his young wife and baby in childbirth.

But as Bartram starts his investigations, he discovers that there have been other mysterious deaths besides that of Captain Emmett's, and that they are all in some way linked to a tragic battlefield execution. Can Bartram uncover the truth before there are any more deaths? And what really happened to Captain Emmett in his nursing home? And what is the significance of a shadowy group of young war poets?

Elizabeth Speller's novel evocatively conjures up the febrile atmosphere of the years immediately after the Great War, where people were trying to return to some semblance of a normal life even though most had lost sons, husbands and brothers on the battlefields. This is a novel about the secrets people hold and that every man or woman who returned from the war was irrevocably changed and had dark places in their hearts and minds where even their closest companions could not reach.

The story also charts the tenderness and growing relationship between Bartram and Mary, who is a young lady with her own secrets to hide.

These days we find it hard to comprehend that a whole generation of young men could lose their lives in a hail of machine gun fire and artillery shells in a wet, muddy field, or that soldiers who were little more than boys could be shot in the foggy early light of dawn for their perceived cowardice, but this books explores how people were trying to come to terms with this new reality and the problems and tests of faith that it threw up at them.

This book will take you straight back to those traumatic post-war years, so go and find yourself an old fashioned pub in London, and order yourself some hearty pie and mash with a pint of real ale for lunch while you read!

Vacation Packing List: Save Your Back, Time and Money - Elisabeth Sowerbutts

2011-07-22T18:12:00.000+01:00

Are you busy packing for your summer holidays and carefully choosing your holiday books so that you can do all that reading that you have been meaning to catch up on while lazing by the pool or tanning on the beach? Well, then maybe you would do well to go back a step and actually get a book on how to plan your holiday packing properly?

It might seem a bit strange to buy a book about vacation packing, but as all the airlines are getting tighter and tighter on their luggage allowances and are charging more and more for excess baggage (yes Ryanair I am talking about you!), then maybe we do need all the help that we can get! Personally I have never got farther than roll your clothes don't fold them, and have never managed to not take far too many clothes that I don't get to wear.

Happily for us hopeless packers, one of my fellow writers on HubPages, Lissie, has written a book for us, telling us everything we need to know about how to do our holiday packing - Vacation Packing List.

Vacation Packing List will show you a whole new perspective on planning your holiday packing, including some innovative uses for satin pyjamas and how best to incorporate your photographic and reading requirements into your packing.

This invaluable little book is also very competitively priced, so you won't be using any of your precious holiday spending money to learn all of these invaluable holiday packing tips. Learn to pack right, and you can then just float through your holiday, free as a bird, and concentrating on enjoying yourself!

Read the book over a Ploughman's and half a lager at the pub and then get back there and get on with that holiday packing!

2012 A Conspiracy Tale - Bryan Collier

2011-06-27T19:40:00.000+01:00

Are you a David Icke fan? Then you will probably love 2012 A Conspiracy Tale by Bryan Collier, as this book has all the elements of reptilian aliens, secret government agendas and treating the general population like cattle. It kicks off with Mitchell Webb, CEO of technology company IDSys, landing a huge government contract to produce Radio Frequency Identification Devices.

However, Mitchell doesn't realise what a Pandora's box he has opened by accepting the contract and soon comes to fear that the huge amount of money that the company will be making are not worth the loss of autonomy and government scrutiny he is now under.

Although influential doors are opened to him for the first time, he finds himself inhabiting a world of smoke and mirrors where nothing is what it seems. A huge terrorist attack on the Channel Tunnel enables the government to pass laws that demand that all UK citizens have to have one of the devices implanted under their skin in the interests of national security and ensure that citizens are able to be tracked at all times.

As the implant programme starts to unfold, Mitchell and his friends and colleagues at IDSys uneasy when people who refuse the implants have all their access to their bank accounts and social services removed, several people around them have nasty accidents and they get more information on secret, influential groups who seem to have even more power and influence than the government itself.

As they have to go on the run when suspicion falls on them, will Mitchell and his small band of followers be able to unravel the truth in time to avert a major catastrophe for the Earth and also manage to stay alive?

Mitchell struggles to believe the whole story when it is revealed, but have they been in time to change the course of events and save mankind?

An interesting story, very detailed, with lots of threads of popular conspiracy theories embedded in it. However, overall it all felt a bit clinical and I found some of the characterisation fairly shallow, which sometimes made it difficult for me to care too much about what happened to them. However, if you like your fiction without too much emotion thrown in, you will enjoy this book.

If I said read this book while eating a Mars bar, it might give too much away, but you may as well wash all that chocolate down with some full fat coke!

Zombie Apocalypse - Stephen Jones

2011-06-27T18:45:00.000+01:00

Vampires stand aside, as it seems to be the year of the Zombie both in literature and on the small screen. After hiding behind my hands during much of 'The Walking Dead' (I don't do gore very well - that poor horse!), I was surprised at how many Zombie books now inhabited the horror shelves at the book shop. So I made my choice, paid my money and took home Zombie Apocalypse by Stephen Jones.

Well, actually it is not by Stephen Jones, but was written by a collaboration of different writers and in the unusual format of being a series of letters, emails, reports, memos and even tweets describing the unfolding horror show and tragedy.

Zombie Apocalypse is set ever so slightly in the future and kicks off in London, where the economy is even crumblier than it is now and personal freedoms have been curtailed to a great degree. To throw the citizenry some 'beer and circuses' and raise the mood of the nation, the governments decides to splurge a lot of money on a New Festival of Britain.

The idea of the Festival goes down like a lead balloon with most people, but the authorities plough on creating new venues and transport links. For some reason, they decide to do some construction on the site of an old plague burial ground in South London, that has had a sinister reputation for centuries.

As the bodies of the plague victims start to be removed, corners are cut, regulations are not followed, and strange things start to happen. A scientist who was investigating the possible public health risks disappears, and strange figures start to be reported wandering around in the vicinity of the old church.

One dark night it all starts to go to hell in a handcart and several police officers are attacked by strange, shambling figures who seem to have a preternatural strength. Anyone who is bitten, chewed, or even scratched by one of these creatures rapidly shows massive signs of infection in the wounds, develops a high temperature, and eventually appears to die. Except......they don't!

They rise again as the living dead - zombies who have an insatiable hunger for human flesh. The rapid collapse of society, the pitiful response of the government, and the blind panic and incomprehension of ordinary people are all played out via such mediums as a teenage girl's diary, desperate texts, police reports and blog posts (strangely there always seems to be mobile phone reception and access to the internet - usually the first things to go down in my experience - but hey they needed a book!)

As Britain fails when trying out a final solution to halt the Zombie plague in its tracks, the contagion inevitably finds its way over into the rest of the world, with the US, Mexico and Australia all being infected.

Enough gore to satisfy the horror fans and enough of a story for the rest of us, it makes an intriguing, if disturbing, read. Is the state of our economy and sense of hopelessness that many people feel behind this explosion of zombie literature? Do people really feel that we are somehow in the 'end days'?

My only criticism of the book is in its ending, which I found a little absurd. Yes I know that on one level the whole idea of zombies is absurd, but I didn't like the ending which I don't want to give away. Suffice to say that it brings a whole new meaning to 'you are what you eat'!

One to read trembling under the duvet with a double vodka and coke and an extra large bag of Maltesers!

The Sugar Queen - Sarah Addison Allen

2011-05-09T16:17:00.000+01:00

If you are in the mood to snuggle up on the old, comfy sofa and read a book in one gulp, then choose 'The Sugar Queen' by Sarah Addison Allen. 'The Sugar Queen' is one of those books that you will just want to keep on reading and not put down until you have finished it, so brew a large pot of tea, put together a plate of doughnuts and chocolate cupcakes and dive right in!

'The Sugar Queen' is certainly a romance, but it is a romance with a difference, where the supernatural weaves gently with the mundane to form a satisfying whole. The story kicks off when lonely Josey Cirrini, who still lives with her mother at the age of 27 and secretly stores chocolate, cookies and fizzy pop in the back of her closet for lonely binges, comes home to find a strange women hiding in her closet. Much to Josey's consternation the woman, Della Lee Baker, seems to be in no hurry to leave and Josey cannot think of a way to get rid of her without her mother finding out about their uninvited guest.

With the arrival of Della Lee, Josey's previously well-ordered life starts to unravel, as she finds that she has to defy her mother and start building a life for herself outside her home. She makes her very first friend when she goes to buy a sandwich for Della Lee at Chloe Finley's coffee shop, and tries to help Chloe with the problems she is experiencing in her love life. For Chloe's handsome lawyer boyfriend Jake has admitted to cheating on her, and Chloe's life has fallen apart.

Josey also has a love secret, as she fell in love with their mailman, Adam, the first time that she laid eyes on him, but has never dared to tell him how she feels as all her life she has been told she is unattractive and believes that no man would ever be interested in her.

So can Josey find the strength to carve a new life for herself away from the confines of her home and her mother; to escape the shadow that her long-dead, but powerful and charismatic father still casts over the small town that he developed into a successful ski resort? Who is the enigmatic Julian and why is he so keen on telling Chloe the identity of the woman Jake cheated with on that one, fateful night? And who is the young woman who is found murdered in the river?

This is a book about long-buried secrets, and people who have to find out who they really are before they can move on to become the people that they were meant to be. A book where exactly the book that you need can magically appear on the counter, new homes can be found and old family wounds exposed to the air to heal. 'The Sugar Queen' will reaffirm your faith in love and that there is meaning and purpose in every life.

The Summer Psychic - Jessica Adams

2011-05-08T09:43:00.000+01:00

What would you do if you were interviewing a shaggy, Australian psychic who predicted the future by gazing into a bucket of seawater and one of the first things that he said was that the two of you would get married by the following summer? Local Brighton reporter Katie Pickard is sent to interview Jim Gabriel in his cubbyhole at the back of a crystal and psychic shop, when she is given this piece of news about her future, along with a whole raft of global predictions for the years to come.

Unfortunately for Katie, Jim Gabriel has never given these types of messages about future world events before, so how accurate are they? Also, she soon discovers that the newspaper that she works for is in imminent danger of closing down, and so loses interest in the psychic story and Katie is put under pressure to come up with stories that will sell papers fast. Katie's woes are compounded when she discovers that Courtney Creely, the slightly sinister witch who works in the shop where Jim gazes into his bucket has a book of spells that includes one that promises an instant and unpleasant end for any woman who comes between her and Jim Gabriel.

But as Katie has just discovered that her old heart throb, the slightly disreputable but still glamorous rock musician Pete Oram, has just split up from his wife and she starts a relationship with him, she couldn't possibly be in any danger from Courtney's spells could she? But as the scramble to save the newspaper goes on, Jim Gabriel starts confiding more and more in Katie, and Pete proves that the road to true love can indeed be rocky and not quite what she thought it would be, will Katie be able to keep her job, her sanity and ultimately find the true love that she deserves?

So as this is a seaside yarn, why not get some fish and chips still in the newspaper and a can of coke and sit back and find out how Katie deals with Courtney, when she manages to wangle a job with Katie's boss bringing her coven with her, supports Jim as his predictions make it into the media and eventually force him into retreat in Hastings, and navigates her troubled romance with the rock star on the rebound, Pete Oram. So will Jim Gabriel's predictions come true?

The Lost Book of Salem - Katherine Howe

2010-04-12T11:19:00.000+01:00

Connie Goodwin is pursuing an academic career at Harvard and keeps her feet firmly on the ground. But when her vague, new age mother asks her to clear out her grandmother's house in the New England town of Marblehead, Connie makes a discovery that will change her life forever. When she finds the name Deliverance Dane written on a small scroll of paper shoved into an old key hidden in the family bible, her research takes her back in time to the witch trials that were held in nearby Salem in 1692.

When she is offered an exciting new academic position by her professor, Manning Chilton, he hints very firmly that he wants her to discover a new source of reference for her historical studies, one that has never been used before. Connie becomes very excited when she finds out that Deliverance Dane was directly involved in the Salem Witch Trials, and that she had used a spell or 'Physick Book'. Determined to track down Deliverance's book, Connie's research leads her into the arms of Sam, a handsome young steeplejack who is restoring an old church in Salem, and straight into the path of danger. It seems that Connie is not the only person who is desperate to get their hands on Deliverance's spell book, and it is only when Sam's life is put in danger that Connie realises to what extreme lengths she is going to have to go to keep him safe.

The Lost Book of Salem is interesting in the way that the modern day story is intertwined with the story of Deliverance Dane and her daughter and grandaughter. The story skilfully weaves between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, and it isn't until the end that Connie realises how much these stories of the past are connected to her and her family.

A good book for the summer, and maybe serve it up with a glass of cold beer and a hotdog!

The Genesis Secret - Tom Knox

2010-03-19T09:21:00.000Z

Dan Brown has a lot to answer for, and like so many books in this genre, The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox opens with the discovery of an extremely violent and bloody ritualistic murder. It almost seems that the authors are in some kind of competition to see who can think up the most revolting, slow and painful way to die. So, you have been warned, this is not a novel for the squeamish. Or you can do what I do, which is skim read the really nasty bits and try not to miss anything important to the story.

So here we go. The Genesis secret opens with the discovery of an extremely bizarre. ritualistic murder in Benjamin Franklin's house in London, which is now a museum. It looks as though the caretaker disturbed a group of burglars digging in the cellar; but why the extreme violence? DCI Forrester has never seen a case like this, and it soon escalates as another body is found in the Isle Of Man that has been ritually murdered.

Meanwhile Rob Luttrell is sent to the arid wastelands of Turkey to write an archaeological piece on a mysterious site called Gobekli Tepe, the oldest temple ever excavated. Gobekli Tepe is a haunted place, a massive stone temple that had been deliberately buried in tons of earth 8,000 years ago. The question is why? As Luttrell digs a bit deeper to get a more interesting story, he becomes aware of tensions between the Kurdish workers and the archaeologists. Also the leader of the dig has been behaving oddly, digging alone in the middle of the night, keeping secrets from his staff. When Breitner is killed in what could just be a nast accident or maybe murder, Luttrell joins forces with Christine, an attractive French archaeologist, to find out what secrets Breitner has been keeping that people considered important enough to kill for.

As the strange, ritual killings continue in England it becomes clear that the killers are looking for something. The life of Luttrell and his loved ones and the highly intelligent, but psychotic, leader of the gang become enmeshed after Luttrell publishes a piece in the paper on his amazing experiences and finding in Kurdistan. Luttrell has uncovered a secret that the gang want to remain buried forever, and don't mind what they have to do to achieve their goal. The question is can Luttrell move quickly enough to protect Christine and his daughter from suffering the same fate as the gang's other victims. Can he get to the bottom of what has remained a secret for thousands of years? Leaving the police behind he returns to Turkey, following his own instincts and leads, but can he do enough to save his daughter and keep himself and Christine alive?

As to what to have for lunch when reading this book, you might find it best to read on an empty stomach. Have a large glass of water handy or maybe a small glass of brandy. The Genesis Secret is a good, pacy thriller, with lots of interesting historical facts thrown in. But there are some very nasty murders, so to be avoided if you have a very vivid imagination!

The House at Midnight - Lucie Whitehouse

2010-03-14T09:53:00.000Z

Lucas Heathfield is Jo's best friend, but he has a tangled past and a complicated family history. All through their days at Oxford, and then when they start working in London, Jo is attracted to Lucas but does not know whether he wants anything more from her than friendship.

Everything changes for Lucas, Jo and their small group of close friends when Lucas inherits the imposing country house, Stoneborough, from his Uncle Patrick. The charismatic Patrick had very unexpectedly committed suicide, and coming so close after his mother's death, Lucas is devastated.

Lucas wants to share the house and his new wealth with his friends, and they start to visit the house every weekend. Jo is delighted when Lucas deepens their relationship and they become a couple. But very soon Jo starts to wonder whether their new relationship can last, especially when Lucas announces that he is giving up his law career in London and moving to Stoneborough permanently to write. Moreover, their mercurial and manipulative friend Danny is also moving with him, after being fired from his prestigious job.

Jo finds the big house hostile and is aware of currents of dark energy and emotions from long ago swirling through the dark of the night. When Lucas finds a box full of old cine films taken when his uncle, parents and their friends visited Stoneborough, he becomes obsessed with watching them. Events take a dramatic turn when Jo's unhappiness leads her to give into a new passion and betray Lucas and one of her best friends.

But Lucas cannot let Jo go, and she finds herself repeatedly pulled back to Stoneborough, where Lucas is becoming more unstable and unhappy. Resolving to break away from the situation forever, Jo wonders what Danny's real agenda is and what lengths he will go to to get his own way. As Lucas uncovers more secrets from his family's past, the situation at Stoneborough builds to a tense climax. But will the dark forces that seem to control the house, lead to tragedy once again and claim more victims?

Out of the Shadows - Susan Lewis

2010-02-26T15:36:00.000Z

Susannah Cates had had a tough three years trying to bring up her teenage daughter alone since her husband had been sent to prison. Money was tight and Susannah juggled several jobs to make ends meet and get by. Even her best friend was half a world away in Australia!

Things begin to look up when her best friend Patsy returns to Europe to head up a beauty company's division in Paris and her enterprising teenage daughter, Neve, seeks out Susannah's first love, Alan Cunningham, on Friends Reunited and starts contacting him while pretending to be her mother. Susannah is at first shocked by her daughter's actions and then thrilled to be caught up in a whirlwind romance with her long-lost first boyfriend. Patsy enjoys the challenge of her new job in Paris, but is both intrigued and irritated by the enigmatic Frank. Is she attracted to him and what does he really think of her?

Things move fast for Susannah and while her romance with Alan deepens, she auditions for her first acting role in years and is stunned when they offer her the leading role in a racy, new drama. Susannah's glamorous new life starts to unfold, but little does she know of the true reasons why Neve has become so depressed and uncommunicative, and that maybe her perfect partner Alan is desperately trying to hide secrets from her that could tear their relationship apart and destroy their reputations forever.

Although this book is well written, I am not sure whether it is trying to be a glamourous 'bonkbuster' on the lines of Jackie Collins or something darker and grittier. The main theme is very dark indeed, but I feel is trivialised a little by the emphasis on champagne, worldly success and beautiful surroundings. I suppose a lot of books have a happy ending, but this one seems surreally unrealistic and idyllic especially so soon after the traumatic events that the main characters went through. Or maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy old woman!

A summer book to read by the pool, so champagne seems to be the order of the day for this book along with pate de foie gras.

The Rapture - Liz Jensen

2010-02-13T16:21:00.000Z

An apocalyptic novel set in England a few years into the future, The Rapture by Liz Jensen tracks the story of Gabrielle Fox as she moves into her new life after being paralysed from the waist down in a tragic car accident. A psychologist by trade, she moves to a small town on the South Coast to try and rebuild her career.

Gabrielle is assigned to the case of Bethany Krall, a very troubled teenager who killed her own mother by stabbing her in the eye and who gets a kick out of her electro-convulsive therapy. Bethany's previous therapist left suddenly and her case notes are unaccountably missing.

Gabrielle finds that Bethany believes that she can predict various natural disasters that are happening around the world, and after a devastating hurricane and a killer earthquake happen on the dates and in the locations that Bethany prophesied, Gabrielle starts to feel uneasy and finds that she has trouble dismissing them as coincidences.

Gabrielle is also having to come to terms with her own emotional life after she meets the physicist Frazer Melville at a charity event. Her married lover had been killed in the car accident that had taken the use of Gabrielle's legs and she had also lost her unborn child. She had come to believe that she would never again have a physical and loving relationship with a man and has to battle with her own insecurities and lack of self-belief as enters into a relationship with Frazer.

With Britain caught in a 'Faith Wave' due to the ravages of global warming and food shortages and many people predicting that the end times had started, Gabrielle tries to untangle Bethany's past as a child of a preacher and get her to open up about what had happened to her mother. But Bethany's visions seem to become more powerful after each course of ECT and she starts to predict the 'big' one, where floods and lakes of fire will engulf large parts of the country.

Gabrielle and Frazer start to try and convince the world of science that the world is in danger, but as the story draws to a dramatic climax, is Bethany manipulating them more than they realise? How much does she really know about what is going to happen, and how much depends on her need for revenge on her father?

Not a long novel, but it packs in a lot of ideas on potential environmental disasters, religion, love and insanity. A good thriller, but a depressing world view, so you'll need some comfort food like sausages, mash and beans with a large glass of wine!

Writing Tips for Aspiring Authors

2010-02-11T20:53:00.001Z

As the manuscript for the children's fantasy fiction novel that I am writing is (and has been for some months!!) stuck at 50,000 words, I found that reading cindyvine's Hub on writing tips for aspiring authors to be both timely and useful.

cindyvine has written and published a couple of books and in the Hub talks us through how to plan our writing and be disciplined about it. For any novel to be a success these days, it needs to well written, properly formatted and have a professional-looking cover that will appeal to your target audience. The Hub also talks about writing about what we know and doing a lot of research to get the details correct. There would be no point in writing a historical romance set at the time of the The War of the Roses in England if you had no historical knowledge of that period? All that would happen is that anyone choosing to read that book would probably chuck it straight in the bin or through the open window (yes I have done this!).

So if you are serious about moving your writing career forward and really want to finish that novel that you started read all of writing tips for aspiring authors

Queens Consort - Lisa Hilton

2010-01-25T12:08:00.000Z

Although up until now The Lunchtime Book Review has mainly stuck to fiction, I do read a lot of non-fiction and one of my favourite subjects is history. So I used my Christmas book tokens to buy some interesting-looking history books.

One of them was Queens Consort by Lisa Hilton, a book in which she goes through all the Queens of England in the medieaval period from Matilda of Flanders, who was the wife of William the Conquerore, through to Anne Neville, the wife of Richard III.

It is a fascinating insight into how the role of Queen Consort developed in England, what kind of power, influence and duties these women had, and the different characters and temperaments of the various Queens.

Many of these Queen Consorts were foreign princesses who were sent to marry a stranger in a foreign land, often at a very young age. How much of their culture were they able to bring to the English Court? How difficult was it for these young princesses to adapt to their new way of life and new position?

Queens Consort is a fascinating read and one that you can do in bite-sized chunks as there is a separate section for each Queen. It will sharpen up your knowledge of medieval English history, and I found that sometimes I needed to go and do some further background research if one of the events written about particularly interested me and I previously didn't know too much about it!

One for a packet of digestive biscuits and a large mug of strong tea! More non-fiction will be coming your way - you have been warned!

The Ghost Orchid - Carol Goodman

2010-01-17T14:29:00.000Z

Ellis Brooks arrives at the great house of Bosco to write a novel based on the events surrounding a seance, several mysterious deaths, and the disappearance of a little girl in the late nineteenth century. Bosco has been set up as a retreat for writers and artists and its ruined gardens which are famous for its many fountains that no longer work and broken statuary are being surveyed to see if they can be returned to their earlier magnificence.

But as Ellis delves deeper into the those events from the past, it is as if the past is coming alive again and that something or someone needs their story to be told. Was Corinth Blackwell the medium who was brought to Bosco in order to contact Aurora Latham's dead children a fraud? And what was her relationship with the master of the house, Milo Latham and the charismatic Tom Quinn?

As Ellis gets to grips with the horrific events that unfolded over those few days long-ago, the past seems to be affecting all of the artists who were working at Bosco - Nat the one-novel wonder, Bethesda the autobiograpy writer, Zalman the poet and David who is surveying the fountains and gardens to see if they can be restored.

A local legend of an Indian maiden who threw herself from a cliff after being betrayed by her lover seems to haunt the gardens and Aurora Latham's dead children make their prescence felt. As Ellis's own love life becomes more complicated, can she unravel the mysteries of the past in time to save those living there in the present? As the accidents pile up along with the winter snow, Bosco slowly reveals it secrets and the true extent of the tragedies that had once engulfed those residents of 1893.

The Ghost Orchid is written in the style of a Gothic romance/horror and is full of rich imagery and a strong sense of a crueller past, where children frequently died at an early age, pregnant woman were shunned and sometimes took their own lives and rich men could buy whatever they wanted. It is also a story about finding your true self and how you can only run so far before you are forced to turn and look at who you really are.

One to read on a cold winter's night with a big mug of hot, sweet tea and some toasted tea cakes dripping with butter!

Consolamentum - A Tale From The Time of the Cathars

2010-01-06T10:40:00.001Z

The Albigensian Crusade in South-West France was the only time that a Crusade was raised by a King against a group of people in a region that would become part of their own country. The crusade was raised against a religious group called the Cathars who were regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church, who were all powerful in Europe at that time.

The Cathars were dualists who believed that the world of matter that we live in had been created by the devil and was inherently evil. They believed in reincarnation and that the only way to escape this sinful world was to lead a life of piety, chastity and abstinence. The Cathars had very few rituals or sacraments, but an individual Cathar could choose to become a 'Perfect' and lead a very austere life that would free them from the chains of the material world on their death.

The Cathars were very tolerant of human foibles, and unless a person was following the path of a 'Perfect', they regarded such activities such as sexual relations, drinking, and gluttony as just part and parcel of life. This led them into direct conflict with the Catholic Church, who sent the Inquisition into the Languedoc to stamp out the heresy. The Cathar elders also felt that the Catholic Church was corrupt and hypocritical and that Church Leaders lived like rich potentates rather than as the servants of Christ.

This era of history has produced some great books and stories, but if you would like to read my short story - Consolamentum - A Tale from the Time of the Cathars - click here

Greatest Lost Books

2010-01-06T10:23:00.001Z

Have you ever wondered how many great books have been written that have been entirely lost to history? This great Hub by Arthur Windermere explores some of the truly great books that are known to have been in existence but have disappeared into the swirl of history.

Arthur Windermere talks about books and plays by Pletho, Cicero, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Heraclitus, Aeschylus and Melville that have been lost to us and are only know through snippets and references in other works of literature.

To read all of this fascinating Hub click here

The Sign - Raymond Khoury

2010-01-03T10:43:00.006Z

The Sign by Raymond Khoury is a fast moving thriller where the action moves from Antarctica to Egypt and then on to the United States. Gracie Logan is an up and coming journalist whose news team is investigating the splitting off of huge pieces of ice from cliffs of the Antarctic when they are the first to witness 'The Sign'; an amazing display of lights that moved, shimmered and changed before disappearing as mysteriously as it arrived. Is 'The Sign' a natural occurrence, has it been sent from aliens or is it a sign from God that all is not well with the planet? Not sure what to make of this amazing phenomenon, Gracie receives a call inviting them to Egypt, where an old priest who has been living as a recluse in a cave has been drawing the very same sign on the walls of the cave for several months.

As the world is whipped into a frenzy by what is meant by 'The Sign', Gracie and her team travel to Egypt to meet with the saintly Father Jerome. But the appearance of another sign over the arctic and then over the head of Father Jerome on the roof of the monastery makes it very dangerous for them to stay at the ancient Coptic monastery as a large mob gathers outside the walls. They need to get Father Jerome away to safety; somewhere where his presence will not trigger religious riots and he will be safe.

Meanwhile back in the United States Matt Sherwood learns that his beloved brother Danny might not be dead after all, and that he might still be being held captive somewhere. On a crusade to find the truth and his brother, he realises that he has gotten on the wrong side of some very powerful people. He has to go on the run after he was set up as the murderer of one of his brother's associates, and teams up with another of his brother's old friends, Jabba, after saving his life from the thugs who are after them.

As Gracie starts to realise that all is not as it seems regarding Father Jerome and 'The Sign' and Matt begins to work out what Danny was working on and which powerful people he is dealing with the danger both for them and the world grows. They learn that a dream of idealism to create a better, greener world has been hi-jacked for the sake of personal power and that it is beginning to unfold and unravel.

A thriller based on one man's desire to save the world and shock it into a cleaner, greener way of living. Matt Sherwood is an all-action hero; a one-time bad boy come good. His physical prowess and ability to take out large amounts of armed, trained men strained my credulity at times, but it is rollicking, fast-moving story. And I don't think you need me to tell you where the love interest happens! Fix an organic avocado and prawn salad and sip a nice glass of organic white wine with this one!

The Library of Shadows - Mikkel Birkegaard

2010-01-03T09:43:00.003Z

The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard is an unusual thriller set in Denmark and Egypt. Jon Campelli is a lawyer leading a professionally busy if somewhat emotionally sterile life in Copenhagen. His mother has been dead for many years and his bookseller father, Luca, refuses any contact with him. Jon's career star is in the ascendant when he hears the shattering news that his father has died and he is drawn into the strange and shadowy world of the Libri di Luca,the book shop that he has inherited from his father.

He is drawn into the strange and mysterious world of the Lectors; those rare and talented people who can influence other people's feelings and thoughts when they are reading, and who can even charge books with a special energy just by reading from them. The Transmitters can manipulate a listener's experience when they are reading aloud and influence how they are responding to the text and affect their emotions and ideas about the story they are hearing, while the Receivers can tune into what is being read by someone and amplify and distort the feelings and thoughts that they have whilst reading. A Transmitter and Receiver who work well together can be a formidable combination. Jon is also introduced to the disturbing theory that his father did not after all die of a heart attack but was some how murdered.

The Transmitters and Receivers used to be united in one Society, but now they are split apart and are very wary and distrustful of each other. Jon agrees to investigate his father's death and at the same time is given a new client to work with at his law firm; the slippery, evasive businessman Remer. As Jon get to work on his investigations with the help of his father's business associate Iversen and a beautiful Receiver that his father mentored called Katherina, he tries to bring the Transmitters and Receivers together, but this fragile trust is broken when the Lectors begin to die in mysterious circumstances.

As the plot thickens and the elusive Remer seems to show an unusual interest in the Libri di Luca, Jon turns to one of his clients for help. Mehmet is an Internet nerd who make his living from winning prizes in online competitions and helps Jon hack into computers and emails to extract the information they need.

Will Jon be able to find out who is behind the murders before another Lector dies tragically? Will he and Katherina be able to resist their growing attraction for each other? And will they realise in time the plans that Remer has that could change the course of history?

The action is both physical and cerebral and the idea of the Lectors is fascinating. Settle down with a Danish Open Sandwich and a big mug of beer for a thought-provoking read!