BIRDLAND - Book review

BIRDLAND

Eric Adams

 

Published in 1997, Birdland is psychological suspense novel that concerns Katie Jacobs, who learns about Vincent, a long-lost brother, revealed to her during her mother’s deathbed confession.  Her mother had been involved in the Hitchcock film The Birds. Kate traces Vincent to Bodega Bay, the eerie Californian coastal town of the movie.  The past is raising its head, it seems as Kate finds that Vincent is unduly influenced by a local eccentric, Madame Charay, who is obsessed with all things Hitchcockian. Befriended by the local psychologist, Rob, Kate begins to unravel the convoluted threads of the past. 

The denouement is comparable to Hitchcock himself.

HALO - Book review

 

HALO

John Loveday

A very good atmospheric novel set in the Old West, narrated by the boy Scrag who’s on the verge of manhood.  It’s 1859 when he joins the Oregon wagon train, making friends with the beautiful Lorelei, her daughter Justly, and Sylvester, a poet and pioneer photographer.  

Scrag discovers sex and the strange power that pictures and poems possess. We also meet a cast of well-drawn characters, not least the preacher they dubbed Thou-Wert, and Daniel, who had been to the town of Halo before, a town the wagon train hitches up at after being lost. Halo is a town that festers with hate and suspicion. The lightness of the first part is overshadowed by the cloud of impending doom that hovers in Halo.

An exceptional first novel, this won the David Higham Prize for Fiction. Readers who liked True Grit might like this.

 

THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE

Isabelle Holland

 

Published in 1972 and subsequently made into a film starring Mel Gibson, this is a brief novel (157 pages) in the first person, narrated by fourteen-year-old Charles. It’s told with humour and warmth, concerning Charles, his sister Gloria, his mother and a neighbour, McLeod, The Man With No Face, though strictly speaking half his face was okay…

Charles needs extra tuition, and by chance he latches on McLeod to give him his time, keeping the fact secret. The relationship has its ups and downs, and gradually a fragile bond develops, though the ending, be warned, is tragic.

MAKE DEATH LOVE ME - Book review

MAKE DEATH LOVE ME

Ruth Rendell

 

Published in 1979, this is a typical Ruth Rendell crime novel, concentrating on characters who possess a dubious moral compass.

Alan Groombridge was in a boring job, acting as a small bank’s branch manager, living out a tedious existence with Alison, a wife he didn’t like, and two ungrateful children. So he fantasised about stealing from his bank and living in freedom, even going so far as to take out £3,000 from the safe and sequester (briefly) in his desk. Then, one day, while he is indulging his fantasy, the bank is robbed, and Alan’s assistant Joyce is kidnapped by the robbers. Alan had managed to hide and decides to disappear as well, taking the money from the drawer…

As ever, the plot is cleverly constructed and the gradual disintegration of the robbers, Nigel and Marty, is fascinating.

FOGHEART - Book review

 

FOGHEART

Thomas Tessier

 

I was looking forward to this book by the author of Shockwaves, which was a tour-de-force in depicting an evil person. Published in 1997, Fogheart is a bit of a curate’s egg, with moments of suspense, yet I found the story disjointed.

Oliver’s wife Carrie starts to see the ghost of her long-dead father. Coincidentally, another couple, Charley and Jan, wrestle over messages from their dead daughter. With a mixture of scepticism and desperation, both couples seek enlightenment from the medium Oona, who has a troubled past. Eventually, deceit and murder loom, with hints of madness.

Strange, but it might appeal to fans of the supernatural.