THE HAUNTING - Book review

This is Alan Titchmarsh’s eighth novel (published 2011) and the first of his that I’ve read. Titchmarsh is a gardener who became a broadcaster in TV and radio. His first novel was published in 2001.

The Haunting (an over-used title) is an episodic tale alternating between two time periods: 1816 and 2010.

In 1816 a housemaid Anne Flint goes missing at the same time as the daughter of the local lord is found dead by the stream. The mysterious death is compounded by the fact that the dead girl is wearing Anne’s clothing…

In 2010 history teacher Harry Flint is nearing the end of his tenure at St Jude’s School. He is still recovering from a failed marriage and purchases Mill Cottage where he will spend his time with his many books and tracing his ancestry…

Gradually, with consummate ease, the mystery is resolved.

The book relies on several coincidences, but that’s no bad thing. Life is full of them. The same goes for the plethora of clichés – people use them all the time.

The characters, both main and subsidiary, are rounded and interesting. There’s humour and pathos, and humane warmth. Certain unsavoury aspects in the past are dealt with off-stage.

The recounting of a death is restrained and very affecting.

Titchmarsh excels in description of both place (especially evocative with his broad knowledge of plants and trees and wildlife) and character: viz.

April 16, 1816: ‘Air as clear as crystal; the sort of day when the whole world seems to sparkle and glisten – freshly laundered by a shower of rain, buffed up by the gentlest of breezes and then polished to perfection by clear sunlight.’ (p1) Then the same words are used for April 16, 2010 (p11). Emphasising parallels in time.

‘Around her shoulders lay an elaborate wrap that had seemingly once belonged to a member of the fox family blessed with three heads and five feet, and upon her head sat a collection of feathers which, had they been seen in the road, would have been identified as an unfortunate thrush who had come off badly in an argument with a coach-and-four.’ (p143)

Author intrusion is not greatly apparent until the last (ill-judged) paragraph.

I intend to read another of Alan Titchmarsh’s books – The Scarlet Nightingale (2018) soon.

SPEAKING IN TONGUES - Book review

 

Jeffery Deaver’s 1995 psychological thriller Speaking in Tongues didn’t get the paperback treatment in UK until 1999. The back of the book offers up a small mystery: ‘Filled with the brilliant twists and turns that are Jeffery Deaver’s hallmark, this is the long awaited, completely revised paperback debut of his classic thriller.’ The mystery is – what was ‘completely revised’?

Meghan is a troubled teen and is marginally schizophrenic. She is attending a session with her therapist; only it’s a new guy, Aaron Matthews. He’s much better than the usual fella, bald Hudson. Smooth-talking, approachable – until he injects her with a drug that knocks her out.

For several years Meghan’s parents have been separated. Mother Bett has had a string of failed relationships. Father Tate Collier is a retired lawyer who spends his time on the family farm and barely sees Meghan from one month to the next. Tate was a glib talker when in the courtroom. So there are two men who both have a way with words that can convince.

Ostensibly, it seems that Meghan has run away from home, having left an accusatory letter. But it doesn’t seem quite right. Tate calls in favours from friends in law enforcement. Gradually, it dawns on them all that Meghan has been abducted. Worse, people who might have been in contact with Meghan just prior to her absence start dying…

The past is coming to haunt Tate… 

This is yet another edge-of-seat Deaver thriller, told mainly from the point of view of Tate, Bett, Meghan and Matthews. Nobody seems safe.

Un-put-down-able all the way to the end.

SHARPE'S ASSASSIN - Book review

Sharpe’s Assassin is Bernard Cornwell’s twenty-second Sharpe novel (number 21 in his timeline/chronological sequence), his first Sharpe book in fourteen years. This tale follows immediately after Sharpe’s Waterloo (1990). Needless to say, we know Sharpe survives, since he appears in Sharpe's Devil (1992) which takes place some five years after Waterloo.

At Waterloo Sharpe lost a number of his chosen men and the story begins with our two heroes, Patrick Harper and Sharpe burying Daniel Hagman. He is summoned by the Duke of Wellington.

The Duke gives him the task of freeing some prisoners from the citadel at a nearby town called Ham. One prisoner in particular is important, an Englishman called Alan Fox. It’s considered a fool’s errand. But it is necessary. As the Duke says, ‘For this job we need a ruthless bastard.’ And that’s Sharpe.

While he’ll be away Sharpe’s battalion is handed over to a newly arrived Major Morris. This is not good news. Years ago Morris was responsible for Sharpe getting flogged for something he didn’t do. Now, however, Sharpe outranks Morris.

All Sharpe wants to do is retire to Normandy with Lucille, his common-law wife. After this last task, perhaps?

Yet the assault on the Ham citadel leads to the revelation that a cabal of Frenchmen have organised to wreak havoc on the occupying forces, with the intention of assassinating British high-ranking officers, in particular Wellington. Sharpe and Harper enter occupied Paris in search of this evil fraternity.

As with the earlier Sharpe books, the fiction is laced with historical events, lending added authenticity.

Throughout, the voices of the TV series’ actors resonates in the dialogue. There’s blood and gore aplenty, clever tactics to confound the enemy, lashings of humour at the expense of the French, honour and betrayal, and bold and foolhardy bravery.

Welcome back, Richard Sharpe! You’ve been away far too long.

MINISTRY OF SPACE - Book review

Way back in 2001 I purchased the first two Image comics in a trilogy with the overarching title of Ministry of Space. For some reason I never managed to get hold of the third concluding part.

Finally, I’ve obtained the graphic novel version (3^rd printing) dated 2004.

Being a reader and fan of the Dan Dare stories from Eagle, I was drawn to this comic because its artwork appeared to be paying homage to the greats Hampson and Bellamy.

The team consists of: Warren Ellis, writer; Chris Weston, artist; Laura Martin, colourist; and Michael Heisler, letterer. And they’ve done a splendid job of it.

The story begins in 2001 in an alternate history, where England had already conquered space, complete with the space station Churchill. Great Britain’s Ministry of Space is headed by Professor Dashwood. He’s being alerted that the Americans are finally going to launch their own spaceships. Then there’s a flashback to Peenemunde, 1945, where the Americans are secretly bombed by the British, denying them the space rocket secrets… The story moves through the 1950s and 1960s to the colonisation of Mars. The dark mystery as to how Britain stole a march on the allies in the race to space is slowly revealed...

Weston’s artwork is excellent. The detail in every page is simply outstanding. There are several splash pages that enhance the story: for example when Dashwood’s experimental rocket crashes into a windmill – you can virtually see every splinter of wood!

Recommended.

Note: Warren Ellis is the author of the graphic novel Red  - a Bruce Willis movie - among countless other comics.

TRAITOR'S KISS - Book review

 

It’s a few years since I’ve read any Gerald Seymour thrillers; I’ve had Traitor’s Kiss on my shelf since 2004, its date of paperback publication (originally published 2003). I have yet to be disappointed in one of his novels, and I’m happy to write that this is no exception. Even when some feature a downbeat ending, I’ve appreciated the storytelling, the research, the characters and the honesty in the writing.

It begins in 1998 when a Russian officer hands over a wad of secret papers to a British trawlerman in the port of Murmansk. The papers are delivered to SIS operative Rupert Mowbray; genuine details from Captain Viktor Alexander Archenko, Russian Navy.

Some five years later, a dead drop by the Archenko doesn’t happen. The SIS handlers fear the worst: their contact is blown. But Archenko isn’t, though he has detected security men shadowing him. So begins a race against time – before the net closes in on a useful asset.

Some in the higher echelons of SIS consider the asset is a lost cause. But this goes against Mowbray’s sense of honour: he wants to organise an operation to get Archenko out.

As the Mission Impossible team is unavailable, Mowbray seeks the help of ex-SAS men – Billy, Lofty, Wickso and Ham – to extract Archenko from under the noses of the Russians. Closing in on Archenko is Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Bikov, an experienced interrogator.

At just over 500 pages, this tense thriller is a fast page-turner, all of it believable. Helping Mowbray is Alice, who was at the first clandestine meeting with Archenko all those years ago. She’d fallen in love with him and was now with Mowbray and the extraction team heading for Kaliningrad. All the familiar tropes are here – intelligence hardware, tradecraft, weapons, insider knowledge of the Russian naval system, soul sapping suspense of constantly being aware of being a traitor, the justification for the deceit, the bravery and heroism of the various protagonists.

Highly recommended.

The book of the Film - ICE COLD IN ALEX

 

The book by Christopher Landon was published in 1957. The film was released the following year, with a screenplay by Landon and T.J. Morrison.

Briefly, Captain Anson (film: John Mills) of the Royal Army Service Corps Motor Ambulance Company is serving in Tobruk. He’s battle-weary and has turned to alcohol. The German Afrika Korps is due to take the city, so they all evacuate but in the confusion two nurses, Sisters Diana Murdoch (Sylvia Syms) and Denise Norton (Diane Clare) are left behind. Anson with Mechanist Sergeant Major Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews) take the sisters in their Austin K2/Y ambulance (nicknamed ‘Katy’). Separated from the rest of the evacuation vehicles, they set off across the desert to Alexandria (Alex). Shortly, they encounter a South African officer of the Union Defence Force (UDF), Captain Zimmerman. In the film he is named van der Poel (Anthony Quail).

Anson swears off alcohol even though Zimmerman carries several bottles of spirits in his pack. He declares he won’t touch a drop until they get to Alex.

There are a number of tense scenes in the book: crossing a minefield, a broken suspension spring which requires the formidable strength of Zimmerman to support the axel while they shove rocks underneath, the crossing of the Qattara Depression, a fatal attack by a German patrol, and a dangerous immersion in quicksand. All these sequences were dramatized at greater length and to good effect in the film. Two marked differences in the film are: the betrayal is signposted much earlier in the book, and Diana’s romantic interest is not Anson but Pugh.

It’s probably not a spoiler to reveal that, after many trials and tribulations, they do get to the bar in Alex! The cover image from the film reveals it, after all. The lager they drink is Rheingold (an American beer); of course in the film they drank the Danish beer Carlsberg; real beer was used and after several ‘takes’ Mills confessed to being rather giddy.

One of the German officers who waylaid them was played by Walter Gotell, who went on to appear in many James Bond movies.

Landon’s prose is reminiscent of Hemingway, very spare and direct. The viewpoint changes for (mostly) chapter-lengths from Anson, to Diana, Zimmerman and mainly Pugh. It is obvious from his descriptions that Landon had served in North Africa, which is the case. He wrote several novels and, sadly, died from accidental alcohol and barbiturate poisoning in 1961, aged 50.

If you’ve seen the film, you’ll still enjoy the book.