Stacy Willingham impressed with her debut “A Flicker In The Dark” (2022), a twisty Louisiana-set thriller with skilful misdirections and careful plotting. All this is evident in her second novel which I think I enjoyed even more than the debut.
Isabelle Drake, a freelance journalist, is facing a year since her three year old son was snatched from his bedroom by speaking at a true-crime convention in the hope that someone might come up with unforseen evidence. On the way home she meets Waylon, who can provide the opportunity for new perspectives on the case. Isabelle’s family has been shrouded in secrets, from her childhood and her relationship with the husband she separated from since her son’s disappearance.
This is an intense thriller with the author drip-feeding us information which shifts almost continually how we perceive events. The author states she has written it as an acknowledgement of the weight of motherhood, having to go it alone with feelings that might not feel normal but are in terms of blame and guilt and responsibility.
I like the Southern setting, the characterisation, the touches of gothic, neighbours who seem to appear out of nowhere, the stifling heat and the boggy marshes. This is a strong second novel.
All The Dangerous Things will be published by Harper Collins on 2nd February 2023. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
Today I am celebrating 8 years and 891 posts and a big thank you to those of you who have stuck with me or joined me along the way or even just discovered one or two posts randomly when looking for something else! I thought I would celebrate by looking at the top 10 most read posts of the last year – some of which were written quite a long time ago now and which have continually appeared on my most-read lists (in fact only number 3 was read and reviewed in 2022). I admit I do continue to find it fascinating to see what people are reading. So here goes:
Posted back in 2018 and has been one of the most read posts ever since. The musings of the couple from “Gogglebox” has certainly been of interest- although it has slipped down from its number 5 spot in 2020.
When I last looked at the top posts back in 2020 this was the most read even though this last series of the ITV police show was first shown in 2016. Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp certainly made a lasting impression.
I reviewed this 1986 novel in 2018. This was the debut novel from the much loved British crime writer and despite me saying at the time “I am convinced, however, that there will be some real gems in the 25 or so works of his that I am still to encounter” I haven’t got around to reading him since. I do have a copy of his 2020 novel “The Fine Art Of Invisible Detection” looking across at me from the bookshelves as I write this so I might very well find myself rediscovering this author this year.
I read and reviewed this in 2018 when it was dominating best seller lists. It’s just reminded me that I have not got around to watching the BBC TV adaptation which was so well received and which starred Ben Whishaw- I have the whole series recorded on Sky but never seem to be in the mood to get started with it. Looking back at my review I’m wondering if that is because I said “I haven’t read anything before with so much bodily fluids sloshing around”. It’s one thing reading about it but another when you are watching it whilst eating your tea!
Obviously one of my guilty pleasures which is 60s songstress Kathy Kirby has had a bit of renewed interest in the last year as she features twice in my most read list. At number 6 we have this four star 2005 memoir which I reviewed in 2016. Harman shines a light on a woman who found fame under the shadow of her lover and mentor the much older celebrated band leader Bert Ambrose but who after his death went into free fall. Exploited by both the music business and the press her naivety ran alongside a determination to bounce back. Harman knew her well and conveys the 1960s showbusiness world she inhabited as well as the vulnerability of some who rose to the top. It might be a struggle to get hold of this book now which may explain why fans are searching for my review of it.
Another consistent top 5 performer is this 2019 five star review of a 1975 publication of the completion of Jane Austen’s unfinished fragment which was completed by the “Another Lady” in this case Australian-born author Marie Dobbs. I’m sure the ITV series has helped maintain the interest in what I thought about this.
Number 79 in my Essential CD lists is the 2016 review of a 1997 20 track release on the Spectrum label. I’m pleased to see this getting a good number of reviews – I wouldn’t want this singer who was once reputedly the highest paid woman on British television being forgotten. By the mid 60’s when Beatlemania was at its height her chart career was over yet within these twenty tracks there are some fine examples of British pop music.
My four star review of this 2022 novel meant that it was out of the running when I came to choose my Top 10 books of the year as I had read so many 5 star titles but this is a book which remained with me throughout the year that I am wondering if my original four star rating was not a little stingy. A splendid Dorset-set debut and I am pleased that so many people have wanted to find out more about it. A book which achieved a very good level of critical and commercial success.
This budget Music For Pleasure CD spans the years 1960-73 and made it to number 80 in my Essential CD countdown. This has tended to hover around the lower half of the Top 10 most read posts since publication but has had a real surge this year to become my second most read post. This is surely because of the continued love and support for this now 86 year old Dame of the Realm, living legend and national treasure.
How delighted am I to see this at the very top of my most read pile as this is one of my favourite books of all time and I don’t miss many opportunities to mention this and recommend it so I do hope that readers have found their way to this book through my promotion of it. I reviewed this back in 2017 and in the eight years I have been writing this book I think only this year’s Book Of The Year “Young Mungo” by Douglas Stuart has come close to toppling this off my favourite book pedestal. Thank you for seeking this review out in considerable numbers and thank you for reading this book.
Where are you reading from?
The Top 10 countries for visitors to reviewsrevues.com. The figures in brackets relate to 2020 when I last published this list.
1(1) UK
2(2) US
3 (7) Australia
4(-) Italy
5 (6) Canada
6(4) Germany
7(-) China
8(-) France
9(5) Netherlands
10 (-) Ireland
Welcome to the new countries in the Top 10. Not sure what has happened to my Belgian visitors who have slumped from the number 3 position. Hopefully they will be back before I celebrate reviewsrevues 9th birthday.
I am shamefacedly admitting I knew nothing about the inspiration for Irish writer Joseph O’Connor’s new novel – Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, a Priest based at the Vatican at the time of Rome’s takeover by the Nazis who was responsible for the saving of some 6,500 lives through the Escape Line, which ran from the neutral Vatican City, housing and hiding soldiers, escaped Prisoners Of War, Jews and others the Nazi regime took against.
This is a fictional account which leads up to a mission, known as a Rendimento, planned for Christmas Eve 1943. O’Flaherty was supported by a group who met on the pretext of choral singing and some of these are interviewed in the early 1960s and their accounts of what happened runs alongside a third person narrative. O’Connor writes beautifully with multi-sensory descriptions being layered to build a picture of events and the tale he tells here is involving and often thrilling. He seems more at pains to ensure we know we are reading fiction than the average historical novelist. I might be wrong here but from a quick glance at the true events online I think he has changed the identity of the main threat to the mission, a German officer who viewed O’Flaherty as his nemesis. If this is so, this fictional creation allows the author greater freedom in portraying the evil within this man.
Monsignor O’Flaherty is the lifeblood of this novel but I think I might have appreciated further fleshing out of some of the supporting characters within the choir. From their interviews I wasn’t always clear who was talking and this narrative structure removed them slightly from the action although I do acknowledge that anonymity at this time was a prerequisite for survival.
I was impressed by this strong novel but I must admit that it didn’t quite get me the way the author’s evocative recreation of a Victorian theatrical world inhabited by Bram Stoker in 2019’s “Shadowplay” did which made it into my Top 5 Books of that year.
My Father’s House will be published on 26th January by Harvill Secker. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
Here’s a book from my “What I Should Have Read in 2022” list. Its focus is 1970’s pop music. Looking back from our 21st Century position when we think of the 1970’s we probably give greater importance to punk, glam rock and disco which certainly made a lasting impression in terms of visual style but did not last that long as a market force. The music with the most longevity throughout the decade can be classed as singalong pop.
Will Hodgkinson studies an era where the first number one of 1971 was Clive Dunn’s “Grandad” and rounding things off so helpfully 10 years later was St. Winifred’s School Choir and “There’s No-One Quite Like Grandma”. So did nothing change during the 1970s? Still celebrating grandparents! Why did singalong pop exert such mass appeal for the whole of the decade. The author explores this and basically it is because Britain was so grim during this time that we needed pop music to lift the spirits!
Perhaps the inspiration for much of this came from an American song from the late 1960s, “Sugar Sugar”. This was marketed as being by a cartoon group, recorded by anonymous session singers and was disposable bubblegum music at its finest and importantly, was a massive worldwide hit. For a time, the song became more important than the artists. The UK responded to this by session musicians recording singles and then considering the formation of a group to perform afterwards – take a bow Edison Lighthouse, Brotherhood Of Man, Bay City Rollers, the whole range of singles put out by Jonathan King, or 10CC in embryonic form. One session singer Tony Burrows famously appeared in three (some say four) different acts on the same episode of “Top Of The Pops”.
And then came glam- stomping, singalong music geared towards and enjoyed by a younger audience- led by Marc Bolan, whose innovative influence on British pop has now been somewhat lost followed swiftly by Slade, Wizzard, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Sweet et al, with an even younger audience being feted by Messrs Osmond, Cassidy and Jackson. Will Hodgkinson explores and analyses all this with interviews, contemporary views and what was going on at the time. A sudden powercut plunging British homes into darkness could be enlivened by a family singsong of “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep.”
This is a phenomenon mainly but not exclusively British and also had something to do with huge audiences for TV light entertainment shows, TV advertising jingles and theme tunes and pop music as a regular feature of children’s TV but mainly a country that ricocheted between Heath, Wilson and then Callaghan as Prime Ministers in a time of strikes, inflation, high unemployment needed something to feel cheered up by.
Given all that can we expect a New Seekers, Boney M, Tony Orlando and Dawn revival in 2023?!! Just nobody mention Gary Glitter….
In Perfect Harmony was published by Nine Eight Books in 2022.
Janice Hallett’s sparkling debut “The Appeal” ended up at number 4 in my current Books Of The Year. I rarely go so overboard for a crime novel but I so loved its quirkiness, its characterisation and its misdirections which had me making the wrong assumptions all over the place within a work which felt both fresh and classic. At the time I did wonder if the author would be able to achieve this again with a second novel which had a similar unusual narrative style. “The Twyford Code” featured potential secret messages from an Enid Blytonesque writer which gave it great heart and although I felt it lacked a little bit in readability compared to the previous work, the cleverness of misdirections led to a highly satisfactory reading experience and a four star rating. But would she pull it off a third time? I really hoped so.
“The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels” consists of research material for a true crime novel which is located in a safe. The author Amanda Bailey was commissioned to write a new slant on a case of eighteen years previous of a cult ritual suicide/murder which almost led to a baby being sacrificed. At the same time her one-time colleague and rival Oliver Menzies is commissioned to explore the same case for another publishing company. Here we get their e-mails, research, found materials including associated fiction and transcripts of interviews around the case. This is darker territory than the previous novels and I do like dark but I became less convinced as the book progressed that the theme suited this format as well as in the previous books.
The first half I was loving but then it felt like it was getting bogged down with too much material and I could feel my enthusiasm waning and the author’s extrication from this did not feel as impressive as it was in “The Twyford Code”. I wasn’t surprised to read that one of the acknowledged inspirations was Michelle McNamara’s “I’ll Be Gone In The Dark” a true account of how an American true crime writer became obsessed with her work and there were references to other UK crimes and real life figures which I actually felt a little unsettling on this occasion.
There is still humour and great relish in the writing but this is undeniably darker and I must admit to missing the effervescent feeling I got from “The Appeal”.
Janice Hallett is a clever crime writer and has been a real find for me and does deserve Richard Osman comparable sales with her cunning quirky take on British crime, but didn’t quite hit home with this book in the way I was hoping she would. I’d be interested to see if she deviates from her format with her next book, I must admit to being a little nervous here about diminishing returns.
The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels was published by Viper Books on 19th January 2023. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
This book’s scope is so huge that it is difficult to be able to succinctly describe it. In 2022 Bob Stanley published “Let’s Do It” (number 2 in my current Books Of The Year list) and that book was in many ways a prequel to this written more or less a decade on. This earlier book focuses on pop music really from the introduction of the first UK charts in 1952 and has as its focus the vast seismic shift – The Beatles, whose presence seems almost there from that point on but actually do not dominate proceedings here as much as I had expected them to do.
Bob Stanley completed a gargantuan task in relating the developments and shifts in popular music up to his publication date- maintaining a good balance between the UK and US markets and touching upon almost every form of popular music which had a moment in the spotlight in the past 70+ years. He does it in a way that I’m equally fascinated with reading about the major and minor performers in genres I’m not even interested in (US Country, Metal, Britpop etc) as in those areas of music I feel I know well.
There is so much to be enjoyed in this book but I must admit that compared to “Let’s Do It” I sometimes felt a little fatigued by it all here with so much information in rapid succession. I felt we were given more space in the later book and that “Let’s Do It” actually had a greater freshness because I hadn’t lived through those years. I didn’t have the feelings about acts I’d built up watching “Top Of The Pops” and reading “Record Mirror”. I felt this affected how I responded to the author’s writing. One telling point of difference is that when I read “Let’s Do It” I went overboard on looking up more about artists and putting them into Spotify playlists. This time, hardly any, I didn’t have the same openness to what I thought I might like or not like because I had lived through much of the period examined and had my own ideas which proved harder for the author to shake.
What I do love is Bob Stanley’s turn of phrase and his enthusiasm for what is joyful in music which is often laugh out loud funny, as it was in “Let’s Do It”. Once again, I love his apt descriptions. Here he is on 70’s glam-rock legends Slade;
“Dickensian singer Noddy Holder had a voice like John Lennon screaming down the chimney of the QE2; rosy-cheeked bassist Jim Lea looked as if he lived with his mum and bred racing pigeons; Dave Hill on guitar had the most rabbity face in the world; while drummer Don Powell chewed gum and stared into space- even after he’d been in a horrific car crash and lost most of his memory, he looked exactly the same.”
This book is nearly a decade old which makes The Epilogue where Bob Stanley does a bit of projection into the future fascinating. After decades of glory days there was a definite decline in the way pop music was perceived from probably the mid 90’s. The stalwart barometer of taste “Top Of The Pops” fizzled out, the UK music press lost major titles and the UK chart became about marketing, with tracks attaining their highest position in the first week of sale there wasn’t the excitement of watching singles climb their way to the top. He states he misses going to a record shop and that “Without the detail, pop music doesn’t have the desirability it once had; it’s not as wantable. Instant downloads require no effort and so demands less of an emotional connection -it’s less likely that you will devote time and effort to getting inside a new record, trying to understand it, if you haven’t made a physical journey to track it down in the first place.”
Ten years on and the unpredictability of pop means that this statement is both more so (with the predominance of streaming and the vast choice of instant access music) and less so (with the revitalisation of the vinyl market). That is one of the great things about pop music, you never really know what is going to be around the corner but something will be.
This is an essential book about pop history even if it did not fill me with quite the same love and awe as “Let’s Do It.” For anyone wanting an overview of popular cultural life in the last 50+ years this is a dream of a book.
“Yeah Yeah Yeah” was first published by Faber in 2013.
This is the first of the titles I highlighted in my “Looking Forward” post. Over three novels Robert Bryndza has established a very impressive crime series featuring Private Detective Kate Marshall and her assistant Tristan. Kate has moved on from her horrific back-story which featured in the first book “Nine Elms” and has settled to sleuthing in Devon whilst running a campsite she inherited in order to stay financially solvent.
After three books all of which felt quite different in tone to one another and which certainly displayed the author’s skills at crime writing he can’t be blamed for taking his foot off the gas a little with this 4th in the series and producing a solid, satisfactory work which is not as quite an exceptional read as the first three but would definitely be a fan-pleaser.
As in “Darkness Falls” the case here involves a long-time missing person. Here it is a three year old boy who has been missing ten years by the time Kate and Tristan get the case from a grandmother desperate for closure. The plot is not as rich nor as intense as in the other novels and the twists did not surprise me as much, in fact, unusually for me, I had things sorted fairly early on. What still works well, and why this book was no way a disappointment to me is the relationship between Kate and Tristan. Here Kate shows vulnerability with a near-fatal accident early on which switches the dynamic slightly between the two. Aside from the case I just enjoy these lead characters and I’m sure there’s a lot more mileage in their detective work.
Devil’s Way was published on 12th January 2023 by Raven Street Publishing. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
Here’s a book which was my last read of 2022 and which I loved so much that it just had to be in my Books Of The Year Top 10 even though it is not published until January 2023…
This extraordinary debut opens with a sex scene in a public place which instantly brought back the memory for me of watching the 1986 French film “Betty Blue” (although it’s known as a different title in France) at the cinema which also begins with a steamy sexual encounter going on. It brought back the same sense of unease which filled the cinema as without any preamble and little context the description of the act become more shocking, more distancing and challenges the reader/viewer who begins to feel they are a voyeur. It’s a device which obviously isn’t used that often (which was why a film I saw decades ago came to mind) and I can see why (surely even porn films have some build up to the act).
It materialises that, in this instance, this encounter is actually a dream experienced by John Addington, in the last years of the nineteenth century. Addington, a middle-aged married man is obsessed by his sexuality. His wife knows of homosexual encounters in his past and he struggles to channel these feelings into watching naked men swimming in the Serpentine until a meeting in Hyde Park causes him to confront his desires.
Alongside this narrative strand we meet Henry Ellis on his wedding day. He is an advocate for change in Victorian society, both he and his wife-to-be believe in a New Life with greater freedoms.
I’m a sucker for Victorian-set novels especially when they highlight the double standard of the era and they trace along the darker sides which this novel certainly does. The byline for the book on Amazon proclaims it – “A daring new novel about desire and the search for freedom in Victorian England” and that pretty much fits the bill.
The benchmark I seem to always use for such novels is Michel Faber’s sublime “The Crimson Petal And The White”. Does it match this book by conveying the feel of the time? Does this feel authentic? Is the author able to bring the characters and events to life? In this case, this book is certainly comparable in terms of quality and also up there with other classics in this field -such as John Fowles’ “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and Michael Cox’s “The Meaning Of Night”. Also, like Faber’s work the subject matter and its handling means that it becomes a difficult book to recommend to all. Looking back at my review of “The Crimson Petal..” I said “Reading groups will be divided because of the graphic elements. The reader will know within the first pages whether they feel they will be able to accompany Sugar on her momentous journey.” Substitute the character of Sugar for John Addington and it still feels apt. This book is not as explicit but there is something about sex in Victorian settings which still shocks.
I didn’t know this until after reading the novel but it is very loosely based on John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis who collaborated on a book called “Sexual Inversion” as do the main characters here. Written just as the Oscar Wilde scandal is kicking off there will be serious repercussions for our Addington and Ellis.
I loved the characterisation. Addington tries the patience despite being a soul in torment. Ellis’ passivity will frustrate whilst their wives and lovers are richly drawn and add much to the depth of the novel and the issues raised here. In one or two places the theories of the time clog the flow a little but I think that this is a very important addition to the genre of modern Victorian-set literature. This is an outstanding literary debut from the former editor of the London Review Of Books.
The New Life will be published by Chatto and Windus on the 12th January. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
For my last retrospective post I like to have a look around the blogosphere and see the books which have impressed other bloggers during the last twelve months. I always expect that there is going to be a modicum of consensus and that there would be the odd book which appears on Best Of the Year lists time after time, but this is rarely the case and it certainly is not so for this year when there’s a wide range of books being recommended but not often the same book in more than one list.
I follow around 70 blog sites and one trend I am seeing is that fewer and fewer bloggers seem to want to do this kind of end-of-year retrospective. Personally, I love it and think it’s important to look back before cracking on with the new year. So, I am very thankful to those who have reflected and singled out their best reads, despite reluctance to put them into any order.
I would like to think I could find one of my Top 10 books in another blogger’s list but for the second year running I have not been successful in discovering this. (No “Young Mungo”? I’m staggered!). In fact, many of the authors I was expecting to see were absent from other lists. I couldn’t find mentions of these notables who put book out this year- Monica Ali, Hannah Kent, Kamila Shamsie, Ian McEwan, Donal Ryan, Jess Kidd, amazed to see no mentions of Joanna Quinn, whose debut novel “The Whalebone Theatre” felt such a great crowd-pleaser.
Obviously, with so many books being published each year and bloggers having their own likes, contacts with publishers, different methods of getting the books they reviewed there are just too many great reads out there to provide much overlap. However, there were three books which I did see cropping up.
One was from an author I did have in my Top 10, so we will start with her, Janice Hallett. I really loved “The Appeal” but realise I was a bit late out of the blocks with this one and it was her 2022 publication “The Twyford Code” which was getting the nods (although Andrea at Andrea Is Reading did give “The Appeal” an honourable mention.) Jen at Books on 7.47 did well to sum up the appeal of this author and her “devilishly clever plot that won me over. A murder mystery that never stops throwing curve balls while giving nostalgic nods throughout.” Fi at Fi’s Bibliofiles says of it; “It manages to hide so many clues in plain sight and is incredibly subtle in its complexity.” I think both these very well encompass Janice Hallett and I feel that what this author does to her readers is actually quite difficult to put into words. Like me, Books On 7.47 has the new novel “The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels” on her must read for 2023 list and Fi already had it as one of her favourite books she read in 2022, saving her review until the publication date in January.
Another title which impressed was the winner of the Novel Of The Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards “Trespasses” by Louise Kennedy which conquered over one of my Top 10 Books and previous winner of this award Donal Ryan. Cathy at 746 Books describes it as being about “a woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion with an older man.” Karen at Booker Talk describes this debut as “an intense, engrossing tale of how small acts of kindness assume great political significance and put lives at risk.” The third of these titles which kept popping up I had never heard of. Australian blogger Kim at Reading Matters singled out “Limberlost” by Robbie Arnott as a tale of “kindness loss, love and family”. Set in rural Tasmania in World War II, Cathy at 746 Books felt the need to give it a special mention even though she had not finished it at time of writing. In what seems like an excellent recommendation she said “In a week where I have a lot to do all I wanted to do is read “Limberlost.” That’s good enough for me to put this book on my Want To Read list. Cathy cannily has three lists of end of year recommendations, one from her To Be Read Pile, one of Irish authors and one of new reads. Within her new reads picks there is one that I highlighted in my Books I Should Have Read in 2022 post, The Booker shortlisted “The Trees” By Percival Everett, which she feels should have won the Prize as well as “Trust” by Hernan Diaz which was the book that topped the number of US recommendations in Literary Hub’s round up of end of year lists alongside “Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin which was a favourite of Andrea Is Reading. (Andrea also singles out “Happy Go Lucky” by David Sedaris which has a sublimely creepy cover and reminds me yet again that this year should be the year I really crack on with this author’s work.)
I like older titles being incorporated in the lists. The aforementioned Cathy reminded me of a book I really loved when I read it decades ago- William Trevor’s “Children Of Dynmouth” and I now want to re-read this as well as the copy of his short stories I have on my bookshelves. There’s also an acknowledgement of the greatness of Larry McMurty’s “Lonesome Dove” which is described as “violent, frightening, funny, heartbreaking and transcends the genre” and which if a certain someone is reading this who has recommended this book to me so many times will no doubt tell me “See, I told you it was good!”
Lynne at Fictionphile picks four titles which all seem highly readable to me – “The Keeper Of Stories”- Sally Pope, “Mrs England”- Stacey Halls, “A Quiet Life” – Ethan Joella and “The Winners” – Frederick Backman. Matthew at My Mashed Up Life goes for three – the critically acclaimed “Lessons In Chemistry” by Bonnie Garman (I knew I’d find this somewhere), French novel “Heatwave” by Victor Jestin (a tale of tormented adolescence and I do love these) and “How To Kill Your Family” by Bella Mackie, which I have sitting on my Kindle waiting to be read.
I do love it when people can pick their absolute favourite because their enthusiasm does make me want to read it, even if it wouldn’t normally be on my radar. Linda at Linda’s Book Bag plumps for “Echoes Of Love” by Jenny Ashcroft which she says “encompasses so many forms of love- and hatred- is authentic in time and place and has such relevance for what is happening in today’s world that I couldn’t fault it” and FictionFan’s Book Reviews ( a site which has given me so much pleasure since before I started reviewsrevues nearly 8 years ago) is so enthusiastic about sixteenth century Scottish set “Rose Nicolson” by Andrew Greig describing it as “one of the outstanding books of my long lifetime of reading” that I don’t know how anyone can avoid putting that onto a must-seek-out-list.
Anyway, I think that’s enough of looking back to 2022 and start to get on with the reading joys 2023 has in store. Just want to thank these other bloggers for keeping up the good work. Long may it continue!
This is my end of year report, looking back at the 10 titles I had eagerly anticipated last year and seeing how many of them I actually got around to reading as well as picking ten more choices for 2023. In 2021 I got round to reading eight out of the ten titles. Let’s see if I can top that in 2022 and whether they turned out to be the big-hitters of the year .
The Heretic – Liam McIllvanney(Harper Collins)
Read and rated it four stars in January. Second in the series which began with the Scottish Crime Book Of The Year “The Quaker“. Time moved six years on from the previous book giving it a mid 70’s Glasgow setting and this was more quality writing. At over 500 pages it was quite a lengthy crime novel which allowed richness of detail in its depiction of two warring gangs, one Protestant, one Catholic. Good characterisation of a Serious Crime Squad, all of whom are outsiders which brought interesting dynamics into play.
Devotion – Hannah Kent(Picador)
Another four star read for me in January which was certainly on a par with her first two novels. I thought this very much a book of three parts with distinct tonal shifts between them. This turns into a nineteenth century love story which I described as “touching, often heart-breaking and effectively conveyed throughout.”
Love Marriage – Monica Ali (Virago)
I read this in February and this is a book which made it onto a number of “Best Of” round-ups. I rated it four stars. Her 5th novel, I thought characterisation was especially strong within the supporting cast with a delicious lightness of touch. I don’t think many readers would place this over Monica Ali’s 2004 “Brick Lane” but it provided a highly satisfactory reading experience.
Flicker In The Dark – Stacy Willingham (Harper Collins)
Debut thriller which livened up January for me when I read and rated it four stars. I said of it “It reads well, the Louisiana setting effectively makes its presence known and I am not surprised that options for a TV adaptation have reputedly been picked up.” It created enough impression on me to have made her next book one of my highlights for the coming year.
A Good Day To Die – Amen Alonge (Quercus Books)
A big-buzz debut which I read in February and ranked three stars which I found a little underwhelming. I think that might have been because the publishers were keen to compare this to the superbly written and crafted US TV series “The Wire”. The odd cartoonish violent scene jarred and I wasn’t convinced by the first person/third person narrative switches. It did feel fresh and vibrant but perhaps did not live up to the expectations I had for it when I highlighted it as a title I wanted to read last year
Mother’s Boy – Patrick Gale (Tinder Press)
Haven’t read this yet, but I do have a copy sitting waiting on my Kindle. I’m not sure it made the impression so far some of his titles have on the book-publishing world, but I would imagine that the paperback which is published in February will be a strong seller.
Mouth To Mouth- Antoine Wilson (Atlantic Books)
An American debut with a lot of pre-publication fanfare which did get me seeking it out in February but once again I think maybe I was taken in by the hype. I thought it had a brave narrative style, as it is a recounting of a tale told second hand. I said of it “I can see why some readers would really like this book and I can see also why it might leave some unconvinced. Unusually for me, I’m somewhat stuck in the middle.” That will explain the three star rating then.
Memphis – Tara M Stringfellow (John Murray)
A debut I read in March and a four star read. I said of the author; “There’s a voluptuousness to her words, a richness in description, an over-ripeness which beautifully conveys Memphis, Tennessee.” Tara M Stringfellow certainly left me wanting more with this strong contemporary saga.
Young Mungo – Douglas Stuart (Picador)
I was itching to read this book and when I finished it in April I was so taken aback that I loved it even more than the Booker Prize winning debut which was my 2021 Book Of The Year and by the end of 2022 I still hadn’t read anything to top it and so Douglas Stuart was the author of my favourite book for two years running. Don’t know why it wasn’t Booker shortlisted but The Guardian, Telegraph, Time Magazine showed much taste in having it on their end of year highlights list. Outstanding.
Theatre Of Marvels – Lianne Dillsworth (Penguin)
This proved to be another four star debut and one which could also generate some very healthy sales when the paperback arrives in March. Set in 1840s London with Crillick’s Variety Theatre as a central location. It felt very commercial, an ideal reading group choice which would generate much discussion about the issues involved and appreciation for the author’s story-telling skills.
That’s 9 out of 10 of this read which is my best score ever. Here are ten more titles which have attracted my attention pre-publication which I hope to be getting around to in 2023. I wonder, as last year, whether my ultimate Book Of The Year is lurking amongst these books.
Devil’s Way- Robert Bryndza (Raven Street Publishing) (Due out on 12th January)
Book number 4 in what has so far been a very strong crime series featuring Devon based Private Detective Kate Marshall. There has been a different feel to each book from the really quite harrowing series opener “Nine Elms” to the much gentler whodunnit feel of “Darkness Falls”. Who knows what direction Robert Bryndza will take with this but I am expecting high quality writing and further developments in the working relationship between his very effective lead characters – Kate and her younger gay male partner Tristan.
The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels – Janice Hallett (Viper Books) (due out on 19th January)
Third book for the author who made #4 in my current Books Of The Year list with her so impressive debut. Second novel not quite as good but did not disappoint so I’m fascinated to see where she goes with this. The Sunday Times described her as “The Queen Of Tricksy Crime” which seems appropriate for her cleverly structured misdirecting fiction. We’ve had e-mails and phone communications in the debut, audio files in “The Twyford Code”. Here it seems to be research for a true crime work found in a safe which forms the basis for the plot.
My Father’s House – Joseph O’Connor (Vintage Books) (due out on 26th January)
The one Joseph O’Connor novel I have read 2019’s “Shadowplay” ended up at number 4 in that year’s Books Of The Year list. This is a historical thriller based on a true story and set in Nazi occupied Rome of 1943. Last time around I praised the quality of the writing. I said “O’Connor is good with multi-sensory lists which build such evocative pictures of the time.” I will be looking forward to more of this.
All The Dangerous Things – Stacy Willingham (Harper Collins) (due out on 2nd February)
I rated Stacy Willingham’s debut four stars and this is the second year in a row she has appeared in my anticipated list. The cover has me interested with its “What if the past is best left unburied” teaser. It’s been heralded a one-sitting read, but I actually can’t remember when I last did that. I will prefer to take my time to let what Karin Slaughter calls its “palpable tension” to really get its grip.
Hungry Ghosts- Kevin Jared Hosein (Bloomsbury Publishing) (due out on 16th February)
A debut with a big pre-publication buzz. The BBC news website described is as “One of the most talked about forthcoming books in literary circles.” Well, add me to that circle as I’m telling you about it here. Bernardine Evaristo has described it as “astonishing” and the late Hilary Mantel found it “deeply impressive” so I would imagine it has great depth. It is a saga of two families in 1940s Trinidad which promises violence, religion, family and class.
Fire Rush – Jacqueline Crooks (Vintage Books) (due out on 2nd March)
This is another debut novel from a young author, who, her publishers say, escaped involvement with a gang underworld through writing and music. Her short stories have received critical acclaim and here we have something which is being heralded as “about dub reggae, love, loss and freedom. Fire Rush is an electrifying state-of-the-nation novel and an unforgettable portrait of Black Womanhood.”
The Sun Walks Down -Fiona McFarlane (Sceptre) (Due out on 9th March)
Here’s an epic tale, this time, according to the publishers, featuring “unsettlement, history, myth, love and art.”. Set in the late nineteenth century Australian outback and featuring a child who goes missing. Anne Patchett has already described it as “marvellous”. I haven’t read this Australian author’s previous work which includes an award-winning novel and short-story collection. This seems a good place to start.
Death Under A Little Sky – Stig Abell (Harper Collins) (due out on 13th April)
Stig Abell has been editor of The Times Literary Supplement and managing editor of The Sun. He currently co- hosts the breakfast show on Times Radio. He has been a member of the Press Complaints Commission and has already written two fascinating sounding non-fiction works one of which examines “How Britain Really Works” and one a study on reading “Things I Learned On The 6.28”. What has been missing from his CV so far is fiction, and here he is with a debut crime novel – a British countryside set whodunnit. Expect high quality literary writing.
Arthur And Teddy Are Coming Out – Ryan Love (HQ Books) (due out on 13th April)
The publishers are calling this the feel-good read of 2023 and by April we might all be needing some light relief. This is the tale of a 79 year old grandfather and his grandson who are simultaneously coming to terms with their sexuality. The cover claims “It’s never too late to be you”. This is another debut which is promising much from a Northern Ireland born writer who has worked in public relations in the music industry, is a former Showbiz editor for Digital Spy and an advocate for mental health.
The Making Of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece – Tom Hanks (Penguin Random House) (due out on 9th May)
Yes, it’s that Tom Hanks and this is his first full-length novel and I’m not normally a sucker for Hollywood A-lister celebrity authors but this certainly sounds ambitious as it spans 80 years of American history and is about the production of a superhero movie. I’m getting John Irving/Michael Chabon vibes. This will get a lot of publicity and could very well be one of the big titles of the year.
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