Sunday 29 December 2013

Book Review: A WARTIME CHRISTMAS BY CAROL RIVERS

 

A WARTIME CHRISTMAS
BY
CAROL RIVERS
 
Published by Simon & Schuster October 2013
464 pages (Paperback)

My Rating: 8/10
 
About the Book:
Can love find a way this Christmas?
Christmas 1941, Isle of Dogs. The little community on Slater Street has fought valiantly to keep their spirits up through the long nights of the Blitz. Though her husband, Alan, has been called up to serve his country, Kay Lewis is determined to give her young son Alfie and friend Vi as merry a Christmas as any other. But when a strange woman and her son arrive on her doorstep, Kay's world is shaken to the core.
Could the terrible accusations that Dolly makes about Alan be true? Could he really have been leading a double life without her realising? Has he really stolen a large sum of money from Dolly and her son, Sean?
Then disaster strikes as Alan is reported missing in action. With no way of discovering the truth, Kay will have some difficult decisions to make if she is to protect her family and keep her faith in the man she thought she knew. - See more at: http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/Wartime-Christmas/Carol-Rivers/9780857208330#sthash.juVbpDui.dpuf
Christmas 1941, Isle of Dogs. The little community on Slater Street has fought valiantly to keep their spirits up through the long nights of the Blitz. Though her husband, Alan, has been called up to serve his country, Kay Lewis is determined to give her young son Alfie and friend Vi as merry a Christmas as any other. 
But when a strange woman and her son arrive on her doorstep, Kay's world is shaken to the core. Could the terrible accusations that Dolly makes about Alan be true? Could he really have been leading a double life without her realising? Has he really stolen a large sum of money from Dolly and her son, Sean? 
Then disaster strikes as Alan is reported missing in action. With no way of discovering the truth, Kay will have some difficult decisions to make if she is to protect her family and keep her faith in the man she thought she knew.
First Paragraph:
Kay Lewis opened her sleepy grey eyes to the sights, sounds and smells of the world as she had known it for the past eight months of the London Blitz.  Her immediate thought was that, unbelievably, she was still alive.  After another night's intensive bombing over the Isle of Dogs - the heart of London's East End - the corrugated iron shelter was still in one piece over her!
Kay Lewis is the book's likeable main character.  She has a young son, Alfie,  her husband Alan has recently left his job and joined the Heavy Rescue Squad and Kay works in the local armaments factory.  They are a happy family unit who are struggling, like so many families, to survive during the War.  Her elderly friend and neighbour Vi's house is bombed and Kay lets her live with them.  Money is scarce but they manage. 
This is a story of how people cope in such hardship, of how friendships and love are tested and how they survive in the most challenging of situations, living in constant fear of air raids and the deadly doodlebugs.  How they try to grasp a little happiness in such desperately sad and lonely times.
I thought the blurb was a little misleading, it reads as if it's one Christmas but the book covers several Christmases while Alan is away at war, and Kay's mind is in turmoil over the strange woman and her small son who makes hurtful claims about her husband.

While overall the book was an enjoyable read, I would have liked to have known what Kay was really thinking and feeling about her husband being missing - did she think he was dead or alive - was she moving on or was she still holding out hope for him?  I thought the author did not make it clear.

The writing was clear though and made for an easy read with resilient and sympathetic characters.  What I did like was how the author kept us guessing as to what was happening with Alan, there was just one teaser chapter which gave us more questions than answers!

I enjoyed reading the story and would read another one by Carol Rivers.  She has written several novels and to read more about them and the author check these out -


Source:  I received this book from the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review.

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Book Review: THE POISONED ISLAND BY LLOYD SHEPHERD


THE POISONED ISLAND
BY
LLOYD SHEPHERD


My Rating:  8/10

About the Book:

London 1812: For forty years Britain has dreamed of the Pacific island of Tahiti, a dark paradise of bloody cults and beautiful natives. Now, decades after the first voyage of Captain Cook, a new ship returns to London, crammed with botanical specimens and, it seems, the mysteries of Tahiti.
When, days after the Solander's arrival, some of its crew are found dead and their sea-chests ransacked - their throats slashed, faces frozen into terrible smiles - John Harriott, magistrate of the Thames river police, puts constable Charles Horton in charge of the investigation. But what connects the crewmen's dying dreams with the ambitions of the ship's principal backer, Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Society? And how can Britain's new science possibly explain the strangeness of Tahiti's floral riches now growing at Kew? - See more at: http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/Poisoned-Island/Lloyd-Shepherd/9781471100369#sthash.atdRRrHi.dpuf
London 1812: For forty years Britain has dreamed of the Pacific island of Tahiti, a dark paradise of bloody cults and beautiful natives. Now, decades after the first voyage of Captain Cook, a new ship returns to London, crammed with botanical specimens and, it seems, the mysteries of Tahiti.
When, days after the Solander's arrival, some of its crew are found dead and their sea-chests ransacked - their throats slashed, faces frozen into terrible smiles - John Harriott, magistrate of the Thames river police, puts constable Charles Horton in charge of the investigation. But what connects the crewmen's dying dreams with the ambitions of the ship's principal backer, Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Society? And how can Britain's new science possibly explain the strangeness of Tahiti's floral riches now growing at Kew? - See more at: http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/Poisoned-Island/Lloyd-Shepherd/9781471100369#sthash.atdRRrHi.dpuf
LONDON 1812: For forty years Britain has dreamed of the Pacific island of Tahiti, a dark paradise of bloody cults and beautiful natives. Now, decades after the first voyage of Captain Cook, a new ship returns to London, crammed with botanical specimens and, it seems, the mysteries of Tahiti. When, days after the Solander's arrival, some of its crew are found dead and their sea-chests ransacked - their throats slashed, faces frozen into terrible smiles - John Harriott, magistrate of the Thames river police, puts constable Charles Horton in charge of the investigation. But what connects the crewmen's dying dreams with the ambitions of the ship's principal backer, Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Society? And how can Britain's new science possibly explain the strangeness of Tahiti's floral riches now growing at Kew?

"Madhouse, Greenhouse, Farmhouse, Funhouse.  Kew is all these things."

At the start of the book we are introduced to some of the crew of the Solander who have recently returned from Tahiti.  Their ship contained hundreds of exotic plants all destined for Kew Gardens. One of them is Sam Ransome who 'enjoyed the delights of the island', and who, upon reaching his lodgings, immediately puts the kettle on and makes himself a cup of tea and is 'blissfully happy'.  Unfortunately for Sam he is found strangled soon after but with a huge smile on his face!

More of the crew are found murdered in a similar way and constable Charles Horton is struggling to find a motive, a killer or a possible connection to their deaths.  

This is an intelligent and well written story with interesting characters.  Lloyd Shepherd's earlier book The English Monster also features Horton and his boss, John Harriott, and several references are made to those murders in this book.

If you like your historical murder mysteries with atmosphere, well developed characters and an unusual plotline slowly unfolding like the leaves of some mysterious tropical island plant, then I would recommend you add this to your bookshelf.

Available from Amazon.co.uk now and Amazon.com on 14 January 2014

Lloyd Shepherd can be found on twitter as @lloydshep

Source:  From the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

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