Marple – Twelve Stories – Twelve Writers – One Agatha Christie.

 

 

First appearing in print in December 1927 in a short story called “The Tuesday Night Club” the little lady from St Mary Mead has knitted, frowned, and puzzled her way through many mysteries. She has assisted the Police whether they regarded her as the powerhouse she was or an annoying old lady, without ever being a suspect. Miss Jane Marple has become the benchmark of many writers and readers in the genre. But with the death of Agatha Christie in the 1970s Jane Marple annoyed fictious Police Inspectors no more.

BUT when twelve writers step up to bring more cases to light, some would cringe, wondering if they can put on the mantel of the great author and step into the sensible shoes of Jane Marple.

The great achievement here is that you hear Marple herself, the settings are pure Christie BUT not once does anything from these modern authors jar or expose their personal voices. They let Christies great character come forward again - “Miss Marple did not sigh, but she exhaled with commitment.”

Each story brings to life Christie’s great lady, unravels the plot twists, and exposes the characters assembled, guilty or not. The settings are familiar from the books, the films, or the television series. Some crime drama is like a familiar blanket (or throw, for the modern vernacular), you are to be wrapped up in it and enjoy the journey rather than actively working out who did it. While the story telling is familiar but varied from each author by approach to each crime and with some of the old characters that surround Marple herself, it is the Great Lady who is lovingly brought back to us.  Whether you sit forward to puzzle it out before the knitting needles have stopped clicking or relax and let the old lady reveal her laser-like mind, it’s a twelve-fold Christie-sequel well worth the read.

Thursday's Child by Sonya Hartnett

 

 

Recommended by my Creative Writing Tutor, I was completely enchanted with the story of this family making their way through difficult and troubling times. It is beautifully observed, the forgiveness and understanding of how things are in a family where faults are always most apparent to the other members is masterful.

The strangeness of one of the members of the family within the story is wonderfully interwoven with the day to day living; so effectively that you accept it as part of the family.

One of the most poignant things is the outside worlds effect on this family's fortunes, their struggle and endurance to withstand the hardships and torments and their getting on with life. The ending is strange, wonderfully crafted, telling in respect of the personalities within the family and above all satisfying. I let out a huge sigh after reading the last line and there are very few books that can make you do that.

Three Book Review - The Mummy by Anne Rice, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Empty Planet – The Shock of Global Population Decline – by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson

 

 

The Mummy by Anne Rice 

If you want to know how the film franchise of the same name should have started; how the sand would feel, the heat and the adventure, then try this romp on for size. Anne Rice wrote this in 1989 as a film script but because the producers "wanted to change everything." She explained, "I think I went off to create that book just to spite them, I was so furious.” This supernatural adventure is set in the early twentieth century and is the story of the murder of an archaeologist, Lawrence Stratford, in the presence of one of the greatest Pharaohs ever to have lived – Ramses II. The trouble is the great king comes to life and tries to avenge the murder. What follows is Anne Rice at her best, adventurous, ambiguous and genuinely romantic. She is a marmite writer who some fall in love with and others cannot stand. For the very reason of why she wrote it, I can imagine her being quite furious at her typewriter, it is a rollicking read. This has an Agatha Christie vibe for the setting, ambiance and time-frame; a classic horror flavour for the heroes (being the Immortal King and others) and an ambiguous set of love and sexual intrigues that mixes with mythic, expansive storytelling covering literally thousands of years. It is a romance of sorts but set with such a balance that you can describe it as romantic horror but where the monsters aren’t wrapped in badly tightened bandages

 

 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman  

 

How should a children’s book begin? First imagined by the author in 1985 while watching his son at play on his tricycle in a graveyard, of course its starts with a long blade, a dark night and three deaths. The only member of the targeted Family to escape is the baby who, by turning towards the graveyard at the end of the road, survives and is adopted by the inhabitants of God’s Acre. The book is about Bod growing up, his adventures within and outside the graveyard, the skills he learns from the inhabitants both dead and undead. Each chapter is a short story, covering two years after the preceding chapter. Bod is pursued by Man Jack and four other members of the Jacks of All Trades tasked to finish the job but he also has his protectors. American Library Association described it as "delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humour and human longing", noting its "magical, haunting prose". It is simply a tour de force of imagination, magical writing and Family filled with ghosts, ghouls and other supernatural beings. Kirkus Reviews awarded it a starred review, claiming that, "this needs to be read by anyone who is or has ever been a child". Read when I was well past childhood and enjoyed so much that I have returned again and again.

 

Empty Planet – The Shock of Global Population Decline – by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson

 

Written by an award-winning journalist and leading international social researcher this was a real eye opener – the kind that drives your significant other to the end of their patience because you are quoting entire pages to them in shock and surprise.

There is growing evidence that rather than an exponential increase in population we are already on the path to an irretrievable global decline. The authors back this with research, measured opinion and observations and while this may sound like an ideal – less people, more sustainability, better planet – the road with be filled with disruption - political, social and existential. As the population ages, with fewer offspring, worker shortages follow and greater demands on health care and social services.

There are curious observations – how education leads to fewer children. That once a threshold has been passed it appears no social manipulation (literally paying people to have children with extra health care/paternity leave/tax breaks) changes the downward track.

This sounds like a dry subject, so colour me surprised when I went through 240 pages (36 additional pages showing their research papers/references) in three days – all this while quoting most of the book to my partner.

The outcome looks inevitable. The book is rigorously researched and a compelling, accessible read. Our future as a species appears set in the long term – what seems to be malleable is how we travel that road.

Sherlock Holmes & Count Dracula – by Christian Klaver

 

 

Sherlock Holmes & Count Dracula – by Christian Klaver.

 

This book title popped up with the usual feed - “you liked that so maybe you’ll like this…”. I rolled my eyes and dismissed it.

Of course, it popped up again. This time I took a little longer to click away, catching the words “The Classified Dossier Volume 1” on the cover. Volume 1…interesting.

The third time, I read the description in full. I don’t know what I expected but the comment “An exuberant, reverent mashup” caught me and I bought it.

We want more. We always want more. But sadly, Conan Doyle cannot supply us with more of the duo that we love. I had come to terms with this; I accepted that the adaptation of the stories with the perfection that is Jeremy Brett on television watched when I was a child would be the end of it. Then I was startled at the other re-incarnations of Sherlock and Watson and how much I enjoyed them. They weren’t Mr Brett but then he, also, is sadly unable to produce more for us. The title gives away that this is no ordinary foray into crime but into the classified, paranormal and taboo. I have to also confess to being a lover of the 007 series as re-imagined by Anthony Horowitz – Forever and a Day, Trigger Mortis and With a Mind To Kill, all of which perfectly satisfy the reader’s need for more. Horowitz’s novels on Sherlock and Watson delighted me, so why did I resist quite so much?

I had to admit to myself it was the inclusion of Dracula in the title - it put me off – he’s fictional! But of course, so is Holmes and Watson…

From the very first page I could hear Watsons voice. For me, that is it and I am hooked. You can feel the soot on your clothes, the damp cobbles underfoot and hear the cups and saucers on Mrs Hudson’s tray as she ascends the stairs.  The mannerisms are positively “Brettian” from Sherlock and every response from Watson is him.

The descriptions of London are lyrical and immersive; the use of the supernatural characters measured and so balanced to make them as believable as Sherlock. There is complexity of feeling, clash of Family loyalty and the plot line overflows with mystery. Nothing jarred. Nothing felt out of place or out of character. This felt like a classified dossier that had just come to light and could be argued over by experts.

Two-thirds of the way through I stopped reading. This lasted for seven days. It was not because the plot lost momentum or I lost interest; it’s something that happens (rarely with a new author) when I don’t want the book to end. I am enjoying running about in the world they have created or recreated and the end of the book is too near.

For this and for all the reasons above I will be eagerly awaiting the next Classified Dossier. A great romp, an adventure worthy of Holmes, Watson and Doyle.

Wolfbane by Michelle Paver - one year and one week on...

 

 

Michelle Pavers' Wolf Brother series has been a joy, adventure, education and a delight. From the start you are treated to seeing the world not only through the eyes of the mind of six thousand years ago but also within the mind of Wolf.

2004 and I was "haunted" by the reddish-brown cover of the first book - Wolf Brother - it seemed that everywhere I went there is was - shop window, bookshelf, magazin promotion. A childrens/YA book which drew my eye because of working on my Creative Writing degree with the Open College of the Arts (distance learning). I admired the cover - it caught my imagination - but only after seeing it three or four  times did I pick up the book and open to the first chapter. Three pages later, standing in the bookshop, my partner leaned in and said "Buy it!"

Since then I have walked, ran, swam and rested with the boy who can talk to Wolf - enjoyed and qualied in his world. I have loped in Wolf's paws along pine forest trails, across great ice-floes and swam in threatening oceans. Around this, are the clans, their traditions, skills and fears; the great beliefs which each clan adheres to and the Mages that interpret their existence. Each book in the nine book series takes you on a journey which you simply don't want to end.

Wolfbane is an emotional, terrifying and fittingly dramatic end to the series. I make no descriptions of the plot, only to say that as always the characters are fully rounded, driven and relateable. The writing is magical.

A fitting end to the series. I thought I would feel sad - I don't. I feel privileged to have found this series at the start and been through each of the nine books to the conclusion. This is one of the rare book series I will return to, to run and yelp and swim and tremble in a world so well rounded you can taste the cloudberries.