Another year, another list.. 😏| Book |
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Better known for his historical and spy fiction, this is a non-fiction analysis of German armoured operational doctrine from the rise of Hitler to the fall of France.. Written a fair while ago, Deighton had a lot of advice, comment and input from (ex Wehrmacht General) Nehring backed up by the outputs from a lot of interviews and discussions with French civilians and military from the time.. it's a kind of "Blitzkrieg for Dummies" (and I mean that in a good way!) as he covers all aspects of the birth of the Panzer Divisions, Guderian's role, the technology, and how basically Blitzrieg was a one shot weapon that could only have ever worked in the specific political/geographic and organisational period that existed in early/mid 1940.. old, but still gold.. | 9 |
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Prompted by a suggestion from a mate of mine, who had started watching the TV series on Apple, and then tried the books which he said were even better than the TV series... Slow Horses, the nickname for the members of Mi5 working from Slough House, which is a decrepit building in a not very nice part of London, where agents who gave disgraced themselves, or mucked up, in some way are sent to be forgotten - far from the central circles of interesting work at main HQ. People sent to Sliugh Hiuse are given the most mundane work they can be found, with the expectation that in the end they'll give up and retire saving Mi5 the cost of redundancy - yet despite that, they are trained agents, and do find "proper" work to do... | |
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Having introduced the team in the last book, this gives Herron the opportunity to develop them in this one and as a result the book is much better - we begin to find out more details on each of the inhabitants, and after the shocking deaths of a couple in the last book we get some new characters in this one which is based on the premise of a long defunct sleeper cell, or is it?? | |
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One of the Slow Horses, Catherine Standish, is kidnapped and held hostage by an old acquaintance from her alcoholic days. Jackson and the rest of the team need to find her before anything dreadful happens, but they also need to find out why she has been snatched. Power plays at the head of the security service may be the answer - with a new Home Secretary in the Boris Johnson mould looking to side track the current head of the Service. Wheels within wheels... | |
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Start of a four-book series set during the Napoleonic Wars, about the young and idealistic Lieutenant Oliver Anson - in this book starting out as the second Lieutenant on a Royal Navy frigate he is sent on a cutting out mission that fails badly, and he is captured. His family, believing him dead, install a memorial tablet in their church to commemorate his life and service to King and country. In fact, he was only wounded badly, and along with a couple of fellow ship mates, seeks to escape from occupied France and return to England. Having successfully done this however, the Admiralty then tell him there are no sea going posts available, and because he was thought dead his old post has been filled. The only job going is a land-based one, in charge of the Fencibles tasked with foiling any potential French invasion attempt along the Kent coastline - like a Napoleonic Dad's Army. | |
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This one goes back in time to an earlier stage in Anson's career - and is about the mutinies at Spithead and especially the Nore in 1797. Anson is awaiting transfer to duties aboard a frigate in the Mediterranean but any ideas of idleness while he waits are swept aside when he is ordered to travel to Portsmouth with papers he later finds, contain the confirmation that the sailors demands have been met. A further mission to Kent (to the Nore) with similar papers is delayed, and along the way he is attacked by someone attempting to steal them. The mutiny at the Nore continues and threatens to turn for the worse with mutineers planning to blockade London or hand their ships over to the French. | |
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Chronologically this follows on directly from the first book - following his escape from France, Anson is appointed to command the Seagate Sea Fencibles. The commodore has implied that there may be a clandestine nature to Anson's new duties as he has proven himself able to survive behind enemy lines as a s result of his escape... After the successful capture of a raiding French privateer by the Fencibles, Anson is ordered to attend the funeral of a French prisoner which turns out to be faked in order to allow said prisoner to undertake a secret mission with him to France to reconnoitre Boulogne for a planned raid by Nelson. | |
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The Peace of Amiens has resulted in a temporary cessation of hostilities on the big stage, but the Fencibles, now disbanded, find themselves helping a village to resist the demands of a local smuggling gang. Elsewhere, Anson and his friends are on a holiday (with a bit of surveillance on the side) to Paris. As expected, the Peace is very short lived, and Anson yet again finds himself having to escape from a hostile France. | |
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A real page turner, but in a "unfolding car crash" kind of way..
the story f not one but a number of British Traitors, but the one of the
title was Walter Purdy, a Merchant Navy officer, who made propaganda
broadcasts and acted as an informer for the Nazis. He was a pre-War
Mosley-ite, a Fascist, described, after the War by a work colleague, as
being “as crafty as a shit-house rat”. Every bit as treacherous as Joyce
(Lord Haw Haw) with whom he worked, and John Amery, both of whom were
hanged; and of Thomas Cooper (who bragged abut saving the Nazis bullets
by throwing Jews from tall buildings), and who like Purdy, unbelievably
was not sentenced to death. Purdy was sent to Colditz as a stool-pigeon by the Germans, but was found out, court-martialled, and sentenced to hang but nobody would hang him in cold blood so the prisoners sent him back to the Germans who he promptly told all about the tunnels and a cache containing a camera and Reichmarks. Later he joined the Britische Frei Korps (an SS unit made up of British citizens). MI9 were aware of all of this as a result of coded messages from their own people in the camps - most noticeably by the undisputed hero's of the incident, firstly double agent John ‘Busty’ Brown. A battery quartermaster, he had received training from MI9 in how to carry out clandestine activities after capture. Brown had fostered relations with the German guards by bartering Red Cross luxuries. In return, he was allowed on unescorted visits to nearby foreign labour camps, and was permitted to write an article about life in a German PoW camp that was warmly received by Joseph Goebbels’s office of propaganda and all the time working for the British! The other hero was Scottish , army dentist, Julius Green, despite the constant fear of being found out, and also being found out to be Jewish, Green devised a form of invisible ink from chemicals the Germans had given him to carry out his dental procedures, which helped him send messages back to London. Amazing book, but deals in the seamier side of the Nazi "dream".. |
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The eight book in the Thomas Blackstone series set in the Hundred Years
War.. Thomas is an archer, risen from the ranks and knighted, and eventually made Edward's, the Black Prince, Master of War. Responsible for advising both the King and the Prince on all matters tactical and strategic - in this book, it is 1367 - England is allied with King Peter of Castile, who is at war with his half-brother Count Henry of Trastámara. Peter is an odious little man - and Blackstone is soon at loggerheads, but they are triumphant at the battle of Battle of Nájera, also known as the Battle of Navarrete. In chronological terms the book is set at just before the peak of English success in the Hundred Years War .. there are clear signs that the war is beginning to turn against them.. very good.. |
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Hot on the heels of my visit to the Royal Navy Submarine museum in Gosport where I read about this sub skipper in one of the displays I immediately decided to buy this in Kindle when I saw how damn cheap it was... what an astonishing book - the wartime autobiography of Edward "Teddy" Young, one of the first RNVR officers to go through the submarine command school, and who then subsequently skippered a couple of submarines in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and in the Far East at the end of the war.. very understated, but the guy won the DSO and two DSC's - riveting first hand account of war time life in the submarine service - you can see how much this influenced the Harry Gilmour fictional series.. | |
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At a loose end after the submarine auto biography I found this in my Kindle library - which I must have bought as a recommendation from one of the guys in the Patrick O'Brian Appreciation Facebook page. It's OK.. bit Boys Own with sex added in, but the story rolls along nicely, and is all the better for being set in the Royal Navy of Charles II time rather than the more popular Napoleonic period.. | |
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Cracking (old) pamphlet written and published in the 1980's about my current little local history project.. the only reason this isn't a ten is because I would have liked even more detail then the excellent detail the author provides.. very much recommended, but you'll have to get lucky on eBay like I did, as this is long out of print | |
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#41 in the series - Maigret investigates the death of a man wearing pea green shoes who has been stabbed in an alley - along the way we discover that the victim was living a double life, and the significance of the shoes becomes more poignant.. | |
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Quite a strange thing this one.. almost more documentary than fiction..
but anyway a novelisation of the Dam Busters raid, 'Operation Chastise'.
Radcliffe is an awesome story teller and this is the story of a
fictional pilot flying with 617 squadron on the raid.. the flying
sequences are unbelievably good, also the background to him and his
family and loved ones.. but Radcliffe's having to do that within the
confines of an actual event.. having read Hasting's book on the
operation just last year there was a lot of deja vu, though to his
credit Radcliffe wrote this 10 years before the Hastings book, when, I
would suggest, the questions about the horrible losses and the efficacy
of the raids were not so prevalent.. good read.. but read it
before the Hastings book.. 😀 |
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Forsyth classic... I love the way he tells multiple stories and then cunningly weaves them all together to make the final story. Anyway - grandson of a rich industrialist is killed while doing aid work in Bosnia during the troubles, and Grandfather starts calling in favours to find out who did it, and the people who do him favours call in their favours, and so a disparate bunch of ordinary people, and one amazing guy, come together to pursue justice... OK, it's not Day of the Jackal, or Dogs of War, but it is very good.. | |
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I like Sam Llewellyn - he's another story teller - not many people have heard of him regrettably, but he writes thrillers, set against the world of sailing or yachts... so you can see why I like him! A cargo of whiskey is stolen, but who has stolen it as there seem to be multiple possible culprits, and most of them seem to speak with Russian accents.. excellent | |
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I was passing a charity shop the other day and they had the hardback of this in the window and I thought "I must read that again!" - shop wasn't open so this was a crafty Kindle purchase. Maclean wrote some classic 60's/70's thrillers, Guns of Navarrone, Where Eagles Dare etcetc, all of which have dated well and remain cracking reads.. this one is more contemporary and unfortunately it suffers from just the sheer dated'ness of it... it's a good story, but not up to the standards of his other books... | |
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Two men are found dead, dressed in suits, and floating around on the sea in an inflatable boat - no identification, but they have clearly been murdered, and then dressed after the event. Wallander is tasked with finding out who did it, but first he needs to find out who they are - then a break leads him to a joint investigation with a police detective from Latvia. I like Wallander, he is a very human character, chock full of doubts, inadequacies, concerns about his health, his life, his family, but despite that absolutely driven to solve crimes of any kind.. very good.. | |
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My reader will know that Dick Francis is my secret addiction.. 😏 A newly published but impoverished author is retained to ghost write the biography of a well known race horse trainer - from a position of mutual distrust, driven by need the two are thrown together. It's only a matter of time until the writer starts to also investigate the cause of a murder loosely associate with the trainer, and then anther girl is discovered, and then the writers life is in danger.. cracking read! |
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No. 4 in the Slow Horses series.. a sombre story this one, River's Grandfather is developing dementia, or is he?? When someone comes knocking on his door one night he kills them and then goes on the run until Jackson Lamb steps in, finds him, finds out what he knows about who is trying to kill him and why, and then exacts retribution via River and the rest of the Slow Horses team. Good stuff! | |
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The first Vera Stanhope novel, so a bit of an introduction - you can't help seeing Brenda Blethyn in your minds eye when you read it, and kudos to her, her portrayal is very close to the Vera in the book.. three female environmentalists are living in a remote cottage, doing a survey for a controversial local quarry development - then people start dying, including one of them - who is doing it? A page turner for sure.. | |
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See blog review [clicky].. | |
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What a thought invoking book this must have been for it's time (1947) but hugely typical of Shute's interest in normal people and their very interesting lives. Four men survive a plane crash in WW2, each of them has a background and a history, but the main party receives a serious head wound that after the war worsens to the point where he knows he only has a certain time to live as it is inoperable. He decides then to revisit the three other men he was in hospital with so as to find out how they are and how things have turned out for them... the book is about not judging people by the covers, issues of race, and about love and relationships... brilliant, but it's of it's time and some of the words are going to grate until you realise this book is of it's time, and we have moved a long way towards the very ideas Shute is describing .. | |
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#25 in the Thomas Kydd series and Thomas is given a special command to counter the effect of the new American heavy frigates who have been wreaking havoc on their lighter Royal Navy counterparts in the War of 1812.. it ends very badly, with his ship lost, and himself badly wounded, when he gets home he is promoted sideways to a job in the research area of the Admiralty. While recuperating in the Canary Islands a piece of enormous luck falls his way though, and there is an opportunity at last to recover his fortunes.. | |
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An absolutely archetypal 60's thriller from the master of the genre... a cargo ship becomes embroiled in hostage taking and piracy.. with tactical nuclear missiles also thrown in to the mix it is more than a little volatile, but o worries, the hero is urbane, good looking, lucky, and will win the day and the millionaires daughter.. splendid stuff!😀 | |
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Time to recuperate after the high octane madness of a 60's super thriller..😏 None better than this one.. Ransome was the writer who singlehandedly got me into sailing as a much, much, younger Steve the Wargamer, and I still enjoy the books now.. this is the second in the series and the Walker's (Swallow's) and the Blackett's (Amazon's) are back on the lake, but things are not going to plan - the Amazon's great aunt is staying which has effectively confined them to quarters, and then Swallow is wrecked, and thus the Swallow's are also forced to change plans.. simply superb.. an immersive snapshot of a bygone age.. |
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A school teacher from a small fishing village seeks out Maigret in Paris to confess his innocence of a murder he is about to be accused of and arrested for.. against his initial concerns Maigret is convinced he is telling the truth but accompanies him back to the village where he then carries out his own unofficial investigation.. lovely... small village politics, back biting, and gossip abound.. | |
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I was totally and utterly surprised by this one, stupid, but I had no idea of the calibre of writing that MacLean was capable of at (what I think is) his best despite the fact that he was clearly a multi million selling thriller writer. I would put this up there with the very best books dealing with WW2 naval actions, but specifically it compares very favourably with Forester's "The Ship", and Monsarrat's "The Cruel Sea" as it is a fictionalised account of life on a convoy escort vessel, in this case on the Murmansk run. The cold, the tiredness, the lack of food, the fear, the tension, the unremitting attacks, the dark.. stunning.. a must read. | |
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A sailing thriller recommended way back by one of the guys on a sailing forum I frequent.. a man and his wife are run down by a super tanker in the mouth of the English Channel and only he survives - with no option or possibility of redress through the legal channels he swears vengeance and decides to seek his own solution. A real page turner with more than a little "Day of the Jackal" in it, underpinned by some lovely sailing passages.. good stuff.. | |
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An unusual case for Wallander living as he does in a small town in Sweden - the murder of an estate agent seems unexplained, but as he probes and digs the links to (an apartheid) South Africa become obvious.. from a physical, and mental, health perspective Wallander is also struggling - very good, and quite tense.. | |
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Like all the best Scandi-noir, Wallander leaves you exhausted when he's at his best.. irascible, sleep deprived, in poor health, increasingly introverted and with a diet that seems to consist only of coffee and sandwiches he's at his best in this one.. a hugely complicated case involving a sociopath billionaire.. | |
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Jackson Lamb's bunch of misfits are sucked into a terrorist campaign where the events are curiously low key, and seemingly trite, but for the amount of deaths - then they find out that one of their own might be the key and the source... utter cynicism writ large, and laugh out loud funny at times. Excellent.. | |
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First book in the Danny Shaw / Manfred Brehme Trilogy, which follows the lives of two boys destined to meet on opposite sides at the battle of El Alamein. Danny is from Little Gloston, a postcard perfect village in Lincolnshire. His father Stan, is the village blacksmith, but has what we would call PTSD following his service in WW1. Manfred Brehme is from Ladenburg, a small town in Germany and his father has similar fears but from a different perspective - he is chief of police in the town. This book introduces the two, and shows how easy it was to suddenly find you were a Nazi in pre-war Germany. Manfred joins the Hitler Youth, Danny joins up.. war is coming. |
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Readable - very readable - Manfred and Danny are now trained, and have joined their respective tank services. Both of them end up in the Middle East, in North Africa. Manfred in the Afrika Korps, and Danny in the RTR. This book mostly revolves round the Crusader battles and is very good on what it must have been like to fight your war in an armoured shell in the heat (and cold) of North Africa. | |
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Last in the series, and the 8th Army finally has Rommel and his Afrika Korps against the ropes.. they are short of fuel, ammunition and tanks, and disillusionment is setting in for Manfred as he sees mistakes made, and senseless attacks ordered merely for the sake of it. The book culminates at Alamein where both end up surviving destroyed tanks, and where Manfreds action save Danny's life.. and then it ends, there on the battlefield - can't help thinking it was a poor end to the books really - having travelled with them this far there are a number of threads in the story now unanswered.. | |
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Although it is not in his precinct, Maigret is drawn to the investigation of a death of a pretty young girl - slowly and surely he unravels who she is, why she was in Paris, and eventually what caused her to be killed.. excellent! | |
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Maigret (and I 😏) are not keen on politicians, but when one of them comes to him asking for help, because of his character and manner Maigret reluctantly agrees to help. A revealing report has gone missing from the ministers office, and he needs to get it back so that he can report the contents before someone uses it maliciously against him.. | |
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I'll be honest and say I only bought this to take advantage of a "two'fer" deal (in which I also bought the "The Savage Storm" see next), there wasn't anything else I wanted, and one f my mates had said he was reading it so I thought I'd take the punt.. glad I did.. funny old book though, if you are expecting a history of the development and operational use of the de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito during WW2 you'll only be partially happy. There is some stuff about the development of the plane, it's unique design, the friction and opposition Havilland faced both from RAF procurement and the War Office, and their decision to go ahead and develop the plane anyway - thank goodness they did! All in all, almost 8000 of them were built, and they served in all theatres of the war (though the Far East did give early issues with the construction type until more effective glues were developed) and served in an amazing variety of roles (Light bomber, Fighter-bomber, Night fighter, Maritime strike aircraft and Photo-reconnaissance aircraft) - as White says - strap two Rolls Royce Merlin engines to a ply wood airframe, and the plane was an absolute rocket. Most of the book though is about how the plane was used in the Nordic theatre, in particular Denmark, in support of underground and resistance activity. The book is more about how the SOE developed it's organisation there, in what was an unusual situation in Denmark as officially it was not at war with Germany. Undoubtedly the best parts are the descriptions of the raids into Denmark - Operation Carthage [clicky] was the raid on Geatapo HQ in Copenhagen also the earlier raid on Gestapo HQ in Aarhus [clicky]. His writing style is a little "dramatic" at times (examples being 'hit the tit' when describing releasing the bombs, 'opening the gate' when talking about throttle, etc.) and also, the timeline is jumbled, and he's all over the place geographically - there's an even better story waiting to be told if he could just organise it - he also needed to decide what his book was - either about the plane, or a history of the Danish underground, either of which would have been excellent in their own right.. | |
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The latest from the prolific pen of James Holland - his output considering the detail he goes into, and the level of research he has clearly done is remarkable.. Like his Burma book, this one deals with a largely overlooked, and less "glamourous" campaign (than say, western Europe, Russia or even North Africa), that of the invasion of Italy. After the success of the invasion of Sicily, and knowing that they would be invading France the next year, Italy was always intended to be a sideshow, but with some clear aims.. get Italy out of the war, divert German forces from Russia and North West Europe, and finally, in support of the Allied aim to get absolute air supremacy over the the D Day invasion, the installation of strategic bomber bases in Italy, that could reach the aircraft factories in southern Germany more easily than from Britain. They also expected to be in Rome by Christmas. On the whole by the end of '43 (and this book only covers the period between the invasion in September, and the end of December) the Allies did magnificently.. Italy did surrender as a result of the invasion (in truth they were a spent force anyway) but the German forces driven by a slew of Hitler no surrender, no retreat orders, resisted fiercely and the campaign turned into one of the most brutal campaigns of the war. The terrain was awful, one mountain range after another, all of which the Germans reinforced, and which meant that the Allied doctrine of "steel not flesh" couldn't be pursued - their huge advantage in armour and air support was stifled, by terrain, and by weather which was cold wet and interminably raining.. it was down tot he Allied infantry to win the battles.. casualties on both sides were enormous as they fought and defended endless shattered villages and cities, in intense heat and, towards the end, frigid cold and relentless rain. As usual, and the reason I like his books so much, Holland provides a picture of the campaign through countless first person accounts on both sides, and from all types of people, civilians, airmen, tankers, gunners, fallschirmjäger, but most of all the PBI (poor bloody infantry) on both sides.. Excellent .. very much recommended, and I am hoping fervently, that as the book ends just as the Allies get to Monte Cassino there'll be a volume 2 |
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Way back a long time ago I had this as a picture book, and I distinctly remember sitting down and thinking I'm going to read this - so I think that this was the first book I ever read entirely on my own, and to myself. A visit to the Writers Museum [clicky] in Edinburgh recently though (recommended) reminded me that I had downloaded a copy of this to my Kindle some time ago, and having just finished Holland's book I thought a bit of light reading would be the thing.. classed as young adult fiction I reckon that is about right, it's a very easy read, with a well known story, and pumped full of pirate songs, black spots, treasure chests, parrots and wooden legs.. great fun, but don't underestimate the quality of the writing.. (Long) John Silver is a beautifully written and very complex character.. | |
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Vera Stanhope series.. book 2... the curmudgeon has been sent south (but only to Yorkshire!) to review the findings in a murder case of 10 years ago.. a witness has come forward and the accused has been proven to be innocent, unfortunately though she has already committed suicide before she hears .. the original case is picked part in Vera's inimitable way, but then there is a further murder... is it linked to the original case? Vera thinks so but not everyone else does.. very good.. Cleeves is a story teller | |
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First of a series by Charles Cordell dealing with the English Civil War.. he is firstly a good story teller, but his history is sound as well (he's an ex soldier I think) but he also had the really excellent idea of telling the story from the eyes of multiple characters, from all walks of life, on both sides of the conflict but with just two central characters to hang the story on - two brothers Ralph and Francis Reeve, who serve on opposite sides for reasons to many to recount. This book deals with 1642, the battles of Edgehill, and then the battles around London (Turnham Green) - excellent.. very much recommended. | |
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A (very) short story that describes/covers events between the two main books - in this case the siege of Winchester. Royalist Ralph is captured, stripped of his belongings, but also is beloved horse Breda, by his Roundhead brother Francis (who is becoming seriously unlikeable 😏) | |
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Second in the series this time moving the story in into 1643 and a theatre of the war that resonates with me even more than Edgehill. Starting off with the battle of Lansdown, the depictions of the Cornish foot assaulting up the hill pike in hand are glorious, the death of Grenville heart breaking. The retreating Royalists are then pursued to Devizes, where they are subsequently relieved after the battle of Roundway Down. Rather than moving on London though, the Royalists turn on Bristol. The depiction of the siege is excellent, Ralph is now a corporal of dragoons in Prince Maurice’s Regiment, and Francis, in the Parliamentary horse. As per the the first book there is also a huge cast of other characters, I was particularly drawn to the gunnery character. | |
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Written in 1963 this was Deighton's second book, and although it doesn't explicitly mention him by name, it is generally accepted that the central character of the book is Harry Palmer, making this the follow up to the "Ipcress File".. not as good as that but a page turner none the less.. a sunken U Boat off the coast of Portugal may contain secrets that everyone wants, but throw in frogmen, drugs, possible gold bullion, and buried bodies in German WW2 seamen's uniform and we have a fairly typical 60's thriller.. good fun, but a little dated.. | |
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Straight from one 60's thriller and into another (this one was written in 1962!) Fun fact - Maclean wrote about one thriller a year between 1955 and 1986 - he was hugely prolific and very popular! Anyway, true to the 60's vibe, the Satan bug in question is a bacterial weapon stolen from a British government research station by a criminally insane psychopath threatening to destroy the world with it unless his demands are met - cue slightly off beat hero who then has to find him, and get the test tube back before he does what he threatens.. this was good fun.. Maclean is another one of those story tellers I like! | |
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I have not read this in an age, but always thought the author held his own with some of the best Napoleonic naval fiction writers.. it's not O'Brien (who could?) but it is very good, and infinitely better than Alexander Kent. The central character is one, Lieutenant Charles Hayden of the Royal Navy - half French via a French mother and Royal Navy father - looked upon by some with suspicion as a result, but in ths book desperate for advance. When he is offered a post on a ship whose captain is supposedly "shy", and who's crew is mutinous, it's made clear to him that there is no alternative should he turn it down.. | |
 | Second book in the Charles Hayden series. It is the winter 1793 and the city of Toulon has turned itself over to the British - the naval contingent under the command of Lord Admiral Hood. In Plymouth, promoted Master and Commander at last, Charles Hayden is given temporary command. and orders to return to the ill-fated frigate of the previous book, HMS Themis, no one else will have her because of the reputation she now has. He is to join the escort for the last convoy of the season to Gibraltar, and then Toulon - but the French will not let the convoy through unmolested.. | |
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Third book in the Charles Hayden series - still on Themis, Hayden is given orders to rendezvous with a spy on the channel coats of France who has information vital to the pursuance of the war. Fog, insufficient and incorrect intelligence about enemy numbers, and plain bad luck lead to him losing his ship, and being imprisoned, before the ship he is held prisoner on is then wrecked itself.. | |
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Hayden and the frigate HMS Themis are sent to counter the threat of the French forces in the West Indies. On the way , in the middle of the Atlantic, they discover two Spanish noblemen castaway in a ship's boat - their explanation seems improbable and they are suspected of being criminals or spies. When they then reach the Barbados station, Hayden finds himself under the command of Sir William Jones, an impetuous and foolhardy officer, where refusing his orders may cost Hayden his command but accepting them might cost him his ship and crew. This was the last book he wrote featuring Hayden and it kind of ends up in the air a bit - I wish he'd wrote another! | |
 | The seventh book in the Cormoran Strike series and as riveting a read as any other I've read this year.. Strike and Robin are engaged by a client to recover his son who has been sucked in to a cult church. Robin ends up going under cover in the cutl to find out what has happened to him and they discover a whole load of very unpleasant people doing very unpleasant things to other people within the church - cloaking it with an air of respectability with a few celebrity adherents, the "church" is being run by some very devious, amoral, psychotic and damaged people. Strike and Robin are determined to bring it down.. Galbraith is a story teller - no higher praise from me.. | |
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#26 in the series! I like Kydd, he's an entertaining character, but I have to say that for this book perhaps for the first time, there are indications the author may be coasting slightly? After the battle for the last book where Kydd was seriously wounded, he returns home to find that he is posted to the Caribbean where he ends up contesting with the Americans, and their Spanish allies (they don't want his help!), for Florida - at the time a Spanish possession. Having done that he is recalled to England and sent to the Baltic on Swedish blockade duty. Political shenanigans ensue - Britain is allied with Norway under Bernadotte, but Bernadotte has eyes on Sweden for expansion, and Britain is not keen on that happening.. it all falls in pkace nicely throughout, but I just thought it was all a little too easily, and a little too luckily.. no grit in the machinery.. | |
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One of those Bagley two'fers his publisher does these days - this one and the next one in an omnibus.. this one dates from 1965 the high point for those big four thriller writers.. him, Maclean, Fleming and Innes. So our hero is a mentally damaged, washed up, pilot working for a fly blown charter company in south America. A last minute charter to carry passengers stranded when their plane breaks down results in a hijack, a crash landing, then some secrets among the passengers coming to light.. throw in machine guns, Castro supported communists, a potential presidential candidate, and a love interest (of course! 😏) and it's an entertaining read | |
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1967 - second book in the two'fer. This one concerns a geologist who has lost all personal memory of his life before a traumatic car crash years before. Who is he, and when he arrives in a remote British Columbian town for a short term contract, he notices the name of one of the squares and it jolts a memory. Chaos ensures as he butts heads with the de facto head of the town who owns everything and is not afraid to grab more.. throw in a love interest (of course! 😏), secrets of his past uncovered, landslides, mentally deranged siblings, and armed lumberjacks, and it's a pleasant old read.. | |
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Can't believe I'm up to the 47th in the series - there's not a one I haven't enjoyed, and in this one a headless and chopped up body is found in the canal - Maigret needs to find out who it is, and who did the crime | |
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A serial killer is on the loose in Paris - his victims seemingly unconnected women, but all of them with their clothes slashed while not having been sexually attacked. So Maigret sets a trap with multiple decoys - it kind of works, but you need to read the book to find out how! 😀 | |
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A wealthy and influential industrialist calls on favours to have Maigret assigned to investigate death threats he has received by post - Maigret knows him (unhappily) from childhood, but shortly after his assignment the man is killed anyway.. Maigret has failed at the first hurdle, but has an opportunity to find the killer. | |
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A further contribution to the Cornwell pension fund.. 😏 These are getting a bit formulaic now, the characters are almost caricatures of themselves but it's an interesting romp for all that. Set in Spain in 1812, Sharpe and his trusty Rifles detachment are seconded to deliver some gold and rifles to a local guerrilla commander while at the same time doing reconnaissance on some forts the French have built guarding a vital bridge... | |
 | Written in 1963 so it's beginning to age a little, but an enjoyable yarn.. a story about Mussolini's missing treasure - worth three million pounds (which would have been a it in '63! 😏) is hidden in a cave in Italy where it was left by some partisans after an ambush on a lone German convoy. Only trouble is bow to get 3 tons of gold out f the country under the noses of the government, ex-partisans, and menacing smugglers. The clue is in the title.. 😀 | |
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This one was written in 1968 and concerns Mayan treasure, archaeology, and some diving... The hero, Jeremy Wheale, is a somewhat grey, dull, accountant, but his brother is killed seemingly by someone in the pay of the mob, trying to steal an old family heirloom. Then the archaeologists start turning up wanting to buy it, and the grey man discovers inner strengths, and the scenery changes from Devon to Mexico in the depths of the rain forest in search of a lost Mayan city.. but with the mob, in league with local convict mercenaries, in pursuit.. | |
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Been a while since I read "Harry's Game".. 😏 Spotted this on one of those occasional Kindle bargain days and managed to get it for 99p. Very much in the same vein as the Slow Horses/Mick Herron series, but Jonas Merrick is a very different kettle of fish to Jackson Lamb, and none the worse for that. On the very eve of his retirement Jonas, who is an analyst at Mi5 specialising in Islamic terrorists and the Caliphate, spots and defuses a situation that could have ended very badly and as a result is welcomed back with open arms. He then has to use his own particular set of skills to track down a foreign fighter recently in the Caliphate, and returning home to the UK with a grudge.. read it - it's brilliant... | |
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A Russian defector prompts all sorts of questions and analysis as to how much use they are - they are a huge expense, and once they are out of the environment where they provide useful information soon become useless, and this particular defector also happens to be pretty unpleasant. Jonas has been moved to Russian desk, to what is hoped is a quiet out of the way place he can't do any harm, but when the Russians make an attempt on the defector, it becomes clear that there is a traitor in the team handling him in Mi6, and Jonas is sent as an impartial observer from Mi5 to ascertain who it is... inter-service rivalry, but he is not only looking for the traitor but a way of hitting back at the Russians with deadly force. Fantastic.. | |
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Jonas has been moved sideways again in an attempt to stop him causing any undue harm, and for a Five man it is to the distinct gutter that is "serious crimes" - lowest of the low operational areas when compared with threats to nation, Jonas nonetheless applies his usual analytical mind to the problem and engineers an operation that stretches from the jungles of the Amazon and a home made submersible delivering 3 tons of pure cocaine, to Spain where he has an undercover asset, and to Liverpool, home of a genuinely nasty crime family. Excellent - Seymour is very good on characterisation, and particularly motives.. | |
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Jonas is now on China desk, but refuses to move from his favourite corner office in the Five building, instead he uses his extensive list of contacts to engineer a massive blow to the prestige of the Chinese Security Services through his arrest of a key Chinese agent, and all the contacts he is dealing with. In the meanwhile though, the GRU (Russian Military Intelligence) have managed to identify Jonas's identity and instigate an operation to kill him in revenge to the operation he instigated against them in "The Foot Soldiers". I am so hoping that there will be another book, but as the series have unfolded it is clear that Jonas is living on borrowed time - not only is he increasingly under pressure from his beloved wife, but he is also very much seen as a dinosaur, a lone wolf in an age of cooperation and coordination and clear lines of report.. | |
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One of the earlier Seymour books I read a considerable time ago.. was published in '87 so some time round then I guess. Following the public humiliation of a Syrian diplomat by a British consul at a dinner party (it's shortly after the Lockerbie plane bomb and tensions are high) the consul, and his close aide are assassinated by a Palestinian terrorist in the pay of the Syrians. It is a revenge killing and despite it taking place in Russia, the culprits are soon identified as Syrian funded Palestinians, and despite the huge dangers of doing it, the British, with Israeli help, send an Israeli master-sniper with a British Foreign Office civil servant who just happens to have seen the killers face on the day of the assassination into the Beqaa valley in east Lebanon, home of Palestinian revolutionary groups, in search of the killer. Two days in and their operation is blown... excellent | |
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Maigret has been told to take a holiday for health reasons - it is summer though, and everywhere that he and Madam Maigret normally goes are either booked up or not available, so he decides to take his holiday in Paris... just as the body of a naked woman is discovered, murdered, in a society doctors consulting rooms.. and it's the doctors wife...fighting the urge to immediately go to his office, Maigret follows the murder via the papers, like any other member of the public, but finds it both interesting to see it from the other side and at the same time slightly frustrating. He keeps his promise though, and doesn't go into the office - despite sending in a few anonymous clues to his trusty sidekick.. 😏 | |
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The attempted suicide of a countess, and the death of a billionaire, in different rooms in the same luxury Paris hotel and on the same night sends Maigret first to the Riviera and then to Lausanne in Switzerland as he searches for the connection, and the truth amid the glittering vapid world of the super-rich, the jet set and the easily bored. | |
 | An unusually quiet day for Inspector Maigret at the Quai des Orfèvres is disturbed by a visit from mild-mannered toy salesman, Xavier Manton. Maigret is taken aback by Manton’s revelation that he suspects his wife of plotting to poison him. Imagine his confusion when the next day the wife visits expressing her own concerns about her husband. Despite no crime having been committed, Maigret commits to investigating anyway - and then the body of the husband is discovered! | |
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During COVID I watched the entire run of Montalbano mysteries while sat in my loft working from home.. they're in Italian (with English subtitles) and were shown here on BBC4, and they were utterly brilliant.. I swear that by the end I had almost learnt to speak Italian. Then far too long ago a friend of mine lent me a big carrier bag full of the books and told me they were even better than the television series - I kept thinking they couldn't be, and there were a lot of them, and, and, and.. I was so wrong.. utterly brilliant.. Camilleri is a born story teller, and the Montalbano character in the books is even more rounded and complex than the fantastic actor Luca Zingaretti portrayed. Either way - when a local politician is found dead in his car, half naked, his trousers round his ankles, in a seedy waste ground known for prostitution and drug trafficking, it's assumed that he died of natural causes in the middle of a sexual escapade. Montalbano's superiors expect him to close the case quickly but he senses that not all is as it seems and determinedly launches a full investigation. Cue a cast of wonderful eccentrics and characters, and of course Sicily, the dry heat, and good food.. |
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Two bodies are found in a hidden part of a cave that the local Mafiosi have been using to store stolen goods and guns - they are arranged in a particular way, with bowls of coins, and a large terracotta dog at their feet - Montalbano investigates a crime that goes back to the end of WW2 on Sicily, and in the process solves a missing person case that goes back to the same time. | |
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Quite topical this one given the 37th Edition has just finished. In the depths of the Cold War the Soviets have laid down a challenge to the America Cup to be battled out in a series of seven races between the finest teams that each country can produce. The hotshot American helm is brilliant, but he and his best friend (the tactician) are not known for taking orders well, and when the military get involved in the development and preparation of the boat, strange things start to happen - could it be that the Americans are trying to sabotage their own challenge for some reason? | |
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An elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a 'Tunisian patrol boat' off Sicily's coast. Montalbano suspects there's a link between the two incidents and his investigations lead to the beautiful immigrant Karima, an impoverished housecleaner and sometime prostitute who disappears in what sounds like a kidnapping, leaving her son behind and who steals other schoolchildren's midmorning snacks to feed himself. | |
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Maigret is called in to investigate the death of the head of an old industrial family who are best known for making a brand of biscuit for almost 150 years. The family are broke, the business is almost dead, but somehow it has continued, and the family do not wish to talk to anyone including Maigret.. he has to investigate almost at third hand, but eventually gets the truth despite the efforts of a new investigating magistrate.. | |
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A beautiful girl is found dead in a house in the country that she is having done up, using the money her husband, a surgeon on the mainland, provides. Montalbano discovers a complex web of deceptions, non deceptions, and people who have ultimately taken advantage of her, and all because of a priceless violin... | |
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An old couple disappear without trace while on a coach excursion to a religious shrine in Tindari... meanwhile on the floor below where they live, a young guy is found murdered.. Montalbano suspects, but has to prove, that there is a connection... and then the old guard and new guard Mafia appear... these Montalbano books are lovely; as much a love story to Sicily, as the Maigret books are to Paris | |
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Half the retirees in Vig'ata (where Montalbano lives and works) have invested their savings with a financial wizard (conman) who has disappeared, along with their money and Montalbano has to investigate this labyrinthine financial scam with his hands tied as his old boss, who he got on with, has retired and the new one dislikes him, and wants to close his team down, so he finds himself at a serious disadvantage... and he's also having a hard time with the love of his life Livia.. best go and have an extended lunch then.. 😀 | |
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Montalbano is beginning too feel old.. he's also getting cynical and disillusioned.. two incidents of corruption ad stupidity within the police service make him question the very service he works for.. but then two seemingly unconnected deaths, and the chance meeting with a young immigrant boy lead him to an investigation into people trafficking, and particularly trafficking in children.. | |
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Time for a change/refresher, and this was a special offer on Kindle. First in a new series for the author, though he seems hugely prolific. It was ok.. police procedural.. characters a little one dimensional.. you did wonder at times how they managed to get to the positions they are in the police with the character flaws they have.. plot a little stretched, but about modern day slavery of young Eastern Europeans in Cornwall.. dead bodies washed up on the beaches.. and Meth labs.. | |
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Not so much a book, as a series of short stories concerning the hero of the book, Sam McReady. McReady is head of a department within the Secret Intelligence Service that is concerned with deception and spreading false information (Deception, Disinformation and Psychological Operations) but with the end of the Cold War, and the spread of Glasnost, his role, and his department, are seen as increasingly irrelevant. Word comes down from above to ease him out, but his Deputy presses for a hearing with a view to saving his job. Cue a review of his four most recent cases.. two Cold War, one Ireland, and one Caribbean and they're excellent... the Caribbean one is a little far fetched but still believable.. I liked Sam, and I'd definitely treat him to a beer if I ever met him! | |
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The first book in the monumental Arkady Renko series.. Arkady is Russian police, based in Moscow, and the story is set just before Glasnost so still very much Cold War, with all the internal tensions between different Russian state functions that you would expect - the police, the militia, and the KGB all live in their own place in the hierarchy, and snipe at each other - when three bodies are found dead in the snow in Gorky Park, Renko is very much hoping he can slide this one off to the KGB. The bodies have had their faces removed, and their finger tips cut off, and been shot in the chest and head - except one of them, a girl, who was just shot in the chest.. who are they, and why were they killed.. and then a renegade New York policeman turns up with a possible link to one of the bodies.. very good... and I don't even like vodka.. 😏 | |
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Oh my this was a goody... set in the Spring 1917 the book is about reluctant pilot George Duckwell who finds himself in a reconnaissance squadron on the western front flying BE2C's having left England under something of a cloud (he joined up just before being expelled from his private school for running an illegal gambling school 😏). Despite the average survival of a First World War reconnaissance pilot being just eighteen hours George manages to survive and become a reasonable pilot, while a succession of his comrades - inexperienced and under-trained - are shot down, burned, maimed and killed. What George really wants is a switch to fighters. George makes friends with a pilot from the fighter squadron sharing their aerodrome, William 'Mac' MacBride, a Canadian ace, is waging his own private war against the legendary Red Baron. Mac though has a past he is looking to hide, and the more planes he shoots down, the more likely it is that this will be found out as publicity is almost certain to be made of his successes. When Mac falls for George's sweetheart - front-line nurse Emily - George learns the secret of Mac's mysterious past but then Mac begins to show signs of, and then has, a mental breakdown... it's down to George and Emily to try and sort out a solution. Excellent - the flying sequences are outstanding - the sheer terror of going up in one of those things, without a parachute, no oxygen, freezing cold, and with antiquated weaponry defies belief.. |
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A memoir of his experiences with the Sussex Regiment during WW1 by poet Edmund Blunden. Not as well known as Sassoon or Owen perhaps, but his personal service (for which he won a Military Cross) included the Somme, Ypres and Passchendaele battles. It's clear from the book - which I found to be a really dense read, you have to concentrate as he manages to crowbar a lot of meaning and description into single sentences - that Blunden had a very dry sense of humour, and became increasingly cynical and anti-war as time went past (not surprisingly). More than once he was censured for certain comments, but I think that some slack was probably cut as this was a Kitchener battalion, not regulars, and also because he was not backwards in coming forwards when hazardous duties were required. The book ends with a selection of his poems which I'm afraid I glossed over - not a poetry fan.. 😏 |
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A lucky holiday 'reading shelf' find - the history of a B24 Squadron (741st Squadron of the 455th Bombardment Group) in the 15th Air Force (the guys who were based in Italy). The book was written as a result of a conversation with his friend George McGovern (the senator and presidential nominee for 1972) who during the war was a B-24 Liberator pilot who flew 35 missions over German-occupied Europe from their base in Italy. It's an interesting read and seeks to explain the ongoing arguments between adherents of strategic versus tactical bombing (six of one and half a dozen of the other to me), the enormous risks the pilots took flying during the day (not from enemy fighters who were largely a sent force by this time of the war, but from flak), and the search for the elusive item that of destroyed, would cause the German war effort to fail (ball bearings, or oil, or transport hubs - all of which were tried). Easy to read and fairly interesting.. | |
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At one of his friends’ frequent dinner parties, Maigret shares the story of a case from a few years back that haunts him to this day, in which a man named Adrien Josset was found guilty and was executed for the murder of his wife, Christine. Maigret had interviewed Josset only once when the examining magistrate took over the case and successfully moved to have him executed, but though all the clues pointed to Jossets guilt, Maigret remains unconvinced, and now years later still doubts the murderer was actually the one executed. Police procedures are changing and Maigret s feeling disenfranchised in the face of the growing powers of the examining magistrate... | |
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