Catching Up with Flaxmere Book Chat

At our last Book Chat we talked about several books where fire played a key role. Home Fires by Fiona Lowe takes us to the destruction by fire through the Australian town of Myrtle. It follows several women as they rebuild their lives and try to encourage prosperity in the town. Each has her own scars from the fires, in a story about trauma, secrets and big money. Our reader enjoyed the story but found the editing not up to scratch.

The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Sparks takes us to California and a team of parachuting fire fighters. Into this scenario we have a love triangle between firefighting duo and best mates Ed and Connor, and Julia, who takes at-risk kids into the wilderness to help heal their lives. When lightning strikes the mountain where Julia’s group is camped, she ends up having to make a difficult choice. Our reader really enjoyed the story but particularly the terrific characterisation.

Another reader enjoyed Out of the Ashes by Vicky Newham, the second mystery featuring detective DI Maya Rahman, who is working some of the tougher streets of London. An explosion one night in a store on Brick Lane turns an arson case into a murder case when two bodies are found. The crimes connected with the case escalate, while Maya is struggling to find a single lead.

We had quite a few more mysteries to talk about, among them The Lost Coast by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman which is number five in the Clay Edison series about a private investigator in California. A case involving financial discrepancies to do with a young man’s inheritance takes Clay to a small town, that's difficult to get to. Here finding out the truth could have deadly results. The father and son Kellerman team have created a series of page-turning thrillers and this is no exception.

Reykjavik by Ragnar Jonasson and Katrin Jakobsdottir is a perfect read for lovers of Nordic Noir. Set in Iceland, the story follows an investigation by a journalist into the disappearance of a fourteen-year-old girl on a small offshore island. Now thirty years later, he plans to find out what happened to her, but soon discovers that there’s someone desperate to keep that a secret. Our reader was so impressed they want to read everything by Ragnar Jonasson. (This one has been cowritten with the Icelandic Prime Minister).

A big lover of the TV series, one reader was thrilled to discover Murder, She Wrote in book form. This one, subtitled A Killer Christmas, takes you back to Cabot Cove and a new crime for mystery author Jessica Fletcher to investigate. A body has been discovered, a man missing for years, just when his sister is trying to sell their family home. The book didn’t match the enjoyment or pace of the TV series, with too much time spent describing domestic issues before getting to the murder.

Our reader was blown away by the surprise ending in The Neighbour’s Secret by Sharon Bolton. Former psychiatrist Anna just wants a fresh start, moving to a small rural community to start a bakery. But there’s something not right here with a cult-like church which runs an annual event called the Gathering. It’s mission is to bring together the town’s teenagers to show them the evils of the outside world. When three girls vanish at the Gathering, no one seems to care.

Another thriller was Return to Moondilla by Tony Parsons. Former journalist and martial arts expert Greg goes back to the town where he grew up, hoping to finish writing his novel. But the nefarious dealings of a local drug ring capture his attention and he’s soon caught up in a dangerous situation. A nice pacey read with some excellent action sequences.

Several historical novels were passed around, among them The Rose and the Thistle by Laura Frantz which takes you back to the 1715 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. Lady Blythe flees her home in England because of her father’s political leanings, arriving at Wedderburn Castle in Scotland with just the clothes on her back. Everard has enough problems of his own without Blythe’s sudden arrival, while around them shifting alliances make it difficult to know who to trust. This was one of those books that was impossible to put down.

Morgan Is My Name by Sophie Keetch is the first of a trilogy about Morgan Le Fay, King Arthur’s infamous sister. With a feminist view of her story, the book introduces the reader to an alternative view of Arthurian legend. We see Morgan happily growing up at Tintagel Castle, until King Uther murders her father and tricks her mother into marriage. Furious, Morgan can’t but rebel. While there were one or two discrepancies with perceived historical fact, this is still an excellent read and we can’t wait for the books that follow.

A Dangerous Game by Mandy Robotham has a couple of officers on the hunt for a Nazi in London, 1952. The man’s a respected businessman, so Harri Schroder arrives from Hamburg, still mourning the loss of his wife and child, to help the Met hunt the man down. Harri is assisted by young widow, Helen Dexter, a WPC desperate to do something more interesting than make tea and deal with domestics. As a fog descends on the capital, can they stop their quarry from slipping away. This is a very well put together story from an author who doesn’t disappoint.

A curious letter found at the Dead Letter Office sends Emmeline on an adventure in The War Librarian by Addison Armstrong. The story then slips from the frontlines of World War One to 1976, with Kathleen desperate to join the first co-ed class in the US Naval Academy. A secret and the connection between the two stories are slowly revealed in a book that was well worth reading a second time around.

We had a bit of a chat about books with dual timeframes and how popular they are with historical authors. Another such book is Last Twilight in Paris by Pam Jenoff which is set in London 1953, where Louise discovers a necklace in a box at a second-hand shop. Certain she’s seen it before from her time in the Red Cross, she begins to investigate. The story flips back to German-occupied Paris and the Levitan department store, used by the Nazis as a prison. Several of the group have really enjoyed this book.

Poor Girls by Claire Whitfield is an interesting story set in 1922 about a gang of women shoplifters or “hoisters”. It’s a carefully planned MO involving subterfuge, high-class costumes and fences, but not without risk and stints in prison. The story follows Nell, a rebellious waitress who finds herself caught up in the gang – an escape from poorly paid work and drudgery following WWI. A great read, well written with the interesting factual background

Another book by Lucinda Riley, that pre-dates The Seven Sisters series is Hothouse Flower which takes us to Wharton Park, an estate where Julia’s grandfather grew exotic blooms in his hothouse. There’s an old diary found during restoration work, a family secret going back to Julia’s grandmother, a love affair and a world at war – lots to get the story rattling along and the reader turning the pages.

Beth O’Leary (The Flat Share; The Road Trip) has a new book out and it is lots of fun. Swept Away is about Zeke and Lexi who hook up at a pub, having a night of passion on a houseboat, only to discover that the boat has become untethered in the night. They wake up miles from nowhere heading for the North Sea. Supplies run low, the sea gets choppy and problems occur with the boat. Everything seems to be against a couple who had no plans to go past one date together.

Right Way Up by Fiona McCallum concerns psychologist Colin, planning a retirement trip in a caravan with his wife Joyce. But Joyce goes off on her own, turning Colin’s world upside down, until he’s rescued by friendship with Shirley, recently widowed and looking for a project. When Joyce turns up out of the blue again, Colin has to think about what he really wants from life. An enjoyable if not particularly memorable read.

Flaxmere Library Book Chat gets together every second Tuesday at Flaxmere Library at 10:30am - new members welcome.

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