Hastings Library Book Chat Recommends

We swung from escapist adventure thrillers to some challenging literary fiction at the recent session of Hastings Book Chat.

There were a good number of New Zealand authors on the table, among them the best Catherine Chidgey novel one reader had ever read. This was Remote Sympathy, a Holocaust era novel which follows four characters. These include a doctor in Frankfurt working on a cancer cure and who is married to a Jew; the commandant at Buchenwald interviewed during the 1950s, his wife Greta who enjoys her new house in the town near the camp. It all comes together in a brilliant if somewhat dark novel.

The short story collection Obligate Carnivore by Stephanie Johnson caused some controversy recently with its AI book cover, which initially put it out of contention for the Ockham Awards longlist. This is a collection of 27 pithy stories filled with Johnson’s trademark dark humour. Our reader didn’t much like the cover, though.

We also heard about another New Zealand favourite, Shonagh Koea, and her book Landscape with Solitary Figure. It follows Ellis, who lives a solitary life, looking back into the past to describe a relationship that was at times frightening and what she felt she had to do to survive. More dark humour here, but also beautiful writing.

Overland to the Island by Hannah Bulloch is a fascinating memoir. It recounts how Alan and Joan MacLeod travelled around the world from Dunedin in their homemade house truck with their six children to Skye, the home of Alan’s ancestors. Quite the adventure. Of course, being 1963, perhaps there were fewer political hotspots to be wary of. An amazing story told by the MacLeods’ granddaughter.

Back to fiction, we had the mystery-thriller The First Law of the Bush by Geoff Parkes, set in Nashville, a renamed town in the King Country. Lawyer Ryan Bradley is asked by grieving widow Carol Dickerson, to investigate the unexplained death of her husband. This is an action-packed story full of drug-related crime, violence, gangs and even some romance. Our reader loved the everyday Kiwi feel of the writing.

And a couple of readers have been working their way through the thrillers by self-published author, Ian Austin, featuring British ex-police officer, Dan Calder. In The Agency, Calder has come to New Zealand for a fresh start. As you can imagine, things don’t go to plan, with an unknown foe threatening the life he’s planned for himself. This was a gripping read with quite an original storyline, although the writing needed a good editor’s touch at times.

Franz Josef is the third book in the highly thought of Nick Chester series by Alan Carter. The terrain of the titular setting is precarious and prone to earthquakes, floods and landslides. A body found suspended in a glacier suggests a killer at large, adding to the danger. Detectives Nick Chester and Latifa Rapata are sent to solve the case. This was a bit gruesome in parts, but an excellent read, well researched.

The crime continued with Murder Takes a Vacation - the first in a cosy series by Laura Lippman. Muriel Blossom is a plus-size heroine, a former private investigator taking a cruise with a friend. But not long into their trip down the River Seine, a man is found murdered, a precious artefact is missing and a mysterious stranger asserting they’re in danger. An entertaining cosy mystery, loaded with wealthy travellers, luxury food and quaint towns.

My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney follows Eden Fox who returns from a run to the house she loves to find her key doesn’t work. A woman who looks just like her opens the door, and her husband insists that this stranger is his wife. Who can be lying? The story takes you back to six months earlier when a reclusive Londoner inherits the same house. This was a great thriller, gripping and with plenty of twists and turns.

Ask for Andrea by Noelle W Ihli is a novel about three women who return from the dead to haunt the man who murdered them. While he’s charming on the surface, it seems likely he’ll kill again and something needs to be done to save his next intended victim. Our reader thought this an engaging premise but didn’t think it quite came off.

One reader was sad to learn that Australian author Kerry Greenwood had died last year having really enjoyed her last period mystery, Murder in the Cathedral. But at number 23 in the series, there’re plenty more books to revisit. The last book has flapper-era investigator, Phryne Fisher attending the investiture of her friend Lionel as a bishop, so when the murder of a deacon takes place, she’s on the spot to help the police. The case includes social scandals, church politics, business scams and blackmail.

Mad Mabel is a mystery novel from another Australian author, Sally Hepworth, where the main character is Elsie Fizpatrick, an elderly woman who finds her neighbour dead. Then people discover she’s really Mad Mabel, the youngest person to be convicted of murder in Australia. The police and the media descend. Now it’s time for Mabel to speak up and tell her story. An enjoyable and original read.

Another elderly character is the star of the story in The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston. Here a suddenly homeless man, Frederick Fife, kindly, polite and a bit of a rogue, finds himself with the opportunity to take the place of cranky Bernard, a care-home resident. Can he keep up the façade and keep a roof over his head? And what will he discover walking in Bernard’s shoes? A bitter-sweet, endearing story from a debut author.

There were a couple of books that require the reader to suspend disbelief for a rewarding, entertaining read. Matthew Reilly’s Mr Einstein’s Secretary: an epic spy thriller plays with real events through several decades in the mid-20th century. A sudden reversal of fortune sees physics enthusiast Hanna Fischer taking the job as Einstein’s secretary. Over the years she becomes a scientist and a spy, meeting some of the greatest minds of her time.  This book was 450 pages of non-stop pleasure, with an amazing character and a story that our reader finished in one day.

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso reminded one reader of the books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Cemetery of Forgotten Books series). In spite of the “cardigan read” cover, it was quite a meaty story. It begins in 1938 Nuremberg, where Lisavet Levy’s watchmaker father saves her from the Nazi regime by sending her to a magical library in the “time space”. When her father doesn’t join her, she becomes stuck there, walking through the memories of those who have lived before. An interesting read about how we see the past, reality and truth.

Posted by JAM

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