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A Black Englishman, Carolyn Slaughter
Penguin
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
British war refugee Isobel, fleeing the post-war mayhem in 1920s Europe, marries a career soldier and embarks for India. Fairly standard colonial stuff but Isobel is upper middle class and hubby Gerald is working class, so she realises by arrival that the union won't work – just like Mummy said it wouldn't.
Full review here
A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies, John Murray
Penguin
Reviewed by Lindsay Wright (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
The dustcover pocket biography of author John Murray is the first inkling that something unusual might be afoot with this book.
Murray is an Australian medical doctor who has put in time at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
I'd read most of the eight novellas that make up these 274 pages of delightful reading before I found this out and then it all fell into place.
Full review here
A Land of Two Halves, Joe Bennett
Scribner
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Joe Bennett set out to discover the New Zealand he didn't know, to write about the country he'd lived in for 15 years yet had seen so little of.
His observations about the places we're all familiar with are spot on – God, there are some crap little towns in New Zealand, aren't there? However, it is the people he encounters on his journey that are the most revealing and amusing. To add spice to his trip he decides to hitchhike around the country and as a consequence learns more than he bargains for.
Full review here
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewyca
Viking
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
The opening line - "Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six" - sums things up quite nicely.
Full review here
Above Suspicion, Lynda La Plante
Simon & Schuster
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Lynda La Plante's detailed knowledge of British police procedure, as demonstrated in her popular TV series' Prime Suspect and Trial and Retribution lends authenticity to all her books.
Here she introduces an engaging new recruit to the murder squad, Anna Travis. The daughter of a successful and highly respected Detective Chief Superintendent, Anna is determined to follow in her late father's footsteps on this, her first case.
Full review here
Absolute Altitude, Martin Buckley
Vintage
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
There's something very primal about flying. It connects with the basic human instincts, eliciting both fear and exhilaration. Consequently it can become an all-consuming passion.
Full review here
Adam's Curse – A Future Without Men, Bryan Sykes
Corgi
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
A future without men. Goodness. Leaving aside for the moment the vexed problem of the extinction of the entire human race, can you imagine the impact this will have on society? Who will mow the lawns? Change the oil in the car? Leave the toilet seat up?
Full review here
After the Fireworks – A Life of David Ballantyne, Bryan Reid
Auckland University Press
Reviewed by James O'Sullivan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
It's an all-too-common narrative in the history of New Zealand literature. A fresh, talented writer comes along but fails to attract the attention of the wider reading public. Without popular support the writer turns to alcohol for solace. And, as Ronald Hugh Morrieson said, they become one of those poor buggers who achieve fame after they die.
Full review here
Albion, The Origins of the English Imagination, Peter Ackroyd
Vintage
Reviewed by Mike Bowler (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
An author of novels and non-fiction, Ackroyd's recent London: The Biography was a best seller. He should make the most of that success and last year's award of the CBE for services to literature, because this work will have more limited interest.
Despite the blurb's use of "masterpiece" and "dazzling acrobatic display of literary omniscience", this is a challenging work for the average reader.
Full review here
Always and Forever, Cathy Kelly
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Sheila Forbes (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
This is a lightweight, formulaic novel about three women trying to take control of their lives, with the help of a newcomer to the town.
Leah, a wealthy 60-year-old American, opens a luxurious health spa in the small Irish town of Carrickwell. To it in turn come Mel, Daisy and Cleo, each expecting simply a day's pampering to boost their morale but finding also a kind of solution to their problems.
Full review here
An Unfinished Life, Mark Spragg
Jonathan Cape
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Watch out for the film of An Unfinished Life starring Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez. This tale reminds me of growing up with Mary O'Hara's My Friend Flicka and similar Wyoming-based stories in the Little House on the Prairie genre.
Full review here
Are You Afraid of the Dark? Sidney Sheldon
HarperCollins
Reviewed by Lisa Hoult (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
I've always associated Sidney Sheldon with Dynasty and shoulder-pads. Are You Afraid of the Dark hasn't changed my mind.
Full review here
At Risk, Stella Rimington
Hutchinson
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
If there's one person qualified to write a novel about the goings-on in Britain's secret service it would most likely be one of their ex-Director Generals. This book, therefore, is straight from the horse's mouth. Stella Rimington, with her 30-year career in MI5, the last four spent running the organisation, has the credentials.
Full review here
Avenger, Frederick Forsyth
Corgi
Reviewed by Lisa Hoult (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Where have all the Frederick Forsyth fans gone? Everybody has heard of The Day of the Jackal but nobody I know seems to have read anything else by him. And it's a shame because his work is simply superb. He's found a winning formula and has stuck to it without it becoming repetitive, while the research on his topics has astounding depth.
Full review here
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