Newest General Fiction Reviews
General fiction
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
In the near-future USA that they call Gilead, society has changed. For the worse, of course. The population is dying out, and people who are capable of breeding the next generation are given a cherished status of Handmaid - gifted to any male of enough esteem, called a Commander, who balances the household with his wife and what is practically a walking womb. Other women get drudge work, or run horrid finishing schools for the Handmaids, or are packed off to what are reported to be polluted hellholes abroad, for laborious work for life. Men are restricted too - Handmaids are off-limits to everybody but their Commander, and those households are patrolled carefully by other eunuch types. It's up to our nameless narrator and main character, however, to show us just how cherished the status of Handmaid feels. Full review...
The Homecoming Party by Carmine Abate
Every year young Marco eagerly awaits his father's return, when he can for a few months spend precious time with him before he leaves again. Marco's father Tullio is a migrant worker forced through poverty to work in Northern France doing hard manual work. In this way he manages to earn enough to help his family have a decent living. The family, his eldest daughter Elise now at college, Marco his only son and a younger sister known only as 'la piccola' along with his wife and elderly mother live in Calabria, an economically depressed area of southern Italy. They belong to the minority Arberesh community, descended from Albanian immigrants settling small villages in the mountainous regions of La Sila. Just as the Calabrian people are looked down upon by other Italians the Arberesh people are even looked down upon by the Calabrians. Full review...
The Secret Crown by Chris Kuzneski
The riddle is the whole crux of the book. So we're taken right back, albeit briefly, to Bavaria in the year 1886, via the Prologue. So, the scene is now set, foul play is most definitely afoot and lots of questions should pop into the reader's mind. Such as who? Why? etc. So far, so good, I thought. We then fast-forward straight to present-day Germany and due to an unfortunate hunting accident, something which was a secret, is no longer. Full review...
The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell
So, what is a novel? Does it need a plot, climax and resolution? Characters who grow? A setting? Themes which explore the human condition? And must it entertain? Padgett Powell challenges our perceptions of fiction with a book that explores what it is to be a novel, but without any preconditions. How far he succeeds is down to the individual reader. But I thought I'd give it a go. Full review...
Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
This is a thumping, great read at 850 pages. We meet a clutch of families who are all vastly different in terms of class, outlook, values etc. I have to admit at the outset that this is the first Ken Follett book I've read even although two of his previous books are in my ever-growing 'to read' pile. So although I know of him, my reading expectations were wide-open. Full review...
Paper Wings by Linda Sargent
In a wood in Kent two children played happily and as is the way with children they sometimes went where they shouldn't, but it was the nineteen fifties and the worry was more about whether they would injure themselves by falling down an abandoned well than the problems which we worry over half a century later. It was a place for plans and games, projects they didn't always tell their parents about and generally growing up. Ruby loved climbing trees and longed to fly. Peter was more sensible but the pair were inseparable. Full review...
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
It's January 1937 and dark clouds of impending war are gathering over Europe. Jack Miller is in London, working as a clerk and living in one lonely room. He should probably think himself lucky because many people have neither job nor home in this Great Depression, but he doesn't. He feels lonely and isolated and angry that a career in research physics was snatched away from him by economic circumstance. So when the chance of becoming the wireless operator for an Arctic expedition comes along, he jumps at it - even though the team comprises of the exact privileged young men he most resents. Full review...
Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich
Take one rather ditzy girl. Add a funny, extrovert friend, and another, more sensible one. Stir in two seriously attractive men, an unhinged pet or two, a slapstick plot and an unending series of cars. What have you got? A Janet Evanovich novel! This has been the formula for the winning 'Stephanie Plum' series for years, about a hopelessly incompetent bounty hunter who never quite manages to choose between the two hunks in her life, and it has given much pleasure and amusement. But even the best formulas get stale, so this year Ms Evanovich has branched out into something new. Well, almost. Full review...
Two Unknown by Alan Hamilton
The story is based 'between the wars', the 1920s to be exact. We're introduced to the main characters: a small family unit of mother, father and two children. On the surface this normal, middle-class set-up all appears fine - but underneath, things are far from fine. The father, Ian is actually the step-father to the twins. And through various detailed and sometimes unusually lengthy parent-child conversations and chats the reader is filled in with the background story. A bit staccato in places, I have to admit. Full review...
The Bone House by Brian Freeman
The novel opens with one of the central characters, Mark. And straight away we see that he has an eye for the girls - young girls, it would seem. He's a married man, so tongues start to wag. The book's front cover depicts a house going up in flames and on the very first page there's another mention of fire, Billy Joel's hit song 'We Didn't Start The Fire.' So, fire seems as if it's going to play an important part in this book. And it does. Big-time. Full review...
Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt
For a couple of years now Esther Hammerhans has lived alone and money is a little tight. She works in the House of Commons library but it doesn't pay particularly well. Letting the spare room to a lodger seemed like a good idea, but she's somewhat surprised when she sees Mr Chartwell's silhouette. It's the size of a mattress and Mr Chartwell is a dog. A large black dog.
At home in Kent, Winston Churchill wakes up. He's reaching the end of his time in parliament and in some ways he's not surprised to sense that there's a visitor in the room. It's someone he hasn't seen for a while, but the presence of the huge, mute hulk who watched him with a tortured expression was only to be expected. Winston's black dog was back. Full review...
Welcome to Life by Alice de Smith
It's the 80s. Freya is 14 and an only child. She lives with her parents in Cambridge. So far, so normal. Except... Freya's home life is slightly a-typical. She's on first name terms with the parental figures (no affectionate Mum or Daddy here) and is under the distinct impression that they spend their days imagining life without her. Her best friend is a middle aged housewife on whose son she has a rather too obvious crush. Her mother communicates with her through lists and shows her affection in the oddest ways. Her father has just moved his business associate in, but he's not just sleeping in the spare room. Full review...
The Blind Spy by Alex Dryden
The author writes under a pseudonym and he has worked in intelligence, so he should know what he's talking - and writing about. He concentrates on the battle for supremacy (and we've been here before) as Russia and the USA clash. The story itself is an intricate one. Full of agents/counter-agents, spies/double spies and the like and appearances by members of the CIA and MI6 amongst others. If you like spy thrillers, then this novel will suit you down to the ground. Lots of furtive and secretive missions all over the place to keep the reader guessing and interested. Full review...
A Bouquet of Barbed Wire by Andrea Newman
For those of you who've never heard of it, A Bouquet of Barbed Wire was most famous as a landmark 70's TV series based on this 1969 novel by Andrea Newman. I'd never read the book before - in fact I'm not even sure I knew there was a book - or seen the TV series but I was aware of the controversy it created at the time of release so lapped up the chance to read the rerelease, accompanying the remake of the TV series which has just started. Full review...
11:59 by David Williams
The back cover blurb informs the reader that this novel was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. And the front jacket is stylish and a bit Hitchcock-esque. All the signs looked promising for a decent read. But did it deliver? Full review...
All the Hopeful Lovers by William Nicholson
I had previously read Nicholson's The Society Of Others and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this book. Nicholson writes a modern-day story which is relevant and bang up to date. We first meet Laura and Belinda. Two middle-aged, middle-class wives and mothers. Feeling sort of okay with their lives generally but all too aware also, that the marital 'spark' in their marriages is now a low peep - if there at all. Belinda in particular, knows she is bumbling along in life. She's not sure what to do to make things more interesting in the sex department. A fling would probably help - but would it be the answer? Full review...
The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall
We're introduced to one of the female central characters, Rose. There's been a serious house fire and a baby has been involved. Rose is implicated. But is she innocent or guilty? Unfortunately for Rose, she's been in the wrong place at the wrong time - and she's put behind bars. Five years is a long time for a young woman with the rest of her life to lead. Even more so, if you're telling anyone and everyone that you are, in fact, innocent of the crime. But is anyone listening? Full review...
The Island of Sheep (John Hannay) by John Buchan
Richard Hannay is feeling old. He looks at himself and his contemporaries and sees a spread of complacency. Luckily - or perhaps very unluckily - an old pledge will come to haunt him. His earlier career in Africa saw Hannay and his friends swear to protect a man from others - and now a second generation of animosity is ripe for Hannay to step in and be a protective detective. Add in a supposed treasure hoard, and who knows where his last journey might end up? Full review...
The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld
It's three years since we were all blown away by The Interpretation of Murder but Jed Rubenfeld is back with the sequel, which takes place ten years later. And what a decade that has been, with the appalling tragedy of the First World War and the influenza outbreak which followed. There's a hope that things are getting better as New York moves into the twenties and Stratham Younger and Captain James Littlemore meet up for the first time in ten years. They're in Wall Street on September the sixteenth – just as a quarter of a ton of explosives is detonated in the worst terrorist attack in the country's hundred and fifty year history. Full review...
The Body in the Fjord by Katherine Hall Page
Page gives us another The Body In The... book within a tried and tested format. The book jacket covers are always bright and jazzy and this one is no exception. We're deep in Norway, its picturesque countryside and world-famous fjords. We are in the company of two different but interesting women. Mother and daughter. Pix, the daughter (I think the name sounds as if it belongs to someone young) is a mother in middle-age with teenage children. She has responsibilities, but at times she behaves like a sixteen year old and I suppose that is part of her appeal. She cannot seem to say no to anyone and now finds herself enlisted to solve an unexplained death and a missing person. The latter is the more important as the missing person, Kari, is related to Ursula's best friend. Yes, perhaps a few too many names at the beginning of the book to grapple with but it soon settles down. Full review...
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
Initially I was very excited and interested when The Bookbag was given this novel to review. Set at a time in which I lived in Buenos Aires, I was looking forward to a fictionalised account of these traumatic years - made all the more appealing, as the narrator purported to be the eldest of the family's two sons - 10 year old 'Haroldo' as he comes to be known, having by necessity left his former identity behind. In this respect, I was to be sadly disappointed. The majority of the novel comprises recollections from an adult Haroldo - not quite what the Amazon blurb, nor the précis on the cover, leads the reader to believe! In fairness, the author can't be blamed for this - but I felt mislead by the dust jacket - which may have coloured my enjoyment, and which lead, in part, to the relatively low star rating which I gave the book. Full review...
Crump by PJ Vanston
It's Kevin Crump's first day as a lecturer at Thames Metropolitan University - an ex-polytechnic. It's the happiest day of his life, and he can't wait to see all that it holds, and make a difference to all his students. And then it hits him: the relentless pettiness of authority figures, the students who can't string two sentences together, the lowering of standards in search of higher test scores, so more money from foreign students, and political correctness gone (as I believe the saying goes) mad. Full review...
Savage Blood by Alex Chance
The book's cover is a very good clue as to its content: weapons dripping in blood and decapitated heads. The novel starts with Professor Edward Quinn on a rather unusual journey. It seems to end abruptly and in plenty of spilled blood, gore and horrendous scenes of carnage. Meanwhile, in Atlanta, USA, Dr Cortez has been cheating on his wife. His one-night stand proves satisfactory and interesting in all sorts of ways. Suddenly, he's involved in an extremely worrying medical situation. It needs to be sorted - and quickly. Cortez is a young, modern professional but he's human also, so not without his hang-ups. The conversations between himself and his even more successful wife, are bang on. They hit the right note. Many will identify with the couple. At times you can almost hear the friction between them. And the man-to-man conversations between Charlie Cortez and his buddy Dan are terrific. Trying hard to be big shots in a social situation when really they are out of their depth. A great introduction to this part of the story, I thought. Full review...
Separate Beds by Elizabeth Buchan
Annie and Tom Nicholson looked like the sort of people you would envy. Both had rewarding jobs, Tom in the World Service and Annie in hospital management. They had a lovely home and three grown-up children. But all is not as it seems. For five years they have had separate existences after a family row when Tom caused his elder daughter to walk out of the house and never return. There hasn't been a catalyst which would have caused them to separate but Tom moved into his daughter's vacated room and he and Annie have lived together - but apart. It could have gone on indefinitely but then Tom came home one day and dropped the bombshell which could well finish them off. Full review...
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer
Meet Jeff. He's a journalist living in London, with a fine line in delaying his work effort and a keen eye for detail. He can see how the world is made better by a smile from a random shopkeeper - yet seems too grumpy to try it himself. Instead he suspects his habit of walking round, mouthing or speaking out his own inner thoughts is making him seem a scary old man. He can partly address this, by dying his hair. And he can stop walking round London when he gets commissions to report back from the modern arts Biennale in Venice. Soon, however, the only work of art he's at all worried about goes by the name of Laura... Full review...
Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain
This is the third novel I've read by Diane Chamberlain and I felt as if I was visiting an old friend. I enjoyed the other two books and this one looked promising. Although many of the characters spill over from Before The Storm' this current book is a stand alone. Full review...
The Obscure Logic of the Heart by Priya Basil
Lina is from a devout Muslim family and lives with her aunt while she studies law at university; where she meets Anil. Anil is a Kenyan boy from a non-practicing Sikh family who dreams of becoming a ground-breaking architect. The two fall in love but as the lies they have to tell their respective families become more and more elaborate they are forced to make some difficult decisions. Full review...
The Wonder by Diana Evans
Lucas and Denise have been brought up by their grandmother on a canal boat in west London, after the death of their parents. Now they are in their 20s, and their grandmother Toreth is gone. Denise is a practical and responsible young woman, getting on with her job as a florist, but her younger brother Lucas is a dreamer, still trying to establish what he wants to do with his life, and increasingly distracted by trying to find out more about his identity, about who his parents were, especially his father. Full review...
A Question of Answers by Margaret Henderson Smith
Harriet Glover lives with her partner who's reluctant to commit himself to marriage. It's not that he hasn't had time to make up his mind – their two children are at the stage where they might produce grandchildren. His excuse is that he can't see the point as they already share a surname through chance, so what difference would marriage make? Mark's not entirely insensitive (well, some of the time…) but he can't understand Harriet's need for that reassuring piece of paper. Until then she's going to be wondering if his eyes are wandering elsewhere. Harriet's not entirely immune either: she finds the headmaster of the school where she teaches quite irresistible. Full review...
Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler
It's always a red letter day to sit down to an unread Anne Tyler. This is her eighteenth published novel. For any readers not already fans of her books, this American writer observes the ordinary in order to excel at 'making the familiar, strange'. Full review...
The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill
This novel has been based on fact. McGill moves back and forth with various characters' stories. A child has died in the family home and the mother, Harriet has been tried in a court of law and found guilty. The fact that she is a practical, no-nonsense woman who does not wear her heart on her sleeve does not go down well with the majority of the jury. She has also committed another crime, almost equally as grave, she has sullied the family name of her husband. He is a prominent and respected member of the local community. Nothing will be the same again for either of them. Full review...
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate to the USA from Hong Kong they believe that, true to the American Dream, their lives are about to get better. However, although Kimberly's aunt paid their air fares and arranged their green cards she is intent on getting her money back. She arranges their accommodation in a run-down part of Brooklyn in a building where they are the only tenants. Their apartment has broken windows, no heating and is rife with cockroaches and rats. The aunt arranges work for Kim's mum in her husband's Chinatown factory, paying her a pittance for piece work and then taking most of her salary away for repayments on their flights and their accommodation. Huddled around their oven for warmth, wearing layers of clothing made from material they found in the trash, their lives seem incredibly bleak. But Kimberly has brains, and determination, and she is adamant that she will find a way to take care of her mother. Full review...
Oil on Water by Helon Habila
The book opens with two local journalists on a rather dangerous trip. Zaq, old-timer and cynic but still has the skills to seek out a good story and apprentice Rufus. A British oil engineer's wife has gone missing, believed kidnapped and the two journalists are following her trail. Zaq comes across as an interesting character; all-seeing, all-knowing albeit likes a drink or two. He's happy to impart years of knowledge to Rufus and tells him that ' ... the story is not always the final goal.' What's really important, what the readers want to know and what sells newspapers is ' ... the meaning of the story.' Full review...
Stolen Child by Laura Elliot
The title of the book leaves us in no doubt as to what it's all about. It does exactly what it says on the tin. But those two, small words are wrapped up in plenty of emotions for the characters involved. In some ways, it's worse than a death. With death, there's closure but with a baby being stolen there's living hell. And, as you would expect, some characters cope with all of this better than others. Full review...
What Becomes by A L Kennedy
You're three stories into this collection and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - a man with love drooping away from his marriage, making soup, and another, a greengrocer, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationship. But there is no pattern to that. Four stories in and there have been two bursts of non-sequitur comedy. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingers, and the thoughts of a woman in a flotation tank, remembering Doctor Who, locked parental doors - and the urban myths of gerbils. But there's still no pattern - and that's the point of these combined stories. Life and all of its emotions does not live to rule. Full review...
The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street) by Alexander McCall Smith
Evereyone's favourite, Bertie, is still struggling with his over-protective, over-zealous mother Irene. Poor Bertie. He still has yoga class, saxophone lessons, Italian lessons, and he longs to go away to Scout camp, but really doesn't want his mum to come along as a helper. And, as the title suggests, he is looking forward to being seven. His little brother, Ulysses, is getting bigger and has developed an interesting reaction to their mother, whilst Irene herself goes missing in a rather mysterious manner... Full review...
Black Flies by Shannon Burke
Ollie Cross has failed to get into medical school. While he thinks about what he plans to do, he takes a job as a paramedic on the tough streets of Harlem, New York City, and finds his whole perspective on life and death beginning to shift. Full review...
Micka by Frances Kay
Micka and Laurie are two ten year old boys. They're in the same class at school and are friends, of a sort. They both have vivid imaginations, and Laurie's plans involve finding a magical bone and using it for murder. Micka lives with his mum (who can't read and is often drunk) and his two older brothers who get into fights, are involved in crime, and who abuse Micka physically and sexually. Laurie lives with his parents, until they suddenly break up, and he is left with his mum who seems to be having a breakdown. The book is told from the point of view of the two boys, and so as we see how their own lives are falling apart, sympathising with them, we also read with horror their own descent into violence. Full review...
Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs
Sarah may be struggling to make a living off it, but she does enjoy her job as a cartoonist. She's been through a lot recently, including her husband's battle with cancer, and her alter ego Shirl provides an outlet for a lot of the emotions and confusion she's feeling. Full review...
Dr Finlay's Casebook by A J Cronin
Most people will have heard of Dr Finlay, although they may not be entirely sure why - A J Cronin's stories of a fictional doctor in pre-War Scotland have been televised over the years, most recently in the nineties when David Rintoul starred as Dr Finlay. Although fictional, A J Cronin, who died in 1981, was himself a doctor and has apparently based some of Finlay's experiences on his own. This omnibus is made up of two books by Cronin, Dr Finlay of Tannochbrae, published in 1978 and Adventures of a Black Bag, published in 1943, both collections of short stories. Full review...
How To Sell by Clancy Martin
In the 1980's, 16 year old Bobby Clark gets expelled from his high school in Canada for stealing. This is a young boy so immoral that he pilfers his own mother's wedding ring to pawn for cash to keep a girl happy. After the girl turns out to be less interested in him than he is in her, he follows his older brother Jim to Texas, where he gets a job working with Jim in a jewellery store. As he falls into a life of scams, drugs, hookers, gorgeous women, and an obsession with Jim's girlfriend Lisa, it's clear that this coming of age story is a tragedy waiting to happen. Full review...
