The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup

An expected UK publishing date 10 January 2019

Naia Thulin is currently working in the serious crimes division and wants to move over to the Cyber Crime squad in the Danish police force. She has just been assigned a new partner that she does not like and feels that she does not need even though she has yet to meet him.

Mark Hess has been sent back to the Danish force after a temporary reassignment from Europol where he feels he has been badly treated and his return home is not a happy one. With both characters not wanting to be where they find themselves, they are put onto a murder enquiry which soon becomes a countrywide hunt for a serial killer.

This book is horrific, gory, bloodthirsty but boy, is it an excellent read!

The two police officers cannot agree on how the investigation should go, their superior is preventing them from looking into historic murder cases as he feels they are not connected. Hess simply does not want to be there at all, spending his time attempting to decorate and sell a flat he owns. Thulin is constantly hoping that her wish to join the cyber crime team comes to fruition. Then they both start to become involved in the murders as they both see that the commanding officer wants a quick result and anything that sticks, will do.

I started off not feeling anything for any of the characters and not much love for the gory start but as chapters progress I became engrossed and ended up not being able to put it down and having to read beyond 1am to reach the finale, which is tremendous!. I never spotted the perpetrator and even when we knew who it was the story still progressed at a brilliant pace because now, we as readers were really invested in the outcome.

I would like to thank Søren Sveistrup, Penguin UK/Michael Joseph and Netgalley for a free ecopy in return for an honest and fair review.

Discovering new music and music streaming

6 years is a long time but hopefully I’ll start something new here whilst leaving the old stuff in place. I do have a book review blog, a link should be here somewhere.

I’m of a certain age, over 55 anyway. I have always spent a lot of my free time listening to music and for some reason it came to my mind just how lucky music lovers both old and young are today. With

the internet we all have access to what ever makes our ears happy. For instance my music formative years were the 70’s and I simply loved prog rock and listened to what ever I could at the time. Mainstream radio stations played very little, if any at all, even if they did it was late night when all good teenagers were asleep.

Today, we can listen to what we like, when we like. I have Spotify and love it. I can use it free and listen to a few annoying adverts every hour or I could pay the price of 1 CD and listen to everything they have for a month! For me personally, I think it is a great service. I discover new bands almost daily and these are bands that I could have discovered in my teens if this sort of service had been around. Their music was never played on any radio station that I knew of.

I know musicians moan about the streaming services and they do not get as much income from these sources but for young bands, a handful of listeners can spread the word worldwide, rather than a few mates you knew where into the same music. Then, if they are anything like I was, you paid to go to concerts, where bands earn the real income anyway.

So, back to my point. Streaming has given me quite literally, a whole new library of bands to listen to that where around and playing great music that I never got to listen to, until now. Today I have Beggars Opera and their Pathfinder album from 1972. Not heard by these ears until nearly 45 after the event and probably never heard at all by me without my access to the internet. Why is there so much crap out in this electronic world when there are some really good things out there too?

The Trowie Mound Murders by Marsali Taylor

Cass Lynch once again finds herself the centre of a murder investigation. Art thieves and drug smugglers all play their part in this. The local Trowie Mound, the Shetlan for Neolithic burial mounds, comes under scrutiny as one set of travelers goes missing. It soon becomes apparent that there is a lot more at stake than some missing art.

Another brilliant read with the waters around Shetland playing a key role in what is another very good story. Cass finds herself in the middle of this as she starts off by being a good samaritan and goes looking for some missing boaters that ventured into the hills. She soon becomes the target as the thieves find her at their hiding place and lock her in the Trowie Mound.

Besides all that goes on with the crimes, Cass also starts to have feelings for the Inverness DI that comes to the island a second time to investigate what is going on. There is also Anders, her Norwegian crew mate. This is only a side story and I hope it stays that way but I thought I had to mention it.

A great second story in these Shetland Sailing Mysteries.

Death On A Longship by Marsali Taylor

Cass Lynch is desperate to skipper her own Tallship and crew, sadly she currently works winters as a waitress and summers giving sailing lessons until one day in the restaurant she works in she overhears a conversation. A film crew are looking for a skipper to get a Viking Longship refitted and seaworthy to use on their next film project. Cass immediately puts herself forward.

Once the Longship is ready and the film crew arrives things go well for a while then the lead actress is found dead on the Longship. Along with a few other characters, Cass seems to be the main suspect.

I really enjoyed this, lots of twists and turns. The characters are well written and likeable. In the early chapters we get a lot of introspective thought by Cass about how she has ended up where she now finds herself but the story still moves along nicely and all this introspection has more meaning as the story progresses.

Some of the dialogue is written phonetically in the Shetland dialect. I am not normally a fan of this but in this book it is not overly used and where it is used it is part of someone's character. You can't have a salty old Shetland fisherman talking the Queens English can you?

I have been so lucky in my book choices recently and this was another great read.

Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

A teenage Moroccan boy runs away to Paris to try and discover something about his French Mother.

An American postdoctoral researcher returns to Paris ten years after her student years in the city.

Tariq travels the rougher parts of Paris on the Metro that he falls in love with and works illegally in a fried chicken take-away. The search for his mothers history leads him to discover plenty about French/Arab recent history. His naivety of the recent past is startling but he learns to accept some of what has happened to his fellow Arabs and relates it to his lost mother even if that was not her families fate.

Hannah is researching the life of women in occupied France during World War Two. She spends her days listening to womens accounts of their lives during the war, recorded and kept in a library. She also revisits a few places from her past and meets up with an English friend. They talk about her research, her past love in the city. He helps with some of her research gaining access to one of the recorded women that is still alive. Ultimately Hannah discovers that she can love again.

Two very different characters brought together in this interesting story.  Tariq ends up lodging in the flat that Hannah has rented. His French is much better than Hannahs so he helps with some translating. He also provides a sounding board for Hannahs thoughts though neither realise this. These little discussions help them both come to realise what they both really want in their lives.

A lovely read with some dark humour hidden where you least expect it. Once again a highly recommend from me

The Little Country by Charles de Lint

Janey Little discovers a book hidden in her grandfathers attic. She is captivated by the first few pages and that is by an author she loves but did not know of this book. Then an old boyfriend comes back into her life unexpectedly and then things start to get complicated.

A strange cult leader has been searching for this book for most of his life. The last time he 'felt' it was when it was last opened some forty years ago. There is nothing he will not do to get his hands on this book this time.

I am slowly reading my way through de Lint's books in something close to published order and so far I have enjoyed every word. To start with I thought this would be the first book I was not going to enjoy but as I got into the story this feeling changed. Janey is a bit whiney and likes everything her own way, to the point where it drives people away. Anyone that does not agree with her is either shouted down or ignored. Her ex coming back into her life only seems to give her another reason to moan. Not a great start!

Ignoring this part of the story I persevered as there are two definite threads running in this story. You find that besides Janey's story we are also reading the book she has discovered and this story has a magical quality that I have come to expect when reading de Lint. The two stories seem far removed from each other but as we reach the climax we come to realise they are closely related. Also a very nice twist at the end, I'll not explain as it would spoil the read if you pick it up.

Another brilliant read from de Lint, another recommendation from me if you enjoy Urban Fantasy.

Information Received by E.R. Punshon

Bobby Owen has been a beat policeman for just over three years when he finds himself at the scene of a murder. At first he is simply another policeman at the scene but his inquisitive nature and frustrations at not not being more involved finally get him seconded to the C.I.D temporarily on this case.

He finds himself mainly doing the footwork but the detective in charge sees something more in Bobby and starts to include him more in the crime investigations.

This is the first of over thirty books about Bobby Owen as we follow his career in the police force of thirties and Forties Britain.

Originally published in 1933 this first instalment is a brilliant insight into life of thirties England. I really enjoyed this ebook even if the storytelling is a bit convoluted and life is seen through rose tinted glasses. Owen is an interesting character, driven by the need to know answers to unsolved mysteries. Dedicated to the truth at any cost to himself.

This story has a great plot with twists and turns on almost every page. I am not one who can ever guess early who the perpetrator of these crime books is, in this one it was even harder because we do not find out until quite late in the story that there are two.

I highly recommend this ebook if you enjoy period crime writing, or even crime writing in general.