Thrillers, killers and some ghostly goings-on
REVIEWS
FICTION
Blood Money
Tom Bradby
Bantam Press, 12.99
Jack Doyle ****
This feisty, pacey thriller by TV news reporter turned writer Tom Bradby has it all: nervy gangsters, crooked politicians, gutsy cops and a sexy moll. It is also blessed with excellent timing.
Set in New York on the eve of the Wall Street crash, it captures the panic and fear of a financial plunge only now repeating itself.
As the markets fall, a banker plummets from the top of a skyscraper. A rookie detective, Joe Quinn, takes the call after a mix-up and refuses to buy what looks like a cover-up. He's soon on the trail of money, crooked share tipsters and a growing pile of bodies. As the plot develops, Bradby delivers plenty of colour to set the scene without slowing things down.
A Very Persistent Illusion
LC Tyler
Macmillan New Writing, 14.99
Sarah O'Meara *****
Urban men in their early 40s with commitment issues and a penchant for overpriced T-shirts seldom make good literary heroes.
But classic sports car fan, Chris Sorensen, is surprisingly easy to like. Having spent his adult years cultivating the delusion that reality doesn't exist, he finds the death of his girlfriend's father worryingly life-like.
However Chris has a few secrets, and these past events certainly make his fear of matrimony – and a tragic interest in girls in their early 20s – rather less pathetic.
This utterly enjoyable detective story is a departure for author, LC Tyler. Debuting in 2007 with The Herring Seller's Apprentice (the first in a trilogy), this is a warm, intelligent and beautifully- observed diversion.
Broken Glass
Alain Mabanckou
Serpent's Tail 9.99.
Sarah O'Meara ****
He might be an alcoholic former teacher who spends his life sitting on a bar stool, but Broken Glass is still a sparkling narrator.
Having lost his wife, home and livelihood to booze, Broken Glass is now the
only member of a local intelligentsia which gather at Credit Gone West – a bar dedicated to devout liquor consumption.
Asked by the manager to record the stories of all the other customers, he sets about his task with relish. Soon his satirical, highbrow and eloquent pen has captured the base and the beautiful of his friends' lives.
There are almost two hundred titles mentioned in this novel, beginning with its own title – also that of a play by Arthur Miller. And it is for good reason that Mabanckou was named by Vanity Fair as one of Africa's most important living writers.
When the character of Broken Glass gets into his stride, he reveals the brilliant and powerful talent of his master, Mabanckou.
NON-FICTION
Assassins
Steven Parissien
Quercus, 15
Matthew Dickinson ***
If you want a coffee table book likely to keep the most fidgety of houseguests entertained, then Assassinated! could be for you. Steven Parissien's effort whips through more than two centuries of history and 50 of the world's most headline-grabbing murders.
They range from Julius Caesar's brutal stabbing in 44BC and the 1192 attack on Conrad of Montferrat by two members of the Arab sect which gave assassins their name, to Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko's radioactive poisoning in London in 2006.
Defining the term as a premeditated and politically-inspired killing, the book demonstrates there are plenty of assassinations to pick from throughout the ages. Don't expect lengthy debates about their rights or wrongs, or implications.
Each killing gets a couple of pages, with a handy historical panel to break up the non-stop death and destruction. Although the book's brevity is occasionally frustrating, it is a tempting taster for some of history's most interesting episodes.
House Of Treason: The Rise And Fall Of A Tudor Dynasty
Weidenfeld and Nicholson 20
Anthony Looch ****
The glamour of the Tudor courts, constantly poisoned by intrigue and beheadings, is brought home chillingly in this well-researched saga of the Howard family.
The timespan is about 120 years, from the death of King Richard III at the 1485 Battle of Bosworth until just after James I ascended the English throne in 1603.
The Howards, headed by successive Dukes of Norfolk, had great wealth and influence but foolishly got involved in repeated conspiracies against the reigning monarch, or were believed to have done so. This, in the Stalinist atmosphere of the times, could have the same consequences.
Members of the family were frequently imprisoned in the Tower of London and more than one was beheaded there.
This book is full of fascinating vignettes and is beautifully illustrated.
One startling contemporary picture shows Henry VIII as he probably really looked, which is vastly different to the famous, "official" Holbein portrait.
FOR CHILDREN
Fen Runners
John Gordon
Orion Books, 8.99.
Sarah O'Meara
This vivid supernatural thriller is John Gordon's first children's book in a decade. The author, who moved to East Anglia when he was 12, brings the gothic atmosphere of these marshy, foggy, wetlands brilliantly to life.
Young Kit and Joe are drawn together when they both see a dark shadowy ghost following them.With the help of an old man, they are forced to adopt the habits of their ancestors, and take to the ice. Filled with examples of authentic local language, Gordon transforms this rural landscape into a mythical battle field. But with the snow coming down, and creatures threatening to burst through the ice, can Kit and Joe beat their shadowy demons? Guaranteed to keep children, and adults, on the edge of their beds.
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