No matter how many times Mum asks her young son to sort out his bedroom, he just can’t be bothered.
That is, until some rather strange things begin to happen. It seems it’s not just Mum who’s tired of his mess …
A rhyming picture book telling the story of an untidy boy, who learns that perhaps being tidy is best after all.
Review
It isn’t often I read a children’s book. However, I simply have to tell you about The Tidy-Up Terrors by debut author Bev Walton.
This utterly charming book had me laughing out loud until the final page. Bev’s imaginative writing describes every adult’s dreaded nightmare. The darkened lair of a young boy’s bedroom. Every parent has been there. The clutter of endless toys, food wrappers, and games that devour the floor like ravenous beasts. The colour of the carpet long forgotten in a jungle of mess, the unwashed clothes forming a crusty mountain on top of the bed, smells more deadly than a nuclear warhead, and an alien species growing on a bowl of cereal lost to the sands of time buried deep under last month’s homework. Bev captures this superbly as the book progresses.
The more the boy avoids tidying up his room the worse it becomes. Slowly the things he has discarded come alive threatening serious action if he doesn’t clean up his act. Scary creatures made from dirty clothes chase him under his bed covers as they scream and shout about needing a wash. Even his beloved fish finally snaps, and demands they clean their tank as they can’t live in the disgusting chaos any longer. This book is further enhanced by a series of detailed illustrations created by Brian Lee. They jump off the page making you feel as though you have entered the book. This is a book for all ages. Your children will adore it, and you never know it might even get them to finally clean their rooms. Let’s be serious however, we both know that’s wishful thinking. Check it out you won’t be disappointed. A cracking debut.
It takes a village to save a child in this pulse-pounding standalone thriller from the acclaimed author of The Man on the Street. It wasn’t her dad they were after. It was her.
Ruby Winter is surprised when her reclusive father invites a stranger into their house. She eavesdrops on their conversation and is alarmed when she hears a fight break out. She dashes into the kitchen to save her dad but the stranger’s the one lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Her dad urges her to pack a bag. They must quit their Northumbrian cottage and run. There isn’t time to explain why. But as they try to flee her dad is captured.
The only people who can help her are the villagers she has shunned her whole life. But, desperate to find her father and to work out who took him and why, she must seek their help.
But what if learning the truth means discovering the life she once knew was a lie?
Review
You Can Run is a standalone thriller set in the fictional village of Coldburn in Northumbria. The story is told mostly through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Ruby Winter whose secluded innocence life is thrown into turmoil when a group of violent missionaries invade her village. They cut them off from the rest of world, and they are hellbent on catching her. She has no idea why, but as secrets long buried begin to creep out of the woodwork. She begins to question everything she holds dear even her own existence. This standalone is a departure for Trevor from his highly successful Jimmy Mullen series that began with Man on the Street. The departure is a resounding success. The pace is breath-taking. Trevor maintains what you loved from his first series of books such as memorable characters, a strong sense of place, and humourous dialogue.
Some of the lines had me in fits of laughter as I came to love or hate every character for multiple reasons. I couldn’t put the book down as I kept saying just one more chapter as my alarm for the next day of work loomed on the horizon. The reason why this occurred and what makes it so different from the Man on the Street trilogy is because Trevor has added a new dynamic to his writing that is enthralling. No word is wasted, as he hurdles you forward into a story with so many twists and turns that you need treatment for whiplash when you finish. It is set within such a tight timeframe that you can forget about taking a breath to compose yourself, and digest what you have learnt. The pages racing by as if they are bullets fired from a gun. The decision to use this timeframe to its full advantage allows Trevor to push the boundaries on his writing making for an unforgettable conclusion as clues unfold.
Trevor has written a cast of characters that you can’t help but love and find yourself rooting for. He captures effortlessly the rawness of village politics, and the close knit almost claustrophobic at times group of villagers that inhabit this forgotten place, as they are thrown into the unknown to protect their homes from invaders and help a young girl who has shunned them for her entire life. As the plot develops, we learn pieces of information about all of them from Lucas who is seen by Ruby as the class clown and somebody she wants nothing to do with, to the village gossip queen Margaret who truly does come into her own as the story unfolds. I guarantee you she will steal your heart. As Ruby begins to grow closer to the group of misfit villagers that she must depend on to save her life. She slowly begins to change her perception about every one of them and she begins to question not just her own story, but how wrong she has been about the people she lives near.
This is a story filled with heart, controversial topics, and enough northern humour to make your stomach hurt from laughing. I can truly say in parts I felt seen. This is a new venture for Trevor, and he has produced a blinder. You can’t help but fall in love with the cast of misfits, and the fictional village he has created. Coldburn is so vividly described that you feel as if you’re there. You breathe it in as you explore every fibre. I can’t wait to read what Trevor does next. It receives five stars.
Talking to Ghosts at Parties is Rick White’s debut collection of thirty short (and very short) stories woven together across time, space and astral planes. An orphaned girl becomes a cat, a werewolf battles a distaste for his bistro’s clientele, a man lives in a tower made of memories. Dark, poignant and funny — these are stories of how absurd it is to be human, how brave it is to be alive.
A breakout collection of stories full of unforgettable outcasts, underdogs, losers and oddballs by an author uniquely attuned to the restless rhythms of the offbeat. Talking to Ghosts at Parties dives deep and deftly examines the daily foibles of those on the fringes of modern life. A pitch-perfect portrait of an absurd world that demands revisiting and reliving and confirms Rick White as a spectacularly original, iconic and important voice in contemporary culture.
Review
This collection of short stories and flash fiction was an entry point into the mind of Rick White. The collection asks each reader to take their own meanings from every story presented. Some stories like any work of art didn’t hold my attention as much as others, yet I valued what Rick was asking me to explore within his writing as each story developed the voice of Rick White.
The themes shown throughout displayed a willingness from Rick to develop his writing in creative ways. He did this by diving into a range of genres from supernatural to crime. This means that there is something here for every reader.
Some stories we’re extremely serious, exploring dark themes, and even darker beings. I found myself constantly asking the universal question. Can anyone become a monster when they stare into their own reflection? This kept me hooked. When reading some stories, the hairs on my neck stood on end as I went deeper into the shadows. Other stories had a playful humour making me laugh and see the world Rick had created with fresh eyes. These changes in tone breathed light into what we’re hard-hitting topics allowing the reader an opportunity to reflect as they turned the page. Even though every story was different. Rick was able to bring a connectivity to the collection that added an unexpected layer to my curiousity. His voice breathed through every word giving the collection a vulnerability that made me read on.
The main element that held my attention as I went through this debut collection was Rick’s character work. Everyone is fleshed out and three dimensional making you connect with them even if it is only for a page or twenty. It doesn’t matter whether they are horrendous, or a lost soul you want to discover how their story ends. Some will leave you frustrated, others you will make you gasp but each one leaves a mark. As the collection progressed Rick’s characters continued to grow in strength and importance.
An area that I hope Rick improves as he continues to write is his dialogue. The reason being is because sometimes you lost who was speaking, or it gave away too much of the plot. However, some passages stuck in the memory long after I closed the book which shows it is a developing strength within his work it just needs some polish.
This is an intriguing debut collection of stories producing a buffet of narratives for any reader. I look forward to Rick’s stories developing further, and I hope to read more of his work in the future. It receives 4 stars. A confident collection from a debut author.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review this doesn’t affect my views.
Two murders. An abandoned asylum. Will a mysterious former patient help untangle the dark truth?
The body of an elderly woman has been found in the bowels of a derelict asylum on the banks of the Thames. As Detective Lew Kirby and his partner begin their investigation, another body is discovered in the river nearby. How are the two murders connected?
Before long, the secrets of Blackwater Asylum begin to reveal themselves. There are rumours about underground bunkers and secret rooms, unspeakable psychological experimentation, and a dark force that haunts the ruins, trying to pull back in all those who attempt to escape. Urban explorer Connie Darke, whose sister died in a freak accident at the asylum, is determined to help Lew expose its grisly past. Meanwhile Lew discovers a devastating family secret that threatens to turn his life upside down.
As his world crumbles around him, Lew must put the pieces of the puzzle together to keep the killer from striking again. Only an eccentric former patient really knows the truth—but will he reveal it to Lew before it’s too late?
Review
To be brutually honest this review is going to be an absolute praise fest. It was one of my top reads for 2021. I can only apologise for how long it has taken me to review it on the blog. This crime novel has everything I look for in a novel it’s like a well crafted banquet. It delivers each chapter with an elegance that makes you unable to turn away. The pages melt away as you’re carried into this world created by Sian with ease.
I have to admit that when I read the blurb and discovered it was set in London I automatically thought not another London crime novel. However I couldn’t have been more wrong. Sian shows a side to London barely explored in crime fiction. Allowing readers to see it with fresh eyes.
I adored the asylum Blackwater. It feels so real that you visualise every step the characters take. As they move through the darken corridors, secret bunkers, and underground tunnels that send a shiver crawling down your spine as the place’s secret past is slowly revealed. The asylum is a sensory overload with it’s mysterious past, and neglected status hanging over it you never know who to trust as the detectives search for clues to a murder that doesn’t add up within it’s haunting walls.
I couldn’t believe it was a debut novel. It has all the hallmarks of a seasoned author. From the sharp dialogue that revealed aspects of every character with clear indications that you knew who was speaking without Sian having to tell you. Enabling a level of immersion that had been missing from some novels I have read previously, or since. Backstories won’t overdone allowing for a steady pace to be maintained throughout. No conversation was wasted every word had a purpose. Adding layers to this twisted plot that left you reeling at times, as every red herring made you rethink your previous thoughts, driving the plot to a conclusion that made you want to discover this forgotten part of London with relish.
The character development is another element that makes you question whether this is from a debut author because it is sensational. Every character is fully formed with personalities, and traits that draw you in. I can’t wait for more adventures with Detective Lew Kirby. He is one of the most intriguing character I have encountered since Harry Bosch. I know high praise indeed but Kirby earns it in spades.
The reason I want to learn more about him is because Sian hasn’t fallen in the usual troupes of male detectives that we find in crime novels. The down on their luck alcoholic, or angry cop out for vengeance. Instead Kirby is handsome. He is clear in his convictions, and lives a content life on a boat tied up on the Thames with a steady girlfriend, and is a family man. I wonder how long that will last, but it made for a nice change in an otherwise extremely gritty, and at times dark storyline.
The Bone Jar has everything a crime reader loves. Memorable characters, questionable motives, strange murders that don’t add up and make you want to solve the case, creepy locations with mysterious pasts that make you scream at the characters to turn back, and red herrings galore that keep you wanting more. Sian shows a side of London steeped in mystery and intrigue. I guarantee this you will be googling Blackwater Asylum in minutes.
Go and find out why this book was one of my top reads of 2021, and why I can’t stop recommending it to everyone. You won’t regret it. Sian has produce an absolute belter and I can’t wait for her next book. It receives 5 stars. It is out of this world.
Virtue’s End is a spell, a magickal incantation designed to invoke and vivify that which has been lost by the modern world. This lyrical, occult fantasy-epic follows the account of Horus, a magickal sorcerer blessed with both hellish and heavenly powers, who, upon meeting the demon Melmoth, embarks on a strange quest to save the mystical realm of Ethismos, the seat of human imagination. There, Horus will meet great warriors and friends who will aid him in his battle against the coming darkness, as well as ghosts of his past, spectres of the traumas he has endured, and old enemies hellbent on vengeance.
Despite its fantastical dimensions, Virtue’s End remains Sale’s most intimate, confessional, and personal work, an autobiography of the psychic scarring and divine manifestations that catalysted the birth of a new, Christian magician. “I’ve many names, but you may call me One, I am Horus, the Avenging Son.” Virtue’s End also includes 6 illustrations by Brian Barr.
Review
Virtue’s End by Joseph Sale is a story that won’t just live long in the memory, but will haunt my dreams. Before I open a story by Joseph I know I must do three things first. Turn off my phone, disconnect my internet, and have meals already prepared. This time was no different. As soon as I read the first sentence I knew this story needed my full attention.
This was more than a story. It was an epic saga written to rival the ancient tales of Beowulf, and the Nordic trilogies that influenced our folklore and myth down the ages. It was a poem with verses so vivid that you could see and feel the magic coursing around you as you read. Joseph weaving his elegant prose in a way that made you forget you were reading a four hundred plus page masterpiece, and fall into his embrace as if you were saying hello to an old friend. The embrace was bloody, violent, and heart-wrenching at times. Yet you didn’t pull away because it would give you a whisper in your mind, and tell you everything would change for the better if you simply held on.
This tale felt as if Joseph was tearing away his armour. Reaching out from the page, giving the reader the uncensored version of how he views the dark, and light elements of human beings and our world. Throughout the narrative Joseph dives deep into mythology and ancient events to convey to us that throughout history humans have feared the unknown. As the poem continued we were taken by various conflicted, and morally grey individuals to a range of different settings and times to explore themes that have plagued humans for millennia. Themes such as death, rebirth, our place in time, and how we use stories to give understanding to the complexities of human existence. Every character adds lays to a religion or way of life that has grown roots in the human mind.
The characters are used to both challenge these perspectives as well as accepting them. Our protagonist was taken on a journey that went well beyond the boundaries of belief. These individuals stayed with you. They all had a role to play. None of them felt as if they had simply been created to fill a moment of creative absence, or information dump. Whether they were fallen angels, or monsters of the dark I find myself wanting to discover their story what had brought them to this space and time. What lessons did Joseph wish us to learn from them as we charged towards the final battle? The examination of humans, and the climate that we create and end up destroying isn’t hidden in this poem. You are given both viewpoints, and asked to decide which side will you be standing on when the call comes.
Virtue’s End is a poem that grows on you as you read. Every element building on the last. The reason I continued reading when usually I don’t go anywhere near poems, is because Joseph was able to transport me back in time to cold winter nights sitting around a roaring fire, under the stars listening to a bard to tell a tale from a faraway land. His voice breathes through every word, and as a reader you can’t close your eyes because you don’t want to miss a moment.
This is Joseph best work to date, and honestly I have no idea how he is going to beat it. This took my breath away. If you want an epic get reading this. It has it all. 5 stars. I need a lie down.
A teenager performs stripteases in her bedroom window as funeral processions pass by. A grieving mother reunites with her miscarried foetus. A widow takes on the sinister, rapacious treehouse in next door’s garden. Combining pitch-perfect, darkly comic observations with tender touches of humanity, Pain Sluts chronicles the flaws, frailties, and enduring spirit of an eclectic cast of curious characters as they navigate threats to their identity and humanity.
A brave and bold literary debut bursting with calamity and compassion, Pain Sluts is an astonishing collection of stories which lays bare our beauty and bizarreness. Laden with love, loss and longing, this book illuminates Sian’s extraordinary ability to create believable characters that brave our brittle world, often in outlandish or unusual ways. Sharp and tender, true and wise, these stories announce the arrival of a uniquely talented new voice in British fiction.
Review
I have to be honest I don’t usually read Literacy Fiction. The main reason being is because it seems random, and unconnected. I can’t engage with the characters, and the plot seems to move as slow as walking through treacle. For the majority of literacy fiction I have attempted, it seems as if most writers are trying to find the most flowery words possible to convey a description that would be better explained in a sentence other than a paragraph. I might be being unfair but it’s my experience.
In Pain Sluts this assumption was blown completely out of the water. Pain Sluts sucked in me from the first sentence and didn’t let go. Before I could take a breath I was fifty pages deep, and racing towards the conclusion. This collection of short stories tackles a range of subjects through numerous female eyes, and is an education on how women can feel powerless, and manipulated in today’s society. However the stories also carry messages of hope, and how women can grasp power even in the most desperate of scenarios. Like all short story collections there we’re stories I enjoyed more than others for a variety of reasons. Pain Sluts has nuggets of gold scattered throughout. The reason I say this is because Sian uses environments that we can all relate too. Environments such as the cramped family home where a daughter, and mother relationship becomes strained, to the dark woods at the end of the street where unseen dangers lurk. Sian uses these environments to explore scenarios such as death, sexual harassment, and family relationships with a variety of unexpected twists. That keeps you coming back for more. I found myself engaging immensely with each characters situation as we we’re taken through a buffet of delights on the human condition from a female’s point of view which was refreshing.
The writing was raw and rich in texture taking you into a world of taboos that will challenge all your perceptions, and may also feel to some readers are subjects writers shouldn’t talk about. Sian isn’t afraid to go into these subjects in new and interesting ways. She wasn’t vulgar in her descriptions explaining what her characters we’re experiencing. Instead Sian uses language to remain consideration, and immersive. Therefore deepening the reader’s understanding of the character as they go through these harrowing aspects of life in a whole different light. Sian takes the reader by the hand, and leads you into an unexpected event with an open mind, and uncensored eyes that turns your pre- assumptions on their head. I especially enjoyed how every story carried within it a beating heart of both dark, and light elements that helped open possibilities to a unique way of thinking.
One thing I will say regarding Pain Sluts is that it isn’t a book to be taken lightly. The subjects tackled are challenging, and some readers may find them difficult to read at times. However for myself I found every story helped to build upon the others. It was almost as if Sian was weaving a tapestry of interconnected narratives that all readers could take something from as they were launched into this journey of discovery. Pain Sluts is a book that can be read as a whole, or in segments. I for one would recommend you read it in segments. The reason being is because you will get so much more depth, and understanding from the environments, and topics that are explored if you take a breath in between stories.
I look forward to reading what Sian produces next. Pain Sluts receives 4.5 stars. Thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy this doesn’t affect my views.
The King has been defeated and the spirit of the Mantra has been restored, Suni has been reunited with her father and all is – not quite right.
Wanda and his cousin Luna are living in the valley beyond the mountains: Luna is possessed and dreams of dragons while Wanda, gifted with an affinity for animals, blamed by Luna’s mother Ntombi for her condition, struggles with the curse of Orag.
Meanwhile, in the town by the sea, Suni fears for Wanda, and watches over him using her gift for dreamwalking. Many, including Suni’s father, suffer from a strange affliction and the townspeople are blaming the Mantra.
Then the strangers arrive from the sea bringing hope for the town: but in this land of gifts and curses, nothing is as it seems.
Review
This book was worth the wait and more. The Warder is the sequel to one of my favourite books of 2018. Return of the Mantra when it fell through my letterbox I turn the first cover with a glee. I wasn’t sure Susie would be able to increase the enthusiasm I had for her characters, and her world. However she left me reeling after a couple of pages as I was drawn back into this African inspired fantasy.
The story takes place ten years after the events of Return of The Mantra. This decision totally through me as I wasn’t excepting it at all. The reason it worked so well is because Susie didn’t fall into the usual trap I have seen many times in previous fantasies with large time jumps, where you can virtually see no change to the world, or the characters after they have witnessed chaotic events. In The Warder Susie made sure to show political change, rising of different and difficult viewpoints, changes in nature and the wider communities. She also made sure that her main characters underwent life changing experiences. Some of these events included: Them been shunned by their people, to others finally understanding that not everyone can be changed. In the Warder as a reader you are given the building bricks to a wider world that will make you see worldbuilding and character development in a whole new light.
The way Susie was able to expand her world without slowing down the narrative was a masterclass in worldbuilding. I adored how she was able to add lore, and take you to places that would develop unexpected importance during her story. She was able to add this texture and immersion without the usual countless pages of mindless travelling, within a few paragraphs you had everything you needed to know without having to have endless pages of notes just to remember character names. This included adding to the magic system that answered a range of questions I had from the first book, as well as adding more background to new dangers, and why certain characters struggled with one another.
This was particularly done well when it came to my favourite character from book one Wanda. Wanda becomes one of the main points of view in The Warder. He has just turned eighteen, and is struggling with his gift that developed in book one. A gift that was nurtured through his adopted brother-sister relationship with Suni. In this book however his relationship with Suni has become fractured as he struggles to come to terms with his gift. Throughout the narrative Wanda was a vehicle used to show how someone who is different can be shunned by a community. This is displayed the most in the opening chapter when he is living in a cave high above the valley completely excluded by everyone around him. The only connection he feels is with his cousin Luna. However a darkness is growing inside both of them that could change their lives forever. Luna has begun to have nightmares about dragons which Wanda’s aunt Ntombi blames on his gift, and the darkness that surrounds him. As the story progresses we see the consequences this anger from his aunt has upon both Wanda and Luna, as they fight to keep an unseen, and unknown danger at bay. The way this relationship was developed throughout was heartwarming. You truly felt Wanda’s struggles as he tries to protect himself as well as begin to discover what is truly effecting Luna. The growth and love displayed within this relationship between the cousins as everybody around them wanted to push them apart is remarkable. It helped to soften the torture Susie puts you through with Wanda as he goes in search of love and acceptance.
Another viewpoint we get to experience is Luna as she wrestles with the nightmares, and her anxieties as a power she can’t escape begins to take hold of her young mind and body. This was done superbly. As a reader Susie’s puts you at the heart of this young girl’s fears as she is pushed aside by her community, and is described as an evil upon the land. The development of her powers during the narrative is handled with a sensitivity I haven’t read in fantasy before. You can’t help but love Luna.
The other main point of view is Suni. She went through a lot of tragedies in book one including the death of her mother, being rape violently in a brothel, and reconnecting with her damaged father. As well as developing one of the best adopted sister and brother relationship in fantasy with Wanda. In The Warder we witness the recovery of Suni from these hardships.
She has found love, reconnected with the old ways that her mother taught her, and is trying to repair her distant relationship with her father. Unfortunately the demise of the king has brought unseen consequences to her homeland. A plague has infected most of the men making the unable to find happiness. Her father is one of the effected making their complex relationship become more damaged as the story develops. Aswell even though the Mantra has helped nature return to the valley most of the inhabitants don’t regard it with the respect it deserves forcing Suni into difficult scenarios. To make matters worst she can feel her relationship with Wanda declining, and she knows he is withdrawing into a place she cannot go.
The development of Suni is bittersweet at times because you are pleased she has finally found her identity, but at the same time you feel her pain for the bonds she believes she is neglecting. At times I just wanted to give her a hug, and make everything well again. That’s what I adore about Suni as a character she takes you through every emotion and Susie’s truly did amp it up to eleven in some passages as both happy and sad tears rolled down my cheeks.
This book is a charming story of lost, love, and finding yourself in the most unexpected places. It is epic fantasy with a heart that will leave you scarred, but begging for more. Plus it has dragons and who doesn’t love dragons. I can’t wait to return to this world. A highly accomplished sequel. It receives five stars. Read it you won’t be disappointed.
An aging hitman is embittered by his career choice at the point of no return. A shell-shocked soldier in World War Two finds hope through death, reflected in the eyes of his enemy. A serial killer confesses in veiled, lurching prose. A mobster unravels at the zero hour of this mortal coil. A man reevaluates existence after discovering a suicide. These are some of the twenty-nine dark, twisted, and gritty stories by Stephen J. Golds collected here for the first time — bound taut with thirty poems of loss, love, and other thoughts that haunt you after last call.
Review
Sometimes you just need a break. A break from the seven hundred page tomes, or the four hundred page crime mysteries, and pick up a lighter read. A book that keeps you engaged, but won’t leave you feeling fried for days afterwards. That is exactly what Stephen Golds new collection Love Like Bleeding Out With An Empty Gun In Your Hand provides. It is a read that immerses you from the first sentence. Yet at the same time lets you know that if you follow the writer into his cleverly constructed dark corners for a few moments you will be rewarded when you reach the end.
This collection of poems and short stories is a beautiful mashup of grit and poetic writing that carries you on an adrenaline fuelled bender that you don’t even realise you’re experiencing until you’re halfway through, and questioning what time of day it is. This collection is unique because it isn’t just short stories that cross a range of genres. But a masterclass on how to make poems carry a narrative structure. It’s wasn’t something I was excepting as I read the short stories about corrupt gangsters, staring your own death in the face, and other taboo subjects. But it worked wonderfully. As I read the lines of the poems I found myself smiling. They bought a different angle to Stephen’s writing that enabled him to explore many methods of storytelling that helped immerse the reader deeply in his themes, as well as giving us a glimpse into how he views the different levels of darkness that exist in our world.
The poems created almost a bitter sweetness between the pages. Every one leading you to the true horrors of crime. They allowed you to breathe as you went from one hard hitting story to the next. But helped maintain your interest throughout. Yet as the pages turned I found myself getting lost in the language used. Stephen in this collection isn’t afraid to faithfully describe how some of these harrowing events would occur in the shady corners of society with blood curdling accuracy. He doesn’t shy away from how these events would not only effect the individuals involved, but also the environment in which they are committed. He goes into depth on the ripples caused by tragedy on an emotional level that I haven’t seen reached by any other author this year. Even though each story is separate they all seemed to carry a universal message. That every crime leaves a scar no matter how small. The reason this collection will be in my books of the year is because Stephen makes you care about every tiny detail that he is able to smuggle into his writing. Whether that’s the ex gangster down on his luck, to a droplet of blood tarnishing the pavement as a victim falls. You feel it all, and it will leave you scarred as you close the cover.
This collection is a celebration of what I would call Dirty Noir. Every page felt as if it had been dripped into the grime of the streets. The graffitied walls, the bars drowning in their own shit, and backrooms that only a select few know exist to whisper their dirty deeds. Stephen gets down in the trenches. The ink in his pen is the blood under the fingernails of every killer mention. This book should carry a warning when you finish reading. It should say take a long hot shower because like his carefully crafted words you can’t quite wash away the stains of the street. Love Like Bleeding Out With an Empty Gun In Your Hand is a collection every crime fan should be reading. Stephen is a rising star. I can’t wait to plunge into his blacken mind again soon. It receives five stars, and is currently sitting at number six in my reads of the year. It is going to take something spectacular to change that. Congratulations Stephen. It’s a highly accomplished read.
I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t my views.
The English Cantos is a horror tale told in beautiful, lyrical style. Based on his near-death experience in Ward 17 of Royal Bournemouth Hospital, James Sale takes us on a journey into a contemporary vision of hell and heaven modelled on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. As Virgil guided Dante, so too Dante will guide James on this incredible journey.
Review
I admit poetry is something I usually avoid like the plague. The poetry I was force fed during my GCSE years to pass exams had put me off poetry for life. The stuffiness of it all was like a migraine that wouldn’t shift. I promised as I wrote the final sentence on my English exam that if I saw another piece of poetry in my lifetime that it would be to soon.
Yet a few months back I came across a poem called Hellward by James Sale. An epic poem that dives into the nightmare that is cancer. This poem was a light in the wilderness stripping away my previously held negative thoughts towards poetry. Gone was the pointless verses that complicated the meaning of the poem for the sake of it. Instead James took you on a journey. Every word seemed to explore cancer in a new perspective, from the pain of the diagnosis, to thoughts of how you can possibility recover from this life changing experience.
The narrative felt like your own personal conversation with James as he detailed his experience with this illness. I couldn’t help be reminded of the line ” Hello darkness my old friend I have come to talk with you again.” I know that song was detailing the loneliness of depression, but James’s narrative showed both the dark and light moments you encounter as you walk a certain path with this unrelenting creature. He didn’t shy away from the fact that it can be a lonely road. That at times it can simply come down to battling thoughts of giving in, to fighting to live with every breath you take.
As I continued reading these interlocking poems that unfolded into a narrative that left me spent. I couldn’t help but be returned to my nana’s cancer diagnosis when I was twelve. I don’t mind admitting at times I had to take a break from the narrative as I had tears in my eyes. James does an incredible job of capturing the entire experience not just from the perspective of the person with cancer, but the devastating effects it has on everyone involved. James isn’t gentle as he guides you into the unforgivable beast that is cancer, and what invisible scars it leaves in it’s wake that triggers every primal fear we have as humans about our own mortality.
As you read each individual poem you can’t help but notice the influence of Dante on James’s writing. As the narrator descends into different sections of the disease. He binds the reader to every face that cancer wears, detailing every stage of the journey as if cancer or illness is becoming different personality. To amplify it’s bone chilling horror. From vivid images of no man’s land to the calmness of a crystal blue sea we are shown how every stage manifests itself to encompass all thought, but at the same time to celebrate the small victories that emerge throughout this harrowing ordeal.
Hellward is a double edged sword. It captures both the darkness, and the light of illness. Showing every emotion that humans experience when confronted with a life changing problem. The fear, the denial, the pain, the acceptance, and the redemption that can occur once you leap the final hurdle. Hellward is more than just one person’s journey through cancer. Its for anyone who has suffered trauma no matter how small. Its unapologetic in its rawness, and that’s what kept me reading. However it isn’t all doom, and gloom at it’s heart it is a human story, displaying a spectrum of truth that we can all learn from.
It receives 5 stars. It is a must read just for the prose and rawness alone. Well done James. I never thought I would say this but you had made me enjoy poetry.
I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for a positive review. This doesn’t effect my views.
DS:Today I am delighted to welcome Gary Donnelly author of the DI Owen Sheen Series to my blog. Thanks for joining me Gary.
GD: My pleasure Dan. Thanks for having me.
DS:What made you decide to write crime fiction?
GD: In many ways it chose me rather than the other way round! I certainly did not set out with an express intention of writing crime or noir, but looking back it made a lot of sense for me to hang my hat there. I love reading crime fiction, and when Sheen was first forming as a character and the series was slowly taking shape, I was reading a lot of Michael Connelly (especially the Harry Bosch series), Peter Robinson’s understated and musical DCI Banks novels, Mo Hayder’s creepy tales, Ian Rankin and of course Adrian McKinty and Stuart Neville’s Northern Irish crime work. So, having explained this, it probably made a lot of sense for my own novel to be (largely) a crime story.
In saying that, Blood Will Be Born set a tone for the Sheen series by also smudging those clean genre lines a bit, adding dabs of Stephen King’s supernatural eeriness, playing with romantic themes and exploring the tensions of personal issues and relationships on a wider canvas of historical, political and conspiratorial big backgrounds (my youthful love of Frederick Forsyth, Robert Lundlum and of course King and Dean Koontz).
DS: How long did it take you to write the first DI Owen Sheen book Blood Will Be Born? What was the hardest obstacle when trying to complete that dreaded first draft?
GD: I started writing in a serious way after attending an online novel writing class with the City Lit, London in, I think, mid-2014, but it was only in 2015 when I made an active decision to change my job (all-consuming and never satiated up until this point) that I found the mental space to engage and really begin. At that point I also had the impetus of knowing I had downsized my professional prospects and therefore knew that I wanted a novel to show for it! Mind you, I was still working pretty much full time so it took the guts of a year (it’s feast or famine when it comes to writing for me) before I had knocked out a first draft by August 2016 (in time for my BIG 40 which was no doubt also in the mix on some level).
So Blood Will Be Born took about a year but the learning curve was steep, and that was far from the end of it. The first draft had the bones and structure of the story as it stands but it was a hefty, overweight beast of a thing that had been written with no plan or plot until about half-way (amazing to think that as I look back at the process, but that’s the truth) and then herded into shape from that point until the end. Amazingly this process worked and worked pretty well, but not, at that point, as a crime thriller. At some level I think I was aiming for something closer to Stephen King’s The Stand meets Ulysses (pass me my smoking jacket and cravat)! To use a phrase which the journalist David Roy coined while speaking to me this week, I’d created a Sheeniverse, but fun as that was, it needed to be edited, sculpted to allow the real story to emerge.
So that process, following feedback from first readers and prospective agents, took me into early 2017. It’s something they rarely teach you about in writing classes, but it is the equally essential counterpart to hacking out the first draft. By the time I was done, I knew the book was so much the better for it, and I could say with confidence where it ought to sit on a crime thriller shelf. So the hardest part? For the first draft it had to be (and probably still is) starting with a commitment that the book is on and then writing consistently, doubts and fears be damned, until that draft is finished.
DS:What I love about the series is that Belfast becomes a character in its own right. What made you decide to set the series there? And how on earth do you make it so vivid?
GD: Thank you, I am so pleased it is brought to life for you. I am always minded of that phrase that we do not live in the past but the past lives in us, when I think about this question. The Belfast of my childhood and youth is long gone and I live in London, so I rely on the sensory memories of the past and from my visits. The freshness of the air, the ever present guarantee of rain, the crispness of the light and the beauty of the encroaching countryside as well as the sometimes dreary and sinister bleakness of parts of the urban landscape. I close my office blinds and ignore the London sunshine (so abundant when I was drafting the third book, Never Ask The Dead, it was torture), and I try to see through Owen Sheen’s eyes. I also employ little tricks when needed. An online search will give me an instant image of a place, and sometimes having it dated is even better as it summons the atmosphere I want. Sheen’s Belfast also has the feel of risk and edginess and this is something I think I turn inward to find.
I left Belfast when I turned nineteen and when I arrived in Cambridge I felt like I’d been dropped into a toy town. I could walk home after a few drinks at night and my furtive glances over my shoulder were wasted, strangers asked me questions about politics and religion with genuine interest, and with no agenda attached. Which was an eyeopener. But I suppose to quote another well-used adage, you can take the boy out of Belfast, but at some level, you will never take Belfast out of the boy.
DS:In the series Northern Ireland’s dark past is ever present. I am wondering was this a conscious decision as you can truly imagine the reality of the troubles as you read?
GD: Yes, I think of it as a ghost in the works, perhaps represented most tangably by The Moley, John Fryer’s tormenting demon that he must feed with fresh blood in book one. As mentioned above, I remember many things first hand, though unlike Sheen, who was subject by the worst kind of personal trauma, my experience like so many, was more cumulative. A stone added to a sack that was carried daily and to which we had become so accustomed, the weight was not consciously felt, perhaps, until it was finally lifted. Indeed, there is also a kind of trauma from watching others become victims, the sense of the near miss, attending the funeral of a friend’s father, eating my school packed lunch in a park where soldiers were stripped, beaten and murdered. These things must have an effect. And the proof of that is there in the books.
In the same way I did not set out to write crime fiction to begin with I also did not consciously begin with a view to engaging with legacy issues, but there they are! I am proud of the Sheen series for the way in which (I hope) this has been managed and cautiously navigated. Ian McEwan wrote about the importance of empathy and imagination as the essence of our humanity after 9/11. I am sure politicians, historians and others have their part to play in coming to terms with the dark past which we all shared. As a writer I have a wonderful licence to create, challenge and explore as well as entertain.
DS:In the series Owen seems to be feeling his way back into his own forgotten past, almost as if he is an outsider looking into the shadows waiting to see what will jump out. How much of Owen’s backstory did you know before you began writing, and how much grew organically as you wrote? As I love his voice throughout.
GD: Thank you again. Sheen arrived pretty much fully formed. I knew I wanted an outsider of sorts to arrive in Belfast to start up the SHOT (Serious Historical Offences Team) and Sheen was a perfect vehicle for this. In doing so, Sheen had some built in neutrality and gave me the licence I needed to engage my home town afresh. Plus, I now know North London as well as I ever knew Belfast so I was sure I could find his voice quite easily. Then, as I introduced him, and I searched for his layers, I thought about how sweetly weighted and apt it would be that he had once lived in Belfast, but has no concrete memories of that time. It was then that I had the eureka moment.
What if Sheen is back in Belfast for more than police work? What if he wants the truth about a personal issue, something that caused his family to break and leave their home in the first place? And so it went. But this did not take long. He really did come to me when I called, wearing that God awful leather jacket and simmering with anger and secrets and questions.
DS: How much of your personality do you put into your characters? Which character would you say is most like you?
GD: This is a tough question. They are all my dark progeny! Of course the obvious answer is that Sheen is closest to me. A me reinvented and turned inside out perhaps, but I never really saw it that way. To do so risks self consciousness, having my ego conflict with his journey and that would be bad. I think by definition I bring parts of myself to every character, but it is more accurate to say that they become the expression of going beyond the parameters of myself and playing like we used to when we were children. ‘Just pretend,’ we used to say before telling our siblings and friends how we wanted to imagine the game. For me, it is very much the same and when it works it really is child’s play, the characters give me the freedom to go elsewhere. When they’re good, they are better than I could hope to be. When they are horrid, it has nothing to do with me! I just tell their story. 🙂
DS:Which 3 books do you believe everyone must read in their lifetime and why?
GD: Sheen 1, 2 and 3. Haha, not really. I don’t really count myself as well read, it has always been a bit of an insecurity for me, so great question! I’ll dodge this a bit by saying read Dickens, for the love of language and his love of everyday people. Read House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski because it is reality warping, mind blowingly original. Read Dubliners By James Joyce, as a reminder of how so much quality can be distilled into a small volume.
DS: What is your comfort read and why?
GD: I will return to my favourite Stephen King time and again. ‘Salem’s Lot and It especially. There is something about King’s ranging, landscape spanning style that is so accessible, and also so intimate that it feels like a literary warm bath, like telepathy without effort. He also writes about what matters to him and what he loves in a context that is local and parochial. Favourites from my youth and the former has at least one little homage in Sheen book 2, Killing In Your Name. I wonder if you can spot it?
DS:Is there anything in your series that you would change if so why?
GD: I always want it to be better. Better written, better paced and making better use of the past as a context and character. But, I have also learned the importance of being thankful. That I wrote the series at all, that it has been published and that so many readers actually ‘get’ it and want more.
DS: Finally, what is next for Gary Donnelly?
GD: Well, I knocked out a little stand alone during Lockdown 1 which I have just edited and I will be interested to see what may come of it. Very different from Sheen is all I can say. But Sheen is not done yet, I am working on the fourth in the series and I need to crack on and do what’s needed (refer to question 2!). I always have the nets cast though, even as I work on deck. Patience is a virtue, but from experience I know I will see the lines twitch soon. And when they do, I’ll strap into the chair once more, scary as it is, and see what I can land from the deep.
Cover for the third book in the series doesn’t it look glorious.
This interview was conducted over email. I can’t thank Gary enough for taking the time to answer my questions. I adore the DI Owen Sheen series. Why not buy it now and find out why.
The Dimension Between Worlds 