Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Eighteen-year-old Juliet is recruited by an MI5 operative to be his girl typist and dogsbody. They are involved in an undercover wartime operation to root out fifth columnists, or Hitler sympathisers, who are called things like Trude and Betty. They do this by setting up office in the next door flat to their mole’s fifth column headquarters, a Dolphin Square apartment where ‘Godfrey’ lures these unremarkable women to condemn themselves, thinking that they are informing a Gestapo agent and helping the Third Reich (in between tea and biscuit breaks).

It is Juliet’s task to transcribe hours of recorded conversation, along with young Cyril whose job it is to maintain the equipment. Juliet is an orphan and has no one to turn to for advice, she is very naïve and yearns for her boss Perry to declare his love for her. She also hankers after more exciting work, which eventually comes her way. But this is probably a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’, especially in wartime.

Based on true stories and transcriptions from the national archives, the setting and atmosphere are exactly right, which is what Kate Atkinson is good at, with some fine writing, but the plot meanders around a great deal. I got rather confused with agents, double agents, double-double agents, it became a bit tortuous. But no matter, we get the general idea that this was complicated and dangerous work because you never knew who to trust, least of all MI5. 

We are partly in the head of an older Juliet, now working at the BBC, looking back at her young self with a mixture of affection and exasperation, and a dread that some awful truth is going to catch up with her.  The ‘service’ it seems will never let you go.
If you enjoyed Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, then this has a similar feel of women coping with the difficulties of wartime. This older Juliet appears to feel, what is the point of it all, war? And it's hard to disagree...

The colour of Bee Larkham’s murder by Sarah J Harris

A very original and individual book about a twelve-year-old boy who is extraordinary in several ways. Firstly, because he believes he has committed a murder. Secondly, he has synesthesia, which is a when two senses get tied together, so that whenever he hears sound, he sees colour. We are led right into Jasper’s psychedelic world of bursting oranges, reds and greens, soothing blues and disturbing muddy browns. He loves to watch the parakeets which have set up home in his neighbour Bee Larkham’s tree, because their birdsong makes gorgeous shimmering colours. 

But his favourite colour is cobalt blue, the sound of his mother’s voice, who died when he was small and was the only person to truly understand his colours, because she shared the same trait. Jasper is also unable to recognise faces, and has learnt to know people by their clothes, or the colour of their voice. But this is tricky, especially when Bee Larkham begins to ask him to deliver secret messages to friends of hers. Bee is a troubled young woman, inconsistent and destructive and something is driving her.

There is a plot here, and it is gripping enough, and revolves around some dark behaviour and the consequences of that in a small community, resulting in danger for all concerned. But the true story is about an autistic boy trying desperately to understand the world around him, his painful isolation, and the sheer beauty of his own inner world and the joyous colours it contains. Jasper can be funny, frustrated, full of rage or just plain baffled, and the story unfolds entirely from his point of view. When life overwhelms him, he paints out his thoughts and frustrations on canvas, and his bedroom is littered with tubes of brightly coloured acrylic paint. Somehow the idea of Jasper attempting all his life to paint the exact blue of his mother’s voice, to calm and comfort him, is truly moving.

You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke

Interesting idea this. When you Airbnb your house, can you really trust who has been wandering around your most intimate space? 

Best-selling author Elle Fielding decides to Airbnb her gorgeous clifftop house in Cornwall, to get a bit of cash because she’s spent so much money having the building work done. But the reality is she has no idea who has been in her house – which is so obvious it’s startling in a way. 

When she returns odd stuff starts to happen, things are missing or out of place, and someone has been through her most private things. What’s more, Elle begins to worry that her sharing on social media has made her vulnerable. Is it an obsessed fan, or someone from her past life? Or perhaps she is imagining it all, under the burden of trying to finish her second book to deadline, and coping with her broken relationship.

Lucy Clarke writes well and I believed in her characters, Elle and her slightly bossy sister Fiona, and the life she has made for herself in Cornwall. Her increasing anxiety also seems natural and I found myself wondering why on earth anybody would invite complete strangers into their home to stay while they weren’t there. She creates a strong sense of place, on the Cornish coast, which made me want to take a beach walk, or stand on a windy clifftop. 

Altogether, this book is atmospheric and worth a read.

The Rules of Seeing by Joe Heap

Unusual subject matter for this fiction. After regaining her sight through a ground-breaking operation, Nova finds her new sense bewildering and exhausting. Learning to see is not as simple as you might imagine – Nova sees like a baby, cannot judge distance, cannot distinguish one object from another but sees everything as a flat plain. Several times she wishes she had not undergone the operation, and dons her dark glasses again to go back to being blind. 

This part of the narrative was interesting and challenging, as I had never imagined regaining your sight could be a two-way street, and sometimes unwelcome; Joe Heap describes it all very well. 

As the story develops, Nova begins a relationship with a friend Kate she meets in the hospital, wife of an abusive policeman who can’t seem to pluck up the courage to leave her husband. They end up in a love affair, which has so many ups and downs I felt that the narrative had stagnated somewhat, and had become repetitive. 

Ploughed on through but found the ending unconvincing. Nevertheless, I expect this book might win awards. Anyone read this and completely disagree?

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

The stuff of every parent’s nightmare, successful couple Anne and Marco face the trauma of their baby being taken from their home. What’s worse, they feel themselves to blame, since they were next door at a dinner party when it happened, albeit with baby monitor and return trips every half hour. As time wears on they begin to blame each other, and wonder who is actually telling the truth. There are secrets and lies, and detective Rasbach is determined to uncover them. 

The trouble for me really is that the narrative has a very curious style. The joy of a psychological thriller is usually that you are firmly in one character’s head, and wrong-footed at all turns, never sure who to believe… if you do enter another character’s head, it is usually another chapter. But this present-tense narrative hops from head to head, so that in the space of a few paragraphs, we whizz from Anne to Marco to Detective Rasbach, which dissipates the tension and means for me it was very hard to truly feel for any of the main characters. We know nothing about detective Rasbach at all, which is unusual in current crime fiction, where the detective is often as much a main character as anyone. 

Still, I pressed on and did get more drawn in, mostly wanting to know whether the baby survives, and after all the book is a bestseller… 

Has anyone else read this and absolutely loved it?

The Fire Court by Andrew Taylor

Restoration London, shortly after the great fire of 1666. An impressive rebuilding effort is underway by the inhabitants, which leads to disputes in the Fire Court, a hastily convened legal entity, set up to iron out squabbles between tenants and landlords over who has the right to build and who bears the cost. There is money to be made, and unscrupulous deals are under way. James Marwood, now a man on the rise, is drawn in when his confused father relates a garbled tale of murder, before himself dying in strange circumstances. 

A sequel to The Ashes of London, we are once again in the gently smoking city, now a charred ruins and Andrew Taylor is good at conjuring up the sense of destruction, loss and warring bureaucracy which hampers the people. The setting is atmospheric and characters convincing. Marwood meets the enigmatic Catherine Lovett again, who is hiding from her enemies as Jane Hakesby, a maid to the master of a drawing office. A woman who clearly fascinates and alarms him (one who carries a knife under her skirts) they unwillingly join forces to resolve the skulduggery that surrounds them, Marwood as a government agent, and Lovett to protect her future and secret identity. 

As events play out, Marwood sinks deeper into trouble, and by the end of the narrative, is not at all the man he was. We wait to see whether he will rise again in a third ‘fire’ book.

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

Matt Haig, don’t you just love him. I’ve enjoyed Matt’s past fiction, particularly ‘The Humans’, and I also read his book about depression called ‘Reasons to Stay Alive’ which was an honest look at his own mental health as a young man. This time he is musing on various elements of our mental state, from workplace stress and the toxic nature of being continually assessed; to the insistent nature of social media and how unhealthy it is for our equanimity. 

It feels as if Matt is getting a few things off his chest, and there is stuff he really needs to tell us, and it’s all good advice. I admire his ability to share, his honesty in the face of the pressure to present a perfect front, and his small nuggets of insight. He’s right about the bombardment of information, and the negative feelings of being overloaded that produces, and the addictive qualities of online activity, however worthwhile a tool it can be for reaching out. Also, about needing to switch off at times, to take a break from the things that make us anxious, and nurture ourselves, saying no to stimulants like alcohol and coffee. 

At times this feels like notes on a nervous Matt Haig, but that’s ok because after all, we can only talk about our own experience, and draw wisdom from that. A thoughtful and helpful book for anyone who has wondered what it’s all about and if they are heading in the right direction.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

A collaboration between author Sarah Pekkanen and her editor Greer Hendricks. At first it seems to be another psychological thriller, this time about a woman Vanessa who discovers her husband Richard is having an affair and she doesn’t know who to trust. We are in her head and the head of the newly-in-love young woman Nellie. Set in New York, we contrast the lives of these two women, the ritzy well-heeled wife married to a successful hedge fund manager (now ex-wife and suffering) and the up and coming, flat sharing, waitressing pre-school teacher who is about to become the second Mrs Hedge-fund. Something is amiss, they both have anxiety-causing secrets to hide and a feeling of being watched, but is it paranoia of is there something genuine to fear? There is an excellent twist in the tale, which isn’t predictable and I enjoyed the delving into character that we are allowed. Something essentially surprising about the way it ends also. I want to know more about how it was written – did the authors both take different chapters, or different women? And how did they stop it becoming writing by committee. Expect more from this duo.

The King’s Witch by Tracy Borman

The court of King James I seems to be the latest historical place-to-be, and we are there with Lady Frances Gorges, a little known and little-known-about young woman. There is nowhere she’d rather be than her beloved Longford house, roaming the gardens collecting plants. It is a time of great turbulence in England, as James begins his persecution of the Catholic faith, and his obsession with hunting out witchcraft. 

Frances is a skilled herbalist and in danger of falling foul of this new mania, and must keep her skills hidden from those at court who wish her ill, while tending the eight-year-old princess Elizabeth. As the intrigue unfolds, she cannot be sure if the young courtier who weaves his way into her affections is friend or foe. Ultimately Frances finds herself alongside the notorious gunpowder plot, which puts her in terrible danger.

The historical detail is convincing and well outlined by Tracy Borman who is an accomplished historian already. I like fictionalised books about real people, because I want someone to paint a picture for me of how it felt to be in that woman’s shoes, especially if her life was extraordinary in some way. The trouble with Frances is that although she existed, we are told in the author's note that virtually nothing is actually known about her, so everything we are asked to believe in the story, everything that made me think, ‘oh, I didn’t know that happened’, actually didn’t happen after all (or not to her anyway). I found myself a bit disappointed for that reason, and to me she felt like a witness to other people’s events, rather than the agent of her own story. But it seems the character of Frances is set to continue into a second book, so perhaps she’ll get into her stride. 

The Poison Bed by E C Fremantle

Billed as The Miniaturist meets Gone Girl seems rather a heavy burden, and probably creates too much expectation around this book. But it is a well written and suspenseful story, about Frances Howard of the infamous and powerful Howard clan, who are still going strong in the court of King James I, despite an unfortunate habit of getting themselves executed for treason. We are in a world of saffron ruffs and silken sleeves, of apothecaries and witchcraft. Frances is married to the King’s favourite Robert Carr (a jumped-up 'nobody' believed by many to be his lover) but the golden couple get themselves embroiled in a dark mystery to do with the poisoning of another courtier. There is a trial, which may have dire consequences... 

But ultimately what is interesting about The Poison Bed is the two versions of Frances that we are asked to consider: is she the hapless wife and pawn of her powerful uncle and husband, or is she at the heart of a manipulative intrigue of lies, a ruthless and merciless operator in her own right. The events are quite complex and involve lots of characters who have small parts to play, which I got a bit lost in at times, although Fremantle creates convincing relationships. We experience both Frances and Robert’s point of view as the drama unfolds and the noose gets closer. Victim or vixen? You will have to be the judge. 

Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys

You’ve just got time to squeeze in this summer read. The setting is luscious, South of France, The Riviera just post-war, full to the brim with authors and personalities and bathed in sunshine. When dowdy Eve Forrester learns that she has inherited a share of a beautiful coastal villa on the plush Riviera, from a man she has never heard of, she leaves behind her disapproving husband, Clifford, to find out what it is all about. 

The villa is crumbling, but finding some backbone at last, Eve installs herself in Villa La Perle, to the astonishment of her benefactor’s sophisticated wife and sons. Eve is hooked on the heady climate and lifestyle, the unfamiliar scents, boisterous flowers and the sheer glamour of the place (as are we) and cannot return to her dull life with Clifford until she has resolved the mystery and asked herself a few searching questions. Besides, she finds that her new friends are just too dangerously engaging. 

Escapist and atmospheric, with a great sense of place. very much in the mood of Rachel Rhys’ last book, Dangerous Crossings.

Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon

A beautiful, moving book with a mystery. I love the pink-and-yellow Battenberg cake cover, taking me back to many a teatime with my grandparents (although personally I can’t stand the stuff). The story opens with 84-year-old Florence after she has had a fall in her flat at Cherry Tree sheltered housing and is hoping for someone to notice her plight. As she lies there patiently waiting, we revisit the past few months of her life. 

A mystery has been consuming her: why does the newcomer in the flat opposite look exactly like a man she knows to have been dead for years, and why do the things in her flat keep moving about? She enlists the aid of residents Elsie, and Jack, to help unravel the facts, which includes some ill-advised outings and a trip to seaside resort Whitby. But Florence is also suffering from the confusion of old age, and can’t trust her mind or her memories anymore. There are secrets there, but she can’t quite reach them.

We also see the situation from the point of view of Simon, the handyman at Cherry Tree and Miss Ambrose, one of the wardens, who are struggling with their own disappointments in life. It’s a story of loss, remembering, challenge, the questions of old age, Florence’s rage against becoming irrelevant and overlooked, and a search for meaning in an ordinary life. Also the loyalty of lifelong friendship. Joanna Cannon’s words are gentle and thought-provoking, but don’t think this is just a book about old age. It’s about every age, and every one of us.

Together by Julie Cohen

About a couple Emily, who worked as the local midwife, and Robbie, a boatbuilder who live in Maine USA. We meet them in their eighties, when Robbie feels he needs to take action to protect a lifelong secret, something that will otherwise blow their family apart. We work back from there, dipping into their history, their choices and mistakes, gradually forming a picture of a life lived, and how these two people came to be together, beginning in Norfolk England, where Emily grew up. We also draw nearer to the secret. 

Billed as a stellar love story, Together is for the most part an engaging read. I was slightly troubled by the co-incidence at the heart of the book (the fact that they meet at all) but as we discover Emily and Robbie have some painful choices to make throughout their lives, which they are forced to revisit in order to be, well... together.

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

It is 1859, the early days of Empire and malaria is rife in India. Botanist Merrick Tremayne, sets off on a journey to Peru, with his friend and colleague Sir Clements Markham, to search for the calisaya cinchona tree, which yields quinine, the only treatment for malaria. Funded by the mighty East India Company, the first global business superpower, they make for New Bethlehem village, in Caravaya, known to be cinchona tree country and where Merrick’s grandfather explored before him, intending to take cuttings. But it is forbidden to take this plant and they need to be secretive, pretending to be trading coffee instead. 

This is where the story morphs into magical realism, as they arrive at the village built on strange glass cliffs made of blue obsidian. There are pollen lamps, babies abandoned on the altar, a line of salt ‘border’ which cannot be crossed, mysterious unseen warriors the other side, exploding trees, and the Markayuq, stone statues which move, said to be left by the Inca. They meet Raphael, the local priest who has some strange qualities himself, but Merrick is drawn to him unsure whether he is friend or foe. 

I don’t usually read literary magical realism, although I enjoyed the writing, and the characters, and the sheer quirkiness of the book. I can never quite accept that you can resolve a story by simply inventing an outcome, and saying ‘there we are it’s magic.’ But if you liked ‘The Watchmaker of Filigree Street’, which is her other book, I’m sure you will enjoy this. It’s certainly well put together and makes a change from psychological thrillers...

Origin by Dan Brown

Guilty pleasure this one. Don’t know about you, but I can’t resist the odd commercial humdinger book. It’s the usual plot, Robert Langdon takes his eidetic memory off on a jaunt to solve a riddle filled with symbolic meanings and conspiracy theories, together with an intelligent and beautiful companion. Nuff said, really.

After ex-student and friend Edmond Kirsch, is spectacularly killed at a global presentation before he can reveal a scientific truth that will expose all religions as irrelevant, Langdon sets off around Spain (with the future queen of Spain in tow) to find the code that will unlock the truth. There are mysterious forces trying to stop them… 

This time we are treated to a run-through of the greats of modern art, heavily focussed on Gaudi, Barcelona’s art hero. It is neatly done, although at times I did feel Dan Brown had turned into a virtual tour-guide. Finally we end up at the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's iconic and as yet unfinished Cathedral. There is an absence of that gruesome violence that often forms the central plot. In fact the quest is an intellectual conundrum, ‘Where do humans come from, and where are we going to?’ Through his characters Dan Brown addresses some of the toughest questions of today, using existing scientific theory to pose the question of one possible future. He comes up with some startling answers

The Party by Elizabeth Day

We open the story in an interview room. Clearly something bad has happened at a ritzy house-party, and we work back from there, through the point of view of Martin and Lucy, a couple who were guests. The trouble is, they are both unreliable narrators and we are not sure what has happened anyway. The story delves back into the friendship of Martin and his best friend Ben, stretching all the way back to school days. Lucy entered Martin’s life later and clearly feels uncomfortable with the status quo. As the narration unfolds, we begin to realise there is something essentially off at the heart of this friendship, but whether it is just Martin’s needy assertion that they are besties, in the face of Ben’s effortless popularity, or something deeper, is not clear. Elizabeth Day manages to lead us by the nose, and the characters are authentic and convincing, exploring the marriage between Martin and Lucy too. A look at how the well-connected manage to win, regardless of their actions in life. Cleverly plotted and sophisticated, and some quality writing. But strangely, although the book only came out about a year ago, it already seems a bit dated. The party-goers are quite clearly personalities from the Cameron-era UK government, with references to the Notting Hill set, and so on, which highlights how quickly the political landscape can change. But if you can put that to one side, it’s a good read.

The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware

Hal earns her living reading tarot cards on Brighton pier. She doesn’t believe the cards, instead she reads people and tells them what they want to hear. And she’s good at it. So, when a crisp solicitor’s letter arrives for Harriet Westaway, saying she has been left a bequest by her grandmother (a case of mistaken identity) Hal wonders could she pull it off and pretend to be this other Harriet? After all, it’ll probably only be a couple of hundred quid, and Hal’s desperate for cash. 

She sets off to Cornwall to chance her luck, to the mysterious dark and brooding house, Trepassen. Of course, all is not as it seems, and Hal quickly realises she’s in too deep for her own good. It is down to Ruth Ware’s skill that we are firmly on Hal’s side, even when we know she is telling a pack of lies to a bereaved family. After all, she’s been dealt a tough hand in life, and there are bad people after her. Twisty, and engrossing, it almost has the feel of a country house mystery, but darker, and the house setting is positively gothic, complete with Mrs-Danvers-style housekeeper. Can’t say much more without spoilers. Put it on your noir thriller must-read list. 

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

A twisty take on an old favourite, in the form of the country house murder mystery. Aiden Bishop is forced to live the same day over and over, but as different people. Each time he falls asleep, (or gets boshed over the head) he wakes in a different person, trying desperately to solve the mystery of who killed Evelyn Hardcastle, in order to win his freedom. He has no idea who is keeping him there, or why, and barely any idea of who he really is. Blackheath, the former grand mansion he is trapped in has fallen into disrepair, and his fellow guests have all been convened there in a macabre recreation of a house party twenty years before, when the young son of the house was murdered. Aiden is surrounded by a cast of odd characters with malicious motives of their own. I assumed the story would have more old-world charm, but it’s hard to place in time at all. There are dark doings, and it is all rather theatrical. It’s a clever idea, very plot-driven, and I was keen to get to the end and have it all explained; but ultimately felt I didn’t know enough about any of the characters to really care what happened to them. When I finally did know all, it left me rather puzzled. Nevertheless a good original mystery.

Darling by Rachel Edwards

When Rachel Edwards suffered racial abuse the day after the Brexit vote, she decided to write this domestic thriller. Darling is a British Caribbean nurse who launches into Lola’s life when she marries Lola’s father after an absurdly speedy romance. Lola is an indulged teen with serious issues in her social media pocket. What follows is a story of mistrust and mistakes, told by these two women who are struggling to build a relationship. Or are they? Because of course there are some odd happenings buried in the day-to-day and we are not sure who to believe.

Darling wants to spread a fierce protective love around her young son Stevie, suffering from a muscular wasting disease, and this grows to encompass Lola too. True to her roots, she piles on the Caribbean cooking, equating food with love. Teen Lola is disgusted, and wants Darling to butt out of her life with dad. But Lola is confused, vulnerable and layering one mistake on another in her search for adulthood. We are taken through twists and turns as we believe first Darling and then Lola, never quite knowing who is hiding the most dangerous secret. I liked the atmosphere, and the descriptions of all that spicy food made me hungry. The family tension between these characters and what plays out is telling. Rachel Edwards manages to broach racism, abuse, mental illness – some hefty issues without making a mis-step. What’s more, we learn right at the start that one of them is dead, but which one?