This sixth instalment in Lucinda Riley’s compelling/irritating blockbuster Seven Sisters has glared at me from my TBR (to be read) shelf for months. Even for a paperback, it’s heavy to hold and I attempted it twice before finally deciding I must woman-up and complete this marathon – if nothing else as tribute to the late author’s admirable dedication to keep the epic going even when faced with her own mortality.
 
Electra the supermodel is a mess. She has everything, and nothing. Her latest romance with a rock star has ended, she can’t get through the day without lashings of vodka and coke (not Coca Cola). She’s angry all the time and envies or despises the other adopted sisters with whom she was raised in Switzerland by the mysterious Pa Salt, always feeling like the odd one out.
 
As with the other books in this series, each sister has been given clues as to how she came to be adopted by Pa Salt, but Electra is the most reluctant to follow the route. Until a mysterious woman called Stella arrives, claiming to be her biological grandmother.
 
Stella tells the story of Cecily, a wealthy young New Yorker, who escapes a couple of failed relationships in the 1930s and is taken under the wing of her flighty godmother Kiki, who lives in “Happy Valley” in colonial Kenya. What happens to Cecily there has a direct bearing on Electra.
 
Even if Cecily can seem annoyingly naïve at times, her experiences and relationships are far better to read about than those of the destructive and unpleasant Electra. The atmosphere surrounding the expat community in Kenya during this era is well conveyed, with Bill Forsythe, the farmer who “rescues” Cecily, being the best portrayal.
 
Of course, Electra does turn her life around eventually, but it comes way too late for me to care much about her, although one of my concerns that other reviewers have remarked on, is perhaps it wasn’t the wisest decision of the author to make the least likeable sister a woman of colour – and one who seemed to be grossly unaware of what others of her race have to endure.
 
The two final books are still smiling at me from the shelf: “The Missing Sister” and “Atlas. The Story of Pa Salt”. I’ll get there at some stage, but not just yet.
 
A bit less than two stars for Electra, three plus for Cecily.

 
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This novel with a tagline of “Women can be heroes” has gone gangbusters since it came out a year ago with over 1.25 million ratings on Goodreads alone, so whatever I have to say about it hardly matters and I won’t summarize the plot in any great detail, save to say that after an overload of first WW1 then WW2 historical fiction, it may now be the turn of Vietnam.
 
Frankie McGrath is a student nurse living in a wealthy, conservative Californian household in the mid-1960s. In her father’s study there is a wall of photographs relating to the military heroes in the family. When Frankie’s brother is given a grand send-off to Vietnam, she decides she wants to have her picture on that wall as well. But as an army nurse she has no idea of what she is in for.
 
With the help of two other more experienced nurses, Barb and Ethel, the innocent Frankie is forced to grow up quickly, honing her nursing skills and finding ways of coping emotionally in what is nothing short of hell with destruction, injuries and death on an unbelievable scale. The loss of those she loves will add another level of emotional turmoil.
 
Meanwhile, America is divided about the war and when Frankie finally returns, she must deal not only with shattered relationships but abuse from the public and parents who are in denial about her service.
 
The first half of this novel about Frankie’s time in Vietnam is absorbing and so well-written that I fully expected to give it a five-star rating, but somewhere around the middle it falls off a cliff into various melodramatic contrivances, including dead men resurrected. This is not to dismiss its excellent exploration of patriotism, loyalty and strong female friendships, or the very real issues of PTSD, drug abuse and Agent Orange that affected the health of so many Vietnam vets in a country that did not value their service. However, in trying to pull all these strands together the novel suffers from an overwrought conclusion. Thus, a rating of 3.5 stars.
​

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How often does a title and/or cover image for a book send the wrong messages to a reading audience?
 
In the case of this novel, both title and image are far removed from the drama of the content and I feel I must include comments on that in this review. The title is lightweight. A “monsoon” does make a fleeting appearance and the narrative covers several years, not just a “summer”.
 
Kit, the principal female character, does not have time to wander idly along the shores of a calm shore while twirling a parasol, she’s too busy trying to juggle the challenges of her new life in India after tough years nursing during the London Blitz. (See below for a couple of other images that are are likewise misleading. The symbolism of the face veil is lost on me – ditto the rowboat!)
 
Not only has Kit entered into a cross-racial marriage with Anto, an Indian doctor, in an era when such things were still frowned upon, she must deal with the antagonism of her husband’s family and the powder-keg politics of the sub-continent following partition in 1947.  Complicating her situation is an unfinished midwifery qualification that will become a major problem for Kit in her role as an aide at the Moonstone maternity clinic that was set up under the auspices of an Oxford charitable group.
 
While there are some romantic moments in this novel, the greater part of it is hard-hitting, with lengthy exposition on the trials and tribulations of women giving birth, plus Kit’s inability to fully understand the culture or language and having to tackle the inevitable suspicion and ignorance of poorer individuals and those intent on eliminating British influence, by sinister means if necessary.
 
The writing is accomplished and the flavours of India in every sense are well described. Characterisations are strong, especially those of the women. Kit’s indecisiveness and failure to take advice can make her seem flaky and irritating at times. Her mother, Glory, is intriguing with her contradictory behaviour that is partly explained towards the conclusion. The decision to make some chapters third-person seems an odd choice and detracts from the dynamism of Kit’s first person focus. 
 
Three-and-a-half stars

 
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Dymocks Australia

 
I must admit I hadn’t ever given much thought to hares prior to reading this book, erroneously thinking they were just much bigger rabbits. This quirky and delightful true tale has set me straight. Hares may be one of the most misunderstood and under-appreciated creatures. Across the world they are either reviled or revered, persecuted and treated with suspicion or derision – think of the meaning of “harebrained” or the famous mad March Hare in “Alice in Wonderland” - but they are intriguing creatures, mysterious, fastidious, playful.
 
During lockdown, the author – a political advisor and analyst – is confined to her home in the country. One day while out walking she comes across a leveret, or baby hare, that appears to have been abandoned by its mother on the roadside. Knowing it is often better to leave wild life alone if you don’t have the skills to deal with it, Dalton initially walks on but, on her return and seeing it still there, she cautiously picks it up and takes it home, gambling on being able to do something to save its life.
 
Dalton’s journey with the hare is remarkable. With surprisingly little information available on hares, she manages to cobble together advice from vets, country folk and the internet (including works by the poet William Cowper who had pet hares in the 18th century), she slowly finds ways to look after the leveret. As it matures, it brings its own babies back to the house and garden, and there are many heartwarming passages describing their behaviour and antics.
 
The hare’s “… calm and orderly existence challenged my priorities and woke up my senses.” [They] are creatures of habit and I had become one too. Through the leveret, I had rediscovered the pleasure of attachment to a place and the contentment that can be derived from exploring it fully, rather than constantly seeking ways to leave it and believing that satisfaction can only lie in novel experiences.”
 
Dalton also draws attention to the fact that hares are not protected in the UK and has a campaign to bring in a close season on her website. 

The research and facts can make some parts of the book a little dry, but its heart is magical – as are the illustrations. I read it in a day, a welcome and reaffirming respite from the chaos of our times.
 
 
Four-and-a-half stars.
 
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This is a random dust-gathering selection from my TBR pile that was published some twelve years ago. I was a fan of Santa Montefiore’s earliest novels but for some forgotten reason – perhaps one of her later novels was a disappointment - I moved my attention elsewhere. Being set in that beautiful part of Ireland that is Connemara is why I probably picked it up in the first place.
 
Ellen is thirty-three, lives and works in London, but is still very much under the control of her mother Lady Anthony Trawton (Maddie), who is planning Ellen’s upcoming society wedding to toff, William.

​Maddie is delighted that the last of her three daughters is finally going to tie the knot and make a successful marriage, but Ellen rebels. She doesn’t really want to marry William and has never felt as if she fitted into the manicured, controlling life of her parents and has little in common with her sisters. Without telling anyone where she is going, she runs away to her aunt Peg in rural Connemara. There, she discovers her large Irish family of whom her mother never spoke. Although welcomed with open arms, she has a major mystery to solve. Why did Maddie reject her family?
 
And then there’s the burned-out lighthouse that Ellen can see from her bedroom window. Another mystery that is bound up with a man her relatives want her to stay well away from: the dark, brooding Heathcliff-like figure of Conor whose wife died at the lighthouse in tragic circumstances. But, of course, Ellen meets and falls head over heels in love with him.
 
What makes this tale different from similar romantic plots, is that one of the narrators is Connor’s deceased wife, Caitlin, who is wandering in limbo, plotting and determined to keep Conor to herself even though she’s a spirit.
 
It would be easy to dismiss this novel as romantic slush and give it one star. There is Ellen’s naivety in working out the pretty obvious reason why Maddie left that most readers will spot early on. For someone in her thirties, she displays immaturity in dealing with her autocratic mother and there are dubious aspects in her instant I’ll-love-you-forever relationship with the unknown Connor. Plus, lots of other cliches in the narrative - every Irish man is “handsome” and naturally the local pub is called Pot of Gold.  The ghostly Caitlin can be unsettling, even creepy, with this unseen entity spying on you on the beach, in the garden or kitchen, and even following the participants into the bedroom.
 
On the other hand, there are charming aspects to the novel that must lift it above a petty single star. The Irish atmosphere and countryside are well represented. The characters are likeable. Ellen’s newly discovered family display generosity and warmth. Peg’s kind heart and eclectic collection of animals make her especially appealing. And there’s her canny neighbour Oswald’s perceptiveness in matters of the heart. Also, the sad musician Dylan who pines for his lost Maddie and the priest who makes sloe gin and knows everyone’s secrets. Surprisingly, even Caitlin’s quandary can offer glimpses of might await on the other side for those who are undecided about such things.

Three stars


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Some years ago, I read “Scrublands”, the author’s break-out novel that was also made into a TV mini-series (much of it filmed in my next street and other locations in the town where I live) so I am already familiar with the first adventure of the journalist, Martin Scarsden, and his love interest, Mandalay (Mandy) Blonde. This novel is their second outing.
 
Martin and Mandy are hoping to make a new life for themselves in the coastal town of Port Silver, but things go terribly wrong from the day Martin arrives to join Mandy. He literally stumbles over a dead body in the entrance to Mandy’s rented townhouse and finds her sitting in shock with blood on her hands.
 
From then on, it is almost non-stop action with multiple threads apart from the initial murder. Martin must fight to prove that neither he nor Mandy had anything to do with the death. In the process, he discovers there is considerable rivalry and competition over plans to develop the town; suspicious goings-on in the hippie-style Hummingbird Beach resort run by a former surfing champion and an Indian guru; there are a raft of poorer individuals who live in the run-down part of town and have axes to grind against the wealthier types who live on Nobb Hill overlooking the ocean. All this is further complicated by the fact Port Silver is where Martin grew up and he has difficulty facing numerous demons from the past. Even the supposed good guys are up to something dodgy on the side.
 
Although at times an exhilarating thriller, the pulse of the narrative is slowed by excessive description and flashbacks. The complications and coincidental relationships are overcooked and, at close to 600 pages, the novel could have been tightened up considerably.
 
Still, it is a reasonable way to spend a chilly weekend indoors or summer reading at the beach, although I felt a bit exhausted by the end and the resolution of the initial murder seemed abrupt and an anti-climax compared to the secondary disastrous tragedy of what happens on Hummingbird Beach.
 
This author notably uses unusual names for many of his male characters – Tyson St Clair, Amory Ashton, Doug Thunkelton and others, but I’m also in two minds about his general portrayal of women that feels dated and reminds me why I stopped reading Wilbur Smith’s macho books years ago. Mandalay Blonde and Topaz Throssell both sound like a pastiche that belongs in the early chauvinistic James Bond novels.
 
Three Stars.
 

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Rosaleen Moore was born in County Clare and “touched by the Graces”, an ability to draw on second sight, gifted with the ability to see the future and heal the sick. Shortly after the celebrated anniversary of her death in 1915, her first-person story is related mainly in the form of her last confession to the monk, Brother Thomas.
 
Sent to Dublin to live with an aunt after causing scandal following a vision, Rose is drawn into a circle of mesmerists and becomes a sought-after seer and healer. Her success turns her head and a tragedy unfolds when medical treatment of a child is spurned in favour of hands-on healing. The group closes ranks and further tragedy ensues. There is an indication early on that the Abbot of a local monastery has confessed to an horrendous crime that must be connected to Rose in some way, but it is not until the end of the novel that this is clarified.
 
Also intertwined within this intense human drama, is history and Ireland’s fight for freedom with cameos by its famous individuals of the time such as W.B. Yeats, Countess Markievicz, Padraig Pearse and others.
 
With its format in the form of Rose’s confession, plus some third-person narrative featuring others including a degree of melodrama around the two romantic connections in her life, the novel can seem a little erratic, although that doesn’t unduly detract from its overall excellence. The writing is stylish and there is much here to contemplate that is always relevant when sects or blinkered individuals are convinced that only their way is right and everyone else is wrong:
 
“… I had been so swollen with pride, I believed sickness not a thing that comes unbidden, part of that very nature I so revered, but almost as if something chosen, over which we had command. I realised now that it was not [the doctor] who had been arrogant by trying to intervene in nature, outwit it with science, but me by believing myself master of it. By refusing to accept the fragility within nature – our own human nature. Strength we had, yes. But vulnerability too. I had thought us – myself – all powerful.”
 
Four stars.
 
​
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I have read several novels written by Geraldine Brooks: one of them is a favourite of mine, yet another I barely tolerated. Perhaps that’s a sign of her brilliance and unpredictability as an author. Likewise, this personal memoir will resonate more with some readers than others.
 
Sudden death in the prime of life may be different from an expected outcome after illness or a slow deterioration in old age. Yet, even if one is fully prepared, one still feels the shock of loss, of a future cut short, the end of a lifetime of shared experiences, of highs and lows, joy and companionship, but perhaps also words not said. No matter how we lose that special person, we are never truly ready for the end.

The practicalities of death can overwhelm the grieving: funerary arrangements, financial and business affairs to sort being the hurdles everyone must deal with. Geraldine details the appalling way she heard of her husband's death from a frazzled doctor, how unsympathetic bureaucracy got in the way of her viewing his body, the ruthless attitude of insurers towards surviving spouses. There’s also the well-meaning crush of goodwill from others when you really just need space to be on your own. 
 
It was three long years after Tony Horwitz dropped dead in a Washington street before Geraldine fully started to grieve. She took herself off to the remote Flinders Island in Bass Strait, between Tasmania and mainland Australia, and found some peace in isolation, rediscovery and acceptance.

“… I understand that I have not been alone. I am reveling in this time because I am with Tony. In this solitude, finally, I can think about him undistracted. I can read his journals and commune with his thoughts. I can even do what I believed his death had denied me; learn new things about him. … Solitude has made this space for him.”
 
If you have ever lost anyone close – whether suddenly or not – there is much here that you may identify with and that will touch your heart. Geraldine also contemplates the bittersweet conflicts of belonging that only those who have international families with split affinities will fully appreciate.
 
 
Four stars.
 
 
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This is a cozy murder mystery with all the classic ingredients of the genre, a la Agatha Christie. Set in 1924 in the cutesy Oxfordshire village of Maybury-in-the-Marsh, its two principal protagonists have slightly pretentious names, i.e. Arbuthnot ("Arbie") Lancelot Swift is an author of some note, having recently written "The Gentleman's Guide to Ghost Hunting" and his female off-sider is Valentina (Val) Olivia Charlotte Coulton-Jones, the vicar's daughter. 

Miss Amy Phelps is a wealthy - and not particularly liked - resident who has been on the receiving end of some decidedly ghostly happenings. Assuming Arbie to be the expert on such, she hires him to solve the problem. Before he can do so, the unfortunate lady is found deceased in a locked room, poisoned by cyanide and having just changed her Will. Two of her immediate relatives are the main suspects, but there are others who may also have ulterior secretive motives. The police are called in, but Arbie and Val proceed with their own investigation.

This is a fun read, well-paced with much snappy dialogue and lively characters. Arbie's a bit of fumbling upper-class twit at times but is smarter than he appears. (He reminded me of Jack Farthing's brilliant performance as Freddie Threepwood in the TV series "Blandings".) Val as the ever-so-keen outspoken sidekick who is secretly besotted with Arbie is also charming. The resolution is cleverly constructed, with the usual red herrings thrown in.

An enjoyable first outing in a new series of whodunnits by Faith Martin. I look forward to reading more.

(PS  A tip for readers - a couple of clues are hidden in plain sight on the front cover - both UK and American versions!)

Four stars

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Covers showing spooky Gothic mansions often suck me in, as do accompanying blurbs that include words like, “disappear”, “secret”, “mystery”, etc. I should know better, as I'm often disappointed with the content. This novel is no exception. Trying to summarise the convoluted plot isn’t easy.
 
2019. Journalist Ellie Fitzgerald returns home to County Kerry from Dublin under a cloud. In a box of old books, she finds a baffling letter written in 1940 by someone called Charlotte and begins an investigation into its origins. This involves the Rathmore family who live in an old mansion called Blackwater Hall. In the process, Ellie connects with numerous individuals who all know something, including Tabby, a 100 year old popular member of the community and former maid at Blackwater Hall, and Dr Milo Rathmore, the dishy heir to the estate and the family title.
 
1940. Nancy Rathmore is the wife of Teddy, a son of Baron Rathmore, and is good friends with his sister, Charlotte, who is being forced against her will into a marriage with a Lord Headley/Hanley/Healey, or similar. Presiding over the family is Niamh, the cliched nasty American mother-in-law. Charlotte is presumed drowned in a local lough – either the victim of foul play, or suicide.
 
1958. Hattie, Nancy’s 11 year old daughter, makes friends with the mysterious gardener at the Hall, Tabby's brother, the war-damaged Tomas, and this association creates problems that will end with disaster.
 
Ellie’s discoveries lead to the suspicion that Charlotte didn’t drown, and the book follows her trail to find out the truth. I had guessed rightly the outcome, which was fairly obvious early on but needed a lot of overwritten exposition to finally reach the conclusion.

Observations:

• The title “The Midnight House” is odd, as Charlotte referred to Blackwater Hall as the “Ink House”, and there is also another “rambling house” involved.
• Ellie’s personal life and career were an uninspiring mess and of little relevance to the core mystery.
• The mixups over the surname of Charlotte’s intended aristocratic husband Lord H. are just bizarre. Initially, I thought this was an important clue, or a deliberate red herring, but in the end had no bearing whatsoever on the story.
• There is a detailed family tree in the front of the book that shows many individuals who are never mentioned. Why bother?
• Hair combs feature both in the past and in the present. If there is some meaningful symbolism in this, I totally missed it.
• There are more than enough miscarriages to make you depressed, even if countered with interminable references to caffeine, cups of coffee, and the occasional Yorkshire tea to pick you up.

 
This is apparently a debut novel and is basically a good yarn that deserved better editing and structure. I'm willing to give the author another go in the future.

2.5 stars.


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​Dymocks Australia

On New Year's Eve 1913 in Bombay, Madeline (Maddy) Bright, an English newcomer to India falls in love across the proverbial crowded room with the dashing Luke Devereaux.  But naturally the course of true love can't run smoothly: Maddy's mother Alice (who has her own chequered romantic past) believes the older doctor, Guy Bowen, is the right man for her daughter. But soon everyone's lives are destined to be torn apart by the commencement of World War I. 

As the young men are called up to serve in Europe, the women can only remain behind and pray and hope for their survival. Luke suffers a head wound and ends up in a repatriation hospital with no idea who he is or what his past has been (he is only known as Officer Jones). In spite of receiving news of his death, Maddy is convinced he is still alive although everyone else feels she is delusional and tries to encourage her to move on.

For the most part, this is an enjoyable romantic tale that requires a fair bit of tissue-clutching. Bombay's colourful backdrop is just that, and it is not a story of India itself, but rather that of a group of English people who are there in service of the Raj and the basic plot could be played out anywhere. The leading characters all tend to be "nice" and this can make them seem dull and unrealistic. The only one with depth and contradictions is Maddy's mother, Alice, who hides important knowledge from her daughter. 

The last few chapters contain much improbability and overwrought dialogue and some readers might have preferred a more clinical or practical conclusion. Otherwise, a good read for the holidays.

Three stars

(I read the American edition, which may differ slightly from the English or Australian original. The cover images are also different in each country.)


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​This is another novel in the mould of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited". Trelawney is a ruinous Cornish mansion that has been inhabited for 800 years by the same line of dysfunctional and eccentric aristocrats and served by an ever-diminishing coterie of obsequious servants.
 
Set at the time of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the House is on its last legs after the 24th Earl frittered away the last of the family’s coffers. Jane is married to Kitto, the heir, but does most of the housework. Kitto heads up a small bank and experiments with dodgy investments, while his parents soldier on in some remote Edwardian era, either blissfully unaware or, more like, in total denial that there is no longer a butler, footmen, maids, etc. to attend to their needs. The other main thread of the story involves the dynamic Blaze, Kitto’s sister, who works in high finance in London. And then there is the mysterious and exotic Ayesha, whose arrival from India sets in motion a series of changes for everyone.
 
Much of the writing is a delight in its descriptions of the decrepitude of both house and its elderly residents, plus various connected characters. Countess Clarissa is a hoot, especially when she comes into her own in the later chapters. Aunt Tuffy, who studies fleas, is likewise another charming oddball. But you do feel for the long-suffering Jane, a frustrated artist, who was married for her money that is now all gone. Blaze is cool, insular, sharp-edged. She has warned her peers about the impending financial crash but when it finally arrives, any feelings of vindication are muted when she is ambushed romantically by a fellow high-flyer.
 
The dialogue in the chapters on the GFC slow down the narrative, especially if one has forgotten all that sub-prime mortgages and Lehman Brothers business or is not au fait with City banking jargon. (The author’s surname might provide a clue to this expertise, although she states in her notes that any resemblance to her family is purely coincidental.) Otherwise, this is an often funny and entertaining read.
 
Three-and-a-half Stars.


Dymocks Australia
 
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Are most children of the super-famous doomed? This memoir by the late, sad, Lisa Marie Presley and completed by her daughter Riley Keough, seems to confirm it.
 
There isn’t much about Elvis himself in this, but what there is isn’t particularly endearing. Priscilla gets a bad rap too. Also, it might be much better as an audio book featuring Lisa Marie’s own voice with Julia Roberts reading her daughter’s narrative, as it is a pretty disjointed print read otherwise. (Changing to my preferred font on my e-reader resulted in both narratives looking identical, so I was often confused as to who was who!)
 
There are thousands of five-star reviews for this book out there but also a few brave souls who have given it lower ratings.
 
If you’re sympathetic to the pathetic lives of poor little rich girls who can’t help their addictions and weaknesses and blame their genetics, husbands, lovers, or the world in general for their disastrous decisions in life, then you will love it. If you have little sympathy for the public handwringing and whingeing by privileged celebrities who could have used their positions in a more positive way to do something useful, then you’ll hate it.
 
For me, the best things about this book are the title and that it is thankfully short.
 
One-and-a-half stars.

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Going back to my childhood when I loved the antics of Doris Day as “Calamity Jane”, crazy gals from the pioneering days in the Wild West have continued to fascinate me. Hence, my interest in this latest biography of Belle Starr. She was likewise featured in movies in 1941 and in 1980, plus numerous other TV shows, novels and biographies.
 
Hollywood’s spin on gun-toting women like Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley and Big Nose Kate, has tended to sanitise, romanticise, fantasise or otherwise obscure their real stories. But finding the truth about these women is another matter. None of them looked like movie stars yet each had her own form of magnetism.
 
Perhaps Belle was the most alluring of all, having had several husbands and lovers. Born in 1848 in Carthage, Missouri, as Myra Maybelle Shirley, she had a conventional upbringing and even went to a prestigious ladies’ school.

It would be difficult, as the author states: “… to pinpoint any one moment or event that signaled [her] transformation from an educated, well-bred young lady from a respectable family into a gunslinging, horse-thieving, bandit-carousing outlaw.” However, it may have been the death of an older brother that was the initial trigger. The traumatic effects of the Civil War and the family’s subsequent move West also contributed. “And while she may not have realized it … encounters with guerrilla-trained outlaws and Cherokee war parties …” would also reshape her destiny and make her determined to establish her own financial security and not be dependent on men, even if it involved criminality and murder.
 
There is much to admire in this biography with its meticulous research into the background of Belle as well as the political, social and cultural history of the West with its focus on historical events that may not be well-known, such as the chaos caused by the irregulars among the Confederates and the changing status of the Comanche, Cherokee, Osage and other Native American tribes during this era. Belle’s involvement with the Cherokee is particularly interesting. The latter chapters of the book present various scenarios as to who ultimately gunned her down in 1889, and why.
 
Although we discover much about Belle’s character and reasons as to why she chose the lawless and ruthless path she did, the facts repeatedly clash with the legend and it is difficult to establish her true essence solely through academic findings. Ironically, Belle’s life was so outrageous and full of mysteries that a good novelist might tell her tale just as honestly, and perhaps reach a wider audience than non-fiction. 

Three-and-a-half stars

​With thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.  The book is due for publication in May, 2025.

Note: The ARC that I have reviewed has no images of Belle and other individuals, or relevant places, but it is hoped that the final publication will have these or other illustrations and maps in order to enhance the reading experience.


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If anyone asks me which book has moved me more than any other in recent years, it must be this one. I approached it cautiously, given its subject matter, wondering if it would be too harrowing, but instead I feel enlightened and encouraged by the experience.
 
Alexei Navalny’s death in a Russian Arctic prison early in 2024 distressed many of his supporters around the world as it was obvious he was murdered on the orders of Vladimir Putin. Russia’s hope of a democratic new age free from corruption, lies and ruthless government control was seemingly crushed.
 
Yet this translated memoir in Navalny’s own words contains a comforting message of optimism. Of course, much of it is confronting, but his bravery, stoicism, love for his family and loyalty to his homeland shines through. He shares memories of his early days as the son of an army officer, his boyhood pranks setting fire to things, his curiosity and interest in everything from Western rock music and movies through to Harry Potter, English history, French literature. We learn how he wove his way through the unethical and crooked university system to become a lawyer, coming to prominence through his blogs exposing corruption in business and government on Live Journal at a time when the “senile” Russian authorities thought the Internet was some passing fad and irrelevant. How wrong they turned out to be.
 
He is unflinching in sharing his mistakes, his prejudices, his obsessions, his changes of opinion. There is also much comedic relief in the way in which he relates the incompetence and farcical stupidity involved in the numerous trumped-up charges, arrests and trials that he was subject to, poking fun at Putin’s hench-persons with unfailingly ironic humour. From youthful atheism to a late conversion to the Christian faith, he is equally honest.
 
Above all, he hates the layers of lies that are the foundation of every facet of life in his country. A speech he gave after one trial is recorded in full in which he accuses the judge and the prosecutors of being too ashamed to look at him directly as they pass sentence, instead “staring at the table” while being fully aware of the gross injustices they have permitted to take place – no doubt because their own well-being is at stake if they don’t find him guilty on behalf of the State. It is courageous and spine-tingling stuff indeed.
 
After that infamous failed Novichok poison attack on his life in 2020, Navalny stubbornly refuses to bow to his would-be murderers and oppressors. He could have remained safely in the West after this near-death experience, but he returns to continue his fight in Russia, well knowing his days are numbered yet remaining proud and unrepentent. The last third of the book contains his diary entries up until a few weeks before he died. Even in the worst of conditions, through a hunger strike, physical pain and psychological torture, he remains strong. "I simply made the decision not to be afraid. I weighed everything up, understood where I stand - and let it go."
 
Russia is now (and always has been to a considerable extent) a nation in which the iron fist of autocracy prevails. All earlier attempts at true democracy have been fleeting, going back to the days of the Tsars and as recently as the post-Gorbachev years. In the last century, the early idealism of Communism deteriorated into some of the world’s worst abuses of human rights via persecution and mass murder. *
 
In our increasingly disturbing modern political landscape in which even Western democracy is under threat, and corruption, criminal and underhand dealings and outright bully-boy tactics can get you voted into the highest office in the land, it is reassuring to know there are still those who believe in a higher order of humanity and in respect, honesty and, above all, truth. Cynics might suggest that even if Navalny had been able to succeed in overthrowing the present regime, he too would be doomed to fail or fall under the spell of power that is endemic in Russia, even perhaps hard-wired into that nation’s political DNA.  As it stands, an early death leaves his character unsullied and he will remain a beacon of hope to others who may one day find similar courage to change the status quo.
 
Vale Alexei Navalny, a hero for the ages.

"My story will continue, but whatever happens to me and my friends and allies in opposition, Russia has every possibility of becoming a prosperous, democratic country. This sinister regime, based on lies and corruption is doomed. Dreams can become reality. The future is ours."


Five Stars

 
* My mother’s family were forced to escape the tyranny of the Bolsheviks and I’ve always had a fascination with the complex Russian psyche and how it has impacted that country’s history.

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Dymocks Australia

This is another novel pubished some years ago that has been lurking in my TBR (to be read) pile for some time. I should have got around to it earlier, as I was a big fan of the author’s early novels, A Good Man in Africa and An Ice Cream War, in which he proved to be the master of writing strong or humorously imperfect characters with unusual life stories while also managing to stay away from conventional or predictable plots and settings.
 
Here, we have the young Scot, Brodie Moncur, a consumptive piano tuner who falls in love with the mysterious Lika Blum, a second-rate Russian soprano who is already involved with John Kilbarron, a contradictory and passionate piano virtuoso known throughout Europe as the “Irish Liszt”. Hovering in the wings is Malachi, John’s sinister brother. Brodie’s home life is also complicated, with six sisters and one brother cowering under the iron fist of a foul-mouthed and zealous Bible-thumping father.
 
Brodie is glad to escape Scotland when his Edinburgh employer sends him to Paris to improve the business prospects of the Channon piano company. There, he becomes entangled in the musical career of Kilbarron while secretly starting a relationship with Lika. What follows is a game of romantic cat-and-mouse that eventually escalates into a spectacular drama of love and revenge worthy of Dumas or Pushkin, with the climax taking place in 1906 in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.
 
Brodie is a likeable young man, meticulous in his work, but perhaps less cautious with his emotions as he falls for Lika’s charms. Kilbarron displays all the neuroses, fears and jealousies of a fading celebrity. Lika’s fatalistic Russian character is spot-on, with her often ruminating on death. (Brodie’s battle with tuberculosis makes this even more significant.) The historical research is impeccable and all the secondary characters are just as vividly drawn as the leading players.
 
I was so immersed in this amazing book that I felt a little bereft at its end. Great entertaining reading and fully worth Five Stars.
 
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Dymocks Australia

This novel is set primarily in Hampstead, London, around the end of the 19th Century and features several female characters: Olive Westall, a wealthy philanthropic spinster; Ottie Finch, daughter of an ambitious father and reclusive mother, Abigail; and Mabs Daley, a working-class girl who must find a way of helping her impoverished family.
 
The illiterate Mabs is thrilled when she is hired as companion to Ottie’s mother, but the job has its problems. There is some mystery as to why the Finch family left Durham for London and Abigail is notoriously volatile and unpredictable. Mabs has to find the best way to deal with the situation.
 
Twelve-year-old Ottie is highly intelligent, adventurous and skirts dangerous situations during one of which she meets Olive and forms a friendship with her.
 
In her late twenties, Olive is resigned to the fact she is unlikely to ever marry, but is longing to be a mother, so goes about adopting a child and also involving herself with other charitable ambitions.
 
Although the pace is a little slow at times and the novel isn’t strongly plot-driven, these characters are well-drawn and likeable, with their reflections on the status of women at all levels of society around this period of history:- Mabs trying to better herself, Ottie desperate to go to university, Olive defying upper class conventions, Abigail dealing with a difficult marriage. However, even the nicer men have chauvinistic qualities and there is a final mystery twist with a neat contrivance that provides an overly sentimental ending.
 
Readers may also notice something about the style of narrative. The experiences of Olive, Ottie and Abigail are in the first person, whereas Mabs’ story is written in the third person. It may not have been the author’s intention, but this carries echoes of snobbery in its own way, i.e. being middle or upper class equates with being better educated and therefore you can write for yourself; less educated and from the working class like Mabs and an omniscient narrator writes your story for you!
 
Three-and-a-half stars.
 
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Dymocks Australia

In December, 1917, a massive explosion rocked the city of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. It was caused after two ships collided in the harbour and one of them loaded with munitions caught fire and exploded. Much of Halifax was flattened and around 2,000 people died with 9,000 injured - an event comparable to other far more famous disasters of recent history.
 
That this happened at the height of World War I and when many Canadians were overseas fighting made it even more tragic, with men in the trenches losing family members whom they would have expected to be safe and sound back at home.
 
This incident is the backdrop to the story of two women: Nora, a career nurse in a local military hospital, and Charlotte, a young war widow living with her late husband’s family. Both suffer shocking losses and have to rebuild their lives. Nora is fiercely independent but makes a wrong decision in a moment of weakness that will force change upon her.  In the chaos after the explosion, the mental health of the somewhat downtrodden Charlotte suffers and she also takes a misstep that will have consequences.
 
Although this is an easy read with more than a few sentimental moments that will have you reaching for the tissues, the dual first-person narratives have a similar tone with rather too much repetitive internalising dialogue from both women, predominantly from Nora who dithers over the nature of love and career vs. motherhood. The ending is tidy and unsurprising.
 
It is interesting to spot a few editing errors that indicate the original manuscript might have been written in the third person. This may have worked better and improved the characterisation by including other viewpoints, such as that of the intriguing Captain McLeod who helps Nora with her issues.

Three stars.

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Dymocks

Britain in July 1914  was a very different place from what it would be later. The bright young high society individuals known collectively as the "Coterie" (or the "corrupt coterie" as the press liked to call them) lived a life of indulgence and risk. They spent wildly, gambled, danced, flirted or had affairs, drank copious quantities of champagne. Some of their names would become well-known to history, such as the Coopers, Cunards, Churchills, Bonham Carters and Asquiths among many others. All that was destined to end after August of that year. 

The Hon. Venetia Stanley, young daughter of Lord Sheffield, is 26 years old and should be one of the Coterie but she feels detached from many of their ridiculous hijinks as she is embroiled in a serious relationship with a man of 61. He is none other than the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, known affectionately as "Prime".

Prime is besotted with Venetia and sees her as often as his duties and decorum allow. He also writes highly emotional letters to her up to three times a day, often during Cabinet meetings. He shares intimate details of his work with her and, as the drums of war echo across Europe, he will share even more, including top secret telegrams and confidential messages. During their liaisons, he has the strange habit of throwing paperwork out of the window of his car. When members of the public discover them and hand them over to Scotland Yard, Detective Sergeant Paul Deemer is assigned to investigate the case. 

As the war intensifies, Venetia signs up as a nurse and decides to find a way out of Prime's obsession with her. Marriage to his effete protege, Edwin Montagu, may be the answer. Paul Deemer's undercover work intercepting the lovers' correspondence continues until it looks as if a major scandal is about to erupt.

Like the author's previous work Act of Oblivion about the hunt for the killers of King Charles I, the narrative can be tedious in places, with so many letters between the lovers in a similar vein. (Apparently it is quite true that Asquith wrote Venetia around 560 of them!) Why she involved herself with Prime in the first place is difficult to fathom - perhaps she enjoyed the risk initially, not realising the impact she would have on this increasingly vulnerable ageing man. Prime's desperate need for a soulmate with whom to discuss both lightweight and serious matters may be more understandable given his lonely position and problematic wife, Margot. 

The better parts of the novel are with respect to the politics of war, especially in the Cabinet machinations. The conflicts between strong characters such as Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Jacky Fisher, Lord Kitchener and other prominent men of the time are portrayed brilliantly, as are the cover-ups relating to shortage of armaments and disasters such as the Dardanelles campaign. 

Four stars.

(With thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.)


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Big W (Australia)

​This dual narrative story weaves between the first quarter of the 20th Century and current times. It is mainly the tale of Rose and Ivy, who were the best of friends in childhood but ultimately forced into following different paths due to the rigid class system of their day.
 
It’s Australia in 2016. After her grandmother dies, teacher and historian, Molly, discovers some intriguing evidence among her effects that she doubts her own mother, Rose, drowned in Bridgewater Bay, Tasmania, in the 1960s, as everyone had surmised. Why did Rose take her own life just before a long-delayed reunion with her own brother, Robert? Could it be she was hiding something that she couldn’t face?
 
In the early 1900s, Rose is the high-spirited, privileged daughter of the Luscombe family, while Ivy Toms is the long-suffering eldest child of an estate worker who treats her badly. The parents on both sides disapprove of their friendship and try to keep them apart. As they become adults, Ivy is faced with the option of factory work or becoming Rose’s maid and is pressured by her admirer Robert to take on that role.
 
Rose grows steadily haughty and dismissive, while Ivy must deal with shabby treatment from the Luscombes and hide her clandestine relationship with Robert.  During World War I, Rose and Ivy sign on as VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses in a local military hospital. Rose writes letters for a dying soldier that are sent to his older brother in Australia and a paper relationship grows between the two. After the war ends, Rose accepts the brother’s proposal of marriage and together with Ivy embarks on the long voyage to Australia. One of them is fated never to arrive.
 
Molly takes a sabbatical in England, where she meets the last survivor of the Luscombe family and via estate documents and photographs pieces together the lives of Rose and Ivy. In the process, she meets the attractive Lucas Toms, who may be a cure for her own broken heart.
 
This is an immensely readable novel, even if one can pretty well guess its direction at the outset, but it is well-paced and the author has added a couple of twists to make it a little less predictable. (See Note below - spoiler alert!)
 
Four stars.

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Bookgrocer Australia  

Note:  This “switcheroo” theme in romantic novels and films has been around for years with varying degrees of success. One of the earliest and best is “Green Dolphin Street” by Elizabeth Goudge.

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